This half-hour journey into history, organised by the Ithihaas Premi Mandal, is being shown at the Navin Marathi school, Ramanbaug. "History must be made interesting, that is why we have chosen to use modern technology and special effects. We choose episodes from history that have a message for children and will instil in them a curiosity about history," said Mohan Shete, a history teacher and founder of the mandal.

Established in 1999, the mandal also conducts educational trips to forts and organises slideshows on historical places for schoolchildren, to enhance their awareness about the historical locales in and around Pune.

The tourism ministry is working out the rating system in consultation with its health counterpart and the private sector. It has also roped in the Confederation of Indian Industry for help. Incentives are also being offered to the private sector to help boost medical and cruise tourism.

In the last three years, India has attracted nearly 60,000 overseas patients, including non-resident Indians (NRIs), who have come to the country for various treatments like dental care, hip and knee replacements and bypass surgery. At present, there are about 20 patients from Tanzania who are undergoing medical treatment in India, said Chowdhury.

Building on the 23 per cent growth in foreign tourist arrivals in 2003, India is witnessing a 26 per cent rise in international arrivals and 41 per cent rise in foreign exchange earnings this year.

• Government data indicates that India had received 2.62 million foreign visitors during January-October against 2.12 million in the year-ago period.
• Foreign exchange earnings through tourism have also risen from $2.8 billion during the ten-month period in 2003 to $3.85 billion in the corresponding period this year.

Rajesh Divakaran and Lijin Jose's Poll Tourism attracted close to 70 foreigners during the April-May general election and the duo are now targeting next month's Onam harvest festival. Poll Tourism was the first major project of Signal Post, the company that Divakaran and Jose established last year. Foreign tourists were taken on boats on the campaign trail of candidates in the Alappuzha, Thiruvananthapuram and Varkala Lok Sabha constituencies.

The tourist season all set to begin with the commencement of the Onam festival next month, and Divakaran and Jose are now in the process of designing tour packages around the famous snake boat races for foreign and domestic visitors. They say tourists would be able to experience and directly participate in the ethnic boat races from the early preparations to the grand finale. "It will give tourists greater involvement and excitement than being mere viewers as they will be able to literally feel the spirit of the race. This will definitely bring in more business to the backwaters," Divakaran said.

The duo has also launched Ayurveda Tourism aboard a fully equipped houseboat. Also planned are special packages for IT firms.

None of India's cities looks like Singapore. Though many efforts have been made to make Pune look better there are many lacunae that diffrentiate a beautiful global city from an ordinary city.

Suggestions:

Roads have to be beautiful and it can be done by

1. each road must have pavement irrespective of whether it is large or small road on both sides. the pavement must be of good quality and marked with white and black colours on the side which is the junction between the road and the floor of the pavement.
2. the road should not be left undone at the edges. in developed nations, the road or asphalt covers the entire surface and doesn't leave any area between the road and the pavement. the asphalt should cover all rest of the non pavement area.
3. tree plantation along road side must be given top priority. the trees should be chosen esthetically-like Singapore. the airport road of Singapore is the best-one row of palm trees used at center of road which acts as road divider and one row of palm trees each at each side of the road.

   active help from Singapore and Japan must be sought for road beautification, tree plantation pattern, decoration of squares, road bifurcations. indian private companies can be given subcontracts to beautify road. the Amby Valley is a great example where sahara group has developed roads like Singapore. they must be asked to repeat the same in Pune.

   (Click on "Full Story" for more.)

Forest officials allowed the Eco-Development Committee (EDC), made up of youth from the village, to collect taxes from tourists. Without taking any money from the Forest Department, the youngsters spent nearly all of the Rs 10 lakh they collected from tourists last year in cleaning up the park with the help of 26 sweepers and hundreds of mules.

An Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer, Sitling and her colleague A.K. Banerjee, DFO, Valley of Flowers National Park, were responsible for successfully implementing the ‘Manage people to manage animals’ approach, giving the park a fresh lease of life. “When I took charge in June 2001, the park was in ruins,” said Jyostna Sitling, director of the Nanda Devi Biosphere Reserve. “Our basic aim was to involve the 76 families from Bhyundiar village, who are dependent on the park for their livelihood, and involve them in a long-term conservation process.”

Intending to give Delhi an image overhaul, Choudhury — who was wooed by a Frenchman in her younger days — said it will be designed as a one stop shop for fun and a haunt for jet setters. Plans are already afoot to set up night bazaars, and all-night cafes. Unlike Dilli Haat, which has the stamp of babudom, Choudhury wants upmarket stuff.

Mrs. Choudhury said the Tourism Ministry should organise special evenings over dinner at the monuments. She feels barring entry to these monuments should be dumped to enable people to visit monuments at night. “Why can’t people visit historical sites during a full moon or simply order dinner in Humayun’s Tomb?” she asks. So a visit to the Qutub Minar need not necessarily be a conducted tour by ill-informed guides but an elegant evening that would capture the ambience while recounting history.

