Is your City Too Big? Urban primacy in Southern India

Tue, September 16, 2025 12:00 PM at Zoom

Title: Is your City Too Big? Urban primacy in Southern India”

Kala Seetharam Sridhar is a professor at the Centre for Research in Urban Affairs, Institute for Social and Economic Change, India. She is a Visiting Fellow at Stanford University's Center for South Asia (CSA) in 2025, and was an Honorary Fellow at Stanford’s CSA in 2024. Recipient of the Fulbright Nehru fellowship, she was hosted by UCLA’s Luskin School of Public Affairs, Dept of Urban Planning, in 2021 and 2022, and a visiting scholar at George Mason University during June-July 2023. Her most recent book Indian Cities or Suburbs has just been published from Oxford University Press in 2025.



Abstract:

This talk examines urban primacy in Indian states, exploring its extent, underlying causes, and whether improved infrastructure can mitigate it. It discusses the policy approaches of South Indian states toward primacy, assessing whether dispersing industry and jobs to smaller cities can reduce urban concentration, and how best to achieve this. My research shows that MSME (Micro, Small, Medium Enterprises) employment has a positive effect on urban concentration, while rail route length has negative effect. A survey of firms in primate cities reveals that operational costs—as opposed to investment costs—are significantly higher in Hyderabad and Bengaluru compared to Chennai. I conclude with policy recommendations to address urban primacy. The talk draws upon examples from my new book Indian Cities or Suburbs (Oxford University Press, 2025)



The talk will be moderated by Xuefei Ren (Professor of Sociology).



This talk is sponsored by the Dept of Sociology and Asian Studies Center.