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Indians to benefi t as UK liftscap on PhD-level work visasLONDON: Indians are among the largest group of profession all set to benefit from a new UK government plan to remove any limit on the number of PhD-level work visas to be granted.

UK Chancellor Philip Hammond announced in a budget update, referred to as the annual Spring Statement, that from later this year all such highly-qualified roles will be ex-empt from any cap on the numbers that can apply and come to work in Britain. “[A] key pillar of our plan is back-ing Britain to remain at the forefront of the technology revolution that is transform-ing our economy. And to support that ambition, from this autumn we will com-pletely exempt PhD-level roles from the visa caps,” Hammond said in his speech

in the House of Commons.“From autumn 2019,

PhD-level occupations will be exempt from the Tier-2 (General) cap and at the same time, the government will update the immigration rules on 180-day absences so that researchers conducting fieldwork overseas are not penalised if they apply to settle in the UK,” he added in his statement.

Indians largest group

According to the most recent UK Home Office data, Indians form the largest chunk of highly-skilled pro-fessionals within the Tier-2 (General) category of work visas, accounting for 54pc of all such visas granted in 2018. Indian nationals also marked the largest increase in the grant of Tier-2 visas last year, up by six per cent

at 3,023 more visas com-pared with the previous year. The UK government’s latest PhD-level visa exemp-tion was welcomed by UK universities, who are key employers of international researchers.

“This is fantastic news for Indian researchers who would like to work in the UK and for UK universities – who thrive on bringing together a diversity of bril-liant minds from around the world,” said Vivienne Stern, Director of Universi-ties UK International, the main representative body for UK higher education institutions. “Many of the UK’s leading researchers, in fields ranging from biome-chanics to gender politics, come from India. Outside of Europe, India is the third-largest country of origin for

academic staff in the UK,” she said. Universities UK In-ternational said that despite making up only 0.9pc of the global population, the UK is responsible for 15.9pc of the world’s most highly-cited research articles.

“The achievements are made possibly as a result of the international community of researchers that work at and with UK institutions,” Stern said. The new an-nouncement comes soon after doctors and nurses were removed from the cap to address shortages in the state-funded National Health Service (NHS) last year.

Currently, only a limited number of visas are issued every year under the Tier- 2 skilled worker section of the visa system. The govern-ment’s latest announcement is seen as (Contd. on page 2)

NRIs bet big on IT sector back homeCHANDIGARH: NRIs of the northern region are betting big on investment in the IT sector back home, shifting focus from the traditional mode of investment. Many of the successful NRIs are either setting up their ven-tures in the region or ex-panding their businesses. According to them, what started as an emotional-connect has become an opportunity in the evolving startup ecosystem, besides having cost advantage and ease of doing business. For them, now is the time to give back to their roots.

For example, IT by de-sign — a consulting com-

pany established in 2003 — is expanding its presence in Chandigarh and Noida. It currently employs 300 people in these centres and is planning to hire around 400 professionals this year. On being asked about the reason behind expanding in north, Sunny Kaila founder and CEO of IT by deisign, said: “There is no doubt that we have a cost advantage in the region but at the same time it is an emotional con-nect. I want to give back to the region which has given me so much.”

Sunny was born at Na-kodar in Punjab and mi-grated to the US in 1993.

With growing demand of qualified engineers, Sunny trained and hired quali-fied talent from the region to serve his growing client base, including Fortune 500 companies.

Multiple avenuesNRIs have multiple av-

enues to invest in the region, including fixed deposits, equities, mutual funds, real estate, government bonds and much more. Out of vari-ous opportunities, real es-tate used to hold the unique place, but now it’s losing sheen. Now, many of the NRIs are setting up back-end and software development centres in (Contd. on page 2)

SINGAPORE: In a welcome move, Singapore has extended its visa-free transit facility to 96 hours for travellers under certain conditions. This will fur-ther boost tourism in the island country.

GB Srithar, Regional Direc-tor South Asia, Middle East and Africa, Singapore Tourism Board, talking to reporters in Chennai, said: “Travellers in transit to or from any third country via Singa-pore may be eligible for 96 hours’ stay under certain conditions such as the travellers should have a valid ticket or other proof of the

Singapore extends visa-free transit duration to 96 hrsdestination.”

Immigration and Checkpoints Authority have given details about the conditions for avail-ing the facility of 96-hour visa free transit facility (VFTF) for Indians and other nationals. In-dian national who are in transit to or from any third country via Singapore may be eligible for the 96-hour VFTF if he meets these requirements:

*He may enter Singapore by any mode of transport but depart only via air or sea. The person must have a valid onward air/ferry/cruise ticket departing Sin-

gapore within 96 hours; and*The person must have a valid

visa/long-term pass (with a valid-ity of at least one month from the date of entry into Singapore un-der the VFTF) issued by certain countries.

Eight countriesAustralia, Canada, Germany,

Japan, New Zealand, Switzer-land, UK and US. A visa is con-sidered valid so long as it is good for entry into one of the eight countries listed above. Travellers with Single Journey Visas (SJV) may still be granted VFTF on the return leg of their journey (ie af-

ter the SJV is used and no longer valid), but you must:

*Travel directly from the country that issued the SJV, en route through Singapore, back to your home country

*Not have returned to your home country since you last used the SJV.

Nevertheless, extension of stay for transit travellers under VFTF is strictly not allowed. Transit travellers who satisfy the criteria for VFTF will have to meet the prevailing entry require-ments before they are allowed entry into Singapore. Assessment

for entry is determined by the ICA officers at the point of entry. Srithar also informed that there has been a consistent increase in the number of people travelling from India to Singapore. Metro cities of India such as Chennai, Bengaluru, Delhi and Mumbai contributed to the highest num-ber of visitors to Singapore and 4.98 lakh travellers visited Sin-gapore last year.

In addition to this, Singapore also received 1.6 lakh cruise hol-iday-makers from India in 2018, making India the top cruise travel source market for Singapore.

Srithar also said that Singapore will open Jewel Changi Air-port on April 17. The 10-storey complex will be home to more than 280 shops. This year, there will be a line-up of exciting ac-tivities, events and promotions at Singapore’s hill top destina-tion. Collaborating with Madame Tussaud Singapore, Tollywood actor Mahesh Babu will launch his wax figure there on March 25. Singapore has also entered into partnership with high consumer-touch brands PayTm and Ola and a music promotional association with music director Ilaiyaraaja.

PARIS/ADDIS ABABA: The grounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX jets after the crash in Ethiopia has had no im-mediate financial impact on airlines using the planes, but it will get painful for the industry the longer they do not fly, companies and analysts said .

Regulators have ground-ed the 737 MAX around the world and the US plane-maker has halted deliveries of the several thousand on order for a model intended to be the future industry workhorse. Air Canada and United Airlines became the first major carriers in North America to warn of negative financial implications to business as a consequence of the grounding of the Boe-ing planes.

Canada’s largest carrier Air Canada suspended its 2019 financial forecasts, while United Airlines, the No

Airlines worried about stoppageof Boeing 737 MAX jets

3 US carrier, said it would see an adverse effect on its op-erations if the jets remained grounded heading into the peak summer travel season.

Citibank said it expected the grounding to eat into the profits of Southwest

Airlines, which operates the world’s biggest 737 MAX fleet, causing a plane short-age for the carrier and likely passenger compensation costs. For airlines that over-ordered the 737 MAX, the grounding could provide an excuse to delay or cancel purchases, analysts said, though others are scram-bling to adjust business plans that bet heavily on the

fuel-efficient, longer-range jets. In both crashes, pilots asked to return minutes into flight.

“It looks like the Lion Air, because the flight only lasted for six minutes,” Ethio-pian Airlines Chief Executive

Tewolde Gebre-mariam told a TV channel. “There is clear similar-ity between our crash and the Lion Air crash.” A link between

the two accidents makes blame more likely to lie with Boeing and less likely with the airline. Parallels between the twin disasters have fright-ened travelers worldwide and wiped billions of dollars off Boeing stock.

US authorities say infor-mation from the wreckage in Ethiopia and data on its flight path show some simi-larities.

ATTARI: India has sought visa-free access from Paki-stan for 5,000 pilgrims per day to the historic Sikh shrine in Kartarpur.

This was conveyed to the Pakistani delegation at a meeting here to discuss the opening of a planned cor-ridor for pilgrims between Punjab’s Gurdaspur district and Kartarpur Sahib across the border. “From our side, we have pressed for at least 5,000 pilgrims per day to be allowed to visit the holy Sikh shrine in the initial phase,” SCL Das, Joint Secretary in the home ministry told reporters.

Visa-free entry for Kartarpur pilgrim soughtDas said Delhi wanted

access for both Indians and people of Indian-origin to the

shrine, located where Sikh-ism’s founder Guru Nanak Dev spent the last years of his life. “We have also strongly urged them to allow

the visit of pilgrims for all seven days a week without any break,” he said after the meeting. India emphasised that the corridor should be absolutely visa-free, Das said. “There should not be any additional encumbranc-es in the form of any docu-mentation or procedure,” he added. India also wants Pakistan to allow devotees who want to travel on foot to the shrine across the border.

A statement earlier said the first meeting between of-ficials of India and Pakistan to discuss the modalities for opening the Kartarpur cor-

ridor was held in a “cordial environment”.

The Indian delegation was led by SCL Das, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs. The Paki-stani team was headed by Mohammad Faisal, Director General (SA & SAARC) of its Ministry of Foreign Affair. “Both sides held detailed and constructive discus-sions on various aspects and provisions of the proposed agreement and agreed to work towards expeditiously operationalising the Kar-tarpur Sahib corridor,” the statement said.

