RNI No.: MAHENG/2018/76663Day of Publishing:

Every Tuesday and Friday

www.newsandnriconnect.com

MUMBAI: FRIDAY, AUGUST 02, 2019 • VOL. No. 1 • Issue No. 85 • IPEPCIL PUBLICATIONS PVT LTD. • 8 PAGES • PRICE: ₹ 8

Postal Registration No.: MCW/346/2019-21

Posting: Tuesday, Wednesday& Friday, Saturday

FRIDAY, AUGUST 02, 2019

PC Sorting Offi ce

Logon on to www.newsandnriconnect.com for free ePaper, download without user id and password.

Dutch Ambassador to India Marten van der Berg called on Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Kerala House in New Delhi seeking to address the acute shortage of nurses in the Netherlands.

Netherlands needs 40,000 nursesNEW DELHI: The Kerala government has assured the Netherlands that the

state would address the shortage of nurses in the European nation.

During a meeting with Ambassador of the Nether-lands to India Marten van den Berg in New Delhi, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-jayan said his state could ensure the services of enough number of nurses to that country. In a Face-

book post, Vijayan said the envoy informed there was a demand of about 40,000

nurses in the Netherlands at present. The Dutch ambas-sador also hailed the dedica-tion of the state nurses and their professional excellence, the FB post added.

Vijayan said the state resi-dence commissioner in New Delhi would co-ordinate fur-ther steps with the Dutch embassy in this regard. He had visited the Netherlands

in May this year on an invitation of the Dutch government to explore pos-

sibilities of co-operation in various sectors including water management, flood prevention and agriculture.

The ambassador said the Dutch king and queen would arrive in Kochi on Oct 17 along with a delegation comprising economists, pro-fessionals, representatives of Dutch companies and experts in various domains.

New rule on wills for non-Muslims in UAEDUBAI: For non-Muslim residents, there is no need to have multiple wills in the UAE as Dubai is now allowing UAE-wide assets, even those abroad, to be reg-istered here in the emirate.

The Dubai Internation-al Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts announced that it is expanding its scope for will registrations and can now accommodate residents and investors with assets across the UAE and even abroad. The entity previously accept-ed only wills with assets in Dubai and Ras Al Khaimah.

DIFC Courts administers a unique English-language common law system that offers swift, independent justice to settle local and international commercial or civil disputes. It is also the same court that issues enforceable judgments on

wills filed by expatriates.The right of survivorship,

where assets are passed on to the joint owner upon the death of the other, is not rec-ognised in the UAE. Muslims automatically follow the Sharia law when distributing assets of the deceased.

Non-Muslims, however, have the option to draft and register a will should they want to choose their heirs and who gets which assets. Zaki Bin Azmi, Chief Justice, Chief Registrar, said the de-cision to expand the services of the courts was based on public demand. With almost eight million expatriates re-siding in the UAE, the Gov-ernment of Dubai and the DIFC Courts recognised the need for an innovative legal solution for non-Muslims that provides peace of mind for residents and investors,

as well as enhance Dubai and the UAE’s attractiveness as a destination for expatri-ate talent and investment

“With almost eight mil-lion expatriates residing in the UAE, the Government of Dubai and the DIFC Courts recognised the need for an innovative legal solution for non-Muslims that pro-vides peace of mind for residents and investors, as well as enhance Dubai and the UAE’s attractiveness as a destination for expatriate talent and investment,” Bin Azmi said. “Recognising the increased demand, we have now amended our rules to expand the remit of this pub-lic service to assets across all the emirates of the UAE and beyond.”

Clients with existing reg-istered wills with the DIFC Courts may amend the wills

for free until Aug 31 to include all their assets ir-respective of their location. Indians happy

Summit Ahuja, Estate Planner at Just Legal Consul-tancy in Dubai, lauded the move specifically for regis-tering assets from across the country. “When it comes to the move for a nation-wide will attested by DIFC it’s all obviously welcome because it then negates the require-ment of our clients to have multiple wills for multiple jurisdictions. I believe the client who have a sizeable estate spread all over the UAE will certainly benefit from it,” Ahuja said. He, however, urged clients with assets abroad to study their options first before making major decisions.

“This is something cli-ents will (Contd. on page 2)

Saudi boosts spending as reforms catch upLONDON: Saudi Arabia increased spending in the second quarter as the gov-ernment boosted stimulus measures to spur growth.

The finance ministry reported a widening budget gap of about SR33.5 billion ($8.9 billion) for the period. “A key positive trend is the pick-up in capital expendi-ture, which points to some progress with investment activity and is likely to be in line with a wider trend,” Monica Malik, chief econo-mist at Abu Dhabi Commer-cial Bank, told a TV channel.

A weaker oil price is

encouraging Gulf states to quicken economic reforms aimed at reducing reliance on hydrocarbons while boosting job-creating capi-tal expenditure on major projects. “The results reflect the progress made in the realisation of developmental projects according to the Kingdom’s 2030 Vision and confirm the efficiency of the financial and structural reforms implemented by the government,” said Fi-nance Minister Mohammed Al-Jadaan in a statement carried by the Saudi Press Agency.

“These reforms include the diversification of gov-ernment revenue sources by increasing non-oil revenues, reforming and developing the public financial manage-ment to raise the efficiency and effectiveness of spend-ing through many measures including the adoption of a government procurement system,” added Al-Jadaan.

Social protection ex-penditures were increased in programmes such as the Citizen Account Programme along with social security, cost of living allowance and student rewards.

FedReserve cuts rates WASHINGTON: Federal Re-serve reduced interest rates for the first time since the financial crisis and hinted it may cut again this year to insulate the record-long US economic expansion from slowing global growth.

Central bankers voted, with two officials dissent-ing, to lower the target range for the benchmark rate by a quarter-percentage point to two per cent to 2.25pc. The shift was predicted by most investors and economists, yet will disappoint President Trump, who tweeted he wanted a “large cut.’’

“In light of the implica-tions of global developments for the (Contd. on page 2)

Abu Dhabi launches $163m fund to lure world-class eventsABU DHABI: A specialised Dh600 million ($163 mil-lion) fund has been launched by the Department of Cul-ture and Tourism (DCT Abu Dhabi) as part of an initiative to enhance Abu Dhabi’s port-folio of world-class leisure and business events.

The new Mega Events Fund is part of the Ghadan 21 programme, which is work-ing to accelerate Abu Dhabi’s economy, a statement said, adding that the new finan-cial stimulus announced by DCT Abu Dhabi will focus exclusively on the develop-ment of major entertainment and business activities and festivals in the emirate.

Saif Saeed Ghobash, Un-dersecretary of DCT Abu

Dhabi, said: “Launching this initiative gives Abu Dhabi new strategic momentum to enhance its local and region-al presence. This initiative will work to attract the best entertainment and business event organisers from across the world to consider Abu Dhabi as a place to invest their time and efforts. “The support provided by the gov-ernment for tourism, wheth-er in the field of entertain-ment or business, shows the confidence of the Emirate’s wise leadership in DCT Abu Dhabi, both in its projects and plans. The support and constant growth of the tour-ism sector further bolsters the UAE capital’s potential to advance its standing and

ability to continue to attract investment in the field, ”he remarked.

The new fund will work with the Advantage Abu Dhabi programme, an ad-ditional DCT Abu Dhabi in-centive grant scheme which has already scored major successes in stimulating the events sector in Abu Dhabi. The latest fund will provide multi-purpose financing, including encouraging po-tential global entertainment partners to anchor leading entertainment content in Abu Dhabi, helping upscale and innovate existing best-in-class events in the UAE and encouraging global en-tertainment companies and event owners from the re-

gion to consider Abu Dhabi as a go-to location to stage events.

DCT Abu Dhabi said it has already identified several potential partners and beneficiaries for the new fund, including global promoters and touring acts that could potentially make Abu Dhabi their base of operations. In 2018, Abu Dhabi’s events calendar helped achieve a new record in terms of the number of visitors and hotel guests coming to the emirate, with more than 10 million inter-national visitors arriving in Abu Dhabi and a 3.94 pc increase reported in the number of hotel guests com-pared to 2017.

India has large workforce, but lots of stressNEW DELHI: India has one of the largest workforces in the world, the fastest-growing cities and a grow-ing group of millionaires but it is also facing a brain drain, challenges in growing work stress, pollution and ensuring the security of its ever-growing population, particularly women.

NRI voters: According to estimates of the ministry of external affairs, there are about 31 million NRIs liv-ing in different countries across the world but unof-ficial data from the Election Commission of India shows that only about 10,000 to 12,000 overseas voters have exercised their franchise in the past few polls as they do not want to fly back to India just to cast their vote.

Workforce: According to World Bank data, each year India adds about 12 million young people to the workforce. The government figures show the proportion of India’s 18 to 23-year-olds enrolled in higher education has more than doubled to 25.8pc from 12.6pc in 2004 and is expected to rise to 30pc by 2020. The government figures show the proportion of India’s 18 to 23-year-old enrolled in higher education has more than doubled to 25.8pc from 12.6pc in 2004 and is expected to rise to 30pc by 2020. According to

a report released this year by the Azim Premji Univer-sity’s Centre for Sustainable Employment, people with a graduate degree are more than twice as likely to be unemployed than the na-tional average, adding that women are more likely to be unemployed than men. More than 80pc of Indians work in jobs without regular pay or social benefits, according to the International Labour Or-ganisation. World Bank says agriculture accounts for 42pc of the workforce. Nearly a third of the 93,000 applicants for 62 police courier jobs in UP had doctorates. In govern-ment jobs which also provide security, benefits, and rela-tively good pay--minimum salaries are currently set at Rs 18,000 a month, while 67pc of the workforce earn less than Rs 10,000 per month.

Workplace stress: A re-cent survey conducted by medical insurance provider Cigna TTK revealed that nine out of 10 Indians suffered from stress. Over 95pc of In-dian millennials suffer from workplace stress. The global average is 86pc.

Fast-growing cities: As many as 17 of the world’s 20 fastest growing cities during 2019-35 are expected to be all Indian, according to a report published by Oxford Economics, a research house engaged in global forecasting

and quantitative analysis. The top 10, in a descending order, are all Indian cities --- Surat, Agra, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Nagpur, Tirup-pur, Rajkot, Tiruchirapalli, Chennai and Vijayawada. The report predicts that Ben-galuru will top these cities in 2035.

Exiting Millionaires: In 2018, as many as 5,000 mil-lionaires from India left for foreign shores, citing better quality of life or similar rea-sons. Indeed, according to a report, some 43,400 multi-millionaires have bid goodbye to India in the past 10 years. China, Russia and India rank as the top three countries los-ing high net-worth individu-als worldwide, followed by the UK and France. Although India will be the fourth largest wealth market by 2028, China currently leads the charts as the best-performing country in terms of wealth creation. India’s growth rate, in terms of wealth creation, at the moment is a staggering 96pc despite losing hundreds of millionaires in the past decade.

Netizens: The annual internet statistics and trends report from venture capitalist Mary Meeker said that more than half the world’s popula-tion --- 3.8 billion -- is online with China and India leading the pack, followed by the US, Indonesia, and Brazil.

