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New UAE work permit rule announcedEmployers can now hire males on family sponsorshipABU DHABI: The Ministry of HR and Emiratisation (MoHRE) has begun issuing work permits for employers wishing to recruit eligible male workers sponsored by their families.

The move is in imple-mentation of a resolution is-sued recently by HR Minister Nasser bin Thani Al Hamli regarding regulations on granting of work permits. Pre-viously, these permits were exclusively issued to women. Saif Ahmed Al Suwaidi, Min-istry’s Under-Secretary for HR Affairs, said: “The resolu-tion aims to provide stability to families by enabling them to increase their source of

monthly income.”Men who are under the

sponsorship of their families will be eligible for UAE work permits. The ministry said in a statement it has started issuing work permits for em-ployers wishing to recruit eli-gible male workers sponsored by their families. Previously, these permits were exclu-sively issued to women who were under the sponsorship of their family. Many women who are employed in the UAE are under visas provided by their husbands or fathers.

Granting work permits to men and women sponsored by their families inside the state will help firms meet

their demand for jobs from residents and therefore re-duce operational costs in light of the recent cabinet resolution to reduce the fees of these two groups. Accord-ing to the resolution, the new fee for a two-year work permit for a skilled or limited skilled worker is Dh300 for all categories of firms under the ministry’s group clas-sification. The previous fee was in the range of Dh300 and Dh5,000, according to the firm category and skills of workers. Al Suwaidi af-firmed that these fees would be paid by the employer.

In early July, the MoHRE had reduced the fees by 50pc

and up to 94pc of 145 ser-vices auae work law, labor law, visa, sponsorship, men, husband, work permit

According to the resolu-tion, the new fee for a two-year work permit for a skilled or limited skilled worker is Dh300 for all categories of firms under the ministry’s group classification.Previ-ously, the fee was in the range of Dh300 and Dh5,000 de-pending on the firm category and the skill-level of workers. In early July, the MoHRE had reduced the fees by 50 to 94 pc of 145 services and transactionsd transactions, including 17 services, whose fees have been reduced.

New work permit rule to help NRI familiesDUBAI: The new work per-mit that allows men who are sponsored by a family mem-ber to work is being viewed as a game-changer.

Working class NRI fami-lies, especially those with women working as teach-ers, nurses, doctors and other such professions, have particularly welcomed this move. While the General Directorate of Foreign Resi-dency Affairs allowed wom-en working in these jobs to sponsor their husband on dependent visas, the husbands weren’t allowed legally to work earlier.

Many women who had jobs in these categories were living alone as sponsoring husbands who could not work was deemed as an ad-ditional financial burden. The new rule, however, will allow such husbands to le-gally work and augment the family income.

Dr Jamil Ahmed, Found-er and Managing Director Prime Health Care Group,

said, “This move to have husbands on dependent vi-sas to work is a master stroke from the UAE government. Many married women spon-sor their husbands especial-ly in the health sector such as nurses, lab technicians and doctors. The new rule allows these dependents to work and employers can tap into this latent talent pool. Many husbands with good qualifications who were on their wives’ dependent visa were unable to work. This new rule not only empow-ers families but also gives employers a chance to look within the UAE for new tal-ent. This is cost effective, less time consuming and works towards happiness of families who can look forward to new economic stability to their homes.”Double income

Vandana Marwaha, Prin-cipal and Director of Delhi Private School (DPS), Shar-jah, said : “I am so happy for my teachers, many of who

were sponsoring their hus-bands. However, surviving on a teacher’s salary is not always the ideal way and many teachers left their jobs when their husbands lost their employment. Now this rule will help husbands to accompany their wives who land a teaching job, seek employment legally with their work permits. It will take the stress out of the life of a teacher whose husband is on a dependent visa. I have many in our school. It will mean great financial support for them and for us, it will go a long way in re-taining our talented teachers and providing stability and consistency in the quality of education.”More to family kitty

Dileep K, freelance media person, said: “I worked in a steady job for 18 years and for the last 10 years have been on my wife’s visa. She works for a leading national airline. While I am past my prime age (Contd. on page 2)

Fraudsters offering jobs at CBSE school

Indian embassy warns job-seekersDUBAI: Several job aspi-rants have fallen into the trap of fraudsters offering positions at a CBSE school in Abu Dhabi. The fraudsters created a website similar to the official one and cheated people by seeking their per-sonal details and money for paperwork and visa.

Paramjit Ahluwalia, di-rector and principal, Dunes International School, urged applicants to be wary about such scammers. “I pray that no one should lose their hard earned money. It is very important for each indi-vidual to verify all the details of any recruiting agency. I thank all those applicants

who contacted the school to verify the authenticity of the offer letters they received. It is because of this that we were apprised about the misuse of our school website and email,” Ahluwalia told a TV channel.

The school has appoint-ed a lawyer to take up the matter forward with police. “We have also appraised ADEK and Indian embassy. It is unethical and illegal to use the contents of our website and create a similar website to cheat people,” Ahluwalia warned.

Meanwhile, the Indian embassy in anadvisory warned citizens to report such

matters and help nab such culprits. “Certain fraudsters are posing as the representa-tives, recruiters for Dunes International School and advertising fake jobs on be-half of the school. The e-mail IDs used by fraudsters are hr.recruitdunesintlschool.uae@gmail.com and info.duneschool.ae@gmail.com. Indian nationals residing in the UAE, India and abroad, if contacted by such fraudu-lent elements are requested to report it immediately to the local law enforcement authorities and should never share their personal details with these fraudulent ele-ments.”

DOHA: The Visa Support Services Department of the ministry of interior has launched a new service, which allows Qatari citizens and residents and compa-nies to authorise manpower agencies to complete the recruitment procedures of overseas domestic workers through Qatar Visa Centres abroad. The service will begin from mid-Aug after Eid Al-Adha holidays. The new service was announced by the Visa Support Ser-vices Department during a seminar explaining the procedure.

The event organised in collaboration with the min-istry of administrative devel-opment, labour and social affairs was attended by rep-resentatives of manpower

Visa procedures for domestics through Qatar Visa Centres

companies and agencies. Authorisation can be

done through Metrash2 and MoI website electronically or at MOI Services Centres manually by selecting one of the listed recruitment office or agency. After the authorisation, the recruit-ment agencies can complete the recruitment process and the various steps through the Qatar visa centres abroad including enrolment of bio-metric data, contract singing and medical examination.

“This measure is a con-tinuation of the project to complete work visa proce-dures for expatriate work-force in their own home countries and in order to simplify recruitment pro-cedures in general while protecting the rights of ex-

patriates and ensure their safe and smooth entry into Qatar,” Major Abdullah Al Muhannadi, Director of Visa Support Services Depart-ment at the General Direc-torate of Passports, said. “The service allows Qatari citizens and residents and companies to authorise man-power agencies to complete the recruitment procedures of domestic workers through Qatar Visa Centers Abroad,” he added.

Major Al-Muhannadi added that this service aims to guarantee the rights of applicants and ensure the ratification of their contracts by the competent author-ity in Qatar, in addition to reducing the effort and time for both applicant and expatriate.

Eid Al Adha holidays from Aug 10 to 13ABU DHABI: Public and private sector workers will have four days of holidays for Eid Al Adha this year. Employees across the coun-try will be entitled to have holidays from Saturday, Aug 10 to Tuesday, Aug 13. The announcement was made by the Federal Authority for Government HR.

Eid Al Adha or Festival of the Sacrifice (in India known as Bakri Eid) , is the second of two Islamic holi-days celebrated worldwide each year, the other being Eid Al Fitr. It honours the willingness of the Prophet Ibrahim to sacrifice his son as an act of obedience to God. The Muslim festival marks the end of the Haj pil-grimage season to Makkah.

It is celebrated on the 10th day of Du Al Hijah, the 12th and final month of the Islamic calendar. Haj is part of the Five Pillars of Islam. The meat from the sheep that has been sacrificed for Eid Al Adha is traditionally divided into three parts. The family that own the sheep receive a third while some is distributed to friends and neighbours with the final third going to the poor and needy. Earlier this year, it was announced by the UAE cabinet that the private sec-tor would have the same amount of holiday as their government counterparts. The decree, which unified the holiday days for both the public and private sectors, was issued in March. Both sets of workers will have a total of 14 days off in 2019.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia plans to restrict certain hospitality jobs to its own citizens by the end of the year, banning the recruit-ment of foreign workers for those positions.

The decision, announced in a labour ministry state-ment, will apply to resorts, hotels rated three-stars or higher and hotel apartments rated four-stars or high-er. Positions that must be filled by Saudis range from front-desk jobs to manage-

Saudi to ban foreignersfrom hospitality jobs

ment. Among the exceptions are drivers, doormen and porters, the ministry said. Other jobs that will be re-stricted to nationals include restaurant host and health club supervisor.

As Saudi Arabia tries to develop its fledgling tour-ism industry, it’s also tack-ling citizen unemployment, which hit a high of nearly 13pc last year. Hospitality is the latest sector to face stricter “Saudisation” poli-cies, which call for replacing

the foreigners who dominate many parts of the private sector — particularly blue collar and service jobs.

The decision will be enforced from an Islamic calendar date likely to cor-respond with Dec 29. Many hotels had already begun hiring Saudis to fill front-desk jobs in recent years, part of a gradual cultural shift as Saudis begin to take up jobs that once would have been considered un-desirable

Modi to address US-Indian Summit on September 22TEXAS: The Texas India Forum confirmed that the “Howdy, Modi!” Indian American community sum-mit will host Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi at NRG Stadium on Sept 22. The stadium is one of America’s largest professional foot-ball stadia, is home to the Houston Texans franchise and held the Super Bowl in 2017. The Texas India Forum expects 50,000 to attend the summit, using the full capacity of the stadium in concert configuration.

Over 650 community organisations have already applied to be “ Welcome Partners” for the programme. The event will include a cultural programme and an address by Modi. “We are excited to hold this sum-

mit at the renowned NRG Stadium. This will be the largest ever gathering of In-dian Americans and friends of India, with diverse rep-resentation from the region and across the country,” said Jugal Malani, convener of the “Howdy, Modi!” organis-ing committee. The tagline for the summit, “Shared Dreams, Bright Futures,” reflects the intent to build on the common aspirations that bring together the great democracies of the US and India.

Attendance for the event is free, but registration and passes are required. Passes will be available on a first-come-first-serve basis till Aug 12 through an online process at the website www.howdymodi.org

Iran releases 9 Indians from detained shipTEHRAN: Iran has released nine out of 12 Indians who were on board the ship MT Riah that was detained in early July, official sources said. However, 21 Indians are still in detention in Iran --- three from MT Riah and 18 from British oil tanker Stena Impero --- which was seized last week by the Ira-nian Revolutionary Guard in the Strait of Hormuz.

