From: mece21x@rosie.uh.edu (Yesudas, Michael)
Subject: Politics and Economics
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: University of Houston
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 1992 23:53:00 GMT

Once a magazine was analyzing the prospects as to which party will come
to power in the Centre, said this about Kerala "Here everybody is cranky.
So raise our hands and go over to the next state."

We have 140 + 1 MLAs in the single tier assembly of ours. (For all those
readers who are unaware, that + 1 stands for the Anglo-Indian Nominee)
And we have 14 political parties sharing those 140, at and average of
10. (The Nominee as usual will be from the ruling side)

We are also very adept in keeping up the no: of ministers very high. Including
all the vakuppilla mantris we have at an average where every one out of 
five ruling party MLA is a minister. 

Jobs are very difficult to come by in Kerala. The UNESCO report says that
it is an economic miracle that it survives. This state has about half the
Percapita income of the richest state. (Haryana, occupies that spot, and
Maharashtra, Punjab and Gujarat follow) Infact the average here is a shade
lower than the national average. But the surprising thing is this. It is the
largest consumer of "consumer" goods in the country. Also 34 paisa of every
rupee spent in Kerala is not earned in Kerala. 

Kerala has very little agricultural production other than rubber and coffee.
[Neighbor TamilNadu has one of the largest yields/acre for all major grains
as well as cash crops (only those which are cultivated there on a large scale)
inspite the scarcity of water for irrigation. The only perennial river in
TamilNadu is Kavery. Whereas Kerala has about 35 of those, and of course
the number is reduced due to the presence of hyro-electric projects ]
And that too in the more hillier areas. 60% of all the jobs in the state
are in the service sector. This figure is 87% in the US. (Are we progressing?)
But the industrial output from Kerala is one of the lowest. There are different
reasons cited. Lack of resources like land, coal etc. Plus the cost of trans-
portation to the other states. Actually the cost of transportation is so
high that this might sound interesting. We do not find Steam Engines in 
Kerala, anymore. Infact the cost of transporting coal from the Eastern India
is so high that it is cheaper to run the diesel engines. Also that since we
do not have enough railway lines in the state, not many routes can be covered
by the steam engine. (The steam engine is never shut off, it has to 
continuously run. Otherwise it takes about 6 to 7 days for the steam to
come out at the appropriate temperature and pressure) 

Anyway the main reason could be our trade union movement. Something that 
every Govt. has implicitly supported for such a long time. "Pavapetta 
thozhilaliyude vayattathu adikkaruthu" was the slogan. In Bengal they close
down the industries after they are opened.(Which took the position of West
Bengal as the No:1 in industry in 1960 to no:4 in 1990) But in Kerala they
are closed even before they are opened. Is it because that the people are
not interested in investing? Are they only interested only in building 
posh houses? (I remember once all the way from Kodungallur to Trichur I
saw so many houses being build, that it would really compete with even
Kothrud Pune, or  the extensive apartment complexes in the suburbs
of Vishakhapatanam)

Cochin Stock Exchange is the second largest Stock Exchange in terms of
volume. But why is it that there are only very few heavy industries, mainly
concentrated in and around Alwaye and Ernakulam. We  pay the second
highest charge for electricity. One of the highest for oil and oil products
as well as for bus fares. Why are the small time towns in Kerala showing
the highest inflation in the country?   

Yet how do we maintain the highest standard of living in the country?
How do we maintain the highest literacy rate, (I would not say that it
is 100 % due to certain technical reasons) in the country?
Why is the density of hospitals in kerala so high? (Oh, yes that way we
are second to no: of KaLLushops only to Goa, which is world no:1)
How long will this drama go on? Is there a chance of economic collapse,
when goods spiral in prices and people run out of money? (Classic case
of Brazilian type disaster.)

Are we all responsible or do we tell our children that it was the way it was
handed out to us and we were incapable of restructuring?

Sincerely
Michael


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|  Michael Yesudas         |  The control of the means of production   |
|  Mechanical Engineering  |  of wealth is the absolute control of     |
|  University of Houston   |  human life itself                        |
|  mece21x@jetson.uh.edu   |                    --   Hilaire Belloc    |
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Newsgroups: alt.culture.kerala