Inclusiveness and the Progress of Indian States: Evidence from Inclusive Development Index Between 2011 and 2018

Abstract

This article examines the progress of the Indian states in inclusiveness between 2011 and 2018, based on the “Inclusive Development Index” (IDI), which includes many important aspects of the economy and people. The study has followed the broad guidelines of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development—OECD (2008) to construct IDI, and it is based on two pillars of growth—the process and the outcome. The index includes 26 sub-pillars represented by 104 indicators. The weights of the indicators are obtained separately for 2011 and 2018 by applying the principal component analysis at the indicator level, and then a simple average has been computed at the sub-pillar and pillar levels to obtain the composite IDI for the 19 major Indian states. The composite IDI shows that in 2018, while the most inclusive states are Himachal Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh and Kerala, the least inclusive are the states of Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh (UP), Madhya Pradesh (MP), Assam, Jharkhand and Bihar. The performance of the states, however, varies among pillars, sub-pillars and indicators in both 2011 and 2018. The study may help the states to identify their spheres of “low” performance and learn from their “front-runner” peers, so as to take the necessary policy initiatives.