For India it is very simple to find a possibility of POD, I mean Nehru and his daughter weren't socialist who believe in regulations, beaurocracy, and other things which later created the "License Raj" and "Hindi model of growth"(the last term is purely untrue in my opinnion, because a sluggish economic development in India during the License Raj was a result of economic/regulation/institutional environment, not some "genetic" traits of indian culture). So free market, no regulations, and seeking inspiration not in the Soviet Union, but in Japan and later in other "tigers". For China a POD for a bad condition is also a simple one, Deng didn't get power, and some hardline maoists remained in charge. With a some particular bad luck China might have even evolved into a bigger North Korea.