Think India Foundation

NGO claims lacunae in draft Development Plan of PMC

Pointing out serious lacunae in various studies undertaken by PMC to prepare the draft Development Plan, city-based organisation Parisar has alleged that several urban planning norms were flouted in drafting the DP for the old part of the city.

In its 30-page report on suggestions and objections, the organisation has highlighted serious lacunae and mistakes in Existing Land Use (ELU) Study , Demographic Study, Housing Study and Transport Study conducted by the civic administration. Read more

Source : www.indianexpress.com

Seminar on status of migrant workers in Mumbai

MUMBAI: A seminar 'Migration, a question of survival: An urban Perspective' will be held at Yuva Centre in Kharghar on Tuesday. 

It will focus on issues related to urbanization and migration, migrant workers and growth of economy. The study will also present the demographic profile of migrants in New Mumbai. The panel discussion aims to examine the services and policies of the government for migrant workers and how to fill in the gaps. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

India, US joint research gets fresh leg up

New Delhi : India and the US will announce eight new agreements between top research universities at a summit level meet in June in a bid to give fresh impetus to their education diplomacy under the $10 mn Singh Obama 21st Century Knowledge Initiative. 

Eight Indian universities will each tie up with an American university handpicked by top researchers in the latest phase of the initiative, named after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and US President Barack Obama. The universities will collaborate on research projects on climate change, demographic gains, public health, sustainable infrastructure development, renewable energy and agriculture education. Read more

Source : www.hindustantimes.com

India's literacy rate rises to 73 per cent as population growth dips

This is one slump in growth rate that the nation can rejoice over. According to the Census of 2001- 2011, India's population has grown at 17.7 per cent as against 21.5 per cent in the decade. 

The child gender ratio has slipped by eight points from 927 in 2001 to 919 in 2011

The country's population at present is 1.21 billion, an increase of 181.96 million since 2001. What is even more comforting for the country's planners is the fact that female growth rate has been better than male growth rate. Read more

Source : www.dailymail.co.uk

The Arriving Millions

Multitudes have to be connected to modernity for our great leap forward

A group of BPO recruits at a training session in Uttarakhand

It has become a cliche to speak of India as a land of paradoxes. The old joke about our country is that anything you say about India, the opposite is also true. We like to think of ourselves as an ancient civilisation but we are also a young republic; our IT experts stride confidently into the twenty-first century but much of our population seems to live in each of the other twenty centuries. Quite often, the opposites coexist quite cheerfully. One of my favourite images of India is from the last Kumbh Mela, of a naked sadhu, straight out of central casting, with matted hair, ash-smeared forehead and scraggly beard, a rudraksha mala around his scrawny neck and a distant gaze in his eyes, for all the world a picture of timeless other-worldliness, chatting away on a mobile phone.

Young Indians are growing into such a paradoxical India. What are the prospects for the expansion of the participative political space in tomorrow’s India, say over the next two decades? To me this desirable objective requires both growth and equity. It is happening, but there’s still a lot that needs to be done before we get there. Read more

Source : www.outlookindia.com

India is set to become the youngest country by 2020

This demographic potential offers India and its economy an unprecedented edge

 

A closer analysis of the urban youth suggests that greater political participation. Here, students of Miranda House in Delhi waiting to vote last year. Photo: Sushil Kumar Verma

 

Every third person in an Indian city today is a youth. In about seven years, the median individual in India will be 29 years, very likely a city-dweller, making it the youngest country in the world. India is set to experience a dynamic transformation as the population burden of the past turns into a demographic dividend, but the benefits will be tempered with social and spatial inequalities.

These are some of the findings of the ‘State of the Urban Youth, India 2012: Employment, Livelihoods, Skills,’ a report published by IRIS Knowledge Foundation in collaboration with UN-HABITAT. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

More youth showing interest in politics, says CSDS survey

NEW DELHI : Of late, the campus slogan “If politics determines your future, it is time you determined your politics” seems to be ringing true among urban youth.

A new report finds that youth interest in politics is rising in India, though it is not yet reflected in direct participation in politics, such as voting and joining a political party. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

Share of Young Children in Urban Development is a Myth

India’s urban population is increasing at a faster rate than its total population. For the first time in the history of demographic record the census of 2011-12 finds that the urban population growth rate is faster than that of the rural areas.