Mastercard sore over India’s strict data rulesSINGAPORE: Mastercard Inc is concerned that India’s strict data localisation rules could compromise its ability to detect frauds and money laundering in the domestic payments system. Storing customer data exclusively in India without creating mirror sites overseas is risky because “it takes away the capability to see the broader world,” said Mastercard’s chief prod-uct officer Michael Miebach. However, he said the US firm intends to comply with the new rules despite missing last year’s deadline to local-

ise all its Indian data. “As an industry, we need to respect the reality, and the reality is that’s where the country is going,’ Miebach said. In April, RBI asked payment firms to ensure their data are stored exclusively on local servers, setting a tight six-month deadline for compli-ance. India, China and Russia have some of the strictest data localisation rules. Master-card and its larger rival Visa Inc. were among those that requested an extension after missing the RBI’s October deadline.

Because international com-panies tend to store their data on global servers, countries that require data localisation force them to make additional investment in expensive do-mestic infrastructure and stor-age systems. Miebach said that Mastercard is still working on how to ensure the Indian data is protected once it moves all the information to storage inside the country. A mirror site overseas would help de-tect frauds and spot money laundering patterns because they often take place across borders, Miebach added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi paying homage to Manohar Parrikar in Panaji on Monday (Also see page 2).

Tearful adieu to Manohar Parrikar

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, March 19, 2019

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Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu addressing the first graduation ceremony of PSG Institute of Technology and Applied Research, Coimbatore.

New Zealand mosque attack claims seven IndiansCHRISTCHURCH: It is now confirmed that the victims of the terror attack here in-cluded at least seven Indian nationals. The information came in the backdrop of reports that at least nine Indians, including people of Indian origin, were unac-counted for after a white supremacist from Australia went on a shooting spree in mosques, killing 49.

India’s diplomatic mis-sion confirmed that five nationals killed in the attack were Maheboob Khokhar, Ramiz Vora, Asif Vora, Ansi Alibava and Ozair Kadir. A TV channel had reported, quoting relatives, that at least two other persons — Farhaj Ahsan, a technology professional and Moham-med Imran Khan, restaura-teur — from Telangana, died in the attack. The website familylink.icrc.org has been tracking the case of the miss-

ing persons in the attack and the above names appear among the dead. According to the website, at least 149 persons were in the mosques at the time of the attack, and 49 of them died and dozens others were injured. Bulk of the people at the Friday prayer were from India, Paki-stan and Bangladesh. India’s High Commissioner Sanjiv Kohli had earlier said seven Indian citizens and two per-sons of Indian Origin were missing after the attack.

The attacker, identified by authorities as Australia-born Brenton Tarrant (28) reportedly targeted immi-grants during Friday prayers. Witnesses said victims were shot at close range. The high commission confirmed that five Indians were killed in the attack. “With a very heavy heart we share the news of loss of precious lives of our nationals in ghast-

ly terror attack in Christ-church,” it tweeted. In an-other tweet later, the high commission informed that Immigration New Zealand has set up a dedicated web-page to expedite visa for family members of Christ-church victims. On Friday, shortly after the attack, In-dia’s High Commissioner in New Zealand Sanjiv Kohli had tweeted that “there are nine missing persons of Indian nationality/origin”. But, he had added, official confirmation was awaited.

HelplineThe high commission

said its helpline numbers — 021803899 & 021850033 — will remain available round the clock to assist families of those affected by the attack. “We deeply mourn loss of all other innocent lives includ-ing people of Indian origin.” It also said a group of com-

munity leaders is being con-stituted in Christchurch and their names and numbers will be circulated shortly. Meanwhile, it added, those who need assistance while transiting through Auckland may contact 021531212. In a 74-page manifesto the attacker posted online, he described himself as a white supremacist who was out to avenge attacks in Europe perpetrated by Muslims.

New Zealand Prime Min-ister Jacinda Ardern has called the attack terrorism. Expressing India’s solidarity with the people of New Zea-land, Prime Minister Modi has said hatred and violence have no place in diverse and democratic societies. About two lakh Indian and Indian-origin people live in New Zealand. Over 30,000 of them are students, according to the Indian High Commission’s data available on its website.

Indian held in visa-marriage racketWASHINGTON: An Indian in the US has pleaded guilty to the charges of running a fake marriage racket through which he helped illegal immigrants, mostly Indians, to get married to American citizens, and helping them stay in the country. The man identified as 47-year-old Ravi Babu Kolla, who was residing in Florida’s Panama City, has been de-tained. His sentencing hear-ing is scheduled for May 22 at the US Courthouse in Tallahassee.

His co -conspirator Krystal Cloud (40) was sentenced to two years of imprisonment for marriage and visa fraud conspiracy after he pleaded guilty on Dec 28, 2018. She is a US citizen. Between Feb 2017 and Aug 2018, Kolla oper-ated an immigration marriage fraud business in Bay County that recruited US citizens to marry Indian foreign nationals to gain immigration benefits, prosecu-tors said. An investigation identified over 80 fraudulent marriages that were performed in Alabama as part of Kolla’s scheme, the Department of Justice said. After entering a fraudulent marriage in Oct 2017, Cloud began recruiting US citizens to marry Indian nationals.

She directly recruited or participated in the recruit-ment of 10 or more US citizens from Panama city and rural Calhoun and Jackson Counties, the prosecutors alleged. Kolla faces a maximum of five years in prison for conspiracy to commit marriage and visa frauds and a maximum of 20 years in prison for money launder-ing conspiracy.

Ravi Babu Kolla

Bela Bajaria heads Netfl ix’s non-English contentBEVERLY HILLS: Bela Bajar-ia (48), vice president of Con-tent at Netflix, will now lead the company’s international non-English TV originals. Bajaria, who joined Netflix

two years ago, will “lead international non-English TV originals — scripted, unscripted, comedy — in all international markets where Netflix is available, exclud-ing Asia but including India.” In her new role, Bajaria will retain the title of VP Content.

Bajaria is one highest-ranking Indian-American in the entertainment business.

“We have an amazing opportunity to bring stories from different cultures and in different languages to audi-ences all around the world,”

Bajaria said. “Netflix is just scratching the surface on what’s possible and I could not be more excited to get started.” As VP Content, Bajaria was “tasked with es-tablishing Netflix as a player in the unscripted space and forging a stronger relation-ship with traditional studios by finding new ways to do business with them.” In her two years with the streaming giant, Bajaria “spearheaded the introduction of a new co-licensing model,”. Under that model Netflix is collaborat-ing with existing studios on series that air on other linear or digital networks domesti-cally, with Netflix taking first-run global distribution in as many territories as available.

Prior to joining Netflix in 2016, she served as president of Universal Television. At Universal, she oversaw the development and produc-tion of such series as “Un-breakable Kimmy Schmidt” and “Master of None.” But Bajaria’s career highlight was Mindy Kaling’s sitcom, “The Mindy Project,” which she placed on Fox in the first year at Universal. She told LA Confidential that it was “really the planting-the-flag

moment, because that was the thing that showed people that we were going to do it, versus telling them.”

Bela Bajaria

SINGAPORE: India-based consumer intelligence com-pany Affle has acquired Singapore-based online to offline (O2O) platform Shof-fr in a cash-and-stock deal.

Shoffr enables online-to-offline consumer jour-neys by converting online engagements into in-store walk-ins and transactions. Through this deal, Affle has bought the company’s business, brand name, in-tellectual property rights, business relationships and assets of Shoffr. According to the company, Shoffr en-ables online-to-offline con-sumer journeys by convert-ing online engagements into in-store walk-ins and trans-actions. The company’s technology helps put make offline retail store inven-tory information available online via application pro-gramme interface (API) and

India-based Affl e acquires Singapore’s Shoffr

programmatic links, as well as providing catalogue man-agement and order manage-

ment with measurable ROI. The company has clients like Reebok, Swarovski, and Bricks World.

Shoffr would be Affle’s third acquisition in the past year, following the buyout of retargeting mar-keting tech platform startup

Vizury in Sept for about US$10 million and Markt in March last year, to ex-pand its O2O commerce business.

On acquiring Shoffr, Affle chairman Anuj Khan-na Sohum said, “We are excited to announce the acquisition of Shoffr, which is our third acquisition after the Vizury Commerce Busi-ness and Markt in the last 12 months.”

Abhishek Dadoo, CEO and founder of Shoff,r has joined Affle International as director for the omnichan-nel platform. “We look for-ward to growing Shoffr into an omnichannel platform by leveraging synergies with the Affle group. We be-lieve that we will be able to see our vision for Shoffr—to deliver and measure end-to-end consumer journeys—come to life,” said Dadoo.

Anuj Khanna Sohum, Chair-man, MD and CEO of Affle.

NEW YORK: Flex, a Sketch-to-Scale solutions provider that designs and builds in-telligent products globally, named Revathi Advaithi as CEO and appointed her to the Board of Directors.

Prior to Flex, the Indian American executive was president and CEO for the electrical sector business for Eaton. Advaithi began her career as a mechanical engineer in her native India. Advaithi has a bachelor’s de-gree in mechanical engineer-ing from BITS Pilani and an MBA in international busi-ness from the Thunderbird School of Global Manage-ment in Glendale, Arizona.

