By Simon Cox, China Economy Editor, The Economist

NArendra Modi, India’s 15th Prime Minister is not a big fan of the first person to do the job. Jawaharlal Nehru, who led India from independence in 1947 until his death in 1964, was an urban socialist who once wrote that the spectacle of organized religion filled him with horror. For him, “the temples of modern India” were dams and other infrastructural marvels. All this is antithetical to Mr. Modi, a raucous Hindu nationalist of modest education. But in their approach to the Indian economy, the two prime ministers share a striking similarity: a heavy reliance on public investment.