OREANDA-NEWS. In a chat with Tanvir Gill of ET Now , Lord Jim O’Neill , Commercial Secy, UK Treasury, says India is now on a relative basis entering a sweet spot compared to China . Edited excerpts.

Tanvir Gill: You have said you got two out of the four in the BRIC acronym right when you coined the term 15 yrs back. Does this mean you are bullish on China despite slowdown concerns?

Lord Jim O’Neill: Actually I do not think that is really accurate. I am pretty happy that I included all four because despite Brazil and Russia’s considerable problems, and they are pretty considerable and that disappointed both of them for years. Both countries have the biggest share of global GDP then they had 16 years ago when I coined this term. So I am actually pretty pleased about all four of them.

As for China, as I frequently say, it is the one of the four that so far this decade has grown more than I had assumed. So yes China has got challenges. It has to deal with lots of issues like anybody else. As far as I can see, in the big picture, China is going broadly along the path I assumed.

Tanvir Gill: Opinion is building on India being where China was 10 yrs back. Will the next decade be about India Shining?  Lord Jim O’Neill: I think this is a really important time for
India and the things that were behind the whole BRICS concept were demographics and productivity, pretty simple things, frankly. India is now on a relative basis entering a sweet spot compared to China. India’s demographic profile over the next 15 to 20 years gets better and better whereas China has started to deteriorate and so in-principle it is a lot easier for India to grow at a bigger rate than China go ..

Tanvir Gill: As Modi govt completes two yrs in office, has perception about India’s growth potential changed, converting naysayers also into believers?

Lord Jim O’Neill: It has been a shift to the positive that primarily took place in the early days of the Modi administration. Along with the evidence that India is seemingly growing by between 7 and 8 per cent, the answer is yes people have become more optimistic. There remains many questions as to whether India can actually turn out into something depends on what happens for the next two decades or if its productivity and growth rate gets a big boost. We will have  ..