“India Measures Itself Against a China That Doesn’t Notice”

China and India—these are two countries that have been paired together since we started our class studying global issues. Ranging from size of the population to the speed of their economic growth, these two nations share many common characteristics. Numbers aside, China and India have less in common than originally thought. India’s model is China, they are always trying to reach the same amount of economic success as them, and they are constantly studying how their economy has flourished in such a short time. However the feeling is not mutual. China idolizes the economies of the United States and England, and couldn’t be more oblivious to the Indian’s obsession with them. China is currently more developed in infrastructure and spending more on human development (education), but some projections have India growing at a faster pace than China. This “competition” between China and India must stay platonic because both of their economies rely on each other.

There is no question about the fact that China and India are economically and demographically growing at very accelerated speeds. The author of this article, Vikas Bajaj, repeatedly states that China isn’t aware that India is watching them so precisely. India will soon surpass China in some aspects if they do not pay attention to their up and coming rivals. This affects the world because India and China will soon keep the world’s economy afloat, and without consistent success of these countries we could enter another world wide recession. But for now China is still ahead in infrastructure, armed forces, universities, and the English language (NYTimes).

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/01/business/global/india-looks-to-china-as-an-economic-model.html?_r=1&ref=india