Tourist Visa-on-Arrival Scheme

The Ministry of Tourism had conducted “A Study on Tourist Visa on Arrival Scheme” through Indian Institute of Tourism and Travel Management (IITTM) in 2011. The key findings of the study are given below:

1.            A majority of tourists availing Visa on Arrival (VoA) visit India for purposes of holidaying.

2.            Independent tourists are using VoA.

3.            The immigration officials provided timely and dependable service, were willing to help and clear doubts and were well informed.

4.            VoA significantly influences the decision to travel to India.

5.            A majority of the immigration officials view that VoA scheme is a step in right direction of promoting inbound tourism to India.

6.            Immigration personnel supported extension of VoA to other airports.

The port-wise Visa on Arrival for the last three years and the current year along with the growth rate is given below:

Port	2010	2011	2012	Jan-Oct, 2013
Chennai	1211	1948	2273	2210
Delhi	3493	7340	9596	8829
Kolkata	334	657	939	1099
Mumbai	1511	2816	3276	3286
Bangalore				174
Hyderabad				68
Kochi				75
Trivandrum				29
Total	6549	12761	16084	15770
Growth over previous year (in %)		94.9	26.0	28.5

           

            The Tourist Visa on Arrival (TVOA) facility was initially available to citizens of Finland, Japan, Luxembourg, New Zealand and Singapore in 2010.  This was extended to citizens of Cambodia, Indonesia, Vietnam, Philippines, Laos and Myanmar in 2011.  Presently, it is not proposed to extend the Tourist Visa-on-Arrival facility to more countries.  As regards Airports, the said facility was extended to four more airports viz. Thiruvananthapuram, Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Kochi w.e.f. 15.08.2013.

            The provisions relating to two months gap between two visits of a foreign national to India on a Tourist Visa and Tourist Visa on Arrival has been reviewed by the Government. It has been decided to lift the restriction of two-month gap on re-entry of foreign nationals coming to India on Tourist Visa and Tourist Visa on Arrival.  However, this relaxation does not include nationals of Afghanistan, Maldives, China, Iraq, Pakistan, Sudan, foreigners of Pakistan origins and Stateless persons.

            The benefits that accrue when VoA is implemented by any country are as follows:

i.          Reduction in planning time for the international tourist intending to travel to an overseas destination.

ii.         Attract repeat visitors.

iii.        Enhance the image of the country as being “tourist friendly”.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Tourism (I/C) Shri K. Chiranjeevi in a written reply in the Lok Sabha. 

Solar Heater and Lamp

Ministry is providing central financial assistance (CFA) upto 30% of the Benchmark cost of the equipment in Solar Water Heating systems and Solar Photo Voltaic systems such as solar lanterns, home lights, street lights and stand alone PV power plants.

This CFA is same for entire country, except for special category states, UT islands and International Border districts, where CFA is upto 60% for Solar Water Heating systems and upto 90% for Solar Photo Voltaic systems for Government organizations in certain categories.

            Ministry is conducting workshops, award distribution functions and releasing information to various stakeholders and in public domain to create the awareness among the people, which inter alia include:

Ø       National Workshop on Solar Water Heating Systems in New Delhi

Ø       Regional Workshops for Industrial / Hospital / Institutions sectors at Pune, New Delhi, Dehradun, Mysore, Bhilwara, Guntur, Bangalore, Thane, Hyderabad, Ghaziabad, Jammu, and Chennai

Ø       Solar Water Heater Users’ Handbook and SWH Trainers Manual

Ø       Advertisements in electronic and print media and Organizing Exhibitions

Ø       National helpline & Toll free no 18002334477

This information was given by the Minister of New and Renewable Energy Dr. Farooq Abdullah in a written reply in the LokSabha. 

UPA Government has Enacted Various People Friendly Laws

UPA Government has Enacted Various People Friendly Laws
Manish Tewari Distributes Grants of Rs. 70 lakh for Various Development Works

Union Information & Broadcasting Minister Sh. Manish Tewari has said that the UPA Government at the Centre has enacted various people friendly laws for the benefit of all sections of the society including the farmers. Addressing a large gathering at village Lohara of Ludhiana district today, he said now it is for the states to pass on the benefit of central laws to the people without any discrimination. Sh. Tewari asserted that development must be uniform and indiscriminate. He said that it is unfortunate that the states were presenting various welfare schemes like food Security Act, Pradhanmantri Gram Sadak Yojna and other similar schemes as their own.

Sh. Manish Tewari distributed cheques of grant of Rs. 70 lakh from his MP’s Local Area Development Fund to the different village for the various development works and also lays foundation stones of various projects. Tewari said that his purpose was to properly distribute the money from his MPLAD fund across the constituency.

