India’s Demographic : Dividend or Disaster ?
India is recognized around the world as one of the most diverse countries culturally. Having a sixth of the world population in India, it seems obvious that our country has huge potential in terms of economic growth through domestic production and consumption as the market is huge. But, managing such a huge population and satisfying such a wide array of income levels is an arduous task. The deep rooted value system which the people are finding it hard to shrug off plays a key role in this aspect. Cultural diversity is an identity of our country but cultural acceptance is still struggling find a foot hold in the society.
Over 50% of the population is under 25 and over 65% is under 35. This presents
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As women and families realize that fewer children will die during infancy or childhood, they will begin to have fewer children to reach their desired number of offspring, further reducing the proportion of non-productive dependents. This fall is often accompanied by an extension in average life expectancy that increases the portion of the population that is in the working age-group. This cuts spending on dependents and spurs economic growth.
Due to the dividend between young and old, many argue that there is a great potential for economic gains. In order for economic growth to occur the younger population must have access to quality education, adequate nutrition and health including access to sexual and reproductive
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Demographics which is often used as the core for long term investment case in India, the demographic creates the opportunity for great economic growth and therefore investment returns, but whether or not that opportunity is realized depends on the policy framework and that policy framework has to be in place upfront, and often is that the policy framework does not exist and so if the status quo continues India will not benefit from its demographic dividend as it can cause enormous problems because of the magnitude of the jobs that need to be created. It is estimated that 250 million jobs need to be created in the next two decades, that is like the adding the entire Brazil workforce in the next decade. So where does the problem
Though the world economy as a whole has grown in recent years, a factor that is not taken into account is that the number “of the poor in the world has increased by 100 million” (Roy 3). In other words, the gap between rich and poor is widening. For India, this has startling implications. Though it is a nation that is developing in many ways, it also is a nation blessed with over one billion citizens, a population tally that continues to grow at a rapid rate. This population increase will greatly tax resources, which can create a setback in the development process. The tragedy, of course, is that the world is full of resources and wealth. In fact, Roy quotes a statistic showing that corporations, and not even just countries, represent 51 of the 100 largest economies in the world (Roy 3). For a country struggling to develop, such information is disheartening. However, there is also a more nefarious consequence of the growing disparity between rich and poor, and power and money being concentrated in the hands of multinational corporations: war is propagated in the name of resource acquisition, and corruption can reign as multinationals seek confederates in developing countries that will help companies drive through their plans, resulting in not only environmental destruction but also the subversion of democracy (Roy 3).
For this study, researcher classified the cultural identity of the participants as traditional, assimilated, bicultural, or marginalized by how they identified with highly with Indian values, highly with white values, ewally with both, or with none.
Jacobsen, L. A., Kent, M., Lee, M., & Mather, M. (2001). America's aging population. Population Bulletin, 66(1).
An aging population is indeed a problem for the society and will possibly cause many social and economic difficulties in the future. According to David Foot (2003), professor of Economics at University of Toronto, an effective birth rate of 2.2% against current 1.75% will be necessary to replace the current work force in the near future and the government’s policy of bringing in more immigrants will eventually fail (Foot, 2003, 2). However some people predict that the increased size of an aging population will drive growth in the home, health care, and many other industries resulting in job creation and economic growth (Marketwire, 2013, 1). Majority of the people are of the opinion that the issue will be mainly in the health care and economic activity. As humans age, they start to develop health problems, leading to more visits to a medical clinic putting extra burden on health care system.
Firstly, industrialisation has expanded the employment opportunities in India. People living in rural areas have moved to cities in search of better employment.
The initiative takes cognizance of the fact that adolescence and young adulthood stages are crucial periods in lives of human beings because individuals are usually highly active (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [Healthy], 2015). Focusing on improving the health of people at the ages has significantly improved the rate of productivity, resulting into economic improvement.
The existing U.S. population is over 315 million and rising. In the year 2030, 72 million Americans will be 65 or older, a 50 percent change in age demographics since the year 2000. The change is primarily due to the aging baby boomers, who were born at the end of World War II. Americans are living longer than ever befo...
Uhlenberg, Peter. 1992. “Population Aging and Social Policy.” Annual Review, Sociology, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.
Throughout the course of this paper, I have discussed Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions where I broke down these dimensions. Additionally, I have stated how India tends to appreciate the hierarchical relationship structure, is a collectivist country and leans towards being a more masculine society. Additionally, India tends to possess a medium to low preference towards uncertainty avoidance and leans towards being a future oriented society. Having lived in the United States for almost a decade I think I have become more “Americanized”. India is a great country and I’ll always visit it in the future, but from the way things are going I am going to permanently settle down in New York where I would like to start my career and family.
India, the second highest populated country in the world after China, with 1.27 billion people currently recorded to be living there and equates for 17.31% (India Online Pages 2014) of the world's population, but is still considered a developing country due to it’s poverty and illiteracy rates. As these nations continue to grow at rates that are too fast for resources to remain sustainable, the government’s in these areas wi...
...an HDI of 0.36. These discrepancies in levels of development have led to an exodus of people, from less developed areas to the areas that have been benefitted by development. This situation seems to depict that predicted by the Dependency theory in which the developed countries progressed due to the exploitation of peripheral nations; the same seems to be happening in India. The states that are wealthier are exploiting the poorer states. It would be difficult to imagine India having the economic status that it now has, if it was not for the terrible working conditions and wages at which the Indians are willing to work and the massive work force available in the country. Now that India has seen economic growth the government should start taking care of its citizens by implementing policies that protect the labor rights of the workforce.
In an article called Cultural Factor Highly Influences On Consumers & Their Buying Behavior – In Indian Context, the basic characteristics of culture are described:
Another aspect, that has a relatively large impact on the aging minority is education and/or the lack thereof. According to ideas based of Feinstein, Sabates, Anderson, Sorhaindo & Hammond, the more educated people are more likely they are to be in good health. This ultimately encourages and maintains family and community well-being, healthy lifestyles and positive choices and supporting and nurturing human development (2006). Base of this idea, they have conclude that “Compared with individuals with low levels of education, those with high levels of education tended to smoke fewer cigarettes, consume more alcohol, and exercise more” (Ferinstein et al., 2006)
Saikat Banerjee, (2008) “Dimensions of Indian culture, core cultural Values and marketing implications. An analysis”, cross cultural management: An Internationa Journal.
To understand culture’s impact on a country’s economic development, it is important to understand what culture is: a system of values and norms that are shared among a group of people and that when taken together constitute a design for living (Hill 98). Furthermore, it is about the way the people live, and how the quality of their lives can be improved. It shapes “the way things are done” and our understanding of why this should be so. Culture is concerned with identity, aspiration, symbolic exchange, coordination, and structures and practices that serve relational ends, such as ethnicity, rituals, heritage, norms, meanings, and beliefs. It is not a set of primitive wonders permanently embedded within national, religious, or other groups, but rather a set of contested attributes, constantly changing, both shaping and being shaped by social and economic aspects of human interaction.