India has now 7,935 towns; an increase of 2,774 since the last Census (2001). Urban population grew to 377 million showing an annual growth rate of 2.76% during 2001-2011. With over 575 million people, India will have 41% percent of its population living in cities and towns by 2030 AD from the present level of 286 million and 28%. Even as the overall decadal population growth rate came down to 17.64% from 21.54% in previous decade, this decade created a history as the urban population grew by 31.80% as compared to 12.18% rural population growth. Read more

Source : indiaeducationdiary.in

Fewer girls being born in posh areas of Mumbai

MUMBAI: Even as the municipal corporation celebrates the gradually improving sex ratio at birth in the city over the last one year, a closer analysis of the demographic transition over a longer period reveals a reason to worry.

Gender experts say the moneyed in Mumbai have better access to sex-selective technologies and abortions.

TOI vetted births registered with the BMC since 2005 and found that the year-on-year "improvement" that the civic body projects is, in fact, a slow return to the ratio that was recorded in 2007-921 girls born per 1,000 boys. The sex ratio at birth for 2012 stood at 922 girls per 1,000 boys, up from 917 in 2011. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Centre has no role in curbing migration

PUNE: The union government has stated that it has no control over the migrations taking place in cities across India.

A press statement issued by the government states, " It is not the policy of government to either check or facilitate migration to the cities as the process of migration is driven by demographic and economic factors and distortions in the process may have undesirable consequences on economic growth and development". Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Side-effects of poor public health

The economic benefits of higher public health outlays have been overlooked. And, growth alone does not improve health outcomes.

A patient being treated at a makeshift shed outside a PHC in Rayagada district, Odisha...The high growth years should have been used to raise public health outlays. — Lingaraj Panda

India aspires to make full use of its demographic advantage, with 31 per cent of its population under the age of 15. However, a key worry is the poor health status of its population. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

This is no country for the old

India was home to 90 million ageing persons in 2011. Of these, more than 30 million live alone, battling their chronic and debilitating illnesses by themselves, struggling with serious livelihood issues and the economics of ageing

My 88-year-old father lives with me. He is a renowned scholar who, as a young man, lived life in tight margins, struggling to educate his brothers and a sister. However, I remember growing up in a sunny house full of books and music and an animated father who loved to teach and reach out to his students. Read more

Source : www.dailypioneer.com

Concerns over an ageing India

Longer life-spans, combined with families opting to have fewer children, have led to the elderly becoming a growing proportion of India’s population. A picture of the transition and its implications.

Nearly three out of five single older women are very poor, and two out of three rural elderly women are fully dependants. File Photo

By 2050, India will be home to one out of every six of the world’s older persons, and only China will have a larger number of elderly people, according to estimates released by the United Nations Population Fund. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

India's aging population vulnerable to infectious diseases: report

The Economist Intelligence Unit lamented at the absence of proper healthcare infrastructure and adult vaccination programmes

Ahmedabad : As a large number of  India's population moves towards the 50 plus bracket, a The Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) Report 2012 shows that in the absence of proper healthcare infrastructure and adult vaccination programmes, the elderly population in the country are highly vulnerable to infectious diseases.

India’s population is undergoing a dramatic transition, the report says adding that the proportion of older people is expected to rise three- to four-fold in the next 40 years. India's population of people aged 65 and over will be second only to China’s. Even conservative estimates predict that the number of people aged 60 and over will reach 323 million by 2050. By then, people in their fifties are expected to account for 30% of the population, while those in their sixties will make up 20%. Read more

Source : business-standard.com

Average Indian’s life expectancy up 4.6 years

NEW DELHI: An average Indian lived 4.6 years longer in 2008 compared to a decade earlier. An average Indian woman lived three years more than her male counterpart in 2008.  

The life expectancy at birth for men stood at 64.6 years in 2008, up 1.8 years when compared to 2002.

