India and China the two greatest civilizations were first and second in terms of National GDP at around the beginning of
AD. It is a fantasy as these economies are out to regain their glorious past as the strongest economies something like 2000 years ago which were destroyed due to human greed, lust for power and destructive desires of colonialism. The GDP vs. year by Source: Angus Maddison. 2001. The World
Economy: A Millennial Perspective. OECD, Paris. Shown by World Bank Team at a CII workshop to discuss the prospects and potential of knowledge economy in India. The graph also shows the time when Indian economy starts plunging downwards coinciding with the fall of Mogul Empire around 1700 and start of the colonial rule of British. The graph also shows that around the same time Chinese economy starts going down and American Economy starts going up around 1850. The executive summary of the report lists Strengthening the economic and institutional regime, Developing educated and skilled workers, and Creating an efficient innovation system and Building a dynamic information infrastructure as the key to growth of knowledge economy of India. It further says that moving ahead with such an ambitious agenda in any country
requires raising awareness among all stakeholders on the need and plans for embarking on such a transformation. It requires a “virtuous cycle” between growth and the reform process. But moving to a knowledge economy is not only about stimulating such a reform agenda from the top. What is needed is trial-and-error experimentation on what works and what does not in the Indian context, using a bottom-up approach. The government should thus put in place robust mechanisms to facilitate, monitor, and scale up successful bottom-up initiatives.
URL for complete report is given below to get the WB report worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/WBI/WBIPROGRAM S/KFDLP/0,,contentMDK:20552872~menuPK:46123 8~pagePK:64156158~piPK:64152884~theSitePK:461198,00.html