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EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATESAs on 8th November, 2018 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 51.45 53.95Bahraini Dinar 187.50 197.50British Pound 93.35 96.35Canadian Dollar 53.95 56.45Emirati Dirham 19.20 20.75Euro 81.40 83.90Kuwaiti Dinar 233.00 243.00Omani Rial 183.25 193.30Qatari Riyal 19.35 20.45Saudi Arabian Riyal 18.80 19.80Singapore Dollar 51.50 54.00Swiss Franc 71.15 73.25US Dollar 71.40 73.45Rates are subect to change without notice. Errors &omissions excepted

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Increase in number of held up H-1B visasWASHINGTON: Claim-ing that there has been a “dramatic increase” in the number of H-1B visas be-ing held up, a coalition of American employers rep-resenting top IT compa-nies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft has alleged that the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is acting outside of its own regulations.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in speciality occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. The technology companies de-pend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

“We have observed three changes in H-1B ad-judication practices under the current administra-tion that seem to perme-ate most of the increased

H-1B adjudication inconsis-tencies experienced by em-ployers,” Compete America said in a letter to the Secre-tary of Homeland Security Kirstjen Nielsen and Francis Cissna Director, USCIS. Ex-pressing concerns over legal issues regarding the recent changes in adjudication stan-dards for H-1B non-immi-grant visa petitions at USCIS, the coalition — Compete America — said the agency’s current approach to H-1B adjudications cannot be an-ticipated by either the statu-tory or regulatory text. This leaves employers with a dis-ruptive lack of clarity about the agency’s practices, proce-dures and policies. This lack of certainty and consistency wreaks havoc among the na-tion’s employers which are hiring high-skilled Ameri-cans and foreign-born profes-sionals, it said in the letter dated Nov 1.Compete America alleged that the agency appears to

be acting “outside of its own regulations and the control-ling statute” by requiring pe-titioners to comply with the agency’s current view that a comparatively entry-level job and corresponding wage lev-el, cannot be a specialty oc-

cupation. The specific field of study requirement for a specialty occupation means the job must necessitate com-pletion of a single major or qualifying degree and the re-quirement for an occupation to usually carry a degree pre-

From Nov 18, tourists toget VAT refund in UAEDUBAI: Tourists will be able to claim back Value Added Tax (VAT) on any purchases they make in the UAE from Nov 18. The Federal Tax Authority (FTA) said that the Tax Refund for Tourists Scheme would go into effect next month, allowing eligible tourists to request refunds of the five per cent VAT in-curred on their purchases.

The first phase will see the digital system of the Tax Refund for Tourists Scheme implemented at Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah Interna-tional Airports, a statement from the FTA said. As of mid-December, the system will be fully operational to include all airports and land and seaports in the UAE as stipulated in the cabinet de-

cision. The government says the move aims to strengthen the UAE’s position as a major global tourism destination.

The FTA explained that tax invoices issued starting from Nov 18, 2018, will quali-fy tourists who are eligible for a tax refund to reclaim taxes incurred on their purchases. FTA Director-General Khalid Ali Al Bustani said that more than 4,000 retail outlets across the UAE would be connected electronically to the system, clarifying that only the in-voices issued by retail outlets registered in the scheme and connected to the system are eligible for a refund. These eligible outlets can be identi-fied with posters displayed on their storefronts and visible to visitors, he said.

President Trump thinks that there is need to carry on reforms in H-1B visa to keep more talented graduates in US and not just outsourcing jobs.

requisite means a degree must always be needed. In its letter, Compete America said that its members have reported dramatic increas-es in the issuance of Re-quests for Evidence (RFEs)

(Contd. on page 2)

More airports to go under PPP modeNEW DELHI: The Union cabinet has given an “in principle” approval for operating, managing and developing six non-metro airports at — Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangaluru — under a Pub-lic Private Partnership (PPP) mode.

The cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has given “…in-prin-ciple approval for leasing out six airports of Airport Authority of India (AAI)…for operation, management and development under PPP,” the government said in a statement.

Presently, airports at Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kochi are managed under the PPP model. The PPP mode has helped create world-class airports, while also help-ing the AAI increase its revenues, IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told re-

porters. This will be done through the Public Private Partnership Appraisal Com-mittee (PPPAC).

Additionally, a commit-tee headed by NITI Aayog CEO with the Aviation Sec-retary, Economic Affairs Secretary and Expenditure Secretary as its members, has been set up to decide on any issue falling beyond the scope of the PPPAC.

UAE holiday on Nov 18ABU DHABI: The Ministries and Federal Authorities in the UAE will get a holiday on Sunday (Nov 18) instead of Tuesday (Nov 20) on the oc-casion of Prophet’s Birthday. Work will resume on Mon-day (Nov 19), announced UAE cabinet. The birthday of Prophet Mohammad is celebrated on the 12th day of Rabi Al Awwal. In Arabic, the holiday is referred to as Eid Al Mawlid an Nabawi.

Call for post-study visa to woo IndiansLONDON: A UK parliamentary group has launched a new report into the country’s position as an attractive higher education des-tination and revived calls for a post-study work visa as part of its many recommendations to stem the drop in Indian students choosing British universities over the past eight years.

The All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for International Students concludes in its report titled “A Sustainable Future for International Students in the UK” that an “ambitious and posi-tive plan” is urgently required to drive sustainable growth in Brit-ain’s seventh-largest export mar-

ket and reverse the decline in student enrolments from growth countries like India.

“The withdrawal of the PSW [post-study work] visa was at-tributed with a decline in in-ternational student recruitment in the UK from key markets, notably India. Between 2010-11 and 2016-17, the number of higher education students from India more than halved,” the report notes, quoting the coun-try’s Higher Education Statis-tics Agency (HESA) data. It also takes note of India’s exemption from a recently expanded list of nationalities considered as low-risk for the purpose of simplified

student visa applications.“The categorisation of nation-

alities as low or high-risk creates a perception of an unwelcoming environment in the UK for inter-national students. Evidence to this Inquiry has shown how strongly this was recently felt in India,” ac-cording to the report, which rec-ommends that any risk assessment should be based on individual cir-cumstances rather than nationality.

The APPG’s new report makes 12 recommendations which it says, taken together, will restore the UK’s competitiveness in the international education sector, following eight years of relative decline. Besides an “attractive”

post-study programme, which allows students up to two years of work experience in the UK af-ter completing their degree, the group highlights that immigra-tion rules should facilitate and encourage students to study in the country at multiple levels. It also calls on the government to accurately track data on edu-cation as an export and as an economic value and conduct a review of so-called credibility in-terviews within the student im-migration system to ensure the system is fit for purpose.

“Even Canada attracts more students from India than the UK does. I strongly commend the

recommendations included in this report as a way to put this right,” said Indian-origin peer Lord Karan Bilimoria, Co-Chair of the APPG on International Students. “Britain is losing in the battle to attract talented and committed international stu-dents from around the world. Eight years of prioritising an impossible target using mislead-ing statistics, over our economy and world-leading institutions has left the UK’s position as the second largest destination for in-ternational students in jeopardy. It’s time for us to move on and target growth in the number of international students,” he said.

Access to 163 countries without prior visa UAE passport ranked third most powerfulDUBAI: The UAE passport has jumped one position up to become the third most powerful passport in the world. The UAE passport was ranked at number four in just less than a month ago in Oc-tober this year.

According to the updated ranking on Passport Index, the UAE passport was ranked as the third best travel docu-ment, Dubai Media informed. The latest update of the Pass-port Index showed that Emir-ati citizens can now fly to 163 countries without securing a visa prior to departure, fur-ther strengthening the UAE’s

position in the world’s top 10 strongest passports. “UAE’s passport ranks third globally in the Global Passport Power Rank by Passport Index. UAE passport holders can travel to 163 countries visa-free,” Dubai Media Office said

Overall, Singapore and Germany remain the most powerful passports in the world as of Nov 8 with their citizens able to travel to 165 countries visa-free.

The index ranks countries around the world according to the number of destinations their citizens can travel to visa-free. It was only last July

9 this year when the UAE en-tered the top 10 rankings and in Sept 13, it moved higher to secure the ninth position. In 2017, the UAE announced an ambitious goal of becom-

ing one of the five most pow-erful passports in the world by 2021. Back then, the UAE passport provided Emiratis visa-free or visa-on-arrival benefits in 132 countries.

Crude downLONDON: Crude prices have plunged over the last five weeks, buffeted by October’s broader market slump, signs of deteriorating demand and rising output from key producers. Oil enters bear market territory after rapid one-month decline at $71 per barrel. Oil enters bear market territory after rapid one-month decline. WTI, US crude index, fell more than 20pc from its four-year high last month, putting the con-tract in bear market territory. US oil output is predicted to break through 12 million bar-rels per day by mid-2019.

China’s October crude im-ports hit a record 9.61 million barrels per day. US oil prices dropped for a ninth consecu-tive session, falling into a bear market, on further signs of growing supply even as data showed record Chinese oil imports.

Egypt’s tourist industry partly recoversCAIRO: Tourism is critical to Egypt’s economy, accounting for 20pc of output. The num-ber of tourists to Egypt soared 40pc in the first nine months of 2018 from a year earlier, recovering from a slump that began with the Arab Spring and continued as unrest per-sisted, the tourism minister said. “We expect that by the end of 2018 we will not be at the levels that we’ve seen in 2010, but we are approaching that,” Rania Al-Mashat told

a TV channel. “The rebound is quite steep and we’re try-ing to put the industry on a competitive base compared to our peers.” Egyptian gov-ernment plans to announce a new private equity fund to upgrade its hotels as well as new investment opportuni-ties on islands in the Red Sea.

The annual number of visitors began plummeting from a 2010 peak of more than 14 million following the popular uprising that de-

posed longtime ruler Hosni Mubarak the following year. Another revolt that ousted

Mubarak’s Islamist succes-sor in 2013 and frequent militant attacks including the 2015 bombing of a Rus-sian jetliner that killed all

224 on board have further depressed the industry. The death of two British tour-ists at a Red Sea resort this year added health-related concerns. Some eight mil-lion tourists visited Egypt last year.

