Former NITI Aayog vice chairman Arvind Panagariya said today that India needs to revamp and improve its higher education system to capitalise on the declining working-age population in developed countries such as the United States and Europe.

"The global picture is that most countries' populations are ageing, and as a result, the working-age population (15 to 64) is declining in the majority of the major countries." It will fall in China, the United States, and European countries', he predicted.

He stated at the release event of the report titled 'The Rise of India's Middle Class' that India will be the only large country, aside from Africa, that will contribute positively to the world's working age group.

According to the United Nations Population Division, India will add close to 150 million people in the working-age population category of 15 to 64 by 2040.

Given the shortages that could occur in the rest of the world, he said, clearly Indian population will be the global workforce.

"This is where I believe the transition to the middle class will be really critical, because that is the population from which a lot of people will migrate." As a result, it is critical for India to revamp its higher education system, as there will be a global demand for more educated workers," he said.

It makes it even more urgent to reform the higher education system and improve educational quality, because India will ultimately define the global workforce.

"It also seems to me that the acceptance of the Indian Expatriates in the country of destination, generally, is much higher than perhaps the most of the countries because we culturally have tremendous power to assimilate in whichever local population into which we go," he said.

Despite anti-immigration policies etc., he said, "I don't believe that it's going to be able to stop the flow of the workforce. Demand is going to be so much stronger".