IMI , you bring up a great point about the population of these two countries. It will be interesting to see how this impacts their power in the long run. Conventional thinking tends to say such large populations are a liability. The biggest challenge both countries have is to ensure they have a manageable population. I don't want to get into too much details, but, with the West aging faster than India and China, these large populations which would normally be thought of as liability, could in fact turn out to be quite the opposite. The West will need younger people from emerging economies to do their work. Maybe that will be the thing that finally pulls millions out of poverty - something neither the communists in China nor the Nehruvian socialists in India could do on their own.