Jayant Bandhari in Liberty Unbound:
“Starting in May 2005, Canada’s National Post, a generally anti-statist newspaper, ran a series of stories on the enormous successes of India’s opening economy. On the first day of the series, most of the front page was occupied by a picture of an Indian rocket taking off. The story said that the Indian government was seriously contemplating a mission to the moon.
How much of this is truth, and how much of it is rhetoric, a false perception based on partial numbers and skewed analysis, catering to what people want to see instead of what they do see when their eyes are open? Let’s sort things out.
Yes, India’s GDP is almost the same as that of Australia. But its population is more than 50 times bigger than Australia’s. Each year, India adds to itself a population nearly equal to that of Australia. When you re-rank the two countries on a per capita basis, Australia goes to the 24th position, and India slips to almost the bottom, way behind Albania ($2,080), Swaziland ($1,660), Angola ($1,030), and the Congo ($770). With a per capita GDP of $620, India is slightly ahead of Pakistan ($600) and Mongolia ($590).2
In other words, an average Indian lives on about $1.70 a day. And how does India’s glamorous growth appear from this perspective? Australia’s growth in GDP (which is around 2%) will add about $600 to its per capita GDP, almost as much as India’s total GDP per capita. Its 6.9% growth will give the average Indian about 11 cents extra for use each day, a year from now.
So here is the summary: India is not an economic power, and at this rate cannot be one for the better part of this century. Just add 11 cents to the average daily per capita income of an Indian for the next year, and another 13 cents next year* and so on, and you will quickly see the truth — and remember, these gains will be accomplished only if India manages to sustain 6.9% growth.”