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Dubai Ruler turns 70

His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

DUBAI: Dubai ruler, Vice-President and Prime Min-ister of the UAE His High-ness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum celebrated his 70th birth-day on Monday.

His passion and vi-sion have transformed Dubai-- once a small creek-side fishing settle-ment ---- into a global city, now home to more than 200 nationalities. And his wise and visionary leadership has propelled the UAE into becoming a major participant on the global stage, spreading inspiring messages such as tolerance, giving and innovation.

Sheikh Mohammed was born on July 15, 1949, at the Al Maktoum house in Al Shindagha. He is the third of Sheikh Rashid bin Saeed Al Maktoum’s four sons. On Jan 4, 2006, Shai-kh Mohammad became the Ruler of Dubai follow-

ing the death of his brother Shaikh Maktoum Bin Rashid

Al Maktoum. On Jan 5 of the same year, members of the UAE Supreme Council elected Shaikh Mohammad as the Vice President of the UAE. On Feb 11 in 2006, UAE President His Highness Shaikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan nominated Shaikh Mohammad as Prime Minis-

ter of the UAE. Shaikh Mo-hammad and the members

of his cabinet took their oaths before Shaikh Khalifa at Al Bateen Palace in Abu Dhabi.

Following his assumption of office as Prime Minister, Shaikh Mohammad estab-lished a new pro-gramme to further promote excel-lence in govern-ment and enhance public services. He rolled out his basic principles for sustainable

development including fostering innovation, en-gaging youth, developing human capital, investing in education and scientific research, establishing good governance in the UAE government sector and promoting the growth of a knowledge-based economy.

Skill India mission to be revampedNEW DELHI: Narendra Modi government’s flag-ship Skill India mission is all set to get revamped. The government will revamp the Skill India mission by starting new courses related to electric vehicles. The government will tie up with top multinational and Indian firms for the same.

The introduction of new industrial training courses, to be taught at Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) across India, comes in the wake of government think tank NITI Aayog’s proposal of making all commercial vehicles run on electric power from 2026. A senior official told a TV channel

that, “India is already an automobile manufacturing hub in South Asia. But as the world is turning towards electric vehicles, we need to grab the opportunity to train our workforce to take advan-tage of the market.”

The officer further said that the government will also sign memoranda of under-standing with firms such as American fast-food giant Mc-Donalds, and large financial sector companies HDFC Bank and State Bank of India to start apprenticeship programmes as part of a drive to ensure more professional training.

The fourth anniversary of the Skill India Mission is being observed now. Several

functions are being organised across the country to mark the occasion. National Skill Development Mission also known as Skill India Mission was launched on this day in 2015. Nearly One Crore youth are being presently imparted skills training annually under the mission. The mission also envisages convergence, co-ordination, and harmonisa-tion of the fragmented skilling efforts of various Ministries in government of India and oth-er key stakeholders through the instruments of common norms, implementation of national skills qualification framework and data integra-tions through the Skill India Portal.

Golden visas to20 property investorsDUBAI: “Golden Visas” have been issued to 20 inves-tors whose real estate in-vestments in Dubai have topped Dh200 million in total. These investors belong to 12 nationalities.

The move represents the latest reforms Dubai has brought to the prop-erty market and allows the holders to have five-year visas for having acquired individual assets valued at Dh5 million and more. Plus, these properties should be registered with Dubai Land Department.

Apart from those from In-dia, Pakistan, Iraq and Iran, the investors hold passports issued by Tunisia, US, Com-monwealth of Dominica, China, (Contd. on page 2)

MUSCAT: A pilot study of personal remittance out-flows suggests that expatri-ates are open to retaining part of earnings within Oman if they see opportuni-ties for investment in three key areas --- business, real estate and the financial mar-kets. The preliminary study, conducted by a Salalah-based professor, represents the first known effort by Oman-based researchers to understand the trends driv-ing remittance outflows in the Sultanate, with a view to offering expatriates viable alternatives for retaining part of their earnings in-country.

According to figures published by Central Bank of Oman (CBO), remittances by expatriate workers to-talled RO 3.774 billion in 2017, down from a peak of RO 4.2 billion in 2015. The downtrend, attribut-able to the current fiscal and economic downturn, brought to an abrupt end a prolonged period of year-on-year growth in expat remittances. “A better un-derstanding of remittances is needed in order to frame a strategy that facilitates the

Expats ready to invest in Omanretention of outward remit-tances so that those funds could help drive Oman’s diversification programme,” said Dr Mohammed Ahmar Uddin , Assistant Professor, Dhofar University. “So we conducted a pilot study into the pattern of remittances of expatriates and their invest-ment preferences in Oman.”

Presenting the findings of his study at a recent banking industry event, Dr Ahmar Uddin said he was inspired by a 2016 World Bank report that ranked the Sultanate 14th in a global listing of countries with the highest outward remit-tances. Given the adverse implications of such large outflows to the domestic economy, the researcher decided to poll a representa-tive number of expatriates for their thoughts on incen-tives that could persuade them to hold back part of their earnings in the Sul-tanate.Indians surveyed

The sample covered al-most all of the 14 different nationalities that together make up the majority of expatriates living and work-ing in the Sultanate. They

included Indians, Bangla-deshis, Pakistani, Egyptians, Syrians, Lebanese, Suda-nese and many people hail-ing from various Western and African countries.

“As remittance outflows are huge for a country like Oman, it is important to understand the factors that can affect the outflow and at the same time how they can be retained in-country,” said Dr Ahmar Uddin.

“There are numerous motivations behind remit-tances: Insurance motives are those viewed as po-tential sources of income to insure against external distress, Altruism-related remittances cover outflows to relatives in home coun-tries, self-interest driven remittances are those used for investment or entrepre-neurial purposes as well as personal consumption and contractual obligations cover remittances used to reimburse debts that the family builds up to pay for the expatriate’s migration.”

Significantly, the study found that local investment preferences depended on a range of factors, including gender, age, occupation,

number of dependents resid-ing with the expatriate in the Sultanate, duration of stay in Oman and so on. Their pref-erences for investing part of their incomes essentially boiled down to three choices – business, real estate and financial markets, Dr Ahmar Uddin noted.

Going forward, the re-searcher plans to build on the study by targeting a larger cohort of expatriates across different professional backgrounds and income brackets. “Many expatriates did voice a desire — at least in principle — to plough back part of their income into the local economy and thereby support Oman’s economic development amid the current econom-ic challenges. They feel a moral duty to do so, partly because of the welcoming and hospitable nature of their hosts and partly be-cause a healthy economy would bode well for the country’s guest workers as well. Perhaps, with the right economic incentives and regulatory safeguards, expa-triates can be motivated to invest part of their earnings in-country,” he added.

Buying gold jewellery in GCC nations to benefi t IndiansMUSCAT: Despite a spike in the prices, buying gold jewellery in the Sultanate and in the GCC will be ben-eficial to Indians living in these countries.

The advantage follows the recent hike in the customs duty on gold and precious metals to 12.5pc announced in the country’s union bud-get. The prices have already reached at multi-year highs in India, which is the world’s second largest gold con-sumer after China, due to a weak rupee and higher international prices. “This will encourage more people to buy gold from overseas”, opines Abdul Salam KP, the group executive director of Malabar Group, the parent company of Malabar Gold and Diamonds. According to him, the revised duty struc-ture will help a customer save more than RO 2.25 (Rs 400 ) per gram on gold pur-chases from GCC countries.

“This will definitely en-

courage bulk buyers, espe-cially on wedding related purchases, to visit Muscat or any of these markets. If a fam-ily of four visits and brings back jewellery in a reason-able quantity, they can cover their trip cost easily. They also have the additional ben-efit of a much wider choice from international jewellery”, he said. He said that even the most popular designs and ar-tefacts of India will be much cheaper in Oman, other GCC states, Singapore and Malay-sia. While price of one gram 22 carat gold closed at RO 17.400, the prices of 24 carat was traded at RO 18.050.Global trend

Globally, gold prices rose to a one-week high, extend-ing gains from the previous session after US Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s dovish remarks bolstered expectations of an interest rate cut this month. Gold prices edged up by Rs 74 to Rs 34,775 per 10 gm at

futures trade on July 12 on firm demand by local jewel-lers at the spot market.

In India, the prices edged up by Rs 74 to Rs 34,775 per 10 gm at futures trade India on Friday. The current difference in price as compared to India is because of the presence of the increased customs duty of 12.5pc as well as other taxes, which hover at around three to four per cent. How-ever, in the Gulf countries, gold bullion is zero rated for tax. “People from the Indian subcontinent still believe gold is the ideal investment com-pared with other options,” Abdul Salam added.

As a substance with high market liquidity, it can be easily sold without having to alter the price. In addition, it is a movable asset whose value does not witness de-preciation with uncertain economies. So, this price advantage will be beneficial for those who buy gold as an investment, he said.

Foreign investors net buyers in Indian capital marketsMUMBAI: Foreign investors have remained net buyers in the Indian capital markets this month so far, even as the equity segment saw ro-bust outflows post -budget.

Overseas inves to r s pulled out money from the equity markets for five of the six sessions follow-ing the budget, which was presented on July 5. As per the latest depositories data, foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) withdrew a net sum of Rs 4,953.77 crore from eq-uities during July 1-12, but poured in a net Rs 8,504.78 crore into the debt market, translating into a cumula-tive net investment of Rs 3,551.01 crore. Overseas investors pulled out money from the equity markets for five of the six sessions fol-

lowing the budget.According to experts,

the proposal in the Union budget to hike surcharge on income tax for wealthy in-

dividuals, including foreign funds which are structured as trusts and association of persons (AoPs), dented FPIs’ enthusiasm for Indian equities and may lead to re-evaluation of their expo-sure to the domestic stock market. FPIs have been net buyers for the past five consecutive months, infus-

ing a net Rs 10,384.54 crore in June, Rs 9,031.15 crore in May, Rs 16,093 crore in April, Rs 45,981 crore in March and Rs 11,182 crore

in Feb into the Indian capital markets (both equity and debt).

