THE CASE OF THRISSUR BUSINESSMEN

I used to say in many of my keynotes that you put all Thrissur businessmen on one said of the balance and all the businessmen from 13 other districts of Kerala on the other, the Thrissur side of the balance, will not  lift up. 

There is some thing more deeper here. 

The south side of Malabar coast ends in Kodungallur (Crangannur or Muziris) and traders (വർത്തകർ) from all over the world, particularly from Middle East used to visit it for more than two millennia. And business flourished in that town for long. 

When King Shaktan Thampuran wanted Thrissur to come up, seeing the shortage of businessmen there, he sent for those Nasrani [originals + converts (മാർഗം കൂടിയവർ)]from Kodungallur to come down to Thrissur to set up businesses and gave them many privileges. Thus the city started with a strong business ecosystem, set up by the migrants (വരുത്തർ) of international dimension and global connect. 

The financial institutions flourished there from the mid 19th century and all through the 20th century (Banks - Lord Krishna, South Indian, Dhanalaxmi, Catholic Syrian, now ESAF). The base of all these were the Chit fund companies that flourished there. Chitti is the contribution of Thrissur businessmen to Kerala. 

Working for HCL in the mid 80s, I must have visited not less than 100 Chitti (കുറി) companies in Thrissur round itself, of Limited company status, all headed by businessmen in their 60s & 70s. Even Kerala Govt. headquartered its Chit fund company (KSFE) in Thrissur. That is the hereditary advantage Thrissur had in financial sector. 

Lastly, in spite of big businesses that they held, the businessmen were very rooted to earth (humble, servant leadership). They will have the ഒറ്റമുണ്ട് (dhoti),  ജുബ്ബ (shirt but many times, topless) and the തോർത്ത് (Kerala towel) on the shoulders. Talk to this ഈനാശു (person),you wouldn’t realise that at home he could simply pick up 2 crores rupees from the കുടം, just like that. 

Simple living, god fearing, hardworking with deep business sense and clear focussed money-making ability of these personas gave Thrissur the status what it has today. 

Like the Marvari, Sindhi, Gujrati, Chettiar & Mangalori businessmen, Thrissur businessmen are a breed apart and what is more astounding is the fact that the distribution of the money is not with one community as we see in other places. Here whether Hindu (of all caste), Muslim or Christian, they are identified by the business first. 

While all of these are latently recognised, there aren’t much of written documentation of the Thrissur businessmen and their original ecosystem. Many fantastic business case study possibilities exist for Thrissur.

RCEP - A CHINESE COUP

Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) had come into existence on Sunday the 15th November 2020. It is a trade block, a mega one at that, consisting of 10 prominent South Asian countries and China, Australia, New Zealand, Japan & South Korea. 

Analysts say that RECP is the largest trade agreement today, demoting the US-Mexico-Canada and the European Union trade agreements to lower places. RECP members account for 30% of the global GDP, giving it a strong muscle

When the discussions were underway, India was part of it but last year, it withdrew; the reason being China’s prominence, with which India was undergoing challenges at the multiple levels. Now, as an emotional decision, it could be termed as an economic loss but whether India has some economic or global trade plans up its sleeve to counter it, is still not known. The RCEP has announced that if India wants to join it, it has to apply again. Will India? Doubtful

China indeed had become one hell of a global power (and, a bully!), very strategic, at the same time, very opaque one at that. It was  expected of China to have major post Covid economic challenges. But by astute, clever, deft moves, it is ensuring long term survivability and sustenance.  

Nations have many things to learn...

SAME FESTIVAL, CELEBRATED FOR DIFFERENT REASONS

Diwali (Deepavali) is the largest celebrated festival in India but, it is celebrated across Indian geography, by the communities, for different reasons.

North India celebrates is as the day of arrival of Rama back at Ayodhya, after defeating Ravana.

Western India celebrates Diwali in deference to Lord Vishnu sending the demon King Bali to nether world. 

South India is Celebrating it for Lord Krishna defeating the demon, Narakasura on this day.

To the Buddhists, it is a celebration as the day of return of Gautam Buddha to Kapilavastu after 18 years of leaving it.

The Sikhs celebrates Diwali in honour of the release of their sixth guru Hargobind-ji from imprisonment

The Jains mark Diwali as the nirvana day of Lord Mahavira

 

The diversity called India finds its unity in this festival, though celebrated for different reasons! 

