The inimitable Eric Hoffer once said, “Youth is a talent…a perishable talent.” There is a power so uniquely inherent to the young that it is unmatched by anything else on this planet. When you’re young and have talent, your dreams literally have wings. In fact, the youth — simply by virtue of its ambition and aspiration — can almost “will anything to reality.”
In fact, when you think of the power of the youth, you actually need to visualize a great big energy source. And like all energy sources, this power can either be used for…the good…the bad…or…even the ugly. And that’s what led the famous American writer, F. Scott Fitzgerald to proclaim: ‘Youth is a dream, a form of chemical madness.’
Of course, when you channelize this raw power, there is absolutely nothing that seems impossible to attain and achieve…and that is why India needs to channelize youth power if it wishes to become THE GLOBAL SUPERPOWER.
In fact, headlines across the world assert openly that India’s secret weapon is its youth population. With 430 million young people in the age bracket of 15-34 year olds (as per 2011 census data), India has the world’s largest youth population. Do you know what that means? It means that every third person in an Indian city is a youth. In fact, in a short span of seven years, the median person in India will be 29 years old and urban-based, making us the youngest country in the world. A Sobering thought, isn’t it? Especially, if you think of the ramifications.
According to a report published by IRIS Knowledge Foundation in collaboration with UN-HABITAT, “India is set to experience a dynamic transformation as the population burden of the past turns into a demographic dividend.”
In case, you’re wondering how does that translate into huge sources of power for our country, think about this:- Economists believe that this great young population of ours — if channelized properly — has the potential to give the Indian economy an unprecedented edge over its global competitors by adding a significant 2 percentage points annually to the nation’s per-capita GDP over the next few decades. Whoa!
Of course, in order to properly channelize and utilize our young population, we need to ensure that our young are not only educated, they need to be healthy and must have employable skills. Of course, if the budget announcement by Arun Jaitley is any indication, this skill-set is all set to receive the much-needed impetus by the Indian Government. So far, so good!
Of course, if the economy is to grow at this unprecedented levels, the youth must endeavour to become an active participant in the mainstream economy. Of course, before you start wondering how you’ll go about doing that – the answer is actually really simple… encapsulated in a small neoclassical economic model called “The Circular Flow of Money.”
In fact, all you actually need to do is…study well…get a job…start earning and start spending! Or in formal economic parlance, you all must become, both an income-earner and an earnest consumer, in order to infuse fresh energy into our growing economy so we can achieve the year-on-year 2% GDP growth. See – Earn & Spend – it’s THAT SIMPLE!
