Madhya Pradesh is the only state in India which provides subsidy to an airline operating regional flights, and now other states may follow suit soon. 
 The <keyword id="58151" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="civil-aviation-ministry">Civil Aviation Ministry</keyword> wants states to underwrite a fixed number of seats per flight operated by local airlines to boost intra-state connectivity. 
 
"We have told states that regional connectivity cannot be achieved without states pushing for it. They have been asked to study the MP model to ensure smaller cities in their respective states get air connectivity," a ministry official told Economic Times on the condition of anonymity. 
 
Last month, the ministry held a meeting that was attended by representatives of Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Rajasthan on the matter. 
 The Government of central Indian state provides financial backing to airline company <keyword id="880675" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ventura-Airconnect">Ventura Airconnect</keyword>, which connects cities including Bhopal, Gwalior, Indore, Jabalpur, Satna, Khajuraho and Rewa. 
 
However, industry executives and experts stressed on other initiatives also, in a bid to ensure profitability on regional routes. 
 
"Apart from underwriting seats and infrastructural support, state governments should provide capital side subsidies in the form of access to cheaper capital or lower interest rates, which will help operators add more aircraft to the fleet and expand route deployments," Jayant Nadkarni, president of Business Aircraft Operators' Association, told ET. 
 
Nadkarni said states should share an updated list of all operational and uncontrolled airports and appoint a single point of contact in each state aviation department. 
 
He also suggested states should tighten the evaluation process and focus on core operations and financial strengths apart from the lowest commercial bidder for subsidies and underwriting seats. 
 The financial daily reported <keyword id="95016" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Madhya-Pradesh-government">Madhya Pradesh Government</keyword> underwrites three seats on each sector, reimburses VAT on the fuel uplifted from any city within the state, provides free security for operations to airstrips owned and operated by the state government, and offers marketing support by <keyword id="849128" type="COMPANY" weightage="80" keywordseo="MP-State-Tourism-Development-Corporation">MP State Tourism Development Corporation</keyword>. 
 
The ministry official informed that the state government paid an average Rs 4,402 per seat subsidy towards underwritten seats and Rs 1.49 crore towards VAT reimbursement to the private operator in the past three years that it has implemented the scheme. 
 
Madhya Pradesh Government has sought concession in landing, parking and air traffic control charges from the Airports Authority of India for the first five years of operations to make the assistance viable. 
 
The provincial government subsidises operations of Ventura Airconnect, which says on its website that it is the first intrastate airline in the country and operates in Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat. According to a message on the website by the airline's chairman Pradeep Agarwal, the carrier has operated 8,000 flights with 35,000 passengers since it commenced operations in Madhya Pradesh in 2011. 
 
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For a company that started its journey two years back when there was no backpacking culture in India, would it be surprising if we tell you <keyword id="2232457" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Zostel">Zostel</keyword> – the only established hostel chain for travel freaks - is now gung-ho on its plans to move into South East Asian and European markets. They already have one hostel running in <keyword id="13486" type="COUNTRY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Vietnam">Vietnam</keyword>, and the aim is to run hostels in Barcelona, Puerto and Sri Lanka in the next three months. 
 
It’s not that one doesn’t expect such a mammoth step from a relatively new company present in a space that the Indian market may be not fully prepared for. But it irks a bit to think how Zostel is expanding outside without having made inroads into the Indian market fully. 
 
When it came into the picture in August 2013, Zostel followed an operation heavy model where it would lease properties and run them as its own. In March this year, they shifted to a franchise model. Under what they called <a href="http://www.zostel.com/beyou/">‘Zostel Entrepreneurship Development Programme’</a>, the company invited people who wanted to run their own hostels. It was a one-of-its-kind initiative to aid aspiring entrepreneurs to start their own Zostels with the performance linked seed amount of Rs 10 lakhs. Its funda was simple – “you do the investment and run the property as per Zostel’s specifications, we will take care of your sales, marketing, branding and technology support to help you get backpackers”. In return, it charged 15 per cent commission on each booking made from its platform — both app and website — and a monthly marketing fee. As a part of instilling trust in people, Zostel also decided to go ‘public’ with sensitive information about its business and operations like capital expenditure requirements and breakup of the same on per bed basis for setting up a backpacker hostel, operational expenditure requirements, revenue, expenses and profit margin of the company as well as occupancy in last few months. 
 
