In April 2023, India overtook China to become the most populous country in the world. In a piece for Mint, Dr Niranjan Rajadhyaksha, Executive Director, Artha Global, shows that the situation in India is quite different from other populous countries.
Excerpts below:
“The UN report has reignited the old debate whether India can take advantage of its demographic advantage before its labour force peaks and the population begins to age. And especially whether India can catch up with China before the demographic window shuts in the coming decades […]. Meanwhile, a fact check: India is currently around 15 years behind China in terms of per capita income at market exchange rates. In other words, our current level of average income is what China had in 2007.”
“The big difference between India and the other six countries is in the labour force participation data, or how many people of working age are in the labour force. India’s labour force participation rate is much lower than what the others reported at that time, and this gap ranges from 15 to 32 percentage points. Much of this wide gap is explained by very low levels of female participation in the labour force.”
Read the full article here.
