This week in The Fin podcast, South-East Asia correspondent Emma Connors on how India is poised to overtake China as the world's most populous nation, why this historic shift will change the balance of power and what it means for the global economy and Australia's trade with the region.

Background reading:

• China’s drop in births triggers a new global challenge China is facing a demographic crisis after deaths outstripped births last year for the first time since the country was ravaged by famine under Mao Zedong’s rule in the 1960s.
• Why Australia needs India more than ever (in five charts) Not since China’s rapid rise in the 1990s have people been so excited about what the Australian DFAT describes as an ‘unprecedented economic opportunity’.
• Modi’s India: Condoms, contradictions and global ambitions In April, India will pass China to become the world’s biggest country by population, and it’s flexing its muscles from the G20 stage.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.