Visa
Citizens of all countries require a visa to enter India. This is a
reciprocal arrangement, and Indian citizens too need a visa to visit
every other country. The visa fees are also determined reciprocally between
India and each country, hence they will depend on your country of
citizenship (defined by your passport) rather than your country of
residence.
We are required to submit a list of conference participants along with
their passport details, to the Government of India. This is intended
to facilitate the granting of your visa. We will periodically contact
our international registered participants to supply this information.
To obtain your visa, please contact the Indian Embassy/Consulate nearest
you. There is typically an Indian Embassy in every capital city, and
in some countries there may be additional Consulates in other
cities. To check up whether the nearest Indian Embassy or Consulate
has a website, you can consult, for example:
www.indiatimes.com/webdirectory/218pg1.htm
www.tyzo.com/planning/embassies.html
or use other search methods of your choice.
Some Indian Embassies/Consulates grant a "Conference Visa" on
production of a letter of invitation from the conference. Such
letters will be mailed out by us periodically to international
participants when they register for Strings 2001. If you are
planning to travel within India before or after the conference, you
should ensure that the dates of your visa cover this additional
period. If you plan to leave and re-enter India (for example, to
visit a neighbouring country), then please make sure you have a
multiple-entry visa for India.
According to our information, processing of the Indian Visa is
normally quick and is completed in less than a week (on the same day
in many cases). However, for citizens of a few countries, visa
applications fall under a special category and may take upto three
months to be processed. Delays may also apply for those residing in a
country different from their country of citizenship. Please check
right away, at the nearest Indian Embassy/Consulate, for information
on whether this is applicable to you.
In case you experience any difficulty, please email us and we will
try our best to help you.
Air Travel
International participants: Please make sure you
have a confirmed round-trip travel booking to Mumbai by now.
Here are some links to India-related sites on the web that
can help you find a suitable travel agent. We provide these
links in good faith for the information of Strings 2001 participants,
but clearly we cannot accept responsibility for any problems
you may encounter. We do not endorse any particular travel agent
for this conference.
Arrival Information
Airport information, directions within the city, contact addresses and numbers are now available on the "Arrival Information" page of this website.
Weather
The weather in Mumbai during the conference will be pleasantly warm and sunny, with highs around 29 degrees C and lows around 18 degrees C. However, in the interior and to the north of India, the weather at this time can be much cooler, so do come prepared depending on where else you are going to travel.
The following links provide very useful weather information about many Indian cities.
Mumbai City
Here are some links to sites specifically about Mumbai. We hope you find them interesting and useful, but as before, we do not take any responsibility for their content!
An important point: the city has been called "Bombay" in English, and "Mumbai" in Marathi (the local language), for over a century. A few years ago, the English name was also officially changed to "Mumbai". Some search engines have not made the change, so if you are surfing the web for more information, it is a good idea to try both names.