These economies are often treated as broadly similar in terms of growth potential and other features.
But there are crucial differences between the two economies which render such similarities very superficial
India was a “mixed economy” with large private sector, so essentially capitalist market economy with the associated tendency to involuntary unemployment.
China was mostly a command economy, which until recently had a very small private sector; there is still substantial state control over macroeconomic processes in forms that have differed from more conventional capitalist macroeconomic policy.
China: Officially 4 per cent of the population now lives under the poverty line, unofficially around 12 per cent. (Reflects earlier asset redistribution and basic needs provision in China under communism, plus larger mass market and recent role of agricultural prices.)
India: Official poverty ratio much higher and persistent, currently 28 per cent. Food deprivation is much higher.