The Ticking Time-Bomb

This was the speech that I delivered as part of my ICSE English assessment.

The Ticking Time-Bomb

In 2022, India will overtake China to have to world’s largest population. Currently at 1.37 billion, it is projected to reach 1.6 billion by 2050. It will be more than 3 times the population of Europe and 4 times the population of the United States. Now, the question that bothers everyone in the world is: will our young and growing population rocket us towards prosperity, or is the sheer size of our population a ticking time bomb?

India’s young, energetic and growing population can be a boon our economy, if we take advantage of it. A young population means a country with educated, talented, innovative and tech-savvy people. It means a generation of motivated youth who are willing to take risks and seize every opportunity that comes their way. But let’s look at the statistics.

In the last 20 years, the size of India’s working age population increased by 300 million! However, the Indian economy could create only 140 million new jobs, that’s 160 million jobs short. And it doesn’t stop there. By 2040, another 280 million people will enter the workforce. That means that, in order to prevent an unemployment crisis, we need to create more than 12 million new jobs every year. Are we ready for this huge influx?

The good news is that India has now overtaken China to become the world’s fastest growing economy. Our growth rate is about 7.5% per annum. But this is not enough. China has been growing at 10% per annum for the last 40 years. We have not only started later, but our population is growing at a faster rate.

So, what can be done to help the Indian economy grow further so that we can provide those millions and millions of people with jobs? The answer is: investment. We need lots and lots of investment in the various sectors of our economy. We need investment to build new factories, repair our roads, expand our metros, build bullet trains and to fund research. We also need Indian entrepreneurs to start new companies and businesses. However, India only ranks 130st out of 181 countries in the Ease of Doing Business Ranking. This means that it is easier and quicker to do business in USA, UK, Singapore, Taiwan, Australia, China and many other countries. Let me give you an example. It takes 29 month to register a business in India, but just 1 day in Singapore. Similarly, it takes 53 days in India to obtain electricity connection, but less than 14 days in New Zealand.

We need to improve our ease-of-doing-business ranking by cutting red tapes, reducing the size of our bureaucracy and curbing corruption. We also need to make the payment of taxes and registrations completely online. If we do this, then Make in India will no longer be just a catchy phrase; it will become a reality. If we can do this, investment will flow into India like the Ganges from the Himalayas. It will flow through Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. It will flow like the Kaveri not only through Karnataka but also through Tamil Nadu. And it will shower India with employment, income and economic growth throughout the year and for generations to come. If we can make India into an investment friendly and a business-friendly country, then the next Google, Apple or Microsoft will be started by an Indian in India.

I want to conclude with a quote from our former Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh: “No force on earth can stop an idea whose time has come.” The time has come for India to become a world economic superpower. However, we can achieve this only if every student, parent, teacher, and more importantly, every politician realises that we have miles to go before we sleep and miles to go before we sleep.