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Prime Minster Narendra Modi and President Donald Trump wave to the massive crowds at the “Howdy Modi!” event in Houston. It was the first time that a US president addressed thousands of Indian-Americans at one place. Taking New Delhi’s ties with the US to new heights, Modi said: ‘Abki Baar, Trump Sarkar” in front of cheering crowds.

NEW DELHI: Doctors, nurses, dentists and midwives who wish to practise in the UK will no longer have to appear for English language tests like TOEFL and IELTS as Oc-cupational English Test (OET) scores, which candidates have to clear to register with the relevant healthcare regu-lator, will now be accepted.

The OET is an interna-tional English language test that assesses language com-munication skills of health-care professionals who seek

Doctors, nurses need not takeEnglish exam for UK jobs

to register and practise in an English-speaking envi-ronment. Candidates had to earlier take the OET to register with the Nursing and Midwifery Council and the General Medical Council, two healthcare boards in the UK, along with tests like TOEFL or IELTS to apply for a visa.

“The UK Home Office has streamlined English lan-guage testing ensuring that doctors, dentists, nurses and midwives, who have already passed an English language

test accepted by the relevant professional body, do not have to sit for another test before entry to the UK on a Tier-2 visa,” said Sujata Stead, CEO, Cambridge Box-hill Language Assessment, which conducts the OET.

“This change will make sure that hospitals and medi-cal practices across the coun-try will be able to access the staff they need more quickly,” she added. The change will apply to all Tier-2 (General) visa applications submitted

from Oct 1. The Occupa-tional English Test (OET) is designed to meet the specific English language needs of the healthcare sector. It assesses the language proficiency of healthcare professionals who wish to register and practise in an English-speaking envi-ronment.

The OET is conducted by Cambridge Boxhill Language Assessment (CBLA), a venture between Cambridge Assess-ment English and Box Hill Institute. (Contd. on page 2)

UNITED NATIONS: India was the leading country of origin of international mi-grants in 2019 with a 17.5 million strong diaspora, ac-cording to new estimates released by the United Na-tions, which said the number of migrants globally reached an estimated 272 million.

The International Mi-grant Stock 2019, a dataset released by the Population Division of the UN Depart-ment of Economic and So-cial Affairs (DESA), provides the latest estimates of the number of international mi-grants by age, sex and origin for all countries and areas of the world. The estimates are based on official national statistics on the foreign-born or the foreign population ob-tained from population cen-suses, population registers

At 17.5m, Indian diaspora world’s largest

Indians top in remittances from UAEDUBAI: Expatriates’ re-mittances from the UAE amounted to Dh80.96 billion during H1-2019. A total of Dh33.046 billion thereof was transferred through money exchange companies and the rest from the banks operating

in the country.India took home the

crown as the top-receiv-ing country for earnings made by migrants, compris-ing 37.2pc of total remit-tances during Q2. Indians are followed by Pakistani beneficiaries, comprising

10.5pc, then Filipinos 7.2pc in the third place with Egyptians making up 6.3pc, UK nation-als 3.8pc, Bangladesh-is 3.7pc, US nationals 3.3pc, Jordanians 2.6pc, the Swiss 2.2pc and Chi-nese 1.5pc.

or nationally representative surveys. The report said that the top 10 countries of origin account for one-third of all international migrants.

In 2019, with 17.5 million persons living abroad, India was the leading country of origin of international mi-grants. Migrants from Mex-ico constituted the second-largest diaspora (11.8m), followed by China (10.7m), Russia (10.5m), Syria (8.2 m), Bangladesh (7.8m), Paki-stan (6.3m), Ukraine (5.9m), the Philippines (5.4m) and Afghanistan (5.1m). India hosted 5.1 million interna-tional migrants in 2019, less than the 5.2 million in 2015. International migrants as a share of total population in India was steady at 0.4pc from 2010 to 2019.

The count ry hos ted

207,000 refugees, the report said adding that refugees as a share of international migrants

in the country was four per cent. Among the international migrants in the country, the female population was 48.8pc and the median age of interna-tional migrants was 47.1 years. In India, the highest number of international migrants came from Bangladesh, Pakistan

and Nepal. In 2019, region-ally, Europe hosted the larg-est number of international

migrants (82 m), followed by Northern America (59m) and Northern Africa and Western Asia (49 m).

At the country level, about half of all interna-tional migrants reside in just 10 countries, with the US hosting the largest number

of international migrants (51 m), equal to about 19pc of the world’s total. Germany

and Saudi Arabia host the second and third largest numbers of migrants (13m each), followed by Rus-sia (12 m), the UK (10m), the UAE (nine million), France, Canada and Austra-lia (around eight million each) and Italy (six million).

DUBAI: The Modi govern-ment surprised domestic markets as Finance Minis-ter Nirmala Sitharaman an-nounced “big bang” reforms to revive confidence in the flagging Indian economy by introducing a cut in corpo-rate tax to 25pc from 30pc along with other measures.The Sensex’s spurt, closing at a historic high, only affirms that the economy has high appetite for more reforms to build a resilient economy.

Uday Kotak, head of Kotak Mahindra Bank, said that reducing corporate tax rate to 25pc is “big bang reform... it signals that our government is committed to economic growth and sup-

Gulf NRIs hail India’s tax cutsports legitimate tax abiding companies. A bold, progres-sive step forward.”

Benchmark indices logged the steepest -ever gains in over 10 years. The Sensex advanced by 1075 points to 39,090 while the Nifty jumped by 326 points to 11,600. “The huge relief in corporate tax announced by Nirmala Sitharaman is real music to the ears, not only to the corporate world but for everyone do-ing business in India... let us hope that this deep tax cut will help spur growth and will be a fillip for the flag-ging economy. As the new corporate tax is one of the lowest in Asia, this will also

help to increase the flow of FDI to India,” said Dr Azad Moopen, founder chairman of Aster DM Healthcare.New reforms

The new reforms bring relief to domestic companies which will also not be re-quired to pay any Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT). The effective tax rate in this case would be 25.17pc , including cess and surcharge. Nirmala announced an even lower 15pc corporate tax rate for new domestic companies making fresh investment in manufacturing. These companies should have com-menced production on or before March 31, 2023, and would also get exemption

from MAT. She said that Taxation Laws (Amendment) Ordinance 2019 has already been praised to effect chang-es in the Income Tax Act and Finance Act of 2019.

A company that does not opt for concessional rate can continue to be charged at existing rate of corporate tax. Such companies can opt for concessional tax regime after expiry of tax holiday period or exemptions. But option once exercised cannot be withdrawn. In order to provide relief to companies enjoying concessions and tax incentives, MAT has been brought down from 18.5pc to 15pc. In another decision aimed at (Contd. on page 2)

RuPay developer eyes UAE’s Dh64.5b remittance marketDUBAI: National Payments Cor-poration of India (NPCI), devel-oper of the RuPay card brought to the UAE last month by Prime Minister Modi, plans to introduce its UPI digital payment system in the Emirates next year.

“I don’t think there’s any doubt in anyone’s mind that the UAE is one of the most important corri-dors for India,” said Praveena Rai, chief operating officer of NPCI, in Dubai. “India is the number one trade partner for UAE and if you look at it vice versa, UAE is the third-largest trade partner for In-dia. The Indian diaspora is a large, significant diaspora here. We have large merchants of Indian origin. And we really believe there is significant interest in the market.”

RuPay and UPI (Unified Pay-ments Interface) are two of the flagship products from NPCI, an umbrella organisation for retail payments systems backed by RBI and the Indian Banks’ Association. Rupay was started in 2011 as a home-grown card payment scheme meant to move India closer to a cashless society. RuPay cards are now being issued by more than 1,100 banks with a customer base of more than 600 million. It represents a 35pc share of India’s card transactions mar-ket. UPI is a mobile platform that can be used to instantly transfer funds between bank accounts, make purchases and remit money. It was introduced in 2016 and is regulated by India’s central bank.

Praveena Rai

Following Modi’s visit in late Aug, RuPay is being rolled out to 1.75 lakh merchant locations

across 21 businesses and close to 5,000 ATMs in the UAE. Lulu Group started accepting the card across its 74 outlets in the Emir-ates on Aug 25. Other merchant partners include NMC Health, As-ter, Jashanmal, Landmark Group,

Apparel Group, Al Maya Group, Emaar and DP World.

Bank of Baroda, Emirates NBD and First Abu Dhabi Bank will soon start issuing RuPay credit and debit cards in the UAE, but no date for these has been confirmed. Ananda Kumar, general manager at Bank of Baroda for the MidEast, said that the bank would start of-fering the card after the necessary regulatory approvals from the UAE Central Bank, but “definitely before the end of the year”.

As part of its push to promote the card in the UAE, NPCI an-nounced that RuPay card holders can get 40pc cash back of up to Rs 4,000 per day at merchants in the UAE on the Discover network — about half of all UAE merchants,

according to NPCI. The promo-tion is valid until March 31, 2020.

