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RIYADH: The Ministry of Haj and Umrah is to re-fund Umrah fees and service charges of pilgrims and visi-tors to the Prophet’s Mosque, whose travel was affected following the Kingdom’s temporary suspension of their entry into the Kingdom over Coronavirus fears.

The ministry said in a statement, carried by the Saudi Press Agency, that there is an electronic mecha-nism to request the refund of visa fees and service charges through Umrah agents in the respective countries where from the pilgrims intended to set out for their pilgrim-age. The ministry urged all those, who have any claims of the refund for visa fees and service charges, to con-tact the local Umrah agents in their respective countries. It also called for those, who have any queries, to contact

Saudi to refund Umrah visa fees,service charges to affected pilgrims

the service centre at the ministry over phone number 00966-920002814 or email ID mohcc@haj.gov.sa

Saudi Arabia had tem-porarily suspended entry

into the Kingdom for those coming for Umrah and visit-ing the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. The Kingdom has also suspended the entry of tourist visa holders coming from countries where the new Coronavirus is spread-ing dangerously. This an-nouncement was followed by the temporary suspension of entry of citizens from the GCC countries to the holy cit-

ies of Makkah and Madinah.The ministry of foreign

affairs added that the GCC citizens, who have been in the Kingdom for 14 consecu-tive days and have not shown

symptoms of coronavirus, are exempt from the ban and they can obtain a permit from the website of the ministry of Haj to perform Umrah and visit the holy cities. Saudi authorities have clarified that passengers holding employ-ment visa, work visit visa, business visit visa and fam-ily visit visa are exempted from the travel restrictions imposed by the Kingdom. All

the above visa holders will be allowed to enter the Kingdom until further notice.

Saudi officials said the temporary suspension is a precautionary and preventive measure aiming at protecting pilgrims and the holy places from the attack of coronavirus. “Saudi Arabia feels a sense of responsibility, therefore we took these temporary deci-sions which will constantly be reviewed,” said Moham-med Abdelali, a spokesperson for the Health Ministry. In the hours after the announcement, there was confusion at airports abroad where flights to Saudi Arabia were about to take off. In Beirut, passengers without Saudi residency were barred from boarding. Emirates and Flydubai said they would no longer carry passengers with tourist visas from China, Japan, Italy, Iran, India, Pakistan and a number of other countries.

Saudi Arabia had temporarily suspended entry into the Kingdom for those coming for Umrah and visiting the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah. The Kingdom has also suspended the entry of tourist visa holders coming from countries where the new Coronavirus is spreading dangerously.

Kuwait bans visas as another corona case is confi rmedKUWAIT CITY: Although only four new coronavirus cases have been discovered over the past three days, Kuwait has stepped up mea-sures to prevent the spread of the deadly diseases, includ-ing a total ban on all types of visas for visitors.

The National Assembly cancelled a scheduled emer-gency meeting in a bid to contain “sectarian exchanges” on social media, and Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanem said it was premature to decide if the ordinary session on March 10 will also be cancelled. The public food authority has instructed all restaurants and cafes that all waiters must wear facemasks and gloves and that restaurants must provide sanitizers to clients.

The ministry of health said a new case tested positive in one of the people who returned from Iran and was at the quar-antine set up by the ministry, raising the total number of cases to 46, placing Kuwait

at the top of Gulf countries in the number of infections. Only new four cases were discov-ered in the past three days, but MP Adnan Abdulsamad said that a new group of Kuwaitis who were repatriated have not yet been tested by health min-istry staff, raising the prospect of more cases.

The interior ministry slapped a total ban on all types of visas for all nation-alities, only allowing entry to foreigners who hold legal residencies in the country, except those who visited in-fected countries. Kuwait had cut all transport links to Iran and several other countries as GCC citizens no longer can use their IDs to travel between Gulf countries and must have their passports.

Kuwait also said people travelling from Egypt to Ku-wait will be subjected to medical tests before boarding the plane to the country as a precautionary measure amid rumors that Egypt has many

cases of coronavirus but is not announcing them, an accusa-tion that Egyptian authorities have denied. MP Majed Al-Mutairi called on authorities to prepare contingency plans to repatriate Kuwaiti students from Egypt in case Cairo an-nounces a large number of cases. Ghanem said that he would announce later wheth-er the March 10 session will be held or not, adding that MPs have to be tested for the disease like other people. He said the extraordinary session was cancelled to preserve na-tional unity and in order not to engage the health authori-ties in debates that can be made later, adding that now it’s time to support authori-ties and after that people who failed to perform will be held to account.Meanwhile, the novel coronavirus claimed another 11 lives in Iran, bring-ing the country’s overall toll to 54, according to official figures that showed the virus was spreading more rapidly.

Dubai’s non-oil foreign tradesix per cent at Dh1.37trillionDUBAI: Dubai saw remark-able external trade growth in 2019, spurred by its efforts to achieve its 2025 trade target of Dh2 trillion. The emirate’s non-oil foreign trade rose six per cent to reach Dh1.37 tril-lion last year despite head-winds from an intensified global economic downturn. In terms of value, Dubai’s external trade hit Dh1.371 trillion last year compared with Dh1.299 trillion in 2018. Exports skyrocketed 22pc to Dh155 billion, re-exports grew by four per cent to Dh420 billion and imports rose by three per cent to Dh796 billion.

China remained Dubai’s largest trading partner, con-tributing Dh150 billion. In-dia was second, contributing Dh135 billion, followed by the US with Dh77.7 billion,

and Switzerland with Dh60 billion.

Over the 2010-19 decade, the value of Dubai’s exter-nal trade went up by 52pc thanks to the agility, versa-tility and flexibility of the external trade sector in the emirate, which discovered alternative markets and trade paths to make up for slug-gish growth in some mar-kets. “Dubai’s strong foreign trade performance, which reflect s its robust economic fundamentals and its resil-ience against odds, gave it a positive start to 2020 ---- the year of preparation for the next 50 years,” according to a statement.

In terms of volume, non-oil external trade surged 19pc from 91 million tonnes in 2018 to reach 109 million tonnes last year. Re-exports

rose by a record 48pc to reach 17 million tonnes, while exports rose by 45pc to 19 million tonnes and im-ports grew by nine per cent to 72 million tonnes. These figures capped a prosperous decade for Dubai from 2010-20, during which external trade grew by 70pc.

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai and Chairman of the Executive Council, said Dubai’s external trade has contributed significantly to the emirate’s economic achievements, further rais-ing its status as a global hub for trade, business and tourism, giving it a solid platform for growth in the next 50 years and creating the optimal conditions for more sustainable develop-ment across sectors.

