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Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz attends the 2019 budget meeting in Riyadh.

Saudi’s spending to hit record-high in 2019

Ravi Pillai

Boom time for Middle East, says Ravi PillaiDUBAI: Despite the gen-eral economic slowdown, there will be unprecedented growth in the region in eight to 10 years, a Dubai-based businessman said. RP Group founder and managing di-rector Ravi Pillai said from 2020 onwards there will a big boom in the region, driv-en especially through gas and petrochemical sectors.

“This growth will be witnessed in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. There will be growth for eight to 10 years, which will exceed all expectations. Gas and petrochemicals will see rise in demand. We are going to bid for a few gas and petro-chemicals plants,” he said.

RP Group is on expan-sion mode and is eyeing Saudi Arabian markets with its largest project. “We

have just inked one refinery project and another will be done next week in Ruwais. Both are big projects here. We will be able to employ 4,000 to 5,000 people and start work in two months. The largest refinery project is going to come up in Saudi Arabia. We have presence in Bahrain and Kuwait also.” Pillai noted that the next few years will see many new jobs being created.

Pillai highlighted that currency swap is a ma-jor development and will boost UAE-India businesses. “More business will be con-ducted between the two na-tions as local currencies will replace the dollar. This will further strengthen relation-ship. Now bilateral trade has the potential to double with the currency swap

agreement.”“We have 1.3 lakh people

working in the Gulf, 30pc of them are Indians and 15,000 to 20,000 locals. This man-power will keep their jobs for the next eight to 10 years. We are recruiting 400 to 500 workers every month. So the number in our workforce is set to rise further in future.”

Pillai said India’s real estate sector is defying mar-ket conditions, as demand remains robust. “The real estate climate in the region and worldwide is cold. Here we have oversupply and less demand,” he said. He noted that the Jumeirah Business Bay project is on hold but the Dubai (Contd. on page 2)

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s ex-penditures will hit a record-high in 2019 as the govern-ment plans to increase state spending by seven per cent to reach $295 billion de-spite plunging oil prices. Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz announced the figures saying that the gov-ernment expects revenue to increase by more than nine per cent to hit $260 bil-lion. That leaves a projected deficit of $35 billion. “This budget is a continuation of the government’s policy of focusing on the fundamen-tal citizen services and the development of government services,” the king said at a government meeting. The king extended monthly al-lowances for government employees, military person-

nel, pensioners, social secu-rity recipients and students to the next year.

Saudi Arabia announced

its biggest-ever budget — with spending set to in-crease by around seven per cent — in a move aimed at

boosting the economy, while also reducing the deficit. Nevertheless, analysts cau-tioned that the 2019 budget is

based on oil prices far higher than today — which could prove an obstacle in hitting targets. (Contd. on page 2)

UAE salaries set for a hike in 2019DUBAI: Healthy growth prospects for the new year coupled with a drive to re-main competitive in the market, has meant that em-ployers across the UAE are increasingly open to the idea of raising base salaries for their employees.

According to data from the latest World Economic Outlook, the UAE economy is set for a healthy growth in the coming months with a growth of three per cent ex-pected in 2019, due in part to successful economic di-versification. Robert Half’s Salary Guide for 2019 found that 89pc of CEOs in the UAE are feeling confident about growth prospects and expect to achieve growth over the next 12 months.

“Confidence is increas-ing for businesses in the MidEast. More than 42pc of CEOs are very confident

in their growth prospects over the next year and 40pc expect the outlook to re-main positive over the next three years,” said Gareth El Mettouri, associate direc-tor, Robert Half UAE. He added: “Digitisation, auto-mation and artificial intelli-gence continue to transform the world of work and are quickly becoming neces-sary in meeting the needs of a rapidly evolving market. Concerns regarding avail-able talent are causing em-ployers to focus on improv-ing retention. The top two initiatives in place are add-ing more benefits to remu-neration packages and offer-ing flexible work options.”

According to the new guide by Robert Half, 51pc of business leaders in Dubai and 45pc in Abu Dhabi say that their primary con-cern is how an increasingly

competitive marketplace is shaping the workforce. The top concerns for UAE man-agers in 2019 include talent management, the economic climate, globalisation, the evolving world of work, and the implementation of auto-mation.

To achieve the growh that they are hoping for CEOs are looking to hire and retain more skilled work-ers. However, the ongoing war for talent has meant that 49pc of organisations in the UAE are saying that they find it significantly challenging to find qualified professionals. Almost 19pc of organisations admitted to raising their base-level sala-ries for eight out of 10 new hires in an effort to secure the top talent.

Aannual Total Remu-neration Survey revealed that the overall salary in

the UAE increased by 4.5pc in 2018 across industries with the highest increase shown at five per cent in the life sciences industries. Furthermore, the annual salary increases in the UAE for 2019 is forecast to grow by 4.8pc one of the high-est in the region. Notably, real wage growth (salary in-crease minus inflation rate) is also expected to steadily rise in the region. “With the UAE’s vision of diversifying away from oil, we’re seeing new trends in industries with regards to employee compensation, hiring and talent. Sectors such as the high-tech and life sciences industries have evolved due to the growing popula-tion and the need for digital transformation across the entire market, which is gen-erating more employment opportunities and salary in-

creases,” said Ted Raffoul, career products leader for the Mena region at Mercer.

Mercer’s research found that the overall hiring out-look in the UAE is positive with close to 50pc of com-panies looking to increase their headcount and 45pc

looking to maintain headcount. Additionally, only three per cent of com-panies have stated salary freezes in 2018 compared with 10pc in 2016. The survey also looked at talent trends in the GCC region and found that 78pc of organisa-tions expect an increase in competition for talent.

Furthermore, 47pc of or-ganisations noted that there aren’t enough experts in niche fields and that scar-city of required talent may pose a potential challenge.

The hunt for specialised talent (Contd. on page 2)

MEA meeting with recruitingfraternity in Delhi todayNEW DELHI: A meeting to further discuss the issues which were deliberated during External Affairs Minis-ter’s meeting with RAs on MRW, compulsory register-ing of persons going for employment to ECR countries, even if holders of ECNR passports and on skilling, will be held on Friday, Dec 21 in New Delhi. The meeting will be chaired by Protector General of Emigrants (PGE) Mr Amrit Lugun. Officials from MEA as well as from RA fra-ternity will attend this meeting.

NEW DELHI: India current-ly has a shortage of at least 4,000 artificial intelligence (AI) professionals in the mid and senior levels, even when newer AI-backed jobs are being created.

A study on the Indian AI industry by Great Learning indicates that there are over 4,000 positions related to AI in the country that remain vacant for 12 months due to shortage of qualified tal-ent at the mid and senior levels. This is despite the industry growing by close to 30pc in the last one year to $230 million in size. This supply-demand gap indi-cates huge opportunity for mid and senior level pro-fessionals across industries like IT, finance, healthcare and e-commerce, which are looking at transition into AI over the next few years.

Meanwhile, Cogni-zant has predicted that 21 more jobs will emerge in the world of artificial intel-

India to add new artifi cial intelligence jobs

ligence, automation, algo-rithms, bots and big data in the near future.

The Great Learning study finds that one of the reasons contributing to the talent shortage at the middle and top level is the lack of experienced candi-dates. While 57pc organisa-tions hiring for AI look for candidates with more than five years of experience, the average AI experience of In-dian professionals is mere three years. Only 23pc of this workforce has over 10 years of total work experi-ence.

Almost 67pc AI profes-sionals in India have joined/transitioned to their current role only in the last two years

“AI being a nascent sec-tor in India, the industry is facing a huge skill gap when it comes to filling senior and mid-level positions. The field offers great potential for working professionals

who are looking to transi-tion into newer technolo-gies. AI will make a huge dent across sectors like IT, healthcare, fin-tech and e-commerce. This is the right time to enter the field and be at the forefront of these changes,” said Hari Krish-nan Nair, co-founder, Great Learning.

On the demand side, the 10 leading organisations with the most number of AI openings this year are -– IBM, Accenture, Ama-zon, Fractal Analytics, So-ciete Generale, SAP Labs, 24/7 Customer, Atos, Nvidia and Tech Mahindra. The top skill sets that AI em-ployers are looking at are machine learning, natural language processing, neural networks, analytics, cloud computing and pattern rec-ognition.

More than 1,000 com-panies in India claim to work on AI in some form or the other. This includes a

small number of companies into products (chatbots, AI-powered visual search and recommendation engine) and a larger chunk offering either offshore, recruitment or training services. There is a 30pc

Y-o-Y increase in the number of companies set-ting up dedicated AI teams in India. But India still has a long way to go as it contrib-utes only 10pc to the global AI job openings.

Meanwhile, Cognizant finds that 21 more new jobs will be added to en-sure ethical behaviour and security while newer tech-nology adoption catches up. There will be jobs for chief purpose planner, algorithm bias auditor, juvenile cyber crime rehabilitation coun-sellor, head of machine per-sonality design and head of business behaviour which will ensure that machines and humans act well and behave themselves.

Free health insurance cards in DubaiDUBAI: The Dubai Health Authority (DHA) will distribute 100 health in-surance cards among ex-patriates with financial constraints every year as part of its Year of Zayed celebrations. The card, called Year of Zayed Health Insurance Card, will be part of the Essential Bene-fits Package (EBP) and will have a maximum limit of Dh150,000 per person. The card will be valid for a year.

Humaid Al Qutami, Director-General of the DHA, announced the ini-tiative at a ceremony held to revisit all the activities the DHA organised dur-ing the Year of Zayed. The year 2018 marks 100 years since the birth of the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan and the UAE has dedicated it to cel-ebrate his legacy.

Al Qutami said: “This year, we organised a series of initiatives to mark the Year of Zayed. The UAE is known globally for its philanthropic work and we will continue our hu-

manitarian initiatives to the best of our ability.”

Saleh Al Hashmi, Advi-sor at the DHA’s Health In-surance Corporation, said 100 people who will be given the card have been identified already. “This is an ongoing initiative and we will keep selecting people based on their fi-nancial needs after assess-ing them,” he told a TV channel. “The cards will cover health costs of .... for example, those with huge families, who are unable to sponsor their dependents.

“If the same people re-quire financial help next year, we will not stop the cards, else others will be selected.”

The EBP, which costs between Dh650 and Dh725 per annum, covers all emer-gency costs, maternity is-sues, surgeries, cancer treatment etc and includes a 20pc co-payment. The cards have been sponsored by the 12 insurance compa-nies that are registered with the DHA under the EBP as part of their CSR activities.

