LIS Cafe Unseen Passages for Comprehension-PASSAGE Series- 1

Today, India looks like it is on course to join the league of developed nations. It is beginning to establish a reputation not just as the technology nerve centre and back-office to the world but also as its production centre. India’s secularism and democracy serve as a role model for other developing countries. There is great pride in India that easily integrates with a global economy, yet maintains a unique cultural identity.

But what is breathtaking is India’s youth. For despite being an ancient civilization that traces itself to the very dawn of human habitation. India is among the youngest countries in the world. More than half the country is under 25 years of age and more than a third is under 15 years of age.

Brought up in the shadow of the rise of India’s service industry boom, this group feels it can be at least as good as if not better than anyone else in the world. This confidence has them demonstrating a great propensity to consume, throwing away ageing ideas of asceticism and thrift. Even those who do not have enough to consume today feel that they have the capability and opportunity to do so.

The economic activity created by this combination of a growing labour pool and rising consumer demand is enough to propel India to double¬digit economic growth for decades. One Just has to look at the impact that thee baby boomers in the US had over decades of economic activity, as measured by equity and housing prices. This opportunity also represents the greatest threat to India’s future. If the youth of India are not properly educated and if there are not enough jobs created. India will have forever lost its opportunity. There are danger signs in abundance.

Fifty-three per cent of students in primary schools drop out, one-third of children in Class V cannot read, three-quarters of schools do not have a functioning toilet, female literacy is applied 45 per cent and 80 million children in the age group of 6-14 do not even attend school.

India’s IT and BPO industries are engines of job creation, but they still account for only 0.2 per cent of India’s employment. The country has no choice but to dramatically industrialize and inflate its domestic economy. According to a forecast by the Boston Consulting Group, more than half of India’s unemployed within the next decade could be its educated youth. We cannot allow that to happen.

India is stuck in a quagmire of labour laws that hinder employment growth, particularly in the manufacturing sector. Inflexible labour laws inhibit entrepreneurship, so it is quite ironic that laws ostensibly designed to protect labour actually discourage employment.

Answer the following questions briefly :

1. What makes the author think India is on the verge of joining the select band of developed nations?

2. Despite the fact that India is one of the oldest civilizations why does the author say it is young?

3. The author feels that if certain problems are not arrested, India would lose its opportunity. Why would India lose this opportunity?

4. What hinders employment growth?

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Answers:

1. India’s self establishment as an important nerve centre of technology and its emergence as a great production centre makes the author think that India is on the verge of joining the select band of developed nations.
2. The author says that despite being one of the oldest civilizations India is young because more than half the country is under 25 years of age and more than a third is under 15 years of age.
3. India would lose its opportunity if the youth of India do not get proper education and if jobs are not created for them. 4. Complex labour laws hinder employment in the manufacturing sector and discourage business industry and employment.

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