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Free EBook Steve Jobs By Walter Isaacson Download ~ Free E-Book Download
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Friday, December 2, 2011
mumbai city
Fliers booked to travel on Kingfisher Airlines flights continue to be worried as the Mumbai airport will allow the airline to operate its flights only if it pays Rs50 lakh every day. On Friday, the cash-strapped airline paid the Mumbai airport the first instalment of Rs50 lakh to get
permission to operate its flights from the city on Saturday.
The amount payable by the airline is the airport’s landing fee and aircraft parking charges. The airline has been put on cash-and-carry mode as it has defaulted on the payment for the past six months.
The airline owes the Mumbai airport Rs90 crore for the past six months, according to a notice sent by MIAL to Kingfisher on Thursday,
“The Rs50 lakh daily payment by the airline was calculated by adding previous dues and current charges,” the MIAL official said.
The airport operator on Friday also issued notice to the airline over bounced cheques. Sources said cheques worth Rs85 crore issued by Kingfisher had bounced.
Kingfisher Airlines said it would operate all flights as per schedule.
“We would like to reassure our guests that all our flights will continue to operate as normal as per the revised schedule published on our website,” read a statement by the airline.
Travel agents said they had begun receiving anxious calls for fliers but not many have cancelled theirbookings yet. “People have been asking if it is safe to book with Kingfisher, but as the airline is offering discounted fares, tickets sales have not been hampered,” said Anup Kanuga, owner, Bathija Travels.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
big city....
The success of the bicycle in Amsterdam is often attributed to its flat terrain. By this logic, cycling would be unpopular in San Francisco. Yet the truth is the opposite of this. In the USA, bicycle use is (rather strangely, to this Brit at least) measured nationally by the percentage of trips taken to work by bike, reaching 0.6% in 2009. However, in San Francisco this figure was 3.2%, with local studies for all trips (yes, even those rare occasions when you aren’t going to work!) raising it to around 6%. A small figure compared to Amsterdam, but still notably higher than both the American national average and London’s dismal 2%.
Much of the city’s success with cycling has happened in the last five years, with a 58% increase in levels of cycling witnessed between 2006 and 2010. However, what is most impressive about this growth is that between these dates the city was legally incapable of developing its bicycle network.
San Francisco has, by North American standards, a long history of supporting multi-modalism. Enacted in 1973, the city’s Transit First policy was introduced to encourage ‘the use of transit and other alternatives to the single-occupant vehicle’. Whilst early versions neglected to explicitly mention bicycle use, the Transit First policy set the tone for the city’s approach to transport modes. Later updates specifically endorsed the bicycle, and the city published its first bicycle plan in 1997. This resulted in the development of San Francisco’s early bicycle network, but by 2005 the city was ready for something more comprehensive. Plans were drawn up and released as part of the Bicycle Plan Policy Framework (BPPF), aiming to create more dedicated bike lanes and places to securely stow bikes. Presenting near-term and long-term plans to improve the city’s bicycle network, its goals were, by Dutch standards at least, relatively modest. Despite this, the proposed implementation received some criticism. Although part of a large policy framework, sections of the BPPF were treated as ‘individual projects’, thus bypassing mandatory environmental-reviews. This was not well-received by all, eventually ending up in court where it was compared to ‘trying to avoid a review of a timber harvest plan by removing trees one at a time’. San Francisco found itself in the unusual position of having to prove that developments to its bicycle network were environmentally beneficial. Keen to avoid further lawsuits, the city of San Francisco undertook an extensive environmental review during which time it was legally unable to develop its bicycle network.
Yet as San Francisco’s bicycle network remained static, levels of cycling did the opposite. Program Director of the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, Andy Thornley, attributes this to the attitude of San Francisco’s citizens:
Well, for sure, there’s no place else like SF, with the combination of mild climate and urban density and smart, self-defining culture, the traditions of environmentalism, social justice, participatory politics, street theater and un-self-consciousness – we’re not people who get hung up on what we’re supposed to be doing or thinking, or how we look when we’re doing our thing, so the “childishness” and “down-class” stigmas of riding a bike don’t discourage us so much.
Cycling activism also has a history in San Francisco. Critical Mass – an event which sees large groups cycle a designated route through a city – started in San Francisco in 1992, before spreading all over the globe. Could it be that the people of San Francisco just want to cycle, regardless of the bicycle network they have to cycle on?
