Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission

x
It was at the invitation of the Kerala State Planning Board that CDS agreed to
prepare the Human Development Report for Kerala. This Report, as in the case
of other State HDRs, is sponsored jointly by the Indian Planning Commission
and the UNDP Office in New Delhi. The Report was prepared by a CDS team
led by K. P. Kannan. The team included K. Navaneetham, N. Vijayamohanan
Pillai, Mridul Eapen, Achin Chakraborty, K. Puspangadan, Praveena Kodoth
and M. Suresh Babu (till May 2004). Achin Chakraborty coordinated the team
work initially (till March 2004), and when he had to proceed on long leave,
he was succeeded by K. Navaneetham. Professor K. N. Raj was always there
as the beacon of intellectual inspiration and direction. The background papers
originated with the core team and underwent several rounds of discussion
towards inputting and structuring the Report. The core team also had the benefit
of banking on constant intellectual interactions with the CDS faculty as well as
their written inputs. Mention should be made of the contributions of M. Kabir,
P. R. Gopinathan Nair, John Kurien, K. Narayanan Nair, K. T. Rammohan,
D. Narayana, P. Mohanan Pillai, N. Shanta, and Ravi Raman. A number of
student-scholars – Ranjan Kumar Dash, K. S. Hari, Sunny Jose, M. Parameswaran,
Varinder Jain and M. S. Harilal – also helped in the preparation of the Report.
With a view to guiding the core team in the preparation of the Report, a
steering committee (SC) was constituted by the Government of Kerala with
the following members: Mr. V. Ramachandran, former Vice-Chairman,
State Planning Board (as Chairman of the SC); Mr. S. M. Vijayanand, former
Secretary, State Planning Board; Dr. K. M. Abraham, Secretary, Modernisation
of Government Programme; Mr. T. K. Jose, Executive Director, Kudumbashree;
Mr. Niyati, Chief, Social Services Division, State Planning Board;
Mr. M. R. Balakrishnan, Director of Economics and Statistics; Dr. P. P. Balan,
Director, Kerala Institute for Local Administration; and Dr. K. P. Kannan,
former Director, CDS.
The preparation of the Report was supported by Dr. Rohini Nayyar, Adviser,
Rural Development, Planning Commission.
The UNDP India Resident Representative, Dr. Maxine Olson, was a
constant source of encouragement for preparing the Report. Dr. Seeta
Prabhu, Head, Human Development Resource Centre, UNDP, India was in
continuous contact with us, providing critical comments on various drafts.