Reimagining India: Unlocking the Potential of Asia’s Next Superpower (54 page)

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Authors: McKinsey,Company Inc.

INCREDIBLE INDIA

22	Number of languages given official status in the Indian constitution.
356	Number of indigenous languages spoken in India.
343 MILLION	Number of Indians who speak more than one language.
10%	Share of Indians who speak English.
2025	Year when India is forecast to overtake China as the world’s most populous country.
17.4%	Share of Indian households that are located in slums.
35.7%	Share of households in Andhra Pradesh that are located in slums, the highest level of any Indian state.
40%	Share of India’s urban residents who do not have bank accounts.
70%	Share of Indians who are below the age of 36.
2	Rank of India among the world’s countries in number of new engineering graduates annually. China is first.
4.4	Average number of years of formal education received by Indian adults.
46,306	Number of registered trade unions.
45%	Share of the new jobs created in cities over the past decade that are in the information technology sector.
43%	Share of children under age five who are underweight, the second-highest figure in the world, after East Timor. Twenty years ago, 60 percent of India’s children were underweight.
8	Number of Olympic gold medals won by Indian field hockey teams 1928–1980. o: Number won since 1980.
6	Number of medals won by Indian athletes in shooting, badminton, boxing, and wrestling at the 2012 London Olympics.
1.5 MILLION	Salary in dollars paid to cricket star Mahendra Singh Dhoni for the 6-week 2012 season of the Indian Premier League. He earned an additional $23 million from endorsements.
80 MILLION	Estimated number of pilgrims attending the 2013 Maha Kumbh Mela festival during which they bathe in the Ganges River.
4−5 MILLION	Estimated number of sadhus or ascetic holy men living in India
1,255	Number of feature films produced in India in 2011.
206	Number that were Hindi-language Bollywood productions.
0.38	India’s Gini coefficient, a measure of inequality, in 2012. In 1990, India had a Gini score of 0.33. A higher Gini coefficient indicates greater inequality.
6	Number of major religions in India.
828 MILLION	Number of Indian Hindus.
138 MILLION	Number of Indian Muslims, the third-largest Muslim population in the world behind Indonesia and Pakistan.
2.3%	Share of Indians who are Christians. 1.9% of Indians are Sikhs, 0.8% are Buddhists, 0.4% are Jains, and 0.6% practice other religions.

Source: Census, UNDP, McKinsey & Company, RBI, Statistical Yearbook of India, UNICEF, Forbes, IOC, Government of Allahabad,
Sadhus: India’s Mystic Holy Men
by Dolf Hartsuiker, UNESCO, ADB, Press reports, OECD, Census of India, Central Board of Film Certification

INDIA AND THE WORLD

TRADE

Despite maintaining protective tariffs and other restrictions on commerce and foreign investment, India is a major player in world trade.

VALUE OF WORLD TRADE, 2011 ($ MILLION)

Rank among countries in trade

TRADING PARTNERS (% OF TOTAL TRADE)

FOREIGN POLICY AND THE MILITARY

India has tended to avoid conflicts and alliances beyond its region, but it faces both ongoing tensions with Pakistan and China’s growing influence in South Asia. As a result, India maintains one of the world’s largest armies and is also the world’s top arms importer. The government plans to raise military spending and weapons production over the next decade.

ACTIVE-DUTY MILITARY PERSONNEL (THOUSANDS)

Rising nations often seek to assert their influence through aggressive diplomatic and military posturing. After independence, though, India emphasized self-reliance and development at home and wary non-alignment abroad. But as India’s importance to the world economy increases, its relations with other countries matter more, too.

FOREIGN INVESTMENT

India retains some protectionist policies, but its economic reforms have brought plenty of investment from other countries. Since 2000, $284 billion in foreign direct investment has flowed into India.

TOP SOURCES OF FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT

SHARE OF TOTAL FDI, 2000−12 (%)

Many foreigners invest in India via tiny Mauritius, which enjoys a favorable tax treaty with India.

FOREIGN INSTITUTIONAL INVESTMENT FLOWS ($ BILLION)

THE DIASPORA

The more than 21 million Indians living outside the country are key links between India and the world. Most “overseas Indians” left for economic reasons and their work ranges from professional occupations in developed countries to unskilled labor in the Persian Gulf region.