 
The offer attracted 2,000 applications from across the world out of which Zostel has decided to go ahead with nearly 60 of them. One was from Vietnam where the company has already begun running its first international hostel in Dalat. Now it has decided to stray into Barcelona, Puerto and Sri Lanka because they received applications from there too. This is not to say that there are no further plans for India though. Only last month, the company announced the launch of four hostels across India in Jaisalmer, Pushkar, Rishikesh and Goa taking its total properties in India to 11. Khajuraho, Jaipur, Mysore, Otty, Manali, Spiti, Leh, Puri, Kochi are many other places that will soon get come under Zostel’s net. 
 
But we still asked if Zostel finds international markets more benefitable than Indian market and whether they feel the home market is not ready for the famous western concept of backpacking yet? One of its co-founder said: “No that’s not that case.” 
 
“When we started out in 2013, 90 percent of our customers were foreigners and 10 per cent were Indians. It’s now 65 per cent foreigners and 30 per cent Indians. So, Zostel created the market that did not exist in India. Yes, we are slightly ahead of the curve and would shape a better market in India in the coming years,” said Akhil Malik. 
 
“We are focusing on growing the Zostel network to 25 properties across national and international destinations by the year end. Our vision is to emerge as the largest youth brand with our footprints all over the globe,” the Zostel Hospitality co-founder said. 
 As it goes big, there is hardly any investment the company is making in marketing. <keyword id="6583342" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="backpackers">Backpackers</keyword> move in groups and are well connected and by giving them good services at affordable rates, Zostel claims, it has been able to come this far. And that’s how it will move forward too. 
 The new Zostel properties are being established under the Zostel <keyword id="107737" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="100" keywordseo="Entrepreneurship">Entrepreneurship</keyword> Development Programme. Currently, over 20,000 backpackers stay in Zostels every month. The company offers travelers rooms (women-only dorm, mixed dorm, private rooms) at budgets of Rs 500 a day, and offer services like laundry, access to internet, library, board games and other interactive facilities. It is in the process of launching a one-of-its-kind backpacker app that will tap into this community to share relevant information for the backpacking ecosystem. 
 
(Image credit: Zostel)

Exclusive: Zostel eyes South East Asia and European markets while expanding in India

Meet the octogenarians - Jack Evans and George Harris. They have been together in love for the better of the latter half of the last century to this moment. 54 years. 
 On Friday, June 26, when the <keyword id="6354977" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Supreme-Court">Supreme Court</keyword> announced that the rainbow flag can be waved and hoisted at all lengths and breaths in the <keyword id="6356955" type="COUNTRY" weightage="80" keywordseo="united-states">United States</keyword> of America, Jack and George became the first gay couple to be married in the state of Texas. 

	“Ten years ago, this was not even imaginable. Had little hope it would ever come to Texas, still shocked that Texas is allowing it today,” An elated and emotional Jack Evans said. 
 Texas was one among the dozen or so states in the US that remained barren and dry without a wink of prospect from the clouds of law, concerning the legalisation of <keyword id="393963" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="same-sex-marriage">same-sex marriage</keyword>. However, the weather has changed for good after last Friday. 

	Genji Monogatari (Tale of Genji), often branded as the world's first novel, illustrates eccentric plots of the erotic encounters of Genji, the son of an emperor, who, in one scene sleeps with his concubine's brother. Genji also felt that the boy was sexually more pleasing than his sister. 
 

	Literal renditions from official acknowledgements go as far back as the 11th century when it comes to purporting the reality shows of predominant homosexuality in the computational phylogeny of human society.
 

	Religions, mostly, have always brandished a hard whip against the sexual discretion of men and women, who have taken refuge in their own gender. 
 

	“A man shall not lie with another man as he would with a woman, it is an abomination.” - Torah
 

	Christianity, being pronounced with different syllables of denominations has mixed opinions. On one hand they classify homosexual acts as sinful. While, equally, the other hand has no qualms to accept same-sex relationships as morally acceptable. 
 

