 to Krishna Kanta Handicap State Open University. Today we will be discussing about hotel management and the various implications associated with it. For this, we have with us one of the senior lecturers of Institute of Hotel Management and Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition Mr. Somitra Sen. He has been associated with this industry for the last 28 years, so we all can say that he has become an iconic figure of this industry. Welcome sir, it's a pleasure having you here. Same here. Sir, as today's topic it indicates the concept of hotel management, so firstly we would all like to know what do you mean by hotel management? Hotel management basically means application of managerial techniques in a professional way, how to run the hospitality industry first. And sir, what are the advantages as well as disadvantages associated with this industry? So let's first start with advantages, be positive. So advantages there are many because this is one of the happening industry in not only in Indian context but in global scenario and as the trade and commerce is increasing and as it is truly nowadays been safe, love has become our village and people are traveling wide and far and therefore they require food and accommodation wherever they are going for whatever purpose that may be and that increases the scope and opportunities of this particular figure industry. And therefore from my past experience I can say that all our students even when they are studying in the final years, actually we are running a 3 years degree program. So when they are in the final year, the third year, most of the students, you can say almost 90% of the students are having jobs, not only one job but four to five jobs in all corporate worlds and what we call chain hotels and other related field activities. So that is the greatest advantage that I can say about this particular industry. And in today's scenario when unemployment is one of the greatest issue, so this is one of the industry which is giving and career opportunities for the young generation and before they are graduating they are actually landing up with very lucrative and challenging jobs. And as you say the disadvantage, one disadvantage is that still specially in this part of the country is the social taboo that is attached with the local industry. So we cannot deny the fact but the things are changing. It is not unlike what it was about 15 or 20 years back. Now the parents are realizing that it is a challenging opportunities and the social taboos are changing. So many, many, many young people, especially girls, they are also joining this particular industry. And therefore this is a very healthy sign we can say about the industry. This one more disadvantage that can be said is that initial salary is one of the or the remuneration package that has been offered is little bit low. But things are changing with more and more hotel comings. Competition among the hoteliers is forcing them to increase the packages. So let's hope for the best and I think within two years entire scenario church as far as the packages are concerned. Another question that has come up like what are the specializations courses that the students can take up in hotel management or is there a particular one single course or you can take specializations? No, they can take specialization and basically if they are going for a three years full full-fledged program. In hotel industry we have four core areas. Those are food production which includes the cookery and the bakery part. How to cook food? How to bake a cake? All those things. Then we have the food and beverage service where the food that has been cooked has been how it is to be served aesthetically authentically to the guest as well as a beverage which includes drinks and this are the two core areas and other two core areas related to the room division that is the upkeep of the rooms housekeeping. How to keep the room clean and how to make it ready for the guest coming and occupying the room and obviously the selling part of the room that is the front desk we call it front desk. So these are the four core areas. Food production, FNB service, housekeeping and front desk. So these four core areas are already incorporated in the module of the three years program and apart from that there are some short courses one and half year duration where as you ask specialization can be done depending upon which core area the student aspires to see himself or herself. So food production is one area, FNB is one area, housekeeping in another area as well as front office in another area. So four core areas are there. And now also the MSc program have started. If somebody wants to do further studies on this so MSc hospitality and auto administrations are also available. So this are the thing and few three or four institute are giving specialization in the third year that is very few institute as a trial basis they have started. So again any one of this core area they can choose as a specialized specialization in the third area but most of the majority I can 80% of the students are going for the four core areas and then in the campus they are taking the take which area they want to do for. The four core areas you will be studying throughout the three years and when you entered a job when you entered a company then you can take up your own the one thing that you like that the students like. As per their NAC as per their liking. And sir speaking of hotel I have seen there are small five-star hotel so what what can be the basic classification of a hotel how can you classify a hotel. Very good question rather technical question. Actually we classify hotel in various parameters like location that may be a parameter that is where the hotel is located. Now if it is located in a city we call it a city of town. If it is located in Sababan area little outskirt of the city we call it Sababan area. If it is situated on the highways we call it Murtia. If it is on a river we call it Flotia like houseboat of Kashmir so that is a location area but most then again the size how many rooms small hotel large hotel very large hotel medium hotel like that we classify. Then depending upon the client what type of client whether the tourist business class all this but basically the most authentic classification depends upon the facility that the hotel is of. So depending upon that the star category is been there. In India we have government of India recognizes six types of category one star two star three star four star five star and five star. So these are the categories and there is another type of categories are nowadays being used that is the heritage hotel category where the old utilities which have constructed before 1945 or 35 different types of heritage classics and all those things are there. So these are basically the way the hotels are categories but most commonly which has been there in the industry is depending upon the facilities and star classification. Sir and as you have mentioned about the specializations so could you just you know give a brief description about front of face or food and beverages what the students do during the three-year course and housekeeping as well. As you said that this is mostly hands-on and technical course so therefore they have to undergo full-fledged practical training like if I say food production. So this is basically how to cook food not only home food but international cuisine. So in that way our curriculum is structured. So in the first year of itself now we have gone for the semester system so first two semesters they have been exposed to do individual cooking but the basic art and the science of cooking is being given to. Then in the second year they have to go for bulk cooking because they have to do for say cooking for 500 people for a banquet party so that knowledge that is a little different from when you are doing for individual or small group and in the third it is totally international cuisine where we are going for the continental cuisines which includes French cuisine, German cuisines, then Oriental cuisine, Chinese and other Oriental cuisine, Indian cuisine so all this and Indian cuisines has also been a part of the second year when they are doing the bulk cooking the specialization Indian cooking different regional cuisine we call it different regions of India Like the North Indian food, South Indian food, Eastern food. And sir in housekeeping what do the students basically do? Basically housekeeping means the upkeep of the room that means how to decorate the room, how to clean the room which obviously includes the cleaning of charlotte, the rooms, the bed everything then the interior decoration the color