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I have been visiting your site for quite sometime now and I find lot
of latest and correct information and comments of various experts. S R Singh ONLY SOURCE TO REACH THE DECISION MAKERS By show casing Sikkim as the ultimate Eco Tourism destination & by launching new projects efforts are being made to augment flow of inbound tourists round the year, said G.P.Upadhyaya Commissioner & Secretary Tourism to Sikkim Government. In an interview to <whispersinthecorridors.com>he unveiled how the Sikkim was doing aggressive marketing to ensure constant traffic of tourists.Upadhyaya said even setting up of casinos is on the anvil. According to G.P.Upadhaya "Government has also permitted running of casinos in 5-star hotels by law to attract investment in 5-star hotels. We have received offers from reputed groups who have evinced keen interest in setting up such properties with casino." Replying to a question he said "Sikkim is giving tremendous emphasis to promotion of adventure and eco-tourism." Here goes his interview: 1/What are new projects that Sikkim tourism is contemplating to take? A-The new projects planned are- 95 ft tall metal statue of Lord Buddha, World's largest metal bell weighing 100 tonnes, hanging bridge on a cliff, amusement parks, mono rail, Ropeways and various trekking trails through dense and virgin forests. I also envisage flow of tourists through Nathula trade route between India and China in next 2-3 years. Sikkim has taken several initiatives in the recent past to create several new tourism products. Notable among them are 135 ft. high statue of Guru Padmasambhava at Samdruptse, beautification of a large number of water falls of stunning beauty, ropeways at various places, rock gardens and river bank developments, view points and way-side amenities, a large number of trekking trails through dense and virgin forests, several lakes with boating facilities and a several eco-friendly resorts. Projects in the pipeline are a 95ft high metal statue of Lord Buddha, World's largest metal bell weighing around 100 tonnes, Jurassic park, amusement park at the river bank, hanging bridge, underground laser show in abandoned mining tunnel, cultural village and several other ropeways. Sikkim is being helped generously by Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of DoNER (Department of Development of North Eastern Region) along with the state govt. All this is being done while preserving the ecology and environment of Sikkim by banning plastic bags and fitting all commercial vehicles with dust bins. 2/What steps are being taken to have constant traffic of inbound tourists from India & abroad? A-Creation of new tourist attractions and products helps us to keep
interest alive in Sikkim. Further, Sikkim's peaceful atmosphere (perhaps
the most peaceful place on earth) and political stability also helps.
We are indulging in aggressive marketing of Sikkim both in India and
abroad for wide publicity by regularly participating in tourism fairs
and festivals and ads and articles in print/electronic media. Sikkim
is giving tremendous emphasis to promotion of adventure and eco-tourism.
A big leap in this direction is being taken by SAATO (Sikkim Association
of Adventure Tour Operators) who are holding their third annual convention
at Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 13to 15 Aug. All the North Eastern states
are supporting this initiative of SAATO and they have all been invited
to attend this convention and discuss the possibility of forging meaningful
partnerships with adventure tour operators of South East Asia. Sikkim
has been able to create the infrastructure of an Institute of Adventure
and Eco-Tourism at Chemchey in South Sikkim with the help of Ministry
of Tourism and we are now planning to make it operational with the help
of SAATO and IAATO. Despite its best efforts, heavy concentration of tourists during the months of April-June and Oct-Dec seems inescapable, especially because of school holidays and scorching Indian summer. Nonetheless, Sikkim Tourism is trying to disperse the tourist concentration by offering deep discounts coupled with showcasing attractions of different moods of nature during monsoon months (July-Sep) and winters (Jan-Feb). 3/In what way your tourism policy is different from other states in the North East? Please elaborate. A-Our policy is creation of tourism infrastructure in the public domain
and creation of tourism trade infrastructure in the private domain.
