A RECENT analysis conducted by the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council revealed that while Gujaratis work the hardest, Goans work the smartest. Gujaratis put in the longest hours but do not get as much economic rewards for their labour. In contrast the so called susegad Goans who work much fewer hours are more productive.
The survey reveals that while an average a person in Delhi works for 8.3 hours a day, in Goa the average working hours are only 5.5 hours. It may be noted that Goa has the highest per capita income in the country. Even a 1% increase in time spent on employment related activities would lead to 1.7% higher per capita income.
Goa presents the contrast with higher economic returns despite lower average work hours. May be it is the siesta, the afternoon power nap, which is the secret of the higher productivity of Goans.
HERE COMES SHIGMO
THE Hindu equivalent of the Carnaval (Carnival) in Shigmo and it is around the corner anew. Shigmo will start from Saturday, March 15 and continue till March 29, 2025. Shigmo actually is a semi-religious festival with all the floats depicting the Hindu pantheon of gods and goddesses.
The Tourism Department tried to convert Shigmo into a carnival of gods and goddesses to get maximum tourism mileage. As in the case of the Carnaval, Shigmo is a also a celebration of folk arts of Goan villages. Shigmo in Panaji scheduled on March 22 and the parade of floats and folk dancing will take the route down the Dayanand Bandodakar Marg instead of the 18 June road, because of the never ending road digging going on by Smart City Project .
GOAN ENGINEER RESCUED IN MYANMAR
AN engineering graduate from Goa was lured by the prospect of a lucrative job in south-east Asia. Along with 283 other Indians, he landed up at the Thailand-Myanmar border and was forced to work in a scam call centre.
The young engineer had responded to a recruitment advertisement on Instagram for a call centre job in Myanmar. He was smuggled into Myanmar from Thailand, where he was kept isolated and required to work on a 14-hour shift without any weekly day off.
The job involved sending mass messages to hundreds of potential victims in the United States. The Goan engineer was rescued and brought back to India by a special Indian military aircraft.
GOLDEN JUBILEE OF EDC
THE Economic Development Corporation of Goa celebrated its 50th anniversary on March 12. It is the time to recall the major contribution of its first chairman JC Almeida, who was instrumental in building the EDC into an industry-friendly organisation. Coincidently, the birth anniversary of JC Almeida was celebrated last week. I recall that a subsidiary company, Goa Antibiotics, had been contracted out by EDC to a Marwari from Mumbai. They had appointed GL Gidwani as the managing director who we got to know when he was the chief legal officer of the Housing Development Finance Corporation. Gidwani approached me and told me he would like to meet Dr Almeida as the new Marwari owner was stripping all the assets of Goa Antibiotics.
I took Gidwani to Dr JC Almeida, who promptly cancelled the contract with the Marwadi company and took back control of the company and Gidwani was told to continue as managing director. Dr JC Almeida was also the first Goan chief secretary and had a very distinguished career. We remember him with great affection. (Contributed by Rajan Narayan)
URBAN ALCHEMY AT FATORDA
A NEW very high end apartment complex called Urban Alchemy has been announced in Fatorda down south Goa. The project offers 4BHK and 3BHK apartments at an average cost of Rs5 crore plus. For a change the project is promoted by niz Goenkars, namely the Prabhudessai Group which are a leading GSB family.
BLOOD TRANSFUSION PRIVATISED
HEALTH minister, Vishwajit Rane, has privatised blood transfusion at the Goa Medical College & Hospital. The blood transfusion services have been outsourced to a hospital services consultancy corporation. The transfusion services will now be run by Abbot Laboratories which own the Hospitality Services Consultancy Corporation. The new centre will also offer post-graduate programs in transfusion medicine. Blood has to be transfused not only in cardia surgery but in a number of other procedures where there is massive blood loss.
AIRES GETS HIS OCI CARD
AIRES Rodrigues, the lawyer and social activist from Ribandar, has finally secured his Overseas Citizens Card. Aires had acquired a Portuguese passport on May 15, 2023. In June 2023 he surrendered his Indian passport and applied for OCI card. The foreign minister rejected his application due to a rule which required six months of residency in Goa before applying for a card. Aires again applied after meeting the residency requirement.
He was, however, informed in June 2024 that his application has been rejected. On January 20, 2025 the High Court of Mumbai directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to decide on the application of Aires within four weeks. Finally, Aires got his OCI card after a long legal battle.
CM PAYS TRIBUTE TO BHAUSAHEB BANDODKAR
CHIEF Minister Minister Dr Pramod Sawant led the people of the Goa in paying tribute to the first chief minister of Goa, Dayanand B Bandodkar on his birth anniversary on March 12. The CM garlanding the statue of Goa’s first chief minister at the Old Secretariat, Panaji and later at the new Secretariat Complex at Porvorim.
Minister for Power Ramkrishna alias Sudin Dhavalikar and Minister for Tourism Rohan Khaunte also paid floral tributes. Chief Secretary Dr V Candavelou, IAS; IGP, Goa, Omvir Singh Bishnoi, IPS; Collector North, Dr Sneha Gitte, IAS; industrialist Yatin Kakodkar and Sameer Kakodkar along with others also offered floral tributes.
‘GOA CARES 2025’ INITIATIVE
THE government of Goa, in collaboration with the Tata Memorial Hospital and Oxford University, held a high-level meeting ON March 11, to advance the Goa Cares 2025 initiative. Chief Minister Dr Pramod Sawant while chairing the meeting underscored the importance of the initiative in transforming healthcare research in Goa. He praised and commended the Directorate of Health Services for spearheading study and emphasized the need for scientific analysis to shape evidence-based healthcare policies.
