India's economic development is centred on a narrow cone of progress around IT services/outsourcing/migration and the spending power that creates a set for consumers and government projects.
It's not comparable to the broad based productivity gains which happened in China or the UK across every industry as they developed, from agriculture to manufacturing to services. Instead it's much more like the Norwegian or Saudi hydrocarbon economies but with human capital exports.
> India's economic development is centred on a narrow cone of progress around IT services/outsourcing/migration and the spending power that creates a set for consumers and government projects.
That's simply not true.
India is making steel, pharmaceuticals, textiles, cars, movies, you name it.
I can buy the argument for Saudi, but the Norwegian economy is surprisingly diversified, oil makes up only around 4% of it. (Although it's proportionally a much larger share of exports and government revenue.)
Thought it'd be interesting to compare some indexes.. Thailand seems to be doing better than India on some measures, with China quite a bit further ahead.
India
* Productive Capacities Index (PCI, 2022): 45.3 (108th out of 194)
* Economic Complexity Index (ECI, 2023): 0.60 (41st out of 132)
* Global Economic Diversification Index (EDI, latest): 111.51
* Human Development Index (HDI, 2023): 0.685 (130th out of 193)
Thailand
* Productive Capacities Index (PCI, 2022): 51.6 (66th out of 194)
* Economic Complexity Index (ECI, 2023): 0.96 (29th out of 132)
* Global Economic Diversification Index (EDI, latest): 108.99 (~27th out of 115)
* Human Development Index (HDI, 2023): 0.798 (77th out of 193)
China
* Productive Capacities Index (PCI, 2022): 60.7 (26th out of 194)
* Economic Complexity Index (ECI, 2023): 1.14 (22nd out of 132)
* Global Economic Diversification Index (EDI, latest): 146.20 (top 3)
* Human Development Index (HDI, 2023): 0.797 (78th out of 193)
That is such a naive view. IT/outsourcing makes up less than 8% of the GDP. Compared to that, industrial sector make up almost 30% and agriculture 20%. Just because IT services catch the news cycle does not mean that is the only thing India does.
It's not comparable to the broad based productivity gains which happened in China or the UK across every industry as they developed, from agriculture to manufacturing to services. Instead it's much more like the Norwegian or Saudi hydrocarbon economies but with human capital exports.