	“Do you approach males among the worlds and leave what your Lord had created for you as mates? But you are a people transgressing.” - Quran, Surah 26 
 

	Hindu temples, such as Khajuraho and Padhlavi endorse adventurous orgies of both heterosexual and homosexual natures alike as one would endorse fish magnets on a refrigerator. 
 

	According to Pew Global Attitudes Project in 2013, homosexuality is broadly accepted in North America, European Union, Latin America, Asia and Russia. The research discovered that the general average, in the richest countries where the religious gravity was relatively low, was tolerant and accepting of same-sex relationships. Age is also an influencer here. Younger respondents were seen to be more liberal than the older ones. Also, women were found to be less homophobic than men. 
 

	When it doesn't harm anyone or cause any evil, acceptance is the most profound form of humanness. 
 

	Padma Iyer, who wanted nothing but the best for her son, placed this ad in a national newspaper, which allegedly is the first gay matrimonial ad to have appeared in mainstream media in India - “Seeking 25-40, Well Placed, Animal-Loving Vegetarian GROOM for my SON (36 5'11") who works with an NGO. Caste No Bar (Though IYER preferred)” 
 

	In one of her fund-raiser campaigns for equality, Ms Iyer says, “Sexuality is not a choice. Homophobia is.” 
 

	The social media has not been sitting idle on the sidewalk either. Facebook, with its pro-gay photo filter which colours your profile picture in rainbow with a click, is evident to understand the importance of acceptance to an acceptance. Rather an acknowledgement to a legislation. 
 

	Gay couples who are susceptible to social and moral wounds inflicted by their communities and countries need more than just a legal nod. They need a genuine hug from the heart of the people they are surrounded by. 
 

	It has so happened that supporting a cause has come to be seen as a sign of progress. Be it legalisation of marijuana or same-sex marriage. When there is a sizeable community or a pod of population that wants the rights for something, the ones supporting it are seen as advanced and in time or ahead of their time. And the ones hostile are seen as backward and regressive. 
 

	Russia and the Arab world have maintained less enthusiasm toward the legalisation of same-sex marriage or for that matter even the pro-gay photo filter from Facebook. 
 <keyword id="2934423" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Ahmad-Abd-Rabbuh">Ahmad Abd-Rabbuh</keyword>, an Egyptian political science professor said that gay marriage “is not in harmony with society and culture.” <keyword id="2934421" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="Anna-Koterinikova">Anna Koterinikova</keyword>, a Russian, after changing her profile picture to a rainbow flag wrote, “Sorry! I'm straight and Russian but I'm not a homophobe!” 

	Muna Iraqi, Egyptian TV presenter gave his opinion, “I support people's right to love freely, without any persecution.”
 

	Gays are not from out of space. They are from here. Just as you and me are. That's why, what we think about them matters in how they are able to think about themselves. If not individually, then collectively. 
 Speaking on last week's landmark Supreme Court judgement, Modern Family's <keyword id="868675" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Jesse-Tyler-Ferguson">Jesse Tyler Ferguson</keyword>, who plays Mitchell Pritchett - a gay lawyer, father, and son in the hit television series says that the show has played a great deal in changing the perceptions of gay couples in general. Jesse is gay in real life as well. 

	Pope Francis, in July 2013, when asked about same-sex relationships, said, “if a homosexual person is of good will and is in search of God, I am no one to judge. It is not right to interfere spiritually in the life of a person.” 
 

	He further adds, “Tell me, when God looks at a gay person, does he endorse the existence of this person with love, or reject and condemn this person? We must always consider the person. Here we enter into the mystery of the human being. In life, God accompanies persons, and we must accompany them, starting from their situation. It is necessary to accompany them with mercy.” 
 

	I believe that this world is one big modern family. A family accepts its people for who they really are. The ability to maintain discernment toward one's discretion and prerogative. Who are we to judge a verdict already pre-allotted by nature? We are famous because of our human nature. It takes one preposition to make us inhuman. Make us infamous. The 'in'. It is that time now to put the 'in' in the inn of the bygones and position our prepositions toward the positioning of a free disposition. 
 

	After all, our world is supposed to be full of sunshine and rainbows. Isn't it? 
 (Image credits: flickr (<keyword id="2934422" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Guillaume-Paumier">Guillaume Paumier</keyword>))

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