KERALA RISING · FROM EXPORTING PEOPLE TO EXPORTING IDEAS Appendix C: A first-hundred-days implementation guide This appendix is for the official who has decided to proceed and needs to know what the first phase actually involves. It is not a project plan. The institution will produce that, but a sketch of the sequence, so the early work is legible before any commitment is made. The guiding principle throughout is that nothing irreversible happens before the first independent assessment, and that every early step is designed to be cheap to stop. Weeks one to four: constitute and commit The first month is institutional, not technical. The three vehicles; the Society, the Section 8 operating company, and the civic Trust; are constituted, with the seven structural commitments written into the founding documents at signing rather than promised for later. The state board majority is appointed. The reporting line to the AI Minister is established, and the coordinating relationships with the partner departments for the first program are opened, with the partner department’s head named as chair of the program’s activation committee. The point of frontloading the governance is that it is the part that protects the public interest, and it is far easier to 325