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Campuses world over are the harbingers of change. Young minds, unburdened by the bag-

gage of the past, can latch on to a new idea, irre-spective of whether it will pay off in the end or not. If the whiff of change that visits the campuses in Kerala is real, and sustained, then we have some good news for you: entrepreneurship is blooming there, all over the place.There are budding CEOs on many campuses, work-ing hard to make their dreams come true. Mark Zuckerberg or Larry Page does not intimidate them, they inspire them, instead. And they are not afraid of dreaming big. As a young entrepreneur put it, they would rather write a pay cheque than receive one. The government’s announcement that it would pro-mote entrepreneurship on the campuses came at the most opportune moment. As soon as Chief Minis-ter Mr Oommen Chandy revealed the plan at the Emerging Kerala meet, entrepreneurship clubs in 89 colleges, dormant for quite some time, sprang to life. They even ran a campaign, 30 Days To Freedom, on campuses demanding that the government keep its word. To its credit, the government did come out with the policy, which offered some sops to the students who pursue entrepreneurial dreams. Now it is for society to nurture this spring. It could be quite a task as it is quite out of sync with the world outside. It cannot be over-emphasised that Kerala is not an entrepreneur-driven economy. It mostly buys up products and services from other States with the money its people send from the other countries. This has been the case for several decades now. It’s not that we don’t have entrepreneurs or enterprises, but what is there pales in comparison with several other States. Now that the youngsters have decided to think differently, it would be better for the rest to support them. This newspaper salutes the young entrepre-neurs on campuses. We assure them that we would do our best to carry the good news to the world outside, so that it accepts and nurtures the changes they usher in.

Vol 2, Issue 11 January 2013

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The Campus spring

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ContentsCOVER STORY

34 The young bloom

Kerala’s campuses now abound with budding entrepreneurs. Unlike their parents, they do not fall for a job in an MNC and the fancies that come attached to it. Instead, they would like to sweat it out and realise their own dreams

5

Contents

30 Manna from jailReady-to-eat food Kerala’s prison inmates cook has become an instant hit with consumers across the State

20 Train our youth better

KSIDC Managing Director Tom Jose calls for greater interaction between academia and industry

17 Nuts about coconuts Kozhikode-based Subicsha, a consortiumof coconut farmers, makes a number of value-added products from coconuts

22 Come home to craftsSargaalaya, Kerala’s only arts and crafts centre, nurtures traditional craftsmen and promotes cultural tourism

26 God’s land going digitalThe e-district project is set to roll out across the State by March 2013 and will digitize government records

40 Let it flowThe new year will hopefully see gas flowing through Kerala’s veins, energising its life like never before

42 Feat with frillsErnakulam becomes the first district in India to have Meaningful Financial Inclusion by ensuring accounts for all

44 Invest in growthC J George, Managing Director, BNP Paribas, says it is time more NRKs looked at equities as an investment option

48 The money managerOnline personal finance managementsoftware provides a 360 degree view ofyour finances, anywhere, anytime

6

The big picture

7

The first phase of rebuilding the North Railway Overbridge in Kochi which started a year ago, got over with the newly built side bays being thrown open for traffic on January 1, 2013. The work of the walkways for pedestrians on the side of the bridge is almost complete and it is expected to be open soon.

DMRC, which is rebuilding the bridge, will start dismantling the old bridge after the visit of President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to the city in the first half of January. The central portion of the bridge is expected to be completed this year itself.

The North Railway Overbridge is one of the gateways to Kochi city. Its reconstruction into a four lane bridge is one of the key components of the preparatory works of the Kochi Metro. The pillars of the metro rail are to come up on the medians of the bridge.

Phot

o: V

Siv

aram

8

Thank you for your cover story on solar power. The saying ‘its bet-ter late than never’ is so true about solar energy. We have lost so much time ignoring this free, clean and seemingly infinite source of energy. Instead, we went ahead and split th atom, and even after so many decades, and groping in the dark on what to do with the spent fuel. The government must come forward and promote solar energy at all levels. It must promote enterprises, small and big, which deal with products using solar energy. Our engineering colleges and universities must ask students to take up proj-ects and research in the subject.

V Sivarama Menon,Kochi

The sudden hype about solar energy confuses me. A nation of a billion plus people needs to think about its future energy needs from a realistic point of view. Solar energy is a good option to meet its minor require-ments. It has very little place when it comes to industrial development. I want the government not to lose focus on the larger picture and plan accordingly. It must immediately take steps to produce power from the coal deposits it had given away some time back.

V N Vinod,Thiruvananthapuram

It’s time that farmers explored alter-native forms of farming which can reduce input costs for the farmer. Governments baulk at the idea of farm subsidies, and in the future, there will be nobody to argue their case. Methods like zero budget natural farming become relevant in such situations. Our agriculture scientists will do our farmers a great

Whether we like it or not, the Ko-chi Muziris Biennale is proving to be a great success, if one were to go by the number of people who turn up for the show. It’s a new experi-ence for both Kochi and Kerala. If the event brings more tourists, and thereby more money, to the State, then the government must come forward for its smooth conduct now, and in the following editions.

Prakash Bhaskar,Kochi

Apropos ‘Securing your food’ (The Otherside), the author seems to be echoing the views of Montek Singh Ahluwalia who recently said in the Emerging Kerala Meet that Kerala need not concentrate on agriculture and can buy food items from surplus States.Self-sufficiency in food items should be every State’s goal. Food items brought from other States will be not only expensive but also unreli-able during the times of natural calamities like earthquakes, heavy floods, droughts etc. To have food for all and to control food inflation, we should improve production of all food items. Everyone who eats food should support the farmer. Farm-ers should be given all help and incentives. We should revive our old motto ‘Jai Kisan’

S Raghunatha Prabhu,Alappuzha

favour if they can at least verify if the claims made by the proponents of such methods are genuine and correct.

C V Jose,Thrissur

I must congratulate the UP-DATE team for the story of ULCCS, the cooperative corporate. We do not have many such suc-cess stories where ordinary workers stand united and think big. Nor do our mainstream media have the time or space to tells us such stories. They must inspire our youngsters.

Sebastian JoseKozhikode

The Kerala government’s new IT policy has taken a bold step in pro-moting IT townships. World over, people think about setting up facili-ties for offices and homes in such a way that they don’t have to waste precious time commuting. But in Kerala, such proposals are labeled ‘real estate mafia’ and looked down upon. The IT policy marks a wel-come break, and seeks to promote such integrated townships.

S K Nair,Thiruvananthapuram

I read with great interest the story on the software which helps scheduling of construction. What attracted me was that an engineer has sought to make a software prod-uct using his deep knowledge of the domain. This is the way for our young engineers to think. Instead of doing projects after projects, they must start making products so that their future is secured.

Thomas Kuruvilla,Kochi

9

imited

10

I Say!

I feel confident that the robust growth that

India has shown over the past several years will be

re-established and the strong fundamentals in the country will result in India once again taking its place

as one of the economic success stories of

the region

Ratan Tata, who stepped down as chairman of the Tata group in December,

in his last letter to group employees

“We need our own Facebook and Google"Kris Gopalakrishnan, Infosys executive co-chairman,

asking student entrepreneurs to make their products household names while speaking at a function at the

Startup Village, near Kalamassery

“I’m happy and proud to say that, among the States, we offer the best rehabilitation and resettlement package. Those who sacrifice land for public good – for construc-tion purposes in this case – will get market value for the parcel parted with. No other State in the country has anything better to offer"

VK Ebrahim Kunju, Minister for Public Works, speaking at the Infrastructure Conference held in Kochi

“The prospects of a Metro Rail are bright in Kochi. The agencies which have carried out the work so far have done an excellent job"

Takeshi Fukayama, senior consultant, Mitsubishi Research Institute, Japan, who led the eight-member

JICA fact-finding team that visited the Kochi Metro project site

“I have to apologise to the country (on the issue of man-ual scavenging)... I will take your demand to the PM and tell him he should apologise too"

Jairam Ramesh, Union Minister for Rural Development, speaking at the inauguration of a photo

exhibition on manual scavenging

11

escape the tax. The consti-tutional council rejected the law after finding that the wording of the law that focused on individual income, rather than on households, was against the ideal of equality be-fore law. The government will now have to redraft the proposal submit it again.

Apple serves Cook just $4.2 million

Apple CEO Tim Cook received an estimated $4.2 million in compensa-tion for this year, a small figure compared to the package valued at about $378 million in 2011. The previous years package was boosted by an award of one million restricted Apple shares - half of which vests in 2016 and the remainder in 2021 – intended to retain him as CEO for a reasonable period. Mr. Cook's salary rose to $1.4 million from $900,000 this year and he received $2.8 million in performance-based bonuses, but he wasn’t given any stock this year.

the stock trading volumes in the US in 1990. But technological changes and increasing competition made it increasingly irrel-evant and many analysts believe that ICE’s interest in NYSE was driven not by its equity exchange business or famed trad-ing floor, but by Liffe - a London-based derivatives exchange it owns.

Singapore slipsinto recessionSingapore’s Prime Minis-ter Lee Hsien Loong said in his New Year’s message that the country grew just 1.2 per cent in the year, well below the official growth forecast of 1.5-2.5 per cent. The economy had contracted 5.9 per cent in the July-Septem-ber quarter making this the second consecutive quarter of contraction – technically a reces-sion. Singapore is widely regarded as an indicator for Asia’s export-driven economies and its small domestic economy makes it vulnerable to external trade developments.

French rich spared 75% tax for nowThe French government’s plan to tax the rich heav-ily and reduce the deficit suffered a setback with the constitutional council rejecting its proposal to levy a 75 per cent tax on incomes over €1million. The high tax rate has angered the high earn-ers and many of them are moving out of France to

The huge spending on the giant infrastructure project has been providing a stimulus to the Chinese economy at a time when private sector construction activity was slowing down.

U.S. adds 146,000jobs in November Unemployment in the US dropped to 7.7 per cent, the lowest since Decem-ber 2008, as the country added 1,46,000 jobs in November. The gain, com-ing in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy which affected economic activity in many regions of the country, was sharper than expected. Retailers added 53,000 jobs to cater to the US shopping season that started in Novem-ber. November was the 3rd consecutive month in which the jobless rate was below 8 per cent.

Finally, its ‘sell’ for NYSE New York Stock Ex-change, the 200-year old icon of American capital-ism, has been acquired by Inter Contintental Ex-change, an Atlanta-based upstart that specialises in commodities, futures and derivatives trading, started just 12 years ago. The $8.2 billion deal reflects the changes that technology has brought in the global exchange business. NYSE along with NASDAQ handled 97 per cent of

AT A GLANCE

Manufacturingrebounds in China…Backed by domestic demand, China’s manu-facturing activity hit a 14-month high in De-cember, according to the preliminary purchasing managers' index (PMI). The index hit 50.9 in December, up from 50.5 in November. A reading above 50 on the index indicates expansion, and below 50 contraction. The index, a closely watched barometer of the health of the economy, had returned to growth, in November after 12 months of con-traction. China’s growth had slowed to 7.4 per cent in the September quar-ter, but the economy has rebounded since then.

…as it opens world’s longest high speed rail

China began service on the world’s longest high speed rail line connecting Beijing and Guangzhou – the main metropolis in southeastern China. Trains traveling at 186 miles per hour will cover the 1,200 mile distance in around 8 hours. The line is part of a network of four north-south routes and four east-west routes that China is building.

12

AT A GLANCE

Japanese Electronics majors rush to India

Despite the general decline in the country’s image as global eco-nomic powerhouse, global electronics majors are rushing in to India. Two Japanese majors, Hita-chi and Panasonic, have zeroed in on India both as a market and as a base for expanding to other markets such as Africa and the Middle East. Hi-tachi recently held its first board of directors meet-ing outside Japan in its 102-year history in New Delhi, and announced expansion plans worth `4,700-crore. It will build five manufacturing plants in the country and targets a three-fold jump in its India revenues to `20,000 crore by 2015-16. Pana-sonic will invest `1,000 crore in a new plant at Haryana and targets `20,000-crore revenues by 2014-15. Sony had earlier announced plans to increase investment in the market and expand sales by more than 30 per cent.

Manufacturing up,services slowdownIndia’s manufacturing sector beat expectations to grow at its fastest pace in five months in Novem-ber, according to HSBC’s Manufacturing Purchas-ing Managers’ Index. The index rose to 53.7 in No-vember from 52.9 in Oc-tober, driven by a strong pick up in new orders

and improved purchasing activity. But services sector growth slowed to a 13th month low for November, declining to 52.1 from 53.8 in October.

Exports dip 4.17% in NovExports from India dipped for the seventh month in a row in No-vember. It fell 4.17 per cent to $22.3 billion, from $ 23.2 billion in Novem-ber, 2011. But imports grew by 6.35 per cent to $41.5 billion in the month, on the back of a 16.7 per cent year-on-year increase in oil imports to $14.5 billion. The trade deficit for the month was $19.28 billion.

