Kerala Story - 2050

Note - This one was kept un-published in my draft for a while. 

I was un-sure to publish it. But today, at the day of election results, i think this deserves day light.

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It's election time in India, a small window when people get some power to alter the fate of those who typically govern their lives. It's also the time of lower prices for petrol, diesel, and cooking gas 😊

I was diligently following campaign promises and strategies of political parties, esp. at Trivandrum. One thing leads to other, and it made me think - what are my dreams for my state.? 

One best way to think is to write. So, I wrote the below. I thought if a genie appears in front of me and said - "ask for anything without fear" and what will I dream of.?

My dream for Kerala by 2050 is to see it developed both economically and socially.

Let's start at the top. 

Q - What should be the goal of a Political Leader.? 

A - One might say that it should be to do things that are beneficial for the people they serve.

Let's be realistic. 

Q- What is the goal of a typical politician that we are accustomed to.? 

A - I think, it is to stay in power for as long as possible.

[ I am not saying that all politicians are like this. Most often, I don't see things are black or white; I see them as a spectrum ]

But, what does an ordinary citizen want?

By 2050, i hope we will have more politicians whose goals align with the public goals. 

I started with the politicians because the Leadership is very important.

The Principle-Agent problem' in economics is a concepts that is of interest to me. At 'AJ And Associates', it's crucial to ensure that the interests of our clients are protected and we do not act in ways that are against interests of our clients.

By 2050, we must boast world-class transportation and other public infrastructure. The benchmark for success lies in creating transportation infrastructure of such exceptional quality and reliability that even the affluent opt for public transport over private vehicles. The aim isn't solely to make vehicle ownership accessible to the poor, but to ensure such superior infrastructure that even the wealthy naturally prefer public transit. Government is promoting EVs aggressively, but i think having world class public transport will reduce vehicles on the road. 

Note - For a large section of population, who owns vehicles, the cost of owning, operating and maintaining a vehicle doesn't make financial sense if you strictly look at the numbers.  However for the government, a vehicle owner is good source of income, considering the direct and indirect taxes they pay throughout the duration of ownership. For starters, check the tax on your vehicle and fuel. Taxing vehicle owners and other in this value chain is easy than investing in world class infrastructure upgrades. But i hope some transformative changes will happen.

Improving quality, reducing transit time with faster modes of transport will make people travel more and in turn will create more opportunities for growth. There should be places to go and variety of things to do for people locally. While writing this - the go to place for hangout for a typical person living in Trivandrum is The Lulu Mall.! I hope it won't be the case for the generations to come.

As a society, we should think deeply about what we can contribute to the world/others. Contrary to what one may think, growth stems from contemplating our contributions to the world/others rather than our needs from it.

We think of Kerala as a tourist destination. But are we truly a world-class tourist destination? What about establishing world-class educational or medical institutions? How difficult is that.? What more can we do for the world? While I'm no expert, I understand that it all begins with fostering a world-class mentality.

We need a cultural shift. I wish to be part of a society where people care not just for themselves but for the collective good. I would like to live in a society where people do their work to the best of their abilities while keeping the interests of others at heart. I want us to have the best quality food, medicine, water, and air.  It all starts with the culture of caring for others.

The place where I am from, securing a government job is often viewed as the ultimate achievement in life.! Several of my friends, relatives, and people who worked with me see only this as the ultimate life goal. People often forget that - there is no one set path for success in life. I wish by 2050, a good chunk of population aspire to be job creators than job seekers. I aspire for a cultural shift towards embracing entrepreneurship. It takes 18 - 20 years to implement change as that it the time require to mold a new generation. I wish by 2050, schools that teach children civic sense, personal finance [a must have life skill that is not taught to my generation in school ] and independent thinking will be norm. Looking at the growth of AI, I wonder what will be the state of schools/education by then.

At he time of writing this - Media celebrates mostly startups securing funding from venture capitalists and generally stigmatize failure in business.! There are low key businesspeople who run super profitable businesses and not in lime light at all. Many people don’t even know that such level of success actually exists. These people care for value, than valuation. These are camels, not unicorns. We should have more camels.

Failure is an integral part of life and business. As a society, we should encourage children to take bold steps with probability for failure and inspire them to try again with even greater courage. If failure in business is considered a sin - the society will be at loss as it discourages more people from taking bold steps. Entrepreneurship isn't solely about large corporations or startups aiming to become unicorns. Look at countries like Japan and Germany; they thrive on their small and medium-sized businesses. The objective should be to deliver the finest products and services in the chosen domain for the longest possible duration. I hope that by 2050, entrepreneurship will be a cultural norm in Kerala.

I envision a Kerala characterized by increased collaboration and trust among its members and others, rather than divisions and distrust. I dream of Kerala achieving miracles akin to or surpassing places like Singapore, Japan, or Dubai. Is it a wild dream.? Perhaps. At least one should have the courage to dream.

There are two types of leaders [ as far as i know ] : leaders who are often managers, whose expertise lies in executing someone else's vision, often characterized by short-term plans.

