Geography (Human Development) by Krishna Gupta

Model Answer

Question #1. Ageing global population and contracting workforce have increased the possibilities of emigration of human capital from young countries like India". Critically analyze. 10 marks (150 words)

• Briefly discuss the increasing workforce of India, contracting workforce of developed countries and emigration of human capital from India (50 words)
• Discuss problem of Brain Drain from India and reasons behind it and steps needed to check it (150 words)
• Conclude with importance of skilled human resources for a developing country like India (50 words)

India with largest demographic dividend is the youngest country of the world and is expected to surpass China as the world’s most populous country by 2027 according to World Population report, 2019 published by United Nations.

Increasing demographic dividend and limited opportunities has created unemployment in India but at the same time has created opportunities for it to export services to developed countries of the world which are in fourth stage of demographic dividend with contracting work force.

Brain Drain from India and reasons behind it

Brain drain is a term indicating substantial emigration or migration of individuals. A brain drain can result from turmoil within a nation, the existence of favorable professional opportunities in other countries, or from a desire to seek a higher standard of living.

• As the developed countries are involved in research and development in various fields, they need talented pool of human resources. Although, this will provide opportunities to Indian workforce but will create problem of Brain Drain.
• There’s this growing sense of dissatisfaction generally, among the students that the current Indian education system is inept at preparing them for the challenges of the increasingly globalised world. The lack of innovative courses is drawing a lot of young students to leave Indian shores for better education overseas.
• A major reason why India’s young, skilled labour force leaves is in search of better rewards for their effort and talent. 
• Better facilities and remuneration provided by developed countries to talented pool of the country attracts them.
• This leads to emigration of the top rung of human capital from the country such as Scientists, Engineers and doctors leading to vacuum in innovative leadership of respective sectors.

Steps needed to check Brain Drain

• India should think the China’s way to check brain drain by providing facilities and remuneration as par the developed countries of the world.
• India needs to invest more on skill development so that a larger chunk of young population becomes so educated and skillful that brain drain in nullified by domestic talent pool.
• Ease of doing business needs to be improved in a better pace so that Indian talents could be able to produce companies like Telsa and Microsoft.
• There are a number of measures which the Indian government is taking to plug brain drain, such as prioritising skill development through its National Skill Development Mission that aims to train approximately 400 million people across the country by 2022.

Conclusion

Although India has the largest demographic dividend in the world and receives highest remittances from abroad along with producing best talented doctors, engineers and scientist in the world but it lacks skilled labour force to fulfill its domestic needs. It has also reduced India as a supplier of cheap labour force globally. There is a serious lack of R&D activities and initiatives in India which has created a gap in innovative spheres of various initiatives while our own scientists are working for global giants like Microsoft, Google, Telsa and organizations such as NASA and ESA. India must take initiatives to check ‘Brain Drain’ to fulfill its domestic obligations regarding better R&D.

Question #2. India currently holds the largest demographic dividend of the world which provides opportunity to export services to the ageing developed nations and enhance its economic growth. Analyze. 15 marks (250 words)

Approach:

• The question focuses on the pillar of utilitarian India’s rich demographic dividend and time to expand its employment vision.
• The perspective of the question is evolutionary.
• Introduce by quoting the rich demographic dividend with specific facts.
• Body should include the different ways by which India can reap its rich demographic dividend and export services to ageing developed nations
• Conclude briefly with the need to expand the horizon of the Indian workforce and address the issue of unemployment in India.

Hints:

India is going through its richest demographic period where its working age population has exceeded the dependent population. Currently, India is going through a 37 years period of rich demographic dividend which will last till 2055. India needs to reap this rich demographic dividend in the way European countries and East Asian economies like China and Japan did and achieve their apex level of economic dividend by adopting multi-dimensional ways. India has an opportunity to serve multi-level workforce demand in various sectors in ageing developed nations and underdeveloped nations.

Changing nature of employment and need of technically advanced workforce

• The advent of the fourth Industrial revolution characterized by automation embedded with modern technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data analysis, cloud computing and robotics has limited the scope of human interference in the industrial as well as service sector.
• According to a Forex report, in 2025, machines are expected to perform more current work tasks than humans compared to 71% being performed by humans as of now. Due to this transformation, it will have a major impact on the global workforce.
• Nearly 50% of all companies are expecting their full-time workforce to shrink by 2022 due to automation, but 40% are expecting to extend their workforce and more than 25% are expecting automation to create new roles in the enterprise.
• But, these technologies have created new pathways of creating new types of jobs. According to Forbes, Artificial Intelligence will create 58 Million New Jobs By 2022.

Different ways by which India can reap its rich demographic dividend and export services to ageing developed nations

• India has the ability to serve various developed countries like ageing Balkan states in Europe and Western European countries which are undergoing the fourth stage of demographic transition which is characterized by ageing population and declining or negative population growth rate. By up-skilling and re-skilling its workforce, it can export Information Technology and other technical services to these countries.
• At the same time, there is a huge demand for technology driven services in underdeveloped countries where India can export services and increase its Forex reserves.
• Further, the gap created by demand supply mismatch in employment can be addressed by re-skilling and up-skilling the workforce on lines of global demands.
• Apart from basic skill developments programmes such as “Skill India Mission” and “Pradhan Mantri Kaushal Vikas Yojana”, government has introduced several programmes technology and research driven programmesuch as “STRIVE-(Skills Strengthening for Industrial Value Enhancement ) and Atal Tinkering Labs to boost up skill development on lines with global demand of human resources.
• Apart from it, the government has formed a separate corpus in the form of Higher Education Financing Agency (HEFA) to promote and fast-track research and development in the country.
• The export of services to these developed nations will help India to strengthen its foreign trade and maintain its Balance of Payments in form of remittances and taxes.
• It will help India to foster economic growth and strengthen its position in global economic order.

Conclusion:

 Continuous upsurge in unemployment across several sectors of the Indian economy has urged policy makers to devise new markets and scope to provide employment to youths. Better human capital formation and increase in per capita income will also help India to better its Human Development Index rankings and attain Sustainable Development Goals pertaining to hunger, poverty, health and education. This will certainly transform the 21^st century into “The Asian Century” and will bring India among the elite club of developed nations.