Trade with Indiato grow fastest

India will join the top league of trading nations beginning 2013 and it is set to retain the fastest growth rate in trade till 2020. Rising bilateral trade with China, growing consumer wealth and high confidence level will drive the growth, according to a report by HSBC. The report that covered 5,800 exporters, importers and traders in 23 mar-kets says that India tops the list for all of them as either their fastest import or export growth partner till 2020. Imports and exports with China will

record average growth rates of 20 and 23 per cent respectively during 2013-15, it said.

India turns donor to IMF, againPowered by its economic growth, India is turning into an aid provider to the world, reversing its role as an aid- seeker. The government has sought parliamentary approval to give `11,294.6 crore to the International Monetary Fund’s New Arrangements to Borrow (NAB) facility. The NAB is a set of credit arrange-ments between the IMF and 38 member countries and institutions. India had provided over $2 billion to the IMF’s fund to help bailouts in Europe and other parts of the world last year.

Etihad to take stakein Jet, KingfisherJet Airways and King-fisher have initiated talks with United Arab Emirates national carrier Etihad Airways to sell a stake in them following the Central government’s decision to allow foreign carriers to take up to 49 per cent stake in local airlines. Jet Airways has almost finalised a deal with Etihad to sell 24 per cent stake for `1,600 crore. Etihad has also agreed to pick up a 48 per cent stake in Kingfisher

Airlines for `3,000 crore. Etihad has already bought stakes in three interna-tional airlines – Virgin Australia, Germany’s Air Berlin and Air Seychelles – this year.

AirIndia’s dreams take flight on DreamlinerThe deployment of Boe-ing’s 787 Dreamliners has given a glimmer of hope to India’s national carrier Air-India. The airline which is losing money on many international routes managed to turn around the Delhi-Frankfurt sector, after four years, by flying Dreamliners in this route since October this year. The superior technology of the aircraft helps the company reduce maintenance and fuel cost, and savings are expected to be around `20 lakh a flight according to sources.

Banking Bill gets Lok Sabha approval In a move that could eventually reopen the doors of the banking business to business houses, the Lok Sabha has approved the Banking Laws (Amendment) Bill. The Bill gives the Reserve Bank of India more power to regulate banks, raises voting rights for investors in banks and allows State-owned banks to raise capital through bonus and rights issues. The Bill pro-vides for an increase in the voting right of investors in private sector banks to a maximum of 26 per cent, and to 10 per cent in State run banks.

13

Kerala outshines Taj in Google

Kerala has overtaken the Taj Mahal to be-come the most googled travel destination in the country for 2012, accord-ing to Google’s Zietgeist, which reviews the search trends for 2012. Mun-nar, the hill station in the State, also made it to the Top 10, coming in at 9th position. The Taj Mahal, Wagah Border, Vaishno Devi shrine, Amarnath, Kashmir, Shirdi, Ramesh-waram temple, Munnar and Gateway of India made up the rest of the list. The Kerala Tourism gets around 6 million views every year on YouTube and its website -www.keralatourism.org - attracts over 2.5 lakh unique visitors every month.

PWD to follow hybrid annuity for better roads

The State government plans to follow the hybrid annuity scheme in the construction of roads. As part of the scheme, 30-40 per cent of the cost will be paid before the comple-tion of the project, thereby

helping the contractors meet the financial require-ments. This in turn is expected to increase the quality of the work as the contractors will not have to cut corners to make ends meet. Currently, the money is being paid out to them annually after the completion of the project. The new scheme will be first tried out in the con-struction of the 132km of the Punaloor-Thodupuzha road.

IBS plans IPO by year end IBS Software Services plans to tap the market with an initial public

offering by end-2013 or first-half of 2014. The company had earlier planned an IPO a couple of years back, but the global financial crisis and the change in listing norms which mandated a minimum 25 per cent public float forced the company to go slow on its plans. Mr VK Mathews, founder & executive chairman of the IBS group, has expressed op-timism that the external market situation would be conducive for the IPO by the end of the year.

Air India MRO service to start in FebruaryThe Maintenance, Repair,

and Overhaul (MRO) facility of Air India Char-ters Ltd. (AICL) at Thiru-vanathapuram will be op-erational in February. The facility was awaiting the mandatory clearance from the Director-General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) to begin the ‘C’ checks on Boeing 737-800 aircraft of the Air India Express (AIE). The MRO would take care of the aircraft in the AIE fleet initially and cater to third-party busi-ness later. AICL which set up the MRO facility on 6.07 hectares of land provided by the State has sought more land from the State to set up auxil-iary industrial units.

Dentsu Communications' opens office in Kochi Dentsu Communications, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Dentsu Inc., Tokyo - the world’s largest single-brand agency for 40 years – has opened its office in Kochi. The firms hopes to tap the rich story-telling tradition and the evolved film appreciation ethos of Keralites with its Kochi office. Dentsu cur-rently has offices in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore and

Chennai, and services clients such as Toyota, Nissin and TVS.

Marriot Courtyard opens in KochiMarriott International Inc. has opened its first hotel in Kerala – Court-

yard by Marriott – next to the Cochin International Airport. The premier four

star hotel has 107 rooms, with all modern ameni-ties, and will cater to the needs of the transient -business and leisure travellers. The project has been promoted and devel-oped by the UAE based Lulu Group International. Courtyard by Marriott is one of Marriott’s largest brands and the world’s 12th largest lodging chain with more 916 hotels worldwide. Courtyard by Marriott, Kochi Airport is the eighth hotel by Mar-riott in India.

KFC to fund food labsKerala Financial Corpora-tion will fund food testing labs and waste manage-ment plants in the small and medium sector in the State. The scheme is aimed at hotels, restau-rants and food processing units. The sector has been plagued by food safety concerns and issues with waste disposal of late. KFC wold provide 90per cent of the project cost as loan to its existing cus-tomers and 75per cent to new units for purchasing high-tech lab equipment or for setting up waste treatment plants/biogas units.

AT A GLANCE

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15

PREMIERSME PARTNER

ADWORDS

online@ispg.in

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of the containers should be X-ray scanned. The Shipping Ministry has now worked out an ad hoc proposal for ICTT at Vallarpadam - 100 per cent radiological scanning will be mandatory for all containers routed through ICTT, instead of 100 per cent X-ray scanning. It is hoped that the ICTT would now be able to attract more cargo and ships and operate to its capacity.

DPR for Thiruvanathapuram monorail submitted

The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation has submitted the detailed project report (DPR) for the proposed monorail at Thiruvanathapuram. The 22.20-km elevated rail-based mass rapid transit system will extend from Technocity to Karamana and will have 19 stops in the first phase. In the next phase, it will extend to Neyyattinkara in the South and northward as the Technocity ex-pands. The first phase of the project has been divided into three stretches - Technocity to Karyavattom (7 km), Karyavattom to Kesavadasa-puram (8 km), and Kesavadasa-puram to Karamana (8 km) – for ease of implementation. The first stretch from Technocity to Kary-avattom could be commissioned in 30 months after the turnkey contractor was finalised. The fully elevated monorail will have two-track beams on circular pillars, along the median of the road. The project is expected to cost `3,590 crore.

Nod for Idukki airport projectThe Kerala State Industrial Devel-opment Corporation (KSIDC) has invited Expression of Interest for techno economic feasibility study and environmental impact assess-ment of the proposed feeder airport in Idukki district. It says that the demand for faster modes of pas-senger transportation to Idukki has been on the rise on the back of steadily increasing tourist traffic and the rapid growth of business/trad-ing commuters to the spice capital of the State. The feeder airport will

provide connectivity to neighbour-ing airports in the State and also to nearby cities such as Coimbatore and Madurai. A feasibility study by the Airports Authority of India had found the proposed site for the airport at Anakkara, suitable for the project. The Union Ministry of Defence has also given its NOC for the proposed green field airport at Anakkara.

Land acquisition for Metro by February The land acquisition process for the Kochi metro rail project has gathered speed, with February being set as the deadline for possession of all land necessary for the metro.

It is estimated that the project will require 40.4 hectares. Land to be acquired for the Muttom yard, seven stations and three viaducts located away from the median have already been notified. The land required for 13 more stations, five viaducts located away from the median, and the metro village at Muttom will be notified soon. The land survey for determining the boundary for the Metro Rail project between Aluva and Edappally was also launched during the month. The district administration had earlier reached an agreement with the land owners on the compensation package for acquiring land on the MG Road stretch of the project. Meanwhile, an 8-member fact-find-ing mission from the Japan Invest-ment Corporation Agency ( JICA) has visited the alignment area of the proposed Kochi Metro Rail project and expressed satisfaction over the progress of the work. The `5,182-crore metro rail project re-quires a loan of `2,174 crore. JICA is currently funding four metros in India, including Kolkata, Delhi, Bangalore and Chennai.

Cabotage relaxation for ICTT takes effectThe long wait is over. After almost two years since the ICTT was commissioned at Vallarpadom, the relaxation in cabotage laws, badly needed for the operational viability of India’s first International Con-tainer Transshipment Terminal, is coming into force. The Central gov-ernment had cleared the proposal for relaxing cabotage laws for the ICTT for 3 years in September, but the ICTT was not able to enjoy the benefits till now as it could not meet the precondition that 100 per cent

PROJECT TRACKER

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Kozhikode based Subicsha, a consortium of coconut farmers, makes inroads into the food processing sector in Kerala

Nuts about coconuts

Kuruvilla Chacko

When in 2001, the opera-tions of a copra drying unit set up by the Peram-

bra block panchayath in Kozhikode was affected due to a shortage of raw materials, help was solicited from womenfolk to collect produce from near and far. Nearly 200 Kudum-bashree Self Help Groups (SHGs) were roped in and provided with `5,000 each to collect coconuts for the unit. Their effort helped plug the shortage, but more importantly, brought attention of the panchayath members to the unique advantage held by the region: they were the

largest producers of coconuts in a State which occupies the top slot for

the same in India; and now they had ready access to a workforce willing to tap into its potential. And thus was born the initial thread of Subicsha, a social venture acting as a consortium of coconut farmers from Perambra block panchayat.

“Once we realized our strength, there was every interest to make good use of it”, says Mr M Kunham-mad, Chairman, Subicsha and Presi-dent, Perambra block panchayath, who is fondly called as Master by the villagers. “Consultations were held with Indian Institute of Manage-ment Kozhikode (IIMK), and based on suggestions given by them after a six month research, the panchayath

Food Processing

A total of 17 products being made under the Subicsha brand

Today, nearly 542 SHGs, each consisting of ten

members are part of the group and operations

at the oil mill and food production centre are

carried out in two shifts of five hours each, with a total of 17 products being made under the Subicsha brand

18

sent forward a proposal to be ben-eficiaries of the central government’s Swarnajayanti Gram Swarozgar Yo-jana (SGSY) project for innovative rural development initiatives. The project was inaugurated in late 2003 with a fund of `14 crores released as part of SGSY,” he added.

But despite the soft launch, the actual registration of Subicsha as a private company would take another three years, with the formation of a federation of coconut farmers with shareholding rights in the company. Today the company has a total of 522 shareholders and a group of five directors at the helm, including the Chairman.

Subicsha’s workforceTo start with, copra drying, oil pro-cessing and coir making were the main options provided to the mem-bers of the 700 Kudumbashree SHGs identified for providing employment. Each SHG consisted of 10 members, and the idea was to provide employ-ment to 7,000 women. “A general orientation session was held for the 700 SHGs, and the women were given the freedom to choose the line of work they preferred, be it soap, coir, oil etc”, said Ms Liji EM, one of the five Directors of Subicsha. The company in the meanwhile man-aged to tie up with banks for loans, and promised 50 per cent back end subsidy, subject to a ceiling of `1.25 lakhs to the SHGs interested in set-ting up oil mills.

Finally when the time came for implementation, around 100 SHGs registered for the project and were given specialized technical training based on the option chosen by their members. But like any social initia-tive which involves the community at different levels, Subicsha too faced problems of quality and produc-tion efficiency. “Since there was no centralized process of production, marketing, packaging, quality check etc, the products coming in from dif-ferent groups were not standardised and thus became difficult to be sold under a common brand name”, ex-plained Mr Kunhammad.

It took nearly three years for the

Mr M Kunhammad, Chairman, Subicsha and President, Perambra block panchayath wants to set up a new factory every year

organisation to iron out basic produc-tion issues and get back on its feet, which happened to coincide with its transition as a registered company. Currently production is divided into centralized and home based pro-cesses. While the centralized process ensures continuous production, the home based production of soaps and other basic items depends on orders. Says Mr Kunhammad, “In order to maximize efficiency, we set up a cen-tralized food production centre, as well as common spaces for oil mills so that women could come together and process products bearing similar quality standards. The Coconut De-velopment Board (CDB) also set up a quality control lab for us. Further, stock inventories were made based on requirements mentioned by the

beneficiaries to ensure that sufficient raw material was always available for continuous production.”