Al-Mashat added: “The government is trying to di-versify tourist base, targeting travellers from Asia and Lat-in America. The $1 billion Grand Egyptian Museum, with more than 10,000 ar-

Modi to open Varanasi Ganga terminalVARANASI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will inaugu-rate a multi-modal terminal on River Ganga in Varanasi on Monday. Modi will also receive the first consignment of containers moving on the Ganga from Kolkata to Vara-nasi as India revives its in-land waterways for freight movement.

The multi-modal termi-nal in Varanasi is the first of three such terminals being constructed on River Ganga. Started in June 2016, the ter-

minal is built on an area of 33.34 hectares and costs Rs 206.84 crore. The total ca-

pacity of the terminal is 1.26 MPTA.

A total of three terminals and two Inter-modal termi-nals are being constructed on

the river as part of the central government’s Jal Marg Vikas project. The Rs 5,369-crore

project aims to pro-mote inland water-ways for cheaper and environment-friendly conveyance, espe-cially for the trans-portation of cargos. It thus plans to develop

the stretch of Ganga between Varanasi and Haldia for navi-gation of large vessels of up to 1,500-2,000 tonnes by setting up of required systems there.

2 EMIGRATION Friday, November 09, 2018

Published by IPEPCIL Publications LtdTitle Code: MAHENG14443Registered with the RNI No.:

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LIPSYNCH “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.”

— Walt Disney.

UAE shows the wayLike in the case of India, the UAE’s ranking in the Doing

Business 2019 report, an objective measure of business regulations and their enforcement put out annually by

World Bank, speaks volumes about the efforts of the govern-ment and its business community to make the country march ahead. The UAE ranked 11th, ahead of some of the world’s largest economies. Among the members of Group of Seven (G7) — a grouping of the largest and most advanced econo-mies of the world — only the US and UK have a higher rank-ing. The report judges 190 economies based on 10 categories, with the UAE placed in the Top 10 among half of these. In India’s case, it was placed 77 in World Bank’s global ease of doing business ranking and amounts to a commendable 65 rank leap since 2014. Of the 10 metrics tracked for this rank-ing, India improved on six this year.

This comes close on the heels of last month’s announce-ment that the UAE had been ranked 27th in the World Eco-nomic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report 2018 and a June announcement that the UAE ranked 17th in global digi-tal competitiveness. This hat trick shows that the policies and efforts introduced by the government are coming to fruition. The UAE’s success is even more apparent compared with the rest of the MidEast. Morocco, which ranked second behind the UAE in the MENA region, was globally ranked 60th.

But instead of basking in the past glory, the UAE must continue to push ahead with reforms that open itself up to global businesses and invest-ments, since — considering the rise in global protection-ism — every other country with a serious aspiration to boost its economy is currently seeking to do the same. The same report that shows the UAE’s strengths also highlights what areas it needs to work on. While the UAE did not score on the ease of businesses’ access to credit, a major complaint among small and medium enterprises, those issues are already being addressed by Al Etihad Credit Bureau, which began operat-ing almost two years ago. Similarly, the UAE’s Bankruptcy Law will address the report’s concerns regarding dealing with insolvencies. But there remain a few areas that still require at-tention, including the UAE’s 98th rank in the “Trading Across Borders” category, which noted the high cost of compliance. Considering the ongoing global trade war, these issues should be addressed immediately. But overall, the numbers are clear. The government’s commitment to building a global economy is being recognised and active policies are in place to ensure that its open economy continues to perform at a higher level than even some of the world’s best.

Against a backdrop of an escalating trade war between the US and China, it is countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines that seem to be walking away with the trade di-version gain. Since modern trade is built upon the exchange of intermediate goods across international supply chains, protecting one industry via import tariffs tends to damage others, increasing cost if not difficulty of doing business.

Editorial

Great grandmother (106-year-old) gets US citizenship

Great grandmother Maria Valles Bonilla (106).

WASHINGTON: A 106-year-old great-grandmother born in El Salvador became an American citizen as the US held bitterly contested mid-term elections in which Central American immigra-tion was a hot button issue.

Maria Valles Bonilla waved a small American flag at a ceremony in Washing-ton, her hand on her heart as she pledged allegiance to the United States surrounded by family, including her great grandchildren.

She was interviewed be-forehand by US Citizenship and Immigration Services agents, who determined that she met all the necessary conditions to be naturalised as an Ameri-can citizen, a spokesman said. During her interview, Valles Bonilla said her late husband had harbored the dream of be-coming American and so she filled out the

paperwork and completed the process in his honour.

President Trump has led a virulent campaign targeting illegal immigration, focusing on thousands of migrants mak-ing their way on foot toward the US in the hopes of obtaining asylum.

UAE gold prices zoom after US pollsDUBAI: Gold jewellery pric-es in the UAE went up and are forecast to rally further as the bullion has recently gained support on the back of a softer greenback and investors di-gest results of the US elec-tions.

The price of 24-karat gold jumped to Dh149 per gm, up by Dh1.50 per gm from the be-ginning of the month. This could spell bad news for UAE consumers who are making last-minute pur-chases for Diwali. Other analysts also suggest that 24K could go up further and breach the Dh150-mark, hit-ting Dh151.70 per gram next week.

With the latest round

of increase, today’s jewel-lery buyers in the UAE will now be spending Dh18 more on a 12-gm necklace. And should gold gain more

shine next week, jewel-lery fans will be spending nearly Dh50 more on a 12-gm piece. Retail rates for 22K, 21K and 18K also got costlier by the same mar-gin, according to the prices provided by the Dubai Gold and Jewellery Group, an as-sociation of gold retailers in the emirate. Spot gold went up by 0.3pc to $1,230.26 an ounce.

US mid-term elections No impact on ties with IndiaWASHINGTON: The Demo-crats regaining control of the US House of Represen-tatives in the mid-term elec-tions is unlikely to impact Indo-US relations, simply because the American sys-tem gives the president ex-tensive leeway on foreign policy issues. So while the Democrats in the House now might have the power to call for more hearings on issues like Russian interference in the US elections and Presi-dent Trump’s tax returns, it

may not be able to do much on issues vexing the Indo-US relations at the moment.

While the strategic rela-tionship between the two nations has grown dramati-cally, with the US becoming India’s second-largest weap-ons supplier and the coun-try with which India has the largest number of an-nual bilateral military exer-cises, Trump’s transactional nature has linked it with other issues like trade and immigration. These include

tariffs imposed on Indian exports to the US, like steel, sanctions on Russia and Iran which directly impact India’s purchase of weapons and oil from these nations.

After noting “the major bipartisan support we enjoy in the US,” an Indian official said that “we are working out ways to resolve these is-sues.” However, he admitted that “ the Democrats win-ning Congress will not in-fluence this all that much, because these are handled

by the executive branch, or the Senate, where Trump is still King.”

“On the strategic side, most key issues are rele-gated to cabinet secretaries -- of commerce or state, for example,” Dhruva Jaishan-kar, Foreign Policy Fellow at Brookings India, told NPR. “Even if the Democrats take control of one or both hous-es of Congress and you have an embattled president, it might not make a difference for India.”

Visa reforms include disclosureof companies’ H-1B employeesWASHINGTON: As part of its overhaul of the H-1B visa programme, the Trump administration has issued a directive under which the US Department of Labour will require all companies hiring skilled foreign pro-fessionals —the majority of them from India — to dis-close how many they em-ploy. The move is one of a number of initiatives which the administration says will remake the H-1B visa pro-gramme into a skills- and merit-based legal immigra-tion system.

“The president has laid this out: we need legal immi-gration. We need skills-based, merit-based immigration. Those are just a few of the issues,” said Larry Kudlow, chief economic adviser to President Donald Trump, in a recent interaction with re-

porters. He said if that could be achieved with the admin-istration and the Congress working in tandem, “that would be terrific, (but) we can’t seem to get it through Congress. But skills-based, and merit-based and not a family chain-based, I think they will be very useful.”

Kudlow said the merit and skills-based requirement “is going to be a very signifi-cant change. We should’ve done it years ago. The presi-dent is absolutely right. H-1Bs and lots of other clas-sifications of visas, we are looking at all of that stuff.”

The White House has vowed to work with con-gressional leadership to wean the programme off what it describes as rampant fraud and abuse many of the outsourcing companies that now provide the bulk of

these workers to leading IT firms as well as medium and small sized US businesses.

But analysts said that by the Labour Department introducing the require-ment to disclose the total number of foreigners in the workplace, it could amount to becoming “a dog-whis-tle” under which employ-ers would be targeted for “heavy-duty vetting” if it were found that they em-ployed more foreigners than American workers. Analysts also raised the possibility there would be questions about petitions employers may have filed on behalf of these H-1B workers for their green cards. The Labour De-partment has the authority to either accept or deny the filed by companies as a pre-requisite to employ an H-1B applicant.

Increase in number of held up...(Contd. from page 1)and denials regarding H-1B petitions for the last 18 months.

More recently they are experiencing a sharp increase in the issuance of Notices of Intent to Deny (NOIDs) and No-tices of Intent to Revoke (NOIRs) concerning H-1B petitions. “These reported shifts in agency action have been perplexing to our coalition’s members, especially because the agency’s changes in approach were unannounced and unexplained and are not previewed in the regulations governing a qualify-ing H-1B specialty occupation that have been in effect since 1991,” it said. According to Compete America, USCIS has been denying H-1B petitions exclusively because an entry-level wage is applicable for the specific position, even though the occupation itself is clearly a specialty occupation.

“Nothing in the statute or regulations contemplates or suggests, much less states, that USCIS could ever take the position that it per se excludes or disfavours entry-level jobs in an occupation, or young professionals working in jobs in an occupation, as qualifying for H-1B specialty occupation approval,” it asserted. Further, employers have reported re-peated instances of USCIS denying an H-1B petition on the basis that the degree held by the sponsored foreign profes-sional is not within a single field of acceptable study for an occupation. Employers are also reporting repeated instances of USCIS denying H-1B petitions for occupations that may have some limited instances of jobs where a bachelor’s de-gree or higher is not required, even when those occupations normally do require that level of education for the majority of roles, as contemplated by the statute, Compete America said.

