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Kerala to safeguard NRI interests: CMNEW DELHI: Kerala is in-debted to the enormous contributions of NRIs in meeting its social and eco-nomic development goals and the government remains committed to uphold their interests as a top priority, the state’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.

Vijayan, during an exclu-sive interview with Khaleej Times at the Kerala House in New Delhi before embarking on a three-day visit to the UAE, said non-resident Ker-alites (NRKs) spread across the globe, particularly in the Gulf, have been playing a significant role in prop-ping up the state’s economy through their sizeable re-mittances and also as a key facilitator of the state in its drive for social equality and prosperity.

“We must recognise and admire them also for their varied contributions by way of professional expertise,

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan

rich experience, advice and ideas in our momentous mission of rebuilding the state after two devastating floods. I am going to the UAE on a twin-assignment

--- to reassure NRKs that the government will stand by them to safeguard their interests and to drum up their support and passionate involvement for a landmark investment platform tailor made to ensure their crucial

role in development,” the chief minister said.

Vijayan, who will be formally launching the new “Overseas Keralites Investment and Holding Ltd” company in Dubai, said the investments of the NRKs would have full gov-ernmental guarantee. The umbrella NRK investment company will pool funds exclusively from NRKs and carry out projects through special purpose vehicles or subsidiaries. Projects to be undertaken include NRI townships and those in other sectors, especially in infra-structure development, he explained.

The chief minister also assured that the government would take more effective initiatives to protect the interests of all existing and prospective investors. One proposal under its serious consideration is to hold special Adalats (courts) at

regular intervals of three to six months to redress investors’ complaints and address bureaucratic snags. The proposed high-power redressal mechanism, di-rectly under the chief min-ister, will involve ministers and bureaucrats to ensure swift one-stop solutions to all slow-moving projects or those facing delays due to various procedural or policy reasons, Vijayan remarked.

The CPM leader, who has been in power for more than three years, said his govern-ment is also aware of the severity of the impact of the global slowdown on job pros-pects of NRIs across the globe and pledged to draw up an urgent action plan to rehabili-tate those returning home due to job losses. “We are really concerned about the ramifica-tions of the global slowdown on NRKs and are determined to streamline a mechanism

(Contd. on page 2)

UAE to open more visa endorsementcentres, govt informs IPEPCILNEW DELHI: The office of the ministry of external affairs has informed the Indian Personnel Export Promotion Council (IPEP-CIL) that keeping in view of various representations made by recruiting agents’ associations to PGE re-garding less number of visa endorsement centres and illegal migration by way of visit visa in case of UAE, the ministry has suitably taken up the issue with UAE government.

In reply to an earlier letter sent to Minister of State for External Af-fairs V Muraleedharan by IPEPCIL general sec-retary Dr Sureshkumar Madhusudhanan, under-secretary Bikash R Ma-hato has pointed out that keeping in view of various representations made by recruiting associations to PGE regarding less num-ber of visa endorsement centres and illegal migra-tion by way of visit visa

in case of UAE, Ministry has suitably taken up the matter with UAE government for action.

In respect of conversion of visit visa into employ-ment visa, UAE side stated that the UAE law permits such conversion of visit visa into employment visa

and it is applicable to all emigrants coming to UAE from any country. So the law cannot be changed for a par-ticular country. Therefore, any activity done illegally by any person/agent be brought to the attention of UAE gov-ernment. The visit visa is

not issued suo moto by the embassy, but through hotels, airline etc.

On the issue of more visa endorsement cen-tres and time taken for visa endorsement, UAE informed that more visa centres are being opened in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chennai, Bangalore and Chandigarh. The UAE in-formed that, the emigrant is given appointment in the visa centre of UAE. His bio-metrics are taken and interview is done on the date of appointment. Thereafter, work visa is issued. The prospective emigrant has a choice either he or she can col-lect the passport person-ally after visa grant or the same can be sent to his or her address by courier. The cost of the same is borne by the embassy. The emigrant thus need not stay for the endorsement of visa and delivery if he so desires.

V Muraleedharan

DUBAI: A new long-term cultural visa has been launched in Dubai, target-ing creative people. Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum launched the UAE’s first of its kind cul-tural visa while chairing a meeting for the Dubai Culture and Arts Authority. During the meeting, Shaikh Mohammad also approved a new cultural vision for Dubai so as to turn the Emir-ate into a global destination and hub for culture.

In a series of tweets, Shaikh Mohammad said: “We have some 6000 com-panies concerned with arts and culture, five creative complexes and 20 museums. We organise more than 550

Dubai launches cultural visa

cultural events every year at-tracting millions of visitors, so we do need a new vision that unify and coordinate efforts”.

“While meeting with the team of Shaikh Latifa Bint Mohammad, chairperson of Dubai Culture, we approved Dubai’s new cultural vision along with the first long-term cultural visa for cre-ative people. “We have also approved the setting up of a free zone for creatives and artists to be based in Al Quz, in addition to a global liter-ary season with a book fair, conferences and events that attract two million visitors”, Shaikh Mohammad added.

“Today, we gave the green light to turn seven cultural centres into life coaching

centres, where we teach emerging generations cul-tural, art, creativity and life skills. We also launched a new architectural cul-tural identity for Dubai that makes it different from other cities in addition to a World Art Week” he tweeted. There are many bodies working in the cultural, artistic and literary sector. Unifying ef-forts in major cultural events is more beneficial for us in the coming period. We in-vite everyone to work in a team spirit. Dubai’s cultural face must be global, unique and true, and any global economic capital would be incomplete without a cul-tural and civilized face that reflects its sophistication” Dubai Ruler highlighted.

LONDON: The UAE is the biggest climber on the Hen-ley Passport Index since 2009, going up five places in the past three months to become the 15th most powerful travel document in the world.

UAE passport holders can now access 172 coun-tries without a prior visa, the study found in its fourth quarter update, after moving up 46 places over the past decade. The index ranks 199 passports according to the number of destinations their holders can access without a prior visa.

“The power of the UAE passport depicts a nation that is attempting to posi-tion itself as a prominent player in the region,” said Lorraine Charles, research associate at the University of Cambridge’s Centre for Business Research. Japan and Singapore have retained their title as the most power-ful passports in the world,

UAE passport 15th most powerfuleach with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 190 out of a maximum 227.

For most of the index’s 14-year history – which is based on exclusive data from the International Air Transport Association – the top spot has been held by a European country or by the US. This shifted dramati-cally last year when Asian countries became “firmly established as world leaders when it comes to both global economic activity and global mobility” the study found.

With visa-free or visa-on-arrival scores of 188, Finland, Germany and South Korea remain in second place on the ranking, while Denmark, Italy and Luxem-bourg are in third place, with citizens of those countries now able to access 187 des-tinations worldwide without requiring a visa in advance. The UK and US remain in joint sixth place – the low-est position either country

has held since 2010 and a significant drop from their first-place ranking in 2014. The UAE passport is also the most powerful in the

GCC, with Kuwait coming in 56th position with visa-free access to 93 destinations, Bahrain coming in 63rd position with access to 81 lo-cations, Oman coming in at 64th position with access to 79 and Saudi Arabia in 69th position with 74.The UAE’s position on the index has

been boosted by a number of new visa agreements, mainly with African countries.

“The UAE’s strategy has been particularly apparent on the African continent, allowing the country to sig-nificantly increase its influ-ence in a region of the world that remains key to global economic development,” said Ryan Cummings, di-rector of Signal Risk. “Sub-Saharan Africa continues to make tentative progress in terms of improving its accessibility by easing visa restrictions, with Namibia and Sierra Leone being the most recent examples of states that have relaxed their visa policies as a means of attracting foreign invest-ment, revenue and skill sets to augment their economic development goals.” Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan remain at the bottom of the Henley ranking, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival scores of only 29, 27 and 25, respectively.

MUMBAI: NRIs are showing a growing appetite for prop-erty acquisition in India in the current festive season, with industry players ex-pecting a 20pc increase in home buying by expat Indi-ans in in Q3.

“Going by the early trend, it certainly looks like festive season 2019 will be a marked contrast to last year’s, and we are seeing a potential in-crease in purchase by at least 20pc in this quarter,” Shajai Jacob, CEO-GCC, Anarock Property Consultants, told a TV channel.

“NRIs also seem to be responding positively to the various government-induced stimuli announced in quick succession recently, leading

NRI investments in housingto register 20pc jump in Q3

to their added confidence in investing in the prop-erty market,” he added. Gulf-based NRIs are the major expat Indian groups who are investing to acquire real es-tate assets back home. This is because of the fact that they will have to return to their homeland sooner or later, in the absence of provisions for

gaining permanent residency status for a vast majority of them in MidEast countries.