Despite topographical and infrastructural differences, Amsterdam and San Francisco have more in common than a water-influenced urban form. Amsterdam’s cycling resurgence, whilst dependent on numerous external factors, was initiated by the Dutch people. Similarly, the impressive increase in cycling seen in San Francisco, whilst again dependent on external factors (of the non-infrastructural variety), could not have happened without citizen demand.
This enthusiasm for cycling might also stretch as far as San Francisco’s retailers. Surveying stores on Valencia Street – a comparatively flat part of the city which has had bicycle lanes along both sides of the road since 1999 – Emily Drennen found that 44.4% of retailers felt the area had been economically revitalised since the introduction of lanes, 37% felt they had experienced an increase in sales, and 55.6% of retailers felt an increase in area residents shopping locally. In all cases, not a single retailer reported negative effects. Of course, one street in a large city does not make a conclusive study, though it does provide an interesting snapshot into local views on the economic effect of San Francisco’s bicycle network.
What is conclusive, at least in a legal sense, is environmental impact. On August the 6th 2010, the city was finally given the all clear to recommence infrastructural developments after passing the environmental review process. This puts San Francisco in a strange – and likely unique – position of having legal support for the environmental sensitivity of its urban bicycle network.
Less legally-conclusive is Donald Appleyard’s study on the environmental and social impacts of traffic in San Francisco. Studying noise pollution and air quality – two factors directly related to the development of a bicycle network – Appleyard explored how differing levels of automobile traffic affected the development of sustainable communities. Looking at three different streets in the city, identical ‘in every dimension except the amount of traffic’, Appleyard monitored the movements of those living on the studied streets, observing interactions with their neighbours. By tracking movements, Appleyard found that people on the light traffic street knew more people, and had more friends. Of course, talking about ‘knowing more people’ and ‘having more friends’ means we’re in highly intangible territory here, though exploring the notion of ‘community’ is a largely unquantifiable endeavour, whichever way you go about it.
Despite obvious successes, it’s not all good news from San Francisco. The city’s network of bicycle lanes is not comprehensive, and plans for future expansion don’t do enough to address this. A proposed cycle hire scheme, set to launch in 2012, will serve only the city’s core. Yet criticising these imperfections is both pedantic and missing the point (and the city probably has one of the best excuses going for a lack of action in recent years). San Francisco’s physical bicycle network may not inspire envy, but the attitudes of its politicians and its people does, accomplishing far more than most cities, without any kind of infrastructural assistance.
hunk
Kathmandu City
Kathmandu Metropolitan City Office
Kathmandu is the capital and largest metropolitan city of Nepal. The city is the urban core of the Kathmandu Valley in the Himalayas, which also contains two sister cities namely Patan or Lalitpur, 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) to its southeast and Bhaktapur, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) to its east. It is also acronymed as 'KTM'.
The city stands at an elevation of approximately 1,400 metres (4,600 ft) in the bowl-shaped valley in central Nepal surrounded by four major mountains, namely: Shivapuri, Phulchowki, Nagarjun and Chandragiri. It is inhabited by 671,846 (2001) people. The Kathmandu valley with its three districts including Kathmandu District accounts for a population density of only 97 per square kilometres whereas Kathmandu metropolitan city has a density of 13,225 per square kilometres. It is by far the largest urban agglomerate in Nepal, accounting for 20% of the urban population in an area of 5,067 hectares (12,520 acres) (50.67 square kilometres (19.56 sq mi)).
Kathmandu is not only the capital of the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal but also the headquarters of the Central Region (Madhyamanchal) among the five development regions constituted by the 14 administrative zones of Nepal located at the central part of the country. The Central region has three zones namely, Bagmati, Narayani and Janakpur. Kathmandu is located in the Bagmati Zone.
Kathmandu, as the gateway to Nepal Tourism, is the nerve centre of the country’s economy. With the most advanced infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal, Kathmandu's economy is tourism centric accounting for 3.8% of the GDP in 1995-96 (had declined since then due to political unrest but has picked up again).
The city’s rich history is nearly 2000 years old, as inferred from an inscription in the valley. Its religious affiliations are dominantly Hindu followed by Buddhism. People of other religious beliefs also live in Kathmandu giving it a cosmopolitan culture. Nepali is the common language of the city, though many speak the Nepal Bhasa Newari as it is the center of the Newar people and culture. English is understood by all of the educated population of the city. The literacy rate is 98% in the city.
