Indian start-up entrepreneurs are 88 per cent less ambitious-among the lowest levels of entrepreneurial expectation in the world-than their Chinese counterparts, reveals a global survey of high-growth entrepreneurship done by international accountancy and advisory group Mazars, in collaboration with the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

Running counter to the trend that low-income countries have low entrepreneurial expectations, China, the survey says, tops the entrepreneurial ambition list worldwide, ahead even of the US.

Based on responses from nearly 700,000 people across 53 countries, the survey concludes that while 17 in every thousand adults in China are high-expectation entrepreneurs, it is just two in India.

Moreover, while 47 in every thousand businesses in China can be categorised as established (42 months old, employing 20 or more people), the number in India's case is just seven.

A recent Hewitt survey on salary hikes, too, placed India second to China. "Analysts typically group China and India as fellow emerging economies. However, there are major structural differences between the two countries, not least when it comes to their entrepreneurial base," said David Cho, Partner at Mazars Hong Kong.

Cho further added, "While China's low technology manufacturing base is booming, India's growth is based on medium to high technology products and services, which present greater entry barriers for entrepreneurs. Moreover, China's export-driven economy pushes its entrepreneurs to grow quickly in order to achieve the economies of scale needed to remain competitive."