The Texas Lyceum, a non-profit, non-partisan organization, announced that Sanjay Ramabhadran of Houston was sworn in as its 2019 president at the Texas State Capitol. He is a founding principal at VERSA Infrastructure, an engineering consulting firm specialising in programme and construction manage-ment, and serves on the Houston METRO Board of Directors. Ramabhadran, a registered engineer, is a

US-Indian Revathi appointed Flex director

graduate of BITS-Pilani and Texas A&M University.

Conga, an application provider for companies looking to automate and enhance their business

productivity through end-to-end Digital Document Transformation, announced that cloud customer success veteran Srikant Sharma was named senior VP of custom-er success. Prior to Conga, Sharma ran global customer success at Marketo. He has also held leadership roles at Open Text, HP and North-boundDGS. Sharma has an MBA from Cornell Uni-versity, and a bachelor’s in materials science and metal-lurgical engineering from IIT Bombay.

Revathi Advaithi

Indians to benefi t as...(Contd. from page 1)the first step towards the complete removal of a cap on visas for skilled workers in 2021, when a new immigration system comes into force. “We already issue more skilled worker visas to Indian nationals than to the rest of the world combined and I am delighted to see many Indian students coming to study at our world-class universities,” UK Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes had said follow-ing a Migration Dialogue with Indian government officials in January this year.

NRIs bet big on IT sector back home(Contd. from page 1)India. Mohali-based Binary ERP Software is also one of the companies being run by Canada-based NRI Lak Chahal. The company has a corporate office in Canada. It devel-ops enterprise-grade, add-on software for finance and operations. In addition to this, there are NRIs who have given up cushy jobs abroad to turn entrepreneurs, making use of the opportunities. These entrepreneurs who have returned home are trying their hands in the burgeoning startup ecosystem.

Taranjeet Singh Bhamra, an NRI, returned home in 2015 with over a decade-long experience with multinational corporations in overseas markets. He started his venture in agricultural sector with “data refinery” as the core area. He incorporated Agnext and chose Punjab as head office. Similarly, Sarvjeet Singh Virk, co-founder and MD of Fin-vasia Group of Companies, spent over 10 years overseas before founding Finvasia. In 2016, he incorporated Finvasia in Chandigarh, a zero brokerage firm.

PANAJI: The affection and popularity he enjoyed among ordinary Goans was on dis-play as hundreds of common-ers and his party workers lined up to pay tributes to Goa Chief Minister Manohar

Parrikar, who died on Sunday after prolonged fight against cancer.

Parrikar( 63) was accord-ed a state funeral with full military honours at Miramar beach. From early morning , people gathered at the BJP office in Panaji to pay last re-spects to the late leader.

The military truck carry-ing his body travelled from his private residence in Dona Paula to Panaji city centre as

Tearful adieu to Parrikarpeople tried to catch a glimpse of the popular leader, who rose from the small coastal state to become the country’s defence minister. Parrikar’s mortal remains were then taken to the Kala Academy

in Panaji where public were allowed to pay their last re-specfts. Led by Prime Minis-ter Modi, a large number of ministers, VVIPs, leaders and others paid their respects to Parrikar.

A sea of people from all sections of society and faith queued up outside the Kala Academy to offer their trib-utes to Parrikar. Archbishop of Goa and Daman Fr Filpe Neri Ferrao and secretary of

Diocesan society of Goa Fr Zeferino D’Souza arrived at Kala Academy to offer their last prayers. Members of the Dawoodi Bohra community queued up outside the Acad-emy to pary for Parrikar.

Major market places, in-cluding his hometown Mha-pusa and Panaji, remained closed since morning. The central government had an-nounced national mourning on Monday.

The final rites of Parri-kar were performed at the Miramar beach , next to the memorial of Goa’s first chief minister Dayanand Bandod-kar, who was also cremated there.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi consoling Manohar Parrikar’s sons Abhijat and Utpal in Panaji on Monday.

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D I S C L A I M E R

MUMBAI: In a letter to the University of Mum-bai (MU) vice-chancellor, Suhas Pednekar, some of the members of the varsity senate proposed an online document verification pro-cess for its alumni study-ing or working abroad.

According to members, belonging to the Yuva Sena, an online system will make the verification process faster, cheaper and more convenient for the students. With the digital transcription system in place, the students will be able to finish the process within a week and will no longer have to run around to get their work done.

Currently, the univer-sity has a manual verifica-

Digitise document verification for alumni abroad: MU senate members

tion process.The alumni have to

apply for the transcript by submitting 25 documents at MU’s student welfare department at Churchgate. After the varsity attests

the documents, the stu-dents have to send the documents to one of the credential evaluation firms for international students, such as the New York and Toronto-based non-profit

World Education Services (WES). These firms seek a reverification of these documents online from the varsity before the process is completed.

“It’s a time-consuming and expensive process, especially for the MU alumni staying abroad, who have to come all the way to the univer-sity. The students have to make multiple rounds of the welfare department, which is always crowded, and spend considerable amount of money on send-ing the documents to the evaluation firms,” said Pradeep Sawant, a senate member.

According to a univer-sity official, between 80

and 100 students apply for transcripts every day.

“We work round-the-clock to ensure that the documents are attested within two to three days. However, the subsequent process takes a month or two,” said a university of-ficial requesting anonym-ity. The official added that the university is already mulling to set up a portal for students to apply for verification online. It will also start sending the at-tested documents digitally to the WES, according to its new guidelines.

“There won’t be any need for re-verification if the documents are sent by the university instead of the students,” Sawant said.

NEW DELHI: In a bid to remove hindrances related to availability of land and evacuation issues, the Min-istry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) has issued a memorandum proposing modifications to the guide-lines issued for development of solar parks and ultra-mega solar parks.

“In order to address the

two most critical elements, such as land and power evacuation infrastructure for solar parks, a new mode is being introduced for devel-opment of renewable energy parks (solar/wind/hybrid/other RE parks) through Solar Energy Corporation of India (SECI),” the ministry said in a notification.

Under the new guide-lines, called Mode-7, SECI will make both government and private land available to successful bidders for

Govt modifies rules to help solar parks get land

setting up projects with the assistance of state govern-ments. The state government would be paid a facilitation charge of Rs 0.02 per unit of power being generated in these parks. This facilitation charge would be paid by renewable energy project developers for setting up projects in these lands in addition to any land cost.

Also, no fund from Central Financial Assistance (CFA) would be used for the pro-curement of land, said the modified guidelines.

The ministry also said that about 16,650 MW ca-pacity is still to be allocated under the scheme and the entire CFA available for this spare capacity under the solar park scheme would now be utilised for Mode-7.

India has 34 solar parks operating in 21 states with a total capacity of 20,000 MW

NEW DELHI: The Gov-ernment has approved a scheme for rebate of all State and Central embed-ded levies for apparel and made-up textile segments, which would make ship-ments zero-rated, thereby boosting the country’s competitiveness in export markets.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

It also enhanced the re-bate for apparel and made-up segments. The made-up segment of textiles includes products like bed-sheets, blankets and curtains.

Currently, Remission of State Levies (RoSL), which is to offset indirect taxes levied by states such as stamp duty, petroleum tax, electricity duty and mandi tax that were embedded in exports, is provided to textiles exporters.

“The decision which also extends rebate up to March 31, 2020, will greatly benefit apparel & made-ups manufacturers/exporters,” Textiles Min-

Govt clears scheme to rebate textiles leviesister Smriti Irani said in a tweet.

She said the apparel and made-ups have a combined share of 55pc (around $ 21

billion) in the total Indian textile export basket and the decision to enhance rebate will have a direct impact on these segments,

thereby increasing competi-tiveness of India’s textile exports globally.

The decision also en-tails change in disbursal

mechanism whereby the rebate of all embedded state and central levies will be done through the scrip system.

NATIONAL JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, March 19, 2019

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Sudoku Puzzle Rules: To solve a Su-doku puzzle, every digit from 1 to 9 must appear in each of the nine verti-cal columns, in each of the nine horizontal rows and in each of the nine boxes.Solution for Puzzle # 46 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 45 Answer

Your wellness

There are various un-changeable elements that raise your odds

for osteoporosis, for e.g. genetic structure, your age, and your gender. However, that does not mean you cannot prevent yourself from this bone disease. The things you do each day can be a piece of your arrange-ment to build strong bones.Exercise

Just like the muscles, bones too get stronger if you give them a proper workout. Weight-bearing exercises are best for the bones. Weight-bearing exercises include:

Aerobics, climbing stairs, dancing, jogging, tennis,

Steps to prevent osteoporosisother racket sports, running,

tai chi, walking, water aerobics, yoga and training which involves strength building also caters to os-teoporosis prevention. The muscles pull on the bones while working out which improves the bone quality. These exercises addition-ally increase flexibility and bring down the odds of you falling. Mentioned below are some workouts that can help you build muscle and bone:

Lifting free weights, us-ing weight machines or free weights, doing push-ups, squats, or other moves that use your own body

weight, using ankle and wrist weights, using elastic resistance bands and lifting

young children

Calcium and Vitamin D At the point when your

body doesn’t have enough

calcium, it will begin to

break down your bones to suffice the needs, which results in the reduction of bone mass. So it’s essential

to ensure you have this supplement each day in your eating regimen or from supplements. Get it from:

Low-fat or fat-free dairy products, calcium-rich juic-es and foods, like cereal, soy milk, and tofu, sardines and salmon with bones, dark green vegetables, like kale and broccoli.

