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The Nainital tourist district is the pride of the Kumaon region in Uttaranchal. While there are many other places equally beautiful, Nainital is certainly the most popular tourist destination in Kumaon. It’s a pleasant hill station. For tourists looking for hustle and bustle the best time to go is the summer months when a lot of traffic ascends from Delhi and the plains.

 The town gets equally crowded during the September/ October season which coincides with the Diwali and Puja holidays. However, like most hill resorts, it has its quite periods too. During the winter, Nainital is quite another beautiful experience when it reverts back to the local population and the crowds are absent. Peaceful, open   and invigorating. In Indian mythology, Nainital is regarded as one of the 64 “Shakti Peeths”. Legend has it that a grief stricken Lord Shiva was carrying Sati’s body and one of her eyes fell here. The Nainital Lake is shaped like an-eye and the town derived its name from the combination of Nain (eye) and Tal (lake). The Naina Devi temple is located at one end of the lake.

The place lay undisturbed till an English businessman chanced upon the location while hunting. The businessman, Mr. Barron, a sugar trader got enamoured of the place and decided to start a settlement on the side of the pristine lake.

The British had occupied the area in 1815 and the first recorded reference to the township can be found in a journal entry in 1841 in ‘Englishman Calcutta’ which mentions a lake being discovered in the area. The English settlement soon had lovely cottages on the hillsides around the lake. Sometime later, a number of wealthy Indian families from the old town of Almora shifted to Nainital and the town flourished. Nainital was, at one time, the summer capital of Uttar Pradesh.

PLACES OF TOURIST INTEREST:

 LAKES: Nainital has several lakes close by- Bhimtal, Sattal, Naukuchiatal, Khurpatal, Malwatal, Harishtal and Lokhamtal. SAT TAL (seven lakes) is 22 km from Nainital. Bhimtal is close by, almost the same distance from Nainital. Close to Bhimtal, 4 kms away is NAUKUTCHIATAL.

GUFA MAHADEV AND SEPOYDHARA: If you are not afraid of ascending and descending a hill you can enjoy Sepoydhara very well. Placed at an altitude of 6000 ft. one has to descend for 200 ft from the motor road. There is a natural spring pouring out volley of water through five pipes of four to, five inches in diameter. Adjacent to it there are few temples where you can worship the deity after a bath. It has 108 Haidakhan Baba (the older one) who used to pay at least a visit to this place every year during his life span. Previously known as Tara Lockup is now the district Jail of Nainital, which stands in the vicinity. It housed Moti Lal Nehru also for some time in pre-independence era.

SRI KRISHNAPUR: On your way back from Gufa Mahadev if you change your course a bit to the west you will reach Sri Krishnapur at a height of 6000 ft before you embark the main Kathgodam road, Sri Krishnapur was the seat of a great learned Sanskrit scholar Late Pandit Sri Krishna Joshi, Advocate and Head of the Department of Religious Studies Benaras Hindu University, etc. There are about 150 manuscripts and printed books to his credit on different topics in Sanskrit, Hindi and English. This is now a place from where people get Kurmanchaliya Saur Chandra Panchang (the almanac) and other religious books besides the tourist literature including that, which is in your hand. All the good things are bound to reach you from this place.

GENERAL INFORMATION:

Location: Nainital is situated at 29 degree 24′ north latitude and
                     79 degree 28′ east longitude

Altitude: 1938 Meters or 6,360 ft, above sea level.
Temperature:    Summer: Max 27 C. Min 10 C.
                                Winter: Max 15 C. Min 3 C.
Best Season:      March to June
                                   &
                            September to November .

STOCK MARKET: BEARS’ FEAR EXAGGERATED

Now that the markets have accepted the P-Note norms fairly positively and appear to have moved on, the question is what happens in the interim, till P-Note users and sub-accounts get registered. One view is that the market becomes extremely range bound and lacklustre as flows dry up. Some believe that volatility may rise as trading volumes dry up. However, here is an alternative picture.

The basic assumption has to be that fundamentals remain intact. Earnings remain fine, no mid-term elections are called in the next two months and no sharp global meltdown happens. In such a steady state, let us discuss a somewhat different technical picture. Yes, hedge funds will not buy much in this period till they get clarity on the ‘regulated’ clause. It is suspected that their freeze is on. But equally they are not likely to sell anything. They are not required to, just yet and why would they want to sell down their only holdings in a market where they cannot buy any more, at least for the moment.

Generally speaking, there may not be much by way of selling in Indian stocks from FIIs now, as it is a scarce commodity which a lot of hungry people do not have access to. So we have a market which does not expect much selling and probably would see pent up buying in a bunched fashion when the registrations actually come through from SEBI. In such a scenario, domestic HNIs, operators and corporate investors may want to buy and hold, if only to front run this expected FII rush a couple of months down the line. Thus, despite a marked slowdown in hedge fund buying, the market technicals may not be so unsupportive, particularly if there are no fundamental setbacks.

Over a period of time though, ‘overseas’ versions of stocks will gain currency. ADRs will see more appetite, their premiums would increase. Part of the futures action will shift to the Singapore-based SGX, the dollar denominated Nifty futures. Over time, many firms may find ADRs and GDRs even more attractive as any foreign investor can access them with ease. To that extent, a part of our capital market will be ‘exported’. To avoid this, the only way is to take entry procedures to the next level, which is to allow free and unrestricted entry to any ‘foreign’ entity into our market as long as they register.