World Tourism Day is commemorated every year on 27th September by United Nation – World Tourism Organisation (UNWTO).
The event seeks to highlight the contribution of the tourism industry in reaching the Sustainable Development Goals.
It is celebrated this year with the theme Sustainable Tourism – a Tool for Development.
In December 2015, United Nation General Assembly designated 2017 as the International year of “Sustainable Tourism for Development”.
Incredible India 2.0 Campaign
President of India launched Incredible India 2.0 campaign and “Adopt a Heritage” project on the occasion of World Tourism Day.
The campaign will focus on developing at least 10 cities where the spirituality quotient, medical and wellness potential will be promoted.
At present cities from UP — Ayodhya, Agra, Mathura, Varanasi-Sarnath, and Gorakhpur, Haryana -Kurukshetra, Assam - Guwahati, and Tamil Nadu - Kanyakumari have been identified for developing tourist circuits.
The tourism ministry has set itself a target of completing this exercise of developing cities by October 2018.
“Adopt a Heritage” project entails encouraging students, public sector and private organisations to participate more actively in the maintenance of Indian heritage.
Global Competitiveness Index
India has been ranked the 40th most competitive economy on the World Economic Forum’s global competitiveness index.
On the list of 137 economies, Switzerland emerged on top followed by the US and Singapore.
India has slipped from the 39th position to 40th.
Among the BRICS, China (27th rank) and Russia (38th rank) are placed above India.
According to the report, India’s performance improved in infrastructure, higher education and training, technological readiness and ICT indicators.
A big concern for India is the gap between innovative strength (29th rank) and technological readiness (107th rank).
BRICS Interbank Cooperation Mechanism
Union Cabinet has given its approval to EXIM Bank for signing Interbank Local Currency Credit Line Agreement.
With this agreement, the bank can now enter into bilateral agreement for co-financing with large developmental institutions to ensure lending in single currency.
Bank also signed MoU related to credit ratings, which would enable sharing of credit ratings amongst BRICS member banks.
The agreement and the MoU have been highlighted in the BRICS leaders Xiamen Declaration adopted in BRICS summit, 2017.
India Mobile Congress
The first ever mobile, internet and technology event – India Mobile Congress 2017, was recently organised.
It is organised by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry association of mobile and telecom operators and internet firms.
Department of Telecommunication is the nodal ministry.
The event is seen as a true example of a public- private collaboration where the government and the industry have put together a world class event in India.
Lunar Station
Russia and the United States agreed to co-operate on a NASA-led project to build the first lunar space station.
The project envisages building a crew-tended spaceport in lunar orbit that would serve as a gateway to deep space and the lunar space.
Source: PIB, The Hindu, Business Line and Business Standard
