A village in Kerala rejected all political parties and handed over control to a private firm.
Outside a giant, sprawling supermarket on the eastern suburbs of Kochi in Kerala, a woman stops by briefly to say that she saw a glimpse of heaven inside. A few moments later, a pastor at a local church, Eldo Varghese, steps out of the same building singing praises to God, while sliding into his car with bags full of groceries. “It’s like a movie in there,” he cheered.
The supermarket is located in a countryside village, called Kizhakkambalam, which has been under the grip of a silent revolution over the past five years. The dusty common corners have turned into neat wide roads lined by several freshly painted, new houses, as a race is on to turn it into a world-class—and the country’s No. 1—village by 2020.
There are benefits, of course. The new houses for the poor, for example, built at a cost of roughly ?10 lakh is a better deal than anything on offer from either a state or central government scheme at the moment.
The supermarkets are another symbol. At a time when prices of household items are skyrocketing in other parts of the country, the woman, quoted above, who described the outlet as “heaven”, managed to purchase onions, coconut, oil, fish and chicken at an incredible 60% markdown from the retail price.
Behind these deep discounts is one man, Sabu Jacob.
One of the few Malayali businessmen who regularly finds a place in the annual Hurun list of billionaires, Jacob’s father founded Kitex Garments Ltd, and its associated Anna Group, with just eight employees in a small factory in Kizhakkambalam.
But it has now grown into an enterprise with an annual turnover of ?1,000 crore, making it one of the world’s largest infant wear producers. The company also supplies to global brands such as Walmart and Amazon.
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