Recent tourism figures are looking promising for Goa, with the region announcing record visitor numbers over the last year. It was found that more than 2.68 million tourists flocked to Goa during their peak season, which runs from October to March.

Goa has long been one of the most luxurious holiday destinations in the world, with the Eastern Indian hotspot offering an array sumptuous sandy beaches and crystal clear waters helping to cement its deserved reputation.

It’s also been a record for the amount of flights into India’s richest state, with over 900 flights recorded between the months of the peak season; carrying over half the foreigners looking for a holiday in paradise.

Goa is a great winter sun destination, offering sublime temperatures that can peak over 30 degrees, proving to be a big hit with Europeans looking to getaway from the chilly winters of home. Why not sample the sands of Goa for yourself on board one of the many singles holidays available?

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 A movement anchored by Goa’s top industry collective, the Goa Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), scientists and the local intelligentsia is beginning to gather momentum here, backing the candidature of Kakodkar, former chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission of India (AECI) and former director of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) for the post of president.”We are working towards promoting Kakodkar as a consensus apolitical presidential candidate. He is one of the most deserving persons, who has excelled in the field of his expertise,” GCCI president Manguirish Pai Raikar told.

 Raikar said that a workgroup was already in place lobbying for Kakodkar for the top constitutional slot.Of Goan origin, Kakodkar is the son of former state Congress president Purshottam Kakodkar. Born in Madhya Pradesh, Kakodkar spent his educative years in Mumbai, before his appointment as a nuclear scientist. A successful administrator, Kakodkar has been honoured with the Padma Shri (1998), the Padma Bhushan (1999) and the Padma Vibhushan (2009).

 “We appeal to all political parties to form a consensus to elect Anil Kakodkar as the next president of India. He is a son of a freedom fighter, an able statesman, a world renowned scientist, and above all a wonderful, respectable and apolitical person,” Raikar said, adding that eminent people from Goa, including head of Goa’s National Institute of Oceanography S.R. Shetye and noted surgeon P.S. Ramani, were among those backing Kakodkar’s candidature.

 “We are launching a website that will help to canvas for Kakodkar’s candidature as president. We are creating a network of people who will personally meet representatives of every political party, seeking their support for Kakodkar,” Raikar said.

 The election of a successor to outgoing president Pratibha Patil, whose term expires in April, has already started heating up. The run has already thrown up some names, such as Vice-President Hamid Ansari, former President APJ Kalam and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, among others.

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Police said that the duo were accidentally locked up in the store on Friday night. When they were discovered the next day, the owner suspecting attempted theft, took them to police for verification.

“We interrogated them. It seems that they had gone in to buy toiletries, but were trapped inside,” police inspector Margao, Sudesh Naik said.

“There did not seem any intent to steal. The couple slept it off after they found that the shutters were down, until the owner of the store stumbled upon them in the morning and reported the incident,” Naik further said.

The couple were staying in the beach resort in Colva, about 40 km from here, and were on a tourist visa.

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 Congress MP Shantaram Naik on Friday also tabled a Bill in the Rajya Sabha calling for Goa to be given special status under Article 371 of the Constitution.“Land is becoming a scarce commodity, particularly in small States. Land mafias from other countries are landing in States like Goa with tons of money, buying huge areas creating social and economic chaos. Some of the parties have the potential to buy a whole village in a smaller State like Goa,” Naik said.

 The Bill has been tabled as a private members’ Bill in the Rajya Sabha. Naik has said that regulation of land dealings was the only way to save Goa, which has been ‘seized’ by land mafias.

“Rights under the Constitution should not be so unfettered so as to (allow) change in economic scenario of a smaller State, particularly its villages, much to the disadvantage of the State and its people. Anti-social elements that become a part of such uncontrolled transactions are proving disastrous for a State like Goa,” Naik said adding that States had to be empowered to “enact appropriate legislations to bring in restrictions on transfer of land and other immoveable properties on grounds of duration of residential requirement”.

There is a huge demand for land in Goa, especially from people living outside the State wanting to build ‘holiday homes.’ The demand has sent prices skyrocketing, making land purchase an impossibility for most Goans.

