Data behind the charts
Every chart of incomes, growth, health, work, electricity and bank accounts in this essay is drawn from the World Bank’s World Development Indicators, fetched on 20 and 21 October 2026 (the data were last updated on 8 October 2026): GDP per capita (current US$), GDP per capita at purchasing power parity (current and constant 2021 international $), GDP growth (annual %), life expectancy at birth, under-five mortality, employment in agriculture, manufacturing value added, access to electricity, and account ownership from the Global Findex survey, for all adults and for women. Where the essay quotes those figures, it quotes the same vintage, so the prose and the charts agree. Other charts use the figures cited in the text, with their sources below.
Incomes and growth
- Mint via Maritime Gateway, 1990 incomes
- The Wire, 1960 incomes
- StatisticsTimes, China vs India (IMF Oct 2025)
- FRED / World Bank, China GDP per capita
- World Bank, GDP per capita, PPP (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.CD)
- World Bank, GDP per capita, PPP, constant 2021 international $ (NY.GDP.PCAP.PP.KD)
- World Bank, International Comparison Program 2021
- Congressional Research Service, report RS22808 on the 2007 revision of China’s PPP estimates
- Chen and Ravallion, China is poorer than we thought, but no less successful in the fight against poverty (World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 4621, 2008)
- Maddison Project Database 2023 (Bolt and van Zanden), via Our World in Data
Xiaogang
- China Daily
- NPR Planet Money
- Big Think
- Beijing Municipal Cultural Heritage Bureau, the Xiaogang contract
- Beijing Daily, the red handprints
- Yan Hongchang’s oral history (China Reform Data)
Coca-Cola
- Ramsey Fahs, China Channel
- WARC
- WION on George Fernandes
- UPI, Coca-Cola returns to India (1993)
- ThePrint, Thums Up
- Thums Up (Wikipedia)
- Coca-Cola Q4 2021 earnings call (Motley Fool transcript)
- Business Today, Thums Up a billion-dollar brand
Shekou
Pilots and the first land auction
- Sebastian Heilmann, Experimentation under Hierarchy (Harvard CID Working Paper 172)
- China Perspectives, on Heilmann’s point to surface
- Shenzhen Government, the first land auction
- Our China Story, New China’s first land auction
- CECC, 1988 amendment to the Constitution
- Gregory Chow, Economic Reform and Growth in China (Annals of Economics and Finance, 2004)
- Aisixiang (Chinese-language article archive), Sichuan’s 1978 enterprise pilots
- China Reform Data (Party history), the Sichuan provincial committee and enterprise autonomy
- 12371.cn (Party portal), Epic of Steel, episode 45, on the Ningjiang advertisement
- 12371.cn (Party portal), how urban reform advanced
- Groves, Hong, McMillan and Naughton, Autonomy and Incentives in Chinese State Enterprises (Quarterly Journal of Economics, 1994)
The 1991 crisis
- 1991 Indian economic crisis (Wikipedia)
- ScienceBlog on the gold pledge
- Business Today, gold and reserves in 2026
Parasite
- The Korea Herald, Bong Joon-ho at Cannes (2019)
- Silverscreen India, the flood and the morning after
- Charlotte J. White, the flooding sequence
South Korea’s export drive
- Douglas A. Irwin, From Hermit Kingdom to Miracle on the Han: Policy Decisions that Transformed South Korea into an Export Powerhouse (NBER Working Paper 29299, 2021)
- Kim Byung-yeon, Body blow to democracy (opinion), Korea JoongAng Daily, 23 March 2017
- Andrei Lankov, Labor activist Chon Tae-il’s death: a wake-up call, Korea Times, 23 January 2011
- Seoul Metropolitan Government, Pyounghwa Market
- Global Nonviolent Action Database (Swarthmore), South Korean workers campaign against apparel sweatshop conditions in Pyunghwa Market, 1969–1970
- Jeon Tae-il (Wikipedia)
Small-scale reservation and labour law
