Kai Liu
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Indians always compare it with today's China over everything, while there is virtually nothing comparable. But if we compare today's India with China around 15±3 years ago, are they comparable then?
Well, there is a hot debate on quora.com about 2017's India vs China in 2004. https://www.quora.com/India’s-economy-is-2-trillion-dollars-which-China-had-in-2004-but-I-dont-see-the-same-living-standard-infrastructure-in-India-as-China-had-in-2004-What-should-we-correct
It seems even those more practical, modest and humble Indians are very confident on this comparison, let alone those ignorant and arrogant ones mentioned above. But the harsh reality is that in terms of development, India can hardly match China in the early 2000s.
As the saying goes: seeing is believing. My way of judging things would always be primarily based on what I see, either in person or from videos (not the propaganda ones, but filmed by ordinary people). Statistics comes secondary, and can be used as support. Let's first see some videos to get a direct impression, and then look into some apparent statistics:
Shenzhen around 2006:
AC buses, decent cars, office buildings, the degree of orderliness, we can not find such level of development anywhere in today's India.
Same is true for:
Shanghai in 2002:
Shanghai in 2000:
Besides urban development, lets compare the infrastructure like railways:
We have the magnet train since 2004:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train
And a bunch of self developed high speed EMUs like:
200km/h class "Blue Arrow" EMU (entered service since 2001):
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJJ1型电力动车组
270 km/h "China Star" EMU (entered service since 2005, and later cancelled due to development new generation CRH trains)
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJJ2型电力动车组
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT_iOqa5g-Q
These are not seen in today's India either.
Expressway:
China had over 19,000 km length of expressways in 2001, ranked 2nd in the world, while India has less than 2,000 km today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressways_in_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressways_of_China
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.polsoc.2012.01.007
Car sales:
Total auto sales number of China in 2003 was 4,39 million, while this number for India in 2017 is 4.02 million. The numbers look similar, but let's take a closer look at what kind of cars were sold:
http://xxw3441.blog.163.com/blog/static/753836242017267391228/
http://news.bitauto.com/hao/wenzhang/650270
China in 2003:
No.1 VW Jetta: 143,121 units
No.2 VW Santana: 122,663 units
No.3 VW Passat: 122,445 units
No.4 Tianjin Xiali: 96,180 units
No.5 VW Santana2000: 92,892 units
No.6 Buick Regal: 89,988 units
No.7 Honda Accord: 80,450 units
No.8 VW Bora: 78,068 units
No.9 Changan Alto: 61,302 units
No.10 Audi A6: 53,108 units
http://auto.sohu.com/2004/04/09/50/article219785057.shtml
As you can see, except Alto, all are serious cars, as you have already seen from the Chinese city videos above.
India in 2017:
1. Maruti Suzuki Alto – 257,732 units
2. Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire – 225,043 units
3. Maruti Suzuki Baleno – 177,209 units
4. Maruti Suzuki Swift – 167,371 units
5. Maruti Suzuki Wagon R – 166,814 units
6. Hyundai Grand i10 – 154,787 units
7. Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza – 140,945 units
8. Hyundai Elite i20 – 134,103 units
9. Hyundai Creta – 105,484 units
10. Maruti Suzuki Celerio – 100,860 units
https://www.carwale.com/news/highest-selling-cars-of-india-in-2017/
If you are interested, do check what kind of little midget cars are sold and running on Indian streets...
And let's compare the luxury car sales:
For India, in 2017, all the luxury brand cars combined sold less than our Audi A6 model alone (53,108 units), let alone the BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other Audi models.
India's luxury car sales in 2017:
"Continuing last year’s trend, Mercedes-Benz has retain top position by selling 15,300 units in 2017, an improvement of around 16% from the previous year. BMW group (including Mini) too managed to register a splendid growth of 25%, up from 7,500 units in 2016 to 9,800 units in 2017."
https://www.rushlane.com/luxury-car-sales-for-2017-12259854.html
In terms of GDP per capita, today's India should be comparable with 2005's China,(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita) But even with the factors such as inflation taken into consideration, India's low purchasing power like buying cars are just unbelievable, for example, in the early 2000s, cars like VW Passat , Honda Accord, and Buick Regal cost around 40,000 USD; While Audi A6 cost more than 60,000 USD in China. Even VW jetta or Santana costs around 15,000 USD, (the exchange rate then is around 1USD=8CNY), but still we saw significant sales for these models; but in today's India, people can only afford those Suzuki and Hyundai little midget cars; any cars with a price tag above USD 20,000, can hardly achieve any significant sales. Very weird indeed.
