In the standard Asian growth playbook, governments stimulate exports, hold down the value of their currencies and repress the financial industry. East Asian tigers like Taiwan and Korea ensured that domestic savings were captive and then funneled them, at low interest rates, to export industries. Today China is doing much the same.

India is going its own way. Alone among Asian powerhouses, New Delhi often runs trade deficits, meaning it is developing a strong domestic market. In the last two years, the Reserve Bank of India...