While the life expectancy at birth for women was 67.7 years, for men it stood at 64.6 years. This was an increase of 2.5 years and 1.8 years, respectively, when compared to the life expectancy (LE) in 2002. Read more 

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The feminisation of old age

The nation has to ensure an enabling and supportive environment to elderly women who often face social alienation and deprivation

ALONE IN THE CROWD: An old woman, surrounded by images of youth and beauty. Elderly women living in metropolitan cities are more likely to feel socially alienated than their rural counterparts. Photo: K. K. Mustafah

According to the World Population Prospects: The 2010 Revision, the current youth bulge in the country is expected to last till 2025, after which, the growth rate of the elderly is likely to take over. It is imperative that the current needs of the youth and the emerging needs of the elderly are addressed simultaneously within the diverse demographic fabric of the country. In 2009, there were 88 million elderly people in India. By 2050, this figure is expected to soar over 320 million. Between 2000 and 2050 the overall population of the country is anticipated to grow by 60 per cent whereas population of people of age 60 years and above would shoot by 360 per cent. The ratio of the dependent population to that of the working population is defined by the dependency ratio. Investment in the elderly population is no longer a question of choice. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

UN warns over impact of rapidly ageing populations

The world needs to do more to prepare for the impact of a rapidly ageing population, the UN has warned - particularly in developing countries.

Japan is the only country at present where 30% of the population are over 60

Within 10 years the number of people aged over 60 will pass one billion, a report by the UN Population Fund said. Read more

Source : www.bbc.co.uk

India to become home to 2nd largest number of senior citizens

About 100 million Indians are above the age of 60 and their numbers is expected to double in next fifteen years. However after dedicating their prime years to the nation and the society they are feeling neglected and insecure, financially, spiritually and emotionally.

Growing urbanisation and smaller flats has forced them to change their lifestyle. More importantly, the nuclear families have broken family bonds that required parental care to be the responsibility of the children. Some of the elderly prefer to live in old age homes. Read more

Source : www.presstv.com

India commits to improve health of elderly

NEW DELHI: The country's elderly, who have long been neglected, finally have a reason to smile with India on Wednesday joining 10 South-East Asian countries to adopt the Yogyakarta Declaration on 'Ageing and Health', committing to improving national response to the health of ageing populations. 

The declaration comes at an important juncture with India's health ministry expecting 51% of the elderly population in India to be women by 2016. Overall, nearly 7.5% of India's population is presently aged 60 years and above. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

First-time gold buyers’ club getting younger

MUMBAI: Gold has been scaling new highs, pulling down the demand - it touched a record Rs 31,077 per 10 grams in Mumbai on Monday before closing at Rs 30,920. Yet, the club of first-time buyers of the precious metal is getting younger. Not only that. Although the bridal category still contributes 50% of the total gold consumption, Indian consumers are increasingly purchasing gold jewellery on personal occasions such as birthdays and anniversaries, rather than waiting for an auspicious occasion. 

Both the trends are being fuelled by demographic shifts. While consumers, including women, start earning at an early age, marriages are getting delayed by about 5-7 years. This has forced a change in jewellery designs, making them more attractive to the younger consumers, who may or may not be married. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Kerala heading towards zero-population growth rate

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala is heading for a significant phase in its demographic transition with the state moving towards achieving zero population growth rate, which will result in an increase in scarcity of labour. 

With a very low fertility rate and stabilising death rate, Kerala is expected to achieve zero population growth rate in 25 to 30 years, a stage indicating the incipient decline of the population, according to the State Urbanisation Report. Read more

Source : zeenews.india.com

UP and Bihar record highest fertility rates

NEW DELHI: An average woman in rural Uttar Pradesh and Bihar are giving birth to around four children each.

In urban areas, too, the birth rate is as high as nearly three children per woman during her entire lifetime. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Rewire, don’t retire

I  think India must be one of the few countries/societies where culturally, and traditionally, there is so much respect for elders. It is probably the only country where we touch the feet of our elders as a mark of respect. Yet on a practical level and in our infrastructure we are far behind many other countries and societies in looking after our elderly. With Indian society changing and with the gradual shift from joint family system to the nuclear family system, our relationship with the elders in our own family is also changing. Today a person working and living in a large city has many demands on him. He or she has very little time for himself and his own immediate nuclear family (children and spouse). In this changing scenario what happens to our elders. We need to plan better for our elders, and in fact for ourselves, because sooner or later all of us, (no matter how much we resist it) will eventually get there.

Today the average life span is around 65 years. So the number of people living beyond 60 years is dramatically higher. HT Illustration/Abhimanyu Sinha

Read more

Source : www.hindustantimes.com    

Lighting: A Key to Successful Cities?