Goa to reserve 80pc jobs for localsPANAJI: Following in the footsteps of Andhra Pradesh, the Goa government is now planning to reserve 80pc jobs in the industrial units receiving state government subsidies for the people of Goan origin, the legislative assembly was informed. Chief Minister Pramod Sawant also said that “60pc of the 80pc jobs” would be on a permanent basis.

While the labour and employment policies for the state will be drafted in the next six months, all industries in the state have been directed to register with the government and submit de-tails about the workers and the sectors they are currently employed in, he said. Sawant said the BJP-led government would draft the labour and employ-

ment policies in the next six months in which it might consider reserving “80pc jobs for Goans in the private sector, especially in the industrial units that get various subsidies from the state government, out of which 60pc jobs should be on a permanent basis”.

“In the absence of labour and em-ployment policies, (Contd. on page 2)

2 EMIGRATION Friday, August 02, 2019

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

Publisher: Supreet M.J.Editor : E.L. VaidyanathanVolume No.: 1, Issue: 85

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.

LIPSYNCH “Being able to do what you wish is the best thing in the world!”

— Shiro Amano (Japanese manga artist).

UAE’s new work permit rule

United Arab Emirates (UAE), which has embarked on a pragmatic and massive visa reforms, has further liberalised the sponsorship and work visa rules. The

new work visa rule is a great tribute to the UAE’s gender balance initiatives with visa laws now clearly supporting both the genders. Much to the relief of NRIs, working expa-triate women in the UAE can now sponsor their husbands to the Emirate who can legally seek employment ---- an option that was not previously available to them. While earlier, only women in select professions such as teachers, doctors or engineers were allowed to sponsor their families (husband and kids), the field is now open to all professional men and women who earn Dh4,000 per month (or Dh3,000 with company accommodation). The new UAE work permit rule allows men sponsored by their wives or mothers to be employed in the country with two-year permits available at a fraction of the usual work visa cost. The UAE has a ministry of happiness and these progressive policies are a testimony to its commitment to create the happiest society in the world.

No wonder, Indians --- the largest expat community in UAE, will benefit the most from this measure. It closes the gap in family aspirations. There are many Indian working women in the UAE, specifically in categories such as nurs-ing, teaching, medical and other such professions, who live alone as they are unable to support their husbands financially through sponsorship to the UAE. The new rule is indeed a big boost for the Indian community as well as for the UAE economy as it will benefit companies who now need not have to look at overseas hiring while scouting for talent and will help families supplement their income and thus improve their standard of life. This latest step is another piece in the extensive reforms that is now taking shape in the UAE, strategically opening up employment for talented individuals and making the country an even more attractive expat destination. This law enables a stable family life and provides better job options to them rather than leave the UAE due to the difficulties of staying alone.

Corporate can now hire such legal residents without having to spend on their visa costs (new work permits cost only Dh300 while a work visa alone for a fresh recruit costs in the vicinity of Dh5,000) and medical insurance, which in this case would have already been taken care of by the spouse or the spouse’s employer. The new rule is just one step ahead in the visa reforms programme, but it is a giant step towards improving the quality of family life.

Creating this conducive atmosphere is a result of the UAE’s unabated efforts to expand the advantages in the do-main of work permits and now, the categories of individuals who can seek employment in the UAE as a dependent are all-encompassing the family. This is a win-win situation for all and this will be a big game changer.

Editorial

Malavika Siddhartha (left), wife of the late coffee baron VG Siddhartha, founder of the Cafe Coffee Day retail chain, looks on at the funeral of her husband at Chikkamagaluru in Karnataka.

Siddhartha’s wife Malavika may take over as CMDBENGALURU: Malavika, the wife of billionaire cof-fee entrepreneur VG Sid-dhartha (Hegde), who died under mysterious circum-stances in Mangaluru, may be appointed as chairper-son and managing director of Coffee Day Enterprises.

“She is already on the board of the company and the board will have to discuss the possibility of delegating to her greater responsibilities. But all these things can happen only when she recovers from the personal trauma she’s suffered,” said a top company source. Siddhar-tha was the CMD of the company and on confirma-tion of his death, the board of Coffee Day Enterprises on Wednesday appointed former IAS officer and a member SV Ranganath as interim chairman.

The board has also ap-pointed Nitin Bagmane as an interim Chief Operat-

ing Officer of the com-pany. “The board met to

take stock of the situation and also to put a working

structure in place of the company. It will meet again on August 8,’’ the source added.

The board constituted an executive committee comprising Ranganath, Bagmane and R Ram Mo-han (CFO) to exercise the powers previously vested with the CEO of the com-pany and the administra-tive committee constituted by the board in 2015. The executive committee will explore opportunities to deleverage the Coffee Day Group. In a stock exchange filing the company said, the board took note of a mes-sage from Malvaika who was also on the board ex-pressing support and trust in the company’s manage-ment team. It further said that the authenticity of the letter purported to be writ-ten by Siddhartha cannot be verified as of now.

CEO Byju Raveendran India’s newest billionaire

Byju’s Raveendran

NEW DELHI: India’s newest billionaire is a former classroom teacher who developed an educa-tion app that’s grown to a valuation of almost $6 bil-lion in about seven years.

By ju Raveendran joined the rarefied club after his Think and Learn scored $150 mil-lion in funding earlier this month. That deal conferred a value of $5.7 billion on the company in which the founder owns more than 21pc, people familiar with the matter said. Its closing coincided with the announcement that the company’s Byju’s app—named after the founder — will team up with Walt Disney Co and taking its service to Amer-ican shores by early 2020.

The 37-year-old en-trepreneur — who has said he wants to do for Indian education what the Mouse House did for

entertainment — is taking his greatest step yet geo-

graphically and creatively. In his new app, Disney sta-ples from The Lion King’s Simba to Frozen’s Anna teach math and English to students from grades one through three. The same characters star in animated videos, games, stories and interactive quizzes.

“Kids everywhere relate to Disney’s Simba or Moana, who grip kids’ attention be-fore we take them through

the loop of learning,” said Raveendran, also CEO.

India is going through a dramatic period of wealth creation — and destruction. A new breed of self-made entrepreneurs is joining the ranks of the well-heeled, helping the country’s ultra-rich population grow at the world’s fastest pace. Raveendran, at least on paper, assumes his place among those parvenus thanks to his effort in inter-net education.

Online learning is boom-ing, perhaps nowhere more so than on Byju’s home turf, where internet usage is ex-ploding because of the ubiq-uity of cheap smartphones and cut-price wireless plans. India’s online learning mar-ket is expected to more than double to $5.7 billion by 2020, according to the gov-ernment-backed India Brand Equity Foundation.

Education technology for kindergarten through

12th grade is one of the fastest-growing segments of the country’s internet market, said Anil Kumar, CEO of Redseer Manage-ment Consulting. “In-dian education startups are well set to seize the global opportunity given that they already cater to a large English-speaking base and have created unique education con-tent,” he said.

Byju’s own fortunes have climbed alongside the market. Its revenues are expected to more than double to Rs 30 billion ru-pees ($435 million) in the year ending March 2020, Raveendran said. That pace of growth has already caught the eye of some of the industry’s largest in-vestors from Naspers Ven-tures and Tencent Hold-ings to Sequoia Capital and Facebook-founder Mark Zuckerberg and wife Priscilla Chan.

Why UAE shoppers avoid gold trading?Shoppers in Dubai are unlikely to make a return to gold unless prices drop significantly. But no one is betting on that to happen. “I feel we have to wait patiently for the market to swing back,” said Anil Dhanak, managing director at Kanz Jewels.

DUBAI: Shoppers in the UAE are staying off gold as prices stick to levels well above Dh155 a gram. Even the much anticipated pick-up in demand --- even a slight one ahead of the summer breaks--- has failed to materialise.

T h u r s d a y ’ s o p e n -ing price for 22k gold is Dh162.50, as per the Dubai Gold Rate, and local retail-ers are blaming it all on the price. “We are only seeing “desperate buying”, from those shoppers who are concerned that if they delay, prices might shoot up again,” said Cyriac Var-ghese, General Manager at Sky Jewellery. “But there haven’t been too many of these shoppers to generate volumes.

“There may be many technical reasons for inter-national gold prices to have shot up - but that doesn’t mean much to consumers in the UAE. “Prices will definitely head upwards until the reasons that led to the current surge subside… drastically. For now, how

high will the upper limit go is the only question.” It was in late June that local gold prices shot up past Dh160 a gm, a level which has always met with buyer resistance. More so, as for the better part of the last six years, these prices have stuck to around Dh140 a gm on average.India’s duty hike

Early in July, the Indian government raised the im-port duty on gold to 12.5pc from 10pc which ensures that once again, prices in the UAE will become rela-tively cheaper than in In-dia. From January 2018 onwards, UAE and India gold prices were roughly on par after the UAE intro-duced VAT and also charged duty on imported jewellery. According to Varghese, “In India, the situation is going to get tougher -- that’s per-haps a silver lining for jew-ellery retailers in the UAE. I would connect whatever momentum there is in the UAE market today due to the higher pricing in India.”

But WGC’s Mulligan

reckons UAE jewellers should not put too much onus on this - “There will be some competitive pric-ing arbitrage. UAE retailers would benefit a little, but nothing particularly sub-stantial.”

Trade wars, tensions in the high seas around the Gulf, US interest rate cuts, dollar weakness and central banks’ buying binge -- all these factors have contrib-uted to international gold prices hitting a six-year high in recent weeks. During this period, gold “broke through $1,400 an ounce for the first time since 2013,” reports London-headquartered World Gold Council (WGC) in its latest quarterly update.

“If for six years, gold prices were seeing mostly sideways trading at the $1,350 level, then going past $1,400 was enough to set off consumer jitters,” said John Mulligan, Head of Member and Market Re-lations at WGC. “That, in turn, has led to the rapid and immediate dampening of buyer sentiments in some of the jewellery markets, including the Mid East.”

Even before the current upturn in prices, shoppers in the UAE were making less frequent visits to the

jewellers. As per WGC esti-mates, jewellery demand in the UAE was down five per cent in the second quarter from a year ago, accounting for 9.3 tonnes. It compares poorly with the 15.5 tonnes sold in the first quarter of 2017. (But an improvement on the 6.9 tonnes recorded in the third quarter of 2018, which is the lowest in re-cent years.) On the price point, Mulligan does not hold out much hope for gold to reverse its gains and then head back to the more shopper-friendly levels of $1,350 an ounce… or even lower.

“Geo-politics and trade fears will continue to play out through the year,” said Mulligan. “Gold will re-main a strategic purchase for institutional funds and central banks as long as the heightened uncertainty remains.Institutional inves-tors are looking at the risk spectrum and making a strong return to gold.”

True, if in June, funds - mostly those in Europe - picked up 67 tonnes, in July, their counterparts in the US led the way in buying 54 tonnes of the metal. With that kind of buying support, gold prices are sticking to $1,400 plus.

New rule on...(Contd. from page 1)have to look and under-stand the pros and cons of because for countries like the US, UK, Australia and Europe. First of all, there are inheritance taxes in these countries. So whether this will could clearly suffice for that or not that is something they need to look at,” Ahuja explained.

