Kerala & Infrastructure

Industrial revolution did bypass Kerala. Poor chaps who started some factory or the other in the state of Kerala bled to death. Only after the demise of so called factory & the entrepreneur, the workers did realise that they require regular income. After a while, some of the workers too committed suicide. That was Kerala in the long past.

Better sense prevailed in malayalees & they started getting trained in technical as well as secretarial stuff. Once they learned the ropes, all flocked to middle east & started earning a nice salary. During my childhood, we watched in awe uncles who came from gulf on leave. They brought nice clothes, toys, electronic gadgets not to forget the perfumes & sweets. Even though many worked in gulf on manual labour, with the influx of money from outside, stratification of jobs started taking place. All of a sudden everybody wanted a 'white collar' job. In the nineties manual labour became a taboo for mallu youth. Thanks to the 'All promotion' policy of alternating governments, we have a lot of educated unemployed youth.

When IT industry was shaping up in India, Keralites had a good role. With Software Technology Parks, Kerala became a good destination for multinational companies. However governmental support has been not very encouraging and companies started moving off. One example that I know personally was that of a company that does back end jobs for airline reservations. They wanted to buy some land in Kovalam to start their own campus. Surely the company had enough money but things did not augur well. They were offered office space in some IT park or the other & the company shifted to Bangalore.

Somehow the IT park concept still lives on. Recently there was a news item saying that construction works of IT park at Pallipuram, Cherthala has come to a standstill owing to wages issues. It was reported that workers are demanding a 35% hike. The current wages were reported to be at Rs. 310 per day. In a private organisation, annual increment might just barely touch the 35% figure. In case of public sector or governmental organisations, annual increment dies not come to that level. The absolute value of daily wages does not amuse me much. But for a normal guy in north india, the amount is pretty high. Since the report did not mention what skill category gets Rs. 310 perday, comparisons vis-a-vis prevailing rates elsewhere are uncalled for. I am just concerned about the quantum of increase that is being demanded. Are we going back in time to the factory era?

All infrastructure related works involve a lot of manual labour since there is a lot of concreting involved. When will we have better class roads, bridges, railway lines, ports etc in Kerala ? Since we are "God's Own Country", may be we should approach Him for an answer. For those who don't have a direct approach, we have so many varieties of middle men in the form of astrologers, swamies, aasammies etc

Embrace of Laila

Whats in the name? But we all do have our own names. Names that were thrust upon us & later on we imbibed them. Most of the whirlwinds have been given names these days. The first one that comes into my memory is 'Katrina'. Nice name isn't it? Recent one to strike the coastal Andhra Pradesh, India was called 'Laila'. Normally a trail of devastation is left behind after these storms hitting the coast. However Laila was as sweet as her name, to the point that the destruction was not very devastating. However we indeed had torrential rains in most states of southern India. I was starting from home on 19th May. Had to go in heavy rains. Once I reached Hyderabad, I found that most of the flights operating to Visakhapatnam was canceled. Especially the ones which were operated through the propeller based aircrafts. Even after reaching Visakhapatnam on 22nd, rain god was in full swing. After a few days, sun came out in full glory. The humidity coupled with strong sun makes life pretty miserable. Hope better climate will come up soon.
I had been away from blogging quite a long period. So i thought to write something to keep the spirit alive. Hope this suffices!

