Resource information
Industrial parks are as popular as they
are controversial, in India and globally. At their best they
align infrastructure provision and agglomeration economies
to jolt industrial growth. More often, they generate
negative spill-overs, provide handouts, sit empty, or simply
do not get built. This paper disaggregates how parks are
built and how they fail. It contextualizes parks in India,
followed by a thick case study of an innovative scheme that
appears to buck the trend. This performance is then
explained by the way in which the scheme's design and
action fits India's political economy. The paper
concludes by considering how the analysis and the lessons
learned might inform the design and implementation of
industrial park programs and other public interventions, in
India and elsewhere.