 The State-level committee which drew up the Regional Plan for Goa has even proposed that the Government impose a second home tax to discourage people from buying homes and keeping them empty for most of the year. The issue of special status has been raised by NGOs and political parties in the State who claim that land prices are escalating due to uncontrolled purchases by real estate lobbies from outside Goa.

 Enforcement agencies have long believed that illicit money is being pumped into real estate in Goa and that the Russian mafia could be involved in some of the deals. Many Russians who regularly visit the State now have started businesses through by floating companies with or without an Indian partner.

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Sunidhi Chauhan got married to her childhood friend Hitesh Sonik on Thursday evening.Hitesh is a music composer known for his compositions in ‘Pyaar Ka Punchnama’ and ‘Stanley Ka Dabba’. Sunidhi, was earlier married to choreographer Bobby Khan but got separated a year after into the nuptial.

The ‘Indian Idol judge’ who has sung many chartbusters has known hubby Hitesh for 15 years now.”She was a little more than a child when she won the Meri Awaz Suno music contest on television. That is when when we became friends. Gradually, over the years as she grew into a fine singer, our friendship blossomed into love,” said Hitesh.

The couple threw a reception party at a 5-star hotel which was attended by who’s- who of the Bollywood and music industry. Asha bhonsle came in to bless the newly-weds. Udit Narayan attended the ceremony with wife Deepa Narayan while Farah Khan arrived with friend and music composer Vishal Dadlani.

Besides this Ranvir Shorey, Konkona Sen Sharma, Shaan, Kavita Krishnamurthy and Alka Yagnik also made it to the gala affair.

The ceremony was a star-studded event where the 28-year-old singer posed happily with her husband.

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 Sonia Arora, an assistant professor at Kean University in New Jersey, is delving into understanding the curative properties of the neem tree in fighting the virus that causes AIDS.Her preliminary results seem to indicate that there are compounds in neem extracts that target a protein essential for HIV to replicate. If further studies support her findings, Arora`s work may give clinicians and drug developers a new HIV-AIDS therapy to pursue.

 Extracts from neem leaves, bark and flowers are used throughout the Indian subcontinent to fight against pathogenic bacteria and fungi.“The farther you go into the villages of India, the more uses of neem you see,” said Arora.Tree branches are used instead of toothpaste and toothbrushes to keep teeth and gums healthy, and neem extracts are used to control the spread of malaria.

 Practitioners of Ayurvedic medicine, a form of traditional Indian alternative medicine, even prescribe neem extracts, in combination with other herbs, to treat cardiovascular diseases and control diabetes. The neem tree, whose species name is Azadirachta indica and which belongs to the mahogany family, also grows in east Africa.

 Arora`s scientific training gave her expertise in the cellular biology of cancer, pharmacology, bioinformatics and structural biology.When she established her laboratory with a new research direction at Kean University in 2008, Arora decided to combine her knowledge with her long-time fascination with natural products. The neem tree beckoned.

Arora dived into the scientific literature to see what was known about neem extracts. During the course of her reading, Arora stumbled across two reports that showed that when HIV-AIDS patients in Nigeria and India were given neem extracts, the amount of HIV particles in their blood dropped.

Intrigued, Arora decided to see if she could figure out what was in the neem extract that seemed to fight off the virus.She turned to bioinformatics and structural biology to see what insights could be gleaned from making computer models of HIV proteins with compounds known to be in neem extracts.

From the literature, she and her students found 20 compounds present in various types of neem extracts. When they modelled these compounds against the proteins critical for the HIV life-cycle, Arora and her team discovered that most of the neem compounds attacked the HIV protease, a protein essential for making new copies of the virus.

Arora`s group is now working on test-tube experiments to see if the computer models hold up with actual samples.

If her work bears out, Arora is hopeful that the neem tree will give a cheaper and more accessible way to fight the HIV-AIDS epidemic in developing countries, where current therapies are priced at levels out of reach of many people.“And, of course,” she noted, “there is the potential of discovering new drugs based on the molecules present in neem.” (ANI)

The finding was published in Nature Neuroscience and PNAS.

