RESEARCH

The Indian tour and travel industry is by and large unaffected by the global economic downturn _________________________________ MoneyLIFE Bureau & Surajit Dasgupta _________________________________ H as the economic slowdown decided to leave the tourism industry alone? Or are things looking good because, as the song says, everybody wants a summer holiday? It is a bit of both. Outbound tourism is booming. The worldwide economic slowdown has seen many countries offering never-before discounts and incentives to attract international tourists; this has meant a big increase in foreign travel. Ashwini Kakkar, executive vice chairman of Mercury Travels says, “Actually, outbound travel is doing even better than last year. Because of the fall in prices internationally, a holiday in Bangkok is cheaper than a holiday in Kulu. So where would you go? You can get a great five-star property at Bangkok for $40 a night, while in Kulu, you can’t get it even at $200 a night because of limited avail

... even as India votes for advertised 'truth' _______________ Surajit Dasgupta _______________ R ight wing economists must welcome a UPA Government minus the left. Let’s hope the Congress does not betray its ally, the Trinamool Congress, to shake hands with the socialists who still have some more seats with them than their rival if both Kerala and West Bengal are counted, despite the rout the communists have faced in both the states. Let us hope that 2009-10 sparkles as brilliantly in contrast to 2008-09 as 1991-92 had sparkled in contrast to 1990-91. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's first job in hand is economic reforms, held hostage by communists for five long years. Let us also rejoice the defeat of a bundle of confusions, aka the BJP, which failed miserably to read the pulse of the nation as, egged on by an obscurantist behemoth called the RSS, it clung on to a non-performing asset — a promised Ram temple in Ayodhya — in these gloomy times of economic slowdown and unemp