The result was that despite stut-tered production in the initial three years, production and profit picked up in the next two, ensuring that loans were paid back in time with-out any adding up of interest. Today, nearly 542 SHGs, each consist-ing of ten members are part of the group and operations at the oil mill and food production centre are car-ried out in two shifts of five hours each, with a total of 17 products be-ing made under the Subicsha brand. 20,000 coconuts and 10 tonnes of copra are procured daily to meet the requirements. Subicsha buys coco-nuts from its farmers at `15 a kg, one rupee more than the market procure-ment price.

The women are paid `200-500 based on the work done by them, which is higher than that offered by the central government’s Rural Em-ployment Guarantee Scheme. But more than the wage, for women like Geetha BC, who joined the compa-ny two months ago, the job has given a sense of independence. Involved in making 35 litres of natural vinegar, and 80 packets of coconut chutney powder daily, she along with other women (many of them part of the

Subicsha has in place all quality certifications

including AGMARK, FPO and other export oriented

standards. Packaging of the processed food is also done

separately at the units, conforming to a prescribed

standard

19

company since its formation), find the mills a welcome respite from idling away their time at home.

MarketingThe products are sold under the Subicsha brand and presently cater only to the retail market in the Mal-abar region. Some of their products such as coconut pickle and elaneer squash which are unique and not found readily in the Kerala market, are priced well within the reach of the common man. Subicsha also has a tie up with Kudumbashree ‘Home Shop’ for door to door marketing and takes part in various fairs and exhibi-tions conducted by CDB and other government agencies to promote its brand. Acknowledging their growth, the National Horticulture Mission has approached them for an elaneer production centre to promote the same across the State.

To ensure best quality, Subicsha has in place all quality certifica-tions including AGMARK, FPO and other export oriented standards. Packaging of the processed food is also done separately at the units, conforming to a prescribed standard. In recent weeks, the company has also begun sale of oil to wholesale dealers and according to Ms Shiny K, director, Subicsha, “A new mill began operations last month just to meet the growing demand from vari-ous agencies and merchants for ed-ible and virgin oil.”

“We need better assistance from

Vinegar and elaneer squash being bottled at the packaging centre

ure since much of the last few years was spent trying to create a social brand and cater to the demands of a social venture. “The growth will be accelerated from here, now that we have an assured base of raw materi-als and market. It is the processed food sector, more than the oil sec-tor, which will help in our growth.” To kick start growth, the company is open to private investors picking up a stake in its expansion plans.

On its part, the company is will-ing to train other suburban panchay-aths and set up a similar model of co-conut based food products, and has already been approached by a few panchayath representatives for the same. “Our only condition to the in-terested members is that the project should be seen as a continuous and long process, and not given a half hearted approach just to stake claim to having started a welfare project.”

As for expansion in its home ground, the company’s motto is ‘one factory, one year’. “In 2012 it was the new oil mill. This year we would like to set up a bigger central factory for processed food and so on”, he ex-plained.

For a company which has bagged several social entrepreneurship awards since 2006, the new target of ‘market reach and operation expan-sion’ looks well within reach ■

government development agencies for innovative marketing practices to carry forward the brand to new regions”, says Mr Kunhammad. The company has begun testing the Gulf export market in recent months as part of its market diversification plans. Apart from exports, the cen-tral and southern parts of the State will be the company’s next target. “We are looking for marketing tie-ups with agencies in Kochi, to take our brand of natural products to the urban market,” says he.

The revenues of the company have risen from `16 lakhs in 2005-06 to `1 crore this year and Mr Kun-hammad says that not much should be read into the relatively lower fig-

Women work in two shifts of five hours at the processing centre

20

Kerala State Industrial Develop-ment Corporation (KSIDC) is the State government’s invest-

ment promotion arm, playing a criti-cal role in showcasing the potential of Kerala before the investors. The Emerg-ing Kerala global connect was part of its efforts to put the State in the focus of entrepreneurs from all over the world.

Mr Tom Jose, who recently took over as the Managing Director of KSIDC, shoulders the responsibility of follow-ing up on the meet and ensuring that the proposals presented at the meet reach their logical end. Mr Jose, an IAS of-ficer of 1984 batch, takes up the KSIDC mantle after having worked with sev-eral organisations including Kerala State Inland Navigation Corporation and Kerala Metro Rail Limited.

In an interview with Editor K J Jacob, Mr Jose said investors have start-ed realising the real worth of Kerala.

However, he feels the State must train its youth better and link its academia and industry if it were to create wealth and remove poverty. Excerpts:

You have interacted with inves-tors and industrialists from all over India, and outside. What is the

perception they share with you on Kerala?We have been quite successful in shedding the negative image we used to have once. However, image cre-ation is a continuous process. People have really started looking at some of our unquestionable assets, such as human resources. It’s only a question of time before they fully understood our potential.

What is the net result of Emerging Kerala meet? How does the govern-ment do the follow-up?We are closely monitoring the prog-ress the proposals make. We have zeroed in on 25-odd projects, which we think will clear the first level of scrutiny. We have called many of the entrepreneurs for personal in-terviews to assess their strengths and their plans. We also tell them to let

Train our youth betterinterview/tom Jose, iAs, mAnAging director, Ksidc

We have zeroed in on 25-odd projects, which we

think will clear the first level of scrutiny. We have

called many of the entrepreneurs for personal

interviews to assess their strengths and

their plans

21

us know if they come across specific hurdles. We assure them that we will take up the issues with the depart-ments concerned. At the same time, we take care that every project meets the general policy parameters the government has set for them. It’s a tough process, and it could take time before the projects took off.

As the nodal agency of Emerging Kerala, what is the role of KSIDC in taking the projects ahead?We have designated officers for ma-jor sectors such as tourism, health etc. These officers will help entre-preneurs in seeing the proposals through. I am also meeting several of them personally to know if they face major problems.

Every project needs to go through several processes such as the preparation of the feasibility report, detailed project report, market sur-vey, financial closure… These cannot be avoided. They in fact decide the viability of the project. Take the case of environmental clearance. There is no way we can do away with or dilute it. Every project has to get it. They must all follow the legal norms. If a project does not get environmen-tal clearance, then it shows that the project is not environmentally viable. We just cannot take such a project ahead. At the same time, we are there to support the entrepreneurs.

We would prefer they plan the projects well and then launch them.

The LNG terminal is a dream proj-ect, which could change the face of industrial Kerala. It is scheduled to be commissioned in March this year. However, the pipeline project to evacuate gas from the terminal and supply it to the industries has reached nowhere. What next?We must get gas to run our power projects. We have already planned four power projects which will run on LNG and produce 3000 MW power. This power will be absolutely necessary for the development of the State. See, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu face a very grim situation with respect to power today. In some places, the power cuts extend up to 16 hours a day. They had gone ahead and set up a lot of industries, with-out planning for generating adequate amounts of power. We will face the same fate if we don’t start addressing it right away.

It is estimated that our power demand will double by 2016. There

If a project does not get environmental clearance,

then it shows that the project is not

environmentally viable. There is no way we

can take such a project ahead

We are trying to remove the disconnect between the academia

and the industry. We are pushing for

an institutional mechanism to

ensure this

is a national shortage of power, and hence it would not be wise to look up to the national grid to save us.

The government is very clear on it. The pipeline project has the sup-port of all the political parties as it is very essential for our survival. We hope to iron out the differences and take up the project soon.

How soon?I expect the pipeline project to be completed in less than a year. I hope the land acquisition (not acquisition, acquisition of right of way) will be complete in three months. Some say this time frame is too optimistic. But I am an optimist!

Industries complain about the un-employability of students coming out of our colleges and universities. What is the government going to do about it?World over, nations make proper use of the contribution of the people coming out of campuses. Industries employ them, create wealth and help them remove poverty. Academia and industry work closely, with a clear understanding of each other’s de-mands. Industry is part of the aca-demic world.

However, here we do not follow the practice. We keep them as water-tight compartments, and the result is that most young men and women coming out campuses are clueless about the job they are expected to do. There are instances of engineer-ing graduates going to other States, paying money and attending classes to gain practical knowledge.

We are trying to make some dif-ference in this matter. We are trying to remove the disconnect between the academia and the industry. I recently had a meeting with the of-ficials of the education department. We have suggested that there should be mandatory consultation with the industry when they prepare the cur-riculum. The students must get to undertake internships and get work experience in specific areas. We are pushing for an institutional mecha-nism to ensure this ■

22

Kuruvilla Chacko

Want to watch a potter in action? Or to see deft craftsmen create poetry in

wood, stone, metal or coconut shell? Or make amazing shapes with bam-boo, coir, rice grains, cane or jute?

Welcome to Sargaalaya, the crafts village at Iringal near Vada-kara in Kozhikode district. A vil-lage that provides the twin comforts of a leisure spot and a cultural treat for the visitors. The exquisitely de-signed village has 27 huts housing the practising artisans, laid out in a U-shape design around open spaced water bodies built around huge cut

rocks. Some huts host more than one art form. In total, over 36 crafts and 1,000 different varieties of products are on offer. The picturesque village

stands on the banks of Moorad river. Now, enter the village, and into a

hut. Mr K Kunjikirishnan, a thin yet robust man well past his sixties, wel-comes you with a curly white mous-tache and a lively charm he wears on his face. He can be found sitting cross-legged, either behind the wheel or on the floor tapping a finished pot into shape. And while he goes about his work in the 6m x 6m room, just put forward your request and watch as the eagerness in your eyes turns into a smile across his.

Kunjikrishnan and his fellow artists strive to create an aware-ness about their skill and the work put into their products among the

Leisure meets commerce at Sargaalaya, Kerala’s only arts and crafts centre

Come home to the crafts

Tourism revenues worldwide are beginning to follow the experiential

mode, wherein tourists visit a place for its cultural

experience. Sargaalaya aims to provide just that by

forming a society of artisans

tourism

The picturesque art and crafts village hosts craftsmen from the State and even outside

Phot

o: E

N C

hinn

u R

am

23

visitors. Ever ready to share experi-ences, skills and even techniques to the curious enthusiast, every artisan here is on a mission to carry forward their culture. So if you wish to know the secrets behind weaving, mak-ing bamboo chairs, Madhubhani style paintings on fabric, pottery or handicraft jewellery, just drop into the respective huts and enrich your knowledge.

Such interactive support has made the village a big hit among foreigners, most of who are curious to learn about India’s unique craft culture firsthand. “The number of foreigner visits is steadily picking up, and they make very high purchases,” said Ms S Radha, who makes handi-crafts from dyed cloth.

Even domestic tourists can be seen trying their hand at one craft or the other. Says Ms R Sumitha, a tourist from Mangalore, “I was ex-cited about pottery but am not con-veniently dressed to try it out today. But giving a shot at making bead necklaces is fun.”

The artisans work on raw mate-rials including wood, stone, bamboo, coir, metal, coconut shell, rice grains,

Kunjikrishnan (in pic) and his fellow

artists strive to create an awareness among the visitors about their skills and the work they put

into their products

cane and jute. There are also stalls showcasing miniature handicrafts apart from murals, sand art and oil & sepia paintings. And what’s more, some of the products on display are from other States, such as Bihar and West Bengal. Says Mr Naresh N, who hails from Jalpaiguri in West Bengal, “The Trust provides us with the raw materials and gives us a fixed salary. They also look after the marketing and find orders for us, depending on which we make the products.” Mr Naresh makes wooden chairs.

With over 30,000 tourists and handicrafts sales exceeding ̀ 20 lakhs in 2012 alone, the centre promises to be a model for other regions as well to cash in on the sunrise sector of art & craft tourism. In a year of its launch, Sargaalaya has earned the support of the Handicrafts Devel-opment Commission and numerous artisan communities across the State.

The Department of Tourism con-ceived Sargaalaya in 2011 as a

cluster to promote arts and handi-crafts from the remotest corners of the State. It’s an attempt to bring the craftsmen and their art into the tour-ism circuit.

“The idea was to bring together every kind of art in the State under one roof,” explained Mr P P Bhas-karan, chief executive officer, Sargaa-laya. “Tourism revenues worldwide are beginning to follow the experi-ential mode, wherein tourists visit

a place for its cultural experience. Sargaalaya aims to provide just that by forming a society of artisans.” The Sargaalaya Trust, which has been formed for the purpose, takes care of marketing the products artisans make, giving them the freedom to pursue their creativity.

Apart from bringing the artisans under a single roof, the Sargalaya Trust has several other motives too. They included generating local em-ployment, reviving the dying crafts, and if possible, relocating artisans working elsewhere to their home land. “We train local women and employ them here,” said Mr Bhas-karan. Most local artisans are trained women from the nearby villages. They, too, get salaries. Says Ms M Radha, who makes handicrafts with grains of rice, “People who work with grains come from Nileshwar. They trained us so that we can handle the production and sale of products de-signed by them. This saves them time and helps them expand their market reach through Sargaalaya.”

And as the place grows in strength, the Trust in its future plans wishes to provide space to artists specialising in glass works, ceramics and wood & stone carving as well. “Very soon, we wish to have every form of art in the country exhibited here,” said Mr Bhaskaran.

