Is it not time to develop Kochi into an Internationally known Commercial Centre and make Kerala an attractive Tourism state on par with Kashmir and Switzerland and convince and prove to the world that Kerala is God’s own Country worth spending a few days in their life time once at least to enjoy the beauty of nature, best of vegetarian and non vegetarian cuisines and bliss of both yoga and ayurveda practices and remain blessed for ever to relish and rejoice? It is high time the state undergoes a dramatic and drastic change and enter into a different atmosphere of happiness , prosperity, political climate , and exploit its own gift of intelligence, natural resources, art, culture, civilisation and relish a different life of thrill of work, discipline, satisfaction and fulfilment of living.
The place is beautiful beyond imagination but it is doubtful as to whether life in Kerala is so lovely and beautiful as is expected or made out because of the presence of man made irritations and discomforts unheard of elsewhere. Though, Economic progress and well being of the people are also man made and God has given all opportunities and facilities with blessings of good natural resources including intelligent human resources, but why the people of Kerala perennially suffer or live without optimally enjoying the god given gifts to their full potential is what surprises many who happen to visit Kerala or read about the state these days through media. What is happening to take away the joy of living and how the people are deprived of the best of god given opportunities and mislead to lead a life far from satisfaction and chasing the mirage of happiness elsewhere which is often elusive ,evasive and unreal are perhaps the thoughts many Keralites and Indians may be wondering about?
Both Hell and Heaven are all man made and it all depends on the people , their aspirations , attitudes, efforts and hard work as to what they choose and how they achieve what they want. Only Capable people and Capable leaders can inspire and deliver what the people aspire for is what the history of any successful nation has demonstrated and herein lies the solution for Kerala as well.
The state is very badly in need of a good political party with outstanding and very dynamic leaders with qualities of a Statesman, Good Administrator , Financial Wizard , Judiciary Expert and Business Entrepreneur. Kochi can be easily developed both as a State and Commercial Capital perhaps with all its present economic social and commercial infrastructure and locational advantage. Being a port town and having established as an import and export centre Kochi can be further strengthened as an Entrepot like Singapore to start with and can be made a role model for the entire state to look forward to.later on..Being a financial centre with a stock exchange, lots of banks and non banking financial companies and other commercial establishments , Kochi can be easily developed as a mini Global Financial Center as it has a well run Reserve Bank set up with adequate infrastructure . Kochi has also some Universities and management Institutions and five star hotels and other facilities including an international airport. The presence of High Court is an added advantage .The facilities may require a bit of upgradation and upscaling to meet the international standards. The RESERVE BANK can be upgraded to function as a full fledged Financial Leader and Intermediary to develop Kochi first and then the State. The Technology Centric based development with a dynamic special officer exclusively to look after KOCHI development first and then model the same for the state as a whole can work wonders for the benefit of the entire humanity as an end result. The state has anything and everything but the will power to emerge as a class and the most developed state of the country. However, the absence of an inspiring , dynamic and a visionary leader to understand the sentiments of the people, the strengths and weaknesses of the state and carry on developmental activities is felt both in bureaucratic and political areas. This needs to be smartly taken care of .
Any political party which can think afresh with innovative ideas and forethoughts on development for the state can definitely nurture some new hopes and initiate steps factoring in perhaps the potential available in the state in terms of natural resources, human talents, the pluses and minuses as of now which are very many in the state . It is better to think of developing the state in terms of trade, commerce, tourism ,art and culture , institutions for social growth and human welfare. Time has come to INTROSPECT and ACT expeditiously.
TVG Krishnan
