International Temple Summit Being Held in Mumbai
BY: STAFF CORRESPONDENT
Jan 9, MUMBIA, INDIA (HPI) — Almost all famous temples of the country are coming together to conduct for the first time serious worldly business. On January 28 and 29, the temple teams will come together at a new five-star hotel in the city for a seminar, held at the initiative of Mumbai's most revered mandir, the Siddhivinayak temple, to discuss corporate governance.
With faith staging an explosive comeback -- as many as nine spiritual channels are on air in the country now --temples feel that it is high time they go in for management tools to run their secular affairs. To be attended by the biggest temples -- apart from Siddhivinayak, there will be 20 mandirs, including Tirupati, Vaishnodevi, Guruvayoor, Shirdi, Kedarnath, Badrinath and also Pashupatinath in Nepal -- the International Temple Summit 2006 will be inaugurated by Union tourism minister Renuka Chowdhury (temple tourism will be high on the agenda).
"It will be a 'non-religious' seminar on temple management and administration," says Sanjay Bhagwat, appropriately designated CEO of the Shree Siddhivinayak Temple Trust.
Deepak Parekh, chairman, HDFC Ltd, who confirmed his participation today, will address the seminar on financial management problems. Ad guru Alyque Padamsee will hold forth on the importance of public relations in temple management. Financial advice is necessary, says Bhagwat, because temples have a lot of surplus income, and they want the money to be invested judiciously.
"At the end of the summit, the participants would be in a position to understand the need and relevance of temple management and administration in today's times. They would also be oriented towards certain tools to effectively manage the administration," says the Powerpoint presentation on the seminar by Bhagwat.