Indian embassy got con-sular access to the 18 Indians

who were on board Impero. Also, 24 Indian crew mem-bers, who were on board shipping vessel “Grace 1”, which was detained by Gi-braltar police authorities, are also under detention. The boats have been seized amid ongoing tensions between Iran and the US since Wash-ington began re-imposing sanctions on Tehran.

Indian officials have met the 24 Indian crew members who were on board shipping

vessel Grace 1 and assured them that the government will take necessary steps to ensure their release and repatriation, the external af-fairs ministry said. Iranian oil tanker Grace 1 was seized off the Spanish coast earlier this month by British ma-rines and Gibraltar police. A team of the Indian High Commission in London met the Indian crew and staff on board VLCC Grace 1 on Wednesday, Minister of

State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said.

“Crew’s morale is high. Assured all assistance for early release. HCI London will facilitate necessary travel document and related ar-rangements,” the minister tweeted. MEA Spokesperson Raveesh Kumar, at a me-dia briefing, said India had sought consular access which was granted and a three-member team visited and met all the 24 crew members.

SBI cutsFD ratesMUMBAI: State Bank of India (SBI) has slashed deposit rates on various tenors citing surplus li-quidity and falling inter-est rate scenario. Interest rates have been reduced by 50 to 75 basis points (bps) for time deposits with shorter tenors of up to 179 days. For time de-posits with longer tenors, there is a reduction of up

to 20 bps in the retail seg-ment and 35 bps in the bulk segment.

The country’s larg-est lender has also cut deposit rates on bulk deposits of Rs 2 crore and above. The new rates will be effective Aug 1, 2019.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Published by IPEPCIL Publications LtdRNI No.: MAHENG/2018/76663

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Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu addressing the gathering after releasing the Training Manual on Home Management for Homes Meant for Sex Trafficked Victims on the occasion of World Day Against Trafficking in Persons in Hyderabad.

Priti Patel: staunch Brexit right-w ingerPriti’s parents are Gujarati Indians who moved to Uganda. They fl ed to Britain in the 1960s, fol-lowing Idi Amin’s terror regime in which Indians were targeted.

Priti Patel

LONDON: Priti Patel, Brit-ain’s new home minister, is a right-wing, hardcore Brexi-teer who was previously sacked from the cabinet for secret meetings with the Israeli government.

Priti (47) impressed Brit-ain’s new Prime Minister Boris Johnson when she campaigned beside him for “Vote Leave” in the 2016 EU membership referendum. Patel is a social conservative who has voted against intro-ducing same-sex marriage and has expressed support for restoring the death pen-alty -- although she has since rowed back.

On taking office, Johnson promoted her to one of the chief ministries. She was the most senior woman around the new cabinet table when it first met on Thursday. The

rising star is now in charge of law and order in Britain. “I will do everything in my power to keep our country safe, our people secure and also to fight the scourge of crime that we see on our streets,” she said. The home secretary is considered one of the four Great Offices of State in Britain, along with prime minister, finance minister and foreign minister. The Home Office is in charge of counter-terrorism, immigra-tion, crime and policing, and drugs policy. But the sprawl-ing ministry is sometimes considered a poisoned chal-ice. A blunder somewhere in its vast remit often brings down home secretaries.

Priti was a trenchant crit-ic of former prime minister Theresa May’s EU divorce deal — voting against it ev-

ery time in parliament and thereby helping to end her tenure in office and usher in Johnson on Wednesday. The free market enthusiast is a fan of the late prime min-ister Margaret Thatcher and her Twitter banner shows a

picture of Thatcher and US president Ronald Reagan in the 1980s.

She read economics at university, and then did postgraduate studies in Brit-ish government and politics.

She headed the press office for the short-lived anti-EU Referendum Party in the 1997 general election before joining the new opposition Conservative leader Wil-liam Hague’s press team. Patel left in 2000 to work for public relations firm Weber Shandwick, then moved to alcoholic drinks multinational Diageo. For-mer Conservative leader David Cameron placed her on a so-called A-list of pro-spective MPs and put her into a safe seat in the 2010 general election. She joined Cameron’s policy unit in 2013 and was made a junior Treasury minister the fol-lowing year. After the 2015 election, Priti was given her first cabinet-attending post as employment minister.

May made Priti her first international development secretary when she took of-fice in July 2016. But it was all over in November the following year.

NEW DELHI: The Brit-ish Council of India and Universities UK Interna-tional (UUKi) have jointly launched a programme that will allow students from the United Kingdom (UK) to enroll in Indian universities.

The programme will be funded by the UK and In-dian governments as part of Phase-3 of the UKEIRI and delivered by the Brit-ish Council, Universities UK International and Edu-cational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL) in India. The UK-India Education and Research Initiative (UKIERI) Mobility Programme study in India will be a bilateral pilot programme which will support UK universities to collaborate with Indian part-ners to send UK students to India as part of their studies.

New education scheme allows British students to study in Indian varsities

The programme kicked off in July 2019 with 200 undergraduate students at UK universities expected to enroll by March 2021, with priority given to students from traditionally under-represented groups. The programme will be funded by the UK and Indian Govern-ments as part of Phase-3 of the UKEIRI and delivered by the British Council, Univer-sities UK International and Educational Consultants In-dia Limited (EdCIL) in India.

Barbara Wickham, OBE, Director British Council India said: “We believe stu-dents who have had inter-national experience as part of their education have a broader, more global per-spective of their subject that they then take on to their professional lives.” The

initial objectives of the pro-gramme will be to: increase the levels of outward student mobility from the UK to 13pc by 2020, as set out in UUKi’s Go International. It will support the employabil-ity of UK graduates and help them prepare for a globally competitive workforce

It will also support the in-ternationalisation of Indian higher education through the diversification of the student body and the consolidation of inter-institutional partner-ships. “We know that stu-dents who go abroad tend to do better academically and professionally. We also know that exchanging students supports the development of strategic partnerships between universities.” Vivi-enne Stern, Director, Univer-sities UK International said.

Chetti Melaka pioneer in Singapore Arumu-gam Supramaniam Chetti and Sivagamee.

C hetti Melaka — S ingapore’s unique Indian origin communitySINGAPORE: Unique to Southeast Asia – specifi-cally Singapore and Mela-ka – is a distinctive com-munity whose cultures and traditions are quickly fading away. Known as the Chetti Melaka or Per-anakan Indians, they are the descendants of South Indian traders who settled in Melaka (formerly Ma-lacca) in the 15th century and married local women of Malay and Chinese descent, according to the Indian Heritage Center in Singapore.

Predominantly Hindu of the Saivite denomina-tion, the people of the community speak mainly Malay instead of Tamil, and have adopted Chi-nese practices such as ancestor worship. They have their own creole, termed “Chetti Creole” by scholars, that developed from a unique combina-tion of Malay, Tamil and Chinese.

The Chetti Melaka form a small but signifi-cant community of early migrants who have made Singapore their home. Currently, there are an estimated 5,000 Chetti Melaka in Singapore.

While they largely retain their Tamil Hindu traditions,

the Chetti Melaka have also embraced practices from the Chinese and Malay commu-nities, resulting in a unique fusion of cultures.

Their roots can be traced to Kampung Chetti in Gajah Berang, Melaka – their only known hometown since most Chetti Melaka are un-aware of the places of origin of their forefathers in India.

During the 15th century, Malacca was a bustling busi-ness hug, attracting traders from across the world. South Indian traders arriving from the Coromandel Coast in-

termarried with local Malay and Chinese women. In those

days, it was taboo for women in India to leave their home-land. For the men who chose to settle and trade in the Ma-lacca straits, they married the local women and built families here. The term “Peranakan” is a Malay/Indonesian word meaning “lo-cal born”. It is said to have been origi-nally used by the local people of the Straits Settlement and Malay Archi-pelagos to address

foreign immigrants who es-tablished families on these lands.

During the late 19th cen-tury, a number of the English-educated Chetti Melaka left Melaka for Penang, Kuala Lum-pur and Singapore. Of those who arrived in Singapore, many took up employment in the private sector or in the colonial government service.

The everyday lives of the Chetti Melaka incorporate elements of Chinese, Malay and Indian cultures. For one, their cuisine is a fascinat-ing blend of Indian, Malay

and Nonya (Peranakan Chinese) culinary styles. Traditional Indian spices are typically combined with Malay ingredients such as belacan (shrimp paste), serai (lemongrass), lengkuas (wild ginger), pandan leaf and coconut milk to create uniquely Chetti dishes. The life-cycle rituals and ceremo-nies of the Chetti Melaka community closely follow traditional Tamil Hindu practices. They include coming-of-age ceremonies such as “Kaadhu Kuthal (ear piercing) for both girls and boys and the fertility ceremony “Sadanggu” for girls. The traditional wed-ding rituals are elaborate, and include ceremonies with elements borrowed from Malay and Chinese customs, including cos-tume, music and termi-nology. Over the years, as the Chetti Melaka married outside their community, the traditions and customs of the ethnic community declined. Their unique and vibrant culture has gradually been assimi-lated into the mainstream, largely undocumented and at risk of being lost forever.

Debashish Dutta with his wife Fataneh Taghaboni-Dutta.

MICHIGAN: The University of Michigan-Flint has appointed Debasish Dutta as its new chancellor, effective Aug. 1. Dutta’s five-year appointment was approved last month by the Board of Regents.

He succeeds Susan E. Borrego, who will step down from her position, when her current term is complete at the end of July. As UM-Flint chancellor, Dutta will serve as the chief executive offi-cer of the Flint campus and also an executive officer of University of Michigan. “I am thrilled to return to the University of Michigan to lead UM-Flint, a campus with exciting possibilities and a special place,” Dutta remarked. “The university has a lot to offer Flint and the region and vice versa. I look forward to working with faculty, staff, students and the community to improve access, enhance excellence and serve the citizens of the state of Michigan.”

Dutta is a distinguished professor of engineering

and the former chancellor at Rutgers University-New Brunswick. Last year, Dut-ta abruptly resigned from

Rutgers just a year after his appointment. Dutta an-nounced his resignation in a university-wide email, stat-ing that there were differing views about his position. “It has become clear that my vision for the chancellorship

is not in alignment with that of the University,” news re-ports said, quoting the email. “It is only fair that I step

aside and let the university select a new leader for the New Brunswick campus.” Serving in this role “at one of America’s oldest and most prominent land-grant public universities has been a dis-tinct privilege,” he wrote.

Airports Authority of India’s role should be redefi ned

Guruprasad Mohapatra

NEW DELHI: With an increasing number of airports being privatised in the country, there is a need to redefine the role of the Airports Authority of India (AAI), its Chairman Guruprasad Mohapatra feels.

