Kerala Scores!

This blog was written in January 2009. Much water has flown down the Periyar since. By 2011, Kerala's per capita income overtook this of Gujarat


This month (January, 2009) the World Bank has published in its web site, a "Policy Research Working Paper"  titled, "The Investment Climate in 16 Indian States".  The paper defines and measures "Investment Climate Index" (ICI) for 16 Indian States, considering various aspects of business environment that private entrepreneurs would normally consider while deciding whether to invest.

Guess what! Kerala ranks 2nd in the list, just below Karnataka. Gujarat is a somewhat distant 3rd, followed by AP, Haryana, WB, Maharashtra, Delhi, TN, Punjab, Jharkand, Orissa, MP, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan (in that order of ranking).



To quote from the paper (which can be directly accessed at WPS 4817 ):-

"While it is not surprising to see Karnataka as one of the states with the best investment climate in India the ranking of Kerala within the top tier appears a bit unexpected. 
A closer examination of the data shows that Kerala consistently scores better than average on most objective and perception indicators, although it appears that Kerala manufacturers and retailers perceive their state as having a better business climate than those in the other 15 states in almost all categories of perception questions. 
Nevertheless perception and objective questions do not contradict themselves in almost all dimensions of the investment climate. Hence although Kerala appears among the most optimistic Indian states, its high ranking does not appears to be driven solely by their perception rankings. 
As a matter of fact Kerala performs very well on all the 3 categories of indicators, infrastructure, institutions and inputs. More specifically for both objective and perception measures of infrastructure Kerala performs better than average. 
In objective measures only Karnataka and West Bengal perform better than Kerala in all five indicators. Punjab also performs above average in all indicators but not as much as Kerala. Within the perception variables Kerala performs above average for all indicators as does Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, and Orissa.....

Thus, whether or not Kerala's ranking (based on ICI and the findings published in the World Bank Paper) is exactly true, this does suggest that the general perception about the State being investment unfriendly -- allegedly because of strikes, bandhs, high minimum wages and wide spread consciousness of industrial pollution -- is somewhat out of tune with current reality."


Not bad, considering that the State does not have a "CEO" at the helm, who has the unconditional stamp of approval from the Ambani brothers and Sunil Mittal!

Anand


Original link: http://creative.sulekha.com/kerala-scores_387775_blog

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Limits of Rationalism?

Compared to the many other parts of India, rationalist movement took roots much earlier in Kerala. This development also intersected with leftist ideologies that emphasized social justice, equality, and scientific temper. This collaboration helped in gaining wider popular support for rationalist principles in the early 20th century. However, the movement has undergone sharp ideological cleavage in last decade (as indeed, many nuclear families have!) The group identified mainly with Dr C Viswanathan views irrational beliefs as something that afflicts all religions, as also some atheistic political ideologies. In contrast, the other group that idolizes Prof C Ravichandran seeks to target Islam in particular -- often supporting aspects of the Muslim-baiting agenda of the RSS -- such the UCC, opposition to Reservations, support for the criminalizing of "Triple Talaq", CAA and so on. A Left Vs Right split! Mulling on the above scenario, I have had some insights that I wish to shar...
Read more
Race, Caste and Breed Most people agree that all humans belong to the same species -- but some insist that we belong to different "races". This is often done in a flippant manner, without defining what is "race" in a biological sense. There are many "average" differences between Tamil Brahmins as group and a Kashmiri Brahmins as a group. Can these average differences be used to categorize them as belonging to different races (in a biological sense)? If not so, then what is the threshold of "biological difference" that would place a person in one "race" rather than in another? Biology has NOT found such a definable threshold.  What about dog "breeds"? Why are these breeds NOT called dog "races"? Different breeds of dogs have huge differences in external appearance, size, intelligence etc (much more so than between African humans and Caucasian humans). Yet, all dog breeds are biologically grouped in the same biological...
Read more
  The Revolution’s Gentle Dawn—And the Lessons We Lost Introduction In the winter of 1917, Russia did the impossible: it toppled a 300-year autocracy without firing a shot . Crowds melted imperial insignia into souvenir medallions; soldiers and students debated socialism in tram cars. John Reed, the American journalist who wandered Petrograd in those days, wrote: "It was less a revolution than a festival of hope." The tragedy is not that violence came later—but that it didn’t have to. The revolution’s bloodless birth proves change can be gentle. Its collapse proves how easily we forget that. 1. The Peaceful Revolution The February Revolution (March 1917 by our calendar) was a marvel of restraint: The Czar’s Quiet Exit : Nicholas II abdicated after his own generals refused to crush protests. The crowds didn’t storm the Winter Palace—they ignored it. A clerk’s diary noted: "The Tsar left like a guest who overstayed." The...
Read more