Officials with some of the leading Indian real es-tate companies also support-ed the early trend of a rising interest by NRIs in bookings apartments in their projects. “There is definitely a good response from NRIs this

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Amrit Lugun, India’s envoy to GreeceNEW DELHI: Mr Amrit Lugun (IFS:1989 batch) has been ap-pointed as the next ambassador of India to Greece.

He is expected to take up the assignment shortly. Currently, he is the Protector General of Emigrants.

season by way of increase in enquiries and also actual bookings,” spokesperson of DLF, a leading Indian real estate company, has said.

Industry sources said attractive price discounts and other freebies by many developers, coupled with a relatively weak rupee are also driving the increased interest by NRIs in invest-ing in residential housing sector in the current festive season.

Indian government has recently announced several measures including a relax-ation of guidelines for buy-ing affordable housing by foreign buyers and lowering of interest rate on housing building advances.

2 EMIGRATION Friday, October 04, 2019

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LIPSYNCH “He who is devoid of kindness is devoid of grace.”

— An Arabian Proverb.

Saudi’s tourism policyAt last, Saudi Arabia has thrown open its doors to the world. The Kingdom, with its scenic landscapes and varied topography, remains one of the last destinations largely untouched by mass tourism. But, all that is about to change!

The government on Friday opened the country to inter-national tourists, announcing a new visa programme for citizens of 49 countries, including India. The kingdom is aiming high --- It wants tourism to account for upto 10pc of its GDP compared with the current paltry three per cent. In pursuit of this goal, it is spending billions of dollars to improve infrastructure and develop heritage, cultural and entertainment sites. The tourism drive forms an integral part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 — Crown Prince Mo-hammed bin Salman’s pet plan to reduce dependence on oil and diversify the economy. The kingdom says allowing more foreign visitors is “a key milestone.”

The multiple-entry visa scheme unveiled on Friday al-lows for stays of up to 90 days at a time and marks the first time the country is allowing foreigners to visit solely for the purpose of tourism. Until now, visitor visas were issued for specific reasons such as for Muslim religious pilgrim-ages, to visit family or for business. The visa information website indicated an easing of strict dress codes for visiting women, requiring shoulders and knees to be covered but not demanding they wear the full-body Abaya.

“From this historic place and during this special day — Tourism Day — we are pleased to announce that we will receive tourists from several places of the world. We are a people of hospitality,” said Ahmed Al-Khateeb, chair-man of the Saudi Commission for Tourism and Heritage. Saudi Arabia saw profound change last year as part of re-forms by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, including opening the first movie theatre and lifting the world’s only ban on women driving.

A treasure trove awaits tourists to Saudi Arabia. The new visa programme will help the world explore the Kingdom, its rich cultural heritage and natural wonders. The central region is home to the birthplace of modern Saudi Arabia — Riyadh. The modern metropolis, apart from being the capital and business centre, is also rich in history, with forts, palaces and museums and colourful souqs. Here you can find Ad Diriyah, the original capital of the first Saudi state, which also houses the Al Turaif quarter, a Unesco World Heritage Site.

The western region hub is Jeddah, Saudi Arabia’s oldest and liveliest city, and the gateway to Makkah. The crown jewel of Saudi tourism is not too far from Madinah: Madain Saleh. It is the largest city of the Nabateans after Petra. Unlike the popular Jordanian tourist site, Madain Saleh — another Unesco World Heritage Site — is not well known outside Saudi Arabia. The highlight of the eastern region is Al Ahsa Oasis, which stands in the middle of the untamed plains of the Rub Al Khali (Empty Quarter).Now it is for the world tourists to explore and enjoy these virgin areas.

Editorial

RICH TRIBUTES PAID TO SLAIN SIKH POLICE OFFICER

A memorial service was held for Lt. Sandeep Singh Dhaliwal at Harris County. There was an outpouring of grief the as community mourns the killing of US-indian police officer Dhaliwal.

WASHINGTON: A survey compiled by the Founda-tion for India and Indian Diaspora Studies has shown that Indian Americans over-whelmingly support dual citizenship from the Indian government.

The survey, conducted ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “Howdy Modi!” event in Houston Sept 22, also revealed that non-resident Indians prefer proxy voting instead of direct postal ballots. The survey covered various topics rang-ing from immigration issues, investment, dual citizenship, double taxation and transfer of social security fund.

Among the surveyed questions, a demand for dual citizenship received a maximum support with 4.4 star rating. “While citizens

US NRIs support proxy voting, dual citizenship

of many other countries have had the ability to apply for US citizenship without renouncing the citizen-ship of their home country, NRIs have been requesting this same opportunity from the Indian government for many years without luck,” FIIDS said, according to the report. “When it came to NRI voting, 33pc pre-ferred the proxy voting as declared by the government while 28pc preferred a di-rect postal voting,” FIIDS said, adding that the need of India’s influence on US immigration policies was the second most important demand the NRIs voted on.

Among various immi-gration issues, expediting green card processing re-ceived 80pc of preference while 60pc preference was

on H1/L1 related policies and 30pc on H4/EAD, the survey said. In their com-ments, NRIs expressed that Indian citizens applying for US permanent residency faced years of painful delays in processing by US immi-gration due to “country wise quota policy,” it said.

They hope that the In-dian government discusses the subject with the US government. The survey also revealed that various financial, investment and taxation related policies were very important to the NRIs. Among the financial policies, the highest rating 4.4 stars (out of five) was for permission to directly in-vest in India’s stock market while allowing investment in farm-land received 3.9 stars (out of five) rating.

Qatar to open 2022 World Cup stadium in Dec

The “Diamond in the Desert”stadium.

DOHA: Education City Stadium will officially open on Dec 18, 2019 – Qatar Na-tional Day – when it hosts the FIFA Club World Cup semi-final, before hosting the tournament’s final three days later. The 40,000-ca-pacity arena, nicknamed the “Diamond in the Des-ert”, will become the third FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 stadium to open, following Khalifa International Sta-dium in 2017 and Al Janoub Stadium earlier this year.

Situated in the heart of Education City – in the Al Rayyan district of Qatar – the stadium will host matches up to the quarter-finals stage in 2022. Fans will be able to access the stadium using the Doha Metro Green Line, which is set to open in the coming weeks. The design of Education City Stadium draws on the rich histo-ry of Islamic architecture, blended with striking mo-dernity. The façade features

triangles that form complex, diamond-like geometrical patterns which appear to change colour depending on the sun’s position.

Hassan Al Thawadi, Secretary-General of the

Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), said unveiling the stadium on Qatar National Day would

be a proud moment for the entire country. “The inau-guration of Education City Stadium will mark another major milestone on the road to delivering international football’s showpiece event,”

said Al Thawadi. “Everyone in Qatar will feel immense pride when this architectural masterpiece is unveiled on

our country’s National Day, during the prestigious FIFA Club World Cup and exactly three years before the Qatar 2022 final takes place.”

Al Thawadi added: “Hosting the FIFA Club

World Cup is a golden op-portunity to boost prepara-tion for 2022 while giving thousands of fans from

across the globe a taste of what to expect in three years’ time. We are im-mensely excited about host-ing this tournament for the next two instalments, as we continue to finalise our plans for the World Cup.”

It has already been con-firmed that European cham-pions Liverpool will con-test the stadium’s inaugural fixture after they received a bye to the semi-finals of the tournament. The Reds qualified for the FIFA Club World Cup after winning the UEFA Champions League in June. Liverpool’s opponents in the semi-final will be decided during the tourna-ment, which kicks off on Dec 11. Engineer Yasir Al Jamal, Vice Chairman of the SC’s Technical Delivery Of-fice, said: “We are honoured that Liverpool – one of the most famous and prestigious clubs in the world – will contest the opening match at Education City Stadium.

US-Indian bags MacArthur Genius GrantNEW YORK: Indian Ameri-can attorney Sujatha Baliga, who survived childhood sexual abuse at the hands of her father, is one of 26 Ma-cArthur Foundation Fellows, announced by the organisa-tion. The awards — also known as “genius grants” — award each fellow $625,000 over a period of five years with no strings attached. Fellows come from diverse backgrounds, including the arts and sciences.

Baliga is the executive director of the Oakland, Calif-based Restorative Jus-tice Project, which seeks to move juveniles who have committed a crime away from police and courts and

into an alternative pro-gramme which involves the participation of the offender, family members, and the victim of the crime to identify a pathway to restitution. Baliga told a TV chanel that she met Cecelia Conrad, managing director of the MacArthur Fellows programme, at a TED Talk last year. The two began talking; Conrad asked her for a list of leaders in the field of restorative justice.

