Industry Cluster Based Development: A Paradigm with Partial Understanding, The Case of India

City-based industry clusters represent the nodes of economic productions as well as lays the ground for policy experimentation. The popularity of clusters as a concept is attributed to the positive effects of contiguity it offers to all the constituting firms. Despite this notable fact, in India, citybased industrial clusters have failed to achieve attention for policy per se. By and large, the policy thinking has primarily remained focused either to the industry classification or to the geographical state boundaries or by the nature/size of the firms. This article organizes the discussion in the context of the key theme of cluster-based schemes and policy implementation in India. In order to ascertain the doctrine of a distinct policy aimed at clusters, Kendall’s Tau test was conducted on a sample of 126 firms belonging to four industry clusters. The result of the study suggests that in India, there exists sufficient scope for local city-based industry cluster policy. The article concludes by suggesting a few recommendations.