“During the budget, the government an-nounced various mea-sures to boost foreign flows and FDI in Indian markets such as ratio-

nalising and simplifying the KYC form for FPIs, allowing FPI investments in debt securities issued by NBFCs and hiking statutory limit of foreign investments in some companies.

“While these were broad-ly viewed as positive steps, the proposal to hike sur-charge on income tax for

wealthy individuals, includ-ing foreign funds which are structured as trust and AoPs, didn’t go down well with the markets,” said Himanshu Srivastava, Senior Analyst Manager Research at Morn-ingstar Investment. Next few days would be crucial to understand how FPIs act in respect to this changed environment, he added.

V K Vijayakumar, chief investment strategist at Geo-jit Financial Services, said, “The major drag on Indian market now is the faltering GDP growth and tepid earn-ings growth. If macro indi-cators reflect an improving economy, FPI flows can be expected to continue. Oth-erwise FPIs would be less enthusiastic to pour more money into Indian markets.”

DUBAI: The Indian Consul-ate in Dubai has issued an advisory to students who intend to pursue graduate studies or courses in off-shore campuses of Indian universities in the UAE.

In a tweet, the consulate reminded potential students that they must ensure that the offshore campus must be duly recognised by the University Grants Commis-sion of India. Earlier, a rating

Advisory issued to Indian students in UAEsystem was made available to students wishing to opt for graduate studies in Dubai. In a tweet, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of Dubai Executive Council, announced that the council had approved a rating system for international branch cam-puses. The Executive Council of Dubai has approved a Rat-ing System for International

Branch Campuses, prepared by the KHDA, aiming to im-prove the quality of educa-tion and offer students the ability to select from the top international universities based on well-informed deci-sions. The system, which was prepared by Dubai’s educa-tion authority KHDA, will allow students to choose from top international universities in the emirate and help them make informed choices.

Dubai bus crash: driver gets 7-year jailDUBAI: The Omani driver of Mwasalat bus that crashed in Dubai last month kill-ing 17 passengers was sen-tenced to seven years in jail by the Dubai Traffic Court.

The court also asked him to pay Dh 3.4 million blood mon-ey to the families of the vic-tims. The 53-year-old Omani driver was charged with caus-ing the death of 17 passengers and injuring 13 others.

The tragedy took place on June 6 when the bus hit

an overhead height barrier at the turnoff from Mohammad

Bin Zayed Road leading onto Rashidiya Road.

There were 30 passen-gers in the ill-fated bus, run by Oman’s national transport company, re-turning to the Emirates from Muscat, following the Eid al Fitr holiday. The driver’s licence was suspended for one year.

He will be deported after serving the jail term.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, July 16, 2019

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

Publisher: Supreet M.J.Editor : E.L. VaidyanathanVolume No.: 1, Issue: 80

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WASHINGTON: Anshula Kant, Managing Director of State Bank Of India, has been appointed as man-aging director and chief financial officer of World Bank, its president David Malpass has announced.

At World Bank, Kant will be responsible for financial and risk man-agement of the World Bank Group, reporting to the president. “I am very pleased to appoint Anshula Kant as World Bank Group Managing Director and CFO. Anshula brings more than 35 years of expertise in finance, banking and in-novative use of technology through her work as CFO of SBI ,” Malpass said. “She’s excelled at a diverse array of leadership challenges including risk, treasury, funding, regulatory com-pliance and operations.

I look forward to wel-coming her to our manage-ment team as we work to increase our effectiveness

Anshula Kant appointed MD of World Bank

in supporting good devel-opment outcomes,” Mal-pass said. Among other key management duties, her work will include oversight of financial re-porting, risk management

and working closely with the World Bank CEO on mobilisation of IDA and other financial resources.

As CFO of the SBI, Kant managed $38 billion of revenues and total assets of $500 billion. Steward-ing the organisation, she greatly improved the capi-tal base and focused on the long-term sustainability of SBI within her mandate.

Postmen have now become smart bankers.

India turns 3.5 lakh postmen into bankersNEW DELHI: India’s 3.5 lakh well-trained postmen have turned bankers, offering doorstep financial services to even the last man stand-ing in the remotest parts of the country. Till recently, the ubiquitous men in brown serving in the country’s 1.55 lakh post offices located in every nook and cranny had been only delivering letters and parcels. With the prolif-eration of e-mail, WhatsApp etc post offices have become deserted while telegraph services were stopped some years back.

But now these postmen are making banking easy for even ordinary citizens by going round homes carry-ing a trendy mobile phone and a hand-held biometric scanner to open savings accounts, transfer money, pay utility bills, accept cash deposits, facilitate with-drawals and what have you. This has become possible after Prime Minister Modi launched on Sept 1, 2018 the long-delayed India Post

Payments Bank (IPPB), a 100pc government-owned public limited company un-der the Department of Posts (DoP), with 650 branches in post offices in every district

of India.The 180 million post of-

fice savings bank accounts with an astounding Rs 850 billion balance currently in

1.55 lakh post offices, in-cluding 1.39 lakh in the rural areas, are being computer-linked with the IPPB’s 650 branches, making it the larg-est banking network with

direct presence right down to the village level.

India Post Payments Bank has 650 branches in post offices. While the DoP’s

own full-fledged bank pro-vides multi-lingual custom-er support for funds transfer services through Immediate Payment Service, National Electronic Fund Transfer

and Real Time Gross Settle-m e n t , t h e g o v e r n m e n t leverages its n a t i o n w i d e reach to dis-tribute wages, subsidies and pensions under its countless schemes. “The IPPB has also become an ad-ditional source of revenue gen-eration for the DoP besides creating a plat-form for finan-cial inclusion programmes of

the federal government,” said a senior official in the Maninagar post office in Modi’s former assembly constituency in Ahmedabad

in his home state of Gujarat.An IPPB mobile app en-

ables its customers to en-joy digital transactions for various financial services which, of course, are also being made available by post offices or visiting post-men in rural and urban areas. IPPB customers can even recharge their phones or pay gas, phone, water and electricity bills and accom-plish much more at nomi-nal charges. The unique postal bank offers three types of savings accounts -- regular, digital and basic -- with the rare zero-balance facility and interest rates fixed at four per cent a year. Though 190 million Indians do not have a bank account, the IPPB is like any other bank, though operating on a smaller scale, carrying out most banking operations but cannot advance loans or issue credit cards while accepting deposits of up to only Rs 1 lakh per account from individuals and small businesses.

WASHINGTON: The Wash-ington Leadership Pro-gramme (WLP) has an-nounced its 2019 class and the entire six-person class is comprised Indian and South Asian American women.

Established in 1995, the WLP is a non-profit that seeks to develop the next generation of Ameri-can leadership from the South Asian community. The scholars will be placed in congressional offices for an eight-week summer in-ternship accompanied by a structured leadership curric-ulum. The scholars include Aparna Iyer, Madhumitha Krishnan, Natasha Menon, Rupa Palanki, Aziz Sandhu and Fatima Shabhaz.

“We are excited to wel-come the WLP Class of 2019, a group of incredibly talent-ed and brilliant young South Asian women who are ready to create positive change for their communities,” the

US-Indian students named to 2019Washington Leadership Programme

WLP wrote in a newsletter.Iyer, who will serve her

internship at the office of Indian American Congress-woman Rep Pramila Jayapal, is a rising sophomore at UC Berkeley studying political science and human rights. After moving to the States from India in 2014, she be-came involved in campaign work for her local congress-man and in volunteer oppor-tunities with human rights charities in the Bay Area. On campus, she is involved with the pre-law commu-

nity, an Indian fusion dance team and a nonpartisan dis-course-based organisation called the Berkeley Forum.

She is interested in edu-cation policy and interna-tional law and aims to find a career in that intersection, her bio notes. Krishnan, who will intern at the De-partment of Commerce, is a rising junior at UC Berkeley. She plans on double ma-joring in political science and history, with a focus on Eastern Europe and the history of law. According to her bio, she is passionate about working to strengthen democracy at home and abroad through working on voter rights and voter mo-bilisation, immigration law reform, and strengthening accountability in democratic institutions. In the future, she hopes attend graduate school and work with hu-man rights organisations to help build sound judicial

institutions in developing countries, it said.

Menon is a rising senior at the University of Pennsyl-vania studying philosophy, politics and economics with a minor in legal studies and history. She is interested in addressing policy issues at the intersection of immigra-tion and education. Menon hopes to pursue this goal as an aspiring lawyer and public servant. She will in-tern with the Department of Homeland Security.

Palanki is a rising ju-nior at the University of Pennsylvania, where she is a Ben Franklin Scholar and Wharton Public Policy Scholar studying econom-ics and health policy. She is passionate about promoting accessibility to healthcare for marginalised populations and is interested in working at the intersection of fiscal policy, medicine and law, it said.

ABU DHABI: When an ex-patriate RP (name withheld) lost her husband to a heart attack, her life changed overnight. With three kids aged six, eight and 12 to raise, RP was single-hand-edly running from post to pillar, trying to reopen the joint bank account that was frozen after her hus-band’s death, procuring a succession certificate and a mountain of other proce-dural work.

Adding to the immense grief that comes from los-ing a loved one, the laws and procedures relating to drafting a will or procuring a succession certificate can be

Why are wills necessary for expats in UAE?

overwhelming for families like RP and her kids. The process becomes extremely stressful, if the families do not have a will in place. However, expert lawyers said the process is actually simple and can only seem daunting if they have to go back to their home country.

Sunil Thacker, senior partner at STA Law Firm, said: “The procedure can be overwhelming, especially for people who need to leave and go back to their home country. In some cases, not everyone can afford lawyer’s fees, etc.” He added: “There are cases where there is a property dispute and if fami-

lies want their share, then it’s a little more complicated.” In case there is no will, family members must apply for a succession certificate in their home country, which may take a week to a month, de-pending on the jurisdiction, Thacker explained.

