Tag Archives: Ministry of Culture

Lily Pandeya has been appointed as the Joint Secretary, Ministry of Culture. Pandeya is a 1998 batch Indian Railway Personnel Service (IRPS) officer. According to the order released by Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions, she will be assuming charge of the post for a tenure of five years or until further orders, whichever is earlier. Before this, Pandeya was appointed as the Executive Director, Railway Board, Ministry of Railways, Government of India.

Korea Tourism Organization has announced an Online Korea Grand Sale 2021, Korea’s representative culture and tourism festival for travellers from January 14 to February 28, 2021. The online event is hosted by Ministry of Culture, Sports & Tourism and Visit Korea Committee to target foreign travellers. The Online Korea Grand Sale brings popular K-contents such as ‘Korean Tourism Product Purchase Promotion’ for travel to Korea, ‘Korea Online Video Program’ for local experience of Korea, and ‘Online Shopping Promotion’ providing special discounts.

With the pandemic having had a substantial impact on in-person exhibitions and events, Ministry of Culture has issued guidelines for holding cultural events and activities in virtual or online mode under various scheme components of Central Sector Scheme ‘Kala Sanskriti Vikas Yojana’ (KSVY), ensuring continued financial assistance to tide over the present crisis.

Ministry of Culture has constituted new ASI circles in six states. Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of Tourism & Culture, announced, “In MP, Jabalpur has a new circle; for Bundelkhand (UP), Jhansi will be a separate circle and for South UP, Meerut; in Gujarat, Rajkot will be the second circle; Hampi and Delhi will be full circles; in Tamil Nadu, Trichy and in West Bengal, Raiganj will be separate circles.”

Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism & Culture, has revealed that they have decided to launch a social platform along with the states where authentic and factually correct information is put up and it can then be shared with agencies, tourists, online aggregators, hotels, tour and travel companies. “It will be a platform by MOT, and the information available on this would mean that we have taken consent from states and have talked to the stakeholders of these states, and then we have allowed any traveller there. If everyone is not in agreement, then there are chances that they go to a state, airport, or destination and they must stay there, then it will be a dent in our trust. Hence to take such a precaution, we have thought about this platform, and it will be there for everyone,” he said.

Indian Association of Tour Operators (IATO) has requested the Ministry of Culture and the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) to reduce the entrance fee for foreign nationals at ASI monuments, charging them the same as it would charge the nationals of SAARC countries. This, it requests, should be extended till March 31, 2022 and will help inbound tour operators reduce the package cost. The move will also help spread the message to the international travel community that India is more than willing and ready to welcome foreign tourists. The reduced fee and in turn a reduction in the package cost would enable inbound tour operators to start selling trips to India as soon as the country opens for international tourism.

The Ministry of Culture has developed three virtual experiential museums at Man Mahal in Varanasi, Ajanta Caves at National Museum, Delhi and Humayun Tomb in Delhi informed Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C) of Culture and Tourism. Two more such museums are under development. The Ministry has also proposed to set up a National Virtual Experiential Site Museum at Vadnagar, Gujarat. In 2016, the Ministry of Culture was given the task of establishing Virtual Museums in at least 50 locations.

India Tourism Development Corporation (ITDC) has recently signed a MoU with Hyderabad-based firm, Suraas Impex for developing a mega tourism destination project at Bhairav Lanka in Kakinada, East Godavari District of Andhra Pradesh at an estimated cost of Rs 550 crores. This is the first-of-its-kind project for the state-owned ITDC, which got preferred against several private contenders. ITDC will be the Consulting Agency as well as Implementing Agency for the DPR and the execution which shall be taken up in three stages, i.e., preparing the DPR, implementation of project costing around Rs 550 crores and implementation of second phase of the project. ITDC has been the prime mover in the progressive development, promotion and expansion of tourism in the country. The Division has completed 67 infrastructure projects for Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Culture and various state governments. The division has also prepared more than 85 DPRs for various tourism projects in the country. The corporation provides Engineering Consultancy Services through its full-fledged Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services Division. It undertakes development of tourism infrastructure projects from concept to commissioning.

The Ministry of Culture has offered a total of 116 ASI monuments to the Ministry of Tourism (MOT), which would then be open to PPP model, it was revealed by Rashmi Verma, Secretary of Tourism, in a meeting with FAITH recently. Under the PPP model, these monuments will be taken over by private players for the upkeep, maintenance and to be illuminated for night tourism as well.

N. K. Sinha, Secretary, Ministry of Culture, has been given the assignment of additional charge of the post of Secretary, Ministry of Tourism with immediate effect and until further orders. He is an IAS officer of Bihar cadre, 1980 batch. This announcement came after the superannuation of former Secretary-Tourism, Vinod Zutshi.