Whats stopping Kerala from achieving its true potential

hello everyone

i’m here to talk about what kerala has

to offer the world

but first let me tell you a personal

story

right after i finish school my parents

and i like scores of other malayalis

started looking out for an engineering

college for me and almost everyone that

we asked for recommendations

talked about the placements in these

colleges and my father remarked at how

ridiculous it was

that they valued placements over the

quality of education

i didn’t think of it much back then but

now i understand what he meant

our education system is centered around

finding a job

and this focus on getting a job stems

from fears in our past

in the mid-1960s kerala faced an acute

unemployment crisis this is when the

malayali migration phenomenon started

taking shape

we started migrating to other parts of

the world in search of jobs

but isn’t it time that we reassess

things

present-day kerala has a literacy rate

of 93.9 percent

and a human development index that can

be compared with developed countries

so foundations have been laid for the

next innovation and entrepreneurial hub

so what’s holding us back to answer that

question

we have to look at the most popular

entrepreneurial hub in the world

the silicon valley experts attribute the

silicon valley’s success

to universities culture weather

government policy and venture capital

this is god’s own country

so the weather part is taken care of

right kerala’s back waters and scenery

makes it the ideal place to live in but

weather also includes social conditions

and kerala has built a reputation for

being progressive and liberal

so the weather part is truly taken care

of

so what about government policy and

venture capital

these two seem to be falling in place

the latest budget has allocated 50

crores to startups

and 2 000 crores to the promotion of

small businesses

as per the latest reports kerala is home

to 2200 startups

and with an annual compounded growth

rate of 17

from 2012 to 2019 kerala is emerging as

one of the startup destinations in india

and that brings us to universities and

culture so let’s go back to that story

about our focus on getting a job

the purpose of our colleges seems to be

to churn out graduates to get employed

in various companies across the globe

not that that’s a bad thing it’s just

that this brain drain is what stands in

kerala’s way

it is the easiest way out for most

graduates for it offers a path

that offers the least possibility of

what can be conventionally termed as

failure

the thing is entrepreneurship and

innovation goes hand in hand with

failure

the startup culture requires you to

think of failure as experience

and not as a mark of incompetence you

have to look at the world as an infinite

game

and understand that you truly fail only

when you stop trying

and once we embrace this culture of

risk-taking kerala can achieve its true

potential

i believe that this cultural barrier to

entrepreneurship should be broken with a

two-pronged approach

one a colleges should encourage

innovation

and starting of new businesses it should

not be places where

kids go to mug up and score good marks i

remember when i was in my final year of

engineering

the final year engineering project was

done by was outsourced essentially

and that is completely against the

concept of finally engineering projects

and it is that kind of thinking that we

have to stop

second as a society we have to embrace

risk taking

and we should not stigmatize failure and

this means

we should not push people into taking

b-tech because

most people that i know who have done

b-tech do not do engineering jobs

if somebody takes a path that is less

taken encourage them and motivate them

and once we embrace this culture of

risk-taking and accept failure as a

gateway to eventual success

we not only improve the startup

ecosystem of kerala

but help in the building of kerala with

better professionals all around

embracing careers that actually drive

them so you might be wondering why i am

so passionate about not succumbing to

failure

the thing is in the past five years i’ve

failed in three ventures

pink lungi is my fourth attempt and

things have been going great so far

we started pink lungi as a platform that

showcases

things that kerala has to offer and to

shine a spotlight on kerala’s booming

youth culture

the renaissance has already begun

kerala’s rising tech startup ecosystem

thriving movie industry indie music

scene and digital media landscape

are all evidences that kerala is taking

the world over by storm

the emerald valley in the making that’s

what i’d like to call it

the emerald valley because kerala is

green and we should embrace sustainable

development practices to keep it that

way

but more so because like an emerald it’s

a treasure right beneath the surface

all one has to do is reach out and grasp

it

thank you