Kerala, alcohol's own country?

The Kerala Beverages Corporation is scaling new heights every year in sale of liquor.

There are no signs of economic recession at Corporation's outlet in Thiruvananthapuram. It sold Rs 55 crores worth liquor this Christmas, which is a whopping Rs 13 crores more than last year.

But the corporation is now planning to open a de-addiction centre near one of its distilleries in central Kerala. It is also planning to open a medical college and a hospital and will spend about Rs 100 crores on the ambitious project in the next four years. That is part of the corporation's social responsibility initiative.

A recent demand study done by IIM Kozhikode suggests that IMFL sales in Kerala will cross Rs 200 lakh cases by 2009.

"We need to have certain guidelines so that supply is also restricted. Such kind of law enforcement on one side and equally important is the attitudinal change. When you couple these two, you can have some amount of positive effect," said Dr Girish, clinical psychologist.

Kerala already has the dubious distinction of highest per capita alcohol consumption in the country with 8.5 litres alcohol per person.