New Delhi: A day which saw the World's population reaching the seven billion mark, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), said on Tuesday that India should allocate over six percent of its budget in education and health sectors each with emphasis on quality and efficiency through public private partnership (PPP) model to control rising population and streamline economic growth.
The country with 1.2 billion people is expected to overtake China around 2030 when the Indian population reaches 1.6 billion. The population growth will mean a nation full of working-age youth, which could allow the already booming economy to maintain momentum.
"But educating this next generation, keeping it healthy and employed also could be a steep challenge", the apex chamber said.
India needs to generate almost 20 million jobs per year to eradicate unemployment. The agriculture and allied activities where two-thirds of people work is in a state of decline and earnings are meager. The services sector - led by information technology - is fueling India's boom but not adding jobs on the scale that is needed.
"Efforts should thus be made to impart vocational training to enhance farming skills among the sizeable rural workforce," said secretary general D.S. Rawat. "At the same time, the government must speed up work on creating new manufacturing zones to create fresh job opportunities."
The country invests only one per cent of GDP in primary healthcare centres and has an average of 0.6 doctors per 1,000 people against the global average of 1.23. The expenditure on education is 3.4 per cent of the GDP.
This is a chance for India to reap what is called a demographic dividend - an opportunity to harness the skills and talents of young people in a growing economy at a time when most countries have ageing populations.
But there are huge concerns. The country ranks on top in terms of child malnutrition as it has the highest number of kids suffering from hunger, fatal diseases and around half of children are underweight. To overcome these perennial problems, poverty alleviation and social development programmes must be implemented with a concrete mechanism.
Authorities should adopt development measurement indicators like health per acre, nutrition per acre, effective education per acre and poverty dependency ratio per acre. Private sector can play supportive and innovative roles to solve India's population woes and help evolve effective policies to deal with population crisis, said Mr. Rawat.
The agriculture sector which is the backbone of Indian economy has been jostling with multi-faceted problems. ASSOCHAM recommended at least 20 per cent investment in partnership with private players. Such a move will generate employment opportunities through rural industrialisation.
A large scale investment in human resources is imperative to cash in on the huge availability of physical capital and to achieve sustainable inclusive growth.
The fast pace of India's growth has increased the stress level on physical infrastructure like roads, ports, electricity, airports, irrigation facilities, sanitation and railways with all these sectors reeling under substantial capacity deficit. Thus the government must come up with a comprehensive PPP policy for both central and state governments to effectively deal with these perennial issues, said Mr. Rawat.
A huge imbalance in demand-supply of eatables is the root cause of rising food inflation. Besides, almost 40 per cent of India's agriculture produce gets wasted due to lack of storage facilities. The government should engage private sector to create modern warehouses to store different commodities.
India's share in world's GDP and in world trade is a meagre 1.4 per cent and just 0.6 per cent respectively. The country needs to increase its share in world's GDP to at least three per cent and constitute over two per cent of world trade, more so as it constitutes 17 per cent of world population.
The country with 1.2 billion people is expected to overtake China around 2030 when the Indian population reaches 1.6 billion. The population growth will mean a nation full of working-age youth, which could allow the already booming economy to maintain momentum.
"But educating this next generation, keeping it healthy and employed also could be a steep challenge", the apex chamber said.
India needs to generate almost 20 million jobs per year to eradicate unemployment. The agriculture and allied activities where two-thirds of people work is in a state of decline and earnings are meager. The services sector - led by information technology - is fueling India's boom but not adding jobs on the scale that is needed.
"Efforts should thus be made to impart vocational training to enhance farming skills among the sizeable rural workforce," said secretary general D.S. Rawat. "At the same time, the government must speed up work on creating new manufacturing zones to create fresh job opportunities."
The country invests only one per cent of GDP in primary healthcare centres and has an average of 0.6 doctors per 1,000 people against the global average of 1.23. The expenditure on education is 3.4 per cent of the GDP.
This is a chance for India to reap what is called a demographic dividend - an opportunity to harness the skills and talents of young people in a growing economy at a time when most countries have ageing populations.
But there are huge concerns. The country ranks on top in terms of child malnutrition as it has the highest number of kids suffering from hunger, fatal diseases and around half of children are underweight. To overcome these perennial problems, poverty alleviation and social development programmes must be implemented with a concrete mechanism.
Authorities should adopt development measurement indicators like health per acre, nutrition per acre, effective education per acre and poverty dependency ratio per acre. Private sector can play supportive and innovative roles to solve India's population woes and help evolve effective policies to deal with population crisis, said Mr. Rawat.
The agriculture sector which is the backbone of Indian economy has been jostling with multi-faceted problems. ASSOCHAM recommended at least 20 per cent investment in partnership with private players. Such a move will generate employment opportunities through rural industrialisation.
A large scale investment in human resources is imperative to cash in on the huge availability of physical capital and to achieve sustainable inclusive growth.
The fast pace of India's growth has increased the stress level on physical infrastructure like roads, ports, electricity, airports, irrigation facilities, sanitation and railways with all these sectors reeling under substantial capacity deficit. Thus the government must come up with a comprehensive PPP policy for both central and state governments to effectively deal with these perennial issues, said Mr. Rawat.
A huge imbalance in demand-supply of eatables is the root cause of rising food inflation. Besides, almost 40 per cent of India's agriculture produce gets wasted due to lack of storage facilities. The government should engage private sector to create modern warehouses to store different commodities.
India's share in world's GDP and in world trade is a meagre 1.4 per cent and just 0.6 per cent respectively. The country needs to increase its share in world's GDP to at least three per cent and constitute over two per cent of world trade, more so as it constitutes 17 per cent of world population.
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