Banks to remain closed for 5 daysNEW DELHI: Banking ser-vices may be severely affect-ed across the country on Dec 21 and 26 as two bank em-ployees’ unions --United Fo-rum of Bank Unions’(UBFU) and All India Bank Officers Confederation (AIBOC)-- have called for a strike to protest against the merger of public sector banks (PSBs), and the move to leave offi-cers in scale IV and above out of the bipartite wage settlement ambit. Most bank branches will remain open only for a day (Monday) between Dec 21 and next Wednesday (Dec 26).

The AIBOC called a strike after it walked out of a bipartite negotiation de-manding full mandate for scale I to scale VII officers, introduction of five-day work week, salary revision according to the charter of demands and a defined benefit pension payment scheme unlike the National Pension Service (NPS).

The UFBU, an umbrella body of the top nine bank unions, has given a strike call on Dec 26 while the AI-BOC has (Contd. on page 2)

Court to hear H-4 spouse visa caseWASHINGTON: A top US court has given the go ahead for hearing a lawsuit challenging the work au-thorisation to H-4 visa hold-ers after the Trump admin-istration delayed a formal notification over the issue that can impact spouses of H-1B visa holders, mostly Indians.

H-1B visa is a non-im-migrant visa that allows US firms to employ foreign workers in speciality oc-cupations. H-4 visas are is-sued to the spouses of H-1B

visa holders, a large number of whom are high-skilled professionals from India.

The Obama administra-tion in 2015 allowed H-4 visa-holders, mainly spous-es of the H-1B visa-holders, to be gainfully employed in the US. The group “Save Jobs USA” took the mat-ter to appeals court after a district court upheld the Obama administration’s de-cision. The US Court of Ap-peals, District of Columbia, ordered that the motion to schedule (Contd. on page 4)

2 EMIGRATION Friday, December 21, 2018

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Bountiful remittancesThe heartening news from World Bank is that India’s re-

mittances will hit a whopping $80billion, thanks to our diaspora. India will continue to hold its enviable posi-

tion of being the largest recipient of remittances in the world. According to the latest edition of World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief, India is followed by China ($67 billion), Mexico and the Philippines ($34 billion each) and Egypt ($26 billion). Despite economic setbacks in countries where over-seas Indians work, India has registered a significant flow of remittances from $62.7 billion in 2016 to $65.3 billion 2017. In 2017, remittances constituted 2.7pc of India’s GDP.

The remittances to South Asia as a whole are project-ed to increase by 13.5pc to $132 billion in 2018, a stronger pace than the 5.7pc growth seen in 2017. Global remittances, which include flows to high-income countries, are projected to grow by 10.3pc to $689 billion. But with the feared slow-down of economy in some Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries in 2019, there could be a fall in our remittances. The bank has projected a slowdown of 4.3pc and the lower migration to GCC, following oil price fall as well restriction on foreign labour in some countries.

The upsurge was by stronger economic conditions in ad-vanced economies, particularly the US and the increase in oil prices having a positive impact on outflows from some GCC countries such as the UAE which reported a 13pc growth in outflows for the first-half of 2018. With world economic growth expected to moderate, future remittances to low- and middle-income countries are expected to grow moder-ately to reach $549 billion next year. The global average cost of sending $200 remains high at 6.9pc .

Lured by the sharp slump in rupee against the dollar, overseas Indians may boost remittances to a record, helping bolster the nation’s economy. Flows from an estimated 30 mil-lion nationals working abroad will help India’s efforts to cap the nation’s current account deficit. Without remittances, the gap would have been about five per cent of GDP at mid-year. When rupee depreciates so sharply, inbound sources of mon-ey get active. These inflows are important for the economy at this juncture. Earlier, a global emerging market sell-off that’s triggered outflows from Indian bonds and stocks saw the ru-pee setting a string of fresh lows . Ever since our economy was opened up in 1991, India has been experiencing a sharp remittance growth. In 1991, Indian remittances were valued at just $2.1 billion. In recent years, many banks are offering money transfers and this has grown into a huge business. Around 40pc of the India’s remittances flow to Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and UP, which are among the top remittance-dependent economies . Kerala’s economy is called “ postman economy” as most of the households get a cheque from their NRI relative every month through the post. States such as Andhra gets most of its remittance from US, while Kerala from the Gulf, Punjab from Canada as most of the people migrate from their states to these countries.

Editorial

LIPSYNCH “ I am not a product of my circumstances, I am a product of my decisions”.

— Stephen Covey.

UK urged to take action in NRI wife-deserting cases

Women’s Rights Group protest in front of Home Secretary Sajid Javid’s office to put an end to NRI men exploiting loopholes in immigration law to dump wives in India.

LONDON: The UK’s largest Indian women’s group has made an emotional appeal to British Home Secretary Sajid Javid to intervene to stop the widespread abandonment of Indian women by their NRI husbands.

During a silent protest that turned deeply emotive at moments, members of In-dian Ladies in UK (ILUK) called on Javid to change immigration law relating to “Dependent spouses” – laws that have been routinely used and abused by NRI men to exploit and then abandon their wives in India. The pro-test was staged on behalf of the hundreds of women that ILUK have helped and who have found themselves in legal limbo in India after be-ing cruelly discarded by men who use a legal loophole in British immigration law to cancel their visas.

It involves men -- both British citizens of Indian ori-gin as well as migrants – who marry women from India, in most cases in an arranged marriage, inflict unspoken abuses on these women – from physical beatings and mental torture to dowry abuse - before abandoning

them in India. This could be for a variety of reasons –- a woman reporting domestic abuse to UK authorities; a

woman’s family being unable to or refusing to hand over more money or jewellery as dowry; or simply in some cases where the husband feels that the relationship has run its course.

Nevertheless, instead of ensuring the well-being of their partners – who are in most cases women who have never stepped out of their family and social structures in their native India – these

men will take their wives to India under the guise of “go-ing on holiday” then dump them there. The women’s

passports and residency per-mits are also taken away and in many cases where chil-dren are involved the men who are meant to be their guardians also steal the chil-dren’s documents.

Once these men return to the UK, they simply in-form the Home Office that their wife is no longer their dependent and that their visa should be cancelled, a request that the Home Office

carries out extremely swiftly and without any referral to the aggrieved woman.

This stands in stark con-

trast to the vast quantities of documents that any couple must submit or the checks that they must be subjected to when applying to obtain a dependent visa in the first in-stance. The men then apply for divorces in a UK court, which promptly grants these “Ex Parte” divorces which are not recognised in India. As a result, numerous lives have been destroyed. In fiercely patriarchal India, women

find themselves marginalised by their own families and are often blamed for “causing” the breakdown in marriages.

Dowry deathsIn one instance, in 2018

a young girl from a small vil-lage in south India – who was married to an IT worker – was threatened with “deporta-tion” by her husband after her family failed to meet his dow-ry demands. Fearful of being taken to India after months of abuse and coercive control, the young woman left her marital home in East London, travelled to Kent before tak-ing her own life by jumping into the Ocean near Margate.

On those occasions when victims pluck up the cour-age – and the money – to re-turn to the UK in the hope of fighting for justice, they are told that their visas have been curtailed and are promptly turned back at the border, pil-ing misery on victims who are already deeply traumatised. It is alarming that a nation known historically for accept-ing refugees and asylum seek-ers can show such little com-passion to these women who have legally lived, worked and built lives in the UK.t

DUBAI: Talk about flying through Dubai Interna-tional Airport and the first thing that comes to any-one’s mind is Dubai Duty Free (DDF)’s Finest Sur-prise draw and its attrac-tive prizes that include mil-lions of dollars, luxury cars and fancy motorbikes. Few, however, know how the hugely popular raffle first came about.

Colm McLoughlin, ex-ecutive vice-chairman, said: “The Finest Surprise draw was introduced in Dec 1989 to coincide with our first major expansion which doubled our floor space at the time. We needed a pro-motion for the expansion and it had to be something that would have a big im-pact. It was first suggested to have a private plane as a prize, until the logistical aspects were examined and it was decided that a luxury car would be much easier and the price point for the tickets would be affordable.”

McLoughlin said the first car, a Bentley Mul-sanne built by the original Rolls-Royce Company, was won by Simon Simonian from Lebanon. “The con-

Duty Free creates287 millionaires

cept was to be a one-off, but once we had the draw for the first car, there was a lot of demand for another and another, so it was decided to continue with the promo-tion. Now, 1,704 cars later, the tickets are still very much in demand.”

He said the Millennium Millionaire draw, which of-fers 5,000 ticket holders the chance to win $1 million was added as a sister promo-tion to the Finest Surprise, to mark the start of the new millennium. “In November 1999, the first Millennium Millionaire draw took place and we have now created 287 dollar millionaires.” Significantly, seven people have won the Millennium Millionaire draw twice.

“We also have one per-son who won $1 million twice in the same year (2013). He won his first mil-lion in Feb and then again in Dec. More recently, a couple — regular participants in our promotions who won $1 million — had purchased 18 tickets online for Series 285. The husband said he felt they would definitely win this time, and they ac-tually did.”

US-Indian physicians prepare for global health summit in MumbaiNEW YORK: The 12th Global Health Summit (GHS) hosted by the American Associa-tion of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in Mumbai, on Dec. 28-30, will feature many “firsts,” including President Ram Nath Kovind inaugurat-ing what has come to be the premier brain-storming con-gregation of Indian diaspora physicians and their counter-parts in India.

Others highlighting the flagship event that AAPI puts together annually in India, will be Union Health Minister Jagdish Prasad Nadda, Maha-rashtra Governor Vidyasagar Rao and Chief Minister De-vendra Fadnavis. Dr. Ravi Ja-hagirdar, a former president of AAPI, who is chairman of the GHS, and AAPI’s strate-gic adviser Anwar Feroz Sid-diqi, who has been involved in putting these summit to-gether since its inception in 2007, said that this summit would be “the first time that AAPI will be partnering with GAPIO (Global Association of Physicians of Indian Origin).”

Jahagirdar, an Orlando, Florida-based urologist, who held the reins of AAPI in 2014-2015, said that while there would be a fair share of entertainment and cultural

activities, it would be an aca-demic and research-oriented substantive summit with everything from “a global re-search and scientific compe-tition for medical residents to a CEO Forum and a CME (continuing medical educa-tion) programme focused on need-based topics like dia-betes and TB in India to col-laborative projects between AAPI and the USAID (United States Agency for Interna-tional Development.”

