India's economy is on the cusp of its demographic golden age

In our series “The Age of Work,” Marketplace is looking at how changing demographics are reshaping the global economy.

While the United States and many other wealthy nations — like the United Kingdom — are getting older, other developing countries are benefitting economically from their young labor forces. “Marketplace” host Kai Ryssdal and ADP Chief Economist Nela Richardson, our project partner for the series, traveled to Vietnam earlier this year to look at a country at its demographic peak.

Last month, Ryssdal and Richardson traveled to Mumbai, India, to explore an economy a few years away from that demographic golden age.

“I would call India Vietnam’s little sister,” Richardson said. “It’s about six years behind demographically.”

The median age in India is 29 years old, about ten years younger than it is in the United States. India’s economy, which is growing at a rate of nearly 8%, also benefits from its scale — it’s home to around 1 billion people of working age.

“It’s growing with its own playbook,” Richardson said about India’s economy. “It’s not replicating any other country’s development path, and that’s what makes it so strong.”

Returning to Mumbai after 11 years in the United States

In May of 2025, Ryssdal and Richardson met a video game and software developer named Aqeel Tapia while reporting an earlier installment of The Age of Work in Utah. However, their interview never aired on “Marketplace,” because before the Utah series aired, American immigration policy turned upside down.

Tapia moved to the United States in 2014 to get a masters degree from the University of Utah. He stayed in Utah for nearly 11 years, working a series of tech and video game jobs. After a layoff, Tapia couldn’t find a new job before his visa ran out. When he met Ryssdal and Richardson last year, he was preparing to move back to Mumbai.

He told them he’d never lived in India as a working adult.

“I often think about that, and I think it would be interesting to get the experiences I’ve had here and then apply them to about as diametrically opposite of a culture as I can find,” Tapia said in 2025. “Utah is kind of quiet, and I come from Mumbai, which is one of the densest, busiest cities in the world.”

Ryssdal and Richardson visited Tapia at his home in Mumbai last month. He’s been living in Mumbai for just over a year.

“It’s been quite an eventful year in some ways, and then somewhat uneventful in other ways,” Tapia said. “The change was very big, and I don’t think I’m fully used to it yet.”

After doing some engineering work in Mumbai, Tapia is currently working on a new video game with some former professors from the University of Utah.

Small businesses adapt to a changing economy at a historic jewelry market

Ryssdal and Richardson visited Zaveri Bazaar, a jewelry market in Mumbai. Thousands of small gold, gemstone, and other jewelry businesses, some of which are hundreds of years old, span blocks of a commercial district.

“Business is not bad,” said Anil Jain, the owner of R. Pukrhaj Jewellers. “Since our prime minister has given us a call that for a year all the Indians are not supposed to buy gold, we have taken a hit of around 50 to 60% of our business.”

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked Indians not to buy gold for one year. He also requested they not travel abroad and work from home when they can. These calls came as India’s economy, which is the third largest importer of crude oil in the world, adjusted to rising prices from the Iran war.

“We are not complaining, because country first,” Jain said.

Jain has been running the shop for 35 years. His 24-year-old son Dishank Jain was also at the store. In his father’s words, Dishank will “keep up the legacy” of the Jain family in jewelry, which his father also worked in.

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