Melody queen Lata Mangeshkar, thespian Dilip Kumar and south Indian star Shivaji Ganeshan will be conferred with the life time achievement award instituted jointly by the South Indian Education Society and the Bharti Medical Research Foundation. The awards will be presented to them on Thursday at a grand function at Matunga in north-central Mumbai to commemorate 50 years of India's independence. The award is being presented to the trio for their contribution to Indian cinema, a spokesperson of the society said.

Ajit Kerkar is tourism advisor

Ajit Kerkar, the former chairman and managing director of the Taj group of Hotels, has been appointed as the tourism advisor to the state government. This would be the first full-fledged assignment taken up by Kerkar after his controversial departure from the Taj.

Sources said due to his 35-year association with the travel and tourism industry, Kerkar would be able to help the government exploit the rich potential in the fieldof tourism industry. The cabinet rank posting, however, does not provide any executive powers for Kerkar, who is also a director on the board of Air-India and Indian Airlines.