Infographic: India – The Best of the BRICS
By Kealan Finnegan
The UK India Business Council is taking a look at India in relation to the other four BRICS nations – Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa.
Released in the same week as the 8th meeting of the BRICS countries at their annual summit in Goa this week, the ‘India – Best of BRICS’ infographic shows how India has emerged as the shining light of the BRICS grouping.
In terms of the numbers, India’s annual GDP outstrips all 4 BRICS countries – at 7.57%, followed by China’s, which slowed slightly to 6.9% in 2015. India’s economy is in its fourth year of increased annual GDP growth. Meanwhile Brazil, Russia and South Africa all either entered recession, or posted flat growth figures in the last year.
India also leads the other BRICS nations in agriculture, with 156 million hectares of land cultivated, followed by China on 135 million hectares. In transport too, India comes out on top, with 130,000km of railways in operation as of 2015, followed by China on 121,000 and Russia on 86,000.
For electricity production – India comes second only to China, producing 1,116 billion kWh in 2013, compared to China’s 5,650kWh in 2014. In population too, India and China far exceed the other BRICS nations, with the two world’s most populous nations exceeding 1 billion people – with 1.31 and 1.37 bn respectively.
This combined population of 2.68 bn is boosted by the fact that both India and China have a young population, with the percentage of 14-64 year olds 66% in India and 73% in China. This is a significant boost to the economy as it means the workforce of both countries is substantial, compared to their BRICS partners.