“After that, the docu-ments must be legalised, attested and notarised. The documents must be in Ara-bic and it must be legalised before the ministry of foreign affairs and ministry of jus-tice,” explained Zisha Rizvi, a partner at STA Law Firm. Then, the family should file a petition before the Dubai Court. The next phases take place in the court, where assets are ascertained. The assets of the deceased, in-cluding movables and im-movables, must be disclosed to the court with sufficient documentary evidence. The final step is a court order and execution based on submis-sions. Thacker also said the laws vary for Muslims and non-Muslims. “There are Shariah law implications for Muslims,” he explained.

For example, if the de-ceased husband has one wife, one son and one daugh-ter, the assets will be divided in a way where the wife gets one-eighth share; the daugh-ter is entitled to half of son’s entitlement and the son gets two-thirds of the balance.

Since a will was not drawn, matters got com-plicated for the family. RP said: “Everything was in my husband’s name and we had a joint account. All the assets were frozen. Because I have a daughter, I had to get clearance from my in-laws and my husband’s siblings.”

“The succession cer-tificate was needed so that I could gain access to money in the banks again,” she add-ed. However, the real task has been in trying to sell the family car. “I can transfer the car into my name. However, I will not be able to sell it unless my daughter, who is 21 now, gives me a power of attorney. Once the family members and my daughter provide me with the docu-ments, I can transfer own-ership of the car,” she said.

Aparna Iyer

More Indian students applying to UK varsitiesLONDON: The latest data re-vealed by the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS), the UK’s centralised university application sys-tem, has shown a five per cent rise in the number of Indian students applying to study at UK universities. This is part of a wider hike in applications from international students from outside the European Union (EU).

The report says that 4,690 students from India applied to take up courses at univer-sities across Britain starting from Sept this year. This is up from 4,470 applications last year and a considerable hike over the previous years.

While the figures do not reflect the actual number of Indian students who will be successful in their applica-tions, they do reflect an inter-est in the UK as a destination for higher education.

Last month, the UK’s Higher Education Statistics

Agency (HESA) had revealed that 28pc more Indian stu-dents enrolled in courses in the UK in the academic year 2017-18 than in 2016-17. The UCAS data shows that a total of 561,420 students applied for UK university courses this year, almost 2,500 more than at the equivalent point last year. This is the first increase in three years. The hike is largely due to a record number of applicants from outside the EU which has gone up by nine per cent.

China maintained its lead as the largest source country of non-EU student applicants followed by Hong Kong. In-dia, the US and Singapore complete the top five non-EU countries list of student applications for the UK this year. The figures are based on an analysis of undergradu-ate applications received at UCAS by the Jan 15 deadline. Universities UK, the repre-sentative body for leading UK

universities, has been cam-paigning for a student visa regime that makes the coun-try even more attractive as a higher education destination.

The UK government had recently revealed some post-Brexit visa proposals to make it easier for students from outside the UK to remain in the country and look for work after they graduate.

The proposed changes are as follows: Undergraduate and Masters students will be able to stay in the UK to look for work for six months after graduating. They will also have three months before grad-uating during which they can find work and change from a study visa to a work visa. PhD students will be able to stay in the UK for a year to find work after graduating. International graduates will be given two years after graduating during which they can apply to switch their UK study visa to UK work visa from outside the UK.

Singapore holds top maritimecentre ranking for sixth yearDUBAI: Singapore retained its rank as the top inter-national maritime hub for the sixth consecutive year in 2019 while Dubai main-tained fifth place, making it the only MidEast city on the top 10 list.

The top five international shipping centres are Singa-pore, Hong Kong, London, Shanghai and Dubai in 2019, according to the Xinhua-Baltic International Shipping Centre Development (ISCD) Index. The index provides an independent ranking of the performance of the world’s largest cities that offer port and shipping business ser-vices.

“Shanghai and Dubai are catching up with Lon-don in their level of ship-ping development and were ranked fourth and fifth, re-spectively,” the report said. “Dubai, ranked fifth based on the evaluation score, is the shipping hub of the region.” In the six years since the index has been published, there has been a “general rise” in the performance of Asian and MidEast cities, the report said. The first re-port in 2014 included three

European locations in the top five and in 2019 only London remains. Among the remaining top 10 cities this year are Rotterdam, Hamburg, New York - New Jersey, Houston and Athens. The index ranks cities based on port throughput and fa-cilities, range of professional maritime support services and general business en-vironment. The report is a collaboration between the Chinese state news agency Xinhua, and international freight benchmark provider Baltic Exchange.

“Singapore commands a strategic position as a mari-time hub in the regional and global arena,” said Lu Su Ling, Head of Baltic Ex-change Asia. “The maritime industry is, and will remain, a big contributor to Singa-

pore’s economy and it is therefore, important that we continue to innovate and in-vest in this sector to achieve long-term success.” Based on evaluation scores, Hong Kong is benefiting from Chi-na’s Belt and Road Initiative and economic opportunities in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macau Greater Bay Area, the report said.

The UAE’s draft maritime law, which is set to come into force by early next year, will allow people to register ves-sels under the Emirati flag and establish a new dispute mechanism to relieve pres-sure on the courts, while a new maritime development fund aims to support citizens who wish to invest in the sector. It will also pave the way for 100pc foreign owner-ship of maritime companies.

Golden visas to 20 property...(Contd. from page 1)Libya, Jordan, Kazakhstan, and Saint Kitts and Nevis.

The visa privileges also benefit the wives and children. The conditions for obtaining the Golden Visa without a sponsor includes investing in one or more existing prop-erties that satisfy the total value condition, regardless of whether the property is owned by an individual or a group of investors. The investors were granted the visas through Cube Centre.

3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIESTuesday, July 16, 2019

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4 GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES Tuesday, July 16, 2019

MUMBAI: The Bank of Baroda (BOB) has invited applications for the re-cruitment of Specialist IT Officers. The Specialist IT Officers in the bank will be recruited for Scale-II and Scale-III posts such as Manager IT and Senior Manager IT.

The online application process for 35 vacancies in Manager and Senior Manager posts has started on July 13, and the online window for the applica-tion process will close on August 2, 2019.

Interested candidates can apply through the of-ficial website of the bank at bankofbaroda.in. The candidates applying for the Bank of Baroda SO Recruit-ment 2019 should possess essential educational quali-fications.

Bank of Baroda to recruit for fresh jobsThe selected candidates

will get a remuneration of more than Rs 50,000 a month.Vacancy details: Total va-cant posts: 35

BOB Specialist IT Of-ficers recruitment 2019 important dates:

Online Application pro-cess commences on 13 July

Last date of submit-ting online application- 2 AugustEducational qualifications

Manager: Minimum 60pc (55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) or equivalent grade in 4 years B.E/ BTech De-gree in Computer Science / Information Technology /Electronics & Commu-nications from a recog-nized university / institute recognized by the Govt. of India or its regulatory body or Minimum 60pc

(55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) in MCA (3 years) from a recognized university / institute recognized by the Govt. of India or its regulatory body or Mini-

mum 60pc in both BCA & MCA(55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) BCA+MCA(Min 5 years)Integrated Course/Lateral entry in MCA(2 years course) after BCA(3 years) from a recognized

university / institute recog-nized by the Govt. of India or its regulatory body

Senior Manager: Mini-mum 60pc (55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) or equiva-

lent grade in 4 years B.E/ BTech Degree in Comput-er Science / Information Technology /Electronics & Communica-tions from a r ecogn ized university / institute rec-ognized by

the Govt. of India or its reg-ulatory body or Minimum 60pc (55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) in MCA (3 years) from a recognized univer-sity / institute recognized by the Govt. of India or its

regulatory body or Mini-mum 60pc in both BCA & MCA(55pc for SC/ST/OBC/PWD) BCA+MCA(Min 5 years)Integrated Course/Lateral entry in MCA(2 years course) after BCA(3 years) from a recognized university / institute recog-nized by the Govt. of India or its regulatory bodyEligibility Criteria

For post wise details on educational qualifications, please check the official notification. In the recruit-ment process, preference will be given to candidates having certifications in ad-dition to required job skills.Age Limit

For Manager posts, the applicants should be be-tween 25-32 years.

For Senior Manager posts, the lower age limit is 28 years and the upper

age limit is 35 years.The reserved category

candidates will get age re-laxation as per the official notification.Pay Scale

MMG/S II: The selected candidates will get a salary around Rs 45,950

MMG/S III: The selected candidates for the posts will get a salary around Rs 51,490.How to apply

1 – Visit the official website – bankofbaroda.in

2 – Head to ‘Career’ section from right hand side corner (top) on the homepage

3 – Scroll down to reach ‘Current Opportunities’ section

4 – Under Recruitment Project, find out ‘Recruit-ment of IT Specialist Offi-cers-Project 2019-20’

5 – Open the Special-ist IT Officers recruitment notification

6 – Click on link next to ‘click here to apply’ when a new page opensSelection procedure

The selection process for recruitment to Special-ist IT Officers in Bank of Baroda will comprise of on-line test, psychometric test or any other such test, fol-lowed by Group Discussion and Interview of shortlisted candidates. The online test will comprise of questions based on Reasoning, Eng-lish Language, Quantitative Aptitude and Professional Knowledge. The test will be of two hours duration. There is a provision of negative marking and for every wrong question one fourth or 0.25 of the marks will be deducted as penalty.

Punjab engg college approves

20pc hike in research fellowshipsCHANDIGARH: The board of governors (BoG) of the Punjab Engineering Col-lege (PEC), Sector 12, ap-proved the enhancement in fellowships by nearly 20pc for research schol-ars (PhD students) at a meeting.

The enhancement in the amount of fellow-ships was announced by the Union government in January this year and was notified by the University Grants Commission (UGC) on June 3. Around 40 stu-dents had written to PEC director Dheeraj Sanghi in the first week of June to increase the amount of fellowship as per the new norms.

The stipend amount for junior research fellows (JRFs) was increased from Rs 25,000 to Rs 31,000 while the amount for senior research fellows (SRFs) was increased from Rs 28,000 to Rs 35,000.

The students who qual-ify the UGC National Eligi-bility Test (NET) and UGC Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR)

are eligible for fellowships. After two years of junior research fellowship, the scholars receive the senior

research fellowship. The fellowship is provided for a maximum duration of five years.

