PENTAGON-INDIA 2

Noting that India could more than quadruple its wealth
over the course of the next two decades, but large swaths of
its population would likely to remain in poverty through the
2030s, it said "like China, this will create tensions between
the rich and the poor."
Such tension, added to the divides among its religions
and nationalities, could continue to have implications for
economic growth and national security, the report said.
India would grow by 320 million during the next quarter
of a century. The tensions that arise from a growing divide
between rich and poor could seriously impact its potential for
further economic growth, it added.
"While China's rise represents the most significant
single event on the international horizon since the collapse
of the Soviet Union, it is not the only story.
Steady, if not rapid, economic growth appears to be the
norm for much of the world over the coming decades, providing
that sufficient energy remains available to fuel that growth
and the financial crisis can be resolved," it said.
"Russia and India are both likely to become richer,
although Russia's strength is fragile, resting as it does on
unfavourable demographic trends, a single-commodity economy
based on hydrocarbon extraction, and a lack of serious
investment in repairing its crumbling infrastructure," the
report said. MORE PTI