TheE competitiveness gap between India and China might be large and looming, but between India's rich and poor States, the hiatus is far more pronounced, thereby weakening the competitive impulses for manufacturing growth. This is happening when manufacturing is the greatest potential and key to provide high-wage employment for India's hefty percentage of the labour force now working in agriculture. This is the broad conclusion of an updated survey just released, titled 'India: Investment Climate Assessment 2004 Improving Manufacturing Competitiveness' of the World Bank, based on firm-level data from the joint World Bank CII Investment Climate Survey (ICS).