This panel focuses on the role of subnational economic, social and political dynamics to examine economic development in China and India. In doing so, it builds on an emerging body of literature, mainly rescaling theory, which asserts that subnational dynamics have become increasingly significant in contemporary forms of capitalist development. Not only are sub-national scales more important as “sites” for the accumulation of capital, they have also emerged as critical scales for political/regulatory functions within the territorial administration of the state. This is illustrated by the economic and political rise of cities and by mounting evidence in many countries of increasingly distinct subnational policy regimes, both a reflection of and a catalyst for intensifying uneven development. These policy regimes are characterised for instance by the investment climate they seek to create for firms, labour relations they promote and policy/media discourses aimed at legitimising policy or ‘signalling' to actors situated at other scales. This panel will critically engage with this state rescaling theory by examining case material from India and China. This body of theory has been elaborated and debated primarily on the basis of European and North American contexts, and remains largely understudied in Asia, where the world economy's major growth engines are located.