Do Citizens want more policemen around?

The City Skyline of India captures citizen’s views from a sample of 10,000 residents across a hundred
cities. The dwellers were asked a question relating to need for more policemen. On a scale of 5 (agree
strongly, agree somewhat, adequate, disagree somewhat and disagree strongly), the results were
interesting.
The most unsafe (by dwellers’ perception) appear to be
Agree Strongly that
they need more
State City policemen (%)
Andhra Pradesh Urban Areas in Rangareddi 85
Gujarat Rajkot 54
Punjab Amritsar 51
Assam Guwahati 50
Maharashtra Mumbai 49
Punjab Ludhiana 48
Uttar Pradesh Kanpur 48
Jharkhand Dhanbad 47
West Bengal Haora 47
Kerala Kochi 47

The least unsafe (by dwellers’ perception) appear to be

Disagree Strongly
that they need more
State City policemen (%)
Jharkhand Jamshedpur 14
Uttar Pradesh Kanpur 11
Jharkhand Dhanbad 11
Maharashtra Kolhapur 10
Tamil Nadu Salem 10
Haryana Faridabad 9
Madhya Pradesh Indore 8
Uttar Pradesh Ghaziabad 8
Maharashtra Pune 7
Gujarat Surat 7

Source: City Skyline of India

How does Delhi compare with other cities of India?
New Delhi, India’s capital is one of the fastest growing city-markets in the country. What was
essentially a sleepy capital has today become India’s most important market. An aggressive city,
cosmopolitan, and increasingly becoming westernized, Delhi’s people are individualistic, highly
entrepreneurial, and experimental. Aided initially by a large number of government employees, the
Delhi immigrants from Pakistan, the economic success of the agricultural belt in North western India,
and a large presence of small industries, Delhi today has very high affluence levels. For many
commodities such as automobiles, Delhi is India’s largest market.
A few snapshots of Delhi
Proportions of high income households

Relative city ranking of Delhi

Source: City Skyline of India

Emerging Growth Centres in India
The fastest growing Districts in India between 2001-02 and 2006-07

The fastest (grew above 16% pa)

State Himachal Pradesh Gujarat Uttaranchal Jharkhand
District Kinnaur Dohad Champawat Sahibganj

The fast (grew between 12 and 16% pa)

State District
Gujarat Jamnagar
Uttaranchal Pithoragarh
Arunachal Pradesh Tawang
Haryana Gurgaon
Manipur Imphal East
Gujarat Gandhinagar
Nagaland Tuensang
Uttaranchal Almora
Jharkhand Deoghar
Jharkhand Bokaro
Nagaland Mon
Jharkhand Giridih
Bihar Khagaria
Meghalaya West Garo Hills
Gujarat Bhavnagar
Jharkhand Palamu
Uttar Pradesh Gautam Buddha Nagar
Chandigarh Chandigarh
Manipur Thoubal
Arunachal Pradesh Papum Pare
Chhattisgarh Raigarh
Gujarat Navsari
Nagaland Zunheboto
Manipur Chandel
Himachal Pradesh Solan
Maharashtra Nanded
The Indian Market on the Basis of District GDP

Top districts in India on the Top districts in India on the Top districts in India on the
basis of GDP basis of Agricultural GDP basis of Manufacturing GDP

Mumbai Mumbai
Maharashtra (Suburban) West Bengal Medinipur Maharashtra (Suburban)
Maharashtra Thane Maharashtra Nanded Gujarat Ahmadabad
Karnataka Bangalore Andhra Pradesh West Godavari Gujarat Surat
Maharashtra Pune West Bengal Barddhaman Maharashtra Thane
Maharashtra Mumbai Gujarat Bhavnagar Maharashtra Pune
Gujarat Ahmadabad Andhra Pradesh East Godavari Karnataka Bangalore
Tamil Nadu Chennai Kerala Wayanad Tamil Nadu Coimbatore
North 24
West Bengal Parganas Punjab Sangrur Maharashtra Mumbai
Gujarat Surat West Bengal Jalpaiguri Gujarat Rajkot
North West
West Bengal Kolkata Gujarat Surat Delhi Delhi
North West
Delhi Delhi Maharashtra Jalgaon Gujarat Vadodara
Andhra Pradesh Hyderabad Andhra Pradesh Guntur Haryana Gurgaon
West Bengal Barddhaman West Bengal Murshidabad Tamil Nadu Chennai
West Bengal Medinipur Uttar Pradesh Kheri Maharashtra Nagpur
Tamil Nadu Coimbatore Andhra Pradesh Nellore Maharashtra Nashik
South 24
West Bengal Parganas Uttar Pradesh Muzaffarnagar Gujarat Valsad
Maharashtra Nagpur West Bengal Koch Bihar Punjab Ludhiana
Gujarat Vadodara Karnataka Belgaum Haryana Faridabad
Rajasthan Jaipur Andhra Pradesh Krishna Gujarat Bhavnagar
North 24
Delhi South Delhi Kerala Idukki West Bengal Parganas
The Double Tragedy of Bihar
It has been some time since the massive floods ravaged Bihar. Already it has disappeared from the front
pages and the main media. That the disaster affected over 3 million people is a monumental tragedy.
The second tragedy is more insidious – that these people do not matter. That is the reason it has receded
from the front pages. The media and the people are merely confirming the facts. The facts are grim –
the region affected does not matter on the economic map of the country. That is the second tragedy, one
that has insidiously occurred over the last 60 years.
The key affected districts are – Araria, Madhepura, Purnea, Saharsa and Supaul. Some of these regions
have had high profile representation in the political space too. These districts are extremely backward
and hence agriculture is the mainstay (other sectors are virtually absent). The share of agriculture in the
GDP of these districts is 44% (the All India share of agriculture is 19% and in Bihar it is nearly 30%).
Other grim facts:
These districts depend on agriculture but agriculture doesn’t depend so much on them – they account
for just 16% of Bihar’s agriculture, which itself is just 5% of India’s agriculture
Of the total GDP of the country, these districts have a share of just 0.3%
The total economy of these affected districts is so small that it is fair to say that they just about exist on
the economic landscape. This is the bigger tragedy.

Kolkata – The Mythical Metro

Kolkata has been one of the great centres of modern India. However, the city has been slipping rather
badly over the last 30 odd years. Those who have lived in Kolkata know it, and those outside can sense
it. The remarkable thing is that Kolkata continues to be clubbed among the top 4 cities and is classified
as a Metro city. The nomenclature hides some startling facts.
I just looked at some of the data from Kolkata, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad. Why? Because, the
other three are not classified as metros. Yet, most people instinctively know that these are more vibrant
economic centres. The data, kind of reinforces the feel:
No. of
Annual Total
Households
Household
% Households Market Size with Annual
Income of Urban
with 4 Wheelers (Rs crore) Household
Households (Rs
income > Rs.1
crore)
City million
Hyderabad 16% 29,520 20,860 71,717
Bangalore 9% 60,185 41,008 115,439
Pune 8% 44,594 33,494 109,061
Kolkata 13% 34,991 28,234 49,212

Estimates for 2008-09, source: City Skyline of India

In terms of total annual incomes for households, not only is Kolkata almost half of Bangalore but also
smaller than Pune and only slightly larger than Hyderabad. Its market size is also smaller than both
Bangalore and Pune and there are less millionaire households in Kolkata than the other three cities (by
a wide margin).
The myth of Kolkata, the metro city is precisely that – a myth.