POTENTIALITIES OF URBAN CENTRES AS GROWTH POINTS: AN APPROACH OF REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT PERSPECTIVE FROM A DEVELOPING COUNTRY (INDIA).

Growth points are centres of economic activity, which are artificially created or stimulated in disadvantaged regions with the intention that they will eventually become natural centres of economic growth. They are centres of expanding industries, which trigger a chain reaction of production and promotion of associated services with the ultimate goal of improving the quality of life. It is envisaged that by declaring promising and resource-endowed centres as growth points, the cumulative causation process would kick-start the process of economic development, whose spread effects would activate the quality of life in the periphery. In so doing it would attract investment and favourable government treatment, which would lead to both cumulative growth in economic activity and high population growth. Some growth poles have continued to prosper long after the initial stimulation factor gone through multiplier effects associated with a growing centre. In this paper, an attempt has been made to find out the potentialities of urban centres of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India as growth pole and strategies for the regional development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]