How do you account for India’s failure to demonstrate Chinese rates of growth?
Over the past two decades, one of the most compelling economic stories has been the rise of India and China, two of Jim O’Neill’s “BRIC” countries (FT Magazine, 2010). Despite the implementation of different economic policies (Gupta, 2008) both countries have emerged as major economic forces in the global economy (Bosworth and Collins, 2007), most notably since 1980. Since then, India and China have experienced a significant reduction in poverty with China lifting 500 million out of social deprivation. According to the World Bank (2013), China has had an average GDP of 10% each year while India has seen her GDP double over a similar period.
The countries are often compared due to their large population and geographical vastness as well as climbing from third world countries to major economic forces in a relatively short time. However, despite a significant increase in GDP, India has failed to demonstrate the same rates of growth as China. Although both countries were in a similar position during the early nineties, China’s GDP has increased 7 fold since this time; whereas India, although steady, GDP has doubled. The average annual rate is by 10% in China compared to 5-6% in India (see Figure 1).

The purpose of this paper is to compare the rates of growth of India and China over the past 30 years and examine possible explanations for this phenomenon. The economies of these countries are underpinned by social, economic and political issues which have all been relevant to their growth. China has placed emphasis on investment over the past 30 years at around 35- 44% compared to 26% in India. Chandrasekhar and Ghosh (2007) argue that China’s high investment in infrastructure has been crucial to its attractiveness to foreign investment. Investment in infrastructure is an area that