Youth Bulge and Labour Intensive Industrialisation in India (An Analysis of the Formal Industrial Sector)

ABSTRACT The developing part of the world has a common history of colonialisation. Soon after attaining independence from the colonisers, these nations endeavoured upon the process of development via industrialisation. India began its journey to sovereignty and development in 1947. The planned process of development in India has had a mixed economy model. Given the youth bulge accruing to the Indian economy there currently is surplus labour. However some recent studies try to portray Indian industrialisation as capital intensive. As such, the current study is an attempt to re-validate the labour intensive nature of Indian industrialisation. The study advances to explore the nature and role of various types of labour in the industrialisation process of India and its contribution towards the technical efficiency of the secondary sector. Based on the empirical investigation, the study presents various policy suggestions in order to convert the youth bulge of India into productive and efficient human capital and to industrialise the economy in a sustainable manner.