“I cater to the more seri-ous part and not ‘hungamas’ and so, we have minimised the cultural events,” he said, acknowledging that “of course, we need those events and they are important, but we are spending less money on those.”Jahagirdar noted that this flagship event of AAPI, which is only second in terms of budget outlays and in size and scope to the annual AAPI convention, “is now the biggest and main overseas go-to conference for US-based and Indian di-aspora physicians in the UK, Australia, and Canada and several other countries.”

He showered praises on the current AAPI president Dr Naresh Parikh of Atlanta, Georgia, for affording him

“total autonomy” with regard to putting together the sum-mit with Siddiqi. Since the first summit in 2007, which was then called the Indo-U.S. Health Summit and held in New Delhi under the aegis of then AAPI -- then led by its president Dr Hemant Pa-tel—in concert with Indian Medical Association and the Medical Council of India, each summit has zeroed in on highlighting a particular health issue in India, wheth-er it be the high incidence of tobacco use or the continu-ing scourge of TB. In 2009, retired US Navy veteran Dr Thakor Patel authored the AAPI Guide for Diabetes Management and launched the “Sewak Project,” which was then universally adopted in India.

In 2014, Jahagirdar launched the Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) Guidelines formulated by neurosurgeons Drs Raj Narayan and Jogi Pattisapu, with a grant from Medtronics, and it was also incorporated by the govern-ment into its health agenda priorities. And, to this day the pilot project, which was started on a highway in Vishakhapatnam continues to be implemented.

Boom time for Middle East, says Ravi Pillai(Contd. from page 1)Marina project will be completed by Jan 2019. “Construction of buildings near Burj Khalifa will be completed in the next six months.” He said India is an exception to the present trend and demand is grow-ing, especially in Mumbai and Pune.

He noted that Abu Dhabi is financially strong with oil and gas reserves and Dubai is the best city in the world.

“Abu Dhabi has also di-versified in a big way. Dubai is an affordable city. Hotel rates are cheaper in Dubai than India. Since it’s boom time in India, you will pay Rs 25,000 for a hotel room in Goa but need to shell just Dh400 for a room in a Dubai hotel. Even food prices are very affordable.”

(Contd. from page 1)Government spending is projected to rise to SR 1.106 trillion ($295 billion) next year, up from an actual SR 1.030 trillion this year, Min-ister of Finance Mohammed Al-Jadaan said. The budget estimates a nine per cent annual increase in revenues to SR 975 billion. The bud-get deficit is forecast at SR 131 billion for next year, a 4.2pc decline on 2018.

“We believe that the 2019 fiscal budget will fo-cus on supporting economic activity — investment and wider,” Monica Malik, chief economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank (ADCB), told a TV channel. “It is a growth-supportive budget with both capital and cur-rent expenditure set to rise.”

World oil prices have tumbled to their lowest lev-els in more than a year amid concerns over demand. Brent crude contracts fell to

(Contd. from page 1)and employers across the region willing to negotiate higher base salaries, has also meant that many em-ployees are expressing an interest in switching jobs. Bayt.com’s latest survey revealed that more than four in five or 83pc of pro-fessionals have considered changing their career path completely, with 64.2pc

Saudi’s spending to hit record-high...as low as $57.20 during the week. Malik cautioned that the oil-price assumptions in the Saudi budget looked “optimistic.”

“We see the fiscal deficit widening in 2019, with the higher spending and fore-cast fall in oil revenue,” she said. Jason Tuvey, an econo-mist at London-based Capi-tal Economics, agreed that the oil forecast was optimis-tic, but said this should not pose problems for govern-ment finances. “The govern-ment seems to be expecting oil prices to average $80 (per barrel) next year,” he said.

“In contrast, we think that oil prices will stay low and possibly fall a little fur-ther to $55 … On that basis, the budget deficit is likely to be closer to 10 pc t of GDP. That won’t cause too many problems given the govern-ment’s strong balance sheet. “Overall, then, we think that there will be some fis-

cal loosening in the first-half of next year, but if oil prices stay low as we expect, the au-thorities will probably shift track and return to austerity from the mid-2019, which will weigh on growth in the non-oil sector,” Tuvey said.

John Sfakianakis, chief economist at the Gulf Re-search Center, based in Saudi Arabia, said that the

targets of the budget were “achievable” and the fore-cast oil price reasonable. “It is an expansionary budget that should spurt private sector activity and growth,” he said. “With Brent crude averaging around $68 per barrel for 2018 and $66 per barrel for 2019, the authori-ties have applied a conser-vative revenue scenario.”

UAE salaries set for a hike in...

saying that it is very easy to change jobs in the region.

Nevertheless, shifting to a new job or choosing a totally different career, isn’t always about the salary. When asked why profes-sionals may change their careers entirely, “to find their real passion” was the most common reason, fol-lowed by “better compensa-tion”.

Banks to remain closed for fi ve days(Contd. from page 1)appealed for a strike on Dec 21, according to reports. The timing of both the strikes is such that it can lead to an extended weekend for most bank employees while causing inconvenience to customers. Ashwani Rana, vice president of National Organisation of Bank Workers, said all unions under UFBU will take part in the strikes.

The merger of Bank of Baroda (BoB), Dena Bank, and Vijaya Bank sparked wide range protests among the bank employees. The government had given its nod for the merger of these banks in Sept this year. Ac-cording to AIBOC, assistant general secretary Sanjay Das, about three lakh offi-cers of the Union were ex-pected to participate in the protest as “no perceptible initiative” was observed from Indian Banks’ Associa-

tion (IBA) to impress upon the five banks who have not yet submitted the uncon-ditional mandate”. Mean-while, ATM operations may remain unaffected on

Dec 21 , an official AIBOC said. “We will not use any force to close the ATMs. The employees engaged in ATMs are not controlled by officers’ bodies,” Das said. However, ATM operations may be hit on Dec 26 , the day the UFBU has called for a strike.

During the six-day period, there are three holidays -- fourth Saturday of the month, Sunday and then again on Tuesday for Christmas.

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MUMBAI: Roads developer Ashoka Buildcon (ABL), through its city gas distribution (CGD) business, Unison Enviro (UEPL), is plan-ning to bid for projects worth R s 4 0 0 - 6 0 0 crore in the next round of bid-ding scheduled in February.

A day after ABL said it has received Rs 150 crore from Morgan Stanley in exchange for a 49pc stake in UEPL, Paresh Mehta, CFO, ABL, said the Wall Street giant would invest more funds as and when required in order to bid for new projects and set up the required infrastructure. “We will also put in funds so as to maintain our hold-ing of 51pc in UEPL. The idea is to grow this busi-ness together with Morgan

ABL plans to bid for city gas distribution projectsStanley, over time,” Mehta said.

UEPL has already set up three fuelling stations for CNG for vehicles and plans to add to this tally over the next few years, Mehta added. UEPL will also set up pumping stations to supply piped natural gas to both commercial and domestic consumers.

According to analysts at Edelweiss, with corre-sponding equity infusion in line with their respective stakes, UEPL currently has a war chest of `300 crore,

which is enough not only to fund its existing proj-

ects, but a l so to grow its portfolio by win-ning new ones.

While A B L ’ s f o r a y into CGD has been

a deviation from its core engineering and toll roads business, analysts believe the partnership with a reputed investor such as Morgan Stanley will as-suage these concerns and that it would reduce ABL’s own equity commitment. They added that while equity infusion in the business is not a concern anymore, the deal is the first step towards growing the business and eventu-ally, unlocking value.

NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet has given a nod to establish two new All India Institutes of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS)— one each in Tamil Nadu and Telanga-na. The Tamil Nadu AIIMS would come up at Madurai at a cost of Rs 1,264 crore, while the Telangana’s one would be built at Bibinagar at a cost of Rs 1,028 crore, an official statement said. The two new institutes will be set up under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY).

“Setting up of new AI-IMS would not only trans-form health education and training but also address the shortfall of health care professionals in the region,” an official statement said. The new AIIMS will pro-vide super speciality health care to the population while creating a large pool of doc-tors and other health work-ers in this region that can

New AIIMS to come up in TN, Telanganabe available for primary and secondary level institutions and facilities being created under National Health Mis-

sion (NHM), the statement said.

Each new AIIMS will add 100 undergraduate (MBBS) seats and 60 BSc (Nursing) seats and will have 15-20 super special-ity departments. Each new AIIMS will add around 750 hospital beds, it said.

As per data of current functional AIIMS, it is

expected that each new AI-IMS would cater to around 1,500 outdoor patients per day.

Establishment of new AIIMS involves the creation of hospital, teaching block for medical and nursing courses, residential com-plex and allied facilities/services, broadly on the pat-tern of AIIMS, New Delhi, and other six new AIIMS taken up under Phase-I of PMSSY.

The proposed institution

will have a hospital with a capacity of 750 beds which will include emergency/trauma beds, AYUSH beds, private beds and ICU spe-ciality and super speciality beds.

In addition, there will be a medical college, AYUSH block, auditorium, night shelter, guest house, hostels and residential facilities.

The recurring cost on these Institutions shall be met through grant-in-aid to them from plan budget head of PMSSY of Ministry of Health.

The timeframe for the establishment of the new AIIMS will be 45 months, broadly comprising a pre-construction phase of 10 months, a construction phase of 32 months and stabilization/commissioning phase of three months. Con-struction of new AIIMS is fully funded by the central government.

(Contd. from page 1)briefing and oral argument be granted and this case challenging work authorisa-tion of H-4 visa holders “be removed from abeyance.” At least three times, the Trump administration told the court that it has decided to revoke the Obama-era decision and a formal no-tification would be issued soon. While the notifica-tion on the matter is yet to be issued, the department of homeland security (DHS) in its annual agenda has said that it is determined to revoke work authorisation to certain categories of H-4 visa holders. It had said the notification would be is-sued this month.

In Sept, Save Jobs USA, which had filed the lawsuit, urged the court to remove the abeyance and move forward with the case. The case is before a three-mem-ber bench, which includes Indian-American Sree Srinivasan.

In its submission, Save

Jobs USA argued that even though the case has been delayed, no proposed rule has been submitted to the office of management of budget. “Justice delayed is justice denied,” Save Jobs USA said and rued that the longer the case remains in abeyance, the longer Amer-ican workers will “suffer injury from the presence of foreign competitors in their job market.”

As per the latest court order, the case is no longer held in abeyance and the new briefs must be submit-ted by Save Jobs USA by Jan 16, 2019. The Trump administration has time till Feb 22, 2019 to file its response. In a related de-velopment, the court also granted permission to “Im-migration Voice” to inter-vene in the case. Immigra-tion Voice is a non-profit organisation working to al-leviate problems faced by legal high-skilled foreign workers in the US.

