India may have the youngest population of the world's biggest countries, but it has the oldest leader and oldest ministerial cabinet. In most of the world's top economies, the average age of a cabinet minister or his equivalent is just a decade or so higher than the median age of the population. But in India, the average age of a cabinet minister is almost two-and-a-half times the country's median age.
At 78, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the oldest head of government in a major economy. In fact, Singh is only one of two heads of government older than 70 in 15 of the world's biggest economies, which account for more than 70% of the world's GDP and 60% of the population. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, 74, is the other. Four leaders are in their 60s; all of them from Asia. The rest are either in their 50s or their 40s, with Britain's David Cameron the youngest at 43.
Of course, Singh is not an exceptionally old leader by Indian standards. Atal Behari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao, for instance, were in the prime minister's chair when they were in their late 70s. Morarji Desai became PM at the age of 81.
Nor is Singh the world's oldest head of government. All of th following are older: Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, Abdullah bin Abd al- Aziz al-Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal, Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, Raul Castro, president of Cuba and Mwai Kibaki, president of Kenya.
But India is unlike these countries in that it is a multi-party democracy and our prime minister clearly stands out when compared with his democratically elected counterparts in much of the world. Even big economies that are not democratic, have younger leaders with China's Wen Jiabao much younger at 68 and ripe to be replaced by a much younger person in 2012 when China chooses the fifth generation of Communist party leaders.
UPA 2's Cabinet has an average age almost two-and-a-half times the country's median age. The average age of the 33 cabinet ministers is 64.4 years, which is 14 years more than the recently elected British cabinet, the youngest cabinet in our list. Averaging 61.2 years, China is the only other country where the average age of the cabinet is above 60 years.
But comparing just the average ages of different cabinets doesn't tell the full story. The fact is that India has the lowest median age — the level at which half the population is younger and half older — of 25.9 years on this list of the 15 largest economies. It, therefore, also has the largest mismatch between the age of its population and the age of its leaders.
The difference between the average age of India's cabinet and the median age of its population is almost 39 years, which is three times the gap for the developed countries on this list. In fact, with the exception of the US, where this age difference is above 20 years, all the other G-8 countries have cabinet ministers on average less than 20 years older than the median age of the country.
The list indicates that developing countries tend to have a higher age difference between their leaders and the population. This gap is 31 for Brazil, 28 for Indonesia, and 26 for China. But remember that China's median age is 10 years more than India's, so a gap of 26 years is much less significant.
Could the response to a young leader like Rahul Gandhi, or his father Rajiv Gandhi in an earlier era, be a manifestation of a yearning among many for this age gap between the leader and the led to be reduced? Your reading is as good as ours.
At 78, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is the oldest head of government in a major economy. In fact, Singh is only one of two heads of government older than 70 in 15 of the world's biggest economies, which account for more than 70% of the world's GDP and 60% of the population. Italy's Silvio Berlusconi, 74, is the other. Four leaders are in their 60s; all of them from Asia. The rest are either in their 50s or their 40s, with Britain's David Cameron the youngest at 43.
Of course, Singh is not an exceptionally old leader by Indian standards. Atal Behari Vajpayee and P V Narasimha Rao, for instance, were in the prime minister's chair when they were in their late 70s. Morarji Desai became PM at the age of 81.
Nor is Singh the world's oldest head of government. All of th following are older: Robert Mugabe, president of Zimbabwe, Abdullah bin Abd al- Aziz al-Saud, king of Saudi Arabia, Abdoulaye Wade, president of Senegal, Hosni Mubarak, president of Egypt, Raul Castro, president of Cuba and Mwai Kibaki, president of Kenya.
But India is unlike these countries in that it is a multi-party democracy and our prime minister clearly stands out when compared with his democratically elected counterparts in much of the world. Even big economies that are not democratic, have younger leaders with China's Wen Jiabao much younger at 68 and ripe to be replaced by a much younger person in 2012 when China chooses the fifth generation of Communist party leaders.
UPA 2's Cabinet has an average age almost two-and-a-half times the country's median age. The average age of the 33 cabinet ministers is 64.4 years, which is 14 years more than the recently elected British cabinet, the youngest cabinet in our list. Averaging 61.2 years, China is the only other country where the average age of the cabinet is above 60 years.
But comparing just the average ages of different cabinets doesn't tell the full story. The fact is that India has the lowest median age — the level at which half the population is younger and half older — of 25.9 years on this list of the 15 largest economies. It, therefore, also has the largest mismatch between the age of its population and the age of its leaders.
The difference between the average age of India's cabinet and the median age of its population is almost 39 years, which is three times the gap for the developed countries on this list. In fact, with the exception of the US, where this age difference is above 20 years, all the other G-8 countries have cabinet ministers on average less than 20 years older than the median age of the country.
The list indicates that developing countries tend to have a higher age difference between their leaders and the population. This gap is 31 for Brazil, 28 for Indonesia, and 26 for China. But remember that China's median age is 10 years more than India's, so a gap of 26 years is much less significant.
Could the response to a young leader like Rahul Gandhi, or his father Rajiv Gandhi in an earlier era, be a manifestation of a yearning among many for this age gap between the leader and the led to be reduced? Your reading is as good as ours.
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