With so much to showcase, and so much to learn it’s truly a win-win situation for every participant on ei-ther side of the fence ■

Additional tourist attrac-tions at Sargaalaya include

a facility for boating through the Moorad river and a canteen serving traditional Kerala cui-sine. And should you want an exclusive show of traditional per-forming arts, or an appointment with an artisan, they too can be arranged. Mr S Shaju, Secre-tary of ULCCS which manages the centre, said that Sargaalaya conducts daily cultural shows and ethnic food festivals dur-ing festive seasons to keep the crowd entertained. And in tune with world class cultural centres, there is also a well-equipped li-brary for artisans, students and researchers wanting to know more about the country’s ancient arts and culture. It also has dor-mitories for visitors.

24

When my information changes, I change my opinion.What do you do, sir?

John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946)

The most influential economist of the 20th century.

25

Everybody knows that technology changes business. Today, the change flows through the net.

And the fact is, Kerala is the most networked State in India.

Information changes

Be updated

For subscription: 0484-2421916, +91 9947539023 or subscription@economic-update.in

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After all, our opinions ought to change!

Of the 978 Panchayats in Kerala, 99% have broadband connectivity.

26

Keralites have always outpaced their government in adopting technology. Now, it’s for the

government to do a catch-up. As the digital age peaks, the

State government is all set to deploy information technology to reach out to its people. Titled e-District, the government is rolling out the proj-ect by March 2013, banking on the presence of broadband connectiv-ity in 99 per cent of the State’s 978 panchayats. It seeks to allow Keral-ites — NRKs and migrant settlers included — to apply and receive land, revenue, educational and other certificates from various departments at the click of a mouse.

To start with, 23 services of the department of revenue will be made available through the Net. “Since it’s

difficult to integrate all departments in one go, we have decided to include only the revenue department for the first phase,” said Mr G Unnikirish-nan, Head, e-governance, Kerala State IT Mission. “Within a year or two all government departments will embrace the project.”

Instead of standing in queue for filing an application with the gov-ernment, and waiting for days on end before hearing of its status, the e-dis-trict model allows filing applications online. The applicant would also re-ceive the approved files through the same medium.

The Success SignsThe project is a continuation of the test phase the Union government launched in December 2010 in Kan-

God’s land goes digitalinFormAtion tecHnoLogY

The e-district project set to roll out across the State by March 2013 will digitize government records, hasten application processes and enable instantaneous access anywhere, anytime

A user browses the homepage of the E-governance website sitting at home

nur and Palakkad districts. In the first year, it got only 1.14 lakh ap-plications online but in the second year, the number shot up to 11 lakh. Enthused by the success, the govern-ment added Pathanamthitta, Kot-tayam and Malappuram districts to the initiative in the past few months. And now, the State IT Mission has finalised early next year as a deadline for the entire basket of services han-dled by the Revenue Department and a few others to be made available online in all districts. “By March, apart from all revenue services, a few other services such as applications towards the departments of right to information, public distribution sys-tem and motor vehicle department will also be made available,” said Mr K P Noufel, project head, e-district and mission co-ordinator, Kerala State IT Mission.

To understand the functioning of the project, one merely has to envis-age the e-district initiative as a single online database carrying recorded information of an individual, which otherwise lies spread across multiple hard copy certificates. From land to revenue to even the identification certificate, the project will integrate every single file of ownership or identification held by an individual into one single digital database rep-resented by a unique ID for each registered account. Obviously, the advantages of having all your infor-mation online in one file are many.

Explaining the concept, Mr Noufel said, “To register a compa-ny as a proprietorship, or a piece of

27

Babu said. IT Mission’s data says officials

cleared nearly 2,300 applications during the second Saturday and Sun-day of November 2012. And there is no compulsion on these officials, who are given the freedom to work depending on their convenience, but keeping the public’s need in mind.

Looking aheadProbably it is this mindset which needs to be applauded for the suc-cessful adoption of the project. From an employee-centric focus in the first year of its test run, the entire project was revamped to focus on a more citizen-centric approach from its sec-ond year. Said Mr Noufel: “We ana-lysed the model of the project after the lukewarm response in the first year and then changed our approach. Smart tracking and application pro-cesses by citizens did the trick.”

The IT Mission has set up a 30-member dedicated call centre to help in the smooth back-end func-

tioning of e-district project. Realis-ing the significance of e-governance for the future, the Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode has started a PG diploma course on e-gover-nance.

“In 2000, the State embraced e-literacy,” said Mr Noufal. “A decade later it is e-governance. Now the next step is a model of e-society wherein the entire society moves ahead using the benefits of technology available to them.” For a State which has dabbled in IT/ITES applications since it set up the country’s first IT Park in 1990, this focus on the future is just another milestone waiting to be reached.

E-initiatives ◘ E-procurement: An online plat-form for government agencies to invite tenders, procure materials etc, thereby enhancing efficiency and transparency in public procurement activities and enabling their real time monitoring.◘ Information and Data Exchange Advanced System (IDEAS): A fa-cility to track one’s application of government services, it also serves a dual role by sending an alert to gov-ernment officials regarding pending files.◘ Mobile Governance: This is a fa-cility allowing access to services pro-vided by different government de-partments through one’s mobile. For a list of services, simply type KER-ALA to 537252 (number equivalent of ‘KERALA’ on the QWERTY key-pad) ■

land in your name, all you need to do is apply online using the ID number of one of your government-approved documents as identification proof. Automatically, every other file saved online in your name will be verified to confirm your identification. Then once the application is filled electron-ically, your request will be queued for approval on a first-come-first-serve basis, and you can track its real time status either online or through SMS. Once the file is ready, you will be noti-fied via your registered online account after which you can print, download or save the document. In a nutshell, you can transact, receive and print the approved application sitting at home.”

What’s more, this service is being made available even to NRKs, who will be allowed to buy land, handle revenue transactions etc from abroad without the need to come in person or make frequent trips to the authority concerned for the same.

More than simplifying the pro-cesses, the project seeks to bring more transparency to government and check corruption and favouritism. The electronic queue system demands the official handling the file to register a ‘comment’ if a file is given precedence out of turn or if a file is not given ap-proval. These comments are made visible to all monitoring officials and even to the public. The result will be better accountability, say IT mission officials.

Dr Sajith Babu, nodal officer, State IT Cell of Revenue, says that a person on an average visits a govern-ment office four times for availing a service. “By providing over 11 lakh digitally signed services so far in the last one year, we have saved 45 lakh travels, thereby saving the expenses and time of the citizens.”

The project has some exciting of-fers for officials, too. Officials get the flexibility to work even from home, he said. “The government will provide them with laptops so that services are available 24x7. None of the officials have so far complained of the extra work, since they see it as their duty.” This could also help people to avail services in cases of emergency, Dr

Instead of standing in queue for filing an application with the

government, and waiting for days on end

before hearing of its status, one may file the

applications and track their status online

All government departments will embrace the project within a year or two, says G Unnikirishnan, Head, e-governance, Kerala State IT Mission

28

29

30

The radio in the background plays a folk song from the 80s, the voice of the singer sifting

through the wisps of smoke spiral-ling upwards from the 10-odd stoves placed in the tarpaulin roofed court-yard. Nearly 40 men are at work, flip-ping chappatis, bringing in trays of freshly flattened maida and stirring two large, round aluminium vessels holding hot chicken and vegetable curry, as they hum the nostalgic tune in their inimitable style. The men are dressed in a simple white mundu and a plain white shirt, the pocket corner of which holds a number; a number which acts as their name within the

high walls of the Poojapura Central prison in Thiruvananthapuram, their home for now. These men, along with inmates serving time at Kan-nur, Thrissur and Kozhikode jails in the State, are silently giving a new meaning to that number and to the

term ‘self-sustainability’. By working an honest man’s job,

these cooks in uniform have helped the State’s prison department give the ready-to-eat food industry a new direction: There exists a market not only for exports but for local con-sumption as well. As the inmates double up as cooks, the authorities have used the advantage of cheap labour to meet the twin demands of quality and affordability, and of-fering wholesome ‘cooked food’ to a multitude of office-goers, college students, government institutions and the passersby affected by spi-ralling food prices in recent times.

out oF tHe BoX

Manna from the jailReady-to-eat food Kerala’s prison inmates cook has become an instant hit

As the inmates double up as cooks, the authorities

have used the advantage of cheap labour to meet the twin demands of quality

and affordability

31

Their business model is difficult to replicate in times of high prices such as these, with chappatis costing `2, much cheaper than the `6 outside, and the egg/vegetable curry selling for `10 as compared to the `25/30 outside; and therein lies their future success as well, making this one gas-tronomical idea worth a bite.

“An idle mind is the devil’s work-shop.” It was this thought

which prompted Dr Alexander Jacob, Director-General of Police (Prisons) to seriously consider the many ad-vantages of preparing ‘cooked food’ from jails and distributing it to the public. “A jail is a space for reforma-tion. We already train inmates as plumbers, electricians, masons, car-penters etc. But in recent times, we thought of the possibilities of bring-ing out our own label of cooked food, by using the manpower available with us, for the benefit of the com-mon man,” said Dr Jacob. And so, unlike the TJ (Tihar Jail) brand, or other jail initiatives across the coun-try which bring in revenue through the sale of clothing and personal ac-cessories, jails in Kerala have chosen to cater to the Malayalee taste buds.

The Viyyur central jail in Thrissur started off with the Freedom Chap-patis in December last year, and its runway success became the inspira-tion for Poojapura Chappatis pre-pared by Poojapura central prison, Malabar Freedom by Kannur central jail and the Kozhikode district jail. Other jails including the Ernakulam and Kollam sub-jails have evinced similar interest and are in the process of joining the bandwagon. The jails at present involved in the initiative have bought their own machinery, stoves etc worth crores and constant-ly re-invent their menu.

Representatives of Central gov-ernment NGOs have taught inmates cooking and they get a daily wage of `117. “The labour is cheap, which help us lower the price,” said Dr Ja-cob. “And since it gives the inmates a means to spend their day usefully, they are all for it.”

To ensure safety standards and hygiene, the cooks are selected based on their interest, with personal hy-giene being the most important fac-tor. “They are given special baths, facial masks, gloves and head gear to ensure the food prepared is of high-est quality. We also have periodical inspections by food inspectors, and daily monitoring of the preparation by jail officials,” Dr Jacob added.

Apart from chappatis, the menu includes idlis, chilli chicken, fried rice and even chicken biriyani. This year, equipment is being procured to begin production of bakery items such as cakes and buns also. “We do not see the jail as an avenue to do business. Rather we seek to breed creativity within the restrictive space to make such spaces self sustainable. The ‘cooked food’ initiative is doing just that, with benefits to the public and the inmates,” explained Mr B Pradeep, Superintendent, Poojapura central jail.

Low Cost FoodOn an average, the jails prepare al-most 1.25 lakh chappatis a day. Poojapura leads the pack with a daily production of 60,000 plus chappa-

tis, 10,000 plus idlis and over 4,000 packets of chicken and vegetable curry. “Nearly a hundred inmates are employed in two shifts to meet the demand,” said Mr Pradeep. “This December, the total number of chappatis produced in this jail since the launch of the initiative last year crossed 1 crore,” he said. The jails have outlets at their entrance, and besides that Poojapura also has one counter at the Women’s prison at Attakulangara (where the idli pro-duction unit is set up), in addition to three mobile units which carry food to different parts of the city. “Since the food is not costly, there is a huge rush in front of our counters and mobile units during lunch time. In the early mornings, our idlis are sold off just as quickly to the devotees thronging the Sree Padmanabhas-wamy temple,” claimed Mr Pradeep.

A packet of five chappatis and chicken curry costs only `25, where-as chappati and vegetable/egg curry costs just `20, as compared to the minimum charge of `80 for either in a restaurant outside. Further, a packet of chilli chicken costs `35, and chicken biriyani costs `60 as compared to `80-120 outside. “We

We do not see it as an avenue to make business, says Superintendent B Pradeep of Poojappura central prison. “We seek to breed creativity within the restrictive space

to make such spaces self-sustainable.”

32

have a regular clientele, and at times even receive orders from government and private institutions. If it is a bulk order, we provide an option of de-livery,” said Mr M K Vinod Kumar, Superintendent, Viyyur central jail.

Socio-Economic BenefitThe ready-to-eat initiative is beyond pure business. True, the jails have found a means to become self suf-ficient. But there is a moral aspect to it as well, and with the increasing demand from the public for the food items, even the process of cooking is going the green way to reduce future expenses.

For starters, the jails across Ker-ala are in the process of being fitted with solar panels to meet all energy needs. The Poojapura jail is already fully powered by a solar energy sys-tem, and to meet its cooking needs, special solar stoves have been pur-chased which are currently in the test phase, while the other jails are in the process of setting up the same. “The Poojapura jail uses nearly 10 non-subsidised LPG cylinders daily just to prepare chappatis. The solar stove is cleaner, cheaper, eco-friendly, makes the chappatis faster and, un-like the traditional stove, does not produce smoke, thereby ensuring that the health of the cooks is not affected,” said Dr Jacob. Not to men-

tion the revenue coming in as car-bon credits by adopting solar energy techniques. “All this will ultimately lead to further lowering of prices of food sold by the jails,” he added.

