an analysis for india and china - icrier

Table 7.5 : India’s comparative advantage in terms of factor intensity based on WDI
Category 2000 2003
Resource Intensive 350 404
Human Capital High Technology
Capital Intensive 49 53
Labour Intensive 14 16
Human Capital Labour Intensive 1 1
Human Capital Low Technology 25 26
Human Capital Low Technology Labour Intensive 5 10
Human Capital Medium Technology
Capital Intensive 132 145
Labour Intensive 64 88
Labour Intensive 481 524
No major or significant change is observed in 2003 in comparison to the year
2000, at two or three digit classifications based on factor intensity for India.
A detailed list of all three digit manufactured items with their factor intensity is presented
in the Appendix Table A.16.
7.3 China
In the year 2003, at the HS-six digit level of HS classification there are 1828
items where China enjoys a comparative advantage in the world market. All the 1828
commodities have been mapped onto the SITC – five-digit code. According to the SITC
classification 116 items are classified in the category - Food and Live Animals and 81
items get classified as primary. The remaining 1631 commodities are categorized as
manufactured items and these are then classified according to factor intensity. Observed
trends in China’s international specialization according to factor intensity are as follows.
Factor Intensity Analysis at the Two Digit Level
For the two-digit SITC classification, the labor and resource intensive
commodities dominate. Of the total 1631 manufactured items, 794 items belong to this
category according to the UNCTAD classification. The labour and resource intensive
categories are followed by categories IV, II and III of the UNCTAD classification, in that
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