T.M. Thomas Isaac is the Minister of Finance of Kerala, an office he previously served from 2006 to 2011. Author of numerous academic papers and books, he was Professor at the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. During his tenure as a member of the Kerala State Planning Board, he was in charge of the People’s Plan Campaign, a landmark in decentralized planning. He is the author, with Richard W. Franke, of Local Democracy and Development: People’s Campaign for Decentralised Planning in Kerala (LeftWord 2000)