- BCAJ, end of reservation
- Lok Sabha answer, 2008 dereservation
- DC-MSME notifications
- Industrial Disputes Act (Wikipedia)
- PRS Legislative Research, overview of labour law reforms
- PRS Legislative Research, Industrial Relations (Central) Rules, 2026
- PRS Legislative Research, Code on Wages (Central) Rules, 2026
- AZB & Partners, notification of Central Rules under the labour codes
Plant growth
Work and manufacturing
- NASSCOM Strategic Review 2025
- SBI Research on PLFS 2025
- ThePrint on NITI Aayog report
- NBS China, 2025 communiqué
Land: Singur, the Nano and China’s land market
- Tata Nano Singur controversy (Wikipedia)
- Tata Nano (Wikipedia)
- The Tribune, the welcome SMS that drove the Nano to Gujarat
- IANS, how “Suswagatam” began a bond between Ratan Tata and Modi
- Governance Now, Modi’s investment in the Nano project: Re 1 (2010)
- Tata Motors, new plant for the Nano at Sanand inaugurated (2010)
- CAR magazine, the Nano unveiled (2008)
- Business Today, Ratan Tata on the scooter-riding families behind the Nano
- The Tribune, the Nano unveiled at ₹1 lakh (2008)
- The Daily Star, Mamata ends fast over car factory (2006)
- Nandigram violence (Wikipedia)
- IndustryWeek, Siege at India’s Nano car plant (2008)
- IndustryWeek, Tata suspends work on world’s cheapest car (2008)
- Al Jazeera, India’s cheap car plant abandoned (2008)
- Outlook, when Ratan Tata’s Nano dream drowned in Bengal
- Ghatak, Mitra, Mookherjee and Nath, Land acquisition and compensation: what really happened in Singur? (EPW, 2013)
- Ghatak, Mitra, Mookherjee and Nath, the Singur working paper
- LSE South Asia blog, Learning from Singur
- Governance Now, Mamata sworn in as chief minister (2011)
- Autocar Professional, Supreme Court asks Bengal to return Singur land (2016)
- The Pioneer, Singur’s returned land (2019)
- 101Reporters, Singur farmers and the lack of cultivable land
- Outlook Business, Tata Motors to get compensation for Singur
- Business Today, the Singur arbitral award (2023)
- Business Today, the Nano’s sales peak and decline (2018)
- Business Today, Ratan Tata says branding the Nano as cheap was wrong (2015)
- CarAdvice, Nano production peters out (2018)
- Prothom Alo, Suvendu Adhikari sworn in as West Bengal’s first BJP chief minister (2026)
- Business Today, Bengal aims for a Tata return to Singur (2026)
- Lok Sabha answer, Agriculture Census 2015–16
- DAKSH, Access to Justice survey 2015–16
- PRS Legislative Research, the land acquisition bill of 2013
- PRS Legislative Research, proposed amendments to the land law
- Arun Jaitley, on the land ordinance’s lapse (2015)
- Land Administration Law of the People’s Republic of China (Chinese Wikipedia)
- China Daily, the 30-times compensation cap (2012)
- PIIE, local governments in China rely heavily on land revenue
- PIIE, reliance on land revenue drops as the property downturn drags on (2024)
- Yicai, land-sale revenue since 1995 (Chinese)
- Caixin, growth in land-sales revenue slows (2019)
- The Paper, land-sale revenue in 2020 (Chinese)
- Yicai Global, land-sale income falls for a third straight year (2024)
- China News Service, 2025 fiscal data (Chinese)
- Landesa, China survey report 2011
- The Diplomat, More Wukans to come (on the Landesa survey)
- He, Nelson, Su, Zhang and Zhang, Is there an industrial land discount in China? (Becker Friedman Institute)
- China Daily, land-lost farmers (2011)
- Gulf News, In China, migration takes a deadly turn
- Chongqing nail house incident (Wikipedia)
- The most stubborn nail house (Chinese Wikipedia)
- Property Law of the People’s Republic of China (Wikipedia)
Health and literacy
- Marcellus, why China got rich
- Drèze and Sen, Hunger and Public Action (OUP)
- Drèze and Sen comparison table
- Bulletin of the WHO, Consensus during the Cold War: back to Alma-Ata (2008)
