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Saudi, UAE to issue joint visaRIYADH: Sultan Al-Man-soori, minister of economy of the United Arab Emirates, announced that co-ordina-tion is under way between Saudi Arabia and the UAE to issue a joint visa between the two countries so as to enable visitors to the UAE to visit Saudi Arabia and vice versa.

The new visa is expected to come into force in 2020. “This initiative aims at tak-ing advantage of the enor-mous potential and great measures taken by Saudi Arabia to facilitate the entry of tourists to the Kingdom,” local media reported.

Mansoori said this is among the initiatives that

have been developed and approved by the concerned authorities. “Officials from UAE and Saudi are currently holding joint meetings to

work out the regulations for implementing this initiative,” he said. He pointed out that

Sultan Al-Mansoori

the initiative would contrib-ute to increasing the volume of flight services between the two countries. The number of flights at present is not suffi-cient and we need to double it. According to Al-Mansoori, the implementation of the initiative will benefit national companies in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and will give much stronger impetus to co-operation and co-ordination between them. It will also revitalise the tourism sector as well as airports and hotels.

The minister said that this is one of the main initia-tives that are being focused at present, in view of the keen-ness and directives of the

leadership of both the coun-tries on the tourism sector as well as on the increase in the proportion of its contribution to the gross national product (GNP) of the two countries. Addressing the Future In-vestment Initiative session, Al Mansoori stressed the existing full co-ordination between the UAE and the Kingdom in various sectors, including the economy and investment.

“The FII is an important conference, and the extent of benefit would not only be at the level of Saudi Arabia, but also at the level of the region as a whole, including the UAE,” he added.

DOHA: The General Direc-torate of Passports is in the process to introduce new procedures that will enable people to submit their fam-ily residency applications electronically through the systems and available online mechanisms like Hukoomi website, Metrash2 and the internal services system, said Maj-Gen Mohammed Ahmed Al Ateeq, Director General of the General Di-rectorate of Passports.

Since the issuance of the executive regulation of Law No. 21/2015, there are no new conditions set for obtaining families Residency Permit (RP), rather the in force conditions have been simplified and procedures have become much easier. No applications fulfilling the requirements have been rejected. In addition to this, the government has decided to allow children of resi-dents to work while they are under sponsorship of their guardians, said Al Ateeq.

Al Ateeq said that the ad-ministration is in the process to introduce new procedures

Qatar family visa applicationto go electronic soon

that will enable people to submit their applications electronically through the systems and mechanisms available on the online ser-vices like Hukoomi website, Metrash2 and the internal services system. He added that the new, in this aspect, is the provision of family RP service through Metrash system, and making the per-sonal interview of an appli-cant through visual device is available at the nearest unified service centre in dif-ferent parts of the country.

In this regard, he ex-plained, in the past the ap-plicant was required to come personally to the headquar-ters of the General Adminis-tration of Passports to meet with the competent com-mittee. After connecting the visual equipment to the headquarters, the service has been simplified saving effort and time of applicants as ap-plicant now does not need to take burden of transportation and can easily visit the near-est service centre, he added.

Regarding the percentage of accepted and rejected ap-

plications, he pointed out that applications that meet the required conditions are accepted due to simplified conditions and easy pro-cedures. “Rejection of ap-plication is only because of lack of fulfilment of require-ments or failure to present some documentation,” he said, noting that even in such cases “applicants are directed to bring the docu-ments and fulfil the require-ments to get the application approved”. He pointed out that there is an increase in the number of applications for family residency and a significant increase in the number of applications is being witnessed every year. For example, 40160 applica-tions were approved in 2018 compared with 39612 appli-cations in 2017, showing an of increase 548 applications.

RIYADH: India has signed an agreement with Saudi Arabia to launch the Ru-Pay card in the Kingdom , making it the third nation in West Asia to initiate In-dia’s digital payment system which will benefit not only the 2.6 million Indians in the Kingdom but also Haj and Umrah pilgrims.

The RuPay card is a first-of-its-kind Indian domestic

Kerala to issue NRI bondsTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said that the state government is planning to float diaspora bonds to source NRI investments to fund its development initiatives.

The diaspora bond would be the new option for NRIs to partner in the state’s development and safely invest their savings, he added. During his weekly Tv interactive session -- Naam Munnottu -- Vijayan said that the government was implementing various innovative and productive schemes for NRIs to park their funds. The diaspora bond would be the new option for NRIs to partner in the state’s develop-ment and safely invest their savings, he added.

“The government has decided to construct a semi-high-speed railway line from Thiruvananthapuram to Kasaragod at a cost of Rs 65,000 crore. The savings of NRIs could be utilised for the project and the diaspora bond was a move in this score,” he said. NRI investors would be given an exclusive slot in various infrastructure and development projects across the state. The government also has plans for NRI investment in small and medium enterprises.

“The success of Cochin International Airport Limited was proof that the NRI investments would be safe and attract good returns too. The company had given 27pc dividend last year,” Vijayan said, adding that NRI invest-ments would have a guarantee and get better returns than bank deposits.

India signs MoU with Saudi for RuPay carddebit and credit card pay-ment network, with accep-tance at ATMs, POS devices and e-commerce websites. It was launched in 2012 to ful-fil RBI’s vision to have a do-mestic, open and multilateral system of payments. India has already launched the Ru-Pay card in the UAE, Bahrain, Singapore and Bhutan.

During Prime Minister Modi’s visit, an MoU was

signed to launch the RuPay cards in Saudi Arabia, said a joint statement issued at the end of his visit. There are over 2.6 million Indians working in Saudi, the largest expatriate community in the country. Nearly two lakh Haj pilgrims and over three lakh Umrah pilgrims from India visit Saudi Arabia every year and acceptance of RuPay card will allow them to trans-

act at cheaper rates. RuPay is a highly secure network that protects against cyberhacks and is India’s version of Master Card and Visa.

RuPay has also tied-up with international players like Discover, Japan Credit Bureau and China Union Pay to enhance its international acceptance and recently achieved a milestone of issu-ing 25 million RuPay cards.

Office-bearers of IPEPCIL participating in the workshop.

Sensex crosses 40,000-markMUMBAI: The BSE Sensex on Wednesday breached the 40,000-mark as good corporate earnings and op-timism of tax relief charged up investors.

The 30-share index, which opened on a positive note at 40055, hit an intra-day high of 40,178 and later settled at 40051— a gain of 220 points or 0.55pc. The benchmark is now only 134 points away from its record intra-day high of 40312 achieved on June 3. The broader NSE Nifty jumped 57.25 points or 0.49pc to close at 11844.

Market circles said the mood remained buoyant on a good set of corporate results and expectations that the Centre may soon announce relief measures for equity investors. These include doing away with the dividend distribution tax and a change in other levies such as long-term capital gains tax (LTCG) and securi-ties transaction tax (STT).

PGE calls for safe migrationof workers at ILO meet

Protector General of Emigrants Mr Amrit Lugun, Director (OIA –I), MEA, Dr Shashank Vikram and PoE, Mumbai, Mr J. K Sao Speaking at the workshop.

MUMBAI: Recruitment Agents (RAs) are playing a dynamic and constructive role in creat-ing employment opportunities for Indians in the overseas labour market, Protector Gen-eral Emigrants (PGE) Mr Amrit Lugun has said.

He was addressing a national workshop with overseas recruitment agen-cies on “Exploring New Opportunities and Under-standing Challenges to Safe Migration” organised by International Labour Organ-isation (ILO) through its pro-gramme “Work in Freedom” in Mumbai on Thursday. Igor Bose and Seeta Sharma of ILO were also present at the meeting.

Seafarers are large in

numbers. India and Philip-pines are having merchant navy and cargo shipping workers, Lugun observed. In the globalising world, free trade, commerce and free movement of labour are essential. Employment situation in India is very challenging. Illegal activi-ties and fraud activities should be tackled. Social media should play a very important role to prevent trafficking of workers.

