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ABU DHABI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present-ed with the Order of Zayed at thePresidential Palace by Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed.

In a tweet, Modi said he did not see the award as a personal honour, but instead as a recognition of India and its people. Humbled to be conferred the “Order of Zayed”. More than an individual, this award is for India’s cultural ethos and is dedicated to 130 crore Indi-ans. Earlier, he arrived at the Emirates Palace during the short state visit and became the first person to use Indian payment platform RuPay in the UAE.

Modi officially launched the UAE roll-out of the RuPay card – an Indian card pay-ment scheme similar to Visa and Mastercard – at Emirates Palace. He became the first person to use RuPay in the Emirates, when he used a card to purchase a box of sweets at a stall in the exclu-sive hotel. The new card will work at one lakh terminals in the UAE, Navdeep Singh Suri, Indian ambassador to the UAE, revealed.

Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan presents Zayed Medal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi during a reception at Qasr Al Watan.

Modi honoured with Order of Zayed“We have assurance from

Network International that RuPay Card will become accessible and available

throughout the country from one lakh terminals with im-mediate effect,” Suri said. “We also have representa-

tives of First Abu Dhabi Bank, Emirates NBD and Bank of Baroda. All three of these banks have said they

will start issuing RuPay cards in the UAE for people living here.

The credit and debit

cards, whose name blends the words “Rupee” and “pay-ment”, were launched in India four years ago. Since

then, 500 million people in the country have subscribed to it and more than half of In-dia’s one (Contd. on page 2)

Join hands in India’s progress, NRIs toldMANAMA: Hundreds and thousands of the Indian diaspora spread across the world will benefit from the $5trillion economy India is aiming at, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said. He was addressing a 20,000-strong Indian community gathered at the National Stadium. Chants of Modi, Modi and Bharat Mata ki Jai rent the air hours before Modi ar-rived as Indian community in Bahrain thronged the Na-tional Stadium wearing their patriotism on their sleeves.

“The government is at the steering wheel of devel-opment, the accelerator is controlled by you people “ said Modi urging the Indian community in Bahrain to take part in various devel-opmental programmes his government is undertaking. Modi said India has the potential and capability to achieve the $5 trillion economy target. “We have set the target to empower the common man -- to im-prove his budgetary ca-

pacity.Indians have gained more self-confidence. They have learned to look in the eye and talk to the rest of the world. This was all achieved because we made great strides to improve the living standard of people by providing the basic ameni-ties like housing, toilet, wa-ter and gas connection”, he said in an hour-long speech intercepted by loud cheer-ing from the crowd. Modi summed up his govern-ments achievements in the field of digital transaction, infrastructure development, space technology, ease of do-ing business among others. He said the whole world is praising India’s unique mantra of “ local solution for global problems.”.

Modi also announced the launch of RuPAy card in Bahrain.” You will soon be able to wire money home to your family members in less transaction cost”. Thank-ing the Indian community and the Bahrain ruler for the euphoric welcome he received, Modi said he felt “

he was somewhere in India.” “My job is to strengthen the 5000-year-old relationship” said Modi on the India- Bahrain ties. “ Our bond is not just between the gov-ernments but of cultures too.You have a big role in Bahrain’s growth story. This land has given a new mean-ing and opportunity to your dreams as well as that of your loved ones.” Modi said he heard immense praise about the community from the prime minister. “He was praising your so much, he was praising you and your hard work and my chest was swelling with pride”, Modi remarked.

Modi is the first Indian prime minister to visit Bah-rain. He was received by Prime Minister of Bahrain His Royal Highness Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa and other dignitaries. Residents including women and chil-dren arrived waiving tri-colour flags and wearing or-ange and white T-shirts with the picture of the Indian PM emblazoned it.

Jaitley: reformist with a heart of gold

Arun Jaitley

NEW DELHI: Arun Jaitley was always more than just a finance minister. At differ-ent times, in different BJP governments, he’s been a defence minister, law minis-ter, corporate affairs minister and at all times, even if infor-mally on occasion – thanks to a great relationship with most in the media – he’s been the information minis-ter, prime minister Narendra Modi’s chief trouble-shooter.

His integrity and sterling reputation for fairness were some of the reasons he was respected by allied and op-posing politicians alike. As the moderate face of the BJP, he played a large role in securing the party’s absolute victory in the 2014 polls and as finance minister left a last-ing imprint on the economy with structural reforms such as GST and demonetisation, which will continue to have wide-ranging impact in the years to come.

Indeed, as leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha prior to 2014, he led his party’s charge on most major issues, both within and outside parliament.

Thanks to Jaitley’s af-fable personality, tremen-dous knowledge of events and great knowledge of the

law – he was one of India’s top lawyers when he wasn’t in the government – he was the go-to person for almost everyone, for investors frus-trated with the government’s policies, to journalists look-ing for an explanation on a government policy or simply for reassurance. A product of the Vajpayee era, he had deep friendships across the political system and, when-ever he could, Jaitley never shied from helping anyone out; perhaps why, even when the media disagreed with what Jaitley had done, he got away relatively unscathed.

Was the government

witch-hunting in the case of P Chidambaram or be-ing vindictive in the case of Prannoy Roy, were the Gandhis really guilty in the National Herald case and so many other instances? Whether you finally agreed with him or not, it was Jait-ley that gave the sharpest argument, with a complete history of the case, even fascinating anecdotes, a true raconteur, Jaitley enjoyed regaling his audience as much as they loved hearing him. Few anti-government television warriors managed to best Jaitley at most times. Later, even when his health failed him and he could no longer have visitors, Jaitley explained the rationale for important government ac-tions through his 24×7 blog.In Vajpayee’s cabinet

During the Vajpayee years, Jaitley’s key contribu-tion was junking the out-dated concept of monopolies. Hardly surprising then, that Modi valued Jaitley’s counsel so much, when the latter wanted to stay out of the government due to health reasons, the prime minister

went to his house and did his best to convince him to stay on. His ability to weigh in on almost all issues apart, it was Jaitley who ensured the BJP named Modi as its candidate for 2014 even as the old guard led by LK Ad-vani were reluctant to do so. If during the Vajpayee years, Jaitley’s great contribution was junking the outdated concept of monopolies – any big business was distrusted – and replacing this with a more modern definition where abuse of dominance was to be the touchstone, he really came into his own under Modi.

Jaitley was clearly the government’s go-to person for all matters judicial and played a key role in the National Judicial Appoint-ments Commission (NJAC) Bill – to propose an alterna-tive to the collegium ap-pointing/promoting judges – that was unfortunately struck down by the Supreme Court. And, as FM, he was central to most government reforms such as the Insol-vency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC), (Contd. on page 2)

Indian embassy in Kuwaitwarns NRIs against fraudstersKUWAIT CITY: It has been brought to the attention of the embassy of India in Kuwait that unscrupulous individuals are telephoning Indian nationals, posing as embassy officials, with a view to extract money. These individuals may also sometimes provide certain per-sonal particulars to make their claims sound convincing.

All Indian nationals in Kuwait are hereby informed that the embassy of India never requests for any such payments/money transfers, nor for your bank details, nor for money transfers through telephone calls or through unauthorised means, nor will ask for your banking cre-dentials/credit card details etc. Established processes and procedures are in place --- various services pro-vided by the embassy, which are clearly laid out on the embassy’s official website (http://www.indembkwt.gov.in/). All concerned are, therefore, requested to exercise caution and not to fall prey to any fraudulent attempts.

Reports of Iraq rejecting eMigrate registration deniedNEW DELHI: Under Secre-tary to government of India R Mahato has informed that the Indian embassy in Iraq has taken up some com-plaints regarding Iraq not attesting the papers of the Foreign Employers (FEs) for registering in the eMigrate system and found that only three FEs had approached the embassy for registra-tion so far. Out of them, two have been registered and third one has been informed about deficiency that copy of Iraqi concerned govern-ment ministry approval for recruiting Indian worker has not been (Contd. on page 2)

Kerala to give jobs for 83 more athletesTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: A cabinet meeting held here decided to induct 83 more athletes who won silver and bronze medals in 35th National Games, by creat-ing super numeracy posts through General Adminis-tration Department.

Earlier, 63 players who won gold in team items and who won silver and bronze in individual items were given posting in LD clerk positions. As 83 more athletes are in-ducted, all the 151 athletes will have government jobs. Minister EP Jayarajan said that though the previous government had offered jobs in public sector undertakings for athletes who won silver

and bronze medals in team items, the promise was not kept. Due to technical rea-sons, they cannot be inducted in public sector undertakings. Hence, these players are being inducted to government ser-vice. So far, the government has appointed 169 athletes under sports quota. Rank list has been published to ap-point 248 more athletes. The appointment process is in its last phase. Application will be invited soon for appoint-ments for 2015-18 period.

Swimmer Sajan Prakash, Shooter Elizabeth Susan Koshi, athletes R Anu and Anida Thomas were given appointment in gazetted ranks. CK Ratheesh, mem-

ber of the State volley-ball team that won the national championship team, was appointed in KINFRA. CK Vineeth who was dismissed from AG’s office has been given the job of secretariat assistant. Kabadi player PK Rajimol and PK Shaiban who participated in Spe-cial Olympics were also given jobs. Former national hockey player VD Shakun-thala, who was earning livelihood as street hawker at Thiruvananthapuram Palayam market, was given appointment as sweeper in sports department director-ate. The government has also decided to employ job-less members of Santosh

Trophy champion team, who brought the trophy to the state after a gap of 14 years, and players who won medals in Asian Games held at Jakarta, the minister said.

