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Regional disparities in economic development UPSC| Contemporary Issues | Geography of India

What is the region?

A geographical area that is homogeneous in character is called a region.
For examples,
  • The plain region, coastal region, plateau region, deserts region, developed region, underdeveloped region, developing region, etc.
In India, from an economic development perspective, region means states, union territories, districts, or special focus areas such as coastal regions, Islands, North East regions, Hilly areas, etc.

What are regional disparities and Regional Imbalance?
Regional disparity or imbalance means disparities in socio-economic developmental parameters such as per capita income, literacy rate, availability of health and education facilities,  basic infrastructure availability, and levels of industrialization between the different regions.
Regional disparities mean differences in the level of development in different regions.
In India, we generally measure the regional disparities between the two states or regions within the state.
For example, 
  • South India Vs North India
  • Western UP vs Purvanchal 
Types of regional disparities:

Following are the types of regional disparities:
  • Between nations, global inequalities.
  • Between states, inter-state disparities.
  • intra-state, intra-state disparities
  • rural-urban disparity

Cause of regional disparity in India:
The following factors are responsible for the regional disparity in India.
  • Historical factors
  • Geographical factors
  • Political factors
  • Location-specific factors
  • Socio-cultural factors

Historical factors:
  • During the British period, the British developed only three cities which are Bombay, Calcutta, and Madras, keeping the rest of the other parts of the country away from development. Due to this, development happened rapidly in these three cities.
  • His development policy focused only on the exploitation of resources and not on regional development.


Geographical factors:
  • Some areas have greater geographical advantages such as availability of water, plains, close to the sea, and access to waterways; Such favorable geographical advantages make some areas more developed than other places (hill areas, deserts, wastelands, etc.).
  • Coastal states have a greater geographical advantage (due to the availability of ports) than non-coastal states, as a result, they trade abroad and are more developed. The coastal states of India are an example of this.
  • Adverse climate and proneness to disasters like floods, cyclones, earthquakes, etc are the most responsible factors for the poor rate of development.

Political factors:
  • Some regional governments implement development policies more effectively than other regions, so they are more developed.
  • Land policy laws and family planning policies have been implemented more effectively in the southern state than in the northern state. For this reason today the southern states of India are more developed than the northern states.

Location-specific advantage and availability of technology:

Some regions develop very rapidly because one or more of the following benefits are obtained from them -
  • proximity to the special economic zone
  • proximity to market
  • port access
  • Availability of basic propulsion industries and firms
  • availability of new technology

Socio-cultural factors:
  • Social peace and harmony are the keys to development. Areas with peaceful societies are more developed.
  • People's participation is important in the development of the state. Tribal people generally do not believe in saving money, while some societies of Gujarat and Rajasthan regions believe in saving money, they invest and earn. For this reason, the area in which they live is more developed.
Problems of Regional disparities :
The overall economic development of countries is negatively affected by the regional disparity in the following ways:
  • Unplanned migration
  • Social tension
  • Conflict with local people
  • Some resources left unutilized
  • growth of left-wing extremists
  • Political instability in backward areas.
  • The parallel government in underdeveloped areas.
  • Weakness in national integrity


Measures to remove regional inequality:

  • The first step, need to identify the backward areas and types of backwardness( such as lacking basic infrastructure, lacking industries, low income,  etc).
  • Listing the availability of the local resources in the identified backward region.
  • If basic resources such as water, transport network, security, and infrastructure are lacking, then need to provide the same first.
  • Suitable economic planning and implementation should be done based on the availability of local resources.

Try to solve the following questions:
  • What are the main causes of regional disparities in the level of development in India? (66th BPSC geography)
  • Discuss the growth of regional planning in India and account for regional disparities in development. (UPSC)
  • Explain in detail the impact of regional disparities on economic development. ( UPSC 2022, 15 marks)
  • Why are there regional disparities in the regional development in India? ( 65th BPSC geography)

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