Saudi King launches $4.3b-worth projectsRIYADH: Coinciding with his unprecedented domestic tour of Saudi Arabia, King Salman launched over 600 projects worth over $4.3 billion on Wednesday, the second day of his visit. While in the cen-tral province of Qassim, the 82-year-old monarch said 402 projects worth $3.2billion will cover 12 sectors includ-ing education, housing, road, environment, water, electric-ity and public services while another 199 projects cost-ing $1.1billion were laid on Thursday.The king was joined by Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman, deputy premier and minister of defence.

WASHINGTON: The United States has exempted India from the imposition of cer-tain sanctions for the devel-opment of the strategically-located Chabahar port in Iran, along with the construc-tion of the railway line con-necting it with Afghanistan.

The decision by the Trump administration, which a day earlier imposed the toughest ever sanctions on Iran and is very restric-tive in giving exemptions, is a seen as a recognition by Washington of India’s role in development of the port on the Gulf of Oman, which is of immense strategic impor-tance for the development of war-torn Afghanistan.

“After extensive consider-ation, the Secretary of State has provided for an excep-tion from imposition of cer-tain sanctions under the Iran Freedom and Counter-Pro-

India exempted from US sanctions on Iranliferation Act of 2012, with respect to the development of Chabahar port, construc-tion of an associated railway and for shipment of non-sanctionable goods through the port for Afghanistan’s use, as well as the country’s continued imports of Iranian petroleum products,” a State Department spokesperson told a TV channel. The US on Monday imposed “the toughest ever” sanctions on a defiant Iran aimed at al-tering the Iranian regime’s “behaviour”. The sanctions cover Iran’s banking and energy sectors and reinstate penalties for countries and companies in Europe, Asia and elsewhere that do not halt Iranian oil imports.

However, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that eight countries -- India, China, Italy, Greece, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and

Turkey -- were temporarily allowed to continue buying Iranian oil as they showed “significant reduction” in oil purchase from the Per-sian Gulf country. To a ques-tion on the fate of Chabahar port after the US reimposed all its sanctions on Iran, the spokesperson said: “This exception relates to recon-struction assistance and eco-nomic development for Af-ghanistan. These activities are vital for the ongoing sup-port of Afghanistan’s growth and humanitarian relief.”

In May 2016, India, Iran and Afghanistan had inked a pact which entailed es-tablishment of Transit and Transport Corridor among the three countries using Chabahar Port as one of the regional hubs for sea transportation in Iran, be-sides multi-modal transport of goods and passengers

across the three nations. Mike Pompeo’s decision to give India exemption from imposition of certain sanc-tions for the development of the port is driven by the South Asian strategy, which was announced by President Donald Trump in August. It states that India has a major role in bringing peace and development in Afghanistan.

“The president’s South Asia strategy underscores our ongoing support of Af-ghanistan’s economic growth and development as well as our close partnership with India,” the state department spokesperson said. “We seek to build on our close relationships with both the countries as we execute a policy of maximum pres-sure to change the Iranian re-gime’s destabilising policies in the region and beyond,” the spokesperson added.

MUMBAI: After India’s made rapid progress in the World Bank’s “Ease of Doing Business” rankings, fund manager Nilesh Shah noted that filing income tax returns in India is much simpler than filing in the US.

“Try to file income tax return in the US and you will realise filing income tax return in India is much simpler,” Nilesh Shah said.

After India made rapid progress in the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business rankings, indicated by a 53 spot jump in just two years, fund manager Nilesh Shah noted that filing in-come tax returns in India is much simpler than filing in the US. In an interview to CNBC TV18, Nilesh Shah said: “We keep talking about hav-ing this hurdle, and that hurdle in India, but go and try to file income tax return in the US and you will realise filing income tax return in In-dia is much simpler.” He was responding to a question on the various regulatory hurdles in India, despite a massive jump in ease of doing business ranking improvement.

According to Nilesh Shah, given some of the powerful forces in financial services, such as disintermediation, digitisation, differential

Filing IT returns in India simpler than USregulation, and the overall formalisation of the economy, savings and financialisation of assets, household borrowings were low indicating a huge opportunity for the whole NBFC-housing finance companies space. “With the added liquidity advantage, particu-larly post demonetisation, they have grown much faster,” he noted.

After being an underdog for years, India finally showed a huge progress on the World Bank’s Ease of Doing Business ranking by jumping 53 ranks in the last two years. Yet, the dream to enter the “top 50” club remained in-complete. After breaking into top 100 leapfrog-ging 30 ranks last year, India took a giant leap of 23 ranks this year to secure 77th rank on back many reforms. However, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said that there were many areas where the country needed significant improvement if it wished to continue with the success streak and make it to top 50 by next year. Jaitley said that India can crack into top 50 if it improves on parameters such as time taken for registering real estate, starting business and enforcement of contracts.

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Boeing issues advice on plane sensor after 737 Max jet crashWASHINGTON: Boeing Company is advising air-lines on procedures to deal with false readings from a plane sensor that authori-ties say malfunctioned on a 737 Max jet that crashed off the Indonesian coast over a week ago. The operations-manual bulletin was issued Tuesday. Boeing tells crew to use existing guidelines when dealing with erroneous in-puts from the so-called angle of attack sensor. That sensor is intended to maintain air flow over a plane’s wings but if it malfunctions can lead to an aerodynamic stall — which can cause aircraft to abruptly dive.

Bloomberg News earlier reported that Boeing was said to be preparing to issue

an alert to operators of the 737 Max jet in response to the investigation into the Oct 29 crash of the Lion Air plane, which saw 189 people killed. The bulletin is based on preliminary findings from the Lion Air disaster, a person familiar with the matter earlier told a TV channel. Under some cir-cumstances, such as when pilots are flying manually, the Max jets will automati-cally try to push down the nose if they detect that an aerodynamic stall is pos-sible, the person said. One of the critical ways a plane determines if a stall is im-minent is the angle of attack measurement.

On Nov 5, the Indone-sian transportation-safety

committee called on Boeing and the US National Trans-portation and Safety Board “to take necessary steps to prevent similar incidents, especially on the Boeing 737 Max, which number 200 aircraft all over the world,” according to a statement. Boeing has delivered 219 Max planes — the latest and most advanced 737 jets — since the new models made their commercial debut last year with a Lion Air subsid-iary. Boeing has more than 4,500 orders for the airliners, which feature larger engines, more aerodynamic wings and an upgraded cockpit with larger glass displays. The single-aisle family is Boeing’s biggest source of profit.

MANILA: A Filipino flight attendant is being praised for going beyond her call of duty to ease a crying

baby on board. Patrisha Organo (24), one of the cabin crew of the Philip-pine Airlines rushed to help an anxious mother and breastfed her incon-solable baby in flight.

Organo heard an in-fant crying just after the flight took off and went to offer assistance to the mother. “Everything went smoothly until after take-

Air hostess breastfeeds passenger’s baby on fl ight

off. I heard an infant’s cry, a cry that will make you want to do anything to help,” TFT quoted Organo as say-

ing. She added, “I tried to tell her to feed her hungry child. Teary-eyed, she told me that she ran out of for-mula milk,” she was quoted in The Filipino Times.

Sadly, there was no for-mula milk on the flight which meant feeding the hungry crying infant was not going to be possible. Or-gano panicked as well but decided to breastfed the pas-

senger’s baby herself. “I thought to myself, there’s only one thing I could offer and that’s breast-feeding the baby myself. And so I offered,” Organo said. The mother and her baby were assisted by the flight’s line administrator to the plane galley where Organo breastfed the baby until she fell asleep. “The baby started rooting, she was so hungry. I escort-ed her back to her seat and just before I left, the mother sincerely thanked me. Thank you, Lord for the gift of mother’s milk,” Organo added.

Organo shared the sto-ry on Facebook and post-ed a picture of her hold-ing the crying baby. The post went viral garnering over 96,000 likes, 3,700 comments, and 18,000 shares with Organo touching millions hearts for her kind gesture.

Lulu aims for fi ve million sq ft IT space

Lulu group CMD Yusuffali M A and AJ Pai, Director, Lulu Tech Park, looking at the model of Lulu Cyber Tower-2.

KOCHI: Aiming to bring more IT firms to Kochi, the Lulu Group will open the doors to its premium 15-lakh sq ft Cyber Tower-2 at Infopark here. The Lulu Group is aiming to devel-op five million sq ft of IT space in the state by 2021 at a total investment of Rs 2,400 crore, including a twin-tower at SmartCity Kochi will be completed in the next two years.

“With our talented pool of youngsters contributing to upcoming fields like ro-botics and Artificial Intel-ligence, we believe IT is the future for Kerala,” said Yusuffali M A, CMD, Lulu Group. “As far as Kochi is concerned, we can offer all the facilities of a Tier-I city, with a significantly re-duced cost of living.”

He said a Tier-II city like Kochi has compara-tively less traffic and a cleaner environment, mak-ing it more attractive to IT firms. The 20-floor Cyber Tower-2 houses 11 floors of working space with each floor offering an 85,000 sq ft facilitating about 1,200 employees to work togeth-er, a big draw for large IT firms. At full capacity, the building can host 11,000 IT professionals and boasts a 1,400-car parking facility. In addition, the tower pro-vides its occupants with a 900-seater cafeteria, 16 high-speed elevators, gym and a 400-seater audito-rium.

“We are already in the final phase of talks with companies to lease out 40pc of the available space.

Two big American compa-nies and a firm from the Middle East, among others, have expressed interest,” said AJ Pai, director, Lulu Tech Park.