Gold prices zoomMUMBAI: Rising for the fifth consecutive day, gold prices on Monday again surpassed its previous high by surging by Rs 675 to Rs 39,670 per 10 gm. Gold prices have been hitting a fresh high everyday since Aug 20. Silver also soared Rs 1,450 to Rs 46,550 per kg on fresh offtake by industrial units and coin makers.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, August 27, 2019

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With rupee plummeting, where should NRIs invest?With the rupee witnessing its sharpest fall in six years earlier this month, NRIs planning to send money home are in for a good windfall. For every Indian expat in the Gulf, the question that pops up every now and then is: “Am I saving and investing enough for the future?”

MUMBAI: For NRIs looking to put their savings to work, here are six investment op-tions that should form part of their portfolio.

1. Mutual funds: An NRI needs an NRE, NRO, or FCNR account in India to be able to invest in an Indian mutual fund. Investments into mutual funds are one of the best options avail-able to NRIs. Mutual funds are large pools of investors’ money managed by profes-sional fund managers. They operate under regulations of the SEBI and include eq-uity, debt, balanced, money markets, sector-specific and index funds. Depending on the fund type and choice, annualised returns on these on a three- to five-year scale will vary from, say, eight per cent (debt) to as high as 15pc (equity). These accounts

help to facilitate the invest-ment and payout process. A well-diversified investment into mutual funds will deliv-er superior inflation-beating returns and enable investors to plan for long-term goals.

2. Equities: A well-planned investment in stocks can in the long term deliver 12 to 15pc annual returns. A direct investment into stocks has the potential to deliver attractive returns. It is important to have a port-folio of growth stocks and to regularly review their per-formance. A well-planned investment in stocks can in the long term deliver 12 to 15pc annual returns in the current conditions, and it can be a good source of future wealth. Equity and mutual fund investments do carry risks, which can erode the portfolio consid-

erably, however these can be mitigated if investments are monitored regularly with timely corrective actions. Standard Chartered’s Global Indian programme helps NRIs choose from a suite of wealth management solu-tions making it easier for them to invest in mutual funds, equities and bonds.

3. Fixed deposits: This is the most common form of investment by Indians in the Gulf. Interest rates on these accounts vary depending on the deposit size and/or bank. However, on a long-term basis these tend to deliver low or negative inflation-adjusted returns. While it is important to have bank deposits, the overall proportion has to be balanced out between other investment options. With yet another imminent repo rate cut byRBI on the cards, banks are expected to lower deposit rates. So if you are a big-time depositor, you may want to re-consider your fixed deposits.

4. National Pension Scheme: If you are looking for a tax-efficient investment

option, you can consider investing in NPS (National Pension Scheme). This is a cost-effective, easily acces-sible and tax-efficient way to invest your money. NRIs can open an NPS account online if they have a PAN card and a bank account. Backed by the Indian government, the NPS is seen as a way to help build savings for retirement while enjoying tax benefits. The returns offered by NPS are much higher compared with traditional tax-saving investments such as the Pub-lic Provident Fund. On aver-age, NPS tend to offer eight to 10pc annualised returns.

5. Gold and alterna-tive investments: Gold has so far proved to be a solid investment option. Indians have been investing in gold for thousands of years and it has so far proved to be a solid investment option. Gold acts a hedge against in-flation, offers high liquidity and can help you to balance the risk in your portfolio. Gold exchange-traded funds and mutual funds are good

vehicles to invest in gold. Other alternative invest-ments include commodi-ties, derivative contracts, precious metals, private equity and hedge funds. These forms of investments are for the more discerning and professional investors who are able understand the risk-reward relationship.

6. Real estate: An-arock Property Consultants’ Consumer Sentiment survey earlier this year reaffirms that NRIs continue to view real estate as a favourable investment asset class. No less than 78pc of the NRI respondents in the survey in-dicated that they prefer real estate over other asset classes like stocks, fixed deposits, gold and mutual funds. Being an NRI, you can invest in a property in India and earn handsomely by letting it out. Most NRIs naturally gravitate towards properties in their cities of origin. That said, recent trends show NRI in-vestors are now considering cities that will yield superior investment returns.

Modi awarded Bahrain OrderMANAMA: His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al-Khalifa received Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Gudaibiya Palace, in the presence of His Royal Highness Prime Min-ister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al-Khalifa and His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al-Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier. The two leaders reviewed deep-rooted historic relations of friendship binding the Kingdom of Bahrain and the Republic of India.

This was an Indian PM’s first visit to the Kingdom. The two sides also highlighted aspects of joint co-operation in the investment, economic, commercial, health, scientific and technological sectors, in adding to the sector of energy. The King bestowed the Bahrain Order --- First Class on Modi in recognition of his efforts to strengthen bilateral relations with the Kingdom of Bahrain. Commenting on the honour, Modi said: ‘I feel very honoured and fortunate to be awarded The King Hamad Order of the Renaissance. I am equally honoured by Your Majesty’s friendship for me and for my country.

I humbly accept this prestigious honour on behalf of 1.3 billion Indians. It is an honour for entire India. This is a recognition of the close and friendly relations between the Kingdom of Bahrain and India. These relations go back thousands of years.’

Bahrain’s King hailed the memorandum of understanding on the programme of cultural exchange, to strengthen the deep-rooted cultural relations, the declaration of intent in the field of space technology on the application of a MoU for co-operation in the field of exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes, and a declaration of intent on the Kingdom of Bahrain’s accession to the International Solar Coalition, and a MoU between The National Electronic Pay-ments Network (BENEFIT) and the Indian National Payments Corporation (NPCI) to discuss cooperation and link payment systems to facilitate payments between the two countries.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy at a forum jointly hosted by the US-India Business Council and the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council in Washington. Seen second from right is India’s Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla.

Visa launches new measures to prevent payment fraudNEW YORK: Financial services provider Visa an-nounced a suite of innova-tive security capabilities to help prevent payment fraud. The new capabilities are available to Visa clients at no additional cost or sign-up and utilise the latest innova-tions in cyber technology, including big data analysis, deep learning and cloud monitoring. The new capa-bilities are available to Visa clients at no additional cost or sign-up and utilise the latest innovations in cyber technology including big data analysis, deep learning and cloud monitoring.

The new security mea-sures, which protect the integrity of the payments ecosystem by detecting and disrupting fraud threats targeting financial institu-tions and merchants, were revealed at the Visa US Security Summit 2019. The forum brought together pay-ment industry experts from risk, business and opera-tional departments of finan-cial institutions, merchants, processors and other pay-

ment service providers. “Cybercriminals attempt

to bypass traditional defenc-es by stealing credentials, harvesting data, obtaining privileged access and at-tacking trusted third-party supply chains,” said RL Prasad, senior vice presi-dent, Payment System Risk,

Visa. “Visa’s new payment security capabilities com-bine payment and cyber intelligence, insights and learnings from breach inves-tigations and law enforce-ment engagement to help financial institutions and merchants solve the most critical security challenges.” The new capabilities are available to Visa clients at

no additional cost or sign-up and utilise the latest innova-tions in cyber technology including big data analysis, deep learning and cloud monitoring.

According to a global report by Forrester Consult-ing commissioned by Visa, identity verification, data

privacy/data theft manage-ment and transaction moni-toring are three of the most common frauds perpetrated against credit card users. At the same time, card-not-present fraud that includes e-commerce, phone and mail orders was found to be less frequent but caused more damage to businesses, representing nearly 40pc of

fraud losses and operational costs. New safeguards

Visa Vital Signs: Actively monitoring transactions and alerting financial institu-tions of potentially fraudu-lent activity at ATMs and merchants that may indicate an ATM cashout attack.

Visa Account Attack In-telligence: Applies deep learning to Visa’s vast num-ber of processed card-not-present transactions to iden-tify financial institutions and merchants that hackers may be using to guess ac-count numbers, expiration dates and security codes through automated testing.

Visa Payment Threats Lab: Creates an environ-ment to test a client’s pro-cessing, business logic and configuration settings to identify errors leading to potential vulnerabilities.

Visa eCommerce Threat Disruption: Uses new tech-nology and investigative tech-niques to proactively scan the front-end of eCommerce web-sites for payment data skim-ming malware and counters it.

LOS ANGLES: US-indian Simran S Sethi, most recently Netflix’s director of International Originals, India and the Middle East, has joined ABC Entertainment as executive vice presi-dent, Development and Content Strategy.

In her new role, the Los Angeles-based Sethi will over-see comedy, drama and long form series development for the broadcast network. The appointment not only reunites Sethi with ABC Entertainment president Karey Burke, her former boss at Disney’s Free-form, it also marks her return to broadcast five years after she left NBC. Prior to joining Netflix, Sethi spent two years at Freeform, where she worked with Burke on projects like “The Bold Type,” “Siren,” “Marvel’s Cloak & Dagger,” among others.

She has also worked in development at NBC, Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison and Sony Pictures Television. “I am both thrilled and humbled to have the opportunity to once again work with Karey Burke and her trailblaz-

Simran Sethi

Simran Sethi Joins ABCing development team during such an exciting and transformative time at ABC,” Sethi said. “The network is a force in the industry that understands the importance of legacy, creat-

ing content that delivers the broadest audience possible and supports projects from start to finish — I can’t wait to be a part of a company whose leadership is truly looking to the future.”

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Sethi exited Netflix in May following a nearly two-year run as the streamer’s creative di-rector for international originals. “She opted to depart the job rath-er than move to India,” THR said, citing sources. “At the streaming giant, Sethi was instrumental in getting the streamer’s Indian originals on their feet, growing the roster from one show to 20,” THR said. “Simran is a creative

force with deep relationships across the indus-try and a proven track record of finding and championing impactful series that resonate with viewers,” said Burke. “I’m so happy to welcome her back to the Disney team.”

