Ross Douthat

Talk about demographics, right?

This is a frequent obsession on the show.

But one of the striking things about the Chinese position right now is that China's birth rate has collapsed.

Whereas India, while its birth rate has declined, is entering into what often gets called sort of the demographic dividend sweet spot, which is the period when you have a large young population and you don't have...

a large older population to support, which is going to be China's big, big problem.

Why does India have a demographic advantage over China right now?

Just describe the trade deal that India has just made with Europe, because it's really quite distinctive.

I think the European leader Ursula von der Leyen described it as the mother of all trade deals, which is not normal European lingo.

It has to do with opening markets.

It has to do with opening migration.

It's going to allow probably for more Indian migration into Europe.

What does this mean for India and the world?

And more migration.

And more migration, yeah.

Right, which gives you potentially the sweet spot, right, where India has this potential demographic dividend.

But as you said, India also has unemployment problems.

But if you can have...

more migration to Europe, maybe the unemployment problems are not as big?

Yes.

So we're talking in a context where the Indian government has just negotiated successive trade deals.