India@70: Are we really ahead of China & Pakistan?

 In the 70 years since Independence, India has made most progress in improving life expectancy, literacy, but has been slower in improving the level of income, and reducing infant mortality rates when compared to five other nations.On the eve of independence day, we compared the progress India has made in improving income, health, education, and in preserving its forests, to five countries–China, Pakistan, Malaysia, South Korea and Brazil.

We chose China because it had roughly the same per capita income in 1960 as India did. Our analysis showed that even though China and India are constantly compared, until now, China has outperformed India across most wealth and health indicators.We looked at South Korea to get a sense of how India performed compared to a country that has gone from being a developing to a developed country after 1947.

We used Pakistan to compare progress in a country that shares the same history and culture, and was formed at the same time as India.Brazil, one of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries, serves as a comparison with another emerging economy that is estimated to become one of the largest in the world over the next 30 years.

In 56 years, the gap in per capita GDP has increased most between India and China, in our comparison. In 1960, China GDP per capita ($89.5) was 9% more than India’s. In 2016, China’s GDP per capita ($ 8123.2) was 79% more than India’s ($1709.4). This widening gap could be attributed to greater increases in productivity of the Chinese labour force and more capital per worker, according to an opinion piece published by The Hindu in January 2015. Similarly the gap between India and South Korea in 2016 is nearly twice of what it was in 1960. South Korea’s growth can be attributed to rapid industrialization and emphasis on sectors such as steel, shipbuilding and electronics, according to an April 2015 article by Quartz.