“Inspired by the vision of Ruler of Dubai His High-ness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum , Dubai’s external trade sector is pro-gressing steadily towards the 2025 trade target of Dh2 trillion set by His Highness. All government entities are working seamlessly together to provide the best services, facilitate trade and foreign investments and further de-velop infrastructure across the emirate, especially at airports and free zones, to galvanise its journey of ex-cellence and enhance its role as a commercial bridge between the east and west. Furthermore, hosting mega-events such as Expo 2020 will provide opportunities for the international trade sector to explore new possi-bilities and expand growth.”

Corona: airlines may lose $30b this yearDUBAI: Airlines could lose $30 billion in revenue this year due to the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak, accord-ing to the International Air Transport Association (IATA).The global death toll has exceeded 3,000 on Monday, and nearly 90,000 confirmed infections have been reported. Over 45,000 patients have also been treated.

With several countries suspending or curtailing flights to and from affected countries, the aviation in-dustry has been severely hit. Muhammad Ali Albakri, regional vice president, Africa and the MidEast, said airlines in China and other parts of the Asia Pacific region have faced maximum impact, and are likely to see a revenue loss of $27.8 billion. Regional carriers will see their revenue dip by three per cent, but this figure can go up to 50pc if the outbreak continues and travel restrictions are expanded.

“We are seeing a drop in ticket sales in the MidEast and across the world. We are monitoring the situation and hope there is a reversal of the situation,” he said, adding that the aviation industry was resilient and would bounce back from the situation, as it has done before. On Emirates asking staff to go on leave, he said: “It’s a demonstration of how hard industry is hit. Airline margin are so thin that such situation hit them badly.” “Airlines will have to reassess entire plans for 2020. This has impacted a major part of world.”

NRIs killed in UAE road mishapAL AIN: Three Indian ex-pats were killed after their car crashed into a vehicle in Al Ain. An official at the Indian embassy identified the deceased as Ramkumar Gunasekaran, (30) , Subash Kumar (29) and Senthil Kali-yaperumal (36). Hailing from Tamil Nadu, the deceased used to work at a company in Abu Dhabi’s Mussafah.

Samad Pomthanam, a social worker based in Al Ain, said: “The incident hap-pened around 3am on Friday. The vehicle they were in crashed into another in front of them. Two of them died on the spot and Gunasekaran passed away at the hospital.”

Pomthanam said the trio was going to Oman, but had to return from the border because one of them was ineligible to enter the country due to his profession. “They were on their way back when the crash happened,” said Pomthanam.

Govt okays WiFi in fl ights NEW DELHI: Enjoy WiFi on flights soon. In an offi-cial notification, the Union government has given its nod to introduce in-flight WiFi services by airlines. This service will be given to passengers on the flight after the permit by the Pilot-in-Command. The passengers onboard can avail in-flight WiFi services for their smart-phones, laptops, tablets, e-readers or smartwatches given that the devices are on airplane mode or fight mode, the government said in the notification. These services, according to the government official, can only be availed once the flight has taken off and all the doors are closed. The usage of internet service in-flight shall be certified by the director-general.

The government in 2018 had announced Maritime Communications (IFMC) and In-Flight WiFi licences for international and Indian ves-sels and aero planes. This was initially proposed by the Indian telecom regulator. Air passenger carrier Vistara has

recently announced that it will introduce in-flight WiFi services and claimed that it is the first airline in India to have in-flight WiFi services. For this, the company has partnered with Tata group firm, Nelco. The WiFi services by Vistara are likely to be of-fered by March-end in some of its international flights.

Nelco, on the other hand, has partnered with Pana-sonic Avionics for introduc-ing WiFi on flights. Nelco believes that the services are expected to provide aeroplane operators with a chance that will improve their customer experience and improve their passenger loyalty. Not only this but the new services will also help the companies have an ad-ditional revenue stream and flight operations that can be optimized. PJ Nath, MD & CEO of Nelco had earlier said that it is a great growth opportunity for Nelco in the country’s IFC services and Nelco is aiming to a be the market leader in this seg-ment.

Gold prices surge to hit Rs 42,733MUMBAI: Gold prices in In-dian markets extended gains today after two fresh cases of coronavirus were reported in the country. On MCX, gold futures prices rose Rs 736 per 10 gm or 1.78pc to Rs 42,133. Silver futures rose two per cent or Rs 950 to Rs 45,350 per kg on MCX. In the previous session, gold had slumped over Rs1,000 per 10 gram, tracking a global sell-off. Despite today’s rise, gold rates remain significantly off last week’s record highs of Rs43,788 per 10 gram.

One positive case of coro-navirus has been detected in New Delhi and one has been detected in Telangana, the Union government said in a statement. “Both the patients are stable and being closely monitored,” it added. Indian stocks market index Sensex also fell nearly 1,200 points from day’s highs as risk sentiment took a hit after the fresh coronavirus cases were reported. In global markets, gold prices rebounded today,

after a steep five per cent fall in the previous session, as coronavirus-driven fears sent investors scurrying

for safe havens. Spot gold rates moved 1.2pc higher to $1,602.90 per ounce. Other assets considered safe ha-vens were also in spotlight today with benchmark US 10-year treasury yields fall-ing to a record low, while the yen rose to its highest since October against the US dollar.

Friday’s fall in gold prices were attributed to investors

being forced to sell to cover losses in other asset classes like equities.

Among other precious

metals, palladium rose 0.7pc to $2,610.62 per ounce, platinum gained 1.9pc to $880.10 while silver rose 1.3pc to $16.88.

Hareesh V, head of com-modity at Geojit Financial Services, said: “Gold will remain positive due to in-creased safe haven demand amid economic fears due to the virus outbreak in China, feeble global equities and a

weak US dollar. Meanwhile, higher level profit booking and concerns over physical demand from top consumer

China and India likely to weigh down the senti-ments.”

But an un-expected drop below $1554 could weaken the sentiments, he added.

Factory ac-tivity in China contracted at the fastest pace ever in Feb, raising

fears of a global recession from coronavirus. Analysts say that gold prices would also be supported by ex-pectations of rate cut by US FedReserve. Fed chief Jerome Powell last week had issued a rare statement of reassurance by saying that the US central bank will use “our tools” to support the economy, a strong signal of a coming in-terest rate cut. Lower interest

rates boost non-yielding asset classes like gold.

Despite coming off from recent highs, gold prices are up significantly this year. “Gold has been shin-ing brightly as Investors seek out the safe haven as-set, and price forecast also seems bullish,” said Vinod Nair, Head of Research at Geojit Financial Services. Goldman Sachs Group has boosted its 12-month gold forecast to $1,800 an ounce. Meanwhile, the govern-ment’s gold bond scheme opened for subscription today. The government is selling gold bonds.

