Monthly Archives: August 2015

Bevy of vintage beauties at their seductive best

Around 50 vintage cars, from 1933-model Austin of England to 1984-model ‘original’ diminutive Maruti 800 compete for attention at DH Ground where an exhibition of vintage cars began on Saturday.

It is on till Sunday evening when more cars are expected. Around 30 vintage two-wheelers too are arrayed nearby. The initiative comes from Cochin Vintage Club and Ernakulam DTPC.

Businessman P. Gopakumar who owns five vintage cars, is currently engaged in restoring a 1933-model Austin, which was a rusting piece when he bought it from Bangalore. “It has already taken me six months and the restoration process is on at my house,” he said.

When asked about the owners of the car during the past decades, he said that the Motor Vehicles Department issues a new RC book, after destroying the old one – “a document which is as precious as the car.” He also laments that the department insists on regular tax, as compared to its Karnataka counterpart which gives tax holiday to vintage cars if one-time tax is remitted.

Vintage cars at DH Ground where an exhibition of the cars began on Saturday.– Photos: Thulasi Kakka
Vintage cars at DH Ground where an exhibition of the cars began on Saturday.– Photos: Thulasi Kakka

It took two years for him and his son Jayadev who is as passionate about old cars, to restore a Pathanamthitta-registered 1955-model Dodge Kingsway to its original sheen. He also owns a 1954 Italian Fiat Millicento, 1961 Ambassador and 1957 Landmaster with semaphore – a signal system in vogue before the advent of turn-indicator lights, wherein a light protrudes from the B-pillar of car in the direction it intends to turn.

Pointing to a 1956 Italian Millicento, Mr Jayadev spoke of how the classic car is even now used by many as a city car since it is fast enough and the engine does not overheat. “It was driven to Kochi from Coimbatore. Many of us who own vintage cars drive them to office. And we help each other in procuring spare parts too.”

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A couple of Baby Hindustan cars (Indian models of Morris Minor) that date back to 1950s, the huge Chevrolet Impalas and Ford Fairlanes and a Triumph too are on display.

Many of us who own vintage cars drive them to office. And we help each other in procuring spare parts too.

source : http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu /  Home> National> Kerala / by John L. Paul / August 23rd, 2015

Women Power Kerala’s Growing Biz Ventures

Women entrepreneurs attending an event
Women entrepreneurs attending an event

Kochi :

When Sheeba S began selling rice and wheat flour and later cashew nuts and powdered pepper in small packets from a makeshift room attached to her small house in Kollam—an old seaport and city on the Laccadive Sea coast in Kerala—her immediate objective was to make both ends meet and if lucky to get one or two ‘mom and pop’ stores to sell the products. Twelve years into her journey as an entrepreneur, Sheeba’s Amba Foods is now taking the business to the next level—bar coding the products to give them wider acceptability especially in supermarkets, and building a new unit that will have much  higher capacity.

Bindu Pallickal began selling ‘kachiya enna’, the traditional homemade conditioner, back in 2007. Now, she sells about 21 products including home-made jam, ‘thali podi’ and Brahmi oil under her unit Athira Herbal.

Sheeba and Bindu are not isolated cases. There are several hundreds of women in Kerala who are looking to expand their tiny business ventures—which are into selling anything from curry powders to pickles and jams, garments to home-made soaps, ready-to-eat items and other baking products—to running home stays, cafes, retail shops and IT firms across the state.

It is estimated that there are at least 70,000 enterprises run by women  under the Kudumbashree, an women-empowering project run by the Kerala government. The Economic Review 2014 says, 25 per cent (58,562) of the 2,34,251 working small scale industry and micro small and medium entreprises (SSI/MSME) units in the state are run by women.

Kerala State Industrial  Development Corporation (KSIDC), in fact, has plans to handhold the high-potential women-run ventures to scale up their business to a much bigger scale. “Our plan is to shortlist 150-200 most promising ventures from across the state. We will narrow down the list to may be 25-50 for mentoring and funding to help them scale up their operations,” said B Jyothi Kumar, executive director of KSIDC. The ‘We Summit’ to be held in Kochi on November 19, the UN Women’s Entrepreneurship Day, will be a step in this direction, said KSID officials. Over 2,000 women entrepreneurs are expected to attend the event.

source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / The New Indian Express / Home> The Sunday Standard / by  Rajesh Abraham / August 16th, 2015

KUFOS to promote vannamei shrimp farming

Minister for Fisheries K. Babu has said that the Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) will popularise vannamei shrimp farming across the State.