“Secondly, majority of countries in Europe fol-lows the principle of civil law. This basically means there is a limitation on the percentage of what one can give to wife and kids. Whether this particular will would be able to suffice to that need or not, this is something clients will have to decide on a case by case basis.” Ahuja said deciding on asset distribution abroad is done subjectively.

“My advice to them is to sit down with their local lawyers or estate planners to understand their asset structure and how they wish to distribute them. For coun-tries that have the principles of common law like Austra-lia, Canada, UK, India, Sin-gapore, estate planners can do one will for them which could be the DIFC one or, if needed, the client could look into two separate wills for each jurisdiction,” he said.

FedReserve cuts...

Goa to...(Contd. from page 1)the state government could not make it mandatory for private employers to allocate 80pc jobs to Goans,” the chief minister said. Respond-ing to a question tabled by Congress MLA Aleixo Regi-naldo Lourenco, Sawant said the upcoming policies might make it mandatory for the industrial units to hire 80pc Goans in jobs.

“The labour policy would be ready in the next six months which will help us to secure jobs for Goans in the private sector,” Sawa-nt said. The chief minister also said a task force has been set up to ensure that industries adhere to the Minimum Wages Guarantee Act. “All industries are asked to register with the state government mandatorily and give details about the workers and in which sector they are employed,” he said.

Sawant said since the private sector, especially industrial units, enjoys various subsidies from the state government, they are expected to reserve 80pc of the total jobs to the people with the Goan origin.

(Contd. from page 1)economic outlook as well as muted inflation pressures, the committee decided to lower’’ rates, the Federal Open Market Committee, led by Jerome Powell, said in a statement following a two-day meeting in Washington. It also noted that “uncertain-ties” about the economic outlook remain.

Officials also stopped shrinking the Fed’s balance sheet effective Aug. 1, ending a process that very modestly tightens monetary policy and was previously scheduled to come to a close at the end of Sept.

Policy makers appeared open to another cut as ear-ly as Sept when they next convene, while sticking with wording in their state-ment that preserves their options.”As the commit-tee contemplates the future path of the target range for

the federal funds rate, it will continue to monitor the implications of incoming information for the economic outlook and will act as appro-priate to sustain the expan-sion,” they said. Kansas City Fed President Esther George and Boston’s Eric Rosengren voted against the cut.

The statement said they “preferred at this meeting to maintain the target range for the federal funds rate.” It was the first time since Pow-ell took over as chairman in Feb2018 that two policy mak-ers dissented. Investors had forecast the Fed to continue easing monetary policy this year, with futures pricing the key rate to fall about another half-point by Jan.

US stocks rose to a record last week in anticipation of easier money, while the yield on two-year Treasuries has undershot two per cent since May.

3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIESFriday, August 02, 2019

Please visitwww.newsandnriconnect.com

DISCLAIMERReaders are requested to verify and make appropriate enquiries to satisfy themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before responding to any published advertisements in this newspaper. NEWS AND NRI CON-NECT, its publisher and owner IPEP-CIL Publications do NOT vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement or advertiser or for any of the advertiser’s products and /or services. In no event can the owner, publisher, printer, edi-tor, director, employees of this news-paper/company be held responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for any claims and /or damages for adver-tisements in this newspaper.

Indman on behalf of their Major EPC Client requires the following

for their various ongoing Projects on immediate basis :

Em

ail

: h

rde

pt@

ind

ma

n.c

om

WE

HA

VE

NO

SU

B-A

GE

NT

S

Candidates having Overseas Exp. will be considered. All

Candidates to report with CV’s, Certificates, Passport & Photos :

Regn. No. B-0438/MUM/PER/1000+/5/5268/1999

An ISO 9001:2015 Certified Agencyst

41-B, Excel Building, 1 Floor,

Road No. 2, Azad Nagar, Off Veera Desai Road,

Andheri (West), Mumbai - 400053

Indman Consultants

ISO 9001

ISC GLOBAL

ISO 9001 : 2015

nd

FINAL SELECTIONS ON 2 & 3 AUGUST 2019rd

•WORK PERMIT RECEIVERS

•RIGGER – I •RIGGER – II •RIGGER – III

UAE

•HDPE PIPELINE WELDERS

•COATING SUPERVISORS COATING FOREMEN

•CHARGHAND SANDBLASTING / PAINTING

•

QATAR

KSA

ARAMCO Approved

(free food)

4 GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES Friday, August 02, 2019

NEW DELHI: The Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) has invited candidates to apply for a number of fresh posts at jnu.ac.in. Interested and eligible candidates can visit the official website of JNU now to fill in the applica-tion forms. The opening that has been offered by JNU are for faculty positions at the level of Professor, Assistant Professor and Associate Pro-fessor. The application pro-cess has already begun and the same shall continue till August 19, 2019 (5.30 PM). Check the details mentioned below then fill the form ac-cordingly.JNU Recruitment 2019: Im-portant Dates

Last date for submission of applications: August 19, 2019 (5.30 PM)Post Details

For Assistant Professor Posts

Special Centre for Na-tional Security Studies – 4 vacanciesFor Associate Professor posts

1. School of Arts and Aesthetics – 8 vacancies

2. School of Biotechnol-ogy (SBT) – 5 vacancies

3. School of Computa-tional & Integrative Science (SC&IS) – 4 vacancies

4. School of Computer & Systems Sciences (SC&SS) – 4 vacancies

5. School of Engineering (SE) – 9 vacancies

6. School of Environ-mental Sciences(SES) – 3 vacancies

7. School of Life Sciences – 8 vacancies

8. Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship (ABVSME) – 5 vacancies

9. School of Physical

Sciences (SPS) – 9 vacancies10. School of Sanskrit

and Indic Studies (SSIS) – 2 vacancies

11. Centre for Study of Law and Governance (CSLG) – 1 vacancy

12. Special Centre for Molecular Medicine (SCMM) – 4 vacancies

13. Special Centre for Nano Sciences (SCNS) – 3 vacancies

14. Special Centre for the study of North East India – 1 vacancy

15. Special Centre for National Security Studies – 2 vacanciesSchool of international studies

16. Centre for African Studies (CAS) – 1 vacancy

17. Centre for Canadian, US & Latin American Stud-ies (CCUS&LAS) – 5 vacan-cies

18. Centre for Compara-tive Politics & Political The-ory (CCPPT) – 2 vacancies

19. Centre for East Asian Studies (CEAS) – 3 vacan-cies

20. Centre for European Studies (CES) – 1 Vacancy

21. Centre for Indo-Pa-cific Studies (CIPS) – 3 vacancies

22. Centre for Inner Asian Studies (CIAS) – 1 vacancy

23. Centre for Interna-tional Legal Studies (CILS) – 4 vacancies

24. Centre for Interna-tional Politics, Organisation and Disarmament (CIPOS) – 4 vacancies

25. Centre for Interna-tional Trade & Development (CITD) – 3 vacancies

26. Centre for Russian & Central Asian Studies (Cr&Cas) – 3 vacancies

27. Centre for South

Asian Studies (Csas) – 2 vacancies

28. Centre for West Asian Studies (Cwas) – 2 vacanciesSchool of language, litera-ture and cultural studies

29. Centre of Arabic and African Studies (Caas) – 2 vacancies

30. Centre for Chinese and South East Asian Stud-ies (Ccseas) – 1 vacancy

31. Centre for English

Studies (Ces) – 2 vacancies32. Centre for French &

Francophone Studies (Cffs) – 2 vacancies

33. Centre of German Studies (Cgs) – 2 vacancies

34. Centre for Indian Languages (Cil) – 3 vacan-cies

35. Centre for Japanese Studies (Cjs) – 1 vacancy

36. Centre for Korean Studies (Cks) – 2 vacancies

37. Centre for Linguistics (Cl) – 2 vacancies

38. Centre of Russian Studies (Crs) – 1 vacancy

39. Linguistic Empower-ment Cell (Lec) – 1 vacancy

School of social sciences40. Centre for Economic

Studies and Planning (Cesp) – 6 vacancies

41. Centre for Historical Studies (Chs) – 7 vacancies

42. Centre for Informal Sector & Labour Studies – 1 vacancy

43. Centre for Media Studies (Cms) – 3 vacancies

44. Centre for Philosophy (Cp) – 1 vacancy

45. Centre for Political Studies (Cps) – 3 vacancies

46. Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health (Csmch) – 1 vacancy

47. Centre for Studies in Science Policy (Cssp) – 1 vacancy

48. Centre for The Study of Regional Development (Csrd) – 3 vacancies

49. Centre for The Study of Social Systems (Csss) – 4 vacancies

50. Centre for Women’s Studies (Cws) – 1 vacancy

51. Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (Zh-ces) – 4 vacancies

52. Group of Adult Edu-cation (Gae) – 1 vacancyFor professor posts

1. School of Arts & Aes-thetics (Saa) – 2 vacancies

2. School of Biotechnol-ogy (Sbt) – 2 vacancies

3. School of Computa-tional & Integrative Sciences (Sc&Is) – 2 vacancies

4. School of Computer & Systems Sciences (Sc&Ss) – 4 vacancies

5. School of Engineering (Soe) – 5 vacancies

6. School of Environ-mental Sciences (Ses) – 7 vacancies

7. School of Life Sciences (Sls) – 11 vacancies

8. Atal Bihari Vajpayee School of Management and Entrepreneurship (Abvsme) – 3 vacancies

9. School of Physical Sciences (Sps) – 5 vacancies

10. Centre for The Study of Law and Governance (Cslg) – 3 vacancies

11. Special Centre for Molecular Medicine (Scmm) – 1 vacancy

12. Special Centre for Nano Sciences (Scns) – 2 vacancies

13. Special Centre for The Study of North East India (Scsnei) – 2 vacancies

14. Special Centre for National Security Studies (Scnss) – 1 vacancy

15. Intellectual Property Management Cell (Ipm) – 1 vacancySchool of International Studies

16. Centre for African Studies (Cas) – 1 vacancy

17. Centre for Canadian, Us & Latin American Studies (Ccus&Las) – 3 vacancies

18. Centre for East Asian Studies (Ceas) – 3 vacancies

19. Centre for Indo Pacif-ic Studies (Cips) – 1 vacancy

20. Centre for Inner Asian Studies (Cias) – 1 vacancy

21. Centre for Interna-tional Legal Studies (Cils) – 2 vacancies

22. Centre for Interna-tional Politics, Organisation and Disarmament (Cipod) – 2 vacancies

23. Centre for Interna-tional Trade & Development (Citd) – 2 vacancies

24. Centre for South Asian Studies (Csas) – 1 vacancy

25. Centre for West Asian Studies (Cwas) – 1 vacancy

26. Human Rights Stud-ies Programme (Hrsp) – 1 vacancy

27. Energy Studies Pro-gramme (Esp) – 1 vacancySchool of language, litera-ture and cultural studies

28. Centre for Indian Languages (Cil) – 3 vacan-cies

29. Centre for Japanese Studies (Cjs) – 1 vacancy

30. Centre for Linguistics (Cl) – 2 vacancies

31. Centre of Russian Studies (Crs) – 2 vacancies

32. Centre for Spanish, Portuguese, Italian & Latin American Studies (Cspilas) – 1 vacancySchool of social sciences

33. Centre for Economic Studies and Planning (Cesp) – 4 vacancies

34. Centre for Historical Studies (Chs) – 4 vacancies

35. Centre for Media Studies (Cms) – 1 vacancy

36. Centre for Philoso-phy (Cp) – 1 vacancy

37. Centre for Political Studies (Cps) – 3 vacancies

38. Centre for Social Medicine and Community Health (Csmch) – 2 vacan-cies

39. Centre for Studies in Science Policy (Cssp) – 2 vacancies

40. Centre for Study of Regional Development (Csrd) – 7 vacancies

41. Centre for Study of Social Systems (Csss) – 5 vacancies

42. Zakir Husain Centre for Educational Studies (Zhces) – 1 vacancy

43. Group of Adult Edu-cation (Gae) – 1 vacancy7th Pay Commission Salary

Assistant Professor: Pay Level – 10 of 7th CPC Rs. 57,700/-1,82,400/-

Associate Professor: Level-13A – Rs. 1,31,400/-2,17,100/-

Professor: Level-14 – Rs.1,44,200/-2,18,200/How to apply

Candidates who wish to apply for the various va-cancies that are mentioned above can visit the careers page of JNU at jnu.ac.in/career to fill the form. Click on ‘apply Online’ to fill the form by entering all the necessary details.

