First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

It is also a fact that our media does not make an objective analysis of facts but only caters to wider circulation and TRP by fanning sentiments on basis of half truths and half baked facts. The citizens need to take an objective view and not blindly accept all that media may vomit. We see that media just picks some thread and repeats the same through day and some times even for a week. In the process, media even ignores other important events.

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

It is also a fact that our media does not make an objective analysis of facts but only caters to wider circulation and TRP by fanning sentiments on basis of half truths and half baked facts. The citizens need to take an objective view and not blindly accept all that media may vomit. We see that media just picks some thread and repeats the same through day and some times even for a week. In the process, media even ignores other important events.

I agree that the media does that more often than is needed or even desirable just to tweak their TRP ratings. But there are some educated people who are well aware of the fact and are capable enough of reading between lines. The point here is that no one is objecting per se to such an expenditure, the only thing we are asking for is that that expenditure should be made for the benefit of our country. Dr. Singh is an illustrious and highly honoured scholar and it was expected that he make a lot of difference to the relations with other countries, but instead of improving, sadly they are only disintegrating more. So what was the outcome of so many visits? In other countries which our esteemed leaders often visit, they have successfully implemented a lot of sanitation and public hygiene, transportation, social welfare and healthcare facilities, not to mention education, Do our leaders never notice that? Have they, at any point of time, tried to implement them here in India? :blink:

We may keep on arguing about the necessity or otherwise about such issues here, but we can not avoid the glaring fact that, India as a growing superpower has glaringly failed in all such areas. What is more disturbing is that our esteemed leaders have also failed to provide the basic security to women, native and foreign, both alike and our capital city is now notorious as the Rape capital. So when we take sides of these leaders, let us not forget such issues!

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

So- we are discussing all this on hearsay without knowing the facts fully well. I thought when we discuss about political or economical scenario of a nation we have to keep certain nations in mind. Now, I cannot compare Bangladeshi or Nigerian politicians with our politicians esp the PM. And there is no denial that there is big financial Ghoatala at highest level of every field but that should not be a negative factor for trying for better relations and business opportunities with other countries. 670 crores sounds big but the fact is it's too small amount for a PM's travel in 9 years for a country like India. Just one lesser ghotala could compensate what looks a big sum to some of the learned members.

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

So- we are discussing all this on hearsay without knowing the facts fully well. I thought when we discuss about political or economical scenario of a nation we have to keep certain nations in mind. Now, I cannot compare Bangladeshi or Nigerian politicians with our politicians esp the PM. And there is no denial that there is big financial Ghoatala at highest level of every field but that should not be a negative factor for trying for better relations and business opportunities with other countries. 670 crores sounds big but the fact is it's too small amount for a PM's travel in 9 years for a country like India. Just one lesser ghotala could compensate what looks a big sum to some of the learned members.

Moreover, we are not concentrating on issue pertaining to this thread- namely legitimacy of expenditure on Prime minister's tour. In the guise of his travel expenses, we are talking about all and sundry matters not relevant to the main issue. I feel that all viewpoints have been covered. It is futile to further discuss as that will be simply repeating what has already been stated. .

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

It is also a fact that our media does not make an objective analysis of facts but only caters to wider circulation and TRP by fanning sentiments on basis of half truths and half baked facts. The citizens need to take an objective view and not blindly accept all that media may vomit. We see that media just picks some thread and repeats the same through day and some times even for a week. In the process, media even ignores other important events.

I agree that the media does that more often than is needed or even desirable just to tweak their TRP ratings. But there are some educated people who are well aware of the fact and are capable enough of reading between lines. The point here is that no one is objecting per se to such an expenditure, the only thing we are asking for is that that expenditure should be made for the benefit of our country. Dr. Singh is an illustrious and highly honoured scholar and it was expected that he make a lot of difference to the relations with other countries, but instead of improving, sadly they are only disintegrating more. So what was the outcome of so many visits? In other countries which our esteemed leaders often visit, they have successfully implemented a lot of sanitation and public hygiene, transportation, social welfare and healthcare facilities, not to mention education, Do our leaders never notice that? Have they, at any point of time, tried to implement them here in India? :blink:

We may keep on arguing about the necessity or otherwise about such issues here, but we can not avoid the glaring fact that, India as a growing superpower has glaringly failed in all such areas. What is more disturbing is that our esteemed leaders have also failed to provide the basic security to women, native and foreign, both alike and our capital city is now notorious as the Rape capital. So when we take sides of these leaders, let us not forget such issues!

Exactly, under the present travel hungry government the situation has deteriorated so much that women feel threatened like never before! The number of foreign nationals that have been raped is alarming and we talk about prime minister spending some more for his foreign tours...