This price has been fixed based on the simple average closing price, published by the India Bullion and Jewel-lers Association Ltd, for gold of 999 purity of the last three business days of the week preceding the subscription period. Those applying on-line and making payment online get a discount of Rs 50 per gm.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, March 03, 2020

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

Publisher: Supreeth M.J.Editor : E.L. VaidyanathanVolume No.: 2, Issue: 42

Published at: Office No. 1001, 10th Floor,Navjivan Commercial Premises Co-op. Society Ltd.,Lamington Road, (Dr.D.B.Marg), Mumbai Central,

Mumbai - 400 008. Ph.: 022 - 23001102 / 23001103.Printed at: Siddhi Services, A-180/4, TTC Industrial Area,

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Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik greets Japan Ambassador Satoshi Suzuki and Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan at Lokaseva Bhavan in Bhubaneswar. Patnaik has proposed an exclusive Japan Industrial Cluster near Bhubaneswar for which the state government will provide all facilitation.

UK visas for Indian students up 93pcNEW DELHI: The number of Indian students being granted visas for higher studies in the United Kingdom has in-creased by a staggering 93pc after the rule changed, a report released by the UK immigra-tion department has revealed.

Last Sept, the UK had tweaked tier-4 (study visa) rules thereby granting a two-year work period after the completion of the course. Post this change, the number of Indian students applying for higher studies in the UK has risen from 19,497 to 37,540, a rise of 93pc. The other four countries with a significant number of stu-dents in the UK are China (1,19,972), the US (14,883),

Saudia Arabia (9,229) and Hong Kong (9,200).

Reacting to the report, Acting British High Commis-sioner to India Jan Thomp-son said: “This phenom-enal increase in student visa numbers is testament both to the UK’s world-leading education system and to the exceptional talents of Indian students. We couldn’t be prouder that the best and brightest continue to pick the UK, making the living bridge between our countries stronger each day.”

Recently, the UK also tweaked its immigration sys-tem making it a point-based one. Following the change, the number of skilled work-

ers has also marginally gone up from 55,479 in 2018 to 57,199 in 2019. India has the highest number of skilled workers in the UK followed by the US, China, Philip-pines, Nigeria and Australia. “It is exciting to see so many Indian students trusting the UK as the destination for their education and further-ing their careers. This bodes very well for both countries’ continued focus on realising their knowledge ambitions in a fast-changing world,” India director of the British Coun-cil Barbara Wickham said.

There has also been an eight per cent rise in the number of Indians travelling to the UK on a tourist visa.

Rs 2,000 note on its way into history?MUMBAI: Banks across the country are recalibrating their ATM machines to re-place the high-value Rs 2,000 notes with some other de-nomination notes, raising questions about the future of the high-value denomination.

Although there has been no official confirmation from RBI or other authorities on the withdrawal of the cur-rency from circulation, there have been widespread news reports the currency is being gradually taken out of circu-lation. It is assumed that this could be part of the strategy of the central bank to keep a tab on the total amount of high-value currency in circu-lation, as part of its efforts to combat hoarding, tax evasion and counterfeiting of notes.

Last week, Indian Bank, a leading public sector bank, said that it will no longer keep Rs 2,000 notes in its ATMs, citing public incon-venience, who found it hard to exchange the notes. The decision came into effect from March 1. (However, the bank’s branches will continue to manually offer these notes.) A number of

other banks also said they are in the process of recalibrat-ing their ATMs to replace the 2,000 notes with smaller denomination notes--- may be Rs 1000 note is on its way back. Already, ATMs are compliant with Rs 100, Rs

200 and Rs 500 notes.As per an RTI (right to

information) query in Oct last, the printing of Rs 2,000 notes had been stopped for the preceding 18 months. The central bank printed 3.54 billion worth these notes in the financial year 2016-17, which declined to 111 million in 2017-18 and

plunged to 46.7 million in 2018-19, the RTI query had revealed. It also revealed that not a single Rs 2,000 note has been printed in the current financial year.

Prime Minister Modi, in a dramatic move, demonetised

banknotes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 notes in 2016 and introduced fresh banknotes with denominations of Rs 2,000 and Rs 500 notes, which he claimed had the ability to tackle black money and corruption. However, in 2017-18, about 56pc fake currency in the new Rs 2,000 notes was seized in India, as

per the recent National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data. (NCRB also highlighted how the fake Rs 2,000 notes had a presence across 27 states and union territories.)

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has said that no instructions have been given to banks on stopping issuing Rs 2,000 denomination. “As far as I know, no such instruc-tion has been given to the banks (on stopping issue of Rs 2000 notes),” she said at a meeting with heads of public sector banks. The minister’s comments come after reports of ATM recalibration to phase out of Rs 2,000 notes and that the largest currency de-nomination will remain legal tender, but would be gradually phased out of public circula-tion. But RBI data show the share of Rs 2,000 denomina-tion notes of the total notes in circulation dropped three per cent in 2018-19 against 3.3pc in 2016-17, that is, immediate-ly after the demonetisation of old currency notes of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500. In terms of value, the share of Rs 2,000 notes was 50.2pc in 2016-17, which later fell to 31.2pc in 2018-19.

Industrialist Bangar Reddy Seeks 22nd Congressional District Seat in TexasTEXAS: An Indian American Republican is hoping to win the party’s nomination in his bid to claim the 22nd Congressional District seat in Texas.

Bangar Reddy, a resident of Fort Bend County for the past 22 years, is a conserva-tive Republican running for Congress hoping to keep the GOP in office, taking over for outgoing Republican incum-bent Pete Olson.

“I’m not a career politi-cian. I love serving Ameri-ca,” Reddy, who has served on the boards of several non-profit organisations over the last 20 years, and is well among the commu-nity’s most involved citi-zens, said on his campaign website, www.reddy4con-gress.com Reddy served as team leader at ground zero during natural disasters including Hurricane Ike and Hurricane Harvey and continues to be involved in various community service initiatives on education, health, entrepreneurship, events showcasing cultural diversity, immigration and

women’s empowerment, among others.

Reddy, who grew up in India in a working-class agricultural family, has 25 years of strong professional background in IT. He credits his success to his firm faith in God, belief in hard work endowed by his parents, and the generosity of the Ameri-

can people who invited him as a legal immigrant, accord-ing to his site. “I know what it’s like to be poor – dirt-poor – and I know what it’s like not to have access to medical care,” he says.