Following the conclusion of the bidding process of six airports recently, the AAI is working on a plan to privatise another 20 to 25 airports. “We have appointed two consultants to study which are some of the attractive airports and we plan to soon recommend 20 to 25 airports with over 1.5 million passenger capacity for privatisation to the ministry of civil aviation,” Mohapatra told the media in Delhi.

“With increasing privatisation, there is a need to look into the role of AAI. It need not operate where private sec-tor will be interested. Whereas, there is unlikely to be any

interest for airports like Pakyong and Kushinagar, which we can develop. So, the money we get from privatised

airports can be ploughed back into these smaller airports.”

The next set of airports would be pri-vatised for “operation, management and development” just like the recent lot of six airports for which bids were invited. Adani Enterprises emerged as the winning bidder for all these airports and the Union cabinet had approved the transfer of Lucknow, Ahmedabad and Mangaluru airports and a decision on Jaipur, Guwahati and Thiruva-nanthapuram is pending. The AAI hopes

to see substantial interest from foreign players, including airports, in its next round of privatisation, following the “success” of the recent privatisation attempt.

Indian migrants on hunger strike

Debasish Dutta head of Michigan varsity

EL PASO: Three Indian nationals seeking asylum in the US have been forced to receive IV drips at a US Immigra-tion and Customs Enforcement facility in Texas as they approach their third week of a hunger strike. Lawyers and activists who spoke with the men fear that force-feeding may be next. The US Department of Justice filed orders with federal judges that relate to non-consensual hydration or feeding for four men, according to a court official. Linda Corchado, the lawyer for three of the four men named in the court orders, said the fourth man is also Indian and is

represented by another attorney. It’s unclear if that man was also forced to accept an IV.

The men have been locked up for months one for more than a year and they are trying to appeal or reopen asy-lum claims that were denied, according to Corchado. As of Sunday, they had gone 20 days without food, she said. “My clients made the decision to begin a hunger strike to protest prolonged detention and what they believe were biased and discriminatory practices by the immigration court toward their cases,” Corchado said.

New work permit rule to help NRI...(Contd. from page 1)to work, I feel this new rule will be able to help many other husbands who are sponsored by their wives to be able to contribute to the family kitty and have a more economically sound life. It will also help young under-

graduates being sponsored by other family members who can earn a modest amount as a stipend and support themselves. This will make every adult in the family productive.

Besides providing the government with an al-

ready available talent pool for jobs, it is also providing the families here a better spending power which will contribute towards strengthening the econo-my.”

M Phillip, General Phy-sician, said: “My husband came to join me on a visit visa a month ago. He is a software engineer with 12 years’ experience in India. Although he has some job offers, a good one might take time to crystallise. I am greatly relieved to know that until then he can be on my visa as well as get a work permit to practise his trade. Together we can support the financial needs of our family.”

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4 GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES Tuesday, July 30, 2019

More foreign students opt for MS varsity of BarodaVADODARA: A year after Gujarat’s only English-medi-um University, the MS Uni-versity of Baroda managed to admit a dismal 14 students of foreign nationalities, the university has enrolled a re-cord-breaking number of 34 students of foreign nation-ality for the academic year 2019-20, while admissions of 14 more students from 17 different countries are under process.

The students have tak-en admission through the scholarships provided by the Indian Council for Cul-tural Relations (ICCR). MSU has attracted the maximum number of students from the seven universities of the state where in a total of 106 students have been admit-ted so far. Gujarat at present has 10 per cent of the total students admitted through ICCR from across 157 coun-tries in various universities across the country.

This comes a year after the MSU committee set up to study the reasons be-hind the university’s falling rankings at national level pointed out that there are less than 5 per cent stu-dents from outside Gujarat whereas the number of for-

eign students is almost nil. The report had stated that most of the institutes in the top 100 rankings has an av-erage of 15 to 20 per cent students from outside state

and abroad which adds to the diversity of the edu-cational institutions. The report had recommended that relevant courses and better infrastructure be pro-vided to attract the foreign students to the university. As per the National Insti-tute of Ranking Framework (NIRF) survey of 2018, the university had not featured amongst the top 200 univer-sities of the country. How-ever, in 2016, the univer-sity was ranked 76th and in 2017, it was in the rank band of 151 to 200.

Better hostel facilities, recommendation of the university through word of mouth and overall safety is being touted as the ma-jor reasons behind the rise.

Amashi Muthukumarana, a first-year Masters student of Museology, joined after she came to know about the var-sity from her professors in Sri Lanka. “I was a student of History in Sri Lanka and I wanted to pursue Museol-ogy. While I was looking for universities, my professors told me about MS Univer-sity. The head of the depart-ment and the teachers here have been very helpful,” Amashi said.

Saira Turna from Ban-gladesh said, “I wanted to explore universities in Gu-

jarat… When I enquired, MS University was highly recommended by friends and others.” Saira is a first-year student of Business Administration.

Beginning this year, the ICCR hostel facilities, which can accommodate around 80 students, have also started providing wash-ing machine and fridge to the students. From the pre-vious year, induction stove were also provided to the students.

“Initially food was an issue. Different students have different taste buds and most of them are non-vegetarians. We were then provided with an induction stove so that we can cook whatever we want. Since

then it has become easier for us as far as food prefer-ences are concerned,” said Mitu Karmakar, a third-year student of Vocal Music. She is from Bangladesh.

However, a few students who have been temporarily accommodated at the regu-lar hostels also shared their grievances pertaining to hy-giene and food. “The kind of food here at the hostel is not up to the mark. The hygiene should also be im-proved. As soon as we came here, we were warned of dengue,” said Sebabi Em-manuel, a student of MSc Physics, and a national of Uganda.

The authorities, howev-er, claim to have provided them with mosquito repel-lent kits. “This is a tempo-rary accommodation since this year the inflow of stu-dents has risen drastically. We are in the process of admissions and meanwhile we are also looking at other accommodation facilities to relocate them. A proposal regarding a separate hostel for the foreign students has also been tabled,” said Pro-fessor Dhanish Patel, Direc-tor, Office of International Affairs.

S m iosis cam us inau urated in Na urNAGPUR: Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugu-rated a campus of Symbio-sis International University in Nagpur recently. He said Nagpur’s growth lies in its identity as an education hub.

“The state-of-the-art uni-versity is like a dream insti-tution. It will give impetus to our vision to make Nagpur an education hub. Educa-tional institutions only cre-ate human resources that are required to kick-start devel-opment of any region. Like Pune, Nagpur, too, will fol-low the same trajectory,” said Fadnavis.

Spread over 75 acres, Symbiosis University had started its first academic ses-sion recently with students from at least 15 countries for courses in business admin-istration and management, architecture, design and law.

Union Minister Nitin Gadkari, who was the chief guest at the function, said “We had requested Sym-biosis to open a campus in Nagpur because hundreds of students from Vidarbha have to come to Pune for educa-tion and jobs. A Symbiosis campus here will now help prevent migration.”

Gadkari added: “We of-fered them land at a nominal lease rate of Re 1 per year for 30 years on the condi-

tion that they reserve 25 per cent seats for students from Nagpur and offer them 15 per cent fee concession. I am happy that Symbiosis agreed to the conditions. It’s a new feather in Nagpur’s cap.”

He added, “On the re-quest of Finance Minister Sudhir Mungantiwar, I re-quest Symbiosis to accom-modate students from all of Vidarbha and not just Nag-pur in the 25 per cent quota.”

He also said the govern-ment will set up 10 manu-facturing parks for medical devices in Nagpur. Gadkari and Fadnavis urged the Sym-

biosis management to start a course in avionics and logis-tics to help make Nagpur an aviation hub.

Vidya Yerwadkar, pro-vice chancellor, said, “The Nagpur campus is our most modern and biggest one. We request the chief minister to grant us Institution of Emi-nence status.”

Symbiosis founder and chancellor S B Mujumdar said the university will start a course in aviation from the next academic year.

IITs plan to invite students from A sean countriesNEW DELHI: The coun-try’s premier engineering colleges – the IITs – could from December onwards have hundreds of students and researchers from Asean countries on their ranks as the Union HRD ministry is looking east to fulfil its twin objectives of getting more international students and boosting research.

The ministry has read-ied a plan under which 1,000 students from Asean countries like Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia, Bru-nei, Malaysia, Vietnam etc would be given fellowships to undertake research in the Indian Institutes of Tech-nology.

“The proposal is to offer 1,000 doctoral fellowships to students from Asean countries. The scheme is budgeted at Rs 300 crore and will be a part of the IIT system. It has been decided that the IIT at Delhi will be the nodal agency for the Asean fellowships scheme. The first students would be admitted from December this year onwards,” a senior

official said.The IITs will, from their

own resources, provide liv-ing expenses to these schol-ars, the committee led by Higher Education Secre-tary R Subrahmanyam, that worked on the contours of

the plan, has held.In the past as well, IITs

have turned their gaze to the neighbourhood to at-tract international students to their campuses.

Over a year ago, a plan was formulated to hold entrance tests to these in-stitutions in SAARC coun-tries, excluding Pakistan, to get international students. However, the plan met with

limited success.When asked, an offi-

cial said that the present scheme with regard to Ase-an countries was more thor-ough in nature.

“The Asean countries are traditional friends and

India has historical link-ages that span centuries. Many of them have quite good educational systems in place so we can expect quality students. It has also been decided that a system would be put in place with the help of the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Min-istry of External Affairs to facilitate a fast track visa for the students selected under

the programme,” the offi-cial said.

Apart from boosting re-search, the scheme could help branding India as a global education desti-nation and help premier schools climb global rank-

ings.“IITs are our premier in-

stitutions in technology and applied sciences and can help establish India as an academic hub for research for Asean countries stu-dents. Once prestige of In-dia grows foreign students in many other academic disciplines shall be attract-ed,” said eminent educa-tionist Prof I M Kapahy.

Kerala Agri varsity proposes Centre of Excellence in FloriculturePALAKKAD: The Kerala Ag-ricultural University (KAU) budget 2019-20 has envis-aged setting up a new agri-cultural college in Palakkad and a Centre of Excellence in Floriculture and Tropical Horticulture in Wayanad.

R Chandra Babu, Vice-Chancellor said that the Centre of Excellence is based on the outcome of Netherlands visit by the State Chief Minister. The Centre will provide tech-nological back up for farm-ers, storage facility for their produces, transporta-tion chains and marketing windows.

KAU will work hand in hand with LSGIs to ensure smooth implementation of agri-development projects and ensure convergence of funds for similar objectives under different heads.

The budget envisages strengthening of facilities at College of Agriculture, Ambalavayal in Wayanad and optimising network involving central library and libraries in different colleges through dedicated computer network.

