Much ado about nothing but fantasy

Here comes the latest on China and India. This one's from American financial services company Citi. It says India, thanks to its robust growth, is expected to surpass China - and the United States - by 2050 to become the largest economy in the world. Of course, China is expected to overtake the US to become the largest economy by 2020.

The paeans India has received for its fast economic growth (and because it is a democracy) are not new. Nor are the global efforts to pit it against China. For years, the world has been speaking about China and India in the same breath. The comparisons have been flying thick and fast.

This time, Citi bases its projection on purchasing power parity (PPP), an economic growth indicator that considers the purchasing power of a country's currency rather than the prevailing exchange rate conversion. It says the Indian economy would be worth $85.97 trillion on PPP basis by 2050 from $3.92 trillion in 2010.