There is a need to work on Emigration Bill – 2019. Any suggestion can still be added, Director (OIA –I), MEA, Dr Shashank Vikram said. Welfare and protection initiatives are undertaken by the Central govt. Overseas

Indian community is high-est in migration to western countries with white collar jobs while Gulf region for blue collar jobs. He also spoke about Pravasi Bhariti-ya Bima (Contd. on page 2)

Dr Shashank Vikram

2 EMIGRATION Friday, November 01, 2019

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

Publisher: Supreet M.J.Editor : E.L. VaidyanathanVolume No.: 2, Issue: 07

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LIPSYNCH “Live your life as if you know you are going to die tomorrow, but plan your life as if you’ll live forever.”

— An Arab proverb.

India, Saudi relationshipWhat started as a trading partnership in a handful

of commodities — spices, aromatics, almonds and dates, the relationship between India and Saudi

Arabia today has moved to billions of dollars of trade in petroleum, energy to strategic partnership in vital areas, including defence. Needless to mention here, the massive manpower that Indian supplies to the Kingdom.

Modi’s visit to Saudi to attend the “Future Investment Initiative’, better known as the “Davos in the Desert”, has only further elevated and reinforced the cordial partner-ship between the two nations. Since the signing of the Riyadh Declaration, the bilateral progress in diverse fields elevated the mutual relationship into a strategic partnership. The frequency of high-level bilateral visits in recent years demonstrates the commitment to further strengthening this strategic partnership. King Salman’s visit to India in Feb 2014 was followed by the visit of Prime Minister Modi to Saudi Arabia in April 2016. The landmark visit of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to India in Feb this year especially reaffirmed the strong friendship between the two great Asian nations and the momentous future that lies ahead of the two. Crown Prince Mohammed and Modi again met on the side-lines of the G20 Summit in Japan in June and agreed to set up a high-level mechanism to boost concrete actions in invest-ment, technology and manufacturing across various sectors. As is known, the Kingdom views India as a strategic partner in its pursuit of Vision 2030, which seeks to create a vibrant society, a thriving economy and an ambitious nation. What’s more, the Kingdom also wants to be a part of India’s march toward becoming an ambi-tious $5 trillion economy by 2025. And politically, Saudi Arabia has supported India’s Kashmir policy saying that it is the internal issue of India.

Crown Prince Mohammed’s visit to India was instru-mental in furthering the strategic partnership. Some $10 billion of investment through the Public Investment Fund and its technology partners was announced during the visit, along with the exploration of other investment opportuni-ties potentially worth $26 billion. Saudi Aramco’s proposed investments in India’s energy sector, such as the $44 billion West Coast Refinery and Petrochem project in Maharashtra and long-term partnership with Reliance, reflects Saudi’s commitment to meeting India’s growing need for oil.

Saudi and India also identified more than 40 opportuni-ties for collaboration and joint investments across various sectors, meaning our current bilateral trade of about $34 billion will undoubtedly continue to increase in the near fu-ture. In fact, the Saudi Arabian General Investment Author-ity issued licences to 267 new foreign investors in the first quarter of 2019 with 30 of them being Indian companies.

The two nations are also exploring more co-operation in the areas of space, science and technology, including remote sensing, satellite communication and satellite-based naviga-tion. The two countries also agreed to set up a Joint Working Group on counterterrorism. As formidable economies of Asia, Saudi and India have a historic opportunity to collaborate in shaping the future of our regions for a better tomorrow.

Editorial

Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal addressing the State Consultation Workshop for Make in India in New Delhi.

‘India should scrap multiple GST slabs’SINGAPORE: Several ex-perts have suggested that India should do away with multiple tax slabs under the Goods and Services Tax (GST) for greater ease of com-pliance, following the Singa-porean tax model. However, finance and legal experts also said that while other countries have considered a single rate of GST, keeping in mind the vast gap in per capita income and the need for generating revenues, it may not be possible at this stage for India to consider it.

Punjab to seek NRI help for smart schoolsSANGRUR: The Punjab gov-ernment announced it will seek help from NRIs and non-governmental organ-isations (NGOs) to develop the infrastructure of over 19,000 government schools across the state. State Edu-cation Minister Vijay Inder Singla said anyone could contribute to the improve-ment of infrastructure in schools as per the require-ment and with the approval of the management com-mittee.

Singla said that the MLAs and Sarpanches of Punjab villages will ap-proach NRIs, social workers and private firms who wish to donate for the infrastruc-ture development of gov-ernment schools. Till date, 3,000 schools have been upgraded while hundreds more are in the pipeline.

“Around 3,000 govern-ment schools have been conver ted into smart schools by the educa-tion department. Of these schools, 2,700 have been upgraded with the help of school staff, under the cor-

porate social responsibility scheme, NGOs, NRIs and community clubs, etc” said Singla. The state education minister made these com-ments at the Govt Senior Secondary School for Girls in Sangrur, where he dis-tributed smart classroom kits to 100 government schools and inaugurated a new basketball court. Refer-ring to Clause 7 of the Smart Schools Policy 2019-20, Singla said anyone could contribute to the improve-ment of infrastructure in schools as per the require-ment and with the approval of the management commit-tee. “A block or building in the school, for which the donor wants to contribute, can be named after the do-nor or any of his relatives. Such a proposal will be forwarded by the school on the portal. After getting the necessary confirmation regarding the donor or the person in whose name the building is to be named, an approval shall be granted online by the competent authority,” said Singla.

Singapore has only one tax rate under GST --- seven per cent --- on taxable goods and services while India has multiple slabs of the indirect tax for different commodities and services. To avoid confusion and for greater ease of compliance, India should aim for a two-rate system over time to be in line with global best practices, Insitor Partners, a consultancy firm on GST, stated in a report. Singa-pore’s practice of early an-nouncement of GST rates

for various categories would help in a smooth transition, it added. Singapore’s Fi-nance Minister Heng Swee Keat in his budget 2018 speech had announced that there are plans to increase GST from seven per cent to nine per cent some time between 2021 and 2025, according to the Inland Revenue Authority of Sin-gapore (IRAS). “However, India should endeavour to move towards least tax slabs possible, of six per cent and 14pc,” sources said.

Indian banks should tap potentialin Islamic banking, says expertSINGAPORE: Indian and foreign banks should ex-ploit Islamic banking’s un-tapped potential to ensure the financial inclusion of unbanked populations ex-cluded by the existing fi-nancial system, several experts have said. Islamic banking is a finance system based on the principles of not charging interest, which is prohibited under Islam.

Research shows that the Islamic finance sector con-tinues to grow and evolve in size and complexity, with Islamic banking offered in more than 60 countries worldwide. It is an excel-lent opportunity for Indian/foreign banks to expand their footprint in India by venturing into this largely untapped sector, said Is-

lamic banking expert Hazik Mohamed.

He said Shariah instru-ments like bonds (more ac-curately, Sukuk) and funds that are looking at Shariah-compliant investments will be able to meet the needs of Muslim investors from within India and exter-nally from other parts of the world. Islamic finance, in-cluding its interest-free and equity-based banking sys-tem, can complement the existing Indian banking and finance system, said Hazik, who has spent the last de-cade researching financial systems to understand the various types and causes of financial crises. He is cur-rently developing various solutions to reduce such events by implementing Shariah principles through

digital technology. As an al-ternative financial system, Islamic finance will provide Indian consumers (Muslim and non-Muslim alike) an alternative system to meet their banking needs, Hazik remarked . For example, an Islamic investment product is typically asset-backed and has additional Shariah rules to curb it from sub-prime quality and equity-based rather than debt-based, which makes it financially more stable and contractually-vested to limit rogue and speculative behaviours, he explained.

AdvantagesHazik said Islamic banks

show certain advantages over conventional banks. Islamic banks’ greater resil-ience to crises and shocks

compared with conven-tional banks are based on empirical data from coun-tries such as Egypt, Indo-nesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, Turkey, UAE (GCC) where both types of banks exist, he said. RBI has decided to not pursue a proposal for intro-duction of Islamic banking in the country. Replying to an RTI query filed in 2017, the central bank had said the decision was taken af-ter considering “the wider and equal opportunities” available to all citizens to access banking and finan-cial services.

