New Delhi, March 29 -- In 2003, when Goldman Sachs identified India as one of the future superchargers of global economic growth, it cited its youth bulge as the primary reason. India was not only the pivotal vowel in BRIC, the catchy acronym for Brazil, Russia, India and China, but also central to the thesis that a growing population of young people would drive demand for goods and services as well as man the machines that would make for the world.

In the next few years, India lived up to the promise as it virtually became the tech brains and back office muscle of global corporations, which employed young engineers and graduates in the millions, birthing a flourishing middle class that drove the economy to run on all cylinders. The outs...