“This is a major devel-

opment because the Court of Appeals does not typical-ly allow a party to intervene at the appellate level and it is significant that the court granted our motion to inter-vene,” Immigration Voice said, adding: “That indi-cates the court has some concern (and with good reasons) that our interests will not be adequately rep-resented by the DHS/gov-ernment.”

“Since the court has also granted our motion to intervene, we get to file a brief in opposition to the new brief that Save Jobs USA will file under the soon to be issued briefing schedule,” it argued. Given that the DHS has already declared its intent to get rid of H4-EAD programme, the court’s acceptance of its motion to intervene gives them a fighting chance to make a representation on behalf of its members for whom H4-EAD is so im-portant, Immigration Voice said.

NEW DELHI: The Staff Se-lection Commission on its official website has released an important update for candidates who appeared for the Stenographer Grade ‘C’ & ‘D’ Examination 2017. According to the no-tice, the Commis-sion had announced and uploaded the exam results for the same on November 28. Along with this, an additional result of the Skill Test for the said Examination was also declared on December 10, 2018. However, the Com-mission in the latest notice has stated that it has received a num-ber of representations concerning the evaluation of the Skill Test.

It has therefore decided in the larger interest of candidates who had ap-peared in the Skill Test for the exam, to revisit the

SSC releases notice for steno exam aspirantsevaluation and undertake a comprehensive review on all aspects of evaluation of Skill Test. The Commission added that this exercise is expected to take some time, because of which the final

results for the same will not be declared on December 28, 2018. Further informa-tion regarding the results will be announced and uploaded by the commis-sion in due course of time.

In addition to the above piece of information, the commission has also final-ised the dates for some of the upcoming Computer mode based examinations in the months of January

and February. Check the list below and mark your calendars-

1. Junior Hindi Trans-lator, Junior Translator, Senior Hindi Translator and Hindi Pradhyapak Ex-

amination, 2018 (paper-I): January 13, 2019

2. Examination for Se-lection Posts Phase-VI/ 2018

(i) Matriculation Level- January 16 to 18, 2019

(ii) Higher Secondary Level- January 17 and 18, 2019

(iii) Gradua-tion Level- Janu-ary 17 and 18, 2019

3. Stenogra-pher Grade ‘C’ & ’D’ Examination, 2018: February 5 to 7, 2019

Candidates need to note that the exam dates for SI in Delhi Pol ice, CAPFs and ASI

in CISF Examination, 2018 and Constable (GD) in CAPFs, NIA, SSF and Rifle-man (GD) in Assam Rifles Examination, 2018 are yet to be notified by the com-mission.

Court to hear H-4 spouse visa case

FOR CIRCULATION CALL

022 - 23001102 / 022 - 23001103Email: [email protected]

JOBS & CAREERS 5Friday, December 21, 2018

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puzzle, every digit from 1

to 9 must appear in each of

the nine vertical columns,

in each of the nine hori-

zontal rows and in each

of the nine boxes.

Solution for Puzzle # 21

will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 20 Answer

Your wellness

In what is viewed as a major breakthrough, MedAchievers Academ-

ic Council and LabIndia Healthcare have launched an AI-based open ortho-paedic surgery simulator which will be used for training orthopaedic and neurosurgeons. According to Dr Harsha Vardhan, the simulator will be used for training surgeons in spine surgeries, knee surgeries, for basic healing and other related surgeries. Dubbed as India’s first AI-assisted training centre, this simu-

AI-based open ortho surgery simulator launched in Indialator provides a virtual environment

How the AI-based Open Surgery Simulator works is, provides the right environ-ment for doctors to view the results, assess their performance and improve in performing surgeries. The simulator is already used in US and Canada and in India it will be first applied to orthopaedics, pathology, general surgery and emergency medicines, news reports indicate.

With cases of spinal injuries on the rise, this AI-

based simulator can help in giving hands-on train-ing with continuous up-

dates and help the doctors sharpen their proficiency in a particular domain. The simulator will help doctors gain proficiency in treating trauma victims and un-derstand the right perfor-mance indicators. Accord-ing to Dr Harsh Vardhan, spinal injuries and trauma related conditions are be-coming extremely common in India and there is a lack of doctors who can treat trauma patients.

This AI-based technol-ogy is suited for Indian conditions, given how the

patient-student ratio is less. Besides helping doctors fortify the baseline skills for treating orthopaedics patients, it will also help doctors deal with knee and spine surgeries more efficiently. As in other areas of healthcare, AI has become a key driver of surgical innovation and plays a critical role in im-proving patient outcomes and boosting training. This truly disruptive and ground breaking innovation will introduce a new paradigm shift in surgery.

Glenmark Pharmaceu-ticals has received final approval from

the US health regulator to

market Hydrocortisone Val-erate ointment, used to treat a variety of skin conditions.

The nod has been grant-ed by the United States

Glenmark gets USFDA nod for skin ointment

Food and Drug Administra-tion (USFDA) for Hydrocor-tisone Valerate Ointment USP, 0.2pc, a generic ver-

sion of Westcort Ointment, 0.2pc, of Sun Pharmaceuti-cal Industries Inc, the com-pany said in a BSE filing.

Quoting IQVIA sales

data for the 12-month pe-riod ended October 2018, the company said Westcort Ointment achieved annual sales of $ 11.1 million.

Glenmark said it is eligible for 1 8 0 d a y s of competi-tive gener-ic therapy (CGT) exclusivity upon commercialisation.

The company’s current portfolio consists of 145 products authorised for dis-tribution in the US market, and 55 abbreviated new drug applications (ANDAs) are pending approval with the USFDA, it added.

Indian Navy Recruit-ment 2019 has offi-cially begun with the

announcement of the online registration pro-cess for 3,400 Sailor vacancies by the Indian Navy.

Candidates will be able to apply for the posts of Artificer Apprentice (AA) Matric Recruits (MR) and Se-nior Secondary Recruit (SSR), depending upon their eli-gibility criteria.

February 2019 has been set as the tentative date for the recruitment examina-tion.

Candidates should keep

Indian Navy invites online applications for 3,400 Sailor postsin mind that the last date of the application is De-cember 30, 2018.

Here’s how to apply for the Indian Navy Sailor Recruitment 2019

Firstly, visit the official website for the Indian Navy Recruitment – www.joinindiannavy.gov.in.

Now, look for the re-cruitment link visible un-der the ‘Current Events’

tab and click it.After a new window

pops up, look for ‘Apply Online’ link on the right hand of the page

Finally, choose the ‘Register’ link and follow

the stepsKeep a government-

issued photo ID number or their Aadhaar number handy to register. Af-ter successfully registering, login into the account again and com-plete your ap-plication.

The applica-tion process was supposed to start on December 14, 2018, however it was postponed and now it has

been restarted again.The dates for the re-

cruitment exam and the admit cards for the exam will be released by the Navy soon on their official website.

Indian Insti-tute of Tech-nology Ma-

dras is partnering with Thales to design a SHAKTI RISC-V proces-sor. The collabo-ration will result in defining and prototyping a SHAKTI RISC-V based processor suitable for mix-criticality applications, including Safety Critical applications.

As a result of this tie up, a fault-tolerant SHAKTI framework would be de-veloped and will undergo evaluation by the world’s top experts in safety critical standards.

Thales and IIT Madras are going to take up joint research programs in many

Joint research by IIT Madras and Thales

areas including aerospace, space, transportation, secu-rity and defence.

Thales, an international group, designs and builds electronic systems for aero-space, space, transporta-tion, security and defence.

Thales will draw on its expertise in the secu-rity and dependability of critical embedded systems to establish security best practices for hardware de-velopment.

The ultimate objective

is to improve t h e s e c u r i t y and dependabil-ity of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, embed-ded systems and machine learn-ing implementa-tions.

IIT Madras researchers recently de-signed, fabricated and booted up India’s first Indigenously-developed RISC V Microprocessor - ‘Shakti’. The Shakti fam-ily of processors are tar-geted for mobile computing devices, embedded low power wireless systems and networking systems besides reducing reliance on imported microproces-sors in communications and defence sectors.

The Union Public Ser-vice Commission has announced an impor-

tant update for all Engineer-ing Services Examination aspirants at upsc.gov.in. Candidates who are regis-tered to appear for the UPSC’s latest recruit-ment drive need to note that the commission is all set to con-duct the ex-amination on January 6, 2019. In addition to this, the e-admit cards for the same have also been released on the website. Candidates can download their Engineering Services (Preliminary) Examination – 2019 from the UPSC website now and start their prepara-tions accordingly.

The notice issued by the Commission states that ESE aspirants should download their e-admit cards now and should take a print out of

UPSC announces recruitment exam datethe same. It adds that “the admitted candidates will have to produce the printout of their e-Admit Card at the allotted Venue for appearing in the Examination along with proof of Identity (as en-

tered in Online Application) such as Aadhaar Card/Voter Card/PAN Card/Passport/Driving Licence/Any other Photo ID Card issued by the State/Central Government.”

How to download Engi-neering Services (Prelimi-nary) Examination – 2019 e-admit card:

Step 1: Visit the official

website of UPSC at upsc.gov.in

Step 2: Click on the download admit card link

Step 3: Enter all required details

Step 4: Press submit

Step 5: Now download your e-admit card and take a print out of the same

Candidates need to note that in case their photo-graphs are not visible on the admit card, then they should “carry two (2) iden-tical photographs (one pho-tograph for each session) along with the printout of e-

Admit Card at the Venue of the Examination for appear-ing at the Examination with an undertaking.” It is impor-tant to note that No paper Admit Card will be issued for the Examination. In case

of any discrep-ancy, candidates should contact the commission latest by Decem-ber 29, 2018.

I m p o r t a n t things to note for the day of the exam-

1. Entry into the Examination Venue shall be closed 10 min-utes the start of the exam, i.e. at

9:50 AM (for first shift) and at 1:50 PM (for the second shift)

2. Entry without Amit cards will not be allowed

3. Carry a Black Ball Point Pen to the exam hall

For more details visit the official website of Union Public Service Commission at upsc.gov.in.

With demands of work productiv-ity shooting up

stress levels, researchers have discovered that a person’s eyes may offer a solution.

The study showed that the pupil dilation - widen-

ing of the pupils of the eyes - could be u s e d t o

indicate levels of stress of a person in a multitasking environment.

