Innovation has to be mainstreamed in development paradigm: Mihir Shah

Kerala gave the world a model of development in the late 20th century. Now, the world is poised for the Kerala innovative model of development 2.0, economist and former member of the erstwhile Planning Commission of India Mihir Shah has said.

He was speaking at a panel discussion on ‘Local economic development – strategy and scoping’ as part of a joint national consultative group and bottom-up consultative group meeting on the ‘One Local Government One Idea’ (OLOI) programme of the Kerala Development and Innovation Strategic Council (K-DISC) here on Thursday.

Mr. Shah underlined the need to find solutions to second generation developmental problems that broke away from the development paradigm of the 20th century, particularly in the light of the destruction of the environment. K-DISC’s work as part of OLOI could add up to becoming the paradigm for the 21st century with a different conception of the relationship between economy and the ecosystem of which it is a part of. “Innovation has to be mainstreamed in the development paradigm,” he said.

Raghunandan T.R., former joint secretary, Ministry of Panchayati Raj, said that in Kerala the paradox of local development being opposed by local government could be observed. He also highlighted the issues in trying to address problems of urbanisation with a “rural fiscal architecture.”

Joe Madiath, chairman, Gram Vikas, a non-governmental organisation in Odisha, said Kerala could have done a lot more in to become the leader in the area of drinking water and sanitation.

Drinking water and sanitation activities should be based on sustainable models. Citing the example of the NGO’s work in Odisha, he said villages managed their own drinking water and sanitation system by creating a corpus fund for which every family in a particular village deposited ₹1,000 in a bank and the interest was used to ensure that the facilities covered every family.

Preeta Lall, former executive director, Local Governance Initiative Network, argued that many of the problems faced by local bodies related to adaptation to climate change and that could not be restricted to administrative boundaries. Pilot projects should be critical of the approach adopted and should veer away from ideas that do not work.

N.C. Narayan, professor, IIT Bombay; Ajith Radhakrishnan, senior specialist, World Bank; Dinesh Abrol, professor, Institute for Studies in Industrial Development; Joy Elamon, former director general, Kerala Institute of Local Administration (KILA); Jiju P. Alex, member, Kerala State Planning Board; Nizamudeen A, director general, KILA; also spoke. W.R. Reddy, former director general, National Institute of Rural Development, spoke online.

A group discussion on ‘Strategy for urban innovation clusters’ followed.

Earlier, P.V. Unnikrishnan, member secretary, K-DISC, spoke on ‘OLOI progress so far and way forward.’