So, on the long term, I am optimistic that India will catch up. Especially now that the USA is moving away from China as "work bench".
I hope we here in Europe will follow that policy, too. It just makes much more sense to support an emerging democracy than to support a facist regime.
Singapore disagrees.
They simply bankrupt the opposition through lawsuits and void their candidacy. That is not a functioning democracy.
Though, I mean, part of that difference is that the rest of the world feels uncomfortable with sudden shifts like India's, and so usually gets together to trade-sanction the problem away so that things will go back to the way they were (which might cause the country to lash out, at which point it becomes a World War); while, on the other hand, the international community is so used to "the way things are" with countries like China, that they don't do anything.
I doubt it. If anything India's system is less effective, equally or more corrupt, and downright barbarous in some social aspects (e.g. castes). Plus the rampant inequality which is much worse than China.