ABSTRACT
In recent years, the four countries referred to as BRICs (Brazil, China, India and Russia) have attracted significant attention for their outstanding economic development. Of the four, China and India, but particularly China, have significantly outshone their counterparts. There are a number of reasons for this. First of all, both countries have overwhelmingly large populations. In 2010, China’s population reached 1.35 billion and India’s 1.21 billion, placing them in a league apart from the other two BRICs, with Brazil’s population of 200 million and Russia’s 140 million. In fact, the combined population of China and India at 2.56 billion accounts for 37 per cent of the estimated total world population.
