Regional Diversity of Development in India: Agglomeration, Skills and Access to Finance


Prof. Dr. Krishnan Narayanan, IIT Bombay

This paper takes a look at regional diversity of development in India by studying economic contribution at a regional level and examining the differences and determinants for two time periods, 2004-5 and 2011-12. We calculate value added at the regional level for the first time in India to cover both formal and informal sector output. We carry out a pooled regression to study the determinants of regional value added including diversity and urbanisation, along with skills and access to finance. We choose the region as the unit of analysis with the hypothesis that trends at the region level will be much more dynamic than what one would expect purely through state level analysis. The economic structure of the region and access to finance emerge as significant determinants of regional value added. We find that there are thresholds to diversity in its association with higher levels of regional value added. We further establish the importance of urbanisation and establish the ability of smaller urban centers to act as growth agents, as opposed to the prevalent exclusive focus on million plus cities.



About the speaker

Prof. Dr. Krishnan Narayanan obtained his Ph.D in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India, and carried out Post-doctoral research at Institute of Advanced Studies United Nations University, Japan.  His research interests and publications are in the field of industrial competitiveness, technology transfer, ICT, international trade and socio-economic impacts of Climate Change. The research journals where he has published include Research Policy, Journal of Regional Studies, Technovation, Oxford Development Studies, Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, Water Policy, and Economic and Political Weekly. He has jointly edited 5 books relating to globalization, investments, skills and technology. He also guest edited Special Issues of journals: the IASSI Quarterly, Science, Technology and Society, and Innovation and Development. He is actively engaged in a web based research group, Forum for Global Knowledge Sharing, which interfaces Scientists, Technologists and Economists.  Narayanan is currently Institute Chair Professor at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, Mumbai, INDIA.



Date: 24 April 2017

Time: 12:00 - 13:00  CET


UNU-MERIT