INFRASTRUCTURE, GROWTH AND HUMAN DEVELOPMENT IN KERALA

Kerala has a high status in infrastructure development in India and her experiences in social infrastructure development rank her one among many developed countries. This study seeks to analyse the development experiences of Kerala, and to examine what worked behind these experiences. A proposition of a ‘chain interaction’ between human development and economic growth is suggested whereby the human development Kerala had achieved by means of infrastructure development propelled economic growth (in terms of consumption expenditure) which in turn has led to further human development. Another proposition on an ‘invisible hand’ a la Adam Smith that translates disparate, individual self-interests into coherent social interest also is put up in explaining the development experiences of Kerala. Both these propositions are statistically verified using some innovations in the interpretations of the results and in the methodology of Markov chain (‘Markov chain causality’). An attempt is also made to correlate quality and freedom in the context of infrastructure development. Defining development in its truest sense in terms of a duality of availability (including accessibility) and quality, we argue that Kerala has in the field of infrastructure achieved only what we call quasi-capability (or q-capability) enhancement, and she is yet to strive for the true development or the freedom from quasi-freedom.