‘Government should handhold entrepreneurs’

KOCHI: It is not a lack of projects but absence of a system to handhold the entrepreneurs that has led to failure of many ambitious projects in Kerala, said former chairman of Kerala Public Sector Restructuring and Internal Audit Board M P Sukumaran Nair.

“The Planning Board should evaluate the reasons for the failure of projects and recommend investor-friendly policies. A new investor in the small-scale sector will not have the experience and we should handhold him in manufacturing to marketing.

It is not lack of innovation but lack of support that led to the failure of many projects,” he said. According to Sukumaran Nair, Kerala should concentrate on value-added products and manufacture of medical products. 

“We have expertise in software technology and groom industries to focus on Indian market as the traditional software market in Western countries are declining. Another sector is hardware technology. The proposal for a hardware park has been pending for long. We should focus on emerging technologies like cloud computing, data analytics and 3D printing,” he said.

‘Social security network helped during Covid crisis’
“While many of our neighbours were struggling to support the labourers during the lockdown period, it was Kerala’s social security network that helped us support them,” said Planning Board member K Ravi Maman.

“We have 28 welfare boards that cater to the needs of our workers in the organised sector. Kerala has 1.27 crore labourers in Kerala and around 10 lakh of them have been enrolled in the welfare boards. We gave them a relief of Rs 2,000 per head and allotted loans to support their families. Others were provided food kits,” he said.

Covid battering state has faced
Kerala workforce: 1.27 cr
Livelihood affected by Covid outbreak from March 25 to June 30: 
60% workers
Person days lost: 7,163 lakh
Wage loss: Rs 43,972 cr
Construction sector wage loss: Rs 12,000 crore
Sectors most affected
Construction 
Transport
Restaurants
Tourism