Rs 500 cr annual provision for student entrepreneurship in Ker

Seeking to promote student entrepreneurship programme, Kerala government today decided to earmark one per cent of the state's budget every year for it.
Talking to reporters after interacting with school and college students through Google Hangout here, Chandy said the amount would come to around Rs. 500 crore annually.
The government had announced Student Entrepreneurship Policy and 'the new initiative is part of that', he said.
The schemes underway in IT and ITES sector would be expanded to other areas like health, agriculture, tourism and Cinema during the year, Chandy said adding more than 1000 ideas were received at the Startup Village at Kalamassery.

On decisions taken at the cabinet meeting, Chandy said an amount of Rs.155.89 crore has been sanctioned for the repair of
roads leading to the famous hill shrine of Lord Ayyappa at Sabarimala.

As a pilot project, the government accorded sanction for the production of 'Neera', sweet toddy, from coconut, he said. Two units would be started in Thiruvananthapuram,Kollam and Palakkad and one unit each in other 13 districts. Around 1,000 coconut trees would come under one unit, he said.
Neera is a sap extracted from inflorescence of various species of coconut trees and toddy palms.Neera is a natural and non-alcoholic beverage, high in nutritional value and an instant thirst quencher.

The Cabinet also decided to hike the procurement price of paddy from Rs.17 to Rs. 18 per kg from this season, he added.