India’s GDP gives us an inflated sense of prosperity
 
印度的GDP给我们一种被夸大了的繁荣感
 
For starters I am not an economist and I don’t want to have a self-defeatist attitude. I genuinely want our nation to prosper. However, when I see Indians brag about India being the 4th largest economy, I can’t help but think whether that actually translates into our relative standard of living compared to other countries. To me, it somewhat seems like priding over having a huge population. Sure, we are able to channel it in a positive direction and our growth story is one to admire but I wonder if we have a long way to go before we compare ourselves to the likes of US, Germany, UK, Japan and even China. Barring China, these countries have been able to generate the same growth with a much smaller population which means their GDP per capita and Purchasing Power Parity (PPP) is waaaay higher than India.
When you look at India on that scale (GDP / capita & PPP), we appear to marginally more prosperous than Bangladesh and below the Philippines. If we hit a 10 trillion economy, we can expect our GDP / capita to start matching Peru, Thailand and Equador. Should we then we be looking at ourselves any differently? Is there a more obxtive way of assessing where we stand? How do global leaders see this comparison?
I am still inspired with the way we’re headed. Would love to hear thoughts from people who would know a lot more about this than I do.
 
首先，我并非经济学家，也不想抱持失败主义的态度。我真心期盼我们的国家能够繁荣。然而，每当我看到印度同胞们吹嘘印度已是第四大经济体时，我总忍不住思考，这是否真正转化为我们相对于其他国家的生活水平的提升。在我看来，这多少有点像仅仅为我们拥有庞大的人口规模而自豪。
当然，我们确实能够将人口优势导向积极的方面，我们的增长故事也值得称赞，但我怀疑，在我们能够与美国、德国、英国、日本乃至中国这样的国家相提并论之前，我们是否还有很长的路要走。要知道，除了中国，这些国家都以远少于我们的人口实现了同等规模的经济增长，这意味着他们的人均GDP和购买力平价（PPP）要比印度高得多。
当我们从人均GDP和购买力平价的维度来审视印度时，我们看起来仅比孟加拉国略微富裕一些，甚至还不如菲律宾。如果我们经济总量能达到10万亿美元，我们的人均GDP预计也才开始与秘鲁、泰国和厄瓜多尔的水平相当。那么，到那时我们是否应该用不同的眼光看待自己呢？有没有更客观的方法来评估我们当前所处的位置？全球的领导者们又是如何看待这种比较的呢？
我依然为我们国家前进的方向感到鼓舞。非常希望能听听那些对此领域比我了解得多的人们的见解。