Sanghi, however, said

the research scholars will not get the arrears. PEC-does not get any funds from the UGC and gives

the scholarships from its grant-in-aide fund, he said.Demand for recruitment of guest faculty approved

Sanghi said the UT has allowed them to recruit guest faculty members as the strength of faculty is not adequate.

Meanwhile, PEC asked the UT for flexible cadre system for filling up teach-ing and non-teaching posts at the BoG meeting. Sanghi said the UT home secre-tary has assured all help and has asked for a pro-posal which the UT will then send to the ministry of human resource devel-opment (MHRD).

Under the flexible cad-re system, PEC will be able to recruit faculty as per its needs. It will also be able to decide how many teachers it can recruit in one particular department. At present, these matters are decided by the gov-ernment.

Sanghi said, “All cen-tral government institutes are given the power to flexibly recruit people. Government should decide the student-teacher ratio and the rest should be decided by PEC. At pres-ent, every time we have to hire people, approvals for posts are needed from the government. How can we compete with the national institutes if we don’t have the same flexibility?”

Currently, PEC has 140 regular teachers and around 20 guestfaculty members, but requires at least 275 teachers.Other agendas

The BoG has authorised the director to take up the proposal for making PEC a centrally-funded technical institute (CFTI) with the UT. The proposal is still in the making. PEC also raised demands for infra-structure and funds with the UT administration.

Over 2,800 faculty positions vacant at IITsNEW DELHI: Over 2,800 faculty positions are lying vacant at 23 Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) cam-puses across the country, the Lok Sabha was informed.

“At present, the sanc-tioned strength of faculty in IITs is 8,856, out of which 6,043 are in position, while 2,813 are lying vacant,” Human Resource Develop-ment (HRD) Minister Ra-mesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ informed the Lower House in a written reply.

His reply also added that of the 6,043 faculty in posi-tion at the IITs, 149 were for Scheduled Castes (SC) and 21 were for Scheduled Tribes (ST).

“The total sanctioned strength of non-faculty in IITs is 9,465, out of which 1,125 posts are reserved for SCs and 520 for STs. Against this, 888 posts are filled by SCs and 275 by STs. All the IITs maintain reservation roster,” Pokhriyal said.

Moreover, of the 7,413 faculty positions at National

Institutes of Technology (NIT), 3,211 are lying va-cant.

“At present, the sanc-tioned strength of faculty in NITs is 7,413, out of which 721 are reserved for SCs and 380 for STs. Against this, 4,202 faculties are in posi-tion, out of which 404 are from SCs and 139 from STs,” the Minister said.

He added that the sanc-tioned strength for non-faculty positions is 8,163 in NITs out of which only 3,817 posts have been filled.

Pokhriyal added that the institutions have been re-quested to conduct special recruitment drives to fill these positions at the earliest.

“Occurring of vacancies and filling them up is a con-tinuous process. The onus of filling up the posts lies with the IITs/NITs, which are autonomous bodies, under Acts of Parliament. They have been requested to take steps to ensure that the vacancies are filled up at the earliest,” he said.

JAIPUR: Good news for Government Job seekers as the Rajasthan govern-ment is all set to initiate the recruit-ment of more than 9300 police posts soon. If you are looking for a govern-ment job in the state of Rajasthan then you are in luck as the notification for the same is to be released this month itself. Candidates who wish to apply for the posts on offer can visit the of-ficial website of Rajasthan Police once

the application process has been initi-ated as fill the registration form. There will be a total of 9306 posts that will go on offer for the posts of Constable and Sub-Inspector (SI).

The instructions for the recruitment of candidates for the posts of Constable and SI was instructed by Ashok Gehlot, the Chief Minister of Rajasthan. Ac-cording to a tweet he posted, Gehlot said, ‘In a high-level review meeting of the Police Department at the Police Headquarters, the recruitment process of 8 thousand 600 Constables and 706 SI should be started to fill the vacant posts.’ The same was later confirmed

by various reports.Eligibility Criteria

Candidates who wish to apply for the Constable and Sub-Inspector posts on offer should have passed their class 10th examination from a recognized institution. They should also be be-tween the age group of 18 to 22 years.Selection Process

Candidates will be selected on the basis of a written Test, Physical

S t a n d a r d Test, Physi-c a l E f f i -ciency Test, Skill Test, and Medi-c a l Te s t . Fo r m o r e details, can-didates are advised to wait for the

release of the official recruitment no-tification.Other Recruitments

Meanwhile, apart from the Police Recruitment, the Government of Ra-jasthan has also cleared a proposal for the recruitment of 3,835 posts of ‘patwaris’ (revenue officials) in the state. According to a news report, CM Ashok Gehlot has given sanction for additional 1,835 posts, taking the total number of recruitment to 3,835. Similarly, recruitment on 801 posts of clerk in the Krishi Upaj Mandi Samitis under the agricultural market-ing board.

R’sthan Police Recruitment 2019 Over 9300 posts on offer soon

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, July 16, 2019

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� �� �� �� �� �� �� � ��Puzzle #: 79 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 # 79 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 78 Answer

Your wellness

Government funding on health care is “a long way” before it

can meet the development targets India has adopted as part of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the country’s apex auditor CAG has said, pulling up the Union gov-ernment, the Niti Aayog and the governments of the states it surveyed.

The SDGs relate to a set of 17 objectives that include improving poverty, hunger and health by 2030 and the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) was reviewing work done in the context of health in several central ministries and Assam, Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Kerala, Maharash-

Govt health care allocation far behind UN target: CAGtra, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

“There is still a long way to go before the target of public health expenditure is achieved and the central al-location for health for 2019-20 was far short of target. In states, health spending as a percentage of total states expenditure, ranged from 3.29 to 5.32pc which shows that this need considerable augmentation,” CAG said in its report.

The report, tabled in Parliament, noted that pub-lic health expenditure as a percentage of Gross Domes-tic Product (GDP) had been increasing since 2015-16 but remained within a nar-row band of 1.02-1.28pc of GDP.

“While it is recognised that projecting financial resources for achieving the Targets by 2030 is a chal-lenging task, ministry of finance and state govern-ments are yet to integrate SDG related financial re-sources in national bud-geting for implementing SDGs,” it said.

According to the auditor, the problems went beyond allocation of funds.

“Data for certain health indicators were not regular-ly or uniformly available,” the report said.

The audit was taken up to ascertain the ‘Prepared-ness of the Government for the Implementation of SDGs’, covering aspects such as extent to which

the 2030 agenda had been adapted. It selected ‘Goal 3- Good Health and Well-Being’ for a detailed ex-amination.

The 2030 target is being coordinated by the NITI Aayog, which too came under the CAG’s criticism.

“A roadmap is yet to be aligned with defined milestones for SDG targets to be achieved in the year 2020, 2025 and 2030,” the report said in the context of the Aayog’s role as the coordinator.

A key action plan that the NITI Aayog was sup-posed to prepare was still not complete, the report noted.

“States are yet to prepare policy documents. Mapping

of goals/targets undertaken by NITI Aayog and selected states is still ongoing.”

Efforts to raise public awareness about SDGs and initiatives in the selected states were not comprehen-sive, focused or sustained, the report said.

The auditor in its recom-mendations said a compre-hensive charter and action plan with well-defined milestones for implement-ing SDGs should be for-mulated after due consul-tations.

It also suggested the use of Direct Benefit Transfers (DBT) should be expanded and strengthened to avoid leakages and to improve efficiency in usage of fi-nancial resources.

Malaria is the most common disease of the monsoon

season. It is a life-threatening

disease. It’s typically trans-mitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. Since water

logg ing i s a standard problem dur-ing the mon-

soon season in India, it serves as the best breeding ground for the mosquitoes.

Infected mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasite. When this mos-quito bites you, the para-site is released into your bloodstream.

Once the parasites are inside your body, they travel to the liver, where they mature. After several days, the mature parasites

Malaria, if not treated in time may be fatalenter the bloodstream and begin to infect red blood cells.

Within 48 to 72 hours, the parasites inside the red blood cells multiply, causing the infected cells to burst open.

The parasites continue

to infect red blood cells, resulting in symptoms that occur in cycles that last two to three days at a time.

There are four kinds

of malaria parasites that can infect humans: Plas-modium vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae, and P. falci-parum.

P. falciparum causes a more severe form of the disease and those who contract this form of ma-

laria have a higher risk of death. An infected mother can also pass the disease to her baby at birth. This is known as congenital malaria.

Malaria is transmitted by blood, so it can also be transmitted through: an organ transplant, a transfu-sion, use of shared needles or syringes,

Symptoms of malaria: The symptoms of malaria typically develop within 10 days to 4 weeks fol-lowing the infection. In some cases, symptoms may not develop for sever-al months. Some malarial parasites can enter the body but will be dormant for long periods of time.

Common symptoms of malaria include: Shak-ing chills that can range from moderate to severe high fever, profuse sweat-ing, headache, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, anemia, muscle pain, convulsions, coma and bloody stools.

Malaria can be treated. If the right drugs are used, people who have malaria can be cured and all the malaria parasites can be cleared from their body. However, the disease can continue if it is not treated or if it is treated with the wrong drug. Some drugs are not effective because the parasite is resistant to them.

At least one in four men and women in India have varying degrees

of bone and joint degenera-tion after 50, with age-related wear and tear, injury, obesity, osteoporosis and rheumatism being the leading causes of

pain and restricted movement.Living with pain is not in-

evitable, said experts. “Many

If left untreated, arthritis can affect organs

people think arthritis and re-lated conditions, such as rheu-matism and osteoarthritis, are an inevitable consequence of getting older, especially if there is a family history. This misconception is not only outdated, but dangerous.

With modern medicine and techniques, one does not have to put up with the symptoms of arthritis,” said UK-based con-sultant rheuma-tologist Dr Taher Mahmud, who calls the failure to treat arthritis and osteoporosis

effectively a medical emer-gency.

“Left untreated, arthritis

can severely impact the qual-ity of life, causing irreversible damage to muscles and bone structure. Severe symptoms can even affect the function-ing of organs and lower life expectancy,” said Dr Mahmud, co-founder of The London Osteoporosis Clinic.