JNU: Multiple teaching job posts on offer

NEW DELHI: The Indian Army has invited eligible unmarried male and female candidates to apply for a number of new posts at joinindianarmy.nic.in. In-terested candidates can visit the official website now to fill in the registration form. It is to be noted that this recruitment process is for male and female Engineer-

ing Graduates. However, the Widows of Defence Person-nel who died in harness can also apply if they fulfill the eligibility criteria. This registration process is for a course that will commence in April 2020 at the Officers Training Academy (OTA) in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Check the details mentioned below to know more about the posts and vacancies.Indian Army Recruitment 2019: Important Dates

Online Appl ica t ion starts: July 24, 2019

Online Application Ends: August 22, 2019Post details

For SSC(Tech) Men and SSCW(Tech): There are a

Indian Army Recruitment 2019: Fresh posts on offer

total of 191 vacanciesMentioned below are

the Engineering Streams for which the candidates can apply-

1. Civil – 46 (Men) and 4 (Women)

2. Mechanical – 14 (Men) and 2 (Women)

3. Electrical/Electrical & Electronics – 22 (Men) and 2 (Women)

4. Aeronautical/ Ballis-tics/ Avionics – 12 (Men)

5. Computer Sc & Engg / Computer Technology/ Information Tech/ M. Sc Computer Sc – 44 (Men) and 3 (Women)

6. Electronics & Telecom/Telecommunication/Elec-tronics & Comn/ Satellite Communication – 23 (Men) and 2 (Women)

7. Electronics /Opto Elec-tronics/ Fibre Optics/ Micro Electronics & Microwave – 8 (Men)

8. Production Engineer-ing – 3 (Men)

9. Architecture/ Building Construction Technology – 3 (Men) and 1 (Women)For Widows of Defence Per-

sonnel only – 2 vacancies1. SSC(W) (Non Tech)

(Non UPSC) – 1 vacancy2. SSC(W) Tech – 1 va-

cancyIndian Army Recruitment 2019: Eligibility CriteriaAge limit

For SSC(Tech)- 54 Men and SSCW(Tech)- 25 Wom-en. 20 to 27 years as on 01 Apr 2020 (Candidates

born between 02 Apr 93 and 01 Apr 2000, both days inclusive).

For widows of defence personnel who died in Har-ness Only. SSCW (Non Tech) [Non UPSC] and SSCW(Tech) – A maximum of 35 years of age as on 01 Apr 2020.Educational Qualification

For SSC(Tech) (Men and Women): Candidates who have passed or are pursu-ing their Engineering Degree course in their respective streams are eligible to apply for the multiple vacancies.

For Widows of defence personnel who died in Har-ness

: Graduation in any Dis-

cipline for SSCW (Non Tech) (Non UPSC) and BE/B Tech in any Engineering stream for SSCW(Tech).Salary Structure

Lieutenant – Level 10 – Rs 56,100 – Rs 1,77,500

Captain Level – 10B – Rs 61,300- Rs 1,93,900

Major – Level 11 – Rs 69,400- Rs 2,07,200

Lieutenant Colonel – Level 12A – Rs 1,21,200- Rs 2,12,400

Colonel – Level 13 – Rs 1,30,600- Rs 2,15,900

Brigadier – Level 13A – Rs 1,39,600- Rs 2,17,600

Major General – Level 14 – Rs 1,44,200- Rs 2,18,200

Lieutenant Genera l HAG Scale – Level 15 – Rs 1,82,200- Rs 2,24,100

Lieutenant General HAG +Scale – Level 16 – Rs 2,05,400- Rs 2,24,400

VCOAS/Army Cdr/Lieu-tenant General (NFSG) – Lev-el 17 – Rs 2,25,000/-(fixed)

COAS – Level 18 – Rs 2,50,000/-(fixed)How to Apply

Interested candidates can fill the online applica-tion at joinindianarmy.nic.in. On the homepage they can click at ‘Officer Entry Appln/Login’ and there they can click ‘Registration’. Fill in all the necessary details that are required. Remember to ‘Save & Continue’ each time before you go to the next segment. Once you have completed the form click on ‘Submit Now’ only after carefully ascertaining that the correct details have been filled in.

NEW DELHI: Less than five years ago, students seldom opted to study an-cient Indian languages like Sanskrit, Tamil, and most

seats in colleges under the University of Delhi (DU) would lie vacant. This year, however, the seats in these courses have been filled.

Of the 69 colleges in Delhi University that offer arts and commerce courses, only 29 teaches Sanskrit. The seats in all these col-leges offering courses on Sanskrit have been filled this year. Moreover, many colleges had to increase their seats due to the rise in demand. Hansraj College offers 43 seats in Sanskrit. In the first cut-off, 20 seats for the general category got filled, and only two seats were left vacant after the fifth list.

“Two seats in the Sched-uled Tribe (ST) category, one in the Other Backward Class (OBC) category and a seat in the Kashmiri mi-grants are available, but it will be filled soon,” Satesh Kumar Mishra, assistant professor of the college, said, adding that the last

Interest in studying ancient Indian languages reviving

year batch also 43 students.The cut-off for Sanskrit in

Hansraj college touched 72 per cent for Sanskrit, but the college had among the high-

est cut-off till 98.5 per cent for BA (Hons) Economics.

The professor believes that there has been a change because of the government’s focus on ancient languages. “Since the government has the vision to Sanskrit global, the trend is changing and make students are showing interest.”

Apart from the traditional job of a teacher, several ca-reer paths are opening up for students who study lan-guages, including the option of working as a translator in various departments.

Bharati College in West Delhi, which offers 60 seats for its Sanskrit course, had to include an additional nine seats after witnessing an increase in the number of applications.

Asha Tewari, Sanskrit department head said, “Of the last five years, this year we received maximum ap-plications (125). During the counselling, students said they chose Sanskrit as

there are lots of opportu-nities coming up in fields like journalism to yoga, or Ayurveda medicines, apart from the conventional ca-

reer in academics or in administration.”

A c c o r d i n g t o Tewari, “Many science students take Sanskrit as an optional paper in civil service exami-nations as it is quite scoring.”

The case is simi-lar with Pali. Even though fewer educa-tional institutes offer degree courses in this

language, there are several options in diploma and cer-tificate courses provided by the Department of Buddhist Studies, DU.

As per a professor of the department, “The students who take admission in Pali courses offered by the varsi-ty pursue research, further many also move abroad to be involved with various monasteries as a research scholar. Those who wish to appear for the civil ser-vice examinations, also opt for the courses due to less study on these subjects as the questions in the UPSC mains are more or less com-mon every year.”

The School of Sanskrit and Indic Studies, Jawa-harlal Nehru University, which started in 2017 of-fers postgraduate courses and Masters of Philosophy (M.Phil/Ph.D) courses in Sanskrit. There are 60 seats for the Master’s courses, and classes with full capac-ity started from July 16.

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Friday, August 02, 2019

�� �� � � � �� � �� ��

� � � �� � �� � � �

� �� �� �� � � � � �

� � � � �� � � �� ��

�� � � � � � �� � �

�� �� � �� �� � �� � �

� �� �� � � �� �� �� �

� � � �� � �� � � �

�� �� � � � � � � ��

�� �� �� � � �� �� �� ��

� �� �� �� �� �� � �� ��

�� � �� �� �� �� �� � ��

�� �� � �� �� � �� �� ��

�� � �� �� �� �� �� �� �

�� �� �� �� �� � �� �� �

� �� � �� �� �� �� �� ��

�� �� �� � � �� �� �� ��

�� �� �� �� �� �� � � ��Puzzle # : 84 Diffi culty : Easy

Sudoku Puzzle Rules: To solve a Su-doku puzzle, every digit from 1 to 9 must appear in each of the nine verti-cal columns, in each of the nine horizontal rows and in each of the nine boxes.Solution for Puzzle # 84 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 83 Answer

Your wellness

Researchers from the University of Glasgow looked

at the records of nearly 4,000 Scottish diabetic mothers and found that diabetic women are more than four times more likely to have a stillborn baby than those without the condition.

The new study found that high blood sugar levels in pregnant diabet-ics was a “risk factor” in stillbirths. The Body Mass Index (BMI) of diabetic women is also a critical factor, the study found. Researchers also found that a third of stillbirths in diabetic women happened at full term.

Diabetic women more likely to have stillborn babyThe study identified

5,392 babies born to 3,847 mothers with diabetes in Scotland between April 1998 to June 2016.

Dr Sharon Mackin, who carried out the study, said, “It is vital that we, as healthcare professionals, find better ways to sup-port women during their fertile ages to optimise weight and blood sugar, so that when entering pregnancy, whether that be planned or unplanned, they are better prepared and their risk of adverse outcomes is reduced.

“It is important that women with diabetes are mindful of this, and are able to access ap-

propriate pre-conceptual counselling, even if not imminently planning a pregnancy. Women with diabetes should also make contact with their diabetes clinic as soon as they get a positive pregnan-cy test so that we can see and support them early on,” she said.

The study ruled that earlier delivery may be considered “an attractive option” but that more re-search was needed before recommendations for op-timal timing were made.

Dr Mackin said the question “has to be asked

about whether earlier de-livery of all diabetic preg-nancies could prevent these term stillbirths”.

She said, “We don’t know the answer to this.

The opti-mal tim-i n g o f delivery in such

pregnancies is not clear.”Mothers with type 1

diabetes were more than three times likely to deliv-er a stillborn child, while those with type 2 were at least four times likely.

Stillbirth rates were 16.1 per 1,000 births in the women with type 1 diabetes and 22.9 per 1,000 births in type 2

Researchers have found that students who use their smart-

phones five or more hours a day are prone to higher risk of obesity and likely to have other lifestyle habits that increases the risk of heart disease.

