 "Most ministers skip holiday abroad ahead of reshuffle")
Top men and women of India Inc are mostly overseas-bound, if not already there, for New Year's Eve, as travel trade data shows. However, the holiday scene is subdued for ministers in the Union Cabinet as a large number of them are expected to remain in the country, it is believed. With a likely Cabinet reshuffle around the corner, ministers would not risk venturing out, a source in the government said.
A Cabinet meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, leaving little time for ministers to travel far for the December 31st celebrations. But the government is not expected to keep any major engagements on the last day of the year, an official pointed out.
Urban Development and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Venkaiah Naidu is among the very few who's on a short personal vacation. Naidu's pictures with family in Cambodia's touristy spots were even splashed in the media. Some other top ministers may have things lined up for the next year, but only after they cross the reshuffle hurdle, an official said. As for other prominent politicians, Rahul Gandhi has already announced on Twitter that he's off to Europe.
CEOs, though they have a different set of fears (more to do with economy and their own financial numbers), are ready to party, but in a different way in many cases. ''Vacations for the soul is the big movement this year,'' Hari Nair, founder & CEO of HolidayIQ, told Business Standard. Places with contemplation are doing well among company honchos and high networth individuals, Nair said. ''Varanasi is suddenly happening. So is Alaska,''
While all-time favourite destinations Goa, Kerala and Rajasthan are still topping the charts for year-end trips, prominent businessmen and CEOs are focused on places such as Singapore and Macau, according to Subhash Goyal, chairman, STIC Travel Group. Some CEOs are even headed to Thailand. Villas on rent in Spain and cruises across Alaska and the Caribbean are among the other hits as 2015 draws to a close.
On what the mood of India Inc is as party's about to begin, Harshavardhan Neotia, president of Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (Ficci), said, ''There's hope that things will turn around in 2016 as 2015 did not deliver as per the expectation generated in 2014.'' He added, ''My sense is that we are at a threshold of a turnaround.''
Even as Neotia will be at his Kolkata home on the New Year's eve, he said many of his CEO friends are travelling to other parts of the world including London and Singapore.