Constructed at an in-vestment of Rs 400 crore, this is the second major investment by the group in the IT sector in the state after its Cyber Tower-I at Infopark. The tower will be inaugurated by Chief Min-ister Pinarayi Vijayan and S S Ahluwalia, Minister of State (MoS) for Electronics and IT on November 10.

It will aid the state gov-ernment’s plan to expand the IT park space in Kerala from 1.3 crore sq ft to 2.3 crore sq ft and to provide 2.5 lakh direct jobs to the state by 2020. Lulu will develop 5 million sq ft of

IT space by 2021. Cyber Tower-2 will have a total

area of 15 lakh sq ft, with an office space of 10 lakh

sq ft. Floors with 85,000 square feet uninterrupted

space which can host 1,200 professionals.

NEW DELHI: Researchers at the IIT, Roorkee, have de-veloped fluorescent carbon nanodots for simultaneous detection and destruction of cancer cells.

The nano-sized (10-9 metre) carbon materi-als, which can serve as therapeutic and diagnostic agents for cancer, have been extracted from the leaves of the rosy periwinkle plant. The work, supported by the Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB) and department of biotechnolo-gy (DBT) of the government of India, has recently been published in “Colloids and Surfaces B: Biointerfaces.”

“Such events of real-time image guided anticancer therapy by a single system open a new paradigm in the

IITians make cancer cure breakthroughfield of anticancer therapy. With these nanomaterials we can identify the cancer

cells and track them by an imaging system simulta-neously as the cells them-selves are being eradicated in a precise surgical strike,” said Dr P Gopinath, who led the team. He claimed that

his team is now planning next stage animal studies for further evaluation of these

nanomaterials in oncologi-cal applications, for both di-agnostics and treatment.

According to Dr Gopi-nath, the identification of cancer cells and their in-hibition/destruction have

been continuous challenges in the field of oncology and cancer drug research for many decades.

“In the past few years, nanotechnology has emerged as one of the most promising areas in cancer diagnostics and treatment and nanomaterials — ma-terials having dimensions in the nanometre (10-9m) range — are being increas-ingly studied as agents in molecular tumour imaging, molecular diagnosis, and targeted therapy,” he said.

Dr Gopinath’s team has synthesised carbon nanodots by heating the leaves of Catharanthus roseus, commonly called rosy periwinkle, and Vinca rosea in a process called “hydrothermal reaction.”

US-Indian Sikh elected mayor of Anaheim city in CaliforniaWASHINGTON: Successful Indian Amer-ican businessman Harry Singh Sidhu has been elected as mayor of Anaheim, one of the largest cities in the state of California. Sidhu who served as member of the Anaheim City Council for eight years from 2002 to 2012, defeated Ashleigh Aitken in the November 6 mid-term elec-tions. He would be the first Sikh mayor of the city.

“I am honoured and thrilled to lead the charge in unifying our city once again,” said Sidhu after his electoral victory. Born in India, Sidhu moved to the US along

with his parents in 1974 as a permanent resident and settled in Philadelphia. Once

sworn in, mayor-elect Sidhu will be one of the few Sikh mayors in the US, which includes Mayor Ravin-der Singh Bhalla of Hoboken and Mayor Preet Didbal of Yuba City.

“It is incredibly exciting to see Sidhu, a Sikh, become mayor of such a large and diverse city. I look forward to engaging with him on is-

sues that impact Sikhs in Anaheim, and the larger Orange County region,” said Jas Sajjan, Director of Public Policy for the National Sikh Campaign.

Harry Singh Sidhu

SEOUL: Samsung Electron-ics said it had joined the technology industry consor-tium “Partnership on Artifi-cial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society” (PAI) to develop safe and reliable services and products.

Founded in 2016, PAI conducts research and dis-cussion, shares insights, provides thought leadership, identifies new areas for AI applications and creates in-formational material to ad-vance the understanding of AI technologies. The organ-isation has more than 70 part-ners, including major global companies and human rights

Samsung joins tech industry consortium to develop safe products

groups specialising in AI.As a member of PAI, Sam-

sung will join one of its work-ing groups, Collaboration Be-tween People and AI Systems, and research possible collab-oration between humans and AI. The company also plans to participate in research on topics including safety, trans-parency and the social and economic impact of AI.

“Samsung is dedicated to producing AI products and services that are reliable and safe for people and benefi-cial to society,” said Seung-hwan Cho, Executive Vice President of Samsung Re-search, the advanced R&D

arm of Samsung Electronics’ device business.” As a mem-ber of the PAI, Samsung will

strive to facilitate ongoing progress of Artificial Intelli-gence and develop best prac-

tices on AI technologies.” Samsung now has a network of seven global AI centres in

Seoul, San Francisco, New York, Cambridge, Moscow, Toronto and Montreal.

AI Express net slips 11pc to Rs 262 crMUMBAI: Air India Express, the low-cost international arm of national carrier Air India, has reported an 11pc dip in the net profit at Rs 262 crore in fiscal 2018, im-pacted by high fuel cost and sluggish growth in the Gulf economies, but could still remain profitable for the third successive year. The Kochi-headquartered air-line had posted a net profit of Rs 296.7 crore in fiscal 2017. This is the third con-secutive profitable year for the airline, the airline said in a statement. Despite the adverse market conditions, revenue increased to Rs 3,648 crore in the report-ing year, a growth of 8.7pc from Rs 3,335 crore in fis-cal 2017, it said. “Net profit

earned in fiscal 2018 is par-ticularly significant as the aviation sector had to face many challenges, includ-ing high fuel cost. Added to this was the sluggishness in the Gulf economies where 90pc of our capacities are

deployed,” Air India Express Chief Executive K Shyam Sundar said.

The unit cost has in-creased during the reporting period due to steady increase in fuel prices, which went up 20pc on average during the year from the year-ago period, Sundar explained.

However, prudent commer-cial and management in-terventions, including bet-ter utilisation of the assets, contributed to the positive financial outcome, he said. The airline carried 13.7pc more passengers during the

year at 3.89 mil-lion from 3.42 million in the pre-vious fiscal year. Also, the average daily aircraft utili-

sation levels rose to 12.7 hrs from 12.2 hrs in the previ-ous year, he said, adding the airline expanded its network to Madurai, Coimbatore and Vijayawada during the year. With a fleet of 24 Boeing 737-800s, Air India Express flies to 13 international and 18 domestic routes.

Google plans expansionNEWYORK: Google is plan-ning a major expansion in New York City, according to a report. It said that the com-pany plans to add space for more than 12,000 additional New York workers. The Jour-nal cited anonymous people familiar with the plans. The paper said Google has New York real estate deals in the works that would give it room for nearly 20,000 work-ers. Those include buying or leasing a 1.3 million-square-foot building in the city’s West Village neighbourhood due to be completed by 2022. A Google spokesper-son said the company had no comment on the Journal report. The reported expan-sion of Google’s workforce would almost match the 25,000 employees that Seat-tle-based Amazon is report-edly considering bringing to

JOBS & CAREERS 5Friday, November 09, 2018

A t e a m o f D e l h i - b a s e d engineering college students has won a competition by

US’ prestigious Marconi Society for developing an innovative mobile application that estimates the quality of air in one’s neighbourhood by analysing the images taken by a smartphone camera.

T h e a p p l i c a t i o n developed by Tanmay Srivastava, Kanishk Jeet and Prerna Khanna of Bharati Vidyapeeth’s College of Engineering won the top spot in the contest organised in India under the Celestini Program, supported by the Marconi Society, according to an official release issued by the Mountain View, California-based Marconi Society.

The Celestini Program, named for the hill in Italy where Guglielmo Marconi conducted his first wireless transmission experiments, is run by

Indian students bag US award for developing innovative app

winners of the Society’s annual Young Scholar Awards, who work with technical undergraduate students in developing countries, to use

technology to create social and economic transformation in their communities, it said.

The winning team, which won $ 1,500 for their solution, developed an inexpensive, portable and real-time air quality analytics application: Air Cognizer. In this, a user uploads an

image taken outdoors with half of the image covering the sky region.

“Us ing image process ing techniques, features are extracted and

the machine learning model estimates the Air Quality Index (AQI) levels for the user’s location. The machine learning model is deployed on smartphones using Tensorflow Lite and Machine Learning (ML) Kit from Google,” the release said.

An Android app of the same name is available at Google Play. “Air Cognizer is simple to use and free -- and will prove to be very useful for citizens in cities like Delhi, where air pollution is particularly acute now,” the

Marconi Society said.In India, the Celestini Program was

started in 2017 in partnership with IIT-Delhi by Aakanksha Chowdhery, an ML Engineer with Google AI, who was selected as a Marconi Young Scholar in 2012 for her work in high-speed last-mile internet connectivity.

Th e m e d i c a l e d u c a t i o n department has decided to constitute societies to conduct

recruitment test to expedite the appointment of teachers in five new medical colleges.

The recruitment of teachers in Bahraich, Basti, Faizabad, Shahjhanpur and Firozabad Medical Colleges will begin through societies after the state cabinet’s approval, an official said.

Principal secretary, medical education, Rajnish Dubey said the recruitment of teachers in the state-run medical colleges was done by the UP Public Service Commission. Usually, the recruitment process was completed in one-and- a-half years. Even after recruitment, some of the teachers who are posted in the new medical colleges were reluctant to join as they preferred the medical colleges located in bigger cities. As a result, the vacancies in the new medical colleges continued, he said.

Societies to conduct recruitment test for 5 new medical colleges

Now, the medical education department had decided to constitute societies in five new medical college for the recruitment of teachers, he said. The candidates will be aware that they are applying for

appointment in a particular medical college. They will have to join the medical college after the recruitment. Since the recruitment was done by a society, there will be no scope for transfer to another medical college, he said.

The admission to the 100 seats each in the five new medical colleges will begin from the academic session next year. The Medical Council of India has conducted inspection of the Bahraich, Basti, Faizabad, Shahjhanpur and

Firozabad medical colleges. In February next year, the MCI will inspect the facilities in the medical colleges again before giving the green signal for start of admission and teaching, said a medical education department officer.