The CM also expressed deep appreciation for the collaboration with Tata Memorial Centre and Oxford University, whose expertise in epidemiology and research will enhance the study’s impact. To ensure the seamless execution of the initiative, the government has committed to dedicate budgetary support. The findings of this study will serve as a foundation for future health policies, positioning Goa as a leader in public health research at the national level.
Minister for Health Vishwajit Rane also extended full support for the initiative, reinforcing Goa’s commitment to evidence-based healthcare reforms. The Goa Care Study will be conducted over 10 years across four sites — Valpoi, Sankhalim, Canacona and Margao — using a longitudinal prospective cohort approach.
Over nine years 1,20,000 participants aged 25-70 from diverse socio-economic backgrounds will participate through village panchayats and local healthcare centers and outreach programs. The study will involve baseline health screenings, blood sample collection for genetic and biomarker analysis, and regular follow-ups to track NCD incidence, lifestyle changes, and disease progression. The final year will focus on data analysis and publication, providing valuable insights for policy recommendations and preventive healthcare strategies.
Dr V Candavelou, IAS, Chief Secretary and Health Secretary, Arun Kumar Mishra, IAS, highlighted the study’s role in strengthening public healthcare policies, while Dr Shivanand Bandekar, Dean of Goa Medical College, and Dr Rupa Naik, Director of DHS, emphasized the significance of identifying health risk factors and improving healthcare delivery.
Special dignitary, Professor Sarah Lewington from Oxford University, reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to mentoring the project, providing study advisory support, data analytics, research collaboration, and funding assistance.
Dr Rajesh Dixit, Director of the Centre for Cancer Epidemiology at Tata Memorial Hospital, and Dr Sharayu Mhatre, Scientific Officer at CCE, briefing attendees on the technical aspects of the study, stated that TMH will support the Goa government in study design, statistical analysis, genetic research and data security.
Dr Shekhar Salkar, NOTE India president, elaborated on the study’s demographic aspects, emphasizing its primary goal of creating a database on NCD prevalence and identifying modifiable lifestyle and environmental risk factors. The meeting saw participation from key government officials and health experts, underscoring Goa’s ambition to lead public health research at the national level.
DIGITAL ART EXHIBITION AT MOG
BRINGING the ancient First Nations Australian tradition, Songlines, linked to aboriginal culture on the continent, to Goan shores, the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the National Museum of Australia will showcase the international touring immersive art experience Walking Through A Songline (WTAS) at the Museum of Goa (MOG), Pilerne.
Produced by Mosster Studio (Melbourne-based artist duo) the exhibition will be making a stop at MOG for the final leg of its Indian tour. The exhibition will be open for public viewing from March 14 to April 4, 2025 at the Pilerne-based contemporary art museum. The India tour of WTAS is supported by the Centre for Australia-India Relations (CAIR), Deakin University, Tata BlueScope Steel, and Australia and New Zealand Banking Group (ANZ).
The exhibition aims to explore the stories and knowledge of First Nations Australian communities documented through art, songs, motifs and patterns, preserved and showcased through modern technological interventions such as projection mapping. These artworks and traditions show significant similarities to ancient documentation artworks by indigenous communities in India and Goa, like the Usgalimal petroglyphs.
“WTAS explores the nexus between ancient Australian First Nations knowledge and cutting-edge technology, interpreting the work of more than 100 artists. Such stories form the foundational history of the Australian continent as told by artists,custodians and traditional owners. Songlines explain creation and transmit cultural values, including protocols of behaviour and how to live sustainably on this planet, as Australia’s First Nations peoples have for millennia,” said Paul Murphy, Australian Consul-General in Mumbai.
“The exhibition, Walking Through a Songline, which depicts the ancient story of the Seven Sisters from Indigenous Australian culture through state-of-the-art digital technology, aligns with Museum of Goa’s role as a contemporary space dedicated to highlighting artworks and practices rooted in the cultures of individuals and communities from all walks of life,” added Dr Subodh Kerkar, founder of the Museum of Goa, Pilerne.
Songlines, also called dreaming tracks, are a way of holding and passing on knowledge in non-text-based societies. These are millennia-old pathways of knowledge in the form of story, performance and art, that span the entire Australian continent, forming its foundational stories. They map the routes and activities of ancestral “creator beings” that explain creation and transmit cultural values, including protocols of behaviour and living sustainably on the continent.
This immersive digital experience visualises the Seven Sisters Songline. This Songline begins in Australia’s Western Desert and as the Seven Sisters travel through the desert and across the sky, they map the land for millennia to come. In many cultures, including Greek and Indian astrology and Australia’s First Nation people refer to the Pleiades star cluster as seven women.
For the duration of the showcase, visitors across age groups can engage in several activities to further explore the exhibition, including workshops, and a dedicated daily interaction corner will offer hands-on activities, storytelling sessions, and personalised interactions with MOG’s educators. Details to be publicised on MOG’s social media account (Instagram: @museumofgoa). Further information with Nazneen Luth on- Nazneen.Luth@dfat.gov.au
FDA FOOD INSPECTION AT SALCETE
DIRECTORATE of Food & Drugs Administration conducted a routine inspection drive at Salcete taluka on March 10, wherein around 5 units were found manufacturing and packing fryums and namkeen without valid food licence and under unhygienic conditions. Namkeen manufacturing unit was inspected during the visit.
The final food packets did not possess any label declaration as per FSSAI packaging and labelling regulation. Around 80 kg of fryums, coloured pipes (namkeen) approximately worth Rs96,000 were detained from the above units and destroyed by officials in the interest of public health.
The above manufacturers were also directed to stop the food business activities. The said inspection was conducted under the guidance of Designated Officer South Goa Sanjyot Kudalkar and Food Safety Officials, Priya, Madhav, Amardeep and DFDA staff Sainath and Sandeep. The drive was conducted under the leadership of DFDA, Shweta Dessai.