Bhadraksh Bhargav
Today, both domestic and global population increase is a cause of concern for all of us. As of now, the population of the world has reached 7.8 billion in which India has a contribution of approximately 1.38 billion. On this planet Earth, we have limited amount of resources like water, food, space for living, energy, etc. So, there is a chance of conflict between humans in future if the population will increase at a high rate like of today.
Though India is the 3rd largest economy of 11.32 Trillion Dollars in PPP (Purchasing Power Parity) terms and 5th largest economy of 3.2 Trillion Dollars in Nominal terms but at the other end, our country has also a huge population of 1.38 Billion due to which the Gross National per capita income of India stands at 2338$ which makes India stand in the list of Lower Middle Income Countries according to World Bank.
This looks so simple… Right…! Does it mean that every person in India earns an annual income of 2338$? The answer is no! Because of the uneven distribution of wealth in India, top 1% population holds 42.5% of National wealth while the bottom 50% population holds only 2.8% of national wealth according to Oxfam Report. India’s current Poverty Rate is 13.3%; population, which earns an income less than 1.9$/day.
As on 9th of August, according to CMIE (Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy), India’s unemployment rate stands at 7.86% in which urban unemployment rate is 9.72% and Rural Unemployment rate is 6.99%. India hits the highest unemployment rate of 23.81% in the month of April due to COVID-19 pandemic. The Indian government should have to ensure that the unemployment rate should fall. But if the population will rise at this fast rate, it will become too difficult for India to decrease Unemployment rate.
According to Lancet report on Population 2020, India would achieve highest population peak till 2048 with population of 1.68 billion making India most populous country in the world and after that India would see sharp decline of population by 32% to 1.09 billion in 2100 but even at that time, India will be the most populous country but with world’s largest working age population. Even now and in future, India will have the largest working age population in the world. Good news… Right…!! Less population means high living standard.
India is a developing nation. If we want development, we firstly have to give priority to employment generation sector, i.e. manufacturing sector, but it needs a huge amount of investment which a large part of Indian population can’t do due to scarcity of investment and Unequal distribution of wealth. So we have to do some planning and find some solutions.
India’s biggest asset is working age population. We can utilize them in a better way. If we can’t generate employment in India, we can send them abroad in those countries where there is scarcity of Human Resource by signing MOU’s (Memorandum of Understanding) which will ease working VISA restrictions for Indian professionals and workers so that getting Visa would become cheaper and easier for Indian Professional and workers. Government can also provide subsidy on VISA to professionals who wanna work abroad. I know some of you might be against it that why would we send our Human resource, our asset to foreign countries for work. In 2018, India received remittance of about 79 Billion$ which is 3.4% of India’s GDP (Gross Domestic Production) from Indian workers who are working in foreign land which constitutes a major part in India’s overall economic development.
Country’s economic development means people’s economic development which in turn means more money in the hands of people of the country. More money in the hands of people means more spending and Investment in the manufacturing sector, which can make India, ‘A Manufacturing Hub and a Big Market’ in the world which will attract foreign Multi National companies (MLC’s) to invest and open their manufacturing plant in India. So, we must think for a long run. If we want to make best use of our human resource in our country, India can give subsidy to Multi National Companies (MLC’s) and assure them that they will get cheaper land, labor, professionals, waiver in taxes etc. and also better company laws for their MLC’s. It will definitely affect government’s income for a short period of time, but for a long run, it will benefit and increase Government’s income.
According to World Health Report 2006, the world was facing a shortage of over 4 million health workers in 57 countries of which India was also a part. That was 14 years ago. Today we need more skilled professionals due to COVID-19 Pandemic. That means we need skilled professionals and workers who can adapt and mold themselves according to the changing technologies in Industry 4.0 and the world. So, India needs to invest a large part of their GDP (Gross Domestic Production) in education and training purpose. Recently, the New Education Policy was formulated by the Government of India in which 6% of India’s GDP share will going to be spent on Education to focus on skill, practical training and all round development of students which will help in achieving a long term goal of making India’s working age population skilled which would automatically reduce the unemployment rate in the country. This is only some solutions, we can find more if we have skilled people. At last, I want to conclude that in future, Artificial Intelligence would dominate the physical work force and only minds would get employed. So we must make a plan by keeping the future scenario in mind.
(The author is Student, Mechanical Engineering Chandigarh University)
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