Measuring and comparing cities to determine how ‘successful’ they are can become quite complex. With the world going through a period of unprecedented urbanization – by 2050 over two thirds of the population will live in cities – the aspects or ‘ingredients’ of a successful city are constantly changing, adapting and diversifying. For economies as a whole, the yardstick we use for development is GDP, which is, in effect, a linear indicator that adds up consumption and investment.

For successful cities it is clear that ‘City-GDP’ is not the indicator that will help us to create a better future for, and within, our urban environments. Rather, we need to find ways that help us assess and improve the quality of our lives in the cities that constitute our living and working environments. Such an adaption to cater for the needs of citizens, as well as the needs of the environments that are housing cities, must be addressed in order to develop sustainably and set cities up for a healthy future. Read More

Source: theurbn.com

Planning for urban population surge will limit crises - experts

RIO DE JANEIRO (AlertNet) – Nearly all the expected surge in the world’s population from 7 billion people to 9 billion by 2050 will come in urban areas of Asia and Africa, and planning for it will be crucial to limit the spread of slums and related social and environmental problems, experts say.

A woman walks with her child in Rocinha slum in Rio de Janeiro, Nov. 14, 2011. REUTERS/Ricardo Moraes

That many fast-growing cities today have informal settlements and black-market economies “is in part a testament to failure to accommodate and plan for urban growth effectively and fairly”, said Gordon McGranahan, principal researcher on human settlements for the London-based International Institute on Environment and Development (IIED). Read more

Source : www.trust.org

Regional disparities hamper development, says minister

MUMBAI: Minister of state for health and family welfare Sudip Bandyopadhyay who was in Mumbai on Saturday expressed concern about regional disparities regarding the fertility and mortality rates across India. 

He pointed out that the Empowered Action Group (EAG) states such as Uttar Pradesh,Uttarakhand, Bihar, Jharkhand, Rajasthan, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh lagged way behind the rest of the country on these counts. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

The withering of age

In a Bangladeshi folk story, a disabled grandfather is carried by his son in a basket, to be abandoned in the forest. On seeing this, the grandson calls out, 'Father, please be sure to bring back the basket. I will need it when you grow old'. Three thousand ageing men and women gathered Delhi in the blazing midsummer heat to demand a universal pension for all aged people, not less than half the minimum wages they would have earned had they been of able body. The Government of India today guarantees a pension of Rs. 400 a month to all persons above 60 years who are identified to be Below Poverty Line (BPL). State governments have variously added to this amount. 

The meagre official pension today, equivalent to just around 4 to 8 days' statutory minimum wages in most states, is way too little for dignified survival. There are huge problems of delay and corruption in this small amount of money reaching old people on time in most states, unchecked because of the powerlessness of the aged. Even so, our studies show that pensions are the life-line of survival for impoverished old people, when it reaches them. Read more

Source : www.hindustantimes.com

Place-dependent output

THIS morning, Alex Tabarrok links to an interesting new report on emerging-world urbanisation. There's a lot to consider in the report, but the upshot is that modern economic growth is inextricably linked to urbanisation. I'd argue there are two principal dynamics to this relationship. The first involves what you might call mobilisation. Quite a lot of the extraordinary catch-up growth we observe in emerging markets (and once observed in the development process of now-rich countries) is due to the migration of a large share of the population from low-productivity agricultural lifestyles to much more productive work in urban centres. Simply by pulling a lot of very poor people into cities, taking existing manufacturing technology off the shelf and employing a lot of people in industry and the rest in services, a country can go from being very poor to middle-income.

The second dynamic is the idea-generation capacity of cities, or the city as workshop. Clusters of individuals and firms, in these cases, tinker with technologies and business models until they find things they can sell to other markets. The growth generated by this process is slower than early stage catch-up growth, but its the source of sustainable long-run growth, and it's the dynamic that typically allows an economy to escape the middle-income trap and become rich. One of the big challenges for growth economists is to understand the circumstances under which the urban centres built during mobilisation become effective at workshop growth. Read More

Source: Economist.com

As India's old ways change, senior-care homes are on the rise

More of India's urban families are rejecting traditional extended-family households, so older relatives are increasingly moving into elder-care facilities, an idea long stigmatized in the country.

Retirees at an elder-care home in Trivandrum, India. (Mark Magnier, Los Angeles Times / May 14, 2012)

TRIVANDRUM, India : India, a nation that prides itself on the inclusive embrace of its extended families, is slowly accepting a feature long common in the West: elder-care facilities.

