The name India brings different images to our mind. Some like to call it the land of beggars and snake charmers. Some call it one of the fastest growing economies. There are others, who would identify it as the IT capital of the world. However, the Idea of India that catches the fancy of the pessimists, the critics of India and most importantly, the population control activists, is that of India with a billion people.
This set of billion people has been a hot topic of debate in the recent past. Policy makers and corporate leaders, describe these billion people as India’s demographic dividend, which will lead the charge in taking India from being a developing nation to an accomplished developed nation. The contrast to this can be seen in the views often expressed by our disgruntled economists and fiery social activists, who see this billion plus population (especially the poor ones and those living in rural areas & small towns) as a drag and at the receiving end of injustice meted out by government. They often cite the non-inclusive nature of policies as one of the strongest reasons for skewed economic development, which often leads to disturbances in the society and prevents India from realising its potential.
However, nature has its own way of balancing things. This realisation dawned on me a couple of day’s back, while reading a news story in one of the news daily. Scorching industrialisation in the urban areas has left little space in big cities for companies to set up new businesses. The article that I was referring to brought out this truth again, with spokespersons of some of the biggest IT companies stating their inability to find land banks in kolkata and being forced to scout for land in small town for their new ventures. This news will definitely give a glimmer of hope to people fighting for the balanced economic development of India and its inclusive growth, as this kind of move will result in improvement in physical infrastructure of those places and also in creation of a lot of direct as well as indirect employment in these often neglected but equally promising regions.
We will get to hear more such announcements from numerous other companies in the coming days, as our urban space has become highly saturated. Another reason, that will make it more appealing for companies to give these small towns a serious look is rising real estate prices in the urban areas. I hope that this kind of measures will alter, some, if not all, of the negative connotations attached with the ‘billion plus nation’ that we are.
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Hi vinay,
ReplyDeletefirst of all, let me thank you on sharing those insightful thoughts of yours with us. have been keeping a close tab on your blog ever since the day it came into existence and will continue doing so.
well, the tectonic shift of corporates to the lesser known towns and places of rural India is something that had to happen. we have been since long, harping on how priviledged India should feel because of its favourable demographic dividend, which clearly, has resulted not on design by some social engineering methodology, but has been because of pure coincidence! but should we really consider and hope that the demographic devidend will bolster our efforts to be counted as one of the top nations of the world? the answer is a resounding 'No'. because we haven't been able to generate enough employment oppurtunities for the youth and unless we are successful in doing that, the whole advantage of having a favourable demographic dividend is simply wasted. the population in the last ten years has registered a growth of 2%, whereas job oppurtunities has only grown at about 1%. so there is a clear gap in between which has to be closed down.
the shift of the corporates towards the smaller cities and towns augurs well for the country and its youth. it shall, not only create more oppurtunities for employment for the people residing in these parts, but shall also, boost their standard of living, which shall have a positive influence on the educational sector, and hence contribute worthy applicants to drive growth in these parts.also it shall arrest the mad rush of the rural population towards the metropolis and cosmopolis, and hence shall bring sanctity through narrowing the rural-urban divide.
Lets hope that the policymakers too, echo similar sentiments and don't come with certain frugal engineering methods to stop a trend that possesses the ultimate potential to drive to reality the "India Shining" dream!