India, July 14 -- Drawing attention to the sharp differences in incomes across developing countries, the Nobel-winning economist Robert Lucas had suggested that we should see these differences as possibilities. "Is there some action a government of India could take that would lead the Indian economy to grow like Indonesia's or Egypt's?" Lucas wrote in an oft-cited 1988 paper (the Indian economy was considered a global developmental laggard then). "If so, what, exactly? If not, what is it about the 'nature of India' that makes it so? The consequences for human welfare involved in questions like these are simply staggering: Once one starts to think about them, it is hard to think about anything else."

Looking at the stark differences in in...