It was exactly 10 years prior to his death that the then President Abdul Kalam introduced a 10-point agenda to make Kerala, practically his second home, an economic powerhouse.
But his dream largely remains a work-in-progress.
He recommended 10 different missions for the State, which included development of tourism, waterways and deep-sea fishing; creation of an army of nurses and paramedics to meet rising demand at national and global levels; setting up exclusive economic zones to attract NRI and other investments; and the use of space technology for industrial development.
Others included development and marketing of knowledge products and pharmaceutical products and value addition to tea, coffee, spices, coconut and fruits.
Per capita income Kalam commended the people of Kerala for having taken the State to the top rung in the country in the National Human Development Index.
There cannot be any mission better than removing the poverty of the people and bringing prosperity in a time-bound manner, he would say.
He projected that the State’s per capita income would go up from ₹23,000 a year then to ₹50,000 in three years. The actual number came in at ₹88,527 latest in 2014, six more years later.
He hopes an investment-friendly climate would be created leading to the opening up of new employment avenues for its 3.7 million educated unemployed youth (only, this number worsened to 4.5 million in 2013).
Tourism potential The quality of products, cost-effectiveness and timely supply were crucial if the state were to remain competitive in the emerging national and global markets.
He was certain that Kerala would ramp up tourist arrivals from six million domestic tourists a year to 12 million (12.5 million in 2014) and 3.5 lakh international tourists to one million (9.23 lakh).
He urged the State to venture into knowledge products in addition to other IT-enabled services since it was endowed with the human resource required and necessary infrastructure with global connectivity.
It should aim at developing, producing and marketing knowledge products in a big way through a consortium approach involving committed academic institutions, local IT industries and government agencies.
IT exports A ‘task team’ may be formed with experts drawn from different IT areas for formulating and implementing a plan to develop, produce and market, nationally and globally, IT products and IT-enabled services worth at least $2 billion by 2008 (exports clocked $1.59 billion in 2014).
He called for setting up at least five exclusive economic zones with proactive labour policies and single-window clearance system.
He mooted 200 PURA (Provision of Urban Amenities in Rural Areas) units along its 500-km coastal stretch so as to provide physical, electronic, knowledge and economic connectivity to local people.