According to a study, researchers analysed 1,060 students (700 girls and 360 boys) of Colombia with an average age of 19 years and 20 years, respectively.

“It is important for the general population to know and be aware that, despite being undoubtedly attrac-tive for its multiple pur-poses, portability, comfort, access to countless ser-vices, information and en-tertainment sources, mobile technology should also be used to improve habits and

Five hours daily on phone increases risk of obesity

healthy behaviours,” said study lead Author Mirary Mantilla-Morron from the Simon Bolivar University in Colombia.

The study found that

the risk of obesity increases by 43 per cent if a smart-phone was used for five

or more hours a day, as participating students were twice as likely to drink more sugary drinks, fast food, sweets, snacks and have decreased physical

activities.According to research-

ers, 26 per cent of the stu-

dents who were overweight and 4.6 per cent who were obese spent more than five hours using their device.

Spending too much time using the smartphone fa-cilitates sedentary behav-iours, reduces the time of physical activity, which increases the risk of prema-ture death, diabetes, heart disease and different types of cancer, the study said.

According to Rajesh Kapoor, surgical Gastroen-terology, Jaypee Hospital, Noida, using smartphones today is not a mere choice, rather it has become a necessity. But using it for too long may risk your healthy life.

“The best way out is to encourage yourself to reduce the duration of time being used on phones and

other related gadgets at the same time, to indulge in physical activities like yoga or any other sports or exercise pattern, and by not becoming a couch potato,” Kapoor told IANS.

“It is not a question of five or more hours on the phone. It is a question of how much activity level we are able to build into our life,” Achal Bhagat, Senior Consultant, Psychiatry at Indraprastha Apollo Hos-pitals in Delhi said.

“And if we are not able to build it to an adequate level, then it increases the chances of obesity and related health risk factors. Phone is one of the ways of exhibiting that we are not doing enough physi-cal activities in our life,” he added.

diabetes, compared with 4.9 per 1,000 births in the general population.

Women with type 1 who had stillbirths had higher than average blood sugar levels throughout their pregnancy, while pre-pregnancy levels were a more important predic-tor of stillbirth in those with type 2.

Babies with the highest and lowest birth weights were most at risk, the study published in the Di-abetologia journal, found.

Dr Emily Burns, head of research communica-tions at Diabetes UK, said, “Most women with diabetes have healthy pregnancies and healthy

babies, but this research reinforces the importance of supporting women to

manage their blood glu-cose levels if they are planning a pregnancy, in order to reduce their risk of complications as much as possible.

Dr Burns said, “It also suggests that losing extra

weight, for women with type 2 diabetes who are overweight, could help to

reduce this risk as well. We need research to find better ways of predict-ing who is most at risk of complications during pregnancy, to ensure sup-port can be provided to those who need it most.”

Bengaluru has been rated as the best city in India for students

by the QS Student City ranking 2018, in which London topped the global list. The ranking framework

assessed universities on the basis of performance of universities, employers hiring, affordability of city, desirability, quality of life, and the diversity of student body.

Only two Indian cities made in the list of top 100

B’luru India’s best city for students: QS ranking

cities for students in the global rankings. India’s top city was Bengaluru at 81st spot, followed by Mumbai at 85th. In the national capital where thousands of students came to take

admission could not make in the top 100 list. Delhi was placed in 113th, and Chennai at 115th rank in the global ranking 2018.

Bengaluru which is known as IT capital of India is also home to the Indian Institute of Science (IISc).

Globally, Tokyo secured the second place in the global ranking followed by Seoul (10th), and Hongkong (14th).

London became the best city for students for the second consecutive year. “The fact that London has again been ranked the best city in the world in which to be a student is fantastic news – and is no sur-prise given that London is home to world-leading higher education institu-tions and a vibrant cultural life”, London mayor Sadiq Khan said. “This is further evidenced that London is open to students and talent from around the world”, he added.

The number of Indian students coming to study in London registered a hike of 20 per cent in 2017-18, marking an increase from 4,545 in 2016-17 to 5,455 in 2017-18. However, the numbers are still below

the mark than could be achieved from a large stu-dent market like India due to a less than attractive visa regime which puts some off from applying to the UK.

“We look forward to welcoming even more in-ternational bright minds to the capital to soak up the city’s culture and to take advantage of the many opportunities it offers,” said Lalage Clay, Director of Education and Talent at London & Partners, the Mayor of London’s official promotional agency and home of Study London.

The QS top 10 ranking includes some best cities in Europe- Munich (4th) and Berlin (5th), followed by the French capital Paris at the seventh place and Swit-zerland’s Zurich at eighth place. The Canadian city of Montreal (6th), Australia’s Sydney (9th) and South Korean capital Seoul (10th) complete the top 10.

Admissions to the distance education wing of Univer-

sity of Mumbai can now continue its admissions process, which was stalled due to their lapsed affili-

ation with the University Grants Commission (UGC).

In an updated list re-leased, UGC highlighted names of distance educa-tion institutes that have finally been granted rec-ognition and MU’s In-stitute of Distance and Open Learning (IDOL) was featured in the list. This news gives relief to over

30,000 students who have been waiting to finish the admissions process.

“We missed making it in the previous list because the mandatory on-site visit by a UGC ap-

pointed expert committee had recently taken place and their report was pend-ing at that time. Once their report was submitted, we were very sure that IDOL will be featured in the updated list,” said Vinod Malale, public relations officer, IDOL. He added that an updated schedule for admission to 2019-20

academic year will be released soon.

In June 2017, UGC issued a notification to regulate distance learning courses offered across the country, which required institutes to seek the reg-ulator’s recognition for these courses. IDOL didn’t figure in UGC’s first list of recognised institutes, issued in August 2018, as the MU’s National Assess-ment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) grading had expired. IDOL also failed to show up in two consecutive updated UGC lists after that -- one in January and another in the last week of June this year.

New rules required ap-plicant institutes to attain a NAAC score of 3.26 on a four-point scale before the end of the academic year 2019-20 and also affiliation with the UGC. NAAC assesses and ac-credits higher education Institutions in the country.

UGC grants approval to MU’s distance learning wing

The Delhi High Court has issued notifica-tion for a number of

posts. Applications have been invited to fill up as many as 45 posts in Delhi Judicial Service through Delhi Judicial Service Exam 2019.

Those willing to apply may note that online ap-plication process is starting

Applications invited for Delhi Judicial Service Examfrom August 2. Candidates who are eligible and are interested may apply for Delhi Judicial Service 2019 Exam on or before Septem-ber 2. The exam will be conducted in two rounds i.e. through preliminary exam and then through main exam. The prelim exam, which will be objec-tive type, will be held on

September 22.Candidates willing to ap-

ply must fulfil the needed eligibility criteria. Selection of candidates will be done on the basis of how the ap-plicant perform in objective type prelims examination, which will be followed by main exam and viva voce.Dates to remember

Starting date and time

to apply online: August 2 at 10:00 AM

Last date to apply on-line: September 2 at 11:00

PMVacancy Details; Total

number of posts – 45General – 6 positions,

SC – 12 positions ST – 27 PostsEligibility Criteria

Candidates must be a citizen of India

He/she must practicing as a lawyer in India. A person who is qualified to

be admitted as an Advocate under the Advocates Act, 1961 may also apply.

The maximum age of the candidate must not be above 32 years of age

Selection procedure: Selection process will have the prelim exam, which will be followed by the Main Exam candidates se-lection for Viva voce.

How to Apply: Candi-dates may apply for the post prescribed format on Delhi High Court’s official website www.delhihigh-court.nic.in from August 2 to September 2.

Application Fee: Those in general category will have to pay Rs 1000/-, while SC/ST/PWD candidates will have to pay Rs 200/-

6 IN FOCUS Friday, August 02, 2019

GULF FAQs

My manager obtained my sign on a docu-ment last week. I unwillingly signed the undertaking related to conditions which may lead to issuing warning letter or termi-nation of my employment for using phone or watching social media while at work, not taking call from the manager during office hours and not completing the task on the same day. As an employee, I am eager to know the legal repercussions of signing such a document. What I should do?

We assume that your employment with your employer is governed by the provi-sions of the Federal Law No. (8) of 1980 regulating employment relations in the UAE (the “Employment Law”). In the UAE, the employer has the discretion to frame disciplinary rules for its employees which needs to be followed during office hours. The employer may submit the disciplinary code of conduct to the Ministry of HR and Emiritisation (MoHRE) for its approval. This is in accordance with Article 2 of the Ministerial Order No. 28/1 of 1981 regarding Mode Disciplinary Code, a guide to em-ployees in making disciplinary regulations applied in their undertaking. It states: “Every employer shall submit to the competent la-bour branch in the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs (now MoHRE), the disciplin-ary regulations proposed to be applied to employees working in his undertakings so as to be approved by the said labour branch before such proposal comes into force and every employer shall secure such approval to any amendments he introduces on the regulation before such amendments come into force.” However, as you have already signed the disciplinary undertaking (docu-ment), it is implied that you have accepted the terms and conditions mentioned therein. Therefore, your employer may exercise its rights if you violate the signed disciplinary undertaking as mentioned in Article 102 of the Employment Law, which states: “The disciplinary penalties that an employer or his representatives may impose on the em-ployee shall be as follows: 1) a warning 2) a fine 3) suspension from work with reduced pay for a period not exceeding 10 days 4) forfeiture or promotion, in establishments having a promotion scheme 5) dismissal without prejudice to severance pay and 6) dismissal with forfeiture of all or part of the severance pay.

This penalty may only be imposed on the ground expressly specified in Article 120 of this law. Prior to imposing the aforemen-tioned penalties, the employee should be notified in writing regarding the disciplinary charges against him. The same needs to be internally investigated by the employer after providing the employee a fair chance to defend himself. This is in accordance with Article 110 of the Employment Law which states: “None of the penalties stipulated in Article 102 may be imposed on an employee until he has been notified in writing of the charges against him, heard and allowed to have his defence investigated and until all this has been entered in a special minutes to be placed in his personal file with the penalty mentioned at the end of such minutes. An employee shall be notified in writing of any penalties imposed on him, and of the nature and amount thereof, the reasons for their imposition and the penalty to which he will be liable if he is to repeat the offence.” Further, it may be noted that as per Article 111 of the Employment Law an employee may not be charged with a disciplinary offence after the lapse of more than 30 days from the date of the offence being detected nor may he/she be imposed a disciplinary penalty after the lapse of more than 60 days once the enquiry is conducted by the employer where an employee was already found guilty. An individual in the UAE cannot force or coax anyone to sign a document or sign on a plain paper as it is a criminal offence. This is in accordance with Article 397 of Federal Law No. (3) of 1987 on issuance of the penal code which states: “Shall be sanctioned to term imprisonment, whoever obtains by force or threat a deed, a signature on it, amendment or cancella-tion thereof or destruction.” Therefore, you may initiate a criminal complaint against your employer by approaching the public prosecutor or the police station if you can prove that you were forced to sign on the document. Prior to imposing penalties, the employee should be notified in writing re-garding the disciplinary charges against him.

