“India is 1st in digital payments because of huge overpopulation, nothing else” read the DM

She seemed right indeed. Overpopulation seems to be the reason for the top, and not just in payments. The number of internet users, data consumers, social media users, and engineers is also a fake crown. Most internet users in our overpopulated country seem to be entertaining themselves simply. The quality of engineers is poor. Winning in these rankings is just sheer quantity, not quality.

But looking deeper reveals a 140 crore gift that will be the secret to a superpower’s energy

Building systems that work for 140 crore people is giant achievement. Few countries, let alone people, have that ambition. UPI that processes 15,000 Cr transactions yearly is an engineering marvel. Reliance’s 1 lakh crore risking-everything-bet on Jio to bring data was exceptional. 15L engineers being graduated every year, a country by itself, is a massive achievement.

We are at the top of those rankings because of innovation, ambition and immense effort

One may argue that the huge population hides huge flaws. Quality of engineers is “poor”. People are “uneducated”. Lots are “left behind”. But imagine building systems that can educate millions of people. Increase income for people. Lift people out of poverty. Every year, relentlessly improving, with no other example in the world to emulate.

Behind all this progress is our very own young, vibrant, diverse population

The world’s population growth is slowing. China has peaked. 50% of Japan’s population is 50+. Europe is greying. If you look closely, you’ll notice their economies are also slowly collapsing. China is having its worst years as its population greys. Japan’s GDP is lower than 1995. Europe is in slow decline. India is the largest young population in the world, which is showing in GDP explosion.

People are clearly the energy that powers economies

Population is a gift, increasingly in a world where it is slowing. Our golden demographic dividend of young people has the next 20 years to make us a superpower. We must cherish this gift while we have it, because we will eventually lose it. The people who are capable of building systems for such a massive group of people are world class, to be celebrated. The next 20 years are ours to take not despite, but because of the world’s largest population

We must not squander it