Growth, Inequality and Poverty in India: Spatial and Temporal Characteristics

This paper examines the empirical relationship between economic inequality, poverty and economic growth in the Indian states. Using NSS data on consumption for the 13th to the 53rd Rounds, I compute the Gini coefficient, real mean consumption and the head count ratio for rural and urban sectors and average for 14 major Indian states. The rank concordance index across states does not usually show convergence. Nevertheless, there is (conditional) convergence (in terms of levels) in inequality and poverty measures across states. The coefficients of variation do not show any tendency to fall over time. What is particularly worrisome is that the coefficient of variation of the rural head count ratio seems to be rising over time, indicating greater dispersion in rural poverty across states.