Arikulam Panchayat

SDP
PROJECT
Project Guide : Mr Dinesh
Nabeel P A
Ritika Sharma
Mariyam M
Sana N
Anvita K
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Page 1

ABOUT ARIKULAM PANCHAYAT

Demography

Arikkulam had a population of 17143 with 8305 males and 8838 females.
The name derives from ari, which means foe and kulam in the vernacular means pool. hence, arikkulam is a pool of
enemies. As the name indicates, this place might have been drenched with human blood either in an internecine or
religious feud.
Arikkulath Nambi, a vassal of Zamorin of calicut is said to have held sway over this area. Its history is shrouded in
mystery. though attempts have been made to write the history of Arikkulam, nothing fruitful emerged from them. In
this connection, a seminar was held at the Arikkulam panchayat office a year in which noted academics like Pavithran
master and Dinesan of Naderi participated. Will Arikkulam give us a savant who will unravel its past?
There is also a derived fable that the village of Arikkulam was initially called as "Harikulam", "Hari" meaning Lord
Vishnu and "kulam" meaning pool together meaning "Lord Vishnu's pool". This may be the reason why the village has a
temple devoted the formerly mentioned lord "Areekkunnath Vishnu Temple". Another local temple of this area is the
"Oravingal Bhagavathi temple".

Economy and Livelihood
The basic Economy of Arikkulam Panchayat strives on agriculture. Coconut and Banana are the most cultivated products
here.Also fair share of income is earned from the foreign remittance of workers living abroad as well as minor
contribution is from fishing.




Project Objective

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1) To provide a mechanism to prioritize the projects and allocate the funds accordingly based on
the criticality, viability and possible benefits that emerges out of the project

2) To propose few innovative projects that will help in people livelihood of the panchayat .




















DECISION MAKING IN THE CONTEXT OF PROJECT
PRIORITIZATION

There are always multiple projects proposal and few in the pipeline. The thirteen Panchayat members sit
together and discuss about the project and then forward it to higher authorities. The process was tedious and
Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode Page 3

the members raised the concern about the ambiguity in the decisions taken. Hence we decided to provide
them a tool which will standardise the process of decision making by making using use of few key
parameters. We made use of an analytical tool that is used in day to day business activity called as AHP-
stands for ANALYTIC HEIRARCHY PROCESS.

About AHP
The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) is a structured technique for organizing and analyzing complex
decisions, based on mathematics and psychology. It was developed by Thomas L. Saaty in the 1970s and has
been extensively studied and refined since then.
It has particular application in group decision making, and is used around the world in a wide variety of
decision situations, in fields such as government, business, industry, healthcare, and education.
Rather than prescribing a "correct" decision, the AHP helps decision makers find one that best suits their goal
and their understanding of the problem. It provides a comprehensive and rational framework for structuring
a decision problem, for representing and quantifying its elements, for relating those elements to overall goals,
and for evaluating alternative solutions.
Users of the AHP first decompose their decision problem into a hierarchy of more easily comprehended sub-
problems, each of which can be analyzed independently. The elements of the hierarchy can relate to any
aspect of the decision problemtangible or intangible, carefully measured or roughly estimated, well or
poorly understoodanything at all that applies to the decision at hand.

RECCOMENDATIONS OF PROJECTS

FIRST SET

Quarterly or monthly Agri-Haat
Organization of monthly or quarterly haat in the village itself, or in association with nearby villages in a prime
central location can be done from where agri-produce can be sold for exports or to industries. Sellers can obtain
optimum prices by collective bargaining, village panchayat can be the organizer cum sponsor. Agricultural
scientist etc can be invited for talks and discussion.

Plantation of Public trees (bananas or coconut)
Planting and preservation of trees on the sides of the public roads in the village or on fallow land etc. This can
be done to supplement income of below poverty line citizens, widows or physically challenged
individuals using financial inputs from schemes targeted for their benefit.
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Watershed and rain water harvesting (Infrastructure) development
Since most areas in Kerala use ground water, for long term sustainability, village panchayat can take up the tasks
of creating infrastructure that suits the area and help improve water table.

Digital Panchayat.
Digital Panchayat is a functional and dynamic Digital Platform and working station designed and created for each
Panchayat. Workshop to include Kerala panchayat in the umbrella of digital platform could be one of the
projects.

E-commerce of local produce through digital panchayat
It is dependent on village panchayat digitalization. Training, setup and data digitalization will be required to
implement this kind of commercial venture if initiated.




SECOND SET
Education:
1)Provision for Vocational Training to students; Estimating the number of students and gauging their
interest in such program and then having a pilot program to see effectiveness
2) Funding for village cooperatives for commercial selling and distribution of coconut oil outside state
3) Funding for large scale commercial production of cashew, cocoa and sugarcane
4) Agricultural Market Intervention Scheme and Price Support Schemes of Cash Crops, Spices etc


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