Can Modi turn India into a developed economy by 2047?

IN THE aftermath of World War II, the end of colonial rule produced a wave of newly independent – and mostly poor – countries, which global institutions and economists grouped under the label “developing economies”.

Two giants, China and India, immediately stood out. Both suffered from crushingly low per-capita incomes and were governed by political movements promising to boost economic growth and raise living standards. In China, the Communist Party built a revolutionary state, while India’s Congress party established a secular democracy.

For years, neither country delivered the prosperity its leaders had promised. Then, in the late 1970s and early 1980s, the Communist Party of China broke with ideological dogma and embraced economic reforms.