India’s population today looks like China’s in 1980. A massive, young, rural workforce could turbocharge growth, or torpedo political stability. China solved the problem by going from farm to factory. For India, entrenched global supply chains and domestic policy failures mean that path will be difficult to follow. Another is more accessible. India is going from the farm to services. That process is already underway. Indeed, our analysis shows the official data may be missing the speed of the transition.
There is work still to be done. The government needs to do more to create a supportive environment for a services