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Telangana lockdown for 10 days starting today

Telangana will lock itself down for a period of 10 days starting today. The state government has decided to put curbs in place from May 12 to curtail further spread of the second wave, an official release said. There was also a decision taken to invite global tenders for procuring Covid vaccines. According to the statement, restrictions will come into force at 10 am on Wednesday. However, "there would be relaxation for all the activities from 6 AM to 10 Am daily", it added. Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao had initially resisted calls for a comprehensive lockdown. In a statement last week, he had argued against imposing strict movement curbs saying that it would hit the livelihoods of a large number of people. He had cited the cases of several other states where cases are only going up despite stringent movement curbs. The Covid caseload in the state has already gone past the half-a-million mark, as per latest data.

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Maldives Temporarily Suspends Tourist Visa For India And 6 Other Countries

Due to the huge surge in coronavirus cases in South Asian Countries, the Health Protection Agency of Maldives has announced the suspension of tourist visas for Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka starting from 13th May 2021. “Starting 13th May, tourist visas for tourists traveling from South Asia countries will be temporarily halted,” said the Health Protection Agency in a tweet. At present, the government of Maldives has taken several measures to curb the spread of the disease including travel and other restrictions. “@HPA_MV announces temporary suspension of tourist visas for those traveling from South Asian countries to #Maldives. This safety measure is to be effective from 13th May 2021. We regret any inconveniences caused.” The Tourism Ministry of Maldives announced in a tweet. Earlier the country has imposed a temporary ban on Indian tourists from checking in to hotels and guesthouses in residential Maldivian islands. The new restrictions take effect on Tuesday, April 27. Also, starting from 3rd May 2021, all inbound travelers are required to present negative PCR test results, with the sample taken not more than 96 hours before departure to the Maldives. This also includes travelers who have completed the administration of their 2nd dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The negative PCR test result must be attached while completing the Traveler Health Declaration form, which has to be submitted online via IMUGA (www.imuga.immigration.gov.mv), by all arriving passengers before arrival (but not exceeding 24 hours before arrival time).

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Emirates launches India humanitarian airbridge to transport Covid aid

Emirates has set up a humanitarian air bridge between Dubai and India to transport urgent medical and relief items, to support India in its fight to control the serious Covid-19 situation in the country. Emirates will offer cargo capacity free of charge on an “as available” basis on all of its flights to nine cities in India, to help international NGOs deliver relief supplies rapidly to where it is needed. In the past weeks, Emirates SkyCargo has already been transporting medicines and medical equipment on scheduled and charter cargo flights to India. This latest airbridge initiative takes Emirates’ support for India and for the NGO community to the next level. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, Emirates’ Chairman and Chief Executive, said, “Emirates has a lot of experience in humanitarian relief efforts, and with 95 weekly flights to 9 destinations in India, we will be offering regular and reliable widebody capacity for relief materials. The International Humanitarian City in Dubai is the largest crisis relief hub in the world and we will work closely with them to facilitate the movement of urgent medical supplies.” The first shipment sent as part of the Emirates India humanitarian airbridge is a consignment of over 12 tons of multi-purpose tents from the World Health Organization (WHO), destined for Delhi, and coordinated by the International Humanitarian City (IHC) in Dubai. The freight division of Emirates has a close partnership with IHC, developed over several years of delivering relief materials to communities across the world impacted by natural disasters and other crises. IHC will support Emirates SkyCargo in channelling relief efforts to India through the airbridge. Following the Port of Beirut blasts in August 2020, Emirates also leveraged its expertise in humanitarian logistics to set up an airbridge to Lebanon to assist with relief efforts.

