Wilson Chau, a former Lowy Institute intern, writes:
Really interesting email exchange with the co-authors of In Line Behind a Billion People. It is a book that I must read.
If scarcity will feature prominently in China's future, then surely scarcity will be an even greater dilemma for India. China's foreign policy and its aggressive 'grab' of land and resources around the world could in theory at least offer a limited degree food and resource security. I don't think India has positioned itself to such an extent, and when its population surpasses China's, India's confrontation with scarcity will be a lot more apparent and severe. This, I believe, is why India will always fall well behind China and the gap can only be aggravated, as what China consumes globally equates to fewer resources being available for India's rise.