Upcoming July 2026
KERALA AND KERALITES: THE PROMISE AND CHALLENGES
Essays and Interviews from the Global Indian Times
Editors Ignatius Chithelen and Cherian Samuel
Cover design by Visakh Menon
Extract from the Foreword by Paul Kattuman
Professor, Cambridge Judge Business School
The central concern of this volume is a conversion problem. Kerala created a capable and aspirational society, but it has not always created the institutions or economic conditions in which those capabilities can be fully used. This is why the same achievement returns in the book as a difficulty: education without enough suitable work, migration without adequate protection for migrants, welfare without an assured fiscal base, and women’s advancement without corresponding power in the economy and public life.
Kerala’s achievements were produced by social pressure. Communities, especially those denied status, wanted education because it brought dignity, mobility, employment, and bargaining power. State schooling, social movements, labour politics, and electoral mobilisation helped create a culture in which literacy and health became expectations.
Kerala’s achievements in female literacy, health, and education do not by themselves amount to economic power. Women’s autonomy through work is shaped just as much by everyday conditions of freedom, such as safety in movement and a fairer distribution of care within families.
The chapters in this volume approach Kerala’s development from different angles, but a common theme runs through them. They ask us to look at Kerala plainly: as a society of real achievements and serious contradictions. The Kerala Question is no longer whether human development matters. It is whether Kerala can turn human development into secure livelihoods, greater autonomy for women, environmental security, and a future that more people can imagine within Kerala itself.
Paul Kattuman is Professor of Economics at Cambridge Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, and Director of Studies in Management and Fellow of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. During the COVID-19 pandemic, he worked with Andrew Harvey, Professor of Econometrics in the Faculty of Economics at the University of Cambridge, to develop time-series models for tracking and forecasting epidemic trajectories as they evolved over time. This work contributed to operational forecasting in the UK and India, particularly Kerala.
Advance Praise for Kerala and Keralites
Saeed Mirza, filmmaker, Chair, K.R. Narayanan film school, Kerala
Kerala and Keralites is an important document of articles, essays and interviews on the achievements of the people and the state. The enormous progress in education, welfare, women’s rights, and healthcare, in tiny Kerala, serves as an example for policy makers in other Indian states. Well done Ignatius Chithelen and Cherian Samuel.
Saeed Akhtar Mirza, is Chairman, K.R. Narayanan National Institute of Visual Science & Arts, a film school in Kottayam, Kerala. Mirza’s films include Albert Pinto Ko Gussan Kyoon Aata Hai, 1980, and Naseem, 1995; his TV serials include Nukkad, 1986; and his books include, Ammi: Letter to a Democratic Mother, 2008.
Rick Oliver, former Professor, global business, Cornell and Vanderbilt Universities
With their highly educated youth, educated and trained to work smart and hard in the new technologically skilled workplace, and a favorable economic climate, Kerala leads India in rapid economic growth. As the world’s population grows and ages, and the use of AI expands, demand for skilled Indian professionals, such as nurses trained in Kerala, will grow dramatically.
This book provides rare, insightful analysis of the Kerala “miracle.” Like Kerala, it's the best of the breed!
For nearly 30 years, Rick Oliver has been an advisor to and investor in education, commercial, and philanthropic organizations in India. He is the founder of American Sentinel University online nursing school, and a retired professor of strategy and global business at Vanderbilt and Cornell University's management schools. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of which are available in multiple languages, and has served on the boards of ten public business and investment firms.
Ritu Dewan, Visiting Professor, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi
Kerala and Keralites is a singularly unique array of creatively selected articles, interviews and vignettes, focusing on structurally interconnected multiple and myriad issues. The central focus is the spectacular historic achievements of the Kerala model and its people, and the need to extend and deepen the internalisation and simultaneously the externalisation of these attainments without romanticization. Essential to this rainbow collection is the incorporation of democracy, debate, and dissent that cuts through hierarchies, divides and diversities, without losing sight of lived experiences and realities.
Renowned experts and practitioners have contributed to this book, consistently interlinking academic rigour, advocacy and action, as a tribute to CDS and to the people of Kerala.
Ritu Dewan is Visiting Professor, Institute for Human Development, New Delh; President, 64th Conference of Indian Society of Labour Economics; former President, Indian Association for Women Studies; and Retired Director and Professor, Department of Economics, University of Mumbai.
Prabhu Guptara, Visiting Fellow, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, UK
“The average Indian, if asked to name the most desirable place to live in India, will almost unhesitatingly say Goa or Bengaluru. Most Indians remain unaware that it is Kerala which tops the country in practically every measure of development - quality of life, education, security, freedom, health, care of children, women, the elderly, the environment, …. That peculiar gap in public awareness is the most important reason for recommending Chithelen and Samuel’s gathering of materials that providformation on this extraordinary Indian state in bite-sized chunks that one can digest easily and quickly”
Prabhu Guptara, Publisher, Pippa Rann Books; Visiting Fellow, Judge Business School, University of Cambridge, U.K.; former Executive Director UBS Wolfsberg
Priya Menon, Professor, Troy University, Alabama, US
Kerala and Keralites: The Promise and Challenges explores one of India's most remarkable development stories. Through essays and interviews with leading scholars, economists, and practitioners, the book examines Kerala's achievements in education, healthcare, migration, entrepreneurship, and social development alongside its persistent economic and demographic challenges. Richly informed by evidence and lived experience, it offers fresh perspectives on the state's past, present, and future.
