MUMBAI, INDIA, August 1, 2017 (DNA India): The spiritual and social traditions of Ganesh utsav will be on display with the state government planning to use these celebrations to attract domestic and foreign tourists to Maharashtra. This will include tours for visitors covering iconic Ganesh mandals in cities like Mumbai and Pune and events at locations like the Asiatic Society of Mumbai precinct to unveil the history and cultural significance of the festival.
Jaykumar Rawal, minister for tourism and employment guarantee scheme (EGS) told DNA that the state tourism department will market the festival through initiatives like special buses and Ganpati walks for tourists in Mumbai and Pune to cover iconic mandals. Rawal, who held a meeting with BMC and tourism department officials recently, added that the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) will collaborate with the BMC to set up an enclosure for foreign tourists to watch the Ganesh immersion procession at Girg Chowpaty. The enclosure will be able to accommodate 200 tourists at one go in batches of an hour.
HYDERABAD, INDIA, July 30, 2017 (New Indian Express): With the festivities revolving around Ganesha festival set to begin, Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) has drawn plans to supply eco-friendly clay Ganesha statues in order to protect lakes and water bodies in and around Hyderabad including Hussainsagar. Instead of statues made of plaster of Paris sprayed with synthetic colors, HMDA wants devotees to use statues made of clay. The authority has decided to procure as many as 10,000 statues from artisans and agencies who have experience in making eco-friendly statues of minimum size of eight inches. HMDA officials said they have invited expression of interest from eligible artisans and agencies who have proven experience in manufacturing statues in large numbers and willing to supply on or before August 18.
GORAKHPUR, INDIA, July 30, 2017 (Hindustan Times): The world’s largest publisher of Hindu religious books, Gita Press in Gorakhpur, is all set to add yet another feather to its cap. Having acquired a German-made machine worth US$1.7 million, the nearly century-old press will now publish books with better print quality and improved binding that will increase their shelf life. Prior to getting this new binding machine, the work was done manually. Now, the machine can bind 10,000 books at a time.
The press, which holds the pride of place for publishing over 650 million books from Mahabharata, Ramayana, Ram Charitmanas and Shrimad Bhagwad Gita to books on numerous fasts and rituals observed in Hindu homes since its inception in 1923 in more than 14 languages, will soon acquire other sophisticated printing machines to improve printing quality. ”Use of machines will save time, reduce production cost and, most significantly, improve the quality of books,” said KKM Tripathi, manager personnel at Gita Press.
The practice of yoga is not for ourselves alone, but for the Divine; its aim is to work out the will of the Divine in the world, to effect a spiritual transformation and to bring down a divine nature into the life of humanity. It is not personal ananda, but the bringing down of the divine ananda, the Satya Yuga, upon the Earth.
— Sri Aurobindo, (1872-1950), Indian philosopher and reformer
