The India Dialog
Regional insights into India's
performance and outlook
Nirvikar Singh
Economics, UC Santa Cruz and APARC, Stanford
February 23, 2023
2/23/2023 1

A Higher Resolution View of India
•Regional differences within the economic and
social development of the country
•How various states and districts stack up
•Urbanisation and its effect across the country
•How innovation ecosystem differs across states
2/23/2023 2

Economic and social development
2/23/2023 3

By Basavaraj Patel - Own work, CC
BY-SA 4.0,
https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/in
dex.php?curid=89654406
2020-21 PPP
3 Delhi $15,604
4 Chandigarh $13,285
5 Karnataka $10,722
6 Haryana $10,688
7 Telangana $10,480
8 Gujarat $9,650
9 Tamil Nadu $9,620
17 Punjab $6,797
- India –
26 Odisha $4,603
27 Manipur $3,982
28 Assam $3,938
29 Meghalaya $3,837
30 Jharkhand $3,222
31
Uttar
Pradesh
$2,796
32 Bihar $1,976
2/23/2023 4

Functional
tap water
connections
(ESI, 2023)
2/23/2023 5

Out of Pocket
Percentage
of Health
Expenditure
(ESI, 2023)
2/23/2023 6

Aspirational
Districts
2022
(© Maps of India)
2/23/2023 7

Bibek
Debroy &
Laveesh
Bhandari
District
Level
Deprivation
In The New
Millennium
2003
2/23/2023 8

Economic activity and infrastructure
2/23/2023 9

2/23/2023 10
Business
Registration
Density,
2008
Ejaz Ghani
William R. Kerr
Stephen D.
O'Connell
NBER Working
Paper 17514
October 2011

Factory Workers by State (ESI, 2023)
2/23/2023 11

Teledensity
(ESI, 2023)
2/23/2023 12

2/23/2023 13
Indian Manufacturing Entry Rates

2/23/2023 14
Indian Services Entry Rates

Some Conclusions from district-level data
• Local education levels and physical infrastructure quality
promote entry
• Strict labor regulations discourage formal sector entry
• Better household banking environments encourage entry in the
unorganized sector
• Strong agglomeration economies in India‘s manufacturing
sector
2/23/2023 15

Cities
2/23/2023 16

Devesh
Kapur
Why Does
the Indian
State Both
Fail and
Succeed?
Journal of
Economic
Perspectives,
Winter 2020
Minimum Local Government
2/23/2023 17

Municipal Finances
Reserve
Bank of India
REPORT ON
MUNICIPAL
FINANCES
November
2022
2/23/2023 18

Innovation systems
2/23/2023 19

2/23/2023 20
Industrial R&D
Centres
CTIER
Handbook:
Technology
and Innovation
in India
2019
Centre for
Technology,
Innovation and
Economic Research,
Chairman: Naushad
Forbes

2/23/2023 21
Higher
Technology and
Knowledge
Intensive R&D
Centres
CTIER
Handbook:
Technology and
Innovation in
India
2019
Centre for Technology,
Innovation and
Economic Research,
Chairman: Naushad
Forbes

2/23/2023 22
Atal Incubation
Centres (AICs)
&
Established
Incubation
Centres (EICs)
https://aim.gov.in/
atal-incubation-
centres.php

Thank you!
2/23/2023 23