Why has Kerala achieved high levels of literacy, healthcare, and social development while many of its educated young people continue to seek opportunities elsewhere? This collection of essays and interviews examines the state's economy, migration, business, agriculture, public policy, and culture through the work of scholars, journalists, and practitioners. Rather than celebrating or criticizing Kerala, the contributors ask what explains its successes, what constrains its progress, and what lessons its experience offers for the future.
An essential volume for anyone interested in Kerala, India, and global development.
Priya Menon is a Professor of English and Director, University Honors Program, at Troy University, Alabama, US. A Fulbright Scholar, she has written on migration, gender, and culture in Kerala, including the impact of Keralite migration to the Persian Gulf. Her woks have also examined representations of power, gender, and social hierarchy in the works of Arundhati Roy, Kamala Das, and Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
Mukul Pandya, former Executive Editor, Knowledge@Wharton, Philadelphia, US
The contributors have assembled a rich and thought-provoking collection that captures both the promise and the paradoxes of Kerala. The book moves beyond familiar celebrations of the Kerala Model to ask deeper questions about opportunity, migration, entrepreneurship, and the future of one of India's most educated and globally connected states.
Grounded in data yet highly readable, the book offers valuable insights for Keralites, policy makers, scholars, and anyone interested in how societies translate human development into lasting prosperity. It deserves a place on your bookshelf.
Mukul Pandya, former Executive Editor, Knowledge@Wharton and Senior Fellow Wharton School; former Associate Fellow and Consulting Editor, University of Oxford Said Business School.
Other Titles from Bryant Park Publishers
Passage from India to America by Ignatius Chithelen*
About the book
In this book, Ignatius Chithelen tackles several key questions about Indians and India: How does India, despite its acute poverty, produce World class engineers, doctors and scientists? Why are they so successful in America? Why work visa restrictions in the U.S. will enable Canada - and perhaps China - to benefit from the talent of Indian professionals? Why there are slim chances of India's economy and defense capabilities growing as big as that of China? What are the risks of Islamic radicalism spreading among India's 180 million Muslims, due to the rise of Hindu extremism under Prime Minister Narendra Modi?
In America, Indians have founded thousands of mostly technology companies, power the global growth of major companies and are chief executives of Microsoft, Google and over 20 other big companies. In turn, most Indians have achieved financial success, including six billionaire engineers. Meanwhile, India needs at least $500 billion of foreign investments to create 100 million jobs and tackle its massive unemployment. But western investors are holding back, awaiting higher profit guarantees. They are also nervous that the rise the attacks on Muslims, under Modi, may destabilize India.
*About the author
Ignatius Chithelen is manager of Banyan Tree Capital in New York. Earlier he was an analyst and fund manager at First Eagle (SoGen) funds. A former reporter at Forbes, he has written for Knowledge@Wharton, The New York Times and Barron’s. His essay on Indian Entrepreneurs in the U.S. was published in both editions of The Oxford University Press Companion to Economics in India. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he earned an M.Phil. in Development Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, India, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, New York and an MA in political science from Mumbai University.
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Reviews, Praise and Extracts in the Media.
Ignatius Chithelen is a trained social scientist and journalist and both sets of skills are on impressive display in this book…Indian engineers in the U.S. give themselves to contracts where the sword of the visa is always hanging over their heads…A third of the food rots in India. The country has less than a sixth of the number of refrigerated trucks and only 1% of the cold storages needed to preserve food and vegetables in transit.
Romar Correa’s review in the Economic & Political Weekly. Correa retired as the Reserve Bank of India Professor in Economics, Mumbai University.
Indian engineers, doctors, and other professionals in the U.S., Chithelen notes, are among the best graduates in their disciplines around the world. From age five, they pass a series of intensely competitive exams to get to the next level. At the peak of the very pointy pyramid, the odds of getting admission to the world-renowned Indian Institutes of Technology, for those taking the entrance exams, are less than one in hundred.
Indian professionals in America appear non-threatening with their outward calm and self-effacing manners. But, being winners of a series of fierce-competitions, they are always figuring out how to win in office politics or get a research grant.
Annavajhula J.C. Bose’s review in Management Today. Bose is Professor of Economics, Shri Ram College of Commerce, Delhi
Well researched, insightful and lucid analysis of the phenomenal success of Indians in America and the problems they now face under the Trump Administration. A fascinating account of entrepreneurship in digital businesses in India, even as most other infrastructure is hobbled by lack of capital.