The grant were distributed for constructing streets, health centre , Dharmshala, cremation grounds and mobile water tankers to the various village of Dakha and Ludhiana south assembly segment . Present on the occasion includes former MLA Jassi Khangura , DCCU President Pawan Dewan and Ashok Prashar Pappi.

State Level Consultative Workshop on “Empowerment of Panchayats”

A State Level Consultative Workshop with the Elected Representatives of 3 tier Panchayati Raj Institutions on “Empowerment of Panchayats” was organised jointly by Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Govt. of India and State Institute for Rural Development (SIRD), Panchayati Raj Department, Govt. of Odisha. on 02.12.2013 at, Bhubaneswar.

The aim of the workshop was to discuss ways in which the Panchayati Raj Institutions can be strengthened from the perspective of responsible, responsive, accountable, transparent, effective and efficient local governance system.

The main focus of the workshop was to find out the key issues such as Gram Sabha ,its quoram, participation of women and people from disadvantaged groups, special Gram Sabha etc, devolution of powers, PESA Act and Forest Right Act, Panchayati elections, SFC and pin-pointing on key deficiencies for preparation of a future course of action towards empowerment of Panchayats.

More than sixty Elected Representatives of PRIs ranging from ward members of Gram Panchayats to Presidents of Zilla Parishads from all over the state participated in the workshop.

The Particpants deleberated on the various issues pertaining to PRIs like – Gram Sabha, Palli Sabha, Role of PRI in Poverty Alleviation Programmes, Provision of need for Local Area Development Grant at PRI level, Role of PRIs in the implementation of various programmes, effective implementation of Forest Rights Act and PESA Act, provisioning of an ideal infrastructure at GP and PS level like rest place for visitors, toilet facilities, livelihood opportunities, plan for mainstreaming the gender in development, reducing Child Sex Ratio, their trafficking, social audit etc .

PM's media statement after the All Party meeting ahead of the Parliament session

It is a short session of Parliament and it should be everybody’s efforts to make the best and optimal use of a limited time which is available to the two Houses of Parliament. On behalf of the government, we will do everything in our power to ensure that both the Houses run smoothly and in this matter we seek the cooperation of all segments of the two Houses.

Question on Telangana.

Our Government is committed to the formation of Telangana and it will be our effort to make full use of the due process of law to ensure that Telangana does come about.

India’s cooperation sought to develop film industry in Afghanistan

Director of Afghan Film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’, Sediq Abedi wants that India should help to develop film sector in Afghanistan. In an interaction with media persons along with his cast and crew at the 44th International Film Festival of India (IFFI), he said that Afghan people love India and its film. He said, due to prolonged turbulence in Afghanistan, the film industry has collapsed and film making, its marketing and infrastructure facility is not available to show the commercial films in the country. Abedi said that as India is helping in rebuilding Afghanistan, the Indian film industry and the government should come forward to develop the film industry too in Afghanistan. He informed that there are only about 20 film theatres which are not even capable to run high budget films.

Abedi said that in the last 66 years, this is the first feature film which was filmed in Afghanistan itself to show the reality of his country. It was a challenge for the crew and technical team which came from India and Tajikistan for the two months long shooting. He said, ‘we tried to establish the cultural and social realities of the country in the film and want to release this Dari language film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’ in India with Urdu and English subtitles.’

For the establishment of film industry in Afghanistan, the Producers of the film Murad Hamidi and Sabruddin Rahmani have sought India’s help to train Afghani talents in the film making field.

The actress of the film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife’, Takhmina Rajabova, a Tajik, has acted in nine films in Tajikistan and two films in Afghanistan. She said that she is acting as the third wife in the film. It was a challenge for her to work with the crew from India.

The film ‘A Man’s Desire for A Fifth Wife, reflects the thousand year’s old custom which occurs in a village at the north of Afghanistan. It tells the story of violence against women. A man with old traditions wants to get married for the fifth time; despite having four wives already. The story shows the suffering of women in their society. The story also portrays all aspects of the age old culture and traditional game Buzkashi or Oghlak with thousand horses.

The cast and crew of the film thanked and praised the 44th IFFI for providing a wide platform for filmmakers to have cross cultural interaction and share art and ideas of filmmaking.

MHRD to Provide for 5000 Faculty Positions in Higher Education

The Ministry of Human Resource Development proposes to provide for 5000 faculty positions in the higher education under the Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) during the current Five Year Plan, ending 2017. Support will be provided to fill positions in the category of Assistant Professors or equivalent cadre against vacancies. A fixed amount of Rs. 5.8 lakh per year for each faculty position will be given by the Centre and any excess over and above this amount due to higher scales, grade pay or DA increase has to be borne by the State Government. The 99,000 crore rupee programme was approved by the Union Cabinet last month to boost the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) to 30% by 2020 from the present about 19%.

