India’s youth are likely to be less prosperous than their parents as rising inequality and economic challenges threaten their prospects, said economist Dr. Rathin Roy, a former member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council.
Speaking at the Asian College of Journalism in Chennai, Roy, alongside economist Dr. Lekha Chakraborty and Dalit activist Chandra Bhan Prasad, discussed the growing wealth divide and its impact on social mobility. The panel, titled ‘Economy: Towards a Just Transition,’ reflected on how economic growth has largely benefited the top 10 per cent of the population, leaving many struggling with stagnant wages and high living costs.
Young people today may not be able to achieve what their parents did, such as owning homes or building savings. “If things don’t change, there’s an 80 per cent chance that today’s youth will have lower incomes and fewer assets than their parents,” said Roy. He said that earlier, people expected life to get better with each generation, but that may not happen anymore.
Dr. Chakraborty, professor at the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy and an elected Member of the Governing Board of Management at the International Institute of Public Finance, Munich, said that the government has to choose between controlling inflation and creating jobs. She said high interest rates, which are used to reduce inflation, are making it difficult for businesses to expand and hire more people and this is one of the reasons why young people are finding it hard to get good jobs.
Prasad, who is former Member, Board of Governors, IIM, Lucknow, said that economic shifts have led to increasing migration from rural to urban areas, with young people struggling to find stable, well-paying jobs in cities. Many are forced into informal or gig economy roles that lack social security and long-term financial stability.
The speakers said that policies are needed to create sustainable jobs, make education more affordable, and ensure that basic services such as housing and healthcare are accessible. Without these changes, economic growth will continue to benefit only a few, leaving most people—especially young people—behind.
India’s agriculture sector, the backbone of its rural economy, faces multiple crises that could ripple across global food markets, said agriculture experts at the second session of the colloquium. They were discussing the topic, ‘Saving agriculture: how to make it remunerative for farmers’.
“We are dealing with a triple crisis”, said Dr. Himanshu, professor of economics at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. Groundwater depletion in Punjab, a key wheat-producing state, exemplifies the problem. Water levels have fallen from 10 feet in the 1970s to over 200 feet today, according to government data. “We’re mining our natural resources like soil and water, the productivity gains are now marginal,” he said.
Erratic weather patterns have further disrupted the sector. A heatwave in 2022 cut wheat yields by 15 per cent, forcing India to halt exports despite being the world’s second-largest producer. “Higher temperatures and unseasonal rains are wreaking havoc on crops,” said Siraj Hussain former Agriculture Secretary, emphasizing the need for climate-resilient seeds and better policies.
India's agricultural sector employs almost half of its workforce, yet contributes less than 15 per cent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), indicating disparity in productivity and economic value. It plays an important global role, producing 18 per cent of the world's rice and 13 per cent of its wheat, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization. A one per cent drop in India's agricultural output could result in a 0.3 per cent increase in global food prices, said Dr. Himanshu.
Government measures like subsidies and minimum support prices (MSPs) offer some relief, but they do not tackle the underlying systemic issues. Agricultural indebtedness has increased by 57 per cent over the past decade according to data from the country’s central bank, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), putting small farmers in a particularly vulnerable position. “Loan waivers are just a temporary fix,” said Hussain. “We need long-term solutions, such as improved infrastructure and better access to markets.”
Shrinking landholdings are further burdening the agriculture sector. The average farm size has declined to 1.08 hectares, from 2.28 hectares in 1970, undermining economies of scale and mechanization. Increased investment in agricultural research is currently at less than 1 per cent of the GDP, said Dr. Himanshu. “The only way to shift people out of agriculture is to make agriculture itself grow,” he said.
The stakes extend beyond India. As climate risks increase, India’s agriculture serves as a warning for other emerging markets reliant on farming. The expert panelists called for urgent reforms to ensure sustainability while balancing domestic needs with global food security.
Kirti Prasanna Mishra, a development professional and Co-founder Ecociate, highlighted the reality of agriculture in the country. He detailed the role agriculture technology start ups are playing and emphasised the need to encourage organic agriculture to save India’s soil from depleting.
Plummeting water tables, rising debt, and climate change are threatening both livelihoods and productivity in one of the world’s largest agricultural economies, said the panel.
India is set to experience warmer than average temperature in January due to carbon dioxide emissions led by the energy sector.
2025 is projected to be one of the three warmest years on record globally, with India to be affected by this trend, according to the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).
“2024 was the hottest for India since 1901, and it is set to rise higher owing to increase in global temperatures,” said Aarti Khosla, Founder and Director of Climate Trends, a climate change research consultancy.
Minimum and maximum temperatures across most parts of India are expected to be above normal in January 2025, according to the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
It’s an example of how the world’s most populous country emitted 8 per cent of the global carbon dioxide emissions in 2024, according to Carbon Brief, a UK-based website that provides global climate analysis. India is the third largest emitter of carbon dioxide behind China with 32 per cent and the United States with 13 per cent of global emissions, according to the website.
The energy sector reported the most carbon dioxide emissions in India with 2238.41 million tonnes, about 76 per cent of the total emissions, according to NITI Aayog. The emissions are primarily driven by coal power plants that produce electricity, according to data compiled by Greenhouse Gas (GHG) platform India.
“The intensity and reliance on coal is going to continue and there’s a huge challenge to address the kind of revenues that these energy-intensive sectors contribute to the emissions,” said Dr. Meena Menon, environment journalist and visiting post doctoral fellow at the Leeds Arts and Humanities Research Institute, University of Leeds, UK.
Dr Dipali Sinha Khetriwal, Co-founder of E[co]work, a social enterprise that aims to make e-waste recycling safer, spoke about the increasing importance of the waste sector and the urgent need to integrate recycling into the circular economy. Formalising the informal sector and bringing it into the mainstream was one way to move towards climate justice and a more just economy.