The Left Democratic Front (LDF) is an alliance of left-wing political parties in the state of Kerala, India. It is the current ruling political alliance of Kerala, since 2016. It is one of the two major political alliances in Kerala, the other being Indian National Congress-led United Democratic Front, each of which has been in power alternately for the last four decades. LDF has won the elections to the State Legislature of Kerala in the years 1980, 1987, 1996, 2006, 2016 and had a historic re-election in 2021 where an incumbent government was re-elected for first time in 40 years. LDF has won 6 out of 10 elections since the formation of the alliance in 1980. The alliance consists of CPI(M), CPI and various smaller parties.
A financial scandal related to a hydroelectric infrastructure contract between the Kerala Government and the Canadian company SNC-Lavalin in 1995 resulted in an alleged net loss to the Indian exchequer of 3,745,000,000 rupees.
Pinarayi Vijayan is an Indian politician who is the current Chief Minister of Kerala, serving since 25 May 2016. A member of the Politburo of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), he is the longest-serving secretary of the Kerala State Committee of the CPI(M) (1998–2015). He also served in the government of Kerala as Minister of Electric Power and Co-operatives from 1996 to 1998. Vijayan won a seat in the May 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly election as the CPI(M) candidate for Dharmadom constituency and was selected as the leader of the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and became the 12th Chief Minister of Kerala. He is the first chief minister from Kerala to be re-elected after completing a full term in office. In 2022, he also became the longest-continuous serving chief minister of Kerala surpassing C. Achutha Menon who had been the first to remain in office for 2364 consecutive days.
Cherian Philip is an Indian politician and is KPCC political study centre chairman member, KPCC political affairs committee member, and AICC member. He was the Coordinator of Nava Kerala Action Plan, which is an initiative of the Pinarayi Vijayan-led Government of Kerala. He was the Secretary of Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee while A. K. Antony was in presidency. He was a prominent youth and student leader of the Indian National Congress in seventies and eighties. A political historian of Kerala and India, he has authored several books. He worked as a consultant for Kairali TV and People TV. He was the Chairman of Kerala Tourism Development Corporation (KTDC) and founder president of Kerala Deshiya Vedhi - a social organisation. He returned to Congress(I) on 28 October 2021.
K. Babu is an Indian politician and the former Minister for Fisheries, Ports and Excise, Government of Kerala. He is the representative of Thripunithura constituency in Kerala from 1991 to 2016 and again from 2021.
Muthoot Finance Ltd is an Indian financial corporation and the largest gold loan NBFC in the country. In addition to financing gold loans, the company offers other forms of loans, insurance and money transfer services, and sells gold coins. The company is headquartered in Kochi, Kerala and operates over 5000 branches throughout the country. Outside India, Muthoot Finance is established in the UK, the US, and the United Arab Emirates.
Swachh Bharat Mission, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, or Clean India Mission is a country-wide campaign initiated by the Government of India on 2 October 2014 to eliminate open defecation and improve solid waste management and to create Open Defecation Free (ODF) villages. The program also aims to increase awareness of menstrual health management. It is a restructured version of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan which was launched by Congress in 2009 that failed to achieve its intended targets due to rampant corruption and indecisive leadership.
Digital India is a campaign launched by the Government of India to make its services available to citizens electronically via improved online infrastructure and by increasing Internet connectivity. The initiative includes plans to connect rural areas with high-speed internet networks. It consists of three core components: the development of secure and stable digital infrastructure, delivering government services digitally, and universal digital literacy.
First Pinarayi Vijayan ministry is the Council of Ministers headed by Pinarayi Vijayan that was formed after the Left Democratic Front (LDF) won the 2016 Kerala Legislative Assembly elections. The Council assumed office on 25 May 2016. The ministry had a total of 19 ministers in the Cabinet at the time of swearing-in compared to 21 ministers in the previous government. Pinarayi Vijayan sworn in as 22nd Chief Minister of Kerala, 12th person to hold this position. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on 3 May 2021 submitted the resignation of the Council of Ministers headed by him to Governor Arif Mohammed Khan after winning a historic victory in the 15th legislative assembly elections by winning 99 of the 140 seats in the Assembly.
T. P. Ramakrishnan is an Indian politician from the state of Kerala. He started his political work through Kerala Students Federation. At present, he served as the Minister for Excise and Labour in the first Pinarayi Vijayan ministry.
ESAF Small Finance Bank is an Indian small finance bank headquartered in Thrissur, Kerala, providing banking services and small loans to the underbanked. Having started its operations as an NGO in 1992 under the name of Evangelical Social Action Forum, ESAF Microfinance was a non-banking finance company and microfinance institution (NBFC-MFI), licensed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). It became a small finance bank in March 2017 and started operating in January 2018.
Kerala Infrastructure and Technology for Education (KITE) is a state owned special purpose company under Department of General Education of the Government of Kerala. It was developed to support ICT enabled education for schools in Kerala. The erstwhile IT@School Project was transformed into KITE for extending its scope of operations in August 2017. KITE was the first SPV company to get funded by KIIFB.
Kerala's major political parties are aligned under two coalitions, namely the Left Democratic Front (LDF) and the United Democratic Front (UDF) since the late 1970s. Kerala was the first Indian state to have coalition government as early as 1961 .
The National Education Mission is an overarching programme for the school education sector extending from pre-school to class 12, launched in 2018. It was allocated a budget of ₹385.72 billion (US$4.8 billion) in the 2019 Interim Union Budget of India. The stated mission comprises four schemes, namely Saakshar Bharat, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Rashtriya Madhyamik Shiksha Abhiyan and the Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE). In 2021, the NIPUN Bharat Mission was launched as part of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan, teaching literacy and numeracy skills in universities by Grade 3.
The 2021 Kerala Legislative Assembly election was held in Kerala on 6 April 2021 to elect 140 members to the 15th Kerala Legislative Assembly. The results were declared on 2 May.
Events in the year 2016 in Kerala
Events in the year 2023 in Kerala
Nava Kerala Sadas is the outreach programme of the government, where the chief minister and ministers will be travelling through all assembly constituencies of the state. is a mass movement which is being held by the political party Left Democratic Front senior LDF leader and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan encouraged the public to join hands with Government from Manjeswaram to Thiruvananthapuram, a journey of 589 kilometres over almost 36 days 140 Assembly constituencies.