“The objective is to take the story out to RuPay international card users that their card is ac-cepted in the UAE and they can enjoy experiences that the UAE offers,” said Rai. “We want this to build up through the Dubai Shopping Festival” starting in Dec, she added.

Indian nationals account for about 30pc of UAE’s total expatri-ate population, according to the Indian embassy in Abu Dhabi. More than two million Indian tourists visited Dubai last year, making India the emirate’s top tourism source market. India is also the recipient of the largest percentage of personal remit-

tances coming from the UAE, accounting for 38.1pc of the Dh169.2 billion sent last year, ac-cording to the UAE Central Bank’s 2018 annual report.

NPCI’s new “UPI 2.0,” started in Aug 2018, enables NRI Indian bank account holders to send and receive money instantly from their smartphones without the need to enter bank account information or net banking credentials. NPCI plans to bring UPI to the UAE mar-ket next year and Rai said it would be a more affordable, faster and easier option than other remittance methods. “UPI 1.0 was largely an India-driven story. As part of UPI 2.0, we’ve also launched remit-tances as part of that platform functionality,” said Rai.

Oilfi eld attacks fail todampen Saudi economyLONDON: Saudi Finance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan has said that the weekend attacks on the Kingdom’s oil infrastructure would have “zero” impact on the country’s economy as concerns about global oil supplies eased. “In terms of revenues there is zero impact,” Al-Jadaan told a news agency.

“Aramco continued to supply the markets without interruption and therefore revenues should continue as they are.”

In a separate interview with Bloomberg, Al-Jadaan

said that after a boost to state spending, the government was “seeing momentum” in the non-oil economy and that he expected the sector to hit the 2.9pc expansion forecast by International Monetary Fund. Oil prices retreated after the com-ments, having jumped more than 20pc at one point — the largest spike since the 1990-91 Gulf War.

The International En-ergy Agency (IEA) said on Wednesday it remained in regular contact with au-thorities in Saudi Arabia and that for now, markets

remain well supplied with ample stocks available. IEA member countries hold about 1.55 billion barrels of emergency stocks in govern-ment-controlled agencies, which amount to 15 days of total world oil demand. In addition, IEA member countries also hold 2.9 bil-lion barrels of industry stocks as of the end of July, a two-year high that can cover more than a month of world oil demand, the Paris-based agency said.

These stocks include about 650 million barrels of obligated emergency stocks.

NRIs in UAE gearing up for property showDUBAI: The second edition of the India Real Estate Show (IRES) will be held on Oct 18 and 19 at the Jumeirah Emirates Towers, Dubai. The 2018 edition generated more than Dh 235 million (Rs 450 crore) worth of business, said sources. UAE is one of the key sources of NRI invest-ment into India, which ac-counts for 20pc of the total, followed by the US (18pc), the UK (seven per cent) and Canada (six per cent).

Hosted by Khaleej Times, IRES 2019 will assemble some of India’s largest real estate players and NRIs as well as other foreign investors in the country to discuss the Indian real estate sector and overseas financing options, among oth-er matters. Over 5,000 serious buyers/investors and 50 real estate developers showcasing

over 100 projects are expected to take part.

“For most NRIs, real es-tate will remain one of the favourite investment options in India due to a number of

reasons like higher volatility across other asset classes and significant improvement in the regulatory environment in the sector,” Venkatesh Go-palkrishnan, CEO, Shapoorji Pallonji Real Estate said. Experts stated that real es-tate was considered one of the most preferred assets for NRIs and there was a 15pc growth in NRI investments in India last year.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, September 24, 2019

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

Publisher: Supreet M.J.Editor : E.L. VaidyanathanVolume No.: 1, Issue: 100

Published at: Office No. 1001, 10th Floor,Navjivan Commercial Premises Co-op. Society Ltd.,Lamington Road, (Dr.D.B.Marg), Mumbai Central,

Mumbai - 400 008. Ph.: 022 - 23001102 / 23001103.Printed at: Inquilab Offset Printers Ltd., 156, D J Dadaji

Road, Tardeo, Mumbai-400 034, Maharashtra, India.

Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha MPs --Nusrat Jahan and Mimi Chakraborty-- perform new Durga Puja theme song in Kolkata.

Over six crore EPFO subscribers to get 8.65pc interest: GangwarNEW DELHI: Labour Min-ister Santosh Gangwar has said over six crore EPFO ac-counts will be credited with interest amount at 8.65pc interest rate for 2018-19 ahead of the festival season.

The Central Board of Trustees — the apex deci-sion-making body of the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) — had approved 8.65pc interest rate for the last fiscal. The proposal was sent for the concurrence of the finance ministry. Once approved by the finance ministry, the EPFO would credit the interest amount at 8.65pc

rate in subscriber accounts and settle claims on this rate.

At present, the EPFO is settling PF withdrawal claims at 8.55pc cent inter-est rate, which was approved for 2017-18. “…Ahead of the festival season, over six crore EPFO subscribers would get 8.65pc interest for 2018-19,” Gangwar told reporters on the sidelines of the National Safety Awards function here.

On the delay in notifying EPF interest rate, the minis-ter said: “Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman is busy these days. She has the file (proposal for EPF interest

rate for 2018-19). She does not disagree on this. The 8.65pc rate of interest approved by us would be provided to EPFO subscrib-ers for 2018-19. It should be done in a few days.”

On new infrastructure to be set through bodies under the labour ministry in the two union territories of J&K and Ladhak, the min-ister said: “The Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) would open a 30-bed hospital in Leh and 100-bed hospital in Srinagar. Besides, the EPFO would open its of-fices in Srinagar and Jammu and if needed in Leh also.”

On the issue of unem-ployment, he said: “The number of workers increased by two crore in all those establishments where 20 or more workers work in last three years. Their number increased from six crore to eight crore now. We are also working for over 40 crore un-organised sector workers in the country.” About having a true picture of employment scenario in the country, he said: “We are also working on employment generation data from all those busi-nesses where only one to two people work. They have got loans from the government.

Dhruva jaishankar joins ORFWASHINGTON: Dhruva Jaishankar, son of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishan-kar, has joined the Observer Research Foundation. ORF is currently organising a conference in Washington in collaboration with Heritage Foundation.

Dhruva Jaishankar, in his 30s, is a fellow in foreign policy studies at Brookings India in New Delhi and the Brookings Institution in Washington. He is also a non-resident Fellow with Lowy Institute in Australia. He contributes regularly on strategic affairs in the media. His research examines In-dia’s role in the international system and the effect of the global development on In-dia’s politics, economics and society, with particular focus on India’s relations with the

Dhruva Jaishankar

US, Europe and Indo-Pacific. He has also worked in TV

news.A multi-party delegation

would be participating in the conference, comprising Manish Tewari of Congress, Rajiv Pratap Rudy of BJP and Priyanka Chaturvedi of Shiv Sena. Some prominent policy makers and journal-ists will also be attending the event.

Indians feel working for one employer old fashionedNEW DELH: Over 75PC Indians believe that the notion of working for one employer your entire career is “old fashioned” and so is the traditional retirement, according to a survey. As much as 25pc Indians would want a second innings post-retirement in a career they loved, it said.

The survey also pointed out that 84pc Indians ended up choosing a career based on what they majored in but 31pc ended up switching careers eventually. Accord-ing to the survey, 78pc In-dians believe that students today have technology to support their learning and make it easier and more fun.

There is a strong belief (74-79 per cent) that smart devices will play a great-er role in learning, virtual learning will become more common, print textbooks will become obsolete and

YouTube will become a pri-mary learning tool.

More than 11,000 people from across 19 countries, including over 1,000 Indi-ans in the age group of 16 to 70, participated in the Pearson Global Survey. At least 22pc indicated that a formal education is good, but not necessary; 22pc said formal education is not relevant today as one can be successful without it, the survey report said. Of those who went to college, 39pc said if they had to choose again, they would get some kind of trade or vocational training instead of going to college while 15pc said they would go straight to work after leaving high school, the report stated. As high as 59pc Indians believed that the country’s education system worked well for the current generation, it added.

Around 25pc said that

when they retired, they would want to start their own business. About 24pc would like a second innings doing something they loved and 15pc would like to take up a part-time job, the survey data showed. The report stat-ed that 76pc Indians, in the last two years, found them-selves in need of pursuing further education for their jobs. Their jobs had changed and the new skills required involved learning new tech-nology or software (44pc) or accounting for skills they did not learn in college (45pc), it said. “This tended to be accomplished by finding things on the Internet and being self-taught (50pc) or taking a short course offered by employer, association or boot camp (48pc),” the report said. As high as 78pc of the respondents said there was need to do more to develop their soft skills, it said.

Sharjah book fair to begin on Oct 30SHARJAH: The 38th edition of the Sharjah International Book Fair (SIBF) will be held from Oct 30 to Nov 9, the Sharjah Book Authority (SBA) has announced.

According to Ahmed bin Rakkad Al Ameri, chairman of the SBA, this year’s book fair will be carrying the theme of the Sharjah World Book Capital ( S W B C ) – “Open Books Open Minds”, to promote b o o k s a n d r e a d i n g a c r o s s a g e groups and communities. Authors, pub-lishers, intel-lectuals and artists from across the globe will bring their experiences and exper-tise to the popular annual event and add colours to its vibrant cultural programme.