According to Abdur Raqeeb, general secretary of the Indian Centre for Islam-ic Finance (ICIF), an organ-isation pushing for Shariah banking in India, Islamic banking has the potential to

contribute towards greater financial inclusion besides providing support to small and medium sized enter-prises. If Islamic banking is introduced, he said, the inadequate labour capital ratio for informal sector workers associated with agriculture and manufac-turing industries could be resolved through equity finance, which might be a revolution in the Indian agriculture and unorgan-ised sector. With improved labour capital ratio, our vulnerable workers associ-ated with agriculture and unorganised sector might be able to compete effec-tively with the formal sec-tor workers. Thus Islamic banking may financially empower majority of Indian workers, Raqeeb claimed.

WASHINGTON: Over 22,000 Indians, including nearly 7,000 women, have applied for asylum in the US since 2014, according to the latest official figures. The reason behind Indians seeking asylum in the US can be “unemployment or intolerance or both in India”, Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director of North Ameri-can Punjabi Association (NAPA), said in a statement. As many as 22,371 Indians have sought asylum in America since 2014, according to the information obtained by the NAPA through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) from the US Citizenship and Immigration Service’s National Records Centre. These numbers are of “serious concern”, Chahal said. Of the total Indian asylum seekers in 2014, as many as 6,935 were women and 15,436 men, he said. Singh, who has been working among asylum-seekers, said for those who managed to make it to the US through illegal means, the asylum-seeking process could exacerbate their suffering.

After entering the US, many of these people hire private attorneys who charge them fee which is beyond their means to pay. Even for those minority of asylum seekers, who are able to find counsel, the process can be difficult and stress-inducing as they are not eligible for a work permit until several months after submitting their applications. Therefore, Singh said, In-dians who wished to come to the US must enter the country by legal ways to avoid any kind of hardships. He underlined that most asylum-seekers faced years-long and often painful period of waiting.

Over 22,000 Indians sought asylum in US since 2014

Let banks trade in bullion: WGCNEW DELHI: The World Gold Council (WGC) has suggested the government to allow Indian banks to trade and facilitate trading in physical bullion and its derivatives to bring trans-parency in the bullion trade.

In a report “The need for Bullion Bank in In-dia” submitted to the gov-ernment, the Council has suggested that banks with proper checks and balances should be given flexibility for launching innovative gold-backed products to attract consumers invest-ments. The Council be-lieves launch of bullion bank will bring in much needed transparency in bullion trade, boost exports and ease credit flow to the sector.

WGC Managing Direc-tor Somasundaram PR told a TV channel that bullion banks across globe build greater trust through the gold value chain, drive ef-ficiency, provide liquidity, promote transparency and support price discovery.

London and New York have a long history of bul-lion trading, but Singapore and Shanghai markets have

emerged as strong players in last 15 years. In 2017, the revenue from global bullion banking operations was estimated at $1.5-1.8 billion. Being the second largest market for gold jew-ellery, India leaves much of this potential on the table. Central banks play a key role as regulators, liquidity providers and custodians to bullion bank, he pointed out. In India, Somasunda-ram said, RBI should allow banks to buy back the gold

what they sell. Jewellers should be allowed to take bullion on loan from banks and repay it back in gold. In this process, the currency risk is completely eradi-cated and the demand for dollar from the jewellery trade will be reduced while it earns much-needed forex for the country.Incentives

With proper incentives, banks can manage gold monetisation scheme and circulate the same gold

among jewellers, thus re-ducing gold imports, he said. In all, bullion banks manage five key risks in-cluding liquidity, interest rate mismatch, credit, mar-ket and operational risks. To start with, regulations need to be flexible enough to en-courage retail participation and product innovation, but robust enough to ensure effective risk management. A combination of risk lim-its, wider operation and proper management con-

trols would help to manage associated risks. Regulatory guidelines would enhance banks’ risk management processes from launch and help build systemic trust in the ecosystem. Bullion banking requires exten-sive expertise and industry knowledge. In areas such as risk, finance and opera-tions, Indian banks could consider entering into joint ventures or alliances with global banks for knowledge transfer, said he.

(Contd. from page 1)Yojana, Indian Community Welfare Fund (ICWF) and Pravisai Kaushal Vikas Yoja-na (PKYA). Pravasi Bharitya Sahayak Kendra (PBSK) is also doing a good job.

Earlier, Protector of Emigrants (PoE), Mumbai, Mr J. K Sao stressed on the Pre- Departure Orientation & Training (PDOT) – Pro-gramme. Major steps are being taken to stop illegal migration to Gulf countries. Besides illegal marriages, human trafficking to Gulf countries is major issue

PGE calls for safe migration of...to be tackled, he said. The govt is also enhancing peo-ple-to-people contacts, fos-tering mobility of students, academics, researchers and skilled professionals and strengthening co-operation on preventing irregular migration and human traf-ficking through mobility partnership programme.

Secretary General of IPEPCIL and FORAI Dr Sureshkumar Madhusud-han raised issues such as Minimum Referral Wages (MRW) as well as safe and legal migration of workers

to which Lugun prom-ised the govt would look into it. Treasurer of IPEP-CIL Kalimulla Sharif and vice president Mohammed Moulana were also present at the meeting.

The nature, pattern, directions, and volume of migration from India have undergone a paradigm shift in the past decade. A sharp decline in ECR clear-ances granted since 2015 indicates that the numbers of workers leaving India in the ECR category has been consistently declin-

ing. This could be due to a combination of three pos-sible reasons --- demand for ECR Indian workers in the GCC has declined or ECNR migration has increased or the legal route is not preferred or promoted to migrant workers seeking employment in the GCC region.

The practice of encour-aging workers to travel on visit visas has been rampant and boundaries of sovereignty limit the effi-cacy of most interventions in this area.

Friday, November 01, 2019 3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

DISCLAIMERReaders are requested to verify and make ap-propriate enquiries to satisfy themselves about the veracity of an advertisement before re-sponding to any published advertisements in this newspaper. NEWS AND NRI CONNECT, its publisher and owner IPEPCIL Publications do NOT vouch for the authenticity of any advertisement or advertiser or for any of the advertiser’s products and /or services. In no event can the owner, publisher, printer, editor, director, employees of this newspaper/com-pany be held responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for any claims and /or damages for advertisements in this newspaper.

4 GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES Friday, November 01, 2019

N A T I O N A L

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Friday, November 01, 2019

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Your wellness

Anti-inflammatory agents - such as paracetamol, statins,

and antibiotics - can safely and effectively curb the symptoms of major depres-sion (MDD), according to a study which may lead to new strategies for treating the mental health disorder.

The researchers, in-cluding those from Tongji Hospital in China, said that a third of clinically depressed people across the world don’t respond well to current drug and counsel-ling therapies, and drug side effects are relatively common.

The study, published in the Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychia-try, is a pooled analysis of

the available evidence of the effectiveness of using anti-inflammatory drugs to treat MDD.

The researchers ana-lysed data from clinical studies published up to

January 2019, and found 30 randomised controlled tri-als - involving 1610 people - which reported changes in

depression scales with the use of anti-inflammatory drugs.

The findings of the new study revealed that anti-inflammatory agents -- non-steroidal anti-in-

flammatory drugs (NSAIDs), omega 3 fatty acids, statins, steroids, antibiot-ics (minocyclines), N-acetyl cysteine (NAC), and a drug used to treat sleep disorders called modafinil -- were b e t t e r t h a n a dummy treatment (placebo), and en-hanced the effects of standard antide-pressant treatment.

The drugs were 52 per cent more effec-tive in reducing symptom severity, overall, and 79

per cent more effective in eliminating symptoms than a placebo, the study noted.

According to the re-searchers, no major side effects were evident from the studies, except for some gut symptoms among those taking statins and NACs.

They added that the study was inconclusive if the anti-inflammatory drugs improved the qual-ity of life in depressed patients.

“Owing to the chronic course of MDD, quality of life and adverse effects should be further investi-gated in high-quality ran-domised clinical trials with long-term follow-up,” the researchers wrote in the study.

Anti-infl ammatory drugs can curb the symptoms of major depression

A new study has re-vealed the fact that reduced food intake

helps both animals and humans to improve health in their old age which can prolong life.

The pattern of the diet must be established earlier in life in order to improve health in old age and ex-tend lifespan. The results of the study were published in the journal Nature Me-tabolism.

