Category: Kerala Korner

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy will now finalise his cabinet rejig with the Congress high command in Delhi, a senior party leader said Tuesday. Chandy will reach Delhi Wednesday and will finalise the additions and deletions by speaking with party president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi and senior leader A.K. Antony. Another interesting development…

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Thursday said the proposed Rs.2,000 crore KGS Aranmula international airport project at Pathanamthitta will become a reality if it has the requisite environment clearance and is legally tenable. Chandy was speaking in the state assembly after CPI-M legislator and politburo member M.A. Baby wanted to know what the government thinks…

What if 418 bars in Kerala have not opened this fiscal — liquor sales in the remaining 313 bars in the state have risen 95 per cent compared to the same period of last year. The figures are according to a release issued by the state excise department Wednesday at a function organised to unveil…

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Wednesday said the state’s own airline – Air Kerala – will become a reality as soon as the central government gives its nod for the project. “I have already written to the union civil aviation minister… Raising money for the project is not a problem as there are many Kerala…

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Wednesday said the state government will put up a request in the next director board meeting to re-name the Cochin International Airport Limited (CIAL) after K. Karunakaran. “There have been numerous requests to change the present name of Cochin airport after K. Karunakaran (former Kerala chief minister), who was the…

Sanu George reports from Thiruvalla on the success of a Pravasi Malayali  This is no rags to riches story, but one of hard work, dedication and commitment that propelled 66-year-old M.T. Mathews from a small, pretty village near here to the board of a leading Bahraini conglomerate and earned him the rare citizenship of the Gulf…

Seventy-four nurses from Kerala working at the Baghdad Medical City are in two minds – whether or not to return to India – following the violence in the Middle East nation, a nurse said Monday. The nurse said over phone from Baghdad that at the moment things were normal where the nurses were located, and the…

The grit and determination of the 46 nurses helped in their evacuation from Iraq, said Chief Minister Oommen Chandy as he called for providing higher education and jobs in the state so that there is no need to go abroad. “I am a strong believer in god and in prayers. I owe this rescue to…

Already coping with reports of Iraqi rebels stepping up their operations, the 46 nurses from Kerala holed up in Tikrit were further unnerved when bombs went off in the hospital compound where they are staying, one of them said Saturday. Speaking over phone from Tikrit, a Kerala nurse who did not wish to be identified…

Kerala Newsletter by Sanu George in Asian Lie looks into the latest crisis CPI-M is facing in Kerala It’s been more than a month since the Lok Sabha election results have been out, but one verdict that has ripped the CPI-M in the state has been the shock defeat of one of its tallest leaders…

Technopark, the first and the largest IT park in the country, has charted out an ambitious target of creating 45,000 new jobs during 2014-16, as part of its efforts to emerge as India’s IT powerhouse.   With these additions, the total number of people it would employ will reach 90,000. Technopark, which is poised to…

A 47-day ban on trawling along Kerala coast that begins at the stroke of midnight Saturday due to the spawning season is likely to drive up fish prices. “The price of mahaseer fish is expected to cross Rs.1,000 a kilogram in the coming days, while the smaller ones like sardines, tuna and mackerel also are…

Merit will be the only criterion when the Congress selects its new office bearers in Kerala, state Congress chief V.M. Sudheeran said here Wednesday. “Revamp is being done to make the party ready to face local bodies election that would held next year. It has been decided that only merit of a person would be…

Kerala government chief whip P.C. George raised the issue of free fall of rubber prices through a calling attention motion in the state assembly Wednesday to demand immediate intervention of the government. “Years back, anyone in Kerala who owned four acres of rubber could easily afford a Mercedes and today people who own the same…

 Rival factions of the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP), which split from the party in 1999, merged here Tuesday in the presence of a huge gathering of their supporters. The merger also raised the ruling United Democratic Front’s strength in the assembly to 75. It was in 1999 that the RSP split, when a section, including…

The Kerala police have registered a case against the editorial team of a college magazine which placed Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a list of the world’s most cruel people, a police official said Tuesday.   A case was registered against those responsible for editing the magazine at the Government Polytechnic Kunnamkulam for placing Modi’s…

Miscreants pelted stones on Kollam Lok Sabha member N.K. Premachandran’s house here and pasted posters threatening him. The parliamentarian, who is in New Delhi, said over phone that the newspaper delivery boy first saw the damage to his house and the posters early Saturday. “Since I am in Delhi and my wife is in the…

The monsoon is expected to arrive in Kerala by June 5 though its onset could be four days before or after the set date, the Met Office said Monday. The onset of southwest monsoon over Kerala signals the arrival of monsoon in the country and represents the beginning of the rainy season over the Indian…

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy Wednesday said his government will wait and see what the proposed Prime Minister’s Office in every state is going to do. “I read in the media about this proposal by the new central government that there will be a PMO in every state. We have a policy not to come…

Whether the Congress wins or loses, one thing the party leaders in Kerala do not miss out on after the elections is washing dirty linen in public. One of the early squabbles to break out within the party’s state unit is over the loss of four seats the Congress held, namely Thrissur, Chalakudy, Idukki and…