Index in West Bengal Sarmila Banerjee Samik Ray Proposed here is a methodology for construction of a district development index which attempts to explain district income in terms of the policy instruments, The construction of such an index involves two major steps. The primary step is to decide what aspects of development to include and the next step is to settle the relative weights to he attached to each aspect. This methodology, when applied in the context of West Bengal indicates that employment generation programmes, land reform measures and the policies related to the development of social infrastructure are the most effective agents of district development in a decentralised planning set up.
