I read a story that said India will overtake China economically by 2010.
What's your opinion on that?
To me it makes sense that a country where citizens enjoy private property and free enterprise will always economically outperform socialist/communist countries.
Do the citizens of India enjoy liberal property rights?
"I read a story that said India will overtake China economically by 2010.
What's your opinion on that?"
For that to happen...(if at all) there is still a long way to go. 2010 would be way to early to even catch up with China. And at this moment China is racing ahead to say the least.
One must remember that China started economic liberalisation 10 years ahead of India and so they have a good 10 years head start. The Sino-US bilateral trade at present stands at around a whooping $200-280 Billion dollars. There current FDIs stands at around $250 Billion dollars.And China enjoys a huge trade surplus over most countries of the world. It is projected that by 2010-2015 China would be ranked second in the world next only to the US. China will by then enjoy tremendous economic, political and military clout. Needless to say that it will be making full use of its political and military clout to safeguard its economic and strategic interest which would extend far beyond its natural boundaries. This would bring China into direct conflict with other major powers like Japan, US and India. And the question of energy security would be much more acute by 2015 when 2 billion population from a rising India and China would demand more energy.
India has some natural advantages vis-à-vis China. India is a stable democracy and has among the worlds highest English speakers. Also India has a leading IT industry that is way ahead of anything China has got. India also produces the worlds highest number of scientiest, engineers, doctors and computer programmers (thanks to a sound British education system). India has free press and a sound judicial system based on western model. India has much of the edifices of a modern day democracy well preserved and functioning quite unlike China where most of these are non-existant. Although the FDI to India is about 1/6th of that of China, India has managed its finances much better that China to fund key projects on infrastructure development, education, health and defence. And add to that India has a much better banking system when compared to China (it is said that the Chinese banking system is a house of cards). Based on some of these indicators it can be speculated that India has a good chance to beat Chinese economy by around 2015 to 2020......provided we maintain an annual growth rate of around 8-10%.
Now here is the catch, to achieve an annual growth rate of more than 8-10% India needs to carry out much more ruthless liberalisation and opening up of key sectors. Our current current growth rate is hovering around 7%. For a country with the potential that India has, a double digit growth rate is in no way unrealistic. Whats holding us back is our democracy. In a diverse chaotic democracy such as ours it is difficult to come to a consensus on any issue. Moreover the numerous left parties (who hold not many seats but have a lot of influence) that dot the Indian polity have a tendency to play spoilers. And most importantly the shackles of burocratic "red tape" have held India back for the last half a century. At current growth rate India can come a close second to China but, if India can manage to overcomes these barriers then there is no holding India back. The next century might well be the Indian century.
India (and China) will be the success stories of this centuries. You might remember that only a few decades back India's ranking was closer to Ethiopia then Canada (as it is today).
You may want to read The Economist for an excellent analysis of China versus India. The article is called "The Tiger in front". The analysis gave the advantage to China.
www.economist.com
"Do the citizens of India enjoy liberal property rights?"
I am not sure I understand your question on what you would mean by "liberal property rights". In India one can own(or buy) as much property as one possibly can.