Responding to the news that India has overtaken China as the most populous country, Arunima Himawan, Senior Health Research Lead at the International Longevity Centre (ILC-UK) commented:

“While India’s population is youthful, almost 85 million of its people are over 65 and it is estimated that in regions like Kerela and Tamil Nadu one in five people will be over 60 by 2025.”

“To fully capitalize on its demographic dividend, the Indian government must prioritize improving the health of its population. Our Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index shows that India is near the bottom and lags behind countries like Niger and Rwanda.

“Investing more in prevention is key to long-term prosperity and with India, ensuring equitable health outcomes across the country by targeting underserved areas has to be a priority. Unfortunately, across the G20, over $1 trillion US is lost in productivity per year due to the ill health of 50 to 65-year-olds.”

The ILC will be engaging the G20 in India later this year but to kick-start the conversation on how we can get healthy ageing and prevention on the G20 Agenda, we held a webinar on Healthy ageing: Priorities for the G20 in India. You can watch the webinar here

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Contact

Contact press@ilcuk.org.uk or +44 (0) 7736 124 096 for press queries. Spokespeople are available for interview.

Notes

At an ILC webinar on 25 April experts discussed priorities for the G20 in India considering the key opportunities and challenges to engage India and the G20 with prevention and healthy ageing. To watch the webinar please click here.

The ILC’s Healthy Ageing and Prevention Index will be launched as an interactive online tool alongside the World Health Assembly on 23 May 2023.