Secondly, the initiative has given a new meaning to the life to the in-mates, who are equipped with an ad-ditional skill upon release. Says Mr S Ansari, head warden, Poojapura jail, “Such an initiative helps transform societal rejects into assets. By becom-ing self sustainable, the jails needn’t depend largely on the rest of the population to take care of the prison-ers.” Agreeing to the same, Muneer from Maradu in Kozhikode who was a cook before he was sentenced to imprisonment said, “Cooking here is more than a time-pass for us now. It also helps us realise what we are missing by not living a free life. Ev-ery one of us involved in this initia-tive feels happy when we hear of the appreciation shown by the public on the food prepared by us. It only in-spires us to lead better lives once we are released.”

And by learning how to cook, the inmates are also receiving numer-ous ‘jail placement’ offers, mentions Dr Jacob, “A few restaurants in the city have already booked some cooks as future employees with wages up-wards of `800 a day. This has many advantages. One, the owner can

employ them as cooks by day, and guards by night. Second, the released inmates will be effective to handle unruly customers. And third, this gives an option to the inmates to live a normal life away from the worries of social stigma facing them back home.”

And finally, there is the advantage of low cost food to the general pub-lic. With demand never a problem and word of mouth an assured source of publicity, it is only understandable how workers, labourers, govern-ment officials, students and govern-ment managed institutions such as orphanages and old age homes will benefit. Vouching for the food, Mr Satheesh K, a resident of Thiruva-nathapuram, says that the taste and cost are best suited for the Malayalee sensibility, a reason why he regularly buys food from the counter at the jail. “Observe the queue forming at lunch time at any of the distribution counters and you will see that apart from a few new customers, most of the people are loyalists of the brand”, he adds.

This is also a factor which en-sures that the launch of any new item is readily lapped up by the public. As Dr Jacob recounts, “A few days before Onam last year, the owner of a hotel and his helpers were imprisoned for a minor scuffle. On the day of Onam, they approached us and expressed their interest to prepare 'saddhya', obviously missing the joy of prepar-ing the same back home, due to their time in jail. We consented, and they made over 1,000 packets of saddhya, each costing `30, including payasam. The entire lot was sold in a few hours time through our mobile counters, even though there was no prior inti-mation of the same to the public. It means that the brand of jail food has got a loyal market among the public at large.”

As he finishes recounting the anecdote, it’s clear that the chefs of Kerala jails have confirmed what the French say about cooking, ‘While not anyone can become a great cook, a great cook can come from any-where’ ■

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cover storY

Winds of change

35

The campuses in Kerala are now witnessing a phenomenon they are not used to: entrepreneurship. Some of the youngsters who would have been busy preparing their resumes are, instead, going through the ones which come to them. Some, having conceptualised a product, are into market research now. Some others are finailising the team they would form as soon as they leave the campus. It’s bloom time for young businessmen, says Thomas Mathew A.

Young entrepreneurs at Start-Up Village, Kalamasserry

36

Mr Vijith Padmanabhan, a final year student at Mod-el Engineering College

(MEC), Thrikkakara, is what most people would call a normal kid-next-door. But what they don’t know is that at 21, he is the CEO of Dolojo Solutions, a web development com-pany. He, along with his friend Mr Amit S Namboodiri, had developed www.bluebag.com, a social book-marking website while they were in their third year of engineering. Hav-ing convinced the officials of Startup Village, a business incubator at Kala-masserry, they got office space to run their company. Mr Padmanabhan’s company is now seven people-strong, and has clients paying for their work.

Mr Rohil Dev from College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram, now heads RHL Vision, which works on an augmented reality proj-ect for use in shops. Another Start-Up Village incubatee, Mashinga, by CUSAT pass outs, hopes to bring in low-cost table top touch screen com-puters.

The trend is not limited to in-formation technology. ‘One TV’, a channel brought about by three youngsters in Malappuram, tells the story of three men fighting against

the odds to bring their dreams to fruition. Like a typical story, it has all the dramatic elements: dreams, sweat, tears and success.

Mr Mohammed Mahshad, co-founder of One TV, thinks of himself as a ‘chance entrepreneur’. “Looking back, I never thought we’d make it this far,” says Mr Mahshad, who along with two of his friends Mr Shane Mohammed and Mr Noufel Kunnath, started One TV while he was in his third year of engineering. They started out as a local channel in Malappuram, where Mr Mah-shad’s father ran a cable network with about 2,000 connections. The

trio pooled in `1 lakh from amongst themselves to start off their maiden venture. Although they knew their reach was minimal, they didn’t want to remain small time.

Mr Mahshad and Mr Shane, who were third year engineering students at Government Engineering College Thrissur (GEC) and National Insti-tute of Technology, Calicut (NITC), respectively, put their engineering skills to good use. Mr Noufel, who holds a diploma in computer sci-ence, headed the quality department where he introduced HD-like-transmission, without having all the expensive stuff that one would find at TV stations today. “It’s surprising that most channels don’t know that by adjusting certain parameters in a video, transmission quality can be improved 10-fold,” says Mr Mah-shad, who believes their channel is the first in Kerala to work out such a low-cost technique.

Realising that picture quality alone could not take them further, they came up with ideas the audi-ence could connect to. They soon started to screen foreign movies with Malayalam subtitles. The experiment was an instant success. The number of subscribers shot up to 60,000 in three months. The success had DEN Networks picking them as its Kerala face. Four years hence, the channel has “made it large”, having a director board of eminent personalities such as film director Lal Jose and ad-film maker Rathish Ambat. The group has now forayed into software with White Cloud, which comes up with software solutions for film and me-dia houses.

One might wonder why there is such a sudden interest in en-

trepreneurship. It is especially sur-prising considering that Kerala was not known to be an entrepreneurial economy. So, what exactly is the rea-son for such a shift?

“It’s the mindset,” opines Mr Te-jas Suresh Kumar, a final-year stu-dent at CET and a budding entre-preneur. Earlier, the aim was to have a job at the end of the course they are pursuing. Jobs were not aplenty

Vijith Padmanabhan and Amit S Namboodiri who run Dolojo Solutions

Within a matter of days of Chief Minister Oommen Chandy’s announcement

that the government would form a new policy to

promote entrepreneurship, more than 89 colleges had

refurbished their long-dead entrepreneurship development cells

37

Noufel Kunnath and Mohammed Mahshad started One TV while they were still in college

Last September, students from Kerala’s engineering colleges

took up a unique campaign - ‘30 days to freedom’. Their demand - freedom from the shackles college education imposed on them, free-dom to pursue their entrepreneurial dreams. Apple founder Steve Job’s quote ‘Why join the navy, when you can be a pirate?’ became the rally-ing call for those would-be entre-preneurs.

It all started with an announce-ment Chief Minister Mr Oommen Chandy, made at the Emerging Kerala meet held in September. He had then promised a Student En-trepreneurship Policy (SEP) with attendance relaxations and grace marks for student entrepreneurs within 30 days.

Soon after the announcement, Mr Sharan Thampi, Mr Tejas Ku-mar and Mr George Jacob of Col-lege of Engineering, Trivandrum, launched the campaign – ‘30 days to freedom’ - to follow up on the promise. “It was sort of like a count-down to the government,” claims Mr Thampi, who heads the En-trepreneurship Development (ED) cell in his college. The Facebook page they created to spearhead the campaign went viral, accruing more

than 15,000 likes in its final week. Mr Jacob is least surprised by the interest their page had received. “The need for such a policy was always there, this is just proof of that,” is all what he had to say.

The campaign received a huge leg-up when actors Mammooty and Mohanlal extended their sup-port to it. Their write-ups on the page did the trick, and soon, other celebrities followed suit. The trio took it to the next level by coordi-nating with ED cells in 89 engi-neering colleges and hoisted flags, with Job's quote, in some colleges. They went on to make a video out of it, which received more than 17,000 views on Youtube.

The campaign didn’t go in vain. As promised, the government is-sued orders for the SEP on Octo-ber, 12, exactly a month after it was announced. Student entrepreneurs who are incubated in Technology Business Incubators (TBIs) would get grace marks (maximum of 4 per cent) and attendance relaxation (maximum of 20 per cent) as per the policy. From now on they can pursue their entrepreneurial dreams while in college without worrying about its impact on their academ-ics.

When ‘Pirate fever’ hit collegesa couple of decades back, and hence, people settled into the first job they get. Then came the software boom and suddenly campuses were flush with job offers – that too high pay-ing ones. Parents wanted to see their children getting such jobs in MNCs. Loyalty to the company and job se-curity were passé. And job-hopping became the norm. The easy avail-ability of jobs and pockets flush with cash emboldened a few of them to take risks and turn entrepreneurs.

But now, things are changing. The new generation is not exactly satisfied being the recipients of the monthly pay cheques; they would rather write them. “The idea of be-ing a ‘job-taker’ is slowly taking a back seat,” says Dr Deepa P Gopi-nath, associate professor at College of Engineering, Thiruvanantha-puram. Although high-paying jobs still come the way of her students, she has noticed a change in their at-titude, one that she feels is a “good thing”. “There have been so many examples, right from Mark Zucker-berg’s Facebook to Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s Google, that it would be hard for students not to dream of being entrepreneurs themselves,” says Mr Aravind Thampi, a fourth-year student at Sree Chitra Thirunal College of Engineering, Thiruvanan-thapuram (SCT).

Convincing one’s parents is the hardest part, especially if you are a first generation entrepreneur, say most student entrepreneurs. “Parents are hard-wired in such a way that they don’t understand entrepreneur-ship,” says Mr Sreejith S, techni-cal officer, Technopark-Technology Business Incubator (T-TBI). Mr Sreejith, who graduated from SCT, Thiruvananthapuram, is an ex-en-trepreneur who had to give in to his parents’ dream and drop his IT ven-ture just when his company started to see light.

“A parent would want his/her child to be on the safer side,” says Mr K P Prabhakaran, father of Mr Kal-lidil Kalidasan, co-founder of Mind-helix Technosol, a very successful mobile app development company.

38

“But,” adds he, “if a child gives in to his parents demands, he/she is not passionate enough, to begin with.” Concern over the child’s education is another issue plaguing the parents’ minds. Most parents believe that ed-ucation makes for that ‘plan B’, just in case the enterprise fails to pay-off.

The State government has now been able to provide some relief to the grief-stricken parents with the Student Entrepreneurship Policy (SEP). The policy lays out atten-dance relaxations and grace marks. The Cabinet passed the policy on October, 12, 2012. Dr K C C Nair, CFO, Technopark, one of the brains at work behind the policy, was elated the moment the news was relayed to him: “The billion-dollar start-up won’t remain a dream for long now.” Doubts regarding the potential mis-use of the scheme are surfacing every now and then, but Dr Nair quells such doubts saying that the policy is

“fool-proof ”. He feels that the three-step break-down of the SEP, moni-tored by experts, will ensure that the scheme is not misused. (See box)

“Even the faculty here is happy with the policy,” says Mr U Prakash, training and placement officer at SCT. The only thing that bothers Mr Prakash is with regard to the money coming to the students. But that’s ok, he says on second thoughts. “If the kids have grown enough to own a company, I guess they shouldn’t have problems handling some cash!”

However, the enthusiasm is not

The new generation is not exactly satisfied being the recipients of the monthly pay cheques, they would

rather write them

Incubator Total incubates (physical+virtual)

Student incubatees

NITC- TBI, Kozhikode 12+2 0

Technopark TBI, Thiruvananthapuram 70+25 58+21

Central Institute of Fisheries Technol-ogy TBI (agri-incubator), Kochi 7+47 0

ITIH-TBI (Startup Village), Kochi 4+101 24

College of Engineering TBI, Thiruvananthapuram 3 3

shared by everyone. “Most student entrepreneurs are impulsive; ide-ally, students should work a couple of years, find out how the industry works and only then should take up their own ventures,” says Dr T K Suresh Babu, head of the training and placement cell, NIT-Calicut.

With the announcement of the SEP by Chief Minister Oommen Chandy at the inauguration of the Emerging Kerala meet, the Entre-preneurship Development (ED) cells in colleges have witnessed quite a lot of activity. Within a matter of days, more than 89 colleges had re-furbished their long-dead ED cells. Prof Bijumon T, staff coordinator of the ED cell in MEC, Thrikkakara, says, “Our ED cell was dormant for quite some time, the main reason be-ing the lack of student interest and funds.” It is only with the announce-ment of the SEP that these dead cells received a breath of life. Prof Bijumon has now planned a slew of events to get his students to “think out of the box”. However, the first one in his checklist is to get his col-lege the TBI status, for which he is applying to the Department of Sci-ence and Technology (DST). The situation is not much different in other colleges.