scheme all these inputs are given to the students so that when they go through the industry they have fit enough and confident enough to meet to the challenges not only keeping the room up to date as far as cleanliness hygiene is concerned but also to change the decor as per the train and the tradition and the fashion. And in the front office? Front office basically means receiving of the guest that means right from the guest when they are coming in and registering them so we watch we are technically checking till check up settling of bill the interactivity of the hotel is that means welcoming of the guest till settling of the guest bill all these activities and throughout the guest stay they are the only one who are interacting with the guest for any needs of the guest they are the person. So we are training up this guest as well as we are training up how to handle the guest. So that is another plus things that gives us confidence and positiveness to the students to handle various types of situations various types of situations may arise so those are the things which is. Another topic was that of as we have discussed right now food and beverages so I have heard there are two terms like food and beverages service and food and beverages production so what is the basic difference between them? See both are related with food and beverage so some somebody have to prepare the food so that is the food and beverage production that means cooking part which includes cooking baking that is production of food making the food ready for consumption of the guest that is food production and after the food is prepared the food is to be consumed that means food should reach from the kitchen to the table of the guest. So this delivery from the kitchen to the table of the guest has been done by the food and beverage service that means the restaurant service the banquet service even the bar service these are the food and beverage service where the drinks are prepared and then it is served to the guest so that is the food and beverage service. Sir suppose if a student he or she is not interested to join a hotel after passing out three year course or after doing their hotel management he is not interested then what are the various options for that student for that kind of student? Very good question because this is one aspect where the students generally faces at the conclusion of their third year the sixth semester. As I said that most of the students are landing up with jobs basically in the hotels or hotel relatives other activities like motels resorts and all those things but there are other career options also like one of the career options is further studies which I have already mentioned MSA and also many students of us are going for the MBAs because now they have been trained up they know guest handling so MBAs specially with the specialization of sales and marketing and that of each human resource is a huge demand where the basic graduations they are doing with hotel management because this type of thing the corporate world is finding that they are very suitable for them so there is a huge demand for hotel so many students are opting nowadays for that MBA also and then there are other options like in airlines, aviation industry also like flight purses, air hostess, even the ground staff many you will find having the hotel management background even these aviation academies they have a hotel management module incorporated in their thing so that is another aspect then the railway caterings I have said to see so this is a very good option then cruise liners like truck cruises and all so they are again the accommodation and all the basic hospitality needs are there so obviously the hospitality graduates have huge demands over there and then we are having certain software packages because now as you know the hotel is also going through the software base we call it PMS property management system so that is one aspect because those hotel management graduates they know the nitty gritty of it and then their inputs are required by the software engineers to develop the software so there is a huge demand for that and not only that after the software has been developed that is to be trained to the hotel staff the end user so who are going to do so there is a huge scope for them over there and last but not the least like me faculty positions there can also be there are so many institutes coming up and there is a huge demand for faculties so with this they have all these options and sir as you have said that hotel industry has gained so much momentum during the last decade so according to me or according to some students still there is a tabo among the people that no one should not join hotel management so do you think that hotel management has really gained much momentum during the last decade I can quote the statistics to justify my point when I graduated this way back in 83 that time there was only 4 institutes of hotel management under central government in the 4 major metros all over India and now there are 50 institutes out of that 21 are central government institutes 14 are state government institutes and rest are private institute affiliated to the national council the nodal agency of the central government which is controlling the hotel management I am talking about only the central government institutes apart from that there is mushroom growth of hotel management institute on and off and you are saying in that paper advertisement now that itself is a statistical proof that many many students are opting for this particular course but one thing also done one thing still remains as I said already mentioned in our previous discussion that there is still certain social taboos attached to it people's mentality specially the parents they are little bit apprehensive of the words joining or the children joining kids joining this particular industry but as I said now the things are changing and with all this internet and the TVs coming inside the bedroom people are now realizing that this is not so bad as it is and you can say wherever you go this type of problems everything has a past every course has some advantage and some disadvantage nothing is foolproof under them and so sir the last question that remains with me is that what is the admission procedure that will be helpful for the learners as well as I said I can I am just going to tell you the admission procedure the government institutes private institutes they have their own admission procedures they generally have the advertisement then they have this placement interviews and all those things then this educational so those parts are there by that process they are doing but in the case of government we have this joint entrance examination this is generally been advertised at the last part of the month of December on all leading news people plus they have their own website nchncity.org National Council for Rural Management and Ketrin Technology.org nchncity.org so that what has been is also there and after that there will be an examination which is generally held in the month of April middle of April so that is the joint entrance examination this is more or less reasoning and little bit of English like that not a very tough one as so as to say and after that that all India selection the merit list has been prepared and then on online counseling is there there are few centers of online counseling where the students has to go and as per their ranking and their merit list they can choose the institute out of the 15 institutes ok sir there are 15 institutions 5050 50 for which the entrance test is being held and apart from that for the North East students especially for the students of Assam we have quota only in IHM Guwahati which is under directed of tourism government of Assam which they have the office in there is a bank of India station road so they advertise in the paper reading paper and that is on the they have I think the cut of marks is 50% in their high secondary plus 2 exam and then there will be an interview only and they will get selected if they miss the joint entrance bus for some reasons or other other they didn't appear miss the date or they are not successful still they have another chance to join this auto management stream through this quota similarly other North East states also have the quota ok so that's a boon for the Assam for the Assam government students ok so thank you so much sir I personally have gained much from this discussion and I am sure that our learners have quite benefited a lot from this discussion so thank you so much sir for sharing your thoughts and giving us your valuable time and input thank you pleasure is all mine Thank you