First of all there is no provision for ministers to take families along with them when they go to foreign countries on official tours and if they do, they have to bear the expenses and they do have travel expenses paid by the government once every three years which is also meant for study tour and not pleasure trip....In fact now the ministers are demanding that they be given an opportunity to take their families along officially , not that they have not been taking but on the sly !

:lol: Well, it does seem like 620 crore looks quite a small amount to many!
There would have been no problems if he had spent more than this in the 9 years' duration had there been even an iota of a difference made in the relations between India and other countries as a result of the multiple visits. But sadly, the difference cannot be seen anywhere neither these officials seem to have learned anything from such official visits and taken efforts to implement any of their observations here in India. I totally agree that official visits are an essential and integral part of the post but then they are also obliged to make use of those opportunities to improving the status of our country, which I am sure everyone agrees with me, has not been the case!

Exactly and if Obama pends 200 crores, I am sure a lot of thought and research has gone into t because people are politically aware there and will not let him while away the money unlike here...First of all if we clean up the filth and take care of our infra structure and basic amenities , that is sure to attract foreign investment. No amount of foreign tours with spouses and family will make things better for our country! I was reading up about other developing countries and I dont see their officials lobe trotting so many times ( unnecessarily) like our ministers do...Of course they always make sure to put t n record that it was very essential...

Obama does not spend 200 crore or more (which are not counted for security reasons) annually but every trip and his overall expenditure per annum is in billions. But they know how to take best advantage because they know the value of investment. Yes traveling by public representatives as important as by marketing professionals for their companies. The president of US travels in 3 planes( Air Force 1)at a time while many fighter planes surround him , and as learned members know Air Force 1 is perhaps the most fuel consuming plane in the world for its vastness and facilities but no American ever questions their presidents traveling so lavishly.
That is business and they do not succeed always like Obama failed miserably when he visited China last time around where he spent almost 250 crore if we convert it into Indian Rupees. No one can always get success on business missions.
Our problem is that we go to foreign missions for beating the track, in fact, we are neither good politicians nor good businessmen. But we do it for the sake of doing it and that's all. Unless we appoint good professional people for carrying out good business deals, we should not expect good results.
And this al should begin from beginning, we must have good infrastructure and proper law in our country to start with before inviting foreign investment. We should have good governance that works properly otherwise all efforts will prove futile. Mere visits won't work but we shall have to make proper policies before starting the campaign. Unfortunately we lack in every department and once again had it not been for private sector the country had almost gone to dogs. I hope we shall learn the value of public relation and I ask for your pardon before hand if I add once again that spouses and family members are part of the tours when a head of state/government traveling on official invitation.

Thank you for giving well informed and logical comments on foreign tours. The importance of using services of skilled professionals during negotiation with foreign countries during official visits of P.M. and others can hardly be over stated. There is no use lamenting over the figure of expenses and accompanying of spouses.

What needs to be lamented and discussed needs o be done so, since in some way or the other it concerns all of us, some may not bother but some do.If we dint have a media to highlight such things , probably we would never have come to know about all the wrong doings of our netas and comparing it to any other country seems foolish given the vast difference in our entire economical and political perception...

It is also a fact that our media does not make an objective analysis of facts but only caters to wider circulation and TRP by fanning sentiments on basis of half truths and half baked facts. The citizens need to take an objective view and not blindly accept all that media may vomit. We see that media just picks some thread and repeats the same through day and some times even for a week. In the process, media even ignores other important events.

I agree that the media does that more often than is needed or even desirable just to tweak their TRP ratings. But there are some educated people who are well aware of the fact and are capable enough of reading between lines. The point here is that no one is objecting per se to such an expenditure, the only thing we are asking for is that that expenditure should be made for the benefit of our country. Dr. Singh is an illustrious and highly honoured scholar and it was expected that he make a lot of difference to the relations with other countries, but instead of improving, sadly they are only disintegrating more. So what was the outcome of so many visits? In other countries which our esteemed leaders often visit, they have successfully implemented a lot of sanitation and public hygiene, transportation, social welfare and healthcare facilities, not to mention education, Do our leaders never notice that? Have they, at any point of time, tried to implement them here in India? :blink:

We may keep on arguing about the necessity or otherwise about such issues here, but we can not avoid the glaring fact that, India as a growing superpower has glaringly failed in all such areas. What is more disturbing is that our esteemed leaders have also failed to provide the basic security to women, native and foreign, both alike and our capital city is now notorious as the Rape capital. So when we take sides of these leaders, let us not forget such issues!

Exactly, under the present travel hungry government the situation has deteriorated so much that women feel threatened like never before! The number of foreign nationals that have been raped is alarming and we talk about prime minister spending some more for his foreign tours...

Rape of any women- Indian or foreign tourists is a matter of disgust. But how is this issue related to official tour of Prime Minister?