Kerala can no longer rest on its storied achievements alone, state needs to harness productive potential: Tharoor

Tharoor delivers closing speech at Mathrubhumi’s “100 Speech Series”

New Delhi / February 1, 2023

New Delhi, Feb 1: Maintaining a cautious optimism on rebranding God’s Own Country, Congress leader Dr Shashi Tharoor outlined a raft of pivotal areas that need to be looked into urgently to harness Kerala’s productive potential before embarking on a ‘’remarkable transformation.’’

‘’The Malayali Miracle ‘’ always existed but needs to be energized today, Dr. Tharoor said while delivering the concluding address of the “100 Speech Series” organised by Mathrubhumi, one of India’s leading media houses, to mark its centenary.

The last speech in the series also coincides with the fourth edition of the Mathrubhumi International Festival of Letters (MBFIL) commencing in Thiruvananthapuram on February 2.

Kerala has made outstanding achievements over the decades including its literacy rate of over 94 %, which is much ahead of that of the entire United States (at 79 %).  Also, it is one of the few Indian States which initiated the land reforms, besides bringing about sweeping changes in its caste-oriented culture, the Thiruvananthapuram MP said.

“Many may not know that the mid-day meal scheme for schoolchildren existed in Kerala way back in the 1830s, pioneered by Saint Kuriakose Elias Chavara”, he noted.

Praising its inclusiveness and the legacy of openness, he said a wide variety of ethnic groups have made Kerala their home over the centuries, be it the Jews, Muslims, Christians or Hindus.

Regardless of its fascinating history and culture and remarkable social progress, today, Kerala is also known for a rather unpleasant sobriquet— “Devil's Own Backyard’’ mainly stemming from its rather dismal performance of being a laggard in investor protection and in the ease of doing business index, he said, citing instances to buttress his point.

Flash hartals and wildcat strikes still happen in the state and keep rearing their heads at critical moments, making the situation seemingly business averse.

 At a time when India is hailed as the fastest growing economy by the World Bank in its latest report, Kerala needs to match up to these expectations too, Dr Tharoor said.

It’s the second worst state as far unemployment ratio goes, the only exception is Jammu & Kashmir which has the dubious distinction for the top slot, he said.

 It is a dismal scenario where skilful people are kept unemployed. Worsening the crisis is the slow ebbing of the quantum of remittances from abroad, which was once the strength of the state’s economy.

“Millions of Malayalees are coming back and do we have enough work for them to be absorbed into the state’s economy which may crumble without remittances ?,’’ Dr Tharoor asked.

On the flip side, there is a ‘’genuine demographic imbalance’’ as several youngsters are still constantly leaving the state for greener pastures. ‘’The productive generation’’ of youngsters is missing in Kerala. The state is also lagging behind in the IT sector despite having lots of potential, Dr Tharoor pointed out.

On the positive side, now there are attempts to reform Kerala’s investment Promotion and facilitations. The state is all set to launch a consolidated approach to attract investors and entrepreneurs by coordinating regulatory clearances, financial packages, and special assistance to women and start-ups as part of a campaign to promote the Micro, Small & Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) sector, he said.

Kerala’s high growth rate of Gross State Domestic Product is not accompanied by commensurate growth in revenue realisation. A key segment that has been untouched is land revenue potential, given that Kerala is a land-scarce state. While for most states, the land revenues account for about a third of the total revenue, the figure is just about 13–15% for Kerala. A look at Kerala’s tax revenue shows its pathetic performance over the years, he added.