No country in the world today can remain insulated from others. World is interdependent. Nations have to co-operate.
"Independence is impractical these days. While dependence cannot be tolerated. Interdependence or co-operation shall be the possibility for any nation."
This may be idea that guides the Kerala Govt in going for 'Emerging Kerala' project. But, the UDF program lacks credibility. They are putting the horse behind the cart. Misplaced priorities and the track record make them doubtful. Above all, a close scrutiny of the proposals, the direction with which they are mooted, reveal the fact that UDF is taking to state further ahead in increasing dependence and not interdependence.
Kerala is uniquely placed for a global role to play in supplying skilled HR, invaluable spices and condiments and IT enabled services with its favourable : Geographical location Eco system High Human Development indices Educated and IT enabled youth International connectivity, including gate way at Kochi to the three international submarine cables routes and widespread Optic Fibre and wireless connectivity by BSNL
But these advantages go untapped. Kerala remains heavily dependent on other states and nations. Production capabilities (agriculture, IT, HR etc) continue to be tuned to external market alone. Heavily Dependent on external remittances.
Production falls. Quality of services falls.
Consumerism is on the increase. Quality of products and services gets deteriorated. Aspirations and objectives go unattained. Why because, production of commodities and services in Kerala remains by and large tuned to export market. (Agriculture, Education, IT and what not). Naturally Kerala is prone to vagaries of the world market. Economy is bubbling with inflated finance capital and black money deals in real estate, health care, education etc.
Black money is of mind boggling proportions. Heavily dependent on foreign players for e-governance and ERP while claiming ITES exporter status.
'Emerging Kerala' is meant to take forward the state with all its debilities in its pursuit for sustaining the present trend of consumerism, inflated finance capital activities etc by further inflating finance and market at the expense of the people. The projects in the 'Emerging Kerala' basket will push all the ill advised trends. Un realistic real estate business Vicious health care business aggravating health problems Un productive education Un imaginative tourism infrastructure building All aggravating the ills of the present Kerala society.
Economy will become further volatile and growth un sustainable.
Why because, 'Emerging Kerala' aims at increased investment. Ofcourse investment will bring certain hype. But neednot necessarily increase job or income or wealth. Investment itself as such is a liability and not asset. Such liability is welcome only for increase in job, income and wealth. On the contrary, as revealed from the projects showcased in 'Emerging Kerala', the investment are going to create hype in real estate, health care, education, share market etc which are finance capital activities, without ensuring adequate generation of job, income and wealth. Such investment and expenditure will push up consumption.
Consumption without generation of wealth is unsustainable and hence Kerala has to address the issues of consumerism without adequate generation of wealth, products and services.
The historically proven route for sustainable development and steady progress is increasing production capability fine tuned to internal market and servicing external markets with the surplus and acquired capability, proven skills and increased competitiveness, ensuring external market access.
History teaches us that every emerging economy so came up with production fine tuned to internal market with surplus being exported. It was the case with Europe at the beginning of Industrial era, later the US, then the USSR and now China.
Any aspiration for export market shall be backed up by a sustained production capability supported by internal market.
What is to done to put Kerala on a sustainable development footing is to fine tune the production capability to service the internal market to the maximum extend. Thus production processes, products, services and HR be made competitive ensuring quality. Improve the quality of education to make the HR more competitive. Increase the quality of health care with the use of cheaper and effective alternatives rather than the high cost medicines. (We have to shed the wrong notion that health is a product of medical industry. It is the other way round. Medical industry shall be to service ill health. Health is the output of healthy food habits and healthy life style.)
Protect the strengths of the eco-system Service the external market with the surplus products, services and HR
Information Technology
In the field of Information Technology, Present scenario in Kerala is very pathetic. IT infrastructure within the state is much fragile and prone to vagaries of the world market. Value addition of IT industry within the state is negligible or even negative. Mostly body shopping and BPO alone take place. IT servicing industries are heavily dependent on foreign products and services in both software, hardware, network resources and data repositories. Even PSUs like Keltron act as commission agents. Net result is outflow of wealth, defeating the very objective of the much trumpeted development paradigm.
Real Estate Buildup is taking place in the name of IT development. Techno Park, Info-Park, IT Parks, Techno lodges. All erect Concrete buildings alone. Real IT Capability building is ignored in all fields of software, hardware, network, data repository, services etc Tall claims on IT export are un realistic.
There is a net outflow on import/export of IT services and products, if real estate and such other unrealistic activities are not counted.
Even, quality of education and HR doesnot improve in favour of the state. The professionally qualified youth, by and large, are devoid of even mathematical logic, leave alone computer logic (! a reflection of prevailing quality of education and nature of IT activities).
Kerala's internal IT Market is serviced by outside service providers. 100 and odd departments 100 and odd PSUs All adopting IT – e-governance and ERP - process re-engineering. Internal market worth Rs. Ten Thousand Crores on a moderate account. Almost all serviced by outside service providers. eg : KSEB RAPDRP (Rs 239 Cr), KWA (Rs. 35 Cr) Even Keltron is a mere onlooker or a commission agent for SAP, Oracle, HP etc
How to build an IT Enabled Kerala ? Open Kerala Market to local SMEs. Make Keltron and other PSUs umbrella organisations for local SMEs. The umbrella organisation shall facilitate the local entrepreneurs while being responsible for integration, bench marking and standardisation.