The entrepreneurship zeal is not limited to Kerala’s premier campus-es. Mr Sreejith of T-TBI notes that the lack of proper job placements in other colleges is the main reason for students to consider taking up entre-preneurship. “Colleges which weren’t on the radar earlier are coming to the forefront now, owing to the sheer brilliance of the start-ups these insti-tutions had borne,” says Mr Sreejith.

The success story of Innoz Tech-nologies, a mobile start-up formed at the LBS College, Kasargod, and incubated at T-TBI is testimony to his claim. It is not the only one: T-TBI has successfully reared many such start-ups. Out of the 140 com-panies admitted to the T-TBI, 64 companies have graduated while 70 companies are still in incubation. Just six companies have dropped out, which places the success rate of the

Breakup of the Student Entrepreneurship Policy

Sl No Stages Grace Mark (4%)

Attendance (20%)

1 Ideation Stage 1% 5%2 Teaming & Company

formation1% 5%

3A Prototype (Working Model) for Technology based firms *

2% 10%

3B Business Services of Ser-vice based firms *

2% 10%

39

coming up on her desk have a lot of potential. Students drop these ideas once they find it’s beyond them to fund their venture, even while know-ing its true potential.

Mr Aravind Anil, a student at SCT, is one of the lucky few to get to see his idea take shape, literally. He, along with his friends, is planning to build an ‘automated irrigation sys-tem’, a system using moisture sensors and electronic circuits that would, by itself, keep your garden well watered. The project proposal got selected for development at an event conducted by the IEEE Communication Soci-ety in conjunction with Startup Vil-lage, and received a `50,000 fund to build the same. The team then plans to monetize the invention.

There are Central government funds for innovators as well. Techno-preneur Promotion Program (TePP) is one such initiative which aims to tap the innovative potential of the country. The programme extends fi-nancial support to individual inno-vators as well as groups. The phase-I schemes provide up to `15 lakhs, depending on the innovator require-ment. Successful phase-I innova-tors can apply for phase II funding, which provides additional funds, up to `45 lakh, to get the product to the market. Technopark, Trivandrum, functions as the TePP Outreach Centre (TUC) for the programme in Kerala. (Details of the funding can be found at: http://www.dsir.gov.in/tpdup/tepp/tepp.htm.)

Angel investors and venture capitalists, too, are in plenty. There are many angel investor groups func-tioning in the country - Indian An-gel Network, The Chennai Angels,

Mumbai Angels, and Bangalore An-gels are some of them.

However, Mr Nawaz Meeran, chairman of Eastern Condiments Pvt. Ltd., thinks that investors should be an entrepreneur’s last re-sort. Advising budding entrepre-neurs at TiECON Kerala, he said, “Bootstrapping your venture is the ideal case; look to investors only when you have no other option left.”

But what if getting tied up with a single product/service isn’t some-thing you had in mind?

The Technology Commerciali-sation Facilitation Agency (TCFA) has been initiated just for such peo-ple. Business is not anyone’s piece of cake. “Most innovators lack the skills to become successful in business, but that shouldn’t stop them from com-ing up with breakthrough technolo-gies,” Mr Sreejith says. The TCFA helps the innovator by finding the right people to purchase the inno-vation. “They pay you money, so you can happily get back to what you do best, which is innovating!” adds Mr Sreejith.

After all is said, here’s a word of caution.

Mr Shaji Kumar, former general manager of the District Industries Centre in Thiruvananthapuram, has ‘seen-it-all’ when it comes to entre-preneurship. During his tenure as the GM, he has seen many successful businesses, and some occasional ‘bad apples’ as well. When asked what advice he’d give to budding entre-preneurs, he says, “Don’t take blind risks; you’ve all the time in the world, so plan your business well and then take the plunge” ■

T-TBI at 95.55 per cent. “This re-ally isn’t surprising, considering the time and effort put in by our team of experts,” Dr Nair explains. The incubatees have generated around `94 crore in investments and pro-vided employment to around 4,000 people. This is a pretty good number, given that the T-TBI, a joint venture of Technopark Trivandrum and the DST, Government of India, became operational only in 2007.

But even then, most entrepre-neurs today stick to web-based IT start-ups as the funding required for such projects is basically nil. “You just need some desks, computers and an internet connection; students already have free access to these,” says Dr Gopinath of CET. She feels that many of the final-year projects

The idea of being a ‘job-taker’ is slowly taking a

back seat, says Dr Deepa P Gopinath, associate professor at College of

Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

Convincing one’s parents is the hardest part,

especially if you are a first generation

entrepreneur, say most student entrepreneurs

5 things to get an angel interested

(Mr Naru Narayanan, Chairman- The Chennai An-gels, emphasised the following points at TiECON Kerala meet held on 25th and 26th October.)

1. PassionPassion is the first thing an angel looks for. So make sure you’ve plenty.2. Sound planPassion alone doesn’t do good, you need to have a sound, mon-etizable Business plan.3. TeamA proper, manageable team is a pre-requisite to the success of any company. Investors look if you have one.4. DifferentiatorYour plan should be able to set you apart from other competi-tors.5. TimeTime is one thing an inves-tor is sure to be short of. It’d be good if you can come up with a 60-second speech of your plan, highlighting just the essentials.

40

2013 is set to be a landmark year in Kerala’s eco-

nomic history. For, it is in this year that Petronet LNG Ltd will com-mission its 5 million tonne a year LNG terminal at Kochi and natural gas will flow to the State.

GAIL has already commissioned the first phase of the project - a 44-km long pipeline from Puthuyvpeen to the industrial belt around Kochi to supply the gas. Industrial units in the area – Bharat Petroleum Cor-poration Limited’s Kochi refinery; FACT’s Kochi and Udyogaman-dal divisions; Hindustan Organic Chemicals; BSES power generation facility at Pathalam; Travancore Co-chin Chemicals and Nitta Gelatin India Limited – will benefit from the availability of gas.

The good fortune is not to be restricted to the industries in and around Kochi. Pipelines are to be laid from Kochi to Mangalore and Bangalore to evacuate the gas from the terminal and connect Kerala to the national gas grid. The 1,156-km long pipeline being laid at a cost of `3,263-crore includes 107 km Ko-chi-Koottanad, 347 km Koottanad-Mangalore, 462 km Koottanad-Ban-galore lines and 240 km of spur lines.

505 kms of the pipeline passes through Kerala. When complete, the pipelines would pass through seven districts of the State – Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasara-god. Industries in all these districts could get the cheaper and cleaner fuel through spur pipelines from the

main pipeline.The work on the second phase

of the pipeline has been held up due to resistance from the public. Safe-ty and compensation for the land through which the pipeline passes are issues that have been of concern to the general public, especially in the backdrop of the LPG tanker ac-cidents that killed many. GAIL has been able to lay pipes on only four of the 505km length of the pipeline till now.

Kerala risks losing its fair share of gas if the work on the gas pipeline gets delayed further. It is estimated that the demand for natural gas in the State is 13 million metric stan-dard cubic metres per day (mmscmd) today, excluding the requirements for the power projects. Without com-pleting the pipeline, the LNG ter-minal which can supply about 18 mmscmd will not be able to utilise its full capacity, and the lack of scale would affect the price of gas, thereby negating much of the advantages of its availability even in areas that are

The new year will hopefully see gas flowing through Kerala’s veins, energising its life like never before

already connected by the pipeline. Work on the Dhabol-Bangalore

pipeline is fast progressing, and moves are on to extend it to Man-galore. That would seal the fate of the Koottanad-Mangalore pipeline, depriving the State of the benefits of natural gas.

To address the issues, GAIL has increased the compensation to be paid for right to use the land through which the pipeline passes from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of its fair value. The quantum of land that will be used for laying the pipeline has also been reduced. The width of land used for laying the pipeline has been reduced to 10 metres from 20 metres which is the standard prac-tice. The present owners will retain the ownership of the land but there will be some restrictions on its use – they would not be able under-take construction activities on the 10 metres stretch. The land can be used for cultivation or sold subject to these conditions. GAIL has already started compensating landowners for the crop-loss suffered on the land to be acquired under the Right of Use (ROU) acquisition for laying the pipeline.

Gas pipelines have been in opera-tion across the world for more than a century now. To ensure safety, carbon steel pipes are being laid in 2 metre deep trenches, and they would have a minimum of 1 metre soil cover. The steel pipes are thick enough to re-sist rupture and are also cathodically protected to ensure that they do not rust. The project will be audited by

Let it flow

Industries in seven districts — Ernakulam,

Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasaragod —could get the cheaper and cleaner fuel through spur

pipelines from the main pipeline

LNG PIPELINE

41

the Oil Industry Safety Directorate under the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and also by the Chief Controller of Explosives and third parties such as the British Safety Council, apart from the internal auditor. Transporting gas through pipelines could make the roads safer, as they could be freed from LPG gas tankers that have caused a couple of serious accidents of late.

When complete, the pipeline would give a boost to the industries in the State. Natural gas could fire our existing power plants – the BSES plant at Brahmapuram and NTPC’s Kayamkulam thermal power plant, which operate much below capacity due to the high cost of fuel. Other power plants that use natural gas as fuel – the one proposed by Petronet next to the LNG terminal and the thermal power plant at Cheemeni – could solve the power problem in the State. LNG will also be a cheap raw material for industries such as FACT. Gas-based appliances such

as boilers, air-conditioners etc could make the businesses in the region more competitive.

The city gas distribution (CGD) project could help reach gas to our homes through pipes, as is being done in many cities in the world to-day with access to this fuel. It would avoid the need to book cylinders and end the frustrating wait for it. That natural gas is lighter than air, and therefore rises in the atmosphere unlike LPG that is heavier, makes it much safer to use. Moreover, natural

gas is cheaper than LPG and would be a big relief to households reeling from LPG price hikes. It is estimated that major hotels in the city would save `40 lakh a year in cooking fuel costs alone, by switching to natural gas.

GAIL had earlier formed a JV with Kerala State Industrial De-velopment Corporation (KSIDC) to bid for the CGD projects in the State. The project has been in limbo as the Petroleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) is yet to call for bids for executing the project in the city. It is time the State government put pressure on the PNGRB to start the much delayed bidding process for the State.

Vehicles could also switch to gas as fuel and help reduce pollution in the cities. The State government would also gain a minimum of `500 crore per year as tax revenue.

It is indeed a win-win situation for the State and its people. Let the flow begin ■

GAIL has increased the compensation to land

owners from 10 per cent to 30 per cent of its fair

value. It has also reduced the width of land to 10 metres from 20 metres

Several major industries, including BPCL Kochi Refinery (in pic) will benefit from the cleaner fuel

42

BAnKing

Feat with frills Ernakulam becomes the first district to have Meaningful Financial Inclusion

The Ultra Small Branch (USB) of the Union Bank of India in Kadamakkudy, a group of is-

lands near Vallarpadam on the out-skirts of Ernakulam, is doing brisk business now. Local resident Ms Di-nomol, the only part-time employee, manages the branch’s no-frills sav-ings accounts with smartcards and a hand-held device. Customers can withdraw money up to `5,000 or

five times a month, whichever comes first. There's no limit on deposits though. “There are people who de-posit `10 daily,” says she. Normal account-holders, however, can only deposit the money; they must travel on a ferry and a bus and reach Er-nakulam South where UBI has an ATM.

The branch, which is five-and-an half months old, has had cash de-posits of `35 lakh. “Because of the

Every adult in Ernakulam has an operational bank

account, be it an ordinary no-frills zero-balance account or a premium

account

Ms Dinomol, the part-time employee, manages the ultra small branch of Union Bank of India at Kadamakkudy

43

response, UBI is planning to open a proper branch in nearby Pizhala; it is now on the lookout for a building to house the branch,” says Ms Dino-mol.

After 100 per cent family plan-ning in the ‘70s and 100 per

cent literacy in 1990, Ernakulam has added yet another achievement to this list, and this time in banking. Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Gov-ernor Dr D Subbarao, on Novem-ber 22, 2012, declared the district as the first in the country to attain total meaningful financial inclusion (MFI), covering all its villages. Ka-damakkudy included.

The MFI status says that the dis-trict has been successful in inculcat-ing a proper banking culture among the people. “Or in layman’s terms, every adult in Ernakulam has an op-erational bank account, be it an or-dinary no-frills zero-balance account or a premium account,” says Mr K R Jayaprakash, lead district manager-Ernakulam. The MFI idea, which was first mooted by Dr Subbarao on his visit to the State in March, 2011, was taken up by the lead bank, the UBI. The idea was a four-fold one: to ensure operational bank accounts for every adult, open micro-credit options, introduce proper cash re-mittance channels and offer micro-insurance through banks. A Steering Committee consisting of represen-tatives from RBI, National Bank for Agricultural and Rural Devel-opment (NABARD), major banks,

government departments and insur-ance companies was soon formed to prepare a detailed plan of action. “Ernakulam being an educated soci-ety, the task wasn’t much of a difficult one,” adds Mr Jayaprakash.

