With the surge in tourist footfalls to Varanasi in 2022, it almost rivals the arrivals in Agra and puts it way ahead of Prayagraj and Ayodhya.
Among the new entrants to the Union cabinet, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has been given the agriculture and rural development portfolios, Bharatiya Janata Party president J P Nadda the health portfolio and former Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar the power portfolio.
Amid a growing chorus in the party for his elevation, Tamil Nadu sports minister and son of Chief Minister M K Stalin, Udhayanidhi, was elevated as the deputy CM on Saturday with additional responsibility, in a cabinet reshuffle that saw the return of V Senthil Balaji to the council of ministers two days after securing bail in a money laundering case.
The avoidable stresses and strains in ties helped in one way. It showed for the entire region how a matured India handled diplomatic relations, especially with a smaller and suspicious neighbour, with practised dignity and patience, unruffled by provocations in word, deed and action, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Modi said India's next general elections will be held in 2024 and he invited G20 delegates to visit the country to witness the "festival of democracy" in the "mother of democracy".
Bangladesh was the largest source of foreign tourists, accounting for 21.4 per cent of all arrivals.
In underlining the role of border villages as custodians of India's frontiers, New Delhi is following China's example in Tibet.
A large percentage of total tourism business activity of India, which is estimated at $28 billion+ in forex and upwards of Rs 2 lakh crore in domestic tourism activity will be at economic risk through the year.
Kushinagar is the final resting place of Gautama Buddha where he attained Mahaparinirvana after his death and is among the most important pilgrim spots for Buddhists.
The first summit in South Asia, it will host the largest delegation of 43 heads of State and government as well as the heads of international organisations.
'The private sector believes that some enablers in labour-intensive sectors like apparel, toys, tourism, and media retail, can unlock a lot of jobs.'
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China said on Tuesday that it supports the Maldives in safeguarding its sovereignty, as the first batch of Indian military personnel operating a helicopter left the island nation and was replaced by a civilian crew.
Atishi will have a brief tenure in office as assembly elections in the national capital are due in February.
Union Tourism and Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja said, "The thrust area for the government will be creation and improvement of tourism infrastructure, promotion and publicity of India as a preferred destination in overseas markets, promotion of domestic tourism and most importantly employment generation." On housing and urban poverty alleviation, the JNNURM with approval of projects of nearly Rs 50,000 crore is reshaping our cities, she said.
'They were ahead of their times. We don't expect this from a civilisation of the first century AD.'
Thousands of yoga enthusiasts from across the world rolled out their yoga mats as they joined day-long sessions of the ancient Indian practice to commemorate the 10th International Day of Yoga on Friday.
The air carriers' liability and insurance draft bill has proposed a five-fold increase in compensation in case of death or injury, the report said.
The Ministry of Tourism, Government of India, the Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management invites applications from interested students to apply for the 21 days training programme in tourism.
Tourist arrival growth down to 1.9% over poor marketing and terror threats. Airlines, too, have been forced to reroute following airspace closure. UK and Australia advised their citizens from travelling to Srinagar following the Pulwama attack.
A task force, under the chairmanship of the secretary (tourism), with the secretary (shipping) as co-chairperson, has been constituted to promote cruise tourism in the country, reports Megha Manchanda.
Some antique jewellery is displayed in a couple of museums in the world.
If Saudi Arabia, with just two Muslim holy sites of Mecca and Medina, can create a huge tourism-based ecosystem beyond oil, Ayodhya is sure to become the world's hottest religious tourism site in less than a decade, predicts R Jagannathan.
Government departments have been tasked with identifying major goals, which will include annual targets from the financial year 2024-2025 to 2028-2029.
Foreign tourists are postponing their India holiday and there have been some cancellations as well, with trips to the North-East seeing the most adverse impact.
'We don't have a say which MP stays where. We prepare everything and allot according to the list we get from Parliament.'
There were also posts on social media claiming that some Indians are cancelling their scheduled trip to the Maldives in view of the row.
A top Maldivian government official said that during the meeting, Naseer made it clear that the remarks do not reflect the views of the Maldivian government, and reaffirmed Maldives' continued support for its neighbour, the Sun Online reported.
In view of the enormous potential of health tourism in creating jobs and raking in foreign exchange, ministries of health and tourism on Wednesday decided to get started by setting up a Web site and a database.
"The minister along with a delegation of stakeholders in tourism will meet the PM shortly to seek his intervention to give a boost to tourism sector in the country," sources close to Sahay said.
With this allocation of portfolios, the Sharad Pawar-led NCP has got most of the 'plum' ministries.
The finance ministry on Wednesday reimposed expenditure curbs on ministries and government departments for July-September quarter. There will be no spending restrictions on the ministries of health, rural development, agriculture, MSME (micro, small and medium enterprises) and railways as part of a two-pronged strategy. "The existing guidelines for expenditure control have been reviewed. "Keeping in view the evolving situation arising out of Covid-19 and anticipated cash position of the government, it is felt essential to regulate Quarterly Expenditure Plan (QEP)/Monthly Expenditure Plan (MEP) of specific ministries/departments for July-September, 2021," the Department of Economic Affairs in the finance ministry said in a notification.
In a bid to support revival of sectors hit most by the Covid-19 pandemic, Reserve Bank of India on Friday decided to open a separate liquidity window of Rs 15,000 crore for certain contact-intensive sectors like hotels and restaurants, tourism and aviation ancillary services.
Aamir Khan is no longer the face of Incredible India campaign.
The government will soon give infrastructure status to the tourism sector, enabling hotels to get cheaper loans for new projects, said a senior government official.
The e-Visa facility is available to visitors from about 44 countries.
Data for the first nine days of January shows that tourist arrivals from India to the Maldives has been at similar levels as last year during the same period.
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