“As a cultural beacon of the region, a position Shar-jah rose to resulting from the leading efforts of His Highness Sheikh Dr Sultan bin Muhammad Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Shar-jah, it is our primary goal to foster an environment of knowledge and innovation built on the foundations of books and reading. As the Unesco World Book Capital 2019 we are bringing an exceptional literary and cul-tural offering to the Sharjah International Book Fair, the world’s third largest celebra-tion of the book,” said Al Ameri. “The 38th edition of the SIBF has assumed

the same theme as Sharjah World Book Capital’s to emphasise the emirate’s significant achievements as an international hub for authorship, culture and creativity. This will be an ex-ceptional edition of the book fair, where our events and discussions will all shine a spotlight on the book’s

ability to ignite people’s minds, appreciate cultural differences and bring them closer,” he added.

“Today, this annual cul-tural event has become an inseparable component of Emirati identity and Arab culture. The SBA is dedi-cated to ensuring that the SIBF will always be a plat-form for vibrant exchange between Arab and interna-tional authors and a place visitors will leave with new learnings about themselves and other civilisations.” Al Ameri concluded. Last year, over 2.23 million people vis-ited the 37th edition of the Sharjah book fair, of which 230,000 were students. The 11-day book fair hosted Ja-pan as the guest of honour. Azzedine Mihoubi, Algeria’s Minister of Culture, was named the edition’s Cultural Personality of the Year.

DUBAI: Several leading expatriate business-men from the Indian diaspora in the UAE pledged millions towards the construction of the India Pavilion at Dubai Expo 2020. Visiting Minister for Commerce and Indus-try Piyush Goyal unveiled the theme and de-sign of the India Pavilion being constructed at the Dubai Expo 2020 site.

Prominent among them were MA Yusuf Ali, Dr Azad Moopen, Irfan Allana, Vinay Shetty and representatives of other leading groups who presented letters of commitment to Goyal, pledging huge amounts towards construction of the sprawling 4,800-square-feet pavilion. Vipul, the consul general of India to the UAE, said: “The total cost of the pavilion is estimated at Dh250 million and a substantial percentage of that will be met by the generous contributions being made by Indian businessmen of the UAE.”

Congratulating the UAE government for this unique opportunity to showcase Indian culture, heritage and business, Goyal thanked the Indian diaspora comprising 3.3 million people in UAE for their contribution towards the growth story of India. “India is evolving every day and engaging with the

Indians in UAE to fi nance pavilion at Expo 2020

rest of the world and is destined to be a su-perpower soon. This is the best time in the global eco system for India to engage with the rest of the world.”

In her presentation, Sangeeta Reddy, president-elect of the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce (FICCI) that has en-tered into a partnership with the Indian gov-ernment on this project, said: “The theme of the pavilion is “The Future is India”. We strongly believe in this and we are taking care to uphold aesthetics, technology and culture in the construction of the project.”

“A tall statute of the father of the Nation Mahatma Gandhi will be the key sculpture at the entrance of the pavilion. The 5,000-year history of our ancient Indian culture will be narrated through 170 dynamic programmes taking place on all 170 days of the Expo.

“Diwali 2020 and Indian Republic Day celebrations for 2021 will be the main events that will showcase India’s achievements and future goals. Every aspect of India from culture to art, entertainment, gems and jew-ellery, cuisines, businesses, start-ups, space programme and so on will find a representa-tion at the pavilion.”

You can change address in Aadhaar cardNEW DELHI: Have you recently shifted or relo-cated to a new residential address? Are you facing problem in updating your address on your Aadhaar card? You need not worry as the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has provided two ways to change the address on your Aadhaar card. You can ei-ther do it online or visit any nearby Aadhaar Centre.

There are 44 documents which you can submit for updating your address in

the Aadhaar card. If you want to update your address in Aadhaar, ensure that the supporting documents is: 1) One of the 44 valid docu-ments listed on the UIDAI site.2) Your name on those documents should be same as that on Aadhaar.

Some of the acceptable supporting documents for address verification include passport, bank passbook, bank statement, voter id, post office passbook, elec-tricity bill (not older than 3 months), water bill ( not

older than 3 months), gas connection bill ( not more than 3 months), vehicle registration certificate, mar-riage certificate and school leaving certificate among others.Your name on those documents should be same as that on Aadhaar.

You can update or change your address online. Only those individuals whose mo-bile numbers are registered with UIDAI will be able to do it. Since online transactions are OTP authenticated, mo-bile number is mandatory for

online update to receive OTP.The address on your

Aadhar card can also be updated by visiting your nearest Aadhaar centre. You need to carry valid and origi-nal documents for updation at these centres. Original documents will be scanned and handed back to you. Besides, UIDAI provides another facility to update address of family members online. This is done with the help of an address valida-tion letter. After you request for generation of Aadhaar

validation letter on UIDAI website, the address verifier will get an SMS with link to give consent for the update. Clicking on the link will lead to the generation of an OTP for giving consent. Once the consent of the Aadhaar veri-fier is received, an address validation letter with secret code is sent to his or her address by post within the next 30 days.

Though Aadhaar is no longer mandatory for ser-vices such as opening a bank account or getting a new

SIM card, it continues to be important for filing your in-come tax returns. Ensuring that your Aadhaar details is accurate and updated is necessary. The address on your Aadhaar card can also be updated by visiting your nearest Aadhaar centre. You need to carry valid and origi-nal documents for updation at these centres. Original documents will be scanned and handed back to you. Besides, UIDAI provides another facility to update address of family members

online. This is done with the help of an address valida-tion letter. After you request for generation of Aadhaar validation letter on UIDAI website, the address verifier will get an SMS with link to give consent for the update. Clicking on the link will lead to the generation of an OTP for giving consent. Once the consent of the Aadhaar veri-fier is received, an address validation letter with secret code is sent to his or her address by post within the next 30 days.

Doctors, nurses need not... (Contd. from page 1)Cambridge Assessment English is a not-for-profit department of the University of Cambridge. The test is recognised as proof of English proficiency for registration purposes by major healthcare boards and councils in the UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Dubai, Singapore, Namibia and Ukraine. It is also accepted in Australia and New Zealand for visa and immigration purposes.The OET is used as an entry or exit test for healthcare courses by educators and as recruitment criterion for employment of healthcare professionals. The test is conducted for health practitioners from 12 professions — dentistry, dietetics, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, optometry, pharmacy, physiotherapy, podiatory, radiography, speech pathology and veterinary science.

(Contd. from page 1)ensuring flow of funds in the capital market, the enhanced sur-charge provided in Finance Act 2019 shall not apply to capital gains arising on sale of equity shares in a company or a unit of equity oriented business trust. The enhanced surcharge shall also not apply on capital gains arising on sale of any securities, including derivatives in the hands of foreign portfolio investors.

The government has also provided relief to companies such as Infosys that announced a share buyback plan, before the new buyback tax was introduced in the budget. Nirmala said that any listed entity that has already made a public an-nouncement of a buy back before July 5, 2019 will not have to pay tax. The government has also decided to expand the scope of the two per cent corporate social responsibility (CSR) fund that companies have to provide for identified activities. This amount can now also be spent on the incubator funded by the central or state government agency or PSUs of central and state governments. The CSR funds can also be used for R&D activities of IITs and other autonomous bodies.

Nirmala said that the announcements on corporate tax would result in total duty forgone to the tune of Rs 1.45 trillion a year.

Gulf NRIs hail India’s tax...

Tuesday, September 24, 2019 3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

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Sudoku Puzzle

The world can be conveniently divid-ed into three- in-

troverts, extroverts, and ambiverts. This can actu-ally have an impact on people’s happiness levels, a new study has revealed. The study published the Journal of Experimental Psychology, has pointed out that those who be-have like extroverts have elevated moods.

A group of 131 people were asked to behave like

Extroverts are happier than introvertsboth, introverts, and extro-verts for a week, and the differences in happiness levels were compared. However, they were only informed about the char-acteristics they had to adopt, instead of directly being told if they were related to being introverts or extroverts. The par-ticipants were randomly divided into either group.

The characteristics as-signed for being an extro-

vert required the people to be spontaneous, talkative and assertive. For being introverts they were asked to be deliberate, quiet and reserved. Surveys were then conducted to exam-ine their happiness and wellbeing.

Those who behaved like extroverts had better mood, while those who were introverts were not as happy as extroverts. Sonja Lyubomirsky, one of

the authors of the study said, “We thought that in-troverts would not benefit from acting extroverted as much, or would not be as happy as extroverts.” However, the contrary was true. When introverts took on the attributes of extroverts and behaved in a more talkative way, they got happier.

“The paper suggests if people have a tendency to be more introverted

and then intentionally engage in extroverted be-havior, they still benefit,” opined Jennifer Beckjord, senior director of clinical services at UPMC Western Psychiatric Hospital.

To sum up, the authors highlighted that personal-ity has a major role to play when it comes to well-being. This study also supplements research on broadening personality psychology methods.