When the results of the drive were compared between March, 2011 and November, 2012 (a period of 1 year and 8 months), the MFI status was evident. The number of operative savings bank (SB) accounts had increased from a mere 24.77 lakhs to 45.49 lakhs, which shows a huge number of people holding mul-tiple accounts. The number of ATMs which stood at 585 has now crossed 1,000. Banks added 126 more branches to the previous number of 724 in the period. “Our branch has around 1,700 SB account holders, and has given credit to the tune of `1 crore,” says Mr N D Jayakumar, Union Bank of India, Chundakuzhy, Vengoor (West). His branch was opened a year back, following RBI Governor’s visit to the village where-in the idea of the MFI first occurred.

Kudumbashree, the State gov-ernment agency for poverty eradi-

cation which has a strong foothold in the district, did most of the leg-work for the project. It carried out the survey which formed the base of the next set of steps undertaken by the committee. “All we had to do was distribute this sorted list to the nearest bank branch,” says Mr Jay-aprakash, who was all praises of Ku-dumbashree’s work.

However, some branch manag-ers have pointed out discrepancies in survey questions which had brought about a wrong initial analysis. Says Mr P N Radhakrishnan, Senior Manager, Central Bank of India, Aluva, “There were anomalies in the survey; some of the people on the list supplied to us already had accounts.” Mr Radhakrishnan’s branch was as-signed three wards in the Aluva panchayath, wherein his branch con-ducted five account opening drives with the help of local body members. He was able to open around a thou-sand new accounts. Catholic Syrian Bank, Kalamassery branch, as part of their two mobilisation drives, was successful in opening 300 new ac-counts with a minimum balance of `200. Ms Maheshwari M N, manag-er of the branch says, “Most people already had accounts, the tough part was mobilising the very few who didn’t.”

To get people to attend these drives, banks sought help from ward members and local governing bod-ies. The creation of the ‘no-frills’ type account, namely Basic Savings Bank Deposit Accounts (BSBDA), helped to garner some interest among low-income groups. These accounts have no minimum balance requirement nor do these accounts incur charges upon non-operation. ATM-cum-debit cards were distributed to the new account holders. Credit cards with a ceiling of `25,000 were also made available.

The lead bank is now in the process of incorporating Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS), which is now in its test-phase. This, if realised, will allow operation of bank accounts with the help of Aadhaar cards ■

The drive resulted in the number of operative SB

accounts increasing from 24.77 lakhs to 45.49 lakhs. The number of ATMs rose

from 585 to 1000, and branches, from 724 to 850

It was a visit by RBI governor Dr D Subbarao to Kadamakkudy that initiated the whole process

44

nri investments

Chasing the rupee NRIs have multiple investment options which they must study carefully

Most people who go abroad, do so to secure their fi-nances. So it is very im-

portant that they invest their hard-earned money prudently to reach their financial goals. Since most of them plan to return home at some point of time, investments in India are sought after – be it bank deposits, equities, gold or real estate. The fast growth of the Indian economy and the high interest rates offered here than elsewhere make the proposition doubly attractive. The depreciation of the Indian rupee has also enabled Non-Residents Indians (NRIs) to get more bang for the buck they bring in to the country.

India offers varied options to investors desirous of putting their money here. From risky ones to risk-free ones and short-term to long-term – instruments which ca-ter to different investment styles are available in the country. Almost all the investment avenues available to residents of the country are available to NRIs, too. But the priorities of the NRI investors and the rules govern-ing them are a bit different from that of the resident population. In addi-tion to universal factors such as risk, return, time horizon, tax treatment etc that have to be considered while making an investment, factors such as repatriability are of prime concern to NRIs. At the same time, the gov-ernment has to protect the economy from the unfettered flow of funds in and out of it and hence it has put in certain controls on NRI investments.

Investment avenuesIt is necessary to have a bank ac-count for NRIs to make investments in the country. The investments have to be made in rupee as fund houses or companies cannot accept invest-ments in foreign currency.

Bank accountsNRIs cannot open a normal bank ac-count in the country. But three types of bank accounts are available to them: Non-Resident Ordinary Ru-pee Account (NRO Account) Non-Resident (External) Rupee Account (NRE Account) and Foreign Cur-rency Non Resident (Bank) Account (FCNR (B) Account) – to meet their needs.

NRO and NRE accounts are rupee-denominated accounts that can be opened as current, savings, recurring or fixed deposit accounts. These accounts can be used to credit incomes such as rent, dividends, etc that accrue in India and also to send remittances or transfer funds from other NRE/FCNR accounts. Banks are free to set the interest rate on such accounts, subject to the condi-tion that the interest rate is not high-

er than that offered on comparable domestic rupee deposits. The current rate on savings accounts is around 4 per cent.

The main difference between these accounts is in the ease with which money can be repatriated from the account. Any repatriation done through an NRO account has to be reported to RBI and the inter-est earned in it is taxable, while NRE accounts enjoy full repatriability and tax-free interest. NRE account-holders can also transfer money to other NRE/FCNR accounts, and remit money outside India. An In-dian resident can be added as a joint holder for an NRO account, but only close ‘resident’ relatives can be a joint holder on a ‘former or survivor’ basis in an NRE account.

Unlike NRO and NRE accounts, FCNR (B) accounts are held in a foreign currency – a freely convert-ible one. They have a term varying from one to five years and are very similar to NRE accounts, in terms of transactions, repatriation of funds and joint accounts. The interest rates on FCNR (B) accounts are stipu-lated by the Department of Banking Operations and Development, Re-serve Bank of India. The present rate is within the ceiling rate of LIBOR (London Interbank Offer Rate)/

The fast growth of the Indian economy and the

high interest rates offered here than elsewhere make

the proposition doubly attractive

45

Chasing the rupee Swap rate, plus 125 basis points for the respective currency / correspond-ing maturities. FCNR accounts carry no currency risk as the accounts are always maintained in the foreign cur-rency and are tax-free.

Fixed income schemesApart from bank fixed deposits, NRIs can invest in a variety of instruments that provide a fixed income.

Treasury bills/ Government dated securities:NRIs can purchase T-bills issued by the Central government with maturi-ties of one month to 364 days. The minimum investment is `25,000. Long-term government dated securi-ties are also available to them. These risk-free instruments can be bought both on a repatriation or non-repa-triation basis. But since investing in them is a cumbersome affair, a better option is to go for mutual funds that invest in them.

Non-Convertible Debentures (NCDs):NRIs can invest in NCDs issued by companies incorporated in India on both repatriation and non-repatri-ation basis. These fixed rate instru-ments which carry moderate risk usu-ally have a three to five-year term. It is important to study the track record of the issuing company and check the rating given to the debenture by rat-ing agencies before investing in them. The interest income which you earn on NCD is liable to tax deduction at source, and any gain on its sale would attract capital gains tax.

Bonds issued by PSUs:NRIs can buy bonds Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs) issue with a maturity of over one year on a repatri-ation basis. These bonds offer a fixed rate of interest and are subject to TDS and capital gains tax.

Mutual fundsMutual funds of many types such as liquid funds, income funds and equity funds are available to NRI investors. Debt mutual funds from very low risk liquid funds that have a very short-

Tax liabilitiesThe tax liabilities of NRIs investing in India are similar to that of resident investors, but tax is deducted at source from NRIs.

Tax Equity Mutual Funds/Shares Debt Funds

Short-term Capital Gains Tax

15% As per tax slab

Long-term Capital Gains Tax

Nil 10% without indexation, 20% with indexation

Dividend Distribu-tion Tax

Nil 25% on liquid funds, 12.5% on other debt funds

term investment horizon of up to 90 days and high liquidity to income funds that invest in securities with maturity over five years are available to investors. They usually provide in-vestors better returns than fixed de-posits with banks. For investors with more risk appetite, equity mutual funds are an ideal choice. The invest-ments in mutual funds can be under any mode – regular or SIP. The re-turns from mutual funds, other than money market funds, can fully be re-patriated by NRIs.

EquitiesNRIs may also invest directly in the stock market through the Portfolio Investment Scheme (PIS). They can buy up to 5 per cent of the paid up capital of company. Participation in IPOs is also allowed, but NRIs can-not do day trading on the stock mar-ket. All the trades have to be com-pulsorily on a delivery basis. Today

many brokers offer online trading fa-cilities which allow NRIs to invest in the stock markets from the comfort of their home. The futures & options segment of the equity market is also open for NRIs on a non-repatriable basis.

Real estateThe real estate sector in the country also offers good opportunities for investment. NRIs may buy immov-able property other than agricultural land/plantation property or a farm house. But only the original money invested in the land can be repatri-ated from the sale proceeds of the property, that too, subject to condi-tions.

KYC norms have to be complied to for most investments in the coun-try today. For NRIs, submission of passport copy is mandatory as per KYC norms. An overseas address is also mandatory for NRI investors ■

Tax Saving Schemes available to NRIs• ELSS(TaxsavingEquity

Mutual Fund schemes) • Principal&Interestpaid

on housing loan • LifeInsuranceandPen-

sion Plans• Healthinsurancepre-

mium payment • Specifieddonationscom-

ing under 80G• Interestpaymenttowards

Educational loan

Steps to start investing in equities directly• OpenanNRE/NROsavings

account • ApplyforPISschemewithan

authorised bank branch. • Onceitisapproved,openaPIS

NRE/NRO account exclusively to settle financial transactions arising from buying and selling of shares

• Openatradingandademataccount(a PAN card is needed for the same)

46

interview/c J george, md, geoJit BnP PAriBAs

Invest in growth Mr C J George,

M a n a g i n g Director of Geojit BNP Paribas, has been observing the investment behav-iour of Keralites, including the non-

residents, for several decades. Most NRKs still invest in land and gold, but it is time they explored the stock markets seriously, he told UPDATE Editor K J Jacob in an interview. Excerpts:

What is your observation on the investment behaviour of non-resi-dent Indians, especially those from Kerala? Like all investors, the first concern of NRKs is the safety of capital. But in the second position, there is a differ-ence in the mindset of the rest of the world and that of NRKs. For oth-ers, it is the return on capital, but for Keralites, it is the pride of being as-sociated with a major project. I know of several projects in which NRKs have invested for the sheer sense of pride. They look for the visibility and respect their investment earns for them. Then come returns.

Where do they invest money in?The first investment choice of NRKs is a house and then land. Then comes gold. From an economic point of view, or from a nationalistic per-spective, investment in land is not a sound one. But it’s a safe investment, and hence we can’t blame them. These days, a lot of Keralites are buy-ing apartments in metros such as Bengaluru, Chennai and Mumbai purely as an investment.

How do you rate their investment behaviour? The share of Keralites among the

NRIs may be big, but only a fraction of them are investors. People in the higher income groups are respon-sible with their money and make careful investments. But that is not the case with those in the middle or lower levels. We have 11 offices in the Gulf, have trading licences in al-most all countries and a good inves-tor base. But the share of Keralites among them is very poor!

What about equities?I think people have not really un-derstood the value of equities as an investment option. As a long-term investment option, equities give the returns no other instrument can. If you take a time period of say three years, yes, there may be other op-tions. But in the long term, no other investment option can match equi-ties.

It’s not just the returns that NRIs must consider. Now that technol-ogy has made stock exchanges re-ally smart, it is very easy for them to invest in equities. Unlike land where you have a lot of legal procedures, or like gold which poses a security risk, shares kept in demat form are the safest and easiest investment option you can go for. Transfer of shares is also quite an easy process now.

Given that they sit abroad, and that most of them are short of time to track the developments, won’t it be

bit risky for them to directly enter the market?My suggestion is that they start with mutual funds. Then there are port-folio management services. Profes-sional fund managers take care of your investment, and you will get a daily report on how your investment performs.

At the same time, I would sug-gest that NRIs should not look for super profits from the equity market.

What is their major concern when they invest in projects in Kerala?The success of the Cochin Interna-tional Airport Limited has excited every Malayali, and hence he is will-ing to put in his money in similar projects. He wants to be a part of a success story back home. So, pro-moters who have a successful back-ground of performance here in Kera-la stand a good chance if they seek to raise money for their future projects from NRKs.

Are there companies in Kerala who can tap the market?There are many successful compa-nies in Kerala but my criticism of them is that they refused to be part of the India growth story of the last two decades. When companies else-where were exploiting the potential for growth, they chose to keep aloof. They preferred to grow only with in-ternal resources instead. My opinion is that they should have gone to the market asking for more money, set up big plants and been part of the larger growth.

I am against people going for an IPO just because you feel like shar-ing wealth. I would say it is not nec-essary. If you have good projects, you find an opportunity to grow, and you need capital, then go for it ■

There are many successful companies in Kerala but

my criticism of them is that they refused to be part of the India growth story of

the last two decades

47

48

PersonAL FinAnce

The money managerOnline personal finance management software provides a 360 degree view of your finances, anywhere, anytime

In olden days financially pru-dent individuals managed their finances by diligently record-

ing each and every transaction they made in a book. Our financial lives have become much more complex since then. We earn more and spend more. A typical individual today has multiple bank accounts, credit cards, loans, share trading accounts, fixed deposits, demat accounts, mutual fund investments, provident fund, pension funds and the like. And she is short of one thing that is required to make sense, or at the least track all these – time.

