India may take 75 years to reach one-quarter of US income per capita: World Bank

More than 100 countries, including India, face serious obstacles in becoming high-income countries in the next few decades, and New Delhi may take nearly 75 years just to reach one-quarter of US income per capita, a World Bank report said...

Drawing on lessons of the past 50 years, the report finds that as countries grow wealthier, they usually hit a "trap" at about 10 per cent of annual US GDP per person - the equivalent of USD 8,000 today...

The road ahead has even stiffer challenges than those seen in the past: rapidly ageing populations and burgeoning debt, fierce geopolitical and trade frictions, and the growing difficulty of speeding up economic progress without fouling the environment, it said.. "Yet many middle-income countries still use a playbook from the last century, relying mainly on policies designed to expand investment..

If they stick with the old playbook, most developing countries will lose the race to create reasonably prosperous societies by the middle of this century, said Indermit Gill, Chief Economist of the World Bank Group and Senior Vice President for Development Economics.. "At current trends, it will take China more than 10 years just to reach one-quarter of US income per capita, Indonesia nearly 70 years, and India 75 years," the report said.. Gill also said the battle for global economic prosperity will largely be won or lost in middle-income countries...

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