“Many people multitask but currently there is no measurement for someone’s mental well-being. How-ever, we found that the size of a pupil could be the key to measuring someone’s

Your eyes may signal your mental stress levelmental state while they multitask,” said Jung Hyup Kim, Assistant Professor from the University of Mis-souri in the US.

To understand how ev-eryone experiences stress differently, the researchers used a simu-lated oil and gas refinery plant control room where they watched, through the mot ion-cap-ture and eye-tracking tech-nology, as the part ic ipants reacted to unexpected changes, such as alarms.

During the scenario’s simple tasks, the partici-

pants’ eye searching be-haviours were more pre-dictable. Yet, as the tasks became more complex and unexpected changes oc-curred, their eye behaviour became more erratic, the findings revealed.

The team hopes this finding, published in the International Journal of Hu-man-Computer Interaction,

can give a better insight into how systems should be designed to avoid men-tally overloading workers and build a safer working environment.

“One day this finding could give employers and

educators alike a tool to determine the maximum stress level a person can experience before they become fatigued, and their performance begins to negatively change,” the study said.

Further, the research-ers plan to apply this finding to further re-search involving differ-

ent age groups and certain biometric measures such as heartbeat, brain signals and muscle or nerve reactions.

The government will set up 20 addition-al technology cen-

tres to help micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), Union Minister Giriraj Singh said. These centres support MSMEs by giving them access to advanced manufacturing

technologies, skilling man-power and providing tech-nical and business advisory support.

“We have got sanction to set up 20 more technology centres in different parts of the country,” he said here at CII’s Global SME

MSME ministry to set up 20 tech centresBusiness Summit 2018. Currently, 10 such centres are operational in different states of the country. The MSME minister said that there were some challenges for the sector, but the gov-ernment was working on all those areas, including providing timely credit.

He added that schemes like Prime Minister Em-ployment Generation Pro-gramme (PMEGP) and credit guarantee fund trust for micro and small enterprises had helped in creating 19 lakh new entrepreneurs. “I think

these entrepreneurs have created jobs for about three crore people,” he added. Speaking at the event, Commerce and Industry Minister Suresh Prabhu said SMEs should tap the opportunity to become part of the global value chain.

“For our SMEs to col-laborate with g loba l par t -ners and be-come part of the global value chain, our gov-ernment has been working on policies and action plans that will sup-port SMEs in different ways. We have also been working

on facilitating export and protection of intellectual property rights,” he add-ed. MSMEs contributing around 45pc in the coun-try’s exports, 24.63pc to the GDP from service ac-tivities and 33.4pc to the manufacturing output.

6 IN FOCUS Friday, December 21, 2018

I work for a free zone company in Dubai. Last month, my boss sent me a WhatsApp message saying my last day will be Dec 26 as they are closing the company. I don’t have the hard copy of the termination letter yet. A few weeks earlier my colleague was given a termination letter. She finished work earlier this month. We started working for them in April. What can we get out of this termination as we have been employed for less than a year? As per my colleague’s termination letter, she will get her salary and a one-way ticket to her home country. Are we eligible for our leave salary?

You are on an unlimited contract of employment. If someone is made redundant by an employer, I would at least expect a personal conversation fol-lowed up by an official letter. Sending a WhatsApp message seems unprofessional and may not be strictly legal as Article 117 of the UAE’s Labour Law states: “The employer and the worker may ter-minate the employment contract with undetermined term for valid grounds at any time subsequent to the conclusion of the contract and such after notifying the other party thereof in writing at least 30 days prior to the termination thereof.”In terms of what is payable, Article 118 of the Labour Law states: “The worker shall be entitled to his complete wage for such period on the basis of the last paid wage. He must perform his job dur-ing said period should the employer so require.” This means the salary must be paid in full until the final day of service and annual leave continues to accrue during this period, so any days of leave not been taken should also be given as a payment in lieu with the final salary pay-ment. No end of service gratuity is due as the period of service is less than one full year. No additional payment is due if redundancy is because the company is closing. The company is responsible for the cost of a flight but only if the employee is leaving the UAE. This is covered in Article 131 which clarifies: “The employer shall, upon the termina-tion 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.

Should my son pay my debts?If an individual is an absconder from the UAE with outstanding credit card debts can the individual’s child still apply for a job in the UAE? I left in 2011 with unpaid debts but my son now wants to move there without the risk of being held responsible for my unpaid debts by the immigration authorities. Is it correct?

Under UAE law, only the person whose name the debt is in – the indi-vidual who borrowed the money – has liability for it. The only time someone else would be liable is if they are a joint account holder or if they have signed paperwork as a guarantor for the debt. Although you should repay the money you borrowed, your son will have no legal responsibility.

Will I face penalty?I am an engineer and my salary quali-fies for family status. My work visa was renewed on May 1 and is valid until May 1, 2020. If I want to resign on personal medical grounds before completing a year on the current visa-- will I face a penalty?

You are on a fixed-term contract, you will be penalised for breaking the con-tract. This is as set out in Article 116 of the UAE’s Labour Law which states: “The worker shall be bound to compensate the employer for the loss incurred thereto by reason of the rescission (cancellation) 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.” This is a sum equivalent to 45 days’ full salary and he should also give notice in line with his contract terms. It makes no difference if someone has renewed a contract and is on a second visa or if there is a personal reason for wanting

Is sacking by WhatsApp legal?to end employment. No gratuity will be payable as you are resigning with fewer than five years of service with a fixed-term contract. Provided the em-ployer agrees to the termination, as you have worked for the company for more than two years, there is no need for an employment ban but that is dependent on the employer. Given the service and level of salary, an employment ban can be overturned by a NOC (letter of no objection from the previous employer). This may be academic, however, you can return to your home country due to medical reasons.

Tenant’s permission needed? Can you please advise how we should handle viewings? My landlord wants to sell his apartment and we are under the impression he had to give notice and arrange timings. I came home last week to find him in the apartment with a couple showing them around. This is not acceptable. What should we do?

A tenant is entitled to quiet enjoy-ment of the property in return for paying the rent. If the landlord wishes to sell his property, he has to get the consent of the tenant to allow access for viewings. If this access clause is not in the rental contract, then it is up to the tenant to give the go-ahead or not. If a viewing clause is in the contract or a tenant allows viewings, it is only fair that they are conducted with respect, allowing at least 24 hour’s notice is a must and all viewings must be ac-companied. It is never OK for broker, or indeed owner, to let themselves in without permission even if they pos-sess a key.Another viewing strategy could be to allow viewings only on a certain day and between agreed times, for example, every Saturday between 10am and 12pm. Note that while the property belongs to the landlord, it is the “home” of the tenant.

Higher rent My rental lease is up for renewal. Even though the rent calculator says I’m not entitled to a reduction, I’ve looked at the going market rate and many similar properties in my area are significantly lower. Is it worth negotiating anyway?

The rental calculator is designed to limit the amount a landlord is allowed to increase the rent. In a softer rental market its function becomes somewhat redundant as market forces take over. My advice is to always have a face-to-face meeting with the owner, to explain that you value your business relation-ship and that you would wish to stay on or renew your agreement. That said, with compounding evidence of similar and much cheaper options available, you would obviously not want to remain while paying more than the market rate. Show proof of what you’re saying by giving evidence of other properties via online portals or details from estate agents. If the landlord does not agree to your reduced terms, you can always move out and find alternative accom-modation. Remember that a cordial busi-ness relationship with your landlord is very important, so it may be better to find some common ground rather than just fight for your demands.

Can I break lease early?We paid in two cheques to the landlord, so are they supposed to refund the second cheque excluding the penalty period?

When it comes to breaking a rental contract, both the landlord and tenant should read through the contract care-fully. If there is a break clause within it, the terms under this clause should be adhered to. If, however, there is no provision for a tenant to leave the contract early, he/she is then at the mercy of the landlord. However, many reasonable landlords within the market will look at a tenant’s situation with empathy, especially if they are faced with job loss or redundancy. There is nothing in law that states the landlord has to agree to breaking of the contract. What is common however, is a form of compensation given to the landlord. The industry norm is a one to two-month rental penalty. This then gives the landlord some cushion and will enable them to find another tenant without being out of pocket.

ABU DHABI: Unscrupu-lous recruitment agents are herding unsuspecting In-dian workers into the UAE on visit visas, promising non-existent jobs --- only to later abandon them without food, shelter and salary. A trio, including a father and son, is the latest victims. They have been forced to sleep rough in Abu Dhabi after being duped by an illegal recruitment agent based in Chennai.

The three men, all hail-ing from Tripura, said they were promised jobs in the construction sector for a monthly salary of up to Dh1,500. “We used our life savings to pay Rs1. 3 lakh each for an employ-ment visa in the UAE. It is only when we reached the airport that we realised we had been scammed. Instead of the promised employ-ment visa, what we got in our hand was a one-month tourist visa,” Ajith Runjan Majumdar (44) told a TV channel. Majumdar’s son, Abhijith Majumdar (23) and his friend Dedasish Debmath (26) also fell into the same job racket trap.

“I even sold my two-wheeler and mechanical shop, which was my only

Illegal agent cheats job-seekerssource of living, to pay for the visa. My father and I have also borrowed heavily from friends and money lenders to cough up the huge amount, all in the hope that we will be able to make enough money in the UAE,” said Abhijith.

The men said they “went through hell” as the agent kept moving them from place to place after they landed in Sharjah on Sep 8.

“We worked at a con-struction site in Sharjah for more than a month without getting paid and were later shifted to Fujairah. We were fed one meal a day and had to sleep on the floor with 20 or 30 men, all crammed into a single room,” a teary Majumdar said, describ-ing their plight. After their

visit visa expired, the men claimed the agent demand-ed Dh3,000 more to stamp the employment visa. “The agent in India was threaten-ing to harm us if we went to the embassy. When we started mounting pressure on the agent to go back

home, he dumped us in Abu Dhabi two days ago. Since then, we have been sleeping outside a mosque in the freezing cold, with-out any money or proper food,” Abhijith said.

The men have ap-proached the Indian em-bassy for help. Officials said they are tightening the noose around unscru-pulous agents, who are duping Indian nationals by sidestepping the offi-cial eMigrate recruitment

portal. Indian Ambassador to the UAE Navdeep Singh Suri said the embassy has got in touch with police authorities in Tripura to bring the culprits to book. “Fortunately, we have full details about the agent and have advised the relevant

police authorities in the state to take firm action,” Suri said. He said the embassy is receiving an increasing number of such cases where Indian nation-als are getting cheated by unscrupulous agents.

