YOUNG INDIA – EMPLOYEE TO AN AGING WORLD?

Great article over at SeekingAlpha titled, ” How can India seize the demographic advantage“, where author Abhinav Chouhan tackles the question of whether India has the ability to supply an aging world with young workers.

Chouhan says, “ This competitive advantage, better known as the demographic dividend, is the rise in the rate of economic growth due to a rising share of working age people in a population. And Mr. Nilekani is not the only person who has been vocal about this fact. In India, it is almost fashionable to include the demographic dividend in a discussion and feel good about the future.”

He then goes on to question this line of reason and rejects it.

As I write in my book, Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing (McGraw-Hill), I think that the big problem facing India and Indian economic growth is 3-pronged:

1- The need to curtail corruption- foreign investment will continue to disappoint until this issue is tackled.

2- Build out of infrastructure- Recently the International Monetary Fund criticized India for not improving its creaky infrastructure during the period it experienced growth rates close to double figures. As reported in yourmiddleeast.com

3- Focus on education- As India is one of the poorest and least educated countries in the world a focus on education will be  a huge help in today’s technology driven world. This can be a huge opportunity and India should look at Israel as a model of how to use hi-tech to drive an economy.

Aaron Katsman is author of the book Retirement GPS: How to Navigate Your Way to A Secure Financial Future with Global Investing (McGraw-Hill), and is a licensed financial professional both in the United States and Israel, and helps people who open investment accounts in the United States. Securities are offered through Portfolio Resources Group, Inc. (www.prginc.net). Member FINRA, SIPC, MSRB, SIFMA. For more information, visit www.aaronkatsman.com, www.gpsinvestor.com or email aaron@lighthousecapital.co.il.