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This chapter compares the developmental strategies and outcomes of India, Pakistan, and China since their independence or establishment around the late 1940s. It highlights similarities in initial planning, differences in reforms, and varying performance in growth, demographic, sectoral, and human development indicators. These notes summarise key concepts from Chapter 8 of the NCERT textbook Indian Economic Development for effective revision. You can also download the free PDF for quick reference.
Contents
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Developmental Path: A Snapshot View
- 3 Demographic Indicators
- 4 Gross Domestic Product and Sectors
- 5 Indicators of Human Development
- 6 Development Strategies: An Appraisal
- 7 Conclusion
- 8 Important Definitions in NCERT Notes Class 11 Indian Economic Development Chapter 8: Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours
- 9 FAQs
Explore Notes of Class 11: Indian Economic Development
Introduction
(32 words) Globalisation has prompted nations to form economic groupings and study neighbours’ developmental paths to strengthen domestic economies amid competition, especially among developing countries sharing regional activities and human development.
- Over the last two decades, economic transformation due to globalisation has short and long-term implications for countries, including India.
- Nations adopt means to strengthen domestic economies via regional/global groupings: SAARC, European Union, ASEAN, G-8, G-20, BRICS.
- Developing countries study their neighbours’ processes to comprehend strengths/weaknesses vis-à-vis their neighbours.
- In globalisation, essential for developing countries to face competition from developed nations and amongst themselves in a limited economic space.
- Understanding neighbours is required as major common economic activities impinge on overall human development in a shared environment.
The chapter compares the developmental strategies of India, Pakistan, and China.
- India: the largest democracy, secular, liberal Constitution for over half a century.
- Pakistan: militarist political power structure
- China: a command economy, recently moving towards a democratic system and liberal economic restructuring.
Developmental Path: A Snapshot View
(38 words) India, Pakistan, and China started developmental paths around 1947–49 with similar strategies like five-year plans, large public sectors, and social expenditure, achieving comparable growth and per capita incomes till the 1980s, followed by divergent reform paths.
- India, Pakistan became independent in 1947; China (People’s Republic) was established in 1949. All started planning development similarly.
- India: First Five-Year Plan 1951–56.
- Pakistan: First five-year plan (Medium Term Development Plan) 1956; 12th Plan 2018–23.
- China: First Five-Year Plan 1953; 14th Plan 2021–25.
- India followed Five-Year Plans till March 2017.
- India, Pakistan: Created a large public sector, raised public expenditure on social development. Similar growth rates, per capita incomes were there till the 1980s.
- China: Post-1949, one-party rule; critical sectors, enterprises, and lands under government control.
- Great Leap Forward (GLF) 1958: Industrialise massively; backyard industries; rural communes (26,000 in 1958, covering almost all farm population); collective cultivation.
- GLF problems: Severe drought killed ~30 million; Russia withdrew professionals amid conflicts.
- Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution (1966–76): Students/professionals sent to the countryside to work/learn.
- Reforms from 1978 (phased): Agriculture, foreign trade, investment first; commune lands divided into small plots allocated to households (use, not ownership); keep income after taxes.
- Later: Industrial reforms; private sector, township/village enterprises allowed; SOEs faced competition.
- Dual pricing: Fixed quantities at government prices; the rest at market; the market proportion increased over the years. Special Economic Zones to attract foreign investors.
- Pakistan: Mixed economy (public-private coexistence).
- Late 1950s-1960s: Regulated policy for import substitution; tariff protection for consumer goods, import controls.
- Green Revolution: Mechanisation, public investment in infrastructure, rise in foodgrains, and a changed agrarian structure.
- 1970s: Nationalisation of capital goods industries.
- Late 1970s-1980s: Denationalisation, private sector encouragement; financial support from the West, Middle-East remittances; incentives created an investment climate.
Demographic Indicators
(35 words) China and India have massive populations (one-sixth of the world each); Pakistan has one-tenth. China has the lowest density, one-child norm reduced growth but lowered sex ratio; Pakistan highest growth, fertility; urbanisation is highest in China.