The medical education department has also planned to hire the retired teachers in the new medical colleges. The retired teachers will get Rs 2.50 lakh salary per month along with the pension.

Once the teaching in the five new medical colleges starts, the medical education department will start the recruitment and admission process in eight other new medical colleges in Fatehpur, Ghazipur, Deoria, Hardoi, Etah, Mirzapur, Siddharth Nagar and Pratapgarh.

Online registration for National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) 2019 has begun.

Candidates can register on the official website of national testing agency

(NTA) i.e., nta.ac.in and apply for the examination using the provided registration ID and password. NEET is an entrance examination to get admission in medical colleges of India.

The examination will be conducted on May 5, 2019 and the result will be declared on June 5, 2019. The admit cards will be uploaded on April 15, 2019.

NEET 2019 registration on, apply before Nov 30

Click on the direct link to apply online.

For the first time, NEET is conducted by NTA instead of CBSE.

The last date to apply is November

30, 2018 while the last date for fee transaction is December 1. Payment will be done via online mode only. The time of examination will be changed from this year. According to the notification issued by NTA, the examination will be conducted between 2 to 5 pm. Earlier the examination were conducted between 10 am to 2 pm.

The Railway Recruitment Boards, earlier this week, published the results of Assistant Loco-

motive Pilot and Techni-c i a n 2 0 1 8 examination. All the suc-cessful can-didates are now eligible for the sec-ond stage of the examina-tion. The sec-ond stage of examination for Assistant Locomotive Pilot and Technician will be conducted from December 12 to 14, 2018.

In a notification issued last week, the RRB said: “All the shortlisted candi-dates shall be advised through official website of RRB/SMS/Email to download their Exam City Intimation about 10 days prior to the second stage CBT.” The candidates who want to appear for ALP and Technician examinations can download their admit card four days before the scheduled examination.

Here’s how the candidates can

RRB ALP Technician 2018: Details for second stage examination

download the admit cardVisit the official site of Indian Rail-

ways: www.indianrailways.gov.inS e a r c h

for the ‘Re-crui tment ’ and click on the link

Click on ‘News & Re-crui tment ’ sect ion at the top of the page

S e l e c t your regions and click on it

Fill in your details such as roll number, date of birth and password

After filling the details, submitThe candidates who want to check

their first stage scores can log-in through the link provided on the of-ficial websites of RRBs by entering their registration number and DoB. The candidates can also see the Master Question Paper of the shift in which they had appeared along with the final key for the questions. This facility will be available up to December 11 2018.

Th e U K g o v e r n m e n t h a s announced a relaxation in the recruitment criteria to allow

Commonwealth nationals, including Indians, to apply for jobs in its armed forces to meet a shortage in its ranks.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) laid out the proposals in a written ministerial statement (WMS) before Par l iament , which involves waiving the current requirement of living in the UK for five years before applying to join the country’s Army, Navy or Air Force.

T h e m o v e w i l l open up the forces to recruits who have been based in countries like India, Australia, Canada and Kenya and meet the necessary recruitment criteria for the service and role they wish to join. The Commonwealth is an association of 53 independent states, including India.

“We have now decided to remove the five-year UK residency criterion for Commonwealth citizens and increase recruitment to 1,350 across the Royal Navy, British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF),” said an MoD statement.

Now, more Indians can apply for jobs in British army

“Applications will be accepted from all Commonwealth countries, although in order to mitigate the risks associated with unaccompanied minors travelling to the UK without the guarantee of a job, we will not be accepting applications from those

under 18.”A limited waiver to the residency

requirement was introduced in May 2016 to recruit up to 200 Commonwealth personnel per year to fill skill shortage posts. This limited waiver has now been widened, with the RAF and Navy beginning

recruitment of Commonwealth applicants right away and the Army to accept such applications from early 2019. Applications from citizens of countries outside the Commonwealth will not be accepted. “Citizens from the Commonwealth have a long

tradition of serving with distinction in the Armed Forces,” the MoD said.

S p e c i a l r u l e s already allow citizens of Ireland and Gurkhas from Nepal to join the British armed forces. The f ive -year UK residency requirement for Commonwealth recrui ts was f i rs t waived in 1998, before being reintroduced in 2013.

A National Audit Office (NAO) report had revealed in April this year that the UK’s armed forces are short of around 8,200 soldiers, sailors and air

personnel. Among measures to meet this shortage, women are now allowed to apply for all roles in the British military for the first time.

Britain currently employs 4,500 Commonwealth citizens in the armed forces, with 3,940 in the Army, 480 in the Royal Navy and 80 in the RAF.

Joint Entrance Screen Test (JEST) registrations are scheduled to begin on November 10, 2018. The examination is currently scheduled for February 17, 2019.T h o s e

interested in t ak ing the exam c a n v i s i t www. jes t .org.in.

Notably, t h e registration process lasts for over a month and the final day to submit your details is December 15, 2018.

Those who are working in SERB (Science & Engineering Research Board) programmes and have qualified NET are also eligible for the enhanced fellowship.

Steps to apply for JEST 2019:Step 1: Log on to the www.jest.org.inStep 2: Once in, click this linkStep 3: Enter all your details and submit.Step 4: Download and take a print out for the sameCandidates in the general category have to pay Rs 300 while it is Rs 150

for SC/ST and female applicants. The amount has to be paid online while submitting the application.

JEST is recognised as a national eligibility test by Science and Engineering Research Board (SERB). Different courses have different eligibility and all the details are available on the official website. Those who are willing to appear for JEST should have completed their final year exams by August 2018.

The JEST exam score is valid for one year. JEST if for those seeking admission for a Ph.D. /Integrated Ph.D. programme in physics or theoretical computer science or neuroscience or computational biology in one of the participating institutes.

JEST 2019 registrations to begin on Nov 10

6 in focus Friday, November 09, 2018

I was deported from the UAE for abscond-ing from my employer and overstaying my visa for over one-and-a-half year. Hence, I was prosecuted on two accounts - for ab-sconding and staying without a valid visa. For both, I got orders to pay Dh1,000 fine and deportation. However, the judgment papers that were handed over to me at the detention centre didn’t state any kind of im-migration or labour ban. I had to pay for my air ticket to go back home while in the detention centre in Al Awir after having my eye scan. None of the officials told me about a ban and I also didn’t get a stamp to this effect on my passport when I exited the UAE in September 2017.I would like to know if I have an entry ban and, if so, what is the time frame of the ban? Can I re-enter the UAE on any type of visa, given that I have no other criminal records?

Pursuant to your queries, if an employee absconds and his whereabouts are not known and if later traced in the UAE he will be detained and deported to his home country upon facing criminal proceedings in the UAE. He shall not be allowed to be employed in the UAE. This is in accordance with Article 11 of Ministerial Resolution No. 721 for 2006 on Escape Reports Procedures, which states: “Any employee whose work relation ended in escape and against whom a final escape circular was issued shall be permanently deprived of working in the State in accor-dance with the provision of this resolution”. Further, an individual who is overstaying in the country without valid residence visa shall be deported. This is in accordance with Article 29 of Federal Law No. 6 of 1973 concerning Immigration and Residence (the ‘Immigration Law’), which states: “The Department of Nationality and Immigration shall issue an order for the deportation of an alien if he has no residence licence or if his residence licence has been expired. Such an alien may return to the country if he fulfills the conditions for entry in accordance with the provisions of Law”. Once an individual is deported he or she cannot re-enter UAE. This is in accordance with Article 28 of the Immigration Law which states: “An alien who has been deported may not return to the country except with special permission from the Ministry of Interior”. Generally, once an individual is deported from the UAE he shall not be allowed to re-enter UAE and therefore your chances of travelling back to UAE looks minimal as the authorities have conducted the iris (eye scan) test on you. This implicates that you are blacklisted in the UAE. However, since you are interested to travel back to the UAE, you may grant a power of attorney to one of your friend or a legal counsel in the UAE to check if there is a lifetime ban on you related to entering UAE. If there is a lifetime ban, you may authorise them to appear on behalf of you before the concerned authorities in the UAE and check with them the possibilities of lifting the said lifetime ban on you.

Loud music nuisanceI stay in a one-bedroom-hall flat in Dubai. We have a neighbour, who plays loud music on the week-ends. The music is so loud that it disturbs our sleep and that of our children. I have tried requesting the neighbour to re-duce the volume, which he does, but then increases it again after some time. I tried complaining to the watchman, but he says there is nothing he can do. Is there anything we can do to stop him?

Pursuant to your queries, as a tenant, it is your right to reside in the rented premises peacefully. If the loud music irritates you and your family and affects your sleep, you should approach the owner of the building and make a complaint against your neigh-bour. Based on your complaint, the owner of your building - after observation of your neighbour’s act of playing loud music, can warn the said neighbour, either verbally and in writing. It is the responsibility of the owner of the building to provide peaceful possession of the rented premises.

This is in accordance with article 770(1) of Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 on the issuance of the civil transactions law for the UAE (the “Civil Law”), which states: “A lessor may not cause any nuisance to a lessee in enjoying the benefit during the lease period and shall not make any change in the leased entity that prevents its benefit from being received or prejudices the benefit contracted upon; oth-erwise, he shall be liable therefore.”Further, as your neighbour is also a tenant in the said building, he cannot exceed his enjoyment of the premises which will cause damage or nuisance to others. This is in accordance with Article 777(2) of the Civil Law, which states:

Can you return to UAE once deported?“However, if the lessee’s enjoyment exceeds the limits of the agreement or violates the norms, he shall be liable for any damage resulting from his act.”In the event the said neighbour does not reduce the loud music, you or your owner of the building may ap-proach the nearest police station at Dubai and file a complaint against the neighbour on grounds of public nuisance. The police may transfer the said matter to public pros-ecution if a complaint is registered against the neighbour. Based on the findings of the case and witnesses, the public prosecution may order the tenant to vacate the rented premises for disturbing peaceful cohabitation of his neighbours. This is in accordance with Article 796 of the Civil Law, which states: “The tenancy of the house or the like shall not be terminated by virtue of the fact that a tenant has shown immorality. The public prosecution shall order him to desist from indecency. However, if he fails to do so, the judge shall, at the request of the owner or the neighbour, order him to quit the premises and the rent shall be charged to him. If his indecency causes damage to the house or to a neighbour, he shall be liable for the rent for the period in which he quits the house before it is leased to him.” Further, you and your owner of the building may file a writ-ten complaint with the Dubai Municipality. The Dubai Municipality may impose a fine on your neighbour.

