'Wed in India': Modi's call to the rich to hold destination weddings in country
Dehradun, Dec 8: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said India needs a movement like 'Wed in India' on the lines of 'Made in India' and asked affluent industrialists to hold at least one destination wedding in their families each year in Uttarakhand saying it will help the hill state emerge as a wedding destination.
Addressing the inaugural session of the Uttarakhand Global Investors Summit at the FRI here, he said it has become fashionable among millionaire and billionaire business families to go abroad for destination weddings.
Modi had given a similar call during his last Mann Ki Baat programme to affluent business families to hold destination weddings in the country instead of going abroad.
"There is an old saying that marriages are made in heaven. But then why are young couples going abroad for their wedding instead of coming to the land of gods (Devbhoomi). My prescription to the young and rich couples is that there should be a movement like 'Wed in India' on the lines of Made in India," he said.
"Wed in India," Modi said, adding if the practice of holding destination weddings in Uttarakhand begins and continues for five years it will emerge as an international wedding destination.
"If rich business families start holding their family marriages in Uttarakhand once a year for the next five years and even if 5,000 marriages start taking place here in a year, a suitable infrastructure will grow and it will emerge as a major wedding destination," he said.
"India has great power. If you decide collectively and make a beginning, anything can happen," he said.
Describing Uttarakhand as a land full of potential, Modi said, "As many have said, Uttarakhand has contributed a great deal to the development of an aspect of my personality. If I get a chance to return something to this land, nothing like it."
Modi spent months in the hills of Uttarakhand during his formative years and makes it a point to mention this phase of his life indirectly in his public speeches whenever he visits the state.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
