Oxford Debate: 'China Is Still Growing Fast, It Will Be Difficult for India to Catch Up'

February 5, 2025 – In this Oxford Debate, participants debate the motion "India is ready to replace China as the engine of global growth". Arguing in favor of the motion are Alicia García Herrero, chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis; and Rohit Lamba, assistant professor of Economics at Cornell University. Arguing against the motion are Rajat Kathuria, dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at the Shiv Nadar University; and Santosh Mehrotra, visiting professor at the Centre for Development Studies at the University of Bath. Nico Luchsinger, executive director at Asia Society Switzerland, moderates the debate.

About Oxford Debates

The Oxford Debates at Asia Society Switzerland are a format to address 'big' questions that have no one answer or solution but are inviting many conflicting views. Four renowned experts in the field form teams of two, one team arguing for the motion, the other against it.

The Oxford-style format is broken down into four sections: opening remarks, rebuttals, a moderated question-and-answer session, and closing remarks. Before and after the debate the audience is polled whether they agree with the motion or not. The voting breakdown is not shared publicly until the end of the debate. The greater percentage change between the first and second votes determines the debate's winning team.

After the debate, there is a 15-minute debriefing during which the speakers reflect on the arguments and discussion.

Disclaimer: Positions presented in the debate do not necessarily represent the speakers' views

Motion: India is ready to replace China as the engine of global growth

Arguing in favor of the motion:

Alicia García Herrero is the Chief Economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis. She also serves as Senior Fellow at European think-tank Bruegel and as non-resident Research Fellow at National University of Singapore's think tank, East Asia Institute. She is currently an Adjunct Professor at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Finally, Alicia is a member of the Advisory Committee for Economic Affairs of the Spanish Government as well as an advisor to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s research arm.

In previous years, Alicia held the following positions: Chief Economist for Emerging Markets at Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria (BBVA), Member of the Asian Research Program at the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), Head of the International Economy Division of the Bank of Spain, Member of the Council to the Executive Board of the European Central Bank, Head of Emerging Economies at the Research Department at Banco Santander, and Economist at the International Monetary Fund. As for her academic career, Alicia has served as visiting Professor at John Hopkins University (SAIS program), China Europe International Business School (CEIBS) in Shanghai and Carlos III University in Madrid.

Alicia holds a Ph.D. in Economics from George Washington University and has published extensively in refereed journals and books (see her publications in ResearchGate, Google Scholar, SSRN or RePEc). Alicia is also very active in international media (BBC, Bloomberg, CNBC or CNN) as well as in social media (LinkedIn and Twitter).

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Rohit Lamba is an economist. He is Assistant Professor of Economics at Cornell University. Before, he was a Visiting Assistant Professor at New York University Abu Dhabi and Assistant Professor of Economics at Penn State University. He received a PhD in economics from Princeton University and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Cambridge. He publishes regularly in leading academic journals and newspapers. He has also worked as an economist at the office of the chief economic adviser to the Government of India. Together with Raghuram Rajan, he is co-author of the book Breaking the Mold: Reimagining India's Economic Future.

Arguing against the motion:

Rajat Kathuria is the Dean of the School of Humanities and Social Sciences and Professor of Economics at Shiv Nadar Institution of Eminence, Delhi NCR. He is the former Director and Chief Executive of the Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER). He worked with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India during its initial years. He was the Co-Chair of the T20 Digital Task Force under India's G20 Presidency.

Rajat has over 20 years of experience in teaching and 25 years of experience in economic policy, besides research interests on a range of issues relating to regulation and competition policy. He has worked with the World Bank, Washington DC as a Consultant and carried out research assignments for a number of international organizations, including ILO, UNCTAD, LirneAsia, World Bank, and ADB. He has published in international and national journals, besides in popular magazines and newspapers. He is a founder member of the Broadband Society for Universal Access and has served on the Boards of the Delhi Management Association and the Micro Finance Institutional Network of India. He is on several government and industry committees and has been on the research advisor council of SBI. He has an undergraduate degree in Economics from St. Stephens College, a Masters from Delhi School of Economics, and a Ph.D. degree from the University of Maryland, College Park.

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Santosh Mehrotra is a Visiting Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, University of Bath, UK, and a Research Fellow at the IZA Institute of Labour Economics, Bonn, Germany. Previous roles include Professor of Economics and Chair of the Centre for Informal Sector and Labour at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, until 2020, and Director-General of the National Institute of Labour Economics Research and Development, Planning Commission (in the rank of Secretary, Government of India) until August 2014.

He spent 15 years with the UN (1991-2006) in research positions, heading UNICEF’s global research programme on social/economic policy at the Innocenti Research Centre, Florence, and as chief economist of the global Human Development Report New York. He is a human development economist, and his research interests have spanned industry and trade issues, the impact of macroeconomic policy on health and education, labour and the informal sector, and the economics of health and education. He is the author and editor of several books, among them Seizing the Demographic Dividend: Polices to Achieve Inclusive Growth in India (Cambridge University Press, 2016) and Reviving Jobs: An Agenda for Growth (Penguin India, 2020). He is a frequent commentator in the mainstream Indian press.

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