Answer:

♤ Demographic dividend refers to a period, “when a greater proportion of population are young and in working age group”.

♤ According to latest reports, 65% of India is under 35 year of age, 50% of India is under 25 year of age. Average Age in India is 29 years, unlike other countries including Japan with average age 47, China with 40+, Europe with 46, US with average age of 40. Today India has Youthful, Productive and Dynamic population ready to work and transform the world. According to ILO, by 2020, we will have 116 million people in the age group of 20-24 in comparison to China having only 94 million.

♤ A population bulge in the working age group is considered advantageous. Firstly due to this bulge, the dependency ratio declines. Secondly, surplus available for investment after the current consumption increases which results into spurring economic growth.

♤ This situation just creates a potential for economic growth, it does not guarantee it.It depends on two factors: firstly, on the quality of those entering the workforce and secondly on the employment opportunities are available to them.

♤ Hence, if we educate and train these youth, we can transform not just our own economy and society but the world.

♤ Moreover, youth is known for their idealism and energy and if their energy is not properly harness by providing them skills and training, it may lead to youth unrest and also pose security threat in the form of Maoist insurgency that include unemployed, frustrated, under-educated youth in its cadre.

♤ Although, IT software, back-office services and research and development activities are all booming. But none of these, however, has jobs for the underprivileged, the undereducated and the under skilled.

♤ Jobs are the missing element in the Indian economy today and job-generation will be the key to India sustaining its blistering growth rates. India will need to create jobs in large-scale, labor-intensive manufacturing to stop these extremist movements from turning into something even more serious.

♤ In order to get there, it will require the government to relax labor laws that penalize large scale manufacturing and that force companies to use expensive labor-substituting technology rather than the cheap manpower that India has in abundance.

♤ It will, above all, require the government to create the fiscal space for massive investment in human capital through health and education so that the productive potential of India’s young workforce can be fully utilized.

♤ It will also require a colossal investment in physical infrastructure, lifting infrastructure spending as a share of GDP to 7-8 per cent from 4.6 per cent. If India acts urgently, it may well be next global economic powerhouse, as everyone wants to believe. If not, all bets are off.