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