Visa & notice periodI am working for a company on an unlim-ited contract and recently submitted my resignation. However, my visa will expire in 20 days while the duration of my notice period is two months. Do I still need to serve my full notice period even though my visa is expiring? What are the options open to me? Can my employer renew it for just 40 days and then cancel it or can I just request cancellation of visa and leave?

Pursuant to your queries, we assume that you are employed by a mainland company in the UAE and your employment is governed by Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 regulating employ-ment relations in the UAE (the Employment Law) and subsequent ministerial orders issued by the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation. It should be noted that employ-ment contract and the residence visa are two different aspects. Since you are employed on an employment contract of unlimited dura-tion, you are to serve notice period even though your residence visa sponsored by your employer is expiring shortly. The unlimited term of employment contract usually does not have an end date. Since there is no end date for employment contracts of unlimited duration, it cannot be terminated only for the reason of expiry of a residence visa. Article 1(II) of the ministerial decree no. 775 of 2015 on rules and conditions for the termination of employment relations covers the terms and conditions for termination of an unlimited term of the employment contract. It states: “An employment relation between employer and employee may be terminated. In the case of unlimited (not term-bound) contracts if any of the following instances occur: Based on the aforementioned provision of law, you may request your employer to terminate the contract on mutual understanding. In the event the employer does not agree for mutual termination, you may have to pay salary in lieu of 40 days notice period for early ter-mination of the employment contract. This is in accordance with Article 119 of the Em-ployment Law. It states: “Where an employer or an employee fails to give the other party notice of the termination of the contract or reduces the period of the notice, the party obliged to give notice shall pay the other party compensation, called ‘compensation in lieu of notice’, even where no prejudice has been sustained by the other party as a result of such failure or reduction. The said compensation shall be equal to the employee’s remuneration in respect of the entire period of notice or the time by which it was reduced. Compensation in lieu of notice shall be cal-culated on the basis of the remuneration last received, in the case of employee remunerated on a monthly, weekly, daily or hourly basis or in the case of an employee remunerated at piece rates, on the basis of the average daily remuneration referred to in Article 57 of this Law.” Your employer may not renew your residence visa only for the sake of 40 days, rather he would mutually terminate the employer contract, cancel your visa and pay your end of service benefits. Or else the employer may ask you to pay ‘compensation in lieu of notice’ for 40 days and thereafter may proceed to cancel your residence visa and settle your end of service benefits.

Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar are the first two Muslim women to serve in the US Congress

WASHINGTON: Voters in Minnesota and Michigan have elected the first two Muslim women to serve in the US Congress, a former refugee who fled Somalia’s civil war and a Detroit-born Palestinian-American. The victories by the two Democrats -- Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib -- came on an election night when members of multiple minor-ity groups had a chance to score electoral firsts.

In Minnesota, Omar, about 36 and a naturalised American citizen and state representative, follows an-other trailblazer: She will succeed US Congressman Keith Ellison, who in 2006 became the first Muslim elected to Congress and is

stepping down to run for state attorney general.

The Minneapolis woman campaigned on policies em-braced by the Democratic Party’s most liberal wing -- universal healthcare, free college tuition and robust public housing. “I did not expect to come to the US and go to school with kids who were wor-ried about food as much as I was worried about it in a refugee camp,” Omar told a TV channel. She spent four years of her childhood in a refugee camp in Kenya. Two years ago, she became the first Somali-American to win a seat in a state legislature, on the same night Republican Donald Trump won the presidency

after a campaign in which he called for a ban on all Muslims entering the US. Omar will also be the first Congress member to wear a Muslim hijab or head scarf.

Tlaib (42), also has a history of breaking barriers: In 2008 she became the first Muslim woman elected to the Michigan Legislature. The oldest of 14 children, Tlaib was born to a family of Palestinian immigrants in Detroit, where her father worked at a Ford Motor plant. The former state representative also ran on a liberal platform, backing Medicare for All, immigra-tion reform and a call to overturn Trump’s executive order banning most people

from five Muslim-majority nations from entering the US. Both women ran in heavily Democratic dis-tricts. Minnesota state data showed Omar winning by a large margin and Michigan media reported that Tlaib had won.

Tlaib linked her cam-paign to the surge of female political activism in the US following Trump’s stunning 2016 victory, alluding to the millions of women that took to the streets of Washington and major cities across the country after his inaugura-tion. “Today, women across the country are on the bal-lot. Yes, we marched outside the Capitol, but now we get to march into the Capitol,” she wrote on Twitter.

first Muslim women elected to congress

NEW YORK: All the four Indian-American Democrat members of the House of Representatives were re-elected and a member of the community won the Attorney General’s position in Wisconsin state. Raja Krishnamoorthi, who rep-resents a constituency near Chicago in Illinois, won about 66pc of the votes to defeat his Indian-American challenger JD Diganvker of the Republican Party.

The other House can-didates re-elected were Pramila Jeyapal from Wash-ington State and Ro Khanna and Ami Bera from Califor-nia. Together with the only Senator of Indian descent, Kamala Harris, they make up what they themselves jokingly call the “Samosa Caucus” -- Harris won from California in 2016 did not face a re-election as she has a six-year term.

In a sign of the Indian-American community’s growing political involve-ment, Democrat Josh Kaul was elected Attorney Gen-

US-Indian Congress members re-electederal of Wisconsin in a tight race with a margin of about one per cent of the votes, although his victory is likely to be challenged

by his Republican rival. He will be the second Indian-American Attorney General. The first is Gurbir Grewal, a turban-wearing Sikh, in New Jersey where Attorneys General are not elected but appointed by the governor. Kaul is the fourth Indian-American to win a state-wide election, which sets the stage for him to run for other higher offices. The first was Piy-ush Bobby Jindal, elected Louisiana governor in 2007 who was followed by Nikki

Haley, elected South Caro-lina governor in 2010 --- both are Republicans. The third is Harris.

Shiva Ayyadurai, who ran as an Independent against Massachusetts Democratic Senator Eliza-beth Warren, lost badly, getting only about 3.5pc of the votes.

Warren has claimed Na-tive American or American Indian ancestry and Ayya-durai ran a controversial campaign with the head-line, “Only a real Indian can defeat a fake Indian’. At least seven other Indi-ans ran for Congress on Democratic Party tickets but lost according to a database of the Indian American Impact Fund and Desis for Progress, which had endorsed them. Harry Arora, who ran for the House as a Republican from Connecticut, lost. The database also showed that six Indian-American Demo-crats had been elected to State legislatures for the first time

BHUBANESWAR: The Odi-sha government has an-nounced a two per cent hike in dearness allowance (DA) for the employees of the state-owned public sec-tor undertakings (PSUs). The hike, a Diwali gift for PSU employees, will be ef-fective July 1, 2018. The announcement of the gov-ernment to increase two per cent DA is seen as a Diwali gift for the employees.

The state PSU employ-ees, who are getting re-vised salary from 2017, are eligible to get the benefits. With this announcement, the DA increases from seven per cent to nine per cent, said an official com-munication from the office of the chief minister. In October, the gvernment had effected additional two per cent hike in the DA of its employees and pensioners. The state’s move came after the Union cabinet hiked the DA for central govern-ment employees and DR for pensioners.

DA hiked for Odisha PSU employees

WASHINGTON: Two Indi-an-Americans have pleaded guilty to the charges of $ 60 million commodities fraud and spoofing conspiracy in New York and Chicago.

Krishna Mohan ( 33) of New York, pleaded guilty to one count while Kamaldeep Gandhi (36) of Chicago to two counts of conspiracy to engage in wire fraud, commodities fraud and spoofing. Sentencing for Mohan and Gandhi are scheduled in a Texas court on Feb 28 and Feb 22 next year respectively.

Gandhi and Mohan, under the guilty plea, ad-mitted that from March 2012 to March 2014, they conspired with Yuchun “Bruce” Mao and others at

2 US-Indians guilty of $60m fraudthe first firm (Trading Firm A) to mislead the markets for E-Mini S&P 500 and E-Mini NASDAQ 100 futures contracts traded on the Chi-cago Mercantile Exchange (CME) and E-Mini Dow futures contracts traded on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT), the Depart-ment of Justice said. They further admitted that they and their co-conspirators placed thousands of orders that they did not intend to execute or “spoof orders”, in order to obtain execu-tions of other orders or “primary orders”, at better prices, quantities and/or times than otherwise pos-sible to the benefit of the co-conspirators and Trad-ing Firm A, it said.

Gandhi and Mohan fur-ther admitted that the US has calculated that the scheme resulted in market losses of over $ 60 million, the Department said.

In addition, Gandhi ad-mitted that from May 2014 through Oct 2014, while employed at the second firm (Trading Firm B), he conspired with others to mislead the markets for E-Mini S&P 500 futures con-tracts traded on the CME by agreeing to place and himself placing, hundreds of spoof orders for E-Mini S&P 500 futures contracts in order to create the false and misleading appearance of increased supply or de-mand, the Justice Depart-ment said.

NEW DELHI: India plans to export two million tonnes of raw sugar to China from next year, a move which will help to bridge the widening trade gap between the two coun-tries, trim bulging stocks of the sweetener and help the mills to repay cane arrears to farmers.

“A contract for export-ing 15,000 tonnes of raw sugar has been entered to by the Indian Sugar Mills Association and COFCO, a government of China run public sector company,” the commerce ministry said. It said India plans to export two million tonnes of raw sugar to China be-ginning next year.

