New Delhi, Sep 11 (Mayank Nigam) The working age population of Indiawill overtake China in 2028, Union Finance Minister NirmalaSitharaman said.Addressing the 10th Convocation of the Indian Institute ofInformation Technology Design and Manufacturing (IIITDM),Kancheepuram, a Central Government ‘Institute of NationalImportance’ yesterday, she said “according to UN PopulationStatistics of 2019, the Working Age population of India willovertake China in 2028, meaning we will have more workingage population people in India by 2028 even much more thanChina.”
“That working age population will reach 65 percent of ourpopulation by the year 2036 and it will stay at that level of65 percent till 2047…If your working age population, meaningthose who have graduated from institutions like this, contributeto about 65 per cent of the entire population, the productivity,the contribution to the GDP are going to be much higher thanwhat the world can see today”, she said.Underlining the fact that India’s higher education hascontributed to the best of company executives, Nirmalasaid globally, 58 top-notch company CEOs are Indianin origin and India-education and they are in 11 suchcompanies that are multinational, whose collectiverevenue is over one trillion and four trillion in turnover.”Therefore, they could not have had less education thanothers. In fact, they have had better education from ourhigher education institutions. But that is not to saynothing needs to be done. We have to constantly keepupgrading the teaching-learning experience and thereforeit is important for us to be continually on the top”, shesaid.Nirmala said “25 per cent of all start-ups in SiliconValley are managed by people of Indian origin. India,of course, now has 100 unicorns because the start-upecosystem has built up so well.
Their market value ofthese companies are USD 250 billion and they havecollectively raised from the market USD 63 billion.” “Even as some of you would want to seek jobs, I am thosefor those of you who want to become entrepreneurs andcreate jobs for others. It is not a worrisome world.There may be health risk but it is possible for youall to become entrepreneurs”, she said.Noting that several industries were on the Board of theInstitute, Nirmala said “What we need to do know is tomake sure we understand what the Industry needs andbe able to manufacture for ourselves and the world.””We need to produce our students to be capable of gettinginto industry, which serves India’s development goals.This Synergy is now, I think, much achieved by most ofthe institutions because Government speaks to them andthey give inputs”, the Union Minister said.A total of 380 students graduated during the convocation.This included six PhDs, 53 M.Techs, 110 Dual Degrees and211 B.Tech degree recipients.