In the north, where festivities are the highest, it is a 5 day affair.

Day 1. Home is cleaned so that good fortune can come in without hesitation.

Day 2. Dhanteras, clay lamps are lit  & rangoli is put on the floor, auspicious day for procuring gold and ornaments. 

Day 3. Lakshmi Puja, feast and fireworks

Day 4. Visit friends and relatives and giving gifts

Day 5. Bhai Dooj, brothers visit their married sisters  and are given lavish meal 

Whatever be the myth behind, Diwali is looked forward to by the Indians every year, year after year. The getting together of families, of giving & receiving  gifts, of celebrating colourfully with firecrackers, and happy times across communities and forgetting the difficulties of the time being, are the elements in this festival.  

Diwali is indeed bad times for owls in India. Owl is Goddess Lakshmi’s vehicle (‘vaahan’) and if it is killed, people think that Lakshmi will not be able to move out of their homes and stay put, to their  happiness. Due to this superstition, lot of owls are sacrificed during Diwali. Though banned by law, illegally it still happens in deep rural north India where thousands of owls are butchered on these days. 

Notwithstanding this negativity, in this festival season, here is wishing everyone, all the happiness that you can get! 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KERALA!

Today, on the 1st of November, 2020, Kerala celebrates its 64th birthday. 

Post independence in 1947, the three constituent kingdom that formed Kerala was under the Madras Province. And it took almost 10 years for the state of Kerala to come into existence. 

The Travancore dynasty of south Kerala, the largest among the constituents, has been an extension of the long-standing  AY kingdom. The Kochi kingdom could be deemed as an extension of the Chera dynasty and the Zamorins up north, ruled from one of the most ancient cosmopolitan cities of the world, Kozhikode; which controlled the most famous trade destination on Indian subcontinent, the well known Malabar coast.   

When the state got formed, Kerala was indeed a loser. The most Important part of Travancore, Nagercoil and Kanyakumari, should have been very much part of Kerala (remember, the Travancore Kingdom’s ancestors came from Padmanabhapuram which is in Tamilnadu today). The indifference of Tiru-Kochi Chief Minister Pattom Thanu Pilla was the reason for the loss. We ended up in having a part of Karnataka (Kasargod) with us in lieu of Kanyakumari  (in fact majority of people of Kasargod do not speak Malayalam even now, they  speak Tulu & Kannada. Malayalam went there only after Christian farmers from central Kerala started migrating to Kasargod  along with the Muslim traders from Kozhikode / Kannur. 

The democratic process of the state happened with a world record, of Communist party getting elected to power for the first time in the world. And even today, it continues to be the only state in the country with an elected communist party led government. 

So, in addition to Communism what are the other unique features of Kerala? 

1. High HDI, comparable to the developed nations of the world

2. A sought after tourist destination of the world with the sea-backwater-hill combo; all connected by the picturesque green background 

3. A fairly distributed religious representation having balanced communal harmony. 

4. The migrant Malayali, dwelling all over the world, sending record remittance back home, year after year, for his state and people to survive 

5. Highly literate state with high-end cerebral manpower

6. Less corrupted system with democratic power devolved all the way down to the villages. 

What are challenges the state is facing now? 

 1. A fast ageing population with the able-bodied people away, working elsewhere 

2. Poor infrastructure developments with a financially crippled state 

3. No sustainably productive economic system, we are mostly consumer centric ! 

4. Decreasing quality of education system (which  produced best professionals once), having failed to catch up with the best in the world 

5. Higher political uncertainty, high unemployment and politically induced narrow casteism / communism rearing  its head now trying to destroy the State’s social fabric.

Success of Kerala so far had been due to the strong basic fundamentals in education, Health and the practise of societal equality (Communism being responsible for that). Whatever being touted during the formation of the State such as the revolutionary land reforms act, militant labour etc., are now standing as hurdles to the economic progress of the State. Lack of production capability had retarded our exports and foreign exchange earnings. 

For Kerala to come out of the stationery position prevailing for long, a totally out of the box thought process and innovations based on that must happen here. We are stuck for a long time, with the messy bureaucratic policies. There is a huge leadership vacuum that exists in our executives. 

It is time, we revamped the existing policies and adapted ourselves to imbibe the fast moving future trends into the state’s future strategies.