One of the most com-monly prescribed classes of antibi-

otics may be associated with two types of heart problems, a study claims.

The study, published in the Journal of the Ameri-can College of Cardiology, found that current users of fluoroquinolone antibiot-ics, such as Ciprofloxacin, face a 2.4 times greater risk of developing aortic and mitral regurgitation, where the blood backflows into the heart, compared to patients who take amoxi-cillin, a different type of antibiotic.

The greatest risk is within 30 days of use, ac-cording to the researchers at the University of Brit-ish Columbia (UBC) in Canada.

Recent studies have also linked the same class of antibiotics to other heart problems, they said.

Some physicians favour fluoroquinolones over other antibiotics for their broad spectrum of antibacterial activity and high oral ab-sorption, which is as effec-tive as intravenous, or IV, treatment.

“You can send patients home with a once-a-day

pill,” said Mahyar Etminan, an associate professor at UBC.

“This class of antibiot-ics is very convenient, but for the majority of cases,

especially community-re-lated infections, they’re not really needed. The

inappropriate prescribing may cause both antibiotic resistance as well as seri-

ous heart problems,” said Etminan.

The researchers hope their study helps in-form the public and physicians that if pa-tients present with cardiac issues, where no other cause has been discovered, fluo-roquinolone antibiot-ics could potentially be a cause.

“This study high-lights the need to be thoughtful when pre-scribing antibiotics,

which can sometimes cause harm,” said Bruce Carleton, a research investigator at

Commonly used antibiotics linked with heart problemsUBC Children’s Hospital.

Scientists analysed data from the US Food and Drug Administration’s adverse reporting system.

They also analysed a massive private insurance health claims database in the US that captures demo-graphics, drug identifica-tion, dose prescribed and treatment duration.

Researchers identified 12,505 cases of valvular regurgitation with 125,020 case-control subjects in a random sample of more than nine million patients.

They defined current

fluoroquinolone exposure as an active prescription or 30 days prior to the adverse event, recent ex-posure as within days 31 to 60, and past exposure as within 61 to 365 days prior to an incident.

Scientists compared fluoroquinolone use with amoxicillin and azithro-mycin.

The results showed that the risk of aortic and mitral regurgitation, blood backflow into the heart, is highest with current use, followed by recent use, researchers said.

About 6,000 students of SRM Institute of Science and Tech-

nology (SRMIST), formerly SRM University, have se-cured job offers during the current year place-ment season.

Most of the job offers were made in the IT services followed by IT product compa-nies.

The highest sal-ary package was made by Microsoft, at Rs 41.6 lakh per annum.

Other top offers were from Amazon, which made 18 offers in the CTC range of Rs 32 lakh per annum, followed by Barclays (25 offers of Rs 10 lakh per annum) and start-up firm Udaan (four offers of Rs 30 lakh per annum).

The big four IT com-

At SRM Institute, 6,000 students bag job offers

panies — TCS, Infosys, Cognizant and Wipro — have made 4,749 offers to the graduating class of 2020, beating their previous year’s combined job offers

of 3,020.More than 120 com-

panies have visited the campus this year since the commencement of the placement season on July 22. They have made close to 6,000 offers (including day one offers) as of now, according to Sriram S Pad-

manabhan, Director, Career Centre, SRMIST,

TCS (Ninja) has made 1,437 offers, followed by Infosys (1,315), Cognizant (1,175) and Wipro (822).

Apart from this, TCS has made 183 offers under ‘Digital Track’ (CTC of 7 lakh per annum).

“This is the highest number of offers made by these four companies in any single campus in the country, he said.

Also, organisations such

The Life Insurance Corporation of In-dia (LIC) has invited

candidates to apply for a number of Assistant posts at licindia.in. Candidates who wish to apply for the post of Assistant can visit the official website now as the application link is active. Through this recruitment process, candidates will be selected to perform various duties including cashier, single-window operator, customer service executive. It is to be noted that the Corpora-tion aims to fill over 7500 Assistant vacancies across various regional offices. Check the details below to know more.Important Dates

Online registrat ion starts – September 17, 2019

Online registration ends – October 1, 2019

Last date for printing applications – October 22, 2019

The ONGC has re-leased a recruitment notification and said

that candidates would get

7th Pay Commission ben-efits.

The ONGC has invited applications for the posts of Assistant Electrical Engi-neer, Programming Officer, Transport Officer, Mate-rial Management Officer, Geophysicist, Geologist, Chemist.

“ONGC is looking for

The Indian Railways has invited candidates to apply for a number

of posts across various divi-sions at indianrailways.gov.in. Interested candidates can visit the official website of Indian Railway and fill the online application for the posts on offer to take part in

the recruitment process. The details for Northern Railway as well as for South East Central Railways has been mentioned below separately. Check detail and then apply on their respective websites.Northern Railway Jobs

The Ministry of Rail-ways, Railway Recruitment Cell, Northern Railway,

LIC to fi ll over 7500 posts

ONGC releases recruitment notification

Railways to recruit for multiple postsOnline Fee payment

– September 17, 2019 to October 1, 2019Eligibility Criteria

Age limit: Minimum 18 years and Maximum 30 years as on September 1, 2019

Salary: The Pay Scale of LIC Assistant (Clerk) is Rs. 14435-840(1)-15275-915(2)-17105-1030(5)-22255-1195 (2)-24645-1455(3)-29010-1510(2)-32030-1610(5)-40080. The Basic Pay of LIC assistant is Rs 14435/- per month. Candidates selected for the post of Assistant will also get to enjoy other perks that include – admis-sible allowances, House Rent Allowance, Travel Al-lowance and Dearness Al-lowance. The total in-hand salary of an LIC Assistant goes up to Rs Rs 30,000/- per month.How to apply

Application fees: For SC/ST/PwBD candidates: Rs 85 + Transaction charg-

promising, energetic and young Indian citizens with a bright academic record to join the organisation

as Class-l executive (at E-1 level) in the engi-neering and Geo-Science disciplines. The selected candidates may be post-ed anywhere in India or abroad depending upon the requirements of the organisation,” reads an of-ficial notification.

The basic pay will be

Delhi has invited applica-tion for over 100 Multi-Tasking Staff posts in the Catering Unit. Check the details below and then ap-ply accordingly.Important Dates

Application Process ends: October 15, 2019 till 12 PM

Tenta-tive date for writ-ten exam-i n a t i o n : After Oc-tober 31, 2019

P o s t Details –

Multi-Tasking Staff in Cater-ing Unit

Catering Unit – Service Side: 94 Posts

Catering Unit – Cooking Side: 24 Posts

Salary: Candidates will be paid as per the Level 1 of the Pay Matrix of 7th CPC.Eligibility Criteria

Age limit: 18 to 33 years

as Veritas and PayPal have made the internship offers whereby selected students would work in the compa-nies during their final se-mester with a good prospect

of bagging offers.“More than 100

internships have been offered so far,” said Padma-nabhan said add-ing, “We arrange mock interviews and impart ad-vanced comput-ing skills to the students as they prepare for the

placement season.SRMIST, home to more

than 20,000 students, cen-tralised the placement pro-cess at its Kattankulathur campus near Chennai and brought students from its other campuses in Mo-dinagar, Ramapuram and Vadapalani.

es + GST. For all other candidates: Application fee-cum-intimation charges of Rs 510 + transaction charges + GST

Application Process: Candidates who wish to apply for the posts on offer can visit the official web-site of LIC India at licindia.in. On the homepage, click on ‘Careers.’ Now click the link that says ‘Recruitment of Assistants 2019.’ Now select the name of the city that you wish to apply for. Proceed with the form and complete the process.Selection Process and pro-bation

Candidates will be se-lected through a two-tier process and subsequent Pre-recruitment medical examination. Once, a can-didate is appointed as an Assistant, he/she shall be on probation for a period of six months from the date of appointment which can be extended up to one year.

Rs 60,000 to 1,80,000. There would also be an an-nual increment of three per cent. Further, the employee

is entitled to al-lowances of 35 per cent of the ba-sic pay under caf-eteria approach, dearness allow-ance, HRA/Com-pany accommoda-tion, contributory Provident fund, conveyance main-tenance, leave en-cashment, PRP, medical facility, gratuity, post-re-tirement benefits

and composite social se-curity scheme etc. as per company rule.

The age limit is 30 years and for OBC and SC/ST category candidates it is 33 and 35 years as on July 31, 2020. The selected candidates will be paid as per the pay matrix of the 7th Pay Commission.

Educational Qualifica-tion: Candidates should have passed class 10th with ITI in Food Beverages/Food & Beverages Guest Services under CTS for Catering Unit – Service Side post. For the Catering Unit – Cooking Side, candidates should have passed class 10th with ITI in Bakery and Confectionery/Baker and Confectioner/Food & Produc-tion under CTS.How to Apply:

Application Fees: Rs 500Interested candidates can

visit the official website of Northern Railways to fill the application form in the prescribed format.

