Independence Day 2017: 70 years on, India's biggest in size among peer group, but a welfare laggard

There are some fascinating insights in some official documents of the United States, where they had taken South Korea as a basket case and identified India as the economy that would take off in the late 1940s. In 1947, India and Korea had the same per capita income. But in 2016, an average South Korean is about 15 times richer than an Indian.

Ironically, among all the major countries that became independent around the same time — from mid-1940s to late 1950s — India is, by far, the biggest in size measured by gross domestic product (GDP). But, it is also the most populous.

India also remains a welfare laggard and ranks poorly among this group of nations in most human development indices. People from other countries, on an average, live longer than Indians. More women in India die during childbirth compared to peer group nations, a marker of under-developed health infrastructure and lack of access to health services. India also lags in literacy rates, which is a function of both lack of affordable education facilities and low income levels.

As the following charts show, the glass is both half-full and half-empty.

Freedom

Population

GDP

PER CAPITA INCOME

FOREX RESERVES

LIFE EXPECTANCY

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TOTAL FERTILITY RATE

MATERNAL MORTALITY RATE