In addition, our people are very warm and hospitable and Sikkim's peace
and stability also helps. Government has also permitted running of Casinos
in 5-star hotels by law to attract investment in 5-star hotels. We have
received offers from reputed groups who have evinced keen interest in
setting up such properties with Casino. Sikkim Tourism is planning a
major cycling expedition during Oct. 2007 covering almost all parts
of the state. It is expected that more than 300 domestic and international
participants would be taking part in this. This event would be covered
by the national media in a big way which will put Sikkim at the center
stage of tourism and adventure activities. 4/ Do you intend to take up projects in collaboration with the private sector? A-We are keen to take up projects under Public Private Partnership (PPP) under various models. This includes hotels, ropeways and other tourism infrastructure. The state government is also actively encouraging investment in tourism sector on PPP model (mostly BOOT which stands for Build, Own, Operate and Transfer) for creation of tourism infrastructure. 5/What new things are being done at hill stations? Do you intend to start some kind of festivals? A-We are very passionate about maintaining our ecology and environment. Honourable Chief Minister Mr.Pawan Chamling has placed tremendous thrust for plantations and green mission and Sikkim's forest cover has gone up from 41% to 43%. Sikkim boasts of dense and virgin forests, gurgling rivers and beautiful falls. We celebrate various festivals coinciding with local festivals of three main communities of Sikkim, viz, Lepchas, Bhutias and Nepalis. Who will be Member of PESB ? Indian Civil Servants go to Kabul Fresh panel for Railway Board Chairman Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav is reported to have drawn a fresh panel with just 2 candidates Sukhbir Singh and R K Rao. Saikia to work for NGOs Jadhav is PS to the President Functioning in Prasar Bharati derails AP CMs son to launch newspaper with 18 editions ! Did Dua favour four Union Ministers ? Justice Sathaslvam is new SC Judge Dutt gets additional charge for six months Orders of P P Sharma as CS of Jharkhand today High profile Joint Secretary and Ministry CBI officers get Police Medal Second time room of a Director was locked Former ICS officer is no more C.K.Khetan's coffee table book to be released tomorrow Dr.Karan Singh Chairman of the "Indian Council of Cultural Relations" (ICCR) will release a coffee table book authored by Chittaranjan K. Khetan at India International Centre (IIC), Delhi at 5 pm on August 17, 2007.The book titled "Kailash Mansarovar:A journey to Eternity" has been published by "Om Books International" of which owner is Ajay Mago.Chittaranjan K.Khetan is an IAS officer of the 1987 batch & belongs to the Chhattisgarh cadre. At present he is Secretary Urban Administration & Development with the Chhattisgarh Government.Khaitan's is going to be the first book of its kind as far as bureaucrats are concerned. It talks about trip to Mansarovar as well as "parikrama" (circumambulation) of Mount Kailash.Apart from this also talks about India route & Nepal route coupled with an account about what all a prospective pilgrim should carry with him. C.K.Mathew to join in September C.K.Mathew, an IAS officer of the Kerala cadre who has been posted on deputation to Government of India (GOI) will be joining as Additional Secretary & Financial Advisor(FA) in the Ministry of Chemicals & Fertilizers, in early September. He belongs to the 1976 batch. (We said this on August 10,2007) 94 vacancies of HC judges vacant in India There are at present 94 vacancies of judges in various High Courts(HCs).Highest number of vacancies exist in the Allahabad High Court with a mark of 19 posts while in Gujarat 12 posts of HC judges are lying vacant.Similarly Eight posts in each of three HCs namely Andhra Pradesh,Mumbai & Kolkata are vacant. Mrs.Sudha Chobe joins as FC Railways. Mrs.Sudha Chobe has joined as Financial Commissioner (FC) Railways. Prior to joining Railway Board, she was General Manager, Metro Railway Kolkata. She joined the Indian Railway Accounts Service (IRAS) in 1971 and attended almost all the major in-service training programmes.She had undergone training on Mechanized Maintenance of Track under World Scheme in USA and Sweden for 6 weeks in 1993. She also participated in eight days long advance leadership programme from in October 2006 held