Is India actually ahead of China?

Here's a reality check on the India vs China growth story.

Much has been made of the fact that, as shown in Table 1, India has overtaken China in terms of growth in gross domestic product, or GDP. 

However, the difference between the two countries in absolute value of income remains stark, as Table 2 shows.

While Table 3 shows that more of Indian GDP is spent on final consumption, reflecting different national priorities, catching up with China on most other indices remains a distant dream. 

Click here: Taking stock of key numbers of India and China

As Table 4 shows, China's trade dwarfs India's. And, as Table 5 shows, its exports have shown less volatile, more sustained growth than India's. 

As for social indicators, Table 6 reveals how far ahead of India in child mortality China is; and Table 7 shows how the Chinese consistently live a decade longer, too.

However, sentiment in the two economies is worth considering too. As Table 8 shows, manufacturing PMI in India has edged up to compete with China. 

Meanwhile, the Sensex has outperformed the Shanghai index, which, seems to determinedly have wanted to catch up over the past few months.