Since 2019, India has been enjoying demographic dividend – its young population (15-64 years) is larger than children and elderly (more than 64 years). The country has so far not been able to fully tap this dividend, and it has another 30 years or so to frame policies in sync with this demography.
Among the countries having demographic dividend, India is a noticeable exception that has not harnessed this human resource (Chart 1).
In terms of average gross domestic product (GDP) growth during this demographic dividend period, India has recorded an average annual growth rate of 6.2 per cent, placing itself ahead of most nations. However, it trails China and Vietnam (Chart 2).
India’s per-capita GDP explains the burden of burgeoning population even if it is young (Chart 3).
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India has made limited progress in the structural transformation of employment across sectors, highlighting failure to fully leverage its demographic dividends vis-à-vis other countries (Chart 4).
Labour productivity offers further insight into how effectively a country uses its workforce. India’s productivity rose modestly from $5,413 at the start of its dividend phase to $6,209 in 2025, the lowest among peers (Chart 5).
Education plays a foundational role in transforming demographic advantage into economic success. In this regard, India’s literacy rate, at 77 per cent as of 2023, remains considerably lower than the rates for other countries that have successfully capitalised on their demographic dividends (Chart 6).
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Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday reviewed the preparation for the forthcoming census with Union Home Secretary Govind Mohan and other senior officials here.
India's 16th census with caste enumeration will be carried out in 2027 with the reference date of October 1, 2026 in snow-bound areas like Ladakh and of March 1, 2027 in the rest of the country.
The notification to conduct the census will be published in official gazette on Monday, an official statement said.
The home minister reviewed the preparation for the forthcoming census with the Union home secretary, Registrar General & Census Commissioner of India Mritunjay Kumar Narayan and other senior officials here, it said.
The census will be conducted in two phases. In phase one i.e. Houselisting Operation (HLO), the housing conditions, assets and amenities of each household will be collected.
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Subsequently, in second phase i.e. Population Enumeration (PE), the demographic, socio-economic, cultural and other details of every person in each household will be collected.
In the census, caste enumeration will also be done, the statement said.
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For census activities, about 34 lakh enumerators and supervisors and around 1.3 lakh census functionaries would be deployed.
This census is the 16th census since beginning and 8th after Independence, the statement said.
The ensuing census will be conducted through digital means using mobile applications. Provision of self-enumeration would also be made available to the people.
Very stringent data security measures would be kept in place to ensure data security at the time of collection, transmission and storage, the statement said.
The reference date for Population Census - 2027 will be 00:00 hours of the first day of March 2027.
For the Union Territory of Ladakh and the non-synchronous snow-bound areas of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir and states of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, the reference date will be 00.00 hours of the first day of October 2026.
This census will be carried out after 16 years as the last one was done in 2011.
(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the Business Standard staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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