Vitamin D makes the

Psychologists, psychia-trists and sleep ex-perts are now seeing a

surge in cases of ‘anxomnia,’ where people find it difficult to fall asleep due to extreme anxiety about issues related to health, money and career. One of the biggest triggers of anxiety is also sleepless nights.“There is a rise in number of cases of people losing sleep due to anxiety. It is caused by increased exposure to anxiogenic (anxiety-provoking) mate-rial for young adults, such as emails, texts from work, social media responses, and

Cannot sleep at night? It could be anxomnia, say sleep expertseven news on hand-held devices,” said Dr Himani Kashyap, assistant profes-sor, Department of Clinical Psychology, NIMHANS.

Doctors say the first stage in a normal sleep cycle is alpha, which is a re-laxed but alert stage. Slowly, as one continues to relax, one falls asleep. However, anxiety, particularly in the form of worrying thoughts, prevents one from relaxing enough to enter the first stage of sleep.

“Most of us can testify to this when we wake at 4am, fretting not just about

money, job security, aging, illness, relationships and family, but also about how much sleep we have had and how much more we can manage before the alarm goes off. We then wake up exhausted and remember something we read on Twit-ter about how getting less than six hours a night can bring in loads of diseases,” said clinical psychologist Dr Ashwini A.

Dr Pavana Rao, clinical psychologist, Apollo Clin-ics, said changes in lifestyle and eating habits are taking a toll on sleep. “The three

pillars of health are sleep, exercise and nutrition, which go hand-in-hand for one’s overall well-being. Prolonged sleep disorders have serious implications on health with irreversible ailments.”

Sleep experts suggest that physical activity is the best solution for this new kind of insomnia. “Run away from it, literally. Exer-cising takes you away from worries and helps you work off that ‘nervous energy’. Any sustained exercise can also release brain chemi-cals that counteract it,”

explained sleep expert Dr Vinod Kumar.

“Along with adequate sleep, equally important is the posture of sleep, which has a direct bearing on the quality of sleep,” said Dr Praveen Basagoudar, senior consultant, Joint Replacement, Orthopaedic, Trauma and Reconstructive Surgery. “Often, improper sleep position causes aches and pains, especially spinal pains, which impact sleep quality. If not checked and corrected, this triggers a chain reaction of several ailments.”

Lo d h a G r o u p h a s launched the Palava Institute – an innova-

tive hub of excellence for professional and continuing education. The institute is being developed under the guidance of 9.9 Education, led by Dr Pramath Sinha who has been instrumental in building leading insti-tutes across India includ-ing the Indian School of Business (ISB) and Ashoka University.

Dr Pramath Sinha, Founder, 9.9 Group and an expert in the field of edu-cation said, “The institute comes at a time when there is a dearth of institutes providing quality training in the skills required for professional and personal success in the 21st century. The objective is to catalyze a holistic ecosystem of tal-ent, education and career growth in Palava and be-

Lodha Group launches Palava Instituteyond. The Palava Institute will become a destination for high-quality educational programs for working pro-fessionals. We are combin-ing the expertise of academ-

ics, industry leaders and experienced practitioners and bringing that to bear in the classroom. There will be technical, behavioural and holistic skill-building courses on offer, making the Institute a centre of

excellence for career and personal growth.”

The programs will range from technical courses in sectors like IT, banking, and media to courses on leader-

ship, personal growth and self-exploration. Inaugural courses which will com-mence from June 2019 in-clude Data Analytics, Block chain Technologies, Finan-cial Markets, Certificate in Entrepreneurship, Rules of

Engagement – The Ethics Bootcamp, and Strategic Thinking and Creativity. Scheduled courses later this year range from Artificial Intelligence, Cloud Com-puting, Product Design and Growth Hacking to Writing with Intent, Leading from the Middle, and a Women’s Leadership Program.

The Institute’s initial partnerships demonstrate the emphasis on quality and excellence in the dy-namic and curated cur-riculum being offered to a variety of students. Partners include the NSE Academy in Mumbai, the KAMK University from Finland, the University of Denver and Fair Observer.

Abhishek Lodha, Man-aging Director and CEO, Lodha Group said, “The Pa-lava Institute is our contri-bution to making sure that every resident of the Mum-

bai region can develop their full potential. The era of having a degree and work-ing for 50 years after that is gone – now one needs to continuously augment one’s skills to keep pace with ever changing technology. We believe it is necessary for everyone to spend 3 to 6 months upgrading their skills once every 5 to 10 years – Palava Institute will bring the best brains from across the globe to provide the finest training and skill upgradation to the residents of MMR. We are delighted to be opening this facility at Palava- India’s No. 1 city to live in, a thriving live-work-learn-play community that is a source of high-caliber professional talent. This institute helps us take one more step towards making Palava a city of opportuni-ties and will create a bench-mark in learning.”

The Telangana State Council of Higher Education has start-

ed the online application process for the Common Entrance Tests for Law. In-terested candidates should apply online on the official website without late fee till April 15, 2019.Dates to remember:• Online application starts: March 15, 2019• Online application ends (without late fee): April 15, 2019• Correction of online ap-plication form: May 12 to 16, 2019• Downloading of hall tick-ets: May 17, 2019• TS LAWCET & TS PGLCET -2019: May 20, 2019Application fee:• TS LAWCET – 2019: Rs 800. SC/ST candidates will have to pay application fee

TSLAWCET online application process on

of Rs 500.• TS PGLCET – 2019: Rs 1000. SC/ST candidates have to pay application fee of Rs 800.Academic qualifications:• For 3 year course: Inter-ested candidates should be graduate from a recognized University with 45pc of ag-gregate marks or equivalent.• For 5 year course: Interest-ed candidates should have passed two-year Intermedi-ate Examination with 45 percent of aggregate marks or any other examination recognized as equivalent.How to apply:• Interested candidates should apply online on the official website-lawcet.tsche.ac.inImportant Information:• For more information, the candidates should check the official notification.

The Indian Institute of Technology Kharag-pur will adopt Ama-

zon Web Services (AWS) Educate programme to help

students gain cloud comput-ing skills including hands-on experience in artificial intelligence (AI), a top of-ficial of the institute has said. “We are happy to introduce AWS Educate programme to provide AWS

IIT Kharagpur to adopt AWS Educate programmeCloud Computing experi-ence and AI-enablement for all our students, irrespective of their branch of study. We look forward to some

really innovative solution ideas coming out of this,” Director IIT KGP Prof P P Chakrabarti said.

The AWS Educate pro-gramme is Amazons global initiative to provide stu-dents and educators with

resources needed to accel-erate cloud related learn-ing and to help power the workforce of tomorrow. The programme offers a

robust set of no-cost tools, resources and AWS Promo-tional Credits for students and educators to boost their cloud skills and experience, an IIT KGP statement said.

“AWS Educate is de-signed to impart skill to

students with the latest advancements in cloud computing technology and provide them with an en-vironment to experiment on AWS Cloud, without making them worried about cost or access challenges,” the statement quoted Amazon Internet Services Private Limited, president, Rahul Sharma as saying.

“We are pleased to work with IIT Kharagpur in their journey of higher learning, and to help them nurture new talent for a cloud-ready workforce,” he was quoted in the statement.

As part of AWS Educate, the students will gain access to 12 Cloud Career Pathways covering topics that are in demand by employers, such as machine learning, cyber security, and software development, each with over 30 hours of content. Upon completion, learners are eligible to receive an AWS Educate Certificate of Completion or an AWS Educate Badge.

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Ma-dras has announced

the result of the Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineer-

ing (GATE 2019) for all 24 papers on its official website. The candidates who appeared in the GATE examination can visit the official website to check and download the result. After visiting the link, candidates need to submit their enroll-ment ID and password. The GATE scorecard is valid for

IIT Madras announces result of GATE 2019three years from the date of declaration of result.

The GATE examination was conducted on February 2, 3 and February 9, 10. The

final answer keys for the GATE 2019 were released two days back.How to downloadStep 1: Visit the official website, gate.iitm.ac.inStep 2: On the homepage, click ‘gate 2019 result’ linkStep 3: On the login page, enter details such as regis-tration number and pass-

wordStep 4: Result will appear on the webpageStep 5: Download the result and take a print out for fu-

ture referenceThe GATE ex-

amination is con-ducted for admis-sion to the post-graduate technical courses in IISc, I ITs , NITs and other engineering colleges and di-rect doctoral pro-grammes in engi-neering, technol-ogy, architecture, and other branch-es. The GATE score is also valid for

recruitment in various PSUs such as Indian Oil Corpora-tion Limited, NTPC, among others.

As per the official noti-fication, the scorecards are uploaded at GOAPS and the qualified candidates can download their scorecards beginning March 20 till May 31.

body capable in absorbing the calcium you eat. This nutrient is not present natu-rally in many items, but you can get it from:

Fatty fish, like salmon, mackerel, and tuna, beef liver, cheese and egg yolks,

fortified foods like milk, cereal and orange juice.

Besides that, your skin also naturally makes vita-min D when it is exposed to sunlight. Spending a little time outdoors every day is beneficial.What Else Prevents Osteo-porosis?

