Resident Senior Fellows, Vivek Dehejia and Praveen Chakravarty, gave a lecture on regional divergence in India, at a seminar organised by IIT Bombay on the 22nd of August, 2017.

There is now a new ‘Idea of India’. An India that is marked by large and widening divergence amongst major States, in terms of income per person as well as in social indicators. An India that is growing further apart economically, socially and demographically. Our research establishes that the divergence among India’s large States skyrocketed after the period 1990/1, suggesting a link with the liberal economic reforms initiated at that time. This ‘new’ India demands a drastic shift towards maximum regional autonomy. A ‘one nation one policy’ paradigm can fan fissiparous tendencies in a diverse polity and create sub-nationalism fault lines.

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