Excelsior Correspondent
MUMBAI, Dec 18: Indian Merchants’ Chamber (IMC), the country’s oldest Chamber of Commerce & Industry with a history over 150 years, today felicitated Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh for his passionate and proactive efforts in promoting tourism and trade in Northeast.
On the occasion, in the presence of IMC President Deepak Premanarayan, past President Pradeep Chenoy, Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal and leading Mumbai industrialists including Noel Tata, Niranjan Hiranandani, Pradeep Shah, Harish Mehta, Ramachandran, Sandeep Singhal, Bhavna Doshi, Prabodh Thacker, Deepak Kanodia, Farhat Jamal, Anjali Bansal and several others, a decision was also taken to set up a Northeast desk in Mumbai to promote tourist and trade investment from Maharashtra and other western parts of country in Northeast.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Jitendra Singh thanked IMC and the industry leaders for having responded to his initiatives to involve them in the promotion of Northeast. He also had words of profuse appreciation for Maharashtra Tourism Minister Jaykumar Rawal whom he described as young, energetic, highly well-read and focused in approach.
Dr Jitendra Singh said, Northeast has lot much to offer, but the attributes remain unexplored because people outside are either not aware of it or do not find it convenient to venture. He said, it is a strange contradiction that large number of tourists from Mumbai, Maharashtra and Gujarat are inclined to travel to foreign destinations in the immediate neighborhood like Bangkok and Kathmandu, but they are not motivated to travel to Shillong or Gangtok which have much more to offer at a much lesser budget. The irony is, he said, that a highly scenic destination like Shillong attracts more number of European and foreign tourists compared to domestic or Indian tourists because of lack of awareness in other parts of the country.
While dwelling on a vast potential to develop exclusive circuits for industrial,tourism and religious tourism between western parts of India and Northeast, Dr Jitendra Singh also proposed the idea of Medical Tourism for which a place like Mumbai is certainly far more equipped to attract healthcare seekers and patients, most of whom from Northeast are presently traveling to distant destinations like Vellore in Tamil Nadu because of lack of projection of other options. He also suggested that the country’s leading corporate hospitals could set up referral clinics in different States of the region.
Dr Jitendra Singh also flagged the idea of combining tourism with “Startup India” programme which could simultaneously help in engaging youth and generating employability. Similarly, he said, the youth today is inclined to explore the unexplored destinations for which the Government Department of Tourism and the IMC can work together to promote adventure tourism, trekking tourism, etc., by carrying youth from other parts of country to the North Eastern region.
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