In his inaugural address at the two-day training and aqua-expo on the prospects of Litopenaeus Vannamei, an exotic white shrimp, here on Thursday, Mr. Babu urged the shrimp farmers to speed up the process of ushering in a vannamei revolution in the State.

Compared to the other States in the country, we are very late to earn profits out of vannamei culture, the Minister said.

He said that KUFOS would organise training programme in each districts to spread vannamei shrimp farming.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Special Correspondent / Kochi – August 21st, 2015

ASI seeks Adarsh heritage tag for old Dutch Palace

Kochi  :

The nearly five-century old Mattancherry Palace, a major tourist destination, may soon be raised to the status of Taj Mahal and Konark Sun Temple if a proposal by the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI), Kerala circle, is accepted.

ASI, Kerala circle, Thrissur, has approached the New Delhi office requesting them to grant the coveted ‘Adarsh’ monument tag under the Adarsh Smarak Yojana to Mattancherry Palace aka Dutch Palace.

“We have submitted a proposal to the head office to award the ‘Adarsh’ monument tag to Mattancherry Palace. This will help us to get financial support from the Central government for maintaining and enhancing the facilities in the palace. This is the only monument in Kerala for which we have approached the head office for the tag,” said an ASI official.

The central government has accorded the tag to 25 monuments, including the Red Fort and Qutab Minar, out of 3,680 protected monuments of ASI. In Kerala, there are 26 protected monuments, including Mattancherry Palace and St Francis Church and the former is the top crowd puller under the ASI .

“We wrote to the head office considering the flow of tourists, including foreigners, to the palace. If we get the tag, we can develop many facilities for visitors such as Wi-Fi connectivity in the palace. This will help to raise the profile of the monument,” the ASI official said.

Facilities such as washrooms, drinking water, signboard, cafeteria, audio-visual centres, interpretation centres and encroachment-free areas will be provided by the ASI under the tag.

Nearly a thousand people visit the palace every day to see the mural paintings and historical artefacts exhibited there. Currently, there are no facilities available for visitors coming to the palace as the monument is situated on the land owned by Cochin Devaswom Board (CDB). The Pazhayannur Bhagavathy Temple is also situated near the Palace.

The dispute between the CDB and ASI over setting up a fence in between the palace and temple stopped the archaeology department from setting up facilities for visitors.

As per archaeology rules, new construction is prohibited in 100m around the heritage structure. Later, both parties discussed the issue and explored possibilities of setting up a fence in between the palace and temple without a construction.

“We have sent our engineer to the monument to look into the prospect of setting up a fence. We hope to sort out the issue in a month, but there is no response from CDB,” an official said.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Kochi / by T C Sreemol, TNN / August 20th, 2015

The doctor’s tales

Dr. Tiny Nair Photo: Liza George / The Hindu
Dr. Tiny Nair Photo: Liza George / The Hindu

Tiny Nair’s Happy At Heart is a guide to being happy. His anecdotes are based on his experience with his patients 

“I think doctors make good story tellers,” says Tiny Nair, a cardiologist at PRS Hospital. And he should know. His book, Happy At Heart, contains a wealth of interesting anecdotes. And they are not scientists-made-this-discovery kind of tales, they are the stories of people, of doctors, of patients, and of the importance of listening and being present. While some make you smile as the doctor infuses doses of humour in his narration, others touch a chord in your heart. How you interpret each story, he says, is entirely up to you as each tale has an underlying message. Most of the anecdotes are brief and the author says one may read from any page and anywhere in the prologue. “However, if you are reading the book from the start, don’t forget to read the end as it more or less binds the rest of the stories together,” says Tiny.

Growing up as a single child, books were Tiny’s friends. Instead of souvenirs of his various trips abroad in connection with his profession, it is books that he brings home as mementos of his journeys. And although he is a bibliophile and has an impressive library at his residence at Poojappura, turning writer was never on his rolls. “I did write scientific pieces that were turned into books, but I never thought of trying my hand at fiction.”

