(Image source from: China’s stagnation)

Long term stagnation of the Chinese economy can prompt India to play a vital role among the Southeast-Asian countries to become the century’s destination by successfully enacting pro-market reforms. "China may be heading toward long-term stagnation, but if India and the nations of Southeast Asia successfully enact pro-market reforms, it may well be an 'Indian Century'," said Nicholas Eberstadt, Derek Scissors, Dan Blumenthal and Sadanand Dhume from American Enterprise Institute, a US think-tank, in an essay published in the Washington Examiner, this week.

"India is also an oasis of stability in a region broiled by radical Islam. An uptick of violence in Afghanistan, as well as a surge in terrorism and sectarian killings of minority Shiite Muslims in Pakistan, underscores the relative calm of India," they wrote.

"Thanks in part to China's slowdown and its unfavorable demographic future, India has a chance to carve out more space for itself in a rapidly changing Asia," the AEI experts wrote. "A more business-friendly Indian government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi has renewed optimism about a country with more than 1 billion people," it added.

By Premji