Detailed scrutiny of the changes caused by flood in ecosystem and soil will be carried out and necessary interventions will be sug-gested. Priorities to popu-larise organic farming and provide technology back up for the same is another budget agenda. Remote Sensing, mechanisation, Hi-tech farming and horti-cultural therapy will also be encouraged. More re-search on value addition and export of fruits is also envisaged.

A unit of KAU will be established at Vengeri in Kozhikode, the only district without full-fledged centre of the university. A project under revolving fund mode for production of saplings of mango, jack fruit, pepper, coconut, and organic inputs will be implemented in dif-

ferent centres to enhance the internal revenue. The market prediction and price forecast mechanism to help farmers, special thrust on water weed control and agro-ecological studies form main research agenda. Farm business school and entrepreneurship facilita-tion centre will be estab-lished under Directorate of Extension to promote agri-business enterprises and value addition centres.

The successful paddy development programme

implemented by Kannur KVK will be extended to other districts to enhance productivity and profit-ability. Schools will be supported with KAU farm clubs to guide students. Cultivation of nutritional millets in tribal hamlets will be promoted.

First job fair for LGBTQ and acid attack survivors in MumbaiMUMBAI: Vividh, the city’s first job fair for the members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex (LG-BTQI) community, was or-ganised at Nehru Centre, Worli, by 6 Degrees, an LGBTQI growth network. More than 15 companies, including corporates and media firms, were present to hire aspirants.

The job fair was also open other marginalised groups such as acid attack survivors and people with disabilities.

Praful Baweja, co-

founder of 6 Degrees, said that even as the Supreme Court had struck down

provisions of section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalised gay sex between two consenting

adults in September last year, there were no plat-forms for LGBTQI commu-

nity members to find jobs.“After the verdict, a lot

of companies used the rain-bow colour to show their

support. However, there is still a long way to go from paying lip service to actual-ly putting it [hiring LGBTQI community members] into practice,” said Baweja.

Among the companies present at the job fair were Godrej, Ernst and Young, Dr Reddy’s, IBM and Stan-dard Chartered. The poli-cies of each company to make the workspace inclu-sive for all communities differed — some offered gender-neutral washrooms, medical benefits for same sex couples and stopping the practice of adding titles

before a person’s name.Rajat Kumar, a transman

from Mumbai, was look-ing for an opening in event management company. He had earlier dropped out from a course at an educa-tion institute because of the rigid dress code.

“I am transman, but my official documents since my birth say I am a woman. After my surgery, I want to be accepted as a transman. Earlier, when I had gone for an interview I was rejected when I told the employer that I am a transman,” said Kumar.

IIT Kharagpur, Tata Medical Center team up to aid cancer researchKOLKATA: The IIT Kharag-pur and the Tata Medical Center has collaborated for setting up a Comprehensive Digital Archive of Cancer Im-aging (CHAVI) to aid cancer research in India.

Through the National Digital Library Initiative (NDLI) of the Ministry of Hu-man Resource Development, the institute has joined hands with the cancer care centre for the pilot project for developing an image data bank for cancer patients. An IIG-KGP statement said the project will be India’s first step towards harnessing ar-tificial intelligence and deep learning methods to answer medical questions of impor-

tance in the field of image banking.

“The CHAVI project is the first of its kind. The objective of the National Digital Library of India is to make accessible material for research. With the proj-ect, we have chosen cancer imaging database along with Tata Medical Centre because of their tremendous exper-tise,” it quoted Principal Investigator of NDLI Partha Pratim Chakraborty as say-ing at a workshop held here.

At the workshop, Dr Sanjoy Chatterjee of the Tata Medical Center said there is a need for more af-fordable solutions in India for cancer treatment.

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Sudo u Pu e Rules: To solve a Su-doku puzzle, every digit from 1 to 9 must appear in each of the nine verti-cal columns, in each of the nine horizontal rows and in each of the nine boxes.Solution for Puzzle # 83 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudo u Pu e 82 Answer

Your wellness

H igh-fi bre diet may promote healthy pregnancy

Consuming a healthy diet rich in fibre dur-ing pregnancy may

promote the wellbeing of both the mother and child, and reduce the risk of pre-eclampsia, according to a study.

Plant-based fibre is bro-ken down in the gut by bacteria into factors that influence the immune sys-tem, said researchers from the University of Sydney in Australia. The researchers investigated the role of these metabolic products of gut bacteria during pregnancy.

They noted the simple recommendation to ‘eat real food, mostly plants, and not too much’ might be the most effective primary prevention strategy for some of the most serious conditions of our time.

“The mother’s gut bacte-ria and diet appear to be cru-cial to promoting a healthy pregnancy,” said Professor Ralph Nanan, from the Uni-versity of Sydney.

The study, published in the journal Nature Com-munications, found that in humans, reduced levels of acetate, which is mainly pro-

duced by fibre fermentation in the gut, is associated with the common and serious pregnancy-related condition preeclampsia.

Preeclampsia occurs in up to 10 per cent of pregnan-cies and is characterised by high blood pressure, pro-tein in the urine and severe swelling in the mother.

It also interferes with the child’s immune develop-ment whilst in the womb,

with some evidence suggest-ing a link to higher rates of allergies and autoimmune disease later in life.

The study found that

preeclampsia affected the development of an impor-tant foetal immune organ, the thymus, which sits just behind the breastbone.

Foetuses in preeclamptic pregnancies were found to have a much smaller thymus than children from healthy pregnancies.

The cells the thymus normally generates, called T cells (thymus-derived cells) -- specifically those associ-

ated with the prevention of allergies and autoimmune conditions such as diabetes -- also remained lower in infants after preeclampsia, even four years after delivery.

The mechanisms of ace-tate on the developing foetal immune system were further examined in separate experi-ments involving mice that showed acetate was central in driving fetal thy-mus and T cell devel-opment.

These results showed that promot-ing specific metabolic prod-ucts of gut bacteria during pregnancy might be an ef-fective way to maintain a healthy pregnancy and to prevent allergies and auto-immune conditions later in life. They may also, in part, explain the rapid increase of allergies and autoimmune conditions as Western diets are increasingly dominated by highly processed foods, which are very low in fibre, researchers said.

HIV infection can damage bystander cellsA recent study found

that HIV-infected cells release vesicles

that contain a viral protein called Nef, further damag-ing cholesterol metabolism and triggering inflamma-tion in uninfected bystand-er cells.

HIV infects only a lim-ited repertoire of cells ex-pressing HIV receptors. But HIV infection is also asso-ciated with conditions in-volving the dysfunction of cells that cannot be infected by HIV, such as hardening of the arteries, dementia, kidney impairment, and certain heart problems.

Professors robotic hand to help stroke patientsThe scientists at the

IIT-Kanpur have ventured into the

world’s first robot hand for the rehabilitation of stroke patients and have finished their tests on it.

The device is a two-fin-ger robotic hand (exoskel-eton) that uses a four-bar mechanism and has four degrees of freedom (DOF).

Professor Ashish Dutta and Professors KS Ven-

katesh who have achieved this feat, explain that “The exoskeleton can be used by a patient on the hand. It uses brain signals, with the help of the brain-computer interface (BCI) that is worn on the head, and helps paralysed patients to open and close the movement of their thumb, forefinger and middle fingers for physical practice.”

The exoskeleton is op-erated by a MEGA micro-

controller of 300 Mhz and powered by a battery. The teachers say that the device will cost around Rs 15,000.

For the exoskeleton, the duo has partnered with the University of Ulster, based in the United Kingdom,

and their teacher Girijesh Prasad, who belongs to Go-rakhpur.

The device has sensors that control the pressure of the fingertip applied by the patient. If the patient can close or move the fin-ger, the device follows the movement passively. If it does not, then the device actively forces the finger to close, while taking BCI in-structions using signals.

Regarding the design of the device, the movement of degrees of freedom of the

exoskeleton is based on the movement of the human finger while manipulating a coin in the hands. The joints in the device consist of four bars to give a human movement.

The design and de-

velopment of an exoskel-eton robot for the support and rehabilitation of hu-man hands is a Rs 55 lakh MHRD (Ministry of Human Resource Department) and the British Council (the UK) project which was ap-proved in 2018.

The research has been published in leading jour-nals, including the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, Biomedical and Health In-formatics, Haptics and En-gineering in the Medical and Biology Society.

These HIV-associated conditions persist even af-ter the successful applica-tion of antiretroviral thera-py when no virus is found in the blood. Many of these conditions involve impair-ments in cholesterol me-tabolism. In the new study published in the journal of PLOS Pathogens, research-ers examined the mecha-nisms that may contribute to HIV-associated metabolic conditions.

The results showed that the HIV protein Nef is re-leased from infected cells in vesicles that are then rap-idly taken up by uninfect-

ed bystander white blood cells, impairing cholesterol

metabolism in these cells.This impairment caused

the formation of excessive

lipid rafts discrete lipid domains present in the ex-

ternal leaflet of the plasma membrane and the re-local-isation of inflammatory re-

ceptors into rafts, triggering inflammation. The findings demonstrate how a single viral molecule released from infected cells into cir-culation may contribute to a range of pathogenic re-sponses.

“Our study points to a common mechanism of various co-morbidities of HIV infection. This opens a possibility to target this mechanism using drugs affecting cholesterol me-tabolism to treat several co-morbidities in people living with HIV,” said one of the researchers of the study, Dmitri Sviridov.

Info brochure for GATE 2020 releasedThe Information bro-

chure for the Gradu-ate Aptitude Test in

Engineering (GATE) 2020 has been released. The bro-chure contains all the details like exam pattern, marking scheme, syllabus, sample question papers, cut-off and other importanty details re-lating to the examination.

This year the Indian In-stitute of Technology Delhi is going to conduct the ex-ams from February 1, 2, 8 and 9, 2020. It will be go-ing to be held in two shifts. which will start from 9:30 am and end at 12:30 pm and the afternoon shift to be con-ducted from 2:30 to 5:30 pm.

The application process will start from September 3 and will end on September

24, 2019, the candidate can fill the form on the official website gate.iitd.ac.in.

The Candidate will also be provided with a window to make changes in their ap-plication form. The last date

for requesting a change of examination city, with an additional fee is November 15, 2019.

The exam will be con-ducted on basis of 24 dif-ferent subjects Aerospace Engineering, Agricultural Engineering, Architecture and Planning, Biotechnol-ogy, Civil Engineering,

Chemical Engineering, In-strumentation Engineering, Mathematics and Mechani-cal Engineering among other

subjects. The candidate can only appear in one paper at any one session.

The GATE 2020 will be a computer-based multiple-choice question or MCQ-based exam. They have to answer 65 questions for a total of 100 marks within three-hours’ time.

The result for the same, as per the schedule will be declared on March 16, 2020. The GATE score is valid until three years of the an-nouncement of the result.