It was an article of his that got published in The Hindu, which led him on a literary path.

“It was a scribble on clothing labels. It was on how labels had graduated from the back of the collar to the breast pocket,” says Tiny, an admirer of authors Khaled Hosseini and Sunil Ganguly. The response to the published article was an added bonus.

“My patients called to say that they enjoyed the light read. That was when the idea of writing something non-medical and light-hearted came to me. I wanted to write something that would make readers happy, a book that will be a self-help guide on how to be happy. Malayalis are a serious lot. They rarely take things lightly; I wanted them to see the bright side of life through my book,” says Tiny, who calls himself, funny and a person who is slow to anger.

Fond of jotting down things that strike him, Tiny, says the material for the book was always there. “I find a tale in every little thing or incident, be it on housewives, marriage halls, horoscopes…I just needed to frame them into proper sentences.”

The stories in the book, be it the story of the magic beads, or that about the jeweller and his ring, are based on his personal experiences and that of his patients.

“Doctors and their patients share a unique relationship. Not only are doctors privy to their patients’ ailments but also their lives. My patients for instance, talk about their finances, domestic abuse, fall-outs with children… with me.” Names have however been changed to protect the patient’s privacy and “no character is shown in bad light in the book”.

Tiny who has written several ‘medical poems’, five of which have been published by The Hindu, plans to find a publisher for his poetry collection and also his kitty of essays on all myriad topics, right from air fresheners to obstructive sleep apnea. “There is no market for poetry or essays these days. My work tries to show that essays need not be boring. As for my ‘medical poems’, my poems deal with topics such as Alzheimer’s, cancer, doctors et al in a light hearted manner,” says the doctor as he signs off.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Society / by Liza George / Thiruvananthapuram – August 19th, 2015

40 years of Kavalam play to be celebrated

Thiruvananthapuram  :

‘Avanavan kadamba’, the play that heralded a new dawn in Malayalam theatre, will celebrate its 40th anniversary at Manaveeyam Veedhi here Sunday.

The play will be staged under the event titled ‘Vaaladikavil Ulsavam’ and will have a re-enactment of ‘Iratta Kannan Pakki’ and ‘Deshathin Udayon’, the key characters of the legendary play by Kavalam Narayana Panicker.

The day-long festival is being organized at Manaveeyam Veedi by Kavalam Samskrithi, Manaveeyam Theruvora Koottam, tourism department and the public relations department. ”

Over 40 artists, including Namboothiri, Francis Kodankandath and those from Vismaya Max, will paint the core scenes of the play on the walls of Manaveeyam Veedhi,” said Nedumudi Venu, chairman of Kavalam Samskrithi said.

The play by Malayalam director G Aravindan was scripted by Kavalam Narayana Panicker and performed by eminent actors like Nedumudi Venu and Bharat Gopi. ”

The play which subjects with the folk story passes through six ‘Kadambas’.

The actors will also sing folk songs during the play,” Venu said.

Later, Kavalam and Venu will plant saplings on the premises in memory of G Aravindan and Bharat Gopi.

There will also be a painting and sculpture exhibition by students of the National Institute of Speech & Hearing. Nedumudi Venu, Kavalam Sreekumar and Kavalam Sajeev will stage a music fete on the works of Kavalam.

source: http://www.timesofindia.indiatimes.com / The Times of India / News Home> City> Thirvananthapuram / TNN / August 19th, 2015

Treasured heirloom

ManjushaKERALA17aug2015

Manjusha Mohan has given her family textile business a new spin with her brand of silk shirts

Two years into the family business at Kannur, Manjusha Mohan updated her LinkedIn profile, readied her apartment in Bengaluru; all set to relocate. Then she changed her mind, and stuck on. The engineer who had worked in Bengaluru and the U.S. returned to Kannur to help her father with his textile business, G. Sons and Company. The company, besides having textile stores in Kannur and West Asia, is known for its Dennis Morton brand of shirts, especially silk shirts which retail from stores across the State, Tamil Nadu and Dubai.