Baliga sent Conrad a long e-mail, with bios of people she admired. In mid-Sept, Conrad called Baliga to say she wanted to talk to her about someone not on her list.

“I panicked,” said Baliga,

adding that she was not prepared for such a discus-sion. But it was a ruse. “That someone is you,” Conrad told Baliga, letting her know that she had won a genius grant.

“Once I got over my confu-sion, I was really pleased. It still hasn’t sunk in what this means, but I’m really pleased

that it has uplifted my work,” she remarked.

“It is really time to do justice diversion in earnest because we have proven that it can work,” added Baliga, noting studies that indicate a 44pc drop in recidivism when the restorative justice programme is used with a juvenile offender.

The Restorative Justice programme, currently em-ployed in San Francisco, Oak-land, and Alameda County, also provides cost savings. Criminalising a child can cost anywhere from $300,000 to $400,000 per year, reported the San Francisco Chronicle, in a story about the overall drop in juvenile offenders.

Sujatha Baliga

Indian business delegation tours OmanMUSCAT: Organised by the Public Establishment for In-dustrial Estates — Madayn to strengthen investment ties between the Sultanate and India, the two-day Oman-India Investment Meet has concluded. The event was attended by a high profile business delegation from India comprising 35 businessmen representing sectors including food, logistics, IT, telecom and renewable energy. During the second day of the event, a field visit was organised to Al Rusayl Industrial City where the Indian delegation was briefed on the current projects implemented by Oman Investment and Development Holding Company (Mubadrah) at Al Rusayl. These projects include the logistics project valued at around RO 1.6 million, new gates and entrances project with a value of RO 2.5 mil-lion and the project of developing and incorporating services to expand the industrial city with a total value reaching RO 34 million. Furthermore, Mubadrah is also preparing to float a tender for B2 Phase to expand Al Rusayl Industrial City. The value of this tender is expected to touch RO 15 million.

The officials also highlighted that the total area of Al Rusayl Industrial City has come close to 11 million sqm by the end of 2018 and is home to 309 projects. The total volume of invest-ments in this industrial city has touched approximately RO 372,554,229 and the number of national and foreign workforce has reached 21,881 during the same period. During discussions, the Indian delegation was acquainted with the localisation process in the various industrial cities in Oman, the objectives of the one-stop shop, time taken to finalise the procedures, in addition to the types of investments in the country.

Kerala to...(Contd. from page 1)

to ensure hassle-free reha-bilitation of the returnees.”

In a free-wheeling and candid conversation, the pragmatic leader dwelt on his governments performance track record, stringent clamp down on corruption at all lev-els, steps to curb police cus-todial atrocities, the proposed Kerala Airline’s feasibility study, NRK pension scheme, the impending launch of eagerly-awaited Kerala Bank through the merger of co-operative banks, controver-sies surrounding auditing at KIIFB (Kerala Infrastructure Investment Fund Board), the game-changing Lok Kerala Sabha initiative etc.

Ensure Indian students do not face visa issues, Britain toldNEW DELHI: India has asked Britain to ensure that students from the country do not face any visa issues and their rights be protected there. In a meet-ing, Union Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla spoke to Director General for Borders, Immigration, Citizenship and International Strategy at UK Home Office Glyn Williams regarding this.

Bhalla told Williams that there were instances when Indian students faced visa-related problems in Britain. In the delegation-level talks, both sides discussed issues of mutual concern related to immigration and citizenship. Kieran Drake, Minister Coun-sellor, Political and Press in the British High Commission in New Delhi, who was part of the UK delegation, said they had wide-ranging discussions. “It was a productive meeting,” he said. Last year, India was

excluded from Tier 4 overseas student visa relaxations un-veiled by the UK Home Office.

The move had triggered outrage among Indian stu-dent groups in Britain and other leading figures within the bilateral space, including some branding it an “insult” to India by including non-democratic countries on the list but excluding the world’s largest democracy. The UK government had then directly linked the exclusion of In-dian students from the list of countries offered easier visa norms to India’s refusal to sign a MoU on the return of illegal migrants. Last year, the Union cabinet had approved the pact on returns to facilitate the de-portation of alleged illegal In-dian immigrants in the UK to India and vice-versa. However, at the eleventh hour, India did not sign the pact without specifying any reasons.

IndiGo to start new fl ightsTIRUCHI: Domestic air con-nectivity from Tiruchi is set to improve with IndiGo deciding to launch services on Hyderabad-Tiruchi-Hy-derabad sector from October 27. The airline has opened bookings for the new service from Oct 27. It would operate a 74-seater ATR aircraft. The flights would take about two hours and 25 minutes. The flight (6E7116) will depart from Hyd at 9.05 pm and reach Tiruchi at 11.30 pm. In the return direction, the flight (6E7117) will depart from Tiruchi at 11.50 p.m. and reach Hyd at 2.10 a.m. (the next day). According to sources, the service has been introduced after a survey.

Friday, October 04, 2019 3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

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The human ageing processes may hinder cancer development,

according to a study.The research, published

in the journal Ageing Cell, noted that each cell in the human body is specialised to carry out certain tasks and would only need cer-tain genes to be activated to accomplish them.

The researchers, includ-ing those from the Univer-sity of Liverpool in the UK, said that analysis of gene expression — the process by which genes were acti-vated to produce a required protein — was often used to study cancer and ageing.

However, they added that only a few studies investigated the relation-ship between gene expres-sion changes in ageing and cancer.

The researchers com-pared how genes were dif-

Genetic study shows that ageing hinders cancer

ferentially expressed with age, and also how their ex-pression changed in cancer among nine human tissues.

Normally, the study not-ed that a healthy cell could divide in a controlled man-ner whereas in senescent or ‘sleeping’ cells, they lost their ability to divide.

The number of senes-cent cells in our bodies

increases as we age, driving many age-related processes and diseases, the research-ers said.

Genetic mutations, the study noted, caused cells to replicate uncontrollably, leading to cancer.

The researchers said that cells often detect these mutations and go to sleep to stop the proliferation.

However, they found that in most of the tissues examined, ageing and can-cer gene expression “sur-prisingly changed in the opposite direction.”

According to the re-searchers, the changes hap-pening in cells as one ages might relate to a decrease in cell division, while cancer changes this shift towards an increase in proliferation.

“One of the reasons our bodies have evolved to have senescent cells is to suppress cancers. But then it seems that senes-cent cells accumulate in aged human tissues and may contribute to ageing and degeneration,” said Joao Pedro De Magalhaes, co-author of the study from the University of Liverpool.

The study, he said, chal-lenged the traditional view concerning the relationship between cancer and ageing

and suggested that the age-ing processes may hinder cancer development.

“While mutations ac-cumulate with age, and are the main driver of cancer, ageing tissues may hinder cell proliferation and consequently cancer,” he added.

De Magalhaes said that the two forces oppose each other with mutations driv-ing cancer, and tissue de-generation hindering it.

“This may explain why at very advanced ages can-cer incidence levels off and may even decline,” he said.

The researchers said that the complex relation-ship between ageing, can-cer and cellular senescence suggested that in most human tissues, the ageing processes and senescence act in tandem while also being detrimental to can-cer.

A c o m m i t t e e h a s been formed with officials from the

department of health re-search to finalise the con-tours of the plan to tackle rheumatic fever and heart disease burden and revive penicillin.

In a bid to fight drug resistance and tackle rheu-matic heart disease, the Government of India is planning a revival of peni-cillin, one of the oldest antibiotics known to man. Not many organisms have developed resistance to it yet.

Govt plans penicillin revival to fi ght rheumatic feverPenicillin went out of

production in India be-cause of unrealistic price control, officials said. The government is now plan-ning to procure penicillin centrally for three years and give it to all children between 5-15 years who have a sore throat, at least once. The drug will be dispensed through primary health centres or adminis-tered by ASHAs.

A committee has been formed with officials from the department of health research to finalise the con-tours of the plan to tackle

rheumatic fever and heart disease burden and revive penicillin.

A senior health ministry official said, “We are looking at a plan to deal with rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart dis-ease load and are t ry ing t o r ev ive penicillin availabil-ity because it is the cheapest option for rheumatic fever treat-ment. We are explor-ing various options including talking to the National Pharma-

ceutical Pricing Authority to take it off the price con-trol list. Also, to kickstart production, we are looking at procuring the medicine centrally — enough stock for three years so that manufacturers are encour-aged to restart production.”