Less or no consumption of alcohol, quitting smoking, avoiding intense exercise/physical training and drink-

ing less soda.Apart from all these,

regular health checkups including the Bone Min-eral Density test can also be considered for women specially aged over 40 years. However, you should al-ways consult a doctor about whether the test is a good idea for you or not. To know your likelihood of develop-ing osteoporosis, you can opt for a personal genetic test, basis which you can make lifestyle changes at an early stage to prevent it.(The writer Kanchan Nai-kawadi is the managing director and preventive healthcare specialist at Indus Health Plus)

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, March 19, 2019

The UAE is in a peculiar situation when it comes to employees’ end-of-service and retirement benefits, mainly because around 90pc of its workforce are expatriates, who will only stay in the country for a certain period of time. Analysts also say that companies are not obligated to set aside funding for end-of-service benefits (EOSB), which are often paid off the balance sheet and this practice exposes the employees to the bankruptcy of businesses. Recently, however, reforms are being introduced to boost and rationalise the end-of-service benefits awarded to employees. These include exploring multiple policies and models to help companies attract and retain talents and ensure that retirements will be adequately funded, and not treated as a liability, a senior UAE official said. According to Dr Abdulrahman Abdulmanan Al Awar, director general of the Federal Authority for Government HR (FAHR): “The accelerating global technological advancements, the increased retirement age and years of service, leave no doubt that there is an excellent opportunity and an urgent need in the region to establish investment funds to manage retirement and end-of-service benefits.”

He explained: “What we are envisioning is for the UAE to provide the best environ-ment to introduce a shift in our traditional way of thinking. It does not need to be at the federal level or run by the government, but there should be options for companies to start developing best practices and provide (investment) options for the employees. Although there is no timetable set for the programme, Al Awar noted that studies are being carried out to improve the system. This can be combination of an enhanced gratuity system and private sector employee savings schemes. “These funds will provide saving opportunities to UAE employees and lift investment in our domestic economies, while considering market stability and the low risks associated with such investment opportunities in the country,” he underlined. Legal experts and financial analysts added that gratuities should not be considered as a nice leaving bonus because they are not sufficient to cover the employee’s retirement costs. According to Barney Almazar, director at the corporate-commercial department of Gulf Law, “the purpose of severance pay is to assist employees to be able to provide the needs of his family during the period of unemployment. It cushions his standard of living while job searching. On the other hand, pension benefits ensure the retiree will have comfort for the rest of his life, which in turn will benefit the government as he will not be a burden to the society,”.

Payment of severance benefits to a leav-ing or retiring employee has always been a concern in the UAE, noted Almazar. He said: “We have had many instances where smaller companies have been unable to pay employees end-of-service gratuity or sever-ance due to the fact that the company has gone out of business or has no available funds. It is not uncommon for employers to agree with the employee a time period where the money will be paid over a six- or 12-month period.”

“We have also seen companies offering employees to cash out their accrued gratu-ity every three or five years. This allows the company to manage its cash flow and the employee to advance the receipt of his benefits (although forgoing the potential increase of salary in the future considering that the basis of gratuity is the current sal-ary),” he added. Almazar suggests a scheme where the company and the employee will both contribute to a retirement fund. “The contributions of the company can then be in lieu of the end-of-service benefits. In this way, the risk of the company not be-ing able to pay the EOSB to the employee upon termination is eliminated as the fund is credited to the employee’s account on a monthly basis,” he argued. Almazar added that the legal framework may not be as straightforward compared with other coun-tries as the UAE workforce are predomi-nantly expatriates but the absence of legal framework should not be a barrier. “As the UAE has no minimum wage and adopts a laissez faire approach in the labour market, by giving a better compensation and EOSB/retirement package, companies can attract the best talents,” he underlined.

Sean Kelleher, CEO of financial advisory firm Mondial LLC, shared the same view. He said: “There is a real need to provide a high-quality retirement scheme culture. This will certainly provide a diversifica-

Retirement schemetion angle to the UAE economy and will definitely mark an improvement in the country’s consumer industry.”

Leaving benefits I have been working at an entity incor-porated as a limited liability company in mainland Dubai for the last 21 years. Unfortunately, one of the shareholders in the share-capital of the entity is now in a state of coma and I am apprehend-ing that the entity will shut down. The family of the shareholder concerned has informed me that they will not be able give me my end-of-service benefits. What legal recourse can I take?

It may be noted that your employment is subject to the provisions of UAE’s Federal Law No 8 of 1980 on the Regulation of La-bour Relations (the “Employment Law”) and its amendments and the corresponding by laws and order. Insofar as the family of the shareholder concerned had informed you that they will not be able to give you the end-of-service entitlements in furtherance of your job, it may be noted that your employ-ment relationship is with the entity and not with a shareholder or with the family of a shareholder of the entity. Pursuant to this, all your claims shall also lay against the entity that you are employed with. And, it may further be noted that all such claims shall have first charge over your employer’s assets, including movable and immovable properties, and therefore have priority over other claims. This is in accordance with the provisions of Article 4 of the Employment Law, which reads as follows:

Any amounts of money payable to an employee or his beneficiaries under this law shall constitute a first charge on all the employer’s movable and immovable property and shall be paid immediately after any legal expenses, sums due to the public treasury and Sharia’s alimony awarded un-der Islamic Law to the wife and children.” The amount of your end-of-service benefits shall essentially include severance pay and leave salaries (if applicable) and unpaid salaries (if any). The severance pay shall be calculated in accordance with the pro-visions of Article 132 of the Employment Law, read with the provisions of Article 133 of the Employment Law, which are quoted hereinafter for your reference. A worker who has completed a period of one or more years of continuous service shall be entitled to severance pay on the termination of his employment. The days of absence from work without pay shall not be included in calculating the period of service. The severance pay shall be calculated as follows: (1) 21 days’ remuneration for each year of the first five years of service. (2) 30 days remuneration for each additional year of service provided that the aggregate amount of severance pay shall not exceed two years’ remuneration.”

ARTICLE 133:A worker shall be entitled to severance pay in respect of fractions of a year in proportion to the time actually worked, on conditions that he has com-pleted one year of continuous service.” In addition to the severance pay, your end-of-service entitlement shall also include the payment of leave salaries for the days of your entitled leaves not availed by you. This is in accordance with the provisions of Article 79 of the Employment Law, which reads as follows:

Where a worker is dismissed or leaves his job after the period of notice prescribed by law, he shall be entitled to remuneration in respect of any days of annual leave not taken. Such remuneration shall be calcu-lated on the basis of the remuneration that he earned on the date on which the leave became due.” It is further noted that you have not mentioned if the decision regard-ing shutting down of the entity has been formally adopted by competent persons and formally notified to all employees or the same is just an apprehension fol-lowing the illness and comatose state of one of the shareholders of the entity. As such, it may be noted that an entity may not”shut down” as a direct consequence of one of the shareholders being in a state of coma, unless the other shareholders adopt a resolution to that effect. Never-theless, regardless of the circumstances at the entity that you are employed in, your claims for end-of-service entitlements shall still be valid and enforceable against your employer. In pursuance of the same, you may consider approaching the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation and file a complaint for non- payment of your end-of-service entitlements.

GULF FAQs

Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh presenting The Hindu Business Line Changemakers Award to Finance Minister Arun Jaitley in Delhi.

CALIFORNIA: A California court has cleared Infosys and Apple of wrongdoing with regard to visa-related abuse.

The US court dismissed a whistle-blower’s suit un-der the False Claims Act, which had accused Apple and Infosys of conspiring to have two Indian nation-als enter the US on a B-1 business visa to provide training at Apple. This, the lawsuit had alleged, was in violation of immigra-tion laws as the companies could have used the H1-B visa route. The lawsuit was filed by Carl Krawitt, a for-mer contractor for Infosys.

A B-1 visa is a temporary business visa.

Judge Lucy Koh dis-missed Krawitt’s claim and the court came to the opin-ion that the trainer’s work under B-1 visa was accept-able and that neither Apple nor Infosys was attempting to commit fraud. The law-suit also claimed that In-fosys executives knew the company “lacked sufficient foreign nationals on H1-B visas to legally perform the classroom training sessions at Apple” that the company was contracted to provide, and that “only Indian for-eign national workers on B-1 visas were available to

perform services” for Apple at the time.

The lawsuit had further alleged that Apple had drafted invitation letters for the US government for the B-1 visas without advising it of the training sessions or that there would be “sub-stantive work” involved. Instead, it had said the trainers would take part in “education meetings”. It claimed the same letters stated the trainers would not be paid, but they would in fact receive “trickle down compensation” from Infosys out of the firm’s fee. Apple countered that its trainers’ activities were

permissible under B-1 laws and that there was no way to establish if it was done with intent and that facts establishing the materiality of the invitation letters to the suit were questionable.

This is not the first time Infosys has come under the lens of US authorities.

Jack Palmer, another former Infosys employee, earlier blew the whistle on the software major’s alleged abuses, which triggered a US Federal government investigation. Eventually the case got dismissed by Federal judge Myron H Thompson.

Court clears Infosys, Apple in visa case

ABU DHABI: Jet Airways has grounded its operations at Abu Dhabi Airport from Monday for an indefinite period, citing operational reasons. Abu Dhabi is one of the two international hubs of Jet Airways. Dutch capital Amsterdam is the European gateway for the airline for its operations to Europe and beyond.

“Jet Airways has can-celled all its flights from Abu Dhabi with immediate effect from March 18 due to operational reasons,” Etihad Airport services said.

Etihad Airport Services is the ground handling arm of Jet Airways’ investment partner Etihad Airways. Abu Dhabi airport also serves as

Jet grounds its operations in Abu Dhabithe main hub of the UAEs national carrier.