Urban lifestyle fuels un-healthy eating patterns and inactivity, and is leading to nutritional deficiencies and obesity, which causes and aggravates bone and joint diseases. “Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis are common in India, especially among the overweight and people above 50-60 years,” said Dr RK Arya, director, Sports Injury Centre, Safdar-jung Hospital.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kanpur will conduct

the Joint Admission Test (JAT) for admission to MSc, MSc-PhD and other post-graduate and doctorate level courses at IITs and Indian Institute of Science (IISc) this year. The JAM score is also used for ad-mission to other centrally-funded technical institu-tions including NITs, IIEST Shibpur, SLIET Punjab and IISERs. Interested candi-dates will be able to apply at the official website, jam.iitk.ac.in – the link is yet to be activated.

The online registration and application process will begin from September 5 and will conclude on Oc-tober 8. The entrance exam

IIT JAM 2020 admission to various courses to begin from Sept 5

will be held on February 9 (Sunday) and the results for the same will be announced

on March 20, as per the official notification released by the IIT-Kanpur.

The exam will be con-ducted in two sessions. Session one will be held from 9:30 am to 12:30 om and will be conducted for the subjects including biotechnology, physics,

and mathematical statistics (MS). The second session will be held from 2:30 pm

to 5:30 om for mathematics, chemistry, and geology.Exam pattern

The exam will be held objective type but will have further three types – multiple choice questions (MCQ), numerical answer type (NAT) and multiple selection questions (MSQ).

JAM 2020: Admission pro-cess

After the declaration of JAM 2020 results, quali-fied candidates will have to apply for a common admission portal – JOAPS. Candidates will choose the course and college of their choice. Candidates will have to pay admission and counselling fee as well. The seat will be allotted based on availability, merit and choice.JAM 2020: Fee

Candidates will have to pay a fee of Rs 1500 for one test paper and Rs 2100 for both the test papers. For female candidates and for those belonging to the reserved category, the fee is Rs 750 and Rs 1050, respectively.

Railway Recruitment Boards (RRB) has released the city and date intimation letter of candidates who have successfully applied for recruitment under para-medical category posts. The details about the exam (city and date) and the travel pass of SC/ST candidates can be accessed on the link pub-lished on all RRBs’ official websites.

Click to view exam date, city intimation, mock test and download travel pass (if applicable)

The computer based test (CBT) for recruitment to paramedical category posts will be held on July 19, July 20 and July 21.

The admit card for the exam can be downloaded

RRB paramedical exam date released

by the candidates four days prior to the CBT date men-tioned in exam city and date intimation letter.

The CBT will be of 90 minutes duration carrying 100 marks. Shortlisting of candidates for Document Verification will be made strictly on merit based on the performance of the can-

didate in the CBT.Candidates called for

Document Verification will have to pass the requisite

medical fitness test(s) con-ducted by the Railway Ad-ministration to ensure that the candidates are medically fit to carry out the duties connected with the post(s) opted by them. Visual Acu-ity Standard is one of the important criteria of medical fitness of Railway staff.”

The application pro-

cess for RRB paramedical recruitment exam to fill 1937 vacancies began on March 4.

Young programmers from different parts of the state designed

and developed hardware prototypes, which could be employed to address various industrial challenges, during a five-day hackathon at IIT-Kharagpur.

Altogether 93 partici-pants from seven states dis-played sensor-enabled mod-els, which can track assets, prevent thefts and save lives during crisis, at ‘Smart India Hackathon 2019-Hardware edition’ at IIT-Kharagpur, one of the 18 nodal centres in the country where the event was held between July 8 and 12, a statement issued by the

Programmers develop industry-scale hardware solutions at IIT-Kinstitute said.

Shailendra K Varshney, a coordinator of the hack-athon at IIT KGP, said the annual event, supported by the Union government, gives young minds an opportu-nity to think creatively and showcase talent on a national platform.

“Smart India Hackathon is an innovative platform to ignite young minds to think and solve problems with the help of technology. It is learning through innova-tion!” he said.

Five winners received an award of Rs 1 Lakh each from the Union Ministry of Coal for their prototypes. Among

them, Team Gravity Plus from Lingaya’s Vidyapeeth, Faridabad, developed a sen-sor to locate victims trapped under mining or building debris.

Another team from Sri Ramakrishna Engineering Colleges, Coimbatore, re-ceived Rs 50,000 from Gar-den Reach Shipbuilding Yard for its hardware solution in insulating auxiliary and deck machinery motors in naval ships.

Ambudhi Shukla, depu-ty manager, Garden Reach Shipbuilding Yard, said, “Students bring into play new concepts. They have worked well and devised

cost-effective, simple solu-tions which can be imple-mented industrially.”

The statement issued by IIT-KGP said the event aimed at bridging the gap between industry and academia to improve competitiveness of Indian goods and services in global market.

“What started as an initia-tive to playfully involve stu-dents to think creatively has emerged as a major initiative which has seen youth from all over India think hard and come up with solutions for problems facing the country today,” Sriman Kumar Bhat-tacharyya, the officiating director of IIT-KGP, said.

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, July 16, 2019

I joined a company registered in a Fujairah free zone but now I want to resign. Do I have to serve a notice period since it was not stated in my contract? Do I have to pay anything to the company for leaving? If I have to pay 45 days’ worth of salary in compensation, what legal documents are needed? How am I going to pay it? Is this 45-day penalty automatically applied as soon as I resign or can I negotiate? And would it be deducted from my final salary after the notice period? In case of a negotiation, should it be done on a verbal or written order and also should a free zone officer be present? Also my company just provided us our medical insurance benefit, five months after our employment started. Is this legal?

You have to provided a copy of your contract of employment and it is on a fixed term, valid for three years. While there is no mention of a notice period on resignation, the contract does states, “in the absence of company written policy, relevant provisions of UAE federal labour law apply”. This means that the standard notice period of 30 days will be required and notice should always be provided in writing. In respect of the pen-alty payable for breaking the contract early, UAE Labour Law, Article 116 states: “Should the contract be rescinded by the worker … the worker shall be bound to compensate the employer for the loss incurred thereto by reason of the rescission of the contract, provided that the amount of compensation does not exceed the wage of half-a-month for the period of three months or for the remaining period of the contract, whichever is shorter, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract.” No other payment is due but this is usually deducted from the last month or two’s salary. It is technically payable on leaving service but is usually offset against salary by agreement. The penalty payable is as stated in law so an individual has no right to negotiate a reduction, although there is nothing to lose by asking if the employee is on good terms with the employer. There is no need for any third party to be present as a company applying this penalty is simply following the published law. This employer is a Fujairah-registered entity and it is not mandatory for medical insurance to be pro-vided to employees on Fujairah visas. That said, the contract of employment states: “the company will provide full medical benefits”, so I would expect that to be from the start of service. It is doubtful that much can be done about this delay but you could suggest that not providing this benefit from the outset is grounds to reduce the penalty. However, the employer is under no obligation to comply.Cost of employmentI have worked for an Abu Dhabi hotel for five months but I want to resign as I am not happy. It is mentioned on my contract that during my probation period, I can give notice of seven days but it is not clear if I have to pay for all the expenses such as my visa, flight ticket, medicals and so on. My question is will I have to pay all that if I will resign?

Under UAE law, the costs of employ-ment are the responsibility of the employer. Article 60 of UAE Labour Law makes it clear that no monies should be deducted from employees unless in respect of a sal-

Will I be penalised for quitting my job early?ary advance or loan. This was reiterated in Ministerial Order 52 of 1989, Article 6 which clearly states that all expenses incurred in taking on an employee must be borne by the employer and cannot be passed on to the employee.Breaking contractI work under a renewed limited two-year contract and after one year I am planning to tender my resignation as I am going back to my home country to continue my studies. How much do I need to pay to compensate my employer? It is written in the contract that on termination of contract either or both parties will pay one month’s total wage. Will this be followed? If so, will I receive my gratuity for the previous year?

Anyone on a limited-term contract, even if this is a second one, is liable to pay a penalty to their employer for breaking the terms of the contract. Article 116 of UAE Labour Law, which is largely adopted across all employment zones in the UAE, states: “Should the contract be rescinded by the worker … the worker shall be bound to compensate the employer for the loss in-curred thereto by reason of the rescission of the contract, provided that the amount of compensation does not exceed the wage of half-a--month for the period of three months or for the remaining period of the contract, whichever is shorter, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract.” An employer does not have to follow this, provided the employee is no worse off than under the minimum requirements, so a penalty equivalent to one month’s salary could be applied instead of the standard penalty that equates to 45 days’ pay.

In this situation as the total period of service is fewer than five years in total, no end-of-service gratuity will be payable. This is per article 139 of the law, which states that “the worker shall be deprived of his end of service gratuity … should he leave his employment of his own accord … prior to the completion of five years of continu-ous service with regards to contracts with determined term”.Cost of repatriationI have been with my company for four years but I will be giving them notice to leave as I plan to return home after many years in the UAE. I have a fixed-term contract but will leave at the end. They have said no to other people who have left. Before I speak to my boss, what I am entitled to? Does the company have to pay for my flight home?

You work for a mainland company so UAE Labour Law applies in full. In respect to the cost of repatriation, article 131 of the law states: “The employer shall, upon the termination of the contract, bear the expenses of repatriation of the worker to the location from which he is hired or to any other location agreed upon between the parties. Should the worker, upon the termination of the contract, be employed by another employer, the latter shall be liable for the repatriation expenses of the worker upon the end of his service.” The company is therefore liable for this cost as you are leaving the country and not taking up further employment in the UAE.

GULF FAQs

Qatar Petroleum and Chevron Phillips Chemical signed a deal for mega-petrochemical plant in US in the pres-ence of Amir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the US President Donald Trump. The agreement was signed by Minister of State for Energy Affairs and the President and CEO of Qatar Petroleum Saad Sherida Al Kaabi and Mark E Lashier, President of Chevron Phillips Chemical.

