Development of Buddhist Tourism in the Country

The Ministry of Tourism has attempted to develop Buddhist tourism in the country including in the State of Odisha by identifying integrated tourism circuits based on India’s unique civilization, heritage, and culture in partnership with the States, the private sector and other agencies.

 The circuits were identified for tourists from various countries including those from China, Japan, Korea and Thailand.

            The following three circuits to be developed as Buddhist Circuits in the country were indentified with the help of Central Government/State Government/Private stake holders:

Circuit 1:        The Dharmayatra  or the Sacred Circuit - This will be a 5 to 7 days circuit and will include visits to Gaya (Bodhgaya), Varanasi (Sarnath), Kushinagar, Piparva (Kapilvastu) with a day trip to Lumbini in Nepal.

Circuit 2:        Extended Dharmayatra or Extended Sacred Circuit or  Retracing Buddha’s Footsteps - This will be a 10 to 15 day circuit and will include visits to Bodhgaya (Nalanda, Rajgir, Barabar caves, Pragbodhi Hill, Gaya), Patna (Vaishali, Lauriya Nandangarh, Lauriya Areraj, Kesariya, Patna Museum), Varanasi (Sarnath), Kushinagar, Piparva (Kapilvastu, Shravasti, Sankisa) with a day trip to Lumbini in Nepal.

Circuit 3:        Buddhist Heritage Trails (State Circuits).

i.             Jammu and Kashmir - Ladakh, Srinagar (Harwan, Parihaspora) and Jammu (Ambaran).

ii.            Himachal Pradesh - Dharamshala, Spiti, Kinnaur and Lahaul.

iii.           Punjab - Sanghon.

iv.           Haryana – Jind (Assan), Yamunanagar(Sugh).

v.            Maharashtra -Aurangabad (Ajanta, Ellora, Pithalkora Caves), Pune (Karla Caves), Mumbai (Kanheri Caves), Pune (Bhaja Caves) and Nashik (Pandavleni Caves).

vi.           Andhra Pradesh - Amravati, Nagarjunakonda, Vizag (Borra Caves, Salihundum Caves).

vii.         Madhya Pradesh - Sanchi, Satdhara, Andher, Sonari, Murulkurd.

viii.        Odisha (Dhauli, Ratnagiri, Lalitgiri, Udaygiri, Langudi, Khandagiri).

ix.           Chhattisgarh – Sirpur.

x.            West Bengal - Kolkata (Indian Museum)

xi.           Sikkim - Rumtek, Enchay and other Monasteries.

xii.         Arunachal Pradesh –Tawang and Bomdila.

            Beside the above,  a memorandum was signed in the field of tourism on 22.01.2014 in New Delhi between Department of Tourism, Government of India of the Republic of India and the Japan Tourism Agency, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, Government of Japan. Government of India has also a bilateral Agreement/MoU on Tourism Cooperation with Republic of Korea (South) and Thailand.

This information was given by the Minister of State for Tourism (I/C)Shri K. Chiranjeevi in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha. 

BIS to launch Self Declaration of Safety Standards for low risk products

After successfully launching Self Declaration Scheme for manufactures of electronics and IT products recently, BIS has decided to expand its Product Conformity Assessment Scheme by launching Self-Declaration of Conformity to Indian Standards and Self-Declaration of Conformity to Safety Standards. 

These new schemes shall not require any visit to the factory by BIS scientists and the manufacturers shall be registered on the basis of testing of the product against Indian Standards in a BIS recognised laboratory. The new schemes shall initially be available for low risk products only.  

 This was announced by Prof. K.V. Thomas, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food & Public Distribution while addressing a press conference here today. A national design competition is planned for selecting the standard marks for the new Schemes launched by BIS.  

He added that it has been done to provide efficient BIS Certification services to Industries in India and abroad

Highlighting the recent initiatives taken  by Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS), the national standards body vested with the task of Standardization, Certification and Quality Assurance, Prof Thomas said  besides streamlining  the existing conformity assessment schemes, Tatkal Scheme has been launched for fast and easy grant of licence, within  30 days, under mandatory certification. 