in Stern School of Business, New York.She has also worked as General Manager, Rail Wheel Factory, Bangalore. She served as Financial Adviser & Chief Accounts Officer (FA&CAO) in different Zonal Railways including Western, North Eastern, Central, Northeast and North Western Railways. Vinay Chhajlani is CEO of 'Nai Dunia' Vinay Chhajlani son of Abhay Chajlani has been elevated from Director's post to that of Chief Executive Officer(CEO) of Hindi daily titled "Nai Dunia".Vinay who is a product of BITS ,Pilani & is known for his innovative approach is the founder MD of first newsportal in Hindi titled "Webdunia". FORUM CSS can not match Group A officers G Yogesh Let there be equal opportunities Gentlemen, IAS bashing is going too far. Let there be equal opportunities for all competent and talented officers from all services. Not only the officers from Central Services should be given opportunities of postings in places generally occupied by IAS but IAS should also be posted in Income Tax, Excise and Customs, Railways, CBI, etc. etc. etc....the list could be long. Amar Nath CSS officers are custodian of rules Views expressed by Shri K.P. Singh about CSS shows his bias towards this service. CSS officers are never negative minded. Actually there are vested interests who do not have any regard to rules/regulations laid down by the government and want to achieve their personal goals by twisting the rules in their own favour or in favour of their peers. It is CSS officers who are custodian of rules and regulations and advise their bosses accordingly about what is wrong and what is right. The job of CSS officers is to analyse situations vis-a-vis rules so as to present plausible alternatives to decision makers. They are not recruited to please their bosses. Most of the policy papers are initiated by CSS officers and officers favoured by K.P. Singh like persons simply carry out grammatically corrections. Their original contribution in most of the cases is nil. It is not the field experience which counts but it is the analytical power of an officer, which CSS officers, undoubtedly posses, in no lesser proportions than members of other services. In fact officers of IAS and other group A services after coming on central deputation learn rules from CSS officers and only thereafter search ways and means to manipulate them for their personal benefits. It is because of CSS officers that rules are followed, no matter to whatever little extent those are being followed otherwise there are very few others who care for rules. Views expressed by Shri K.P. Singh sounds like - if you favour muslims only then you are secular otherwise you are communal. Interpretation of rules in their right perspective is not negative mindedness rather twisting them to one's personal benefit is wrong. Because CSS officers interpret rules in their right perspective, which many a times may have prevented persons like K.P. Singh from meeting their personal interests, CSS officers are being branded as negative minded. S P Agarwal Discrimination in CSS A CSS officer who is included in the select of Section officers of the year 1983 through departmental examination is still Under Secretary(24th Year after becoming Section Officer). Those who became Section Officers after 10 years(1993 batch) are also Under Secretaries. A direct Recruit who appeared for examination in 1982 and who joined service in 1984 as SO is now Director. There can be no doubt about the existence of some gap between a Direct Recruit and a Promotee but can anyone tell me about such rampant discrimination in any other service? The real issue is about the victimisation of promotee officers which happens only in CSS. It is not about class war among CSS officers. K R Gatti CSS officers only put road blocks I do not agree that CSS officers should only occupy DS and Director level posts. Most of them are negative minded and put only road blocks. It is only the young blood of AIS and Central services who have field experience should be appointed. Most of them are negative and fritter their energies in interpreting the rules. One of the point of negative mental attitude is their staying in Delhi for life and if one remains in one place they simply be come arbitrary. It should be considered to get 505 posts to the AIS and Central services at the US level. There should not be any guarantee for the promotion K P Singh What a system ? I agree with Sridhar that our bureaucratic system is totally lopsided.
