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How Kerala got rich

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Re: How Kerala got rich

#71

Post by jeswin »

giraffe_lady wrote: post #66
jeswin wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. I lived there for the first two decades, and outside Kerala for the next two and a bit. The only thing Kerala exports is the workforce, since it's impossible to start anything in Kerala thanks to politics and high costs. I know because I've tried. Kerala had historical ties with the Middle East thanks in part to a substantial Muslim population, and the migrant labour force was able to funnel some of Middle Easte…

It's not clear what you tried to start and absent any other information your personal failure at it isn't a compelling alternative picture of the region's development to me. I'm sure there are valid other views than the one presented in the article, I'm not saying there aren't. But as someone who doesn't know much about the region, you aren't really giving me more information about it, or giving me any reasons to tak…

You can completely ignore what I said about my personal experience. The rest of it is still valid, and please read the child comment I posted on the same sub-thread.

Basically, Kerala exports a workforce because it can't produce or export anything else. At roughly a third of the GDP (in 2012 according to Wikipedia), it's a remittance based economy. Someone commented that remittances are a smaller part of the economy of late (and that might well be true), but in the last decade or so Kerala is also heavily in debt.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#72

Post by [deleted] »

zkmon wrote: post #39

India has a vast variation of cultures. A few states in India look like they are quite detached from mainstream India, in terms of issues, economy, norms, politics etc. This is true for north-eastern states as well and probably J&K too. It's like a colorful patch-work of different cultures. However, there is nothing good or bad with these variations. Tourism also adds to its economy. Higher per-capita doesn't always…

[deleted]

Re: How Kerala got rich

#73

Post by geocrasher »

The subject of Kerala resulted in one of the most memorable conversations I've had with a doctor that wasn't about medical stuff. My late wife had to have an emergency procedure and her regular doctor was not available, and so she got a wonderful Indian doctor (Context: This was near Seattle WA). Having worked with many Indians, I felt comfortable asking him which part of India he was from and he said "Kerala" and at the same time we both said "God's own country" and his face LIT UP. "OOOhh, you know Kerela!?"

"Kerala is Hawaii at a tenth the price! You must go. The people there love three things: Alcohol, Food, and side to side head bob Alcohol!"

He was delightful, and he took great care of my wife. I fully intend to visit Kerala at some point.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#74

Post by alephnerd »

blackoil wrote: post #67
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…

As per your 1st document (page 15). Kerala has risen from 84.6 to 152 (~80%) while Haryana from 106.9 to 176.8 (~65%) in addition to the fact that most of the Haryana's growth has come from being in proximity of New Delhi. Same for Tamil Nadu (56%).

If you look at the results of India's National Human Development Report from 1981, Kerala was already further ahead of any other state [0][1]. And the report I listed did not have data on half of the states that existed in India in 1980.

> most of the Haryana's growth has come from being in proximity of New Delhi

Not really.

Delhi NCR de-industrialized in the 1970s-80s due to militant labor unionism [2]

Furthermore, much of Haryana's population lives well outside of what became Delhi NCR, and urbanization only began in the 1980s with the development of SEZs in Manesar, Faridabad, and Gurgaon.

> Same for Tamil Nadu (56%).

Tamil Nadu shared similar developmental metrics to Haryana in the 1981 NHDR, neighbored a state in an active civil war that often leaked into the state (Sri Lanka / LTTE), and had severe caste fractures.

[0] - https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Indian_states_and_un...

[1] - https://www.researchgate.net/figure/HUMAN-DEVELOPMENT-INDEX-...

[2] - https://www.jstor.org/stable/4376065

Re: How Kerala got rich

#76

Post by amriksohata »

Same old fake caste tropes, article just smells of academic nonsense. The story of Keralas success could be applied to any state in India due to recent government policies, even Gujarat is doing better.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#77

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

Uttarakhand will not develop unless there are incentives to invest outside of Dehradun.

HP doesn't have a "Dehradun", which means local netas have an incentive to invest in their zilla instead of hoarding cash and real estate in a major hub. Thus, Himachal benefited from a Pharma and Food Processing industrial policy in the 1990s-2000s that industrialized the rural area around Baddi and Una, and a lot of other smaller food processing and light manufacturing industries across lower Himachal.

Also, Uttarakhand has too few MLAs for the size of population. UK has 70 MLAs but 10 million people, but HP has 68 MLAs with 6.5 million people. This means UK MLAs are much more divorced from local panchayats compared to in HP.

There is a good case study about this at Harvard Business School [0]

[0] - https://www.hbs.edu/ris/Publication%20Files/Asian_Survey_550...

Re: How Kerala got rich

#78

Post by malshe »

I have visited Kerala a few times and I really loved it as a tourist. However, my company also did some work there and we found local labor unions extremely difficult to deal with. Never acquired any new clients there once we finished initial projects.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#79

Post by eikenberry »

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…

I'm curious, how does their "aggressive out-migration" play out? Extremely high, progressive tax system? No funding infrastructure for new business? I can imagine many ways but my thoughts lean toward financial reasons due to your last sentence.

Re: How Kerala got rich

#80

Post by 2511 »

I am not from Kerala but I have spent the last 25 years there. I have family in Kerala. Kerala got rich because of emigration. Sometime during the 80s, Keralites began migrating to gulf in very large numbers. The foreign remittance is the biggest reason why the state is rich. It can be said the proximity to sea and a history of trade with gulf countries enabled Keralites to migrate. And of course, the will and courage of the early emigrants to migrate to a different country.

If we look beyond the foreign remittance, there are quite a few issues in the state. Unemployment is much higher than national average[1] Kerala youth are struggling with the drugs problem, in high numbers.[2] Very little industrial investment because its a state with communist government and not industry friendly. There are towns where every household has someone abroad. Only the elderly are living in those big houses.

[1]https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/education/news/kerala-am... [2] https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/kerala-is-in...

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