सार

The world's fifth largest economy by Nominal GDP and the third-largest by 
Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), India is a middle income developing economy which remains 
the second most populated country in the world. The fact directs us to ponder upon whether the 
growing population becomes a boon or hinders the rate and process of economic development. 
This is a serious debate for the world today as the relationship between population and 
economic development influences the overall standard of living of the society.  
David Attenborough observed, “We have a finite environment—the planet. Anyone who 
thinks that you can have infinite growth in a finite environment is either a madman or an 
economist. “Thus, the economist shares the burden of responsibility to contemplate how to use 
the limited resources in an optimum way to fulfil the unlimited wants of population and how this 
growing population itself can be controlled for sustainable development of the economy. 
The paper attempts to study the trend of growth rate of India’s population and 
understand it with respect to the Demographic Transition Theory based on secondary sources. It 
intends to examine how India’s growing population acts as an opportunity or obstacle for 
economic development and analyse the road ahead in the light of various policy initiatives 
undertaken so far.