This 3D tool shows how India’s GDP is spatially distributed across the country. Each block on the map is a 1km2 gridded cell of GDP output in 2006* (see legend for values based on colour).

This map allows us to view the variation in economic activity across space at a higher resolution than administrative data does (which are typically available at the state or district levels at most).

Almost all of the economic activity in some states such as Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh is concentrated in a few urban centres, in contrast to West Bengal and Maharashtra where there is a more uniform spatial distribution. The belt of states from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Odisha show evidence of considerably lesser economic activity than the rest of the country. A consistent theme across the country is the concentration of GDP in cities, reiterating the need to ensure sustainable urban development for economic progress.

Some interesting observations about economic activity can be made based on the map:

While these are preliminary insights, we hope that this tool can be used for informing more detailed analysis and research. More details on the methodology, scripts and raw datasets can be found in our GitHub repo here. This tool is a work-in-progress and we would appreciate any feedback and inputs at kshitij.batra@idfcinstitute.org.

Created by IDFC Institute, Urban Expansion Observatory at the Mahatma Education Society and Valectus . *While lower resolution data is available for more recent time periods, the 1km2 resolution gridded cells (latest available data is for 2006) allow more granular spatial comparisons of economic activity. We hope to add more recent data here soon.