This Master Thesis contributes to comparative spatial planning studies, exploring the different territorial governance and planning systems across India’s states and Union Territories, and classifying according to the differential capacity to control spatial development that they grant to the public authority. The scarcity and fragmentation of the studies that compare spatial governance and planning in the global south constitute a significant gap in understanding the ‘institutional technologies’ allowing and organizing this fundamental societal activity beyond the European context. Aiming at contributing to this field of study, this research builds on the theoretical and conceptual framework adopted by the ESPON COMPASS research project to propose and Indian typology on the capacity of public authorities to control spatial development, an important part for the life of entire cities, regions and states within India.