South East Central Rail-way Jobs

The South East Central Railway, Bilaspur has in-vited candidates to apply for a number of Group ‘C’ and Group ‘D’ posts. Check the details below and then apply accordingly.

Important Dates: Last

date for online application is October 13, 2019

Post Details: Group ‘C’ (Level 2): 02; Group ‘D’: 08Eligibility Criteria

For Group ‘C’ (Level 2): Candidates should have passed class 12th with a minimum of 50 per cent marks or Higher qualifica-tion such as Graduate/Post Graduate degree OR IIT Passed in (Civil/Electrical/Mechanical and S&T depart-ments) approved by NCVT or SCVT.

For Group ‘D’: For this post it is important that candidates have passed class 10th with National Ap-prentice Certificate (NAC) approved by NCVT OR 10th Passed with ITI (Civil/Electrical/Mechanical and S&T departments) OR 10th or IIT passed.

How to Apply: Candi-dates can apply at secr.indianrailways.gov.in on or before October 13, 2019 in the prescribed format online.

IN FOCUS6 Tuesday, September 24, 2019

GULF FAQsI am currently employed in an organisa-tion and have not received my salary for the months of June, July and Aug 2019 from my employer. I intend to file a complaint with the Ministry of HR and Emiratisa-tion (the MOHRE) in order to recover my pending salaries. How can I recover the salaries due to me, without any action being taken by my employer?

Pursuant to your query, we assume that you are employed by a company based in the mainland of UAE and therefore, the provisions of Federal Law No. (8) of 1980 regulating Employment Relations in the UAE (the “Employment Law”) and Minis-terial Decree No. 739 of 2016 concerning the protection of wages (the “Ministerial Decree No. 739 of 2016”) are applicable. As per the Employment Law, it may be noted that an employee shall be remunerated at least once a month. This is in accordance with Article 56 of the Employment Law which states: “Employees engaged on yearly or monthly remuneration shall be paid remuneration at least once a month, all other workers shall be paid at least once every two weeks.” Therefore, non-payment of salary by an employer is a violation of the Employment Law. If an employer does not remunerate an employee within one month of the salary becoming due, it shall be considered as a refusal of the employer to remunerate an employee. This is in ac-cordance with Article 1(b) of Ministerial Decree No. 739 of 2016, which states: “The employer shall be deemed late in paying unless he pays the salary within the first 10 days as of maturity date, and shall be deemed as refusing to pay the salary un-less he pays it within one month as of the maturity date, unless a less term is set/provided in the contract.”

Further, it may be noted that an em-ployee is allowed to leave his place of work without notice, if the employer does not fulfil his obligations towards the em-ployee. This is in accordance with Article 121 of the Employment Law which states: “An employee may leave his work without notice in either of the following cases:

a) If the employer fails to comply with his obligations towards him, as provided for in the contract or in this law;

b) If he is assaulted by the employer or the employer’s legal representative.”

In view of the foregoing, you may file a complaint against your employer with the MOHRE concerning the non-payment of salary for the last three months. While complaining to MOHRE, you may inform them that you intend to continue with the current employment and your demands are only related to settlement of salaries which are not paid to you.Tax on MF

I am an NRI and have invested Rs 2 crore in mutual funds (MFs). If I become a resident Indian and opt for monthly divi-dend option with a return of 10pc, what will be the tax amount that will be deducted from my monthly dividend income? Apart from this, is there any other tax I need to pay to the government of India?

Dividend received from registered mutual funds are exempt from income tax. Nev-ertheless, redemption/sale of mutual fund units attract income tax in the following manner, for equity-oriented mutual funds, redemption within one year from purchase is treated as short term capital gains and tax is payable at 15pc on such gains plus cess and surcharge, if applicable, in case the said nature of funds are redeemed post one year, it is treated as long-term capital gains and tax is payable at 10pc on such gain plus cess and surcharge, if applicable if the quantum of such gain/s exceed Rs 1 lakh. For debt mutual funds, on redemption within two years, tax is payable as per income slabs for individuals/senior citizens/super senior citizens on such gains plus cess and sur-charge, if applicable. On redemption post two years, tax is payable at 20pc on such gains plus cess and surcharge, if applicable.Notice period

I am an engineer employed by my cur-rent employer on an employment contract of unlimited duration. I have completed two years and six 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

Unpaid salary, what to do?completion of 90 days of notice period?

We assume that you are employed in a mainland based firm in UAE and there-fore, 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 employment agreement then he should compensate 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 termina-tion 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 terminated if any of the following in-stances occurs:

2) One party acts, at any time, to ter-minate the contract subject to notifying the other party and continuing to honour con-tractual 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 termi-nated if any of the following instances occurs:

• One party (employer or employee) acts unilaterally to terminate the contract, with-out complying with the legal conditions described in 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.” As you have resigned by serving 45 days of notice period and willing to compensate your employer by paying 45 days of remuneration for not serving the entire 90 days of notice, your actions are well within the framework of Employment Law.

A variety of festivities were organised with gaiety and fervour to mark the celebrations of the 89th Saudi National Day in Jeddah.

ABU DHABI: Places of wor-ship such as churches, temples and gurudwaras will now be regulated by the DCD. As many as 18 non-Muslim places of worship across Abu Dhabi will be granted licences at a special event. Under the slogan “A Call for harmony”, the Department of Community Development in Abu Dhabi (DCD) announced that it will organise the ceremony to license these existing places of worship at the Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi on September 22, 2019. The foundation stone for the region’s first traditional stone Hindu temple was laid in the capi-tal in April this year.

The decision is to bring all the institutions of wor-ship under one licence um-brella in an effort to assist their day-to-day running, according to authorities.

Non-Muslim places of worshipin Abu Dhabi to get licences

Worship places such as churches, temples and Gu-rudwaras for Sikhs will now be regulated by the DCD. Previously, non-Muslim places of worship were not officially recognised by law, according to authorities.

“The aim of licensing the worship places is to provide an official unified channel within the government for religious bodies to go for special services and when they need advice or sup-port,” Sultan al Dhaheri, the Executive Director of Com-munity Engagement and Sport at the DCD, said. “If any public or private enti-ties want to establish new places of worship or set up related services, they should contact the department.”

Al Dhaheri explained that the department has put in place several require-ments to be submitted in by the worship places and

if all the requirements are met, the application will be opened which goes through several stages of approval before a licence is granted or rejected. According to the DCD, licencing these places of worship will contribute to boosting Abu Dhabi’s re-gional and global standing, as it advocates peace, toler-ance and coexistence. The licensing ceremony, which will be attended by around 250 government leaders, in addition to a number of re-ligious figures, businessmen and media representatives, emphasizes Abu Dhabi’s efforts in promoting the values of brotherhood, love, and harmony amongst all segments of society.

The department said it has worked on developing legal frameworks, policies and procedures which en-sure the rights of citizens of all religions to practise

their faith seamlessly, in accordance with UAE laws and regulations and without affecting the authenticity of UAE’s customs and tradi-tions. The DCD officials have met with all those in charge of places of worship, as well as a number of re-ligious figures representing different religions and sects and they were introduced to the conditions and policies that must be met in order for places of worship to obtain licences. The licens-ing ceremony will include a number of events highlight-ing religious, cultural and demographic diversity in the emirate of Abu Dhabi, while highlighting Abu Dhabi’s societal integration and coexistence that has been one of the emirate’s distinguishing attributes throughout history. Abu Dhabi is home to several churches and a Gurudwara.

NEW DELHI: Seven people were arrested as Delhi Police unearthed a complete press used in printing fake visas and forging passports in the capital. Besides arrest, police have recovered large numbers of documents, passports, various coun-tries’ arrival and departure stamps, forged holograms and much more from the possession of the accused.

According to Rajesh Deo, Deputy Commissioner of Police (DCP), Crime Branch, the agents involved in the racket have been identified as Jitender Ku-mar Mandal of Dhangarhi in Nepal, Pradeep Kumar Kattamuri of Vishakhapat-nam, Andhra Pradesh, and

Passport, visa forgery gang busted in DelhiVipin Sharma, of Paharganj in Delhi.

“While the mastermind behind the syndicate has been identified as Manjeet and his associate has been identified as Vijay Kumar, both residents of Vaishali in UP. Police have also ar-rested two middlemen iden-tified as Gagan Singh and Asha Rani and the printer identified as Jitender Ku-mar,” said the DCP.

A complaint was re-ceived that three Nepalese nationals were duped to the tune of Rs1.5 million by Jitendra, Bijay, Biren and Binod on the pretext of providing them jobs in Canada. During investiga-tion, the forged visa stickers

were provided by Gagan, he was arrested and disclosed that, Asha provided the stickers after which she was also arrested. Asha revealed that Vijay provided her the stickers.

Accordingly, Vijay was also arrested, who disclosed that the forged stickers were prepared by Manjeet Singh who was also arrested and on his instance a complete unit of printing forged stickers and passports in-cluding forged visa stickers of Canada and Schengen, forged passports, forged bio-data pages of Indian passports and other devices were seized. The gang usu-ally targeted young job aspirants from Nepal who

wanted to get jobs in for-eign countries. They lured them initially in Nepal by giving them false assurance of providing them good jobs in Canada.

