Interview / Sushila Gopalan

'Kerala is planning a major thrust in information technology and tourism'

At 71, Sushila Gopalan, Kerala's Minister for Industries and Social Welfare, finds she has got lots of energy as she sees signs of Kerala finally attracting industry. Even the Confederation of Indian Industry has labelled Kerala as the 'third best destination' in India for industry to flourish, she says with new confidence and pride.

Dogged by labour unions and unrest, Kerala was one state in India, industrialists used to shy away from. Kerala is now focussing heavily on tourism and information technology. India's most literate state is soon going to be a major information technology giant, she told Roving Editor Ramesh Menon in an exclusive interview.

Kerala has always been seen as a state where labour unions will not let industry thrive.

Oh, that was long ago! Almost sounds like a scandal today. But it is not true anymore. We have as much labour trouble as any other state. Now, we have learnt the art of solving labour troubles. There is very little unrest today.

It sounds good, but will industry be able to thrive with the heavily politicised trade unions?

Workers today have realised that their future is linked to the growth of industry. They do understand the importance of industrial peace.

Why did Kerala get such a reputation? It has everything in terms of development indices.

When you have a highly literate population, you are bound to face people's movements for social justice. In the traditional sector, workers got paltry wages.

Workers had genuine demands. They were literate. They could not be pushed around. We respect them and they now respect the industry point of view. But a period of struggle had to be there. We enforced strict pollution control norms. As we had a literate population it was not seen as a hindrance.

We enforced ESI norms for workers and followed all the labour laws. We also brought in land reforms. Kerala was a land of struggles and movements. That is why today it is in this superior position of having the best development and living standards.

That again sounds good. But have workers movements secured social justice?

In numerous areas it was the communists who brought in legislation to better the lot of the working class. I remember how as a child when going to school, I used to see hundreds of hutment dwellers thrown out on the streets because of eviction.

Now, we have legislation to deal with proper norms so that poor people are not hurt. Nowhere will you have workers protected like this.

But has that not hurt industry?

It may have done that earlier, but not today. The industry has a literate workforce that helps to improve productivity.

Why was the industry scene so sluggish all these years?

We had no power. There were no electricity connections available. But we commissioned numerous power schemes. Today, we have enough power and there are no more power cuts. But with the growth of industry, the demand will keep rising. So we have another 15 hydro- electric schemes on the anvil.

Within another two years, we should have excess power as gas-based electricity schemes are coming up. We want to have the cheapest electricity rates in India. Many of our diesel and naphtha based electric projects can also be converted into gas based ones.

Why do you think Kerala will now attract investment?

Kerala is an attractive state. It has an educated workforce. It does not have any communal tensions. It is a peaceful state. It has a good quality of life. Even nature is kind. It is one of the most serene and beautiful states of India.

What is the new attraction?

We now have a high technology park in Kochi, a food processing park in Kozhikode, an export promotion industrial park in Kochi, an apparel park in Trivandrum, a film and video park in Trivandrum and a herbal park in Wynad and Idduki. There are eight more industrial parks being planned. We have just started a special economic zone in Kochi. It is like a free trade zone.

It is going to be a hot commodity in Kerala.

What about funds?

Kerala allocates Rs 28 billion for education. None of us can fight against that. We value literacy. We get only Rs 3 billion for industry.

Out of that Rs 650 million just goes to run the public sector units. Yes, we do need more money. We have created a corpus fund for the public sector called the Kerala Industrial Revitalisation Fund. We issued bonds for Rs 180 and it was lapped up in a week.

So many of these public sector units are incurring losses. We are trying to correct that. As many as 24 of them are making profits now and many more will soon. Every year, the PSUs are doing marginally better.

It will take time. There has to be timely funding to help them recover. There has to be timely upgradation of technology. There has to be good management to save it.

What about the sick industries?

We are going to revive them. We have already identified about 1,400 units for revitalisation. Rehabilitation packages were made for them and it is being implemented now. In the last three years itself, 70 units have been revived. This will take time. It is an ongoing process.

Are you optimistic?

The import policy will do much harm to the small scale and indigenous industry. For instance, millions of girls are working in the coir industry.

Will they be able to compete with the multinationals coming in?

It is not just the state government. So many other factors affect industry. We can only do our best.

Are foreign players showing any interest in Kerala?

In our technopark, 40 per cent of the IT companies are based in the United States. There are some from Germany. European companies are showing lot of interest. IT companies in our technopark are growing at the rate of 40 per cent in the last five years. Today, we are short of space.

Any other foreign tie-ups?

A Sharjah team was recently in Kerala. They have discussed with us and are planning to start investments in Kerala. Consultations are on with other Gulf countries.

Malayalee NRI's from the United State are showing interest to invest in IT and bio technology areas. A first instalment of high voltage transformers from Oman has been completed and more are expected as Kerala is now producing quality transformers. We are also expecting Vietnam to soon order transformers.

Which would you say is a strong area that can be developed?

Our traditional sector is very strong with over 10 million workers. The coir industry itself has over 300,000 workers. Kerala is exporting coir products worth over Rs 3 billion. This is one area that will now grow.

Kerala has developed something called the coir geotextiles. Actually, it is just woven coir yarn nets. It can be used in the construction of roads that will make it at least five or six more times durable. It can be used on the sides of mountains and roads in high altitude destinations to prevent soil from erosion or collapsing.

The Defence Ministry has tried it out in four border areas and found it very successful. Union Defence Minister George Fernandes has asked me to give him as much coir as possible for use in border areas. If we can do this, thousands of people will be gainfully employed in the growing coir industry. This is actually going to be future of the coir industry.

We have a handloom sector that also now has promise as we are using Swiss technology to make computers give us varied modern designs that will appeal to the modern generation.

What about tourism? Is it spawning industrial growth?

Tourism will boom. So will the hospitality industry and all other areas that tourism is involved with.

We are not going in for any publicity or media hype. I hate giving interviews. Our technopark in a sprawling 180-acre campus is India's most advanced destination for information technology. You must come and see how Kerala is changing.

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