Manjusha quit a well-paying, cushy job which, despite the stress, she enjoyed. Sceptical about returning after living nine years outside Kerala, she came home to a job that demanded a different set of skills. “I had no idea…I couldn’t tell fabric from fabric, cotton from synthetics. I didn’t know the ABC of weaving, but I learnt.” The learning curve was steep but, with her father’s help, she learnt.

And she has taught herself well. Today besides retailing from leading textile stores in the State, Dennis Morton has an online store and is launching a new line of shirts targeted at the younger demographic. And she is the operations head of, what is possibly Kerala’s only ‘wedding mall’, G. Mall in Kannur. She is also the chairman of the women’s wing of the North Malabar Chamber of Commerce, at 34 one of the youngest.

Stepping into her father’s shoes was not easy, especially in a business where gender roles are set in stone. Most of the workers in the factory are men and taking orders from a woman didn’t sit well with them unlike the IT industry from which she came. Over time they got used to it.

Her father O. Mohanan set up the business, G’Sons Group. From a single textile store, Kalavastralaya, the business grew to include G’Sons Readymades, Anaswara Silks and Saris, Kalpaka Silks (Baharain), G’Sons Gents Gallery and G’Sons Apparels and then came Dennis Morton, which is a part of the latter company.

“You may not have thought it was an Indian brand?” she asks. She was in Kochi on business. Dennis Morton is just a name, in case you are wondering. It was catchy name which Mohanan liked and named his line of ready to wear shirts thus. Apart from regular shirts, the company came out with an innovative product – the silk shirt – when ready-to-wear silk shirts were not widely available.

“At the time there was no market for silk shirts but Dennis Morton created a niche for itself. It told men they could also wear silk,” Manjusha says. Initially it was ‘wedding shirts’ – the creams and the whites – to which were later added colours. When mundus (dhotis) were innovated, with coloured borders, the brand came out with the matching mundu-silk shirt combinations. “This led to the trend of couples being colour co-ordinated in silk.”

Today she sources fabric, approves fabric and is on the lookout for new things. “I was on the verge of quitting every day of the first two years.” But she refused to quit. Just when she thought she had settled in the business, came Gmall. The learning process started all over, only this time it was about cement mixing and plastering. She also turned interior designer with the Mall, when she ended up designing the interiors of its food court.

The oldest of two daughters, Manjusha is both son and daughter to him. “My father brought us up with the belief that there was nothing we couldn’t achieve.” She had her education in Kannur and did her engineering from LBS College of Engineering, she says with pride that she was the first from her class to be placed and that too at Infosys.

Her plans include branding Dennis Morton silk shirts as a standalone brand. Silk shirts, traditionally associated with older men, because of the comfort fit is a put off for youngsters.

With this range Manjusha steps out her comfort zone. “This is not formal wear, it’s party wear for youngsters and will be very different from the kind associated with us.” She has roped in designer Sameera Saneesh as designer who has designed shirts for Dennis Morton before and actor Rahman is the brand ambassador.

Work is hectic and she has little time to relax, she says. “My six-year-old daughter wants me to read her a story every night. And she complains if I don’t make time. But it is good…,” she signs off.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus> Fashion / by Shilpa Nair Anand / Kochi – August 13th, 2015

200 years on, Nangeli’s sacrifice only a fading memory

The area near Manorama Kavala, Cherthala, was once known as Mulachiparambu and was the site where Nangeli, in 1803, cut off her breasts to protests against the breast tax imposed on the lower caste women of Travancore. Photo: H. Vibhu
The area near Manorama Kavala, Cherthala, was once known as Mulachiparambu and was the site where Nangeli, in 1803, cut off her breasts to protests against the breast tax imposed on the lower caste women of Travancore. Photo: H. Vibhu

Nangeli gained her place in history as the woman who cut off her breasts to protest against an inhuman tax imposed in erstwhile Travancore

Many books and histories have been written about caste oppression in Kerala and the men and women who fought the injustice. Yet the story of one woman’s protest has almost faded away from the collective memory of the State.

Nangeli, who lived in Cherthala in Alappuzha over 200 years ago, gained her place in history as the woman who cut off her breasts to protest against the inhumanmulakkaram (breast tax) that was imposed in the erstwhile kingdom of Travancore.

