In light of the global population touching 8 billion people, discuss the opportunities and challenges going ahead.

On November 15, 2022, the population of the globe surpassed 8 billion, according to UN projections. It took about 1 billion years from the origin of humanity to around 1800 AD to attain a worldwide population of 1 billion, and just 200-plus years to add the following 7 billion. The global population is expected to stabilize at around 10.5 billion people if current trends continue.

Highlights:

• This remarkable rise is attributable to advances in public health, diet, personal hygiene, and medication. 
• It is also a result of some countries’ high and sustained fertility rates. 
• It took 12 years for the world’s population to increase from 7 billion to 8 billion. 
• It will take around 15 years to reach 9 billion people. 
• It is evidence that the rate of population expansion worldwide is slowing down.
• Asia is home to more than half of the world’s population as of 2022, with China and India having more than 1.4 billion inhabitants each.

India’s situation:

• India has the highest proportion of adolescents and young people ever, according to UNFPA. 
• According to UNFPA predictions, India’s population will remain among the youngest in the world until 2030 and is presently going through a demographic window of opportunity known as a “youth bulge” that will endure until 2025.
• The United Nations Population Fund estimates that although while India’s population is stabilising, it is “still rising at 0.7% per year” and will overtake China as the world’s most populated nation in 2023.

Challenges:

• Rapid increase in population will make it difficult to achieve sustainable goals as more pressure will be put on existing resources.
• The problem of hunger, education, poverty, etc will become bigger with a bigger population.
• The older population of the world is increasing, provisioning of social security for them is a big challenge for them.

Opportunities:

• The gdp growth of many countries will be driven by immigration in coming future.
• The vast youth, if made skilled can turn the entire economy into a knowledge economy.
• India will have the largest working population in the entire world.
• India can become an economic giant and provide more than half of Asia’s potential workforce in the future decades owing to its more than 65% working-age population.

Way forward:

Countries must engage in the future development of their human capital in order to reap the full potential advantages of a favourable age distribution. To do this, they must guarantee that all citizens have access to quality health care and education, as well as foster chances for respectable employment.