The latest of strategies prevailing in our political system is faking numbers and statistics. Growth can only be witnessed in speeches and promises. But when a person goes on to cross check it, he’ll find that growth simply doesn’t exist at all or the promises made to him won’t probably be fulfilled.
In recent times, India is said to be one of the fastest growing countries in the world. But is that a fact or just another hype? The best way to know the answer is by comparing it with another developing country. Why comparing with China? Because of the similar population and environmental structure of the two nations. So, without wasting any time let’s have a look at how fast India has developed as compared to China in the last 10 years.
1. GDP
Back in 2007, China had a nominal GDP of 3.523 trillion USD while India’s nominal GDP stood at 1.239 trillion USD. After 10 years, both the countries have earned themselves a tag of fastest developing nation as their nominal GDP has registered a phenomenal growth. As of 2017, India’s nominal GDP is 2.45 trillion USD while that of China is 11.8 trillion USD. Comparatively, India are way behind China. The per annum growth rate of China’s nominal GDP is well over 20% while that of India is a not even 10%. So, if you feel like our GDP is growing at a better rate than China you’re highly mistaken. Even in their worst days, China managed to remain better than India.
2. HDI
HDI (Human Development Index) is one of UN’s attempt to measure the growth of a country on the whole. It considers every possible aspect to measure the growth of the lower sections of every nation’s society. India’s HDI graph perfectly explains the sluggish growth of its economy. Despite increasing their HDI from 0.619 to 0.624 in the last 10 years, they’ve slipped three places to attain the 131st rank globally. On the other hand, China’s HDI has dropped down from 0.777 in 2007 to 0.738 in 2017. Despite of this significant fall they remain at the 90th rank, 41 places ahead of us.
3. Infrastructure
The last 10 years or so have been India’s decade of development and China’s decade of crisis. However, the growth rate still stands on China’s side. India’s infrastructure sector has grown rapidly but not rapidly enough to cover even the declining growth of China’s infrastructure sector. As per a report by World Economic Forum for 2015-16, India still ranks behind China in terms of expenditure on infrastructure. Yes we have grown in this sector but not as fast as has been mentioned all around.
4. Public Health
China have shown a great and rapid growth in public health condition even after having a population greater than that of India. In 2006, the percentage of children dying before reaching the age of five was 2.2. The number halved to 1.1 in just 2015. As for India, the rate is still 4.8% in 2015 which used to be 7.2% in 2006. This pretty much sums up the comparison. Almost negligible growth has left India’s public health statistics in tatters.
5. Technology
India ranks 138th in the ICT (Information and Communications Technology) Development Index for 2016 while China merrily sits at the 81st rank. Comparatively speaking, both India and China have grown massively in the technology sector. But again China remains a step ahead of India. 10 years ago, around 10% of China’s population had an access to Internet and around 33% of them had a mobile phone while in India only about 3% of the total population had an Internet access. Presently, 52% of China’s population uses Internet while the number for India is only 34%.
6. Industries
Industry has been the driving force of China’s growth and development since ages. Industries had a share of 72.8% in China’s GDP in 2005. Presently, the share has dropped down to around 48% which represents a balanced economy as the services sector has managed to balance the industrial sector. In India, services sector have outweighed the industries sector quite comfortably making sure that India’s economy remains an unbalanced one. The growth rate has been steady at around 7% but has fallen down to just over 5% since demonetization.
7. Population control
While China went on to violate human rights in a bid to control their population, India remained lenient with its policies. While China’s population growth rate dropped down from 0.52% in 2006 to 0.46% in 2016, India’s population growth rate dropped down more rapidly from 1.52% in 2006 to 1.2% in 2016. So, even without any special policy, India have actually managed to control their population better than China.
8. Education
Education shapes the growth of a nation. So, it is quite an essential aspect for us to consider in our comparison. Talking about China, 68% of people enrolled for secondary education in 2006. The number has now shotted up to around 97%. India too has managed to keep itself on the right track with at least 96% of the population enrolling for primary education. The secondary and tertiary/post-secondary rate is still far behind that of China but the growth is acceptable to say the least.
9. Jobs
This comparison is something that will put all of us to shame. While China created 13 million jobs in the last year alone, India has managed to generate around 4 million jobs in the last 7 years combined. The number of jobs being created has been the lowest in 2016-17 in the last 9 years. Expectations are still high though with as many as 100 million jobs are stated to be generated in the coming 10 years. As for now, China’s single year of job generation is enough to beat our last ten years of the same.
10. Military Forces
This is one point where India lies ahead of China in the past 10 years and even beyond that. Currently, the Indian armed forces have a manpower almost five times greater than that of Armed Forces of China. In China, it is mandatory for every man above the age of 18 to serve in the military forces for at least one year and still they havent been able to recruit a greater military force. However, China have managed to have a tie with more number of nations than India.
Overall, even the best of India’s growth is worse than the worst of China’s growth. It is not the special strict policies that have helped China grow as can be seen from their population control and military forces, two sectors where they have implied a forced policy, but the correct approach from the government that has made sure that the real growth is attained as needed.
As for India, it is time we realise that our growth is much slower than what we deserve and each one of us should step up to ensure that the ugly political structure doesn’t hinder the growth of our nation. Also, we should realise that working in the military is not the only way of helping our nation grow, every single job we do, every single penny we earn helps our country grow faster.
Got any more points where you feel growth has been mentioned incorrectly? Let us know in our comments section below.