Author: Neel Achary

Goa Tourism to present its evolving tourism landscape at ITB Berlin

Goa; Feb 28: As the global travel and tourism industry gears up for the prestigious ITB Berlin, the Department of Tourism, Government of Goa, is set to mark its presence at the international platform from 3rd to 5th March 2026 at Berlin ExpoCenter City, Germany.

At Stall No. 225, Goa Tourism will host structured engagements and business meetings with international tour operators, travel buyers, and industry leaders. Recognised as one of the world’s leading travel trade exhibitions, ITB Berlin brings together tourism boards, airlines, hospitality brands, travel companies, technology providers, under one roof. Goa’s continued participation at this prominent platform reflects its sustained focus on strengthening international partnerships, expanding outreach in key markets, and positioning Goa as a dynamic, year-round destination.

During the three-day event, the Goa delegation will undertake focused B2B meetings with tour operators, travel buyers, airline representatives, and media stakeholders to explore collaborative opportunities and enhance trade engagement. The participation will also enable Goa Tourism to assess emerging travel trends and align its offerings with evolving global preferences. At Stall No. 225, Goa Tourism will showcase a wide spectrum of tourism experiences that highlight the State’s depth and diversity.

These include heritage and cultural tourism, spiritual circuits, wellness and yoga retreats, hinterland exploration, adventure tourism, river cruises, culinary experiences, and immersive monsoon programmes. The emphasis will be on curated experiences that encourage meaningful travel and longer stays. Alongside its varied offerings, Goa Tourism will also present its broader vision for responsible and sustainable development through its regenerative tourism framework, demonstrating how tourism growth is being aligned with community participation, heritage preservation, and environmental stewardship.

Hon’ble Tourism Minister Shri Rohan A. Khaunte stated “Our participation at ITB Berlin 2026 reflects Goa’s sustained and strategic engagement with the global tourism industry. As one of India’s leading tourism destinations, it is important that we actively strengthen our presence in key international markets. This platform enables us to present the depth and diversity of Goa’s tourism offerings while engaging directly with global tour operators, travel buyers, and industry leaders. We are focused on building long-term partnerships that enhance destination visibility, attract quality tourism, and contribute meaningfully to the State’s economic growth.”

The Director of Tourism Shri Kedar Naik added that the focus will be on attracting quality tourism and building long-term collaborations with global stakeholders. Goa’s participation reflects a strategic approach to expanding its international footprint while reinforcing its identity as a destination offering authenticity, diversity, and responsible travel experiences. Through its presence at ITB Berlin, Goa Tourism continues to strengthen its global positioning and reaffirm its commitment to meaningful international engagement.

Decentralization and rising non‑metro demand are reshaping India’s retail sector

Multi‑party data and hyperlocal playbooks as key market differentiators, reveals a report by ClarityX and Mastercard, co-powered by MapmyIndia data

New Delhi, India, Feb 28: Decentralization of demand and rapid premiumization are accelerating India’s retail transformation, according to a new report published by ClarityX, an AI-driven data analytics and consulting firm supported by MapmyIndia founders and Mastercard. The report, “Winning in India’s Retail Sector–Harnessing Next‑Gen Analytics to Drive Transformative Growth”, leverages MapmyIndia data and examines demand and supply trends from 2023–2025 and highlights how multi-party data and hyperlocal decision-making are becoming essential in an increasingly diverse retail landscape.

“The ClarityX Mastercard India Retail report highlights how the 2Hs (Highways and Highstreets) are emerging as the new demand engines and the 3Fs (Fuel, Food and Fashion) are driving tier 3- 5 towns to grow twice as fast as their metro peers. The seeping of retail demand and its premiumization at lower demographics are strong markers of democratisation of purchasing power and inclusive economic growth. The evolution of AI-enabled retail intelligence is bringing together multi-party datasets that identify high‑potential geographies, shifting consumer demand and enabling precision-led expansion strategies,”said Rakhi Prasad, Co-founder, ClarityX and Non-executive Director, CE Info Systems Ltd (MapmyIndia Mappls)

“India offers extraordinary growth potential for retailers, but real success lies in understanding how consumer behaviour is evolving. Aggregated and anonymized payments data can tell us who customers are, how they shop and what they value. When this is combined with traffic patterns, POI (point of interest) intelligence and search analytics, it creates a powerful, holistic view of the market. The retailers who turn this intelligence into decisive action will be the ones who lead,” said Rajesh Chopra, Senior Vice President & Head, Advisors, South Asia at Mastercard.

