President launches ‘Adopt a Heritage’ project on World Tourism Day
NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Wednesday launched the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ initiative on World Tourism Day, under which heritage sites will be entrusted to public and private enterprises and individuals for maintenance.
The initiative — launched along with ‘Incredible India 2.0 Campaign’ — is an attempt to boost Indian tourism with “greater focus on digital presence and social media”.
Under the ‘Adopt a Heritage’ Project, those entrusted with the development of tourist amenities at the adopted sites would be known as ‘Monument Mitras’.
Speaking at the launch organised by the Tourism Ministry, Kovind called the Indian tourism industry as one of the largest in the world.
“Its evolution can be gauged from the fact that the number of tourists across the world has increased from 2.5 crore in 1950 to 123 crore in 2016.
The tourism industry contributes NEW DELHI: The Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) on Wednesday approved Rs 25,060 crore for police modernisation over the three fiscal years till 2019-20.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told reporters after a meeting of the Union Cabinet that the central government would contribute around 80 per cent of money earmarked for police modernisation. “The CCS has cleared an umbrella scheme for police modernisation. Rs 25,060 crore has been approved for 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20,” he said, adding that the share 10.2 per cent of the Domestic Product.
It is estimated that every 10th person in the world works in the tourism industry,” an official statement quoted Kovind as saying.
“In India too, the livelihood of a very large number of people is linked to the tourism industry.
In 2016, tourism’s contribution to Indian GDP was 9.6 per cent, and 9.3 world’s Gross of central government will be Rs 18,636 crore and that of states Rs 6,424 crore.
Special provision has been made under the scheme for internal security, law and order, women security, availability of modern weapons, mobility of police forces, logistics support, hiring of helicopters, upgradation of police wireless, National Satellite Network, CCTNS project and E-prison project, said Rajnath Singh. Under the umbrella scheme, he said, the central budget outlay of Rs 10,132 crore has been earmarked for internal security related per cent to total employment,” it said.
The President said that a rise in tourist activities in the country could help in the generation of permanent jobs and eliminating poverty.
Alphons Kannanthanam, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Tourism, pointed out India’s improved Tourism Competitive Index ranking of 40 as against 52 in 2015.
He said India was a destination which meets the needs of all travellers and called upon the tourism industry leaders to innovate with visionary ideas. The President unveiled the new ‘Incredible India’ website at the event and gave away National Tourism Awards to several states and other stakeholders in the industry.
In 2016, India welcomed 8.80 million foreign tourists, an increase of 9.7 per cent over the previous year.
This year, it has maintained a growth rate of 15.7 per cent in foreign tourists’ arrival, the government said. expenditure for Jammu and Kashmir, the northeastern States and Left Wing Extremism (LWE) (Maoist) affected states.
The scheme of Special Central Assistance (SCA) for 35 worst LWEaffected districts has been introduced with an outlay of Rs 3,000 crore to tackle the issue of underdevelopment in these districts, he said, adding an outlay of Rs 100 crore has also been earmarked in the northeastern states for infrastructure upgradation, training institutes and investigation facilities. — IANS