Tag Archives: Rakesh Kumar Verma

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism has been upgraded to the level of Additional Secretary, Ministry of Tourism by the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet. Verma is a 1993 batch IAS officer from Punjab Cadre. In a recent circular, ACC mentioned that they have approved the in-situ upgradation of many officers to the level of Additional Secretary to the Government of India, as a measure personal to them by temporarily upgrading the post held earlier.

New measures to boost bilateral travel between Sri Lanka and India came under review yesterday at the third meeting of the Joint Working Group. The virtual meeting was co-chaired by Ministry of Tourism Secretary, S. Hettiarachchi from Sri Lanka and Ministry of Tourism, Joint Secretary, Rakesh Kumar Verma from India. Almost two-thirds tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka in the month of September 2021 were from India, the High Commissioner mentioned that the easing COVID-19 situation in both India and Sri Lanka and the tourism promotion activities undertaken by the Government of Sri Lanka had been instrumental in the resumption of large number of tourist arrivals from India to Sri Lanka.

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Tourism (MOT), Govt. of India, has revealed that they have launched a champion sector scheme to boost MICE tourism in India. “The Champion Sector scheme reimburses part of the expenditure on hotel stay by the foreigners during events. We will start this scheme from 1st April this year. There are certain conditions but broadly for the first night’s stay, the GST charged on the stay will be reimbursed to the customer. MICE tourism is a very important component of tourism ministry and we are putting a lot of focus on developing this sector. India has great opportunity for growing this sector. We are trying to improve our rank and increase the number of meetings, which are happening in our country. As a Ministry, we will facilitate this bureau in taking this sector forward and growing this sector,” he said.

Rakesh Kumar Verma, Joint Secretary, MOT, will be travelling for ITB Berlin 2020 with a delegation of around 49 exhibitors, which will be led by Prahlad Singh Patel, Minister of State (I/C), Tourism and Culture. The format has been changed this time for ITB Berlin, as there will not be a presentation and press conference, but a panel discussion instead. “We will be having a breakfast meeting with the German FTOs in Berlin. We have a panel discussion on the first day, which will focus on global trends in tourism focusing on Incredible India and will be moderated by a CNN journalist. It will have around 5 panelists including German tour operators who will be talking about India and their experience. While there will not be a specific campaign for ITB Berlin, we will project the efforts we are taking and the whole range of offerings we have been developing at MOT. Apart from that we have small group engagements and one-to-one engagements at the VIP lounge at India Pavilion of ITB. We are trying to project India as an experiential and transformational destination for the travellers, which is one of the key messages that we are putting across,” he shares. “The Ministerial delegation would consist of 49 co-exhibitors, including state governments, tour operators, hotels, wellness centres, as well as Ayurveda society. We’ve taken a huge space of 705 sq. m. CMD, ITDC, will also be there. It will be a combined marketing effort by the Government and the stakeholders,” reveals Verma.