Among his top reasons for running for Congress are emphasising strong family

values, keeping our borders safe and secured, maintain-ing drug free neighborhoods, curbing illegal immigration, instituting fair and expe-dited legal immigration and providing quality education for all, the website adds. Reddy is a staunch conser-vative and strongly rejects socialist ideology, which he believes is pervading Texas, the site notes.

He believes that social-ist ideology and socialist programmes are trying to invade Texas, “by promoting big government and waste-ful spending.”

Growing up, Reddy ex-celled in studies with hard work and discipline. He tutored less fortunate and under-performing children during his college days at Stanford University. He continued his education in the US, received his master’s degree, and went on to start his own small business. He worked for small, medium and large companies in the energy, infrastructure and investment sectors, the cam-paign site said.

Bangar Reddy

SAALT names Lakshmi Sridaranas its new executive directorNEW YORK: South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) has announced that Lakshmi Sridaran, who served as the organisation’s director of national policy and ad-vocacy since 2014 and was its interim executive director in the past year, is SAALT’s new executive director. SAALT named Sim-ran Noor is its new board chair.

Sr idaran, sa id SAALT, played a crucial role as its interim executive director, managing the organisation’s operations and infrastructure while simultaneously lead-ing on policy and campaigns. “Lakshmi’s strong commit-ment to SAALT’s mission and specifically to building movements for justice across communities of colour was deepened while serving as director of national policy and advocacy at SAALT for over

four four years,” the organisa-tion noted in a press release. “She developed SAALT’s pol-icy and legislative agenda fo-cused on immigration, racial profiling and combating hate violence. During this time, she

expanded the scope of SAALT’s coalition partners at the local and national levels, including facilitating more influence for South Asian Ameri-can communities on

Capitol Hill.”Before joining SAALT, Sri-

daran served as the policy di-rector for the Praxis Project, a national organisation focused on health justice in communi-ties of color. Prior to that, the Indian American spent six years in New Orleans, Loui-siana, working with directly impacted communities on recovery and economic justice issues immediately after Hur-ricane Katrina.

Lakshmi Sridaran

Bill to bring co-op banks under RBI to get parliament nod soonNEW DELHI: In a bid to ad-dress weaknesses in co-opera-tive banking sector, parliament is likely to clear a bill to amend Banking Regulation Act to bring multi-state co-operative banks under effective regula-tion of RBI during the budget session. The proposed legisla-tion will help prevent a repeat of Punjab and Maharashtra Co-op Bank-like crisis, sources said. There are 1,540 co-op banks with a depositor base of 8.60 crore having total savings of about Rs 5-lakh-crore.

The Union cabinet headed by Prime Minister Modi last month had given approval to amend Banking Regulation Act. The bill in this regard is likely to be passed during the second leg of the current session . The session ends on April 3.

Having undertaken a slew of measures, including clean-up of public sector banks (PSBs), private sector banks, financial institution like IL&FS, non-bank financial corpora-tions (NBFCs), housing finance corporations (HFCs), auditors, rating agencies, this is the last step in making the entire financial ecosystem almost impossible to be gamed, with security of depositors’ money being paramount.

To further bolster the con-fidence of customers, the gov-ernment has increased deposit insurance cover by five-fold to Rs 5 lakh to ensure security of public money in banks.

Statement about the ownership and other particulars about newspaper entitled NEWS AND NRI CONNECT as

FORM IV (See Rule 8)

SHAREHOLDERS:

1. 2. 3.4. Abdul Rahim Khan 5. 6. 7.8. 9. 10. 11.12. 13. 14. 15.16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23.24. 25. 26. 27. 28.29. 30. 32. 33.34. 35. 36. 37.38. 39. 40.41. 42. 43. 44.45. 46. 47. 48. 49. Ambe International 50. 51. Al Saalim International 52. 53. 54. 55.56. 57. 58.

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Tuesday, March 03, 2020 5GULF JOBS & CAREERS

Your wellness

Busting myths about novel coronavirus, World Health Organ-isation (WHO) had speci-fied the need for a new vaccine for the infection, as existing vaccines cannot provide the required pro-tection. And now, a team of researchers have created a software that is being deemed a “critical break-through” in the search for vaccine for the novel coro-navirus.

According to the offi-cial website of the Univer-sity of Toronto, researchers at the University of Texas

Scientists create software to help develop coronavirus vaccineat Austin and US National Insti-tutes of Health created the first 3D atomic scale map of the part of the virus that attaches to and infects human cells, known as spike protein. The findings have been based on a software spun out of Uni-versity of To-ronto researcher Ali Punjani’s research called

cryoSPARC to process the data related to corona-virus spike pro-tein and obtain accurate 3D im-ages of the spike in real time.

“We can actu-ally look at a new disease that was discovered just a couple of months ago and see how it works at the molecular level. It’s very exciting,” Punjani was quot-ed as saying.

Jason McLellan, associ-ate professor in molecular biosciences at UT Austin and co-author, said the software also facilitated data processing while trav-elling. In fact, it took only 12 days for the researchers to produce an atomic map from the raw sample.

“One of their novel al-gorithms, referred to as 3D Variability Analysis, pro-vided insights into the dy-namic motions of the coro-navirus spike protein that are important for receptor-binding and membrane fu-sion,” McLellan said in a

statement.According to research-

ers, cryoSPARC makes use of a technique called cryogenic electron micros-copy or cryo-EM. This al-lows scientists to obtain high-resolution images of proteins by shooting elec-trons at frozen samples, followed by accurate 3D visualisation facilitated by cryoSPARC. And scientists believe their work will help in vaccine develop-ment.

The study was pub-lished in the journal Sci-ence.

Intuitive eating is not a diet plan. It is instead an eating habit or phi-losophy that monitors the body’s need for food. It is about not opposing crav-ings, and having whole-some meals when the body demands. Ultimately, food is what keeps us going through the day by provid-ing energy and keeping us active. But, with so many options out there (read: fried, oily food) it can get tricky to keep away those cravings and decide on what to eat and what not to.

Most of us live in ‘diet mentality’ which not only affects those who follow a said diet, but also others who despite not following a diet, fear eating things that may be high on fat, sugar or carbs. Dieting or just avoiding certain food items, limiting certain food groups, and calorie count-ing without consulting an

Living in countries with higher levels of air pollution, such as India and China, may be as-sociated with an increased risk of developing kidney diseases, a study suggests.Researchers from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the US said the findings may be espe-cially important for parts of the world with higher

air pollution, like India and China, where fine particu-

late matter levels are 5 to 10 times higher than in the US.It is known that breathing in air pollution can have detrimental health effects beyond the lungs, but few studies have shown how it impacts the kidneys, which act as filters for the blood, they said. The study, pub-lished in the Journal of

What is intuitive eating? Exposure to air pollution linked to risk of kidney diseasesexpert can not only affect one physically, but also

mentally. That’s when in-tuitive eating comes into the picture, as it promotes mindful eating by listening to the body’s need, even when it comes to consum-ing junk food.