Based on GATE 2020 score students will be eli-gible for admission to IISc, and IITs at master’s and doc-toral level programmes. Can-didates who qualify GATE are also eligible to apply for government jobs.

O disha to launch common scholarship portal for students

The state govern-ment has decided to launch a common

scholarship portal for the benefit of meritorious stu-dents who often fail to ap-ply due to ignorance.

The “Odisha State Schol-arship Portal” will be de-veloped as a single digital platform for all scholarship schemes and maintained by Odisha Computer Applica-tion Centre (OCAC). An offi-cial of the Higher Education Department said OCAC will provide modules in the com-mon portal for data analytics and block chain for help-ing departments taking data based on policy decisions.

“The common portal

will go live from April 2020. OCAC has been asked to complete development, test-ing and trial run of the portal before that. Aadhaar authen-ticated e-KYC process will be explored for authentic dis-bursal of scholarship,” he in-formed. As per the decision taken at a recent high level meeting, pre-metric Unified District Information System of Education (UDISE) data-base of Odisha Primary Edu-cation Programme Authority (OPEPA) and Odisha School Education Programme Au-thority (OSEPA) and post-metric database of Student Academic Management Sys-tem (SAMS) will be used for developing a comprehensive

‘Student Registry’ by the OCAC.

The departments will then take necessary steps to provide application pro-gramme interface for real-time sharing of data with the scholarship portal and OCAC will define the data sharing protocol. The por-tal will be integrated in the iFMS to have an end-to-end scholarship disbursement process without any human intervention. The student registry can also be used for delivery of many other benefits like financial in-centives to school students for purchase of bi-cycles by School and Mass Education Department.

Indians turn to China for medical educationAround 7,000 to 8,000 In-

dian students travel to China every year for an

MBBS degree. Though some uni-versities specify their require-ments — the need to have passed high school with a certain mini-mum percentage — in many oth-er instances, students say, there are no entry barriers.

Every time she flew back from home in Anand, Gujarat, 24-year-old Rashi Patel would carry in her checked-in luggage men who had a lot to say and weighed on an average 3 kg. This is how Deepak Marwah, A K Setiya, Gobind Rai Garg, B D Chaurasia and K Sembulingam came to live in northeastern Chi-na, on her bookshelf at the Tian-

jin Medical University’s (TMU) student dormitory.

Last winter, Patel scored 186 marks out of 300 in the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam (FMGE), a mandatory screening test conduct-ed by the Medical Council of In-dia (MCI) for students who obtain medical degrees from colleges out-side India but are keen to practise medicine back home. The exam can be taken twice a year — June and December — starting from the student’s internship year. To clear the “extremely tough” FMGE, Pa-tel “thoroughly read Indian notes” day and night. “I mostly read Deepak Marwah sir’s notes. They are very good,” she says.

On July 1, 2019, Patel, along with 123 Indian students, gradu-

ated with an MBBS degree from TMU in a ceremony held at the university’s indoor basketball court. She topped her batch, her smiling face captured in a post-er affixed to a pole adjacent to the parking lot on the campus: “youxiù bìyè sheng (excellent graduate student)”, it read.C hina education

China, which has been of-fering undergraduate medical courses in English since around 2004, has over the years emerged as a destination for foreign stu-dents, mostly from the sub-continent. Since then, through a combination of hearsay and an informal network of private agents, thousands of aspiring doctors in India have opted for a

Chinese medical degree.For these Indians, whose

dreams of donning the scrub are often stymied by fierce compe-tition back home and the lim-ited number of medical seats — 84,127 seats are on offer in a mere 573 colleges, government and private, in 2019-2020, according to the government’s recent re-sponse in Parliament — China is an attractive option, the country an emerging player in a market that has traditionally been domi-nated by Russia and other east European countries. Patel is at the end of her China journey. So is her classmate Mrinalini KVSS, who is preoccupied with send-ing home four years of purchases made on Taobao, a Chinese on-

line shopping website. “Mostly clothes,” she says, laughing.

Originally bound for Nanjing Medical University in the east-ern Jiangsu province, Mrinalini enrolled in TMU “by mistake” in 2013. “My agent messed up,” she says. According to students, the agent, a crucial conduit for this journey to China, can be any-one — a high school teacher, a friendly neighbourhood uncle, an NGO in rural Tamil Nadu or seniors who graduated from medical schools in China but couldn’t clear the FMGE. In one case, it was the student’s uncle. Sunidhi Jhamb from Ludhiana in Punjab, who also graduated from TMU and came to China in Nov 2013, says that soon after

her Class 12 results were out, her father received several phone calls from agents about medical courses in Ukraine, Russia and China. “Maybe the agents got the phone number from the forms that I filled up for medical en-trance tests in India,” she says.No choice

Sitting in her room at the For-eign Students’ Hostel in Cang-zhou, a city in China’s eastern Hebei province, Jhamb says, “I didn’t have a choice back then. I was only getting a seat in dentist-ry at Rajpura (in Punjab’s Patiala district), which I didn’t want. My father knew someone whose rel-ative was studying for an MBBS degree here. So we felt we could trust China.”

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, July 30, 2019

GULF FAQs

I am a BBA (Honours) graduate and cur-rently employed on a limited contract of two years on a salary of Dh4,500. If I want to switch my company on a salary more than Dh5,000 but less than Dh12,000, can my new employer request to cancel my ban? What is the surety that the ban will be cancelled depending upon my aforementioned qualification? Also, my current em-ployer had written in my offer letter that if I am transferred locally to other emirates, my salary will be increased as per life style of that emirates but in labour contract they had not written such things and told me at the time of signing that it is just formality, just sign it. What should I do? If they are shifting me to Abu Dhabi, what are the mandatory things the company is bound to do with respect to health insurance, minimum salary package, transport and other things?

It is presumed that your employment is subject to provisions of the Federal Law No 8 of 1980 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (the “Labour Law”). Pursuant to your question (as per my understanding), it may be noted that employees who terminate their employ-ment after the completion of two years of continuous service, may not have to face an employment ban if both the employer and the employee have agreed to such termination of the employment contract. This is in accordance with Article 2 of the Ministerial Order No. 1186 of 2010 on “Rules and Conditions of Granting a New Work Permit to an Employee after Termination of the Work Relationship in Order to Move from One Establishment to Another” (the “Ministerial Order”), which states:”The following two con-ditions must be met in order to grant the work permit mentioned in Article (1) of this resolution: 1) Agreement be-tween the employee and the employer to conclude the work relationship. 2) The employee must have spent at least two years with the employer.” Pursuant to the foregoing, if you can secure a NOC from your current employer no employment ban should be imposed on you. However, your prospective employer may not be able to help you in the removal of your ban, if a ban is imposed. Further, it may be noted that your professional qualification may not be sufficient to remove any employment ban on you. Also, it may be advised that where an employee executes two employment contracts, the provisions which are more beneficial to the em-ployee will always be applicable. This is in concurrence with the provision of Article 7 of the Labour Law which states: “Any stipulations contrary to the provisions of this Law, even if it was made prior to its commencement, shall be null and void unless they are more advantageous to the worker.” Hence, if it is mentioned in your offer letter that you shall be entitled to more benefits in the event you are transferred to another emirate, your employer should provide the same. However, this is an ambigu-ous matter as your definition of more benefits may be different from that of your employer.Limited contractI am working as a teacher at a private school in Abu Dhabi on a two-year con-tract. As of July, I have completed one academic year and I will be resigning in the next few days. I have given my employer a little over 60 days written notice. I have a few questions about my entitlements upon my resignation. I have been advised that my school will try to strip certain privileges, such as the return ticket, summer salary and they may deduct 45 days’ pay. But my contract does not state whether it is limited/unlimited. However, I assume it is limited since it is a fixed term of two years. Since I am resigning before the end of two years, will I be ordered to pay 45 days’ salary? Page 1 of the contract states: “If you decide to leave the school before the completion of the contract you will lose your entitlement as per UAE Labour Laws.” What exactly does that entitlement refer to? Could it be our bonus at the end of the contract,

Planning to switch jobs in UAE?or our summer salary?

Article 14.5 states: “The teacher is entitled to two months paid annual holiday if she has completed one whole academic year.” As more teachers have resigned, the school has stated they will not pay the summer salary. Article 6 states the school is responsible to pro-vide a return flight home each academic year. Some teachers have been denied this flight since resigning. It is presumed that your employment is subject to pro-visions of the Federal Law No 8 of 1980 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (the “Labour Law”). Pursuant to the first part of your question, it may be advised that your employment contract is of limited duration since it is specifically mentioned in your employment contract that it shall be for a period of two-years.

Further, it may be advised that you will be liable to pay compensation equal to 45 days’ remuneration, should you choose to resign. This is in accordance with Article 116 of the Labour Law which states: “Where a contract is re-voked by the worker for reasons other than those specified in article (121), he shall be required to compensate the employer for any prejudice the lat-ter sustains as a result: provided that the amount of compensation shall not exceed held the worker’s remuneration for three months or the residual period of the contract whichever is shorter un-less the contract contains a provision to the contrary.”

In view of the foregoing, it may be advised that the only way you may be precluded from paying this compensa-tion is if your employer foregoes this compensation amount against your termination of employment contract. You may further note that since you are working under a limited period contract, you are not required to serve any notice period as such. Further it is noted that a particular clause in your employment contract provides that you shall not receive your entitlements if you should decide to leave your employment before the completion of two years. The clause as such is compliance with Article 138 of the Labour Law which states: “Where a worker who is bound by a contract for a limited period leaves his work of his own accord before the expiry of his contract period, he shall not be entitled to severance pay unless his continuous period of service exceeds five years.” Pursuant to this it may be noted that the entitlements here would mean the severance pay, which is paid to outgoing employees in accordance with Article 132 of the Labour Law which states: “A worker who has completed one or more years of continuous service shall be entitled to severance pay at the end of his employment. The days of absence from work without pay shall not be included in calculating the period of service. The severance pay shall be calculated as follows: 1) 21 days’ wage for each of the first five years of service.

2) 30 days’ wage for each additional year of service provided always that the aggregate amount of severance pay should not exceed two year’s wage.” Further, you may note that you shall be entitled to receive your leave salary for the number of days of paid leave that were not availed by you. This is in ac-cordance with Article 79 of the Labour Law which states: “A worker who is dismissed or who leaves his job after the period of notice prescribed by law shall be paid for any accrued annual leave days. Such payment shall be calculated on the basis of the worker’s wage as on the date when the leave became due.” It may also be advised that since the contract terms provide for payment of a paid annual leave or “summer salary” for a period of two months, you may claim the same from your employer. Further, on the issue of flight tickets, the UAE Labour Law mandates that the employer should bear the cost of repatriation of employees only upon termination of the employment contract. However, the provision of air tickets on an annual basis would depend on the employer’s policies. You may therefore check with your employer in this regard.