All the State universities will be eligible to receive grants under this programme. The recruitment process will have to adhere to UGC norms and regulations. The funding priorities are as follows:

• Commitments of States to take over the liability of faculty positions at the end of the scheme (after 5-8 years, depending on the year in which such positions are sanctioned).

• Priority will be given to those states where more recruitment has taken place in the universities and colleges during the last 3 years.

• Lowest number of unfilled faculty positions.

• Better student-teacher ratio.

• Priority will be given to new institutions.

• Second priority shall be given to those states which have a faculty-student ratio between 15:1 to 20:1.

• States with more than 20:1 ratio will have to first commit to sanction and fill positions to bring down the faculty-student ratio ration to 20:1.

IFFI 2013: Celebrating ‘Soulful’ Asia

The renowned Iranian film maker Majid Majidi will open the ‘Soul of Asia’ segment tomorrow at the 44th IFFI in Goa. Introduced last year as a special segment, ‘Soul of Asia: Cinema of Mysticism’ will celebrate spirituality, so much integral to the way of living in this part of the globe, in the same vein this year.

The segment will open with the screening of ‘The Patience Stone’ by the much acclaimed Afghan-French author, Atiq Rahimi. The movie, in a war-torn Afghanistan, sears into the recesses of a woman’s soul searching life beyond existence.

The other films in the section include Mohsen Makhmalbaf’s ‘The Gardener’, Pan Nalin’s’ ‘Faith Connections’ and Vincent Sandoval’s ‘Apparation’. ‘Indian Master of Masters: Osho brings into focus the mystic’s contemporary creative interpretations and insights into the wisdom of world masters.

Annual Conference of DGPs and IGPs to begin today

The Annual Conference of Directors General of Police/ Inspectors General of Police of States, Union Territories and Heads of the Central Police Organisations(CPOs) will be held here from Nov 21-23, 2013. The Conference will be inaugurated tomorrow by the Union Home Minister Shri Sushilkumar Shinde. The Hon’ble Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh will address the Conference, release Commemorative Postage Stamp and present President’s Police Medals for Distinguished Service to the awardees on Nov 23, 2013.

The Conference would discuss and deliberate on the ways and means to make the cutting edge level policing resourceful, effective, professional and service oriented so that it inspires confidence among community. The Conference would also deliberate on making Police Stations as nerve centre of all activities pertaining to anti-naxal operations in terms of gathering of hard intelligence, planning field operations, identification of gap areas in implementation of various developmental schemes and co-ordination among various Government departments.

The issue of cyber security would be deliberated upon and suggestions would be made to address the various terror related activities.

The social media is intimately linked with freedom of expression and has become a preferred means of communication for millions of people. The Conference would deliberate on the ways to ensure that the medium is not put to invidious use and mechanism to counter it.

The Conference would in detail discuss the issues of improving generation of intelligence and its quick dissemination through the platform of Multi Agency Centre (MAC) and Subsidiary Multi Agency Centres(SMAC). The Conference would deliberate on improving the functioning of State intelligence units and how their inputs can be dovetailed into MAC/SMAC network for better coverage.

The Conference would also discuss major security concerns and the need for addressing the same collectively by all agencies. The Conference would deliberate on further consolidating the peace processes in the North-East.

A complete session has been devoted on controlling riots by using non-lethal means in which police leaders from different States would share their experiences of dealing with agitations with minimum casualties. Another session in the Conference has been earmarked to sensitize police on its role as key responder in disaster management.

The Conference would discuss strategies for making police forces more sensitive towards minority sections. The Conference would also emphasise the need for developing early warning systems to prevent communal conflagrations and evolve a suitable response strategy.

44th IFFI heralds beginning of new century for Indian Cinema: Shri Manish Tewari

Shri Manish Tewari, Minister for Information and Broadcasting has said that the commitment of the organisers of the festival got doubled as the 2013 edition of IFFI marks the completion of hundred years of Indian cinema and heralds beginning of the new century in its journey. Addressing the mediapersons before the inauguration of the 44th International Film Festival in Goa, Shri Tewari said the festival is a celebration of the spirit and essence of cinema. He described the extravaganza as a unique project in federal-state partnership. It has been successful in creating a model of working in close conjunction with each other, he added.

