‘Reel-making freeloaders’: Finfluencer sounds alarm over India’s underutilised young workforce

India is sitting on its most valuable resource: a massive, young population, but according to Wisdom Hatch founder Akshat Shrivastava, failing to educate and properly channelize this demographic could spell disaster for the country’s economic ambitions.

In a prominent post on social media, Shrivastava wrote: “We don’t have oil, so we can’t get rich. We don’t have an autocratic government, so we can’t become rich like China.” every country has We have something of value, if you keep them uneducated and turn them into ingots, of course we’ll never get rich.”

Shrivastava’s comments highlight a critical stage in India’s economic journey.With comparisons often made between India and China, the numbers tell a sobering story.

India’s GDP per capita was almost double that of China in 1980. Today, China’s GDP per capita is $25,015, 2.5 times that of India’s $10,123. Similarly, China’s exports, estimated at $3.5 trillion, dwarf India’s at $0.78 trillion.

While India has made progress, particularly in the last decade, it lags far behind in harnessing its human capital.Shrivastava’s concerns echo broader concerns about the misuse of resources.

“Consumption and economic growth depend on how we educate and mobilize this generation. We are not doing enough at the moment,” he observed.

Shrivastava’s concerns echo those of Raghuram Rajan, a former RBI governor and University of Chicago professor who has criticized India’s priorities in its economic policies. He noted that India spends more on subsidies for chip manufacturing than the annual budget for higher education.

“This is certainly not the way to become a developed nation,” Rajan said.