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How Kerala got rich

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Re: How Kerala got rich

#161

Post by totalkikedeath »

facile3232 wrote: post #112
benced wrote: post #61

Kerala has extremely aggressive out-migration (including my entire family): it is a bad place to be ambitious, particularly with the France-like union culture. If India is to become China-rich or Mexico-rich, my prediction is Kerala will regress to the mean of India states. Its model seems geared towards being an extremely good place to be poor (which is a huge achievement to be clear: they dealt with COVID better th…

> it is a bad place to be ambitious Ambition doesn't imply exploitation. I think you mean "predatory".

[dead]

Re: How Kerala got rich

#162

Post by air3y »

shelled wrote: post #89

These are my personal/anecdotal observations, of course, for a state I love. Compared to many other better states and cities, the places in Kerala have this combination of low expenses, good government/public health care. It’s utter shit in most of India — including other rich states like Karnataka (~Bangalore). The place has no or less hostility to outsiders, a general non-RW political atmosphere, and being less pol…

> The thing about protest culture and the so-called union culture that right-wingers and/or the "economically progressive" folks accuse Kerala of — is actually a highly educated populace (very close to 100%; let that sink in — because we are talking about India) standing up for their rights and not allowing either the corporates or the government to steam-roll them.

The militant labour problem is something even the communists in kerala have started distancing themselves from. Just a small example - Even a few years ago, anyone shifting homes didn't have the right to load and unload their own personal belongings. They could get it done only through unions. Now if they did do it by themselves, and the union got wind of it, they could get beaten up and still have to pay the unions. It was legally outlawed only a few years ago. For industries and commercial establishments, this is still applicable.

>There have been concerted efforts to flare up the Hindu-Muslim divide in the state, ... The state sent the largest number of recruits for ISIS. A national islamic terror group called PFI which was banned only a couple of years back was founded primarily in Kerala and spread nationwide. The state has been a hub of islamic terrorism for ages. It has been a hub for islamist terrorism, especially in south india for ages. Due to the unique demography of the state, with hindus no longer a majority, backlash to these have not been like in other states.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#163

Post by sriacha »

NoelJacob wrote: post #150

Coming from Kerala to Europe for a short Erasmus, I feel here you have to visit a huge chain for buying anything on a discount. What I mean is big supermarket, or electronics or transport chains. Kerala's premature strikes against these were the only reason they didn't grow as Kerala grew. Can't fully say if it's a good thing but it does feel safer not being dependent on a private entities for many basic things.

Are you saying large chain stores don't exist in Kerala? How are you not dependent upon private entities for basics?

Re: How Kerala got rich

#164

Post by not_kurt_godel »

jmathai wrote: post #3

I was born in the US but my parents are from Kerala and I still have family there that I visit. One thing I found interesting was the pride in literacy and education. Kerala has a 96% literacy rate which is the highest in India [1]. It's one of my favorite places to visit. Unlike other parts of India such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderbad -- it's tropical and lush with much less pollution than what you might see in t…

The connection between education and wealth is very strong. Very sad that the US has decided to pursue a trajectory towards poverty in this area.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#165

Post by kdin »

The key question one should ask is where the money came from?

The answer is Keralites moved out of the state for work and sent back most of their earnings. What is useful is if Kerala is able to encourage home built businesses that brought in the money while keeping the Keralites inside.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#166

Post by ricksunny »

I wrote about Kerala during a visit there in 2008. Maybe a backpacking tourist's snapshot in time, but hey it's data - some observations on literacy and cultural value of education passing to the younger generation:

https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/03/maybe-if-i-disable...

(also mentioned in the 3rd image caption of https://walkabout165.blogspot.com/2008/05/retrospective.html , observation on intepreting what wealth means)

Re: How Kerala got rich

#167

Post by intended »

fakedang wrote: post #146
vinay427 wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Unlike other parts of India such as Bengaluru, Mumbai and Hyderbad -- it's tropical and lush with much less pollution than what you might see in those other parts of India. Somewhat ironically these are relatively low pollution as large cities in India go. There is still a good amount of greenery in Bengaluru (it is famous for it) but obviously far less than a few decades ago, as many residents lament.

Bangalore today is a shadow compared to the Garden City it once was. For outsiders not in the know, Bangalore was famous for its beautiful lakes and the lush greenery around them. It was absolutely something else, finding these beautiful water bodies smack in the middle of what is supposed to be a major city. The weather was cool, almost like a warm European summer (which is extremely cool by Indian standards). Then…

Hey, Mumbai folks will fight you for supremacy on bad scenery. Course we concede the actual crown to our dearest friends in Delhi.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#168

Post by NoelJacob »

sriacha wrote: post #163
NoelJacob wrote: post #150

Coming from Kerala to Europe for a short Erasmus, I feel here you have to visit a huge chain for buying anything on a discount. What I mean is big supermarket, or electronics or transport chains. Kerala's premature strikes against these were the only reason they didn't grow as Kerala grew. Can't fully say if it's a good thing but it does feel safer not being dependent on a private entities for many basic things.

Are you saying large chain stores don't exist in Kerala? How are you not dependent upon private entities for basics?

You can still live comfortably without depending on private (I meant large private) entities in Kerala. Also there are supermarket chains but they haven't overtaken normal non-chain grocery supermarkets. Not even close. Of the top of my head I can list three chains near me and most of my household lives without needing to buy from them and just going to regular stores.

Edit: To add to it. In Italy, you eat pasta for lunch. To buy cheap pasta you go to Pam/Conad/Carrefour/Aldi/Lidl supermarket chain and buy Pam/Conad/Adli/Lidl branded ones as usually they are the cheapest buy vary in quality. But here getting cheap Rice, for lunch, is different. In Italy, to buy basic milk you do the same and probably the cheap whole fat one is branded by the supermarket. Here, you go to the diary, which gets from a collection of local farmers. To buy eggs, you don't go buy supermarket branded eggs, you could pay someone in your neighborhood with animals to supply. I've never seen supermarket branded eggs until I reached the west to be honest.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#169

Post by alephnerd »

kedarkhand wrote: post #70
alephnerd wrote: post #43

> Fifty years ago it was one of India’s poorest states Yea that is a absolutely wrong. A state that had the highest literacy rate at independence will unsurprisingly remain at the higher end of developmental rankings.. In the 1970s Kerala was already comparable to Indian states from a human development and economic standpoint because of a strong shipbuilding and cooperative agricultural program (same with then undivi…

Hopefully Uttarakhand can follow Himachal Pradesh, but it is ravaged by national parties as of now, best case scenario, the new youth leadership of UKD actually wins and does some work

> best case scenario, the new youth leadership of UKD actually wins and does some work

Trust me. You don't want that. Ussi najuwane nu khadi pata ni hege (Kangri but translate to your equivalent)

Re: How Kerala got rich

#170

Post by intended »

benced wrote: post #61

Kerala has extremely aggressive out-migration (including my entire family): it is a bad place to be ambitious, particularly with the France-like union culture. If India is to become China-rich or Mexico-rich, my prediction is Kerala will regress to the mean of India states. Its model seems geared towards being an extremely good place to be poor (which is a huge achievement to be clear: they dealt with COVID better th…

The article specifically talks about how Kerala has some of the highest concentrations of startups in India.

Also, the Communist party in power has not stopped themselves from adapting to the new times and dumping older views.

The most recent Econ Nobel showed how institutions create wealthy nations, and Kerala is building those.

Perhaps the statement “not a place to be ambitious” can be seen in a narrower sense, while seeing that it leaves much more space for the median individual.

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