“Further to the short notice of flight cancellation, (Abu Dhabi) hub may face minor disruption),” the com-pany said in the statement. Responding to queries on the cancellation of its opera-tions from Abu Dhabi, the airline in a statement said: “Jet Airways has proactively taken certain adjustments to its flight schedule keep-ing in mind the likely yet interim non-availability of some aircraft in its fleet in the foreseeable future.” Jet Airways has also informed the regulator directorate general of civil aviation and the passengers about these changes. Jet Airways

has been looking at various ways to raise funds amid acute liquidity crunch that has forced it to ground air-craft, cancel flights in large numbers, shut down stations and delay salary payments to its pilots and engineers along with other senior staff.

On March 8, Jet Airways Chairman Naresh Goyal wrote to Etihad Airways Group CEO Tony Douglas seeking an urgent funding of Rs 750 crore and also warned that any delay in fund infusion might result in its grounding of the carrier, saying more than 50 of the aircraft are grounded amid increasing arrears of vendors and salaries to a section of employees.

MUMBAI: Low-cost carrier AirAsia India will launch its flight services to Kolkata from the city next month. This would be airline’s sec-ond destination from Mum-bai after it started operating daily services to Bengaluru from the country’s financial capital.

AirAsia India will now fly connecting Kolkata and Mumbai, with one daily flight, effective April 15, the airline said. The introduc-tion of Mumbai-Kolkata route comes close on the heels of AirAsia India adding eighth additional flights to its net-work of 19 destinations.

AirAsia to launchMumbai-Kolkatadaily fl ight

NEW DELHI: India has de-cided to post customs intelli-gence officers in China in its effort to check black money, trade-based money laun-dering and other financial frauds, officials said . Two posts of the Customs Over-seas Intelligence Network (COIN) have been created in the Indian embassy in Beijing and in the consulate general at Guangzhou. The Finance Ministry has begun the process to select officers for the postings.

The move has been ini-tiated by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI), the lead agency to check Customs frauds and smug-gling, to curtail incidents of trade-based money laun-dering and other financial frauds originating from Chi-na. COIN officers are usually mandated to pass on intel-

India to post customs intelligence officers in China to check financial frauds

ligence or information gath-ered from their respective positing stations overseas to help Indian intelligence agencies – mainly DRI – check trade-related frauds .”Money laundering

COIN officers play an important role in checking trade-based money launder-ing, black money and tax evasion by sharing intelli-gence with Indian agencies. Since a significant import and export is done between India and China, it was con-sidered imperative to expand the snoop network to China,” an official said. In the past, customs authorities in India have detected a few cases of smuggling to and from Chi-na. COIN officers have been posted in several countries, including Nepal, Singapore, Brussels, the US and the UK, to help Indian authori-

ties check smuggling. The selection process involves concurrence by the ministry of external affairs and final approval by Prime Minister Modi-headed Appointments Committee of the Cabinet.

Giving details of the pro-cess, the officials said an evaluation committee com-prising directors general of DRI, Directorate General of Goods and Services Tax Intelligence, National Acad-emy of Customs, Excise and Narcotics and the Directorate General of HR Development will evaluate the service re-cords of concerned officers for posting.

A high-level committee comprising the chairperson, two members of the Central Board of Indirect Taxes and Customs and the director general of DRI will interview the officers.

DUBAI: Hundreds of pas-sengers were stranded on Sunday night after several flights were not allowed to land at the Dubai In-ternational Airport (DXB) and were diverted to other airports due to unstable weather and heavy rains. One passenger, who took flight EK573 from Kolkata to DXB, was supposed to have landed past midnight but the flight was diverted to Muscat, and then finally to Al Ain, where passen-gers were stuck on the run-way for four hours. “The reason given to us was that DXB was too busy to let us in,” the passenger told a TV channel. “More than 50 people on board have missed their connecting flights,” added the Dubai resident.

India-Dubaiflights hitdue to rains

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, March 19, 2019

After reducing time to list shares on the stock exchanges

post-closure of initial pub-lic offerings (IPOs), markets regulator SEBI is aiming to cut down the time for list-ing of rights issue shares, an official said.

In Sep tember l a s t year, the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) decided on reduc-ing the time to list shares on the bourses after IPO to 3 days from the present 6. The SEBI directive is likely to come into effect from July this year. SEBI had cited mitigating exter-nal risks such as market volatility and uncertainty of financial markets as the reason behind the move.

“SEBI aims to reduce the listing of IPO shares

SEBI mulls reducing rights issue listing timeto 3 days from 6 days now. It is supposed to be introduced for IPOs from July 2019 onwards. Now, the regulator is working on simplifying the rights

issue process,” Central Depository Services (India) Ltd (CDSL) VP (operations) Nitin Ambure said. “I hope the number of days for list-ing the rights issue shares may come down to 8-10 days from about a month

now. This may happen in phases, also depending on the regulator’s final deci-sion,” he said.

Ambure was in the city to participate at a discus-sion on demat of unlisted shares at the Merchants’ Chamber of Commerce here. The markets regulator has involved stakeholders such as depositories and transaction advisors in the rights issue listing simpli-fication process, just like it engaged exchanges and depositories for IPO shares, he said.

From April onwards, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) will be introduced as an alternative payment op-tion for retail investors and SEBI has already cleared a proposal on it. National Electronic Funds Transfer

(NEFT) is also being tested.Analysts said the new

payment mechanisms will make Applications Sup-ported by Blocked Amount (ASBA) mechanism less at-tractive to investors. ASBA was introduced by the regulator so an investor does not lose out interest component on the applica-tion money.

Earlier, the process of normal allotment of shares for IPOs took almost a month. Ambure said SEBI had granted relaxation for processing Demat Request Number from the current 15 days to 30 days in the wake of unusual surge in requests for dematerialisa-tion in recent months. As of now, the transfer of shares in the demat form is mandatory.

France-based FM Logis-tic is planning to invest $ 150 million (a little

over Rs 1,000 crore) over the next five years to set up new warehouses in India.

This amount will be used to focus on multi-client warehouses, the company said. CEO Jean-Christophe Machet said: “I am im-pressed by the dynamics of India, and planning to make strategic investments here to support long-term growth. “We are confident about our growth and development so we decided at the board level to invest this significant amount of $ 150 million for the next five years to develop our own facilities.”

The company plans to expand to five cities includ-ing four metropolitan cities, he added. When asked how

FM Logistic to invest $50m in Indiawill the funds be arranged, he said the company is in the process of negotiating with local and international finance partners for funding and will also use its own equity.

In 2016, the company entered India through the acquisition of Pune-based Spear Logistics. “We see a huge untapped potential in India....The GST reform provides a huge opportunity. Thanks to the new positive policies in India, our op-erations have become even more streamlined and ef-ficient,” the CEO said.

The company expects a very strong double-digit growth in India in the next fiscal, he added. “FM Logis-tic plans to strengthen its position in India by deliver-ing on its post GST strategy

of focusing on developing multi-client warehouses in the most important Indian Economic Zones,” Machet said.

The opening of the company’s first multi-client warehouse in Mumbai (with extension in progress) will be followed by another in Delhi NCR, which is expected to commence operations next month, the company said. It has also acquired 31-acre land in Jhajjar, near Gurugram. “With these new projects we aim to create 500 jobs in next 12 months,” it said.

FM Logistic specialises in warehousing, transportation and co-packing. FM Logistic also announced the appoint-ment of Alexandre Amine Soufiani as its new Managing Director of India operations.

Jan Dhan accounts not viable: BCGAt the current level

of balance, they maintain, Jan Dhan

accounts are not viable for banks. Despite a steady growth in 2018, deposit per account has not returned to the post-demonetisation levels.

At Rs 2514, the average Jan Dhan account balance in 2018 was just 10 per cent of the average sav-ings account balance of Rs 22,812, according to BCG Consulting. At such a low balance, Jan Dhan accounts are not viable for banks.

“For every account there is a one-time cost on customer acquisition and on boarding. Then there is servicing cost on providing the customer with facilities including cheques, debit cards and credit cards. A bank needs to have a certain minimum balance

to offer these services. Even for a no-frills account like Jan Dhan, where a customer has been digitally acquired and digitally serviced, an ac-count should have a balance of Rs 12,000 to Rs 15,000 for

it to be viable. At the current average account balance of Rs 2500, a Jan Dhan account is not viable for the banks,” said Abhinav Bansal, princi-pal, BCG Consulting.

The average balance of Jan Dhan account has grown from Rs 1700 in 2016 to Rs 2500 in 2018. The growth

has been mainly happen-ing due to direct benefit transfer schemes. However, the balance will still take a longer time to get to the level where it will become viable for the banks.

This has led to a situa-tion where many account holders keep it idle, with-out making transactions. However, banks are re-ducing their acquisition costs and leveraging data to service the customers. This will help them find out ways to make such ac-counts viable in the future.

Post demonetization, the deposit per Jan Dhan account had surged to Rs 2643 from Rs 1785, but then it dropped to Rs 2218 within a few months. De-spite growing ever since, they have not returned to the post demonetization levels.

PF litigations likely to come down after SC ruling

Provident Fund de-duction related litiga-tions with the EPFO

is likely to reduce after the Supreme Court rul-ing that special allowance paid by an employer is part of basic wages for EPF dues computa-tion.

T h e a p e x court in its judgement has ruled that special allowance is part of the basic wages for computing the employees provident fund (EPF).

The employer as well as the employee pay 12pc of basic wages each towards contribution for social se-curity scheme run by the Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO).

“The order just upheld

the existing sections of the EPF Act. After this ruling, it is expected that litigations related to deduc-tions toward provident fund

will be reduced,” RPFC Navendu Rai said on the sidelines of a seminar organ-ised by the ICC on the EPF Act in Kolkata.

