Vinod2070
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When the next generation looks back on the India of the final decades of the 20th century, 1991, the year when the reforms started here, may seem a less important year than 1980. For it was in 1980 that the difference between the income of the average American and that of the average Indian began to reduce. Today, an American still earns 75 times the amount that an Indian earns. But if its any comfort (and it should be), in 1979, that difference was 105 times. Goldman Sachs predicts that by 2050, an American will earn only about five times as much as an Indian. The last time that happened may have been as far back as 1700.
But its a mistake to look at the last 20 years in isolation. What began in 1980 is the reversal of a process that began over 200 years ago. Beginning in the last decades of the 18th century, the economies of the West, led by England, started growing at rates that were unprecedented in history, leaving behind the rest of the world. Driven by mechanisation, innovation, colonisation and human migration, the industrial revolution has shaped the world as we know it today. Its a story that is unfolding even as we write.
But its a mistake to look at the last 20 years in isolation. What began in 1980 is the reversal of a process that began over 200 years ago. Beginning in the last decades of the 18th century, the economies of the West, led by England, started growing at rates that were unprecedented in history, leaving behind the rest of the world. Driven by mechanisation, innovation, colonisation and human migration, the industrial revolution has shaped the world as we know it today. Its a story that is unfolding even as we write.