[1] Born in Trichur in 1820, Sankunni Menon had a good English education and joined the Madras provincial civil service serving as a Deputy Collector in Tinnevely District when he was appointed Diwan of Cochin to succeed Venkata Rao.
The Interportal Trade Convention was held in 1865 in which the princely states of Cochin and Travancore and British India (representing Malabar district) participated.
As a result of the convention, Cochin relinquished its monopoly over tobacco and raised salt tax to prices on par with British India.
To compensate for the loss of revenue due to relinquishment of the tobacco monopoly, Menon increased the price of paddy.
On his retirement, the monarch Rama Varma wrote to him We shall lose in you a safe and prudent administrator, and it will be a constant regret that the conduct of affairs will no longer be guided by your wise and sagacious counsels.
We fully realize that during your term of office the country has made vast progress in material prosperity; the resources of the land have remarkably developed; commerce and agriculture have been widely extended; and the revenue has attained to an amount that is the highest on recordFor his services to the British Empire, Sankunni Menon was made a Companion of the Order of the Star of India.