Modi honoured...(Contd. from page 1)billion debit and credit cards now go through the RuPay system. RuPay is little known outside India, but its surge within the country has chal-lenged the dominance of US giants such as Visa and Master-Card and it is now expanding overseas, with Singapore and Bhutan among the other places to adopt it. Modi bought a kg of MotichoorL Ladoo sweets from Chhappan Bhog. “ Modiji told me they were his favourite,” said Gaurav Verma, who is the CEO of parent company Royal Orchard Group of Restaurants said. “Modi said he was going to take with him to Bahrain, his next destination, and share them with people there.”

Jaitley: reformist with a heart of...

Reports of Iraq...(Contd. from page 1)attached by FE which is mandatory as per instruc-tions. In this regard, the RAs are requested to advise the concerned FEs to submit all the requisite documents proscribed by the ministry and follow all the due pro-cedures so as to avoid any inconvenience in future.

(Contd. from page 1)perhaps one of the most sig-nificant attempts to resolve the banks’ NPA crisis, at a time when allegations of corruption are hurled with-out even a thought, Jaitley’s IBC solution allows banks to take huge haircuts on their loans but without any ac-cusation of favouritism by the government/banks.

GST launchOther reforms, apart

from GST, that Jaitley played a big role in was the decision to open up the coal sector to private players, and even coming up with election bonds that kept the names of donors to political parties secret while pay-ments were made by cheque

was a Jaitley innovation, this is not perfect as donors can remain anonymous, but they remained so even in the past when they made donations in cash.

While Jaitley is blamed for GST being too complex with too many tax rates – what could he do when the states didn’t agree? – it was primarily his persuasion that ensured the number of items in the higher brackets has constantly been pruned, though the composition of the GST Council allows for a vote, Jaitley chose per-suasion and has, till date, never used the vote for any decision.

When the UPA left him to deal with the tricky issue of the retrospective tax, he

came up with a judicial solution that ensured the government was not ac-cused of favouring anyone while reversing a tax de-mand made under this law; he said that while the gov-ernment would not use the law in the future, he would accept all judicial – and arbitral – decisions on the existing cases.

With three seasoned BJP politicians passing away ( Parrikar, Jaitley, Swaraj) within such a short period – coincidentally, Sushma Swaraj was also born in 1952 and also had her kid-ney replaced – a vital con-nect with the Vajpayee gov-ernment, and the gentleness that it came to symbolise, has been lost.

All about RuPay cardsABU DHABI: State-owned Bank of Baroda and UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD will issue the global RuPay card. The RuPay card was officially in-troduced in the UAE during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the country on Saturday. Though residents have to wait a little longer before they can use RuPay, India’s equivalent to Mastercard and Visa credit cards.

Nevertheless, Indian residents or tourists holding RuPay Global cards can use them at UAE merchants who have upgraded their systems

to accept RuPay. What is RuPay?: Launched

in 2012, RuPay is India’s domestic debit and credit card payment network. It is widely accepted at automat-ed teller machines, point-of-sale devices and e-commerce websites across India. It is also accepted in Singapore and will soon be available in the Maldives and Bhutan. Currently, around 500 mil-lion active RuPay cards are in circulation in the Indian market. The country has a population of 1.3 billion people. Around 1.75 lakh locations of 21 businesses

and 5,000 ATMs in the UAE will start accepting the RuPay card, say officials.

Which banks will issue RuPay in the UAE?:Bank of Baroda will be the first to is-sue RuPay cards in the UAE. “To begin with, we will start issuing RuPay, along with our existing offering Visa, to our UAE customers. Once infrastructure is ready at the merchants’ side, custom-ers can decide which card they want to opt for, after experiencing the service and benefits,” Ananda Kumar, general manager, BoB for the MidEast, said. UAE’s First Abu Dhabi Bank and Emirates NBD will also issue RuPay. Banks are not yet to announce when UAE RuPay cards will be issued, officials say they are in the process of getting necessary approvals.

Is RuPay economical for merchants?: Industry ex-perts say RuPay will charge 10pc of the transaction fees currently levied by global debit and credit card com-panies in the UAE.

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GUWAHATI: Indian Insti-tute of Technology Guwa-hati (IIT-G) and Indian In-stitute of Science Bangalore (IISC) collaborate for an experiment to show how breast cancer cells spread through blood to other parts of the body. The multidis-ciplinary, multi-institutional team seeks to bridge this gap in understanding and works towards unravelling the mechanisms involved in the growth and spread of breast cancer.

The research led by Prof Siddhartha Ghosh from IIT Guwahati, Prof Gautam Biswas from IIT Guwa-hati, Dr Mohit Kumar Jolly from IISc Bangalore and Dr Amaresh Dalal from IIT Guwahati together with a research fellow Dr Binita Nath and research scholars, Anil Bidkar and Vikash Kumar developed a PDMS based complex flow pas-sage with an overall di-ameter of 184 micrometres (one micrometre = ten thousandth of a cm), with built-in blockages at certain locations that reduce the ef-

IIT-G, IISc B’lore join hands for breast cancer researchfective flow passages with a diameter of 7 micrometres. The complex flow passage mimics a capillary endo-thelial barrier followed by a capillary network. Their work has recently appeared in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, published from Switzerland.

Highlighting the im-portance of understanding how metastasis works, Prof Siddhartha Sankar Ghosh, IIT Guwahati, said, “While breast cancer starts as a lo-cal disease, the cancer can grow and spread to other organs, in a process called “metastasis”, which is the most devastating attribute of the disease. We do not yet fully know the molecular and cellular mechanisms of breast cancer metasta-sis, and this hinders the development of treatment protocols that can prevent or treat cancer spread.”

“Our bodies are made up of billions of cells of various types and various types of cancers start from different types of cells”, added Prof Ghosh, adding that breast

cancer starts in epithelial cells. Epithelial cells are found in skin and as lin-ing for all organs inside the body as well as body parts such as breast and the insides of the chest cavity.

It has been known that cancer cells migrate from their point of origin to other parts of the body by trans-forming into other types of cells. For example, the conversion of cancer-ridden breast epithelial cells into mesenchymal cells enables

cell migration, invasion, and drug resistance, and consequently, contributes to cancer spread and disease aggressiveness. The cancer carrying mesenchymal cells can re-convert to epithelial

cells at another site, causing secondary cancer.

Talking about the ex-perimental model devised to study and bridge the gap in understanding this research, Prof Gautam Biswas from IIT Guwahati, said, “While the epithelial-to-mesen-

chymal transition (EMT) is known to be an important factor in cancer spread, how the converted cells travel through the blood vessels and undergo reverse transition (mesenchymal to

epithelial) at the secondary sites has hitherto not been completely understood. Our effort was to understand how the cells lose theirs EMT phenotype and revert back to epithelial format through a process termed MET.”

This structure was de-signed to mimic broken membranes through which cancer cells find way into the blood stream. The PDMS passage was then connected to channels that mimicked network of blood vessels. The cells undergo Epithe-lial–Mesenchymal Transi-tion. The EMT Cells then brought back through the mimicked endothelium into the tissue compartments. The reversion process is termed as MET. The move-ment of the cells through the various sections of the complex microchannel was captured using high speed camera, and the video-graphs showed the ways in which cancer spread from one site to another, through such narrow passages.

The team found that the EMT cells had enhanced migratory properties and retained 50pc viability, even after migration through wells and constricted pas-sages. They also found that the cells collected at the channel outlet regained epithelial character.

Perhaps the most im-portant observation that the team made was that the EMT cells were more resistant to drugs compared to the original epithelial cells and the reconverted epithelial cells.

“Our work is seminal in the area of cancer metasta-sis in that it explains the flow dynamics of the breast cancer cells and presents a vivid picture of EMT move-ment”, further added Prof Ghosh.

Surveys have shown that breast cancer is the most prevalent form of cancer among Indian wom-en, with 25.8 of 100000 women suffering from it. It has been predicted that by 2020, there would be 18 lakh Indian women with breast cancer. This research highlights the need for interdepartmental and inter-institutional studies, to understand cancer better and for the development of better screening programme and therapeutic protocols to manage this disease burden in future.

NEW DELHI: The entrance exam for the MBBS/BDS courses in India — National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for under-graduate courses is going

to be held on May 3, 2020 (Sunday). This is the sec-ond time the National Test-ing Agency (NTA) will be conducting the NEET. The application process will begin from December 2 and will close on December 31. Interested candidates can

NTA NEET 2020 exam on May 3apply at — ntaneet.nic.in.

All those candidates who have passed class 12 are eligible to appear for the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET UG

2020). The exam will be held in the pen-and-pa-per mode and from March 27, the ap-plicants can d o w n l o a d

the NEET admit card. The result for NEET is sched-uled to release on June 4.

NEET is a three-hour long exam which includes three sections – physics, chemistry and biology. Of the total 180 questions, 90 would be from biology

and 45 each from physics and chemistry. Preparation syllabus includes the whole of class 11 and 12 standard NCERT textbooks in the respective subjects.

Every correct answer would get plus four marks and every incorrect answer results in a negative mark. Questions that are not at-tempted do not have any penalty marks.

NTA has been set-up by the government of India responsibility of NTA to conduct the entrance test. Competitive entrance ex-ams including NEET UG, JEE, NET etc. were earlier conducted by CBSE. In NEET 2019, record 15 lakh candidates applied and the exam was held on May 5.

NEW DELHI: The Indian Insti-tute of Technology (IIT), Delhi partnered with the Denmark-based DESMI to setup ‘DESMI Centre of Excellence on Waste to Wealth’ at IIT Delhi.

