Slam bang in the midst of the pandemic came the news of a conflict arising out of a pending border dispute with China. While this may seem sudden, the economic war for commercial supremacy has been fought continuously since China's liberalisation in 1976 and India's economic liberalisation in 1991, with China becoming much stronger than India today.

China became a $1 trillion economy in 1996 while India touched the same level in the year 2000. Today, 20 years later, India is still at $2.5 trillion, while China overtook this figure long ago, to create a huge gap and has touched $13 trillion now. This is a gap like Usain Bolt and his nearest rival in the 100m race.