Kerala

Mobility as Capability: Women in the Informal Economy by Nikhila Menon, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020; pp xvi + 196, price not available.

Due to centralised and infl exible infrastructures of state care involving upper-level bureaucratic decision-making and heavy reliance on documentary modalities, even the radically decentralised states such as Kerala are underperforming in their welfare responsibilities. A greater role for local governments needs to be re-envisioned.

The central proposition of this paper is that the Kerala economy must grow on a path that leverages the strengths of its ecosystem, both natural and social, in a way that engenders growth that is widely inclusive and inherently sustainable. The central concern must be whether and how far the various economic activities find a harmonious alignment with the differentia specifica of Kerala’s unique ecological wealth and social circumstances.

More than three decades of reforms in Kerala’s drinking water sector have neither resulted in greater decision-making autonomy nor improved the fi nancial status of public utility. In addition to stymying the devolution of responsibility to local bodies, reforms have critically unsettled the role of the state leading to erosion of institutional capacity in public utility. The greater prominence of non-state players combined with institutional denuding of the state points to an emergent crisis of democratic accountability in the governance of this sector.

The Kerala Town and Country Planning Act, 2016 was considered a pioneering act that aligned with the 74th constitutional amendment. However, in October 2021, this act was amended. This article analytically examines the amendments made with respect to the provisions of the principal act. It discusses how there has been a dilution of important provisions of the act alongside major changes to Kerala’s planning system.