Demographic profile of economic resources and environment in South Asia

Jalandhar Pradhan, International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS)

The south Asia region – Afganistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri-Lanka-possesses an extra ordinary diversity of landforms and climatic regimes. Deepening nature of poverty and its impact on the process of environmental degradation is one of the major concerns in this area. In this context the countries of region need to examine carefully the development option available to them and cooperate in designing strategies, which promote the sustainable development. Accordingly, first part of this paper deals with the state of south Asian economy and environment and the second part examines a few likely scenarios of long term economic growth, foreign investment, and demographic change and their implications for regional economic relationship. Results demonstrated that south Asian countries are at a turning point to achieve 6 to 7 percent growth rate however a poor social infrastructure and the low level of human resource development will impose severe constraints.