There is ample evidence that in the past, several countries have

witnessed periods of increased productivity and savings during

periods in which they have enjoyed a demographic dividend.
But all this assumes that this young and upcoming workforce can be
trained and meaningfully employed. In India, that is a big if.

Illiteracy Abounds
• Although the literacy rate has been climbing up steadily, India still
has the world's largest number of illiterates at over 250 million.
• Although more and more jobs are being created thanks to the
economic boom, the gap between the haves and have-nots seems
to be increasing.
• I shudder to think what might happen if we have a sudden influx of
large numbers of unemployed and disgruntled youth.
• Besides the obvious worries about crime rate, one has to
increasingly worry about political unrest and issues like Naxalism.
 The Difference in India
• Despite these similarities, there is one obvious difference between India
and these countries.
• In the cases of both Ireland and Japan, the human resources challenge of
educating and employing the workforce was of a much smaller scale.
• Not only does India need to train and employ many orders of magnitude
more people but it has also to start from a worse initial position in terms of
existing educational infrastructure.
• We will need a massive infrastructure of universities and vocational
training institutes spanning the country, including its rural interiors.
 Investment in Education
• Rather, I agree that a rosy future awaits India. But this future cannot be taken for
granted and, in fact, a number of pressing concerns need to be addressed before we
can make any conclusions about the demographic dividend.
• The public and private sectors need to invest heavily in education, including in
rural India.
• The silver lining is that there is a genuine thirst for education in India. And this is
one sector where I agree that the issue is not about inadequate demand but one of
inadequate supply.