Thereafter, they took an initial amount from them in Nepal itself and then they used to call them to Delhi and take their passports for allegedly depositing them in the embassy of Canada for the purpose of applying for the visas. However, instead they would affix forged visa stickers on their passports and send the victims pictures and visa stickers on their mo-bile phones through What-sapp and after taking the balance amount they would disappear, the DCP said.

Govt to form panel for merger of NRI, FPI routesNEW DELHI: The government is planning to form a high-level panel to look into the merger of NRI investment and Foreign Portfolio Investment (FPI) routes. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman had also announced the merging of the two investment routes in her budget speech earlier this year.

A committee formed by market regulator SEBI had recommended the merger in 2018. The high-level panel will comprise representatives from RBI , SEBI and the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). However, the cen-tral bank has expressed its reservations over the merger, sources said. It is concerned that a merger will impact deposits held by NRIs in non-resident external (NRE) ac-counts. FPIs are not permitted to open rupee-denominated accounts for savings and fixed deposits. Currently, NRI accounts hold deposits worth $93 billion (Rs 7-lakh-crore). The panel will also explore ways to ease compliance burden for NRIs after the merger, since they are usually individual investors while FPIs are institutional investors.

US-Indians back dual citizenship WASHINGTON: A recent survey conducted by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) US has revealed that the Indian-American community overwhelmingly supports dual citizenship. The survey, which was conducted ahead of Narendra Modi’s visit to the US, also shows that NRIs prefer proxy voting instead of direct postal ballots.

The survey covered topics ranging from immigration issues, investment, dual citizenship, double taxation and transfer of social security funds. Among those surveyed, the demand for dual citizenship received maximum support with a 4.4 star rating. “While citizens of many other countries have had the ability to apply for US citizenship without renouncing the citizenship of their home country, non-resident Indians have been requesting this same opportunity from the Indian government for many years without luck,” FIIDS said.

The Indian government currently has no provisions for dual citizenship, though the 2005 amendment in the Citizen-ship Act of 1955 gave NRIs, Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) which has some features in common with dual citizenship.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, September 24, 2019

ICICI Bank targets 30pc growth in retail loans in Karnataka this fiscalThe bank has crossed

the milestone of 5,000 retail branches recently

Private sector ICICI Bank has opened 320 bank branches this financial year and has crossed the milestone of 5,000 retail branches. In all, it plans

ICICI Bank eyes 450 retail branches this fi scal

to open 450 new branches this fiscal.

“ICICI Bank will expand its retail network in the

country by adding 450 new branches this fiscal. Of these, the bank has made 320 branches operational for customers,” it said in a statement.

The milestone branch was set up at Thane in Ma-

harashtra and also marks 25 years of the commence-ment of the bank’s first retail branch at Cenotaph Road in Chennai.

With this, the bank now has a wide network of over 5,190 branches, extension counters and ATMs across the country. “Nearly half of the branches are in rural and semi-urban areas to facilitate financial inclu-sion in the country,” the statement said.

“Our strategy is to set up branches wherever busi-ness activity emerges. In line with this strategy, we have chalked out a plan of setting up around 450 branches this fiscal in fresh catchments and micro-markets where economic activity is present,” said

Anup Bagchi, Executive Director, ICICI Bank add-ing that another set of 130 branches will also be customer ready by end of this fiscal.

The branches are being set up in fresh catchments and micro-markets where economic activity is pres-ent. “Our strategy is to set up branches wherever business activity emerges,” he said.

Bagchi also noted that with the nature of business at branches has evolved over the years, customers are now more keen on tak-ing advice from branches for complex transactions, loans and investments and prefer to do simpler trans-actions through mobile and Internet banking.

Max Bupa, a stand-alone health in-surance player,

has announced a bancas-surance corporate agency agreement with Indian Bank, a state-owned bank.

Under the agreement, Max Bupa will provide comprehensive health in-surance solutions and ser-vices to over 40 million customers of Indian Bank spread across 2800 branch network, through a slew of digital touch points.

As part of the tie-up, Max Bupa’s offerings will include both retail and group health insurance products besides Indemnity and Fixed Benefit products.

Ashish Mehrotra, MD & CEO, Max Bupa said, “We are extremely delighted to partner with Indian Bank

Max Bupa-Indian Bank ink bancassurance tie-up

and are committed to help over 40 million customers of the bank lead healthi-er, more successful lives. With growing incidences of lifestyle diseases, health insurance has become one of the most important in-vestments for people today. With our tie up with Indian Bank, we are offering our customisable health insur-ance solutions to Indian Bank’s strong customer base spread across the country. Indian Bank has a significant presence in South India and this part-nership further strengthens Max Bupa’s footprint in the Southern market.”

MK Bhattacharya, Ex-ecutive Director, Indian Bank said, “At Indian Bank, we aim to offer our valued customers a wide range

of products and services. With our partnership with Max Bupa, we are moving a step ahead to provide our customers comprehensive health insurance solutions, and assured service excel-lence standards. We hope our customers across the country benefit from our partnership and choose quality health insurance products suited to their health needs.”

Further, Max Bupa has designed a digital ecosys-tem for Indian Bank cus-tomers to enhance their overall experience and avail health insurance solu-tions at their convenience.

Max Bupa will install ‘Infinity’ - its proprietary digital platform that inte-grates with the bank’s sys-tems, to provide a seamless

buying journey for all the bank’s customers. Through this digital solution, the customers can purchase the health insurance product of their choice instantly and access their policy docu-ments at the bank branch itself.

Additionally, Max Bu-pa’s digital seller applica-tion - InstaInsure, will allow Indian Bank to sell Max Bupa products se-curely via handheld de-vices, making the health insurance journey further simplified, with the aid of a streamlined and interac-tive support system. The relationship managers can use the app to complete the policy sale process, including the collection of payment from customers electronically.

Effective October 1, for those looking to take home loans from

the country’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI), there is a new home loan regime in place. SBI has decided to adopt Repo Rate as the external benchmark for all floating rate loans for MSME, housing and retail loans effective October 1, 2019. Earlier, SBI had with-drawn its repo linked home loan product which was launched on July 1, 2019.

Incidentally, SBI was the first bank to offer repo-linked lending rate (RLLR) home loans, while later on several other banks too launched such home loan scheme with interest rate linked to repo rate. The repo linked lending rate based home loan scheme

SBI announces new benchmark for home loans

is a relatively new product, while MCLR based home loan scheme continues to be there. Effective from September 1, 2019, the SBI repo linked lending rate

(RLLR) is 7.65pc. The ef-fective RLLR linked home loan, however, will depend on the loan amount, loan-to-value of the loan and the risk group of the borrower. For loan up to Rs 75 lakh, the home loan interest rate will vary between 8.05pc and 8.20pc, depending on

the risk group.MCLR is an internal

benchmark of the bank and it was seen that it failed to become a tool that could effectively transmit the repo

rate to the borrowers. RBI, therefore, had announced that effective October 1, all new floating rate personal or retail loans (housing, auto, etc.) and floating rate loans to Micro and Small Enter-prises extended by banks has to be linked to external benchmarks.

India’s NTPC Ltd. plans to set up a 5 gigawatt solar park in the west-

ern state of Gujarat, which would be the biggest in the country, as the top electric-ity generator shifts toward cleaner en-ergy.

A site has been identi-fied for the project, which is expected to cost as much as 250 billion rupees ($3.5 billion) and begin opera-tions by 2024, according to a company official, who asked not to be named as the plan isn’t public yet. The company may also in-vite bids from developers to set up projects in the park.

The plan is part of the

NTPC to build India’s biggest solar park in Gujarat

NTPC’s aim to build 32 gigawatts of renewable capacity by 2032 and re-duce the share of fossil fuels in its energy mix to 70% from about 96pc now.

Government regulations to cap emissions from coal-fired power plants, which increase the costs of build-ing such projects, have also prompted the New Delhi-based company to turn to green energy for growth.

In addition, the genera-

tor is considering building a new 500-megawatt hy-dropower project in the northern state of Himachal Pradesh, where it already operates one such plant, ac-

cording to the official.

Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi is target-ing 175 giga-watts of renew-able capacity in the South Asian nation by 2022, more than double

the 80.6 gigawatts today. However, that goal has come under threat from contract breaches and pay-ment delays by some distri-bution utilities, as well as sluggish foreign investment in the nation’s renewable energy sector.

NSE Clearing Limit-ed has empanelled Federal Bank for

submitting Fixed Deposit Receipts in electronic form (e-FDRs) as collateral to clearing/trading members. This move is a significant step in the digitization journey of the Govern-ment, and the Bank is proud to be associated with NSE Clearing Limited on this. Further, the use of e-FDRs will eliminate risks arising from loss of physical certificates or fraudulent certificates. This facility is available at all branches of Federal

Petronet LNG has inked a MoU with US lique-fied natural gas (LNG)

developer Tellurian Inc for up to five million tonnes of LNG through equity invest-ment in Driftwood Hold-ings, a subsidiary located in Louisiana.

