Kochi, also known by its former name Cochin, is a major port city along the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of Kerala. The city is also commonly referred to as Ernakulam. As of 2011, the Kochi Municipal Corporation had a population of 677,381 over an area of 94.88 km2, and the larger Kochi urban agglomeration had over 2.1 million inhabitants within an area of 440 km2, making it the largest and the most populous metropolitan area in Kerala. Kochi city is also part of the Greater Cochin development region and is classified as a Tier-II city by the Government of India. The civic body that governs the city is the Kochi Municipal Corporation, which was constituted in the year 1967, and the statutory bodies that oversee its development are the Greater Cochin Development Authority (GCDA) and the Goshree Islands Development Authority (GIDA).
INS Kadamba or Naval Base Karwar or Project Seabird is an Indian Navy base located near Karwar in Karnataka. The first phase of construction of the base, code-named Project Seabird, was completed in 2005 and the base was commissioned on 31 May 2005. Development of Phase II commenced in 2011. INS Kadamba is currently the third largest Indian naval base, and is expected to become the largest naval base in the eastern hemisphere after completion of expansion Phase IIB. The construction of Naval Base covers an area of 11,169 acres in Phase I.
Willingdon Island is the largest artificial island in India, which forms part of the city of Kochi, in the state of Kerala. Much of the present Willingdon Island was claimed from the Vembanadu Lake, filling in dredged soil around a previously existing, but tiny, natural island. Willingdon Island is significant as the home for the Port of Kochi as well as the Kochi Naval Base, the Southern Naval Command of the Indian Navy, Plant Quarantine station, Custom House Cochin and Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, a constituent unit of Indian Council of Agricultural Research.
INS Venduruthy is an Indian Navy base located on Willingdon Island in Kochi, Kerala. It serves as the Headquarters of the Southern Naval Command. It is the largest training establishment of the Indian Navy. INS Garuda is a naval air station located adjacent to INS Venduruthy. Commodore Deepak Kumar is the Commanding officer of this base. It provides administrative facilities to all training establishments inside the Southern naval command. Pincode of INS Vendurathy is 682004.
The Indian Naval Academy is the defence service training establishment for officer cadre of the Indian Naval Service and the Indian Coast Guard, located in Ezhimala, Kannur district, Kerala. Situated between Ezhimala hill and the Kavvayi backwaters, INA has a 7 kilometre beach front on the Laccadive Sea. It conducts basic training for all officers inducted into the Indian Navy and Indian Coast Guard. It is Asia's largest, and the world's third-largest, naval academy.
INS Garuda, is an Indian naval air station located in Kochi, in the state of Kerala. Commissioned on 11 May 1953, it is the oldest operating air station of the Indian Navy.
Jose Chacko Periappuram is an Indian cardiac surgeon and medical writer who performed the first successful heart transplant in the state of Kerala, India, as well as the first successful heart retransplant in the country. His other achievements include the first beating heart, awake bypass and total arterial revascularization surgeries in the state. Periappuram is a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Surgeons of London. He is the founder and chairman of "Heart Care Foundation", a charitable trust that financially assists poor heart patients. The Government of India awarded him the Padma Shri, the fourth highest civilian award, in 2011.
The Southern Naval Command is one of the three, command-level formations of the Indian Navy. Southern Naval Command is the largest naval command in India and it has its headquarters in Kochi, Kerala at INS Venduruthy. It is the Training Command of the Indian Navy.
Government Medical College, Ernakulam is one of the medical colleges in the state of Kerala situated at Kalamassery, Kochi. It was a government-owned institution established by the Co-operative Academy of Professional Education under the Department of Co-operation, Govt. of Kerala, established in the year 1999. The college has an intake capacity of 110 students for the MBBS course each year. It was taken over by the Government of Kerala as a pure government institution on 11 December 2013. There are Post graduate courses in three clinical and two paraclinical departments. It also includes the college of nursing, Biomedical engineering courses and Operation Theatre courses functioning in the college campus. Campus has a Well functioning cafeteria Gymnasium, Library, Football stadium, Basketball court, Volleyball Court and Indoor badminton courts. 60% works of an associated new Superspeciality Block is also completed.
Amrita Hospital, formerly known as Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) is a multi-speciality tertiary care hospital based in Kochi, India. It is attached to Amrita University school of medicine and one of the largest medical facilities in India with a total built-up area of over 3.33 million sq.ft, spread over 125 acres of land. It is a 1,350-bed hospital which supports an annual patient volume of about 800,000 outpatients and 50,000 inpatients. It was founded by Mata Amritanandamayi and inaugurated on 17 May 1998 by the then Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The Mata Amritanandamayi Math is its parent organisation. The campus also houses medical school, dentistry, nursing, health sciences, pharmacy schools and school of nanosciences and molecular medicine of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham.
Government Medical College, Kollam, formerly ESIC Medical College, Parippally, is the first Government medical college in Kollam district, Kerala, India. It is situated 21 km (13 mi) south of Kollam city and 9.6 km (6.0 mi) east of Paravur town. The College was initially established by the Employees State Insurance Corporation, a Government of India establishment, and later acquired by the Government of Kerala.
Navy Day in India is celebrated on 4 December every year to recognize the achievements and role of the Indian Navy to the country. 4 December was chosen as on that day in 1971, during Operation Trident, the Indian Navy sank four Pakistani vessels including PNS Khaibar, defeating Pakistani Navy. On this day, those killed in the Indo-Pakistan War of 1971 are also remembered.
INHS Patanjali is the naval hospital of the Indian Navy at Karwar, Karnataka which was commissioned on 26 December 2006. INHS Patanjali is the second naval establishment commissioned at Karwar. It has an initial capacity of 141 beds upgradeable to 400.
Surgeon Vice Admiral Sheila Samanta Mathai, NM, VSM is a former flag officer in the Indian Navy. She last served as the Director General of the Armed Forces Medical Services. She is the fourth woman in the Indian Armed Forces to be promoted to a three-star rank, after Surgeon Vice Admiral Punita Arora, Air Marshal Padma Bandopadhyay and Lieutenant General Madhuri Kanitkar. She is currently the head of the department of neonatology in Kasturba Medical College, Manipal.
Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin, AVSM, VSM is a serving flag officer in the Indian Navy. She is currently serving as the Director General Armed Forces Medical Services, the senior-most appointment in the Armed Forces Medical Services (DGAFMS). She is the first woman to serve as DGAFMS and the highest-ranking woman officer in the history of the Indian Armed Forces.
Indian Airlines Flight 503 was a scheduled flight operated by Indian Airlines between Agatti and Thiruvananthapuram, with a stopover in Kochi. On 30 July 1998, the Dornier 228 aircraft crashed shortly after takeoff from Kochi killing all six people onboard and three people on the ground.
