CHANGING KERALA: LUMBERING JUMBO TO A LITHE TIGER

Kerala is beginning to stand out as a model of economic innovation and sustainable growth. It just needs to update its laws, slash regulations and streamline government processes

- SHASHI THAROOR

ACK in 2007, in my book, The Elephant, the Tiger, and the Cell Phone, I described the Indian economy as an "old elephant", a creature with a "big, slow, lumbering" presence and a "long but not always happy history".

For decades, this elephant trudged along under the weight of stagnation, constrained by policies of self-reliance that inadvertently stifled growth.

However, the elephant's journey took a decisive turn in 1991 when India embarked on a path of economic reform. Liberalisation, privatisation and globalisation injected new vitality into the economy, gradually replacing the elephant's "old fat" with "muscle".

Over time, something extraordinary began to emerge-"large black stripes" swirling across its form. These stripes, bold and dynamic, symbolised the rise of a new India: an India of entrepreneurs, innovators, and startups. The elephant was evolving into a tiger-sleek, agile, industrious, and ready to leap into the future.

Is something similar happening to Kerala? Startups have suffused India's-especially Kerala's-economy, becoming ubiquitous.

Indeed, according to the 2024 Global Startup Ecosystem Report, which analysed data from over 4.5 million companies across 300-plus entrepreneurial innovation ecosystems, Kerala has forged a startup ecosystem that, at the end of an 18-month period last year, was valued at a whopping $1.7 billion, five times more than the global average during this same period.

Between July 1, 2021 and December 31, 2023, while the worldwide average growth was 46 percent, Kerala recorded a staggering 254 percent compound annual growth rate: a phenomenal feat.

This is a welcome change from what we had all heard and assumed about Kerala. It was said as recently as a year or two ago that whereas it takes three days to open a business in Singapore or America, it takes an average of 114 days in India-and 236 in Kerala.