Why India is behind China in Economic Development?

India and China, the two most populous nations on the planet, are very similar in some ways.

They’re both emerging markets with high growth rates usually exceeding 6%. Up until the late 1800s, India and China were also the world’s two biggest economies. Places like Japan and the United States only surpassed them within the last century.

Yet when it comes to economic development, China and India are a world apart.

China’s economy jolted forward since their reform policies during the 1980s and 1990s. A main reason is because privatization of state-owned businesses created huge amounts of wealth, all while foreign investors rushed to take advantage of China’s imminent rise.

Meanwhile, India lagged behind over the past several decades. Rampant corruption, seemingly endless bureaucracy, inept politicians, lack of a clear legal structure, and other challenges held the country back

The gap between India and China will only get bigger, not smaller, in the next 10 to 20 years.

First, India missed a golden opportunity to industrialise

From the end of the cold war in 1989 to the global financial crisis in 2008, more than 20 years were the golden age of global economic globalization.

Over the past two decades, developed countries in the west have shifted manufacturing to developing countries,

China jumped at the chance and India didn't!

After the subprime crisis in 2008, western countries had already felt the danger brought by the hollowing out of manufacturing industry, and had strictly controlled the outflow of manufacturing industry.

That's when India started to focus on manufacturing, but the good times won't come again.

In recent years, India's manufacturing industry has developed and foreign investment has also entered India. However, foreign investment in India is quite different from that in China.

Foreign investment in India is aimed at capturing the domestic demand of India,

Foreign investment in China, the purpose is not only to occupy the Chinese market, but to meet the needs of the world!

Foreign investment in India, more to meet the Indian government's market access requirements,

It is easy to judge that Indian made products are not globally competitive and it is hard to see any Indian made products outside India.

Second, India may miss out on a fourth industrial revolution

Many people call breakthroughs in high-speed communications, new energy, new materials, life sciences, artificial intelligence and other fields the fourth industrial revolution.

But Indians are still keen on IT and have invested little in the fourth industrial revolution.

I am not saying India is not investing, but very little, less than one tenth of China.

In the future, the level of science and technology will determine the strength of a country, or even the destiny of a country.

Third, India's environmental crisis

As a Chinese, I have witnessed the destruction of China's environment by industrialization.

It is easy to destroy the environment, but difficult to repair it. Today, the annual investment in environmental protection in China far exceeds the sum of education and military expenditure.

But it will take generations to repair the environment, and some will never be.

Unfortunately, I saw similar environmental damage in India, which has a higher population density and a lower environmental carrying capacity than China.

India must solve its environmental problems, which may cause social instability and unrest.

Fourth, India's education crisis

In particular, inequality in education,

Personally, 20% of people in India get a good education, but the quality and environment of education for the other 80% is really bad.

Inequality in education leads to inequality in life development,

India should pay special attention to the quality of mass education and invest heavily in it.

Research Source: J. Ling's Quora & InvestAsian Blog