The objective of the DESMI Centre for Excellence (CoE) is the removal of floating debris from drains including Babar-pur, Barapullah and other water bodies in Delhi and gen-erate resource from the mixed waste feedstock collected.

IIT Delhi and DESMI also proposed to work together to adapt, modify and create new mechanical tools to clean wa-ter bodies; the need for decen-tralized small scale solutions

IIT Delhi’s ‘waste to wealth’ centre to clean water bodies

are the need of the hour and agreed to. It was proposed that partners will explore setting up a professionally-run entity with the participation of all the stakeholders.

The MoU to set up the DESMI Centre of Excellence was signed by Henrik So-rensen, group CEO, DESMI, Denmark; Prof Ramgopal Rao, Director, IIT Delhi and Prof K VijayRaghavan, Principal Scientific Adviser, Govern-ment of India.

“We urgently need to clean our waterways which feed into our rivers and oceans. Simultaneously, we need to change our attitudes so that

we own our commons and not orphan them,” said Raghavan.

The idea, said the IIT-Delhi director, is to use the waste that is being generated out of the big cities and see how that can be converted into wealth.

The CoE will provide support for implementing a framework of pilot proj-ects, which address waste collection and management in general; including liquid waste and solid municipal waste management with pos-sible energy generation and or recovery of material for useful purposes, the institute said in a written statement.

The pilot projects under the MoU will include manage-ment of floating solid wastes in water bodies. Removal of floating solid wastes for main-taining cleanliness and auto-mated/energy efficient collec-tion of waste from streams, water bodies, rivers and sea with smart and cost-effective segregation of solid-wastes based by post-processing methodologies.

IIT-Delhi through CoE will provide support for the implementation and develop-ment of pilot projects and make effort for fitment of developed technologies in the Indian context.

Readers are requested to verify and make appropriate enquiries to satisfy them-selves about the veracity of an advertise-ment before responding 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 adver-tisement 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/company be held responsible/liable in any manner whatsoever for any claims and /or damages for advertise-ments in this newspaper.

D I S C L A I M E R

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, August 27, 2019

Your wellness

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Rules: To solve a Su-doku puzzle, every digit from 1 to 9 must appear in each of the nine verti-cal columns, in each of the nine horizontal rows and in each of the nine boxes.Solution for Puzzle # 91 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 90 Answer

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Sudoku PuzzleResearchers have

found that people with chronic lower

back pain who perform self-administered acupres-sure experience improve-ment in pain and fatigue symptoms.

“Acupressure is similar to acupuncture, but instead of needles, the pressure is applied with a finger, thumb or device to spe-cific points on the body,” said Susan Murphy, ScD, OTR, an associate profes-sor of physical medicine, rehabilitation at Michigan Medicine and lead author of the study.

Murphy said that while

Self-administered acupressure can help chronic lower back pain

acupressure has been pre-viously studied and found to be beneficial in people with cancer-related or os-teoarthritis pain, there are a few studies that examined acupressure in people with back pain.

In the study, published in the journal, ‘Pain Medi-cine,’ the research team randomly assigned 67 participants with chronic low back pain into three groups: relaxing acupres-sure, stimulating acupres-sure or usual care.

“Relaxing acupressure is thought to be effective in reducing insomnia while stimulating acupressure is

thought to be effective in fatigue reduction,” Murphy said.

Part icipants in the acupressure groups were trained to administer acu-pressure on certain points of the body, and spent be-tween 27 and 30 minutes daily, over the course of six weeks, performing the technique.

Participants in the usual care group were asked to continue whatever treat-ments they were currently receiving from their care providers to manage their back pain and fatigue.

“Compared to the usual care group, we found that

people who performed stimulating acupressure ex-perienced pain and fatigue improvement and those that performed relaxing acupressure felt their pain had improved after six weeks,” Murphy said.

“We found no differ-ences among the groups in terms of sleep quality or disability after the six weeks,” she continued.

Murphy noted that chronic pain is difficult to manage and people with the condition tend to have additional symptoms such as fatigue, sleep distur-bance, and depression.

“Better treatments are

needed for chronic pain. Most treatments offered are medications, which have side effects, and in some cases, may increase the risk of abuse and addiction,” Murphy said.

She said this study highlights the benefits of a non-pharmacological treat-ment option that patients could perform easily on their own and see positive results.

“Although larger stud-ies are needed, acupres-sure may be a useful pain management strategy given that it is low risk, low cost and easy to administer,” Murphy said.

The global fight against malaria has stalled and requires mas-

sive investment as well as political leadership, the UN health agency warned in a report. “The world is at a crossroads. Historical prog-ress that has been achieved over the last decade is clearly slowing down,” Pedro Alonso, director of the World Health Organiza-tion’s malaria programme, told a news conference in Geneva.

Alonso expressed deep concern as he highlighted that “we still have in excess of 400,000 deaths every year and 200 million cases.” “Despite huge progress in reducing malaria cases and deaths between 2000 and 2015, the last two years have witnessed the stall-ing of global progress,” the WHO report warned.

It said 2020 targets to cut incidence and mortality by 90 percent by 2030 will

Global fi ght against malaria fi ght stalls due to insuffi cient funds

likely be missed. The WHO report predicts that even given its “most optimistic scenarios and projections ... we will still have 11 million cases in Africa in 2050.”

It said a “massive con-certed and coordinated

action” was needed to eradi-cate the disease transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes.

Sub-Saharan Africa bears by far the greatest malaria burden with WHO data showing the region accounted for 90 percent of related deaths in 2018.

The UN agency said the illness hits the “most vul-nerable -- the very young and the poor.” Three in five malaria fatalities are children aged under five, the WHO stated.

The report said $34

billion must be invested between now and 2030 to fight malaria, notably by improving health care provision, vaccination and surveillance of the threat. Alonso underlined that the current vaccine is only 40 percent effective.

The WHO decried that

“global funding for malaria has remained relatively stagnant since 2010.” The report said beefed up inter-vention could reduce cases by two billion and fatalities by four million by 2030 if aid could be targeted to the 29 worst-hit countries.

Only then could the WHO return to chasing its initial goal of a malaria-free world, first expressed in the wake of its found-ing in 1948, Alonso said. He added there were no “biological obstacles” to prevent that.

“Freeing the world of malaria would be one of the greatest achievements in public health,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement. “ W i t h new tools and ap -proaches we can make this vision a reality.”

Exposure to toxic air pollutants is linked to increased deaths

due to cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, warn researchers.

Conducted over a 30-year period, the study, published in the New England Journal of Medicine, analysed data on air pollution and mor-tality in 652 cities across 24 countries and regions.

The researchers found that increases in total deaths are linked to exposure to inhalable parti-cles (PM10) and fine particles (PM2.5) emitted from fires or formed through atmo-

s p h e r i c chemical transfor-mation.

“ A s there’s no threshold for the association between

Air pollution linked to premature death risk: Study

particulate matter (PM) and mortality, even low levels of air pollution can increase the risk of death,”

said Yuming Guo, Professor at Monash University in Australia.

“The smaller the air-borne particles, the more easily they can penetrate deep into the lungs and absorb more toxic compo-nents causing death,” Guo said.

Though concentrations of air pollution in Austra-lia are lower than in other countries, the study found that Australians are more

sensitive to particulate mat-ter air pollution and cannot effectively resist its adverse impacts.

“Given the extensive evidence on their health impacts, PM10 and PM2.5 are regulated through the World Health Organisa-tion (WHO) Air Quality Guidelines and standards in major countries,” Guo added.

The results suggest that the levels of particulate matter below the current air quality guidelines and standards are still hazard-ous to public health.

An Indian-origin re-searcher in Austra-lia has received a

grant of 3.3 million dollars for developing advanced manufacturing capabili-ties that focus on small-scale processing of materials produced from battery and consumer wastes.

Professor Veena Sahajwalla, found-ing Director of Uni-versity of New South Wales (UNSW)’s Centre for Sustain-able Materials Re-search & Technology (SMaRT), will lead a hub that aims to transform Austra-lia’s waste and re-source recovery industry.

The project will deliver new information about high-temperature reactions of waste and selective syn-thesis techniques to trans-form waste into valuable materials and products, including metallic alloys, oxides and carbon, UNSW said in a statement.

The aim is for the in-dustry to adopt commer-cially viable technology and processes where low

Researcher gets $3.3m grant for upcycling battery waste

value or complex waste is reformed into high-value materials, creating jobs and environmental and social benefits, it said.

The hub is supported by a further 2.6 million dollars

of industry contributions, according to the university.

Sahajwalla said it was vitally important for re-searchers to collaborate with industry and jointly tackle some of the society’s big challenges, including solutions to waste and re-cycling issues.

“It is time to rethink attitudes towards all of the materials we design, produce, use and discard, to see them as renewable

resources if we want to re-duce our reliance on finite resources,” Sahajwalla said in a statement.

“With this new work on battery waste, we can help create circular econo-

mies where waste materi-als can be reformed into new high-value materials to boost our manufactur-ing industry and supply chains,” she said.

UNSW said it has se-cured 8.3 million dollars in Australian Research Council (ARC) Industrial Transformation Research Program (ITRP) Hub grants for 2019.

Professor Rebecca Guy, an epidemiologist from the

Kirby Institute and UNSW Medicine, will lead a hub awarded almost five mil-lion dollars to develop an integrated diagnostic and pharmaceutical approach to antibiotic resistance.

The hub will develop a world-first partnership between industry, researchers and s takeholders to tackle antimicrobial resistance.

