Kerala Calling
Overview
Kerala Calling is the English-language monthly magazine of the Information and Public Relations Department of the Government of Kerala, published from Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The department's own publication pages describe it as a monthly developmental magazine in English, produced alongside a Malayalam monthly from the same department. Its job is to document Kerala's development initiatives, culture and governance for readers who want the state's story in English, whether they live in Kerala, elsewhere in India or abroad.
Unlike a commercial magazine, Kerala Calling is an official publication with an editorial mission. It records government programmes and welfare work, but its pages also carry commissioned features on the state's economy, heritage, public institutions and people. Its own editorial note, printed in its issues, states that views expressed in its articles are not necessarily those of the government, and that the magazine welcomes free expression of divergent views and exchange of ideas through its pages.
Publisher and Editorial Home
The publisher is the Department of Information and Public Relations, Kerala, working from the Government Secretariat in Thiruvananthapuram. The department is the state government's central communication arm: it issues press releases, routes government advertising, documents official programmes in audio-visual form and manages the state's official web presence. Kerala Calling is produced by the department's Publication Wing, whose English Editorial division handles the magazine from first draft to printed copy.
According to the department's description of the Publication Wing, the English Editorial division's work on Kerala Calling includes data compilation, writing, translation, editing, proof reading, layout and design, communication with writers, coordination with the press and fixing remuneration for writers. The same division monitors the online version of the magazine and produces the department's other English publications, including heritage series publications, the Handbook on Kerala and reference books highlighting the achievements and welfare programmes of the government.
History and Continuity
Kerala Calling has a long publishing history as an official state magazine. Its issues carry the registration number RNI 35991/1980, recorded in the imprint of its December 2021 issue, and its volume numbering shows the scale of that continuity: the April 2025 issue is marked Volume 45, Number 6, and runs to 52 pages including the cover. A magazine that reaches its forty-fifth volume as a monthly has been part of the state's public record for decades, chronicling successive governments and development programmes in a consistent format.
The December 2021 imprint illustrates how the magazine is produced. That issue was printed at St. Joseph Press, Vazhuthacaud, Thiruvananthapuram, and published from the Government Secretariat, with the Director of the Information and Public Relations Department, S. Harikishore IAS, named as both printer-publisher and editor. The editor of Kerala Calling is, by design, the department's leadership: the magazine is an institutional voice, edited from the First Floor of the Secretariat Annexe in Thiruvananthapuram.
What the Magazine Covers
Development is the magazine's central subject, interpreted broadly. A look at the April 2025 issue shows the range: voices on Kerala's business potential, a report on the revival run of public sector undertakings, an article on revitalising Kerala's plantation sector, a feature on the state's startup revolution, homegrown enterprises with global impact presented as success stories, and a forward-looking piece titled The Future is Here. Industry, agriculture, enterprise and innovation are covered as parts of one continuing story of how Kerala is changing.
Culture and heritage stand beside the development reporting. The magazine's online edition presents features about infrastructure transformation under headlines such as All Roads Lead to God's Own Country, discussing how roads, bridges, flyovers and buildings have changed the state's landscape, alongside writing on Kerala's cultural life. Earlier issues include long features on subjects such as Malayalam film music, health questions like HIV prevalence in the state, and memoirs of notable teachers, showing that Kerala Calling is a general-interest state magazine, not only a bulletin of schemes.
Language, Sister Publications and Departments
Kerala Calling is the English face of a bilingual publishing programme. The Publication Wing publishes two monthlies: Janapatham in Malayalam and Kerala Calling in English. The Malayalam monthly is handled by the department's Malayalam Editorial division, which also produces Malayalam reference books, publications on official language, special issues for government anniversaries and books on contemporary subjects and public awareness. The English and Malayalam magazines together let the department speak to Kerala's own Malayalam-reading public and to an English-reading audience beyond it.
Translation is part of this structure. Because the English Editorial division lists translation among its duties, material gathered in Malayalam from districts, departments and writers can be carried into English for Kerala Calling. For readers outside Kerala, including the large Malayali diaspora and officials, researchers and journalists in other states, the English magazine is often the most accessible single source on how the Kerala government presents its own development record and cultural identity.
