by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
K.J. Alphons
By Gaurav Sharma,
Beijing : Incidents of lynching have hurt India’s image, Tourism Minister K.J. Alphons, who is in China to draw in more tourists, has admitted.
The minister, however, said that the ban on beef has not affected tourism in the country and sought to debunk a survey showing India as the most unsafe country for women in the world.
“Well, it (lynching) shouldn’t happen. Simple. And, the Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) has called them criminals. And, he told the states you have to take action because law and order is a state subject,” Alphons said on Tuesday interacting with Indian journalsits.
Asked if incidents of lynching have affected tourism in India, the Minister said: “Well, not on a big time basis…not really. But anything happening like that is bad for the reputation of the country. We won’t say it’s good for the reputation of the country.”
Has the ban on beef kept foreign tourists away from India, Alphons said that was not the case. “Not really… you see there are states like Kerala, Goa and the Northeast… these are all beef eating states.”
“These are all big tourism destinations… So people would go wherever they are comfortable
“I think we need to respect the sentiment of the people anywhere… that’s so fundamental.”
India has witnessed incidents of lynching over cow slaughter and beef eating in the country. The majority of Hindus in the country consider the animal as sacred.
Alphons is visiting China to attract Chinese tourists who currently generate some 21 per cent of tourism receipts in destinations in the world. He opened a road show in Beijing on Tuesday and will visit Shanghai and Wuhan.
Despite swelling number of outbound Chinese tourists, Indian receives only a very small fraction of them.
“Last year, 144 million Chinese were abroad, but only 300,000 came to India,” the minister said.
He said India plans to get at least 14 million Chinese tourists in the next three years.
Asked about women’s safety, an issue which is among the prime concerns among Chinese to visit India, Alphons said it was “a perception battle”.
He tore apart a recent survey by Thomson Reuters which said India is the most unsafe country for women.
“Thomson Reuters put out a story saying it’s (India) unsafe. We asked them how? They say they interviewed 540 people or something out which 43 from India.”
“You can’t ask the 43 so-called knowledgeable people of India whether India is safe or not because most of these so-called feminists would be anti-government … it is the politics of it,” he said.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Commodity Market, Economy, Entrepreneurship, Investing, Markets, Medium Enterprise, News, SMEs, Startup Basics, Your Business Plan
By Mohammed Shafeeq,
Hyderabad : Walking through the sprawling, newly-opened IKEA store here needs energy and the company is making sure that customers get to recharge at its trademark restaurant. The 1,000-seater restaurant is the biggest among the Swedish home furnishings retailer’s global network in 50 countries.
The thousands of customers who flocked IKEA’s first India store that opened on August 9 had a massive range of 7,500 world-class products to choose from. With 1,000 products priced below Rs 200, the affordability and the quality of the international brand was the talk of the town.
So also was the restaurant, with half its menu offering Indian and the other half Swedish food — in line with the company’s global practice.
“We cater to the local taste wherever we have our operations and half of our food here is Swedish,” Henrik Osterstrom, Country Food Manager, IKEA Food, told IANS at the restaurant, teeming with hundreds of customers.
At the India store, chicken meat balls have replaced beef meat balls, a popular dish on IKEA’s menu globally. It has also dropped pork from the menu for India.
“Since many people in India don’t eat beef, we are not selling it. As there are many Muslims, we are respecting their sentiments as well by not selling pork,” Osterstrom said.
The menu includes vegetable biryani, salmon fillet, dal makhni, cakes, green salad, fruit salad, cinnamon buns and and variety of beverages.
Osterstrom is happy with the customers’ response so far. “It’s fantastic to see so many people coming here. We are selling a lot of biryani, chicken meat balls, veggie balls and dal makhani as well,” he said.
Like its home furnishing products, IKEA is also offering a menu to suit all sizes of wallets. Vegetable biryani is priced at Rs 99, chicken meat balls at Rs 149 and veggie balls at Rs 129.
“We have ensured that the food is affordable, of high quality and of good taste. We call it Swedish-feel Indian-appeal,” said Osterstrom.
The Swedish dishes include chicken meat balls, salmon fillet, lingonberry juice and cinnamon buns.
Customers have to serve themselves — right from picking up trays and trolleys to collecting food and later leaving the trays and trolleys at designated points. The service is quick as customers collect their orders in a couple of minutes while moving in the queue along the food counters and the billing is done while heading towards their tables.
Why choose India for the company’s biggest restaurant globally? “It became like that. I think food is starting point in India. We have large restaurants in other countries, especially in Asia, where food is vital. We wanted to give a nice atmosphere and make sure that it is not crowded,” he said.
Globally, restaurants contribute 10 percent of IKEA’s sales but Osterstrom hopes it will be higher in India as big footfalls are expected. “People in India llove food. It’s just the beginning and we will see more customers.”
Over 40,000 customers visited IKEA store on the first day. The company expects at least 60 lakh footfalls annually at the store, which has come up with an investment of Rs 1,000 crore in the heart of HITEC City, the information technology hub.
IKEA plans to open 25 stores across India by 2025. The next store will open in Mumbai next year followed by Bengaluru and Delhi.
The concept of a store is integral to IKEA, founded by Ingvar Kamprad in 1943.