But when do you have to change your diet to achieve this benefit in old age? Scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, the Ex-cellence Cluster for Ageing Research at the University of Cologne, the Babraham Institute in Cambridge and UCL have now shown that mice only become healthier

Diet change in old age can lead to longer lifeif they start food reduction early and eat less before entering old age.

The scientists conclude that healthy behaviour

must be established earlier in life in order to improve health in old age and ex-

tend lifespan.How can we stay fit

and healthy in old age for as long as possible? Re-searchers into ageing have

a simple answer: eat less and healthily. But when do you have to start and is it

enough if you only man-age to do this for a short time? To investigate this, researchers led by Linda Partridge, Director at the

Max Planck Insti-tute for Biology of Ageing, in an ani-mal study have put young and old mice on a diet - with varying degrees of success.

Reduced food intake in old age has no beneficial effect

Mice live longer and are healthier in old age if they are given 40 per cent less to eat after reaching adulthood than animals who

are allowed to eat as much as they want. The dieting mice are fed with food

enriched with vitamins and minerals to prevent malnu-trition. But if food intake is first reduced in mice first start eating less food when they are already seniors, the researchers observe little or no effect on the life expectancy of the mice. On the other hand, when mice are allowed to eat as much as they like after a period of reduced food intake, they have no long-term protection, so reduced food intake has to be sustained for mice to reap the benefits. Reduced food intake must, therefore, be implemented early and be sustained until the end of their lives to have positive effects on health in old age.

“One should establish healthy behaviours early

in life. It may not be as good for your health to change your diet later in life. Health in old age is a lifelong affair”, explains Linda Partridge from the Max Planck Institute for the Biology of Ageing and UCL.Memory effect in fat tis-sue

But why do older mice no longer react to the change in diet? Oliver

Hahn, the f i r s t a u -thor of the study and

doctoral student in the Partridge department, in-vestigated gene activity in different organs. While the gene activity in the liver quickly adapted when mice are transferred to a restricted diet, the scien-tists observed a ‘memory effect’ in the fat tissue of older animals. Although the mice lose weight, the activity of the genes in the fat tissue is similar to that of the mice that continue to eat as much as they want. In addition, the fat composition in old mice

does not change as much as in young mice.

This memory effect mainly affects mitochon-dria, the cells’ power-houses, which play an important role in the age-ing process. Usually, re-duced food intake leads to increased formation of mitochondria in fatty tis-sue. But the study showed that this is no longer the case when older mice are switched to a lower calo-rie diet. This inability to change at the genetic and metabolic levels may con-tribute to the shortened lifespan of these animals.

Michael Wakelam, co-corresponding author and Director of the Babraham Institute commented, “The experimental power of in-tegrating data about lipid metabolism and metabolic pathways with the tissue-specific understanding of gene expression in mice of different ages and di-ets has allowed us to demonstrate clearly the importance of a nutritional memory in contributing to healthy ageing.”

A career is an activity that an individual pursues over a pe-riod for socially and financially

sustaining oneself. For building a suc-cessful career one needs to introspect early on the circles of career wisdom.

There are 3 important aspects to it viz. passion, skill and remuneration. Let us look at 2 of it at a time.

If an individual were to follow their passion and skill a lot many individuals would pick up hobbies as a profession. There is nothing wrong with that but that can result in tail events from a career perspective. For example, there are many successful book writers but there is an even larger number of not so well-placed authors.

Now let’s look at the cross section between skill and remuneration. This is a field wherein the individual is selected for the skills demonstrated. The individual continues in that role for the remuneration s/he receives. An example here would be a management or business consultant. A very small number of consultants recruited in such positions stay in a similar role over even a 5-year period. The lack of interest leads to shorter longevity in such roles.

Let’s look at the last bisection. This is what pays well and the individual loves it as well. A quick illustration is say playing in the Indian cricket team. This is often a dream rather than reality.

Now as concluded a successful career would hence be at a trijunction of passion, skill and remuneration. In order to build a successful career in finance it is also important to equip

5 best programmes, courses to make new age career in fi n ind

oneself with relevant qualification. Let’s look at 5 options in no particular order.

MBA with major in finance: A typi-cal MBA program is of 2 years’ duration. The first year is more general manage-ment whereas the second-year students choose to specialize in fields/topics or subjects. This provides a holistic and true nature of the various aspects in a business. Another important aspect of an MBA program other than the rounded knowledge is the placements. Most business schools do a very good job at getting the best possible role for the students on campus. Remember that for a career one needs a start and for a good start one needs a good job.

Chartered Accountancy (CA): The Chartered Accountancy is one of the oldest accreditations in finance. The need for an accountant goes as far back as business itself. The CA is a 3-level course. The first level can be given post 10+2 by a student. The other 2 levels have a split of 2 groups. Each of these parts can be cleared individually. Like-wise, excellence in any subject leads to an exemption in that subject for that group. The CA imbibes its experience criteria within its course and makes it a pre-requisite before furthering in the course. The CA provides a career in accounting, taxation and auditing in general. Several firms also offer in-vestment banking and valuation roles as well.

Chartered Alternative Investment Analyst (CAIA): The private markets are growing at an unprecedented rate in India. This is also evident by the fact that a single PERE (private equity in real estate) player has invested

close to USD 12 billion in India. The amount invested this year itself is equal to the bailout price for one of the largest corporate NPAs in India. It is the global benchmark for alterna-tive assets. It is a 2-level course and requires professional experience for the charter to be conferred. Charter holders are offered roles in private equity, venture capital, hedge funds and other buy side roles.

Financial Data Professional (FDP): There is technology in everything we do and there will be increasing tech-nology in every role. The FDP sits in

the trijunction of quant, programming and finance. As per study large num-ber of the jobs which exist today will change tomorrow with technology part of it. One way to future proof yourself is by earning the FDP designation. FDP is a 2-level course and provides one the skills to continue to thrive in the changing environment. The roles on offer to a successful candidate would be around data analytics, machine learning, block chain and others.

Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA): CFA is the gold standard for equity research analysts across the globe with

the usage of the CFA suffix after one’s name. CFA is a 3 level course and the program has the same subjects in all the levels. The course builds on the knowledge of the previous level. CFA is the most successful global finance accreditation and is recognized by the industry. Upon completion of the CFA and submission of experience the CFA institute provides the charter. A CFA is typically working in the public markets predominantly in the equity research space. Some CFAs are also offered roles in the wider asset man-agement space.

IN FOCUS6 Friday, November 01, 2019

GULF FAQs

I had signed an agreement with a tour company in April 2018 in order to avail hotel bookings for a period of two years wherein I would be offered a six days/nights hotel booking per year. I made a payment of Dh9,000 to the tour company. However, when I tried to utilise the fa-cilities offered to me in the agreement, I was unable to do so as the office of the company was closed with a board stat-ing that it is under maintenance. Their landline is not reachable. The company had posted a mobile number as contact at the entrance of their office but no representative responds on it. How can I recover the money I have paid to the tour company?

We assume that you and the tour com-pany are based in the emirate of Dubai. It may be noted that the provisions of Federal Law No. 5 of 1985 on Civil Trans-actions Law of the United Arab Emirates (the “Civil Transactions Law”) and Federal Law No. 24 of 2006 on Consumer Protec-tion (“Consumer Protection Law”) shall be applicable. As per the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, a Consumer Protection Department is instituted un-der the Ministry of Economy, wherein a consumer may file a complaint before the department. This is in accordance with Article 4 (6) of the Consumer Protection Law, which states: “A department shall be set up in the ministry under the name of the Consumer Protection Department and shall carry out the following competencies:

Receive consumers’ complaints and adopt the procedures in this regard or refer them to the competent authorities. The complaint may be submitted directly by the consumer. It may be filed by the consumer protection association for it is considered a representative of the complainant.” Based on the aforementioned provision of the Consumer Protection Law, you may file a complaint against the company with the Consumer Protection Department based in the Department of Economic Development office. As per the provisions of the Civil Transactions Law, the parties to an agree-ment have an obligation to each other to perform the contract in a manner which is in consonance with principles of good faith. This is in accordance with Article 246 (1) of the Civil Transactions Law which states: “The contract shall be implemented, according to the provisions contained therein and in a manner consistent with the requirements of good faith.” Therefore, it may be construed that the tour company with which you have entered into an agreement may be not acting in good faith as they have not been available at their office and they have not been respond-ing to your calls which has subsequently made you to not avail the facilities which were promised to you. It may be pertinent to note that as the amount that has been paid to the company by you is Dh9,000, it is recommended that you lodge a civil complaint against the firm at the Centre for Amicable Settlement of Disputes at Dubai Court (the “Centre’). The Centre is a reconciliation department which deals with debts/claims amounting below Dh50,000. While filing the civil complaint against the company, it would be prudent on your part to take along with you any supporting documentary evidence (agreement with the company, payment to company as stated by you) and submit them to the Centre for registering the civil complaint. You may approach the Centre for further details.Mother & child

Me and my wife have decided to go for a divorce in the near future. A couple of months back, my wife travelled with our daughter out of Dubai and has not returned here as agreed. My wife is hesi-tant to come back to Dubai as she fears a travel ban which may be imposed on

the child. For a few days now, she has been ignoring my messages and I do not have any contact with my daughter. What to do?