Penicillin, discovered in 1928, is still the first line antibiotic in many western countries, but it gradually went out of the Indian mar-ket even though some of its more expensive derivatives continue to be prescribed.

Population-based stud-ies indicate the prevalence of rheumatic heart disease in India to be about 2/1000 population. However, sur-veys conducted in school children in the age group of 5-16 years by ICMR gives overall prevalence of 6/1000. Rheumatic fever is endemic in India and remains one of the major causes of cardiovascular disease, accounting for nearly 25-45pc of acquired heart disease. Not all sore throats go on to become rheumatic fever with severe

joint pain or affect the heart in a disease that eventu-ally leaves no option but to replace the heart valves — a condition known as rheumatic heart disease. However, doctors say, it is better to give an antibiotic dose and nip the possibility in the bud.

Dr Arun Singh, advisor to the Ministry of Health, said: “Penicillin is one of the oldest antibiotics and in many western coun-tries still remains the first antibiotic. Yet in India it has almost gone out of the market because of price control. The prices were kept so low that manufac-turers stopped making the drug. On the other hand, India has a high burden of rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease — the latter often goes undiagnosed and leads to many maternal deaths at the time of childbirth. The first presentation often is a sore throat, so we are looking at giving a course of penicillin to all children between 5-15 years once.”

The Indian Oil Corpo-ration Limited, IOCL advertised for Offi-

cers/ Engineers recruitment through GATE 2020 score. The online application pro-cess will begin after January 3, 2020.

“Indian Oil’s online ap-plications module will go live after the GATE 2020 admit cards are made avail-able by the GATE 2020 authorities on January 3, 2020,” read the official no-tification.

Candidates will be short-listed based on their GATE score, selected candidates will be called for interview and next round of selection after which a final merit list will be declared based on which the jobs will be allotted.

Indian Oil recruitment through GATE 2020Eligibility

Education: For the post of engineer/officers, candidates need to have a graduate en-gineering degree from any of the discipline including civil, chemical, electrical, in-

strumentation and mechani-cal. For the post of research officers, candidates are re-quired to have a postgradu-ate engineers degree. For an assistant officer, candidates must have a postgraduate

degree in chemistry with two years of experience.

Age: The upper age limit to apply for a graduate-level job is 26 years and for postgraduate level jobs is 28 years.

For reserved category can-didates, relaxation in upper age limit is available. For PG chemistry jobs, the upper age limit is 30 years.

Salary: For graduate and postgraduate posts the

gross remuneration will be about Rs 17 lakh per annum. For postgraduate chemistry posts, candidates will get Rs 14 lakh per annum.How to applyStep 1: Visit the official website, iocl.comStep 2: On the homepage, click on ‘latest job openings’ under ‘Careers’Step 3: Click on ‘applica-tion for engineers/officer/research… through GATE 2020’Step 4: Click on ‘apply online’Step 5: Start filling form and click ‘save and next’Step 6: Preview details and click ‘submit’.Candidates need to take print out of the application form and send it to IOCL office.

Researchers at Jamia Millia Islamia have developed a nano-

sensor to detect the level of arsenic in living cells, the varsity said. A re-search team led by Mohd Mohsin, Assistant Profes-sor in Department of Bio-sciences, has developed the nanosensor, it said. Arsenic poisoning has been a major concern that causes severe toxicological damages, they said.

The developed nano-sensor named as SenALiB (Sensor for Arsenic Linked Blackfoot disease) can be used to detect and quan-tify the level of arsenic in living cells without their destruction. It can be used

Jamia Millia Islamia researchers develop nanosensor

to detect the level of arse-nic even up to nanomolar range.

“The sensor is a simple

and reliable approach that provides high per-formance measurements of changes in the arsenic concentration throughout the cells non-invasively

and with high resolution,” the varsity said.

The work has been published in the presti-

gious journal “Scientific Reports” recently. The toxicity level of arsenic can be measured in any type of cells and any given point of time.

Delhi University ’s School of Open L e a r n i n g ( S O L )

will be starting five on-

line courses from January, officials said. The five courses — B. A Programme, B. Com, English Honours, Political Science Honours and B. Com Honours will be offered in online mode.

DU’s SOL to start fi ve online courses from January

“We will be starting the five courses from January next year. These courses will not only be open for

students from India but also for students from other coun-tries,” said Professor C S Dubey, Director, SOL.

The courses have been started after the approval by the Uni-

versity Grants Commission. There were 22 universities that had applied for starting online courses but the UGC gave the go-ahead only to four universities, including DU, officials said.

The Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Calcutta and IIM

Calcutta Innovation Park launched ‘Startup Readi-ness, Growth and Educa-tion (S.U.R.G.E): An Entre-preneurship Programme’ in partnership with HUGHES Global Education India, a majority-owned subsidiary of Hughes Network Sys-tems, LLC (Hughes). The course will be delivered online. It will focus on helping budding and young entrepreneurs manage their businesses in the early phases.

The six-months long programme introduces pro-fessionals to various as-

IIM-Calcutta launches course for entrepreneurspects of business and helps them get the right mindset, skills and knowledge for

a successful venture. De-signed for entrepreneurs, it entails a ‘capstone project’

where participants will create their business plan using tools and concepts

covered in the various modules of the course and present it to a panel

that will include venture capitalists.

Commenting on the col-laboration, professor Suren Sista IIM Calcutta said, “India has seen a surge in entrepreneurial ventures, however, one in every three businesses fails and often because of reasons that could have been avoided if some basic tenets had been followed. Therefore, it is important for young individuals to learn the basics and prepare for the unexpected. The emphasis of this course is towards providing a 360-degree view of entrepreneurship and to ensure that students get a strategic outlook to

managing problems.”Anurag Bansal, Senior

Director, Hughes Global Education said, “Available in 70 classrooms in more than two dozen cities, the programme is delivered over the Hughes Interactive Onsite Learning platform using live, interactive, real-time, two-way video. The course is taught not just renowned faculty but also with inputs from multiple stakeholders to provide in-depth and real-life para-digms. This ensures that the dynamic and com-prehensively structured programme delivers maxi-mum value in the shortest possible time.”

IN FOCUS6 Friday, October 04, 2019

GULF FAQsI am an engineer employed by my cur-rent employer on an employment contract of unlimited duration. I have completed two years and 6 months of employment. Recently, I received a job offer from an-other company and am eager to take it up. I resigned from the employment with my current employer and served them a notice period for 45 days and agreed to pay in lieu for another 45 days as my employment contract states 90 days’ no-tice period if any of the parties intends to terminate it. My current employer ac-cepted my resignation, but has asked me to comply with the 90-day notice period mentioned in my employment contract. Can my current employer restrain me from leaving the employment prior to the completion of 90 days of notice period?

We assume that you are employed in a mainland based in UAE and therefore, the provisions of Federal Law No. (8) of 1980 regulating Employment Relations in the UAE (the “‘Employment Law”) and Ministerial Decree (765) of 2015 on Rules and Conditions for the termination of Em-ployment Relations (the “Ministerial Decree No. 765 of 2015”) are applicable. As per the provisions of the Employment Law, it may be noted that an employment contract only terminates upon the completion of the notice period during which an employee is required to perform his duties for which he shall be remunerated and the notice period requirement may not be waived or reduced but it may be extended.

This is in accordance with Article 118 of the Employment Law which states: “A contract shall subsist throughout the notice period referred to in the preceding Article and shall terminate only on expiry of that period. The employee shall be entitled in respect of the notice period to full pay, calculated on the basis of his last salary, and shall continue to perform his duties during that period if the employer so requests. The parties may not agree to waive the notice requirement or to reduce the notice period; however, they may agree to extend the period.”

Nevertheless, if any employee does not adhere to the notice period mentioned in the job contract to terminate his employ-ment agreement then he should compen-sate the employer by paying remuneration for the number of days for which he has not served the notice period.

This is in accordance with Article 119 of the Employment Law which states: “Where either the employer or the employee fails to serve a notice of termination on the other or reduces the period of notice, the party obliged to give the notice shall pay the other party a “compensation in lieu of notice”, irrespective of whether or not the other party has sustained damage as a result of such failure or shorter notice. The said compensation shall be equal to the employee’s salary in respect of the entire or reduced period of notice. Compensation in lieu of notice shall be calculated on the basis of the last salary received, in the case of monthly, weekly, daily and hourly paid employees, and on the basis of the average daily wage referred to in Article 57 of this law in the case of those paid on piecemeal.”