Then there are visionaries, who envision a future beyond current realities, striving for the greater good. Many of the latter are those who plant trees under whose shade they may never sit. 

Quite often - Visionary leaders anticipate potential challenges ahead.  

For instance, as we experience extreme heat this year, one must anticipate its escalation in the years to come. Are we adequately prepared for climate change? What about the potential threat posed by a certain dam to people's lives? One may argue that it is safe now, what about the future? What about the poor quality of food and medicines that are common in the market.?  How prepared are we to face a water scarcity in the future or to encounter floods, cyclones, landslides or even a tsunami?

Some may consider this an overreaction, but we live in a world where protocols exist in case we make contact with Aliens.! I think - If there is just 1% chance of a potential for massive calamity - we must take it as absolute certainty and take steps to prepare or avoid it.

My dream is that by 2050 - Kerala will have world class affordable healthcare for the common man. It should be in the public domain. A businessman investing crores in a Hospital [ often liable to investors and lenders ] has to treat it as business where profit making is integral to survival. Whereas in public domain - it can be a service. 

If advances in Robotics and AI are to improve, I think by 2050, we will have humanoid robots taking care of the elderly & doing domestic chores. At the time of writing this, Tesla is betting heavily on Humanoid robots. ChatGPT's version 4o, that is very similar to the AI in the movie 'her' is launched [ once it has vision and instant talk ability ].I am excited and slightly scared incase the AGI will turn on it's skynet mode, if it happens - nice knowing you all :-) I also wonder if a new breed of humans will exist by 2050 that are essentially cyborgs. My first interaction with a PC was MS DOS. Now we are in the age of AI. I wonder what will be in store by 2050 unless human progress is drastically affected by war, natural calamity or any black swan event. One application for AI & robotics will be as domestic help and even emotional support for those who live alone. Whether it happens or not - I dream of a Kerala where elderly are taken care of with dignity. Children born in this day and age is going to have an AI companion by the time he/she starts using a smartphone.! If this is a blessing or a curse , i don't know. But this change is here, if we are ready or not.

And for my vision for AJ And Associates - is to become a firm renowned for providing world-class real estate related service within a decade or two, regardless of its size. I am inspired by Japanese culture where there are companies that are centuries old. They call it 'Shinise'. These are not billion-dollar companies. But small companies that stood the test of time by adapting and being good at what they do. That's my dream for AJ And Associates. The goal is not to be the biggest, largest or to be the most well-known, but to remain alive in a corner and serving clients in the best possible way we can for a very long time.

When we started - I used to market us as Trivandrum's Number 1 Real Estate consultancy.!! When I came to my senses, I realise that it is a vanity / fake slogan. Even if we were Number 1 - it is based on which metric.? Now we don't claim we are number 1, 2 or anything. We simply try to give best possible service we are capable of by keeping the best interest of those who come to us with their requirement. But we have a long way to go to reach the level of customer service i wish to provide our customers.

And for the government - I wish we will have a review and rating system for different departments and employees / officers of the Government, similar to how businesses are rated on platforms like Google. If the career advancement were impacted by the public ratings, we might witness a revolution in the quality of the service provided to the public. 

To improve civic sense among public, How about having an App where any citizen can report any rules or violations done by other citizens. Government can charge penalty and give a small incentive to those who report it. For example - You saw someone not stopping their vehicle at Red Light in Traffic. You click a photo or a small video and upload in an App. The government verifies the violation and issue penalty say 100 rs and pay you 10 Rs as incentive.

Now, consider how drastically this could affect Law and order.  The fear of being reported by a random stranger, motivated by a financial incentive, would likely to encourage majority of people to follow the civic laws. Alternatively, we could focus on training children to follow civic laws from a young age similar to practices in countries like Japan,

But if we need a drastic change - this could a radical example. Note - I am not advocating this in any way [ in fact i feel that this can be a plot of some dystopian novel or movie ]. 

What are your hopes and dreams for your state?

There is a quote - ‘it is better to sit next to a quiet stream than to be emperor of the whole world". On a personal front I am someone who wish not to leave a mark or to change the world in any way. I prefer a quiet unknown existence. However, we all need a vocation to spend the limit time we all have. And being part of a Kerala Story 2050 could be a good reason to get up every day. At least that's what i am thinking of while writing this.

P.S. This article is apolitical, and my opinions will evolve over time.

Usually, I try not to talk about things like this except only with a few who i am super comfortable with. For once - I am thinking of not restricting myself and just be me and wrote this. There are things that i wanted to include about taxation, improving education quality,homelessness,envirornment etc. But this itself is way beyond my comfort zone.

Some of you, who took the pain to read the entire article may wonder IF I am an ambitious, moral, law-abiding person and AJ And Associates is a world class organization.? My answer is No. 

Me and AJ And Associates have a very long way to go to reach the standards I aspire us to be at. 

We are at step 1 of a million-mile journey.