Categorization of licences into 3 categories namely Star Licence, Normal Licence and Marginal Licence has been introduced whereby licenses are rated on the basis of their performance. The Marking provisions for other than quality parameters have been simplified.

 Prof Thomas said that  to further strengthen interests of consumers, BIS has decided to allow public to offer samples for testing wherever they have a doubt about the quality of the ISI /Hallmarked jewellery and reward suitably for the information of misuse of ISI mark/hallmark. 

Brand wise grant of licence is also proposed to be introduced, for protection of consumers and to help in controlling spurious/fictitious brands sold as quality products in the market. Market surveillance with well defined mechanism is proposed to strengthen the Conformity Assessment Schemes and to empower consumers with the knowledge of the manufacturers whose products they should buy/not buy.

The Minister said that to protect the consumers from being cheated while purchasing ISI mark product and hallmarked jewellery and for taking action against the unscrupulous manufacturers misusing ISI mark/hallmark, a unique identification number for each hallmarked jewellery article is being introduced as a component of the hallmark to ensure the traceability of hallmarked articles. 

Scheme for Testing of Public Samples has been launched to get the ISI marked product tested from BIS recognized labs and hallmarked jewellery tested from BIS referral lab. A provision has been made to refund the cost of product plus testing charges, in case the quality of ISI marked product/purity of hallmarked jewellery found to be lower than that declared/marked on the product/jewellery.

Prof Thomas said that the license fee for small jewellers has been rationalized based on the location of jeweller.  For example, the jeweller located in town having 3 to 10 lakhs population will be required to pay Rs.5000/- for a period of three years, whereas a jeweller located in a smaller town with population less than 3 lakhs will pay Rs.2500/- for the same period.  Further, the procedure for grant of licence has been simplified, to encourage more such jewellers to take license from BIS.

A Trade Facilitation Cell is proposed to be created in BIS, keeping in view the growing importance of standards and conformity assessment procedure in global trade.

 BIS operates Certification Schemes that assure quality, reliability and safety to the users.  It presently has over 40,000 licenses, including Product Licenses, Jewellery and Management Systems licenses.

National Geoscience Awards - 2012 Presentation Ceremony

The National Geoscience Awards-2012 will be presented by the Minister of Mines, Shri Dinsha Patel on 25th February, 2014 at 1100 hrs. at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.  The Minister of Mines, Shri Dinsha Patel will be conferring the awards in the presence of Secretary, Ministry of Mines & Chairman, Award Making Authority, Director General, Geological Survey of India (GSI) and other senior officials of the Ministry of Mines and GSI. National Geoscience Awards The National Mineral Awards Scheme was instituted in the year 1966 by the Ministry of Mines. Subsequently, in the year 2009, the scope of the scheme of awards was expanded and the awards rechristened as National Geoscience Awards (NGA).  The objective of these awards is to honour individuals and teams of scientists for their extraordinary achievements and outstanding contributions in the field of fundamental / applied geosciences, mining and allied areas to provide incentive for striving towards excellence. Any citizen of India who is a professionally qualified geoscientist / engineer / technologist / academician with significant contribution in any field of earth sciences is eligible for the award.  The awards are conferred on persons/teams who, in the opinion of the Award Making Authority, have made outstanding contributions in the particular field of their endeavour with due consideration to the totality of the achievements of the nominee(s). Nominations are invited annually for NGA under three categories viz. Award for Excellence (one no.), National Geoscience Awards (19 nos. in 16 fields) and Young Researcher Award (one no.). The award for excellence is conferred on an outstanding geoscientist / engineer / technologist / academician with an exceptionally high lifetime achievement for a sustained and significant contribution in any of the 16 decided disciplines.  The National Geoscience Awards are given to persons/teams in recognition of their meritorious contribution in any of the 16 disciplines.  The Young Researcher Award is given for outstanding research work in any field of geoscience to Researchers / Scientists from Universities, Academic and Professional Institutions and who are below 30 years of age on the 31st December of the Year of Award. The selection of the awardees is a three tier process involving screening by expert committees at two levels and the final selection by the Award Making Authority, chaired by the Secretary to Government of India, Ministry of Mines. Till date 671 geoscientists have been conferred with the National Geoscience Awards. National Geoscience Awards – 2012 For the year 2012, twenty seven geoscientists, including a young researcher, are being given the awards in eleven disciplines covering Mineral, Oil, Gas and Gas-Hydrates Discovery & Exploration, Groundwater Exploration, Mining Technology, Mineral Beneficiation, Basic and Applied Geoscience, Geo-environmental Studies and Ocean Development.  This year`s Young Researcher Awardee has made a mark in national and international forums for his outstanding work in the futuristic fields of carbon sequestration and nuclear waste management.

