Analysis of Socio-economic factors affecting deprivation of School attendance across Indian Districts and its implication on Public Expenditure G.K. Chetan Kumar Department of Studies in Economics Davangere University, India chetankumar.dragonlordv7@gmail.com Professor K.B. Rangappa Department of Studies in Economics Davangere University,India kbreconomics@gmail.com Abstract: Education is seen as the best mechanism to achieve upward economic and social mobility by vulnerable masses. Even by the government, education is regarded as a proactive initiative through which it can hope to address the problem of regional imbalance in a sustainable manner. Many prior studies have identified various factors which have played significant role in depriving education for masses. However, studies which have identified magnitude of the factors impact in depriving of education are scarce. The present study identifies the causal factors which have deprived school attendance of students among households across Indian districts along with the magnitude of their impact. Through present study we were able to infer that nutrition of children, maternal health, years of schooling and financial inclusion of household played a significant role in affecting their school attendance. Through predictive probability, we were able to assess the magnitude of the impact of the following factors and their implications on public expenditure. Keywords: Socio-Economic Factors, Horizontal spread, School attendance, Indian Districts, Binomial Logistic Regression, Predictive Probability Introduction: India is a vast and diverse nation with its share of unique challenges. Although according to Deutsch Bank Report India is on its way of becoming third largest economy in near future, regional inequalities and their subsequent negative externalities form a hard reality of Indian economic landscape. The need for planned intervention to address regional disparity and to bring about balanced regional development was recognized as early as in Second Five Year Plan (1956-61) itself, wherein it was stated that, “In any comprehensive plan of development, it is axiomatic that the special needs of the less developed areas should receive due attention. The pattern of development must be so devised as to lead to balanced regional development.” Despite various policy interventions since the dawn of independence, regional and economic inequalities seem to be on the rise in India. Various studies (Williamson (1964), Dhar and Sastry (1969), Rao (1973), Gupta (1973), Raj (1990), Dholakia (1994), Ahluwalia (2000), Jha (2000), Kurian (2000), Majumdar (2004), Nayyar (2008), Kalra & Sodsriwiboon (2010)) have been undertaken which have tried to analyse the severity and magnitude of regional imbalance in India and have come up with inferences which doesn’t seem to be unanimous. As early as 1964, Williamson investigated persistence of regional inequalities during 1950s and concluded that regional inequalities were on the rise. However, some studies haven’t supported this inference. For instance, a study on regional imbalance undertaken by Dhar and Sastry (1969) which dealt with inter-state disparity of industrial output, found out that there was a tendency of narrowing down of regional imbalances. In yet another investigation undertaken by Rao (1973), in which he had