New Delhi, Sep 4 - India has only now begun to tap its 25-million diaspora in 130 countries to boost its growth, unlike China that owes much of its economic miracle to the overseas Chinese, says a study released Friday.

'Indian companies have tapped into the Indian diaspora less well than the Chinese firms into the Chinese diaspora,' says Tarun Khanna, professor at the Harvard Business School and a contributor to the study called The Global Indian Firm.

'Thankfully, this has started to change, with India's attention drawn by successes of Indians in Silicon Valley and, prior to the current meltdown on Wall Street, as well as in diaspora communities around the world,' Khanna says.

'But it is still early days in tapping this global resource.'

According to Khanna, who has done several comparative studies on the two emerging economies, the post-1978 Chinese economic miracle was partly catalysed by overseas Chinese.

'Wooing the diaspora was a deliberate act that paid enormous dividends (to the Chinese).