Social changes find more urban families rejecting traditional arrangements involving grandparents, parents and children under one roof, preferring life without nosy in-laws. Economics is also playing a role as more professionals work abroad or in large Indian cities, too busy to care for aging parents. Read more

Source : www.latimes.com

India's demographic dividend may turn into a nightmare

While the number of working age youth, the first input for the creation of the dividend is on the rise, it is concentrated in regions that are also the poorest, both in terms of savings and job potential.

One again India's hidden gift of demographic dividend surfaces as its saving grace, in a situation that bodes ill for the general sustainability of development. The International Monetary Fund's ‘Asia Pacific regional Economic Outlook for 2012' cited in media reports suggests that the dividend can add about 2 per cent to the annual rate of economic growth with the right policy mix. That seething mass of youthful energy has to be harnessed and if done well, India's GDP could witness a sizable leap. Given the slipping numbers, with GDP forecast at around 6 per cent, the demographic dividend could be the knight in shining armour. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

For a universal old-age pension plan

With the elderly likely to constitute a quarter of India's population by 2050, there is need for a publicly-funded, universal scheme that will overcome destitution among the aged

India's social security system is woefully inadequate, when compared even to those in third world economies with no higher per capita incomes. Some States in India have fairly comprehensive social security schemes — notably Kerala, also West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — but the scale of the benefits is modest. However, the Union government has been quite lackadaisical in providing social security despite its enormous fiscal powers. Even the Unorganised Sector Workers' Social Security Act, which came into force in 2009, is merely an enabling legislation; it does not seek to put on the statute books any specific comprehensive scheme of social security. Read more

Source : www.thehindu.com

Curves give flats a run for money

Good ol’ CTVs still dominate market, thanks to demographics, slow pace of digitisation 

No matter how much the market is flooded with LCD, LED, internet-enabled, slim, flat and ultra-slim televisions, Indians continue to patronise colour TVs or cathode ray tube models, quite unlike our global counterparts. Read more

Source : www.mydigitalfc.com

Kids trust pets more than parents

Statistics show that today, India has the largest population of children it has ever had - 40 per cent of the overall population are below the age of 18. Of the estimated 415 million children, about 200 million are marginalised children. That is the country we live in.

Dealing with these statistics is the Childline India Foundation whose helpline - 1098 - receives an annual three million calls. A major block of these calls come from children between the age group of 11 to 14, with the most common complaint being about healthcare. While neglected children and victims of child abuse have unfortunately become a common incidence, what is alarming is the rapid rise of juvenile delinquency or youth crime. While statistics from the National Crime Records Bureau in 2010 put Madhya Pradesh ahead with 6028 cases of arrest, Andhra Pradesh though at the lower end with 1863 cases, is still a bad case in point. Read more

Source : ibnlive.in.com

The secret to reinventing a long and happy life

The facts are clear. The world is facing an unprecedented demographic shift. 2011 marked the first time the world's population hit 7 billion. At the same time, the global population is aging as never before. Within the next five years, for the first time in history, adults 65 and older will outnumber children younger than 5; by 2050, they will outnumber children younger than 14.

So are we ready? We'd better be. Japan already has the world's oldest population with 23 percent of its citizens over 65 in 2012. This figure is expected to rise to 40 percent in 2050. Read more

Source : www.japantimes.co.jp

Dementia cases worldwide will triple by 2050: WHO

JAIPUR: Nearly 3.7 million people in India are suffering from dementia, and this number is set to double over the next 20 years, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Worldwide, nearly 35.6 million people live with dementia. This number is expected to double by 2030 (65.7 million) and more than triple by 2050 (115.4 million). There are 7.7 million new cases of dementia each year - a new case is being detected somewhere in the world in every four seconds. Read more

Source : timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Sedentary lifestyles affecting health of India`s elderly

New Delhi: As WHO focuses on healthy ageing as its theme for the World Health Day Saturday, experts say sedentary lifestyles and growing psycho-social factors are affecting the health of India`s elderly.

The World Health Organisation says nearly eight percent of the Southeast Asian population, including India`s, is above the age of 60. Read more

Source : zeenews.india.com

Good health adds life to years for world population

New Delhi : Aging is a natural and inevitable process. For the past century mankind has been adding years to life. More people now survive the challenges of childbirth and childhood to reach old age. 