The collabora-tive hub will focus on sexually trans-mitted microorgan-isms as a model of the wider problem of antimicrobial re-sistance.

“We plan to develop new molecular diagnostic technology and improve the processes for identify-ing potential new antibiot-ics,” Guy said.

“The hub aims to con-nect the many complex facets of antimicrobial resistance, to provide a highly integrated diagnos-tic and pharmaceutical solution to the problem of antimicrobial resistance,” she said.

The National Testing Agency (NTA) re-leased the schedule

for the Jawaharlal Nehru University Entrance Test (JNUET 2020). The examina-tion will be conducted from May 11 to 14. The online registration process for JNU will be commenced from March 2, 2020.

The candidates can download the admit card

from April 21, 2020. The examination will be con-ducted online and will be MCQ based. The JNU entrance test results will be announced on May 31, 2020.JNUET 2020: Check schedule

The registration process will begin from March 2 and conclude on March 31. The exam is scheduled to be conducted from May 11 to 14 for which the admit card will be released on April 21. The NTA has stated that it will declare the result of the JNUEE on May 31, 2020.

Step 1: Visit the official

website, ntajnu.nic.inStep 2: On the homep-

age, click ‘fill the applica-tion form for JNUEE/CEEB 2020’

Step 3: You will be redi-rected to a new page

Step 4: Click on ‘apply’ under new candidate reg-istration

Step 5: Register using basic information

Step 6: Use registration

number to log-inStep 7: Fill form, upload

imagesStep 8: Make paymentLast year, a total of

1,16,558 candidates reg-istered for admission to 3,383 seats including 1,043 for MPhil and PhD courses. The examinations were conducted from May 27 to 30, 2019.

The exams for admission to JNU were divided into two parts, JNUEE or JNU entrance exam and CEEB or Combined Entrance Ex-amination for Biotechnology (CEEB).

JNU entrance exam dates released by NTA

Soon, the Nagpur-based Industrial Training In-stitute (ITI) run by

the state government will introduce a first-of-its-kind course required for the avia-tion industry.

The course, titled Aero-nautical Structure and Equipment Fitter, will be run over three divisions in a self-financed mode. The approval for the coursework came after the recent bilat-eral meeting between India and France, during which plans for several collabora-tions were sealed.

This is for the first time that a trade related to avia-tion has been introduced by the Directorate of General Training, Ministry of Skill Development, Government of India, in an ITI anywhere in the country, said an of-ficial.

The course will be run in partnership with France-based Dassault Aviation, which will offer support through infrastructure re-quired for the course. Be-sides, French faculty will be engaged for practical and theory coursework. The joint venture will be reviewed after three aca-demic years and based on the report, a decision on the future of the course will be decided.

ITI Nagpur to offer aviation course in alliance with Dassault

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, August 27, 2019

GULF FAQs

Last year, I lent Dh10,000 to a friend in Dubai. I deposited the money in his bank account for which I have a cash deposit receipt from the ATM. We did not have a written contract, but on WhatsApp we chatted about the money, and he accepted that he owes me that --- but now he is refusing to pay me the money, claiming that he didn’t borrow any money from me. Do I have any legal options to re-trieve the money, which I am owed?

Pursuant to your questions, you have legal options to receive back the money you have lent to your friend provided the said WhatsApp messages sent by your friend is in your device (mobile phone) or in the device of your friend. If you have forwarded or transferred the said messages of your friend to any other electronic device it may not be treated as the evidence in accordance with Article 8(1) of Electronic Transactions and Com-merce Law No. 2 of 2002 (the “Electronic Transactions Law”), which states: “Where a rule of law requires that any docu-ment, record or information be retained, for whatever reason, that requirement is satisfied by retaining such document, record or information in the form of an Electronic Record, if the following condi-tions are observed:

(a) The Electronic Record is retained in the format in which it was originally generated, sent or received, or in a format which can be demonstrated to represent accurately the information originally gen-erated, sent or received.

(b) The information remains stored in a way that is accessible and usable for subsequent reference.”

In accordance with the Electronic Transactions Law contracts agreed be-tween parties through electronic device even though it is partial is valid in accor-dance with Article 13, which states: “(1) For the purpose of contracting, it is per-missible to express offer and acceptance, partly or wholly, by means of Electronic Communication. (2) A contract shall not be denied validity or enforceability on the sole ground that it was concluded by means of one or more Electronic Commu-nications.” In continuance, any contents recorded in the electronic device may be used as the proof in the Court of law in accordance with Article 12(1) of the Electronic Transactions Law which states: “(1) Nothing shall prevent the acceptance of an Electronic Communication or Elec-tronic Signature as proof:

(a) Solely on the ground that the com-munication or the signature was electronic in its form.

(b) Solely on the ground that the communication or the signature was not original or in its original form, if such electronic communication or signature is the best evidence that the person ad-ducing it could reasonably be expected to obtain.” You may consider to file a civil claim against your friend to recover the loan paid to him.

Contract renewalI am working on a limited contract at an LLC. I joined the company on Aug 29, 2014. My labour contract expires on the Aug 28, 2019 , and my residency visa expires on Oct 19. I am not willing to renew my contract with this company and have informed my HR manager when they asked for a renewal. Now they are planning to terminate me before my labour contract expires to put a ban on me. I did, however, offer to work until my visa expires in Oct. My question is: What should I do to avoid the ban? Do I have any legal recourse?

Pursuant to your questions, your employer may not be in a position to impose employment ban on you if you are not willing to renew the employ-ment contract. In accordance to Article 1(I)(1) of Ministerial Decree 766 of 2015 on Rules and Conditions for granting a permit to a worker for employment by a new employer issued by the Minister of Labour states: “A new work permit may be granted to a worker upon the termination of the said worker’s employment relation in the following instances in case of Term (limited) contracts:

The term of the contract has expired and not been renewed.”

Pursuant to the aforementioned quote, if you don’t renew your employment con-

WhatsApp message can be used as evidence

tract upon expiry, the employer would not be able to impose an employment ban. Since your employer is planning to termi-nate you before your employment contract expires, they are liable to compensate you for arbitrary termination. Article 122 of the Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 related to Labour Relations (the “Labour Law”) states: “A worker’s service shall be deemed to have been arbitrarily terminated by his employer if the reason for the termination is irrelevant to the worker and, more par-ticularly, if the reason is that the worker has submitted a serious complaint to the competent authorities or has instituted legal proceedings against the employer that has proved to be valid.”

Further, Article 1 (I) of the ‘Ministe-rial Order Decree No. 765 of 2015 on Rules and Conditions for Termination of Employment Relations’ states: “An employment relation between employer and worker may be terminated as follows:

1) In the case of fixed-term (limited) contracts (approved by the ministry for a term of no more than two years), an employment relation is terminated if any of the following instances occurs:

The term of the contract expires and the contract is not renewed. Based on the above-mentioned labour regulations, you and your employer may mutually consent to terminate the contract before the expiry of the term. In case you disagree for mu-tual termination, then you have the right to claim gross salary of three months if your employer terminates you.

Son’s UAE visaMy son is in Grade 11 in Sharjah. He will turn 18 on July 25, 2021. His current Dubai-issued visa is valid till March 7, 2020. When I renew his visa, will it be valid till March 7, 2022 or until he turns 18 on July 25, 2021?

As your son will still be a minor when the current residence visa expires on March 7, 2020, you -- as a sponsor -- may apply for the renewal of his dependent residence visa in the UAE. Such renewal of the dependent visa may be valid till its expiry on March 7, 2022.Further, the Federal Authority for Identity and Citi-zenship had announced on June 26 that parents may apply for the one-year resi-dency extension of their sons, who have completed their secondary or university education and are above 18 years of age. Such residence visa is renewable for an-other year from the day the son graduated or on attaining 18 years of age. To avail of this visa for your son, you need to submit your son’s duly attested and legalised graduation certificates from a university, whether inside the country or abroad, to the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs (GDRFA) and pay the respective visa cost. For further clarifica-tion, you may contact GDRFA.

Cheque bookI applied for a bank account with Emir-ates NBD earlier this month and made it very clear I needed the cheque book by the end of that week. This was because I was about to move apartment and my new landlord was insisting on payment by cheque. The bank representative promised that the cheque book would be delivered by the deadline but I still haven’t received it. I don’t have any answers and am going to lose my de-posit if this isn’t resolved quickly. What should I do?

I contacted Emirates NBD and asked if they could resolve this. Time was short, with the holiday season coming up, but the bank’s head office got on the case straight away and the required cheque book was delivered within a couple of hours. You are delighted and the bank deserves a pat on the back for acting so quickly. A spokeswoman for Emirates NBD said: “We are pleased to inform you that our Group Customer Experience team contacted Ms H and addressed her request and the matter has been resolved. Ms H’s account was opened on August 7, 2019. As per the Bank’s policy, the delivery of debit card and cheque book follows within two to three business days, in a welcome pack. However, on an ex-ceptional basis and to accommodate the customer’s request, the bank has arranged to expedite the delivery of the cheque book. Furthermore, the debit card shall be delivered to the customer separately.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi purchased sweets using the new RuPay card in Abu Dhabi.

RuPay levies only 10pc of feescharged by other cards in UAE

ABU DHABI: Prime Min-is ter Narendra Modi launched the RuPay Card, which, according to Indian officials, will charge one-tenth the transaction fees levied by debit and credit card giants in the UAE.

RuPay card, an Indian indigenous equivalent of MasterCard or Visa, was symbolically launched by Modi who swiped his card for buying Indian sweets at a shop temporarily set up at Emirates Palace Hotel in Abu Dhabi.

