In a day and age where politics is seen as an almost 24×7 vocation, the 21-member Keralam Cabinet led by Chief Minister V D Satheesan has taken time out to pick up their pens and notepads, get back to the classroom, sit in on lectures, and soak up the lessons. If only for two days.
On Friday, Satheesan led his Cabinet colleagues back into the classroom at the Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Kozhikode, where they will learn new tools of governance and listen to management experts. The two-day “Reimagining Keralam” strategic leadership workshop is expected to serve as a key platform for developing new ideas and policy interventions to make the state’s development journey more “people-centred, sustainable, knowledge-driven and technology-enabled”, government insiders said. It will also help strengthen collaboration between the academic sector and the government, with the workshop intended to make ministers “think collectively about strategies that will shape the state’s road ahead”, according to the government.
In a post on X on Friday, Satheesan wrote, “Good governance requires both responsive delivery today and strategic foresight for tomorrow. Keralam State Council of Ministers will convene at @IIMKozhikode for Reimagining Keralam, a dedicated two-day residential leadership retreat. From mastering transformational leadership in the era of AI to institutionalising community-level climate resilience, disaster management and structural fiscal renewals, we are equipping our administration with cutting-edge, data-driven frameworks.”
The 21-member Keralam Cabinet attend a session at IIM-Kozhikode on Friday. (Credit: VD Satheesan/Facebok)
Speaking about how it felt to be back in the classroom, Tourism Minister P C Vishnunadh said the lectures were interactive in nature and that governance and policy formulation were the major areas of discussion on Friday. The ministers were told how to nurture a team and make the team members work. “In the new age, it is important to hear people before a policy is framed. In Keralam, hitherto the practice was to announce a policy and go ahead with a project for implementation. That approach would lead to protests. Today’s sessions highlighted the need for hearing people before a policy is framed,” Vishnunadh said.
State Minister for Labour, Women and Child Welfare Bindu Krishna, who posted photographs from inside the classroom, praised the sessions for being engaging. “Ministers have their doubts on many issues and we all raised questions. We had also filled out questionnaires. Developing leadership in this modern era with new tools like Artificial Intelligence (AI) were discussed. On governance, we were told to bring changes in many areas. The perspective on governance was presented with different models from the world as well as the country. We were told about how to popularise a new idea or project,” she said.
Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty said this was the second such programme he had attended, recalling a similar initiative that the Oommen Chandy government had taken in 2011. Kunhalikutty said the workshop would help improve coordination among ministers and provide an opportunity to share knowledge and experiences.
“Our agenda here today is that of sharing knowledge and sharing experience. Everyone here has a decent amount of experience themselves. It is meant for mutual sharing. That is how the agenda has been set as well,” he said.
Kunhalikutty said the ministers would also learn management skills and explore the use of AI and advanced technology in governance. “How can technology be used to bring a change in people’s lives? That is the subject. They will give us more theoretical knowledge, and we will share practical insights with them. By sharing mutually, that will be used to bring forth a new vision and new beginnings,” he said.
Among the other ministers who shared photographs and videos from the workshop are Home Minister Ramesh Chennithala, Health Minister K Muraleedharan, Higher Education Minister Roji M John, Excise Minister M Liju, and Transport Minister C P John.
A busy schedule on Day 1
On Day 1, the workshop formally kicked off with a session chaired by IIM Kozhikode’s Director, Professor Debashis Chatterjee, on “Transformational Leadership in the Age of AI: Engaging People with Purpose and Impact”.
Over five hours, experts addressed ministers on various subjects. Prof Rajib Shaw of the Graduate School of Media and Governance at Japan’s Keio University, along with Prof Anupam Das of IIM Kozhikode, chaired a session on international perspectives on climate adaptation and disaster preparedness. The session, “From Policy to Behaviour: The Science of Making Governance Work”, examined how governance can translate policy intent into sustainable change at the community level, drawing on evidence and global best practices, read the IIM statement. Dr Sanchayan Banerjee of King’s College London and Prof Siddhart Padhi from IIM Kozhikode chaired this session. The day also featured a session titled “Adding Life to Years: Keralam’s Silver Economy Mission”, led by Prof Deepa Sethi and Prof Priya Nair Rajeev, which explored the opportunities and challenges emerging from demographic ageing and the growth of the silver economy. A special session on “Positioning Keralam as a Healthcare and Wellness Destination” was led by Dr Aravind Srinivasan, Chief Medical Officer at Chennai’s Aravind Eye Hospital.
The sessions on Saturday will focus on the economy, skills, higher education, and global positioning, said IIM-K. The retreat will conclude with a valedictory ceremony at which the ministers will be presented with IIMKozhikode certificates marking their completion of the two-day strategic leadership retreat.
