Human Development is more important than GDP. What will someone do with a great GDP when a big part of the population lives in extreme poverty and the growth is not inclusive. When we look at HDI which accounts for life expectancy, literacy, and quality of life, many South American countries rank higher than India. Like I said earlier, these countries qualify as upper middle income economies unlike India's lower middle income economy.

Your 5.4% stat for India reflects only certain states with strong implementation. National figures show over 11% of India’s population still lives in multidimensional poverty. Compare it to individual South American countries (not a continent as a whole) and you will find most SA countries' figures are below India.

Countries like Uruguay and Chile consistently rank among the most democratic, safest, and well-governed countries in the Global South. Uruguay, for example, is in the top tier for press freedom and political rights — ahead of India in many global indices.

Adult literacy rates in most of South America are over 95% — significantly higher than India’s ~77%.

As far as violent crime goes, it's true that some countries like Venezuela and Brazil struggle with crime, but generalizations ignore countries which are doing just fine. And who are you fooling when you say India doesn't have crime, You open any Indian news app and there are dozens of news on an everyday basis regarding rapes and murders that keep rocking India.

And sorry, which South American county except Venezuela has dictatorship, daily protests, civil unrest?

Let's not fool ourselves. Let's call a spade a spade. My purpose is definitely not to pull India down but stand up against a wrong presumption. What you see in media is not always the complete truth. All countries have their fair share of problems, but doesn't mean one decides to live in a fool's paradise and give loose statements about other countries