The UAE is the first country in the MidEast to launch the RuPay card. Three prominent banks — Emirates NBD, First Abu Dhabi Bank and Bank of Baroda — will soon start issuing RuPay card in the UAE. Now, RuPay’s do-mestic cards will also be accepted across the UAE with a new MoU to es-tablish a technology inter-face between the payment platforms in India and the UAE. India’s RuPay card to be issued by banks in

the UAE will be a stand-alone card, TS Tirumurti, Secretary, Economic Rela-tions at Indian Ministry of External Affairs said. The MoU between the National Payments Corpo-ration of India, NPCI, and UAE’s Mercury Payments Services was exchanged in the presence of Modi. This will pave the way for the acceptance of the RuPay’s domestic card across the UAE. It will benefit nearly three million Indian tour-ists and also Indian expats

with the RuPay domestic cards, Indian officials ex-plained to a TV channel. “The RuPay card charges very less transaction fees, as low as one-tenth of what the card giants charge,” said one official. “Cur-rency conversion charges will not be applicable as transactions are done within the Indian system and the data is also saved in India. Additionally, Ru-Pay provides big discount offers and attractive loyalty schemes.”

NEW DELHI: Providing relief to 6.3 lakh pensioners, retirement fund body EPFO has approved a proposal to restore commutation or advance part-withdrawal, under the Employees’ Pension Scheme (EPS). The move would benefit the pensioners who had opted for commutation and got a lump-sum amount at the time of retirement before 2009. The provision for commutation of pension was withdrawn by the EPFO in 2009.

Under the commutation, monthly pension used to be cut by one-third for the next 15 years and the reduced amount would be given in lump sum. After the 15 years, the pensioners were entitled to get the full pension. “In a major decision, the (EPFO’s apex decision-making body) Central Board of Trustees (CBT) in a meeting held at Hyderabad approved proposal to recommend for amendment in EPS-95 for restoration of commuted value of pension to pensioners after 15 years of drawing commutation, which will benefit about 6.3 lakh pensioners,” according to a statement by the EPFO.

Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh General Secretary Virjesh Upadhyay told a TV channel that there was a demand

Changes in Employees’ Pension Scheme okayed

for restoration of commutation of pension. “Earlier under EPS-95 (Employees’ Pension Scheme, 1995), members were able to commute one-third of their pen-sion for 10 years, which was restored after 15 years. This facility is available to government employees.” In the matter of coupon default of IL&FS Ltd, the CBT also nominated three officers of investment division of EPFO to attend the debenture holders’ meeting that may be held in future and if need be, vote on behalf of the CBT.

Moreover, the trustees approved the decision to choose the exchange-traded fund (ETF) manufacturers through public bidding by Oct 31, 2019, and extended the term of the present ETF manufacturers (SBI MF and UTI MF) till then.

The CBT also approved the proposal to divide the fund allocation equally (in the ratio of 50:50) between Nifty 50 and Sensex ETFs.

The EPFO has a total investment of Rs 2,300 crore in Gujarat State Petroleum Corporation’s (GSPC) non-convertible debentures (NCDs).

MANAMA: As many as 56 Indian businesses are in talks with Bahraini authori-ties to explore prospects of foraying into the kingdom, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived here on Satur-day in the first ever prime ministerial visit from India. Bilateral economic relations and co-investment across financial services, ICT and startups are expected to get a boost as a result of PM Modi’’s visit.

Bahrain’s Economic De-velopment Board (EDB) co-chief investment officer for financial services, ICT, start-ups and international offices, David Parker, said that that India has been identified as one of the priority markets as part of Bahrain’’s drive to de-velop an innovation-focused, knowledge-based economy

Modi visit: 56 Indian firms keen to foray into Bahrain

leveraging fintech, artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) and blockchain.

The EDB has 16 invest-ment promotion offices around the world, of which three are in India — in capital New Delhi, commer-cial hub Mumbai and the newest one in Bengaluru. “We are hiring to expand our presence in Bengaluru so that we can better target the ICT triangle that includes the cities of Hyderabad and Chennai,” he said. He added that at least 12 new Indian businesses were expected to set up shop in Bahrain by the end of the year as a result of EDB’’s outreach. Underlining India’’s importance, Khalid Humaidan, who will take over as EDB’’s new chief executive from Sept 1, is expected to lead a road show

to India within a year of tak-ing charge. The EDB is also working on building fintech bridges with Indian states such as Maharashtra, where it signed two agreements last December, and Kerala, which is home to the majority of Indians living in Bahrain.

“Indians are convinced that Bahrain fully supports fintech’s lean, agile model with economic freedom and long-term stability that enables entrepreneurs to benefit from the region’s lowest operating costs,” said Parker.

“We have made great strides in recent years to develop the startup ecosys-tem with initiatives like the Al Waha Fund of Funds, the Bahrain Fintech Bay, launch of incubators and accelera-tors, and legal reforms like

the new bankruptcy law,” Parker added. It is around 30pc cheaper overall to do business in Bahrain than in neighbouring hubs, while of-fice real estate and employee costs are among the lowest in the GCC. A delegation of 24 startups from Kerala had attended the Startup Bahrain Week earlier this year.

The businesses ranged from healthcare to cyber-security, fintech, travel and data management. Indian Ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha has also highlighted the emerging opportunities between India and Bahrain in the arena of startups. “In-dia has actively pursued the development of the startup ecosystem in the country and now has the third larg-est startup ecosystem in the world,” he said.

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, August 27, 2019

The government will soon consider relax-ing foreign direct

investment (FDI) norms in several sectors, including single-brand retail trad-ing and digital media, to attract overseas players, sources said.

Other sectors where FDI rules would be eased are coal and contract manu-facturing.

According to sources, the Union Cabinet would soon consider these issues for approval.

The government may al-low 100pc FDI in contract manufacturing, according to the proposal.

In the existing foreign investment policy, 100pc foreign direct investment is permitted in the manu-facturing sector under the automatic route.

A manufacturer is also allowed to sell products manufactured in India through wholesale and retail channels, includ-ing through e-commerce,

FDI norms in single brand may be relaxed

without the government’s approval.

But the policy does not talk about the contract manufacturing and it is not clearly defined in the policy.

“Big technology firms across the world are going

for this, so there is a need for clarification on the mat-ter,” they said.

Similarly, the govern-ment is looking at coming out with a clarification on applicability of the foreign direct investment policy on the digital media sector.

The present FDI policy is silent on the fast-growing

digital media segment.In the print media sec-

tor, 26pc FDI is allowed through government ap-proval route. Similarly, 49pc FDI is permitted in broadcasting content ser-vices through government approval route.

In the single-brand retail sector, the cabinet will con-sider a proposal of relaxing rules for complying with the mandatory 30pc local sourcing norms by foreign single-brand retailers.

As per the proposal, single-brand retail firms would also be permitted to open online stores before

setting up brick-and-mortar shops.

Currently, online sale by a single-brand retail player is allowed only after the opening of physical outlets.

Relaxations are expect-ed in a provision where foreign retail traders are

p resen t ly a l -lowed to adjust p r o c u r e m e n t of goods from India for their global operations for meeting the mandatory local sourcing require-ment.

H o w e v e r , “ incremental” s o u r c i n g o f

goods from India is only taken into account pres-ently, and it will be al-lowed only for five years.

“Amendments and eas-ing are also likely in this provision,” a source said.

The move comes in the backdrop of announce-ments made by the govern-ment in the Budget.

In a feat unmatched by other banks globally, DBS has become the first bank

to concurrently hold three global best bank awards. This was achieved after DBS was named “World’s Best Bank” by leading global financial publication Euro-money in its 2019 Awards for Excellence.

It follows the bank’s wins of Global Finance’s “Best Bank in the World” in Au-gust 2018 and The Banker’s “Bank of the Year - Global” in November 2018.

This is the first time an Asian-headquartered bank has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Euromon-ey since the award was launched in 1993. Past winners included Bank of America, BNP Paribas, Citi, and UBS. DBS was also named Asia’s Best Bank and Singapore’s Best Bank in this year’s Awards for Excellence.

“DBS was chosen for our awards because it represents what we believe a bank should look like today. No other institution has worked

DBS named World’s Best Bank by Euromoney magazine

so hard to embrace and lead digital disruption, and while some banks demonstrate their technological prowess with impressive apps, DBS does so by embedding digital

innovation into everything it does - with a tangible posi-tive impact on the bottom line. It has achieved this with a clear-sighted focus on sustainability that positions it well for the years ahead”, said Clive Horwood, Editor of Euromoney.

“We are honoured to be recognised by Euromoney as the World’s Best Bank. With this award, we are now the first bank ever to concur-rently hold three of the most prestigious global best bank honours. This achievement underlines widespread rec-

ognition for our leadership in defining the future of banking, and our commit-ment to deliver a purpose beyond banking to create a more sustainable future”,

said Piyush Gupta, DBS CEO.DBS’ digital transforma-

tion efforts - widely recog-nised as one of the most comprehensive for a bank - continue to reap results. At end-2018, return on eq-uity, at 12.1pc, was among the highest for a developed market bank. Over 80pc of DBS’ open systems were cloud-ready; its API platform had over 350 APIs, business and tech teams were co-drivers in 33 platforms and over 10,000 employees were trained on a data-driven cur-riculum.