ABU DHABI: Now any resi-dent in the country earning Dh4,000 without accom-modation or Dh3,000 with company-provided accom-modation can sponsor his family in the UAE, the new rule has come into effect, the Federal Authority for Identity and Emiratisation said. The decision permits a foreigner who is residing in the country, whether male or female, to bring family members (spouse and chil-dren under the age of 18 or unmarried daughters) to stay in the UAE, provided the family income (husband and wife) or one of them is Dh3,000 with company provided accommodation or Dh4,000 without housing conditions, the authority explained.

The authority launched its services in line with the

New expat family sponsorshiprule in UAE comes into effect

Council of Ministers’ Deci-sion No. 30 of 2019. The UAE cabinet had earlier adopted a decision to amend provisions of the resolution on sponsoring of foreign workers to their families in the country. According to an earlier statement by the General Secretariat of the Cabinet, the amended provisions indicate “in-come” as a requirement for sponsoring family members as opposed to the previ-ously listed “professions” which allowed workers to sponsor their families.The amendment is in line with international developments and accordance with best practices, it added.

“The decision aims at enhancing family stability of foreign workers and social cohesion, as well as attract-ing highly skilled workers

while maintaining a healthy balance between profes-sional and personal life,” the statement continued.Free tourist visa

As announced in June, the tourist visa fee waiver for children younger than 18 travelling to UAE, ac-companied by their parents, also came into force from Monday.This comes in line with a cabinet decision is-sued in July of last year, which stipulates this waiver for the Under-18 category from July 15 to Sept 15 every year.

The waiver is for chil-dren under the age of 18 on the condition that they are accompanied by one of their parents coming to the UAE on a tourist visa --- ir-respective of the validity of the visa, be it a short or long-term visa. The author-

ity called on tourists plan-ning to visit the UAE this summer to benefit from this waiver, which saves money and encourages people to choose the UAE as a tourist destination. Maj-Gen Saeed Rakan Rashidi, director general of the Foreigners Affairs and Ports Authority, said tourists could apply for the visa through its smart app (ICA UAE e-channels) in the category of family tourist visa, or through its website www.ica.gov.ae. The authority issues two types of tourist visa, short-term for 30 days at Dh200 single entry, which can be extended twice for 30 days each time and long-term for 90 days at Dh550 that can be extended twice for 30 days each time. The fee to extend costs Dh600 each time.

NEW DELHI: Chief Min-ister Naveen Patnaik has requested the Centre to start direct flight operations between Biju Patnaik Inter-national Airport (BPIA) in Bhubaneswar and Dubai to meet the growing inter-national travel demands of the people of Odisha.

In a letter to Minister of State for Civil Aviation Hardeep Singh Puri, the chief minister said Odisha had been witnessing a rise in air traffic to various international destinations and vice versa due to in-crease in industrial invest-ments and tourist footfalls. “This has attracted vari-ous international airlines, who have evinced interest to start flight operations

Patnaik writes to Centre forBhubaneswar-Dubai fl ight

between Biju Patnaik In-ternational Airport and Dubai. However, restric-tion on landing rights has been a deterrent for such operations by international airlines,” he added.

Airports Authority of India (AAI) had recently also raised the issue of allowing more airports for landing foreign flights. AAI said many airports in the country have idle capacity to handle more airlines and customers. In the absence of the direct flights from Odisha to international destinations like Dubai and other MidEast countries, the passengers are facing immense difficulties, Pat-naik stated.

The chief minister

said the issue can be ad-dressed if air connectiv-ity is established between Bhubaneswar and Dubai, which will also serve as an international hub for passengers travelling to other foreign countries. “Although Air India has international flights from Bhubaneswar to MidEast via New Delhi, it is cost-lier and time consuming. As there is sufficient pas-senger load, a direct flight is felt necessary between Bhubaneswar and Dubai,” he said. Patnaik urged the Centre to introduce direct services by Air India or any others airlines between Bhubaneswar and Dubai to meet the growing demands for international travel.

MUMBAI: After the Crime Branch’s Anti-Extortion Cell (AEC) recently arrested a 46-year-old man --- Ali Aziz Madni --- for allegedly ex-torting money from a woman in Bandra, an NRI from Singapore has approached it and claimed he cheated her, too. An FIR has not yet been registered and the Crime Branch is verifying her claims.

The woman, who is a textile designer, has alleged that Madni took cash and

DUBAI: Dubai-based business-man PA Rahman, chairman of Parco Group, died in his

h o m e -t o w n Kannur in Ker-ala. He

was 72. OK Ibrahim, KMCC senior vice-president, said that Rahman had been ill for nearly a year and he had flown to India for further treatment.

“Relatives and friends who are close to Rahman travelled to India two weeks ago to pay their last respects, as his health continued to deterio-rate,” Ibrahim said. Rahman founded Mina Jebel Ali Can-teen and Catering Services, the flagship firm of the Parco group of companies.

NRI alleges cheating by Indian

PA Rahman dead

valuables worth over Rs 1 crore from her. She told the media: “I was introduced to Madni on Facebook by a common friend. This was around November 2016, before demonetisation.

He claimed he was the director of a large beef ex-porting company. We chat-ted about business prospects and stayed in touch on WhatsApp and later met at parties.”

According to her, he also promised her good returns

on any spare money that she had. “He came to Singapore and I gave him US$ 1,200 (over Rs 82,000) to buy an iPhone for his daughter, as he said he did not have the currency. After demonetisa-tion, he asked me if I could spare some money because his business was affected and he would pay back with interest,” she said. She said she gave him jewel-lery worth Rs 85 lakh that she had kept for her son’s education in the UK. Some

time later, she claimed that Madni again approached her for money citing some reason and she transferred a total of US$ 49,000 (over Rs 33 lakh) to him.

She also claimed to have given him five high-end watches and alleged that he took R 52,000 from her friend in Mumbai. The wom-an alleged that after chasing him for money, some time in March 2017, he started threatening her and refused to give her money back.

I have a problem with a UAE bank. I didn’t close my account be-fore I left to go back to India two years ago as I thought the bank would automatically close it. I am back in Dubai as I have a new job. When I went to the bank to reactivate the account, I discovered I have to pay Dh361. I don’t want to pay this charge as I didn’t use the account after I

returned to my home country. I want to close it and open a new account. What can I do?

This is a salutary lesson. You did not close the bank account when you left the UAE but many banks charge a monthly fee if the minimum balance is not maintained. Furthermore, a bank’s terms and conditions make reference to fees and these are assumed to be accepted when any person signs the paperwork to open an account. The bank’s general terms include this statement: “The bank, without referring to the customer, may deduct from the customer’s account expenses, fees or commissions payable against the banking services rendered to the customer according to banking fees and commissions regulations approved by the bank.” The bank is well within its rights to charge a fee for maintaining the account as you did not notify them that you were leaving and wanted to close the account. No bank account closes automatically and it is the responsibility of the individual to notify their bank of any actions required. You need to pay the money you owe to the bank and then tell them you want to close the account if that is your required course of action.

Dormant bank A/C

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, July 16, 2019

Nalinee Suryawa-nshi, a research student of CSIR-

National Chemical Labo-ratory (CSIR-NCL), Pune received the SRISTI- Gandhian Young Techno-logical Innovation Award (GYTI 2019) at Vigyan Bhavan, New Delhi.

The award was pre-sented to Nalinee by vice president M Venkaiah Naidu, in the presence of Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan, eminent scientist R A Mashelkar, and Dr Renu Swarup, secretary, Department of Biotechnology.

Nalinee received the award for developing

NCL student receives national tech award

Nalinee Suryawanshi receives the award from Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu at Vigyan Bhavan in New Delhi.

the technology for ‘Non-Catalytic deep desulfur-ization process using hy-drodynamic cavitation’ at CSIR-NCL under the guid-ance of Vinay Bhandari

at Chemical Engineering and Process Development Division.

A graduate in Pet-rochemical Engineer-ing from Dr Babasaheb

A m b e d k a r Technological University, Lo-nere, her doc-toral work is mainly focused on “Studies in sulfur removal processes for transportation fuels”.

Previously, she received the S E R B - I G C W 2017 award at the ‘Industrial Green Chemis-try World 2017’

conference.SRISTI (Society for

Research and Initiatives for Sustainable Technolo-gies and Institutions) has

established three national awards with BIRAC (Bio-technology Industry Re-search Assistance Coun-cil) for innovative student projects in engineering, biotechnology, agricul-ture, pharmacy, material science and other applied technological domains. The awards were given to 21 young researchers for innovations related to 42 categories this year.

SRISTI-GYTI awards celebrate the spirit of student innovation in all the fields of engineering, science, technology and design through extremely affordable/frugal solution or the ones pushing the technological edge.

India’s second largest IT services firm Infosys said that it will recruit

18,000 people from cam-puses this fiscal.

Infosys, which has over 2.29 lakh employees, is also battling high attrition, although the company as-serted that this has not impacted its deliverable.

“Overall for this quarter, we have recruited close to 8,000 people, of which freshers are about 2,500. For the year, we are looking at about 18,000 people or so from the universities,” Infosys Chief Operating Officer UB Pravin Rao said.

Infosys to hire 18,000 people from varsities

Infosys added 906 peo-ple (net) during the June 2019 quarter. The attrition (annualised consolidated) was at 23.4pc up, compared to 20.4pc for the quarter ended March 2019.

The company said there was no impact of attrition on its deliverables and that historically, the first quarter of the fiscal has a higher level of attrition.

Infosys has initiated a number of measures for employee engagement, in-vestment in career oppor-tunities and enrichment of experience for employees, he said.

The Reserve Bank of India will come out with a mobile appli-

cation to help visually chal-lenged people in identify-ing currency notes as cash

still remains a dominant mode of transaction.

At present, banknotes in the denominations of Rs 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 and

RBI plans mobile app for currency notes identifi cation

2,000 are in circulation, besides Re 1 notes issued by the Centre.

The RBI said that iden-tification of banknote denomination is key to

successful completion of cash-based transactions by visually impaired persons.

Intaglio printing based identification marks for

helping the visually chal-lenged in identification of banknotes denomination are present in the notes of Rs 100 and above.

After demonetisation of old Rs 500/1,000 notes in November 2016, new banknotes in design and sizes have been put in circulation.