Two-day conference of Governors concludes at Rashtrapati Bhawan

The 45th Conference of Governors concluded yesterday (February 14, 2014) at Rashtrapati Bhavan.

The two day Conference had as its agenda - external and internal security environment, development issues in Scheduled Areas and North Eastern region, improving the quality of higher education and making disaster management more effective. 

The Conference was attended by Twenty-six Governors and three Lt. Governors. 

Reports were presented by different groups of Governors on topics such as the Role of Governors as a bridge between States and Centre; Areas under Sixth Schedule of the Constitution; North Eastern Council and related issues; Areas under the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution; Role of Governors as Chancellors of educational institutions in improving the quality of higher education and Disaster Management. 

Union Ministers of Defence, Finance, Home Affairs, External Affairs, Law and Justice, Tribal Affairs, Human Resource Development, Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission and Minister of State (Independent Charge) in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region addressed the Conference and participated in the discussions. 

The Governors and Lt. Governors appraised the Conference of the situation in their States/ UTs and important issues of concern. They made a number of constructive suggestions on how coordination between the centre and states can be improved, security strengthened and development activities speeded up. 

The President, Vice President and Prime Minister addressed the concluding session. 

In his remarks, the President said the Conference has discussed many pertinent and serious issues. There is need to strengthen our democratic institutions and Constitutional authorities. The Constitution provides enough space for the Governors to act in the best interests of both the Centre and the States. 

While the Central Government should extend support to Governors by consulting them on critical issues relating to the States and by providing easy access to key Ministries, Governors should use their persuasive skills to build consensus with State Governments on issues relating to the welfare of the people of the States. 

The President reminded the Governors that they are the first citizens of their states. They draw their authority from the Constitution and are oath-bound to protect, preserve and defend the Constitution and work towards the welfare of the people of their states. 

Describing recent incidents of racial violence involving people from the North East as extremely distressing, the President called for expeditious measures to assuage feelings of the people of North East. 

The President said the Ministry of the HRD should examine issues related to the role of Governors as Chancellors/Rectors of state universities in consultation with UGC. It should also keep the Governors fully informed of various schemes launched by it. 

Pointing out that Governors from States and UTs with international borders emphasized the urgent need for speeding up the building of border infrastructure, the President called upon concerned authorities to take necessary measures in this regard, including through the establishment of coordination mechanisms.

Hon’ble Chief Justice Exhorts Central Vigilance Commission to Work More Vigorously for Safeguarding the Trust of the People

Two day National seminar organized by the Central Vigilance Commission to commemorate its Golden Jubilee concluded here today. Speaking at the Valedictory Function of the seminar Chief Guest, Hon’ble Chief Justice of India, Justice P. Sathasivam, said that “Corruption is the biggest threat to democracy. In a healthy democracy, institutions must be independent and strong that help facilitate good governance, accountability and transparency. 

However, six decades of independence in our country have witnessed a steep rise in the magnitude and complexity of corruption in public life. Values in public life and perspective of those values have undergone tremendous change.

 It seems that the consequences of corruption are well known, perhaps not well realized. It’s because either we have given up hope of making our country a less corrupt or we have come to terms with corruption, accepting it as a facet of life. Both these attitudes are hazardous for working of democracy.” 

Hon’ble Chief Justice also added that “India, in the recent past, has been more vocal than ever before in denouncing the act of corruption. The Central Vigilance Commission must work more vigorously for safeguarding the trust of the people. Nevertheless, the problem of corruption is pervasive and the reach of vigilance institution is limited. 

