Stephen Musings

Not on my merit but by His Grace,

Two cheers to Kerala

In recent days there were two news items for making Kerala cheer. One was already publicized and celebrated, and the other was published but not publicized. One was expected and known before, the other novel, and unbelievable to some.

First cheer: New York Times on 12 January 2023 published its list of 52 places to visit in 2023. Kerala, the only location from India is listed as 13th. This to be cheered for the list truly states that Kerala is God’s own country as promoted by the tourism department. This is sure to bring more and more tourists from abroad to Kerala, which is already crowded with domestic tourists, especially in the surge due to revenge tourism after the pandemic restrictions.

Second cheer: Mckinsey Global Institute published a report titled “Pixels of Progress” on global wellbeing on 7 December 2022. It’s a global study based on 40,000 microregions of 3000 sq Km each. This gives us a detailed look at the world other than regions or countries. The report reveals facts yet unknown and unbelievable to some.

Mckinsey report is the result of a longitudinal study of twenty years conducted from 2000 – 2019 applying cutting-edge statistical techniques. Global well-being is measured based on both health and wealth, specifically Life expectancy and GDP per capita.

The map shows Kerala as a region that has improved in well-being during this twenty-year period. In India, part of Goa and the whole of Gujarath fall in this fold. This places Kerala’s well-being above the global average, which are: life expectancy of 72.5 years & GDP per capita of $8,300. While the data for India for the same period was a life expectancy of 70.9 years & GDP per capita of $ 6,700. This makes Kerala fall in the top 46% of the world’s population and 10% of India’s population. Unbelievable? That’s what the study says.

Two cheers for Kerala

It’s a pity that our new-gen is deserting this state which offers above-average well-being/quality of life. Sure, they will be visiting as tourists in future

To read the New York Times news click here

To read relevant chapter of the Mckinsey report “Pixels of Progress” click here

to watch a video of the summary of the Mckinsey report click here

9 responses to “Two cheers to Kerala”

  1. Milan Sam Mathew Avatar
    Milan Sam Mathew

    Good presentation of the findings Sir, foreign remittence is the reason for the higher GDP per capita in Kerala. That’s where we have to change, we have to generate revenue from within,tourism is a great opportunity in that regard.

    Like

    Reply
    1. Dr.Aravind.J Avatar
      Dr.Aravind.J

      Nice description sir. As you said, Second cheer was not publicized.
      And the last part is worrying. New gen is escaping.
      Recently, central and state is planning to invite foreign universities and planning to increase deemed universities.
      Hope things will change soon.
      Thank you for sharing the two cheers…

      Like

      Reply
      1. stephen mathews Avatar
        stephen mathews

        Thanks Arvind

        Like

    2. stephen mathews Avatar
      stephen mathews

      Foreign remittances are dwindling

      Like

      Reply
  2. Varghese John Avatar
    Varghese John

    Good to see this. Particularly when Kerala has probably nothing much to cheer about… except perhaps things like the record sale of liquor during Christmas/ New Year!
    Was reminded of E. M. Forster (in a different kind of sense and context) giving Two Cheers for Democracy, saying drmocracy doesnot deserve three!

    Like

    Reply
  3. Dr Antony Avatar
    Dr Antony

    The important thing is to realize that the simple straightforward reason for this GDP is nothing other than the money remitted by NRIs. The life expectancy will naturally improve if there is money and access to medical facilities. Kerala has more number of private medical facilities than New York city !!. But this will not last long. The quality of education in Kerala is falling precipitously. Half of the graduates do not know how to answer any simple question, if asked in English. When the state cannot offer employment ,even to ten percent of its educated youth, this is a very pathetic, at the same time alarming situation, forcing the youth to migrate elsewhere. And in the tourism sector, Kerala does not attract even a miniscule of foreign tourists compared to places like Sri Lanka or even Maldives. There is absolute lack of cleanliness and lack of common facilities for tourists. Once I met a woman at Trivandrum street, desperately looking for a toilet !. Tourism can only flourish when people have civic sense, and tourists have freedom to move around.

    Like

    Reply
  4. Samson Matthew Valiyaparambil Avatar
    Samson Matthew Valiyaparambil

    Kerala was included in the ‘fifty best places to visit ‘ list at least a couple of decades ago. We also were quite well placed in most matrixes of UN Human Development Index. If you also consider the Purchase Power Parity (PPP), we will be in the top 25% of world’s population. Sadly we have failed miserably to use these inherent advantages.

    We are unable to think beyond the age old political concept of socialism which has deteriorated to give us a collective mindset that accepts inefficiency, free loading , nepotism, and corruption as normal. It created an unequal society that rewards complacency and mediocrity and disregard merit and excellence, making it hard or impossible for someone who believes in hard work, merit and fairness to get by. What is needed is a total disruption of this mindset, engendered by the politics of the day. Youngsters find it easier to move to a place that practices fair play and justice than stay back here and fight to clean the Augean stable.

    Like

    Reply
    1. stephen mathews Avatar
      stephen mathews

      “Disrupting the present mindset”
      You have hit the bulls eye. How can we as a community DO IT. That’s the Big question mark

      Like

      Reply
    2. Antony Thomas Avatar
      Antony Thomas

      You said it so right !
      When a sector of the society remains poor, political parties target them and indoctrinate them and appease them with small favors like our “kits “. These politicians actually do not want the people to get better living standards, because the party survive on poverty. Civic sense is a measure of the development of any society. We are used to sweeping our yards and throw the garbage over the fence to the public road. This has not changed a bit yet. Corruption has become a standard norm in society.

      Like

      Reply

Leave a reply to Milan Sam Mathew Cancel reply