India is a young nation with the largest young workforce with a median age of 29 years. Imagine potential India has as a youth nation!!! This demography can yield dividends only when the youth are giving their best or indulging in productive work. Countries such as China and the US are also counting on India to emerge into the top 3 super-power nations.
The relationship in simple terms can be explained as “more grown-ups in the house translates into more income and since the majority of them are working, the money is good enough to spend on elderly care, to sustain a lifestyle as well as to save or invest”. If we extrapolate this to the country, we have almost 43% of the population in the working category. In countries such as the US, China, and Japan much of the population are in the senior age-group bracket and are soon going to retire and would be consuming the pension and health care benefits.
Therefore youth become the heart of the nation and their productivity becomes the productivity of the nation.
There is unlimited potential in the youth, though there are constraints in the resources. Even if we consider 5% of the working population, that in itself would be 22 million youth, who have the potential of being problem solvers or 0.1% i.e. 4 million youth who are entrepreneurs or leaders. Yet, we do not see them stepping up to take this responsibility. Therefore, the biggest challenge is in identifying these budding talents early on and giving them a platform to explore and exhibit their true potential.
“Give the youth a proper environment. Motivate them. Extend them the support they need. Each one of them has infinite source of energy. They will deliver” — Dhirubhai Ambani
Without such a platform, a majority would be under an identity crisis; they wouldn’t know who they are or what they are capable of and would end up taking up tasks that are mediocre in nature or that which doesn’t utilize their full abilities. This section of youth has to be identified, conditioned to network with each other, and nurtured into a critical mass with the right mindsets, approaches, disciplines, processes, skill sets that will transform them into potential leaders, entrepreneurs, or problem solvers.
Today’s youth will be tomorrow’s civic, political, spiritual and economic leaders, the head’s of new households and drivers of economic growth and community renewal…many are not adequately prepared for these roles.
As most of the youth go through the education system, the importance of such a platform is extremely critical, so that when they come out of the education system, they need to be evolved into “Entrepreneurial minds”.