In the past week India marked the 75^th anniversary of independence from Britain. Today it is the world’s second largest country by population, only behind China, and home to a staggering 1.38 billion people. India is set to overtake its northern neighbour within a few years, as China’s population growth has stalled and its demographic profile been distorted by the 1980 to 2016 one-child policy. India’s economic growth rate has also overtaken China’s, and it is set to be the fastest growing large economy in the medium term, with the exception of oil-rich Saudi Arabia. The IMF projects that India will grow by 7.4% this year and 6.1% in 2023, while the comparable numbers for China are 3.3% and 4.6%. Its young population – with a median age of 28, ten years younger than China’s – means it can sustain high rates of growth under the right conditions, benefiting from a so-called demographic dividend. Click here to read full article