A few statistics about India

From President’s speech in 2007:

• “Today, the average age of India’s population is below 25 years. Approximately, 77 crore of our people, or about 70 percent of the population, fall below the age of 35.”

From Tracking The Growth of India’s Middle Class:

• “Over the next 20 years, India will likely grow to become the world’s fifth-largest consumer economy.”
• “If India can achieve 7.3 percent annual growth—a reasonable assumption if economic reforms continue—consumer spending will quadruple, from about 17 trillion Indian rupees ($372 billion) in 2005 to 70 trillion rupees in 2025. The dramatic growth in India’s middle class, from 50 million to 583 million people, will power this surge.”

From “Tainted money” by Devinder Sharma:

• “In India, 77% of the population is able to spend only Rs 20 a day.”

From Atanu Dey :

• “Today one of out every two children below five is malnourished”

From Shashi Tharoor :

• “Anything that you say about India, the opposite is also true. But India is more than the sum of its contradictions.”
• “600 million people don’t have electricity”
• “260 million are below poverty line, i.e., < 30 rupees per day”
• “400 million illiterates”
• “540 million people < 25 years”
• “60 million child labourers”
• “72% of children in govt. schools drop out before 8th standard”
• “IT employs a total of 5 million people, but 10 million people enter workforce each year”

Feel free to draw your own conclusions.