India’s best states

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Taking a page from inane metro surveys in the U.S., India Today just published its third annual ranking of best Indian states to live in (thanks, Razib). Comparing cities would’ve been just as inaccurate, but much more entertaining. Subscription required, but here’s the raw data (XLS).

A big balle balle! for the breadbasket state, proving that tractors beat coders, at least for now. Gujarat is tops in economic freedom (XLS), Kerala in education (XLS), Bengal ranking surprisingly low.

Large States

  1. Punjab
  2. Kerala
  3. Himachal Pradesh
  4. Tamil Nadu
  5. Haryana
  6. Maharashtra
  7. Gujarat
  8. Karnataka
  9. Uttaranchal
  10. Jammu & Kashmir
  11. Andhra Pradesh
  12. Rajasthan
  13. West Bengal
  14. Madhya Pradesh
  15. Chhattisgarh
  16. Assam
  17. Uttar Pradesh
  18. Orissa
  19. Jharkhand
  20. Bihar

Small States

  1. Goa
  2. Delhi
  3. Pondicherry
  4. Mizoram
  5. Sikkim
  6. Arunachal Pradesh
  7. Manipur
  8. Nagaland
  9. Tripura
  10. Meghalaya

Union Territories

  1. Chandigarh
  2. Andaman & Nicobar Islands
  3. Daman & Diu
  4. Lakshadweep
  5. Dadra & Nagar Haveli

98 thoughts on “India’s best states”

  1. This survey makes me swell with pride. I can say I’m from the Camden, New Jersey of India (Bihar). Gangster!

  3. Interesting: Jammu and Kashmir ranks higher than Andhra Pradesh and West Bengal. Any idea what the data is based on?

  4. NJ has a Camden?

    Yeah I saw this last week in IT, as I’m sure you already know, it’s daft. States are so big and such areas of stark contrast, from the horrendously affluent areas to the slums, it makes no sense to try to rank QoL state-by-state.

    Still, it’s a bit of harmless fun I s’pose!

  5. vurdlife,

    this explains a lot about you. all good, i hasten to add. props!

    man, we easterners must really suck! not only does wb underperform, but all the neighbors score at the bottom. back in the day i learned from my elderly relatives that the best places to hang out were – mountains: darjeeling (wb) – seaside: puri (orissa, #18) – countryside: hazaribagh (jharkand, #19)

    i never made it to darjeeling but i’ve been to the other two. if the fried fish in puri is still as good as i remember, it can’t be that bad a place to live. as for hazaribagh, it was already long, long past its glory days (back in the 40s there was a famous [apocryphal? i’ll never know] story of my grandfather shooting a tiger in the bathroom). by the time i got there it was the 1970s and goondaism and disease were in the air. the old house got sold soon thereafter. but i remember how beautiful the countryside was, and it makes me sad.

    but hey, at least hazaribagh ended up in jharkand when bihar split!

    peace

  7. Like any list of rankings, this one will no doubt breed (more) controversy and argument…

    But what a disappointment to see Kerala at #2. As every Malayalee parent tells their children, they should be #1 at everything 🙂

  9. What???? W. B. after Rajasthan?

    My non-Rajput Bong blood boils. I should form a huge procession of protest and march down Chowringhee Road. But I am in Austin. So I’ll probably send an angry email to the India Today guys. That should make them quake in their shoes!

  11. Bihar at 20? Could have been worse. Bihar could be in a special category — 21.

    I wonder where the four/five pakistani provinces and the erstwhile East Bengal would fit in.

  12. ,i>Man, the Gujus just never get any respect. 😉

    Hahaha…well, they scored #1 in the ONE category that matters to them : Economic freedom :-). Everything else be damned – a government that prevents Gujjus from making money shall face the wrath of that land. Reminds me of a quote from some frustrated commie from a few years back who felt that even the poorest, working class section of Gujju society was more capitalist than the richer classes in other states. It’s all about the moolah – or Vitamin M as Gujjus say it -, baby!

  14. Bengal ranking surprisingly low. Not that surprising, sadly.

    I’d like to see this list normalized for climate and pollution and ecology though, just out of curiousity. Puri is a very pleasant place to be in most of the year, as long as you don’t get hit by a cyclone.

  15. Woot! 2,4 and 8! Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka represent.

    …I almost feel interracial.

  16. Kerala needs to find some of the “balle balle” spirit and then it will become #1! Its ironic and sad that the state with the highest education rate has the highest suicide rate.