This trend is not restricted to the resource-rich countries but has become a global phenomenon including the countries of Southeast Asia. Read more

Source : www.thejakartapost.com

37 pc households in Assam have access to electricity

GUWAHATI – As the main source of lighting, 37 per cent households in the State use electricity, which marks an increase of 12 point over 2001; 62 per cent of households use kerosene; and 0.8 per cent households use solar energy. As fuel for cooking, 80 per cent households use firewood/crop residue, cow dung cake/coal, etc; 19 per cent households use LPG/PNG/electricity/biogas and 0.6 per cent households use kerosene. An increase of six points has been noticed in the use of LPG.

This and other interesting facts were revealed in the data on ‘Housing, Household Amenities and Assets Census, 2011’, pertaining to the State, which was formally released by the Director of Census Operation, Assam, RK Das at the Assam Administrative Staff College today. Read more

Source : www.assamtribune.com

India to become world's largest economy by 2050: Report

NEW DELHI: Surpassing China, India will become the world's largest economy by 2050, says a report.

"China will overtake the US to become the world's largest economy by 2020, which in turn will be overtaken by India in 2050," according to Wealth Report 2012 by Knight Frank & Citi Private Bank.

As per the report, Indian economy will reach $85.97 trillion size in terms of purchasing power parity by 2050, while the Chinese GDP would be $80.02 trillion during the same period.

The US -- currently the world's largest economy -- is expected to have a GDP of $39.07 trillion by 2050.

Other nations in the top ten list of world's largest economies would be Indonesia (4th), Brazil (5th), Nigeria (6th), Russia (7th), Mexico (8th), Japan (9th) and Egypt (10th). Read More

Source: timesofindia.indiatimes.com

 

India’s face is changing

The face of changing India is increasingly evident while analysing census data. The figures throw light on a nation tilting towards more nuclear families — a couple with two children is now the household size norm, compared to the sizeable joint families that dotted the landscape in earlier decades. If 56 per cent of urban households have shrunk to four members or less, and if India is urbanising as rapidly as believed, clearly there are signs that our demographics are changing irrevocably.

As the country gets younger and the economy expands beyond agriculture and manufacturing, into information technology and services, there may be reason to worry about food security. These fears are, however, offset by the fact that there is no longer a need to seek social sanction to pursue knowledge as the principal vocation. The widening of education is reflected in the small family norm that is economically far more viable for the population. Read more

Source : www.deccanchronicle.com

Women pushed back marriage age: Study

Kolkata (IBNS) : A study by matrimonial site Jeevansathi.com shows that there is an upward push in the age of girls gearing up to take their wedding vows.

The study shows that the mean age of marriage for women in metros has moved up to 28 years in 2011 as compared to 26 years in 2008. Read more

Source : www.indiablooms.com

Act before 7 billion crowd urban areas

More than six billion men, women and children will inhabit urban areas around the world in 2050 when the global population would have surged to nine billion, putting stress on the natural resources that supply energy and food.

According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), over a quarter of population in 30 countries of the grouping is projected to be over 65 years of age in 2050 compared to about 15 percent today. China and India are also likely to see significant population aging, with China’s work force actually shrinking by 2050. Read more

Source : arabnews.com

Too many hurdles to growth

Our supply side bottlenecks can turn out to be our biggest growth constraint.

Post-harvest wastage in India is estimated at 30-40 per cent for fruits and vegetables.

While we fret on whether there will be adequate demand in the economy to generate growth, it's time we focused on the supply side. Let's try a simple experiment. Assuming growth picks up from the current 7 per cent, and population growth maintains the rate of 1.1 per cent, this would entail acceleration in per capita income, and a consequent increase in demand. Besides, if programmes aimed at inclusive growth, such as the NREGA and the Food Security Act, are indeed successful, they would result in increased disposable income for the lower rungs on the income ladder. In short, there will be more demand pressure. Read more

Source : www.thehindubusinessline.com

Senior housing comes of age

Imagine India a decade ahead: there will be more senior citizens in the country given the improved healthcare and decreasing mortality rates. The average life expectancy has gone up from 20 years (1900) to 64 years in recent times. Add to this the low fertility rates and we have the 60+ age group as one of the fastest growing segments of the population. With 100 million senior citizens now, the numbers will shoot up to 177 million in 2025 and this is set to double in 20 years. Given the fast-paced urban lifestyle with few provisions for needs of the elderly, there is an opportunity to provide good living solutions for the senior population by being sensitive to their requirements.

