India has the youngest population in the whole world. And
this would be the case even in the next decade and two is the consensus among
experts. It leads many to be gung ho, saying that India and Indians will be the
world’s leading economy, making India a super power through the simple reason
of its population.
Yes, I admit that it reason to be joyous over. But we need
to look at the other side of the coin as well. The reason(s) is that it is
simple; India does not have adequate systems to tackle the next 2-3 decades.
Support Systems for
Old:
The population that is young now is going to age, meaning
they can no longer be able to earn a living. Sure their kids and other millions
of kids will have grown by then and will start earning. But, my point is that
given the increases in the life expectancy, there will be a huge number of old
people. We do not have any systems to support this old population. Yeah, that
is 20 years in the future; let’s think about that later is the answer you would
get. The problem being that systems cannot be setup in a jiffy, they take time.
And in a country like India, it’s my belief that this will take at least 10-15
years if not more.
Systems for old age care have to improve by leaps and bounds
in India. Currently, putting your parents in a old age home in India is
equivalent to abandoning a child in say a coal mine in winter. This mentality
has to be changed. Professional old age homes have to set up, to take care of
the large number of people.
Look at Japan, there have a huge old population and they have
yet to come to grips with that completely. They have started employing robots
to help the elderly and the immobile. We need, to start working with makers of
these robots. These have to tested in Indian conditions, the cultural barriers
have to be broken. This will take time.
What is going to happen, when India will be youngest nation
in the world has also to be addressed. Who will generate the income to sustain
the population and the country has to be looked into. These are issues of
economics and would require forward planning for the next 40-50 years. This is
an exercise that the government has to carry out, so that we are not caught
off-guard one day like a deer in a car’s headlights.
Educational Systems:
So much is being talked about the educational system in
India that whatever I add will be like a drop in the ocean. The talk has rightly shifted from academics
to inclusion of sports and making education available to everyone.
I would like to add only one point. In academics, teach the children
knowledge. In sports, teach them about playing as a team, coordinating with
others, ethics or fairness in how one plays the game. Let not this wave of
inclusion of games in education just be about how many marks are allocated
based on their performance in sports.
And the other thing about the 25% quota is a good move. It will
make the students interact with each other and know the different sides of life
and not be hidden away from the realities of life.
Research Institutes:
Indians are quire smart in sciences and mathematics is what
you keep hearing. You also hear that the number of research papers published
from India, the number of patents filled for is nothing compared to that from
the US or China. Admittedly, there are quite a few Indian authors behind those
papers and patents from US.
Then why is there a dearth of papers from Indians in India?
The answer is that institutions that have world class facilities are very few
in India. The amount of money spent as part of GDP is so low that the really
good ones leave for greener pastures and others simply don’t get into research.
SO, what happens is most of people who are interested in
doing research look at the paucity of available opportunities and look at other
employment opportunities. The pay that is paid to most of researchers in the
available institutions is quite low and not many qualified people want these
jobs.
Look at the collaborations map of scientific papers
published across the world. The brighter and more connections mean more collaboration.
India is sadly in not a bright spot. It is less bright than parts of South
America.
The map was put together by Olivier H. Beauchesne of Science-Metrix.
What does this all mean? This means that we need to set time
to plan and build institutions in terms of education, research, and support
systems for old age and many other more. These have to start one at a time.
Building an institution is going to take a long time and cannot be achieved in
a few short years. It makes take for all that I know 15-20 years.
