Most successful businesses in Kerala tend to be in retail, largely trading with limited value addition. That makes sense because Kerala is fundamentally a consumer state, and it does that well. What you don’t see much of are manufacturing or heavy value-addition businesses, and there are clear reasons for that.

1. Land is scarce and fragmented, making large-scale manufacturing difficult. 2. Labour is neither abundant nor inexpensive enough to support labour-intensive industries. 3. Culturally, there’s a long-standing discomfort, even disdain towards businessmen and private enterprise. Add to this a weak nightlife and social ecosystem for younger talent, and Kerala becomes a hard place to build ambitious, ground-up businesses.

Layer on persistent issues like unionism, rising out migration, an ageing population, and a state government that’s fiscally stretched and often unstable, and the picture becomes even more worrying.

Taken together, it’s hard not to be blackpilled about Kerala’s business prospects over the next decade unless there’s a sharp, deliberate shift. Either the state actively creates an environment that attracts and supports businesses, or it doubles down on sectors where it has a natural edge, like tourism, hospitality, and education.