Infrastructural Development in India: Pre and Post-Reform Inter-State Disparities

The present paper attempts to investigate the extent and determinants of inter-state disparities in socio-economic infrastructure in India during the pre and post-reform period, based on 22 indicators of infrastructural development, across 15 major states of India. The state level composite indices of infrastructural development have been constructed using the correlation weights. On the basis of this analysis, the states have been classified into three different groups according to their level of infrastructural development. The study shows that relative ranking of the states in terms of infrastructural development remained, more or less, the same at all the three reference points (1991-92, 1991-92 and 2001-02). It has also been found that the states in India converged in terms of infrastructural facilities during 1990s whereas a trend of divergence could be seen during 1990s.