We assume that your wife has trav-

File complaint against fi rm ifit fails to deliver the goods

elled to her home country along with your daughter. It may be noted that the provisions of Federal Law No. (28) of 2005 concerning Personal Status (the “Personal Status Law”) are applicable. In the UAE, parents are the custodians and guardian of their children in various capacities. Article 142 of the Personal Status Law of the UAE defines custody as “keeping, bringing up and taking care of the child without in-terfering with the right of the guardian of the person”. Further, it may be noted that usually the mother is considered as the custodian of the child as having physical custody whereas the father is considered as the guardian of the child as per the local laws. As per the Personal Status Law, the custody of a girl child lies with the mother and it terminates when she attains the age of 13. This is in accordance with Article 156 (1) of the Personal Status Law which states: “The custody awarded to women shall terminate upon the child reaching the age of 11 years, if a male, and 13 years, if a female, unless the court deems that extending this age to the age of maturity, for the male, and up to her marriage, for the female, is in his/her best interest.” We assume that your daughter is yet to attain 13 years of age, and therefore she would still be under the custodianship of your wife. It may also be noted that the custodian (may be mother) of a child may not take the child to travel outside the UAE without a written consent issued by the guardian (may be father) of the child. This is in accordance with Article 149 of the Personal Status Law which states: “The custodian may not take the child for travel outside the state without the written consent of the guardian of the person. If the guardian abstains from approving, the matter shall be referred to the judge.” Usually in the UAE, the father is the guardian of their children and we assume that your daughter is residing in the UAE under your sponsorship.

Further, it is unlawful for the mother from travelling or moving the child out of the conjugal home without the written permission of the father. This is in ac-cordance with Article 150 of the Personal Status Law which states: “(1) The mother may not take her child for travel or move him out from the conjugal house during the existence of a conjugal relation or during the revocable divorce waiting the period without his father’s written consent.

(2) After the irrevocable divorce, the mother may move the child to another city within the state unless such movement affects the child’s education or causes harm to the father or makes him suffer unusual hardship or costs for visiting the child.” Based on the aforementioned provisions of law, in the UAE both the father and the mother of the child may apply for his/her custody in case of dif-ferences arising between them, provided the mother leaves the conjugal home even if the bond of marriage has not been dis-solved. This is in accordance with Article 146 (7) of the Personal Status Law which states: “Both the father and mother may join the children to them if they have a dispute and the mother has left the con-jugal house even if their conjugal relation is still existent. The judge shall decide on their application depending on the children’s interest.” Therefore, it may be noted that since your wife has left the conjugal home with your daughter despite the conjugal relation prevailing, you may seek the custody of your daughter and also seek to bestow your guardianship rights in the UAE. As a father and as a guardian you are entitled for visitation rights of your daughter even though you are legally divorced or separated.

Based on the aforementioned provisions of the Personal Status Law, in case your wife returns to Dubai/UAE with your daughter, you may approach the Dubai Courts in or-der to apply for a travel ban which would prohibit your daughter from travelling outside of the UAE without your consent. Further you may approach the courts in your home country and file application for divorce and custody of your daughter under the prevailing personal laws in your home country or under the provisions of the law under which you are married. Prior to this, you may also approach your embassy/consulate in the UAE and report that your wife has left the UAE along with your daughter, without your consent and is not allowing you to contact your daughter.

Union Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan addressing the inauguration of the Ayurmitra cottages at Sree Narayana Institute of Ayurvedic Studies and Research, Puthoor, near Kollam, in Kerala.

RIYADH: Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi told his global audience at the “Future Investment Initia-tive” forum that India’s road map for achieving its target of becoming a $5 trillion economy by 2024 was ready, and appealed to global businesses to invest in the country.

Delivering the keynote address at the third session of the FII, Modi said that investments by Saudi com-panies in India is a welcome trend which is set to deepen in the months to come.

He said that by 2024, India aims to invest $100 billion in refining and in setting up pipelines and gas terminals. “I am happy that

Roadmap for $5t economy ready: ModiSaudi Aramco has decided to invest in the West Coast Re-finery project, which will be the largest refinery of Asia,” he said. Modi, who thanked the Saudi King Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, said that in five years, his government had taken major measures to liberalise investment in the country. “I thank the King and my brother, the Crown Prince, for the invite to ad-dress this forum,” said Modi, who is was in Riyadh on the invite of the Saudi King.

Describing Saudi Arabia as an energy centre, the prime minister said the FII forum aims not just to boost investment in Saudi Arabia

but also in the world, and is an important platform to understand emerging trends and find pathways. He said the warmth in India-Saudi ties has a feeling of kinship and also described Saudi Arabia as a close neighbour and brother country of In-dia. He spoke of the one nation, one grid, one power, one mobility card, and one optical fibre network, and said this was part of the move to integrate India’s infrastructure sector.

“We are building homes for every Indian and bring-ing water and electricity to each home,” he said, add-ing that they have added speed to the infrastructure building in view of the

75th anniversary of India’s Independence in 2022. He said India’s infrastructure growth will be in double digits, but there will be no capacity saturation and as-sured that investors will get returns. “Under Skill India initiative, in the coming three-four years, 400 mil-lion people will be trained under different skills. This will provide assured skilled manpower to companies investing in India,” he said.

“Today India has become the world’s third largest start-up ecosystem. Even in tier two and three cities of India start-ups have come up. I invite global investors to benefit from our start-up ecosystem,” Modi added.

PUBLIC ISSUE LIKELY ON DEC 4Aramco’s stock market debut on Dec 11?RIYADH: Energy giant Sau-di Aramco will make its long-awaited debut on the Riyadh stock market on Dec 11, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya TV said. The broadcaster, citing unnamed sources, said the Saudi exchange will announce on Nov 3 a timetable for the initial public offering including the release on Nov 17 of the targeted share price.

“Aramco IPO will be-gin on Dec 4,” at which point investors can sub-scribe to the giant offering, the sources said, adding that the shares would then start trading on the Saudi Tadawul exchange on Dec 11. The IPO is the cor-

nerstone of a reform pro-gramme conceived by the kingdom’s de facto ruler Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to wean the

Saudi economy off its reli-ance on oil. Aramco was expected to launch the first part of a two-stage IPO ear-lier in Oct, but decided to push the trading date back to Dec or Jan, reportedly to factor in quarterly earnings

and also amid problems with the valuation.

Saudi Arabia was hoping that the company is evalu-ated at US$2 trillion so its

proposed sale of five per cent of its share would generate the desired $100 billion. But reports said that the valua-tion came in lower than that. Sources also had revealed in mid-Sept that the mam-moth share offering could

be delayed after an attack on Saudi oil facilities knocked out half of the output of the world’s top crude exporter. The Aramco listing was a major topic at a key invest-ment summit that opened Tuesday in Riyadh. Aramco chairman Yasir al-Rumayyan, speaking on stage at an open-ing session, commented that “soon we will have more shareholders”, but declined to elaborate on the com-pany’s plans. After the listing on the domestic stock ex-change, Aramco is believed to be planning to sell the rest of the five per cent on an international bourse. The Al-Arabiya report made no mention of those plans.

Gold amnesty scheme likelyNEW DELHI: The government may soon announce an amnesty scheme for gold to bring hordes of black money used in buy-ing the yellow metal considered a safe investment option in India. According to sources, the new amnesty scheme would allow gold hoarders to come clean on investment made using black money by declaring their possession and paying tax on it.