Further, as per the Ministerial Decree No. 765 of 2015, an unlimited employ-ment contract is terminated when either the employer or an employee terminates the employment agreement at any time provided the terminating party notifies the other party and continues to abide by the contractual obligations for the duration of the notice period. This is in accordance with Article 1 (II) (2) of the Ministerial Decree No. 765 of 2015 which states: “An employment relation between employer and employee may be terminated as follows: 1) In the case of unlimited (not term-bound) contracts, an employment relation is ter-minated if any of the following instances occurs: 2) One party acts, at any time, to terminate the contract subject to notifying the other party and continuing to honour contractual obligations for the duration of the notice period, which cannot be less than one month and cannot exceed three months.

It may be pertinent to note that the ter-minating party who terminates the employ-ment contract unilaterally without adhering to the conditions listed in Article 1 (II) (2) of the Ministerial Decree No. 765 of 2015 may have to bear the legal consequences for early termination of employment. This is in accordance with Article 1 (II) (3) of the Ministerial decree which states: “An employment relation between employer and employee may be terminated as follows:

* In the case of unlimited (not term-bound) contracts, an employment relation is terminated if any of the following in-

No notice period if employee compensatesstances occurs: * One party (employer or employee) acts unilaterally to terminate the contract, without complying with the legal conditions described in (2) above and without reason of non-compliance by the other party; in this case the terminating party bears any legal consequences of early termination. In all instances of termination described in this Article (1), either employer or employee may refer to the judicial system to seek indemnification or recover other rights under the Federal Employment Law and its implementing decrees.”

Based on the aforementioned provisions of the Employment Law and the Ministe-rial Decree, it may be noted that you are under a contractual obligation to perform your duties during the notice period. As you have resigned by serving 45 days of notice period and willing to compensate your employer by paying 45 days of remu-neration for not serving the entire 90 days of notice, your actions are well within the framework of Employment Law of the UAE and therefore, your employer is not in a position to demand from you to serve the complete 90 days of notice period.NRI/RNOR status

I have been an NRI for the past 28 years and returned for good over two years ago. What’s my NRI/RNOR status?

For determination of your residential status in a particular financial year, the first criterion would be to calculate the number of days you were in India in a particular year. If it exceeds 182 days in all, you be-come a resident for that year. The next step would be determine the type of resident, whether you qualify to be a resident but ordinarily resident (ROR). You must have been a resident of India for at least two out of 10 immediately previous years and have stayed in India for at least 730 days in immediately seven preceding years. If you fail in anyone of the two conditions, then you will be resident but not ordinar-ily resident (RNOR). On the taxability of income, if you are a resident/ROR, income earned by you from anywhere in the world is taxable in India subject to double taxa-tion avoidance agreement provisions and if you are a RNOR, only those incomes earned by you which are either received or accrued in India are taxable in India.WhatsApp dismissal

I work for a free zone company in Dubai. Last month, my boss sent me a WhatsApp message saying my last day will be Oct 31 as they are closing the company. I don’t have the hard copy of the termination letter yet. A few weeks earlier my colleague was given a termination let-ter. She finished work earlier this month. We started working for them in April. What can we get out of this termination as we have been employed for less than a year? As per my colleague’s termina-tion letter, she will get her salary and a one-way ticket to her home country. Are we eligible for our leave salary?

You are on an unlimited contract of em-ployment. If someone is made redundant by an employer, I would at least expect a personal conversation followed up by an official letter. Sending a WhatsApp message seems unprofessional and may not be strictly legal as Article 117 of the UAE’s Labour Law states: “The employer and the worker may terminate the employment contract with undetermined term for valid grounds at any time subsequent to the conclusion of the contract, and such after notifying the other party thereof in writing at least thirty days prior to the termination thereof.” In terms of what is payable, Article 118 of the Labour Law states: “The worker shall be entitled to his complete wage for such period on the basis of the last paid wage. He must per-form his job during said period should the employer so require.” This means the salary must be paid in full until the final day of service and annual leave continues to accrue during this period, so any days of leave not been taken should also be given as a pay-ment in lieu with the final salary payment. No end of service gratuity is due as the pe-riod of service is less than one full year. No additional payment is due if redundancy is because the company is closing.The company is responsible for the cost of a flight but only if the employee is leaving the UAE. This is covered in Article 131 which clarifies: “The employer shall, upon the termination of the contract, bear the expenses of repatriation of the worker to the location from which he is hired or to any other location agreed upon between the parties. Should the worker, upon the termination of the contract, be employed by another employer, the latter shall be liable for the repatriation expenses of the worker upon the end of his service.”

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar in Washington.

MUMBAI: ICICI Bank UK PLC, a subsidiary of ICICI Bank, has announced the launch of a digital account opening facility using the bank’s mobile application.

This first-of-its-kind ser-vice by an Indian bank in UK enables Indians (holding Indian passport) moving to UK for work, to open a personal current account in UK while they are in India itself. This account is equivalent to a savings account in India.

To open an account, a soon-to-be expat individual can simply download the bank’s UK mobile applica-tion called “ICICI Bank UK iMobile” and furnish all KYC details electronically without visiting a branch in UK. The account is instantly activated thus allowing cus-tomers to start transacting immediately. Customers will

ICICI Bank UK launches instant A/C openingon mobile for Indians migrating to UK

receive a contactless debit card at their correspondence address within a few days either in UK or in India and will also be able to remit money 24x7 instantly to any ICICI Bank account in India.

Briefing about the ini-tiative, Loknath Mishra, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank UK PLC said: “ICICI Bank has been leveraging technol-ogy to provide world-class banking experience to its customers. We have in-troduced the opening of a personal current account in digital manner to further improve engagement with our customers. This unique proposition heralds a new era of opening an account in few minutes, a marked improvement over a few days taken earlier. We be-lieve that ease of banking is a key parameter for indi-viduals when they look for a

banking partner. ICICI Bank remains committed to meet customers banking needs in UK as well as make hassle free remittance service to India”.

The mobile application ICICI Bank UK iMobile can be downloaded on both android and iOS based smartphones. Simple steps to open a current account using ICICI Bank UK iMo-bile application:

• Download the app and fill in basic details like e-mail id, password etc • Capture first page of the passport: The app is equipped with state-of-the-art technology Optical Char-acter Recognition (OCR) that recognises written charac-ters in documents • Click a selfie and submit: Image mapping facility will match the photo in the passport with the selfie • Instantly,

the current account gets activated along with instant password and mobile PIN (MPIN). One can immedi-ately start using the account. The contactless debit card is sent at customer’s cor-respondence address either in UK or India

Salient features of the current account that can be opened instantly through the Bank’s UK mobile ap-plication: • Faster account opening using mobile app • Get a contactless debit card • Access to mobile and internet banking • Access to 24X7 phone banking and free text alert facility • 24X7 guaranteed exchange rates for sending money to India • Instant money transfer to any ICICI Bank account in India and instant money transfer to any other bank account in India up to Rs. 2 lakh through IMPS.

Odisha aims to train 1.5 lakh youthsBHUBANESWAR: The Odisha gov-ernment has set a target to train 1.5 lakh youths within three years under placement linked programmes of Deen Dayal Upadhaya Grameen Kaushala Yojana (DDU-GKY) with a financial outlay of around Rs 1,546 crore.

Approving the three-year action plan from 2019-20 to 2021-22, a high level meeting under the chairmanship Chief Secretary Asit Tripathy decided that 50,000 youths will be trained in the current financial year. “Of the target set for the current fiscal, 20,213 youths have been trained by Sept in 144 skill training centres operating across the state and two centres operating outside the state under DDU-GKY,” said CEO of ORMAS Smruti Ranjan Pradhan.

He said the State occupied first position in the country in 2018-19 by providing skill training to 41,308 youths of whom 31,698 were provided placement in organised sector. The Odisha Rural Development and Mar-keting Society (ORMAS) is the nodal agency for placement linked skill development. The training spreads across major sectors including apparel, IT and IT enabled services, electri-cal and electronics, retail marketing, tourism and hospitality, construction, healthcare, automotive, management, logistic and supply chain. The training period varies from three to 12 months.

The chief secretary directed the Odisha Livelihood Mission (OLM) to intensify the motivational activities

at village level through contact with potential households having drop out children in the age group of 18 to 35. The meeting attended by Chairman of Odisha Skill Development Authority Subroto Bagchi and Secretary Skill Development and Technical Educa-tion Sanjay Kumar Singh decided to set up three new migration support centres (MSCs) at Hyderabad, Pune and Bhubaneswar for facilitation and post-placement support. Presently, three MSCs are operating at Tiruppur in Tamil Nadu, Bengaluru in Karna-taka and Bhiwadi in Rajasthan. These centres register skilled youths migrat-ing for job, organise health camp for them, provide them the legal literacy and emergency support.

