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

India@70: Are we really ahead of China & Pakistan? Find out [In 56 years, Indian income up 21 times, but progress slower than China, Malaysia]

Latest Current Affairs: 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 2017, 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.

Why we chose these countries 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.

We picked Malaysia because it is, like India, multicultural and, although it was more prosperous than India when independence came, it has weathered significant ethnic tension and conflict. It represents the unique dynamism of a region, southeast Asia, in close proximity to India.

In 56 years, Indian income up 21 times, but progress slower than China, Malaysia India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita (current US$)–which is the average income of each citizen and reflects the well being of the population– increased 21 times from $81.3 (Rs 1,705) in 1960 to $1709.4 (Rs 1,14,530) in 2016, according to World Bank estimates. But India made slower progress as compared to China, Malaysia, Brazil and South Korea. Read More