Frequency, Format and Price
Kerala Calling is a monthly magazine. The print issue runs to about 52 pages including the cover, as recorded in the April 2025 edition, and individual issues carry a modest cover price: the December 2021 issue was priced at 12 rupees. The annual subscription has been kept deliberately low for an official publication. The department's Publication Wing page gives the annual subscription fee for each of its monthlies as 120 rupees, and the magazine's own subscribe page repeats that figure.
The magazine's price history underlines its public-information character. In a 2014 issue, readers were asked to send 80 rupees as a money order to subscribe for a year; by the time of the department's current published information, the annual fee stands at 120 rupees. These are not commercial newsstand prices but token subscriptions designed to put the magazine into the hands of institutions, libraries and interested citizens at minimal cost, consistent with the department's mandate to publicise the state's work as widely as possible.
Contributors and Editorial Practice
Articles and features in Kerala Calling are either commissioned or assigned, according to the editorial note printed in the magazine, but unsolicited contributions are also welcome. Contributors are asked to keep items to a maximum of about 750 words and to address them to the Editor, Kerala Calling, First Floor, Secretariat Annexe, Thiruvananthapuram, PIN 695 001, or to send them by email. Writers are paid: fixing remuneration for the magazine's writers is one of the listed duties of the English Editorial division.
This open-door practice gives Kerala Calling a wider author base than a purely departmental bulletin. Its contents pages credit named individual authors and a staff reporter alongside official material, and its standing invitation to readers and writers helps explain the magazine's mix of policy reporting, expert commentary and cultural writing. The disclaimer that contributors' views are not necessarily the government's is printed in the magazine itself, framing Kerala Calling as a forum for exchange about Kerala as well as a record of its administration.
Digital Presence
Kerala Calling maintains a dedicated official website, keralacalling.kerala.gov.in, where the magazine presents its features under categories such as current affairs and makes recommended reading available online. The English Editorial division monitors the online version and publication of the magazine, and PDF editions of issues are hosted through official Kerala government noticeboard pages, allowing readers to read complete issues, including the April 2025 number, in digital form.
The magazine also maintains a social presence, with its issues directing readers to facebook.com/KeralaCalling and to its email address, keralacalling@gmail.com. Enquiries are handled through published phone numbers, with separate lines for editorial matters and subscriptions. Within the department's larger digital system, which includes the PRD Live application and the state portal, Kerala Calling is the long-form element: the publication that turns daily press releases and announcements into considered monthly journalism about the state.
Audience and Circulation
Kerala Calling's audience is defined by interest rather than by a commercial market. Its readers include government departments and district offices, libraries and educational institutions, journalists who follow Kerala affairs, the Malayali diaspora reading about home in English, and citizens who want a documented account of state programmes. Subscriptions can be taken not only at the State Information Centre in the Press Club Building, Thiruvananthapuram, but also at all District Information Offices, embedding distribution in the department's statewide network.
Because it is an official magazine, its reach should be measured differently from a newsstand title. Each issue becomes part of the documentary record of the state: the same publication that reports a startup initiative or a plantation revival is preserved in government libraries and archives. Readers who encounter Kerala Calling online encounter it as Kerala's own account of itself, which is precisely the function its publisher intends it to serve for an English-reading world.
How to Subscribe and Its Place in Kerala's Media
Subscribing is deliberately old-fashioned and simple. Readers send 120 rupees as a money order to the Director, Information and Public Relations Department, First Floor, Secretariat Annexe, Thiruvananthapuram 695 001, or pay the amount at the State Information Centre, Press Club Building, Thiruvananthapuram, or at any District Information Office. Editorial enquiries go to the magazine's office at the Secretariat Annexe, and contributions can be emailed or posted to the editor at the same address.
Among Indian state government magazines, Kerala Calling is a durable example of the genre: an English monthly that combines development reporting, cultural features and official record-keeping in one publication, produced by a dedicated editorial wing rather than outsourced. For worldnm.com readers, it represents the public-information side of Indian magazine publishing: a title from Thiruvananthapuram that has carried Kerala's development story, in English, month after month, into its forty-fifth volume.
