LG J&K, Sh. Manoj Sinha inaugurates 3rd Tourism Working Group Meeting in presence of Union Ministers Dr. Jitendra Singh, Sh.G. Kishan Reddy and Ajay Bhat

LG J&K, Sh. Manoj Sinha inaugurates 3rd Tourism Working Group Meeting in presence of Union Ministers Dr. Jitendra Singh, Sh.G. Kishan Reddy and Ajay Bhat

Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Shri Manoj Sinha on May 23 inaugurated ‘3rd Tourism Working Group Meeting’ at SKICC Srinagar in presence of Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Science & Technology; MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr Jitendra Singh; Union Minister of Culture, Tourism and the Development of the North Eastern Region, Shri G Kishan Reddy and Union Minister of State for Tourism and Defence Shri Ajay Bhatt. The inaugural ceremony was attended by the delegates of G20 nations, international organisations and invited countries.

Speaking on the occasion, Lieutenant Governor J&K, Sh. Manoj Sinha said, under India’s G20 Presidency, the G20 tourism working group is focusing on five inter- connected priority areas that will provide a roadmap for tourism as a tool for achieving sustainable development goals.

Sh. Sinha further said, under the leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Jammu & Kashmir will soon find its place in the top 50 destinations in the world and it will be on the travel bucket list of global travellers. J&K is developing the country’s largest book village on the banks of Wular lake as the aim is to make the countryside and popular destinations more sustainable and preserve the beauty of fascinating heritage sites, emphasized LG J&K.

Sh. Sinha said, after a long pause of almost four decades, J&K has revived the relationship with Bollywood and launched a film policy in 2021 to attract more investment into film sector and to make Jammu Kashmir most popular film shooting destination.

“It is a poetry. It’s a land of realisation. It is an energy field vibrating with the ageless Indian cultural values. Tourism in Jammu Kashmir is also a reflection of multi-religious and multi-cultural ethos of India. Under the guidance of Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi Ji, we have ensured that the transition in tourism sector in the backdrop of pandemic focuses on needs of travellers, interests of industry stakeholders, creates employment opportunities and promote environmental awareness,” Sh. Sinha said.

Speaking during the inaugural session, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the logo and the theme together convey a powerful message of India’s G20 Presidency, which is of striving for just and equitable growth for all in the world.

While welcoming the delegates, Dr. Jitendra Singh said, the theme of India’s G20 Presidency- “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth, One Family, One Future” – is drawn from the ancient Sanskrit text of the Maha Upanishad. The theme affirms the value of all life– human, animal, plant, and microorganisms & their interconnectedness on the planet earth and in the wider universe, Dr. Singh emphasized.

Dr. Singh said, J&K has advanced with unique infrastructure like the world’s highest rail bridge ‘Chenab Bridge’ higher than the Eiffel tower and India’s longest highway tunnel Chenani-Nashri Tunnel, is also Asia’s longest bi-directional highway tunnel which are the magnets of attraction for tourism sector in J&K.

Dr. Singh said, he is delighted to share that the Basohli art form has obtained the Geographical Indication (GI) tag bringing international recognition to the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

Dr. Singh maintained that the five priorities in 3rd Tourism Working Group constitute the key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and in achieving the United Nations sustainable development goals 2030.

Sh. G. Kishan Reddy while speaking during the inaugural session said, Ministry of Tourism is keen to work with G20 nations to promote sustainable tourism in India and around the world.

Sh. Reddy further said, a significant progress has been made in the five key priority areas under 3rd Tourism Working Group Meeting namely Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills, MSMEs and Destination Management. These priorities are key building blocks for accelerating the transition of the tourism sector and achieving the targets for 2030 SDGs, he emphasised.

Sh. Reddy said, Tourism Working Group is progressing in the right direction and the joint effort of G20 nations, international organisations and invited countries will result in the achievement of inclusive and action oriented decisive guidelines for the tourism industry.

G20 Sherpa, Sh. Amitabh Kant said, the commendable progress has been made in the five key priority areas under 3rd Tourism Working Group Meeting under Green Tourism, Digitalization, Skills, MSMEs and Destination Management. Tourism is a major driver of growth, a major driver of job creation, Sh. Kant emphasized.

Sh. Kant said, tourism sector has a very critical role to play in skilling, re-skilling for the tourism sector and this skilling can play a major role in job creation.

