Tag Archives: Valsa Nair-Singh

After the recent transfer of several IAS officers in Maharashtra, Nitin Gadre (IAS 1989 batch) who was Enquiry Officer at General Administration Department, has now been posted as Principal Secretary, Tourism and Culture, according to a report. Valsa Nair Singh, (IAS 1991 batch), Principal Secretary Tourism and Culture, has been appointed the Principal Secretary, Enquiry Officer, GAD, Civil Aviation and Excise.

In a bid to boost tourism, Maharashtra Tourism has signed an MoU with Ola. Under this MoU, the state tourism and Ola will set up a mutual system of cooperation based on the respective expertise, to reinvent the ‘Mumbai Darshan’ package with its own offers pertaining to Ola Rentals. These packages offer 10 hour rides or for 100 kms subject to the conditions provided on the Ola App in four categories namely Mini, Prime Play, Prime Sedan, and Prime SUV. The Mumbai Darshan package will cover 10 must visit destinations of the city. Those identified are Gateway of India, Haji Ali, Juhu Beach, Bandra-Worli sea link, Hanging Gardens. Marine Drive, Shahrukh Khan’s bungalow ‘Mannat’. The locations can be modified basis the requirement of the customers. The first batch of exclusively co-branded Mumbai Darshan and Maharashtra Tourism cars were flagged-off by Jayakumar Rawal, Tourism Minister,  Government of Maharashtra, along with Valsa Nair Singh, Principal Secretary-Tourism, and Pranay Jivrajka, Founding Partner at Ola, in Mumbai on April 12, 2017. The state tourism department in association with Ola will train drivers in imparting information related to Mumbai Darshan, Bollywood trivia, details of heritage legacy and hidden gems. Pick up points across the city have been provided by Ola who are the official partners for the ‘Visit Maharashtra’ Campaign. Rawal said,  “Keeping in mind the global trends and the boom in the digital market scenario, we are glad to partner with Ola. Transportation is one of the most important areas where technology can make a big difference. Ola is a pioneer in public transport space and we are confident that this tie up will benefit the entire transportation ecosystem in the state. This not only lets …

P.P. Khanna, President, Association of Domestic Tour Operators of India (ADTOI) and Rajat Sawhney, VP, ADTOI, recently met with Valsa Nair Singh, Principal Secretary (Tourism & Culture) Govt. of Maharashtra, to discuss about the possibilities of organising ADTOI convention in the state. This was revealed during the ADTOI General House Meeting held in New Delhi. Both sides are listing out the deliverables to take the proposal forward, said Khanna. ADTOI also announced the formation of its various committees and the names of members who will be part of those committees. Khanna also revealed that state governments like Maharashtra, Gujarat, Punjab and Chhattisgarh to organize ‘State Specialist Programme’ for the benefit of members and their frontline staff. Chetan Gupta, General Secretary, ADTOI also informed the members about the study tour organised by Haryana Tourism to Kurukshetra.

The Government of Maharashtra has appointed Jaykumar Rawal as the new Tourism Minister as on July 8, 2016. Rawal took oath as Cabinet Minister and will also be handling the Employment Guarantee Scheme (EGS) in Maharashtra in his portfolio. He holds a degree in Bachelors of Commerce from Symbiosis University, Pune and degree in Business Management from Cardiff University, England. He takes over from Prof Ram Shinde. On taking over charge of his new role as a Tourism Minister, Rawal immediately had a meeting with Madan Yerawar, State Minister Tourism, Government of Maharashtra and higher officials of Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) including Valsa Nair Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary, Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra; Satish Soni, Joint MD, MTDC; Swati Kale, GM, MTDC, amongst other Head of Departments. He reviewed the current tourism projects and provided valuable guidance and direction to the Department of Tourism during the meeting. On the appointment Rawal said, “My key focus will be to advance the current tourism scenario in Maharashtra through implementation of new policies aimed towards tourism growth and skill development. We have great platforms like Visit Maharashtra 2017 campaign and SAARC Summit in Aurangabad in the pipeline. The Tourism Ministry will soon announce the launch of creative contests for logo designing for Visit Maharashtra 2017 campaign and tagline for Maharashtra Tourism.”