“Last week, we assisted four women and now we have these three men from Tripura. They also came on visit visas after paying exorbitant amounts to an il-legal agent for non-existent jobs,” said the envoy.

How to avoid getting duped• Make sure the recruitment agent is licensed.• All ECR passport holders should come through eMigrate to ensure their em-

ployment contract is verified by the embassy.• Non-ECR category job-seekers should verify the authenticity of the employ-

ment contract with the embassy.• It is illegal for women under 30 holding ECR passports to come to the UAE

and work as domestic helps.• Register your details with the embassy or consulate as soon as your land in

the UAE.• Keep the emergency contact number 0508995583 so you can reach the em-

bassy if you are in distress in UAE.

RIYADH: World’s largest oil exporter Saudi Arabia and richest Indian Mukesh Ambani-run Reliance In-dustries are discussing joint investment in pet-rochemicals and refinery projects, the Saudi Oil Minister Khalid al-Falih has revealed. Al-Falih, who has known Ambani for over a decade now, trav-elled to Udaipur earlier this month to attend the pre-wedding festivities of Ambani’s daughter Isha’s marriage with Ajay Pira-mal’s son Anand.

During that visit, he also

held talks with Ambani but choose to tweet about those discussions only this week. In an Arabic tweet, which was translated using online tools, Al-Falih said he was delighted to meet Ambani. At the meeting “we discussed opportuni-ties for joint investments and co-operation in pet-rochemical, refining and communications projects.” He also tweeted a picture of the meeting where Am-bani is dressed in a busi-ness suit, a sharp contrast to other pictures of his in traditional attire during

the pre-wedding festivities held on Dec 8-9.

Reliance operates two refineries at Jamnagar with a total capacity of 68.2 million tonnes per annum. Reliance plans to expand its only-for-exports SEZ refining capacity to just over 41 million tonnes from current 35.2 million tonnes but does not have any plans to set up a new refinery in the country. It is presently focused on ex-panding petrochemical and telecom business, industry sources said.

Saudi Aramco, the

world’s biggest oil com-pany, and its partner Abu Dabhi National Oil Co (ADNOC) have picked up 50pc stake in a planned $44-billion refinery in Maharashtra but the proj-ect is facing problems in acquiring land due to pro-tests from local politicians. Aramco and ADNOC will together hold 50pc stake in the 60 million tonnes per annum (MTPA) refinery and adjacent 18 MTPA petrochemical complex planned to be built at Ratnagiri district of Maha-rashtra by 2025.

Saudi- Reliance in talks for refinery project

PANAJI: Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar has di-rected officials of the de-partments, which have completed the process to assess the manpower requirement, to take neces-sary steps to fill the vacan-cies as early as possible.

Parrikar held a meeting with senior officials of the personnel and administra-tive reforms departments at his private residence in Taleigao, taking stock of the existing vacancies, pro-motions and retirements in the departments. At the two-hour-long meeting, he went through the details on the pending vacancies in different departments and apprised himself of promotions of employees.

So far, the high-level empowered committee

Goa to expedite recruitmentson recruitments headed by the chief minister has given approval for making appointments to over 2000 posts in 45 departments and government-run bod-ies after recommendations were made by an interde-partmental committee of officers.

The panel has also ap-proved of regularisation of 267 posts. The process to assess manpower require-ment has been completed for creating posts in 45 departments including police, revenue, animal husbandry, art and culture, tribal welfare, urban devel-opment, agriculture, fisher-ies, panchayat, registrar of cooperative societies, law and judiciary. Earlier it had been decided to fill LDC posts in all the depart-

ments through the person-nel department. However, now the chief minister has instructed that the LDC posts should be filled by departments concerned. Parrikar also directed the personnel department to formulate a scheme for regularising contractual employees working in dif-ferent departments for the last several years.

The personnel depart-ment has already issued directions to the depart-ments to make appoint-ments to the posts ap-proved by the committee. The erstwhile government led by Laxmikant Parsekar had on Nov 22, 2016 imposed a ban on recruit-ments in government. Since then there has been no mass recruitment.

DUBAI: An Indian con-struction worker has been jailed in Dubai for 15 years for getting drunk and stab-bing his colleague and at-tacking another co-worker who tried to stop him. The incident took place in 2017 and all three men were Indians.

In October, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 26-year-old accused of premeditated murder and murder bid.

The convict appealed against the primary ruling before the Appeal Court and sought to have a re-duced imprisonment. His appeal was rejected and the presiding judge said the convict will be deported after serving his jail term.

Indian jailed in Dubai for killing colleague

ABU DHABI: An Indian man has reportedly gone missing in Abu Dhabi and his family is seeking help to trace him. Haris Poomadath fromKerala was last seen on Dec 8 in Al Shamkah area, according to his brother Suhail. He was working as a driver at a restaurant since past one year.

“He called me on Dec 8 and said he was coming to Al Shamkah to meet me. That was the last I heard from him,” Suhail informed. He said he has filed a po-lice complaint and is also seeking help through social

Indian missing in Abu Dhabimedia to trace his brother. “We are doing everything possible to find him. Our mother in Kerala is desper-ate to hear from Haris. She has not eaten food for days now and is inconsolable.” Suhail said their father died six months ago and Haris is the youngest of the 11 siblings in the family. “Yes-terday, I reported the matter to the Indian embassy and filed a petition seeking help to find my brother. He was supposed to return to Kerala for good and had some is-sues with the company”, he said.

ABU DHABI: Congress president Rahul Gandhi is scheduled to visit the United Arab Emirates on Jan 11, and 12 next year.

Himanshu Vyas, secre-tary of the All India Con-gress Committee (AICC), the national organisational body of the Congress party, confirmed that Gandhi will be visiting Dubai to meet with NRIs. The Overseas Indian Cultural Society said the 48-year-old party leader will also be ad-dressing students of the University of Sharja.

Rahul Gandhi to visit UAE

DUBAI: More than 1,000 forged passports were seized in Dubai’s interna-tional airports this year, according to the General Directorate of Residen-cy and Foreigners Affairs (GDFRA). Aqil Ahmed Al Najjar, consultant of the Document Examination Centre at GDRFA Dubai, said the authority has been using the latest technology to detect new methods of forgery. GDFRA Dubai said it had also spotted fake resi-dence cards and licences for other countries.

Over 1,000 fakepassports seized

CORPORATE NEWS 7Friday, December 21, 2018

NiYO, a new age digital banking so-lutions provider for

blue-collar employees, has set off on a mission to revolutionize the banking experience of this segment which has been historically neglected by the traditional banks.

In line with its mis-sion, NiYO announced the launch of NiYO payroll card across all the major locations in Maharashtra namely Bhiwandi, Au-rangabad, Nashik, Surat, Ahmedabad, Vapi catering particularly to the migrant population, shifted from their hometowns to cities for work, offering them a seamless digital banking experience.

One of the principal products from its suite

NiYO announces launch of NiYO Payroll Card- the NiYO Payroll Card aims at reaching out to the blue collared masses by making banking conve-nient, hassle-free and safe

for the employees while providing a state-of-the-art HR solutions during sal-ary disbursement for the employers.

Employees can instan-taneously open new ac-counts at their work sites.

They enjoy the liberty to maintain a zero balance in their accounts without any charges being levied. To ensure safety of the

highest order, there exists an option to lock/unlock/block the card using the Niyo Bharat mobile app. Its multilingual Bharat Mobile App has been tai-lor made for blue collared employees with a voiceover

enabled feature to benefit moderately uneducated individuals. To ensure bet-ter cash flow and to meet the emergency needs of the employees, it provides the Salary Advance feature.

NiYO endeavours to inculcate the habit of dis-ciplined savings by provid-ing wealth products like Mutual Funds and Digital Gold wherein investments can even be done in low denominations. Other sa-lient product features in-clude free accidental death insurance for every active user. NiYO’s robust 24 x 7 Customer Service Team caters to issues arising at any hour of the day via a multilingual captive call centre facility.

Leveraging technology in the zones of payroll,

benefits, travel, credit, in-surance and investments, NiYO provides an integrat-ed solution comprising of a digital account in addition to a salient mobile app. Accompanied by a compre-hensive corporate portal, it assists organizations in digitizing the benefits and payroll process. Compliant and immensely transpar-ent in nature, it strives to deliver an exceptional employee experience.

NiYO is a Bangalore based Fintech startup founded in 2015 by Vinay Bagri and Virender Bisht. It has raised a Series A fund-ing round of $13.2M with four esteemed investment partners: Prime Venture Partners, JS Capital, So-cial Capital and Horizons Ventures.

New generation pri-vate sector IDFC Bank and non-

banking financial com-pany Capital First have announced the completion of their merger thus, creat-ing a combined loan asset book of Rs 1.03 lakh crore for the merged entity IDFC First Bank. “IDFC Bank and Capital First merged effec-tive December 18, 2018. The merged entity to be called IDFC First Bank, subject to shareholders’ approval,” the firms said.

Following the merger, the board of IDFC Bank approved the appointment of V Vaidyanathan, founder and chairman of Capital First Ltd, as Managing Director of the merged

Capital First merges with IDFC Bankentity, said. His appoint-ment awaits shareholders’ approval.

Earlier, the boards of IDFC Bank and Capital First met to take note of all requisite approvals and the order from National Com-pany Law Tribunal; and approved the scheme of amalgamation. The board of IDFC Bank also ap-proved the appointment of Rajiv Lall, Founder MD of IDFC Bank, as part-time non-executive chairman of IDFC First Bank, subject to approval from the RBI.

The reconstituted board of the merged entity now stands expanded with the induction of five new direc-tors. “IDFC First Bank will now offer a wider array of

retail and wholesale bank-ing products, services and digital innovations, to a greater number of customer segments,” it added further.

It will serve 7.2 million customers through its 203 bank branches, 129 ATMs, 454 rural business corre-spondent centres across the country’s urban and rural geographies.

The merger between the two entities was announced

on January 13, 2018. As part of the merger agree-ment, shareholders will receive 139 shares of IDFC Bank for every 10 shares

held of Warburg Pincus-backed Capital First. On a combined basis, IDFC First Bank has on-book loan as-sets of Rs 1,02,683 crore. The retail loan book will now contribute 32.46pc to the overall loan book, said the statement.

“The merger presents an incredible opportunity to strengthen our banking capabilities, operate as a larger universal bank and bring immense benefits to our customers,” said V Vaidyanathan, MD of IDFC First Bank. Infrastructure lender IDFC, which entered the banking space in 2015, has been on the lookout to grow its retail portfolio.

