The relative advantage of a young population?

India's comparative advantage vested in demographics?

'India's increasingly younger demographic profile — with nearly 60 per cent of its population being below 30 years — gives it a distinct advantage in the global outsourcing market as it provides for a large, educated workforce capable of meeting the brainpower demand of the global economy, president and CEO of Cognizant Technology Solutions N. Lakshmi Narayanan, said on Friday.

The IT/BPO industry was upbeat about India's demographic growth, he said, inaugurating a workshop on "Outsourcing Opportunities (BPO and Call Centres) from Australia," organised by the Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce.

Increasingly, corporations were looking beyond boundaries to set up international operations and extended enterprises were moving into the `24x7' mode.

Australia was a viable outsourcing market and BPOs were now looking beyond mere outsourcing.

The Australian BPO market was ripe for the picking, director of Indo-Australian Chamber of Commerce C. Sarat Chandran, said.

Already, a large number of small and medium enterprises had moved to India in sectors such as financial services, computer-aided design, insurance claims and digitisation of textbooks.

Non-resident Indians in Australia were playing a large part in this boom, driven by a shortage of skilled manpower in Australia.

The chamber was receiving frequent enquiries for joint ventures and collaborations from Australian firms, he said.

Managing director of ANZ Information Technology Pvt Limited Fred Bertram, and head of performance, management and strategy of Repcol India Limited Ambika Krishnan, spoke.'

I guess this story is well known and cited but still an important point to consider in terms of India's potential in the long run vis-à-vis for example China.  

Comments

[Lokpriy]

This is absolutely true that the demographic advantage are in the favour of India because of its large population is in the working age group.The window of opportunity provided by a relatively large and young workforce, a result of the demographic dividend, has opened for India. The policy environment, however, is not conducive for exploiting this advantage.there is urgent need to look after the issues which promote and reap the benifits of this young population who can turn India in to a Developed economy in coming days.