If large portions of the population are managed successfully, India's demographic transition could add an average two percentage points annually to the nation's per-capita gross domestic product (GDP) over the next few decades, a recent ASSOCHAM-Accenture joint study has said.

"To succeed on this front, India must ensure that as many citizens as possible have employable skills, are healthy and actively participate in the nation's mainstream economy as income earners and consumers," said the study titled ‘Demographics, digitalization and development: India's path to inclusive growth,' conducted by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM) jointly with consulting firm Accenture.

The study said that though various programmes with considerable public and private investment had been initiated to improve education, healthcare and agriculture, meeting development targets in these sectors has been difficult.

"India must put education, healthcare and agriculture at the forefront of its inclusive growth agenda," it said. "Development programs aimed at making improvements in these sectors must start demonstrating better performance-in terms of ability to scale, speed of value delivered to beneficiaries and sustainability of impact."

(Continued on the next page)