new delhi it is that time of the year again when there is talk of two great civilizations meeting the elephant eyeballing the dragon and hindichini bhaibhai bonhomie is being dusted and paraded on the occasion of the prime ministers visit to the peoples republicbuoyed by certain macroeconomic statistics there is much huffing and puffing among the experts and advisers in india and elsewhere that this time round india should grab the opportunity talk tough and get the maximum out of the chinese get better trade deals prise open the market for exports use our strengths to drive bargains so runs the advice while all this would indeed be desirable the hoopla diverts our attention from a fundamental fact good bargains are struck between equals in the case of india and china that is far from being the casetake a look at some basics of the two economies chinas gross domestic product adjusted to the purchasing power of its currency was 533 trillion in 2005 the last year for which comparable data was available this was more than double indias gdp of 234 trillion china has 13 billion people compared to indias 112 billion and the per capita gdp works out to 4091 for china way ahead of indias 2126india exported goods worth 1264 billion last year while chinas exports were nearly eight times more at 969 billion chinas exports exceeded its imports by over 178 billion while for india it was the other way round imports exceeded exports by over 60 billion this sustained trade surplus has led china to accumulate an enormous foreign exchange reserve pegged at about 16 trillion almost 6 times that of indias 276 billion reservesa majority of the people although less and less in china earn their living through agriculture but the difference between the two countries in this crucial sector are stark india produces 108 million tonnes of foodgrain from its 146 million hectares of cultivated land china produces 400 million tonnes of food grain from just 100 million hectares how is this possible simple through more equitable and bettermanaged farming yields in chinese farms are far above the levels found in indiafor instance chinese farmers are able to produce 6233 kilograms rice per hectare which is more than double what the indian farmer can produce 3034 kgha the story is similar for wheat where per hectare production is 2688 kg for india and 4155 kg for china the difference lies not in hard work but in the fact that inputs like water and fertilizers are available machines are available and land holdings are remunerative and most crucially public investment in agriculture is huge in comparisonanother aspect in which india and china differ fundamentally is the condition of the people it is often argued that indias huge population is an obstacle to prosperity but china has a larger population and it is much better off today than indias according to the undps human development report 2007 about 10