India will be one of the youngest nations by 2020 and this changing demographic condition, while providing great opportunities, could pose some challenges too, the Economic Survey 2011-12 has said. India is passing through a phase of unprecedented demographic changes, wherein the proportion of the working age population (15-59 years) is likely to rise from around 58 per cent in 2001 to over 64 per cent by 2021, according to the...

-IANS   Calling for effective measures to improve the efficiency of social sector programmes, the Economic Survey for 2011-12 has suggested extending the government's ambitious rural jobs scheme to urban areas, strengthening panchayati raj institutions (PRIs) and skill improvement for enhanced employability. The survey, which was presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in parliament Thursday, said that programmes like Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) have been instrumental in creating employment...

Sounding a note of caution, the Economic Survey has stressed that for “growth to be inclusive” India must create adequate employment opportunities—a call that underlines existing inequality, including urban-rural income disparity, and concern that it may increase as more young people enter the job market. While India’s unemployment rate has dropped from 8.2% in 2004-05 to 6.6% in 2009-10, the number of jobless is still huge in absolute terms. The...

-PTI The World Bank has announced $ 4.3 billion financial aid to India through a new innovative and flexible financing arrangement to help the country fight poverty. This arrangement, while facilitating a $ 4.3 billion increase in support to India, is designed to maintain International Bank for Reconstruction and Development's (IBRD) - which is its lending arm - net exposure within the limit of $ 17.5 billion established by it. In a statement,...

-The Hindu As it stands on the threshold of the Twelfth Plan, India has a historic opportunity to elevate education and healthcare as the strongest pillars of its future development. Yearning for life-building education is unprecedented today. Yet, as Amartya Sen pointed out last year, the system remains deeply unjust. Access to excellence is open to those who can afford it, while the less-affluent majority has been left behind without even...