The application of granular economic data for improved planning and decision-making in Indian cities

To plan effectively for sustainable, inclusive cities, policymakers and planners need granular data on urban economies, which was outlined in a companion policy brief. To address this need, in this brief  such a dataset was compiled for the Indian city of Bangalore, covering formal and informal firms across different kinds of economic activities at a high level of spatial granularity. This dataset was constructed using India’s Economic Census, and by filling in the known gaps using a spatial, rule-based merge with the Karnataka Common Business Register.

This brief presents applications of this newly constructed dataset for understanding Bangalore’s urban economy, and make a case for how this can play an important role to support better economic and urban planning for Indian cities.