Banks hold loan MelasNEW DELHI: The first phase of “Loan Mela”, an outreach programme for providing credit to retail customers and MSMEs, has begun in 250 districts across the country to meet demand during the festival period. During the four days beginning Oct 3, loans will be sanctioned for retail, agriculture, vehicle, home, MSME, education and personal categories on the spot.

All banks, including SBI, PNB, BoB and Corporation Bank have geared themselves up to take advantage of festival season demand. SBI is the lead banker in 48 districts across the country. Likewise, BoB is the lead banker in 17 out of 250 districts in the first phase. Simultaneously, it is holding Baroda Kisan Pakhwada during which most of its branches would focus on pro-moting farm loans, BoB said in a statement. During the annual performance review earlier this month, public sector banks decided to undertake outreach exercise in identified 400 districts. Later, the private sector too expressed their willingness to join the initiative. This is part of the systematic bank reform process which envisioned taking banks to doorsteps of customers.

These camps will provide a one-stop destination for MSMEs, small retail businesses and end customers to access all bank services, especially loans in auto, home, personal and business section. While at one level it will help businesses to gear up for the festive season, it will also provide ready cash in the hands of consumers.

HC asks medical colleges to submit NRI quota admission detailsCHENNAI: Hearing a peti-tion alleging irregularities in the admissions process, the Madras High Court has directed 10 private medical colleges in Tamil Nadu to submit details of admis-sions made under the NRI quota.

The bench directed the 10 private medical colleges to furnish a list of the can-didates along with their marks and the procedures followed by the colleges to admit them under the NRI quota. The court also directed the Medical Coun-cil of India (MCI) to file an affidavit explaining the process for filling vacant seats. About 260 seats were earmarked under the NRI quota, of which only 53 were filled up.

The 207 seats under the NRI quota remained vacant

and, without conducting manual counselling, the state returned them to the management, which had filled them up without following merits and for huge sums, the counsel alleged. During the hear-ing, a bench comprising Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice P Velmurugan orally observed whether there was any possibility to bring a rule for giving preference to students who studied in government schools for admission into government medical colleges. Appellant S Dheeran of Coimbatore had challenged the order of a single judge bench dismissing his petition for a direction to the state government to undertake manual counselling among NRI candidates to fill up the 207 vacant quota seats.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Friday, October 04, 2019

Telecom major Bharti Airtel is planning to raise funds up to

$ 1 billion (about Rs 7,000 crore) via a bond issue by its subsidiary Network i2i, the proceeds of which will be used to reduce debt.

“...offering of USD de-nominated Guaranteed

Subordinated Perpetual Securities by Network i2i Limited (a direct 100pc subsidiary of Bharti Airtel) expected to be rated BB by both S&P Global Ratings and Fitch Ratings may follow, subject to market conditions,” Bharti Airtel said in a regulatory filing.

Bharti Airtel plans to raise up to $1b

Bharti Airtel has ap-pointed a clutch of bank-ers including BofA Mer-rill Lynch, Barclays, BNP Paribas, Citigroup, HSBC, J P Morgan and Standard Chartered Bank as joint book runners and joint lead managers have started organising series of fixed

income investor meetings and calls across Asia, Europe and the US from October 2, it added.

Sources said that the fund raising is likely to be in range of $ 750 mil-lion to $ 1 billion, and the final figure will be arrived at based on the market re-

sponse. The proceeds from the issue will be utilised for pruning debt of Bharti Airtel.

Bharti Airtel’s debt stood at Rs 1.16 lakh crore as in June 2019. Meanwhile, S&P Global Ratings has said it expects Bharti Airtel’s leverage to remain elevated over the next six to nine months, but improve gradually due to reduced capital spending and increasing stability in its India mobile operations.

“We assess Network i2i Ltd’s proposed $ 1 billion subordinated perpetual securities (PERPS) as hav-ing intermediate equity content. The PERPS are guaranteed by Bharti. We estimate the issuance will improve the India-based telecoms operator’s FFO-to-debt ratio (funds from operations to debt ratio) by about 50 basis points,” S&P Global Ratings said.

Realty major DLF has settled the entire Rs 8,700 crore amount

payable to DLF Cyber City Developers Ltd (DCCDL), its joint venture with Singapore-based GIC, by transferring various completed commer-cial properties and land par-cels as well as cash payment.

With settlement of these dues, the company said it has completed the exercise of transforming its balance sheet and consolidation of all rental assets under the DCCDL.

DLF holds 67pc stake in DCCDL, while Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC holds 33pc.

At the end of 2018, DLF owed Rs 8,700 crore to DCCDL and the amount payable came down to Rs 5,600 crore by July 1, 2019.

In a filing to the BSE, DLF said the “inter-company payables have now been fully settled”.

As part of the settlement, DLF has transferred its share-

DLF settles Rs 8,700cr amount payable to JV with GIC

holding in its arm DLF Info Park Developers (Chennai) at an enterprise value of Rs 1,000 crore. This subsidiary holds nearly 27 acres of land.

That apart, it has trans-

ferred its shopping mall in Saket, South Delhi for an enterprise value of Rs 1,012 crore.

DLF also transferred its shareholding and compulso-rily convertible debentures (48.2pc of the fully diluted capital) in Fairleaf Real Estate Pvt Ltd, a joint venture com-pany that owns One Horizon Center commercial project in Gurugram, for an enterprise value of Rs 1,700 crore.

According to sources, DLF has settled around Rs 2,000

crore through cash.“This has been a major

restructuring exercise and has now resulted in a larger align-ment of the Group’s rental assets under the DCCDL

platform,” DLF said.After these transfers and

consolidation of commercial assets, DLF said DCCDL is positioned even more strong-ly to continue its growth journey.

“The total settlement of receivables (net of values received for transfer of share-holding / dividend received from DCCDL and other inter-company adjustments) will result in an increase in the company’s net debt by only Rs 475 crores approx,” the

filing said.DLF said it has completed

the final chapter of its bal-ance sheet transformation.

Earlier, DLF had trans-ferred Mall of India project at Noida, Uttar Pradesh to DCCDL at an enterprise value of Rs 2,950 crore. The realty firm had also trans-ferred 3.05 acres land parcel at Gurugram, Haryana.

DCCDL currently holds nearly 30 million sq ft of rent-yielding commercial assets, largely in Gurugram, with annual rental income of about Rs 3,000 crore.

In December 2017, DLF entered into this joint ven-ture with GIC when DLF promoters sold their entire 40 per cent stake in DCCDL for nearly Rs 12,000 crore.

This deal included sale of 33.34pc stake in the DCCDL to GIC for about Rs 9,000 crore and buyback of remaining shares worth about Rs 3,000 crore by DCCDL.

A postage stamp bear-ing the image of Mahatma Gandhi

was issued by France postal service company La Poste on October 2 to commemo-rate the 150th birth an-niversary of the Mahatma.

“Indian Embassy part-nered LaPoste of #France in launching a postage

Mahatma Gandhi figures on postage stamp issued in France

stamp today with image of #MahatmaGandhi to commemorate150th Birth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi @MEAIndia @PMOIndia @DrSJaishan-kar @IndAmbFrance @

GroupeLaPoste,” the Indian embassy in France tweeted.

Similar postage stamps were issued in Uzbekistan, Turkey, Palestine and other countries around the globe on Gandhi Jayanti.

The RBI may cut the key policy rate again on Friday, the fifth in row, to complement the government’s measures like reducing corporate

tax and promoting credit offtake to spur economic activity during the festive season amid range-bound inflation.

The Reserve Bank of India Governor Shaktikanta Das headed Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) will announce the fourth bi-monthly monetary policy for 2019-20 on Friday, October 4, after its three-day meeting.

RBI may go for another rate cut on Oct 4: Experts

A total of 34 func-tional teams have been formed to

smoothen the process of merger of United Bank of India (UBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB) and Oriental Bank of Com-merce (OBC), a senior official said.

The merger is sched-uled to come into force from April 1 next year.

“Thirty-four functional teams have been created to come out with solutions for the process of integra-tion,” a UBI official said.

A team comprises two members each from the three banks from different functional areas, he said.

“The functional teams will also try standardising

Ford Motor Co and Mahindra & Mahin-dra will form a joint

venture company in India valued at $ 275 million that will develop, market and distribute Ford branded vehicles in the country, the two companies said.

