Kochi: Kerala has hopped onto the bandwagon of states aiming to grow to a trillion-dollar economy. But, there is one major challenge—a constantly migrating population. The state, industry leaders say, would need to bring back its migrating young population to achieve the target by 2047.
Speaking at the session ‘Kerala Towards $1 Trillion Economy’ in Kochi’s Lulu Bolgatty International Convention Centre on the sidelines of the Invest Kerala Global Summit, industry leaders noted that the state could achieve the goal if it focused on a sector-specific approach in investments and building human resources.
Kerala has joined states such as Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra in the race to become a $1 trillion economy.
“We have talents here. But most of them have gone away from Kerala. It is a great challenge to pull them back to the state,” said Pamela Anna Mathew, the chairperson and managing director of O/E/N India Limited.
The state has historically seen its young population migrating to the Gulf states for jobs in various sectors. According to the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS)-2023, two out of five households had non-resident Keralites. The survey noted that the state saw a total remittance of Rs 2,16,893 crore in 2018.
Likewise, the state’s student population has been migrating to Indian cities such as Chennai, Bangalore and Delhi for higher education in engineering, with a recent trend showing migration to nations in European nations. The KMS noted that the number of international emigrants from Kerala was 21,54,275 in 2023. Of that, 11.3 percent or 2,50,000 nearly were students.
Kerala’s population was nearly 35 million in 2011, according to the Census.
Sidharth Narayanan, the Invest India senior VP, said the state should focus on the quality of higher education to stop the migration of youngsters.
The panellists noted that the state could achieve the target if it focused on sector-specific investments, along with infrastructure push and sustainable development, with a focus on waste management.
“We need a ‘Clean Kerala’ in the aspects of waste management and clean rivers and backwaters, ‘Safe Kerala’ from the infrastructure perspective and a digitally-enabled Kerala. The government should create the best laws and regulations and leave it to the private sector to play with that,” said V.K. Mathews, IBS Software founder and executive chairman.
Mathews added that India grew from a $0.72 trillion economy to a $3.86 trillion economy in the last 20 years, with a nearly 8.6 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR). In 2004-05, he added, Kerala’s economy was 0.97 lakh crore, with a 13.1 lakh crore projection for this financial year.
Mathews said the state was losing talent due to a lack of the right job opportunities and salaries matching qualifications. He said the state government should look into the matter.
Tapping the right investors and sectors
Navas Meeran, the chairman of Group Meeran, said the state should create more investment opportunities for its diaspora in Kerala. Noting that most of the money coming to the state was either deposited in banks or real estate, Meeran said the state’s migrant population, with its tremendous exposure, could create employment opportunities if provided with the right investment opportunities. He noted that the state could focus on sports centres and related infrastructure, which have a huge potential in the state, considering their near absence.
Adeeb Ahamed, MD of Lulu Financial Holdings, said Kerala has a huge potential in tourism-related infrastructure, including the wellness industry. He said many such projects for the tourism infrastructure and the service industry could be under the public-private partnership (PPP) model. He said that such projects would be able to survive in the age of AI, which was likely to ‘job kill’ in many sectors, including technology.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
Communist Kerala wants to become rich and flip the bird at Karl Marx!.