Can India catch up with China ?

It’s goodbye Chindia and hello Chimerica
19 Apr 2009, 0508 hrs IST,
Swaminathan S Anklesaria Aiyar, ET Bureau

Some years ago, Jairam Ramesh coined the word Chindia , hyphenating China and India, to denote a great new geopolitical development. The earlier BRIC report had identified China and India as potentially the two fastest growing states that could one day rival the US in GDP. By 1990, China had emerged as the world’s manufacturing champion .

Later, India emerged as a champion exporter of services, ranging from computer software to back office work, call centres, and R&D .

China had always been a UN Security Council member, and since 1990 was acknowledged as an economic powerhouse. But at the time the world bracketed India with Pakistan, because of their long history of aid and antagonism. In the 1990s, India and Pakistan required massive assistance from the IMF and World Bank.

That finally changed after the information technology revolution. In 2003-08 the Indian economy averaged almost 9% growth, second only to China’s .

India’s economic feats catalysed former US president Bush’s decision to break existing nuclear rules and forge a nuclear deal with India. Indians hailed this as the definitive de-hyphenation of India from Pakistan , which was denied a similar deal. Instead, Chindia denoted a new hyphenation with China.

This was always a stretch. The Indian economy grew fast in the last five years, but remained far behind China’s . India’s big population makes its GDP look big, but also means it has the largest number of poor people , infant deaths, maternal deaths in childbirth, and highest child malnutrition in the world.

India cannot end Maoist violence in 160 of its 600 districts or insurrections in Kashmir and the North-East . The Indian state looks weak and incompetent even as the Chinese state looks strong and competent.

The gap between China and India has become glaring in the current global financial crisis. China has become a major global player, second only to the US, while India is barely on the radar screen. .

Read full articl here:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/...ow/4419479.cms

India's main problem is its lack of leaders who are competent enough in the art of creating wealth and propsperity for the country. Politicians, leaders and bureaucrats who have a tremendous lack of urgency towards pressing problems and a callous disregard for the value of TIME are the divine curses implanted on India.

Endemic delays are a norm. The culture to waste years over every small step forward, an archaic and over sanctified judicial and legal system that refuse to change and a complete disregard for the hundreds of millions below the poverty line are some of the permanent factors that keep India down and out all the time.

With current level of leadership and infrastructure, India can never catch China.