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 Indi...