Chief Minister Dr. Pramod Sawant and Tourism Minister Shri Rohan Khaunte felicitated founders of BLive – Samarth Kholkar and Sandeep Mukherjee for winning Gold at the Outlook Responsible Tourism Awards. BLive, Goa’s first EV startup was declared the winner in the Sustainable Leadership: Travel Enterprises category. Considered to be the highest Indian award for Sustainable Tourism, this was a big win for BLive whose shared vision with Goa Government is to develop the state as a premier quality destination vis a vis responsible tourism.
Outlook Magazine India Responsible Tourism Summit and Awards 2022 were held in UNESCO heritage site, Hampi earlier this month. The IRTA celebrates and awards individuals and organisations who have led from the front in restarting tourism by re-imagining their business, employing innovation and technology while staying on the path of sustainability.
In this, the 7th edition of IRTA, the jury included among other eminent personalities, G Kamala Vardhana Rao, Deputy General, Ministry of Tourism and Chairman & Managing Director, ITDC, Govt. of India, CB Ramkumar, Board Member and India Country Representative, GSTC and Founder, The Sustainability Partnership and Dr Venu V, Additional Chief Secretary, Kerala Tourism.
BLive is India’s first Electric Vehicle tourism initiative, present in over 15 tourist destinations across India and is part of the New Tourism Services of GTDC and a certified start-up under the Goa Startup Policy.
In their meeting, CM Dr Pramod Sawant commended the BLive team for the innovation they have brought to tourism and hoped more individuals and enterprises would also come forward with such unique initiatives.
Tourism Minister Rohan Khaunte tweeted “Congratulations to Goa’s Pioneer Startup BLive on being Gold Winner at Indian Responsible Tourism Awards 2022. More of such Technology driven Tourism Enterprises on National and International platforms will boost both IT & Tourism in Goa..”
“The jury at IRTA was one of the most prestigious we have seen. To be held to those standards and then being awarded the Gold is something we are at once both humbled and immensely proud about. It feels great to get appreciated by Hon CM and Tourism Minister for the work we have done. It motivates us further to contribute towards making Goa the premier tourist destination” said Samarth & Sandeep, founders of BLive.