Stop Inane and Diversionary Debates, and Focus on What Really Matters

Acute Angle

- Anand Neelakantan

I am neither an economist nor a financial expert, but I feel a perfect storm is brewing in the Indian economy. For decades, experts have been talking about the demographic dividend India will reap, which would catapult us to the ranks of the developed countries. Unfortunately, it seems the advantage is fast slipping away. The signs are everywhere. The average entry salaries have fallen dramatically and still, there aren't enough jobs. India has a glut of youngsters desperate for jobs while the country has struggled with job creation. The worker-to-population ratio has declined from 38.6 per cent in 2011-12 to 37.3 per cent in a decade. This is per the government labour force surveys and barely captures the disastrous situation on the ground.

When I graduated from the engineering college 28 years ago, there were high hopes, and the country was raring to go. We were confident that India would be a developed country in two or three decades with most of our issues resolved. Now, seeing that many fresh graduates, even from professional colleges, are starting their careers with salary packages that would have been considered humiliatingly low even three decades ago, one wonders where we have gone wrong.