In July 2017, IDFC Bank had entered into an agree-ment with Piramal Group-backed financial services major Shriram Group for a merger. However, the deal was later called off in October (2017) as both the entities could not reach a common ground on the share swap ratio.

Private sector lender ICICI Bank has re-vamped its online

platform for import trans-actions.

“The upgraded version of Trade Online offers a digital banking platform to enable companies carry out most of their export-import transactions online, eliminating the need for physical documentation,”

ICICI Bank revamps its Trade Online platform

ICICI Bank said.Services, including is-

sue of letters of credit (LC) and bank guarantees, export and import collection bills,

disbursement of export credit, and payments against imports, can be done on the plat-form.

It also includes specialised solu-tions such as ‘e-Softex’ for the soft-

ware industry and e-LC facility for large exporters.

It is also the first digital banking platform to offer credit of inward remittance within minutes to the ICICI Bank current account of the recipient

MUMBAI: Paisabazaar.com, India’s largest online market-place for financial products, and Karnataka Bank have an-nounced a strategic partner-ship to offer the bank’s home loan product to customers on the Paisabazaar platform.

Through this partnership, consumers will now be able to choose and apply for a home loan from Karnataka Bank, directly through the Paisabazaar platform.

Paisabazaar.com works with 30 partners for its home loan product, which includes India’s biggest private and public banks and HFCs.

“With an increasing num-ber of consumers using digital channels to meet their lend-ing needs, Karnataka Bank is excited to partner with

K’taka Bank-Paisabazaar.com tie up for home loansPaisabazaar.com, to offer our home loan product to a mas-sive customer base. Together, we aim to offer simple and convenient processes to help our customers meet one of their biggest life goals, that of buying their own home,” said

Mahabaleshwara M S, Manag-ing Director, Karnataka Bank.

“As a market leader, we aim to provide maximum

choice to our consumers, across products. This conve-nience of choice becomes par-ticularly relevant for products with long-term commitment, like home loans, as the right product can help consumers save significantly in the long run,” said Naveen Kukreja, CEO and Co-founder, Paisa-bazaar.com.

“Paisabazaar.com is de-lighted to bring Karnatka Bank on board. We expect strong traction towards Kar-nataka Bank’s home loan product on our platform, thanks to their user-friendly processes and attractive prod-uct features including interest rates,” said Ratan Chaudhary, Associate Director & Head of Home Loans, Paisabazaar.com.

French multinational professional services and business consult-

ing corporation Capgemini has gone for a leadership o v e r h a u l in India by appointing its current CEO Srini-vas Kandula as its group Chairman in India.

The com-p a n y h a s also elevated its current COO Ashwin Yardi to the post of CEO, in wake of Kandula being promoted as the chairman of the group. Both Kandula and Yardi would be reporting to Thi-erry Delaporte, Group Chief Operating Officer (COO) of Capgemini, whose respon-sibility also includes India.

Capgemini reshuffl es leadership in India

Kandula was the CEO of Capgemini in India since 2015. The realignment of the team has been done with an aim to strength-

en its India team, that contributes almost 50pc of its global workforce.

“ W i t h 1 0 0 , 0 0 0 people - half of our work-force - based

in India across twelve lo-cations, this leadership reinforcement is a natural step and fully reflects how Capgemini in India’s role is at the very heart of our Group; its scale; and its ambition for growth as a leader in the industry,” Del-aporte said. The company employs 2,08,800 globally.

GAIL’s Gajendra Singh, Director (Marketing) was awarded Kotler

Award of Excellence for Best Marketer in PSU. Singh started his career in pro-cessing and interpreting of

seismic data in upstream industry and possesses 32 years of illustrious career in the hydrocarbon sector. Singh has been involved in the execution of several prestigious projects of GAIL starting from the HVJ and has held various leadership and strategic positions.

GAIL bags Kotler award of excellence

Tech Data announced that it has signed a distribution agree-

ment with Fujitsu India Pvt. Ltd., a member of the Fujitsu1 Group, a leading Japanese information and communication technology (ICT) company and part of Fujitsu EMEIA2. The agreement will see Tech Data distribute the entire Fujitsu India’s portfolio of IT products, solutions and related services to their valued customers in India.

“This distribution agree-ment with Fujitsu enables Tech Data to offer Fujitsu India’s complete portfolio of end-to-end solutions to our Indian customers,” said Sundaresan Kanappan, Vice President and country General Manager, India, at Tech Data. “Our best-in-class technical capabilities and strong distribution network will help expand

Tech Data signs distribution agreement with FujitsuFujitsu’s reach and penetra-tion in the local market.”

“We are pleased to an-nounce our association with Tech Data and this partnership is important to Fujitsu’s distribution portfo-lio. Tech Data’s leadership, excellence in marketing and sales of IT solutions

will help us to expand the market for our products,” said Mehul Doshi, Head of

Product Business at Fujitsu India. “We look forward to

a strong partnership with Tech Data and a steady market growth for our prod-

ucts, services and solutions in India.”

An i l D A m b a n i owned Reliance En-tertainment’s Big

Synergy Media Limited has appointed Rajiv Bakshi as its Chief Executive Officer.

An alumnus of Harvard Business School, Rajiv comes with over two de-cades of experience and a proven track record across TV, Internet, Media, Tele-com and consumer durable industries. He has deep understanding of Broadcast Media & OTT, Digital, Mo-

Big Synergy appoints Rajiv Bakshi as its CEObile and FMCG industries.

Previously, Rajiv was the Chief Marketing Of-ficer at Intex Technologies where he led the brand strategy across 4 business verticals – Smart Phones, Electronics, Durables and Accessories.

Speaking about his new role, Bakshi says, “I am incredibly excited to join Big Synergy at this stage of the company’s evolution into scripted shows, along with the non-scripted con-

tent. Content will fuel the next wave of growth in media. India is one of the rare markets where both television broadcast and OTT platforms continue to demonstrate robust growth. I am passionate about transformative dis-ruptions that change con-sumer behaviour and will strive to create competi-tive advantage and long term value for the busi-ness and our esteemed clients.”

Cleantech Solar said Shell Eastern Petro-leum (Pte) Ltd has

signed an agreement to acquire 49pc stake in the company.

It will be Shell’s second major solar investment this year. The deal is expected to close in January 2019, a statement by Cleantech Solar said.

According to the state-ment, Cleantech Solar will continue to operate under its existing management and name.

“We are very impressed by Cleantech Solar’s re-cord of developing las-ting relationships with multinational and regional corporations who are eager

Shell to buy 49pc pie in Cleantech

to implement subsidy-free renewable energy into their corporate strategies,” said Marc van Gerven, Shell vice-president of solar and

storage.Headquartered in Sin-

gapore, Cleantech Solar owns and operates more than 120 solar power plants across southeast Asia and India, representing over 200 megawatt of projects.

The capital markets regulator Sebi has voiced concern over

the slow pace of primary issues, despite a good market condition, and asked investment bankers to do more “diligence” on the pricing front to get investors in.

Chairman Ajay Tyagi said Sebi has given go-ahead to initial public of-fers (IPOs) worth over Rs 60,000 crore in 2018, but many of them are yet to hit the street. Till end Oc-tober, 24 companies raised Rs 30,959 crore through IPOs but most this been in the March quarter.

Last year was the best in terms of IPO fundrais-ing, as the IPO market

Sebi asks i-bankers to get pricing rightjumped to an all-time re-cord of Rs 67,147.4 crore in fresh fundraising by over 120 companies, ac-cording to data from Prime D a t a b a s e . A c c o r d i n g to the same agency, over 40 companies have IPO ap-provals total-ling over Rs 60,000 crore, but most are not in a hur-ry as second-ary market is roiled. That apart some 30 more companies have filed the draft IPO pa-pers with Sebi. As of end October 24 companies raised Rs 30,959.07 crore

through IPOs but bulk of the activity was in the March quarter, wherein 14 firms raised Rs 18,591.7 crore.

The IPOS are not tak-ing place is something that’s a cause of worry,” he said speaking at an in-vestment bankers’ event, adding companies have

found alternatives like preferential issues to raise money. When asked if the issue is pricing, he asked i-bankers to do more “diligence” while setting a price that will be acceptable to both the issuers as well as investors.

“Merchant bankers have a role to see that an issue is reasonably priced and which is acceptable to both issuers and in-vestors,” Tyagi said. The Sebi chief seemed to sug-gest that domestic market conditions are better as compared to global peers, with firm macroeconomic fundamentals and said the rupee fall has also been arrested.

8 Travel / Entertainment

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Oman Air bullish on India

Oman Air CEO Eng Abdulaziz Al Raisi

With Oman Air’s seat factor touch-ing the 80pc-mark

in 2018 and the passenger in premium cabin growing 25pc in an overall double digit growth vis-à-vis last year, the 25th Anniversary year(2018) has been a high-light of the airline’s India operations. Oman received 3.21 lakh Indian visitors in 2017, showcasing growth of over seven per cent com-pared with to 2016 and the estimated growth for 2018 is at 18pc owing to the growing demand from leisure, wed-ding, adventure and MICE travellers. This will further strengthen the airline’s grow-ing international network and significantly enhance

connectivity for passengers.Oman Air’s first flight

(WY 1412) took off in 1993 from Muscat to Thiruvana-nthapuram. Oman Air cur-rently operates 161 weekly flights to India. There has been significant growth in the past 25 years, with a fleet of two aircraft serving three destinations – to its present day fleet of a 54 aircraft, serv-ing 51 destinations.

Oman Air CEO Eng Ab-dulaziz Al Raisi said: “We are bullish on India, as it is a sig-nificant destination for Oman Air both in terms of increasing tourism traffic and in promot-ing vital trade agreements between the two countries. Since the commencement of operations to India first,

the network has grown from strength to strength and I am delighted to have the opportu-

nity to thank all of those who have made our expansion pos-

sible. I am also very grateful to the co-operation between the governments of Oman

and India whose agreement has allowed us to increase the

number of frequencies and available seats.”

Sunil V A, Regional Vice President-ISC said: “We have seen a huge increase in pas-sengers travelling between Muscat and India, but we strongly believe that the Indian market still has huge potential, not just between Oman and India, but also beyond to connecting des-tinations. Seat occupancy remains high on our India flights and I look forward to seeing this grow even further in the future. The dynamic travel industry and forward-thinking aviation sector in India, (which is currently the third largest in the world), has helped make India a very important market for us.”

