|
|
|
|
Road to tourism full of potholes
Meanwhile, pharma units at crossroads
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Major Bisht decorated
Dehradun, March 20 With Major Sunder Bisht, an officer of the Intelligence Corps in the Indian Army, awarded the coveted Shaurya Chakra by President Pratibha Patil at a function held in New Delhi on Thursday, Uttarakhand has maintained its tradition of producing gallant soldiers.
Know the grass under your feet
|
|
Road to tourism full of potholes
Chandigarh, March 20 It won’t be wrong to say that if Kashmir is God’s heaven, then Uttarakhand has to be the place of his abode, which is why it is also called the ‘devbhoomi’ (land of the gods). Rightly so, tourism has been identified as one of the priority sectors to achieve inclusive growth. The Annual Report 2008-09 of the Planning Commission, the Eleventh Plan and Annual Plan proposals highlight the continuous emphasis on development of this sector. Uttarakhand is the first state in the country to have created a tourism development board by legislation in 2001. To develop a high-quality sustainable infrastructure, facilities and products in the prime tourism zones of the state, the Uttarakhand Tourism Development Master Plan for 2007-22 has been made in coordination with the Central Government, UN’s Development Programme and the World Tourism Organisation. Seven zones have been identified beginning with Uttarkashi, Pauri, Chamoli, Nanital, Almora, Pittoragarh and Haridwar, wherein their unique resources will be highlighted for tourist activities. “The focus is on eco-tourism, religious and adventure tourism. Rafting is fast gaining popularity. Apart from the Ganges, many other seasonal rivers are being looked at to make rafting a year-round sport. We have about 112 trekking routes, so adventure tourism has immense scope. Also, six national parks, six wildlife sanctuaries, two conservation reserves and rich biodiversity provide congenial conditions for eco-tourism,” says Ajit K Singh, Joint Director, Uttarakhand Tourism. The real bottleneck in realising the full potential of the tourism industry is lack of world-class infrastructure. As hills constitute 50 per cent of the total land area, prime emphasis has to be on construction of roads and bridges across the state. Identified tourist zones should have better road connectivity from Dehradun, Haridwar, Rishikesh, places where tourists arrive most, along with hotels, water and power facilities. “The government knows how important infrastructure is. Around 800 various construction schemes are under way. As many as 11villages identified for rural tourism are being provided with logistic support : training local people, electrification, water connection, construction of roads, etc,” says Singh. Official statistics show there are only 8.4 tourist rent houses, 102.5 hotels and guest houses, and 337 beds per million tourists. To mitigate the problem of inadequate hospitality infrastructure, the government launched the Veer Chand Garhwali Programme in 2002, in which each household was to have a separate room for tourists. Under the scheme, the state government provided loan and 25 per cent subsidy for the same. If the government is to be believed, the bed capacity has been enhanced to 10,000 so far. “This model is also good as a self-employment scheme, ensuring the benefits of local tourism actually reach the villagers. The state government has identified less developed cities, which come under the B category. To encourage locals to put up their own hotels, they are provided with subsidies up to 40 per cent,” said a senior manager of Hotel Aketa on Rajpur Road. In fact, 500 small and medium hotels have already come up. The state is witnessing a gradual increase in the arrival of foreign and domestic tourists. However, foreign tourists’ share is not very satisfactory, less than 1 per cent. Overall, tourist arrivals in Uttarakhand are much lower than arrivals in India, only 3-4 per cent visit the state. This situation has remained unchanged since the state was created in 2001. Since plains have better infrastructure as compared to hills, 67 per cent of the total tourists visit plains alone. Interestingly, 40.73 per cent of foreign tourists foray into hilly areas, suggesting if better facilities are provided the figure can swell further. As of now, with the exception of Rishikesh, Haridwar, Dehradun and Nainital there is little awareness about other regions as tourists destination. “Uttrakhand can replicate a few models from the neighbouring state of Himachal Pradesh for increasing the tourist flow like the Home Stay Scheme, wherein the tourists are invited to stay with local families to know the culture closely. This not only takes tourism to the interiors but give a major fillip to the rural economy too,” says Prof Narinder Kumar Sharma, former GM, Himachal Tourism. “Local people, local tourism; this has to be the focus. A few selected villages’ unique selling point should be explored and promoted at an extensive level. Give training to local people to act as guides, mountaineering assistants and enhance the capacity of service providers, who are local people,” adds Sharma.