A book, Intuitive Eat-ing: A Revolutionary Pro-gram That Works, written by prominent nutrition-ists Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch focuses on some of these points. It talks about nurturing your body rather than starving it, and encouraging natural weight loss. The philoso-phy makes you an expert of your body and its hun-ger signals, and doesn’t impose guidelines about what to avoid and what or when to eat.Here are some of the steps to inculcate intuitive eat-ing:• Reject diet mentality

the American Society of Nephrology (JASN), exam-ined information on 10,997 adults across four sites in

the US who were followed from 1996-1998 through 2016.The researchers estimated

• Listen to your body when it’s hungry so that you can make better food choices.• Make peace with food even if it is unhealthy food. As when you pro-vide your body with what it demands, it slowly loses craze for it.• Don’t keep your body starved as it tends to de-mand more food than re-quired. Eating when you are little hungry and stop-ping when moderately full can help you keep the body under control.• Discover what is your satisfaction level when you eat. This helps to avoid overeating.• Cope with your emotions with kindness.• Respect your body and don’t chase weight moni-tors just for the sake of it. Body image topics can de-stroy your mental peace.

the monthly average levels of tiny particles of air pol-lution -- called fine particu-late matter -- based on par-

ticipants’ home addresses. They noted that fine par-ticulate matter comes from a variety of sources includ-

ing fossil fuel combustion, industrial processes, and natural sources.They found that exposure to higher amounts of fine par-ticulate matter was associ-ated with a higher degree of albuminuria -- a marker of kidney dysfunction -- at the start of the study as well as a higher risk of developing chronic kidney disease over time.“As rates of chronic kidney disease rise worldwide, it is important to understand whether and how expo-sure to air pollution plays a role,” said Matthew F Blum from Johns Hopkins Univer-sity School of Medicine.Future studies should ex-amine whether efforts to improve air quality yield health benefits, including reducing rates of chronic kidney disease, the re-searchers said.

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CRANE OPERATOR (100 TONS)

IN FOCUS6 Tuesday, March 03, 2020

GULF FAQs

I am an admin manager working for an en-gineering company. My boss often behaves

inappropriately with me and forces me to stay back late at work. He is staring at my figure and tries to touch me inappropri-ately. I am intimidated by his behaviour but not sure how to tackle it. My husband was made redundant recently and I cannot afford to lose my job as I am now the sole bread winner. Recently, my boss invited me to attend a function outside the office and forced me stay back. When the party was over, he asked me to go to his home with him, which I refused. I have complained to my HR but they refuse to take action, saying the incident happened outside the workplace. How can I take action against my boss? What legal protection can I get to ensure that I don’t lose my job?

We assume that you are employed in a company based in the mainland and there-fore, the applicable law is Federal Law No. (8) of 1980 regulating Employment Rela-tions in the UAE (Employment Law). It may be noted that the prohibition of women to work at night shall not apply in cases where the work pertains to administrative and technical posts. This is in accordance with Article 28 (b) of the Employment Law which states: “The prohibition of the employment of women at night shall not apply in the following cases: (b) work in responsible ad-ministrative and technical posts.” Since you hold the post of an admin manager, your boss may be allowed to ask you to stay back late at work, owing to the exception mentioned under Article 28 of the Employment Law.

At the outset, it may be noted that a boss should not harass his subordinates, as ha-rassment of any individual in the UAE is a criminal offence. Article 359 of Federal Law No. 3 of 1987 in issuance of Penal Code of UAE (Penal Code) states: “Any person who obstructs a female in such a manner as to violate her prudence by word, deed or by using IT or any other means shall be pun-ished by a jail term not exceeding one year and a fine not exceeding Dh10,000.” If you file a criminal complaint against your boss and your employer subsequently terminates your employment, the termination may be considered arbitrary. This is in accordance with Article 122 of the Employment Law, which states: “An employee’s service shall be deemed to be arbitrarily terminated by his employer if the reason for termination is irrelevant to the work. More particularly, a termination shall be regarded as arbitrary if it is prompted by a formal complaint filed by the employee with the competent authori-ties or a legal action instituted against the employer that proved to be valid.”

You may, therefore, approach the Minis-try of HR and Emiratisation (MoHRE) and file a complaint against your boss. Simultane-ously, based on the aforementioned provi-sion of the Penal Code, you may initiate a criminal complaint against your boss who behaved inappropriately. And if your em-ployment is terminated after you lodge the criminal case, you may approach the MoHRE and file a complaint against your employer pertaining to arbitrary termination.Travel dispute

I and my husband bought a travel pack-age for Dh7,000 from a company based in Al Ain. The travel package offered various benefits such as a complimentary Umrah package in Dec 2019, 15 to 20pc discounts on flight tickets, a one-day staycation in the UAE, 14-day stay around the world, discounts on meals, to name a few. However, when I tried to avail the aforesaid benefits, my applications were rejected by the firm. Further, it refused to refund the amount paid for the travel package citing company policy. How can I recover the money that I have paid to the said company?

Pursuant to your query, it is presumed that at the time of purchasing the travel package, you may have signed an agreement between you and the company or you may have signed

How to fi le case against misbehaving boss in UAE?

the terms and conditions of the travel pack-age wherein the rights and obligations of the parties to the agreement would have been stipulated. Further, it may be noted that the provisions of Federal Law No. (5) of 1985 on Civil Transactions Law of the UAE (the “Civil Transactions Law’) and Federal Law No. (24) of 2006 on Consumer Protection (“Consumer Protection Law”) shall be applicable. As per the provisions of the Consumer Protection Law, a Consumer Protection Department is instituted under the ministry of economy, wherein a consumer may file a complaint before the department. This is in accordance with Article 4 (6) of the Consumer Protection Law which states:

“A department shall be set up in the ministry under the name of The Consumer Protection Department and shall carry out the following competencies:

Receive consumers’ complaints and adopt the procedures in this regard or refer them to the competent authorities. The complaint may be submitted directly by the consumer and may be submitted by the consumer protec-tion association for it is considered a repre-sentative of the complainant.” Based on the aforementioned provision of the Consumer Protection Law, you may file a complaint against the company with the Consumer Pro-tection Department based in the Abu Dhabi Department of Economic Development Office.

