New World Order - India

Population: 1.2 billion

Area:  3.2 million km²

GDP: $ 1.7 trillion

GDP (per capita): $ 1,400

Economic Growth: 6.5%

Democracy? Yes

The booming country is the world’s largest democracy, with a population of 1.2 billion and rising. Some projections believe that the consequences of China’s one child policy and India’s rapid population growth will mean that India will have the world’s largest population. Yet despite a similar population, India has a long way to go before it catches up with China in terms of India’s economy. The Indian economy is one seventh the size of the Chinese economy. Indian growth is also smaller than China. Yet India does have one big advantage over China, it is a democracy. The importance of this is that it makes India more stable, as people do not need to turn to violent protest to change their government. Rather they simply try to elect leaders that reflect their opinions.

India does have many challenges to face, one of the most prominent is the huge amount of poverty, 42% of Indians live on less than $1.25 a day and unemployment stands at 9.8%. Indian industry is also not as good as it could be, agriculture still makes up 52% of the economy with industry and services making up 14% and 34% respectively.

Literacy also poses a serious threat to Indian growth, currently the literacy rate is only 74%, significantly below the world average of 84%. The Indian government knows that it will need to tackle this issue soon, how can India expect to grow if it has the largest population of illiterate people. At the current, poor, rate of growth India will only eliminate illiteracy in 2060, 48 years away! This is simply not good enough, the graph below compares India’s literacy rate to other countries. Note just how high China is.

Although India has massive problems in the areas of poverty, education, infrastructure and industry, this can and will be remedied. India has a lot of potential, there are many opportunities for it to grow, but the government must be prepared to take risks if the country is to achieve greatness. 

The extreme poverty people experience in the slums must be rectified soon