Hotel owners' associations, including Hotel Association of India (HAI), has requested the government to consider conducting various courses of cooking in vegetarian food only, Lok Sabha was informed today.
Currently, the students follow a common curriculum which includes preparations for both the vegetarian and the non-vegetarian cuisine.
"The Ministry of Tourism has received some requests from Hotel associations including the Hotel Association of India (HAI) for considering degree/diploma courses in vegetarian/vegan cooking," Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.
HAI has membership of about 300 hotels across the country.
Sharma said currently there are 21 Central Institutes of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, 21 State Institutes of Hotel Management and 10 Food Craft Institutes in the country.
Students are inducted in these institutes on the basis of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) conducted by National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition, Noida, every year, he added.
To a separate query, Sharma said the government has sanctioned Rs 97.92 crores for setting up Indian Culinary Institute at Tirupati and Rs 90 crores for setting up Indian Culinary Institute in Noida.
Construction has started at both the locations and the projects would be implemented in two years, he added.
