An Agenda for Kerala's Development: 2006 - 2015

The A.K. Gopalan Centre for Research and Studies in Thiruvanathapuram, an institute of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), is organising an international conference on "An Agenda for Kerala's Development: 2006 - 2015", which starts today. They had organized a conference in 1994, and one outcome of that conference is the now successfully implemented democratic decentralization of administration called the "People’s Plan Campaign". That the quality of local governance has improved due to the effective decentralization is there for everyone to see.

Naturally those who are interested in Kerala Studies attach a lot of importance to this conference and the debates to be followed irrespective of their political and ideological leanings and affiliations. M.A. Baby, who's the director of the centre writes about the People’s Plan Campaign:

This campaign involved one of the most radical schemes of financial devolution to local bodies and importantly, mobilized a mass movement in support of democratic decentralization. Our development policy has since then become more environment and gender sensitive. We have also started to give greater thrust to knowledge and service intensive industries.

The open invitation to attend the conference continues:

The period we are discussing has also witnessed an acceleration of the process of imperialist globalization across the world. In the developing world, globalization has led to sharply widening inequalities and a large-scale impoverishment of the majority. The increased dependence on the flow of global finance capital has limited the possibilities of an autonomous path of development for developing countries. In such a situation, we realize that the struggle against globalization would require an engagement with the existing world realities.

In this context, we at the AKG Centre for Research and Studies feel that the time has come where certain major decisions have to be taken to give a new thrust and direction to the development policies in Kerala. We have marked our tasks: accelerate economic growth; overcome the productivity barriers in agriculture and traditional industries; reap the possibilities of new growth sectors like Information Technology, Biotechnology and Tourism, improve the quality of services and address the second generation problems related to our past successes; integrate the yet remaining marginalized sections into the mainstream development process; move towards the eradication of absolute poverty; overcome the looming environmental crisis; and achieve greater gender justice. In doing so, we recognize that we have to engage with today’s global capitalist system.

On the tenth anniversary of the International Congress on Kerala Studies, we are attempting to review our experience in development over the last ten years, and attempt to produce a comprehensive document on the developmental agenda for the State for the next one decade. We intend to place a draft of the agenda document in this web site for discussion among scholars, activists and people at large. To discuss the draft document and finalise it, we are convening an international conference on AN AGENDA FOR KERALA’S DEVELOPMENT: 2006 - 2015 between the 9th and 11th of December 2005 in Thiruvananthapuram. In a sense, this will be the completion of an intellectual process that we initiated in 1994.

Here's the draft of the agenda document.