#12.1 Kerala

• The red flag flies still over the state of Kerala. However, it seems this has little to do with the state’s world-renowned high literacy rate, whose history can be traced long before Independence and the beginning of independent political parties. For instance, the female literacy rate was “31.5% in Kerala in 1951 as against just 7.9 in India as a whole.” Much as in West Bengal – the other Indian state with periodic bouts of quasi-Marxist Government - it seems more likely that a literate population created the conditions for successful communism, rather than the other way round. [see here for some relevant-ish background]
• Instead, the difference seems to be routed in a different aspect of its history: Kerala's Christianity. More than 1/3rd of the state is Christian, most of that catholic. Early literacy programmes were begun by Christian missionaries. Latterly the State - unable properly to fund education - left it relatively open to the private sector (specifically NGOs in the school sector) to fill the gap. Christian groups were better able to raise funds for schools (largely from abroad), especially compared to Hindus groups in other states who lack an organised church, an active buearocracy and, perhaps most importantly, a body of rich people from whom they could solicit donations.
• A practical consequence of Kerala’s high literacy rate: people asking for money on the state’s train system carry printed cards explaining their reduced circumstances. The cards are double sided: English on one side, local language on the other.

• There are lots of good book shops here too. How sad that my bag never grows bigger.
  
• Unusually pointless Indian regulations, a continuing series: the government bans its airlines from using derivatives to hedge against fuel price fluctuation.
• Last year Indians bought 5m PCs, and 1m Laptops. In the US annual PC sales are roughly 60m. I can’t quite decide, given that, if 5m is a lot, or not.
• Sun Microsystems last week held its largest ever software development conference in Hyderabad, India’s second most successful IT hub. The sold-out event was held in the country’s largest conference centre, and more than 10,000 developers paid R1000 to attend. It was described in one paper as “the largest gathering of ‘Indian techies’ ever.”