The tax will have to be paid on entire value of gold de-clared by an individual that has been purchased without any receipt. Though the rate of tax is yet to be worked out by the government, sources indicated that the thinking is to keep the rate at around 30pc-level with an effective rate of around 33pc including education cess. The new scheme is being considered as yet another attempt to unearth lakhs of crores of black money still lying in the system in the form of unaccounted gold.

It would also try to overcome limited success of an earlier amnesty scheme Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Yojana (PMGKY), also known as IDS-II, launched in 2017, post the demonetisa-tion exercise. “The idea of the scheme is good but its effective implementation is difficult. People have amassed gold over times and on many occasions the yellow metal has been inherited leaving no transactional details.

“It would be hard to push people to declare if they have lost almost a third of the value,” said an analyst who did not wish to be named as he was not aware of contours of the amnesty scheme. Also, there is fear that after declaration of the wealth, an individual may be prone to harassment by tax officials.

Aramco to keep 4.6m barrels of oil in India’s Pudur storageRIYADH: India will lease one-quarter of its strategic petroleum reserve in Padur to Saudi Aramco to store about 4.6 million barrels of oil, a government official said as New Delhi seeks global investment in its ex-panding energy infrastructure. Global oil producers are eager to gain a foothold in India, where fuel demand is expected to keep rising as the country’s economy grows.

Indian Strategic Petroleum Reserves Ltd, a gov-ernment company charged with building oil stor-age, signed a MoU with the Saudi state firm for its participation in the 2.5-million-tonne facility in Karnataka. “Aramco has signed an MoU for only one compartment,” said HPS Ahuja, chief executive of the Indian company. The Padur storage facility has four equal-sized compartments.

So far, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co is the only foreign company storing oil in India’s strategic reserves, at Man-galore, also in Karnataka. Last year it signed a preliminary agreement to use half of the Padur reserve. Ahuja said Aramco would have to keep some of the 4.6 million barrels for India’s strategic needs, but could sell the rest to Indian refiners. India, which relies on imports for about 80pc of its oil needs, has underground emergency storage in three locations to protect against any supply disruption. The reserves can hold 36.87 million barrels.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Friday, November 01, 2019

Pension Fund Regula-tory and Develop-ment Authority (PFR-

DA) has allowed people of Indian origin holding citi-

zenship of other countries to invest in National Pen-sion Scheme (NPS), at par with Non-Resident Indians. “OCI may subscribe to the National Pension System

PFRDA allows overseas citizens to invest in National Pension Scheme

governed and administered by PFRDA, provided such person is eligible to invest as per the provisions of the PFRDA Act and the an-

nuity/accumulated saving will be repatriable, subject to FEMA guidelines,” the finance ministry said.

The NPS is a govern-ment-run pension and in-

vestment scheme aimed at providing old age security through safe and regulated market-based return. PFR-DA regulates the scheme.

With the latest addition, any Indian citizen, resident or non-resident and OCIs are eligi-ble to join NPS till the age of 65 years. NPS contributions are eligible for an additional t a x d e d u c -tion up to Rs 50,000. This is

o v e r a n d a b o v e t h e Rs 1,50,000 limit of deduc-tion available under sec 80CCD (1) or tax deduc-tions available to individu-als who make contribu-

tions under NPS. Besides, in the Union

Budget, the government increased the income tax exemption limit on with-drawal from NPS to 60 per cent, from 40 per cent, on exiting the scheme, effec-tively making withdrawal from the pension scheme 100 per cent tax-free.

“This is a welcome move for OCIs as there are many individuals of Indian origin who have taken up foreign citizenship while working overseas and may prefer to continue investing in India from their local income sources,” Alok Agrawal, Partner, Deloitte India said. As of October 26, total number of sub-scribers under NPS and Atal Pension Yojana has crossed 3.18 crores.

Apple has raced ahead of Samsung, Xiaomi and BBK Electronics

brands (Vivo, Oppo, and Oneplus) to emerge as the most popular smartphone brand in the Indian pre-owned smartphone market, a new study from OLX re-vealed.

At 19 per cent of total listings, Apple’s iPhone was the most listed smartphone on OLX in 2019. Apple emerged ahead of Samsung with 16 per cent listings, BBK Electronics (Vivo, Oppo, and Oneplus) with 14 per cent listings, Xiaomi with 13 per cent listings and other brands (Motorola, Lenovo, Nokia, Asus, Gionee, Sony, HTC, LG, Lava, Intex, Kar-bonn, Micromax and other OEM’s) which collectively comprised 38 per cent of the

Apple dominates the pre-owned smartphone market in India: OLX

smartphones listed on OLX.In terms of demand, Ap-

ple had the highest share with 19 per cent, followed by Xiaomi with 18 per cent,

Samsung and BBK Electron-ics joint third with 15 per cent, while other brands (Motorola, Lenovo, Nokia, Asus, Gionee, Sony, HTC, LG, Lava, Intex, Karbonn, Micromax and other OEMs) collectively pulled in 33 per cent of total demand.

Additionally, the study also revealed that the market

for pre-owned smartphones is growing at a rapid rate, due to increased frequency of smartphone launches in India, leading to wider choice and availability for users across multiple price ranges.

A significant part of the pre-owned mobile market is still offline - driven by dealers, retailers, and shop-owners.

However, online mar-ketplaces are increasingly becoming popular platform for buying and selling mo-biles. Almost 59 per cent per cent of all smartphones listed on OLX in Q1-Q3 2019 were sold and each smartphone listed gets on an average 20 queries from interested buyers implying the high liquidity the plat-form offers.

MG Motor India has announced the opening of

its first digital studio -- a showroom with no car on display -- in Bengaluru.

With increased costs of operating a conventional car showroom including aspects like space, rent-als and infrastructure, the new business model helps unlock operational effi-ciencies and offers more convenience as customer preferences move towards digital, the company said.

“The first Digital Stu-dio is a pilot project and showcases our vision to-wards the future of auto-motive retail without a car on display,” Rajeev Chaba, President & Managing Director, MG Motor India.

“With the growing im-portance of omni-channel brand presence, we be-

Reliance General Insur-ance Company (RGIC) withdrew its papers

filed for an initial public offering (IPO) with the Secu-rities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI). Reliance Gen-

eral Insurance was to raise around Rs 200 crore in the IPO and an offer-for-sale of another 7.9 crore shares by Reliance Capital. No reason was given for withdrawal of the IPO.

The IPO papers or draft red herring prospectus were filed in February and Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors was the lead manager to the issue. The papers were with-drawn by Motilal Oswal.

MG Motor unveils first digital car-less showroom in Bengaluru

Reliance General Insurance withdraws public fl oat

lieve that such show-rooms represent the next-generation network foot-print in the automotive business,” he said.

The digital studio of-fers simple, yet, impactful and interactive product demonstration of the ‘Hec-tor’, using digital tools such as ‘Immersive Voice’ and AI-based Human Rec-ognition, the company said.

The facility also offers Augmented Reality and other digital engagement tools for customers, it was stated.

MG Motor India has partnered with Mumbai-based Eccentric Engine for ‘One 3-D’, its Automotive Visualisation Platform, for providing a “rich and im-mersive” experience to its customers, the company added.

The draft offer docu-ments for the IPO have been “withdrawn by LM (Motilal Oswal Investment Advisors) vide email dated October 24, 2019,” accord-ing to SEBI.

E a r l i e r in October 2017, RGIC h a d a p -p r o a c h e d t h e S E B I with its IPO

papers for which it had re-ceived approval in Novem-ber 2017. But the company then did not go ahead with its plan mainly due to lack of investor interest in the primary markets.

IPO proceeds were to be utilised for future capital requirements, growth and expansion of the business, improving solvency margin and consequently solvency ratio.

Cash Suvidha, the fintech company that extends busi-

ness loans to micro, small and medium-sized enter-prises, has disbursed loans worth more than Rs 163.50 crore until now. “Since inception, our company has disbursed loans to more than 62,500 small firms and women entrepre-neurs” said Rajesh Gupta, founder, Cash Suvidha. Founded in 2016, Cash Suvidha provides a variety of loans and funds will be primarily used to facilitate further lending to SMEs & MSMEs, particularly in Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar-Pradesh, Rajasthan and Delhi-NCR and pan India to cater to the loan needs of Individuals.

