HUMAN PLAY-NET

“WHERE there’s will, there’s a way” will perhaps be the best way to say it all. It was a wonder of sorts as investor and philanthropist  Paul G. Allen , in association with  Scaled Composites , flew in the first-ever private manned vehicle beyond the Earth’s orbit. Apart from being an individual rare achievement, this historic event is sure to throw open a whole new world of opportunities for private  space tourism , a term virtually unheard of until a few years ago. The spacecraft— SpaceShipOne —test-piloted by Mike Melvill on the 21st June 2004, reached a record-breaking altitude of 328,491 feet (approximately 62 miles or 100 km), thereby making him the first civilian to fly a spaceship out of the atmosphere as also the first private pilot to earn an astronaut’s wings. On the successful completion of the mission, Scaled Composites founder and CEO  Burt Rutan  said: “Today’s flight marks a critical turning point in the history of aerospace,” adding that “we have redefined space travel...

RAJASTHAN is already one of the most favoured tourism hubs, both among domestic travellers and visitors from abroad. But we will not stop at just that,” says an upbeat Rajasthan Minister for Tourism, Usha Punia, enlisting her priorities. “We want tourism in the state to scale new heights, and that is why the state government has accorded due importance to this sector. Budgetary allocation in the current financial year for tourism-related projects has doubled,” she says, with determination in her voice. A clear-cut approach by the government towards the development of tourism infrastructure is also reflected in its decision to facilitate the progress of some projects through public-private partnership basis. Some of the major projects identified for this arrangement in the current year include the Jal Mahal Tourism Project, the construction of an International Convention Centre and an International Golf Course Project (all at Jaipur), developing the Tejara Fort as a heritage resort and...