“The Reserve Bank of India has been sensitive to the challenges faced by the visually challenged in conducting their day to day business with Indian banknotes,” said the central bank while scouting for a vendor to develop the mobile application.

The proposed mobile app would be able to iden-tify the denomination of notes of Mahatma Gandhi

Series and Mahatma Gan-dhi (New) series by captur-ing the image of the notes placed in front of mobile camera, the RBI said while inviting bids from tech firms to develop the app.

The RBI had come out with a similar ‘request for proposal’ from vendors but later cancelled it.

The app will also gener-ate “audio notification” in-timating the currency note denomination to the user if image is captured correctly, else intimating the user to try again in case of image is not readable.

There are about 80 lakh blind or visually impaired people in the country, who are likely to benefit from the initiative of the central bank.

The Beijing-head-quartered multilat-eral developmental

lender Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) said that it will provide $ 100 million in loans to L&T Infrastructure Finance Company for on-lending to wind and solar power infrastructure projects in the country.

This deal with the arm of L&T Finance Holdings marks the bank’s first loan to a non-banking finance company.

“Our latest project will increase the supply of re-newable energy in India by mobilising private capital. The loan proceeds of $ 100 million will be used to on-lend to wind and solar power infrastructure

L&T Finance arm gets $100m green energy funding

projects in India,” AIIB said in a statement.

The loan mobilises pri-vate capital from sponsors, other financiers and LTIF’s own sources.

“Our financing will help secure the funding

supply for renewable en-ergy project development. The project supports our commitment to sustain-able energy for Asia to reduce the carbon intensity of energy supply,” AIIB vice-president and chief

investment officer DJ Pan-dian said.

LTIF’s collaboration with AIIB will also help the company develop its environmental and social capabilities which will in the future enable it to tap

the international market for green finance, the bank said.

The country is commit-ted to reducing its carbon intensity by 30-35pc of the 2005 levels by 2030 under the Paris agreement.

State Bank of India (SBI) has waived charges on NEFT and RTGS trans-

actions through internet and mobile banking from July 1, after the RBI decided to do away with the charges with an aim to move the country towards less-cash economy.

The country’s largest bank, which has about 25pc market share, has also de-cided to do away with the charges on fund transfer through mobile phones using the IMPS (immedi-ate payment service) from August 1.

The real-t ime gross settlement (RTGS) system is meant for large-value instantaneous fund trans-fers, while the National Electronic Funds Transfer (NEFT) system is used for fund transactions of up to Rs 2 lakh.

“In order to provide an

SBI waives RTGS, NEFT, IMPS chargesimpetus to digital funds movement, SBI waived-off RTGS and NEFT charges for YONO, internet banking (INB) and mobile banking (MB) customers from July 1, 2019.

“The bank will also waive-off IMPS charges for its INB, MB and YONO customers effective from August 1, 2019,” the state-owned lender said in a statement.

Before July 1, SBI used to charge between Re 1 and Rs 5 for transactions through NEFT, and Rs 5-50 for RTGS route.

At March-end, 2019, the number of SBI customers using internet banking were more than six crores, while 1.41 crore persons were us-ing mobile banking services.

The bank claims to have around 18 per cent market share in mobile banking

transactions.Registered users of

YONO (You Only Need One), its integrated digital and lifestyle platform, were about one crore.

Along with customer

convenience, the waiver in NEFT, IMPS and RTGS charges will attract more customers towards digital transactions, the bank said.

Additionally, the bank has already reduced NEFT and RTGS charges for cus-tomers transacting through branch network by 20pc

across all slabs.“In sync with our strat-

egy and Government of In-dia’s vision to create a digi-tal economy, SBI has taken this step to promote use of YONO, internet banking and

mobile banking for doing NEFT and RTGS trans-actions without incurring any cost,” the bank’s MD (Retail & Dig-ital Banking) P K Gupta said.

SBI i s the largest commer-

cial bank in terms of assets, deposits, branches, custom-ers and employees. It is also the largest mortgage lender in the country.

The bank has the largest network of 22,010 branches in the country and an ATM/CDM (cash deposit machine) network of over 58,000.

Worldwide IT spending is pro-jected to total

$3.74 trillion in 2019, an increase of 0.6pc from 2018, which is slightly down from the previous quarter’s forecast of 1.1pc growth, said a new report by Gartner Inc.

“Despite uncertainty fuelled by recession ru-mours, Brexit, trade wars and tariffs, we expect IT spending to remain flat in 2019,” John-David Lovelock, Research Vice President at Gartner, said in a statement.

“While there is great variation in growth rates at the country level, virtually all countries tracked by Gartner will see growth in 2019. De-

Startup to Scale up pro-gramme, launched by Kerala Startup Mis-

sion to train startups to take off, will commence at UL Cyber Park, Kozhikode, on July 18.

This will be followed by training sessions at the Integrated Startup Complex at Kochi on July 19 and at Technopark, Thiruvanan-thapuram, on July 20.

The programme will be led by renowned tech entrepreneur and mentor Avelo Roy, who is also Startup Advisor to the Prime Minister of Nepal.

Global IT spends to grow 0.6pc in 2019

Kerala Startup Mission to commence on July 18

spite the ongoing tariff war, North America IT spending is forecast to grow 3.7pc in 2019 and IT spending in China is expected to grow 2.8pc,” Gartner said.

The enterprise soft-ware market would ex-perience the strongest growth in 2019, reaching $457 billion, up 9pc from $419 billion in 2018.

The CIOs are continu-ing to rebalance their technology portfolios, shifting investments from on-premises to off-prem-ises capabilities.

As Cloud becomes increasingly mainstream over the next few years, it will influence ever-great-er portions of enterprise IT decisions, in particular

Roy, Managing Director of Kolkata Ventures, is lead-ing a programme for the first time in Kerala.

He had handled similar events at leading institu-tions including IITs in dif-ferent parts of the country.

The programme is meant for start-ups that have completed the ‘pro-totype’ stage.

They will be given ori-entation on a host of topics like the timing to scale up, selection of team, resource mobilisation, finance man-agement and effective net-working.

Italian cosmetic brand for men WOMO has an-nounced its long-term

partnership in India with Genesis Luxury, a part of Reliance Brands Limited. Through this partnership, Genesis Luxury will offer WOMO products and shav-ing services of Bullfrog, the barbershop founded by Romano Brida and acquired by Percassi in 2014, through all relevant channels of sale. It aims to open its flagship store in Mumbai by the first half of 2020.

“Indian men have be-come image conscious and

WOMO joins hands with Genesis Luxurynow don’t shy away from paying attention to per-sonal wellness and appear-ance. It is the perfect time for a brand like WOMO and Bullfrog to enter India because it would make a perfect choice for modern gentlemen. I feel that no brand understands the needs of a modern man and his hectic life better than WOMO and Bull-frog,” said Sanjay Kapoor, founder and president of Genesis Luxury.

In 2018 , Re l iance Brands, owned by retail chain Reliance Retail and part of Reliance Industries,

bought out a majority stake in Genesis Luxury, a group company of PE fund Sequoia Capital-backed Genesis Colors. The entry of WOMO in the Indian market is part of its global expansion strategy, which also includes a consolida-tion of the brand’s pres-ence in Italy through the opening of new flagship stores. This partnership will also look at other multi-channel opportuni-ties in India in the near future.

“This partnership (with Reliance Brands) will al-low us to make the most of

the multi-channel oppor-tunities in Indian market, which is well-suited to our offer. I am sure this will give a decisive boost to the internationalisation of the brand,” said Ste-fano Percassi, founder and president, WOMO.

Currently, WOMO has seven stores: six in Italy and one in Zurich, Swit-zerland. It is also available in 29 European countries through the e-commerce channel. Bullfrog is pres-ent in all WOMO stores and has six franchise stores: five in Italy and one in Munich. Its products are

also available in 250 stores through exclusive distribu-tion agreements.

The $125 billion mar-ket-cap conglomerate, Reli-ance brands Limited, is on an expansion spree with its total store count at 420 and 350 shop-in-shops in India. Its current portfo-lio of brand partnerships includes nearly 50 brands such as Armani Exchange, Burberry, Diesel, Emporio Armani, Ermenegildo Ze-gna and G-Star Raw. RBL made its first international entry by acquiring British toy retailer Hamleys in May this year.

system infrastructure.“Spending in old tech-

nology segments, like data centre, will only continue to be dropped,” said Lovelock.

Globally, consumer spending as a percentage of total spend is drop-ping every year in every region due to saturation and commoditization, es-pecially with PC, laptops and tablet devices.

Cloud applications al-low these devices to have an extended life, with less powerful equipment needed to run new soft-ware.

This is why the devic-es market will experience the strongest decline in 2019, down 4.3pc to $682 billion in 2019.

8 Travel / Entertainment

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EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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

As on 15th July, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 46.75 49.75Bahraini Dinar 177.40 187.40British Pound 84.60 87.60Canadian Dollar 51.15 54.15Emirati Dirham 18.15 19.15 Euro 75.85 78.85Kuwaiti Dinar 220.35 230.35Omani Rial 173.35 183.35Qatari Riyal 18.35 19.35Saudi Riyal 17.80 18.80Singapore Dollar 49.05 52.05Swiss Franc 68.20 71.20US Dollar 67.00 70.00

Source:

Non-Muslim tourists to get free 30-day liquor licence in Dubai

Dubai will presently offer a free 30-day liquor permit for

visitors, a move that guar-antees visitors will not be punished for breaking the law. The free liquor tour-ist licence is legal only to guests who are non-Muslim and are aged 21 years and above.

A subsidiary of the Emirates Group, Maritime and Mercantile Interna-tional (MMI), features a separate segment on its website guiding tourists on the method of apply-ing for the liquor licence. Visitors are informed to

visit any MMI alcohol retail outlet with their passport and sign a form affirming that the buyer is a tourist. Furthermore, the MMI retail outlet will take a copy of passport as well as the entry stamp and each guest will be issued guidelines.

Presently, Dubai res-ident visa holders are qualified for a two-year licence that permits them to purchase liquor from shops and store it at home. Also, anybody drinking within the city’s bars and eateries ought to actually have a liquor permit.

