Kerala's KIIFB to employ drone technology to map for projects, by tying up with an innovative start-up by IIT graduates that will be offering its comprehensive services in Kerala. prestigious three-day event. The man who is heading the show at KASE is its Director Sriram Venkitaraman, a young doctor-turned-bureaucrat who has travelled across the globe to understand the differing requirements of blue-collar workers there and how Keralite workers could fill those positions. However, another core aim of KASE is to change the perception about bluecollar jobs in Kerala itself, as increasingly Keralites are shying away from these jobs inside the state, and all these jobs are going to workers from other states.
KERALA HAS NO PARALLELS IN PANCHAYATI RAJ INDIA RECENTLY PASSED A MILESTONE WHEN IT COMPLETED 25 YEARS OF DECENTRALIZATION OF POWER, OR PANCHAYATI RAJ. HOWEVER, THE EVENT WAS NOT EVEN COMMEMORATED MUCH ANYWHERE IN INDIA, EXCEPT KERALA, WHICH HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE CLEAR LEADER IN DEVOLVING POWER TO THE LOCAL SELFGOVERNMENT BODIES, AND THE CLEAR RESULTS OF THIS IN THE STATE’S SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT INDEX IS FOR EVERYONE TO SEE.
When it comes to the core social development index parameters like infant mortality, primary education and affordable healthcare, Kerala is way ahead of most states in India, which as a nation has always lagged behind the top 100 countries in Social Progress Index, and as the last one even in BRICS nations. Historically, different factors have played well in making this miracle happen for Kerala like benevolent kings, then benevolent governments, familiarity with standards in developed nations due to non-resident population etc. However, starting in 1993 and
Kerala is showing that it cares for incoming migrants, through its Literacy Mission which is teaching Malayalam to migrant women. Seasonal Magazine
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getting accelerated in 1996 with the People’s Plan Campaign, Kerala has rapidly outpaced all aspiring peers by embracing Panchayati Raj like no other state. It was in 1993 that the Narasimha Rao Government implemented former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi’s dream of decentralization or Panchayati Raj as a mechanism to ensure that the fruits of development reaches the grassroots without graft, red tape and nepotism. However, in the greater din of the economic liberalization program of the same government that happened simultaneously, Panchayati Raj didn’t get much mindshare or acceleration in many states. But within just three years of its introduction by Centre, that is in 1996, Kerala launched the People’s Plan Campaign that continues to be the benchmark in the whole of India for how to implement Panchayati Raj. A new LDF Government under EK Nayanar had come to power and it took a bold decision to devolve 35% of the state development budget down from a centralized bureaucracy to local governments where local people could