He writes: "The...gap between India and China is in the provision of essential public services — a failing that depresses living standards and is a persistent drag on growth.
"Inequality is high in both countries, but China has done far more than
India to raise life expectancy, expand general education and secure
health care for its people. India has elite schools of varying degrees
of excellence for the privileged, but among all Indians 7 or older,
nearly one in every five males and one in every three females are
illiterate. And most schools are of low quality; less than half the
children can divide 20 by 5, even after four years of schooling.
"India may be the world’s largest producer of generic medicine, but its
health care system is an unregulated mess. The poor have to rely on
low-quality — and sometimes exploitative — private medical care, because
there isn’t enough decent public care. While China devotes 2.7 percent
of its gross domestic product to government spending on health care,
India allots 1.2 percent.
"India’s underperformance can be traced to a failure to learn from the
examples of so-called Asian economic development, in which rapid
expansion of human capability is both a goal in itself and an integral
element in achieving rapid growth. Japan pioneered that approach,
starting after the Meiji Restoration in 1868, when it resolved to
achieve a fully literate society within a few decades. As Kido
Takayoshi, a leader of that reform, explained: “Our people are no
different from the Americans or Europeans of today; it is all a matter
of education or lack of education.” Through investments in education and
health care, Japan simultaneously enhanced living standards and labor
productivity — the government collaborating with the market."
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