Articles by K K Subrahmanian

Liberalism Experience of Indian Industry in Eighties K K Subrahmanian The causality between liberalisation and growth performance and its impact on some qualitative aspects need to be carefully understood before adopting economic liberalism as the corner-stone of future industrialisation policy. This paper explores the direction in which economic liberalism affects one such qualitative aspect, technological capability, and finds that both policy regimes, regulatory planning as well as economic liberalism, could strengthen technological capability, though of different types.

K K Subrahmanian K J Joseph This paper reviews the growth of the elctronics industry in Kerala. The focus is on the existing structure and competitiveness in an inter-regional context with a view to identifying strategy options that could maximise the potential of this industry as a vital link in the rapid industrialisation of the state, given the availability of a vast pool of skilled human resource. The development of the electronics industry in Kerala has taken place almost entirely at the initiative of the state government Therefore, an attempt is made to provide a perspective of the role of the state government THERE is now a burgeoning literature which suggests that a capital-deficient economy could stimulate growth and create considerable employment through the development and diffusion of the electronics industry if it has a vast pool of skilled human resource. Some economists' would even attribute to electronics the same role conventionally assumed for capital goods in the growth process because it is a crucial source of skill-based innovations that have a wider degree of applicability throughout the economy and society. Thus electronics has become a critical sector in modern industrialisation not only for its direct contribution to output and employment but also for its role in contributing to efficient resource-utilisation, greater productivity, and hence rapid growth in the economy as a whole.

Kerala's Industrial Backwardness Exploration of Alternative Hypotheses K K Subrahmanian P Mohanan Pillai This paper makes an attempt to identify the weak links in the production structure in Kerala within an interregional frame-work of analysis. The objective of the study is to examine the alternative hypotheses that have been advanced to explain the industrial backwardness of Kerala, In particular, the focus is on examining the empirical basis of the alleged 'inefficiency' of Kerala's industrial system in terms of labour militancy, high wage-cost, and low productivity The aim is to provide an overview oflocalional cost advantage/disadvantage of Kerala by analysing some facets of its industrial structure as compared to that of some developed states and the nation as a whole.

It is now widely recognised that foreign collaboration, while performing the 'gap-filling' functions in the growth process also produces technological dependence.1 Hence every country, irrespective of the political character of the government, invariably introduces policy measures of some sort for regulation and control of foreign capital and technology.

A Study in Ahmedabad therefore, involves a serious methodological error; and to conclude, on that basis that the labour market mechanism is non-existent, is to erect a strawman and then demolish him.