While anti-corruption agencies are striving to address the widespread problem of corruption, their task cannot be truly accomplished without active participation of all the stake holders. It must be realized that corruption in our country not only threats the concept of constitutional governance, but also degrades the institution of democracy and the Rule of Law. 

Our Constitution does not grant the liberty to anyone to be corrupt. The efficacy of every single fundamental right: originally envisaged or a product of judicial activism, depends on immunity from corruption in public and political life. The Constitution of India envisaging a democratic culture, doesn’t permit the exploitation of public resources, power, position and preeminence for private gains. 

The Commission has been stressing on predictive, proactive and participative vigilance measures in addition to building up public awareness to fight corruption. The Vigilance Awareness Week, which is being observed every year at the instance of the CVC with different themes and focus, has been making good impact amongst all the stakeholders including the civil society. 

Role of media in combating corruption is equally significant. Today, we are in a transitional phase where old values are crumbling and new values are formed. Media also plays extremely vital role in our lives.

 It is like a mirror to the society, which reflects contemporary thoughts and actions, and shapes people’s perception. It wields enormous power to affect their opinion. In such a backdrop, media owes huge responsibility of disseminating true and fair information about scams or scandals. 

Neither the truth should be suppressed nor the untruth be exaggerated. An unbiased, ethical and fair publication can result into a virtuous cycle of transparent policy-making, clean government and faster economic growth.” 

Union State Minister for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pension and Prime Minister’s Office Shri V. Narayansamy also addressed the gathering.

 In his speech, Shri Narayansamy said that India can boast of some of the best drafted acts and most extensive institutions as far as the institutional and legislative framework, to fight the corruption is concerned., the Prevention of Corruption Act, criminalises corruption by public servants in the form of bribery, extortion and abuse of office for private gains. 

There is also Lokpal Act, Prevention of Money Laundering Act, etc. At the local level, some state governments have state laws that address specific aspects of corruption. The Right to Information Act represents one of the country’s most critical achievements in the fight against corruption in recent years. 

Minister also said that India is credited with having made considerable progress in terms of economic reforms. Now more focus given to Administrative Reforms and effective Legal Frameworks. The newly enacted Lokpal and Lokayuktas Act, to my mind, will be a potent weapon to take care of the process of institution building, as according to this Act, there will be a Lokpal at the Centre, and each State Government will be under obligation to appoint a Lokayukta.

 This gives us a tremendous opportunity to achieve some kind of uniformity and standardization amongst the Central and State Governments by reorienting the existing anti-corruption institutions, be it the State Vigilance Bureau, Lokayukta or any other body, and bringing more order to the existing complex web of anti-corruption bodies. 

An ideal situation would be where each State has a Lokayukta as per the provisions of the Act. Also, every State should have a State Vigilance Commission, on lines of the Central Vigilance Commission, to look into cases of corruption against State Government officials. 

On this occasion Shri Narayanasamy emphasized the need of a well defined code of ethics, and sufficient means of its enforcement and said that there is no single method for constructing an ethics infrastructure in public service.

 Rather, a combination of incentives and sanctions is needed to encourage professional standards of conduct. They, when combined with other relevant laws, promote openness and transparency by establishing processes that support the application of the latter. 

Some steps are already being taken to include psychological assessment at the recruitment stage, and inculcation of ethical values at the time of training to ensure that people with the right values are selected for public service. But there is a need to periodically reinforce and reaffirm these values amongst the employees. We are effectively addressing all these issues for the welfare of citizens. 

On this occasion, former Central Vigilance Commissioners and Vigilance Commissioners were felicitated by the Hon’ble Chief Justice of India and the Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances & Pension. A documentary on Central Vigilance Commission, produced by Doordarshan was also screened. 

Shri Pradeep Kumar, Central Vigilance Commissioner, Shri J.M. Garg, Vigilance Commissioner, Shri K.D. Tripathi, Secretary, CVC, Former CVCs and Vigilance Commissioners, Officers of Central Vigilance Commission, Govt. of India, and Public Sector Undertakings, Banks and other Institutions were also present on this occasion.