During the second quar-

Cash Siddha disburses Rs163cr loan to msmes

ter of the current financial year, the company raised $4 million in debt fund-ing. During the quarter ended June, the company had also raised a total debt of $2.3 million from different financial institu-tions that will be used to increase the loan books of the company. Overall, the company has raised a total debt of $10.25 million.

Commenting on the development, Gupta said, “This capital inflow would help us in extending our best alternative lending services across geogra-phies. We are constantly focusing on filing the gap of financial inclusion in various sectors by pro-viding fast loans, hence, driving the market towards economic growth.”

The company claims to be known for its quick digital processing, easy lending services and dis-bursing loans within three working days.

Meanwhile, small and medium ticket loans are one of the most sought-after categories at Cash Suvidha.

Gupta also pointed out that the key challenge they continue to face is to obtain credit from banks. “This has been addressed by Cash Suvidha with the successful disbursement of 70-75 per cent of the total loans to MSMEs. It provides loans with a ticket size of Rs 50,000-Rs 5, 00,000 for SMEs and Rs 15,000- Rs 50,000 for MSMEs,” the company said.

In first such initiative, Srei Equipment Finance Limited, an arm of Srei

Infrastructure Finance Lim-ited (Srei), has teamed up with United Bank of India to jointly offer loans to MSME sector and retail customers under a co-lending arrange-ment.

As a starter, Srei Equip-ment and UBI have al-ready organised loan utsavs across 20 cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Pune, Nagpur, Jaipur, Haldia, Durgapur, Ranchi, Keonjhar, Bolangir, Patna, Vijaywada, Rajkot, Chandigarh, Karnal, Udai-

Srei, United Bank team up to offer MSME loanspur, Lucknow, and Bhopal.

“The joint initiative is aimed at ful-f i l l i n g t h e government’s vision of mak-i n g c r e d i t available to MSME and re-tail customers at affordable cos t . Whi le providing best in class finan-cial solutions to our custom-ers has always been our key focus, our cus-

tomers also had the oppor-tunity to acquire equipment

from leading global OEMs (original equipment makers)

in this Loan T z a v. T h e g a t h e r i n g s in this cam-paign offered both, United Bank of India and our OEM partners the prospect to expand their c u s t o m e r b a s e . T h e initiative ad-d i t i o n a l l y furthers our strategy of s u s t a i n i n g and strength-

ening our leadership po-

sition in the equipment finance space,” said Deven-dra Kumar Vyas, Managing Director, Srei Equipment Finance.

Srei Equipment’s OEM partners—including Kom-atsu, JCB, Volvo Equipment, SANY, Kobelco, Tata Hita-chi, Hyundai, Liugong and L&T Construction and Min-ing Machinery—participated actively at the Loan Utsav and presented a wide range of infrastructure equipment such as excavators, tippers, loaders, motor graders, etc. to the customers.

“United Bank of India and Srei are the first in

Markets regula-tor Sebi asked all listed banks

to make disclosures about any divergence in pro-visioning of bad loans beyond specified thresh-old within 24 hours of receiving a risk assessment report from the Reserve Bank.

The decision has been take in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) said in a circular.

Accordingly, the market

Sebi tightens norms for listed banks on bad loan disclosures

regulator has decided that “listed banks shall make disclosures of divergences and provisioning beyond specified threshold, as mentioned in aforesaid RBI notifications, as soon as reasonably possible and not later than 24 hours upon receipt of the Reserve Bank’s Final Risk Assessment Report (RAR), rather than waiting to pub-lish them as part of annual financial statements”.

This new framework will come into force with immediate effect, it added.

India’s largest public sector bank, State Bank of India or SBI is going

to cut interest rates on

deposits in saving bank accounts, with effect from November 01.

The interest rates on saving accounts with a bal-ance up to Rs 1 lakh will be cut by 25 basis points (bps) or 0.25 per cent point. Therefore, saving bank holders will get 3.25 per cent interest instead of 3.5

SBI to slash interest rates on saving accounts from Nov 1

per cent.The deduction in inter-

est rates comes as the bank has enough liquidity.

On the other hand, in-terest rates on Fixed De-posits were slashed by 0.10 per cent. Now the rates will be 6.4 per cent instead of 6.5 per cent, as the RBI reduced repo rate by 25 bps to 5.15 per cent.

Customers having over 2 crore deposits will get 6 per cent. RBI cut the repo rate by 30 bps bringing 6.3 per cent to 6 per cent.

People seeking for in-depth details of the rate cuts can visit SBI’s site.

the industry to enter into an arrangement for co-origination of loans under the Co-origination Model between Banks and NBFCs (non-deposit taking) for pro-viding competitive credit to priority sector... In today’s environment collaboration is the key to success and make credit available to the MSME sector is also in line with Govt. objective. The conduct of joint Loan Utsavs will provide an op-portunity for us to increase our customer base,” said Ashok Kumar Pradhan, MD & CEO, United Bank of India.

The AIIMS adminis-tration has initiated a survey to assess

space and infrastructure requirements of its depart-ments and divisions for transforming the premier institute into a “world-class medical university” by 2024.

The Union Cabinet had in March given its in-prin-ciple approval to imple-ment the redevelopment master plan.

The administration has now asked the heads of all departments, divisions and various facilities to suggest their needs and vision for the institute during this survey.

Suggestions sought for AIIMS revampThe master plan aims at

freeing up adequate space at the institute through rede-velopment, expansion and reorganising the land usage to ensure most appropriate utilisation of resources for the next 20 years.

“While it would be pre-ferred that a single, com-prehensive document is prepared by departments/divisions and facilities within the institute, indi-viduals and organisations within AIIMS are also welcome to suggest their needs and vision for the institute through this sur-vey. “The document should anticipate the space and infrastructure requirements

over the next 20-30 years. It should be built on a comprehensive vision and not simply a reflection of patient-care needs. Data regarding manpower and staff is not to be provided in this document. It is anticipated that this form may not be sufficiently appropriate for each spe-cialty and has been made to harmonise data collection,” the communique to all the departments read.

Suggestions have been sought about future require-ments for OPD rooms per day, day-care beds, indoor beds, clinical laboratories, ICU beds and operation theatres among others.

8 Travel / Entertainment Friday, November 01, 2019

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Dubai Global Village off to colourful start

Despite it being a work day, hundreds of residents made it to the Global Village on its opening day on Tuesday.

Hundreds of resi-dents and visitors thronged the Global

Village on its opening day on Tuesday, despite it be-ing a weekday. The region’s first family destination for culture, shopping and en-tertainment had a colourful start to its 159-day extrava-ganza, which will present over 40,000 live shows, 3,500 outlets, over 100 rides, skill games, arcade games and mouth-watering cuisine from all over the world. The Global Village will run until April 4, 2020.

This season of the Global Village offers new facades and attractions that repre-sent culture, art, heritage, crafts, food, and family-centric entertainment from across the world. Guests will be able to experience unique cultures from 78 countries through themed pavilions from destinations including the UAE, Saudi

Arabia, India, Pakistan, Eu-rope, Americas, Bosnia, the Balkans, Thailand, Bahrain, Kuwait, Lebanon, Palestine, Jordan, Afghanistan, Syria, Japan, Philippines, Viet-nam, China, Africa, Egypt, Morocco, Turkey, Iran and Yemen. This season, Korea and Azerbaijan join the Global Village family with new pavilions, which will stand alongside returning guest favourites. This brings the total number of pavil-ions to 26, each housing their own unique cultural experiences.Food court

New and healthy addi-tions for foodies include the Indian Chaat Bazaar and an array of brand new street food offerings. Global Vil-lage has also added a num-ber of new features that will take center stage such as the Arabian Square -- a dancing fountain experience that brings together a water and

light spectacle with live mu-sic. Other additions include two new canal bridges: the Hungarian Széchenyi Chain

Bridge and the famous Tower Bridge of London, which will host the Tower Troupe aerial acrobatics show. Other enhancements

to look out for are an en-riched Arabic-themed Canal Boat Kiosk, a new look and feel for Celebration Walk

and the new Global Village entrance archways from Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed road from both Sharjah and Abu Dhabi directions. The

Global Village Main Stage will come to life with Inter-national stars to entertain guests with 20 nights of con-

certs. Extensive upgrades to the sound systems and new visual effects will ensure a memorable main stage experience.