The agreement was inked last Saturday on the sidelines of the meeting between Prime Minister Narendra Modi with oil sector CEOs in Houston, his first engagement after arriving in the US.

Launched in 2016 by LNG industry veteran Charif Sou-ki, Tellurian LNG obtained a permit to build the com-

NSE Clearing empanels Federal Bank for accepting e-FDRs

Petronet inks MoU with Tellurian for 5 MTPA LNG

Bank. Trading members can avail this facility quite easily by placing requests at the branches of Federal Bank.

Commenting on this initiative, Radhakrishnan K, Senior Vice President & Country Head -Retail Lia-bilities said, “Federal Bank is a pioneer in providing digital capabilities in the country and the introduc-tion of e-FDR is one fur-ther step in this direction. We are sure that trading members will find this an easy and convenient way to place deposits required by NSE Clearing Ltd.”

pany’s proposed Driftwood LNG export terminal in April.

Driftwood LNG is de-signed and permitted to produce up to 27.6 million metric tonnes of LNG per year.

According to the MoU, Petronet will make an invest-ment to purchase an interest in Driftwood Holdings that will give Petronet the right to purchase up to 5 million tonnes per annum of LNG from Phase I or Phase II of the project.

Tellurian and Petronet will aim to finalise the trans-action agreements by March 31, 2020.

FlexiLoans.com, the fast-est growing Fintech lender for MSMEs in

India, has announced that they’re significant milestone of disbursing over Rs 500 crore of unsecured business loans across the country with its unique digital-only model. The company has disbursed cumulatively over 16000 loans in over 1000+ cities and towns in the country catering primarily to micro, small and medium-sized businesses.

The company launched in 2016, has seen 200pc growth in disbursals, 10 X growth in customer acquisition since

Mar’18. The company also boasts of 45pc repeat lending from the existing customer base. In last financial year, FlexiLoans.com launched services in over 500+ new cities like Baroda, Jaipur, Jodhpur, Bhopal across 10+ new states in the last 18 months and now caters Pan India in over 1500+ Tier 2,3 and 4 cities and towns

Steadily moving towards its goal of tapping the un-touched segments of our country, FlexiLoans.com is today the go- to channel for a MSME that wants to ac-cess Quick and Hassle-Free Loans for plugging the work-

ing capital gap in business expansion. Each month over 1,20,000+ MSMEs apply from over 1500 towns and cities to the Fintech lender via its website, mobile web and mobile app, social media and other partner channels like E-commerce players, POS players, etc. The ma-jor clientele includes the e-commerce vendors, small retailers, dealers, and sup-pliers, manufacturers across 15+ Industry clusters and over 100 Sub-sectors like FMCG (Kirana stores), E-commerce sellers, Fashion and Apparels, Electronics and Services sectors.

FlexiLoans.com crosses Rs 500cr business loans disbursal

Utkarsh Small Fi-nance Bank plans to hit the capital

markets by December 2020, keeping to the Re-serve Bank of India’s (RBI) mandate of going pub-lic within three years of launch of bank operations.

Tentatively, the bank is eyeing to mop up Rs 500-600 crore from its planned Initial Public Offer (IPO), a top bank official said.

“The ground work for the IPO is being readied. We should be able to file the prospectus and other necessary documents with Sebi (Securities & Ex-change Board of India) by April 2020. As per the

Utkarsh Small Finance Bank aims at Rs 500-600cr IPORBI norms, we have to get listed by June 2021. Ideally, we are aiming at listing by December 2020 but we have kept a buffer of a few months keeping in view the market volatil-ity”, said Govind Singh, managing director & chief executive officer of Ut-karsh Small Finance Bank.

The proceeds of the IPO would be used to fund the bank’s expansion. The small finance bank has a nationwide network of 470 branches. A hundred more branches are expected to be added before the launch of IPO.

The Varanasi-headquar-tered new generation mi-

cro lender offers small ticket loans beginning from Rs 10,000 to Rs 25 lakh. About 90pc of its credit goes to priority sectors like agriculture, micro, small & medium enterprises (MSMEs) and housing.

As of now, the RBL Bank backed Utkarsh Small Finance Bank is ad-equately capitalised with a capital adequacy ratio over 23 per cent. Still, the bank plans to raise fresh Tier-II capital.

“We aim to raise Rs 200 crore over the next two to three months. Though we are well capitalised, we don’t want our capital ad-

equacy ratio to fall below 20 per cent”, said Singh.

Among the small fi-nance banks, AU Small Finance Bank has gone public with Rs 1900 crore IPO in June 2017. Equitas Small Finance Bank Ltd and Ujjivan Small Finance Bank Ltd listed their par-ent companies, Equitas Fi-nancial Holdings Ltd and Ujjivan Financial Services Ltd, respectively, and are yet to list their SFB units to meet RBI requirements.

Singh, is upbeat on the future of small finance banks unlike some pay-ments banks that have folded up in the recent past.

Bharti Airtel has tied up with Bharti AXA Life Insurance to offer

pre-paid plan with insur-ance protection cover for its customers, as part of its strategy to leverage the deep penetration of mobile services to build a financially secure India.

Airtel has come up with an innovative Rs 599 pre-paid bundle with 2GB data/day, unlimited calls to any network and 100 SMS/day, and also offers Rs 4 lakh life insurance cover from Bharti AXA Life Insurance. The re-charge comes with a validity

Airtel, Bharti AXA Life tie up for insurance pre-paid plan

of 84 days, and the insurance cover continues automati-cally for three months with every recharge.

This innovative product combines Airtel’s deep dis-tribution reach, including presence in rural pockets, with Bharti AXA Life’s ex-pertise in insurance to make it very simple for millions of uninsured and underin-sured people get a sizeable life cover every time they recharge their phones.

It is currently available to customers across Tamil Nadu, and Pondicherry and to be extended Pan-India in

a few months.“We believe our network

is a great platform to digitally deliver a range of services and solve the problems of customers. We are delighted to partner with Bharti AXA Life Insurance to roll out this innovative offering and remove the barriers of price, access and payment inconve-niences for the adoption of life insurance in India. We remain committed to build-ing a digitally enabled and fi-nancially secure Tamil Nadu and Puducherry,” Manoj Mu-rali, CEO – Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Bharti Airtel.said.

8 Travel / Entertainment Tuesday, September 24, 2019

EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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

As on 23rd September, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 46.55 49.55 Bahraini Dinar 183.70 193.70British Pound 86.75 89.75Canadian Dollar 51.85 54.85Emirati Dirham 18.80 19.80 Euro 76.40 79.40 Kuwaiti Dinar 228.50 238.50Omani Rial 179.50 189.50Qatari Riyal 18.00 20.50 Saudi Riyal 18.40 19.40 Singapore Dollar 49.70 52.70 Swiss Franc 70.05 73.05US Dollar 70.30 72.80

Source:

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Film star Kareena Kapoor Khan had birthday celebrations on sets of Dance India Dance along with Karan Wahi, Saroj Khan, Dhvani Bhanushali and others in Mumbai.

Thomas Cook collapsesLongtime British tour

company Thomas Cook collapsed after failing

to secure rescue funding and travel bookings for its more than six lakh global vacationers were cancelled early Monday. The British government said the return of the firm’s 1.5 lakh British customers now abroad would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history. The process is set to begin later on Monday and officials warned that delays are inevitable.

But Thomas Cook (In-dia), which is a completely different entity, was ac-quired by Canada-based Fairfax Financial Holdings in August 2012. Thus, there will not be any impact on Thomas Cook (India).

The Civil Aviation Au-thority said Thomas Cook

has ceased trading, its four airlines will be grounded and its 21,000 employees in 16 countries, including 9,000 in the UK, will lose their jobs. The company sev-eral months ago had blamed a slowdown in bookings be-cause of Brexit uncertainty for contributing to its crush-ing debt burden.

Thomas Cook, which be-gan in 1841 with a one-day train excursion in England and now operates in 16 coun-tries, has been struggling over the past few years. It only recently raised 900 million pounds ($1.12b), including receiving money from leading Chinese shareholder Fosun.

The 178-year-old com-pany had said it was seek-ing 200 million pounds ($250 million) to avoid going bust and was in weekend

talks with shareholders and creditors to stave off fail-ure. The prominent firm, whose airliners were a fa-miliar sight in many parts of the world, also operated around 600 UK travel stores. The company’s chief execu-tive Peter Fankhauser said: “This marks a deeply sad day for the company which pioneered package holidays and made travel possible for millions of people around the world.” He said a deal had been “largely agreed” but that “an additional fa-cility” requested in the last few days presented an in-surmountable challenge but provided no further details. “I would like to apologise to our millions of customers and thousands of employ-ees,” he said in a statement.

Describing the repatria-

tion plan, British Transport Secretary Grant Shapps said dozens of charter planes from as far a field as Ma-laysia, had been hired to fly customers home free of charge. He said hundreds of people were staffing call centres and airport opera-tions centres. The task is enormous, the biggest peace-time repatriation in UK his-tory. So there are bound to be problems and delays.

