> How you organize your society matters much more, Japan/SK has fraction of the global population, and somehow maintain their economic importance.

They maintain their importance by being creditor nations, i.e. they are productive and save.

> India has all the problems of a democracy without much of the benefit. It's more likely that India becomes a CCP style country than stays a democracy.

There is a fundamental distrust of power structures in India. This is due to multiple waves of colonization by foreign powers, first by the Mughals and second by the British East India Company.

India is likely to be a liberal democracy far longer than the United States. It’s current fascination with populism doesn’t necessarily lead to authoritarianism. Rather it is giving a voice to the most disenfranchised in a country, typically those who are now economically obsoleted by automation.

> If India was so great it's smaller immediate neighbor wouldn't be so hostile towards it, and friendly to CCP.

That is due to political history and infighting between secular and religious figures in India’s independence movement.