India to exportsugar to China

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CORPORATE NEWS 7Friday, November 09, 2018

Puzzle #: 9 Diffi culty : Easy

Sudoku PuzzleRules: To solve a Sudoku

puzzle, every digit from 1

to 9 must appear in each of

the nine vertical columns,

in each of the nine hori-

zontal rows and in each

of the nine boxes.

Solution for Puzzle # 9

will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Your wellness

Sudoku Puzzle 8 Answer

High calorie food in the festive season may be un-avoidable, but you can outsmart the temptation by indulging your sweet tooth with a different and

healthier form of sugar, suggest experts.Celebrity nutritionist Pooja Makhija gives some short-

cuts:Sugar, not fat: Not all sweets are born equal. Some,

like rasgullah, are high on sugar while others like gulab jamun are high in sugar and fat. While it’s best to control sweets of all kinds, if you must, indulge in only-sweet-based desserts like dark chocolate, plain sandesh, mishti doi, rasgullah, jellies and custards to reduce the impact on your health post season.

There are several options available in the market today - sugar free, gluten free, organic, dry fruit and more. You can pick up these desserts which are based on natural sweeteners like stevia or use stevia to make your favourite desserts at home - it gives your desserts a 100pc sweet-ness without the calories.

Low fat does not mean low calorie: Just because some-thing is low fat, doesn’t mean that it is low calorie. A sweet is a sweet and should be treated as such, unless it is sweetened with healthier alternative sweeteners.

Dry fruit bears fruit: If you have the option, choose the offered dry fruit instead - although try and give cashews a miss entirely if you can. Moderate amounts of dry fruit (say, a small handful a day) contains loads of good fats and are good for you.

Best ways to cut down on sugarExercise: Step up the workouts this season, because

your body will thank you for it in the New Year. Fight the instinct to stay curled up in the comfort of your inertia.

Hydrate: With water, that is. And lots of it (about 2-3 litre per day). Your hunger and thirst centres are set very close together and sometimes we eat because we’re thirsty. And while we’re here, don’t forget that alcohol adds tons of liquid calories, so a glass of wine once or twice a week is really the healthiest way to drink your calories.

If drinking water straight up gets a bit boring, you could alternatively make some infused water by adding some fruit to it like strawberry or orange with a pinch of a natural sugar substitute.

Get your eight hours of sleep: Best for health and weight management, don’t underestimate the power of a good sleep. It has proven benefits for weight loss and health management. In other words, you can snooze to lose.

Govindrajan, Head, R & D, Sugar-Free, says controlling your own environment is vital.

“If you’re having guests over, you can do healthy ver-sions of your favourite desserts. Use dates to sweeten your sweets instead of sugar or use a natural sugar sub-stitutes,” he says.

Govindrajan suggests the following ways of eating healthy:

*Try loading them with a lot of dry and natural fruits.*Roast your dish rather than deep frying it.* Use natural sweeteners.

A recent study shows that giving saved anti-biotics to others fuels

rising rates of antibiotic-resistant infections.

The study results show an “alarming” percentage of parents in a national sample report sharing or borrowing antibiotics, a practice called prescription diversion.

We have all been there — taking leftover antibiotics to save a second trip to the doctor. However, a recent study has found that giving saved antibiotics to others — within and outside the

Taking leftover antibiotics is dangerous to healthfamily — fuels rising rates of antibiotic-resistant infections. The findings will be present-ed at the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Na-tional Con-ference & Exhibition.

S e n i o r author Ruth M i l a n a i k , s a i d t h e study results show an “alarm-ing” percentage of parents in a national sample report shar-ing or borrowing antibiotics, a practice called prescription

diversion. “This is dangerous not only for those given anti-biotics that weren’t prescribed for them, but for entire pop-

ulations of people who some anti-biotics may no longer help when the bacteria they target become re-

sistant to them,” said Dr Mi-laniak of New York’s Cohen Children’s Medical Center.

For the study, an anony-mous online questionnaire

Adults who sleep just six hours per night -- as opposed to

eight -- may have a higher chance of being dehydrated, a study has found.

The findings, suggest that those who do not feel well after a night of

poor sleep may want to con-sider dehydra-tion -- not sim-

ply poor sleep -- as a cause, and drink more water.

Researchers from Penn-sylvania State University in the US looked at how sleep affected hydration status and risk of dehydration in US and Chinese adults.

In both populations, adults who reported sleep-ing six hours had signifi-cantly more concentrated urine and 16-59 per cent higher odds of being inade-quately hydrated compared to adults who slept eight hours on a regular basis at night.

The cause was linked to the way the body’s hor-monal system regulates hydration.

A hormone called vaso-pressin is released to help regulate the body’s hydra-tion status.

It is released through-out the day, as well as during night time sleeping hours, which is what the researchers focused on for this study.

“Vasopressin is released both more quickly and later on in the sleep cycle,” said Asher Rosinger, assistant professor at Pennsylvania State University.

Less sleep may lead to dehydrationto more serious problems, such as higher risk of uri-nary tract infections and kidney stones.

“If you are only getting six hours of sleep a night, it can affect your hydration status,” Rosinger said.

“This study suggests that if you’re not getting enough sleep, and you feel bad or tired the next day, drink extra water,” he said.

“So, if you’re waking up earlier, you might miss that window in which more of the hormone is released,

causing a disruption in the body’s hydration,” said Rosinger.

Dehydration negatively affects many of the body’s systems and functions, in-cluding cognition, mood, physical performance and others. Long term or chron-ic dehydration can lead

was distributed to a national sample of 496 parents though Amazon Mechanical Turk. Nearly half (48.2pc) of the parents reported that they had kept leftover antibiotics rather than properly disposing them. Of those, 73pc subsequently diverted them to siblings, un-related children, and unrelated adults — some-times months after the antibiotic was origi-nally prescribed — all with-out physician consultation. Parents also used the leftover antibiotics themselves.

The first China In-ternational Im-port Expo (CIIE)

is being held from No-vember 5-10, 2018 at the National Exhibition and Convention Centre, Shanghai, China. The event focused on imports is being organised as a collaborative platform for countries and regions to showcase their develop-ment achievements and conduct International trade.

India Pavilion at the Expo was inaugurated by Dr Anup Wadhawan,

India participates in China’s fi rst intl import expoUnion Commerce Secre-tary. FIEO has been des-ignated as a lead agency to set-up Country Pavil-ion in CIIE, Shanghai by the Government of India along with other stakeholders like minis-try of tourism, APEDA, NAFED, MPEDA, SEPC, Pharmexcil etc., to show-case India’s strength in diverse sectors. The fo-cused sectors for this year in the Country Pa-vilion are food and agro products, pharmaceuti-cals, IT & ITes, tourism and services sector.

(Left): Union Commerce Secretary Dr Anup Wadhawan along with Director General of Federation of Indian Export Organisations (FIEO), Dr Ajay Sanai at the inau-guration of India Pavilion at the first China International Import Expo (CIIE), Shanghai.

The country’s larg-est lender SBI plans to raise up to Rs

20,000 crore through vari-ous modes, including a fol-low-on public offer (FPO), to fund its growth. The shareholders of the bank will meet on December 7 to consider the proposal to raise funds, SBI said in a regulatory filing.

The bank said con-sent of the shareholders will be sought to issue equity shares for an amount not exceeding Rs 20,000 crore or such amount as approved by the govern-ment and the Reserve Bank by way of public issue (FPO) or private placement including qualified insti-tutional placement (QIP)/GDR/ADR or any other mode or a combination as may be decided by the board.

“The proceeds of the is-sue are proposed to be used

SBI to raise up to Rs 20,000 crto meet long term funding requirements of the bank, bank’s growth capital re-quirements, to meet capital expenditure, making invest-ments/providing loans and advances, enhance its long

term resources and thereby strengthening the financial structure of the Bank and its subsidiaries and associates and other general banking purposes as permitted by applicable laws,” it said.

Banks globally have to adhere to Basel-III capital requirements by January 1, 2019. However, domes-tic banks are set to follow the norms by March 31. It was implemented in phases from April 2013 in India.

“The bank’s overall capi-tal adequacy ratio (CAR), as on 30th June, 2018, stands as 12.83pc, with CET-I Capital at 9.80pc. The Central Board of the Bank has decided that the Bank

should maintain mini-mum CAR in line with the RBI Basel III tran-sitional arrangements,” it said.

However, SBI said it may be required to raise additional capital during

the current fiscal.“Accordingly, consider-

ing the business growth during the current year as well as that for the years to come, there is a need for higher capital, particularly, tier-I capital...After evaluat-ing the various available alternatives, as well as taking into consideration the guidelines issued by RBI, the bank has planned to access capital market to raise capital,” it added.

PNB MetLife India Insurance Company has received market

regulator Sebi’s go-ahead to float an initial public offer (IPO).

T h e i n s u r e r , w h i c h h a d a p -proached the regu-lator in July seek-ing its clearance to launch IPO, obtained Sebi’s “observations” on November 2, as per the latest up-date with the market watchdog.

Sebi’s observations are necessary for any company to launch public issues like initial public offer, follow-on public offer and rights issue.

PNB MetLife gets nod for IPOAccording to the draft

papers, the company IPO will put up 49,58,98,076 shares for sale, worth 24.64pc stake dilution.

PNB will offer up to

8,04,95,242 shares in the IPO, while Metlife Inter-national Holdings LLC will offload 12,90,36,281 stocks.

The listing of shares will enhance the PNB MetLife brand name and provide

liquidity to the existing shareholders, the draft paper said.

The issue is being man-aged by Kotak Mahindra Capital Company, DSP Mer-

rill Lynch, Citigroup Global Markets India and PNB Investment Services.

PNB MetLife joins a growing list of in-surance companies that have gone public. These include SBI Life Insurance Com-

pany, New India Assur-ance Company, General Insurance Corporation of India, HDFC Standard Life Insurance and ICICI Lom-bard General Insurance Company.

