I was just intrigued by the news articles which said that post the shutting down of a large number of bars, consumption of alcohol in the state has increased.
What was funny about these articles is that all of them used revenue generated by Bevco (the Kerala state beverages corporation) as a parameter on which to measure consumption. This is going to be especially flawed since Bevco routinely increases its prices. Since the shutting down of the bars in March 2014, prices were increased in April 2014 - prior to which they had been revised in November 2013.
While there has a been a definite increase in consumption over the years, it is no where near as dramatic as is painted by the media.
Statistics relating to per-capita income are from Department of Economics and Statistics, Kerala Government, 2012-2013
