The next big Asian country

Who would be next big Asian country of the decade?

In the 1990's, Japan dominated the world, or at least the East. From Panasonic to Daimaru, Toyota to Nintendo, there is no stopping of new Japanese brands popping out every now and then

Even as early as the 80's, there were already significant signs of the booming Japanese economy. The land of the rising sun sort of took the tag as the linchpin of Asia

The Japanese post-war economic miracle is still a well-known historical success. The Ministry of Trade and Industry together with America's investment significantly boosted the economy after World War II

To date, the economy of Japan is still the runner-up, after America in terms of Gross Domestic Product (GDP). When people think of Asia they will think of Japan, I mean twenty years ago

In the first decade of the new millennium, the People's Republic of China rose

It contributes to one-sixth of the world's population, spans more than nine million square kilometres and made the rest of the world start learning its official language

The People's Liberation Army, with 2.3 million troops, is the world's largest military. This is not strange since the country is home to 1.3 billion people

China's economy stands at third behind America and Japan. Its nominal GDP has increased since the early 90's and has since tripled in less than fifteen years. It participates actively in the world market which started the spark that led to a firework

So who's the next big thing?

How about India? One of the core countries that make up Southern Asia, it is the second most populous nation at 1.1 billion people

India's economy is the fourth largest by Purchasing Power Parity (PPP). Since 1990, with the aid of economic reforms, India has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world

In 2003, Goldman Sachs predicted that the land of IT experts will become the third largest economy in the world by 2035, surpassing Germany, Russia and Japan in terms of GDP

With a Prime Minister as smart as Manmohan Singh, there is no reason why India cannot be a worthy challenger to America or China as the next big thing, and I'm talking about the world

Asia has about 4 billion people which amounts to 60% of the world's human population, is the biggest continent on the globe, has the largest economy in terms of PPP, has the highest number of Phd holders and many many more

But America, with a much smaller population and land area will still be the world number one, at least for the next decade