You can't simply say that a country has a lot of people and therefore represent a massive economy. India's economy, even today, is comparable to Mexico. Then

You can't simply say that a country has a lot of people and therefore represent a massive economy. India's economy, even today, is comparable to Mexico. Then you take that total output and divide it by the number of people you have, the actual surplus leftover from basic needs like food and shelter is tiny. The US on the other hand, has about 1/4 the population while its economic output is 16x. So each American represent 64x the wealth of the average Indian. If I was selling something, I would rather spend the effort to convince Americans to buy my goods while charging them a ton more than I can charge an Indian. People have often made similar mistakes when assessing China. The same criticism in this paper can be applied to India as well: http://belfercenter.hks.harvard.edu/files/Chinas_Century.pdf http://belfercenter.hks.harvard.edu/files/Chinas_Century.pdf