- Bulletin of the WHO, interview with Halfdan Mahler (2008)
- Declaration of Alma-Ata (text)
- Zhu et al., decline of the cooperative medical system, Bulletin of the WHO (1989)
- Carrin et al., rural cooperative medical system, Social Science & Medicine (1999)
- ILO, towards universal health insurance in rural China
- Liu et al., government-funded healthcare in China (BMJ blog)
- Rural Health Systems Delegation, Rural Health in the People’s Republic of China (Fogarty International Center, NIH, 1980)
- Perry and Rohde, The Jamkhed Comprehensive Rural Health Project and the Alma-Ata vision of primary health care, American Journal of Public Health (2019)
- Comprehensive Rural Health Project, Jamkhed
- Strodel and Perry, The National Village Health Guide Scheme in India, Human Resources for Health (2019)
IIT and the first election
Hukou and left-behind children
- UNICEF China, What the 2020 Census Can Tell Us About Children in China
- China Development Brief, the status of China’s migrant children
- UNICEF China, a grandmother raising left-behind children
- Population and Development Review, migrant and left-behind children 2000–2020
- China Daily via gov.cn, reform makes it easier for migrants to gain city hukou (3 August 2024)
- Xinhua via gov.cn, 50 million rural residents registered in cities since 2019 (27 May 2024)
- Ministry of Public Security press conference on household registration (27 May 2024)
Kerala
- Kerala Museum, women’s education in the colonial era (the 1817 rescript)
- Deccan Chronicle, the 1817 proclamation
- Gowri Parvati Bayi (Wikipedia)
- Literacy in India (Wikipedia), Census 2011 rates
- MoSPI, Periodic Labour Force Survey quarterly bulletin, January–March 2024
Batteries, solar, rail, chips
- Henry Sanderson Q&A, The China Project
- SNE Research data via AutoPunditz
- REN21, China’s share of energy-tech manufacturing
- China high-speed rail at 50,000 km
- Business Standard, India’s bullet train
- Asia Times, Huawei Mate 60
- Business Standard, DeepSeek and Nvidia
- Daily Economic News, CATL and BMW Brilliance (July 2018)
- Daily Economic News, Johann Wieland on CATL (September 2018)
- Yicai, who incubated CATL
- Caixin, BMW’s prepayment to CATL
Power and the grid
- Report of the Enquiry Committee on the grid disturbances of 30 and 31 July 2012 (via Prayas)
- Christian Science Monitor / AP, the world’s biggest blackout (2012)
- Christian Science Monitor / AP, power restored, cause unclear (2012)
- 2012 India blackouts (Wikipedia)
- List of major power outages (Wikipedia)
- India TV News / PTI, 200 miners stuck in West Bengal mines rescued (2012)
- Sowetan Live, blackout strands 200 Indian coal miners (2012)
- World Bank, access to electricity (% of population)
- Min and Golden, Electoral cycles in electricity losses in India, Energy Policy (2014)
- University of Michigan, Brian Min’s Power and the Vote
- Business Today / Reuters, China’s 2021 power shortages
- Fox Business / AP, flashlights and generators in China’s north-east (2021)
- Mining.com / Bloomberg, Toyota and CATL shut plants in Sichuan (2022)
- Climate Home News, Sichuan’s hydropower in the 2022 heatwave
- Sinica, Dan Wang on the engineering state
- T&D World / Bloomberg, the world’s biggest ultra-high-voltage line (2019)
- Powerline, the Changji–Guquan ±1,100 kV project (2019)
- S&P Global, China’s 2025 power use tops 10 trillion kWh
- China Daily (citing Xinhua), China’s power usage hits 10 trillion kWh
- pv magazine, China adds 315 GW of solar in 2025
- CREA and Global Energy Monitor, Built to peak: coal power expansion runs out of room in China (2026)
- IANS, India’s installed capacity reaches 552 GW (2026)
- Business Today, the integrated grid and the southern states (2014)
- National Grid (India) (Wikipedia)
- PIB, power-sector fact sheet (February 2025)