Effective marketing
“Uttrakhand….simply heaven!” This is the punchline of the state tourism. The hilly state is being promoted as tourism destination both nationally but internationally also. Recently, the state participated in tourism and travel fairs organised in Berlin and London. Auli is being promoted for winter games; Rishikesh and Haridwar for adventure and religious tourism. Results have started to show up as tourists from Europe are increasing. “Proper marketing and projection of the state is necessary. People from tour, travel, tourism, aviation, hospitality, transportation and other fields should come together and bring out suggestions and solutions for the better development of the industry,” said Ajay Gupta, MD, India Travel Mart, one of the private players roped in by Uttarakhand. All said and done, the fact remains the state doesn’t have a world-class airport, the one at Jolly Grant needs to be upgraded and connected to the railway station. More airplane strips are required in hills. Cable cars and ropeways can help in reaching inaccessible parts. A wide network of roads has to be established. Taxes levied on tourist vehicles at multiple points must be rationalised, which are 500 per cent higher as compared to Himachal Pradesh and J& K.
|
|
Meanwhile, pharma units at crossroads
Dehradun, March 20 With the aim to attract industry, including pharma in Uttarakhand, the central government had provided a special industrial package in 2003, which included tax holiday for new industrial units in the state. Entrepreneurs dealing with pharma manufacturers came to the state in a big way as the excise tax waiver gave them a great advantage over pharma units in other states that were being levied excise tax to the tune of 16 per cent at that time. This encouraged pharma industries arriving in the state, making an investment to the tune of Rs 2000 crore. But this honeymoon of the industry with Uttarakhand proved shortlived with excise tax in other states having been reduced substantially over a period of time from 16 per cent down to 8 per cent and now to 4 per cent after the stimulus package. This has come as a rude shock to the industry. Also, as these industries bring raw material from other states, they will further suffer losses doing business in Uttarakhand due to the involvement of high transportation costs. By the end of this financial year, as the stimulus package comes into implementation, 250 drug-manufacturing pharma industrial units will be directly affected. Sources maintain as many as 120 pharma companies are contemplating shifting out due to this development, paving the way for the first-ever major shift of pharma industry from the state. A total of 10,000 people stand to lose their jobs in the process. Perturbed, Drug Manufacturing Association president Pramod Kalanee said the middle-rung pharmacies felt cheated as the very reason that saw them shifting base to Uttarakhand stood nullified with the implementation of the new flat excise structure. “Pharma industries had come to Uttarkhand taking into account the excise waiver but that advantage no more exists ,” Pramod Kalanee said, adding that middle pharma units in Uttarakhand today were on the crossroads. “We were assured 8 to 9 per cent of excise tax difference for a period of 10 years, which needs to be maintained,”Kalanee added. He held that it was the responsibility of the state government to come up with some kind of cost cuts to maintain that advantage to these industries. Most of these companies, incorporating the latest technology in collaboration with bigger companies, were rearing to challenge the might of the established drug companies. They had also added specialised knowledge, particularly in the area of biology, chemistry, pharmacology and clinical science to produce better results. Now these companies are in a piquant situation. Uttarakhand Drug Controller DD Upreti admitted that the pharma industrial set-up could get affected due to the flat excise tax structure. He said 120 pharma industries were on the verge of shifting to other states, which included pharma industries in the industrial zones of Haridwar, Roorkee, Selaqui and Pant Nagar. He said these industries were involved in preparation of formulations, nutrceuticals and cosmaceuticals products. Fearing the worst, the Uttarakhand unit of the Indian Industries Association has decided to approach the state administration.“I am meeting the Chief Secretary on March 26,” said the association president.
