The Ministry of Tourism have formulated the guidelines for approval and reapproval of Online Travel Aggregators, OTA to ensure adequate safeguards against deficiency of service, alternate arrangements and punitive deterrence. 

The ministry said in a statement yesterday that the voluntary scheme is open to bonafide online travel aggregators to bring them on a common platform in the organized sector. 

The guidelines will be rolled out online by the end of this month. 

The Ministry will grant recognition as an approved OTA for five years, based on the inspection report and recommendations of a committee and approval of the chairman of The Hotel & Restaurant Approval & Classification Committee. 

Re-approval, thereafter, shall also be granted for five years after inspection conducted by a Committee of the same constitution.

The ministry said in order to engage with the OTAs constructively, it is imperative that a system is put in place with qualitative benchmarks to accredit them.

An OTA is an intermediary or an agent, selling travel products and services such as the airlines, car rental, cruise lines, Hotels or Accommodation, railways and vacation packages on behalf of suppliers using the internet as a medium. 

They establish an online market place and earn profits on the discounts commonly referred to as commission offered by the suppliers. 

The government on Thursday, said it had given its nod to develop a Rs 156 crore freight village in Varanasi adjoining the inland waterways terminal on river Ganga that will boost the logistics industry in the holy city.

"The Ministry of Shipping has approved the development of a Rs 156 crore freight village in Varanasi adjoining the Inland Waterways Terminal on River Ganga," the ministry said in a statement.

Stressing on improving healthcare, Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu Friday said the government should aim to establish an AIIMS in every state headquarters. “One such institute is not enough to provide quality education and treatment at affordable rates. In the next five years, the aim of the government is to establish AIIMS in every state headquarters,” said Naidu.

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Addressing the 46th annual convocation of AIIMS Friday, Naidu emphasised on the need to promote indigenous manufacturing of medical equipment for treatment. He spoke about how India has become a hotspot for medical tourism, with people from many countries visiting for treatments ranging from liver transplant to knee replacement.

“We need to overcome this paradoxical situation by ensuring that treatment is affordable for all Indians. On one hand, India is making rapid development in medical tourism wherein foreign people are coming to our country for treatment, but many facilities are out of reach for local people. We should adopt the concept of ‘Make in India’ to promote state manufactured devices,” he said.

United Nations: Preeti Saran, a former senior Indian diplomat, has been elected unopposed to an Asia Pacific seat on the UN's Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR).

Saran was elected Wednesday to the CESCR for a term beginning on January 1, 2019 and expiring on December 31, 2022.

She has been elected by acclamation the 18-member committee of experts that monitors the implementation of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESR).

"Election by acclamation. Thanks to all our friends for electing by acclamation India's candidate Amb. Preeti Saran to @UN Committee on Economic Social & Cultural Rights for 4 year term starting on 1 January 2019," India's Ambassador to the UN Syed Akbaruddin tweeted.

Japan is set to effectively ban government purchases of telecommunications products from China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd and ZTE Corp over fears of intelligence leaks and cyber attacks, the Yomiuri newspaper reported on Friday.

The government is expected to revise its internal rules on procurement as early as Monday. It is unlikely to name the two companies, to avoid aggravating China, but Huawei and ZTE are to be subject to the ban, the report said, citing a government source.

The report follows a decision by the United States this year to ban government purchases of Huawei gear.

U.S. intelligence agencies allege Huawei is linked to China’s government and that its equipment could contain “backdoors” for use by spies, although no evidence has been produced publicly and the firm has denied the claims.

In addition, Australia and New Zealand have blocked Huawei from building 5G networks, while Britain’s BT Group said on Wednesday it was removing Huawei’s equipment from the core of its existing 3G and 4G mobile operations and would not use the Chinese company in central parts of the next network.

The 26th anniversary of the demolition of Babri Mosque passed off peacefully in Uttar Pradesh Thursday with Hindu and Muslim organisations observing the day as “shaurya diwas” and “black day” respectively.

While the VHP and Bajrang Dal burst crackers and resolved to build a grand Ram temple in Ayodhya, Muslim outfits held protests to express grief over the incident. In Ayodhya, Mahant Suresh Das of Digambar Akhara said Ram temple is the biggest issue in front of the country.

“There are three courts -lower courts, high court and Supreme Court – but the people’s court is above these three courts. We must go to the peoples court, and convince the public for construction of Ram temple,” he said, while addressing the ‘Shaurya Sankalp Sabha’.

The Union Cabinet has approved the Agriculture Export Policy in line with the government's commitment to double farmer's income by 2022. 

Speaking to media in New Delhi after the meeting of the Cabinet on Thursday, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said, farmers will get the benefit of export opportunities through a stable trade policy regime. He said, the policy will remove export curbs on most organic and processed food. 

The Cabinet also approved the launch of National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber-Physical Systems (NM-ICPS). With a total outlay of 3660 crore rupees, 15 Technology Innovation Hubs, six Application Innovation Hubs and four Technology translation Research Hubs will be set up under National Mission. 


The Cabinet approved implementation of Shahpurkandi Dam on river Ravi in Punjab which helps in minimising some of the water of the River which at present are going waste downstream to Pakistan. 

The Centre on Thursday cleared a grant of Rs 3,048 crore to Kerala, which was hit by massive floods in August, as an additional assistance from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF), officials said.

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Besides, Rs 539 crore will be given to cyclone-hit Andhra Pradesh and Rs 131 crore to Nagaland, which was also affected by floods.

A high-level committee met to consider the additional central assistance to Kerala, Nagaland and Andhra Pradesh. The committee, headed by Home Minister Rajnath Singh, approved the additional assistance of Rs 3048.39 crore to Kerala, Rs 131.16 crore to Nagaland and Rs 539.52 crore to Andhra Pradesh, a home ministry spokesperson said.

Fitch Ratings cut India's FY19 GDP growth forecast to 7.2 percent from 7.8 percent on December 6. The rating agency has also cut growth forecasts for FY20 and FY21 to 7 percent from 7.3 percent and 7.1 percent from 7.3 percent, respectively.

The cut comes after India's GDP growth softened quite substantially in Q3 FY19, growing 7.1 percent year-on-year (YoY) after 8.2 percent in the previous quarter. Consumption was also at the weak spot, falling to 7 percent from 8.6 percent, though still growing at a healthy rate, Fitch said in its report.

On December 5, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had projected FY19 GDP growth at 7.4 percent (7.2-7.3 percent in H2) as in the October policy and at 7.5 percent for H1 FY20, with risks somewhat to the downside.

An extensive range of works representing diversity in contemporary Indian literature, comprising seven collections of poetry, six novels, six short story collections, three works of literary criticism and two collections of essays were announced on Wednesday as the winners of the prestigious Sahitya Akademi Award 2018 in 24 languages.

Winners include Anees Saleem in English, Rama Kant Shukla in Sanskrit, Rajesh Kumar Vyas in Rajasthani, Rahman Abbas in Urdu, Lok Nath Upadhyay in Nepali, Chitra Mughal in Hindi and S. Ramakrishnan in Tamil. Akademi Secretary K. Sreenivasarao said at a press conference announcing the winners that the books were selected on the basis of recommendations made by a jury of three members in each language in accordance with the rules.