Kathmandu is now the premier cultural and economic hub of Nepal and is considered to have the most advanced infrastructure among urban areas in Nepal. From the point of view of tourism, economy and cultural heritage, the sister cities of Patan(lalitpur) and Bhaktapur are integral to Kathmandu.
Hotel Management in Nepal
Hotel Management Education in Nepal - GATE Nepal makes a debut
Nepal is fast making a name in hospitality...and Hotel Management Education! GATE is the latest hospitality academy to make its debut in this beautiful country and plans to offer professional hotel education in combination with Swiss Hotel School - SSTH (Passugg / Chur). GATE has also announced a strong drive towards international ISO certification and strong ties with global Coffee trademark Illy Cafe and will introduce a branch as well as Barrista courses in the future. The school also announced scholarships for students from India, something very new to the region. Looking forward to seeing what impact the school has with it's new trend setting approaches to long-term and craft-level hotel / hospitality courses. Good luck GATE!
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Official Info: GATE (The Global Academy of Tourism & Hospitality Education) opens in Nepal: bringing the best of the West to the East! Switzerland has a long history in benchmarking excellence in hotel management education in the world. With Surprisingly similar geography: Nepal also a small landlocked country situated between two economic giants of Asia, (China and India) Is following Switzerland tradition of excellence in Hotel Management. GATE - Global Academy for Tourism and Hospitality Education has started its first session with 50 students and will soon admit international students. It is located on a lovely plot of land over-looking Kopan Monastery in Kathmandu, the capital valley of Nepal!
Nepal, a small spectacular country draped along the spine of the Himalaya is also renowned as home to the Mt. Everest, the tallest mountain and equally as a birthplace of Buddha in the world. Nepal is also renowned for its enthralling sublime scenery, amazing cultural diversity, and world-famous heritage and time-worn monuments, with some of the best hiking trails on earth. As it is cited in famous travel guide “Lonely Planet” - It's the kind of country that lingers in your dreams long after you leave it, this is why so many travelers are drawn back to Nepal, armed the second time round with a greater appreciation of its natural and cultural complexity, a stout pair of walking boots and a desire for sculpted calf muscles. “
At GATE, the hospitality management program is completely hands on – with some time in the classroom but most time cooking, serving, managing and making the on campus restaurant operate like a real restaurant. The Academic course is designed with the direct support of world famous Swiss School SSTH – Swiss School of Tourism & Hospitality which has over 40 years of proved track record of excellence in hospitality education. The co-signed higher diploma will be awarded to successful students upon completion of six academic semesters which are delivered in Kathmandu campus and or final year in SSTH Switzerland.
The college founder and CEO Mr. Khem Raj Lakai is a former Swiss School graduates and has over 15 years of experiences in the hospitality and hotel industry. Khem is also a Certified Hospitality Educator (CHE) and has worked in Asia, Europe and North America before he started his free-lance consultation in Bahrain. Khem says that GATE is already fortuned to have visiting faculties from abroad such as Deborah Koehler, world-renowned management coach (USA), Dr. Marc Clark (USA) as an Academic advisor and Florent Labbe (France), a certified French professor to support the GATE.
The GATE students will gain experience in the operational elements of the hospitality industry with practice-based and computer-based simulations designed to submerge them in the aesthetics, society and customer focus of hospitality. The indention of these practices and simulations is to develop the leadership ability and confidence through daily practice with feedback and accumulated confidence that come from reputation and exposure to real situations. The students of GATE are exposed to daily operation procedure and real service experience at campus owned restaurant called La Mezzaluna. It is able to cater up to 200 persons in each shift. Also the world famous coffee chain Illy has already approved it as an outlet for training in northern Kathmandu valley.
GATE aims to provide students with the right knowledge, skills and attitude requested by valued global Resorts and Hotels.
The students have the opportunity to interact with guest lectures from high standard Nepal hotels and visiting international industry leaders. Also GATE will take advantages of visits from celebrity chefs and legendary figures. Learning from them what it takes to become a successful leader and at the same time, they will help them develop an eye for detail and from their experiences of what they consider to be effective decision-making capabilities of the future manager.
In addition to learning about operations , information technology and financial management, , The students are involved in the creativity, decision making, thinking skills and cross culture behavior and human resources management that are required for them to work at global standards in environments outside of Nepal. All courses are designed to nurture a leadership and utilize each students full potential.
Swiss Merit Higher Diploma in Hotel & Restaurant Management is offered in 3 years of period either in Nepal or combined with the final semester in SSTH – Switzerland to award Swiss higher diploma.
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