In the West, a wide range of retirement living solutions have been available for over five decades, while in India the need for creating ‘special’ spaces for seniors has had an emotional and psychological barrier. Indians pride themselves on their close-knit family structures and values with parents being integral to the ‘parivar’. Two factors have broken this age old tradition: the mobility of the working population and the nuclear family preference in modern times. Read more

Source : indianexpress.com

Housing conundrum: FICCI report on urban infrastructure reveals uncomfortable truths

In 2001, about 286 million persons were living in urban areas of India and it was the second largest urban population in the world. According to the Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India, the urban population in India over the next 25 years is expected to grow 38 per cent and become 534 million in 2026. Furthermore, as per the Census of India, 2001, 640 cities/towns in 26 States/Union territories have reported slum populations. 

Andhra Pradesh has the largest number of towns (77) reporting slums followed by Uttar Pradesh (69), Tamil Nadu (63) and Maharashtra (61). As many as 42.6 million people lived in slums in 2001. This constitutes 15 percent of the total urban population of the country and 22.6 percent of the urban population of the states/union territories reporting slums. Read more

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com

Educating India’s 'Demographic Dividend': The Role of the Private Sector

The growth prospects of the Indian economy depend to a large extent on how the country tackles certain issues of intellectual capital today. The concern largely centers on the much-debated demographic dividend, or the rising proportion of working-age people in India. The recent One Globe 2012 "knowledge conference" in New Delhi emphasized the role that industry needs to play.

Some 54% of India’s 1.2 billion people are under the age of 25. The TeamLease Indian Labor Report 2009 estimates that 300 million will enter the labor force by 2025, and by then, 25% of the world’s workers will be Indians. The National Skills Development Corporation (NSDC) is already grappling with the challenge of providing training and retraining to 500 million people by 2022. The non-negotiables to meet the challenge include fundamental education reform across primary, secondary and higher education, and significant enhancement of supplementary skills development. Read more

Source : knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

Moving targets

How important is location to a business school? Does it matter if you are rooted in one particular city or country? It is a topic that is creeping on to the business school agenda because, as we know, demographics are changing dramatically.

There are now a mind-boggling 7bn people on the planet. What is more, that figure could double again by the end of the century, with the largest growth occurring in developing countries. Where will people live? What kind of lives will they have? How many will pursue higher education? Read more

Source : ft.com

Revival in investment in India key to recovery in growth: Morgan Stanley

In India, structural measures are needed to help boost private investment. India will continue to have strong support from favorable demographic trends, as the age dependency ratio (proportion of non-working age population to working age population) will continue improving until 2040, according to UN projections.

This warrants a rise in investment to GDP, which would help to generate productive capacity, and is crucial to kick-start a virtuous cycle of faster growth in productive job creation - income growth - savings - investments - higher growth, without a rise in inflation challenges. Read more

Source : myiris.com

Trainer deficit hindering vocational sector’s growth

With its unique demography and desire for positive growth and change, India is experiencing an unparalleled surge for skills development. 

India’s fast economic recovery and overall development has opened up an unprecedented number of job opportunities across industry sectors. Read more

Source : deccanherald.com

India’s human wealth

Large population is not necessarily a burden

In a developing country of more than a billion people, the phrase ‘population explosion’ has negative connotations. But, experts believe India can leverage its vast human capital to its advantage. According to the US-based National Bureau of Asian Research, over the next two decades India will witness a huge surge in its working population, much of which will be highly educated, and this can only serve to further the country’s economic growth. By 2030, the median age of the Indian population will be around 32 years, and almost 68 per cent of its estimated 1.5 billion strong people at that time will be of working age, generally defined as those between the ages of 15 and 64. What will make this huge group particularly powerful is that it will be a highly educated group of young men and women. The Vienna Institute of Demography estimates that by 2030, about 125 million working-age people in India will have a masters degree or a doctorate — more than any country in the world. Already, India is home to 60 million people with tertiary degrees — much more than Japan, Russia and even the US. Read more

Source : dailypioneer.com