An obviously irked Coca Cola has rejected the allegation in a very strong manner.

As per the report, it has been found that Coca Cola has been responsible for around  Rs 84.16 crore worth of damage to agriculture, Rs 62.10 crore cost to pollution of water sources, Rs.20 crore each for cost of water provided and wage loss and opportunity cost and Rs 30 crore loss on account of various health problems. The report was submitted to Kerala’s Water Resources Minister N K Premachandran by a nine-member committee with Additional Chief Secretary K Jayakumar at the helm. The panel has also called upon the government to take steps to set up a tribunal and compensate the loss suffered by the villagers of Plachimada.

In response to the report and the alleged findings, Coca Cola has said that the panel was set up based on the unproven assumption that the company had caused damage in the Plachimada area. Minister Premachandran has said that the report would now be examined by the government and suitable action would be taken.

The K Jayakumar panel had been set up by the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government led by VS Achuthanandan last year. The panel members had visited the areas around the Plachimada plant at least four times and sat with the villagers to know of their woes. Significantly, not once did a panel-Coke officials meeting happen, and the reason being said is that the Coke officials never appeared before the committee.

The content of the report now out in the open, many are a happy lot on Plachimada. The Adivasi Samrakshana Sanghom (ASS), which had been fighting against the Coca Cola company, has welcomed the panel’s report and has subsequently urged the Kerala government to recover the damages from the soft drink giant. ASS has, in fact, demanded Rs 4,500 crore, taking into account the loss incurred by this operation on the future generations too.

The Plachimada plant of Coca Cola was set up in 1999 with the blessings of the then Left Chief Minister and Communist veteran E K Nayanar. However, things went out of control for the company after a sustained campaign against the plant gained momentum. The plant had to be closed down in 2004.

The technology for the genetically modified version of brinjal is owned by the United States-based firm Monsanto.

The representatives of the 10 states, ruled by different political parties, held a conference held in Thiruvananthapuram, the capital of Kerala, called by the Kerala government, and described their united stand as “the second war of Indian independence.”

The conference was convened by the Department of Agriculture and the Biodiversity Board of the government of Kerala.

The states, the representatives of which participated in the conference against Bt brinjal, included Mizoram in the far-east, Tamil Nadu, the next-door neighbour of Kerala, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

Apart from the representatives of the of the CPM-led coalition government in Kerala, the conference was attended by the Agriculture Minister of the Congress-led government of Andhra Pradesh; ministers from the BJP-led governments of Karnataka, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh; ministers from the BJP-Akali coalition government of Punjab, the JD(U) government in Bihar, the BJD government in Orissa, as well as ministers from Chhattisgarh and Gujarat.

The participants declared that they “will not rest” until Bt brinjal and all genetically food stuff ‘Quit India.’

All these states, except Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, have officially banned genetically modified food material.

According to V S Vijayan, chairman of the Biodiversity Board of Kerala, the motive of the conference was to send to the Central Government a message of opposition to Bt brinjal.

Kerala tourism officials said the need to have an active presence in markets like Russia and Sweden that are showing strong potential. “The global tourism sector is extremely competitive and MITT provides another platform to talk to a new market. We know that 2009 is going to be a tough year for our sector, so we cannot afford to be complacent. It is vital that we continue to build relationships with our customers and develop new ones to ensure that Kerala is top of mind once confidence returns,” according to a top officials.

Kerala’s leading hoteliers namely Thomas Holidays & Resorts, Kadavu Resorts and Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort will be joining Kerala Tourism to promote the strengths of the destination to Russians and the Swedes. They have already met with several tour operators who showed interest in including Kerala in their product mix including Intravel, IHPL, Intourcentre, India Tour and Transaero Tour.

Further, ayurveda is gaining popularity with Russian outbound tourists and some 9,766 Russians visited Kerala last year, a 47 per cent increase on 2007.

Another new trade show that Kerala Tourism attended was TUR in Sweden, which was held from 19-22 March 2009 in the city of Goteborg. Swedish interest in ayurveda and beach holidays was also apparent at the Kerala Stand at TUR, the largest Scandinavian trade fair for travel and tourism.

Trade partners from Kerala, CGH Earth, Somatheeram Ayurvedic Beach Resort and Pioneer Personalised Holidays participated at the fair.

Despite the current economic crisis, 20,000 visitors visited Keraka Tourism counters during the trade days and 33,000 visited during the weekend when the fair was open to the public, indicating that Swedish interest in travelling remains high. More than 1,900 companies from 103 countries and regions attended the trade fair.

Last year 20,666 Swedish arrivals were registered in Kerala, double that of 2007, making Sweden the fifth largest source market for the State.

Kerala Tourism co-ordinates and participates in a number of international trade shows and events each year to promote Kerala as a premier travel destination. The majority of these trade shows and events are held within key international markets, bringing together the Kerala tourism industry to meet with travel agents and wholesalers from around the world.

The cast and crew of Bidaai, which is being telecast on Star Plus TV during the weekdays, were in Kerala for 10 days to shoot the honeymoon episodes of the newlywed sisters, who are also the protagonists in this primetime serial. Bidaai, falling in the Hindi general entertainment genre, is the story of two sisters, Sadhna and Ragini. Life is pleasant for Sadhna as she is beautiful but society is harsh on Ragini, who faces a lot more challenges because she is not good-looking.

Filming for the episodes took place in Munnar, Thekkady, Allepey, Kumarakom and Kovalam. Location scenes take in tea plantations, a beach scene and the romantic houseboat in the backwaters. The honeymoon episodes, will be shown over six instalments of 30 minutes each, covering terrestrial and satellite television starting Monday, 23 February on Star Plus channel.

