India to catch up with China’s growth by end of decade: economist

According to economist Pranab Bardhan, India would catch up with its neighbour China in terms of economic growth by the turn of this decade.

Bardhan, a professor at the University of California, was delivering the third BG Kumar memorial lecture at the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruananthapuram on Friday.

''A potential advantage India has over China in speeding up its economic growth is the demographic shift in favour of young and able working population. This would put India in a higher growth trajectory and the country could catch up with the economic growth of China by 2020,'' said Bardhan.

Further, according to Bardhan, the two most populous economies in the world would garner the lion's share of the world ouput and income, overtaking that of the developed countries like the US and Japan.

He added that as per current estimates, the combined size of the economies of India and China by the year 2025 would be 36 per cent of the total global growth.

He noted that more than the global environment, it was domestic policy changes and initiatives that helped China achieve a higher growth trajectory as against other developing countries.