Every year India adds more people than any other country in the world - about 18 million, much larger than about 7 million in China. Some of its populous states have more people than many large countries: For instance, the most populous state, Uttar Pradesh, with about 199 million people compares with Brazil and the next most populous Maharashtra (112 million) and Bihar (104 million) rub shoulders with Mexico (112 million) and Germany (82 million).

Everything is big when it comes to population in India: 26 million children are born every year (Australian population is about 22.6 million), of which 1.83 million die within their 5th birthday out of which one-sixth die within 24 hours of birth. After accounting for other deaths about 18 million people are added each year.

Of the current population of about 1.25 billion, 50% are below 25 and 65% below 35. According to a recent UN report, India's population will surpass China in 2028 when both countries will have 1.45 billion people each. It is quite conceivable that no other country will ever cross the 1 billion mark in the future.

In 1980s Indian planners aimed to achieve the replacement fertility rate of 2.1 by 2000 but failed. So. they came up with a new National Population Policy (NPP) in 2000 aiming to reach the target by 2010. But again failed and could only reach 2.8. Alongside, they also introduced the idea of "Two-Child Norm" to encourage parents to limit their families to two children. It created disadvantages for couples with more than two children, such as disqualification from Panchayat Institutions’ positions; denial of certain public services and government welfare programs, including maternal and child health programs. But there is no indication that the policy made any significant difference, except disqualifying some female Panchayat heads for ignoring this rule (which actually negates the efforts of women empowerment).

The net result of all these efforts is that today the total fertility rate is around 2.5, still away from the golden target of 2.1 which ultimately leads to population stabilization.