Tourism department Govt of Assam in association with

the ministry of tourism, Govt of India organised roadshows in the high-potential domestic mar-

kets of Ahmedabad, Pune and recently in Mumbai to further boost tourism and to encourage domes-tic travellers to Assam. The dignitaries present at the Assam Tourism Road

Assam tourism organises roadshow in Mumbai

Show in Mumbai were Chandan Brahma, minister tourism, Assam; Jayanta Malla Baruah, chairman ATDC; Navadeep Kalita, vice chairman, ATDC; Rajesh Prasad, principal

secretary tourism; Razvee Hussain, secretary tourism; Bhaskar Phukan, managing director, ATDC; Deba Kr. Mishra, director tourism and Cauvery B Sharma, deputy secretary tourism.

Neela Lad, regional di-rector India Tourism, Mumbai was also pres-ent at the roadshow. The event highlighted Assam’s latest tourism offerings, forthcoming

key festivals and events, a spec-tacular Satriya dance and folk dances of As-sam performed by renowned film actresses of Assamese film indust ry v iz . Barsha Rani Bi-shaya, Nishita Goswami, Shy-amontika Shar-ma and Tanvi Sharma. Thirty key tour opera-tors and tourism

stakeholders from Assam were present for B2B interaction with the tour operators of Maharashtra and other states for the promotion of tourism products of Assam.

Th e G o v e r n m e n t will allow Aadhaar-based KYC for do-

mestic retail investors, and necessary amendments to the rules under the Pre-vention of Money Laun-dering Act will be issued.

Announcing a slew

of measures to boost the economy, the Govern-ment said the Depository Receipt Scheme 2014 is expected to be operation-alised soon by Sebi. “This will give Indian companies increased access to foreign funds through American Depository Receipt (ADR)/ Global Depository Receipt (GDR),” she said.

Aadhaar-based KYC for retail investors permitted

In order to improve market access for the do-mestic retail investors, Aadhaar-based KYC will be permitted for opening of demat account and making investment in mu-tual funds. In this regard, necessary notification for

amendments in PMLA rules would be issued

“To bring offshore ru-pee market to domes-tic stock exchanges and permit trading of USD-INR derivatives in GIFT IFSC, Ministry of Finance is working with RBI to introduce this measure shortly,” the government said.

State-owned Bank of Ma-harashtra (BoM) said that it will link its retail loans

with the repo rate, which will make the loans cheaper.

“It will be effective from September 1, 2019 for the ensuing festival season. Pres-ently, it will be for new cus-tomers only and in due course it will be extended to existing customers as well,” it said in a statement.

Through linking of repo

BoM to link retail loans with repo rate

The government has shortlisted commonly used hygiene products

like soaps, adult diapers, sanitary napkins, hospital hand gloves, floor disinfec-tant, operation theatre gum boots—that it says should be of assured quality and avail-able within the health system in adequate numbers.

The committee on Nation-al List of Essential Medicines (NLEM) had in September last year formed sub-committees to categorize medicines, med-ical devices, disposables, and health and hygiene products according to how essential they are for healthcare.

The NLEM committee, which is in the process of identifying essential medi-cines, consumables, hygiene products, will send the list to a second committee compris-ing Rajiv Kumar, vice chair-man, NITI Agog; Preeti Sudan,

Govt shortlists hygiene products to be brought under price control

secretary, health ministry; and PD Vaghela, secretary, depart-ment of pharmaceuticals, for deciding which ones are to be brought under price control.

According to two people aware of the matter, experts are debating on various as-pects of hygiene products that should be available within the healthcare system at all times. “There are discussions going on as to what kind of soap be put under the hygiene category, whether it should be liquid, medicated. Mi-crobiologists have also been roped in for it. What type of gloves-simple, powdered, lubricated etc. be included in the list, said one of the per-sons, requesting anonymity.

According to the second person the committee is deliberating on the list of hygiene products and likely to come out with a final one by next month. “Products

like sanitary napkins, adult diapers have been included in the list too.”

This is also a departure from the existing mechanism in which all essential medi-cines were brought under price control. Under the previous mechanism, the health ministry prepared a list of drugs eligible for price regulation, following which the department of pharma-ceuticals, which comes under the ministry of chemicals and fertilizers, incorporated them into Schedule 1 of the drug price control order. Following this, the National Pharma-ceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) fixed the prices of drugs in this schedule. “The list, once adopted by the government, would become part of the drug price control order, and hence, the price is regulated,” said the second person.

Finance Minister Nir-mala Sitharaman said that the government

will infuse Rs 70,000 crore in public sector banks upfront, possibly within the next week, and will fast-track clearance of gov-ernment due to companies, something that can drasti-cally reduce the bad debt in banks’ books and free up more capital.

The original plan was to infuse this money in three years.

The capital infusion, ahead of the festive season, will boost banks’ lending capacity by an additional Rs 5 trillion. The capital would also help banks boost their capital adequa-cy and make them more confident in resuming nor-mal lending activities. With the capital support, banks under the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) prompt corrective action (PCA) framework could come out

Rs 70,000-cr capital infusion into PSBsand resume their normal lending operations, experts said.

“Since the capital infu-sion of is upfront, a sub-stantial part of it would be growth capital, which will enable banks to lend with greater confidence,” said R

K Bakshi, a banking sector expert and former executive director of Bank of Baroda.

The auto sector many demand credit immediate-ly, as the government also announced a slew of mea-sures to boost sales. The FM said home and auto loans would be cheaper

after banks linked their lending rate to repo.

Mumbai-based Union Bank of India immediately launched its “Repo Linked Lending Rate” (RLLR) for new home and vehicle loans. Borrowers with good credit score will get home

loans from Rs 30 lakh to Rs 75 lakh at 8.25pc, 35 basis points lower than the existing rates.

Vehicle loans for such customers will be at 8.6pc, which is 40 basis points lower than existing rates. The bank will continue to offer existing home and

auto loan products, too.This may boost demand

in the retail segment, but may not be much, say ex-perts. Bankers have earlier cautioned that repo being a volatile rate can hit the customers quite negatively when they start rising. Mar-ginal cost of funds-based lending rate, which is cal-culated based on incre-mental cost of funds, tend to be much more stable. Bankers and economists say it remains to be seen how much demand grows by the measures.

“The measures will boost consumption loans, and may not commercial loans. Unless the demand in real economy gets a boost, the multiplier effect doesn’t take place,” said an economist requesting anonymity.

Bankers were elated about the government’s promise to clear the dues in a time-bound manner.

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) on Monday decid-ed to transfer Rs 1.76-lakh-crore in dividend and surplus reserve to the government. This

follows RBI board accepting the recommendation of a high-level panel headed by its former Governor Bimal Jalan on transfer of excess reserves to the government. The board of central bank decided to transfer a sum of Rs 1,76,051 crore to the gov-ernment of India comprising Rs 1,23,414 crore of surplus for the year 2018-19 and Rs 52,637 crore of excess provisions identified as per the revised Economic Capital Framework (ECF).

RBI okays Rs 1.76-lakh-cr surplus transfer to govt

rate to retail loans, the bank is passing interest rate benefits directly to the customers and it will make the retail loans cheaper, it said.

Announcing a slew of measures to boost growth, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that banks will launch repo rate and external benchmark-linked loan products that will lead to reduced EMIs for housing, vehicle and other retail loans.

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Tuesday, August 27, 2019

EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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

As on 26th August, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 47.10 50.10Bahraini Dinar 186.60 196.60 British Pound 86.85 89.85Canadian Dollar 52.65 55.65 Emirati Dirham 19.10 20.10 Euro 78.60 81.60 Kuwaiti Dinar 232.00 242.00Omani Rial 182.36 192.36Qatari Riyal 19.30 20.30 Saudi Riyal 18.70 19.70 Singapore Dollar 50.40 53.40 Swiss Franc 72.25 75.25US Dollar 70.75 73.25

Source:

Vistara launches Mumbai-Dubai daily fl ight

Vistara, a joint venture between Tata Sons and Singapore Air-

lines, has launched daily flight service between Dubai and Mumbai. The inaugural flight to Dubai landed on Aug 21 (Wednesday) at 6 pm.

“The daily flights from Mumbai will depart at 4.25pm to land in Dubai at 6.15 pm. The return flights from Dubai will depart at 7.15 pm to arrive in Mumbai at 12.15am the next day,” said chief executive officer, Leslie Thng. Dubai is Vis-tara’s second international destination, offering pre-mium economy class travel between India and the UAE. The airline currently serves 27 destinations with over 1,200 flights a week with a fleet of 30 aircraft.

“Right now, we have 30 aircraft in our fleet, of which

At the launch of Vistara’s daily flight service between Mumbai and Dubai.

23 are Airbus A320 aircraft and Boeing 737 – 800 NG. We have recently placed an order for another 56 aircraft

from Boeing and Airbus, so we are looking at expand-ing our fleet of services. Definitely depending on the demand, we will add more flight routes within and out-side UAE,” said Thng.

“We have done our feasi-bility studies and find that there is a huge demand for flights from Dubai to Mum-bai. The Indian diaspora in the UAE is huge, we want to tap into this,” he added. “As for our premium economy

service, we found a void in this sector and hence de-cided to add a flight service with this facility,” said Thng

Code sharing plansVistara currently has a

code-share with five airlines - Singapore airlines, Japan Airlines, United Airlines, Silk Air and British Airways. “We are open to code-share partnership with other air-lines as we grow”, added Thng. “As of now, we have narrow bodied aircraft. But we are looking at adding wide bodied aircraft to ex-pand beyond Asia and start long haul operations. We

are definitely open to more code-share partnerships. “For now, we are excited to start our service to Dubai, a

city that’s home to several Indians. The Indian diaspora is huge and we want to cater that and more global travel-lers on this route.”

