This is John Batchelor, conversation with my colleague

Sadan Dumé of the American Enterprise Institute writing his column

for the Wall Street Journal editorial page about India

and its prosperity or want of or need to or ambition for.

I asked why the Indian economy, the India consumer, especially consuming class,

doesn't compare itself with the Chinese consuming class. Doesn't compare itself with the Chinese consuming class and see what can be done, a competition.

Saernan says there are several reasons why not.

Geopolitical reasons, cultural reasons, and consuming reasons for so long away to measure

a country as BMW sales.

And Saernan reports. Here's Sa'dernan on reports.

Here's Saernan Dumay on the rising prosperity of some of the Indian middle class,

not all, some of it, and what needs to be done in future. Maybe more BMWs. More of this later.

Yeah, I think what's happened is that the geopolitics complicates that, right? So the Indians don't, you know, they don't make direct

comparisons with China typically. Certainly in the political class doesn't. For two

reasons. One is, as you suggest, India and China adversaries they have a fraud relationship

they have a very tense standoff that's been going on for a few years now at the

border but also I think the Indians recognize that when it comes to

the economic competition, the Chinese have just done way better than India. They were at a

similar level of per capita income as recently as 1990 and now the Chinese are about you

know almost about about about about five times richer per capita than India so

they don't so the Indians don't like to make that comparison also because in terms of a market

China is just much larger.

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