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By Porisma P. Gogoi

New Delhi, Nov 18 (IANS) The ongoing construction activity at the Pragati Maidan fairground has marred the spirit of trade fair this year with lesser stalls and crowds compared to the previous years. However, traders were still hopeful of good sales now that the business days are over and the fair is open for common people.

"The crowd is lesser this year. The ITPO (India Trade Promotion Organisation) has reduced the number of visitors from 150,000 on a per day basis last year to 60,000 per day this year," Wanida Wongpitak, a trader from Thailand who has been participating in the fair for two consecutive years, told IANS.

"We are expecting more sales once the business days are over," he said on Friday, the last day for only business visitors.

Recollecting the period of demonetisation, Wanida said: "Last year, we had faced problems as the fair coincided with the demonetisation period. People had less currency to spend. This time I have a (point-of-sale) machine, but for that I charge 5 per cent extra."

Wanida's stall displayed a variety of products made of mango wood and bamboo, like vases, bread baskets, candle holders and other decorative items, including items which were customised for Indian market.

"Chapati boxes and tea cups are specially for Indian customers. The tea cups got sold out very fast. Our products are all USFDA (Food and Drug Administration) approved, they are food and water friendly," he added.

The other stalls of Thailand displayed colourful accessories, artificial jewelleries and flowers -- giving visitors a wide range of choices.

According to the ITPO, the expected footfall this year is not more than half of that of last year. "Last year, our footfall was 14 lakh. This time, since the fair is in half the area, we are expecting 60,000 daily on an average over 10 days. First four days are for business," a spokesperson had said earlier.

The IITF last year was held in an area of over 100,000 square meters with around 7,000 exhibitors.

Another attraction of the international trade fair was the bedazzled Turkish stall displaying glossy ceramic showpieces, melamine trays and fashion jewelleries. Colourful lanterns and chandeliers stole the attention of the crowd.

Just next to the crowded Thailand stores was a quiet stall from South Africa that displayed handcrafted verdite and African jade stone sculptures.

"I have been a regular participant for quite a number of years now, although I was not here last year. This year, people don't seem too interested in buying my sculptures," rued Robert Kaliyongo (the artist), adding: "I'm hopeful that people will turn out in large numbers in the remaining days."

"We have been coming here for more than 10 years now. The crowd this year is fine," said Yee Ye San, a trader from Myanmar. San told IANS that she had a collection of both precious and semi-precious stones like topaz, jade, amethyst and pearls.

Afghanistan stalls were stacked with a wide range of dry fruits, rugs and carpets and semi-precious stone jewellery. Other stuff that stood out at the foreign stalls were Rajshahi silk sarees from Bangladesh, perfumes from Dubai and saffron from Iran.

(Porisma P. Gogoi can be contacted at porisma.g@ians.in)

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New Delhi, Nov 17 (IANS) After a bad experience last year due to demonetisation, Afghan exhibitors -- usually one of the hot favourites at the India International Trade Fair (IITF) -- say they are looking at a second bad year in a row due to the construction work underway in a part of the Pragati Maidan venue.

However, they are hopeful of things improving once the trade fair is opened to the general public after the business days are over on Friday.

Offering a wide range of dry fruits, rugs and carpets and semi-precious stone jewelery, the Afghanistan pavilion wore a somewhat deserted look on the third day of the trade fair with fewer enquiries than is usually is the case. The exhibitors, while upset with the turnout, hoped for things to improve in the coming days as the weekend approaches.

Kabul-based dry-fruit merchant Siddiqullah said he faced a lot of inconvenience last time due to demonetisation -- and this year looked no better so far.

"Last year it was demonetisation. If we accepted old currency, it was very difficult to exchange it in the banks. New notes were not available with customers. So we had to accept old notes and then we got them exchanged at a heavy commission at the banks," he told IANS.

"Even this year is bad because ITPO (India Trade Promotion Organisation) is doing some construction here. So people are finding it inconvenient to come," he added.

Siddiqullah said that earlier, the international pavilions were more visible and accessible from some gates "which have been closed this year due to the construction work, making it a long walk to reach our pavilion".