Probation woes

I have a question about employees un-der their probation period in the UAE. I

Forcing employee to sign document is a crime

have worked as an accounts assistant for a group of companies for three months now and am still under probation. I was given a visa designation as a secretary even though I am a certified public ac-countant. If I leave my company now, will I have to repay my employer for all the expenses they have paid to me -- such as visa and health card processing? Will I get a ban for leaving the job? What if I finish the full six-month probation period? Will I still have to pay any penalty to my employer or are there any benefits that I am entitled to?

As this makes a significant difference to options on leaving a job, it was first estab-lished that you are on an unlimited contact. An unlimited contract makes it easier to leave a position but provides less protec-tion if made redundant. Even if someone is in their probation period, they should still give formal notice to leave although it is something of a grey area with little clarity in the law. You will have to give 30 days’ notice. Under no circumstances is an employer permitted to pass on the costs of employing someone and this has been confirmed by the UAE government on numerous occasions and also stated in Ministerial Order 52 of 1989, Article 6. Indeed, even UAE Labour Law makes refer-ence to this in Article 60 which states: “No amount of money may be deducted from a worker’s wage in respect of private claims”, with a number of defined exemptions which do not include leaving employment. When someone is on an unlimited contract they are less likely to receive a ban than someone on a limited contract that leaves within six months. However, they can still receive a ban depending on the skill category of their job. Employees in the higher skill catego-ries, numbers one to three, will not face a ban in this situation but workers in skill categories four and five can only move to another employer without a six-month ban after completing a period of not less than six months with their current employer. It does not matter that the job title in the visa does not match your experience and qualifications. He should still fall into skill category-3 at least based on the current job title and educational background. However, he should note that no end-of-service ben-efits are payable to anyone who works for any company for less than a full year.

Credit card misuse

I have a problem with my credit card. My friend borrowed my credit card months ago. Initially the payments were being made by him on time, but now he is not making the payments or answering my calls. Is there any way I can get out of this problem? Can I file a police case against him?

I understand that you gave your credit card to your friend in order that he could use it. As you did this voluntarily, you cannot register a police case as you should never have done this in the first place. A credit card is a legal agreement between two parties, the cardholder and the bank, and the wording of the agreement that is signed will clearly state that the card is for the use of the individual only. Permitting someone else to use a card in this way is in breach of the agreement. While the exact wording will vary between the providers of credit cards, they will all include a phrase along the lines of, “The usage of the card is restricted to the cardholder and for their personal use”. It will also state wording similar to, “the cardholder shall not allow any third party to use the card for any purpose.” The debt accumulated and the payments due are solely the responsibil-ity of you under the law of the UAE, and indeed in respect of credit card usage in any other country. You have broken the terms of the agreement with the bank and if they find out they will be within their rights to cancel the card and demand im-mediate repayment of the full outstanding balance. It is foolish to give a credit card to someone to use and you must take personal responsibility here. You need to speak to the bank to put a block on the card to en-sure this erstwhile friend does not run up any further debts in your name and then try and track him down to request that he pays back the money he has spent in your name but you will not be able to register a police case in this respect. You should also be aware that defaulting on repayments will affect your personal credit record with Al Etihad Credit Bureau and this can affect the ability to take out future loans, mortgages and credit cards.

(From left): P Jamneshwar, CEO, SBI Singapore; Ambassador K Kesavapany, High Commissioner of India to Singapore Jawed Ashraf, Kishore Kumar Poludasu, Country Head of SBI Singapore and Narandas Gangaram of Radha Exports at the launch of SBI Singapore’s new Jurong East branch.

SBI Singapore launchesnew heartland branchSINGAPORE: State Bank of India (SBI) Singapore unveiled its new branch office at Jurong East heartlands with the High Commissioner of India to Singapore Jawed Ashraf present as the guest of honour. In true multi-cultural fashion, the launch event comprised not just ribbon cutting and the lighting of lamps, but also a Chinese lion dance performance. Lion dances are a common prac-tice in Singapore at the opening of commercial spaces, as they are said to be able to summon good fortune for new business ventures.

Ambassador K Kesavapany, former Director of the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, was also present on the occasion. “SBI is a very important partner for the High Commission of India in Singapore, the Indian community and more broadly, for the India-Singapore economic ties,” said Jawed Ashraf. “All these years, their services have been exemplary, with a focus on serving the customers. With the new orientation towards technology-enabled processes, I am sure SBI Singapore is contributing in many ways to the overall improvement at SBI headquarters and I look forward to SBI’s continued growth as India and Singapore’s economies expand.”

Kishore Kumar Poludasu, Country Head of SBI in Singapore, said: “We previously already had a branch in the Jurong East neighbourhood, but it was smaller and more compact. With this new spacious office, we want to bring to custom-ers better service and increased convenience.”

Indian fi rms’ contributionto UK economy on riseLONDON: With Brexit on the horizon and the United King-dom government reaching out to develop closer ties with India, professional services firm Grant Thornton released a report detail-ing the contributions of Indian firms to the UK economy in terms of value generation and employ-ment. Based on different criteria, 850 firms active in the UK for the past two years or more were shortlisted.

The analysis is based on data from the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and focuses on Indian-owned companies that are either headquartered or have a significant share of their opera-tions in the UK. “In the context of leaving the European Union (Brexit), the UK is looking to strengthen trade and investment with non-EU countries globally. India, as one of the fastest-grow-ing economies in the world and as a member of the Commonwealth, is very much in the UK’s sights,” state the report’s authors.

Based on different criteria, 850 firms active in the UK for the past two years or more were

shortlisted. These firms: Employ at least 1,000 people in the UK each cumulatively generated revenues of just under 48 billion pounds for this financial year, a billion more than for the last period, paid more than 684 mil-lion pounds in corporation tax over this financial year, almost double the 360 million last year, employed nearly 105,000 people across the UK for this financial year.The economic contribution of Indian-owned firms is strengthen-ing the relationship between the UK and India as well, the report stated, adding that the contribu-tion from Indian companies ex-tends to other dimensions as well.

Showcased during the UK-In-dia Business Week last month, the investment patterns of these firms revealed that Indian companies in the UK appeared unaffected by the ongoing Brexit negotiations and the related uncertainty. As per the report, Indian firms have only increased their investment in the UK in this period. Ultra high net worth individuals in India appear to be investing in UK real estate more than anywhere else as well.

Passport power: India ranks 86thNEW DELHI: The UAE pass-port has jumped 20 spots in the last decade and has been ranked 20th among the most powerful passports for 2019. A quarterly report issued by the Henley Passport Index, which analysed how many countries a passport holder can enter visa-free or on a visa-on-arrival basis, revealed the strongest and weakest passports for 199 passports.

India was ranked at 86th place alongside Mauritania and the island nation of Sao Tome and Principe, while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Pakistan were positioned at 99, 101 and 106 respectively.

The report gave an insight into the latest shifts and changes in global passport power. As well as illustrating global and regional trends, the report used data from the index’s 14-year history to

show how travel mobility has changed over the past decade, looking at which passports

have gained in strength and which have fallen behind. Ja-pan and Singapore held onto the top spot on the passport index, with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 189.

South Korea was ranked second place on the in-dex along with Finland and Germany with citizens of all three countries able to access 187 destinations

around the world without a prior visa. Finland’s climb from third to second place

was attributed to the recent changes to Paki-stan’s formerly highly restric-tive visa policy. “In the hope of attracting tour-ists and boost-ing its struggling economy, Paki-stan now offers

an ETA (electronic travel authority) to citizens of 50 countries, including Fin-land, Japan, Malta, Spain, Switzerland and the UAE,” according to the report.

Denmark, Italy, and Lux-embourg jointly ranked third place on the index, each with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 186, while France, Spain, and Sweden were

in joint fourth place each with a score of 185. While Asian countries climbed in the ranks, the UK and US dropped to sixth place with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 183. The two countries also shared sixth place with Belgium, Canada, Greece, Ireland and Norway. The UAE entered the Henley Passport Index’s top 20 for the first time in the index’s 14-year history, with a visa-free or visa-on-arrival score of 167. “Over the past five years, the UAE has more than doubled the number of destinations its citizens are able to travel to without a prior visa,” said the report. Afghanistan remained at the bottom of the global mobility spectrum, with its citizens able to access only 25 des-tinations worldwide without a prior visa.

Indians feel discriminated at work in SingaporeSINGAPORE: A large number of In-dians and Malays in Singapore feel discriminated while applying for jobs.

According to the survey by the Institute of Policy Studies and One-People.sg, a national body for inter-racial and inter-religious understand-ing in Singapore, the proportion of Malay and Indian respondents who felt discriminated against when apply-ing for jobs has increased since 2013.

The findings of the paper titled IPS-OnePeople.sg Indicators of Ra-cial Religious Harmony: Comparing

Results from 2018 and 2013 were released on Tuesday. The paper found that a large proportion of minorities, 73pc of Malays, 68pc of Indians and about half of others, as they are de-fined in ethnicity and which includes Eurasians, felt that they had experi-enced discrimination when it came to applying for a job. In contrast, 38pc of Chinese felt that way, according to the research findings.

This may partly be due to greater awareness of the presence of discrimi-natory behaviour in the workplace

and how this might have affected some minorities, researchers Mathew Mathews, Leonard Lim and Shanthini Selvarajan said in the paper. Zooming into how frequently they felt this way, the proportion who perceived such discriminatory behaviour often, very often or always when applying for a job was also higher in 2018 compared with 2013. About a fifth of Malays (22.3pc) in 2018 felt discriminated against, often, very often or always, when applying for a job in the city state, an increase.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Friday, August 02, 2019

The postal department said it has decided to convert the India

Post Payments Bank into a small finance bank, en-abling it to offer small loans to customers.

Besides, it looks to open one crore accounts for IPPB in 100 days.

The decisions were tak-en at the annual Heads of Circles Conference held at Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir from July 29-31, 2019 to adopt a 100-day action plan and a five-year vision to align the Depart-

India Post Payments Bank to be converted into SFB

ment of Posts, a statement from the postal department said.

The decision included “Converting the India Post Payments Bank (IPPB) into a Small Finance Bank (SFB)

to provide micro credit at the doorsteps to individu-als and SME’s. Targeting the milestone of one crore accounts for IPPB in 100 days” among several other steps.

India Post will part-ner with Common Service Centre to provide a suite of citizen centric services

such as banking, remit-tance, insurance, DBT, bill and tax payments etc. at post offices, the statement said.

The postal department has decided to develop infrastructure to extend the reach of the e-commerce in-dustry to tier 2 and 3 towns as well as to rural areas by investing in 190 parcel hubs, 80 Nodal Delivery Centres and a Pan India Road Transport Network.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad at the con-ference urged the officers of the Department at all levels to think to reform and perform in order to transform.

“In particular, he asked the Heads of Circles to leverage technology to strengthen Digital India by adopting Artificial in-telligence, IOT and Cloud computing for citizen cen-tric services,” the statement said.

After a successful stint in the real es-tate industry, prop-

erty developer Niranjan Hiranandani is setting his sight on what he believes could become another big moneymaker: Selling data storage services to compa-nies such as Amazon and Alphabet or the parent company of Google.