Non-metro India powering the next phase of growth

Tier 3–5 cities are growing almost twice as fast as metros, driven by higher disposable incomes, rising aspirations and a lower starting consumption base. Categories from dining to apparel are seeing clear trading‑up behaviour, but the meaning of ‘premium’ varies sharply by geography—making hyperlocal product assortments increasingly important as mass‑premium offerings lose relevance.

With Tier 1–2 markets approaching saturation, highway and high‑street retail corridors (2H) are emerging as new demand engines. Fuel and food consumption along these routes indicate rising footfall, first‑time brand adoption and the formation of new retail hubs. Future growth will depend on category mix, micro-marketing and the ability to understand consumers at a highly granular level.

Brands that can tailor their product, pricing, promotion and distribution strategies to local nuances will lead India’s next retail chapter.

Key findings from the ClarityX–Mastercard Retail Report

• Offline consumer spends grew 20% between 2023–25, while retail outlets expanded 25% in the same period.
• Electronics, durables and jewellery are still in early growth phases, while footwear has reached maturity across Tier 1–5; F&B and apparel are now nearing maturity.
• Grocery spending rose 74% nationally, but growth was uneven—32% in Tier 1–2 vs 104% in Tier 3–5 cities.
• Premiumization varies by income, exposure and city tier—making it a relative, not universal concept.
• Spending above Rs 25,000 saw the highest growth across categories, indicating unprecedented up‑trading.
• Among organized retail categories, F&B grew the fastest at 89% over three years.

YBE Nails Lashes Brows Opens in Chennai, Bringing International Nail, Lash and Brow Techniques to India’s Urban Youth Market

Feb 28: YBE Nails Lashes Brows, a specialised salon concept focused exclusively on nail, lash and brow services, is launched by Tip and Toe Salon, pioneers in the nails, lash and brow salon industry, with its first outlet in Chennai. The brand enters the market as a positioned alternative to both premium salons and unorganised budget setups – offering professionally delivered services at accessible price points, within a compact, design-forward format built for the urban youth demographic.

The Chennai outlet spans approximately 400 sq. ft. and is configured with four nail stations, three pedicure loungers, a dedicated lash and brow zone, and a digital-first booking and payment infrastructure supporting UPI and card transactions. The space has been designed to reflect the brand’s aesthetic identity – minimal, modern interiors with a beige-chrome palette – while maintaining operational efficiency.  Critically, every service on the menu is designed to be completed within 60 minutes, a deliberate operational commitment that sets YBE apart from conventional salons and directly addresses the time constraints of its core clientele: working professionals and college students who expect quality without the wait.

YBE‘s service offering spans three categories. The nails menu includes gel polish applications – among them Cat Eye and Nail Art formats – Gel X systems, manicures, and pedicures. Lash services cover Classic, Hybrid, and Volume extensions, as well as lash lifting. The brow bar offers lamination, tinting, and shaping. A number of these treatments, including Gel X application, advanced nail art techniques, lash lifting, and brow lamination, are not widely available in a standalone salon format in Chennai, positioning YBE as an early entrant in the city’s organised beauty bar segment. All techniques are drawn from international markets and delivered by a team trained by professionals from TIP&TOE, with senior technicians overseeing quality and consistency at the outlet.

The brand’s pricing model is designed to bridge the gap between premium and budget offerings. Gel polish and mani-pedi services are priced at accessible rates for the target demographic, lash services are competitively positioned against premium salons, and introductory offers are available at launch.