Based on these simple and apparent facts, although Indians talk loudly and boast hard all over the internet about their development and growth, such as SP2012, the reality is a little bit bitter for them, and about their true level of development, what do you think?
Well, there is a hot debate on quora.com about 2017's India vs China in 2004. https://www.quora.com/India’s-economy-is-2-trillion-dollars-which-China-had-in-2004-but-I-dont-see-the-same-living-standard-infrastructure-in-India-as-China-had-in-2004-What-should-we-correct
It seems even those more practical, modest and humble Indians are very confident on this comparison, let alone those ignorant and arrogant ones mentioned above. But the harsh reality is that in terms of development, India can hardly match China in the early 2000s.
As the saying goes: seeing is believing. My way of judging things would always be primarily based on what I see, either in person or from videos (not the propaganda ones, but filmed by ordinary people). Statistics comes secondary, and can be used as support. Let's first see some videos to get a direct impression, and then look into some apparent statistics:
Shenzhen around 2006:
Same is true for:
Shanghai in 2002:
Besides urban development, lets compare the infrastructure like railways:
We have the magnet train since 2004:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shanghai_maglev_train
And a bunch of self developed high speed EMUs like:
200km/h class "Blue Arrow" EMU (entered service since 2001):
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJJ1型电力动车组
https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJJ2型电力动车组
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UT_iOqa5g-Q
These are not seen in today's India either.
Expressway:
China had over 19,000 km length of expressways in 2001, ranked 2nd in the world, while India has less than 2,000 km today.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressways_in_India
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expressways_of_China
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1016/j.polsoc.2012.01.007
Car sales:
Total auto sales number of China in 2003 was 4,39 million, while this number for India in 2017 is 4.02 million. The numbers look similar, but let's take a closer look at what kind of cars were sold:
http://xxw3441.blog.163.com/blog/static/753836242017267391228/
http://news.bitauto.com/hao/wenzhang/650270
China in 2003:
No.1 VW Jetta: 143,121 units
No.2 VW Santana: 122,663 units
No.3 VW Passat: 122,445 units
No.4 Tianjin Xiali: 96,180 units
No.5 VW Santana2000: 92,892 units
No.6 Buick Regal: 89,988 units
No.7 Honda Accord: 80,450 units
No.8 VW Bora: 78,068 units
No.9 Changan Alto: 61,302 units
No.10 Audi A6: 53,108 units
http://auto.sohu.com/2004/04/09/50/article219785057.shtml
As you can see, except Alto, all are serious cars, as you have already seen from the Chinese city videos above.
India in 2017:
1. Maruti Suzuki Alto – 257,732 units
2. Maruti Suzuki Swift Dzire – 225,043 units
3. Maruti Suzuki Baleno – 177,209 units
4. Maruti Suzuki Swift – 167,371 units
5. Maruti Suzuki Wagon R – 166,814 units
6. Hyundai Grand i10 – 154,787 units
7. Maruti Suzuki Vitara Brezza – 140,945 units
8. Hyundai Elite i20 – 134,103 units
9. Hyundai Creta – 105,484 units
10. Maruti Suzuki Celerio – 100,860 units
https://www.carwale.com/news/highest-selling-cars-of-india-in-2017/
If you are interested, do check what kind of little midget cars are sold and running on Indian streets...
And let's compare the luxury car sales:
For India, in 2017, all the luxury brand cars combined sold less than our Audi A6 model alone (53,108 units), let alone the BMW, Mercedes-Benz and other Audi models.
India's luxury car sales in 2017:
"Continuing last year’s trend, Mercedes-Benz has retain top position by selling 15,300 units in 2017, an improvement of around 16% from the previous year. BMW group (including Mini) too managed to register a splendid growth of 25%, up from 7,500 units in 2016 to 9,800 units in 2017."
https://www.rushlane.com/luxury-car-sales-for-2017-12259854.html
In terms of GDP per capita, today's India should be comparable with 2005's China,(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_past_and_projected_GDP_(nominal)_per_capita) But even with the factors such as inflation taken into consideration, India's low purchasing power like buying cars are just unbelievable, for example, in the early 2000s, cars like VW Passat , Honda Accord, and Buick Regal cost around 40,000 USD; While Audi A6 cost more than 60,000 USD in China. Even VW jetta or Santana costs around 15,000 USD, (the exchange rate then is around 1USD=8CNY), but still we saw significant sales for these models; but in today's India, people can only afford those Suzuki and Hyundai little midget cars; any cars with a price tag above USD 20,000, can hardly achieve any significant sales. Very weird indeed.
Based on these simple and apparent facts, although Indians talk loudly and boast hard all over the internet about their development and growth, such as SP2012, the reality is a little bit bitter for them, and about their true level of development, what do you think?
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