For the first time, a Sau-di team will compete at the World Women’s

Bowling Championships in Las Vegas next month. The team of six have been bowling together since last year and will compete in the Aug 22 to 30 completion’s individual, doubles, triples and five-person heats.

Initially, a group of 12 women came together to bowl for fun and were spot-ted by the national men’s team coach who encouraged them to speak to the king-dom’s federation for back-ing – a move that reportedly received an overwhelmingly positive response.

Amani Al Ghamdi, Nahla Adas, Mariam Al Dosari, Ghada Nimir, Mashael Al Abdulwahid and Hadeel Termein and their Egyp-tian coach Sarah Jamal will

First Saudi women’s bowling teamto compete at world games

For the first time, a Saudi team will compete at the World Women’s Bowling Championships in Las Vegas next month.

all travel to the States to take part when their Riyadh training camp finishes.

Saudi Arabia’s Aseel Al Hamad says ‘nothing is im-possible’ for women in mo-

torsport. President of World Bowling, Kuwait’s Sheikh Talal Mohammed Al Sabah,

praised the arrival of the first women’s team from Saudi Arabia at the international

games. However, it is not the first all-women’s bowling team to compete internation-

ally – in Feb a female team competed in Cairo. Saudi Arabia now has three wom-

en’s bowling teams, based in Riyadh, Jeddah and Alkhobar.

The push to get more women into bowling, and sport more generally, comes as part of the Kingdom’s ambitious 2030 vision initia-tive that will see a complete reform across almost all areas of Saudi Arabia from public sector management to quality of life.

Saudi women have been increasingly taking part in international competitive events from fighting – where Zahra Al Qurashi claimed the gold at the women’s 70 kg kickboxing event in Am-man – to racing – with Aseel Al Hamad the first Saudi women to drive an F1 car.The first women’s Olympic team of two athletes took part in the 2012 London games and four travelled to Rio De Janeiro in 2016.

Maharashtra Urban Development Minister Yogesh Sagar and Kiran Shantaram inaugurating the documentary film “Kshitij”, produced by Film Division in association with Indian Documentary Producers Association in Mumbai. Others present were documentary film maker Arunaraje Patil, Mrinal Kulkarni and Prashant Pathrabe.

South Indian movie awards function to be held in DohaThe eighth South In-

dian International Movie Awards (SII-

MA) to be held in Qatar next month is expected to not only delight fans of Indian cinema but also promote understanding of Indian culture reflected through its vibrant film industry.

In another first in Qatar, the annual SIIMA will be held on Aug 15 and 16 at Lusail Indoor Arena. It will witness some of the most prominent celebrities in the South Indian film industry come to Doha to attend the ceremony which rewards ar-tistic and technical achieve-ments in film.

Speaking to a TV chan-nel, Naveed Abdulla, CEO of ONE FM Qatar, said they had been looking forward to bringing SIIMA to Qatar and this was the perfect time to

host it here with the Qatar-India 2019 Year of Culture. “We wanted to give delight to all Indians living in Qatar with this award function where we have over 200 peo-ple from the movie fraternity coming to Qatar and out of them around 70 to 80 are top A-list celebrities. This would also help non-Indians in Qatar to understand the Indian culture and connect both cultures during this Year of Culture,” said Ab-dulla. Thousands of people are expected to attend this first-of-its-kind event, some of whom are flying to Doha including between 450 and 500 production crew, tech-nicians and dance troupe as well as a huge number of international media fans, he said, adding they have been working with Qatar National Tourism Council

(QNTC) and other partners in India to promote the event through various platforms.

“We are expecting any-thing between 8,000 and 10,000 people for the show because each of these ce-lebrities do have their own major fan base. Qatar has a huge South Indian popula-tion also who understands the language and a lot of South Indian movies are being screened in theatres in Qatar,” he said.

The awards ceremony itself will be a two-day function, but prior to that there will also be a business award. The functions, Ab-dulla said, will be telecast in four different languages on Indian TV. “It will be a good four and a half to five hours show per day and there will be a lot of meet and greet with celebrities for fans and

very interactive sessions,” he added. Apart from the celebrities, production crew and performers, Indian and international media as well as many Indian cinema fans are expected to fly to Doha to watch the awards ceremony.

“We are expecting a good chunk of people to travel to Qatar to watch this movie awards as well as experi-ence Arab hospitality, the hotels, and other entertain-ment which are curated along with this festival,” he said. Tickets to the awards ceremony will be in differ-ent categories and will be on sale soon. The Eighth SIIMA is one of the much anticipated events being or-ganised in partnership with QNTC’s Summer in Qatar programme which runs until August 16.

More Indians to visit Australia

Australia is gearing up to take advantage of Indian cricket fever

next year when it is hosting two different world cups -- the ICC T20 World Cup (Oct 18-Nov 15, 2020) as well as the women’s World Cup (Feb 21-March 8, 2020) which are sure to draw large crowds of cricket fans from India.

The Australian govern-ment is reportedly expecting around five lakh visitors from India next year, thanks to the two sports events. “We saw 3.6 lakh visitors from India in the year ended March 2019. This is the highest ever visitation from India ever which has been growing constantly over the past few years. The in-crease in visitor number and spend was 14.6pc, about 12pc more than the figures recorded in the year ended March 2018,” said Tourism Australia in a statement.

Indian airlines to add more fl ights to Gulf

To fill the gaps created by Jet Airways’ grounding, In-dian carriers will soon add more flights to and from the UAE --- much to the relief of NRIs in the country.

Air India, SpiceJet and GoAir have confirmed they would increase their frequencies and introduce new routes between Dubai and a number of Indian cities. India’s flag carrier, AI, recently announced the introduction of flights from Indore to Dubai on July 15 and Kolkata to Dubai on July 16. Its Dubai-Kolkata flight will begin from July 15. The new flights are part of the additional seats allocated after Jet Airways’ collapse. The airfare between Dubai and Indore were about Dh1,050 and Dh1,200 is the fare to Kolkata. A SpiceJet spokesperson also confirmed that the carrier would be starting an additional flight between Mumbai and Dubai. “We will operate one daily additional flight from Mumbai to Dubai, which is seven flights a week from Aug 3,” the spokesperson said.

With the latest announcements, UAE residents are hop-ing that fares would drop.

Gina Mathew, a schoolteacher in Fujairah, said: “We are a family of five and we live in Ernakulam. My husband and I both work, yet we cannot afford tickets every year for all three of our kids due to soaring prices. Our company does not even give us the money for it.” Gina and her husband are expecting that the additional flights would at least stabi-lise ticket prices, especially during the peak season. Anand Menon, a sales professional from Sharjah, said he spends Dh5,000 every year on air tickets to Calicut (Kozhikode) .

“Sometimes, we take flights to Mumbai and then take domes-tic flights to the south. But this impacts our luggage,” he said.

GoAir is also introducing flights between the UAE, GCC and India. In the previous quarter, the airline launched Abu Dhabi and Muscat flights to and from Kannur in Kerala. From next week, it will also connect Abu Dhabi with Mumbai and Delhi. “At the end of July, GoAir will be launching Kannur-Dubai flights and next month, it will start the Kannur-Kuwait flight. Out of these flights, only Kannur-Dubai flight is in lieu of Jet Airways and GoAir will be offering 1,604 seats per week on these routes,” a GoAir spokesperson said in a statement.

Salalah Tourism Festival starts

The Salalah Tourism Festival (STF) has started with the opening of the gates of the Itin Recreation Centre, which is the main venue of the festival. The festival

opened the floodgates of celebrations for all age groups. The Itin recreation Centre is showcasing an array of cultural, heritage, amusement and general entertainment shows.

The STF will keep residents and visitors occupied for good one and a half months, as its date of conclusion is Aug 22. The big attraction here is the Heritage Village providing visitors with a gamut of insights into Oman’s diverse cul-tural and traditional heritage. In addition, there will be daily competitions involving different Wilayats of the Sultanate.

The STF will keep residents and visitors occupied for good one and a half months, as its date of conclusion is Aug 22. Apart from the main venue many entertainment events have been planned outside the main enclosure at places like Samharam Tourism Village in North Awqad, Atina Land in Itin and Hafa Souq. On the outskirts of Salalah some enter-tainment events have been planned at Taqah and Mirbat keeping in mind those visitors who love to stay in those areas to enjoy the impact of monsoon all through their stay.

The Itin Recreation Centre would be the hub of the Salalah Tourism Festival.

Kozhikode airport lacks safety standards

Aviation regulator DGCA has issued show cause notice

to the director of the Calicut (Kozhikode) international airport after it found that some critical areas were not being maintained as per the safety standards. On July 2, an Air India Express flight coming from Dammam had a tail strike while landing at the Calicut international airport.

Under directions from the DGCA, Air India Express earlier this month suspend-ed the pilots involved in this incident. “The DGCA

observed various lapses in safety standards during its inspection of Calicut air-port on July 4 and July 5. Therefore, the show cause notice has been issued to the airport director K Srini-vasa Rao. He will have to respond within 15 days,”a source said.

The notice said that “cracks are observed at run-way 28 TDZ (touchdown zone) and along runway C/L marking at runway 10 TDZ”. The touchdown zone (TDZ) is the part where the aircraft first contacts the surface

while landing. The touch-down zone is ahead of the threshold area. The notice said that “excessive rubber deposit” was observed in the area from runway C/L mark-ing to three metres on both the sides of touchdown zone of runway 28. Similar exces-sive rubber deposits were also found by the DGCA along runway C/L marking of touchdown zone of run-way 10, as per the notice.

“Water stagnation of about 1.5 metre length was observed on the area be-tween runway edge and

intermediate turn pad on runway 28,” the notice said. The DGCA also found sever-al cracks in the aircraft stand no. 5. It also observed that a “portion of Apron surface” of about 111 metres as dam-aged. Apron is that area of the airport where the aircraft are parked, refuelled and boarded with passengers.

“A steep downward slope of approximately five feet depth is observed immedi-ately after the apron behind of aircraft no. 1, which needs to be levelled and graded,” the notice said.