“Visa on Arrival” Program – An Initiative to Enhance Tourism in India

India is a vast country packed with diversified cultures, traditions, religions and beautiful landscapes with a great historical value. All these and much more has made India one of the most adorable and lovable countries around the world.

But few factors are there that has made the tourists to rethink while choosing India as their holiday destination. And one of the most evidenced factors is the tough visa policy that has deteriorated the tourism in the country. According to a survey it is observed that in the year 2012, the number of tourists to India was 6.58 million which is comparatively lesser than that of the other Asian countries like Thailand and Malaysia.

After observing such a great deterioration in the tourism growth rate, the honourable Prime minister of India, Narendra Modi has initiated a unique appeal with an initiative called “Visa on Arrival” through which prospective travellers can apply a visa for at least 4 days before arrival and then it can be extended up to a month. For that applicants will have to submit a photo, copy of their passport and a fee of $60 online and once the visa gets approved they will receive “electronic travel authorization” automated email which they need to take a print out and show it while arrival along with their passports.

Currently 9 international airports are authorized with this service and they are Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Goa airports. And this arrival program is valid of nationals of 43 countries but until now only 12 countries have this permission including the United States of America, Japan and Germany.

With this idea the tourists can enjoy the diverse culture in New Delhi, a spa retreat in Kerala, a trip to one of the seven wonders of the world i.e. Taj Mahal in Agra, a visit to the tiger reserves in Madhya Pradesh, a peaceful week at the beaches of Goa and Odisha, expedition to the caves of Ajanta and Ellora, visit to the famous waterfronts of Varanasi, Colaba causeway in Mumbai, climbing up hill stations of Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand, a dive into the step wells of Gujarat and Rajasthan.

Hope this idea works and lets the world explore the incredible India!

Hold the Broom to Groom India into a Clean and Hygienic Country!

Imagine one fine day when you woke up and come out of your house to inhale some fresh air to begin your day with nature’s innocence but when you come out you find dirty plastics and other garbage in front of your gate smelling like hell! What would be your reaction? Of course it would not be good feeling at all!

So what would be your next step? Will you go and start cleaning the garbage off? Or ignore it and wait for someone else to clean it? Or simply blame the municipality corporation? And I know most of us will choose either the second or third option! And a very few will opt the first option!

Cleanliness is not merely a duty of a particular person or community! It’s the duty of every single person! If we will keep on blaming each other then we will reach nowhere! So stop blaming and accusing others and start doing itself! And see the effect.

Indian prime minister honorable Mr. Narendra Modi has initialized a movement known as “Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” which means “A Clean India Mission” where he is encouraging people to give importance to cleanliness. But is it only his encouragement and efforts will bring any change? No! Effort from each and every individual of India is necessary to make this effort a successful venture!

Once Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation said “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” He visualized cleanliness as a clean mind, clean body and a clean surrounding! So we can say it is the dream of Bapu that our PM is trying to fulfill i.e. getting a clean and hygienic India free from all diseases and impurities.

So let us join our hands together and turn Bapu’s dream true. Let’s start with cleaning our homes and surroundings first and get a clean locality and gradually we will achieve a clean city. And clean cities will lead to a clean state and hence a clean country.

Below are few inspirational quotes that will motivate us towards cleanliness:

“If everyone sweeps their own doorstep, their own neighborhoods, the world will be a clean, pure and healthy place for life to prosper.” ― Vishwas Chavan

“God loves cleanliness.

The environment must be kept clean.” ― Lailah Gifty Akita

Let us broom out unhygienic elements from our country and make it a completely clean, hygiene and safe for all and make our country the most sanitized one to show the world that we Indians are not laid backs in any field.

Let Us make a New India – A Powerful One

India is a land of culture and traditions and we all Indians are proud to be part of such a beautiful country. Although our country is not a developed one but is developing day by day at a great pace!  The IT sector is also establishing rapidly which is helping in improving the economy of the country. Many such good things are happening in India that is making it a powerful country. All these things are the brighter part of this lavishing country.

But there is a darker side too! Yes! A dark side of India! India was under the control of the British people for around 200 years but became independent with the courage and fighting spirit of the freedom fighters. But this independence was only meant for creating history and adding them up to the books for the younger generation I guess! As still we are not independent! Today not the British ruler but our own Indians have made us slaves. How let us see below:

• It is believed that with the progress of the country there is progress of the country people but here in India the entire concept is different. Yes here rich is getting richer and the poor is getting poorer day by day. The honorable politicians work for the poor people only when there is some election campaign as the poor people are only meant for vote banks. It is the result of the most talked factor called corruption! What the hell is this corruption all about? It is just a way to exploit the mob of the country.

• According to the Vedas, and other spiritual and traditional books women were worshiped but again these are the bookish things not the reality. Indian women are treated as a machine today! A machine that is only meant for sacrificing her own life for others like her husband, her children, her in laws and society. If she tries to raise her voice then the society chokes her throat. If she is a working lady especially if she works in the night shifts then the society calls her characterless and puts evil eyes on them. But why?

• Children who are born to poor families are destined to be poor like their family. There is a right in the constitution of India called right to equality and right to education but once again it is a written format which is maintained just for formality. As the child born to the poor family does not get the equal opportunity as a child of his age in a economically strong background family gets. Why such discrimination in this so called democratic country?

But just talking about these problems will not bring out any solution to them. We need to take some stronger actions against them. So let us take an oath today that we will fight against every injustice made to us together. As we all know “United we stand, divided we fall”, so let’s get united and make our country free from all the social and political diseases and have a strong,powerful and a really independent country!

Jai Hind!