As India is overtaking China as the world's most populous country, Indian politician Kapil Sibal on Thursday urged people to look at parameters such as gross domestic product (GDP), unemployment and annual inflation as he pointed out that India was lagging behind its neighbor China on those counts.

Sibal, a former human resource development minister, cited World Bank data and said that India has a higher unemployment rate as well as annual inflation than China, while its annual GDP is significantly lower than China, The Telegraph India reported.

India's Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate said on Wednesday the population is increasing and India is becoming the youngest nation in the world, but where are the jobs for our youth?

"What used to be called demographic dividend can become a demographic disaster today, because our youth do not have employment and there is no talk of their employment," she said.

Progress is possible with labor-intensive investment, but at present India's investments are largely driven by capital which has failed to utilize a large chunk of the workforce, Visva-Bharati University professor Sudipta Bhattacharyya said.

During an interview with CGTN, Tim Dyson, emeritus professor of population studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, points out that India's population growth poses challenges on providing basic resources such as water resources while China's reducing birthrate contributes to better education resources at a higher level and improves the level of human capital.

Wang Huiyao, president of the Center for China and Globalization, told CGTN that China is shifting from a demographic dividend to a talent dividend, which is a reflection of the transition from high-speed development to high-quality development.

China's outstanding infrastructure is still attractive to foreign investment, he added.

(Cover: The Sadar Bazaar in New Delhi, India, April 18, 2023. /CFP)