Further, as per the provisions of the Civil Transactions Law, the parties to an agreement have an obligation to each other to perform the contract in a manner which is in consonance with principles of good faith. This is in accor-dance with Article 246 (1) of the Civil Trans-actions Law which states: “The contract shall be implemented, according to the provisions contained therein and in a manner consistent with the requirements of good faith.” There-fore, it may be construed that the company from which you and your husband purchased the travel package may not be acting in good faith as they have breached their obligations by rejecting your applications for availing the benefits which were promised to you.

You may lodge a complaint against the company at the Alternative Dispute Resolu-tions Sector (the “ADR Sector”) formed by the Judicial Department of Abu Dhabi. While fil-ing the civil complaint against the company, it would be prudent on your part to take along with you any supporting documentary evidence (agreement with the company, pay-ment to company, your applications to avail their services as stated by you) and submit them to the ADR Sector for registering the complaint. You may approach the ADR Sector for further details.Suspension

I have been suspended from my job for nearly two months, due to a disagreement in the workplace. I live in Dubai with my husband so we are managing but before I make a complaint, is my employer allowed to suspend me for an indefinite period or is there a maximum time permitted? I do not know the law in the UAE and do not know what to do about it. What are my rights?

UAE Labour Law applies in this case and this sets out rules in relation to disciplinary action. You have not disclosed the reason for your suspension but the permitted reasons are covered in Article 112, which states: “The worker may be temporarily suspended from work upon the charging thereof of a deliberate crime against life, property, honour, honesty or of carrying out a strike. The suspension period shall commence on the date of the notification of the incident to the competent authorities and until the issuance of a decision thereby in such regard. The worker shall not be entitled to his wage during the said sus-pension period. Should a decision be issued for the non-prosecution or the acquittal of the worker, the latter shall be reinstated and paid the full wage for the suspension period, should such suspension be arbitrary from the employer.”

Article 102 of the law states: “The disci-plinary rules that may be inflicted by the em-ployer or the representative thereof shall be: 1) warning. 2) fine. 3) suspension with reduced pay for a period not exceeding 10 days …”

Therefore an employer is not permitted to suspend an employee for two months as in this case. The employer has a one-day period to decide on the course of action to be followed, whether it is reinstatement or dismissal. The employer is breaking the law and the employee must be paid for the period in question. I sug-gest you makes a case against the employer with the Ministry of HR and Emiratisation although it is often wise to point out the law to an employer first as they take action to properly resolve it to the satisfaction of all parties.

Union Minister of State for Home Affairs Nityanand Rai lighting the lamp at the eighth Foundation Day Celebrations of the Land Ports Authority of India in New Delhi. Secretary (Border Management) Nagendra Nath Sinha, chairman of LPAI Aditya Mishra and other dignitaries were also present.

DUBAI: The Indian consulate in Dubai has issued an ad-visory to members of the Indian community in the UAE to spread awareness and help prevent the spread of Corona-virus/ Covid-19 in the community.

In its advisory posted on its website and social media channels, the mission has advised Indian expats to fol-low the Coronavirus Awareness Guidelines issued by the UAE’s Ministry of Health and Prevention. It listed the ways to prevent the disease and asked Indian expats to contact the local health authorities in case any medical support or information is required. The consulate said it may also be contacted for further information and advised the members of the community to keep track of the mission’s social media accounts (Twitter:@cgidubai Facebook:@IndianConsulate.Dubai Instagram: india_in_dubai) for updates on the evolv-ing situation.

“Separately, the government of India has also issued advisories to its nationals to refrain from travel to China as well as all non-essential travel to the Republic of Korea, Iran, Italy and Singapore,” the advisory added. There are

Corona advisory for Indians in UAEmore than 3.42million Indians living in the UAE according to latest official figures. The UAE has so far announced 19 positive infections of Covid-19 which included one Indian national who had come in contact with a previously diag-nosed patients. Five patients have already recovered.Disease prevention

* Avoid animals (alive or dead), animal markets and products that come from animals (such as uncooked meat).

* Avoid close contact with anyone showing symptoms of respiratory illness.

* Wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds.

* Use a hand sanitizer, if soap and water are not available* Cover coughs and sneezes with tissues.* Do not travel if you develop any illness symptoms.* Contact numbers for medical support or information.Phone: Ministry of Health & Prevention at 042301000. Dubai Health Authority at 800342. The consulate

may also be contacted for further information at 00971 4 3971222 / 00971 4 3971333.

VISAKHAPATNAM/KADA-PA: To Improve air connec-tivity from Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Kadapa, private airline operators have announced new flights to Bengaluru, Chennai and Belagavi. Visakhapatnam will get at least two more daily flights to Bengaluru and Chennai from March 29.

Air Asia India, which already has two daily flights from Vizag to Bengaluru (leaving at 11.05 pm and 8.55 pm), is set to operate a third one between the two cities. It will leave Bengaluru at 4.35 am and reach Visakhapatnam at 6.10 am. On its return, it will leave Visakhapatnam at 6.40 am and reach Benga-

New fl ights from Vizag, Vijayawada, Kadapaluru at 8.05 am. This flight is aimed at catering to techies, who have been demanding such a service that lets them reach their offices in time for work in the morning.

Meanwhile, IndiGo has proposed to launch a night flight from Visakhapatnam to Chennai from March 29. It will leave Chennai at 9.25 pm and reach Vizag at 10.45 pm. On its return, it will leave at 11.15 pm and reach Chennai at 12.40 am. This service is expected to pro-vide connectivity for late-night international flights from Chennai. SpiceJet an-nounced its fight schedule between Bengaluru and Vi-jayawada, with SG 3741

leaving Bengaluru at 4.45 pm and reaching Vijayawada at 6.05 pm. SG 3742 will leave Vijayawada at 6.25 pm and reach Bengaluru at 7.45 pm. It will be operated from March 29 on six days a week barring Wednesdays.

TruJet Airways launched its flight service to Belgaum (Belagavi) in Karnataka from Kadapa on Sunday. Airport director P Shiva Prasad wel-comed the 49 passengers who arrived in Kadapa on the flight from Belgaum around 11 am. The service is aimed at those who intend to visit Goa, he said. TruJet Airways is also awaiting permission to operate a flight to Benga-luru. Prasad added that with

the new service to Belgaum, four flight services have been made available from Kadapa.

Vizag to Bengaluru: It will start at 4.35 am and reach Vizag at 6.10 am. On its return, it will leave Vizag at 6.40 am and reach Bengaluru at 8.05 am.