Chennai was identified as the first location on the basis of its rapidly growing urban youth population – college students, young working professionals, and content creators – and the relative absence of organised, specialised beauty bar formats in the city. YBE is structured as a scalable, franchise-ready model, with expansion planned across metro and Tier 1 cities including Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Hyderabad, and Ahmedabad, and subsequent rollout into Tier 2 markets.

“YBE has been built to address a clear gap in the Indian beauty market – a focused, process-driven format that delivers international-standard services at a price point accessible to the Gen Z and young professional consumer. Chennai is the right starting point, and we are committed to building a consistent, quality-led experience as we scale.” – says Manisha Surave, South Zonal Operation Head, Grey Trendy Professional Pvt Ltd.

YBE Nails Lashes Brows now welcomes appointments at its Chennai outlet.
Address of Salon: 2nd floor, 46, Besant Ave Rd, URUR, ADYAR, CHENNAI, TN-600020

Triveni Kala Sangam Marks 75 Years with Grand Heritage Festival Celebrating India’s Living Cultural Legacy

New Delhi, Feb 28: Triveni’s journey began in two rented rooms in Connaught Place and culminated in the iconic landmark building at Mandi House. The country’s treasured epicentre of the arts, Triveni Kala Sangam, today inaugurated its landmark 75th anniversary festival, celebrating seven and a half decades of artistic excellence, education and cultural openness in the heart of Delhi. Since its inception in 1950, the institution, built almost single-handedly by Late Smt. Sundari K. Shridharani through sheer grit and perseverance, has nurtured generations of artists, performers and teachers across disciplines, supporting over ten thousand individuals with platforms, audiences and students, and contributing significantly to India’s modern artistic landscape.

Running from 27 February to 15 March 2026, the commemorative festival is anchored by the exhibition From Two Rooms… to a Landmark, presenting rare photographs, documents and narratives from Triveni’s founding decades and its evolution within Delhi’s post-Independence cultural milieu. The wider programme features performances by eminent practitioners, artist interactions, craft showcases and public events reaffirming Triveni’s long-standing commitment to emerging artists and cross-disciplinary exchange. Highlights include the theatre conversation The Importance of Being Triveni, featuring renowned director and educator Feisal Alkazi in dialogue with journalist Mandira Nayar, and Working with Stein – The Inside Story, where architects Sudhish Mohindroo and Meena Mani will revisit their formative years with the legendary Joseph Allen Stein and reflect on the making of landmark cultural institutions including the Triveni campus.

Another feature is the revival of Triveni’s historic café legacy through a limited Heritage Menu (23 February-15 March), recalling the Tea Terrace of the 1960s, when artists, writers and students shared tables with modern masters such as M. F. Husain, Krishen Khanna, Vivan Sundaram, Raghu Rai and Tyeb Mehta; dancers including Hema Malini, Indrani Rahman, Birju Maharaj, Narendra Sharma and Yamini Krishnamurthy; musicians such as sitar maestro Ravi Shankar and his disciple Pt. Uma Shankar Mishra,  Pt. Jasraj, Pt. Amarnath and Pt. Hari Prasad Chaurasia; and theatre figures from the National School of Drama  including Ebrahim Alkazi, Sheela Bhatia, Anuradha Kapoor, Om Shiv Puri, Om Puri, Habib Tanveer and Naseeruddin Shah, shaping India’s modern cultural imagination in an open, democratic space for dialogue and practice.

Inaugurating the anniversary programme, Amar Shridharani, Honorary General Secretary, Triveni Kala Sangam, said, “Seventy-five years is evidence of continuity. Triveni Kala Sangam was conceived as a complete cultural ecosystem where disciplines meet and influence one another. Over these decades, the institution has nurtured and supported more than 10,000 artists, teachers and cultural professionals across disciplines. As we look to the next 25 years, our commitment remains the same: to sustain artistic freedom, keeping teaching at its core and preserving the classical forms of Indian dance and music, while expanding access through new technologies, digital archives and a renewed focus on interdisciplinary collaborations that carry this vision forward for future generations.”

