Copyright@shravancharitymission

By Kamlesh Tripathi

The Chinese economy is five times bigger than India’s.

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The Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) reserved for India just 19.48% of the total waters of the six-river Indus system

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India is selling 25 million smart phones per quarter and the anticipation is 700 million smart phones in hand by 2020. Internet penetration is growing with 332 million internet users in India. Is now second largest international market, ahead of the US.

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Aadhar is the only billion-user platform outside the US and the only government one.

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India is the largest young country in an ageing world and will continue to have a young population for the next 25 years, whereas China has started ageing.

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Thailand has 25 million international visitors per year while India has only 8 million.

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The International monetary fund estimates that Indian per capita income more than tripled from about $550 in 1991 to $ 1800 last year.

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In 1991, the world’s most populous country accounted for a scant 3.6% of global gross domestic product. By 2015 this had nearly doubled to 7%.

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WHO estimates that the average Indian lives 10 years longer today (68 years) than a quarter century ago. But he has yet to catch up with the average Indonesian (69 years), and continues to lag behind the average Chinese (76 years).

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Between 1991 and 2015, India slashed infant mortality by more than half- from 86 deaths to 38 deaths per 1000 births.

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The international Telecommunications Union estimates that mobile subscriptions in India reached 79% of population last year, up from 62% just five years earlier. That sounds awfully impressive until you realise that in China the mobile penetration is 93% and in Indonesia it’s a stratospheric 132%.

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Back in 1950s and 1960s, US steelworks and auto workers were by far most productive in the world, and could demand high, rising wages. But today the workers in developing countries have acquired skills that are almost as good.

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Before the industrial revolution, China and India accounted for over half of world GDP, but their share fell to barely 7% in the 20^th century.

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In the 20^th century Europe was twice devastated by World Wars, letting the US forge ahead. US hegemony followed in the second half of the 20^th century. Even US workers without college degrees had skills that were globally scarce, and so attracted high pay.

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The world Bank says the number of poor people globally more than halved from 1.75 billion in 1990 to just 702 million in 2015; the proportion of people in extreme poverty fell from 37% to 9.6%; and the world Gini coefficient (which measures inequality) fell from 75% to 62%.

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The US is indeed a great country, but for completely different reasons. It has been the most welcoming country for immigrants in history. Half the start-ups in Silicon Valley are by people of Chinese or Indian origin. Many Nobel Prizes have been won by first or second generation immigrants.

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What a lie: Out of the 6753 candidates of the 2009 Lok Sabha elections that were scrutinized, only four admitted that they had exceeded the limit of election spending as prescribed by ECI while 30 said they had spent 90%. The rest claimed that they had spent 52-55%.

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The telecom industry saw only 40% of the spectrum on offer being sold in 2016. In particular, the complete absence of any bids in the 700 MHz and 900 MHz bands came as a rude shock.

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Recently, interesting though intriguing data from 70-80 countries show that anxiety levels increase when there is less work (James Tozer in the Economist, citing a study done by the World Bank, in 2015).

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Economic liberalisation in China and India are commonly thought to have started in 1978 and 1991 respectively.

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