Budget Blues

Much awaited union budget of India is out. People of this federal republic is eagerly awaiting budgets from the state governments. Already inflationary tendencies are seen around. Long back there was some talks about increasing the milk price from none other than a union cabinet minister. MILMA - government controlled co-operative society responsible for milk collection as well distribution in kerala has indicated that they require a price hike of about RS. 3/- urgently. Already the hike in petroleum products got into effect. This will definitely have a great compounding effect on most of the commodities. In a nut shell, the middle class will have to bear the grunt. (I am not forgetting any classes below that, but i guess they exist only on paper. Either they got into the middle class category or they have already extinct with earlier budgets.)
The silver lining might as well be the increase of income tax slabs. It was indeed expected since all 'government SERVANTS (?)' got their pay hike implemented in the last fiscal. There was a news item from Gulf stating that one Mayor got arrested in connection with the flooding of Jiddah (I guess it was Jiddah, do correct me if i am wrong). The arrest was made on the charges of not effectively utilising funds earmarked for storm water containment. If this mayor happens to be a 'government servant', i am all for implementing similiar stuff right here in India. Authority must come hand in hand with responsibility & people at offices must be answerable.

Chaotic Kerala

Friens, I have been to the lovely land of Kerala during the Christmas - New Year season. As usual the natural charms of kerala are on the wane. It used to be winter and hence cooler during this time. But i was feeling hot and prespiring. Should we blame it on global warming? The lush green land of kerala is still intact when viewed from above while the aeroplane was landing. However once you walk through the land, the chinks in the green armor is very much visible. There are many spaces - which were supposed to be paddy fields, barren even without grass. May be the real estate people are planning to convert them into concrete space soon. Advertisement of Studio Flats especially in and around the Nedumbassery airport is rampant in hoardings as well as in newspapers. I am wondering whether the goal is to provide one flat for every person presently living in kerala. So many aparments and flats have come up in major cities thereby reducing the erstwhile green lungs of respective cities. Administration shall have a tough time in handling the domestic waste. The problem is acute in cities like Kochi. The proposed Brahmapuram waste disposal plant hopefully is coming p soon. Since my kid is studying in Kakkanad, i know for sure that there is grave problem of fleas and foul smell in and around the brahmapuram plant.
With the economic slowdown, the pace of construction has gone down. I was thinking of cashing upon this opportunity to find a small house for myself. I was flabbergasted while pursuing this target. Even though not much transaction are being done on realty, the prices are still stuck up at the higher end. May be not many landlords require immediate money & hence they will not sell till they get their prices.
Ernakulam city has became a night mare for drivers. If you happen to drive around in the peak hours, you will definitely agree with me. The Vyttilla byepass which skips the city has already become a choking point. It will take 1 to 2 hours to travel from Edappally to Aroor (Terminal Points of Ernakulam City Byepass on NH 47). There are many talking about providing fly overs at Edappally, Vyttilla, Kundanoor but government does not seem to take much action on that front. Plans of Vyttilla bus terminal is also not getting fruition.To add to the troubles of general public, private bus operators went on an indefinite strike for a charge hike. Thanks to speedy intervention by judiciary, it ended in three days. It was funny to hear one ex-transport minister commenting that all these strikes are kind of staged / organized with the knowledge and blessings of political parties government & even that guy had also organized some in his tenure! One silver line in this gloomy transport scenario is the introduction of low floor air conditioned bus service. This is under JNURM (Jawaharlal Nehru Urban Renewal Mission)Scheme of Central government. Less than 10 schedules are operated in Aroor, Angamaly, Fort Cochin etc. The same scheme was operational in Andhra Pradesh in Mid 2009. Similiar services were operational in New Delhi in 2007. Better Late than Never !
The omnipresent bandhs & hartals have their field day through out the calendar in Kerala. There was a bandh against price hikes which people celebrated while i was there. As far as i see, prices are higher in Andhra Pradesh (Milk or petrol to name a few). In Kerala, ruling party of the state accuses ruling party at Centre and calls for a Bandh. Again Ruling party at centre calls for a bandh saying that it is the failure of state government. Whichever way, there is normally one or two bandh/hartal every month.
The festive season literally went in high spirits. State Beverages Corporation (BEVCO) raked much moolah for the state coffers in those days. Every year sales record gets broken without exception. Arguably bevco outlets are the only place where mallus come out of their chaotic ways and stand in line with patience in mind as well as money in change in their hands till they achieve their daily stuff!