Page 21 - Goa

Ironman 70.3: Young and old flock to Goan beach for gruelling test

Local participation has improved, developing more such events for India, says event organiser

Goa Forward Party president demands CM's resignation over high unemployment

Goa Forward Party President Vijai Sardesai has demanded the resignation of chief minister Pramod Sawant while presenting a report made by the NITI Aayog to him.

Ironman 70.3 Goa: Athletes from 33 countries will test endurance on Sunday

1,450 athletes would be participating in the eight-hour triathlon

India's groundwater extraction stage at 60% in 2022, says report

In 2022, around 87 per cent of the total annual ground water extracted that is around 208.49 Billion Cubic Meters (BCM) was for irrigation which in 2020 was around 89 per cent

One-year work experience to be made mandatory for govt jobs in Goa: CM

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Tuesday said one-year work experience would be made "compulsory" for recruitment in state government departments. He said fresh candidates would not be taken directly into government service. Aspirants would have to get experience by working in the private sector before applying for government jobs. Addressing a function at Taleigao village in North Goa, Sawant said one-year work experience would be made mandatory for those looking for government jobs in the future. Such a practice would help the government get skilled manpower, said the chief minister. The CM said necessary amendments would be made in Recruitment Rules (RRs) to ensure only suitable candidates are selected for vacant posts. Sawant also said recruitment through the Staff Selection Commission would be made compulsory in the future.

GMR Goa International Airport Limited at North Goa unveils its brand logo

GMR Goa International Airport Limited, an upcoming facility at Mopa in North Goa, on Tuesday unveiled its new brand Logo. "We are very happy to announce the launch of our New Goa Airport Brand Identity Logo, as a part of creating a distinct marque amongst our valued customers," GGIAL CEO RV Sheshan said. The company has crafted a logo that has a perfect amalgamation of the key elements of Goa, he said. "It conveys our commitment to serving our customers with the best world-class airport experiences while remaining true to our longstanding reputation." As a prominent representation of the company, people, and brand, the new logo is playful, optimistic and smart. Inspired by the sun, sand, palm trees, sea, sky, earth and fun which define Goa, the logo for New Goa Airport has incorporated each of these attributes, a media release by GGIAL said. "The new Goa airport is about relaxing and also moving, thus unfolding a new and smooth pace of life. The new Goa airport is about the hills,

MF penetration: Maharashtra, Delhi in lead; Jharkhand in top 10

Industry insiders say MFs have gained better traction in Jharkhand due to presence of a large salaried class and strong distributor network

Goa CM unveils free pilgrimage scheme Mukhyamantri Devdarshan Yatra Yojana

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Goa on Monday formally launched a state-sponsored pilgrimage scheme for people announced before the Assembly polls held in February this year. Speaking on the occasion, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said such schemes help them garner votes. Sawant flagged off a bus carrying passengers to the famous Tirupati shrine in Andhra Pradesh under the Mukhyamantri Devdarshan Yatra Yojana", which he had announced before the Assembly polls. We were criticised for introducing this scheme to garner votes. I would say that we garnered votes because of such kind of schemes and not vice versa, the chief minister told a gathering. He said seats are booked for the free pilgrimage on the first-cum-first-served basis. Sawant said the two other destinations promised under the scheme are Velankanni in Tamil Nadu- a popular pilgrim center, especially renowned for the Church of Mother Mary- and Shirdi, the famous shrine of Sai Baba located in neighbouring ...

Goan youth are trafficked abroad on pretext of highly paid jobs: CM Sawant

Sawant said that few youths contacted his office complaining that one agent had taken amount to the tune of Rs 5 lakh from each person to create passport and Visa.

Cipla Q2 PAT up 11% PAT to Rs 789 cr on strong Covid-adjusted growth rate

The company is de-risking key product Abraxane in case the Goa plant FDA issue is not cleared immediately

Delhi tops EPFO coverage chart, Tripura and Assam at the bottom

Haryana is at the third spot with 35.3 per cent of its working population under EPFO, followed by Karnataka (29.6 per cent) and Uttarakhand (26.7 per cent)

Study policing in Goa for better security for tourists: MP Minister to cops

Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra on Wednesday instructed the state police to study the functioning of their counterpart in Goa to make proper security arrangements for tourists visiting the state. Mishra gave directions to the state officials in this regard during a high-level meeting that was attended by state Additional Chief Secretary (Home) Rajesh Rajora and Director General of Police (DGP) Sudhir Saxena, among other top officials, a government release said. "Mishra directed the MP Police to study Goa's policing system to provide proper security arrangements to the tourists visiting the state," it said. The home minister also instructed the officials to collect proper information about the number of tourists, their native countries, languages spoken by them to make a proper tourist policing system in Madhya Pradesh, it said. Mishra said that better arrangements can be made only after compiling this kind of information, it said.

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant launches Purple Fest logo in Porvorim

'Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Central Government is committed to ensuring that persons with disabilities have an inclusive, accessible, and equitable future in society'

Cong to file disqualification petition against 8 Goa MLAs who joined BJP

The Goa unit of the Congress on Tuesday said it was going to file a disqualification petition against the eight MLAs who recently crossed over to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). The Congress' strength in the Goa Legislative Assembly dwindled to three after the exit of eight of its 11 legislators in September. State Congress chief Amit Patkar told PTI that the party had received the documents required for filing a disqualification petition from the Assembly Speaker's office. Former advocate general and current Congress MLA Carlose Alvares Ferreira would be drafting the petition and it would be filed soon, Patkar added.