The festival honours the visionary legacy of founder Late Smt. Sundari K. Shridharani, whose journey began with a young girl’s passion for rhythm in Karachi and grew into the vision of creating an open interdisciplinary space where visual arts, music, dance and theatre could coexist freely. In 1960, this vision found architectural expression in the modernist campus designed by Joseph Allen Stein, whose open courtyards and human-scale galleries continue to shape Triveni’s distinctive experience of art as part of everyday life.

Across 75 years, Triveni Kala Sangam has remained unique in its firm refusal of ticketing, private donations and commercialisation, principles sustained through decades of political, economic and cultural change in the Indian capital. Conceived as an open cultural campus rather than an exclusive venue, it has functioned as a democratic public space where emerging and established artists and audiences share the same courtyards, galleries and performances without hierarchy or barrier. This continuity of vision, offering access without privilege and art free from commodification, has shaped India’s modern artistic landscape while allowing Triveni to endure as one of Delhi’s rare living cultural commons. Over the decades, this open platform has welcomed and been enriched by eminent masters, including Odissi legend Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra, dancer and choreographer Uday Shankar, maestros Yamini Krishnamurthy and Indrani Rahman, and theatre visionaries Habib Tanvir and Ebrahim Alkazi, reflecting its enduring role as a meeting ground of India’s leading artistic traditions. As it enters its next quarter century, Triveni continues to evolve while remaining rooted in its founding values of accessibility, artistic independence and shared cultural space.

The Triveni@75 festival is open to the public from 27 February to 15 March 2026 at Triveni Kala Sangam, New Delhi.

Blue Jet Healthcare to Launch INR 2,300-Cr Pharma Plant in Andhra Pradesh

India’s Contrast Media Intermediates Major Blue Jet Healthcare to Break Ground Tomorrow on INR 2,300-Crore Mega Pharma Plant in Andhra Pradesh

Chandigarh, Feb 28: Blue Jet Healthcare Ltd, one of India’s leading manufacturers of contrast media intermediates used in medical imaging, will tomorrow break ground on a ₹2,300-crore greenfield pharmaceutical manufacturing facility at Rambilli Industrial Park in Anakapalli district, marking a significant scale-up of India’s specialty pharma and CDMO capabilities.

Spread across over 102 acres near Visakhapatnam, the project will create new production capacities for contrast media intermediates, high-intensity sweeteners and multipurpose chemistry units. The facility will be developed in phases and is targeted to become operational by FY2028–29.

From 1968 chemicals firm to global CDMO

Founded in 1968 as Jet Chemicals Private Limited, Blue Jet Healthcare has evolved into a science-led specialty pharmaceutical and healthcare ingredients company headquartered in Maharashtra.

Today, it operates as an integrated Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO), supplying advanced pharmaceutical intermediates, APIs, contrast media intermediates and high-intensity sweeteners to customers across India, Europe, the United States and other international markets. The company is recognised as one of India’s leading players in contrast media intermediates and an early pioneer of saccharin manufacturing in the country.

Over decades, it has built deep expertise in process chemistry, manufacturing scale-up and global regulatory-compliant production, positioning itself as a strategic supplier to multinational pharmaceutical companies.

Scale, sustainability and supply-chain depth

The Rambilli project entails an investment of approximately ₹2,300 crore and is expected to generate 1,750 direct jobs and 250 indirect jobs, significantly strengthening the industrial profile of the Visakhapatnam economic region.

Importantly, the facility will integrate an advanced Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) with marine discharge connectivity and incorporate Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD) technologies. According to the company profile, this system is designed to enable a 70% reduction in energy consumption while recovering 90–95% of wastewater a critical factor as global pharma supply chains tighten ESG and compliance benchmarks.

The investment is expected to deepen India’s domestic manufacturing base in high-value specialty intermediates at a time when global pharmaceutical companies are increasingly diversifying supply chains beyond single geographies.

