#197 Everything for Everyone All At Once

<p>India Policy Watch #1: Fertility 2.0</p><p><em>Insights on current policy issues in India</em></p><p><em>— RSJ</em></p><p>First, the good news. </p><p>“India may have already surpassed China as the world’s most-populous nation in a milestone that adds urgency for Prime Minister Narendra Modi to create more jobs and ensure the country sustains its world-beating growth.</p><p>The South Asian nation’s population stood at 1.417 billion as of end 2022, according to estimates from the World Population Review, an independent organization focused on census and demographics.</p><p>That’s a little over 5 million more than the 1.412 billion reported by China Tuesday when authorities there announced the first decline since the 1960s.” (from <a target="_blank" href="https://www.business-standard.com/article/economy-policy/india-s-population-may-have-already-overtaken-china-s-estimate-analysts-123011800179_1.html">Business Standard</a>, 18 Jan)</p><p>We have argued for long on these pages that people are resources. They aren’t a problem. We have a governance problem if our default view of people is that they are a burden. We have a chapter in our book (<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.in/Missing-Action-Should-Public-Policy/dp/0143459376/ref=sr_1_7?qid=1671075811&#38;refinements=p_27%3APranay&#38;s=books&#38;sr=1-7">HAVE YOU ORDERED YOUR COPY YET?</a>) explaining why ‘<em>aabadi</em> isn’t <em>barbaadi</em>”. There’s an extract from that chapter in the next section of this edition. </p><p>Here’s another news item that caught my attention this week:</p><p>“State-run Rashtriya Chemicals and Fertilizers Ltd (RCF) and National Fertilizers Ltd (NFL) plan to build five new factories to manufacture super-efficient nano-urea under a licence from IFFCO Ltd, a development that promises to ease India’s mounting fertilizer subsidy burden.</p><p>The two companies have signed arrangements with IFFCO, a producer in the cooperative sector which holds the patent for nano-urea, a person aware of the matter said on condition of anon