Maharashtra Government will provide financial assistance of upto Rs 50 lakh to persons who wish to set up their tourism business under its Start Up scheme. This was announced by Valsa Nair Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary,  Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra. She added, “The coming two years are very important for the progress and prosperity of the tourism sector. The year 2017 will be celebrated as Visit Maharashtra Year and the year 2018 we will be celebrating completion of 200 years of the discovery of the world heritage Ajanta Caves by British officer John Smith. A campaign to promote tourism destinations of Maharashtra all over the world will be undertaken aggressively under Visit Maharashtra 2017. In 2018, many events will be hosted to attract international and domestic tourists to Ajanta and other destinations of the city. There is a huge scope to organise Food Festival and Handicraft Festival in the city, apart from Golf Tourism. A proposal to set up Buddhist Centre on MTDC’s 900 acres land at Ellora is under consideration.” The three-day Ellora-Ajanta Festival will be held with the help of the MTDC from October 14 to 16, said the principal secretary suggesting the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation to run an excursion bus to conduct City Tours connecting all the tourist places. She also underlined the need of enhancing the air connectivity of Aurangabad with cities like Jaipur, Udaipur, Nagpur and Pune other than Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. Mentioning the need for hosting film shootings at Ellora, Ajanta and other important places in Aurangabad, Smt. Valsa Nair Singh commented “The countries like Switzerland and Spain witnessed a boom in tourism due to film shootings. A beeline was formed to see …

The Ministry of External Affairs will organise the country’s first SAARC Tourism Summit in Aurangabad, Maharashtra, in the second week of October. The announcement of the two-day summit, also being aimed at tapping FDI under Make in India and Make in Maharashtra schemes, was made by Valsa Nair Singh, IAS, Principal Secretary Tourism and Culture, Government of Maharashtra at the Sensitisation Session on Aurangabad Tourism Development Program organised by the State Government, Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and the Confederation of Indian Industry in Aurangabad on July 4, 2016. Highlighting the reasons behind the decision to host the summit in Aurangabad, Singh said, “The Ajanta-Ellora caves have always remained the biggest tourism attraction in the state among foreigners and Indians. The historical silk route and connect of the place with the Buddhist circuit across world, including China, is significant. Ajanta also has one of the world’s best visitors centre with several life size replicas of Padmapani (sculptures of Buddha). All these are reason enough for Aurangabad to be the preferred choice. The conference aims at promoting Aurangabad and other destinations of Maharashtra.” “The Department of Tourism (DoT) is trying to seek appointment of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the event. On the first day, officials from SAARC (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) countries, which include Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, would attend the conference. On the second day, the ministers of tourism from these countries and from Indian states would participate.” Singh said.

The new Maharashtra tourism policy will come in effect from April 1, 2016. The Maharashtra government has targeted an investment of about Rs 30,000 crore through the new policy which is expected to give a huge boost to the travel and hospitality industry in the state. Valsa Nair Singh, Principal Secretary Tourism & Cultural Affairs, Government of Maharashtra, who has been spearheading this, feels that the new policy will turn out to be the biggest launch pad for Maharashtra to reach to the top spot in the list of destinations for travellers. Apart from the regular databases and guidelines which the policy will be looking at, we have announced a very big basket of incentives for tourism investments. There is a VAT subsidy of 50-75 per cent depending on different slabs for any investments in Maharashtra apart from the luxury tax exemption, entertainment tax exemption, stamp duty, etc. We have also launched the single-window clearance for all investments related to hospitality businesses,” she says.

Maharashtra is in high level talks with the Chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust to upgrade the port for cruise terminal. Valsa Nair Singh, Principal Secretary Tourism & Cultural Affair, Government of Maharashtra, said, “We have had a series of meetings with some of the biggest cruise liners when we were at WTM London last year that led us to think in this direction. There is a high-powered committee set up by the Ministry of Shipping to promote cruise tourism. The Secretary of Tourism, Secretary of Shipping and the Chairman of the Mumbai Port Trust have had some meetings on that already. One of the areas which has been highlighted is the infrastructure in the port terminals. As per the requirement Cochin port trust has completed the infrastructure work on one of the best cruise terminals. Maharashtra now needs to have a cruise terminal separate from a normal port because one cruise liner brings in so much business to the destination. I have written to the Mumbai Port Trust chairman and discussed with him to step up our infrastructure in the Mumbai terminal. We will work out an upgradation plan for this and the MoT will fund it under the Swadesh Darshan scheme. The short term plan is to ensure easy immigration and customs with the current infrastructure.”