HOW TO REBUILD KERALA ECONOMY

Covid 19 has well exposed the Kerala economy. For decades, the government's one after the other have practicality done very little for the economic build up of the state. Despite the state possess all the necessary ingredients to raise the per capita income of the people to the level of developed countries we prefer to contain with the foreign remittance from our near and dear, supply of alcoholic drinks to the people, selling dreams to the people to the tune of lakhs and cores and playing politics round the year. 

Until a decade ago politics was the prime job of many people, part time job for some others and hoby for remaining. Now it is changed and the people look for a fairly good income. There are many ways to raise the income of a fair amount of population without much of an investment by the government.

As per a report published by The New Indian Express dated 6th March 2020

the total number of domestic and foreign tourists visited the state during 2019 was 1.96 crores registering a growth of 17.2 per cent. The total earnings from tourism was a record ₹ 45,010.69 crores with a robest growth of 24.14 per cent. If we want to increase this revenue to an achievable target of ₹ 2 lakhs crores per annum we should not limit our tourism to Kovalam, Thekkady and the boat journey through the back waters. We must know that there are better beaches and much larger number of wild life parks in many parts of the world. Tourists are not visiting this state just to see our beaches or wildlife but, they come to see the whole landscape as there is only one Kerala in the whole world. The unbound beauty showered by the nature is unique here. One cannot find the culture of the Malayalees elsewhere; it is so unique. The food of Kerala is another attraction, which is a unique possession of this state. Similarly there are umpteen other things like the temple festival, the art and culture, the Ayurveda, the martial arts and many more like the snake charmers, witchcraft, 'mazhinottam' etc.

If the government can bring the people to the forefront for active participation as shareholders it will not be impossible to make a quantum leap from ₹ 45,000 crores to ₹ 2 lakhs crores in a short span of time. 

There are many such things we can do to have multiple increase of the pci of the people to the level of advanced countries within a few years. We shall discuss it later.

We must foresee the world economy. Employment in other countries may come down sharply and will take some time for the rebuilding of the economy. However, after the lockdown is lifted financially well off people may prefer some travel and some of them may come here too. Further to this the coronavirus could brighten the image of the state at many parts of the world. People from world over shall be anxious to see this part of the world and the human beings here. Let us be prepared to welcome them with a new outlook.

This would be an ideal opportunity to rebuild our economy which is at the brink of collapse.

KV George

kvgeorgein@gmail.com