Amitabh Bachchan Most Likely To Replace Aamir Khan For 'Incredible India' Campaign
A ctor Amitabh Bachchan, brand ambassador of Gujarat tourism, is the Modi government's first choice as the new face of its 'Incredible India' campaign after actor Aamir Khan's contract with the agency ended, a government sources have said. "Amitabh Bachchan will be the first choice of the ministry for the job," a Tourism Ministry source said, adding actors Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra are among those under consideration. Describing the veteran actor as a "non-controversial" figure, he noted that Mr Bachchan was the key face for promotion of tourism in Gujarat which has seen an "upsurge" after he was appointed last year. Mr Khan, whose comments on perceived intolerance in the country late last year had invited flak from BJP, ceased to be the mascot for the campaign as the contract for it
expired. "It was the (private) agency which has hired him. Since the contract with the agency is no more, automatically the arrangement with the actor no longer exists," Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma had said yesterday. Mr Khan today said he respected the government's decision to "discontinue" with his services while making it clear that he never charged anything for the 'Atithi Devo Bhava' campaign. "It is the prerogative of the government to decide whether they need a brand ambassador for any campaign, and if so, who that ambassador should be," he said in a statement.
Tourism Minister Likely To Hold Meeting To Discuss Taj Entry Issue
Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma is likely to hold a meeting with officials of his ministry this week to discuss issues related to security and ticketing at tourist sites, days after over 2,000 tourists were reportedly turned away from Taj Mahal due to capacity constraints. The meeting is expected to discuss the issue of tourists being denied entry at the iconic monument in Agra on Christmas eve despite having bought tickets as security staff had found the premises "overcrowded", a source said. Tickets for entry to Taj Mahal are sold both over the counter as well as online. "Union Tourism and Culture Minister Mahesh Sharma will hold a meeting with the officials this week to discuss various issues relating to tourists sites and the measures to enhance services," the source told PTI. The Minister is likely to discuss issues such as security, ticketing and cleanliness in and around the tourist spots across the country, the source said. The recent issue of 4,000 people not being able to buy tickets for Red Fort because of the huge rush on New Year's eve is also expected to come up for discussion during the meeting, according to the source. Tourism is one of the areas that the Government is focusing on to shore up revenues as well generating employment. As per the official data, foreign tourist arrivals (FTAs) were 71.03 lakh during January-November 2015, a growth of 4.5 per cent over 67.94 lakh during the corresponding period previous year.
Delhi To Host World Culture Festival
The capital will host the first World Culture Festival, a three-day event celebrating cultural diversity and Art of Living's 35 years of service to humanity, in March. The Art of Living is a global movement founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. To be held between March 11-13, 2016, the World Culture Festival will bring together people from different cultures, nations and faiths as a one world family in a resounding message of peace. The event, supported by the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism, Sangeet Natak Akademi, Lalit Kala Akademi and the National School of Drama, is expected to host people from over 155 countries. "The World Culture Festival emphasises on co-existence, demonstrating the power of peace by bringing millions of people together. It is an opportunity for world leaders from cultural, social, political, business fields to come together to rekindle human values in the pursuit of happiness and peace," Sri Sri Ravi Shankar said in a statement. he fest will have a seven acre stage to seat artistes, dignitaries and guests with an objective to bring a wide variety of music, dance and other
art forms from India and across the globe on one platform. Also, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar will lead a 'Peace Meditation' on all three days.
35 Seconds Compulsory Wait To Book Tickets On Railway Website
The Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) has taken a slew of measures including a 35 seconds compulsory wait to book tickets online through its website to facilitate hassle-free booking by genuine ticket seekers. Now it is not possible to book ticket online before 35 seconds mandatory wait as it has been done to prevent faster booking by unscrupulous elements using any other means, said IRCTC Chairman and Managing Director AK Manocha today. "Though it takes about 35 seconds minimum to fill the form followed by bank transaction online, there were cases of faster bookings by touts using certain automated softwares and thereby depriving genuine passengers," Mr Manocha said. "We have taken certain security measures to prevent manipulation of the ticketing site and at the same time the site has been upgraded with a substantial investment to enable the system to book 15,000 tickets per minute," he said. Asked why 35 seconds wait, Centre for Railway Information System (CRIS) MD Sanjay Das said this is the minimum time required to fill the information necessary for booking ticket online. "We cannot make it any longer otherwise there will be a long queue which will again be counter productive," Mr Das said. "CRIS provides the software to IRCTC. About the possibility of hacking the site to cause disruption in the service," Das said foolproof arrangements have been made to prevent any unauthorised intrusion or hacking of the site. "We have engaged Standardisation Ticketing and Quality Control, a website security audit expert, to check the system and they have certified that the site is safe," Mr Manocha said. "There has been attempts being made by about 18,500 times in the past to intrude into the system which can be called as denial of service attackers. We have taken necessary security measures to prevent such incidents," Mr Das said. Online booking of train tickets has gone up to 58 per cent of the total tickets booked by railways. IRCTC, a railway PSU launched next generation e-ticketing system in April, 2014 to cater to the increased online booking demand. It has spent about Rs. 180 crore in the last five years to strengthen the system. In order to facilitate the genuine passengers, Tatkal booking time has been staggered from 10 am to 11 am for AC classes and 11 am to 12 am for non-AC classes. Mr Manocha said a total of about two lakh Tatkal tickets are booked in a day. In 2014-15, a total 183,021,842 tickets were booked on IRCTC ticketing site. There were about 14.9 crore tickets booked till December 2015.