“Our founder, from day one, had this idea. As our showrooms are huge and it takes time for customers to go around the entire store, they feel hungry. We also have a play area for kids. It should be fun day for the whole family,” Osterstrom explained.
The restaurant is located such that if customers feel hungry, after walking through one home furnishings section of the store, they should get new energy to enter the next phase of shopping, that is, the market hall.
And, after another long walk through the market hall and checkout, customers find in front of them a cafe for refreshments. Here they get a wide range of cookies, chocolates and other delicacies. A samosa costs just Rs 10 while frozen yogurt, which tastes like soft serve ice cream, is also available at the same price.
(Mohammed Shafeeq can be contacted at m.shafeeq@ians.in)
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | Business, Halal Food, Halal Industries, Medium Enterprise, News, Politics
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Panaji : Even as beef traders and both ruling and opposition MLAs have alleged shortage of beef in the state, a Goa Minister on Wednesday said that there was no beef shortage reported to the state’s only legal abattoir.
Replying to a question by Opposition leader Chandrakant Kavlekar, on whether there was a beef shortage in Goa during 2017-18, Minister for Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Sercvices Mauvin Godinho, in a written reply said: “There is no shortage of beef reported to Goa Meat Complex Ltd. No animals have been slaughtered at the complex since November 2017.”
On July 27, during the monsoon session of the state legislative assembly, both ruling as well as opposition legislators had expressed concern about beef shortage in the state, blaming the non-functional abattoir as well as targeting of beef consignments brought from Karnataka.
On Tuesday, a delegation of Muslim leaders had also met Factories and Boilers Minister Vijai Sardesai, demanding that the abattoir be made functional before Eid-al-Adha.
Sardesai in turn, had assured them that a provisional permission would be granted from his Ministry to the slaughter house, to ensure that it functions before the Muslim festival.
Earlier in 2018, beef traders in Goa had gone on strike alleging harassment by cow vigilante groups and the non-functional abattoir.
Goa on an average consumes around 20-25 tons of beef every day, according to regional meat traders’ association.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News
Representational image
Jaipur : Three women were arrested in Rajasthan’s Alwar with 40 kg beef on Monday, police said.
Govindgarh police station’s Sub Inspector Dhara Singh told IANS that police received a tip that beef was being packed in polythene bags in the house of Khaleel to be sold, and raided the location where they found cow fur and the large quantity of beef.
Akbari, wife of Khaleel, Bhoori, wife of Shakeel and Sajeena, wife of Sameem, all found on the spot, were arrested.
On questioning, Akbari confessed that her son Shakeel and his friend Sattar had brought beef to her house after slaughtering a cow to sell it further, he said
The samples of the meat were sent for testing which confirmed it to be beef, said Dhara Singh.
Shakeel and Sattar are absconding and a manhunt has been initiated to nab them at the earliest, he said.
“Once they are arrested, we will get clues if they are regular suppliers of beef to shops or if they are supplying it to any particular house in this region,” he added.
Meanwhile, a peaceful bandh was staged on the call of Hindu associations including Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, he said, adding that shops were closed since morning.
Rakbar Khan was lynched to death in this area on intervening night of July 21-22 on charges of cow smuggling.
—IANS
by admin | May 25, 2021 | News, Politics
Representational Image (Google image)
Jaipur : Even as Rajasthan home minister Gulabchand Kataria on Tuesday promised strict action in the Alwar lynching case, his colleague and state Labour Minister Jaswant Singh asked Muslims and the Mev community to “stop consuming beef’ and “keep away from cow smugglers to respect the Hindus.”
“We will ensure punishment to the guilty,” home minister Kataria said while inspecting the site at Ramgarh (Alwar) where Rakbar alias Akabar was lynched by a mob over cow smuggling on Saturday night. Kataria was accompanied by Director General of Police OP Galhotra.
Earlier, Labour Minister Jaswant Singh, who was also in Alwar, said: “These incidents (of violence) are almost a daily occurrence,” adding that since the “root cause” is cow smuggling, “the Muslims should avoid eating beef and not support cow smugglers.”
Kataria met Chief Secretary DB Gupta, DGP Galhotra and special Director General (Law and Order) NRK Reddy to review the situation following the lynching incident. He said that a few lapses have come to the fore on police’s part and an assistant sub-inspector has been suspended. “Action has also been taken against four constables. We will take right action,” he said.
The post-mortem of Rakbar has confirmed that he died due to multiple internal injuries sustained from severe beating, sources said.
Amid a charged atmosphere in Alwar, district Shiv Sena chief Bhupendra Singh Naruka said his party supported the ‘innocents’ caught by the police and would fight their case in the court “on its expenses.” He also questioned BJP on its delay to declare cow as a “national animal” of the country.
Meanwhile BJP legislator from Ramgarh (Alwar) Gyandev Ahuja on Tuesday said that Rakbar had died in police custody and not by a mob. He also said that action taken against four policemen on Monday was to “shield” senior police officers. He also demanded a judicial probe into this matter.
The Rajasthan police late on Monday accepted “error of judgement” by its personnel which delayed the victim’s arrival to the hospital. Rakbar was declared brought dead in the hospital.
—IANS
