gamercube

Three decades ago from 2006 = 1976, not 1948. In 1976, how many countries had a literacy rate of above 90%? How many could go into space, build fighters en masse etc etc? I admit that China has achieved much more in the past 50 years than India has. But under a dictatorial government, it is also much easier to achieve things than it is under a democratic setup. For example, there hasn't been a single famine in post independence India. Compare that with the millions that died in the great famine in China. Both systems of governments have their advantages and disadvantages.

Besides, like I said above, these standards that you're listing are completely arbitrary. They change according to time, and hence, it is foolish to use them to compare any one country. Just five years ago, China's literacy rate may have been below 90%. Does that mean that its permanent seat should have been taken away? You're using the literacy rate....to prove what? That the Chinese people are better off than the Indian people? What about the millions of Chinese that have died in Mao's "Great Leap Forward", and hundreds of thousands of others who have been persecuted as political prisoners? What about those who were displaced by the Three Gorges dam, and weren't provided adequate compensation for their land?

When a dam of even a fraction of the size of the Three Gorges dam came up for construction in India (The Sardar Sarovar Project), it has been held up for decades by protests and litigations from those likely to be affected. In China, they'd probably just line those people up and shoot them en masse.

So no, I don't think that on average, the Chinese people are better off than the Indians.

Like Tronic said, the arms race was started the moment the first atom bomb was built. India has always tried for global nuclear disarmament, but since none of the nuclear powers were willing to support her, she had to develop her own nukes, because in today's world, nukes are the only guarantor of safety. Why do you think India never signed the NPT r the CTBT? It was not because we had some kind of ulterior motive to proliferate nukes to other countries, but because the NPT created a world comprised of nuclear haves and have nots-it effectively legitimised the nuclear weapons of the P5, while introducing no binding clauses on them to disarm within a specific time frame. That was what was outrageous for us, and hence we never signed that discriminatory treaty. Same goes for the CTBT. When that treaty came up for discussion, no one was willing to ban computer simulations of nuclear explosions, and hence, all means of testing had not been banned. So this still left a escape route for the P5, which could keep "virtually" testing more and more lethal designs of their bombs.

That has to be either the height of ignorance, or wilful neglect on your part. Pakistan and NK build tanks through licence, something that India has been doing since the 1960s. They have not yet come up with their own indigenous tank or any other military component. As for Israel, the US has been their primary collaborator and source of funding since 1948, so it is hardly a surprise that they have their "own" weapons. If India had collaborated jointly with Russia since the 1940s, I'm sure, we would have had a very large base of our own military equipment.

The CIA factbook's figures are outdated. It's almost 2007 now, not 2005. On another page, it lists the biggest economies by PPP, and India is 6th, which is clearly wrong. India is the world's 4th largest economy in PPP terms, after the US, Japan and China. Just google it if you don't believe me. These are the real figures for 2005:

http://www.imf.org/external/pubs/ft/...NGDPD&grp=0&a=

Besides, like I said, in PPP terms, which is the real measure of any country's economy, the Indian economy is far ahead of Russia. The nominal GDP figures don't really do justice because in India, you can get much more for a dollar than you can in the US. I remember just 4 years ago, I could get 4 square meals in my college canteen in India for 1 US dollar (around Rs 48).