The Kerala government has roped in Nobel laureate Amartya Sen, Noam Chomsky, one of the most influential intellectuals among contemporary thinkers, and Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist at World Health Organisation (WHO), to kick off its development debate series.
Even as economic activities are stymied by post-Covid restrictions, the state’s planners have come out with a structured development debate series that examines the dynamics of socio-economic welfare and new possibilities.
“Scientists, philosophers, diplomats, economists, writers, mediapersons, activists, technology experts, who have proved in their excellence internationally, will participate in the debate series, Kerala Dialogue, which starts this week.
Chomsky, Amartya Sen and Soumya Swaminathan will join this unique initiative in the first episode, speaking on ‘Kerala – Future Paths of Development’, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan said.
Kerala Planning Board vice-chairman VK Ramachandran and senior journalist N Ram will be the moderators. The debate series is to be telecast through the chief minister’s official social media accounts this week onwards.
Following the much-discussed Kerala Model of the 1970s that had economists marvelling how early investment in health and education yielded welfare dividends in a relatively low-GDP Indian state, the Vijayan government hopes that the new debates could generate fresh models on sustainable and inclusive development.