Abstract

Notwithstanding various policies to address regional disparities in industrial development, the issue of balanced regional industrial development still remains in India. Studies dealing with the issue mainly focused on the organised industries. In spite of the fact that the unorganised manufacturing sector occupies a dominant position compared to the organised sector and recognized as the most potential sector for rapid employment creation; no attempt has been made so far to examine the regional pattern of the sector. The major objective of the paper is to analyze the regional pattern of unorganized manufacturing in India before and after reforms. We found that while unorganised manufacturing continued to concentrate in few advanced states, there is barely any improvement in the performance of the backward states even after reforms. Spatial concentration is high for the high-technology industries and low for resource-based low-technology industries. Spatial concentration is found to be declined for all and most of the two-digit industries after reforms.

Key words: Industrial location, regional development, unorganised manufacturing.