The economies of the People’s Republic of China and India are emerging-market economies, which account for more than a third of the global population. These two economies share many similarities in that they are large populous neighbours, who were regarded as abjectly poor countries until the 1980s and both are ancient cultures which has both advantages and disadvantages for economic development. However, their political systems are very different. While India is an open democratic society, China is a closed society run in an authoritarian manner by the Chinese Communist Party. This dissimilarity impacts on the economic decision making process in the two economies.