The apex court deci-sion came when it was dealing with a question on whether special allowances paid by an establishment to its employees would fall within the expression “basic wages” under the provision of the Employees’ Provident Fund and Miscellaneous Provisions Act, 1952 for computation of deduction towards provident fund.

Overseas investors poured in more than Rs 20,400 crore in

the domestic capital market in the first half of March, mainly driven by positive global cues.

The expectation of a positive outcome from the US-China trade agreement along with US Fed’s decision to put rate hike on hold, have worked in favour of entire emerging market segment, analysts said.

In February as well, for-eign portfolio investors (FPIs) were net buyers as they had invested a net amount of Rs 11,182 crore in the capital markets both in equity as well as debt segment.

As per the latest data available with depositories, net inflow in the equities stood at Rs 17,919 crore,

Unlike its MNC peers, India’s home-grown medical devices com-

pany Transasia Bio-Medicals, is increasingly focusing on tier-II, tier-III cities and be-yond to grow. India’s No. 1 In-Vitro Diagnostic (IVD) and among the leading global play-ers, is also doing technology adoptions through overseas acquisitions and making the products here to bring down the costs. Transasia Bio-Medi-cals, is betting big on the fast growing IVD market in India which is currently estimated to be Rs 7500 crore and is growing at 15pc CAGR. The

FPIs invests Rs 20,400cr in March first half

Transasia Bio-Medicals eyes small cities

while the debt market saw an infusion of Rs 2,499 crore on a net basis, during March 1-15, period.

Together, it translates into a net investment of Rs 20,418 crore in the country’s capital markets for the period under review.

“With the expectation on US interest rate hike declin-ing, there has been increased flow into emerging markets. Locally, since February, there is a clear trend of FPIs buy-ing beaten down segments such as banking and finance stocks,” Vaidya Bala, Head - Mutual Funds Research at FundsIndia said.

Himanshu Srivastava, senior analyst manager re-search at Morningstar Invest-ment Adviser India, said it was a welcome change in FPI trend.

global IVD market is estimated to be $70 billion and as per industry reports in 2018, In-dia’s overall medical devices industry is pegged at a $5.2 billion (Rs. 35,097.40 crore), most of which is imported.

“We have coughed up nearly Rs 1000 crore in ac-quiring 14 companies abroad- in countries like Germany, France, Italy, the UK, the US, Russia, Brazil, Turkey, Czech Republic, to name a few, over the last few years and have been spending Rs 100 crore every year for R&D activities.” said Suresh Vazirani, CMD, Transasia Bio-Medicals.

The diversified Cen-trum Group, which is into wealth man-

agement, equity broking and credit business with a focus on SME financing and housing, is planning to launch a structured credit fund with an initial corpus of Rs 500 crore shortly. The Jaspal Bindra-run group offers integrated financial solutions under various verticals like the flagship Centrum Capital with its various subsidiar-ies like wealth manage-ment, broking, housing finance, financial advi-sory, and infrastructure & reality advisory and is present Pan-India with 80 branches.

The privately held group also has plans to enter the now lucrative ARC (asset reconstruction company) space given the trillions of rupees of as-

Centrum to launch Rs 500cr structured credit fundsets up for grabs at the various bankruptcy courts. But the immediate focus is launching a structured credit fund. We plan to launch it with an initial corpus of at least Rs 500 crore and it should be up and running soon after the general elections, chairman Bindra, who owns around one-quarter of equity in the group founded by Chandir Gidwani, said.

On the ARC business plan, Bindra says it can wait. See, there are around 3,400 companies at NCLTs. Of this only around 400 are resolved or nearing resolution. So what is the hurry? Let the hype settle down and let the assets become more affordable because our present size doesn’t allow us to take huge vulnerabilities. The market is really big and we have enough patience, too.

Let the IBC settle down first, says the ex-MNC banker who spent over three decades with StanC, UBS and Bank of America. Of this, Bindra spent 18 years at various positions at the British bank, Standard Chartered, where his last position was that of chief executive, the Asia Pacific region.

Centrum Group’s cred-it business, which was launched towards the mid-dle of last fiscal, already has a loan book of Rs 2,000 crore, of which the SME book is the largest with Rs 1,400 crore of AUM, followed by Rs 450 crore in affordable housing and Rest 250 crore of MFI book. The proposed structured credit, which will lend credit but fully secured with physical assets, or in effect picking up equity for short-term in the invested

company, says Bindra, add-ing he has already hired the leadership team for this vertical.

As a precursor, Centrum has already done three structured credit deals since January and they will get more aggressive from April. But the structured credit fund will be operat-ing on a separate business model of investing for the medium-term, he explains.

Already we are working on a few large deals in this space having closed three since January, he says, add-ing they arrange structured credit to mid-size compa-nies at a higher premium and the typical ticket size varies from Rs 100 crore to Rs 200 crore which are also fully secured. But he is quick to clarify that this is not a credit business but a credit aggregation business for a fee.

State-run power giant NTPC is expected to end the current

financial year with cap-tive coal production of 7.25 million tonne, up a massive 170pc, from 2.68 million tonne in the year-ago period, a company official said.

The official said that while output at NTPC’s Pakri Barwadih coal mine at Jharkhand has seen a sizeable jump to 6.75 million tonne in FY19, from 2.68 million tonne in FY18, Dulanga coal mine in Odisha has started production as well. The Dulanga mine will end

NTPC’s captive coal output to nearly treble in 2018-19the current financial year with an output of 0.5 mil-lion tonne.

“Mining of coal is inte-gral to our overall fuel se-curity strategy. A Greater degree of self-reliance in coal will go a long way in ensuring sustained growth of our power generation operations,” the official said.

“We made a debut in captive coal production just two years ago so the jump in output for the current financial year is encouraging.”

However, at 7.25 mil-lion tonne, the NTPC’s captive coal production

is still a fraction of its an-nual coal requirement of around 190 million tonne. The bulk of NTPC’s coal requirement is currently met by Coal India, while small quantity is also imported.

The first rake of coal from NTPC’s Pakri Bar-wadih coal mine was flagged off in February 2017. Pakri Barwadih has block area of 46.26 sq km with a mine capacity 15 million tonne per annum and mineable reserve 641 million tonne.

The NTPC has been allotted coal blocks in-cluding Pakri-Barwadih,

Chatti-Bariatu, Kerandari, Dulanga, Talaipalli and Chatti-Bariatu (South), Banai, Bhalumunda and Mandakini B – for cap-tive production so that it can meet the demand for fuel for its coal run power plants.

These mines have to-tal geological reserves of around 7.15 billion tonne with annual production potential of 107 million tonne. The total capac-ity for NTPC’s coal fired power plants is currently at 45,500 MW.

“We will ramp up coal production at Dulanga and Pakri Barwadih and bring

more mines into produc-tion to boost the overall output in the coming years,” the official said.

The official refused to comment on the targeted output for the new finan-cial year that starts on April 1, 2019, but said that the growth in captive coal production for financial year 2019-20 was likely to be robust and will take NTPC’s output to double digits.

In its annual report in 2017, NTPC had said that it plans to secure around 33 per cent of its total coal requirement through cap-tive coal blocks by 2030.

Engineering and con-struction major Lars-en and Toubro (L&T),

is set to make an offer to acquire the shares of mid-cap software company Mindtree. L&T is looking

to buy 20.4pc stake held by Café Coffee Day (CCD) founder V G Siddhartha, along with his Café Cof-fee Day affiliate firms in Mindtree.

L&T will buy the 20.4pc

L&T set to takeover IT major Mindtree

stake at Rs 981 per share and will make an open offer to buy up to 51pc in Mindtree. Axis Capital and Citigroup Global markets are running mandate for the open offer as bankers.

M i n d t r e e Limited is a multinational IT company that deals in o u t s o u r c i n g services in the field of e-com-merce, mobile applications, c l o u d c o m -puting, digital

transformation, data analyt-ics, enterprise application integration and enterprise resource planning. L&T In-foTech has grown almost 2.5 times in the last three years in terms of market value.

State-owned Punjab & Sind Bank said it would raise up

to Rs 500 crore by issu-ing fresh equity shares through qualified insti-tutional placement.

The money would be raised in one or more tranches, the bank said in a regulatory filing. The bank said it would

issue up to 5 crore shares to its employees under the Employee Share Purchase Scheme.

The bank also hiked its marginal cost of funds based lending rate by 0.05pc for a six-month tenor and lowered interest on the three-year tenor by 0.05pc.

Punjab & Sind Bank to raise Rs 500cr

8 Travel / Entertainment

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Shyam Benegal guiding a Bangladesh parliamentary delegation which visited the National Museum of Indian Cinema at the Film Division complex in Mumbai.

Even as the Director-ate General of Civil Aviation asked the

airlines not to raise fares in the wake of the grounding of 12 SpiceJet Boeing 737 Max 8 planes and operational is-sues faced by other airlines, spot fares remained at a very high level. Data pro-vided by travel portal Yatra showed that spot ticket prices on Mumbai-Chennai routes have increased to Rs 20,329. Similarly, spot fares at other busy routes such as Delhi-Mumbai (Rs14,420),

Surging airfares to spoil summer holidaysDelhi-Chennai (Rs 12,560), Delhi-Kolkata (Rs20,999) across various other travel portals too remained high

Weekend fares and fares around Holi appear to be at 15 to 25pc more expensive than normal now. “Before the disruption, passengers had booked tickets around Holi at Rs 3,000 to 4,000 level across major routes. Now with many getting total refunds instead of another flight in case of cancellation, they will have to pay more than double, and in some cases,

four to five times more, to book a new flight for the same route,” said spokesper-son of a leading travel portal.