Vizag to Chennai: It will leave Chennai at 9.25 pm and reach Vizag at 10.45 pm. On its return, it will leave at 11.15 pm and reach Chennai at 12.40 am

V’wada to Bengaluru: SG 3741 to leave Bengaluru at 4.45 pm and reach Vijay-awada at 6.05 pm.SG 3742 will leave Vijayawada at 6.25 pm and reach Bengaluru at 7.45 pm.

Bahrain national charged withrape of Hyderabad woman HYDERABAD: An FIR has been regis-tered against a Bahrain national for al-legedly raping a woman in Hyderabad.

Based on a complaint from the vic-tim’s sister, the police has booked the 60-year-old for rape, cheating, wrong-ful confinement and trafficking under sections 417, 420, 343, 370, 376(2) and 109 r/w 34 of the Indian Penal Code. Besides him, an FIR has also been reg-istered against a broker and his wife. The trio is expected to be arrested by evening, police said.

According to the complainant,

the broker called up the victim and her sister on Feb 25 on the pretext of discussing the sale of their house. On reaching the broker’s home, the two women were introduced to the Bahrain national following which he offered to marry the older sister. After the older sister refused the offer, the man asked the younger sister to marry him.

The complainant told police that the younger sister went missing the same evening. On Feb 29, the complainant and her family visited the broker and his wife and inquired about her sister

and found the address of the accused. “My sister was kidnapped and sold to the Arab Sheikh. Since then, he has been raping her and also burnt her foot with a cigarette,” the complainant told police.

When contacted, a police officer told a TV channel that the case ap-peared to be that of contract marriage. “We have registered the case against the Bahrain national, his broker and wife. Upon questioning them, we will get to know more details. We are yet to arrest them,” he said.

Skill development centre opened in jailKADAPA: Andhra Home Min-ister Mekathoti Sucharitha laid the foundation stone for the first-ever skill development centre at Kadapa central jail. The construction of the centre taken up at an estimated cost of Rs 4.7 crore is expected to be completed in four months. The proposed skill development centre (modular furniture manufacturing unit) is being

seen as another important step towards reforming the pris-oners convicted of different crimes and help them turn a new leaf in their lives.

Speaking on the occasion, she said that efforts are being made to bring reforms in the prisons. “Prisoners will be imparted training in making soaps, phenol, fly ash bricks, bakery items and furniture,

which will help them lead a dignified life after they get released,” she said. According to the home minister, it is the first time such modular fur-niture making centre is being set up as a skill development centre in the prison. “Nowhere in the country, it is there and such SDC is only present in Switzerland,” she explained. Products made by the prison-

ers has fetched Rs 19 crore to the prisons department, she added.

Sucharitha assured to discuss the issue of releas-ing the prisoners from jail for their good conduct with the chief minister. She reit-erated that the Jagan Mohan Reddy government is giving top priority for the safety of women.

CORPORATE NEWSTuesday, March 03, 2020 7

Union Textiles Minister Smriti Zubin Irani with award winners at “TRRAIN RETAIL AWARDS” function in Mumbai.

IT firm Mindtree has ap-pointed Dayapatra Ne-vatia as its Chief Oper-ating Officer.

In this new role, Neva-tia will support the com-pany into its next phase of growth, a statement said.

The former Accenture executive will be based in Bengaluru, it added. “Day-apatra’s vast industry expe-rience along with proven track record will be a defi-

The government has decided to pump Rs 200 crore into IFCI, the country’s oldest term lending institution, through the preferential al-lotment route next

fiscal to shore up its capital and enhance opera-tions, sources said.

Government of India holding in the non-banking finance company, which stood at 56.42pc at the end of December 2019, would increase after the capital

State-owned construc-tion firm National Buildings Construc-tion Corporation Lim-

ited (NBCC) India has announced that it has re-ceived an order worth Rs 64.83 crore from Bharat Heavy Electrical Limited (BHEL) in Jharkhand

Mindtree appoints Dayapatra Nevatia as COO

Govt to infuse Rs 200 cr in IFCI next fi scal

NBCC receives order worth Rs 64.83 cr from BHEL

nite asset to Mindtree as we continue to stride on the journey of customer-centric growth,” Mindtree

CEO and Man-aging Director Debashis Chat-terjee said.

This appoint-ment is a tes-timony of the company’s focus on its leader-ship expansion across the globe, he added.

D a y a p a t r a joins Mindtree from Accen-ture, where he

was the MD and Director of Delivery for Advanced Technology Centres in In-dia. He led the delivery for the entire portfolio span-ning across system integra-tion, digital, application outsourcing, infrastruc-ture, and security services across industry groups.

infusion.“The (Rs 200 crore)

provision is for equity sup-port to Industrial Finance Corporation of India (IFCI) keeping in view the busi-ness programme and capi-tal requirement,” as per the Budget documents pre-sented in Parliament last month.

For the current fiscal as well, the government has earmarked Rs 200 crore capital infusion for IFCI, as per the Revised Estimate.

The company made the announcement in a BSE fil-ing saying, it will execute this project on engineering, pro-

curement and construction mode.

“This is to inform that NBCC (India) Limited has received an order from BHEL for construction of… reinforced concrete single

steel flue chimney with bo-rosilicate glass block lining system of 660 MW each (3 numbers) at North Karana-pura STPP, Jharkhand,” the company said.

Overseas investors invested only Rs 6,554 crore in Indi-an markets on net basis in February, as they adopted a cautious stance amid coro-navirus scare, subdued eco-nomic data and disappoint-ing corporate earnings.

According to the deposi-tories data, Foreign portfo-lio investors (FPIs) pumped in a net amount of Rs 1,820 crore into equities and Rs 4,734 crore into the debt segment between February 3 to 28.

This took the total net investment to Rs 6,554 crore during the period un-der review.

On a positive note, the data, however, showed that FPIs have been net buyers in the Indian markets since September 2019.

“Like other global mar-kets, the Indian markets too

SMEs-focused digital lending platform SME-corner has raised $30 million in a mixed round of equity and debt led by private equity firm Paragon Partners.

While Paragon invest-ed $10.5 million, founder Samir Bhatia, existing in-vestors Quona Capital, Ac-cion Venture Lab, and some high net-worth individuals also participated.

The new funding round, which marked the closure of the Series B round, has come after a gap of 12 months.

Previously, it had raised Rs 90 crore in a mixed round of equity and debt led by Quona Capital in March 2019,

The Mumbai-based SMEcorner would deploy the new capital to reach over 20,000 new customers and is aiming to grow its loan book to Rs 1,500 crore by the end of this finan-cial year, said the company

FPIs invest Rs 6,554 cr in Indian capital markets in Feb

SMEcorner raises $30mcame in the line of fire by the coronavirus scare. FPIs have been wary of invest-ing in markets which rely on tourism as the spread of virus can adversely impact

their prospects and eco-nomic growth.