The two companies

34 functional teams to smoothen merger of UBI, PNB, OBC

Ford in JV with M&M

the loan process, credit terms and benefits ex-tended to the customers in the interim period till the merger comes into effect to avoid customer-related issues in the future,” the official said.

The UBI had conducted customer meets at Kolkata, Guwahati and Patna to allay their apprehensions about the future of bank-ing, the official said.

UBI managing director and CEO A K Pradhan had earlier said that though the balance sheet merger is likely to happen by April 1 next year, it will take another three to six months after that for the HR and IT integration to be completed.

have for months been ne-gotiating the deal, which will see Ford hold a 49pc

stake in the new en t i ty, while Indian rival Mahindra will own 51pc, Reuters report-ed in April.

By sh i f t -ing to a joint venture, Ford is changing its

India strategy where it has long run an indepen-dent operation. India’s autos market is dominated by Asian automakers like Suzuki Motor Corp and Hyundai Motor Co.

Mu k e s h Tr e n d s Life Style Lim-ited (MTLL), an

Ahmedabad based Com-pany primarily engaged and

specializing in the business of fabric processing, has filed its Draft Red Herring Prospectus with SEBI to file for its proposed IPO.

The Company seeks an issue of up to 10,000,000 equity shares of face value of Rs 10/- each according to

Mukesh Trends Life Style files for IPO

the DRHP filed with SEBI.The BRLM to this issue

is Pantomath Capital Advi-sors Private Limited.

MTLL, an integrated manufacturer, who commenced commer-cial production in 1900s and currently has its business opera-tions in 9 states and 1 union territory. It has a diverse offering across cellulosic products like

cotton, rayon, viscose as well as dyed and printed knitted and woven fabrics, blended fabrics which have wide scale applications in the garment industry

The IPO issue size will be approximately between Rs 70 to 90 crore.

Samco Securities, a Mumbai-based fintech start-up and one of

India’s fastest growing dis-count brokers has launched a new long term buy and hold research and invest-ment platform “StockBas-ket”. StockBasket enables retail investors to invest in India’s top companies and be part of India’s growth and wealth creation story. Inves-tors can select a StockBasket based on their goals, time ho-rizon, risk appetite or to play a long-term secular trend. Out of a total of 26 baskets currently available on the platform, “International Va-cation Basket”, “Leaders of

Samco Securities launches StockBasketTomorrow”, “India’s Biggest Brands”, “Retire in 2040”, “4x target in 10 years” are some of unique baskets that investors can pick from.

Each StockBasket com-prises of 6 - 25 stocks that are selected by SAMCO’s re-search team and are filtered based on SAMCO’s propri-etary stock rating framework and are constantly monitored by our research experts. The recommended holding period of each StockBasket is 5 years for retail inves-tors to truly reap benefits of compounding.

Investors can subscribe to each StockBasket on its Android and iOS app and

execute orders on the app in a single click on SAMCO’s execution trading platform.

In line with SAMCO’s low cost philosophy, a flat research subscription fee will be charged to the cus-tomers. Since each Basket is designed to pass a bond test i.e. pass the test of return of capital, if an investor earns absolute return of less than 0% after holding a Stock-Basket for a period of five years from the date of invest-ing, then SAMCO makes a commitment that they will refund the entire Research Subscription Fees collected from customer during this period.

Punjab National Bank (PNB) has convened an ex-traordinary general meeting (EGM) of its share-holders on November 4 to consider approval

of the amalgamation of Oriental Bank of Commerce (OBC) and United Bank of India (UBI) with itself.

This EGM, which was to be held on October 22, had recently been deferred. It has now been decided to hold the EGM on November 4 at the bank’s head office, sources said.

The EGM is also expected to approve the Centre’s capital infusion of about Rs 18,000 crore in PNB through preferential allotment of equity shares.

The earlier EGM date of October 22 had to be postponed as PNB was going through a leadership transition and a new Managing Director and CEO was to be appointed, it is learnt. The Centre has appointed SS Mallikarjun Rao, Managing Director of Allahabad Bank, as the next MD of Punjab National Bank, replacing incumbent MD Sunil Mehta, who demitted office on September 30.

Mega bank merger: PNB convenes EGM on Nov 4

The first Lions Club for transgender was inau-gurated by VP Nanda-

kumar, MD of Manappuram Finance and an International Director of Lions Clubs In-ternational. “Lions Club of Patna Dostana” has 20 mem-bers and was formed as a speciality club with Lion Reshma Prasad as its Charter President.

Lions Clubs International is spread in over 200 coun-tries of the world. The first Lions Club was founded by Lion Melvin Jones in the year 1917 at Chicago. It became International in the year 1920 when a club was

World’s fi rst Lions Club for Transgender Inauguratedopened in Canada. In 1957, young children were invited to become Leos. In the year 1957, to support community projects and service activities

Lions Clubs International Foundation was started. In the year 1987, after 70 years of its existence, women were invited to become Lions.

World’s first Couple Club Lions Club of Patna Couples and also Eastern India’s first All Women Lions Club of Pat-na Femina were inaugurated

in Patna in the year 1994. Now in the year 2019 on

September 21, world’s first Transgender Club was inau-gurated by VP Nandakumar,

MD & CEO of Manappuram Finance and an International Director of Lions Clubs In-ternational.

Speaking at the inaugu-ral function, Nandakumar congratulated the charter members of the club and thanked the members of Lions Club of Patna Vishal for sponsoring this unique Club. He appreciated the role of Past International Director V K Luthra and Past District Governor Dr T R Gandhi in motivating the transgender community to come to-gether for this purpose. He announced that the Manap-puram Foundation would

Bank of Baroda (BoB) has signed a Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with Indian Army, under

which the bank will offer customised ser-vices, along with a host of facilities to account holders.

The MoU includes free personal accident

BoB signs MoU with Indian Armyinsurance cover, free air accident insurance cover of Rs 15 lakh to Rs 50 lakh, and an overdraft facility up to three times

of the monthly net sal-ary, the public sector bank said in a statement.

The features are also applicable for pensioners of Indian Army up to the age of 70 years, it said.

assist the newly formed club with grants for implementing its social service projects, particularly for the education of poor children.

Lion Reshma Prasad, Charter President of the Club, said that by recogniz-ing third gender Lions Clubs International Lions have conveyed a strong message to all people that transgen-der is a respectable part of the community which has created confidence amongst them. The function was also attended by Lions Dis-trict Governor Dr Amitab Chowhary and past District Governor Prasoon Jaiswal.

8 Travel / Entertainment Friday, October 04, 2019

EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

Rates are subect to change without notice. Errors &omissions excepted

As on 03rd October, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 46.25 49.25 Bahraini Dinar 183.95 193.95British Pound 85.90 88.90Canadian Dollar 51.85 54.85Emirati Dirham 18.85 19.85 Euro 76.35 79.35 Kuwaiti Dinar 228.45 238.45Omani Rial 179.75 189.75Qatari Riyal 18.00 20.50 Saudi Riyal 18.00 19.50 Singapore Dollar 49.90 52.90 Swiss Franc 69.60 72.60US Dollar 69.75 72.25

Source:

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Atlantis Dubai Hotel on the Palm, which opened in 2008, is

an iconic landmark of Dubai and Kerzner International is taking it forward with an architectural and brand sequel --- the Royal Atlantis apartment resort complex.

Set to open in 2020, the design is unique and has two towers - a hotel tower, to the west, is separated from the residential tower, to the east. The division is done through an 80m tall, 50m wide arch that is spanned by a connect-ing bridge. This features, the developers promise, will deliver unique views of the Gulf and Dubai skyline.

The futuristic design is claimed to be architectural ode to and termination of the existing Atlantis Dubai. The 43-storey (185-metre) property is set to feature 90 swimming pools, includ-ing a rooftop infinity pool

Atlantis 2 takes shape on Dubai’s Palm Jumeirah

suspended 96 metres above The Palm on level 22. Own-ing an apartment can set

you back by Dhs7.65 mil-lion for an apartment, going

up to Dhs37.5 million for a penthouse. The complex will also house high profile

restaurants including Din-ner by Heston Blumenthal,

Milos by Costas Spiliadis, La Mar by Gastón Acurio, Jaleo by José Andrés, Hak-

kasan and Ariana’s Kitchen by Ariana Bundy.

Dubai’s Emirates to increase fl eet by 30pcIn an interview with the

Emirates World Inter-views podcast series with

Steve Harvey, Emirates pres-ident Sir Tim Clark said the airline had grown at an average rate of between 14 and 20pc over the last 20 years, but is currently going through a period of consoli-dation.