- Global population: 1/6 Indian, 1/6 Chinese.
- Pakistan’s population is ~1/10th of China’s/India’s.
- China: Largest nation, largest area, lowest density.
- Population growth: Highest in Pakistan, then India, and China.
- One-child norm (late 1970s) in China: Low growth rate; a declining sex ratio (females/1000 males); now allows two children.
- Sex ratio: Low, biased against females in all three (son preference). All are adopting measures to improve the sex ratio.
- One-child implications: More elderly to young in future decades.
- Fertility rate: Low in China, very high in Pakistan.
- Urbanisation: High China; India 36% urban.
Gross Domestic Product and Sectors
(39 words) China has the second-largest GDP (PPP), USD 35 trillion; India, USD 15 trillion; Pakistan, USD 1.5 trillion. Growth was highest in China (1980s double-digit); sectoral shift from agriculture to industry/services in China, direct to services in India/Pakistan.
- GDP (PPP): China USD 35 trillion (2nd largest); India USD 15 trillion (~42% of China); Pakistan USD 1.5 trillion (~10% of India).
- 1980s growth: China double-digit; Pakistan ahead of India; India bottom.
- Reasons: Pakistan reforms, political instability.
- Gross Value Added (GVA): People in sectors contribute.
- China: 23% workforce agriculture → 8% GVA; cultivable area 10% land, 40% of India’s. Pre-1980s China: >80% dependent on farming. Later, it encouraged non-farm activities (handicrafts, commerce, transport).
- India: 46% workforce agriculture → 16% GVA.
- Pakistan: 37% workforce in agriculture → 24% GVA.
- Industry: Pakistan 24% workforce → 19% GVA; India 25% → 29%; China 32% → 39%.
- Service sector: Highest GDP share in all three.
- Normal shift: Agriculture → Industry → Services (China pattern).
- India, Pakistan: Low industry workforce (25%); shift directly to services. Service emerging major player: More GDP, employment.
- 1980s workforce in services: Pakistan 27%, India 17%, China 12%. In 2019, India had 29%, Pakistan 38%, and China 45%.
- Agriculture growth declined in all three (which employ the largest workforce).
- Industry: China, double-digit 1980s, recent decline; India, Pakistan decline.
- Services: China maintained 1980–90; India positive increasing; Pakistan deceleration.
- China’s growth: Manufacturing + services; India: Services;
- Pakistan: All sectors deceleration.
Also Read: NCERT Notes and Solutions Class 11 Political Science
Indicators of Human Development
(36 words) China leads in GDP per capita, poverty reduction, health (mortality, sanitation); Pakistan is ahead of India in some; maternal mortality is high in India/Pakistan; all provide improved water; liberty indicators are missing from human development measures.
- China ahead of India, Pakistan in: GDP per capita, poverty below line, mortality rates, sanitation access, literacy, life expectancy, malnutrition.
- China, Pakistan are ahead of India in poverty reduction and sanitation
- Maternal mortality (per lakh births) in China: 29; India: 133; Pakistan: 140.
Improved drinking water: The entire population in all three.
- China: Smallest poor share.
- Human development indicators are important but insufficient without liberty indicators.
- Liberty: Extent of democratic participation; not given extra weight.
- Missing: Constitutional protection of citizen rights, Judiciary independence, Rule of Law.
- Without these (overriding importance), HDI is incomplete, its usefulness limited.
Development Strategies: An Appraisal
(38 words) Reforms: China 1978 (voluntary, phased); Pakistan 1988; India 1991. Pre-reform failures in China/Pakistan; post-reform rapid growth in China (infrastructure base); Pakistan slowdown (instability, remittances); India moderate with democratic institutions.
- Reforms initiation: China 1978; Pakistan 1988; India 1991.
