ITDC (India Tourism Development Corporation)

ITDC stands for the India Tourism Development Corporation. It was incorporated on 1 October 1966. Incorporated means it was formally set up as a company in law.

ITDC is a public sector undertaking (PSU). A PSU is a company in which the government holds most of the shares. ITDC works under the administrative control of the Ministry of Tourism.

How old is it?

From 1966 to 2026 is 60 years. So ITDC has served tourists for six decades.

What does it do, in short?

ITDC runs hotels and tourism services. Its best-known brand is the Ashok Group of Hotels. It also runs duty-free shops, tourist transport and Sound & Light shows. Later cards explain each part.

The Government of India is the main owner. It held 87.03% of ITDC’s shares on 31 March 2026.

Who holds the rest?

Equity means the shares of a company. The other owners of ITDC’s equity are small by comparison.

QIBs are large expert investors, such as funds and banks. The Indian Hotels Company is the second-largest holder after the government.

How big is its capital?

Authorised capital is the most share capital a company may raise. Paid-up capital is what shareholders have actually paid in.

• Authorised capital: ₹150 crore.
• Paid-up capital: ₹85.77 crore, as of 31 March 2026.

ITDC runs its hotels under the brand Ashok Group of Hotels. Its own list now has 4 hotels. Of these, 3 are in operation.

Which are the four hotels?

1. The Ashok, New Delhi.
2. Hotel Samrat, New Delhi.
3. Kalinga Ashok.
4. Pondicherry Ashok.

Does it run hotels with partners too?

Yes. ITDC has 4 joint ventures. A joint venture is a business owned together with a partner. Only 1 hotel unit among them is in operation.

What about food services?

ITDC also lists 4 catering outlets and 1 restaurant. So its hotel arm is small. Do not describe it as a hotel chain spread across India.

Hotels are only one part. ITDC lists several other business lines on its own site.

What are its main business lines?

• Hotels and catering.
• Tourist transport: ITDC has 3 transport units.
• Duty-free shops: 14 shops at seaports and 1 at an airport.
• Sound & Light shows: shows that use light and sound to tell a place’s story.
• Convention facilities: halls for large meetings.
• Consultancy and engineering projects for tourism.
• Event management for government bodies.
• Hospitality education and training.
• Tourism promotion and publicity material.
• Ticketing and tours.

A duty-free shop sells goods without certain taxes. Such shops serve travellers at ports.

Which divisions run this work?

ITDC names 8 divisions:

1. Ashok Group of Hotels
2. Ashok International Trade
3. Ashok Travels & Tours
4. Ashok Consultancy & Engineering Services
5. Institute of Hotel Management-Ashok
6. Sound & Light Show
7. Ashok Events
8. Catering Units

The hotel institute was earlier called AIH&TM. Ashok Travels & Tours handles ticketing and tours.

Mugdha Sinha is the Managing Director (MD) of ITDC. She was named MD in April 2025.

What is her background?

• She is an IAS officer of the 1999 batch.
• Her cadre is Rajasthan. A cadre is the state an IAS officer is assigned to.
• She holds the rank of Additional Secretary.
• Earlier, she was Director General of Tourism in the Ministry of Tourism.
• She also served as Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Culture.

It was a three-day summit on artificial intelligence (AI) for public sector leaders. Its full name was the AI Champions for Digital Governance Summit.

When and where was it held?

It ran from 13 to 15 July 2026. The venue was Hotel Samrat in New Delhi. That is one of ITDC’s own hotels.

Who organised it?

Three bodies organised it together:

• ITDC
• SCOPE
• LBSNAA, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration

LBSNAA trains officers of the civil services. This was its first such programme held in New Delhi, away from its campus.

What was its aim?

The summit supported the IndiaAI Mission. Its goal was to build AI skills in the public sector.

Who attended, and what did they learn?

The audience included heads of public sector companies. These were CMDs, MDs and directors of PSUs. Senior ITDC officials also took part.

Sessions covered AI-driven change and decisions based on data. They also covered responsible use of generative AI. Hands-on workshops taught prompt writing and document analysis. Other workshops covered data extraction and drafting with an AI assistant.

Who spoke at the opening?

• S. Radha Chauhan, Chairperson of the Capacity Building Commission.
• Vivek Aggarwal, Secretary, Tourism and Culture.
• Ganesh Shankar Mishra, Joint Director of LBSNAA.
• Atul Sobti, Director General of SCOPE.
• Mugdha Sinha, MD of ITDC.

Why would a hotel company host an AI summit?

ITDC’s work includes event management for government bodies. It also offers convention facilities. So it can host such meetings in its own hotels. The summit was organised with SCOPE and LBSNAA.

What are the traps?

1. The start date. ITDC was incorporated on 1 October 1966.
2. Which ministry? It is the Ministry of Tourism, not Culture or Civil Aviation.
3. Two owners to remember. The government holds 87.03%. The Indian Hotels Company holds 7.87%.
4. Hotel count. ITDC lists 4 Ashok hotels, with 3 in operation.
5. Who trained whom? At the July 2026 summit, ITDC was a co-host. LBSNAA is the training academy.

Has ITDC come up in an exam?

ITDC appears as an option in this question. It is not the answer.

The words “Incredible India” pull the eye toward tourism. That makes ITDC a tempting wrong choice. The tagline belongs to the GI logo. GI tags mark products linked to a place.