While presenting an overview of the annual feat, the Minister said, ‘what we showcase here is a platform for diverse thoughts’. He said that this cultural event celebrates different ethos and milieus exposed on screen. Underscoring the highlights of the festival, Minister said that the film Industry is magnificent in its diversity. As the event puts focus on North-East Cinema this year, the Chief Minister of Meghalaya, Shri Mukul Sangma has been requested to open the segment, he informed.

Speaking on the occasion, Shri Bimal Julka, Secretary ,Ministry of Information and Broadcasting informed media that foreign films have 10 packages while Indian films have 13 packages. The National Museum for Indian Cinema is being set up in Mumbai and National Film Heritage Mission (NFHM) will come up in Pune, he added.

From Medicine to Direction

Snigdha Singh is the happiest mother as ‘Tamaash’ , a Hindi short film produced and directed by her sons Satyanshu Singh and Devanshu Singh, got selected for screening at the ongoing 18th International Children Film Festival India in Hyderabad.

“Like every mother I feel happy when I find my sons as great achievers, even though it is their first success, said Snigdha Singh.

Speaking to PIB, Mr. Satyanshu said that he was much interested to make art films rather than the comedy commercials. When I was a small kid itself, my mother educated me about the movies, he said.

“In this industry the more we have to look for is hard work and dedication as the interest and influence is not enough to shine bright. Despite being a Doctor, I made my entry because my parents believe that I am very good at the creative field.

I am elated to be a part of the film festival in Hyderabad as it is his first short film which is getting a great applause from all around the world” he said. “Even though he attended many other film festivals this is the first time I am attending and it is much interesting to be here, she said.

National Integration Week

With a view to foster and reinforce the spirit of Communal Harmony, National Integration and pride in vibrant, composite culture and nationhood, the “Quami Ekta Week” (National Integration week) will be observed all over the country, from the 19th to 25th November, 2013.

The National Foundation for Communal Harmony (NFCH), an autonomous organization with the Ministry of Home Affairs also organizes communal harmony campaign coinciding with the Qaumi Ekta Week. The foundation also provides financial assistance for relief and rehabilitation of children rendered orphan or destitute in communal, caste, ethnic or terrorist violence.

The week long programmes to be observed during Quami Ekta Week (Nov.19-25th,2013) include National Integration Day (Nov.19), Welfare of Minorities Day (Nov.20), Linguistic Harmony Day (Nov.21), Weaker Sections Day (Nov.22), Cultural Unity Day (Nov.23), Women’s Day(Nov. 24) and Conservation Day (Nov.25) .

Meeting of Consultative Committee of Information & Broadcasting

Minister for Information & Broadcasting, Shri Manish Tewari today chaired the meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry. The meeting discussed the Leveson Report and its relevance / implications qua the Indian milieu. A presentation on the Leveson Report and its relevance and implications in the Indian context was made before the members.

Welcoming the members, Shri Manish Tewari said that in the last two decades, the media landscape has undergone an exponential transformation. In both the Indian and the global context, certain structural paradoxes emerged, which required the focus of concerned, conscientious and committed stakeholders of the public discourse. While there were diverse interests in play in the media space the challenge was always to find the golden mean so that the concerns of different stakeholders could be taken into account. Shri Tewari added that the Leveson Report was being discussed before the Committee so that the issues raised could be debated and discussed and the implications in the Indian context could be analysed. While the Government had always supported the ‘Self Regulation’ mechanism in the media domain, of late, a need had also been felt even amongst the stakeholders that a model statutory underpinning the self regulation framework may be looked at. The Leveson Report was an example of a model that had been conceived in the British context after due deliberations and debate. He further stated that the endeavor would now be to also compare other similar models around the world and understand the implications and applications better juxtaposed against the Indian context.

Members of the Committee while appreciating the initiative of the Ministry in discussing the broad features of the report, emphasized that discussions should be broad based accounting for changes across the media space which included the broadcasting and new media also. Members also emphasized that while the current model was very country specific, an attempt ought to be made to discuss the matter with all critical stakeholders accounting for the diversity in the media space. Members also mentioned that the roadmap for the public broadcaster with regard to the regulatory mechanism could also be looked into so as to ensure a comprehensive analysis of the process. Members also felt that in order to ensure a roadmap for the future, it was necessary to outline institutional mechanisms which took into account the changes that were in the offing in the different media segments.

Members who attended the meeting included Dr. Anup Kumar Saha, Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal, Shri Shatrughan Sinha, Ms. Ramya Divya Spandana, Shri Ahmad Saeed Malihabadi, Dr. Barun Mukherji, Shri Bharat Kumar Raut, Shri M.P. Achuthan, Shri Mohammed Adeeb and Shri Pyarimohan Mohapatra.