President Ram Nath Kovind being received by Foreign Minister of Republic of Benin Aurelien Agbenonci on his arrival at Cardinal Bernadin Gantin de Cotonou International Airport, in Cotonou, Benin.

Telecom sector will create three lakh jobsBENGALURU: India’s tele-com sector will create up to three lakh jobs in the next 18 months and a major-ity of these positions will come up in rural areas of the country, Telecom Sec-retary Aruna Sundararajan said. The sector has already created over one lakh jobs since the introduction of the National Digital Communi-cations Policy-2018 (NDCP), she claimed.

Aruna said: “As the investment in the sector starts to increase, jobs are expected to be created at a rapid pace. With roll out of services, including Wi-Fi services, in rural areas gaining momentum, it is estimated that over 50pc of these jobs will be cre-ated in rural India.” The telecom ministry had earlier said that the new frame-work (NDCP) would draw investments worth $100 billion into the country’s telecom industry in five years. “Since then, a total investment of around $16

billion has already been an-nounced by the private sec-tor companies and govern-ment via USOF [Universal Service Obligation Fund],

with a rough split of 65pc and 35pc respectively. This investment is currently in different phases of infusion into the sector,” she said.

On the achievability of the government’s job tar-get in telecom when most other sectors are talking about jobless growth, she said it [jobless growth] was happening in sectors where the physical infra creation requirement was low. “This

has never been the case with telecom sector. Almost 95pc of the investment in the tele-com sector goes into infra-structure creation and jobs creation will be a natural outcome of this investment,” she asserted. The telecom secretary further said, the government was in the final stages of putting together a comprehensive revival pack-age for BSNL and MTNL and post-implementation, these would return to growth and profits.

“These PSUs have had to carry the burden of legacy staff which have signifi-cantly skewed their cost structures. Moreover, the PSUs have had to make do with providing 2G and 3G services whereas the market has moved towards data-ori-ented services like 4G. Also, the onus of connecting the remote, unprofitable parts of the country has been largely fulfilled by PSUs. All this has put significant pressure on the bottom-line of PSUs,” she concluded.

Aruna Sundararajan

NRI property buyers get another safeguardMUMBAI: In a recent move, the National Housing Board (NHB) directed housing finance companies (HFCs) in India to desist from of-fering loans for financing subvention schemes of-fered by developers. Loan disbursements will now have to be strictly linked to construction progress.

While this will doubt-lessly result in an added financial on developers who used subvention schemes, it is actually an important step to safeguard the interest of hundreds of thousands of homebuyers — especially NRIs who were major con-sumers of such schemes. In 2013, Reserve Bank of India had clamped down on banks to stop upfront disbursement to developers for under-con-struction or greenfield proj-ects offering such schemes and required banks to stick to construction-linked dis-bursements. Some popular schemes included 20:80 or 25:75 wherein buyer paid 20pc upfront while builder paid the remaining 80pc to HFCs/banks on behalf of buyer till possession.

The increasing number of delayed projects ulti-mately put buyers in the dock. Since HFCs didn’t fall under the purview of the RBI back then, developers used them as an alterna-tive post RBI’s new ruling. Nevertheless, the regula-tory arbitrage enjoyed by HFCs ended in the recent Union budget when their regulation authority got transferred to RBI.B etter protection

This latest directive is actually very good news for NRIs keen on buying a prop-erty back home in India. To avail tax benefits on prop-erty purchase, many NRIs opt for home loans and have also traditionally been at-tracted by various schemes on offer by builders. These schemes not only relieve the buyers from paying a major upfront amount but also in some sense mitigate the initial financial burden. As long as builders stuck to their project deadlines, the schemes proved to be a win-win for both parties.

However, in case of proj-ect delays — quite rampant

in recent years — many NRIs had to face the brunt. Besides delayed possession of their properties, their credit score also got im-pacted. This caused enough financial and mental stress on the affected home buyers.

Now, the HFCs have been cautioned against funding developers promot-ing subvention schemes. In the first place, this protects them against the dreaded “stuck project” syndrome. It will also further bring in more transparency and discipline within the Indian housing market and NRIs can now hope to deal with only financially strong and ethical developers going forward. The fact that the move gives pertinent focus on project execution is a boon to NRI buyers, since HFCs have been directed to have a “well-defined mechanism” in place to monitor the construction progress of housing projects they grant home loans for.

Given that most NRIs buy a property back in India either in the new-launch stage or during un-

der construction stage, the move will benefit them to a large extent. The progress of projects they invest in via home loans will be moni-tored by the lending HFCs before loan disbursements.

In another positive, only those genuine developers will now come forward to launch projects who will have a clear visibility on their financial closures, implying that fly-by-night developers will now largely vanish. Overall, it can be safely said that the tight-ening of leash by both the apex bank and the govern-ment of India on various facets and functions of Indian real estate will be a catalyst for renewed inter-est by NRI home buyers.

Despite living far away from India, they have now been given one more level of assurance in their Indian property investments. This latest move, along with other reformatory changes brought in over the past few years are making Indian residential real estate more and more viable and reliable as an investment asset class.

Woman enslaved in Kuwait returnsMOHALI: A loaf of bread a day was the price that Soma Devi (name changed) had to pay for weathering physi-cal and mental torture in Kuwait. Soma of Dhariwal in Gurdaspur district was recently rescued from there.

Because of the traumatic experience in Kuwait, she showed no reaction even after seeing her children at the IGI Airport, New Delhi. Accompanied by Secretary, District Legal Services Au-thority (DLSA), Gurdaspur, Rana Kanwardeep Kaur, she was brought to the office of the Punjab State Legal Services Authority (PSLSA) in Mohali. The 45-year-old woman had gone to Kuwait to work as a maid on a sal-ary of Rs 30,000 per month to help her husband and children.

Narrating her tale of woes, she said her agent took her to Dubai where they stayed for 15 days. Later, she was sold to a Sheikh of Kuwait for KD1200 and was told that her job was to take care of the children in the house.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, July 30, 2019

Filing your tax returns made easierThe extension of the

return filing dead-line to Aug 31 this

year gives you time to ex-plore other ways to do it. There are a few choices ranging from a do-it-yourself (DIY) option to approaching a tax return preparer or an online in-termediary, depending on how knowledgeable you are in taxation and financial matters and what kind of services you look for.

If you are Internet savvy and also know a bit about taxation, then a month’s time is good enough to explore the tax department’s e-fil-ing website www.inco-metaxindiaefiling.gov.in and file returns on your own. You just need to register on this portal, obtain a user ID (which is your PAN) and a pass-word to log in and then upload your return. And, the department doesn’t charge you a penny for the process.

If you have your in-come details ready, filing the return is not chal-lenging. The website is quite convenient as it provides access to all the other information you will need, in one place.

A link to access your Form 26AS, which has

details of the tax deducted at source (TDS) and tax col-lected at source (TCS) from your income, links to e-pay self-assessment tax as well as to e-verify the return are available. You can also view your earlier returns, their processing status, out-standing tax demand if any, refund status and ITR V (acknowledgment) receipt status. To make the process less time consuming, some of the number crunching (i.e. tax calculation) is also automated. Also, partly pre-filled returns with details captured from the PAN data-base, e-filing profile, earlier ITRs as well as Form 26AS are available. In the recent Budget, the finance minister promised to further expand the scope of pre-filling.More features

Over the last few years, additional features have been introduced. For in-stance, to increase security, a second-level authentica-tion for your log-in through a feature called the “e-filing vault” is available. Once you enable this, you can choose to log into your e-filing account through op-tions such as net banking and Aadhaar-based OTP, in-stead of just the user ID and password. Service requests such as requesting reissue of refund in case there are any problems in the pro-

cess, etc have been added recently. In case you have any grievances, you can raise it and get it addressed through the e-Nivaran facil-ity in your window.

If tax is not your cup of tea and you’d rather have someone else file your re-turn, you can use the ser-vices of several intermedi-ary websites. These portals

collect all required infor-mation from you, compile them, calculate your tax liability and file the return in the income tax depart-ment’s portal on your be-half. ClearTax, Taxsmile, TaxSpanner, and myITre-turn are examples of such portals.

The good news is that, most of these intermediar-ies offer free e-filing for sim-

ple returns. So, if you have only salary income, you just have to upload your Form 16 on the website of the chosen intermediary and then answer a few que-ries. Taxsmile, for instance, offers free return filing for those with income below Rs 5 lakh. ClearTax promises to file such returns in less than seven minutes. If you

have income from multiple heads, you can go for as-sisted filing, where experts help you navigate your way through.

Depending on the sourc-es of your income, various websites have different fee structures for assisted fil-ing. TaxSpanner, for ex-ample has assisted filing options from Rs 599 to Rs 5,500, based on the nature

of service provided. Also, many websites offer sev-eral value-added services apart from filing return, which you can ben-efit from throughout the year. For instance, expert follow-up assistance to customers is available in case issues such as recti-fication, demand notice, and so on come up after return filing. Most portals offer a chat facility with chartered accountants to clarify your queriesU sing TRP

You can try govern-ment appointed tax re-turn preparers (TRPs) as well. Trpscheme.com will help you locate the TRP closest to you in your state, city and pin code. You can also fill up an online form to re-quest a TRP to visit your place at a scheduled time to help you file your re-turn. For new assessees, the remuneration pay-able to the TRP is three per cent of the tax paid on the returns prepared and filed in the first year (subject to a maximum of Rs 1,000), two per cent in the second year and one per cent in the third year. For old assessees, it is Rs 250. Choosing this option though means that you may not have year–round service, advice or access.

Reliance-Aramco refi nery talks onSaudi Arabia’s Energy

Minister Khalid Al-Fa-lih said state-run Saudi

Aramco’s talks with Reliance Industries to buy a minor-ity stake in the Indian con-glomerate’s refining assets have not stalled. The two companies, Reliance and Ar-amco, are talking with a lot of goodwill, with good inten-tion,” Al-Falih said.

Reliance, controlled by Asia’s richest man Muke-sh Ambani, operates the world’s largest refining complex with the capacity to process 1.4 million bar-rels per day (bpd) of oil at Jamnagar in Gujarat. State-owned Aramco, the world’s biggest oil producer, plans to boost investment in re-fining and petrochemicals to secure new markets for

its crude amid a recent de-mand slowdown. The talks between the companies had hit a roadblock as Reliance

was keen on a higher valua-tion. But Al-Falih, who met Petroleum Minister

Dharmendra Pradhan in New Delhi, said he was “optimistic” that a deal be-tween the two companies

would work out.“We still see daylight.

We will announce the terms when they are concluded,”

he said. Aramco and the UAE’s national oil company ADNOC teamed up with state-run Indian refiners last year in a plan to build a 1.2 million bpd refinery.