Leadership driving expansion

The company is led by Executive Chairman Akshay Bansarilal Arora, who has been associated with the business for over four decades and has served on the Board since 1983. With academic training in chemistry and extensive experience in specialty chemicals and pharma, he has been instrumental in transforming Blue Jet into a global supplier of contrast media intermediates and niche pharmaceutical products.

Managing Director Shiven Akshay Arora, who joined the Board in 2015, oversees expansion initiatives and global strategy, with a focus on modernization, innovation and Greenfield developments.

Andhra’s pharma cluster ambitions

For Andhra Pradesh, the ground breaking signals further momentum in its cluster-based industrial push, particularly in pharmaceuticals and bulk drugs. The Rambilli Industrial Park is being positioned as a hub for high-value chemical and pharma manufacturing along the eastern coast.

For Blue Jet Healthcare, the project represents a decisive step in scaling its global CDMO footprint reinforcing India’s ambition to move up the pharmaceutical value chain from generics to complex intermediates and specialty chemistry.

The coconut will be broken tomorrow, but strategically, this is a long-term bet on India’s chemistry, on global supply-chain realignment, and on specialty pharma scale from the eastern seaboard.

Goa Tourism concludes successful participation at SATTE 2026 garnering strong industry response

Goa, Feb 28: Goa Tourism marked a strong and impactful conclusion to its participation at SATTE 2026 held at the Yashobhoomi Convention Centre, New Delhi. Following an encouraging opening grace by Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, the Goa pavilion continued to attract significant footfall and sustained engagement from domestic and international buyers, tour operators, travel trade representatives, and industry leaders through the final day of the exhibition.

Over the three-day event, the Goa Tourism delegation comprised Shri Jayesh Kankonkar, Assistant Director (Tourism); Shri Deepak Narvekar, Deputy General Manager (Marketing), Goa Tourism Development Corporation; and Smt. Chitra Vengurlekar, Assistant Tourist Officer engaged in a series of productive B2B meetings and strategic discussions aimed at strengthening partnerships across key source markets. The interactions focused on experiential travel, spiritual and cultural circuits, hinterland exploration, wellness, adventure tourism, and year-round offerings aligned with the State’s Regenerative Tourism roadmap. The consistent response at the pavilion reflected growing confidence in Goa’s diversified and future-ready tourism ecosystem.

The Goa Pavilion also saw the active participation of around 82 co-exhibitors, including hoteliers, tour operators, and DMCs, who showcased their products and services alongside the State’s official delegation.

Hon’ble Minister for Tourism, Shri Rohan A. Khaunte, stated, “Goa’s participation at SATTE 2026 reflects a continued commitment to positioning the State as a progressive, resilient, and year-round destination. The encouraging response from national stakeholders highlights the growing acceptance of the Regenerative Tourism approach, which places equal emphasis on community, culture, environment, and economic growth. The partnerships strengthened during this platform will further accelerate Goa’s journey towards sustainable and responsible tourism leadership.”

Director of Tourism, Shri Kedar Naik, remarked, “SATTE continues to serve as a significant platform for meaningful industry engagement. The strong interest shown in Goa’s evolving tourism model highlights the State’s growing appeal beyond conventional travel narratives and reinforces strategic outreach across key markets.”

Marking the successful showcase, Goa Tourism was presented with a Participation memento in recognition of its active presence at the exhibition. Throughout the exhibition, the Goa pavilion showcased a comprehensive portfolio of the State’s tourism offerings, highlighting heritage and spiritual tourism initiatives, festivals, adventure activities, wellness retreats, and immersive hinterland circuits.

A defining highlight of this year’s participation was the continued industry appreciation for Goa’s pioneering Regenerative Tourism model. Buyers and stakeholders acknowledged the State’s approach towards responsible tourism practices, improved governance mechanisms, and collaborative engagement with local communities.

As SATTE 2026 concluded, Goa Tourism’s dynamic presence reaffirmed its strategic focus on innovation, sustainability, and strengthened trade partnerships. The successful engagements and new alliances formed during the event are poised to further enhance Goa’s visibility and competitiveness across national and international tourism markets.