India and China compared

India is behind China in the race to the future, and its propects for catching up don't look good, says Shankar Acharya, a former Chief Economic Adviser to the Government of India. 

He takes a hard look at the numbers: India is China's economic equal? Bah!  (Rediff.com, Sept 27):

Thanks to the New Economist for the pointer.

CHINA versus INDIA
ECONOMY/SCALE	Units	Year	China	India	China to India ratio
Population	Million	2003	1288	1064	1.2
GDP (PPP)	$ billion	2003	6090	2908	2.1
Per capita GDP growth	%	1980-2004	8.2	3.7	2.2
Share of manufacturing in GDP	%	2003	39	16	2.4
Living standards
Per capita GNP (PPP)	$	2003	4980	2880	1.7
Life expectancy	Years	2002	71	63	1.1
Female adult literacy rate	%	2003	87	45	1.9
Under 5 mortality	Per 1000	2003	37	87	0.4
Under 5 malnutrition	%	1995-2003	12.1	45.8	0.3
Poverty ratio (% below $1 a day)		2001 & 2000	16.6	34.7	0.5
INFRASTRUCTURE
Electricity production	Billion kwh	2002	1640.5	596.5	2.7
Goods hauled (Railways)	Ton-km billions	2002	1508.7	333.2	4.5
Container traffic (ports)	Millions	2003	61.62	3.9	15.7
Air freight	Ton-km millions	2003	5650.6	580.0	9.7
Telephones (land + Mobile)	Per 1000	2003	424	71	6.0
EXTERNAL SECTOR
Merchandise exports	$ billion	2004	593.4	80.8	7.3
Service exports	$ billion	2004	62.4	51.3	1.2
FDI inflow	$ billion	2004	60.6	5.5	11.0
Tourist arrivals	Millions	2003	33.0	2.4	13.8
Forex reserves	$ billion	2004	614.5	135.2	4.5

Sources: World Development Indicators (2005); Institute of International Finance, RBI and CSO. 2004 data for India refer to the fiscal year 2004-05.

And Acharya doesn't see India catching up:

Looking to the future, it is easier to foresee a widening of the existing economic disparities between China and India than a reduction. Just consider that in the decade between 1992 and 2002 China increased her railway freight traffic by an amount greater than India's total rail freight in 2002.

Even more remarkable, the increase in China's merchandise exports in each of the last three years was greater than total Indian exports for that year! At a more qualitative level, you have only to compare the hundreds of cranes deployed in adding to the thousands of gleaming skyscrapers in Shanghai with the handful dotting Mumbai's skyline.

During the last five years while we have debated the new Bangalore airport, China has built quite a few new ones! Finally, how can we hope to close the economic gap with China when almost every second Indian child is malnourished?