A website set up by the aviation authority to aid the firm’s customers crashed shortly after the company’s collapse was announced. An estimated one million future travellers will find their bookings for upcoming holidays cancelled. They are likely to receive refunds un-der the terms of the govern-ment’s travel insurance plan.

Singapore fi rm to develop Bhubaneswar rail station

Odisha Chief Minis-ter Naveen Patnaik said that the Bhu-

baneswar Development Au-thority (BDC), the nodal agency for planning, design-ing and executing the rail project, has already roped in the Singapore firm for the project.

He added that the Bhu-

baneswar multi -modal hub will be developed by the state government with a budget of Rs 840 crore within 30 months. “It is one of the biggest mile-stones to transform Bhu-baneswar railway station into a world class railway station with multi-modal hub. Bhubaneswar Develop-ment Authority will involve internationally reputed con-sultants and showcase Bhu-baneswar to the world with a blend of contemporary design and traditional Ka-linga architecture,” Patnaik said. Patnaik also explained that he expected the project to trigger the development of the planned central business district for Bhubaneswar.

The hotel industry has welcomed the reduc-tion in GST on hotel

room tariffs, saying that it will provide a major fillip to the hospitality and tourism sector and is a step in right direction. Finance Minis-ter Nirmala Sitharaman on Friday had announced nil tax for hotels room tariffs of up to Rs 1,000 per night. Hotels charging Rs 1,001 to Rs 7,500 per night would be levied with 12pc tax as against the existing 18pc.

Similarly, the tax on room tariff of above Rs 7,500 has been slashed to 18pc from the existing 28pc. Also, tax on out-door catering has been reduced to five per cent from existing 18pc with an input tax credit, Sitharaman had said.

“The amendments in

Hotel industry hails GST cutscorporate tax rates and ra-tionalisation of GST are all steps in the right direction,” Indian Hotels Company (IHCL) MD Puneet Chhatwal said in a statement. There has been a positive devel-opment from the GST panel meet as it has recommended that 18pc GST rate is now applicable for hotel tariff up to Rs 7,500 per night start-ing Oct 1, 2019, he added. “This gives the hospitality sector a much-needed boost and we expect it to propel tourist inflows which will positively impact our book-ings,” Chhatwal said.

Fillips like this also help create new jobs so as to boost the economy, make compa-nies globally competitive and align to the vision of the government with boosting

tourism, making hospitality increasingly viable as an investment opportunity for India, he added. “We believe this would catalyse further growth for not just IHCL but the hospitality sector as a whole,” Chhatwal said.

In a similar vein, Shangri-La Group, Middle East, India and Indian Ocean Executive Vice President John Northen said: “We welcome this pro-gressive initiative by the government. A lower GST rate for the luxury hotel sec-tor will boost revenues and spur demand further among travellers.” This in turn will cement India’s positioning as a hot spot tourist destination. The move will also increase the sectors’ contribution to the country’s GDP and foreign exchange, he added.

Pallavi IndiGo’sindependent director

IndiGo has appointment Pallavi Shardul Shroff as its independent woman

director to address allega-tions raised by co-promoter Rakesh Gangwal about regu-latory non-compliance by the airline.

Shroff is the Managing Partner of Shardul Amarch-and Mangaldas & Co. with over 37 years and sits on the Head of the Dispute Resolu-tion practice at the Firm, with an extensive knowl-edge in matters of litigation and arbitration.

The move follows a let-ter by Rakesh Gangwal to market regulator SEBI in

June with a litany of com-plaints about IndiGo’s non-compliance of regulations, “unusual” powers enjoyed by his co-promoter Rahul Bhatia, among other issues, after differences emerged between the two.This led to IndiGo calling an Annual General Meeting to seek shareholders’ nod to amend the Articles of Association and increase the Board size to 10 from six and induct an Independent Woman Direc-tor as per the Companies Act, 2013.

Speaking for Indians abroad who were caught off guard with

the implementation of the new traffic rules in India, Kerala Transport Minister AK Saseendran in a letter to Union Road Transport Min-ister Nitin Gadkari requested a one-time exception be made for NRIs to renew their expired licenscs.

The letter also called for flexibility to fix fines under the amended Motor Vehicles Act at rates proportionate to the gravity of the offences and which are affordable

Kerala Tourism bags 3 PATA gold awardsKerala Tourism won

three Pacific Asia Travel Association

(PATA) gold awards, in-cluding the one for an eth-nic food restaurant run by women at Kumarakom in Kottayam. Tourism Minister Kadakampally Surendran and Tourism Director P Bala Kiran received the awards during the PATA Travel Mart 2019 at Nur-Sultan (Astana) in Kazakhstan.

The two other gold awards were for an advertisement campaign of Kerala Tourism — Come Out and Play — and for its website (www.keralatourism.org).“I am especially happy to receiving the gold award for the women-run restaurant at Kumarakom under Responsible Tourism Mission (RTM), which has become the mainstay of our

tourism policy and initia-tives. Of the 15,500 RTM initiatives, 13,500 units are led by women,” said Suren-dran said after receiving the award. The website aims at providing Kerala Tourism an edge online. It had 10 mil-lion visits in the 2018-19 fis-cal year and is among the top 10 tourism websites in Asia. It also hosts almost one lakh web pages and major sec-tions of the site are available

in 23 languages. The portal now competes with tourism websites of countries like Hong Kong, New Zealand, South Korea and Australia for higher ranking.

Last year, Kerala Tour-ism bagged two PATA gold awards for its Yalla Kerala print media campaign in the Gulf countries and for an innovative poster it had made for the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, the biggest contemporary art show in South Asia. The poster showed a colourful boat and fishermen.

Kerala urges Centre to allow NRIsrenew expired driving licence

by all. “Kerala has a large population of NRIs who gen-erally come home only once in five years to the state. They are finding it difficult to renew their licence as the earlier provision of allowing renewal within five years of expiry has been changed to within one year,” the minis-ter’s letter said.

“Taking further tests in case of non-renewal within one year is a hardship as no exemption is given to those who could not renew it in the last one to five years. Hence as a one-time measure, those

who have a licence which expired in the last five years may be permitted to renew without undergoing the test as was applicable till Sept 1.” The letter also called for flexibility to fix fines under the amended Motor Vehicles Act at rates proportionate to the gravity of the offences and which are affordable by all. “The fines fixed in the Act as per the proposal of the Union government are very high and dispropor-tionate to the gravity of of-fences. Hence, there is large scale public protest in this

For years, yoga was a prohibited sport in Saudi Arabia since it

was perceived as a Hindu spiritual practice. Though it was exercised by many in the kingdom, yoga classes were only held in private. Recently, though, things have changed as part of the country’s liberalisation reform drive.

In 2017, the country’s ministry of trade and in-dustry announced it was officially recognising the activity as a sport, and it did indeed. The decision was all thanks to Nouf Almarwaai, the kingdom’s first certified yoga instructor and founder of the Arab Yoga Foundation.

In the months since the groundbreaking announce-ment two years ago, yoga

Yoga popular in Saudi Arabiastudios started popping up across the Kingdom, proving to be wildly popular. Two years later, the discipline is still gaining a soaring num-ber of participants as more instructors are venturing across the country.

One of the most suc-cessful local studios was launched by a Saudi flying trapeze artist who opened the kingdom’s first certified aerial yoga business in Jed-dah a few months back. Roa’a Al-Sahhaf, who’s also Saudi Arabia’s first female circus performer, said her classes have been so popular she’s now planning to expand throughout the kingdom. Her studio features classes including yoga, pole dancing, pilates, family dance work-outs, and boxing. Al-Sahhaf

recently performed with the Circo Americano group at the kingdom’s Taif Season. Speaking to a TV channel, the yoga coach said she hopes to build a community of Saudi aerialists in the near future.

“I want to engage with the Saudi General Entertain-ment Authority for more performances and shows done by the studio team. I would love to collaborate with gyms and studio own-ers around Saudi Arabia to include these types of arts and sports in their gym schedules,” she explained.

The demand for yoga classes has reached an all-time high in the country, Saudi-based yoga instructor Manal said. “Since Saudi listed Yoga as an official sport so many people took

interest in practising it. I teach over two hundred people per week and that’s huge compared to just a few years ago. The demand was previously so much lower because people thought Yoga was illegal and were scared to attend classes even if they were held in private,” she pointed out.

In her opinion, things have changed so much in the Kingdom that the sport is no longer perceived in the way it once was. “Peo-ple thought it’s a practice that goes against Islam but when authorities actually approved it everyone sort of got the point that it’s simply a sport that everyone can practise regardless of religion. It’s just a way to connect our bodies to the

regard,” Saseendran said in the letter.

The minister added that as per section 200 of the Act, government of Kerala has issued the notification revising the compounding fee with effect from Sept 1. Kerala has joined states that are refusing to accept hefty fines on motorists as part of the amended Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Act, 2019. Saseendran told reporters that the state is likely to refrain from imposing the revised fines until further clarifications are available.

planet, to be more in tune with ourselves and to find balance,” she remarked.

Pallavi Shardul Shroff