Television viewing is considered the greatest single domestic pastime in India and the influence of visual media combined with a popular series is a ‘pull’ factor for tourism destinations. “We want to raise the profile of Kerala as a honeymoon destination with the domestic market,” said Sivasankar, Director Kerala Tourism.

Kerala’s coast and countryside is a huge part of our appeal as a destination for couples and the honeymoon episodes will  remind viewers of the landscapes that Kerala is so  famous for and motivate them to visit the place” he added.

As man as 75,912,50 domestic tourists visited Kerala in 2008, posting a 14 per cent increase compared to the previous year. A trip on a houseboat and the backwaters of Kerala are the most popular activities for visitors. The houseboat of Kerala was nominated as one of the most perfect places in the world to propose to your love one, by the influential National Geographic Adventure magazine.

Kerala is still one of the most popular destinations for Indian travelers and foreigners – and not just for honeymoons either. However, the economic recession has hit the travel industry in Kerala badly with houseboats often idle and homestays deserted. If things continue lkike this for too long, while it may make it a lot more affordable for tourists form across India, the industry itself may face serious trouble and losses.

The initiative is seen as the government’s bid to take its IT commitment to the next level. While work on the first ever ‘Water Theme’ IT Park was started at Ambalapuzha in Alappuzha district, another tech park in South Kerala is to come up at Kundara in Kolam district. Infopark, as part of hub and spoke model of IT development, is expanding its activities to Ambalapuzha, located on the National Highway 47, about 22kms from Alappuzha town. The new park will be located on about 100 acres of land in Smrithivanam, Purakkad Village, in the Ambalapuzha Taluk of which around 33 acres have been granted the Special Economic Status has been granted by the Government of India.

“The government will invest over Rs.500 crore to set up the Ambalapuzha Infopark which will create over 10,000 job opportunities. With this park, Alappuzha which has been lagging behind other regions in terms of modern industries will get a new place in the global IT map. Around 60 percent of this park will be used to set up IT companies, while 40 percent of the space will be used for Water theme park and the waterway to the park will be connected to the National Waterway-3, said state Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan. According to Ajaya Kumar, Secretary-IT, said, “the event marks the fruition of Kerala Government’s long drawn dream of setting up IT parks in all districts in Kerala. The work for Ambalapuzha Infopark is expected to commence by April 2009 where facilities such as wind mills, Reverse Osmosis for treatment of brackish water will be made available and also include educational and training institutions, marina, entertainment and retail IT services, health centres, hospitals and residential apartments.”

Siddhartha Bhattacharya, CEO Infopark and Technopark, said, “Ambalapuzha Infopark is planned to be developed as the first ‘water theme’ based IT Park with immense untapped potential for backwater tourism with resort based leisure amenities thus working towards promoting IT and Tourism hand in hand and calling it the IT Venice of the East. Islands will be formed with interconnected roads roads and bridges, retaining the water features as such. With this park, we aim to create an ambiance extremely conducive for professionals to work in a totally stress-free environment and in complete sync with nature. ”

Meanwhile, the foundation stone for the district level IT Park at Kundara in Kollam will come up, located 63 km from the capital city. The new park will be located in about 42 acres of prime property near scenic Ashtamudi lake for which Special Economic Status has been granted by the Government of India. Technopark Kollam will initially offer 100,000 sq.ft of built-up space with plug and play infrastructure and incubation facilities and fully developed plots of various starting from 2 acres to 5 acres. About 2.5 million sq ft built up area is planned which is expected to offer over 20,000 direct employment opportunities. With an investment of Rs 1, 000 crores and over Rs.1,200 crores export envisaged, the first phase of built-up space is expected to be ready by mid 2010.

By setting up district level parks, the state aims at tapping the advantage of uniform talent distribution, infrastructure and supporting IT platforms and digital exchanges, excellent infrastructure availability and back-up support.

The Kochi Metro project will be a joint venture between the Kerala state government and the Central government.

“The project will be on similar lines to the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation. It will be a joint venture between the state and the centre,” VS Achuthanandan was quoted as saying after the weekly cabinet meeting.

Chief minister of Kerala, Mr. V S Achuthanandan, said that an amount of Rs 50 lakhs has already been sanctioned for the Kochi Metro project. To facilitate the execution of the project, an exclusive office will soon opened soon in Kochi itself.

The approval was fast tracked after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh stepped in as a result of CPM’s assertion that the Planning Commission has refused to approve of the project. The CPM accused the Planning Commission of wanting a private party to be brought into the Kochi Metro project on a Private-Public-Partnership (PPP) model, like the Hyderabad Metro project.

In a statement, the CPM said that “the Hyderabad Metro project and the way the Planning Commission pushed it is a prime example of how India’s economic policy establishment is promoting private capital even at the cost of public interest. The Planning Commission has been trying to impose the Hyderabad Metro model on to Kerala, which is a prime example of crony capitalism.”

Manmohan Singh cleared the Kochi Metro project after studying the funding flowchart provided by the Kerala state government.

The Kochi Metro project will cover a 26-Km stretch between Thiruvananthapuram and Aluva. The stretch is supposed to cover Edapally, Palarivattom, Kaloor, MG Road, Ernakulam Junction railway station, SA Road and Vyttila to reach Tripunithura, while avoiding major flyovers like the Ernakulam Town railway flyover.

As per the Kochi Metro project plans, the Metro trains will run every five minutes at peak time, and eight minutes in the non-peak period. Smart Cards and contactless tokens will be introduced to control entry and exit to the stations.

The coaches of the Kochi Metro trains will not be as big as the Delhi trains, with each train carrying four coaches. The Kerala Metro trains have been designed to carry upto 3.5 lakh commuters daily by 2011.

The Kochi project is expected to be over within a span of 3 years of its start. Law Minister M Vijayakumar has been appointed to supervise the execution phase of the project.