Marking a foray into the digital technology in-frastructure sector that India is looking to acceler-ate, Mumbai-based real es-tate developer Hiranandani Group has lined up invest-ments of nearly Rs 15,000 crore over the next five to seven years for setting up data centres in Panvel in the outskirts of Mumbai and Chennai.

T h e c o m p a n y h a s launched its business ven-ture ‘YOTTA’ Infrastructure -- a 100 pc subsidiary of the Hiranandani Group -- which will offer hyper-density, hyper-scalable data centre and co-location solu-tions to enterprises along

Hiranandani plans mega data parkswith a whole array of sup-porting managed IT, hybrid multi-cloud and security services. Being built over 18-acre land parcel, the company’s first data centre park in Panvel which would comprise five buildings with a total size of around

30 lakh square feet will be operational by December 2019.

“This year we are look-ing at spending about Rs 1,000 crore into our first data centre in Panvel. This will be followed by 11 such centres that we plan to set up in other parts of Mumbai and Chennai over a period of time,” Niranjan

Hiranandani, founder and managing director, Hiranan-dani Group said. The data parks will be spread over 50 acres near major interna-tional fibre landing stations with server hall capacity of over 60,000 racks and 500 MW power.

The real estate group has roped in Netmagic’s former executive director Sunil Gupta as the CEO of Yotta. “With growth of tech-nologies like IoT and Big Data becoming mainstream, vast amounts of data will be created in complex formats that will need massive data centre infrastructure. This is the right time to enter

this segment,” he said.Hiranandani, who is

also the president of Na-tional Real Estate Develop-ment Council, pointed out that the demand for data centre is massive and “we are here to fill the demand-supply gap in the market.”

“We envision a huge opportunity with data lo-calisation and protection act to be announced soon by the government in or-der to regulate the data management business. This will give a big impetus to the data storage business to grow domestically at an exponential pace bringing the paradigm shift to the Indian economy,” he added.

To support the power needs, the Group will also be setting up a 60 MW solar power plant in Ma-harashtra that the company said should be able to start generating at least 30 MW power by early next year. “This will help us in bring-ing down the data centre cost by 20pc,” Hiranandani added.

India received the high-est-ever FDI inflow of $ 64.37 billion during the

fiscal ended March 2019, said a government report.

According to the Annual Report 2018-19 of the De-partment for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), foreign direct in-vestments (FDI) worth $ 286 billion were received in the country in past five years.

“In the current financial year (2018-19), the country registered highest ever FDI inflow of $ 64.37 billion,” the report said.

Highlighting the impor-tance of FDI, it said the foreign inflows bring in resources, the latest tech-nology and best practices to push economic growth on to a higher trajectory.

The DPIIT under the commerce and industry ministry further said path-breaking reform measures

Amazon.com Inc is in exploratory talks with Reliance Indus-

tries Ltd-owned Reliance Retail for buying up to 26pc stake in India’s biggest brick-

and-mortar retailer, a leading financial daily reported.

Talks began after Reli-ance’s negotiations with China’s Alibaba Group to sell a stake in the retail entity fell through due to differences over valuation, the financial daily reported citing two senior industry executives.

However, there is no certainty the initial discus-sions will lead to a deal,

FDI sets new record at $64.37b in FY19

Amazon in talks to buy stake in Reliance Retail

undertaken during the last financial year have resulted in India surpassing the FDI received in 2016-17 and registering an inflow of $ 60.98 billion during 2017-18, a new all-time high.

The FDI inflows was $ 45.14 billion during 2014-15 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA government assumed pow-er. The inflows were $ 55.55 billion in the follow-ing year.

Besides, the DPIIT said an action plan for promo-tion of Indian ‘geographical indications’ (GIs) has been prepared. This can help supplement the incomes of our farmers, weavers, artisans and craftsmen. A logo and tagline for all In-dian GIs has been prepared through crowd-sourcing.

The government regu-larly reviews the FDI poli-cy, with a view to make it more investor-friendly.

said a report.“As a policy, we do not

comment on media specu-lation and rumours. Our company evaluates various opportunities on an on-

going basis,” Reliance In-dustries said.

A m a z o n declined to comment.

T h e S e -a t t l e - b a s e d ecommerce gi-ant has been

engaged in a pitched battle for Indian market share against Walmart Inc’s Flip-kart, with both companies announcing various plans to attract more customers in what is viewed as one of their most important growth markets.

Reuters reported that Amazon was planning a foray into the burgeoning online food delivery busi-ness in India this year.

Max Life Insurance Company Limited has announced

the expansion of its pres-ence in Bengaluru.

This expansion will support the life insurer’s

larger mission of ensuring a financially protected nation by allowing greater access to life insurance offerings to consumers across India’s rapidly burgeoning cities.

The expansion falls in line with the life insurer’s mission to strengthen its share of proprietary chan-nel considerably over the

Max Life announces expansion in B’luru

next few years.In addition to hiring

8-10 full time employees in each of its new branches, the expansion will pro-vide opportunity for over 500 agent advisors and

agency partners to make a rewarding career with Max Life.

Through this office, Max Life will be able to provide better ser-vice to over 12.5 lakh residents of Bengaluru. The

company further aims to grow the share of its propri-etary channel by opening 60 new branches across 16 states in the country, in the next phase of expansion.

Commenting on the launch, V Viswanand, Dep-uty Managing Director, Max Life Insurance said, “As per a recent survey called

‘India Protection Quotient’ conducted by Max Life Insurance in association with Kantar IMRB, we discovered that 79pc of urban Indians would still prefer to buy life insur-ance from agent advisors. By expanding our agency network in Bengaluru, we wish to drive the uptake of financial protection for its citizens while creating greater job opportunities for the residents of the city.”

Max Life has under-taken various initiatives in recent past to fortify its commitment towards en-suring greater financial pro-tection for its customers. To strengthen its protection portfolio, the Company recently launched a cus-tomizable Max Life Smart Term Plan and continues to increase the protection element across different offerings.

Companies in India may soon have to pay employees twice

their normal wages if they work overtime, besides get-ting written consent from them in advance.

Labour and Employ-ment Minister Santosh Ku-

mar Gangwar introduced the Code on Occupational Safety Health and Working Conditions 2019 bill in the Lok Sabha last week. The proposal states that “no worker shall be required to work overtime by the employer without prior consent of the worker in writing for such work,” a news channel reported.

T h e g o v e r n m e n t scrapped a provision from the existing law which

Soon double payment for working overtime

specifies the number of overtime hours a worker can do. Instead, the Cen-tre and state governments will prescribe the period of overtime work they can do.

Further, the report said: Work hours for different classes of establishment

and employees will be provided as per the rules prescribed by the central or state government. For over-time work, the worker must be paid twice the rate of daily wages. Female work-ers, with their consent, may work past 7 pm and before 6 am if approved by the central or state government.

The overtime wage will also include basic pay, dearness allowance and retention pay.

US-based networking giant Cisco said that it aims to train one

million students in India on digital skills by 2025.

Through its Cisco Net-working Academy, the com-pany has already trained more than 3.5 lakh people in India.

“In 2016, we had com-mitted to training 2,50,000 students by 2020, which was achieved a year ahead of schedule,” Cisco SVP-IT and CIO-International VC Gopalratnam said at the Cisco India Summit (CIS)

Cisco to train students in digital skills2019 held in Kochi.

Cisco is now expanding

the Networking Academy programme to train one

million students in India by 2025, he added.

“This commitment is aligned to Cisco’s goal of

positively impacting 50 m people in India by 2025 and is aimed at creating a pool of highly-skilled technol-ogy professionals who will accelerate India’s digital transformation,” he said.

Through the programme, schools, colleges, universi-ties, vocational institutions, government bodies and non-profit organisations are provided a Cisco developed curriculum on IoT that can be integrated with the in-stitution’s own educational offerings.

Cisco also supports gov-

ernment education institutes in providing training on networking and cyberse-curity skills aimed at im-proving the employability of engineering graduates, Gopalratnam said.

Earlier this month, Cisco, Accenture and Quest Alli-ance signed pact with the Directorate General of Train-ing and the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepre-neurship to bolster digital skill development among up to 1.5 million students in ITIs across the country via the Bharat Skills portal.

United Bank of India (UBI) has reported a net profit of Rs 105 crore

for the April-June quarter of this fiscal in the wake of rise in core income and fall in non-performing assets (NPAs).

The lender had recorded a net loss of Rs 388.68 crore dur-ing the first quarter of the pre-vious fiscal year. Total income in the first quarter rose to Rs 3,003.13 crore from Rs 2,549.71 crore in the year-ago quarter, the Kolkata-headquartered lend-er said in a regulatory filing.

UBI records Rs 105cr profi t in Q1During the quarter, the

bank’s interest income in-creased to Rs 2,374.39 crore from Rs 2,155.02 crore while income from other sources jumped to Rs 628.74 crore from Rs 394.69 crore in the year-ago quarter.

Further, net interest margin (NIM) increased by 47 basis points to 2.83 per cent in the first quarter from 2.36 per cent year ago, it said. NIM for the quarter rose to Rs 727.47 crore from Rs 545.30 crore year earlier.

The authorised capital of Indian Overseas Bank (IOB) has been

increased by Rs 5,000 crore from Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore.

The Central government, after consultation with the Reserve Bank of India, has increased the authorised capital of the Chennai-headquartered bank through a gazette notification, ac-cording to a statement.

The move will enable

Govt hikes authorised capital of IOB by Rs 5,000crthe bank take steps to shore up its capital adequacy by way of issue of share capital, including in case of further capital infusion by the gov-ernment.

The bank’s board has approved issue of equity capital during 2019-20 to a maximum extent of 300 crore equity shares, with appropri-ate premium by way of public issue, rights issue, shares to employees, preferential is-sue and by way of QIP. The

shareholders of the bank have also accorded their approval for the same at the recently held Annual General Meeting.

IOB hopes to come out of the PCA framework this year due to various initia-tives undertaken as part of the turnaround strategy. The bank was brought under the PCA (prompt corrective action) programme by the RBI in September 2015 after reporting high NPAs.

8 Travel / Entertainment

Printed by Supreeth MJ and published by him on behalf of IPEPCIL Publications Pvt Ltd. and printed at Inquilab Off set Printers Ltd.,156, D J Dadaji Road, Tardeo, Mumbai-400 034, Maharashtra and published from Offi ce No. 1001, 10th Floor, Navjivan Commercial Premises Co-op. Society Ltd., Lamington Road, (Dr.D.B.Marg), Mumbai Central, Mumbai - 400 008. • Editor: E.L. Vaidyanathan • Volume No.: 1, Issue No. 85 • RNI No. MAHENG/2018/76663.

Friday, August 02, 2019

PUBLICATIONS PVT. LTD.

9010, 9th Floor, Ozone Biz Centre, Mumbai Central (E), Mumbai - 400008. Mob.: 8898261303, 9730073400Email: circulation@newsandnri.comPhone: 022 - 23001102 / 23001103.