"The space for the exhibition has also been reduced because of which there seems to lesser footfall so far," he added.

The IITF last year was held over 100,000 square meters with around 7,000 exhibitors. This year, it is happening in half the area with around 3,000 participants.

The ITPO is redeveloping the fairground by constructing a modern integrated Exhibition-cum-Convention Centre (IECC) that it says will accommodate around 15,000 participants when completed in 2019.

Another merchant, who identified himself as Shabeer Ali, said the new ticketing system had also made things a little difficult, affecting the number of people coming to the fair.

"With no tickets available at the entry gates, many people turn back," he said.

This year, with no sales at the entry gates, visitors will have to get their tickets in advance either online or at various metro stations, except at Pragati Maidan Station, an ITPO spokesperson said.

"We have made these changes for the convenience of visitors as well as to promote the Digital India push," he said.

Fraidoon Faryadi, who has also come from Kabul with dry-fruits, said that despite demonetisation, there was relatively better crowd last year compared to this time.

"Despite the problem of new and old currency, at least people were coming. Lots of people came here.

"While this year there is no currency problem, some buildings have been demolished. This has reduced the number of exhibitors as well and so people who used to come for some Chinese goods or restaurants which were there, they are perhaps skipping this time," he said.

"Even during business days last year, more people came. Lets see if things get better when the days for the public start," he added.

According to ITPO, the expected footfall this year is not more than half of that of last year.

"Last year, our footfall was 14 lakh. This time, since the fair is in half the area, we are expecting 60,000 daily on an average over 10 days. First four days are for business," a spokesperson had said earlier this week.

Faryadi said Afghani dry-fruits are famous across the world and are very popular with Indians as well.

"The dry-fruits from Afghanistan are famous all over the world. We have so many kinds like raisins, almonds, walnuts, dry apricots and dry blueberries. Our dry-fruits are the best in the world because Afghanistan has very good weather during all four seasons. Being a mountainous country, our soil is also very good.

"These are conditions ideal for growing these dry fruits. That's why Afghani dry fruits are best in the world," he said adding that 'satarbai' almonds from Afghanistan "have 95 per cent vitamin E" while the best US almonds "have only seven per cent".

Abdul Qadir, who sells hand-made carpets, is optimistic and says that even though the footfall has been low during the first few days, it usually improves as the event progresses.

"While we haven't sold a lot of carpets so far, we hope to get more customers over the weekend," Qadir told IANS.

Explaining what makes Afghani carpets so special, he said: "All our carpets are hand-made and we use pure wool and natural colours. You can use these carpets for as long as 70 to 80 years," he said.

Fraidoon Faryadi said Afghani dry-fruits are famous across the world and are very popular with Indians as well.

"The dry fruits from Afghanistan are famous all over the world. We have so many kinds of raisins, almonds, walnuts, dry apricots and dry blueberries. Our dry fruits are best in the world because Afghanistan has very good weather during all four seasons. Being a mountainous country, our soil is also very good.

"These are conditions ideal for growing these dry fruits. That's why Afghani dry fruits are best in the world," he said adding that 'satarbai' almonds from Afghanistan "have 95 per cent vitamin E" while the best almonds of the United States of America "have only seven per cent".

(Vishav can be contacted at vishav.v@ians.in

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New Delhi, Nov 16 (IANS) With a bevy of new gizmos it is in the process of employing, the Kerala Police seems to be one of the few enforcement agency at the forward end of the tech-revolution.

Seven such innovations are on display at the 37th India International Trade Fair (IITF) -- inaugurated on Tuesday -- with each one of them designed to either helping the police in curbing crimes or enabling perform positive acts such as educating children on traffic rules and the like.

"You know, the Kerala Police is one the best in the country and technologically also we are advancing very fast. For this we have developed lot of safety innovations. These innovations are first implemented through start-ups," P.C. Rajashekharan, the PRO of the Kerala Police chief, told IANS.

Cyber Monkey is one such innovative Augmented Reality (AR) programme for mapping a geographical area via a drone and then, with the help of CCTV cameras, executing several tasks -- from reining in traffic violaters to aiding the security forces during a hostage-like situation.

