India 2018

Culture and Tourism 79
in its activities. The basic aim and objective of the Samiti is to propagate the life,
mission and thought of Mahatma Gandhi through various socio-educational
and cultural programmes. It has two campuses:
Gandhi Smriti is the place where Mahatma Gandhi lived the last 144 days
of his life, and where the epic life of Gandhiji ended on January 30, 1948. The
Martyrs Column, the spot where the Mahatma fell to an assassin's bullets stands
as the embodiment of all the sufferings and sacrifics that characterised the long
struggle of India's Freedom. Photographs, sculptures, paintings, frescos,
inscriptions on rocks and relics, exhibitions etc, pertaining to the years Gandhiji
stayed there are displayed here. The meagre personal effects of Gandhiji are
also carefully preserved. Gandhi Darshan, the second campus is situated
adjacent to the Mahatma Gandhi Samadhi at Rajghat. The sprawling thirty-six
acre campus came into existence in 1969 to mark the centenary of Mahatma
Gandhi. An International Gandhi Darshan Exhibition was housed to
commemorate the occasion. At present the Centre provides a comprehensive
exhibition on Gandhi, conference halls, camping facilities for major national
and international meets, a library, hostel for scholars-in-residence, children's
corner, photo unit and a publications division.
Tourism
Ministry of Tourism is the nodal agency to formulate national policies and
programmes for the development and promotion of tourism. In the process,
the Ministry consults and collaborates with other stakeholders in the sector
including various central ministries/ agencies, the state governments/ union
territory administrations and the representatives of the private sector. Tourism
is a major engine of economic growth and an important source of foreign
exchange earnings in many countries including India. It has great capacity to
create large scale employment of diverse kind - from the most specialized to
the unskilled and hence can play a major role in creation of additional
employment opportunities. It can also play an important role in achieving
growth with equity. The Ministry of tourism has the main objective of increasing
and facilitating tourism in India. Augmenting tourism infrastructure, easing of
visa regime, assurance of quality standards in services of tourism service
providers, etc. are some of the responsibilities of the Ministry.
Foreign Tourist Arrivals
The year 2016 witnessed a growth of 10.7 per cent in Foreign Tourist Arrivals
(FTAs) in India. FTAs during 2016 were 88.9 lakh (provisional) as compared to
the FTAs of 80.3 lakh during 2015. The Foreign Exchange Earnings (FEEs) from
tourism in rupee terms during 2016 were ` 1,55,650 crore (provisional) with a
growth of 15.1 per cent.
e -Visa facility
Facilitative visa regime is a pre requisite for increasing inbound tourism. The
Ministry of Tourism takes the initiative of pursuance with Ministry of Home