DARJEELING: With a view to promote employment in the travel and tourism sector after the coronavirus pandemic crippled businesses, Union tourism and culture minister Prahlad Patel on Monday launched the tourism ministry’s campaign to promote homestays across the country, which he said will give a leg up to rural ‘Aatmanirbharta (self-dependence)’. Patel also announced the setting up of a ‘Tourism Highway’ – a 250 kilometre-long circuit containing 13 destinations – under which the ministry has partnered with Google to identify and geotag monuments of relevance along national and state highways, prompting road travellers to visit India’s lesser-known cultural, archaeological and religious sites. He added that the Archaeological Survey of India has started the process of relisting ASI-protected state monuments, an initiative that will allow public to recommend lesser-known monuments for possible inclusion in ASI’s protected list.