IndiGo becomes member of IATABudget carrier IndiGo has become a member of In-

ternational Air Transport Association (IATA) which represents around 290 airlines across the world, com-

prising 82pc of global air traffic. The announcement came after IndiGo’s expansion of international flight operations this year wherein it connected India with countries such as Turkey, Vietnam, Myanmar and China.

“With over 60 offices worldwide, IATA maintains rela-tionships with governments and other industry stakehold-ers around the world, advocating on behalf of its members on key industry issues,” said a press statement by IndiGo.

In March, SpiceJet became the first Indian low-cost carrier to take membership of the IATA. Less than three months later, its chairman Ajay Singh was elected to the board of global airlines body. Indian full-service carriers Vistara and Air India are already members of IATA . With 48.2pc share in domestic air passenger market, IndiGo is the largest airline in India, according to the latest data of Indian aviation regulator DGCA. IndiGo currently operates around 1,500 flights every day to 60 domestic and 23 international destinations with a fleet of 247 aircraft. “This partnership (with IATA) will not only help us share best practices, but also be a facilitator in our dream of building the best air transportation system in the world,” said Ronojoy Dutta, CEO, IndiGo. Alexandre de Juniac, Director General and CEO, IATA, said: “We look forward to working with the IndiGo team to help shape industry standards, best practices and policies that ensure the safe, efficient and sustainable growth of aviation, in India and globally.

India is planning to open 100 additional airports by 2024, as part of a plan to

revive economic growth in Asia’s third-largest economy. The proposal, which in-cludes starting 1,000 new routes connecting smaller towns and villages, was discussed at a meeting last week to review infrastruc-ture needed by 2025, sources said. Steps to start a plane-lease financing business in the country was also dis-cussed, they said.

With economic activity at a six-year low and prospects of further slowdown loom-ing, Prime Minister Modi is keen on doubling down on infrastructure projects in a bid to revive growth and achieve a target of making India a $5 trillion economy by 2025. Last month, the

Govt to launch 100 new airports by 2024

government cut corporate tax rates, putting India on par with some of the low-est in Asia, to help compete with the likes of Vietnam and Indonesia for invest-ments amid global trade tensions. India’s plans to ex-pedite airport development still trails that of China’s, which has set a goal of hav-ing 450 commercial airports by 2035, almost double the number at the end of 2018.

The proposal by India’s state think tank also includes boosting the number of local-ly trained pilots to 600 a year and double the domestic aircraft fleet to 1,200 during the period. Just three years back, only 75 of India’s 450 runways were functional, as airlines avoided flying to smaller, World War-era air-strips in smaller towns. But

Modi’s subsidy programme, which partly funds airline losses while capping fares on remote routes, has helped add as many as 38 airports to the nation’s aviation map at the start of this year, while contracts were given to air-lines to start flights to a fur-ther 63 airports with no or limited connectivity. While the lure of India -- with an emerging middle class fly-ing for the first time -- has attracted companies such as Singapore Airlines and AirAsia Bhd to set up local units, provincial taxes in the nation make jet fuel one of the most expensive in the world. The government is aware of the high taxation burden and higher jet fuel prices, and will rationalise the tax regime as soon as next year, the people said.

Budget airline IndiGo has placed an order for 300 Airbus A320n-

eo-family jets worth at least $33 billion at recent cata-logue prices, handing the European plane maker what could be its largest order from a single company. The mammoth deal includes Airbus’s newest jet, a long-range version of the single-aisle A320neo family called the A321XLR, the country’s biggest airline said.

This will take IndiGo’s total A320neo family aircraft orders to 730, making it the world’s largest customer for

IndiGo places order for 300 Airbus planesthese planes. “This order is an important milestone, as it reiterates our mission of strengthening air connec-tivity in India,” said IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta.

In Paris, shares in Airbus rose as much as 1.4pc after the expected order was re-ported.

The deal follows a fierce contest between Airbus and Boeing, which is seek-ing a new endorsement for its competing 737 Max, grounded following two fatal accidents. A320neo family competes directly with the 737 Max and the European

plane maker has a strong grip on the Indian market.

It also came days after IndiGo’s biggest quarterly loss, with the company hurt by issues surrounding en-gines from a former supplier on A320neo-family jets al-ready in the airline’s fleet. In June, IndiGo dropped its original engine supplier, United Technologies unit Pratt & Whitney, in favour of French-US engine ven-ture CFM by agreeing a record $20 billion deal for more than 600 engines to power Airbus jets already on order. CFM is jointly

owned by France’s Safran and General Electric of the US. The choice of engine manufacturer for this order will be made at a later date, said Riyaz Peermohamed, IndiGo’s chief aircraft acqui-sition and financing officer.

A new deal for 300 A320neo-family aircraft would be worth $33b at the most recent list prices, published in 2018, but a deal of this scale would come in well below half that after discounts, according to aircraft valuation experts. Airbus stopped publishing list prices earlier this year.

This winter, seven new airlines come to IndiaSeven new internation-

al airlines will operate from India during the

winter schedule, taking the total number of foreign air-lines operating in the coun-try to 86 during the period, a senior DGCA official said.

The new international airlines, which will operate from India during the winter schedule — till March 28, 2020 — include Air Tanzania,

Arkia Israeli Airlines, Azer-baijan Airlines, LOT Polish, Nok Air, Nok Scoot Air, and VietJet Airlines. Meanwhile, during the winter sched-ule, Air India has planned 616 international departures per week, while IndiGo and SpiceJet have planned 572 and 229 international depar-tures per week, respectively.

Other airlines like Air India Express have planned

311 international departures per week during the winter schedule, while GoAir and Vistara have planned 91 and 28 departures per week respectively. Indian airlines have together planned 1847 international departures per week during the winter schedule.

Meanwhile, DGCA had earlier said that Indian car-riers are operating 23,403

domestic flights per week during the current winter schedule with IndiGo set to fly 10,310 flights during this period. The number of week-ly domestic in the winter schedule is 1.2pc higher than 23,117 such flights operated during the previ-ous winter schedule. So far 23,403 domestic departures per week have been final-ised, covering 103 airports.

Indian-origin CEOs in Harvard Business Review’s top 10Three Indian-origin

CEOs have been featured in a list of

world’s top 10 best-perform-ing chief executives.

“The Best-Performing CEOs in the World, 2019” list compiled by the Harvard Business Review (HBR) fea-tures 100 CEOs and has been topped by American tech-nology company NVIDIA’s CEO Jensen Huang. Among the top 10 chief executives on the list, three spots have been occupied by the Indi-an-origin CEOs.

On the sixth spot is Adobe CEO Shantanu Narayen, fol-lowed by MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga, ranked seventh and Microsoft chief Satya Nadella on the ninth spot. The list also features India-born CEO of DBS Bank Piyush Gupta on the 89th spot. Apple CEO Tim Cook is ranked 62nd. The list also includes Nike CEO Mark Parker ranked 20, JPMorgan Chase chief Jamie Dimon (23), Lockheed Martin CEO Marillyn Hewson (37), Disney CEO Robert Iger (55) and SoftBank head Ma-sayoshi Son (96).

The HBR said since 2015, its ranking has been based not only on financial per-formance but also on en-vironmental, social, and governance (ESG) ratings. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos, who has been the top CEO every year since 2014 on the basis of financial performance

alone, failed to make this year’s list owing to Amazon’s relatively low ESG scores.

To compile the list of the world’s best-performing CEOs, HBR said it began with the companies that at the end of 2018 were in the S&P Global 1200, which is an index that reflects 70pc of the world’s stock market capitali-sation and includes firms in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Australia.

The HBR took into ac-count three metrics for each CEO’s tenure -- the total shareholder return (includ-ing dividends reinvested) adjusted by country and by industry and change in mar-ket capitalisation (adjusted for dividends, share issues,

and share repurchases), measured in inflation-ad-justed US$.