"Cyber Monkey is a drone-based security system. In it, first the area is mapped using a 3-d drone. If we have to calculate the height of a building, we can do using the software without ever going to the building and also calculate the distance from one place to another.

"This can be very effective in crisis management and VIP movement... We have put a lot of CCTV cameras but these cameras are 2-d. Once these cameras are integrated into this system, a 3-d vision can be developed using the camera footage. This is the main advantage of this software. This is an exmaple of AR," said Rajashekharan.

A pilot run was performed by Strava Technologies -- the company which developed the programme -- under which a one kilometre area of Trivendrum was captured using a drone.

Using the programme, the police can spot traffic violaters and also get their vehicle registation number on their screens. They can then send tickets through an SMS -- all this without physically confronting the violater.

Jancy Jose, the founder of the start up, said that the programme was developed by her company in June 2017 and should be fully-functional and commissioned by the Kerala Police by next year.

Another device -- Traffitizer -- developed by a start up launched by two cousins, will facilitate smooth running of ambulances even during the peak hours and without having to stop at traffic lights.

"Here is a system which is integrated into all the traffic junctions.. It's mobile based-software... To use this the drivers will have to turn on the device installed on the autobile's dashboard before starting the journey and within reaching 200 metres of a traffic junction, the light will automatically turn green. Time delay can be avoided. We have implemented it in Kochi at 15 junctions," Rajashekharan said.

The state police also displayed a Cyber Safety AR Card -- designed under a public private partnership -- to educate children on traffic rules.

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By Vishal Narayan

New Delhi, Nov 15 (IANS) It's called the Switzerland of Central Asia with its breathtaking landscapes and snow-capped mountains, has one of the most liberal tourist visas of the region and is celebrating the silver jubilee of its diplomatic relations with India. As the Focus Country at the India International Trade Fair (IITF), Kyrgyzstan is pulling out all stops to push for greater business ties with India.

"This year is very special in our bilateral relation. We are celebrating 25th anniversary of our diplomatic relations. Within these 25 years we have laid a very solid foundation for connectivity between our countries -- people to people, government to government. Now, I think it's high time that we connected our businesses.

"Therefore, we are very honored to be a part of such a prestigious event like IITF," Kyrgyz Ambassador Samargiul Adamkulova told IANS at the trade fair.

Being the Focus Country has enabled Kyrgyzstan put up nine stalls at the fair, with one of them offering white honey, another an array of traditional hats called 'kalpak' in the native tongue and also milk mushrooms, thus named because of the variously coloured juices they exude when cut.

The ambassador termed the event "an opportunity to forge a business to business relations between the two countries", emphasising "that this would only be a natural development since there's already much familiarity of their cultures".

The diplomat said that since the launch of a direct flight in 2014, the number of tourists from India to Kyrgyzstan have increased 15 times and cited this as an example of natural affinity between the people of the two countries.

"Kyrgyz people know about India; they know Indian movies and Indian music and they know about Indian heritage places," she said.

Kyrgyzstan is a place for all seasons, she said, with seven regions famous for an equal number of food products grown there.

"This is the beauty of Kyrgyzstan. Each region has its own identity. We have all seasons there.... white honey is extracted in Naryn, Osh is famous for melons, Issyk-Kul is famous for berries, Batken for apricots, Chul is famous for cherries and grapes and Talas region is famous for its beans, red beans and kidney beans. And from Jalalabat, you get wallnuts," the ambassador said.

Nurgul Kenzhekulova, a sales assistant at one of the counters, told IANS that the unique white honey of Kyrgyzstan is different from the usual golden one that we are used to see, because it is extracted from specific flowers high up in the northern part of her country.

"During summer, beekeepers go up in the mountain regions to extract honey from such flowers such as alfalfa, sage, and sainfoin," said Kenzhekulova, who is studying for an MBA degree from Gujarat and is currently employed as an intern at I.K. Overseas -- a Kyrgyz company selling white honey.

Kyrgyzstan emerged as an independent country following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has participated in the IITF twice before.

(Vishal Narayan can be contacted at vishal.n@ians.in)

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