Urban Primacy in Southern India: Industrial Policies and Outcomes
Kala Seetharam Sridhar
Abstract
The southern states of India are more urbanised than their northern counterparts. The newly carved state of Telangana in southern India has severe urban primacy as the biggest city there (Hyderabad) is nearly 10 times the size of the second biggest city (Warangal). Karnataka too is characterised by severe primacy given that Bengaluru is more than 10times the size of the second biggest city, Mysuru. Tamil Nadu, the most urbanised state of India, has less severe primacy with its capital city Chennai being four times the size of its second biggest city. Given their urban primacy, the research questions we answer in this paper are:
1. What has been the policy approach of these states to industrial development?
2. Is the urban primacy observed in the population of the largest city in these states reflected in terms of the spatial dispersion of employment and industry across these states, as an outcome of their industrial policies?
To answer question one, we reviewed the industrial policies of the three southern states— Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Telangana. Our examination of the policies of the government of Tamil Nadu over time shows that balanced regional development was recognized as a goal for a long time. Karnataka did recognise balanced regional development as a vision, but its industrial policies included a lot of emphasis on Bengaluru too, in addition to that on the smaller cities. We found the industrial policy statements of the government of Telangana do not make any reference to balanced regional development as a goal.
To answer question two, we review the full spatial distribution of industry and employment in the southern states characterised by high primacy, beyond the top cities. We find that while Tamil Nadu has been somewhat successful, Telangana is moderate, but Bengaluru is the worst in terms of economic primacy. The policy suggestions are summarised.