Shimla: Cycling through the rugged mountain tracks of Himachal Pradesh is on a roll. And this time, the adventurous mountain bikers are not just foreigners. At a nine-day, 438-km long mountain biking (MTB) expedition here last week, 62 of the 75 cyclists were Indians - most of them with white collar jobs in big cities. "Initially, Hercules MTB Himachal used to see mostly foreigners. But for the past three-four years,...
12:01 PM, Oct 11, 2012
Colombo: Sri Lanka on Tuesday lifted an advisory warning its nationals against travelling to Chennai, which was issued a month ago following an attack on a group of pilgrims visiting Tamil Nadu. "The government of Sri Lanka believes that the travel advisory is no longer required," a statement issued by the External Affairs Ministry said. The travel warning was issued in early September following an attack on a group of...
02:45 PM, Oct 09, 2012
Panaji: Constant reportage on illegal mining in Goa in the national and internationl media would drive tourism to Malaysia and Thailand from the popular beach destination, a Congress MP said here on Monday. "Who will visit us if people try to project a wrong image of Goa to achieve political objectives? Tourists would prefer Kerala or Rajasthan and, outside India, places like Malaysia or Thailand," Goa's lone Rajya Sabha member...
03:35 PM, Oct 08, 2012
New Delhi: The capital of India is a bustling hub of 17 million people and one of the centers of modern Indian life. It is chaotic and crowded, yet filled with beautiful gardens and history dating back thousands of years. There are massive monuments from the Mughal kings of the 16th and 17th centuries as well as to the British Raj of the early 20th Century. Many monuments and museums...
02:44 PM, Oct 03, 2012
Former Chief Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi has said that the taxpayer has the right to know if his or her money is spent on politicians' travel. He said that while medical records are off the RTI ambit, expenses can be revealed. "It doesn't matter what the expense was for - travel, medical or for a party. If the taxpayers' money was used, citizens have a right to know," he said. ...
01:24 PM, Oct 03, 2012
Washington: The US has stepped up its efforts to attract more foreign tourists, in particular those from countries like India, China and Brazil, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton emphasising on the need for a hassle fee visa processing and entry programmes for tourists. "We want to use our global reach and our diplomatic tools to help drive that economic growth here at home and to advance our strategic interests...
12:31 PM, Oct 03, 2012
New Delhi: AICC spokesman Manish Tewari on Wednesday said that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has malafide intentions. "The locus of Modi is malafide as he does not apply the same norms on himself. His office is not responding to the RTI filed," said Tewari. He said that Modi is trying to deflect the attention from main issues in Gujarat like economic problems in the state - 17 scams that...
11:49 AM, Oct 03, 2012
Ahmedabad: Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi's query on Congress President Sonia Gandhi's travel expenses seems to be getting back at him. While Modi continues to target Sonia, it has now emerged that the Gujarat Chief Minister himself may be hiding information. Activists Trupti Shah and Bharat Sinh Jhala claim Modi is withholding information on expenses incurred on his women empowerment sammelans over the past five years, as well as on...
10:32 AM, Oct 03, 2012
Ahmedabad: Congress President Sonia Gandhi will be in Gujarat on Wednesday to kick off her party's campaign for the Assembly elections. She will address a rally at Rajkot and sources say Sonia is likely to announce drought relief packages for Gujarat's farmers. Her visit comes a day after Chief Minister Narendra Modi targeted her for the second time, by claiming that the government had wasted over Rs 1,800 crore of...
08:27 AM, Oct 03, 2012
New Delhi: The controversy over whether leaders should share the details of expenses incurred on their travel is getting fierce. There is more embarrassment for Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as a social activist in Vadodara has accused Modi's office of failing to share information for more than five years on his travel expenses for women sammelans. Activist Trupti Shah had filed the RTI application in 2007. The government gave...
12:16 AM, Oct 03, 2012
Washington: US citizens should avoid travel to Pakistan, the State Department said on Thursday, in a fresh warning that follows numerous protests, demonstrations and rallies in Pakistan that US officials said are likely to continue. Officials upgraded their ongoing caution about the travel risks in Pakistan, explicitly advising Americans to put off any non-essential travel to the country. They also "strongly urged" those who are already there to avoid protests...
11:38 PM, Sep 20, 2012
Islamabad: India and Pakistan on Saturday agreed to expand Cross-LoC travel and trade as part of the efforts to build up Confidence Building Measures (CBM) between the two countries. This was agreed during External Affairs Minister SM Krishna's meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Hina Rabbani Khar in Islamabad. The ministers reviewed the existing Cross-LoC CBMs and acknowledged that the ceasefire was holding since 2003. Taking note of the recommendations made...
04:20 AM, Sep 09, 2012
If life were a beach I'd wear cockle shells in my ear I'd douse my hair in yesterday's leftover beer. I'd love the smell ...
01:42 PM, Sep 03, 2012
New Delhi: Worldfloat.com, a new social networking site, is enabling users to move around a virtual world where they can hang out with friends, shop in malls and advertise products globally. "This is closer to real life. People can do many things they would want to do in reality like going to Paris virtually to meet a friend," Pushkar Mahatta, the website's founder told IANS. "There are plans to add...
09:35 AM, Aug 20, 2012
Mumbai: There was no showboating, no cutting of ribbons, and no media glare as commuters took their first steps on the half-a-kilometre long skywalk at Andheri (E) station. Till yesterday, thousands of students, office goers and people in general stared at what appeared to be a waste of public money while traversing the congested and filthy road parallel to the train tracks. On Independence Day, the skywalk was finally connected...
05:49 PM, Aug 16, 2012
San Francisco: Google Inc is buying the Frommer's line of travel guidebooks, the latest move to amass a trove of publishing content that could strengthen the No. 1 Internet search company's push to become a major online travel broker. The sale by John Wiley & Sons Inc comes nearly a year after Google's $151 million purchase of Zagat Survey, which offers reviews of restaurants, hotels and nightclubs in cities around...
10:29 AM, Aug 14, 2012
Mumbai: If you are a local train commuter enjoying the fact that ticket checkers (TCs) have disappeared from platforms of late, dont rejoice just yet. In truth, they are more in number than ever, lurking in platforms in plain clothes. In place of the 5-10 ticket checkers deployed earlier per station, as many as 50-100 are flocking a single station these days. CRs income from fines is unprecedented this year....
02:21 PM, Aug 11, 2012
Mumbai: Your usually frantic and anxious trips to the airport to catch flights could soon be things of the past. If the MSRDCs plans bear fruit, you may soon find yourself cruising in state-of-the-art pod cars moving on raised platforms, high above busy roads and congested highways. These pod cars, which will connect airports to adjacent areas, is the second such venture in the country " the other is under...
03:43 PM, Aug 07, 2012
Mumbai: While the country, and the tourism industry in particular, is trying to come to terms with losing one of its doyens in such an unfortunate manner, the probe into the suicide of Raj Travels owner Lalit Sheth has thrown up a few interesting posers. Cops are still trying to work out how and why did Sheth cover a distance of 2 km to reach Bandra-Worli Sea Link " from...
05:41 PM, Aug 03, 2012
Mumbai: The cherry red buses operated by the Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) once raised spirits of commuters on the citys roads. But over the years, that seems to have been replaced with a kind of dread, thanks to the long history of accidents involving them. At least 15 people have died since January this year, after being hit by BEST buses, and 417 have been injured, say statistics...
03:28 PM, Aug 02, 2012
