Dehradun based Sarthwak Bharadwaj was judged the winner of the first season of Kids’ cooking reality show ‘Junior MasterChef – Swaad Ke Ustad’. Saturday,November 02nd, 2013.
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Category Archives: Travel
India’s First U.S.based ‘ Ritz-Carlton Hotel ‘ in Bangalore. October 2013 .
Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore is a 277-room, 5 star luxury hotel which will offer 7 food and beverage restaurant options, extensive meeting and flexible events space. Bangalore’s new hotel the Ritz-Carlton will also house the Ritz-Carlton Club, a private floor accessible only by elevator key. The opening is scheduled to open by this month end, October 31st.
Nitesh Estates Limited has built and will manage India’s first Ritz-Carlton on Bangalore’s, Residency Road – centrally located in the heart of the Central Business District. The 500,000 sq. ft. property stands on a 3-acre L-shaped plot.
Hugo Montanari, an experienced international hotelier, was appointed earlier on as Director of Operations of Ritz-Carlton, Bangalore.
The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co. LLC, of Chevy Chase, Md., currently operates 81 hotels in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Carribean. The Ritz-Carlton is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the U.S. headquartered Mariott International Inc.
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First ‘ IBTM India ‘ trade show held in Mumbai . September 2013 .
The first edition of the ‘IBTM India’ (Incentive, Business Travel & Meetings Industry- IBTM) was held over the course of 3 days at the Grand Hyatt in Mumbai. September 12 – 14th, 2013.
The IBTM-India event was organised by Reed Travel Exhibtions (RTE). The event featured a tabletop format ie. exhibitors met one-on-one with buyers during pre-arranged meetings.
On the sidelines a Conference was held with the keynote address by Dr.Devdutt Pattanaik, an Indian physician turned mythologist.
A networking seminar was sponsored by the Indian Chapter of the Society of Inventive Travel Executive (Site).
The project was co-ordinated by the IBTM- India Project Manager Shinu Pillai.
Australia based ‘ StayWell Hospitality ‘ opens its First Hotel in Jaipur, India . August 2013 .
The Australian ‘ Leisure Inn Grand Chanakya ‘ opens in Jaipur, Rajasthan. The Australia based ‘ StayWell Hospitality Group ‘ plans to open 6 properties in 9 months in cities across India.
More Info…….Coming Up…
First Woman to Win the GO-Unesco Challenge 2012. January 2013 .
Architect Jai Bharathi. The Challenge was instituted by Hyderabad-based software professional-entrepreneur Ajay Reddy.
More Info…..Coming Up….
U.S. based Food Chain ‘ Pollo Tropical ‘ opens First Restaurant in India . June 2013 .
The Miami – U.S. based Carribean-Inspired ‘ Pollo Tropical ‘ fast-casual restaurant chain formally opened its first restaurant outlet in the Capital located in DLF Place Shopping Plaza, one of the most prestigious shopping and dining centres in New Delhi.
The Pollo Tropical restaurant in New Delhi is the first restaurant of the Company, outside the Americas and marks the brand’s first opening outside the Western Hemisphere.
Their entry into India is associated with the Delhi based Paramount Group headed by their C.E.O.& Executive Director, Manjit Singh Saini. Paramount Group’s associate company Paramount Cuisines Pvt. Ltd is the master franchisee for Pollo Tropical in India.
Paramount Cuisines has plans to open at least ten Carribean themed Pollo Tropical restaurants in the NCR, Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana in the next 4 years.
Hyatt in India Appoints its First Female GM at Hyatt Regency Kolkata . July 2013 .
Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Southwest Asia has appointed its first Female General Manager – Ms. Britta Leick-Milde who has taken charge recently of the Hyatt Regency Kolkata.
Reinforcing its commitment to diversity and inclusion, Ms.Britta Leick-Milde’s appointment reflects the unique and personal ways that Hyatt celebrates the strength of its co-workers.
