T. M. Thomas Isaac is a central committee member of the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...

, and represents Alappuzha

Alappuzha

Alappuzha , also known as Alleppey, is a town in Alappuzha District of Kerala state of southern India. As per 2001 census Alleppey is the sixth largest city in Kerala with an urban population of 177,029. Alleppey is situated to the south of Kochi and north of Trivandrum...

 constituency in the Kerala

Kerala

or Keralam is an Indian state located on the Malabar coast of south-west India. It was created on 1 November 1956 by the States Reorganisation Act by combining various Malayalam speaking regions....

 State Legislative Assembly. During his tenure as a member of the Kerala State Planning Board

Kerala State Planning Board

The Kerala State Planning Board is an advisory board under the Government of the State of Kerala, India. It was constituted in 1967 with Chief Minister as Chairman and a non-official as part time Vice-Chairman. The board assists the state government in formulating a development plan based on a...

, he was in charge of the People's Plan campaign(PPC)

Peoples Planning in Kerala

People's Plan Campaign, held in 1996 in Kerala State, was a remarkable experiment in decentralisation of powers to local governments with focus on local planning. Kerala State lying in the south-west part of India, is considered a fertile land for decentralization...

 in Kerala.People's Plan Campaign is considered as a landmark in the history of decentralisation experience not only in Kerala but all over India. He was the Finance Minister of Kerala during from 2006 through 2011.

The son of late T. P. Mathew and Saramma Mathew, Isaac obtained a PhD in Economics from Centre for Development Studies

Centre for Development Studies

The Centre for Development Studies , Trivandrum, Kerala, India is a premier social science research institution. Over the years it has established a tradition of interdisciplinary research on development problems in India. Its main objective is to promote research, teaching and training in...

, which is academically affiliated to Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University

Jawaharlal Nehru University, also known as JNU, is located in New Delhi, the capital of India. It is mainly a research oriented postgraduate University with approximately 5,500 students and a faculty strength of around 550.-History:...

, New Delhi. While a student, he became involved with political life, he became involved with the Students Federation of India

Students Federation of India

Students Federation of India is one of the major student organisations in India. SFI is politically linked to the Communist Party of India . Founded in 1970, it claimed a membership strength of nearly 4.2 million school and university students as of 2010.SFI is currently led at the All India level...

 (SFI), an organisation which is politically linked with the Communist Party of India (Marxist)

Communist Party of India (Marxist)

The Communist Party of India is a political party in India. It has a strong presence in the states of Kerala, West Bengal and Tripura. As of 2011, CPI is leading the state government in Tripura. It leads the Left Front coalition of leftist parties in various states and the national parliament of...

. He has held posts in the SFI at college, district and state level.

Isaac had been a professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram , formerly known as Trivandrum, is the capital of the Indian state of Kerala and the headquarters of the Thiruvananthapuram District. It is located on the west coast of India near the extreme south of the mainland...

 and has published a number of articles and books.

English

1. Democracy at work in an Indian industrial cooperative: the story of Kerala Dinesh Beedi With Richard W. Franke and Pyaralal Raghavan. Ithaca: Cornell University Press. 1998
2. Kalliasseri experiment in local level planning With P. V. Unnikrishnan, T. Gangadharan, Sreekumar Chathopadhya, Lalitha Bhai Sathyan, and Ajay Kumar Varma. Trivandrum: Centre for Development Studies. Monograph Series: Kerala Research Programme on Local Level Development.1995
3. Modernisation and employment: the coir industry in Kerala. With R. A. Van Stuijvenberg and K. N. Nair. Indo-Dutch Studies on Development Alternatives 10. New Delhi: Sage Publications. 1992
4. Local Democracy and Development: People's campaign for decentralised planning in Kerala with Richard W.Franke. New Delhi: LeftWord Books. 2000

Malayalam

1. The Withering Coconut (1985)
2. Political Economy of Poverty (1985)
3. Economics Crisis in the Capitalist World (1987)
4. ABC of Political Economy (1987)
5. The World Bank and IMF (1988)
6. Kerala: Land and Man (1988) [Won Kerala Sahitya Academy Award in 1989]
7. Science and Social Revolution (1989)
8. Political Economy of Surrender (1992)
9. Peoples Planning: Theory and Practice (1998)
10. Peoples Planning: Questions and Answers (1998)
11. Construction of False Consent : Critique of Malayalam Media 2000 - 2010 (with N. P. Chandrasekharan)

See also

• Marxism is Relevant: Thomas Isaachttp://www.hindu.com/2008/01/21/stories/2008012152490300.htm
• Punchhi panel will not help: Thomas Isaachttp://www.hindu.com/2007/04/30/stories/2007043017280100.htm