“China and India” – How many articles, how many headlines, how much paper, how many opinions do you see filled with these three words nowadays...A short two word answer would be “a lot”. Especially, the frenzy that the Indian media and politicians usually engage in comparing India’s growth to that of China’s is mostly obsessive and unwarranted.
The reality – of course – is different. Dr. Amartya Sen has talked about how the economic growth that we are never too tired to boast off is just a mean to a larger end - the overall health, education and development opportunities that a nation can provide. The reality is that Bangladesh does a better job of converting GDP numbers into prosperity of the average citizen.
So the point is that the elephant, sadly, is still very far from the dragon in the prosperity race and it will take some catching up before we can justly put them in the same category for comparison. I can talk about the fantastic roads that china has built, the higher number of world class universities that they can proudly list, the influence that they wield on the international political matters but yesterday’s French Open women’s final gave fresh insight into another set of facts that tell the same story.
Li Na defeated Schiavone and became the first Asian to win a grand-slam singles title. In the 100+ year old history of tennis grand slams, it was just yesterday that someone from the most populous continent claimed the glory. No wonder the winner came from China.
If you turn to Olympics, you will find that starting 1992 (fourteen years after the reforms started) China has consistently been among the top four nations in the medal listing and has only gone up from number four to number one as the years passed by. They qualified for the FIFA world cup in 2002 and have a decent record at the Asian Cup. They have the strongest Basketball team in Asia. One could list more sports but their Olympics record itself tells you a lot.
Compare all these records to what Indian sports has been able to achieve. What does this comparison tell you? Are the Chinese naturally better athletes, are they better competitors or do they have a deeper burning desire to win? Well…although one or more of the above statements might be true but they are definitely not the primary reason behind the huge difference in the sporting success of the two nations. What it tells is that an average Chinese kid has better sports facilities at school, has a wider range of sports to choose from, has a more balanced course work at school, eats a nutrient meal more often, has a better chance of making a decent living out of a sporting career and overall has better development opportunities compared to an average Indian kid inclined towards sports.
So going back to whole means (Economic Growth) to end (Prosperity) theory, would you think twice before you talk about development in China and India together the next time?
