Snakes and Ladders

From a total population of 1.5 million in 1868 (when the Poms stopped deporting convicts to Australia) through to 7.4 million in 1945 (when World War 2 ended), Australia’s population was almost entirely of British heritage.

The subsequent post-war half-century multiculturalism evolution then saw the national population increase to 18.2 million by 1996, which included 4.2 million residents who were born in umpteen countries from all corners of the globe.

One quarter of those 4.2 million residents (956,000 people) were born in the United Kingdom. That Number One ranking was still streets ahead of second and third ranked New Zealand (312,000) and Italy (250,000).

Now, 50 percent of Australia’s total population of 28 million are either first or second-generation overseas migrants.

Runaway leaders

No country is now more important to Australia than India.

The number residents born in India and living in Australia soared from a modest 80,000 in 1996 to the Number One ranking in 2025, with 970,000 permanent residents.

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Electing to produce this short report about India’s multi-layered contribution to Australia reflects my own fascination with the biggest country in the world.

India has enjoyed rampant growth over the past few decades (economically and urbanely).

Within a very short period of time, hundreds of millions of Indian people were lifted out of poverty and supported by a social framework which encourages aspiration and the critical fundamentals of reward for effort.

India has a youthful population, a democratic political system and is now deeply connected to Australia in many ways.

The economic ties are very strong, Australia and India share societal core values, they have some wonderful sporting rivalries, and each nation’s security policy and migration policy are connected.

Of the 2.7 million current Australians with Indian heritage (1 million 1^st generation and 1.7 million 2^nd generation), the highest concentration of residents is in Melbourne (36 percent), Sydney (28 percent) and Brisbane (8 percent).

Early on, many Indian migrants were poorly educated. That was a legacy of large parts of India being in extreme poverty until the turn of this century.

These days, a significant portion of migrants from India are university graduates. And they are hard workers.

Snakes and Ladders

One of the things I most admire about India is their goal setting tendencies.

And the archives reveal that wonderful character trait is deep in the DNA of India’s heritage.

Snakes and Ladders, the worldwide classic boardgame, dates back to 2^nd Century BC ancient India.

While there were several different religious adaptions, the common moral philosophy of Snakes and Ladders is liberation.

Not being under the control of power-hungry authoritarians and dictators and ensuring its people have the freedom to pursue personal ambitions is a dominant core value of India.

The Snakes and Ladders boardgame is a depiction of general life. It’s a cocktail of successes (climbing ladders) and challenges (sliding down the snake).

To progress from the starting tile in the bottom corner of the board to the finish (the 100^th tile in top corner) involves climbing as many ladders as possible while trying to avoid the backwards steps of landing on a snake head.

In Indian philosophy, ‘ladders’ recognise behaviours such as generosity, acquiring knowledge, discipline, reliability, material desires, sacrifices, faith, and humility.

Vices and bad habits (or snakes) refer to actions such as dishonesty, waste, theft, disobedience and aggression.

This wonderful Indian philosophy of rewarding good deeds and risk taking is consistent with what I call ‘proper Australia.’ I’m referring to the entire 20^th century when 7-generations of Australians were actively encouraged to be aspirational and to have a go.

Those wonderful character traits adopted by so many people with Indian heritage have been observed and admired by yours truly on countless occasions over the nearly 3-decades of running this business [example here].

At its core, investing is the act of goal setting. It is a discretionary action, an admirable attitude, a choice to better oneself by pursuing the important goal of financial independence.

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Intriguing India

While quenching my thirst for a better understanding of Australia’s most important relationship, here’s some of what I learned:

1. 1 in every 4 Indians are vegetarian (the highest percentage in the world).
2. India produces 40 percent of the world’s supply of mangoes.
3. India is home to the world’s largest population of cows (they are regarded as ‘sacred’).
4. In 1950, only 18 percent of Indians lived in an urban area. During this global phenomenon known as the Asian Century, that portion had already doubled to 38 percent in 2025. India’s workforce continues to swiftly shift from an agricultural reliance towards an urbanised services sector.
5. India is the world’s largest democracy and second-largest English-speaking country (behind US).
6. India’s 1.47 billion population means it is ‘home’ to more than a 6^th of the world’s population.

7. Prior to the end of World War 2, Australia had a blatant racial prejudice ‘White Australia’ immigration policy which essentially banished all Asian migrants. Australia progressively relaxed that policy until it was eventually fully abolished in 1973.
8. The transformation from a country of mass poverty to a genuine global powerhouse has seen agriculture’s contribution to India’s economy reduced from 50 percent (1950’s) to 15 percent, while the services sector increased from 28 percent to 50 percent.
9. Now worth US $4 trillion, India boasts the fifth largest economy in the world (behind only the US, China, Germany, and Japan). For comparison, Australia is the 15^th largest economy (US $1.8 trillion).
10. As a total land mass, Australia (7.68 million klm2) is 2.3-times larger than India (3.3 million klm2). Yet 1.47 billion people live in India and only 28 million live throughout Australia’s 400+ cities and towns.
11. The Indian capital city of Delhi has a population of 33 million. In comparison, Australia’s biggest city (Sydney: population 5.5 million) is a ‘puppy’, while our 8^th largest capital city (Darwin: population 150,000) is akin to a pimple on a pumpkin.

12. The Indian city of Ahmedabad is home to the largest sports stadium in the world, Narendra Modi Stadium (capacity of 132,000, morphing the MCG’s 100,000).
13. In the 2025 financial year, Australia exported $35 billion to India (commodities such as coal, gold, and agricultural products). Meanwhile, Australia imported $11 billion worth of commodities from India (mostly petroleum ($3.16B), pharmaceutical products ($647M) and machinery).
14. 140,000 students went to Australian universities in 2025 (second to China).

15. 450,000 Indian tourists injected $2.7 billion into Australian economy in 2025.
16. “Over the next two decades, India’s working age population is predicted to increase by almost 200 million, to over one billion, to become the world’s largest,” according to DFAT.
17. Like Australia, different parts of India boast a very diverse range of attractions. They include the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea, Thar Desert, Himalayan mountains, southern beaches, Ganges River and Taj Mahal’s marvellous marble architecture (one of the Seven Wonders of the World).

Freedom

Much like the Unites States, Singapore, and Switzerland, India is a liberated society which actively encourages people to be ambitious, and to pursue progress with one’s education, career, social experiences and personal finances.

Such countries protect basic civil liberties, including free market economic principles. They respect that those who’ve worked hard to acquire assets have earned control of those assets.

Accomplishment requires one to have a strong will to have a go, a preparedness to responsibly take risks, to embrace challenges, an entrepreneurial spirit, to not fear failure, to learn lessons, innovation, continuous improvement and to actively seek the wisdom of others.

Conversely, Communism and Socialism focus on government rule and reliance.

Their philosophy typically includes continuous expansion of the public sector workforce, excessive regulations, divisional policies, weaponised empathy, aggressive taxing of private incomes/assets and redistributing to under-achievers.

Current-day Australia must reconnect with ‘proper Australia’. Pronto!

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