Indian Bank said it has raised Rs 110 crore through bonds. The Basel III Compliant Tier

2 bonds, with a coupon rate of 8.85pc per annum, were raised on Tuesday. The bonds have tenor at 10 years and call option after completion of five years on private placement basis, an Indian Bank statement said.

According to the statement, the credit rating assigned to these bonds is “CRISIL AAA/Stable” and “CARE AAA“.

Earlier in August 2016, the bank’s board had approved the proposal to raise Basel III Com-pliant AT1 and/or Tier 2 Bonds up to Rs 1,000 crore in one or more tranches in the current or subsequent years based on requirement.

Last month, the bank had successfully raised Rs 290 crore under Basel III Compliant Tier 2 Bonds.

Indian Bank raises Rs 110 cr

The Tata Group is in talks with debt-laden Jet Airways to buy

a majority stake in the troubled carrier and its loy-alty programme, sources privy to the matter said. Tata Group aims to buy the 51pc stake owned by Jet Airways promoter, Na-resh Goyal, and Etihad Airways’ 24pc stake, the sources said.

The company is also planning to merge Jet with Vistara which Tata Group owns in partnership with Singapore Airlines. Jet Air-ways needs an equity in-fusion before March 2019 to be able to survive and hence this is being pushed from the Jet Airways end.

Tata said in a statement that it would not comment on speculation. Jet Airways did not respond to a request for comment.

Jet Airways is making losses and is struggling to pay salaries and meet air-craft lease pay-

ments. The airline, which is seeking a cash injection, said in August it would cut costs in excess of Rs 2,000 crore in two years and planned to raise funds by selling a stake in its frequent flyer programme. Tata already owns two air-line ventures in India – full-service carrier Vistara, in partnership with Singapore Airlines and AirAsia India, along with AirAsia Berhad.

Tatas in talks to buy majority stake in Jet Airways

State gas utility GAIL India has reported a 50pc jump in its

second-quarter net profit on the back of higher revenue from its natural gas marketing business. Its net profit in July-Sep-tember 2018 stood at Rs 1,963 crore as against Rs 1,310 crore in the same period of last fiscal, the company said.

The profit was higher “mainly due to better performance by natural gas marketing, liquid hy-drocarbon (LHC) and pet-rochemicals segments”, it said. While GAIL sold 14pc more volumes of natural gas, it transport-ed 11pc more LPG and petrochemical sales were up four per cent. Liquid hydrocarbon sales were up one per cent.

T h e p r o f i t rise was despite a one-time charge of R s 2 0 8 crore to-w a r d s doubling

GAIL India net jumps 50pc in Q2

of gratuity ceiling to Rs 20 lakh per employee. Revenue from operations

jumped 5 5 . 3 p c t o R s 1 9 , 2 7 5 c r o r e . G A I L said the b e t t e r p e r f o r -m a n c e

of natural gas trans-mission segment was supported by upward revision of tariff by Pe-troleum and Natural Gas Regulatory Board (PNGRB) of some of the pipeline network.

It earned Rs 194 crore from upward tariff re-vision for Dahej-Uran-Dabhol-Panvel pipeline, Dukli Maharajganj, Agar-

tala Regional Network and Gujarat Regional Network and a one-time take or pay settlement of Rs 133 crore with one of the natural has customer. GAIL CMD, B C Tripathi said in the second quarter, the gas marketing and LHC seg-ments performed better than the last quarter due to better margin in the segments.

8 Travel / Entertainment

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Ernakulam-Vaikkom fast ferry launched

Diwali fireworks light up the sky over Dubai creek and (right) entertainment programme organised by Dubai NRIs to celebrate the festival of lights.

Foreign tourists avoid crisis-hit Sri LankaA political crisis in Sri

Lanka, where two prime ministers are

fighting for power, is scaring away tourists and raising questions over foreign aid, ringing alarm bells for the economy as the currency slumps to record lows. The turmoil in the Indian Ocean nation that has seen one premier refuse to be sacked, and another battle to prove a majority in a parliament that is banned from meeting, has caused major upheaval that Sri Lanka cannot afford.

Western nations have warned their citizens to be on their guard in Sri Lanka. “You should exercise vigilance and avoid all demonstrations or

large political gatherings,” a British government ad-visory said. Tourism is a cornerstone of the economy. More than 2.4 million foreign holidaymakers visited last year, spending $3.2 billion. Authorities had been count-ing on a rise of more than 10pc this year.

Amidst warnings from politicians of a “bloodbath” if the dispute escalates, tourists are cancelling hotel bookings just as Sri Lankan beaches and major sites like the Tem-ple of the Tooth prepare for peak season. While no offi-cial figures have been given, deluxe hotels have reported cancellations and a critical decline in new bookings in

the past 10 days.“This comes at the worst

possible time when people in Europe are making their holiday plans abroad,” a Colombo city hotel executive said. “We have had a lot of cancellations from the US .” “With the political crisis our winter season is gone,” the director of a luxury beach resort in the south of the island said.

And whether Ranil Wick-remesinghe stays in office or former president Mahinda Rajapakse takes his place, foreign earnings will be badly needed. The Asian Develop-ment Bank had predicted the economy would grow by 3.8pc this year and 4.5pc in

2019, but all bets are now off.The power vacuum has

raised doubts over a $1.5 billion Jap -funded light rail project and another $480 million of US finance for transport and health, a Wick-remesinghe minister Patali Ranawaka says.

IMF was about to an-nounce an agreement on releasing a new tranche of a $1.5 billion loan when Presi-dent Maithripala Sirisena sacked Wickremesinghe on Oct 26. “We are monitoring the situation closely and we remain in contact with our counterparts at the technical level,” an IMF spokesman said of the deepening power struggle.

Over 67m flyers at Dubai airport in nine months

As high as 7.2 mil-lion people passed through the depar-

ture and arrival halls of Dubai International airport in Sept. This brings the year-to-date traffic at the emirate’s aviation hub to more than 67 million, up by 1.4pc from Jan to Sept last year. Last month’s traffic number, however, is down slightly (-0.2pc) compared with the same period last year, but this is because Eid Al Adha was celebrated in Sept 2017.

During the month, a to-

tal of 7,197,866 travelled through the emirate’s main aviation hub, making the year-to-date passenger traf-

fic to 67,521,436, up 1.4pc from the previous year. The airport has been crowned the world’s busiest airport for

international travel. In 2017, nearly 90 million people passed through Dubai Inter-national, up by 5.6pc from

a year earlier, making it the world’s busiest hub for inter-national flights, according to Airports Coun-cil Internation-al. According to ACI, there are

more people passing through Dubai’s airport compared with London Heathrow and Hong Kong International.

The Kerala govern-ment has launched its fastest inland ferry,

Vega 120, which connects Ernakulam, Kottayam and Alappuzha districts. The ferry is partly air-conditioned and can cruise at a speed of 25km/hour.

Owned and operated by the State Water Transport Department (SWTD), the new vessel will cover the 35-km distance between Vaikkom and Ernakulam in 90 minutes compared with two-hour timeframe of the buses on the same route. The new vessel comes as a great relief for the commuters in the route, espe-cially office-goers as this ferry service will be linked to other major points on the route through connection boats. The ferry can carry a total of 120 passengers – 40 in the AC cabin and 80 in the non-AC cabin with fixed ticket rates at Rs 80 and Rs 40 respectively.

Vega 120 was inaugurated

by Finance Minister Isaac Thomas and made its first trip from Vaikkom to Ernakulam on Monday morning. The first trip from Vaikkom to Ernakulam was covered in 1 hour 55 minutes with three stops at Perumbalam South, Pana-v a l l y a n d Thevara Ferry. Designed and built by Navgathi Marine De-sign and Constructions, the

ferry is equipped with marine grade glass-reinforced plastic (GRP). Sandith Thandassery, CEO of Navgathi, earlier told

reporters that the ferry will save a lot of money because of its “fuel-efficiency.”.

S Korean fi rst lady in India for revival of traditional linksSouth Korean President

Moon Jae-in’s wife on trip to India is

to revive an ancient link between the two countries.

The link connects holy city of Ayodhya, birthplace of Lord Ram, with South Korea. The First Lady Kim Jung-sook was the chief guest of the UP government during Deepotsva (lighting of lamps) celebrations in Ayodhya.

According to legend, a young Indian princess Suri-ratna from Ayodhya, later to be known as Heo Hwang-ok, went to Korea in 48 AD, some 2,000 years ago, and married the king to become the first queen of the Karak dynasty. Some Chinese-language texts claim that the then King of Ayodhya had a dream where God ordered him to send his 16-year-old daughter to South Korea to marry King Kim Suro. The royal couple

prospered. They had 10 sons and both were fabled to have lived to be over 150 years old. Many South Koreans

believe they can trace their ancestry to Ayodhya owing

to his connection. In 2001, Ayodhya and Gimhae, in South Gyeongsang province of South Korea, became sis-

ter cities.Meanwhile, the current

visit of First Lady Kim Jung-sook is creating ripples in India and there has been a new bonhomie between

the relations of both the countries.

First lady of South Korea Kim Jung-sook along with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Delhi.

Dubai property brokers earn $229m

Dubai Land Depart-ment (DLD) has an-nounced that the

real estate brokerages made commissions totalling Dh 842 million ($229m) in the first nine months of 2018. The brokers contrib-uted to concluding 18,121 transactions in that period, DLD said in a statement. The report issued by the Department of Real Estate Studies and Research at DLD showed that brokers earned Dh429 million from land sales, Dh73 million from building sales and Dh 340 million from residen-tial unit sales.

Union ministry of external affairs issued first of 100 licences sanctioned in Telan-gana for recruitment agents. At the function from left are Satti Jalda Reddy (GRCA president, Hyderabad), H Harinatha Reddy (GRCA member, Hyderabad), K Basivi Reddy (MD, Diamond Manpower), Chirla Jaggi Reddy (MLA, Andhra Pradesh), PV Reddy (Director, Diamond Manpower), Ritesh Shroff (Cosmos Trade Links) and Kalimulla Sharif (MD, Nooria Enterprises).