Last month, Vistara launched its international operations with daily flights to Singapore from Delhi and Mumbai. On Aug 27, Vistara will start flight services to Bangkok, Thailand. The airline now connects 27 des-tinations, operates over 1200 flights a week served by a

fleet of 23 Airbus A320 and seven Boeing 737-800NG aircraft, and has flown more than 16 million customers since starting operations in 2015.New plane orders

Vistara has placed an order with Airbus for 13 aircraft from the A320 neo family and with Boeing for six 787-9 Dreamliner. To-gether, the deals are valued at $3.1 billion, based on published list prices. Airbus comprises 10 firm-ordered A320neo and A321neo air-craft, as well as options for seven more aircraft from the A320neo family. In addition, Vistara will lease another 37 new A320neo-family aircraft from leasing companies. To-gether, Vistara will be adding a total of 50 A320neo-family aircraft into its existing fleet.

The airline has also placed an order for six Boe-ing comprises 787-9 Dream-liner and purchase rights for four more aircraft from the 787 Dreamliner family. The 787-9s are intended for use on medium-haul and long-haul international routes. The additional new aircraft will complement Vistara’s existing fleet of 10 Airbus A320ceo and eight A320neo aircraft.

Vistara’s CEO Leslie Thng.

Over fi ve lakh Indians visited UK in 12 months

More than five lakh Indians visited the UK in a year since

July 2018, an 11pc increase over the previous 12 months, according to a report re-leased by the UK’s Office for National Statistics. The British High Commissioner to India Dominic Asquith called it “fantastic news” for the UK-India relationship. “It looks like the number of Indian fans who travelled to the UK for the Cricket World Cup in England and Wales was even greater than we imagined,” he said, respond-ing to the report.

The report, published every quarter by the UK’s Office for National Statis-tics, said the number of Indians studying in the UK has almost doubled in three years and is now at the high-est levels since 2011, it said. The report shows that more than 5,03,000 Indians re-ceived visitor visas between July 2018 and June 2019.

“This was an 11pc in-crease compared with the previous year,” the report said. The report said that Indian and Chinese na-tionals together accounted for nearly half (49pc) of

all visitor visas granted. “In addition to the visitor visas, nearly 22,000 Indian nationals received a tier-4 (study) visa for the year ending June 2019 up from approximately 15,000 the previous year,” the report said.

The report further said that Indian nationals con-tinue to receive more skilled work visas than the rest of the world combined, accounting for 52pc of all tier- 2 visas granted glob-ally. “More than 56,000 Indians received skilled work visas a five per cent increase compared with the previous year, which is also the largest increase for any country,” the report said. Asquith said: “It also shows that the UK continues to be a welcoming place for Indians to work, study and vacation. I hope to see even more visitors from India in the future.” “The more Indians visit, the stronger the living bridge becomes between our two countries. I look forward to working with our partners in India to ensure this impressive record continues,” he said in a statement.

Flying to Vancouver or Toronto from Delhi this month may cost

you nearly double the nor-mal price with all airlines operating at full capacity. A one-way air ticket, which on an average costs Rs 60,000 to Rs 70,000, is selling at over Rs 1.10 lakh. Ticket agents attribute the skyrock-eting prices to a significant increase in student traffic opting for undergraduate and post-graduate courses in Canada, besides suspension of Jet Airways and Asiana flights, and closure of air corridor over Pakistan.

Canadian colleges and universities offer three in-takes — “Fall” or Sept intake,

Flying to Canada will cost you over Rs 1 lakh

the most popular among Indian students, “Winter” (starts in Jan) and “Sum-mer” intake, which usually starts around April and May. Sept intake includes most number of institutes offering the largest number of seats available in all courses, compared with other two and this is the time most number of students travel to Canada. “Indian students are moving to Canada in droves to pursue higher edu-cation, which has pushed airfares in July and August. This year’s fares are much higher than those in the corresponding period of the previous year because of increase in student traffic

and suspension of Jet Air-way flights,” says Gagan Sa-chdeva, CEO, IV Holidays.

According to data, India continues to be the big story in Canada’s International education sector. The num-ber of Indian students grew by 40pc in 2018. The Cana-dian High Commission data suggests in 2018, 1.72 lakh Indian students got Canada study permit compared with 1.42 lakh from China.

“Canada has always been one of the popular and pre-ferred study destinations for Indian students. Especially with the introduction of SDS (study direct stream) visa programme in June 2019, there has been a sig-

nificant rise in the number of Indians applying for a student visa for Canada. As we have almost come to the end of another year, the numbers are likely to go up further,” says Ravinderjeet Kaur, deputy general man-ager (education division), WWICS Group.

Travel agents feel suspen-sion of flights and corridor closure have pushed the pric-es to new levels compared to previous years. Besides student traffic, suspension of Jet Airways and Asiana airlines, which has connect-ing flights from Seoul, and closure of a part of air corri-dor in Pakistan led to almost 100pc surge in airfares.

Odisha bagged twin awards at the first edition of Federation

of Indian Chambers of Com-merce and Industry (FICCI) Travel and Tourism Excel-lence Awards held in New Delhi. The state received the awards in the category of best tourism website and eco-tourism. The lucid inter-face of the newly designed portal of Odisha Tourism, odishatourism.gov.in - in-cludes an array of stylishly-arranged modules which help to catapult the visitor’s imagination to holiday in the state.

Odisha Ecotourism, which bagged best eco-tourism initiative in the country, has been developed by taking local communities as stakeholders unlike other states. Minister for Tour-ism Jyoti Prakash Panigrahi

Odisha bags FICCI awards for tourismreceived the trophy for best website and a citation at a ceremony in New Delhi. Speaking on the occasion, Panigrahi said nine tourism

circuits across categories have been identified in Odi-sha which have immense tourism potential.

“We need to unwrap the state in areas of tourism and have a global footprint of Odisha in tourism sector,”

he said. The revamped web-site of Odisha Tourism was launched by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik .

On the eco-tourism front, 40 destinations in different landscapes of Odisha have been developed by the Forest Department enrolling more than 600 forest-dependent community members, most-ly rural women and tribals, in the last three years. Forest and Environment Secretary Mona Sharma said major share of revenue generated from eco-tourism goes di-rectly to the community engaged and this has been the uniqueness of Odisha eco-tourism model. “We are trying for more innovations in the field to showcase the diversity and beauty of the state,” she added.

IndiGo adds two more direct Doha-India fl ightsIndigo, the budget air-

line from India, has an-nounced two more direct

flights from Doha to India. The airline has added a second direct flight each to Hyderabad and capital city New Delhi. The second direct flight on the Hyder-abad-Doha route will start from Sept 16, 2019. The flight, 6E 1727, will depart Hyderabad at 2340 and will arrive Doha at 0125. The Doha-Hyderabad flight 6E 1731 will depart at 0225 (first flight on Sept 17) and will arrive at 0905. Booking for the flight are currently available till Dec31, 2019 on the airline’s website. The

existing Hyderabad-Doha, 6E 1713, leaves at 06:50 and arrives at 09:00 and Doha-Hyderabad, 6E 1714, leave at 22.05 and arrives at 04.50.

The airline, which is the largest in India in terms passenger volume, has also announced a second direct flight to the Indian capital from Sept 16,2019. The Del-hi-Doha flight 6E 1775 will depart at 20.20 and will ar-rive HIA at 22.00. The Doha-Delhi flight 6E 1776 will de-part at 23.00 and will arrive in Delhi at 05.15. Booking for the flight are currently available till Dec 31, 2019 on the airline’s website. The airline will be flying a A320

in the route. The existing Delhi-Doha, 6E 1701, leaves at 01:55 and arrives at 03:40 and Doha-Delhi, 6E 1702, leave at 14.15 and arrives at 20.35. IndiGo flies to nine destination in India from Doha, which includes daily non-stop to Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai and four airports in Kerala --- Kozhikode, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kannur.

No fees for Thai visaThailand will extend until April 2020 a measure that

waives fees for visas on arrival issued to tourists from 18 countries, as it looks to stimulate growth in tour-

ism to spur a slowing economy. The waivers are part of a $10 billion stimulus package to boost growth, including a debt moratorium for farmers, loans for smaller busi-nesses, and more money for low-income earners. “The cabinet approved the extension of fee waiv-ers until April 2020,” Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha told reporters, adding that the scheme would cover Lunar New Year and the Thai new year, Songkran.Foreign tourist receipts make up about 12pc of Southeast Asia’s second largest economy, but arrivals increased just 0.89pc in June, with visitors from China, the biggest source, declining 7.1pc from a year ear-lier. The fee of 2,000 baht ($65) is to be waived until next year for travellers from 18 countries, including China and India. But the cabinet rejected a proposal for visa-free entry for visitors from China and India, because of security con-cerns, government spokesman Narumon Pinyosinwat said.

IndiGo to restart Delhi-Singapore routeBudget airline IndiGo

will restart daily non-stop flights on the

Delhi-Singapore route from Sept 12. IndiGo used to op-erate daily Delhi-Singapore flights earlier, but decided to withdraw them during 2014-15 due to increasing com-petition from full-service carriers such as Jet Airways

and Singapore Airlines.William Boulter, the chief

commercial officer at IndiGo, said: “We are committed to strengthen-ing our international operations from Delhi to important desti-nations in Asia. As part of this expansion, we are introducing new flight services between Delhi-Singapore and second frequency on Delhi-Doha route.”

The shutdown of Jet Air-ways’ operations on April 17 due

to lack of funds created a vacuum which IndiGo is aiming to fill, an official statement said. Singapore Airlines and Tata-owned carrier Vistara also started its interna-tional operations with flights on the Delhi-Singapore route earlier this month. The low-cost carrier will also add a second flight frequency on the Delhi-Doha route from Sept 16.