MAM
Dahanu Festival 2.0: Celebrating culture & tourism in coastal Maharashtra
Mumbai: The 2024 edition of the Dahanu Festival, ‘Dahanu 2.0’, took place at the Sea View Park on Dahanu Beach from 23 to 25 February. This three-day annual event was the biggest tourism attraction in the coastal Maharashtra region. The festival was free to attend and began with a grand inauguration attended by Corporators and important government officials. The Hindughosh Dhol Pathak provided a rousing start to the event with their electrifying beats during the opening ceremony on the 23rd of February. On the first day, Zee Marathi show celebrities attended and interacted with the public. Big Boss Marathi’s famed Dadus show stole the spotlight on the second day, and the international kite-flying event was held at the beach. The third day was highly energizing; it had the horse race held on the beach, along with a helicopter show by the Coast Guard, and concluded with singers like Vishwajeet Borwankar & Anshika Chonkar, delighting the audiences with their favorite Bollywood numbers.
Apart from the important highlights, the event had an excellent dance, music, and art program schedule that featured some of the most popular names, such as the phenomenal Rasika Dhoble and internal musicians.
Dahanu Festival 2.0 underscored the region’s excellent tourism potential and Dahanu’s emergence as an easily accessible yet peaceful beach holiday destination near Mumbai. The annual festival is organized collaboratively by the Government of Maharashtra, the local government bodies, and the Dahanu Municipal Council to promote local art culture and local entrepreneurship.
Speaking about this, Dahanu Nagar Parishad chief officer Vaibhav Aware said, “Dahanu’s potential as a beach tourism destination is at par with the best locations in India. The Dahanu festival aims to promote our beach tourism infrastructure and invite visitors from all over India and abroad to come and explore local culture, art, and craft. The peaceful and serene atmosphere of Dahanu is ideal for those looking to unwind. For adventure or water sports lovers, we offer activities like aero sports, water sports, and horse riding on the beach to get a first-hand experience of the coastal rural lifestyle in Maharashtra. With each new addition, we are witnessing greater awareness about Dahanu, and we thank everyone who visited us for Dahanu 2.0.”
Dahanu tehsildar Abhijit Deshmukh said, “The fantastic response to this year’s Dahanu festival has been quite encouraging for us. We continuously focus on making our beautiful town a sought-after tourism destination, not just for the tourists from Mumbai or nearby areas of Gujarat, but for travelers from all over India and other countries. Dahanu 2.0 has surpassed the past records, and we look forward to seeing an even bigger turnout at next year’s festival!”
Dahanu 2.0 offered diverse attractions, making it a truly enriching experience for attendees. Among its major highlights were engaging workshops on pottery and painting that offered an opportunity for artistic expression and skill development. The festival also witnessed captivating art displays and exhibitions, as well as sand art displays showcasing the creativity of local and visiting artists.
The festival wasn’t just confined to the main venue but also offered off-site activities such as star gazing, farm visits, night camping, and explorations of fisherman’s villages, ensuring a well-rounded and memorable experience for all participants.
While the festival has ended, Dahanu is a fantastic beach destination visitors can enjoy throughout the year. It is connected by road and rail to all major regional towns and cities and metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai. The nearest international airport is Mumbai, and it is just a couple of hours’ drive to this off-beat paradise from there.
Brands
Google nears Nvidia in race for world’s most valuable company
Market cap gap narrows as Google hits $4.65 trillion, Nvidia at $4.86 trillion.
MUMBAI: In the AI gold rush, even the giants are sprinting and Google is suddenly gaining ground. Google is rapidly closing in on Nvidia in the race to become the world’s most valuable publicly listed company, with the gap between the two narrowing sharply amid diverging stock momentum. The tech giant’s market capitalisation has surged to around $4.65 trillion, following a more than 140 per cent rise in its share price over the past year.
That rally has added over $2.6 trillion in value in just 12 months, including nearly $900 billion since January alone. Its stock recently hovered at $381.80, slipping marginally by 0.04 per cent, but still reflecting strong upward momentum.
Nvidia, meanwhile, continues to hold the top spot with a valuation of approximately $4.86 trillion. The chipmaker crossed the $5 trillion milestone in October last year and peaked at $5.27 trillion on 27 April. However, its shares have largely plateaued over the past six months, rising just 0.2 per cent recently to $199.99.
The contrast in trajectories is striking. While Nvidia has seen relatively flat movement, Google has gained over 36 per cent in the same six-month period. Barron’s estimates suggest that if current trends hold, the valuation gap could shrink to as little as $190 million by the time Nvidia reports its first-quarter earnings on 20 May.
Daily momentum paints a similar picture. Nvidia recorded average daily gains of about 0.66 per cent last month, compared to Google’s stronger 1.42 per cent, an edge that could prove decisive in the short term.
Driving Google’s resurgence is its aggressive push into artificial intelligence across its ecosystem, from search and YouTube to cloud computing. The company has already invested $144 billion in capital expenditure over the past two years and plans to deploy a further $490 billion over the next two.
Its cloud division is also gathering pace. Google Cloud reported an order backlog of nearly $220 billion in the latest quarter, with total backlog touching a record $462 billion, around half of which is expected to be realised within two years. The company’s entry into chip sales is also beginning to factor into its growth narrative.
The last time Google briefly topped the S&P 500 by market value was in February 2016, when it edged past Apple for just two days. This time, the stakes and the numbers are far higher.
At the heart of the contest lies a single force: artificial intelligence. As both companies pour billions into infrastructure, chips and platforms, the leaderboard is no longer just about size, it is about who can scale the future faster.
