'China focused relentlessly on execution': Harsh Goenka on why Beijing pulled ahead of India

RPG Group Chairman Harsh Goenka on Sunday drew a comparison between India and China's economic journeys, saying the two countries started at similar points in 1990 but diverged drastically over three decades. 

"In 1990, India and China were at similar starting points. Three decades later, China's GDP is nearly five times India’s. What explains this divergence?" Goenka wrote in a post on X, before breaking down the contrast in a short thread titled China vs India.

According to Goenka, China's growth was rooted in focused execution and state-driven coordination. "China focused relentlessly on execution: Invested heavily in infrastructure and manufacturing. Reformed agriculture and labour early. Built export-led industries with state coordination. Created ecosystems for scale," he said.

He compared this with India's slower but more democratic trajectory. "India's path was slower but more democratic: Stronger in services than manufacturing. Reforms evolved through consensus. Growth driven by entrepreneurship and consumption, not central planning," he stated.

Goenka acknowledged that both models carried distinct strengths and vulnerabilities. "China's model delivered speed and scale, but with rising debt, ageing, and centralised risk. India’s offers stability, inclusion, and resilience, but needs sharper focus on jobs, skills, and manufacturing productivity," he said.

Summing up his argument, Goenka noted, "China shows what discipline and direction can achieve. India must now show what democracy and diversity can deliver. The coming decades will decide not who copies whom, but who adapts best to a changing world."

In 1990, India and China were at roughly comparable economic levels - India's per capita income stood around $367, slightly higher than China's $317 . Both were largely agrarian, low-income economies grappling with poverty, underdeveloped infrastructure, and state-controlled systems. But their trajectories diverged sharply. 

China, having launched market reforms under Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s, accelerated industrialisation through export-led manufacturing and massive infrastructure investment, achieving average GDP growth of nearly 9–10 per cent for three decades. India, though liberalising in 1991, grew at 5–6 per cent through the 1990s and 2000s, driven largely by services, consumption, and entrepreneurship rather than manufacturing .​

By 2025, China's nominal GDP has reached roughly $19–19.5 trillion - about five times India's nearly $4 trillion economy, and its per capita income is nearly 4.8 times higher.