Meanwhile, Jet Airways withdrew five more air-craft from service, owing to non-payment of lease rent-als, taking the total tally to 32. IndiGo, on the other hand, is cancelling dozens of its flights over shortage of pilots everyday. Air India, which already has grounded around a dozen aircraft over maintenance issues, announced suspending its

flights on Delhi-Madrid and Delhi-Birmingham routes from March 16 till further notice due to operational reasons. The move is likely to make European tours expensive.

Aditya Chawla, head (op-erations), EaseMyTrip.com, said: “Ticket prices have gone up by 25 to 45pc post the grounding of SpiceJet’s aircraft, with cancellation rate increasing by 10 to 15pc . The fares are likely to come back to normal after 20 to 25 days from now.”

Luxury industry suffers as Chinese tourists stay homeFrom Tokyo’s glitzy

Ginza shopping dis-trict to Hong Kong,

Macau and New York’s Fifth Avenue, there are noticeable cracks in what has been the very bankable strategy of catering to throngs of newly affluent Chinese travelling the world. Explanations vary from China’s slowing econo-my to the government’s push to spur spending at home and fluctuations in currency values. Whatever the reason, the result is increasing worry across the globe.

“Luxury brands have gained a lot of traction and growth out of China, but the bloom is off the rose,” Pam Danziger, president of Unity Marketing in Penn-sylvania, which researches affluent shoppers said. “You can’t blame them because that’s where the easy money was.” Over the past few months, executives have been hounded by questions about high-end Chinese

shoppers, who Bain & Co says generated a third of global luxury sales in 2017- - mostly outside China’s border. French luxury giants L’Oréal and LVMH have tried to ease concerns, saying

travel sales remain robust. Meanwhile, jeweller Tiffany; Capri Holdings, the owner of Michael Kors and Jimmy Choo and Coach parent Tapestry said spending by Chinese tourists in cities in-cluding New York and Hong Kong has weakened.

Cruise line operators are grappling with this, too.

Many poured resources into catering to the Chinese trav-eller over the past few years only to have demand disap-point. In early 2017, Norwe-gian Cruise Line unveiled a ship “built for China”

that included bigger rooms specif ical ly designed for extended fam-ilies. But the effort was a flop and the company is now spending $50 million to revamp the ship for Alas-

kan cruises .But there have been winners in the cruise sector. One such is Cos-ta Cruises, which has just launched its new Venice-themed ship targeted solely at Chinese tourists.

The Chinese tourists made a perfect target for luxury brands. Thanks to their homeland’s rapid eco-

nomic growth, they are new-ly wealthy, full of aspiration and hungry to display their elevated status. Timing also made them invaluable, with their conspicuous consump-tion taking off just after the financial crisis. As a result, China became the world’s largest spender in inter-national tourism in 2012, according to data from the World Tourism Organisation, a United Nations agency. In Tokyo, they have been a ubiquitous sight, with shop-pers filling up empty suitcas-es with high-end cosmetics in duty-free airport shops, and tour groups flooding into jewellry stores. Market-ing around the Chinese New Year has become the norm, with even the US catching on to the opportunity. SeaWorld San Diego and the Chicago Symphony took part this year. In Las Vegas, to mark Chinese New Year, Caesars sent a dragon parade through its Forum Shops mall.

Lilly Singh, who built a career on YouTube as a comedian, is

getting her own late-night show. Singh (30), will host a half-hour show in the 1:35 am slot on NBC beginning in Sept , according to a statement from NBC. She will be an executive producer on the show and will be the only woman with a late-night show on one of the so-called Big Four broadcast networks.

“An Indian-Canadian woman with her own late-night show? Now that is a dream come true,” Singh said in the statement. The show will include in-studio interviews as well as taped skits and segments. The announce-ment comes a month after the news that the late-night host Carson Daly would step away from his 1:30 am show, “Last Call With Carson Daly.”

Singh’s new show, “A Little Late With Lilly

Lilly to host late-night show on NBCSingh,” which she discussed on “The Tonight Show Star-ring Jimmy Fallon,” would be “kind of like my YouTube channel,” she said. Except it would have “more than

three staff members, and my sound guy won’t also be an extra and won’t also write the script,” she said. Singh has been upload-ing YouTube videos since 2010 and has amassed more than 14 million subscribers. Her skits and monologues, which regularly draw from her Indian heritage and experience as a child of immigrants, cover a range of topics, including dating

(especially intercultural dating), womanhood and friendship.

Her success on You-Tube has also opened the door to other opportu-

nities. Singh has acted in movies such as “Bad Moms” and “Fahrenheit 451.” Her book, “How to Be a Bawse: A Guide to Con-quering Life,” was a New York Times best seller. Last year, she began her own production company, Unicorn Island Produc-tions, with Polly Auritt, and the pair will partner with Universal Television to produce her new show.

Enjoy inexpensive BangkokBangkok is known as

a bachelor’s paradise on earth and while the

statement is true, it is not al-ways that you get everything cheap. Not every person comes with money so it is often hard to think of visiting this place. Getting a Bangkok tour for cheap might not be that easy to find, but there are actually a number of inexpensive things that one can do while in Bangkok. If you are wondering, it’s just about trying the local street food, it isn’t. The list does contain way more than that. Let’s find out what.THAI CUSINE: I f you thought we wouldn’t start the list off with the delec-table fast food around, you were sorely mistaken. If you have been to Thailand or know the Thai cuisine with just Pad Thai and Green Curry, now is the time to change that. Bangkok offers a wide range of cheap yet safe, hygienic and delectable street food options that you just can’t miss out on. Visit one of the many street food localities and you will be awestruck with the options of food that they have up for offer to the locals and the tourists alike. While there, try the chicken satay skew-ers and even indulge in some juice in a bag.FLOATING MARKET: The floating market does sound a bit overambitious, but Bangkok is home to one. The view itself is something you won’t get anywhere around the world. Several vendors are found to sell their produce on the boats over the water. Damnoen Saduak is most probably

the most popular one in the entirety of Thailand. It is located around 62 km away from Bangkok, so you need to make the plans ahead of time. If you don’t have a lot of time on hand, the Khlong

Lat Mayom market is just as good. Interact with the locals and get some fresh produce, especially the fruits.RECLINING BUDDHA: Next on the list of the amazingly inexpensive things to do around in Bangkok is to go exploring the reclining Buddha as well as the Grand Palace. There are many rules and regulations surrounding visiting this place, to ensure that you get a guide to get everything clarified about the same. Wearing covered clothes is important when visiting this place, so keep that in mind as well. Visit-ing this place will cost you 500 baht per person which is pretty decent for the gran-deur of the place.WATER TAXI: Much like how tuk-tuks are popu-lar around in Bangkok, yet another mode of public transport that does attract the attention of the tourists is the water taxi. Feeling the wind on your face while traveling on the water to someplace around the city is an indescribable feeling altogether. The best part of

this is the fact that the ride is very cheap and won’t leave a dent in your pocket. Take a trip from Sathorn Pier to the Grand Palace for something as cheap as 15 bahts only.NIGHTLIFE: Yet another

p o p u l a r s p o t around in Bang-kok that is loved by the tourists is the Khao San Road. If you wish to get a glimpse into the Bangkok nightlife, this is a great start for the same. The entire

road is filled with clubs and bars and you will even find musicians playing their pieces on the road itself. The entire place is crowded and filled with locals and tour-ists who want to indulge and enjoy the nightlife that Bangkok has to offer.Nev-ertheless, when you are accompanied or guided by a local in your tour, you are likely to have the best time

because there is no one who can help you explore a place than a local. With locals is an amazing platform that can help you get started. They arrange a local for you who will guide you throughout the tour and will make you have the best time. Finding to do inexpensive things in Bangkok might seem like a tough job, but it is not that much. If you wish to enjoy the place, start with the areas that are visited the most by the locals in-stead of aiming first for the touristy places. Also, make sure to make the bookings beforehand to further avoid any kind of hiked prices and such in the last minute.

Goa Tourism at BTL Portugal

Goa Tourism put up a show at BTL (Bolsa de Tourismo de Lisboa) in

Lisbon, Portugal. The five-day event received an excellent response with market leaders increasing their stand size followed by participation from a cross section of global and Indian travel and tourism markets. Indian Ambassador to Portugal K Nandini Singla called on the Goa Tourism delegation led by Sanjiv Gad-kar, director, Department of Tourism. Singla expressed delight on Goa Tourism’s participation at the Bolsa de Tourismo de Lisboa and for setting up a pavilion showcas-ing the best that Goa Tourism has to offer to the world.

Singla who had visited

Goa last year and met Tour-ism Minister Manohar Ajga-onkar once again re-assured the Goa Tourism delegation of her continued support and pursuing bilateral ties between Goa and Portugal through tourism, sports and other areas. As part of this initiative, Singla also urged Goa Tourism to initiate talks with APAVT, an association

of Portuguese travel and tour-ism agencies which could facilitate and boost footfalls to Goa in the near future. Jose Ulisses Correia e Silva, Prime Minister of Cape Verde who also visited Goa Tour-ism’s pavilion at the on-going BTL, Lisbon, showed keen interest in Goa as a tourism destination having a plethora of facets.