Gone are the days when one

could manage one’s finances using a paper and a pen. Technology though

has provided a solution – online per-sonal finance management software or money managers – which offer a single window to all your finances, from tracking your income and ex-penses to investment planning, cal-culating and filing taxes, and even bill payments.

Personal finance software such as Microsoft Money have been around for quite some time now. Many banks today allow their customers to link all the accounts they have with them – bank accounts, credit cards, demat account, loans, insurance etc – and access them through a single website. Brokerages also have portfo-

Online personal finance management software

or money managers offer a single window to all your

finances, from tracking your income and expenses to

investment planning, calculating and filing taxes,

and even bill payments

49

The money managerlio management software that tracks the transactions you make, updates prices and gives their market value at any point in time. But a solution that gave a consolidated view of all the accounts held by an individual across different institutions was elu-sive. That is what the online personal finance management software does. It goes a level beyond, and allows the user to consolidate all her financial accounts at one place, irrespective of the institutions – banks, brokerages, loans providers, loyalty programs and even your provident fund –in which the accounts reside. And the beauty of it is that one does not have to manually enter all the transac-tions. The system automatically pulls it from your accounts. For example, Aditya Birla Money’s MyUniverse allows linkages to 3,354 banks, 1,345 loan providers and 3,108 brokerages, and it can pull the data from any of these institutions on your behalf.

For the data to get reflected in your money manager account, you have to first link the accounts you have with it. After logging in to your money manager account, you will have to link each individual ac-count by logging in with the User Id and password for the same. This is a one-time process and thereafter any transaction – whether it is a cash withdrawal at an ATM, your salary credit, or any payment that you make – in any of the linked accounts will automatically get reflected in sys-tem. The software will even gather your previous transactions up to 90 days from those accounts. You do not have to enter the transactions manually or upload the statement to get the transactions reflected in the system. But the system has that op-tion, too, to help you keep track of cash transactions, accounts which do not have an online facility and even physical assets such as gold and real estate.

Another advantage of online per-sonal finance software is that it helps you track your investments. Hun-dreds of crores of rupees lie with our financial institutions without claim-

ants today, as investors or their suc-cessors, often forget at least some of the many investments they make. Demat accounts could serve as a de-pository for all your financial invest-ments, but an online system takes it further. It gives a single view of all the investments and tracks the value of your portfolio on a daily basis. They also give you the facility of entering physical assets such as gold that you hold and update their market value along with that of your shares and mutual fund units. It will also help you analyse the performance of your investments. Advanced versions also advise you on investments decisions.

Online money managers also come with a facility to pay your bills. And it reminds you about paying the bills too, through customised alerts. It can even tell you about your spending habits and suggest ways to reduce your spending. Once you have set up the accounts, planning your fi-nances is a breeze. You get cash flow projections from your salary details. Your scheduled bills give an idea of your expenses. It also helps you come up with a budget based on your in-comes and expenses, and helps you predict your finances and plan to achieve your financial goals. Since all the data related to your income and investments are already available with it, the system can easily calcu-late your taxes. And file it for you.

That is not all. Some money managers give you the facility to store scanned copies of your finan-

cial documents securely. Some even allow you to manage the finances of whole family by sharing select ac-count details with your family mem-bers or your financial advisor.

Aditya Birla Money’s MyUni-verse, ICICIBank’s Money Manager, Invest Plus™ and Perfios are some of the online personal finance software available in the market today. The annual fee for the software varies from player to player and according to the version of the products. Some of the base versions of the product are available for free, on the Internet. Others charge in the order of `500 a year for a subscription. The tax filing service is often charged separately.

The flipside Even though the system has many advantages, there are some concerns too; the major one being security of the money in your accounts. Your ac-count information can be misused by fraudsters if not properly secured. Different products take care of the issue in different ways. Website-based systems have implemented security certificates from VeriSign and TrustGuard, to secure your data. Some other products save your data on your own machine instead of sav-ing it on a remote secure server.

To ensure security of your mon-ey, online personal finance software does not allow transfer of money through them. They do not ask for information such as transaction passwords or the CVV of your cards, even when you are linking the ac-counts. For conducting transactions, the user would be directed to the bill payment solution or internet bank-ing portal or trading account of the respective financial institution and will have to login using her creden-tials.

If you are weary of linking up your accounts online, you also have the option of creating offline ac-counts into which you can manually enter the transactions or upload the statements. But then that defeats the whole purpose of having an online solution ■

One does not have to manually enter all

the transactions. The system automatically

pulls it from your accounts in different institutions – banks,

brokerages, loans providers, loyalty

programmes

50

The health sector in the State is growing fast. A number of hospitals, that too super specialty ones, are coming up in

our town and cities. The number of doctors in the State is also increasing, in line with the increase in the number of medical colleges. Kerala consumes medicines worth `2,500 crore a year, over 5 per cent of the total na-tional medicine consumption.

Discoveries of new diseases, diseases due to increased life span, an ageing population and access to hitherto unavailable methods of treatment are some of the factors thought to be behind the boom in the sector. Doctors and other staff render yeoman service working day and night to keep us in good shape. And they have helped us live considerably longer.

Today our hospitals are full, even with high cost of treatment. The sector is on a roll. It is thought to be a mark of our development and progress.

Or is it?The health sector is the maintenance wing

of our society. Human machines in need of maintenance get repaired there. Ask an in-dustrialist and he would say that more main-tenance means less production. So much so that incentive schemes for the maintenance departments in them follow the reverse logic

of that of other departments, where produc-tion and reward go hand in hand. The less you work, the more you earn. The emphasis is clearly on prevention, and not on cure.

More and more hospitals mean that as a society we are boosting up our maintenance department, at the cost of others. As more and more people enter our hospitals, either as pa-tients or as the personal required to run them, society loses precious productive resources. And that bodes ill for us. In more ways than one.

But our health sector is perpetually on overtime. Not surprising as it is incentivised to do just that.

The more patients the doctor has, the bet-ter off he is. The same applies for hospitals. Complaints that hospitals conduct unwanted procedures aren’t rare. Doctors are often ac-

Health is wealth. Or is it?

Ask an industrialist and he would say that more maintenance

means less production. So much so that incentive

schemes for the maintenance departments in them follow the

reverse logic of that of other departments, where production

and reward go hand in hand

51

cused of prescribing medicines and tests un-der the influence of pharmaceutical compa-nies and laboratories. The case is worse for drug companies, who profit more if we are to consume more medicines. And so they fund research and researchers to rig the game in their favour. For example, setting the choles-terol level considered ideal for a healthy in-dividual a notch lower could shift millions to the high cholesterol category. And boost the sales of statins that are used to treat the con-dition. One is not sure if that is the reason behind the continuous fall in standard lev-els of cholesterol. And quite often the drugs have side effects, which require treatment with more of them. And the profit genera-tion cycle continues.

Unlike in other businesses, the bargain-ing power of the consumers in this sector is very low. People visit hospitals when they are in some sort of trouble. And they do not know enough to verify what they are being told. Trusting the doctors is clearly the best option. But some bad apples exploit the pre-dicament.

In short, the health care system that we have today has a conflict of interest with so-ciety as a whole. It thrives on our illnesses. The more ill we are, the better.

People or businesses can’t be faulted for working for their reward. It is a natural thing for humans to do. Doctors no doubt have a right to a good pay. One cannot ignore the economics of hospitals too. They are all need-ed in our society. But too much of a good thing can often be bad.

The logical way out is to resolve the con-flict of interest inherent in the system. It needs to be tweaked to incentivise preven-tion, rather than cure. That would have a better impact on our society than any block-buster drug we invent. We have to find ways to reward our health care providers without them having to profit on our illnesses. It is time we realised that ‘health is wealth’ ■

It needs to be tweaked to incentivise prevention, rather than cure. That would have a better impact on our society

than any blockbuster drug we invent

52

KerALA stAtistics

Decadal growth rates of population

District 1901-11 1911-21 1921-31 1931-41 1941-51 1951-61 1961-71 1971-81 1981-91 1991-01 2001-11 % growth in 1901-2011

Kasaragod 7 3.82 17.56 13.33 20.08 24.6 33.36 27.78 22.78 12.37 8.18 463.21

Kannur 6.73 2.37 14.52 12.16 21.68 30.24 31.82 24.34 16.63 6.98 4.84 376.84

Wayanad 9.85 2.69 8.26 15.89 59.17 62.6 50.35 33.87 21.32 16.14 4.6 986.57

Kozhikode 7.34 3.55 17.51 11.95 25.14 25.71 29.81 23.25 16.69 9.89 7.31 406.41

Malappuram 9.64 2.17 14.44 11.73 17.67 20.67 33.8 29.43 28.87 17.09 13.39 502.62

Palakkad 7.31 4.18 10.22 8.9 18.45 12.79 23.06 21.3 16.52 9.88 7.39 267.94

Thrissur 12.65 5.72 22.14 16.17 21.53 20.32 26.09 14.6 12.2 8.66 4.58 355.24

Ernakulam 13.85 7.35 24.58 19.27 18.91 21.93 27.49 17.43 11.42 9.35 5.6 407.16

Idukki 108.75 9.23 72.53 30.37 35.69 74.94 31.89 25.99 10.45 7.03 -1.93 2245.33

Kottayam 8.31 19.96 32.38 21.66 20.11 16.04 17.13 10.29 7.71 6.86 1.32 339.37

Alappuzha 14.83 18.53 24.75 13.63 18.58 20.45 19.01 11.62 7.28 5.39 0.61 316.41

Pathanamthitta 14.78 18.56 27.24 20.5 24.78 23.48 15.75 9.44 5.6 3.84 -3.12 332.63

Kollam 14.7 18.61 26.38 22.71 29.63 31.59 25.88 18.27 10.68 7.38 1.72 547.74

Thiruvananthapuram 17.54 17.02 28.58 18.46 30.81 31.38 26.03 18.08 13.5 9.76 2.25 582.52

District wise population growth in Kerala

Comparative decadal population growth in Kerala and India

Year

Kerala IndiaPopulation (in

crores)% Decadal population

growth Population (in crores) % Decadal population growth

1901 0.64 -- 23.84 --1911 0.71 11.75 25.21 5.751921 0.78 9.16 25.13 -0.311931 0.95 21.85 27.90 11.001941 1.10 16.04 31.87 14.221951 1.35 22.82 36.11 13.311961 1.69 24.76 43.92 21.641971 2.13 26.29 54.82 24.801981 2.55 19.24 68.33 24.661991 2.91 14.32 84.64 23.862001 3.18 9.42 102.70 21.34 2011 3.34 4.87 121.02 17.84

53

Decadal growth rates of population

District 1901-11 1911-21 1921-31 1931-41 1941-51 1951-61 1961-71 1971-81 1981-91 1991-01 2001-11 % growth in 1901-2011

Kasaragod 7 3.82 17.56 13.33 20.08 24.6 33.36 27.78 22.78 12.37 8.18 463.21

Kannur 6.73 2.37 14.52 12.16 21.68 30.24 31.82 24.34 16.63 6.98 4.84 376.84

Wayanad 9.85 2.69 8.26 15.89 59.17 62.6 50.35 33.87 21.32 16.14 4.6 986.57

Kozhikode 7.34 3.55 17.51 11.95 25.14 25.71 29.81 23.25 16.69 9.89 7.31 406.41

Malappuram 9.64 2.17 14.44 11.73 17.67 20.67 33.8 29.43 28.87 17.09 13.39 502.62

Palakkad 7.31 4.18 10.22 8.9 18.45 12.79 23.06 21.3 16.52 9.88 7.39 267.94

Thrissur 12.65 5.72 22.14 16.17 21.53 20.32 26.09 14.6 12.2 8.66 4.58 355.24

Ernakulam 13.85 7.35 24.58 19.27 18.91 21.93 27.49 17.43 11.42 9.35 5.6 407.16

Idukki 108.75 9.23 72.53 30.37 35.69 74.94 31.89 25.99 10.45 7.03 -1.93 2245.33

Kottayam 8.31 19.96 32.38 21.66 20.11 16.04 17.13 10.29 7.71 6.86 1.32 339.37

Alappuzha 14.83 18.53 24.75 13.63 18.58 20.45 19.01 11.62 7.28 5.39 0.61 316.41

Pathanamthitta 14.78 18.56 27.24 20.5 24.78 23.48 15.75 9.44 5.6 3.84 -3.12 332.63

Kollam 14.7 18.61 26.38 22.71 29.63 31.59 25.88 18.27 10.68 7.38 1.72 547.74

Thiruvananthapuram 17.54 17.02 28.58 18.46 30.81 31.38 26.03 18.08 13.5 9.76 2.25 582.52

Eventhough Kerala’s population growth rate for 2001-11 is the lowest in the country, the percent-age growth in population of the State over 1901-2011 is still higher than that of the country. Kerala’s population grew 422 per cent in 1901-2011, which is higher than the growth rate of 408 per cent recorded by the country as a whole.

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56