CASTE OPPRESSION

Kings of the time ensured the subjugation of the lower castes by imposing heavy taxes on them. Their wealth was built on some of the worst taxes imposed anywhere in the world. Besides the tax on land and crops, peasants had to pay taxes for the right to wear jewellery, the right of men to grow a moustache, and even the right of women to cover their breasts.

The heavy taxes ensured that the lower castes were kept eternally in debt, while members of the upper castes flourished.

“Nangeli was a poor Ezhava woman from Cherthala. Her family could not afford to pay the taxes and was in debt to the rulers,” says D. Sugathan, advocate and former MLA from Alappuzha.

“The tax collector, then called the parvathiyar, came to her house one day and demanded that she pay the tax,” he says. The legend goes that Nangeli cut off her breasts and presented them to theparvathiyar on a plantain leaf. The tax collector fled in fear, while Nangeli bled to death at her doorstep.

Her husband Chirukandan came home to find his wife lying dead and mutilated. He is said to have jumped into her funeral pyre out of grief.

“The incident happened in 1803. It created a lot of anger and the practice of collecting breast tax was put to an end here by 1812,” says Mr. Sugathan, who mentions Nangeli’s story in his book ‘Oru Desathinte Katha, Kayarinteyum’.

While Nangeli’s sacrifice put an end to one form of caste oppression, the land where she lived came to be known as mulachiparambu – the plot where the woman of breasts lived.

“Nangeli’s story is unique also for the fact that it is the first recorded instance of a man committing sati,” says Ajay S. Sekher, a teacher of English at the Tirur centre of Sree Sankaracharya University of Sanskrit. A blog post written by Mr. Sekher, who researches issues of caste and gender, has introduced many to the story of Nangeli and mulachiparambu.

An earlier generation of political leaders grew up hearing about Nangeli’s protest and its significance in Kerala’s history. Leaders C. Kesavan and K.R. Gowri Amma have mentioned her in their autobiographies.

‘UNIQUE RESISTANCE’

“Nangeli’s story is an articulation of a unique resistance and struggle against a Brahmanic patriarchy. The tradition of such resistance by leaders such as Gowri Amma could perhaps be traced all the way back to Nangeli,” says Mr. Sekher.

The legend of Nangeli’s mutilation of her own body in protest against oppression has been handed down through generations.

Today, however, her tale is preserved only in the memories of a few old-timers and researchers. There are no memorials to her name, no books extolling her courage.

The name mulachiparambu too has been covered up, perhaps due to embarrassment. The plot, divided up between several owners, is situated near the SNDP office at Manorama Junction in Cherthala.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> Cities> Kochi / by Nidhi Surendranath / Kochi – October 21st, 2013

Standing tall at his desk

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Writers work best in specific surroundings. Of course, they can write or pound the keyboard inside a noisy, smoky chat room or daydream over a cup of steaming tea in a corner of a restaurant. But the space around them, as their fingers pause for a minute, have so often shaped their themes, inspired them, kept them organised and fostered their creativity.

This is true of E.P. Sreekumar, award-winning short story writer and novelist, too. The space in his Tripunithura house is organised as a place for writing. One side of the wall is lined with books, a cupboard on the other side stores stationery, papers, resource materials and various other things that he may need while writing. A window opens to a blank wall outside. A standing desk, a conventional desk and chair with a laptop complete the ‘sanctuary.’

Sreekumar writes standing using a specially designed desk. In fact, for writers, the standing desk has a long lineage.

History has it that great writers and thinkers, from Dickens to Churchill and Hemingway preferred the standing desk. “This is part of a change in my life, in my writing, part of the evolution. When I started out it was the regular writing table and a comfortable chair. I could have if I wrote the soft kind of stories, say like love, man-woman relationships, which I never did. My subjects have always been so serious that I could never sit down and write. The thoughts created a storm inside me, a pain that really disturbed. In such a situation how can one sit or lie down on an easy chair with a bar across the arms of the chair and write?,” asks Sreekumar who won the Kerala Sahitya Akademi Award in 2010 for his searing short story collection Parasya Shareeram.

