Kottayam, Akshara Nagari, was the first town in India to achieve full literacy and carries Kerala's first printing press and first college

Background

Kottayam, in central Kerala, is the administrative capital of Kottayam district and is also called Akshara Nagari, the city of letters.
The district is bordered by the Western Ghats on the east and the Vembanad Lake and the paddy fields of Kuttanad on the west, which has given it the title the land of letters, legends, latex and lakes.
Kottayam town was the first town in India to achieve 100% literacy, a feat achieved as early as in 1989.
English education in South India started at the Old Seminary at Kottayam in 1813.
The first printing press in Kerala, the CMS Press, was established there in 1821 by Rev. Benjamin Baily.
The first college in the State, CMS College, was started at Kottayam in 1840, and the first printed Malayalam-English and English-Malayalam dictionaries were published from Kottayam in 1846 and 1847 respectively.
The first and only cooperative society of writers, authors and publishers, the SPCS, was set up there in 1945.
Most of India's natural rubber originates from the plantations of Kottayam, which is also home to the Rubber Board.
Kottayam was the first town in India selected by the Ministry of Environment and Forests to be transformed as an Eco City, and the former President K. R. Narayanan hailed from the district.