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FAITH urges Centre to take up measures targeting job creation

The Federation of Associations in Indian Tourism and Hospitality (FAITH) urged the Union finance ministry, RBI and the tourism ministry to urgently take up measures targeted at creating jobs in the sector. “It has been repeatedly reaffirmed through all government data, whether that of GST, RBI or of income tax, that tourism, travel and hospitality continue to be the worst hit sector during the 13-months period since the time pandemic struck and is also likely to stay that way for much of the foreseeable period. “To address that on an immediate basis, the three measures proposed are waiver or compensation for Fixed Statutory Liabilities, Direct Benefit Transfer of Basic Pay and credit of SEIS dues for 2019-20,” a statement by FAITH said. FAITH, the policy federation of all national associations representing the tourism, travel and hospitality industry of India, underlined that there has been literally no tourism business due to full or partial shutdown of all other segments of tourism--inbound, outbound, corporate and also group tourism business and now domestic travel. This situation, it said, is dramatically inverse to that of pre-pandemic which saw more than 17.8 million international tourist arrivals, almost 26.9 million outbound and almost 2.3 billion domestic tourism visits in 2019-20. “Despite no revenues, there are statutory liabilities & compliance liabilities at both state and central government level and other regulatory bodies which still need to be met. These include various forms of duties, taxes, cess or license fees, including electricity and water, property taxes, excise duties, transport taxes, among others. “With no revenues and businesses continuing under shutdown for measures beyond their control, it is principally unfair for these businesses to continue paying fixed costs of statutory liabilities and compliances for them,” the statement said. The body also raised concerns over loss of jobs in the sector which generates around 10-12 per cent of direct and indirect employment. It requested that an amount equivalent to their pre- pandemic basic salaries be sent each month to such tourism, travel and hospitality employees in a direct benefit transfer against their PAN Card. “This will help support livelihoods of crores of people and their families till the duration of the pandemic. It will also enable them to be job and service ready for when it is time to restart Indian tourism,” the statement added.

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Vistara starts non-stop flights between Delhi and Tokyo from June 16

Vistara has today announced special, non-stop flights between Delhi and Tokyo from June 16, 2021 onwards. The airline will fly once a week between the two capital cities under India’s travel bubble agreement with Japan. The airline will use its Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft with three-class cabin configuration to serve the route. Vistara has also trained its cabin crew in the Japanese language to extend the warmth of true Indian hospitality to travellers from Japan. Leslie Thng, Chief Executive Officer, Vistara, said, “Far East has been an extremely important geography for our global expansion from the beginning for its tremendous growth potential. We are delighted to add Japan to our international network, under the travel bubble and look forward to providing the best of Indian hospitality while maintaining the highest standards of safety and hygiene for our customers on this sector.” Bookings for the flights are being progressively opened on all channels, including Vistara’s website, mobile app, and through travel agents. Introductory, all-inclusive, round-trip fares between Delhi and Tokyo are as follows: Delhi–Tokyo-Delhi Economy INR 45,049 Premium Economy INR 73,699 Business INR 150,399 Tokyo–Delhi-Tokyo Economy JPY 90,099 Premium Economy JPY 184,699 Premium Economy JPY 410,999 Vistara will accept all eligible customers meeting visa/entry requirements in both countries, as specified by the respective government bodies. Vistara strongly encourages its customers to fully understand these guidelines before making their bookings. Delhi (DEL) – Tokyo Haneda (HND) Flight No UK083 | Day of Operation Wednesday Departure 0300 hrs | Arrival 1450 hrs Tokyo Haneda (HND) – Delhi (DEL) Flight No UK084 | Day of Operation Thursday Departure 1750 hrs | Arrival 2335 hrs * All timings shown are in local time zones

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Air India is all set to operate flights to London from May 17

Air India will operate its flights from London to Mumbai starting from May 17. According to a tweet by the airline, the flights will be operational from London's Heathrow to Mumbai’s Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport from May 17 to May 31. However, the flights will not be operating on May 18, 23, and 30. The Airlines’ tweet also stated that passengers who have already booked these dates and are hoping to travel, are required to revalidate their bookings. You can book your flights through the airlines website, booking offices, mobile app, authorised travel agents, or call centre. Passengers who are scheduled to travel on the dates mentioned above, must follow the recent guidelines as announced by the UK Government. COVID-19 guidelines must be adhered to. Also, the airlines has made it very clear that it is the responsibility of the passenger to find out if he or she can enter the country according to the UK’s latest rules. Air India also informed that the airline will also be operating its Bengaluru-London Heathrow-Bengaluru route. The airline will operate from Bengaluru to London Heathrow on May 17, 19, 24, 26, and 31. The same will operate from London Heathrow to Bengaluru on May 16, 18, 23, 25, and 30. Previously, the airline had cancelled all flights to London from April 24 to 30 after the UK government included India in the red list of countries.

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