India and China are set to become the world's leading economic and political powers in about 50 years reclaiming the glory of the year 1700 when Mughal India and Qing China each accounted for about one-fourth of world GDP, a leading German bank said today.
According to data compiled by economic historian Angus Maddison, as recently as 1700, Qing China and Mughal India each represented a little less than 25 per cent of world GDP, but their respective shares dropped to less than 5 per cent by 1950, the Deutsche Bank said in a report.
However, China and India are poised to reclaim their places as the world's largest economies over the next half century, Deutsche Bank Research said in the report.
Noting that the four BRIC nations Brazil, Russia, India and China are characterised by high economic growth rates, large populations and expanding middle classes, the report said China and India would "re-emerge as major economic and political powers over the next fifty years or so and China is projected to replace the United States as the world's largest economy by 2040."
In his book 'The World Economy: A Millennial Perspective,' economic historian Angus Maddison has noted that during the years 0 to 1000, India figured as the world's pre-eminent economic power, closely followed by China.
During 1500-1600 years also, India was only next to China in terms of world GDP share and remained among the top till as late as 17th century.
India was the world's largest economy with a 32.9 per cent share of the worldwide GDP in the first century and 28.9 per cent in the 11th century.
