Onam

On this day of our harvest festival, Onam, when every one used to be  blessed with a bountiful harvest and were filled with the happiness of prosperity and contentment, we remember our Great King, Mahabali, who ensured justice & fairness, equality, honesty, work & bread for  all  and wish you a very happy Onam in the age old tradition of our forefathers who lived and died here, in our Kerala! 

May the panic and anxiety of the pandemic do not cast a shadow on our celebrations, let us make the best with what we have and hopefully look forward for a better year to come. 

Picture: picnewposts.blogspot.com

Pandemic and Monetary relief in Tourism

 With the devastating pandemic attack the world tourism sank like the sugar cube in our cup of tea. Lock down and the fear of infection forced people not to travel at all forcing the tourism stakeholders to shut down their enterprises and lay off the employees.

The 20 lakh crore stimulus package announced by the central government in February did not consider tourism for any sort of support though the authorities had mentioned that more package are coming and  some indirect benefits are available to those tourism companies which fall under the MSME category with a 100 crore turn over and 25 crore in outstanding. They can avail an emergency credit to the amount of 20% of their outstanding with a four year tenor and an year of moratorium in repayment. 

Almost six months after that, the Kerala state government announced yesterday Rs. 455 crore Relief package to the Tourism industry. The State Level Bankers Committee has agreed to disperse 355 crores of loans to small and large stakeholders in the Tourism Industry at 50% of the prevalent interest rate. Government has decided to pay the remaining 50% of the interest to the bank on behalf of the Tourism industry as a subsidy from the Government's Plan Fund. 

Under the Relief program nearly 2500 small enterprises will get 1-3 lakhs and big enterprises will get 5-25 lakhs with a moratorium of 6 months for repayment. 

Apart from the enterprises, the Tourism Employees Support Scheme with an outlay of Rs.100 Crore will provide tourism employees who come around  to 50,000 in number  a personal loan between 20-30 thousand through the Kerala Bank at an interest rate of 9% of which 6% will be paid by the Government itself. The personal loan will have a moratorium of 4 months on repayment. The employees will have to submit their application through the Tourism Deputy Director of their respective districts. 

Kerala tourism revenue accounted for the year 2019 was Rs. 45,000 crores but in this pandemic year the industry has suffered a loss of Rs. 20,000 crore with an uncertain tourism season coming up from September to February. 

 

74th Independence Day

A week before the day, monsoon was pulverising us with 260 cms of rain and up in the hill station of Munnar land slide took the whole colony and its people down into the valley. Traditionally, according to our local calendar, the month of "Karkidakkam" is a rainfall of woes and sorrows. The 8 days after 'Panchami' (name of one of the days in the month) the tidal swell won't let Arabian sea absorb any of the river water which means if the rain continues the rainwater is going to flood the low lying coastal land. The "Panchami" day fell on August 8th and we were all screwed up watching cautiously the progress of the rain. Luckily, three days after Panchami, the rain receded. 

As we all know, monsoon worry is not much of a bother when compared to  the rising rates of comparatively slow killing Corona pandemic social spread. The daily fresh infection rate is consistently over 1500 now in our small state in the week leading upto the Independence Day. 

Naturally, the spirit and the morale was down on the Day and we watched the Day's proceeding on TV and listened to the Radio where they aired the Red Fort and local state proceedings. 

The awful "Karkidakkam" with its 32 days bid farewell, yesterday and our favourite month of "Chingam" dawned today with its customary cheerful sunlight and hopefulness. 

Wishing everyone the grace and prosperity of the month, let us try to overcome our pandemic worry, cheerfully.

National Handloom Day

August 7th is appreciated as the National Handloom day, a practice inaugurated by Prime minister Narendra Modi in the year 2015. It was on August 7th, 1905 "Swadeshi" movement, a call to Boycott the use of foreign goods and increase the use of local products was started at Calcutta in Bengal. It is no surprise that the same day was selected to celebrate as the National Handloom Day as it was them who were the worst hit during the colonial days when finished loom products where imported from England and local artisans lost their jobs. 

The famous Kanchipuram sarees of Tamilnadu, the golden silk 'Muga mekhala Sador' of Assam, 'Paithani' weaving of Maharashtra, Benarasi Sarees of UttarPradesh are some of the glorious examples of Handloom. 

For the dying craft of handlooms, mercilessly pushed aside by the power looms need not only our support in terms of purchasing handloom products but also require development of infrastructural facilities like availability of raw materials, accessibility to the market, financial assistance etc. on an industry level.