---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: raghavan menon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Oct 7, 2005 2:49 AM
Friends,
On October 3rd I had occasion to attend a discussion on the
President's Proposals for Kerala's Development held in Kochi under the
auspices of Malayala Manorama.
While much of the discussions were on predictable lines, I found the
following presentations interesting:
1. Dr Mohan Gopal, Member, State Planning Board, said: "Trickle down
has not worked anywhere, not even in the United States. The increasing
gap between the poor and the rich invariably results in greater social
tensions and leads to more violence. So, if we can not have
development with social justice, it is better not to have any
development at all!"
2. Dr Ajit Balakrishnan, CEO of Rediff.com (and member of the
Executive Committee of NASSCOM), said: In the Governments' view, what
attract IT Companies to a state are, 1. Scale and quality of ready
built office space and 2. Financial incentives. But, in the view of
NASSCOM, the real attractions are, 1.Number and quality of computer
science graduates per year and 2. English skills.
3. Dr Sam Pithroda, who interacted with the Group through
teleconferencing from Chicago, said: The agenda for the development of
Kerala should be a people's agenda. So these proposals should be taken
to the people. Let 10 or 20 Task Groups be formed, in each area, with
may be 5 persons in each group. Let them go out to the country side
and talk to the people, listen to what they have to say about these
proposals, and then come back and formulate the people's plan for the
development of Kerala. Only then can it be implemented.
I would like to have the reactions of the group on these.
RVG Menon
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