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 within an area of 94.88 km2, and the larger Kochi urban agglomeration had a total population of more than of 2.1 million 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).
Thrissur, formerly Trichur, also known by its historical name Thrissivaperur, is a city and the headquarters of the Thrissur district in Kerala, India. It is the third largest urban agglomeration in Kerala after Kochi and Kozhikode, and the 21st largest in India. The city is built around a 65-acre (26 ha) hillock called the Thekkinkaadu Maidaanam which seats a large Hindu Shiva Temple. It is located central of the state, and 304 kilometres (189 mi) north-west of the state's capital city, Thiruvananthapuram. Thrissur was once the capital of the Kingdom of Cochin, and was a point of contact for the Assyrians, Greeks, Persians, Arabs, Romans, Portuguese, Dutch and English.
The Kingdom of Cochin, named after its capital in the city of Kochi (Cochin), was a kingdom in the central part of present-day Kerala state. It commenced at the early part of the 12th century and continued to rule until 1949, when the monarchy was abolished by the Dominion of India.
Rama Varma Kunji pillai Thampuran (1751–1805), or Rama Varma IX, popularly known as Sakthan Thampuran, was the ruler of the Kingdom of Cochin. The current southern Indian city of Kochi was part of the erstwhile princely state of Kochi. He resided at Vadakkechira Palace in Thrissur. The city of Thrissur is referred to as the Cultural Capital of Kerala owing to its many traditional festivals and historic temples. Sakthan Thampuran is considered the architect of the city of Thrissur. The festival Thrissur Pooram was started by him.
Divyaa Unni is an Indian former actress and classical dancer of Indian origin who teaches various forms of dance such as Bharathanatyam, Kuchipudi and Mohiniyattom. As an actress, she mainly appeared in Malayalam language films, in addition to few Tamil, Telugu and Kannada language films too.
Deshabhimani is a Malayalam newspaper and the organ of the Kerala State Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist). It started as a weekly in Kozhikode on 6 September 1942 and converted to a daily in 1946. The paper now has ten different printing centres: Kozhikode, Kochi, Trivandrum, Kannur, Kottayam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Alappuzha, Kollam and Malappuram. At present, Puthalath Dinesan State Secretariat Member of the CPI(M) is the Chief Editor of the paper, K.J. Thomas, CPI(M), secretariat member of the CPI(M), the General Manager and V. B Parameshwaran, the Resident Editor.
Karuvattu Mana Vasudevan Namboothiri, better known as Artist Namboothiri or simply Namboothiri, was an Indian painter and sculptor, known for his line art and copper relief works. He illustrated for many Malayalam writers such as Thakazhy Shivasankara Pillai, Kesavadev, M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Uroob, S. K. Pottekkatt, Edasseri Govindan Nair, and V.K.N., and was one of the most prolific literary illustrators of India. He was also a chairman of the Kerala Lalithakala Akademi. The Akademi awarded him the Raja Ravi Varma Award in 2003. He was also a recipient of the Kerala State Film Award for Best Art Director.
Media in Kerala, India are widely accessible and cater to a wide variety of audiences. Kerala has the highest media exposure in India with newspapers publishing in nine languages, mainly English and Malayalam.
Ramavarmapuram is the northern suburb of Thrissur City in Kerala. This suburban area is home to several governmental and other institutions of national importance. The largest menhir type megalithic monument in granite in Kerala is found here. A local catholic church has recently been adorned with mural paintings in the traditional Kerala style. This is the first instance of such a church decoration in Kerala in modern times.
Yusuff Ali Musaliam Veettil Abdul Kader, popularly known as M. A. Yusuff Ali, is Indian businessman and billionaire. He is the chairman and managing director of LuLu Group International, which owns the LuLu Hypermarket chain worldwide and LuLu International Shopping Mall. With an annual turnover of US$8.4 billion, LuLu Group International employs the largest number of Indians outside India. According to Forbes Middle East, Yusuff Ali was ranked No. 1 in Top 100 Indian business owners in the Arab World 2018. As per Forbes billionaires list published in October 2023, he was ranked 27th richest Indian with net worth of US$6.9 billion.
C. V. Pappachan is a former Indian football player and a retired police officer from Thrissur, Kerala. He captained India in a couple of tournaments.
Kerala Varma Thampuran popularly known as Aikya Keralam Thampuran or Kerala Varma VII was the Maharaja (king) of Cochin who ruled between 1946 and 1949. He mooted the idea of a unified Kerala state in India for the Malayalam speaking population and stood for the merging of British Malabar, Cochin and Travancore. Therefore, he was given the sobriquet Ikyakeralam Thampuran. He died in July 1948. He was also the brain behind the formation of Sree Kerala Varma College at Thrissur, named after him.
Cheril Krishna Menon was an Indian entrepreneur and philanthropist. He was the Chairman and Managing Director of Behzad Corporation, headquartered in Doha, Qatar, which has presence in many other countries. He received the 2006 Pravasi Bharatiya Samman and in 2009 received the fourth highest Indian civilian award, Padma Shri, from Government of India, in 2009, with. He died after prolonged illness at Apollo Hospital, Chennai on 1 October 2019, aged 70.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people in Kerala face legal and social difficulties not experienced by non-LGBT persons. However, Kerala has been at the forefront of LGBT issues in India after Tamil Nadu. It became one of the first states in India to establish a welfare policy for the transgender community and in 2016, proposed implementing free gender affirmation surgery through government hospitals. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal since 2018, following the Supreme Court ruling in Navtej Singh Johar v. Union of India. In addition, numerous LGBT-related events have been held across Kerala, including in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram. However, there is also increasing opposition to LGBT rights recently as evidenced by the anti-LGBT campaigns spearheaded by meninist groups and Muslim organisations like Indian Union Muslim League, Samastha and Jamaat-e-Islami.
Nalini Chandran is the founder of Hari Sri Vidya Nidhi School, in 1978.
On 8 August 2019, due to heavy rainfall in the monsoon season, severe flood affected Kerala. As a security measure in the prevailing situation of heavy rains, the India Meteorological Department had issued a red alert in the 9 districts in Northern and Central Kerala, orange alert in 3 districts of Central Kerala, and yellow alert in the 2 districts of southern Kerala. Thousands of people have been evacuated to safer places and relief camps. A total of 121 people have died due to rain-related incidents as of 19 August 2019.
Venu Rajamony is an Indian diplomat and historian who belongs to the Indian Foreign Service. On 17 September 2021, he assumed the post of Officer on Special Duty, External Cooperation in the Government of Kerala. He is a concurrent faculty of Diplomatic Practice at the Jindal Global Law School of the O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat, Haryana. He was the Ambassador of India to the Netherlands from 2017 to 2020. He was also the Permanent Representative of India to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague as well as responsible for India’s relations with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and the Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA).
Divya Sesha Iyer is an Indian bureaucrat, medical doctor, editor, and author who is part of the Indian Administrative Service in Kerala. She is the Managing Director of Vizhinjam International Seaport. She previously has held the posts of District Collector of Pathanamthitta and Mission Director of Mahatma Gandhi NREGA.
