“What Goa needs is tourism based on carrying capacity and regulated with quality and class tourism rather than mass scale with more ecological footprints putting stress on resources,” the report states, while calling for diversification of Goa’s bouquet of tourism offerings.

Recommending a more structured interaction between key stakeholders vis a vis startups, the report also suggests, that while the startup industry has been “deeply impacted” by the Covid-19 pandemic, Goa needs to continue promoting home-grown startups to attract investment into the state and attract established startups from around the country, to move base to Goa.

In its recommendations related to the finance sector, extending the ongoing three-month moratorium “to six months for regular industry and 12 months for the tourism industry” is also a key issue, along with reduction in interest rates. “Considering that the repo rate and reverse repo rate are now 4 per cent and 3.75 per cent respectively, and the current and saving accounts are available with banks at a cost of 3.5 per cent, the interest on any kind of loans - working capital, overdraft or cash credit facilities - be reduced to 4 per cent or 50 per cent of the existing rates of interest for a period of one year, so that the industries can survive and then revive,” the rport recommends.