Shekhawat Visits IHM Pusa, Cooks With Hospitality Students
Synopsis
Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat spent time at IHM Pusa on 30 July 2026, cooking Indian cuisine with final-year hospitality students and drawing inspiration from their confidence in building careers in India, linking their ambitions to the Viksit Bharat 2047 vision.
Key Takeaways
Gajendra Singh Shekhawat visited IHM Pusa , New Delhi, on 30 July 2026 and cooked Indian dishes with graduating hospitality students.
Students shared their career plans and expressed confidence in finding opportunities within India.
IHM Pusa is the flagship of a 21-institute network run by the Ministry of Tourism since the 1960s .
The Skill India Mission (2015) designated tourism and hospitality as priority training sectors.
The minister linked the students' aspirations to the Viksit Bharat goal of a developed India by 2047 .
Inside a teaching kitchen at IHM Pusa, one of India's most storied hospitality institutes, Union Culture and Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat rolled up his sleeves on Thursday, 30 July 2026 — cooking Indian dishes alongside students on the cusp of graduating and listening to what they want from the country's booming tourism economy.
Sharing the experience on X, Shekhawat described the session as both enjoyable and energising. 'उनके साथ भारतीय व्यंजन बनाने का अनुभव जितना रोचक रहा, उतनी ही प्रेरणादायक उनसे हुई बातचीत भी रही' — 'Cooking Indian food with them was as delightful as the conversation that followed was inspiring,' he wrote. The students, he said, spoke with confidence about their dreams and their readiness to realise them — right here in India.
IHM Pusa: Six Decades of Building India's Hospitality Workforce
IHM Pusa, located in New Delhi, is the flagship institute in a network of 21 Institutes of Hotel Management run by the Ministry of Tourism since the 1960s. The network was built with a single mandate: produce trained professionals for a sector that now underpins India's soft-power economy and millions of livelihoods. The Skill India Mission, launched in 2015, folded tourism and hospitality into its list of priority trades, adding fresh momentum to these institutions.
Shekhawat's visit fits a pattern of ministerial engagement with IHM campuses — hands-on, camera-friendly, and deliberately pitched at graduating batches who are deciding whether to build careers at home or abroad. The minister's message was unambiguous: India is a land of opportunity, and these students do not need to look elsewhere.
The 'Viksit Bharat' Frame and What Students Said Back
The minister invoked the government's signature long-range vision — Viksit Bharat, the goal of a fully developed India by 2047 — framing the graduating cohort as its human engine. 'I am leaving with their energy, their positive outlook, and their resolve for nation-building,' he wrote, adding that he was confident this 'youth power' would carry the Viksit Bharat mission to new heights.
What made the visit notable was the direction of the conversation. The students did not just receive a ministerial pep talk — they shared their own plans and ambitions. That exchange, Shekhawat indicated, was the more valuable half of the afternoon.
With tourism ministry reviews and upcoming budget cycles likely to include decisions on IHM infrastructure and course integration with new tourism policy targets, visits like this one serve as both outreach and intelligence-gathering — a minister hearing directly from the workforce his sector will depend on.
Point of View
Relatable, and calibrated to reinforce the government's 'India First' careers narrative among a cohort that the hospitality sector urgently needs to retain. The Viksit Bharat framing is deliberate: it converts a routine campus visit into a building block of the 2047 development story. With tourism ministry budget decisions on IHM upgrades on the horizon, such visits also signal where political attention — and potentially funding — may follow.
NationPress
30 Jul 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is IHM Pusa and which ministry runs it?
IHM Pusa, located in New Delhi, is India's premier central government Institute of Hotel Management, run by the Ministry of Tourism. It is the flagship of a 21-institute national network established in the 1960s to train professionals for the hospitality sector.
Why did Gajendra Singh Shekhawat visit IHM Pusa?
Union Tourism Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat visited IHM Pusa on 30 July 2026 to interact with final-year hospitality students, cook Indian dishes with them, and hear about their career aspirations as part of ongoing ministerial outreach to tourism training institutes.
What is Viksit Bharat and why did the minister mention it?
Viksit Bharat is the Indian government's official vision of achieving developed-nation status by 2047. Shekhawat invoked it to frame the graduating students as key contributors to that national goal, encouraging them to build careers within India.
What did the IHM Pusa students tell the minister?
According to Shekhawat's post, the students shared their dreams and preparations with enthusiasm, expressing confidence that India offers enough opportunity for them to achieve their ambitions without going abroad.
How does Skill India Mission relate to hospitality training in India?
The Skill India Mission, launched in 2015, designated tourism and hospitality as priority sectors, adding structured training programmes to supplement the existing IHM network and expand the trained workforce for India's growing tourism economy.
