India's biggest challenge: So many young people, so few good jobs

Policies to promote better jobs for the country's huge under-35 population may hold the key to the country's economic development

India’s biggest economic asset is fast turning into its most daunting challenge: hundreds of millions of young people. Two-thirds of India’s 1.2 billion people are below 35 years of age. That’s more than two times the total U.S. population. Unlike Japan, China and Europe, whose working-age populations have peaked, India’s is growing and is estimated to become the world’s largest. But the world’s second-most-populous country is struggling to tap this demographic dividend.

Some policy makers and analysts say India risks missing an opportunity to grow into an economic powerhouse like other Asian countries before it.

“There’s a fog around how India will