In a major boost to the country’s civil aviation sector, the Modi govern-

ment is planning invest Rs 25,000 crore for the develop-ment of more than 20 major airports and several smaller airports in the country over the next five years. “Airports Authority of India (AAI) has plans for infrastructure development at various air-ports, including 20 major airports with a capex of Rs 25,000 crore in next five years,” minister of state for civil aviation Jayant Sinha informed the Lok Sabha.

Prime Minister Modi has placed a lot of emphasis on making air travel affordable. In his speeches, he has of-ten talked about his vision of making air travel so af-fordable that even people wearing slippers can afford it. However, lack of viable airports has been acting as a deterrent for aviation compa-nies that want to expand to

India to spend Rs 25,000cr to develop 20 airports

smaller cities under the gov-ernment’s affordable UDAN scheme.

In a separate question, the government informed the house that India has be-come the fourth largest civil aviation market after the US , China and Japan as per Air-ports Council International’s (ACI) Annual World Traffic Report of 2018.

India is the fastest grow-ing major economy in the world with the annual growth rate in excess of sev-en per cent per annum. It has become the sixth largest economy in the world after the US, China, Germany, Japan and UK by surpassing France in March this year as per a report by World Bank. Aviation industry experts believe that ordinarily, any country’s civil aviation sec-tor grows twice as fast as its GDP growth rate. The number of India’s domestic air travellers has constantly

grown a t a double-digit rate till recently, only registering a slight slowdown in the month of October this year.

The government also in-formed the Lok Sabha that at present seven greenfield airports are operational in the country. These are Hy-derabad, Bengaluru, Durga-pur in West Bengal, Shirdi in Maharashtra, two greenfield airports in Kerala at Kannur and Cochin and Pakyong airport in Sikkim.

The government has also placed a lot of emphasis on connecting the North-Eastern states and previously ignored parts of the country with air connectivity. Modi also inaugurated another airport at Jharsuguda on Odisha-Chhattisgarh border in Sept this year, giving a big boost to under-connected regions of the country, as it will connect Chhattisgarh’s capital Raipur with Jharsu-guda in Odish.

Emirates cod-share accord with SAA

Emirates, the world’s largest international air-line and South African

Airways (SAA) are to expand their strategic co-operation with enhancements to their code-share agreement. Pend-ing governmental approv-al, SAA and Emirates have signed an enhanced commer-cial partnership which will see the relationship between the two carriers grow and strengthen their already suc-cessful codeshare agreement signed in 1997.

“This agreement marks a significant forward step in the execution of our strat-egy and in transforming our business. It will enable us to explore and leverage syner-gies between ourselves in a much more enhanced rela-tionship of mutual benefit. Our route network and that of Emirates complement one another. The expansion of our partnership will further strengthen key focus areas of the implementation of our turnaround plan,” said SAA CEO Vuyani Jarana.

Ras Al Khaimah launches campaign to lure touristsRas Al Khaimah’s Tour-

ism Development Au-thority (RAKTDA) has

launched a new three-year strategy which will focus on diversifying the emirate’s tour-ism offerings and attracted a wider segment of tourism. The “Destination Strategy 2019-2021” will also seek to attract higher yield visitors looking for authentic experiences, ac-celerating foreign and local in-vestments in the tourism sec-tor, nurture home-grown small and medium-sized enterprises to create employment and business opportunities and prioritise sustainable nature-

based adventure and cultural experiences.

“As our tourism offering evolves in Ras Al Khaimah, we must ensure our destina-tion is attractive to travel-lers who wish to explore beyond the resorts and ho-tels,” said RAKTDA CEO Haitham Mattar. “With the new destination strategy we aim to diversify and enhance visitors’ experiences through differentiated product devel-opment.” Mattar added that “another area of focus for us will be positioning and promoting Ras Al Khaimah in targeted international mar-

kets to attract higher yield customers all year round.”By 2021, the strategy calls for 10,000 more people to be employed in the tourism and hospitality sector.

Ras Al Khaimah is pre-paring to add 5,000 rooms to the 6,500 currently avail-able in the emirate with the introduction of a number of major brands including Mar-riott, Movenpick, Sheraton, Anantara, Rezidor, Intercon-tinental and Conrad over the next three years. The emirate hopes to attract close to 1.5 million visitors by 2021 and three million by 2025.

Dubai air passenger numbers rise with Indians at topDubai International Airport (DXB), the world’s busiest for international traffic, handled more than seven million passengers in Oct, a 2.1pc increase from a year earlier, with India retaining its spot as the top destination. DXB’s traffic in the first 10 months of the year rose 1.5pc to 74.5 million, Dubai Airports, the operator of DXB and DWC airports, said .

India’s 999,771 passen-ger traffic was followed by the UK (502,890), Saudi Arabia (444,803), while the top three cities were London (302,139), Mumbai (204,753) and New Delhi (184,669). The US attracted (231,688) and China (200,765).

North America was the airport’s fastest growing re-

gion, with passengers from there increasing 14.4pc fol-lowed by Africa with 9.8pc and CIS countries with eight.

Airlines at DXB will re-duce flights they operate for 45 days next year when the southern runway will be closed from April 16 to May 30 for resurfacing and replacement of ground light-ing. Emirates, the world’s largest carrier by long-haul traffic and the home airline, will reduce flights by a third

during the period. Emirates will cancel and reschedule some flights, and reduce the number of flights to certain destinations. The airport ex-pects to handle just over 90 million passengers next year from 88.2 million last year. In terms of cargo, DXB’s freight volume rose 2.5pc to more than 237,000 tonnes. Total cargo handled at the airport in the first 10 months of this year declined 0.9 per cent to 2.17 million tonnes.

Emirates develops ‘hub monitor’ to avoid delaysEmirates passengers

travelling from or tran-siting through Dubai

International Airport (DXB) can expect fewer instances of delays associated with aircraft turnaround due to a new innovative application built in-house by Emirates called the Hub Monitor.

Hub Monitor is being used by Emirates’ operational staff in Dubai to share and monitor real time informa-tion on the various activities that are carried out to prepare an aircraft for departure. Through its monitoring and proactive alerting system, the application helps avoid delays and improve on-time performance ultimately lead-ing to a better passenger experience.

Emirates is the world’s largest international airline operating a fleet of 270 mod-ern all wide-body fleet of

Airbus A380 and Boeing 777 aircraft.

Adel Al Redha, Emirates’ executive vice president, said: “The Hub Monitor ap-plication is a unique and innovative tool developed in line with our vision to continuously re-examine our processes and introduce smart and more efficient means to improve our op-erations resulting in better passenger experience. Our operations team in co-or-dination with IT have led the development of the hub monitoring system, building on an existing solution that was already developed by Emirates Engineering. The team examining the various functions of Hub Monitor in real time are working to roll out further modules and the next module will be implemented later this month. Everyday, around 255

Emirates flights depart from Dubai to destinations across six continents. Flights range in duration from less than an hour to over 17 hours. In or-der to avoid flight delays and inconvenience to passengers, it is critically important to efficiently turnaround the aircraft arriving in Dubai and prepare them for their next departure without compro-mising on quality or safety.

It currently takes about 105 minutes to turnaround the Emirates A380, the world’s largest commercial passenger jet, and about 90 minutes to prepare the Boe-ing 777 aircraft for departure at Emirates’ hub in Dubai. Hub Monitor triggers alerts to operational staff when there is a delay or deviation to any above or below wing activity against a pre-set Precision Timing Schedule (PTS). These pre-emptive

alerts allow Emirates’ teams to identify and resolve the root cause of any potential delays. In fact, Hub Monitor has already demonstrated its potential, versatility and scal-ability and has been chosen as the platform for some of Emir-ates’ key internal initiatives on disruption and fulfilment.

India will need 2,300planes in next 20 years

Indian airlines are project-ed to need 2,300 planes worth $320 billion in the

next 20 years amid unprec-edented domestic passenger growth, aircraft maker Boe-ing has said as it raised the forecast for the country. As much as 85pc of the planes would be narrow-body and the rest would be wide-body. The forecast is for the 2018-37 period.

According to Boeing, India would need 1,940 single-aisle planes worth $220 billion and 350 wide-body aircraft valued at $100 billion. At the current exchange rate, $320 billion is over Rs 22-lakh-crore.

“India continues to grow at a faster pace,” Dinesh Kes-kar, senior vice-president (Asia-Pacific) at Boeing Commercial Airplanes re-marked. Keskar also noted that aviation market in In-dia is “quite challenging” as most airlines are not mak-ing money even as there is strong passenger growth. He noted that exchange rate, fuel prices and fare yields are the challenges.

Boeing has raised its forecast for commercial airplanes in India citing unprecedented domestic passenger traffic and rap-idly expanding low-cost carriers.

UK unveils new visas policy; Indian students to benefi tIn good news for skilled workers from India, UK is set to

treat European Union (EU) and non-EU citizens alike end-ing special treatment for European Union nationals. The

move, termed as the biggest overhaul of UK’s immigration policy in decades, is likely to benefit students and profession-als who want to pursue careers in that country. The details were revealed after White Paper on its post-Brexit immigration strategy and visas policy was tabled in British Parliament.

UK Home Secretary Sajid Javid tabled the country’s future skills-based immigration system in the House of Commons. British Prime Minister Theresa May asserted this policy would ensure that it is the “workers’ skills that matter, not which country they come from”. “As we leave the European Union, the free movement will end…This will be a system

where it is workers’ skills that matter, not which country they come from,” May said. Javid, who made a reference to his own Pakistani origins as the “son of immigrant parents”. “We are taking a skills-based approach to ensure we can at-tract the brightest and best migrants to the UK,” Javid said.

The proposals will be phased in from Dec 2021 following the proposed transition period for Britain’s exit from the Euro-pean Union (EU).The new policy removes any cap on highly-skilled migrants from anywhere in the world and improves the post-study work offering for international students. Under the proposed new system, companies will sponsor skilled workers coming to Britain. There will be a minimum salary threshold, the level of which will be decided follow-ing a consultation with businesses over the next year. The

Indian-origin techie to head FB’s Workplace

Karandeep Anand, an Indian-origin senior executive of Facebook,

will head the social media giant’s enterprise communi-cations tool Workplace.

Anand, who worked at Microsoft for 15 years before joining Facebook nearly four years ago, will work closely with Julien Codorniou, the Facebook vice-president who has been the leader of Work-place, CNBC reported. Work-

place, the London-based Facebook division, is a com-munications tool for compa-nies and businesses.

Anand will handle the Workplace product team, which includes developers, engineers, researchers and data scientists.