Subscription FormName .................................................Address ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................Pin Code ............. Mob.: ...................Email ................................................Draft No. .............. Amount ...............Bank .................... Branch ................

Duration Issues By Post By Courier 6 Months 52 375/- 1000/- 1 year 104 700/- 1500/-

Date ................. Signature ................. Demand Draft to be drawn in favour of “IPEPCIL Publications pvt ltd.” payable at Mumbai. Money Order to be sent to: IPEPCIL Publica-tions (This subscription form should be filled in and posted along with M.O details)

EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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

As on 01st August, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 45.80 48.80Bahraini Dinar 178.65 188.65 British Pound 82.20 85.20Canadian Dollar 50.75 53.75Emirati Dirham 18.30 19.30 Euro 74.75 77.75 Kuwaiti Dinar 221.50 231.50Omani Rial 174.60 184.60Qatari Riyal 18.50 19.50Saudi Riyal 17.90 18.90Singapore Dollar 48.70 51.70 Swiss Franc 67.80 70.80US Dollar 67.80 70.30

Source:

(From left): Indian-American actress/producer Mindy Kaling, Nathalie Emmanuel and British-Indian actor Nikesh Patel speak onstage during the Hulu 2019 Summer TCA Tour in Beverly Hills, California.

Sri Lanka offers free tourist visas

Sri Lanka is offer-ing free tourist visas from Aug 1 on ar-

rival to citizens of almost 50 countries, including India, as it tries to woo back visitors after militant attacks on Easter Sunday. Several countries then issued travel advisories, undermining the crucial tourism industry and for-eign visitor arrivals in May fell 70.8pc, the low-est since the end of Sri Lanka’s civil war a decade ago.

A government docu-ment showed the cabinet had agreed to scrap tourist visas, which typically cost $20 to $40 and are applied for online or at Sri Lankan embassies and consulates. “The offer will remain for six months and the government will assess the loss of revenue from visas after six months,” an

official said.Tourism Development

Minister John Amaratunga

confirmed the measure and added that he expects the move to boost arrivals but declined to provide details.

The ministry said it did not have an estimate of its earn-ings from visa payments.

Tourism was Sri Lanka’s third largest and fastest growing source of foreign currency last year, after pri-

vate remittances and tex-tile and garment exports, accounting for almost $4.4

billion or 4.9pc of GDP in 2018. Tourist traffic for the first-half of the year was down by 13.4pc.

Commemorating its 13th anniversary, IndiGo airline has

slashed fares on domestic and international flights till August 4, 2019. The Gurga-on-based airline is offering fares on domestic flights from Rs 999 and Rs 3499 on international routes.

As part of a five-day anni-versary sale, people booking flight tickets through In-diGo’s website or the mobile app will also receive 20pc cashback up to Rs 1,000 on using Bank of Baroda credit or debit cards, while custom-ers using Yes Bank credit card will receive Rs 2,000

IndiGo offers fares from Rs 999 and Rs 3499

cashback on international bookings. The offer applies to both corporate and leisure customers.

IndiGo’s Chief Commer-cial Officer William Boulter said: “It’s indeed a special moment as IndiGo com-pletes 13 successful years, connecting people and plac-es they love. We thank our customers, employees and partners who have been an important part of this incredible journey. As part of our celebrations, we are delighted to announce our 13th anniversary sale across 56 domestic and 19 interna-tional destinations. We will

continue to build the best air transportation system in the world that offers a wide choice, on-time perfor-mance, affordable fares and a courteous and hassle-free flying experience.”

It further stated: “Since 2006, IndiGo has been a part of innumerable journeys, making air travel accessible and affordable for Indian travellers. Increased mobil-ity has not only helped in bringing people closer and strengthening the domes-tic tourism economy, but also promoting trade with enhanced regional connec-tivity.”

Dubai hails fi rst GoAir fl ight from Kannur

Dubai International Airport (DXB) has added a new airline

to its family of 70 interna-tional carriers and expanded its connectivity to a new destination. India’s GoAir made its inaugural flight to DXB from Kannur in Kerala on Thursday. The airline has launched daily direct flights between DXB Terminal 1 and Kannur International Airport, making Dubai its sixth international destina-tion.

The fast-growing air-line boasts a fleet of 51 Airbus A320s and operates some 285 flights daily to 24 destinations across India. Following the launch of GoAir’s service, DXB is now served by five Indian carri-ers operating approximately 360 weekly flights to 21 destinations across India. India is the single largest destination country for DXB in terms of contribution to traffic volumes with 12.3 million passengers recorded in 2018.

AI Express posts Rs 169cr net profi t Indian woman deplaned for causing ruckus on Dubai-Mumbai fl ightAn Indian woman,

described as “un-ruly”, caused a

Dubai-Mumbai flight to return from the runway to the terminal and caused a one-and-a-half-hour delay. The incident took place on board IX248, an Air India Express flight that was ready for take-off. The woman, who came to Dubai on a tourist visa, “created a ruckus” on board and was handed over to the police, Air In-dia Express officials told a TV channel.

Apparently in her early 40s, the passenger initially complained of suffocation, saying the flight’s air con-ditioner was not function-ing effectively. “She said it is very hot and the AC is low. Our crew tried to

calm her down saying it will be fine once the aircraft takes off. But she created a ruckus and said she did not want to travel,” said PG Prageesh, chief of corporate communi-cations, AIE in India.

“The woman was unruly and adamant. She wanted to be deplaned and insisted that the airline gives her a letter on board citing that she decided to get deplaned due to faulty air conditioning,” he said. He said when the crew could not control the woman, the flight was pushed back to Terminal 2 at 6.10pm on Sunday. A female official, who was called in to counsel the woman, said she was hys-terical and seemed incoher-ent. “After much persuasion, she relented to disembark. When we called Dubai Police as per the procedure related

to deplaning a passen-ger, she misunderstood it and thought we were threatening her,” the of-ficial said. Prageesh said the airline assisted her with immigration officials as she was on a tourist visa and then handed her over to the police without registering a case against her. The female official said the woman did not give clear answers even to Dubai Police and initially refused to sign a statement, which was in Arabic. After interrogation, however, the police allowed her to leave the airport with her bag-gage. Meanwhile, Prageesh said the airline also used an auxiliary power unit to charge the flight’s AC as the aircraft was delayed on the ground.

Air India Express, the low-cost arm of national carrier Air

India, recorded over 16pc growth in revenues at Rs 4,202 crore in 2018-19. In the year-ago period, the same stood at Rs 3,620 crore.

Air India Express on July 30 reported a net prof-it of Rs 169 crore in the year ended March 2019 as higher utilisation of aircraft

and manpower helped the low-cost carrier. This is the fourth straight year of profitability.”The net profit earned in the last fiscal is particularly significant as the aviation sector has had to face many challenges, including high input costs. The unit cost incurred on fuel alone, increased by around 35pc during this period. “The impact of this

on profitability was huge, as more than 40pc of the airline’s operating cost were incurred on fuel,” Air India Express CEO K Shyam Sun-dar said.

According to him, the profit was mainly due to greater utilisation of assets and resources like aircraft, manpower and materials. Air India Express carried 4.36 million passengers last fis-

cal, higher than 3.89 million people flown in the same period a year ago. “Average daily aircraft utilisation rose to 13.3 hours (in 2018-19), from the 12.7 hours in the previous year, which in turn led to an increase in capac-ity,” it said. With a fleet of 25 Boeing 737-800 NG planes, the airline operates from 13 international and 20 Indian destinations.

In an attempt to boost its excise revenue, the Goa government is keen on

allowing tourists entering the state to take home more liquor than what is currently being permitted. This comes at a time when Goa is fac-ing hiccups in mining and tourism sectors. At present, only two bottles (one bottle of IMFL and one bottle of local liquor -- 750 ml each) of liquor is allowed to be carried out of Goa.

Any attempt by tourists to carry more bottles out of Goa is thwarted at the border check-posts with excise offi-cials seizing them. Speaking

Goa may allow tourists tocarry more liquor home

in the Goa assembly, CM Pramod Sawant said such a move would require consent from other states, especially Maharashtra and Karnataka. Sawant said: “We want to give permits that allow car-rying more than two bottles. Today they are allowed to carry one bottle of IMFL and one of local liquor. We want to promote Goan liquor. Our revenue will also grow.”

“In any case people are flouting the limits and car-rying more bottles. We can monetise it. We will have to talk to other states to take their consent,” he said.

However, Karnataka ex-

cise department finds the proposal not so beneficial to the state. According to Dep-uty Superintendent of State Excise Belagavi, Jagadish, Goa’s proposal may not be feasible for Karnataka or even other states as their ex-cise revenue could get a hit. “Currently, we allow tourists to carry only 750 ml of liquor into Karnataka from Goa,” he said. Lakhs of people from Karnataka and Maharashtra, especially from the districts neighbouring Goa, enter the coastal state on a daily basis for business purpose. On their return, many of them carry liquor bottles

Goa deports 26 overstaying foreigners

As many as 26 foreign nationals who were arrested for staying illegally/overstaying have been deported by

the FRRO, Goa since Jan 2016.In a written reply to the question of MLA

Nilkanth Halarnkar, Chief Minister Pramod Sawant said that whenever foreigners are found staying beyond their visa, action against such foreigners is taken by the po-lice department under appropriate sections of law.

Upon disposal of the case and if con-victed, the foreign national is issued with deportation order under Section 3(2) (c) of Foreigners Act 1946, said Sawant. He informed that for the period from Jan 2016 till July 14, 2019, a total of 26 foreign nation-als have been are deported by FRRO, Goa who were arrested by the concerned police station for staying illegally in India/Goa and also who were detained at detention centre, Mapusa for overstaying in India.

Participation in tourism eventsabroad cannot be termed junketGoa’s Department of

Tourism has clarified that promotional and

marketing of Goa Tourism in foreign markets cannot be construed as junkets as today it is the need of the hour where all tour-ism destinations engage in marketing and promotion of their tourism brands across all platforms nationally and globally.

In the past, when Goa Tourism decided to skip participation in a couple of niche markets, there was a hue and cry from various quarters criticizing Goa for its absence in key international events. Today, Goa Tourism has identi-fied key events and road shows for participation in existing and new destina-tions where marketing and promotion is essential to maintain the market and to develop newer ones.

Similarly, with the ETV facility available at the Goa International Airport, Dabo-lim , which has been pro-vided to over 150 countries, the response has been en-couraging with over a lakh

ETVs being issued to global visitors annually through the Goa airport. This is purely due to the marketing and promotion strategies adopted by the Goa Tourism in the recent past.

Anil Kapoor brandambassador for Malabar Gold

Kerala based jewellery retailer Malabar Gold & Diamonds has ap-

pointed Bollywood actor Anil Kapoor as its brand ambassa-dor. Kapoor joins Bollywood actor Kareena Kapoor, South Indian film actor Tamannaah Bhatia and former Miss World Manushi Chillar in promoting the brand. The 62-year-old actor will be seen in a new TV commercial series by the brand titled “Malabar Prom-ises”, which will be released shortly. Known for his versa-tile acting, the National Film award winning actor’s career has spanned almost 40 years as an actor and a producer since 2005.