  17. I’d like to see this list normalized for climate and pollution and ecology though, just out of curiousity.

    Better still, lets normalize that by the lack of terrorists that threaten to blow schoolchildren into smithereens.

    Lets normalize that by the number of female foeticides.

    But then I notice that these guys place my home Delhi behind Goa. I’ll have what they are smoking, or perhaps whatever hallucinogenic pharmaceutical they picked up at their last rave. Partay onn….

  18. I find it odd that Uttaranchal (#9) ranks so significantly higher than UP (#17), given that they only split Uttaranchal out of UP 2 1/2, nearly 3 years ago.

    No matter. Dehradun pehechaano! 😉

  20. But then I notice that these guys place my home Delhi behind Goa. I’ll have what they are smoking, or perhaps whatever hallucinogenic pharmaceutical they picked up at their last rave. Partay onn….

    Breathing in disgusting black smog of unsanitary Delhi vs. walking in the clean warm, soft sand beaches of Goa, real tough choice ain’t it?

  21. I think this is how the list should read.

    Large States

  22. Bombay
  23. yawn !!
  24. yawn !!
  25. yawn !!
  26. yawn !!
  27. Dosent Matter
  28. Inconsequential
  29. Who cares
  30. Dosent Matter
  31. Really ??
  32. Bihar..Gladly donate to Pakistan!!

    33. The original survey is biased.

  35. Is this thread seriously degenerating into “my state’s better than yours, woot-woot!”?

    I just ask, so that as a Sri Lankan who could care less about which Indian region is better, I can stop checking in here to see if someone said something interesting.

  37. previous comment not directed at the humorous and insightful people who took up the bulk of this thread 🙂

  38. Breathing in disgusting black smog of unsanitary Delhi vs. walking in the clean warm, soft sand beaches of Goa, real tough choice ain’t it?

    Maybe you’re right. The numbers (taken from the India Today excel sheet) have spoken. On the count of Education we have — Delhi: 3.07, Goa: 5.57.

    Of course. Vikram Seth, Amitav Ghosh, Upamanyu Chatterjee, Nirmal Verma, Shashi Tharoor, Alan Sealy, Anurag Mathur, Mukul Kesavan;and Khushwant Singh went to St. Stephen’s college Goa.

    Amartya Sen taught at Goa University.

    AIIMS, among the leading med schools in India is in Goa.

    High school students all over the country are sweating away trying to get into IIT-Goa

    Yeah, the numbers don’t lie.

  39. cicatrix

    Come to think of it, now that we have donated Bihar to Pakistan, we got some space left. We could sneak SL in, but it will be tight.

    very important disclaimer: :):):)

  40. arzan –

    Thanks for showing us the people of Bombay have brains. Now if only they’d grow a sense of humour…

  42. UP at #17 – what a shame.

    reminds me of this lame old joke that pokes fun of Lucknowis – ” pehle aap karte karte train chhoot gayi” . Maybe that is why we rank #17- we just said pehle aap to the other states;)

  51. Before this turns into a pissing contest

    Ahh, so that’s why things are so stinky in India…

  52. DesiDudeInAustin,

    I think Goa is a great place. On any given day, I’ll will pick Goa over Delhi. Even though, I am almost from Delhi (Roorkee).

    And I enjoy your comments. But do not mislead…there is no IIT, Goa. You should know better unless you wanna IIT, Bombay to be in Goa.

    http://www.iit.org/about_iit.htm

    Kush

  53. Sorry, Sorry

    My bad, I understand your joke now. I had to click on all the links to understand the remark.

    Goa, education, no………pheni, nude beaches, and chillum yes.

  54. For some reason seeing Punjab at #1 and Kerala at #2 reminds me of some Sardarji’s I knew for a coupla years who had taken up residence in Kerala. Man they spoke malayalam fluently enough to make me blush.

  56. Watch the movie PUNJABI HOUSE to find out how malayalees and Punjabi residents get along in Kerala. It’s hilarious.

  57. Tamil Nadu No. 4. I like to think we are the Seattle of India. Except without the cool weather, grunge music, trees and people of Northern European descent. But we do have rain. It would be No. 1 if it weren’t for the Tamils.

  58. I think we should start the kerala sepratist movement of water buffalo’s. Once kerala is its own independant state, with (trichur as its capital ofcourse), we can be officially too cool for school.

  60. The Punjabis I knew were Naval Officers (there is a Naval Base in Cochin) and they had been there for around 5-6 years (at the time).

  61. Once kerala is its own independant state, with (trichur as its capital ofcourse)…

    Trichur as capital?!

    My vote goes to Ernakulam.