He said: “At some point it had to plateau. There are only so many cities that you can fly to. We’ve got to the situation where we have reached that kind of pla-teau of consolidation where we have the fleet operating extensively to the network that we’re working and it’s working very well.”

Emirates is the largest international airline in the world with a fleet of 270 aircraft, which includes 12 freight. However, Clark said the “demise” of the A380 air-craft, which saw the Dubai carrier adjust its final order for the superjumbo earlier this year, has forced the air-line to look at alternatives. As a result Emirates is set to take delivery of a range of new aircraft, including A330 NEOs, A350s and 787s

Emirates president Sir Tim Clark.

and 777s.New routes

“What we see now is we start taking these aircraft in the first quarter of 2021 and we will continue to ramp up bringing these in

between 2021 and 2025 and in that time you will see the network grow and flourish to many places in Africa we don’t fly to, other places in the MidEastern region, Asia and the US and also South America,” said Clark. “We’re just consolidating as we transition the fleet to more fuel efficient, more profitable aircraft for us, maintaining the high levels of product and offering a network of 350 of our own, possibly with

Flydubai it will be 450 or 500 aircraft flying probably to 450 destinations.

“We’re transitioning to that situation, everything is being mapped on that basis and we believe, with a high degree of confidence, we will be able to achieve that.”

Clark is also confident that Dubai will have the infrastructure to deal with that level of expansion.He said: “If you take the two airports together (Dubai International Airport and Dubai World Central), Dubai (DXB) will grow to a capac-ity of about 115 million to 120 million when we really push it. That’s what we have modelled in terms of runway usage, stand usage.”

“If you bolt that onto DWC you have the possibil-ity of 140 to 150 million pas-sengers per annum transiting through Dubai. That gives us the capability to do all the things I’ve mentioned. I believe that will be the way forward before we finally complete or the government completes all the major air-field masterplan in Dubai World Central, probably in the middle of the 2030s.”

NRI wins $1m in Dubai Duty Free raffl e

Praveen Aranha, an In-dian national living in Dubai for 16 years,

held ticket number 3069 in Series 312. Aranha will be sharing the prize money with two of his colleagues, who had shared the cost of the ticket with him. “I will save a portion for my daughter’s education who is currently in the US studying business ad-ministration,” Aranha said. “This is an amazing win and I think everybody should give it a chance, expect the unex-pected.” Aranha is the 151st Indian national to have won $1 million since its inception in 1999.

Passport necessary to visit Kartarpur GurdwaraPassport is a must for

devotees from India visiting Kartarpur Sa-

hib Gurdwara, where Guru Nanak Dev breathed his last, in Pakistan to pay obeisance. Nevertheless, visa will not be required. But the visitors need to get them themselves registered online at least a month ahead of their visit.

These facts came to light at a high-level review meet-ing chaired by Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh in Chandigarh to assess the progress of the corridor project with a team of offi-cers from the Centre. A $20 service charge will be levied by Pakistan from each visitor on passage through the Kar-tarpur corridor. A state gov-ernment functionary, who was present at the meeting, revealed that that Amarinder Singh had suggested any other government document like Aadhaar must be used in place of passports for iden-tification.

He said at the meeting the chief minister asked the Regional Passport Officer in Chandigarh to ensure a fast-track and accessible mecha-nism to deliver passport services to pilgrims on top priority. He also asked the ministry of external affairs to immediately start organising passport camps across the state to help the devotees.

P u n j a b m i n i s t e r

Sukhjinder Singh Rand-hawa, who attended the meeting, told the media that to facilitate pilgrims to apply online regarding their visit to Pakistan via the Kartarpur corridor a website would be launched soon. He said spe-cial arrangements have also been made for people who don’t have passports. They could apply for passports by paying a fee of Rs 1,500 at convenience centres or post offices near them and the whole process will be completed within one or two days after which they will get their passports. The chief minister will lead an all-party delegation across the border to Kartarpur Sa-hib on the opening day of the

Kartarpur Corridor on Nov 9.The delegation that will

accompany the chief minis-ter to the historic Gurudwara would comprise all the 117 state legislators, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha MPs from Punjab, Shriomani Gurud-wara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) members, as well as members of the Sant Samaj and representatives of each recognised political party in the state. Thereafter, 5,000 pilgrims will be able to visit the Gurduwara every day. Construction of the 4.2 km-long corridor is targeted to be completed by Oct 31, a week before the celebra-tions to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak Dev.

Erumely airport still a far cryThough Kerala State In-

dustrial Development Corporation (KSIDC)

gave a feasibility report on the proposed Erumely air-port on Dec 26, 2018, the state government is yet to act on it.

An RTI reply received by rights campaigner K Go-vindan Nampoothiri from the KSIDC says the report is under the government’s con-sideration but is silent on its progress. Reliable sources say that the government is yet to take action and the transport department had recently took the entire file regarding the Erumely

airport from the revenue department. However no action is taken so far. The nodal agency had paid Rs 4.67 core to Louis Berger for the study which was to com-plete in Aug last year. But the US-based multinational took three more months. In Aug 2017, the state ap-proved the recommendation of a three-member commit-tee headed by the additional chief secretary (revenue) PH Kurian to choose the 2,268-acre Cheruvally estate in Kanjirappally taluk for the greenfield airport targeting Sabarimala pilgrims.

The estate, spread across

Erumely South and Mani-mala villages, is still in the possession of the Believers Eastern Church and the government had recently issued an order for receiving taxes from the congregation, establishing its rights to the land. The RTI document says that the KSIDC had received two qualified bids from Rites--- KPMG con-sortium and Louis Berger. The selection was based on the quality and cost-based selection (QCBS) system and Louis Berger scored the maximum marks in both technical and financial evaluation.

Champions Boat League attracts more tourists to KeralaBuoyed by a healthy

surge in domestic tourist arrivals, Kerala

Tourism is all set with a new aggressive marketing campaign with a string of partnership meets being organised in 10 Indian cit-ies, showcasing a combina-tion of the state’s traditional art forms and its attractive products of touristy appeal.

The Champions Boat League (CBL) kick-started from late August, would go un-til the end of Nov. Conceived in the IPL format, it was aimed to be the main driver of mon-soon tourism this year.

Touted as a game-chang-ing initiative, the CBL is meant to professionalise Ker-ala’s largely scattered snake-boat races. The boat league commercialises them in a positive way. The CBL, whose Rs 5.9-crore prize money makes it the fourth highest in all sports in India, will mark

a paradigm shift in the state’s age-old culture of boat races.

Every weekend any tour-ist who comes to Kerala,

will be able to witness one Champions Boat Race in any of the tourism backwaters. It will end with the President’s

Trophy Boat Race in Kol-lam on Nov 23 holding 12 races during the intervening weekends. It will be a world

class experience for tourists.With remarkable partici-

pation in Patna, Lucknow, Indore and Bhopal during

July 2019, and in Pune dur-ing Aug 2019, and in Rajkot, Ahmedabad and Surat dur-ing Sept , Kerala Tourism

officials are in Mumbai now and look forward to the partnership meet being held later on at Nashik.

India’s tourism sector alive and kickingUnaffected by the eco-

nomic slowdown, the Tourism industry is

one of the fastest growing sec-tors in India, making signifi-cant contribution to the GDP. The major factors contribut-ing to the growth of the tour-ism sector include various government initiatives, such as e-visa, which has helped in attracting more international tourists. These steps have made India a preferred des-tination and opened up new horizons of career opportuni-ties in the world of tourism

and hospitality.“The biggest liberalisa-

tion to make feel tourist welcome had started with simplification of visa system. With a view to stimulating economic growth, increasing earnings from the export of services like tourism, medi-cal value travel, travel on account of business thereby making India an attractive destination for foreign direct and portfolio investment, the Union government has ap-proved various measures for liberalisation, simplification

and rationalisation of the visa regime in India,” said Meenakshi Sharma, Director General, Ministry of Tourism.

The measures include liberalisation of the e-visa scheme, tourist, business, medical and employment vi-sas. New categories of visas such as Intern visa and film visa have been introduced.Tourist arrival up

These steps have already shown results as the India-bound tourism is growing faster than the world, of-ficials said. Foreign tour-

ist arrivals in India during 2018 stood at 10.55 million as compared with 10.03 in 2017 registering a growth of 5.2pc. In the six-month period from Jan- July 2019, a total of 15,34,293 tourists ar-rived on e-tourist visa com-pared with 12,68,077 during Jan-July 2018. India has also put in tremendous efforts in promoting its tourism. In the last four years, India has se-riously implemented its pro-motion strategies in brand-ing, advertising, and selling of its tourism potentials.