Chindia
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Chindia is a portmanteau neologism that refers to China and India together in general, and their economies in particular.
China and India are geographically proximate, are both regarded as developing countries and are both among the fastest growing economies in the world. Together, they account for one-third of the human population. They have been named as countries with highest growing potential for the next 50 years in the BRIC report.
The economic strengths of these two countries are widely considered complementary - China is perceived to be strong in manufacturing and infrastructure while India is perceived to be strong in services but particularly weak in infrastructure. In particular, China is strong in hardware while India is strong in software. China is stronger in physical markets while India is stronger in financial markets. The countries also share certain historical interactions -- the spread of Buddhism from India to China and trade on the Silk route are famous examples.
Indian intellectuals such as Jairam Ramesh and Subramanian Swamy have called for closer co-operation between the two countries.
Opposition to the term
There are large geopolitical differences between China and India that arguably make this term inappropriate. China is a temperate continental state in direct proximity to developed East Asian nations of Japan, South Korea and Taiwan; while India is confined within the Indian sub-continent and has a tropical climate. China's population growth rate is very low at 0.58% (2005) and its total population is expected to decline rapidly by 2030; whereas India's population growth rate of 1.4% (2005) will ensure that it will surpass China as the world's most populous nation by 2030 [link]. Their political systems are also vastly different with China being communist and India being the world's largest democratic republic. Land reforms took place in China in the late 1970s and market reforms started in the 1980s helped China become more capitalistic and economically developed than India. Land reforms in India are still stalled by Indian bureaucracy and other reforms in India have slowly started only in the early 1990s. The commonly cited complementary nature of China and India's economies is also being questioned as services in China is rapidly growing and threatening to match or overtake India's service industry within a decade. Additionally, the Sino-Indian War of 1962 has meant that relations between the countries have been cautious and slow.See also
Further reading
- BusinessWeek; August 12, 2005; "Chindia": China and India special feature
- [Beware the 'Chindia' effect] - Mail & Guardian Online
- Jairam Ramesh. Making Sense of Chindia: Reflections on China and India. New Delhi, India Research Press, 2005. ISBN 81-87943-95-5
Video
- [Chindia : The next Decade] Senior Business Week writer Pete Engardio, credited for having made the Chindia neologism famous, compares the rise of both China and India in this online video conference.
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