[kalendae]

1980: India 181 B China 188 B

2010: India 1.5 T China 5.7 T

regardless of future predictions it seems to support 'the vastly diverged since' claim. China's economy is almost 4x that of India's today where they were virtually the same size in 1980. That brings a lot of concern over democratic vs non-democratic in terms of bringing economic growth to the people.

[dimmuborgir]

China liberalised its economy in 1979 and India liberalised its economy in 1991 from Soviet styled socialism to American styled capitalism. Both countries grew rapidly from respective years. It's nothing to do with democracy/non-democracy, IMO.