But the plan has faced

delays as farmers refused to surrender land, forcing the government of the region of Maharashtra to find a new location. India has invited Saudi Arabia to help build its strategic petroleum reserves, Pradhan tweeted after his meeting with Al-Falih.Prad-han asked the Kingdom to continue to ensure balance in oil markets, and raised con-cerns over disturbances in the Strait of Hormuz affect-ing the movement of crude and gas tankers. Saudi Ara-bia is the second biggest oil supplier to India after Iraq.

Al-Falih said the Kingdom would supply additional oil to India if required. New Delhi suspended purchases of Irani-an oil in May, under pressure from US sanctions against Tehran’s nuclear programme.

P NB H sg Fin raises $ 1 0 0 million from IFCPNB Housing Finance said it has raised $ 100 million (around Rs 690 crore) from International Finance Cor-poration (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, to finance the purchase of affordable housing projects.

“The investment was made under the central bank’s automatic route in the revamped external commercial borrowings (ECB) framework,” PNB Housing Finance Ltd said in a regulatory filing.

PNB Housing Finance Managing Director Sanjaya Gupta said this is the first ECB disbursement during the current financial year under the RBI automatic route. Several other ECB proposals are in the pipeline.

“The RBI has allowed us to borrow ECB up to $ 750 million annually under the automatic route and consid-ering the strong fundamentals and inherent growth of the company, we are hopeful that in the coming months our company will further utilise the facility,” he said.

IFC South Asia Manager Financial Institutions Group Hemalata Mahalingam said: “To support the Indian gov-ernment’s vision of Housing for All by 2022, our country strategy places a strong emphasis on the affordable hous-ing sector.

Our partnership with PNB Housing Finance will help them further expand to smaller towns and cities and reach low-income customers with loans to buy homes and help raise their living standards”.

Biocon Q1 net up 72pc to Rs 206.3cr

Biocon reported a 72.34pc rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 206.3 crore for the quarter ended on June 30, 2019 mainly on account of robust growth

of biologics and small molecules segments. The company had post-ed a net profit of Rs 119.7 crore for the cor-responding period of the previous fiscal, Biocon said.

Consolidated total income of the company stood at Rs 1,490 crore for the quarter under consideration as against Rs 1,192.6 crore for the same period year ago. “Robust performance by our biologics and small molecules busi-ness segments fuelled the 25pc growth in Q1 FY20 rev-enue to Rs 1,490 crore,” said MD Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.

Flex, a global electron-ic component manu-facturer, is expanding

its operations in India by setting up a new manu-facturing facility in Tamil Nadu.

The new unit, located in Walajabad in Kancheep-uram district, was formally inaugurated by Information Technology secretary Ajay Prakash Sawhney, a com-pany press release said.

Commenting on the set-ting up of the unit, senior vice-president (Operations) of Flex Richard Hopkins said, “We are thrilled to celebrate the inauguration of our latest manufacturing facility in India”.

Flex inaugurates new mfg unit in TN

“This further reiterates our continued commit-ment to the government of India’s Make in India vision and entrenches the country’s position as an important manufacturing

base for Flex, he said.The facility spread

across 1.59 lakh square foot would further expand the company’s operations

in the country.Flex Chennai Industrial

Park 3 is part of the compa-ny’s 10 other facilities in the country, totalling one mil-lion square foot, providing world-class manufacturing,

after-market service, the release said.

Flex has around two lakh employ-ees across 30 countries and provides i n n o v a t i v e

design, engineering, manu-facturing, real-time supply chain and logistics services to companies across indus-tries, it added.

Corporation Bank inks pact with Bajaj Allianz

Corporation Bank has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Bajaj Allianz Gener-al Insurance Co Ltd for providing insurance cover

for accidental death to the specified saving bank account holders of the bank under the group personal accident in-

surance policy of the insurer.A press release by the

bank said that Murala Paul Kennedy, General Manager, Corporation Bank, and TA

Ramalingam, Senior President, Bajaj Allianz General In-surance Co Ltd, inked the pact recently. Gopal Murli Bha-gat and Birupaksha Mishra, Executive Directors of Corpo-ration Bank, were present during the signing of the MoU. Corporation Bank has around 12 savings account variants to suit the needs of wide range of customers, it said.

Adani Group will in-vest Rs 5,500 crore over the next five

years in power transmission and food processing sectors in Uttar Pradesh, its chair-man Gautam Adani said.

Speaking on the occa-sion of the second ground breaking ceremony that will see the launch of multiple projects by corporates, Ad-ani said he had announced his investment plans dur-ing UP investors’ summit in February 2018 and the work on two power transmission

Adani plans to invest Rs 5,500cr in UPprojects has already started.

Under the food process-ing segment, rice and flour mills, kachchi ghani refin-ing facility will be set up in the state, he said.

“In the next five years, the group is planning to in-vest Rs 5,000 crore in pow-er transmission and another Rs 500 crore in food pro-cessing sector,” Adani said.

Talking about his plans to focus also on other ar-eas such as data centre and defence, he said that go-ing by the size, population

and strategic location and demographic dividend of the state, Uttar Pradesh can emerge as a leader in these sectors as well.

“...our presence in the defence sector is very im-portant for us. It is my dream that Adani Group sets up world-class defence manufacturing hub in the defence corridor in Uttar Pradesh,” he said.

Saying that his group has set up units having the capacity of 15,000 metric tonne in Kannauj for im-

proving the foodgrain stor-age capacity in the state, he said it was already working on developing multi modal river terminal in Varanasi for enhancing the waterways.

Underlining that the development story of the country is incomplete without Uttar Pradesh, Ad-ani said the state is being viewed as the fastest chang-ing and it will play an im-portant role in reaching the target set up by Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi of $ 5 trillion economy by 2024.

ICICI bank posts net profi t of Rs 1,908cr

Private lender ICICI Bank posted a net profit of Rs 1,908 crore

in the quarter ended June 30, 2019, compared to a net loss of Rs 120 crore a year ago, led by improvement in its core operating profit and reduction in credit cost. The bank said its net Non-Performing Assets (NPA) have declined by 51pc to Rs 11,857 crore.

The net NPA ratio of 1.77pc in June quarter is the lowest in 14 quarters, said Sandeep Batra, execu-tive director (designate), ICICI Bank. Though there is a slowdown in retail loans and higher additions to NPA from retail side during Q1, Batra said, the bank is continuously assessing the risk filters. “Credit quality for retail book is holding up. We do expect credit cost to be stable,” he said.

The bank’s domestic ad-vances rose 18pc, with re-tail loan portfolio clocking 22pc growth. Domestic cor-porate loans saw 13pc rise on year and total advances rose 15pc to Rs 592,415 crore.

Cisco partners Google for public WiFi in BengaluruAt the inaugural session of the Cisco India summit,

Cisco announced its plans to roll out free high-speed Wi-Fi zones across India with gStation.

Cisco will work with Google’s gStation platform to pro-vide communities around the country access to free, open, high-quality public Wi-Fi. The pilot project has been launched in 25 locations in Bengaluru including locations such as Jayanagar Bus Stand, Udipi Garden among oth-ers. The project is being conducted in collaboration with a local ISP. The company said that by September this year, 200 locations across Bengaluru will be Wi-Fi enabled, followed by another 300 in the second phase. Talking about the project, Sameer Garde, President, Cisco India & SAARC said, “Moving to high-speed internet access will increase user engagement and benefit millions of users.

The success of digitisation and digital citizen services is also closely tied to the proliferation of high-speed inter-net. The demand for public Wi-Fi hotspots is expected to go up by 100X over the next 3 years, creating new markets for Cisco and our partners.” Google had tied up with Rail Tel to offer free Wifi in select railway stations about three years ago and is also in a partnership with BSNL.

Sajith Sivanandan, Managing Director and Business Head, Google Pay and Next Billion User Initiatives, India said, “Solving for access is one of the core pillars of our Next Billion Users strat-egy, and with gStation we have developed a best in class public WiFi solution that provides a high-quality broadband experience to users. The results from gStation’s railway station rollout have been hugely encouraging, and we’re delighted to join hands with Cisco to broaden gStation’s coverage in Bengaluru.

Flipkart announces fi rst offl ine presence in B ’luru

Flipkart announced its foray into the offline space with its decision to set up first Furniture market, the e-commerce major said in a statement. According to the company,

this is a step towards helping customers understand the vast selection of furniture offered by Flipkart and increase aware-ness around the seamless buying and installation experience it offers. Flipkart Vice-President (Furniture, Electronics and Private Label) Aarush Menon said, “As a customer-focused or-ganisation, we understand the requirements of customers and hence ‘FurniSure’. The idea behind the FurniSure Experience Zone is to allow customers to explore Flipkart Furniture’s of-ferings in a new and innovative fashion.”

Flipkart is also working with Google to enhance cus-tomers’ overall viewing experience at these FurniSure Ex-perience Centres through integration with Google Lens.

8 Travel / Entertainment

Printed Su reet MJ and u is ed im on e a o IPEPCIL Pu ications P t Ltd. and rinted at In ui a O set Printers Ltd.,1 , D J Dada i Road, Tardeo, Mum ai 400 034, Ma aras tra and u is ed rom O ce No. 1001, 10t oor, Na i an Commercia Premises Co o . Societ Ltd., Lamin ton Road, Dr.D.B.Mar , Mum ai Centra , Mum ai 400 008. • Editor: E.L. Vaid anat an • Vo ume No.: 1, Issue No. 84 • RNI No. MA ENG 2018 3.

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EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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As on 29th July, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 46.05 49.05Bahraini Dinar 178.15 188.15 British Pound 83.50 86.50Canadian Dollar 50.75 53.75Emirati Dirham 18.25 19.25 Euro 75.10 78.10 Kuwaiti Dinar 221.20 231.20Omani Rial 174.10 184.10Qatari Riyal 18.40 19.40Saudi Riyal 17.85 18.85Singapore Dollar 48.70 51.70 Swiss Franc 67.90 70.90US Dollar 67.60 70.10

Source:

Haj pilgrims arrive at Prince Mohammed bin Abdul Aziz International Airport in Madinah, Saudi Arabia.

Show casing India at Dubai W orld Expo 2020

Union Rail and Com-merce Minister Piy-ush Goyal has re-

viewed the preparations underway for the construc-tion of the India Pavilion at the Dubai World Expo 2020.

The minister held a meet-ing in New Delhi with of-ficials of the Department of Commerce, FICCI, National Buildings Construction Cor-poration (NBCC) and other stakeholders with regards to the Expo, which will be held for six months beginning Oct 20, 2020 till April 10, 2021. More than 25 million visitors are expected for the Expo with 180 countries be-ing represented at the event.

