Issues associated with domestication of silkworms in India
Context:
- The India Ageing Report, 2023 was just published by the UNFPA. It states that in 2022, there will be 1.1 billion people worldwide who are 60 years of age or older, or 13.9% of the world’s population of 7.9 billion.
Findings from the 2019 UNFPA report:
- It was mentioned that India will have the greatest population growth by 2027, surpassing China to become the world’s most populous nation. This year, India actually surpassed China to become the most populous nation.
- According to the report, India will have the greatest population growth and account for more than half of the world’s population by 2050, followed by Nigeria, Pakistan, the Congo, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Indonesia, Egypt, and the United States.
- Moreover, by 2050, the population of Sub-Saharan Africa will have doubled.
- However, the picture in the rest of the world is considerably different.
- Greying is occurring more quickly than before.
- In 2020, David Bloom noted in a piece for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) that the 21st century is characterised by “greying.”
- He states that “this is a cumulative result of larger cohorts progressing to older ages, declining fertility, and increasing longevity.”
- These age groups will be “on par” by 2050, compared to the 1970s, when “the world was populated by more than three times as many adolescents and young adults (15 to 24-year-olds) than older people.”
- The India Ageing Report, 2023 was just released by UNFPA.
- It states that in 2022, there will be 1.1 billion people worldwide who are 60 years of age or older, or 13.9% of the world’s population of 7.9 billion.
- The global population of older people is predicted to double over the next thirty years, reaching 2.1 billion by 2050, accounting for 22% of all people.
- In 2022, 149 million Indians were 60 years of age or older, making up approximately 10.5% of the nation’s total population.
- By 2050, there will be 347 million older people worldwide, with the proportion of older people doubling to 20.8%.
- “The unprecedented rise in the ageing population will have significant implications for health, economy, and society in India,” the report notes.
- The challenges posed by “ageing populations” differ between developed and developing nations.
- The UNFPA lays out the difficulty that developed and developing nations will face at different times with regard to declining fertility rates.
- According to the report, fertility rates are currently declining significantly in developing countries much earlier than they did in developed countries.
- The majority of the developed world was better equipped to withstand the economic pressures brought on by ageing populations because, when their populations started to age, their per capita income levels were significantly higher.
- To put it another way, developed nations had access to a larger economic pie, which they could utilise to support their ageing populations.
- Such a luxury is not available in nations like India.
- Using various statistics, the UNFPA demonstrates how the old age dependency ratio in some developing nations can “more than double in 50 years, while it took about 150 to 200 years for the same thing to happen in the developed world.”
- According to the report, India’s senior population—those over 60—will increase at a sharp rate of 41% between 2021 and 2031.
- The report goes on to say that by 2046, there will be more elderly people than children (those under the age of fifteen).
- A nation’s capacity to create wealth is diminished when its population ages because there are fewer workers and taxpayers. Additionally, it implies increased demands on healthcare systems.
USA and China’s peculiar situation:
- A 2020 Lancet study on the population decline reveals some significant insights into the relationship between politics and population.
- In terms of total gross domestic product (GDP), China is predicted to surpass the United States by 2035.
- But with China’s population rapidly declining, the United States will soon retake the top spot because its population will continue to grow if liberal immigration laws are maintained.
- China is proposing that women stay at home and have children in an effort to stop the country’s population decline, under the leadership of Xi Jinping.
The Lancet’s analysis of geopolitics and population:
- Based on his research, Lancet editor-in-chief Richard Horton highlights two key points.
- The first is that “the world will be multipolar, with India, Nigeria, China, and the US as the dominant powers, by the end of this century,” a prediction largely supported by the demographics of these countries’ working age populations.
- Additionally, “as the world will undergo radical shifts in geopolitical power, immigration and strong reproductive and sexual rights for women will be key.”
- He contends that Europe and Asia will soon lose their influence.
- Asia and Europe will see the fastest population declines by 2100.
- China, for example, will have 732 million people by 2100, down from 1.4 billion in 2017; Thailand will have 35 million people, down from 71 million in 2017; Italy will have 31 million people, down from 61 million in 2017, and Japan will have 60 million people, down from 128 million in 2017.
- In conclusion, India’s population will have decreased and its composition will be significantly composed of senior citizens by the turn of the century. Things have to be ready. It needs to increase the size of its economic pie so that the large number of dependents doesn’t burden the earning population.