But Delhi will not be robbed of its traditional character. Underlining plans to revive the lost glory of Chandni Chowk and India Gate, Choudhury said that buggies on Rajpath would be a common sight. The sound and light shows would be fine-tuned too. “I see no reason why we cannot recreate the era. I want to see the man selling potato chips dressed in period costumes,” she said.

Besides coming out with a no-frill tourism package for youth and domestic tourists, the ministry was also contemplating launching a 'Learn India, Love India' campaign to promote tourism. "The programme may also include promotion of seven tourist spots and make it part of the seven wonders of India package," she said.

She added the sector could be the answer to many problems of the country such as unemployment besides generating a whopping foreign exchange reserve.

She identified lack of service apartments, paying guest accommodation and low-budget hotels as main hurdles in promoting many tourist destinations in the country.

Choudhary also talked about various initiatives to be taken by the ministry including

• introducing tourist police - Emphasising the importance of providing safety to foreign tourists, the minister said the Central government will try to convince state governments to have tourist police near the tourist destinations.
• establishment of souvenir shops,
• local culture festivals,
• facility of cycle renting hubs at tourist places
• heritage walks to create awareness about the spot.

Goa would maintain its status as permanent venue for the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) inspite of the change in government at the Centre, Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar said on Thursday. "IFFI is part of the international calendar and its venue cannot be changed. But there is no reason to change the venue just because the government at the Centre has changed. I will be meeting the I&B Minister as well as the Prime Minister next month to brief them," Parrikar told reporters.

Holding IFFI was always a dream project for Parrikar. However, with five months nearly gone, around four months of heavy monsoon ahead, the various projects being completed by the end of the year is actually in great doubt. Expressing confidence that all projects would be completed before the October 31 deadline, the Chief Minister said: "All these are expansion programmes and except for the construction of a multiplex, the work involve upgradation of already present structures. It should not take much time."

The Vaishno Devi Shrine in the Trikuta Hills.

Pilgrims to the Vaishno Devi Shrine will find their uphill journey greatly eased as plans are afoot to decongest the route in the coming year. The Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine (SMVD) is planning to decongest the 11-km uphill route from the base camp in Katra to the "durbar" or the main shrine in the Trikuta hills by introducing separate routes for ascent and descent. At the moment, there is only one track that is very congested because of the huge and ever-increasing rush to the shrine.

The SMVD is also planning to dispense with the long queues for darshan, a proposal that has come as a big relief to pilgrims. The waiting period for the darshan, which varies between 4 and 12 hours, will be reduced to 15 minutes if all goes as planned. "All this is being done to ease the pressure and to make the pilgrimage easier for the pilgrims," said J&K Governor Lt. Gen. S. K. Sinha (Retd.), who is also chairman of the shrine board.

The project is likely to be completed in a year's time. Plans are also afoot to construct an ice-temple at Him Koti - which will incorporate the history of the pilgrimage - to add attractions en route to the shrine.

Four and five star hotels in the city have witnessed a steady stream of foreign visitors, enough for them to bend backwards to add more services to their list. Whether it’s food, entertainment, weekend offers or providing internet facilities, the hotels are making sure that their new foreign patrons feel cosy.

"Today, foreigners form 50 or sometimes even 60 per cent of our clientele. Until last year, the number never exceeded 25 per cent. With this influx, we have added more food festivals to the schedule — almost 18 to 24 in a year. Our buffet selection changes according to the nationality of our guests — most of whom are West European and North American," says Jaswinder Narang, general manager, Le Meridien. A month ago, the hotel also began a complimentary sight-seeing tour where they can take a tour to city landmarks like Shaniwarwada, the Raja Dinkar Kelkar museum and the Osho Meditation Resort.

Theme Dream

• A four-acre lake garden at a quarry in Maharshinagar which will include a jogging track and about 30 coconut trees which have been transplanted there.
• Shyma Prasad Mukherjee garden near Patwardhan baug where trees have been planned according to nakshatra philosophy and a great number of climbers are to be added.
• VD Vartak garden on Mutha river side near Omkareshwar. This three-acre longish garden will also have a jogging track.
• The Pu La Deshpande garden being developed as a cultural point on Sinhagad road.
• The erstwhile garbage depot at Kothrud is being developed into a garden of seven acres. Land has been levelled, a jogging track is being created and plantation will start in June.
• The medicinal herb garden at Kondhwa where though the infrastracture is in, the planting will start this June.

"In the last four years several people have been forced to take participate in the Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) and this has added to the number of retirees. A large unorganised labour force also faces a similar problem. So I tend to view this whole problem in the larger context.

The city has contributed to the growth on India on a very large scale and with able leaders to guide the people of this city, Pune's sucess will soon be a talk of everyone's household around the world.

Pune Festival which is considered to be a mega event was started by Mr. Suresh Kalmadi and has been one of the main attractions during the Ganesh Festival.