Aeroflot to launch flight services to Goa from Moscow, starting Nov 2

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot on Monday said it is set to launch its flight services to Goa from Moscow, starting November 2. The airline currently operates its air services on the Moscow-Delhi-Moscow route twice-a-week with an Airbus A330 aircraft. Aeroflot will fly its Airbus A330 aircraft every Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from Moscow to Goa, offering 268 seats in the business class and 28 in the economy, the statement said. Besides, the new services will also offer a weekly cargo capacity of 30 tons from India for Russia and the CIS countries, it added. "Goa is a popular tourist destination among Russians. We are starting our three-times-a-week flights on the Moscow-Goa-Moscow route. It marks the expansion of our Indian services in response to customer demand," said Korolev Oleg K, head of cargo at Aeroflot. Goa-Moscow route is another high-demand route between India and Russia. These flights will boost the recovering tourist market in both countries, said Delmos Aviation, w

Land grabbing cases in Goa were treated casually by police: Pramod Sawant

Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant on Monday said the state government would not have had to form a special investigation team to probe land grabbing cases if the police had not treated these incidents casually. The chief minister said some land grabbing cases were registered 15 years ago with respective police stations, but they were treated casually by officers. These complaints were treated like routine ones, which is why we had to form a special investigation team (land) to probe them. Land grabbing had started in the state 15 years ago, Sawant said. The chief minister was addressing the state secretaries and heads of various departments on the occasion of Vigilance Awareness Week at Porvorim, near here. Sawant further said that a delay in processing files is also anti-government attitude. Sometimes officers claim that they are not corrupt, but they delay processing of files and by doing that, they are incurring losses to the state. This type of behaviour is equally corrupt, he

Hope UK e-visa issue will be resolved under PM Sunak: Goa tourism minister

Goa Minister Rohan Khaunte on Friday expressed hope the new government of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in the United Kingdom will restore the e-visa facility, the absence of which has severely affected tourism and allied businesses in the coastal state. The tourism season in Goa peaks with Christmas and New Year, attracting patrons from across the world. "Tourism and allied businesses are badly affected in both India and UK due to non-restoration of e-visas by UK. Hoping for an early resolution under the new Indian origin PM Rishi Sunak," state tourism minister Khaunte tweeted. Officials said chartered flights for Goa from the UK are yet to start for this tourist season, adding that the first flight from Kazakhstan with tourists arrived in the state this week.

ASI ordered demolition of illegal construction at Old Goa: Mahua Mitra

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra on Friday said Union Minister G Kishan Reddy had informed that the Archeological Survey of India has ordered the demolition of a controversial structure in Old Goa. Activists in the coastal state have been protesting for a long time now claiming a bungalow being built close to UNESCO protected monuments in the area was allegedly illegal. "Very happy our efforts paid off and illegal construction of bungalow in heritage site in Old Goa stopped. Thank you @kishanreddybjp and Save Old Goa Action Committee (SOGCA)," Moitra tweeted on Friday. Moitra also tweeted a letter in which Union Minister for Culture and Tourism Reddy has stated "the ASI has issued a demolition order against the illegal construction on 16.08.2022 under the provisions of the Ancient Monuments and Archeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958". The letter acknowledged Moitra had raised the issue about "illegal construction in protected area of Chapel of St Cajetan, Goa" on ...

Aviation watchdog DGCA issues aerodrome licence for Goa's Mopa airport

Aviation watchdog DGCA has given the aerodrome licence for the new airport at Mopa in Goa, paving the way for starting commercial flights operations from there soon. The licence for the Mopa airport, which will be operated by GMR group, was issued on October 26, according to a senior official at the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). This will be the second airport in Goa, where already there is an operational airport at Dabolim in Mormugao city. The new airport will be around 35 kilometre from Panjim in the northern part of Goa. The Mopa airport is being constructed in four phases with an annual passenger capacity of 4.4 million in phase I and it will increase to 5.8 million in phase II. In phase III, the capacity will rise to 9.4 million passengers per annum and once phase IV is also complete, the total capacity will be at 13.1 million passengers per annum. GMR Airports Ltd (GAL), a subsidiary of GMR Infrastructure, had in November 2016 signed a concession agreement w

Illegalities in tourism sector to be tackled: Goa minister Rohan Khaunte

The Goa government will take all efforts to tackle illegalities in the beach belt like unauthorised massage services and touting during the tourist season, state minister Rohan Khaunte said on Thursday. Talking to reporters here, the tourism minister also slammed some of the activists protesting against the state's proposed jetty policy. "The menace of touts and unauthorised people offering massages in the beach belt and certain points in Panaji city is increasing. The tourism department will, if need be, amend the tourism laws to allow police to act against those indulging in such activities," Khaunte said. Asserting that the new jetty policy is aimed at boosting tourism, he said those opposing it are trying to establish their political careers or resurrecting it, while a third group is protesting without even reading the draft. The jetty policy has nothing to do with coal transportation or any other aspect that will affect fishing as alleged by protesters, Khaunte said. The mini