• Minister for Finance from 2006 to 2011 and 2016 to 2021
  • MLA for Alappuzha from 2011 to 2021
  • Ph.D. from the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, where he was professor
  • Author of numerous articles and books, including Kerala: Land and Man , which won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 1989