India will catch up with China by the year 2020 in terms of economic growth on the strength of its better efficiency of investments, an Asian Development Bank economist has said.

"India also has an edge over China in service sector," ADB Chief Economist Ifzal Ali, who has taught at Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad and the Delhi School of Economics, told a press briefing on Monday.

Asked whether India would ever catch up with China , Ali replied, "Eventually yes".

He said the current volume of investment in India could not be compared with that in China -- in China it is 40 per cent of the GDP, while in India it is 22 per cent.

"However, the efficiency with which investment is used is higher in India than in China ," he said. The implication is that India is less resource-intensive than China .

Ali did not foresee India becoming the manufacturing platform for the world like China but New Delhi has a comparative advantage over Beijing in the service sector, which is already 50 per cent of the GDP against 22 per cent of the GDP in China .

India 's GDP will continue to be half that of China for the next 5-10 years. But China 's growth rate will start to go down while India 's will go up; so "if you are going as far as 2020, yes" ( India will catch up), he said.