Merit and job requirements are not the benchmark criterion for selection
for any assignment. 'Servicism' being perpetuated is having quite a
parallel to 'Casteism'. Someone is already asking for quotas! What a
system? Aaj Ki Aawaz Because of their Commie mindset Commies seem to have lost it!!! Bharat Kumar ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Corporate War in the offing ! The manner in which Mittals are planning to expand their base in India indicates that they are going to enter into a Corporate war with Ambani. Given the scenario, what will be the future of other business houses including Birlas and Tatas. K L Dhingra to join as HUDCO's CMD on August17,2007 K.L. Dhingra, presently Director (Finance) of Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation Limited who was appointed as Chairman and Managing Director of Housing and Urban Development Corporation Limited (HUDCO)on August 17,2007. Dhingra will be holding the new charge for a period of five years or till he attains the age of superannuation, whichever is earlier. (We said this on August 10,2007) Rao is CMD of TN Industrial Explosives V. Varaprasada Rao has been appointed CMD of Tamil Nadu Industrial Explosives Limited. He has replaced S. Gopalakrishnan, Managing Director, who has been tranferred as Special Secretary to State Industries Department. Lifestyle's end of season sale Lifestyle International has announced its End of Season sale- this
year's most irresistible sale in the country. With the start of Lifestyle's
50% off sale, this may be a better time to shop than any other.Customers
can now avail irresistible offers that include upto 50% off on leading
brands such as United Colours of Benetton, Arrow, Levis, Blackberry's,
Indian Terrain, Zodiac, Provogue, Pepe, Allen Solly, Wills Lifestyle,
Nike, Adidas, Lee, Melange, Van Heusen, Basics, Colourplus and Esprit.Customers
shopping with their ICICI credit or debit card have an added attraction.Shopping
for more than Rs. 2000/- gets them a coupon, an entry into the exciting
contest by Lifestyle.Three lucky couples will win two return tickets
to Singapore. Birlasoft figures in Magic Quadrant Birlasoft India Ltd has been positioned in the niche players section by Gartner Inc in its Magic Quadrant for North American offshore application services, 2007.This industry thought leader analysis comes on the heels of NASSCOM's evaluation which placed Birlasoft among the top 20 software exporters in India. The Gartner report has assessed the companies on two parameters viz. ability to execute and completeness of vision.Hailing this company's Chief Operationg Officer(COO)Avinash Singh said "Birlasoft is on a rapid upward trajectory enabled by its sustained and unrelenting commitment to enhance customer experience.We believe Birlasoft's positioning in Gartner's Magic Quadrant is yet another testimonial to our planning and execution abilities." Proteans is in RedHerring top 100 Asia award finalists Red Herring magazine of which Editor-in-Chief is Joel Dreyfuss has announced that Proteans Software has been selected as one of the 200 Asia-Pacific region finalists, forerunners of the prestigious Red Herring 100 Asia 2007 awards. The 100 winners will be announced at the Red Herring 100 Asia event in Hong Kong, China, on August 29-31.The Red Herring editorial team carefully selected the finalists based on criteria such as innovative strategies, technological leadership, focus on financial performance, quality of management and a passion to add value to customers and partners. The 200 finalists are based in 16 countries/regions including China, India, Japan, Singapore, Korea, Australia and Vietnam."Our selection by RedHerring recognition is a reflection of the impact of Proteans on software product development in a global economy",opined Prashant Singh Chief Operating Officer(COO) of Proteans. Sify integrates its consumer businesses In order to leverage synergies across access and online content Sify Limited Chairman & CEO is Raju Vegesnahas integrated its Portal www.sify.com, i-Way cyber café chain and Sify Broadband to Home services into one single business unit.The newly formed division will have Naresh Ajwani as President Consumer Infrastructure & Operations, leading the access initiative across broadband to home and cyber cafes while V Sivaramakrishnan will be President Consumer marketing.
Sameer Gangahar is ED Leo Burnett Sameer Gangahar will be Executive Director with "Leo Burnett"of which Managing Director is Arvind Sharma.He is going to join the new assignment in a couple of days. At present he is JWT's Vice-President where he was for over one and a half decade. Sujoy Nanawati to join Percept Sujoy Nanawati has been appointed as Assistant Vice President, by Percept/ H. Earlier he was General Manager with Rediffusion DY&R. L.P. Mahesh joins TBWA LP Mahesh has joined the TBWA's Chennai branch as a Creative Director art).Hitherto he served in the same capacity with Rediffusion DY&R.He will be based in Chennai. |
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Dr
Suresh Mehrotra has his lips sealed, if you have any whispers then send it to
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