INDIA IN 2020

As China looks to wean its economy off a heavy dependence on investment and exports, India is embarking on the very same growth model that could see the South Asia nation assuming the role of the world's factory floor within the next decade.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has articulated in recent speeches and through policy actions that Asia's third largest economy is in need of a growth model which centers on export-oriented manufacturing, heavy infrastructure building and urbanization.

This suggests a shift from India's current services-driven growth trajectory to an East Asian growth model based on the mass deployment of labor and capital.

If India succeeds, it has the potential to become the factory of the world.

As China gets off the model, it creates space for a country like India, with cheaper labor, to become a manufacturing hub.

The East Asian growth model is a well-trodden path by countries from Japan to China to generate and sustain rapid economic expansion.The paradigm, however, has eluded India, which leaped from an agriculture-focused to a service-dominated economy, by passing a manufacturing-led growth phase.

Manufacturing accounts for 15 percent of India's gross domestic product (GDP), while the services sector contributes about 60 percent.

It's all good to have the software industry and Bollywood, but it doesn't generate enough jobs. You have this peculiar situation where 60 percent of the economy is generated by services, but it only employs 28 percent of the workforce. Agriculture, which is 14 percent of the economy, accounts for 50 percent of employment.