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:: BUSINESS - INFRASTRUCTURE

Indian architecture is a rich amalgam of various architectural styles, wherein the influences of various regions and dynasties, find due expression. With the Islamic style concentrating only on monuments and the Hindu style being more religious, thematically, Indian architecture, is indeed, a celebration of the creativity of the unsung artisans who dedicated their lives to bring to life such wondrous pieces of enviable beauty. India boasts of a myriad of architectural delights such as the majestic Taj Mahal, the temples of Southern India, the Jain temples and the Buddhist monasteries, to name a few.

Social Infrastructure

Health:The State Department of Health and Family Welfare under the Minister for Health, guides and supervises the Health and Family Welfare programme in the state. The Secretary and Additional Secretary to the Government, Health and Family Welfare Department has overall responsibility in administration and programme implementation. The Allopathic system has three major wings, viz. Directorate of Health Services, Directorate of Medical Education and Directorate of ESI Medical services which is under the labour department. In addition to modern medicine, there are two Directorates of indigenous medicines viz. Ayurveda and Homeopathy.

Directorate of Health Services :
At the State level the programmes on Health and Family Welfare are implemented, supervised and co-ordinated by the Director of Health Services. The various programmes are looked after by Additional Director of Health Services, who are assisted either by Deputy Directors of Health Services or Assistant Directors of Health Services.

District
At the district level District Medical Officer of Health in the rank of Deputy Director of Health Services ( and Additional Director of Health Services in 3 corporation) is in charge of all the health and family welfare activities.

Peripheral Institutions

At the end of March 1997 there was 1274 Government Medical institutions in the state with a total bed strength of 38943. Of these 150 are Hospitals (including MCHs), 956 are PHCs, 80 are CHCs and 52 are Dispensaries, besides 21 T.B Centre / Clinic and 15 Leprosy Control Unit.

Education

Kerala has one of the highest literacy rates in the country - about 90 %. School education is free and compulsory. There are seven universities and 186 arts and science colleges in the State. The women in Kerala are more educated than women in any other part of the country.

Economic Infrastructure

Ports
An international sea- port at Cochin - one of 16 major ports in country.
Three intermediate ports (Neendakara, Alappuzha, Kozhikode), 12 minor ports.

Roads
Total road length of nearly 1,10,500 km.
Ernakulam has maximum road length followed by Kottayam.

Railways
Total railway route length for 1998-'99 -- nearly 1200 km.
New Konkan railway facilitates access to trade circuits of Bombay and Pune.

Airports
One international airport (Thiruvananthapuram) and 2 domestic airports (Cochin, Kozhikode ).

Power
Though the power development in the State has been based mainly on the exploitation of the abundant hydro-potential, the State is on its way to achieving self-sufficiency with its recent efforts to exploit thermal power to its full potential. A major policy initiative of the State government in recent years has been to involve private sector participation in augmenting power supply. Moreover, the State government is giving a new thrust to develop hydropower from such small and medium projects which will have very little adverse impact on the environment. Some of the new important thermal projects include the Brahmapuram Diesel Power Project, the Kozhikode Diesel Power Project at Nallalam, and the third unit of the combined cycle power project of NTPC at Kayamkulam, whose output is available exclusively to Kerala.

Apart from the four thermal units, there are 17 hydel units and one wind power unit in the State. All these units put together puts the State capacity at around 2311 MW.While the majority of the hydel units have a capacity in the in the 10 to75 MW range, the biggest unit, located at Idukki, can produce 780 MW of power. This is followed by Sabarigiri with 300 MW and Lower Periyar with 180 MW. The Peppara and Madupetti units have the lowest output with only three and two MW respectively. The wind power unit at Kanjikode also has a low output of only two MW.

Telecommunication
Highest telephone density in country.- 35 connections per sq. km (1998-'99)
All 913 exchanges connected to STD/ISD net work
99.2 % - electronic
Max. number of exchanges for Ernakulam and min for Wayanad
Panchayats being linked by a net work of computers and provided internet facilities
Five private Internet Service Providers in the State.
8300 km of optical fiber activated in international undersea cable landing points at Cochin.
Around 5,056 post offices (as on 31-03-2001).
One post office for average of 6480 persons in around 8 km.
Postal Circle includes 51 Head Post Offices, more than 4000 sub-offices, 90 Other Postal Service Offices and 7 Speed Post Centres.

Financial Institutions
The various public and private sector financial institutions in the State perform the important task of providing adequate monetary back-up to the risk-taking entrepreneur. Of these, two of the most important institutions are the Kerala State Industrial Development Corporation, the nodal agency for promoting and financing large and medium scale industries, and the Kerala Financial Corporation for the small and medium scale units.