Kochi is the headquarters of the Ernakulam district and is regarded as the “Commercial Capital” of Kerala state, officiating also as the state headquarters of the Southern Command of the Indian Navy. This Queen of the Arabian Sea is one of the oldest, finest and historically famous Indian ports for spice trade. The harbor is the apex and the nucleus around which Kochi and its surrounding settlements have grown. With the city population of more than 6,00,000, it has continuously been the main center for Indian spice trade with the western world and the middle east for centuries. Malayalam is the native and main spoken language here. The city is situated at the south western coast of India with the Arabian and Lakshadweep Seas to its west. According to the census report of 2011, the district population is 3.2 million out of which 38 percent belong to the working age group. 10 percent of the total working population is engaged in the agriculture sector and 2 percent in the household industry. About 88 percent work in the services and industrial sectors to include shipping, transportation, export of seafood and spices, tourism and information technology. Tourism is one of the strongest drivers of the local economy. Settled by the earliest Jews and Syrian Christians, occupied by the Portuguese in 1503, then by the Dutch followed by the British, modern Kochi is an amalgamation of its numerous external influences. This ancient city was the port from where “Black Gold” or pepper as it was known, was exported to Greece as early as fourth century BCE. During the 17th century, the Dutch exercised a virtual monopoly of pepper and spice trade till the East India Company was formed to break into the Dutch spice trade, which gradually resulted in colonization of India by the British.
