Kerala has to transform into a knowledge economy to meet the challenges of the future, Congress MP Shashi Tharoor said in Kochi on Tuesday.
In a knowledge economy what matters is the human resources and Kerala has the talent for such a transformation. The state needs legislation and other policy support to be driven in that direction, Tharoor said.
He was interacting with techies and entrepreneurs on the Infopark Campus in Kakkanad as part of the United Democratic Front's campaign for Uma Thomas, who is contesting the May 31 assembly bypoll on the Congress ticket. The event was organised by the All India Professionals' Congress.
“Let's first create a viable knowledge economy which by the way I would argue is a political necessity for Kerala because we are extremely dependent on a phenomenon that is extremely fragile, that's remittances.
"Last couple of years when we had no tourists coming we lost almost 25 percent of our state GDP. Imagine, if we also suddenly found that all these Gulf countries for good reason or bad started expelling our people, what will we do? What will we do to accommodate them in our state? It is high time we developed an alternative sustainable basis for ourselves which will be economically viable and that will enable us to have alternative sources of income generation,” he said.
Reacting to a question on the large-scale brain drain from the state, Tharoor said, “My argument in Kerala about creating a knowledge economy is that if we have more opportunities and more state-of-the-art work happening here, people won't need to go abroad.”
Brain drain refers to the migration of highly skilled and educated people to a country where they can work in better conditions and earn more money.
On the bypoll, Tharoor urged the voters of Thrikkakara to vote for Uma Thomas, saying Congress is the only party that has a vision for the 21st century.
Ernakulam MP Hibi Eden, Muvattupuzha MLA Mathew Kuzhalnadan, AIPC leaders Dr S S Lal, Sudheer Mohan and Eldho Chirackachalil spoke at the event.