currently in china, was in bangalore last week..

China feels almost like a first world nation at this point (albeit a weird one).

India, even in the most prosperous/developed city is still essentially a crappy 3rd world place.

I don't think India will naturally follow the progress China has made, and I definitely don't think amazing manufacturing will suddenly spring up from nowhere in India.

I am in Hyderabad right now and I agree. Hitec City has a veneer of modern but it is thin and already showing wear after only a few years. And I don’t have to travel out of this area to see plenty of people living a third-world existence.

Having friends here now I want to see them succeed but at this point most of them that can figure out how to leave here, do.

In China, the poor living in rural areas cannot easily move to cities (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hukou_system). In India the poor can move to cities.

It really depends on which part of China you are visiting. The first tier cities are superficially way more developed than most countries in the world (although not so much in terms of quality of life and access to opportunities). As you move down the tiers you see the opposite end of the spectrum and some of the poorest and least developed parts of the world.

I think his points is in India, even tier one cities are still feel like 3rd world.

(Just paraphrased what he said, I've never been in India).

>>India, even in the most prosperous/developed city is still essentially a crappy 3rd world place.

As an Indian, I would say you are right. India is attempting to skip several cycles of progress and arrive at the end result. There are also deep socio-economic problems to solve.

A more important problem is that quality of Human resources. Things like infrastructure are easier to fix compared to building a educated, civilized and highly trained workforce.

>>I don't think India will naturally follow the progress China has made

The Chinese kind of politics is impossible in a country as diverse as India. If you force through you only end up breaking the country. So we will never have a single party, single flavor rule in India.

> There are also deep socio-economic problems to solve.

The biggest problem is that india has a mindset problem. They, especially their leaders, academics, etc do not see themselves as a major nation. It's why india is still part of the british commonwealth.

> The Chinese kind of politics is impossible in a country as diverse as India. If you force through you only end up breaking the country.

That's the mindset I was speaking of. Indians themselves see progress as impossible. Also, China is a diverse nation as well, that hasn't prevent them from organizing and progressing.

What india needs is a healthy dose of nationalism and learn to stand on her own. But that will never happen as long as india is subservient to britain. India has a world of potential and none of the execution. All because of the mindset of the leadership and the people. It's tragic.

There is a man living in China who makes YouTube videos from a Western perspective the channel name is ADVChina. In one video he visited India and said the big difference between India and China the obvious being India's ethnic diversity and religions. In China Communism pretty much wiped out religion and the people are more homogeneous than India.

And as mentioned in a comment above the first-world sections are mainly the large cities, the countryside is still essentially third-world conditions.

Plus recently it seems China has become very increasingly anti-Western, this man has lived there 12 years and has said recently a strong anti-Western vibe has begun to be noticeable.