The economic capital of Madhya Pradesh and India’s cleanest city Indore will inspire the transformation of Uttar Pradesh’s religious city Ayodhya into a top eco-friendly international spiritual tourism destination.
The Indian Institute of Indore (IIM-I) has partnered with the Ayodhya Municipal Corporation (AMC) to draw an action plan for transforming Ayodhya into the world’s top eco-friendly spiritual tourism destination.
A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has recently been signed between the IIM-Indore Director Prof Himanshu Rai and Ayodhya’s Municipal Commissioner Vishal Singh as the starting point for the partnership.
As per the MoU, the detailed action plan will include replication of best practices of the Indore model of cleanliness in the AMC, Ayodhya with special enhancements for maintaining cleanliness standards as an international spiritual tourism destination.
It will also entail drafting a plan for implementation of information, education, and communication (IEC) as per the Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) program. Also, organizing training/capacity building program for AMC employees as well as organizing training programs in Project Management and best practices for public officials of AMC.
The three years IIM-I and AMC partnership will also define new areas of collaboration that have not been foreseen but can be beneficial to the institutions.
Prof Himanshu Rai will be the head of the five-member team on the project. The other management experts in the team, include Prof Ganesh N (Economics), Prof Prashant Salwan (Strategy and International Business), Dr Shruti Tewari (Associate Professor and trained social psychologist), and Prof Aditya Deshbandhu (specialist in new media studies and the emerging field of game studies)