There was a time when Sreekumar had to divide his time between writing and his job as general manager, People’s Urban Cooperative Bank. Now that he has retired Sreekumar finds more time for his writing.

“Yes, but you still need to get that surging flow of thoughts to write. I simply cannot sit down after breakfast and decide to start writing. And when the ideas gush I begin writing till it ends. And when that happens I may walk around, gesticulate; it is a sort of mad experience. Those are moments of agitation within me, which affects my body too, its movements. Standing beside my desk and putting those thoughts on paper is the only thing that works for me.”

Unlike many writers Sreekumar does not fix a particular time nor does he really need silence when he is working. “This house was built 25 years back. I had begun writing even before that. So, the need of a particular space never really bothered me nor does time. But if you ask me my favourite time for work it is between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m., which may sound strange.”

When Sreekumar writes he has the shruthi on. This musical pitch, the note from which all others are derived, envelops him and allows him to soar on the wings of imagination.

“Music is part of life. I have played the tampura for concerts and I know how the shruthi can transport you into another world. I don’t turn on music because my attention may get diverted by the tune, the raga or the lyrics. The shruthi then harmonises with my writing. Again this was part of the change that happened down the years. I use a CD that I put into my laptop. And then the microtone, the process of writing and I become one.”

Starting out by writing plays and the occasional short story while at school in Cherai, Sreekumar shot into limelight through his radio plays. Incidentally, he made a comeback to this genre after many years with his play Raksha, which was broadcast as part of the recently concluded All India Radio drama festival.

He switched to short stories, a field where he has won wide acclaim. Sreekumar’s stories have been translated into Hindi, English, Tamil, Kannada and Telugu, his stories have been prescribed for study at Gandhigram University, Madurai, Calicut University and for CBSE students. “Prof. Selvamani of the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, was awarded a Doctorate for his research mainly based on my stories, while a new collection of stories in Hindi is ready for publication soon.”

His two novels Maaramudra and Mamsaporu, have been much-discussed for the freshness of themes, idioms and techniques in style. His latest anthology of stories Currency bagged the Abu Dhabi Shakti Award and Sreekumar is working on a couple of new projects.

“I’m working on a novel that will have Somalia as its backdrop and I have completed two new stories. An article on the noted novelist Kovilan, who was like an elder brother to me, and a couple of articles on music are also being done.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by K. Pradeep / Kochi – August 14th, 2015

Dinesh Beedi diversification on course

DineshBeediKERALA14aug2015

Society planning to expandits non-beedi operations

Beedi making may be in its extinction stage in this part of the country, but a diversification initiative launched by Kerala Dinesh Beedi (KDB), once a large beedi maker in the cooperative sector, 17 years ago has stood it in good stead.

Having survived the vicissitudes of diversification into unfamiliar sectors, the KDB Workers’ Central Cooperative Society, comprising 18 primary societies spread over Kannur and Kasaragod districts and parts of Kozhikode district, is now on course and planning to further expand its non-beedi operations.

With the decline in the once thriving  beedi production, the society’s turnover came down from Rs.100 crore to Rs.32 crore in 2007. The society has picked up the pieces since then.

“Our annual turnover today is Rs.85 crore, which is high for an MSME [micro, small, and medium enterprise] company,” society chairman C. Rajan told The Hindu .

Society’s target

The society’s target is to raise it to Rs.100 crore this year. The primary societies are being prompted to be part of the diversification initiative.

The umbrella-making unit was started with a production capacity of 20,000 umbrellas a year. The unit in last fiscal produced over one lakh umbrellas, the buyers being institutions. Started with 20 workers, it now employs 100 workers. The number of workers in its food processing unit has risen from 30 to over 100. Nearly 50 more workers will be required soon with the expansion.

The IT operations of the society, now confined to software solution, will soon enter into core-banking solutions to run ATMs of cooperative banks.

“Expansion of the apparels unit is in the pipeline as 90 per cent of our products are exported,” society secretary K. Prabhakaran said.

Shortage of operator-level workers in the apparel sector is the major handicap being faced by the unit, Mr.Prabhakaran said.

A major factor that helped the KDB society in its diversification initiative is its assets including the land and buildings it owned in the region.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Kerala /by Mohamed Nazeer / Kannur – August 14th, 2015