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“Why is the BJP government pushing at breakneck speed for an airport that will sound a death knell for tourism in Goa? It is unfair to build an airport close to the border. We favour a central place such as Ponda (central Goa) for the new airport if the government says so, but not in Mopa,” Radharai Gracias, vice president of United Goans Democratic Party (UGDP), told IANS.

The Goa cabinet April 23 gave a “in principle” nod to the airport’s Rs.2,500-crore master plan to be completed by 2015.Global tenders will be floated soon for the project in north Goa, which will be run on a build-own-operate-transfer (BOOT) basis for 30 years.

However, leaders of the UGDP, a party from south Goa, feel that the airport’s proximity to Maharashtra’s beaches such as Tarkarli, Malvan, Ganapatipule and Sindhudurg would reduce the flow of tourists into Goa.”We will lose our tourism to Maharashtra if this airport comes into existence,” Gracias said.

Questions have also been raised about the necessity for a second airport at all when Goa has an international airport at Dabolim, only 80 km away from the proposed airport at Mopa.”What is Manohar Parrikar’s (the chief minister) interest in rushing this project when he is yet to resolve other issues promised in the BJP manifesto?” Jose Miranda, a member of Village Groups of Goa, a civil society collective.

The Mopa airport project has been in hanging fire for six years due to an apparent divide between north and south Goa over drawing tourists. The south Goan politicians feel an airport in the north would be bad for tourism in the south.

Along with this, the issue of politicians buying real estate near an airport site has made the project more controversial. The acquisition of farmland for the project and the resultant displacement of local inhabitants have added fuel to the fire among the people.

Yet, successive governments have backed the project, saying that it would help boost tourism in north Goa.”Most Goans do not want an airport at Mopa. The best way to settle the issue is an opinion poll,” said Ivo Faleiro, a resident of Margao. “An airport will also do irreparable damage to the area’s flora and fauna.”

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 The Rs.5,000 bonus for the C and D grade staff, announced by the then chief minister Digambar Kamat on the 50th anniversary of Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule, will have to wait because of a by-poll May 2 in the Cortalim assembly constituency in South Goa.”The one-time bonus cannot be given out because the election code of conduct is in force,” Chief Electoral Officer S. Kumaraswamy told reporters here Wednesday.

The bonus could not be disbursed earlier also since the code of conduct was in force for the assembly elections in March.

In the elections, Kamat lost and the new chief minister, Manohar Parrikar, in his budget speech said a provision of Rs.23 crore had been made for the bonus payout.

However, the payout was put on hold again after the election code of conduct was announced following the declaration of by-poll in Cortalim assembly constituency, 20 km from here, in view of the death of tourism minister Mathany Saldanha last month.

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After playing a fiery Punjabi girl in Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and Band Baaja Baraat, Anushka Sharma will be seen as a Goan girl in Anurag Kashyap’s next, in which she is paired with Ranbir Kapoor.

A source from the film reveals, “Anushka will be styled in skirts and tops in the film as she plays a Catholic girl based in Goa. She has been asked to meet a lot of Catholic people especially from Goa to pick up their accent and body language.”

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Panaji:

Goa Tourism Department has submitted a proposal to the state forest department seeking its intervention in posting lifeguards at few places, including waterfalls and rivers, where deaths due to drowning are reported.

Tourism Director Swapnil Naik said that Drishti Special Response Services (DSRS), which is providing lifeguard services for the beaches in the coastal state, has agreed to extend their services to these places in hinterland.The tourist spots like Dudhsagar waterfall and Devil’s Canyon, located in the southernmost areas of Goa, are infamous for deaths due to drowning.

Naik said that the forest department has been asked to prepare a list of such hazard zones.DSRS which has been guarding the beaches since 2008 has also submitted a separate proposal for providing lifeguards at inland water bodies.The private firm has also conducted a study of the accident-prone spots like sweet water lake at Arambol, the director said.

Naik said the operations at these hinterlands are difficult and the concerned teams will have to set up their base at places like Dudhsagar waterfall.

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