Use of Free Software shall be made mandatory for e-governance, ERP and Higher and Engineering Education. Let Kerala IT industries become competitive as also improve value addition. 'Local IT market to Local IT industry' shall be the catch word for every nation aspiring to develop on a stable footing. Kerala too shall adopt it. E-governance and ERP shall be resorted to by utilising the local entrepreneurs, as process re-engineering required for our economy and conducive to our development scenario shall be decided by the state and not by the external vendors. External vendors are simply imposing their ready made services without any regard to requirement of local economy. That too they are transfering their outdated or second level services and updating it every time they go for higher level. In short they are not implementing state of the art IT facilities but only 'shaping our feet to suit their old shoes'.
'Local IT market to Local IT industry' will empower them, provide them with experience and capability to service the external market in future. This could be achieved within three years with a crash program. Put Keltron at the centre stage. At present Keltron is pampered with order for IT services without any concern for quality. It outsources the work to others without any norms. With the result, it acts as commission agency for foreign products and services like Microsoft, Oracle, SAP etc Existence of Keltron itself is questioned and undermined. Keltron has to avail consultancy from Free Software experts ready to transfer technology to it. Keltron be the bench marking entity. Keltron shall integrate the services offered by the local players and fix bench marks. Act as an enabling umbrella organisations for local small and medium IT entrepreneurs. Both Keltron and the local industry will be strengthened and empowered to service external market soon.
Software Freedom is very important for a self reliant development. Use of free software is a must for Local/national industrialisation, Local/national empowerment Better value addition within the economy Indepth IT and other engineering education Local Language development and language tool building to develop Malayalam to cope up with requirement of an interdependent or co-operating world. (Only Malayalees know the intricacies of Malayalam and Free software alone empower Malayalees to master the software skills required for building the required Natural Language Processing tools for Malayalam)
Knowledge Freedom too is essential. Utilising the services of local entrepreneurs for e-governance and ERP is essential for ensuring knowledge freedom too. It enables local industry to acquire domain knowledge for various IT applications. That will make the local industry competent to service the external market.
Real IT Infrastructure building is important.
Even the state owned web sites are hosted in California or Canada.
State data centre development is outsourced, with the result, know how is not acquired by the local industry or HR. Motivate IT infrastructure build up in the State. Data Repositories, Web Portals, Web hosting facilities, clouds etc shall be built on free software platforms and tools within the state, utilising the widespread OF connectivity of BSNL and powered by Solar Energy taking advantage of central assistance to the extend of 75%.
Building is not a necessary IT infrastructure. We can have a distributed IT development paradigm spread all over the state (network of IT service providers, clusters or homestead, single, small and medium) The essential requirement is not buildings or office space. It could be any building, even households. Uninterrupted power supply and connectivity are the real physical infrastructure for IT. The major components are hardware and software which includes Operating systems, servers, networking, database management, domain knowledges etc. The hardware comes from US and China. Software component could be mastered by the state with the use of Free Software.
Without power, connectivity and software proficiency, IT development is not possible. Kerala is lagging behind in availability of power and software proficiency.
Free Software and Solar energy could be the solution.
Kairali, a Kerala specific e-governance/ERP package customisable to different departments and PSUs be developed. Service all Departments and PSUs within the state within the next three years. Then start servicing other states. Service the entire world, especially the developing ones. An annual revenue to the tune of Rs. Ten thousand Crores could be attained over a 5 year period
Then IT Services could be diversified to E-commerce E-trade E-education E-medicine Etc Ensuring sustainable revenue over the years.
An interdependent paradigm Software (Knowledge) Freedom ensured Software servicing and ITES done by Kerala, among others. Hardware coming from US and China. Interdependence shall be the motto.
The illogical 'Emerging Kerala' concept based on dependence shall be rejected. Use of free software be made mandatory to enhance quality of education, value addition, industrial develoment, above all enrichment of Malayalam.
Solar Energy shall be the answer to power crisis while being another area of development for the future. Solar Energy Industrial Infrastructure shall be built. Thrust for use of solar energy. Solar energy Industry promoted. Make the local industry competitive. Service other states and developing counries. That again will provide additional revenue.
Tourism Present Trend of Tourism in Kerala Govt spending on Tourism Promotion without any result Tourist traffic to Kerala, despite the must see status, is just 0.06% The hurdles for tourism development are Filthy and stinking water bodies Dirty streets and roads High cost for any decent accommodation No amount of present promotional activities will make Kerala a Tourist destination
A clean Kerala will make it a Tourist destination. Keep the water bodies, streets, roads and the environment clean. A massive drive by enthusing the people, the panchayathi raj institutions and concerned departments has to be undertaken for it initially and then inculcate clean habits among the people. Any expenditure is viable as it will improve health of the population apart from attracting tourists. Clean environment will make accommodation cheaper and will make Kerala an attractive tourist spot.
Other Sectors Other sectors, agriculture, industry, services etc are also to be fine tuned with the thrust for internal market for making every one sustainable Separate plans be drawn up for each sector.
Strengthening Kerala
Strengthen the production capabilities primarily for servicing the local market Fine tune agriculture centred on food products and Kerala's unique spices and condiments Acquire Software skills to service IT requirements, primarily of the state and subsequently the country and the world. Revamp education, medical systems and other services primarily to improve quality of life of the population, which will attract tourism as well
We shall stand for the Advancement of Kerala No more dependency Neither in-dependency But Inter dependency (rather co-operation) shall be viable alternative in the world scenario that is compelling everybody to co-operate rather than compete. Co-operation is possible only among equals, hence empower ourselves. Joseph Thomas
11-09-2012
No comments:
Post a Comment