Economists are wary about economies, such as India, that have jumped the development spectrum from agriculture straight to services. They see healthy economic development as needing to progress along a spectrum from agriculture to manufucaturing to services. But the spectrum of economic development is not a fixed path, it is a representation of historic realities. The agri-manuf-serv spectrum that has shaped the success of all developed nations was really just about world economic realities; it was the only path towards economic success AT THAT TIME, not the only path. But economies looking to grow upward in the past few decades have no reason to look to manufacturing. Human resources, which represents the biggest potential for these nations, is more about brain power than muscle power. While this may make eonomists uneasy and some western companies defensive, it is good news for the people in these nations who can skip the middle stage of the development path and hopefully jump right to the high-growth, capital-intensive opportunities that a service-led economy provides.