The delegates of G20 nations, invited countries and international organisations besides union Minister of State for Tourism and Defence Shri Ajay Bhatt, Chief Coordinator, G20, Sh. Harsh Vardhan Shringla and Secretary Tourism, Sh. Arvind Singh were also present during the inaugural session.

IFSCA Authorises Qkrishi as FinTech Entity for Quantum Finance

IFSCA Authorises Qkrishi as FinTech Entity for Quantum Finance

Qkrishi is focused on building QFinBox the world’s first quantum finance sandbox

Gandhinagar, Gujarat: Qkrishi Quantum Private Limited has been authorized as a Fintech Entity by the International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA) at an event held today in GIFT city, Gandhinagar. The letter of authorization was issued to Qkrishi co-founder Monika Aggarwal and the announcement of the authorisation was made in the presence of Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi. The award recognizes Qkrishi as a Fintech Entity under IFSCA’s framework to develop QFinBox (Quantum Finance Sandbox) for testing and benchmarking of quantum solutions for adoption by the finance industry. Many finance problems have a high degree of computational complexity and are slow to converge even on the fastest supercomputers. Quantum brings a lot of opportunities for the financial sector to address challenges in portfolio optimization, pricing, KYC, credit scoring, fraud detection, risk analysis and other financial domain use cases and QFinBox will provide a safe environment to test quantum algorithms on actual financial industry workflows for adoption in everyday critical business processes. QFinBox will also help financial organisations to prepare themselves to face up to cyber security threats by more easily adopting the new encryption standards for securing transactions and finance data against quantum attacks.

“Quantum represents a new computing paradigm. The financial industry needs to get ready for the future of computing. Qkrishi is working to radically reshape how financial organisations work by driving innovations using quantum computing,” says Smt. Prabha Narayan, co-founder at Qkrishi. “IFSCA is helping India emerge as a leader in this era of technology-driven finance and Qkrishi is partnering to bring the latest quantum technologies to the financial sector in India. QFinBox will enable the financial industry to get quantum ready. Qkrishi has also filed a patent on the quantum sandbox technology.”

Apart from Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat Shri Bhupendra Patel, Union Minister of Finance and Corporate Affairs Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman, Gujarat Minister of Finance and Energy Shri Kanubhai Desai, Union Ministers of State for Finance Shri Pankaj Chaudhary and Dr. Bhagwat Kishanrao Karad also graced the ceremony held in GIFT City, Gandhinagar, Gujarat. The IFSCA leadership team including Chairperson Shri Injeti Srinivas and Chief Technology Officer Shri Joseph Joshy and the leadership team of Qkrishi comprising Professor Monika Aggarwal, Shri Chetan Waghela, Shri Raghavendra V and Shri Sreekuttan L S were also present at this glittering ceremony held today.  At the ceremony Prime Minister Modi also laid the of foundation stone of IFSCA HQ Building and launched India International Bullion Exchange and NSE IFSC – SGX Connect.

About Qkrishi: Qkrishi, founded in 2021, focuses on quantum research, technology and skilling. Qkrishi is working with industry and academic partners on use cases of relevance to industries including finance. Qkrishi has a team of experienced researchers with advanced degrees in quantum computing. The Qkrishi team is constantly innovating to create intellectual property of value to industry clients.

About International Financial Services Centres Authority (IFSCA): IFSCA was established on April 27, 2020, under the International Financial Services Centres Authority Act, 2019. It is headquartered at GIFT City, Gandhinagar in Gujarat. The IFSCA is a unified authority for the development and regulation of financial products, financial services and financial institutions in the International Financial Services Centre (IFSC) in India. At present, the GIFT IFSC is the maiden international financial services centre in India. Prior to the establishment of IFSCA, the domestic financial regulators, namely, RBI, SEBI, PFRDA and IRDAI regulated the business in IFSC. As the dynamic nature of business in the IFSCs requires a high degree of inter-regulatory coordination within the financial sector, the IFSCA has been established as a unified regulator with a holistic vision in order to promote ease of doing business in IFSC and provide world-class regulatory environment. The main objective of the IFSCA is to develop a strong global connection and focus on the needs of the Indian economy as well as to serve as an international financial platform for the entire region and the global economy as a whole.