- China: No external compulsion (unlike India/Pakistan via World Bank/IMF); slow growth, lack of modernisation under Maoist rule.
- Maoist failures: Decentralisation, self-sufficiency, shunning foreign tech/goods/capital; per capita grain 1978 same as mid-1950s despite land reforms, GLF, collectivisation.
- Pre-reform positives: Infrastructure (education, health), land reforms, decentralised planning, small enterprises; improved post-reform social/income indicators.
- Rural health services extension; equitable food via communes.
- Phased experimentation: Small scale first, then massive; assess costs.
- Agriculture reforms: Plots to individuals → prosperity, rural industries, support for more reforms.
- Pakistan: Reform process worsened indicators; GDP/sectoral growth has not improved vs the 1980s.
- International poverty line is healthy, but official data: Poverty >40% 1960s → 25% 1980s → rising recently.
- Reasons: Agriculture growth on good harvests, not institutional tech change; stagnation/negative growth in bad years.
- Foreign exchange: Remittances (Middle-East), volatile agriculture exports; growing loan dependence, repayment difficulty.
- Recent recovery: 2017-18 GDP 5.5% (highest decade); agriculture unsatisfactory; industry 4.9%, services 6.2%; macroeconomic indicators stable/positive.
Conclusion
(37 words) Seven decades: Similar low development till the 1970s; divergent since. China market with political control, poverty alleviation; India moderate democratic growth; Pakistan instability, recent recovery; lessons in reforms, infrastructure, and institutional processes.
- India, China and Pakistan had 7 decades with varied results. Till the late 1970s, there was a low development level. But in the last 3 decades, it has reached different levels.
- India: Democratic, moderate performance; majority agriculture-dependent; infrastructure initiatives, living standard improvements.
- Pakistan: Political instability, remittances/foreign aid dependence, volatile agriculture → slowdown; last 5 years positive moderate growth, economic recovery.
- China: No political freedom, human rights concerns; used market without losing political commitment; growth + poverty alleviation last 4 decades.
- Unlike India/Pakistan privatising public enterprises, China: Market for additional opportunities; collective land ownership, individual cultivation → rural social security.
- Pre-reform public intervention (social infrastructure) → positive human development in China.
Important Definitions in NCERT Notes Class 11 Indian Economic Development Chapter 8: Comparative Development Experiences of India and its Neighbours
This section lists key terms for clarity and revision:
- Great Leap Forward (GLF): Campaign initiated in 1958 to industrialise China massively; encouraged backyard industries and rural communes for collective cultivation.
- Commune System: In China, people collectively cultivated lands; 26,000 communes in 1958 covered almost all the farm population.
- Reforms in China (1978): Phased changes starting in agriculture (plots to households), foreign trade, investment; later industry (private/township enterprises, competition for SOEs); dual pricing; Special Economic Zones.
- Dual Pricing: Farmers/industrial units buy/sell fixed quantities at government prices; the rest at market prices.
- One-Child Norm: Introduced in China late 1970s to control population growth; led to low growth but a declining sex ratio; later allowed two children.
- Gross Value Added (GVA): Contribution of people in different sectors to Gross Domestic Product.
- Liberty Indicators: Measures like the extent of democratic participation, Constitutional protection of rights, Judiciary independence, and Rule of Law; missing from human development indices.
Explore Solutions of Class 11: Indian Economic Development
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FAQs
India started in 1951–56, Pakistan in 1956, and China in 1953. All three began planning around the same time after independence or establishment.
Introduced in the late 1970s to control population, it lowered the growth rate but reduced the sex ratio due to son preference. Now couples can have two children.
China has the highest GDP (PPP) at USD 35 trillion and maintained near double-digit growth in the 1980s, though it slowed recently.
China: 23% workforce makes 8% GVA; India: 46% workforce makes 16% GVA; Pakistan: 37% workforce makes 24% GVA.
Reforms started in agriculture with household plots, then industry and trade. Pre-reform health, education and small-scale experiments helped achieve quick success.
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