A. Vaidyanathan, former adviser government of India & director Madras Institute of Development Studies
Ignatius has the rare ability to deconstruct complex issues and events and relate them to everyday life. Using facts and logic, though never dry, he engages the reader in an intelligent conversation.
Anand (Alby) Kurian, faculty MDIS Singapore and author of The Peddler of Soaps
I highly recommend this book for insights into the glaring shortcomings of both current U.S. and Indian government policies. Ignatius’ bi-national perspective exposes the intellectual and commercial loss due to the embrace of parochial views.
Peter Fusaro, Chairman, Global Change Associates, New York, and author “What Went Wrong at Enron” a New York Times bestseller.
Using the Indian diaspora’s impact in the US and in India, Ignatius reminds his fellow Americans and his kin in India that neither America nor India will benefit without acceptance of co-existence.
Rahul Saxena, former Senior Vice President & head of International Strategy, European and Indian operations at Verizon; co-founder of Vodafone-Italy.
Ignatius combines a historian's flair for documenting developments, an economist's attention to crunching numbers and a thriller-writer's ability to tell a story. This book is written to inspire!
A. Ravi Rao, former IBM executive, author & Asst. Professor Fairleigh Dickinson University, New Jersey
This is essential reading for American executives employing or working with Indians, those investing and doing business in India or competing with Indian IT companies. Incisive overview of the impact of Indian engineers in America as well as the challenges posed by protectionism.”
D. Kelly Jones, former adviser Governor of New York and geopolitical consultant
An in depth, eye-opening read supported by hard facts, astonishing and helpful statistics. A must read for anyone interested in India’s present and future.
Annette Herfkens, former Managing Director, Emerging Markets, Banco Santander Madrid & New York; author of best-seller “Turbulence, a True Story of Survival”
Extracts of the book were published in The Print, Rediff.com and other publications.
Buy a copy of Passage from India to America
Click on one of these vendor buttons to purchase: an e-book from Amazon or Kobo or a paperback from Barnes & Noble or Amazon
SIX DEGREES OF EDUCATION: From Teaching in Mumbai to Investment Research in New York
by Ignatius Chithelen
About the book
Ignatius Chithelen says he is a goat and not an Asian Tiger – in Mumbai he read Dostoevsky instead of mastering calculus. His search for journalism and Wall Street jobs provide an unorthodox guide for changing careers. He discusses how competitive exams enable India to produce world class engineers, while 15% of college graduates are unemployed; the puzzle of India’s elections; and its five religions, four castes and 22 major languages. Along the way, he loses Santa Claus in Mumbai; fears arrest during Indira Gandhi's Emergency; is saved from drowning; finds his lost briefcase, with $3,880, in New York; and overcomes writer's block.
Praise for Six Degrees of Education
“Part advice to young professionals, this is a fun read…Adventures in Mumbai and New York are told with a reporter's eye and a financier's tallying of life's wins and losses.”
Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, & former Professor Columbia School of Journalism.
“This memoir extraordinaire is pure pleasure accompanied by humor, innocent charm, and an intelligent voice …It holds great appeal for both the hard cover and digital generations.”
Carol Pozefsky, Former Anchor/Reporter NBC and CBS Radio Networks
“A fascinating journey from the teeming middle class and hustle of Mumbai to the financial markets of New York…The events, people and Chithelen’s honesty make the story endearing. “
Anand Sudarshan, serial entrepreneur & former chief executive Manipal Global Education Services
"The intellectual range and curiosity of this superbly written book is the perfect remedy to the shortsighted perspective of many business thinkers…It offers the perfect balance of personal details and the big-picture insights of an informed observer. This is a must-read…to understand the significance of globalism today."
Charles A. Riley II, Professor of journalism, City University of New York, & author of Small Business, Big Politics
“A unique perspective on education, careers, politics and business in India…You also see New York and America differently as Chithelen makes his way from journalism to finance and builds a life far away from Mumbai.”
Alby Anand Kurian, faculty MDIS Singapore and author of The Peddler of Soaps
"Ignatius Chithelen has been a schoolteacher, reporter, copy editor, investment analyst, founder of a fund, advisor to flea market vendors. But all he has ever managed, as he freely admits in this funny, moving, and relentlessly candid memoir, is to retain his independence and integrity...I wish more Everymen would write books like this one".
Ashok Mahadevan, former editor Reader’s Digest India and author of upcoming Storm in a Teacup – his first and last novel.
About the author
Ignatius Chithelen is manager of Banyan Tree Capital in New York. Earlier he was an analyst and fund manager at First Eagle (SoGen) funds. A former reporter at Forbes, he has written for Knowledge@Wharton, The New York Times and Barron’s. His essay on Indian Entrepreneurs in the U.S. was published in both editions of The Oxford University Press Companion to Economics in India. A Chartered Financial Analyst, he earned an M.Phil. in Development Economics from the Centre for Development Studies, India, an MS in Journalism from Columbia University, New York and an MA in political science from Mumbai University.
Buy an e-copy of SIx Degrees of Education
Click on one of these vendor buttons to purcase from Amazon or Barnes & Noble or Kobo