INDIA is indeed in the midst of a process where it faces the window of opportunity created by the demographic dividend.
Andy Mukherjee writes about the power of Indian consumer and how India needs to take advantage of this in the next decade or two.
Seventy percent of Indians will be of working age in 2025, up from 61 percent now. That means a typical Indian family will earn and save more, provided there are enough jobs going around. An average household will also have fewer dependents to provide for. The government will get more tax revenue, which it can invest in new roads and power stations.
Over the next two decades, the proportion of children younger than 15 will fall to 23 percent of India's total population from today's 34 percent, and the share of people older than 65, will increase to 7 percent from 5 percent....
C.P.Chandrasekhar writes
This demographic advantage or dividend to be derived from the age structure of the population is traced to the fact that India is (and will remain for some time) one of the youngest countries in the world. A third of India's population was below 15 years of age in 2000. In 2020, the average Indian will be only 29 years old, compared with 37 in China and the United States, 45 in Western Europe, and 48 in Japan. The demographic process this implies would create a large and growing labour force, which is expected to deliver unexpected spin-offs in terms of growth and prosperity.
I think this augurs well for brands and companies interested in taking a share of this pie from the Indian consumer.