With reference to the UK and a country of your choice, discuss the Essay

With reference to the UK and a country of your choice, discuss the limitation of GDP per capita'' as for a basis for comparing living standards between countries and over time - Essay Example In this paper, a comparison will be made of the GDP per capita of the India, a developing nation and the United Kingdom (UK) a developed nation. The state of the country as a whole as a result of this GDP per capita will be the main focus. The differences in income earned between people in the developed world and people in the developing world have been the subject of much research in the past (Maddision, 1983). India is a developing country located in the Indian Ocean. It is a former colony of Great Britain. India has an open market economy. In recent years, there has been much economic liberation such as privatization of former governmentally owned ventures, a reduction in foreign trade and development and deregulation industrially. This linearization was set in motion in the early 1990’s and has worked well to increase the growth rate of the country as a whole. The growth rate of the country has stayed at an approximate 7% every year since the year 1997. India has managed t o accomplish significant economic growth in the past decade or so (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011). The economy of India covers a multitude of things like modern agriculture, traditional village agriculture, a number of different services ad handicrafts. A comparison of GDP by sector in the country showed that whole over half the country works in the agricultural field, it contributes to only 16.1% of the country’s GDP. Industrial activities contribute about 28.6% where as the sevice industry makes up a bulk of the economy contributing 55.3%. All of these values are figures from the year 2010. This is particularly evident in that India has a large percentage of the population who speak English and has become a player in the global field in the export of information technology services and software personnel (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011). In light of the recent economic crisis, India was seen to bounce back in 210 as growth actually went above 8% in 210 and due to a demand for services domestically. In fact, India has the second highest labour force in the world with an approximate 478.3 million wanting to work. The unemployment rate was fairly low compared to the rest of the world in 2010 with it staying at 10.8% (118th place in the world) (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011). Despite doing relatively well on the economic front, India has numerous issues to deal with within the country. Parts of India are becoming increasingly overpopulated, there has been much destruction the environment and there is widespread poverty. A staggering 25% of the country’s population lives in poverty (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011). In addition, corruption seems to plague the country of India. There is also seen to be a lack of physical and social infrastructure in certain parts of the country and there is not enough access to higher education. There is a widespread migration from rural to urban areas dues to a lack of jobs in the agricultural sector (CIA-The World Factboo k, 2011). The GDP per capita of India is about $ 3400 as of 2010. In comparison to the rest of the countries of the world, this is 163rd place. The GDP per capita the UK, on the other hand is $35 100 and was 36th place in the world. This is a marked difference from India and a comparison will be made of these two countries (CIA-The World Factbook, 2011).it has been argued that developed countries such as the UK, already had a much higher lead to economic growth than to developing countries who growth started only relatively recently (Maddison, 1983). The UK is a group of islands located in Western Europe. In stark contrast to India, the GDP contributions by sector are extremely different. Only 0.9% of the GDP comes from agriculture, 22.1% of the GDP is as