Unlike other nations trapped in the middle-income trap, India possesses massive domestic demand. It can easily block imports and rely entirely on domestic manufacturing. Despite inferior quality and high prices, Indians have no alternative—and this poses little real problem. After all, people in the Third World, just like those in the First World, must live and consume. With a population exceeding 1.6 billion, India is poised to develop a massive manufacturing base akin to China's economies of scale. Many nations that deindustrialized prematurely did so precisely because their populations were too small to achieve such scale. India, however, stands apart from these countries.