Britta’s hospitality career began 20 years ago at the Sheraton Frankfurt Hotel in her native Germany. Subsequently she worked with the Hilton and Kempinski groups. Britta joined the Hyatt family in 2007 as Director of Rooms, Park Hyatt Dubai and was subsequently promoted as ‘ Executive Assistant Manager – Rooms’.
An enthusiastic Indophile she served as Hotel Manager, Grand Hyatt Mumbai for nearly a year before taking up her new assignment as General Manager of Hyatt Regency Kolkata.
www.kolkata.regency.hyatt.com // www.hyatt.com
India’s first and World’s first ‘ Indian Art Hotel ‘. 2010 .
‘Le Sutra’, Mumbai. The 16-rooms boutique hotel is the first hotel in the world with the theme as ‘Indian Art’ where the rooms are inspired by Indian culture making it the First Indian Art Hotel.
“Sutra” means rope or thread that holds things to-gether in Sanskrit. It is inspired by Indian mythos based on ‘character’ (Ravana, Ashoka, Buddha) or ‘characteristics’ (Sensuality, Love, Purifiction). The 3-level hotel represents the ‘Gunas’ which sum up the worldview in Indian philosophy. The 3 Gunas being: Tamas, Rajas and Sattva.
The erstwile Pali Hills Hotel in Mumbai’s hip suburb of Bandra, has completely reinvented itself and resulted in the stunning ‘Le Sutra’.
First Indian to circumnavigate the globe, solo, non-stop, un-assisted. April 2013 .
Lieutanant Commander Abhilash Tomy became the first Indian to sail the globe solo, non-stop and un-aided.
34 year old Indian Navy aviator, Tomy sailed continuously circumnavigating the earth and crossing the equator twice in 150 days in INSV Mhadei to reach the milestone. He arrived at the same spot after creating history – Gateway of India , Saturday afternoon April 06th, 2013. He commenced the extra ordinary journey on November 01st last year at the same spop. Lt. Cdr Abhilash Tomy’s arrival was marked by gun salutes and firing of signal flares.
The arrival was witnessed by President Pranab Mukherjee, the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces. The Governor of Maharashtra K. Sankarnarayan, Health Minister Suresh Shety and Senior Navy officers wre there to welcome his.
” If one thing that the sea taught me, is is humility. The proudest moment for me was when I hosted the Tricolour on reaching Cape Horn ” say Tomy.
INSV Mhadei is a 56-foot long custom built sailboat with 23 tonne displacement for the Indian Navy on the banks of her namesake river in Goa in 2009.
Tomy is the second Indian to circumnavigate th globe after Commander Dilip Dhonde, his mentor who achieved the feat in 2010.
First Indian woman to climb Mount Everest . May 1984 .
On 23rd May 1984, Bachendri Pal became the first Indian woman mountaineer to climb Mount Everest.
May 22nd, 1984 alongwith other climbers in the team they started the ascent to the summit of Mount Everest, Bachendri was the only woman in this group. They continued the ascent climbing ‘vertical sheets of cold ice’, cold winds sometimes blowing at the speed of 100Km per hour, temperatures touching minus 30-40 degree celsius.
May 23rd, 1984 Bachendri Pal reached the summit of Mount Everest, creating history at 1:07pm IST, she was standing at the peak (29,028 feet) alongwith one other climber.
Born 24th May 1954 in Nakuri village, Uttarakashi district of Garhwal, Bachendri Pal started mountaineering at the tender age of twelve, when during a picnic alongwith several of her school mates they climbed 13,123 feet high peak. She went to become the first female graduate in her village. Continued and did her Masters Degree in Sanskrit and then her B.Ed.
After completing her studies she joined the ‘Nehru Institute of Mountaineering (NIM). In 1982 whilst at NIM she climbed ‘Gangotri’ (21,900 feet) and ‘Rudugaria’ (19,091 feet). In 1985 she led an Indo-Nepalese Everest Expedition team comprising of only women. The expediton created 7 world records and set benchmarks for Indian mountaineering.
She is working as Chief of Adventure Program with Tata Steel Adventure Foundation, where she conducts high altitude training workshops for the corporate workforce.