Databases for State Level Analysis of the Implications of WTO for Small Scale Industries in India:Lessons from Karnataka

India's commitment to the World Trade Organisation (WTO) agreements have resulted in continuous national and state level policy changes with implications for production, employment, investment and exports of small scale industries (SSIs). Due to lack of database for constructing performance indicators and indices, the direction of policy changes and impact of the WTO agreements have remained unestimated and non-monitored at the state level. Based on the experiences in Karnataka State, this paper offers policy lessons and options for creation of new databases by (a) consolidating available scattered data in different institutional sources; (b) using the decentralised planning machinery for data collection at local levels; (c) drawing international experiences in construction of competitive indices; (d) modifying the entry of origin of exported goods by states and SSIs in the shipping bills; and (e) implementing the recommendations of the National Statistical Commission. In addition, public-private partnership in establishing, managing, and cost sharing of new databases is emphaised. These analyses and implications offer useful guidelines to build new databases, and serve as benchmarks for comparative studies on state level databases, on the SSIs under the WTO regime in India.