|
|
Major Bisht decorated
Dehradun, March 20 Major Bisht, who is currently posted in New Delhi, has been awarded the Shaurya Chakra for the gallantry shown by him during an operation in 2007. Displaying courage and intelligence during the encounter that took place on the night of November 11, 2007, at Tinsukhiya, Assam, Major Bisht managed to rescue a woman from the clutches of armed ULFA men, who had taken over a house in the area. In the encounter three ULFA militants were gunned down. Major Bisht hails from a sleepy village, Devlikhet, in Almora district. During an IQ test in Class 10th, the invigilators wrote on his answersheet that he was perfect for direct entry into the Indian Army. From then on, he always nurtured the dream of becoming one. After completing his training at the Indian Military Academy (IMA), he was commissioned on June 7, 1997. Albeit Major Bisht is the first fence forces from his village, his Shaurya Chakra is the 10th received by armymen from Almora district. The state has 99 Shaurya Chakras in its kitty now. Apart from this, Major Bisht has also received several other honours, including the Chief of Army Staff Commendation Card (2005), General Officer Commanding-in-Chief Commendation Card (2006) and Mention-In-Dispatch (2007) during the past three years. Major Bisht’s father Chinta Singh Bisht used to drive a tourist taxi. Due to financial crisis, his family shifted to Mumbai, where Chinta Singh earned a livelihood by driving a taxi. “Despite being a taxi driver, he made immense efforts so that his son could achieve his goal,” said family members of Major Bisht. Notably, 15 per cent of Uttarakhand’s total population comprises ex-servicemen. Out of nearly 85 lakh, around 1,37,000 ex-servicemen and their widows are registered with the state government. More than 65,000 men are serving in the armed forces and a many are a part of paramilitary forces. During the Kargil war in 1999, out of the 572 officers and men who died fighting, 75 were from Uttarakhand. The Garhwal and Kumoan regiments are the backbone of the infantry of Indian Army.
|
|
Know the grass under your feet
Dehradun, March 20 “Grass forms the largest family of the flowering plants in India and are taxonomically a difficult group as they look alike. This has made these appreciably neglected by researchers and therefore, we decided to hold a workshop to spread awareness regarding the variety of species grown in our country. The workshop can help people to take up studies on grasses working in different government organizations, universities and NGO’s of northern zone of India,” said Dr. SP Joshi, organising secretary, Department of Botany, DAV College. Presently there are around 1,291 species of grass are found in our country and under the Ministry of Forest and Environment a project called All India Coordinated Programme on Plant Taxonomy (AICOPTAX) had been running to identity and conduct research on them. Domesticated grass such as wheat, rice and sugarcane have got attention of people, but due to difficulty faced by past explorers in identifying the species name have lead to shortage of hand books on Indian grass providing less material for the lovers of Taxonomy to take it up seriously. “ Its very true that people know a lot about the domesticated grass, but as grass forms one of the largest flowering plants and one of the most However, as compared to other states Uttarakhand contributes at least 25 per cent to the species of grass. Out of 1,291 species of grass at a national level, around 481 species are found in the state, which makes it a rich state in the field of flora. “Under AICOPTAX project we have identified 481 species within the sate and had called experts from Wildlife Institute, Forest Research of India (FRI) and research specialist to discuss the problem faced in the field and research specialist to discuss the problem in details faced in this field as well to establish a network for better facilities in our state. “The species which are identified by experts are given authenticity after approval by International Herbia located at FRI and BSI,” said Joshi.
|
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
The industry finds itself in a piquant situation due to the reduced central excise tax structure for pharma industrial units outside Uttarakhand, making the state pharma industry uneconomical vis-à-vis pharma units in other states. The situation has forced manysuch units to shift out from Uttarakhand. 