The committee will be mandated to make recommendations to address these challenges comprehensively in relation to the goal of ‘Viksit Bharat’, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said in her Interim Budget speech. Although the composition of the panel and terms of reference are to be announced later, the government said it would go into the entire gamut of population-related issues.
“When we talk about demography, it’s an opportunity, it’s a challenge.The current numbers, how the changes are happening over a period of time, the committee will have a mandate to have an extensive consideration of those challenges and opportunities and come out with a specific set of recommendations,” Ajay Seth, secretary, department of economic affairs, told a post-Budget press conference.
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Sources said there could be far-reaching recommendations to address the challenges arising out of demographic changes, urbanisation and other rapid changes in society. They also said issues linked to jobs, skilling, urbanisation and segments that needed attention for faster development may also be included in the ambit of issues to be examined.
“India’s youthful demographic profile is a crucial advantage, promising good availability of labour. EIU forecasts that India’s working-age population will expand past 1 billion in the period to 2030,” the Economist Intelligence unit (EIU) said in a note.
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