Chennai: The working age population of India will overtake China in 2028, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said.
Addressing the 10th Convocation of the Indian Institute of Information Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM), Kancheepuram, a Central Government ‘Institute of National Importance’ yesterday, she said “according to UN Population Statistics of 2019, the Working Age population of India will overtake China in 2028, meaning we will have more working age population people in India by 2028 even much more than China.”
“That working age population will reach 65 percent of our population by the year 2036 and it will stay at that level of 65 percent till 2047…If your working age population, meaning those who have graduated from institutions like this, contribute to about 65 per cent of the entire population, the productivity, the contribution to the GDP are going to be much higher than what the world can see today”, she said.
Underlining the fact that India’s higher education has contributed to the best of company executives, Nirmala said globally, 58 top-notch company CEOs are Indian in origin and India-education and they are in 11 such companies that are multinational, whose collective revenue is over one trillion and four trillion in turnover.
“Therefore, they could not have had less education than others. In fact, they have had better education from our higher education institutions. But that is not to say nothing needs to be done. We have to constantly keep upgrading the teaching-learning experience and therefore it is important for us to be continually on the top”, she said.
Nirmala said “25 per cent of all start-ups in Silicon Valley are managed by people of Indian origin. India, of course, now has 100 unicorns because the start-up ecosystem has built up so well. Their market value of these companies are USD 250 billion and they have collectively raised USD 63 billion from the market.”
“Even as some of you would want to seek jobs, I am those for those of you who want to become entrepreneurs and create jobs for others. It is not a worrisome world. There may be health risks but it is possible for you all to become entrepreneurs”, she said.
Noting that several industries were on the Board of the Institute, Nirmala said “What we need to do now is to make sure we understand what the Industry needs and be able to manufacture for ourselves and the world.”
“We need to produce our students to be capable of getting into industry, which serves India’s development goals. This Synergy is now, I think, much achieved by most of the institutions because the Government speaks to them and they give inputs”, the Union Minister said.
A total of 380 students graduated during the convocation. This included six PhDs, 53 M.Techs, 110 Dual Degrees and 211 B.Tech degree recipients.
