Tea it is sometimes served with biscuits to be dipped in the tea and eaten before consuming the tea. More often than not, it is drunk in "doses" of small cups (referred to as "Cutting" chai if sold at street tea vendors) rather than one large cup. On 21 April 2012, the Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission (India), Montek Singh Ahluwalia, said tea would be declared as national drink by April 2013. The move is expected to boost the tea industry in the country. Speaking on the occasion, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said a special package for the tea industry
Nilgiri tea of South India and the Tea Board of India have instigated programs to change cultivation and harvest practices among small growers. Nilgiri tea Nilgiri tea is generally described as being a dark, intensely aromatic, fragrant and flavoured tea grown in the southern portion of the Western Ghats mountains of Southern India. It is grown in the hills of the Nilgiris district of Tamil Nadu, though there are numerous other tea-growing districts in South India as well, including Munnar and Central Travancore, further south in Kerala state. Nilgiri tea plantations are represented by the Nilgiri Planters' Association, which is an organizational