- Lok Sabha answer on energy deficits, 2009–12
- Energetica India, peak demand in April–June 2026
- Deccan Herald, the 270.82 GW peak (2026)
- Leisang (Wikipedia)
- Powerline, the last unelectrified village (2018)
- FactChecker, why Leisang has relapsed into darkness
- Rajya Sabha answer on Saubhagya (February 2025)
- CEEW, State of Electricity Access in India (2020)
- CEEW, India Residential Energy Survey 2020 press release
China’s strains
Steel and the safeguard duty
- Reuters via New Straits Times, China’s 2025 trade surplus
- GMK Center, China’s 2025 steel exports
- Outlook Business, India’s three-year safeguard duty
- Argus, India extends import duties on flat steel
- Outlook Business, India Inc torn over the steel duty
iPhones in India
Aadhaar and Tembhli
- Governance Now (PTI), Tembhli Live: tribal village basks in UID glory (2010)
- Governance Now, ten adivasis get UID number (2010)
- Governance Now, PM and Sonia launch UID from a Maharashtra village (2010)
- UIDAI, ten million Aadhaar numbers (2011)
- The Hindu (via PressReader), first Aadhaar recipient recalls a ‘false show’ of publicity (2024)
- Deccan Herald, first Aadhaar recipient laments show of publicity (2024)
- Business Standard, India’s first Aadhaar holder locked out of welfare (2025)
- ETV Bharat, first Aadhaar holder finally gets Ladki Bahin benefits (2025)
- UIDAI, Aadhaar (Enrolment and Update) Regulations 2016
- Aadhaar (Wikipedia)
- UIDAI, enrolment dashboard
- Nandan Nilekani (Wikipedia)
- Rekhta Dictionary, angooth and angooth-chhaap
Jan Dhan, UPI and bank accounts
- Guinness World Records, most bank accounts opened in one week
- Outlook Money, Jan Dhan completes 12 years (2026)
- Unified Payments Interface (Wikipedia)
- Business Today, ten years of UPI (2026)
- YourStory, UPI completes ten years (2026)
- YourStory, UPI crosses a billion transactions a month (2019)
- Benzinga, UPI transactions in FY23 (NPCI)
- Business Standard, digital payment volumes (Lok Sabha reply)
- Department of Financial Services, digital payments
- ACI Worldwide, Prime Time for Real-Time 2024 (Business Wire release)
- World Bank, Global Findex: account ownership
- World Bank, Global Findex: account ownership, women
- Outlook Money, inactive accounts in India (Findex 2025)
- Outlook Business, PhonePe and Google Pay fall below 80 percent (2026)
- Business Today, NPCI extends the market-share cap deadline
Exclusion and privacy
- Scroll.in, Santoshi Kumari (2017)
- The Wire, the Jharkhand death and the malaria claim (2017)
- Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar, Identity Verification Standards in Welfare Programs (NBER WP 26744)
- Muralidharan, Niehaus and Sukhtankar, Building State Capacity: Evidence from Biometric Smartcards in India (NBER WP 19999)
- Supreme Court Observer, the fundamental right to privacy
- Down To Earth, Supreme Court upholds Aadhaar (2018)
- The Asian Age, Aadhaar valid but no phone or bank link (2018)
- LiveLaw, the Aadhaar judgment
China’s wallets
- TechNode, Alipay’s ten years (2014)
- WeChat red envelope (Wikipedia)
- WeChat Pay (Wikipedia)
- Retail Banker International, China creates a new clearing house
- The Asset, Jack Ma on the pawnshop mentality (2020)
- CNBC, Ant Group IPO in Shanghai suspended (2020)
- Al Jazeera, what Ant’s frozen IPO says about business in China (2020)
- China Digital Times, authorities stop the Ant IPO (2020)
Further reading
- Joe Studwell, How Asia Works (2013)
- Dan Wang, Breakneck (2025)
- Amartya Sen and Jean Drèze, Hunger and Public Action (1989)
How this was made
Set in Fraunces, Source Serif 4, JetBrains Mono and Noto Serif SC, all open-source typefaces. Charts are drawn with d3 from the open data above. The essay’s prose lives in a database and is revised like code: every change is a reviewed diff.