Excellent -with India set to further liberalize its economy (with the Congress Party in relatively unambiguous control), and China's growth rate beginning to falter, the stage is now set for India to not only catch up with China but also to surpass it.
Just think of the implications for both countries if this trend holds....
India is at least 30 years away from parity with China, minimum and is around 2-3 decades behind in certain measures such as infrastructure and education.
Maybe he meant that India can surpass China's growth rate? In that case he may be right. But you are also right that overall India is at least 2 decades behind China, while in things like education and infrastructure it is at least 3 decades behind. On the other hand in a closed society like China we truly don't know what is going on. What is there in Shanghai and Beijing might not give us the full picture of what is actually occurring in the nation.
I think a comparison of %'s is irrelevant when the bases are different.
That is true to an extent. I think India and China are close enough to compare though. Comparing India to the United States would be a different issue.
This depends on your definition of close.
For example if we averaged GDP figures from the IMF, World Bank and the CIA we get around $7.6 trillion GDP (PPP) for the PRC. (Slightly unconventional but should yield something close to the truth, there is some greater variance in the Chinese GDP numbers).
Similarly if we do this for India we get $3.2 trillion.
So a quick ratio test with (7.6/3.2) we get 2.375, this means that China's base is 2.375 times greater.
Now what does this mean?
It means for China's and India's growth to be equalized in expenditure amounts, India has to maintain a 2.375 higher % growth rate.
If the Chinese growth rate is 1% for India to match it China's total growth (on a dollar to dollar, yuan to rupee basis) it would need to be 2.375%.
