Mumbai, Sept. 12 -- Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday hit out at the Opposition parties for questioning whether India can convert its expanding young population into an economic advantage, saying the country's demographic dividend was not a future promise but a "living reality" already driving the country towards its goal of becoming a developed nation by 2047. Speaking at the valedictory session of Global Fintech Fest 2026 in Mumbai, Sitharaman said, "Some commentators continued to assess India's 21st-century economic ambitions through "20th-century lenses and relied on perceptions rather than data while debating whether the demographic dividend had turned into a burden." She said that there is a persistent habit among ...