As many as 27 focus sec-tors have been identified to showcase India’s advances in space, pharma, IT, renew-able energy and telecom sec-tors and also India’s strength in innovation and start-ups. The theme of the Expo is “Connecting Minds, Creating the Future” with three sub themes – Opportunity, Mo-bility and Sustainability. The

India pavilion is being con-structed in the “Opportunity”

segment and will embody India’s worship of nature and

will be environment-friendly. It will also showcase the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

NBCC bagged the Rs 400 crore project to build the pavilion at Dubai World Expo 2020. The pavilion will have stalls displaying Indian handlooms, showcasing In-dia’s entertainment industry, the hospitality and tourism sector, India’s gem and jew-ellery sector, AYUSH and medical tourism and India’s tea, coffee and spices sec-tors. Indian businesses and state governments will also put up stalls in the pavil-ion. There will also be live performances, events and film shows to display India’s cultural diversity.

Piyush Goyal said that although the Expo ends after six months, the India pavil-ion must continue to func-tion as a showcase in Dubai which is visited by 17 million tourists in a year and India must explore all avenues to make the best use of the India pavilion, permanently.

Kozhikode airport to be privatisedKozhikode airport is likely to be

privatized as part of the govern-ment’s airport-privatising spree.

As the procedures for privatising six air-ports is in the last phase, the government is mulling over to put in the list 10 more including Kozhikode (Calicut) airport.

The international airports in the list are Kozhikodre(Kerala), Thiruchi-rappalli, Coimbatore( Tamil Nadu), Varanasi (UP), Amritsar, ( Punjab), Bhu-baneswar (Odisha) while, domestic ones in the list are Raipur (Chhattisgarh) and (Jharkhand). Others to join the list are Patna( Bihar) and Indoor( MP).

The key Infrastructure Development (KID), formed under airport author-ity of India, has started procedure for privatisation. A meeting had been held in connection with this the other day. Airports are likely to be leased out for a particular period of time. The new move comes at the last phase of privatisation of airports like Thiruvanthanapuram, Lucknow, Guwahati ,Jaipur, Mangalore and Ahmedabad.

Kerala government has raised stiff re-sistance against privatising Thiruvanan-thapuram airport. There are 125 airports functioning under Airport Authority of India, and seven of them are on private-public partnership. Privatisation of airport was first initiated in2006 during UPA government with privatising Delhi and Mumbai airports.

AirAsia India on route expansion spree

AirAsia India is on an expansion spree. The budget carrier will start operating daily direct flight on the Delhi-Chandigarh

route from Aug 1 onwards. The launch fare on Delhi-Chandigarh route is Rs 1,365, the airline said. The flight would leave from Delhi at 10.40 am every day and would reach Chandigarh at 11.50 am. The return flight would depart from Chandigarh everyday at 12.50 pm and arrive at the Delhi airport at 1.55 pm, the low-cost carrier said.

The tickets can be booked through airasia.com or the AirAsia mobile app. The airline will also be introducing fourth additional flight on the New Delhi-Bengaluru route from Aug 5 on-wards. The airline currently runs three flights daily on the New Delhi-Bengaluru route. As part of expansion plans, AirAsia India is likely to launch international services by Sept-Oct with flights to destinations in South East Asia, including Malaysia and Thailand. Air Asia In-dia, which started operations in June 2014, is a joint venture between Tata and AirAsia Berhad. It currently operates 164 flights a day, covering 19 destinations and carrying over 25,000 pas-sengers. GoAir is also expanding its operations with five new international services to the Gulf region, two to Bangkok and eight new domestic services. GoAir’s new international services are Delhi-Abu Dhabi, Mumbai-Abu Dhabi, Mum-bai-Muscat, Delhi-Bangkok, Kannur-Dubai, Mumbai-Bangkok and Kannur-Kuwait routes.

GoAir is expanding its India operations from Hyderabad with eight new flights covering cities like Kochi, Chennai, Jaipur, Bengaluru, Chandigarh and Patna.

The commute between Dubai and Sharjah has now become a

smooth sail – literally as Dubai’s Roads and Trans-port Author i ty (RTA) launched a daily ferry ser-vice between Al Ghubaiba Marine Station in Dubai and Aquarium Marine Sta-tion in Sharjah.

The first marine transit service operated between Dubai and any other emir-ate, the ferry launch has a capacity to serve 1.3 million riders per year and is sub-ject to increase if needed.

The service comes at an affordable fare of Dh15 in Silver Class and Dh25 in Gold Class, with the jour-ney being free for people of determination and children below five. Free WiFi con-nection will also be pro-vided for riders. The transit

Dubai-Sharjah ferry launchedtime between Al Ghubaiba and Aquarium stations is about 35 minutes, and the service frequency every 30 minutes during morning peak hours (5am to 9 am) and evening peak hours (4 pm to 8.30 pm) from Satur-day to Sunday. The service interval will be one-and-a-half hours during off-peak times. The first journey will depart from Dubai at 5.15 am and the last journey will leave at 8pm. From Sharjah, the first journey will be at 5am and the last one will depart at 7.30 pm.

Mattar Al Tayer, direc-tor-general and chairman of the Board of Executive Directors of RTA, said: “The new marine transit line boosts co-operation be-tween Dubai and Sharjah by offering more mobility options between the two

emirates. It will ease the pressure on roads through offering a safe and quick marine transport solution. “The ferry will be operat-ing 42 journeys (21 in each direction) daily. Commuters are offered free parking as well as internal bus service at Sharjah Aquarium Ma-rine Station.

“The two stations have been carefully selected for specific considerations. Al Ghubaiba is the key marine transit station in Dubai and is connected with Dubai Creek, Dubai Marina and the Water Canal. It is also integrated with Metro and bus stations and has a taxi service as well.

“Sharjah Aquarium Ma-rine Station was selected as it will reduce the transit time, has abundant parking space and is shaping into

a tourist and residential hotspot. So the service is anticipated to attract all community segments.” He said RTA has nine ferries operating in eight stations, namely Al Ghubaiba, Al Marina Mall, Al Jadaf, Wa-ter Canal, Sheikh Zayed Road, Water Front, Marasi and Dubai Design District. The ferry boasts of high safety standards, experi-enced crew, rescue and firefighting equipment and anti-maritime pollution.

“It is fitted with five life-rafts, has a capacity to ac-commodate 125 riders, 110 life jackets and six safety life-buoys. The cockpit is fitted with navigation tools such as marine radar, sea depth measuring instru-ment, electronic maps, and tracking devices as required by international.

Last Thursday busiest day for air travel

More than 2.3 lakh flights took to the world’s skies on Thursday, more than ever recorded in a single day, according to flight-tracking service

Flightradar24. Flightradar24, a real-time air traffic-track-ing service, said that on Wednesday it tracked 2.25 lakh flights, the most it had at that point ever followed in a single day since it began monitoring air traffic in 2006, according to a tweet on its official account. It then tracked 2.3 lakh flights on Thursday, beating the previous day’s record and predicted that Friday would be “even busier”.

The animated image captured in the service’s tweet on Thursday shows the incredibly crowded airspace over Europe and North America.

The figures represent freighters and passenger flights including helicopters and private jets. The tracking coverage excludes some sensitive air traffic, such as military flights. The record-breaking travel day came during the peak summer travel season, with June to August being some of the busiest periods for air travel when airlines can maximise their profits. It’s likely that the record will be broken at least a few more times this year, Business Insider reported, citing Ian Petchenik, a Flightradar24 spokesman.

The number of people travelling by plane each year is expected to more than double to 7.3 billion by 2034, according to the International Air Transport Association.

After rapidly expand-ing its presence in Asia, Europe and the

MidEast, India’s largest air passenger carrier IndiGo plans to add destinations such as Hanoi and Chengdu to its flight schedule from Sept quarter onwards.

IndiGo’s Chief Commer-cial Officer William Boulter

IndiGo plans to enter Vietnam, expand in Chinadaid that the airline has re-ceived clearances from the Vietnamese authorities to commence operations from India to Hanoi. The airline will soon “be putting the flight out for sale”. Besides Hanoi, the airline plans to operate flights to Ho Chi Min City. The airline is also reviewing its strategy for Europe whilst

making “full use” of its Turk-ish Airline code-share agree-ment which allows passen-gers to fly through Istanbul on a “6E code”.

The agreement between the two airlines allow for a seamless travel experience for passengers through an extended global network. In 2019, IndiGo entered into its first code-share agreement with Turkish Airlines, which provides passengers with extended connectivity to 12 destinations in Europe. At present, the airline is rapidly expanding its international presence, it will deploy ca-pacity to Chengdu in China, Singapore, Bangkok and Yangon. IndiGo will operate daily non-stop flights be-tween Delhi-Chengdu-Delhi effective Sept 15, 2019.

In the MidEast sector, the

airline has expanded ser-vices to Jeddah, Dubai and Kuwait. “Of our total expan-sion this year, roughly 50pc will be on international op-erations,” Boulter said. The airline currently offers 18 in-ternational destinations out of which 11 were announced in 2018-19. In addition to destinations, the airline has been growing its fleet size as well, by adding at least one aircraft every week. IndiGo has a fleet of over 230 aircraft including A320ceos, A320n-eos, A321neo and ATRs. The airline has already deployed its new acquired A321 air-craft on various international sectors.

The aircraft has an en-durance ranging from six-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half hours. Apart from international operations,

IndiGo recently expanded its domestic operations new routes under the Regional Connectivity Scheme (RCS) which are serviced via ATR aircraft. On the financial front, India’s biggest airline by market share recently posted its highest ever quar-terly net profit at Rs 1,203 crore for the first quarter of 2019-20. The company’s profit grew to Rs 1,203.1 crore from Rs 27.8 crore in the year-ago quarter. IndiGo has a market share of almost 50pc in India. At present, the airline offers around 1,400 daily flights and con-nects 56 domestic destina-tions and 18 international destinations.

Goyal in Japan for bullet train project

Railway Minister Piyush Goyal met Hiroto Izumi, Special Advisor to Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and discussed the progress on the 508 km Mumbai-

Ahmedabad high-speed rail (HSR) project. The rail minister apprised the Japanase PM’s advisor about the progress in the project. The National High-Speed Rail Corp Ltd (NHSRCL), carrying out the project (commonly known as bullet train project) is hopeful of acquiring a major chunk of land re-quired by the end of this year. The NHSRCL had acquired 39pc of the 1,380 hectares of land till last month. The bul-let trains are expected to run at 320 km per hour, covering the 508-km stretch in about two hours. Trains plying on the route take over seven hours and planes about an hour. Prime Ministers Modi and Premier Shinzo Abe of Japan on Sept14, 2017 laid the foundation stone for the Rs 1.08 lakh crore ($17 billion) HSR project.