As Every resident of Thiruvalla town in Kerala on an average has bank deposits worth Rs 4,61,000. That is four to five times more than the per capita bank deposits in other Indian towns. Families in Indore in Madhya Pradesh spend more on low-priced consumer durable products than families in any other Indian city. People in Chandigarh splurge the most on high-end consumer durables. Over 90 per cent of Kochi reads at least one print publication-a feat no other Indian town can boast of. Panaji in Goa has the highest number of wealthy families in India. Valparai, not Chennai or Coimbatore, is Tamil Nadu's most prosperous town

This is not random economic trivia. These are snapshots from urban India's economic profile. Derived from the latest RK Swamy BBDO Guide to Urban Markets that ranks 784 towns in India-all urban centres with population of over 50,000 barring those in Jammu and Kashmir. The guide, unique in its depth and breadth, reveals an economic fabric of urban India that has not been put together before. Using data sources ranging from the Census of India to the Indian Readership Survey 2001 and the Fourth Economic Census Survey, the guide quantifies the purchasing power of Indian towns-a town's real economic value.

A town's worth is not just the total of income of the people living in it. Income indicates the ability to buy, which isn't the same as the willingness to consume. People's inclination to buy is reflected in their consumption pattern, which varies from region to region. Vadodara and Guwahati are among the top five spenders on expensive consumer goods, even though neither figures in the 10 richest cities. In contrast, people in Valparai are fourth richest in India, but they don't figure in the top 10 consuming towns.

Even with money and inclination, people may not buy a product if they don't know about it. Awareness becomes another critical factor influencing the purchasing power. Finally, how does a product or service reach a town if the transport and trade infrastructure isn't well established? Armed with 18 indicators reflecting income, consumption, awareness and market support (i.e. trade and transport facilities), RK Swamy BBDO ranked towns in 21 states and three Union Territories on their prosperity levels.

The rankings were used to arrive at three key indices: market potential value-an index that reflects the prosperity levels of towns; market intensity index-a measure of the quality of a market (after all some of the richest Indians do not live in the biggest towns); and a media exposure index that indicates exposure of a town to television, radio, newspapers, magazines and cinema. The tables used in these pages were derived exclusively for India Today by RK Swamy BBDO, one of India's oldest and largest advertising companies, to show not only the rankings on 12 out of the total 18 indicators, but also the values behind each ranks (see tables). The selection of the top 10 towns-from the vast pool of 784-provides just a glimpse of what urban India earns and consumes. All data used are the latest available at the level of towns.

The nuggets of wisdom the guide offers are both exciting and instructive. For instance, the size of a market may have little to do with the quality of the market. Mumbai is India's biggest market, but Chandigarh is India's wealthiest town. The implication is simple: an average family in Chandigarh, Panaji or Delhi has a higher purchasing power than an average family in Mumbai. Chennai and Hyderabad have higher per capita income than Kolkata but the capital of West Bengal is a bigger market. Bangalore is ahead of Hyderabad and Ahmedabad if income, consumption, awareness and market support are all taken into account. But in sheer size of the town income (per capita income multiplied by the population) Bangalore lags behind the other two a bit.

At the regional and state levels, the picture of urban markets gives an idea of prosperity patterns in the country. Towns in the west account for 33 per cent of the country's total urban prosperity. North Indian towns contribute 27 per cent, whereas towns in the east account for just 14 per cent. The regions south of the Vindhyas contribute to about 60 per cent of India's urban affluence-even though they account for less than 40 per cent of the country's population. Maharashtra alone has 20 per cent share in India's urban prosperity, while Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Jharkhand and Bihar together add up to just 12 per cent of the country's urban purchasing power.

Towns of Kerala present many paradoxes. The state stands head and shoulders above the rest of the country in awareness. India's top 24 towns in the readership of print publications are all from Kerala-the first town from outside the state entering the ranks is Guwahati at number 25. Similarly, the 26 towns that lead the country in radio listening are all in Kerala. But relative to the state's exceptionally high level of awareness, it ranks way down on all factors of consumption and prosperity.

When it comes to visual mediums of awareness, towns from other states catch up with Kerala. Panaji has a stunning 99.4 per cent exposure to TV. If the figures of TV exposure look unrealistically high (see table: The Most Eyeballs), keep in mind these are only town, and not district figures. And the slum population of a town (with lower access to TV) is not usually a registered resident. Towns of Andhra Pradesh have the best spread of cinema halls in the country. Tuni in Visakhapatnam district of the state has the maximum number of cinema hall seats relative to its population.

Consumption across regions follows an interesting pattern. A surprise is Madhya Pradesh's dominance in the consumption of consumer durables priced less than Rs 1,000 (e.g. pressure cooker, bicycle, wristwatch). Five towns of the state are in the top 10 town list, rubbing shoulders with towns from Maharashtra, Punjab and Andhra Pradesh. At least on this factor Madhya Pradesh is doing better than other states of the Hindi belt. Gujarat and Maharashtra monopolise the list on consumption of consumer durables priced between Rs 1,000 to Rs 6,000 (e.g. black & white TV, sewing machine, vacuum cleaner). But the ranking of big spenders-consumption of consumer durables priced more than Rs 6,000-expectedly resembles the list of India's richest cities. Delhi-the country's largest car market by a huge margin-loses first place to Chandigarh on per capita ownership of cars.

The 470-page Guide to Urban Markets contains thousands of town, state and region specific economic indicators. And together they offer almost endless interpretations and insights into the economic life of Indians. For a market executive-or even a company CEO-such data is the holy grail to making inroads into the Rs 3,00,000 crore urban market. For laymen, it is a revelation of how an individual's income, consumption and awareness affects and is affected by the income, consumption and awareness of the town one lives in.