North vs South: Is India Headed Towards a Bigger Divide? | Nilakantan RS & Uma Sudhir | DeKoder

From almost the same start line when India became Independent, states in the South and in the North have developed at a very different pace, leading to a huge divergence not just in population, but the metrics of health, education and economic development. The delimitation exercise threatens to intensify India's South-North divide. The southern states are concerned that increasing Centralisation threatens state autonomy to formulate and implement the very policies that have put the southern states relatively far ahead in terms of human development indices. Even as there is politically heated conversation about the Centre dictating policy by increasingly controlling the purse strings, the Southern states are concerned that the exercise of delimitation of constituencies is going to curtail their political voice. The southern states are contributing much more to the Central kitty than they receive but they may ironically end up with their political voice weakened. Should parliamentary representation continue to be linked primarily to population? Why should the South be punished for successfully implementing a policy advocated by the Union government? In this discussion, Uma Sudhir speaks with Nilakantan RS, author of South vs North: India's Great Divide, about the historical roots of the debate, the competing arguments, questions around taxation, representation, delimitation and fiscal federalism and what the future of India's federal structure could look like. The author argues that India can balance equity, development and national unity only by choosing decentralisation and democratisation. Watch till the end and follow DeKoder for more in-depth discussions on politics, public policy and governance. #India #NorthSouthDivide #Federalism #IndianPolitics #PublicPolicy #Governance #DeKoder #Delimitation #Discussion Now Explore world stories, elections and more on DeKoder.com & on our app! Website Link - https://www.dekoder.com App Store Link - https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dekoder... Play Store Link - https://play.google.com/store/apps/de... Find us on: Instagram -   / dekoderai   Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?... Twitter (X) - https://x.com/DeKoderAI LinkedIn -   / dekoderdigital