Kerala's Economic Development: Emerging Issues and Challenges

Focusing on current economic problems, Kerala′s Economic Development: Emerging Issues and Challenges provides an in-depth analysis of the major development issues and challenges faced by the state. Kerala’s development experience has attracted worldwide attention due to its paradoxical development: attaining higher quality of life of people on the one hand and continuation of the backward productive sectors on the other. The state’s economy remained backward in many respects and relied heavily on the remittance of Keralite emigrants. The implementation of liberalisation and globalisation policies since 1991 radically altered the growth process and Kerala achieved higher rates of investment and growth and greater technological change. These policies, however, have not only provided enormous opportunities, but also new challenges. This book examines the state’s economic growth as well as the issues that have accompanied the policy changes.

B. A. Prakash is a former Professor and Head, Department of Economics, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Thiruvananthapuram. Earlier, he was a professor in the Department of Economics, University of Calicut, Kerala, where he had been teaching since 1976. After retirement from the University, he was appointed as chairman of Kerala Public Expenditure Review Committee for three years by the Government of Kerala. Professor Prakash has been conducting research on different topics relating to Kerala’s economic development during the last four decades and published a number of papers in leading journals, research reports and monographs. One topic in which he did research is on decentralization and local governance in Kerala. He has authored two research studies sponsored by 3rd State Finance Commission of Kerala and National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad. During the tenure as chairman of the 5th SFC (2015–2016), he got opportunity to conduct in-depth study on the finances of local governments and the fiscal decentralization experience of Kerala. This monograph is the outcome of his research on decentralization. Professor Prakash has edited two books on Indian economy examining the economic reforms and performance since 1991 and published in 2009 and 2012. He has also edited four books on Kerala’s economic development, covering the development of the state economy since its formation and up to 2018 and published by SAGE in 1994, 1999, 2004 and 2018.

Jerry Alwin is Assistant Professor of Economics, Department of Economics, Sree Narayana College, Sivagiri, Varkala, Kerala. He got his PhD in economics from the University of Kerala in 2012. He has published papers in journals, and a book titled Recent Trends in Kerala State Finances (2014). He was also a member of Kerala State Planning Board Working Group on Non-banking Financial Institutions (2015).