Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission
Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission
Kerala 2005 - of Planning Commission
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CHAPTER 8<br />
Looking Ahead<br />
POSSIBILITIES AND STRATEGIES<br />
1. Introduction<br />
It should be fairly obvious by now that this Report has sought to go beyond giving<br />
a picture <strong>of</strong> the human development situation in <strong>Kerala</strong> by raising analytical and<br />
empirical issues that seek to link achievements in human development with broadbased<br />
growth. The core question, in short, has been: How to see the emerging<br />
scenario as one <strong>of</strong> the beginning <strong>of</strong> a ‘virtuous cycle’ and give it a conscious<br />
push. 1 The fact that the current state <strong>of</strong> development in <strong>Kerala</strong> is no longer one <strong>of</strong><br />
a ‘paradox <strong>of</strong> social development and economic backwardness’ has to be noted<br />
as an important empirical reality that will hopefully set aside the debates on this<br />
theme and give rise to fresh attempts at understanding the nature and direction <strong>of</strong><br />
human development and economic growth. This chapter, therefore, is an attempt<br />
at examining the possibilities <strong>of</strong> further development based on past achievements<br />
as well as failures. While doing so, it has become very evident that the external<br />
economic context is very different from the one during the first three-and-a-half<br />
decades since the formation <strong>of</strong> the State. Since the early 1990s, the national<br />
and international context is one <strong>of</strong> economic liberalisation, <strong>of</strong>ten referred to as<br />
globalisation. It will appear that <strong>Kerala</strong> seems to have not only faced up to the<br />
situation but even managed to benefit by it from an economic point <strong>of</strong> view but<br />
with an important exception – that <strong>of</strong> the persistence <strong>of</strong> unemployment among<br />
the educated. This chapter, therefore, outlines the contours <strong>of</strong> a broad strategy to<br />
convert the considerable achievements in the arena <strong>of</strong> human development to<br />
one <strong>of</strong> meaningful economic development.<br />
1 As highlighted earlier, human development theorists classify development experience as virtuous if human development and<br />
economic growth reinforce one with the other. See Ranis, Stewart and Ramirez (2000) for details, Ranis and Stewart (2001) for<br />
the theory and Pushpangadan (2003) for an application in the context <strong>of</strong> <strong>Kerala</strong>.
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