“From this perspective, Indian equity market is bet-ter positioned among such group of countries and hence it has been attracting

through a press statement.Launched in 2014, SME-

corner offers quick access to business loans to micro, small & medium enterprises (MSME) and runs two prod-ucts under its portfolio-un-secured business loans and loans against property.

While its unsecured business loan facilitates hassle-free unsecured loans up to Rs 30 lakhs to small re-tailers including readymade garment stores, chemists, Kirana stores and food out-lets, its second product pro-vides loan against property up to Rs 1 crore for a tenure of up to 10 years.

The firm has deployed machine learning, data sci-

foreign flows,” Himanshu Srivastava, Senior Analyst Manager Research, Morn-ingstar Investment Adviser India said.

Market participants,

however, believe that head-winds to foreign invest-ment flows are expected to continue over the coming weeks.

FPIs have adopted a cautious stance on the

ence, and artificial intelli-gence to provide services in a quick time.

With an average ticket size of Rs six lakh, the com-pany offers loans at interest rates of 19-26pc depending on the size of loans.

SMEcorner, which piv-

oted to become an NBFC from a marketplace model in February 2018, has about Rs 400 crore as assets under management.

Currently present in 15 cities including Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi, the com-pany claims to have served more than 8,500 customers while disbursing loans in excess of Rs 550 crore to date.

back of lack of growth in the domestic economy, dis-appointing corporate earn-ings and social unrest that the country is facing, he added.

According to Harsh Jain, co-founder and COO at Groww, an online Mu-tual Fund Investment Platform, “India’s GDP in-creased to 4.7pc in the last quarter, which is a good news. But given the influ-ence this virus has on the global markets, it is doubt-ful that FPIs will make any solid investments in the next few weeks.”

On the economy front, India’s GDP growth slipped to a nearly 7-year low of 4.7 per cent in October-De-cember 2019, weighed by a contraction in manufactur-ing sector output, accord-ing to official data released February 28.

IIIT-Delhi has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Lords Education and Health Society (Wish Foundation) with an aim to carry on research on health data analytics.

“As an institution recognized for its cutting-edge research and innovation in the area of information technology, we are very well-placed to initiate both digitiza-tion and digitalization of health-care ser-vices. Under this collaboration, IIIT-Delhi will carry-out research towards making healthcare available for all, which is one of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) set by UN for our shared future”, Prof. Ranjan Bose, Director, Indraprastha Institution of Information Technology Delhi.

As per the agreement, both organiza-

tions will carry out analytics of large da-tasets, data visualization and predictive analytics, exploring applications of arti-ficial intelligence and machine learning, to support data-driven decision making in primary health care, and policy deci-sions.

Other than this, the two institutions will also work towards digitisation of health care by designing and imple-menting digital health interventions at the primary care level. This will include clinical decision support systems, elec-tronic health records, client-friendly and privacy-protecting data systems for low-resource contexts.

WISH Foundation and IIIT-Delhi will collaborate on projects that fall within the mutual areas of interest.

IIIT-Delhi, Wish Foundation signs MoU

Fintech startup, Lend-ingKart Technologies Private Limited has announced a full-stack co-lending partnership with

Non-Banking Finance Company, Northern Arc Capital to disburse over Rs 100 crore as working capital to Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises

The world’s second-largest fashion re-tailer Hennes & Mauritz (H&M) is targeting Rs 2,000 crore in turnover from India, its fastest-growing emerging mar-ket, Janne Einola, country head of H&M India, said.

The retailer, which competes globally with Inditex’s Zara, the world’s largest fashion company, is likely to achieve the target by the end of this calen-dar year (CY), Einola said, driven by a greater online and offline push, local

Lendingkart partners with Northern Arc H&M India eyes Rs 2,000-cr turnover (MSMEs). The loans dis-bursed under the new part-nership will enable MSMEs to borrow digitally without any manual intervention

in data and information flow, bureau check and document verification and validation to credit decisioning and cus-tomer funding.

“We are excited to partner with Northern Arc Capital to provide a seam-less and tech empowered loan disbursement process for our customers. North-ern Arc Capital has proven

collaborations and afford-able merchandise. H&M follows a December to No-vember accounting year. It has 47 stores in India.

H&M, said retail ex-perts, would maintain its over 40pc rate of growth in terms of sales for 2020, coming at a time when there is a domestic con-sumption slowdown.

Last year, H&M had grown top line at the rate of 43pc per annum, touch-ing Rs 1,490 crore, Einola said, ahead of the 29pc top line growth it had

that they have the best ex-pertise in the co-lending business, and this will not only help reach us reach a wider set of MSMEs,” Harshvardhan Lunia, MD, Lendingkart said.

“The partnership with Lendingkart has developed over a long period and is now fully integrated with our digital platform Nim-bus, allowing us to seam-lessly deliver credit to a larger customer base,” Kshama Fernandes, MD & CEO, Northern Arc Capital said.

achieved in 2018.Inditex, which has a

joint venture (JV) with Trent in India, runs 22 Zara stores here. The JV had achieved a top line of Rs 1,438 crore in FY19, growing at 17 pc per an-num, lower than the 19pc top line growth clocked in FY18. Inditex Trent fol-lows an April-March ac-counting year.

While Zara, too, has been pushing affordable collections within its stores, revamping its line-up from time to time and

tapping the online medi-um to drive sales, experts said H&M would widen the sales gap with the for-mer, if it touches the Rs 2,000-crore-mark this cal-endar year. Inditex Trent is yet to disclose its FY20 financial numbers. Cur-rently, H&M has a small lead over Zara in terms of sales.

Einola said the com-pany was raising its India bet this year, targeting tier-II and -III markets apart from tier-I cities to set up its stores.

8 Travel / Entertainment Tuesday, March 03, 2020

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The 20th IAAPI amusement Expo 2020 was inaugurated in Mumbai by Amanda Thompson, chairperson, International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA), with So-hansinh Jadeja, president, Indian Association of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI), along with key office- bearers.

Amusement parks in India attractover 30m visitors annuallyThe 20th IAAPI amuse-ment Expo 2020, the largest B2B exhibition on sourcing for amusement, leisure and recreation indus-try supported, by ministry of Tourism (Incredible India), was inaugurated in Mum-bai by Amanda Thompson, chairperson, International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAA-PA) with Sohansinh Jadeja, president, Indian Associa-tion of Amusement Parks and Industries (IAAPI), along with key office bearers.

Amanda Thompson lauded the progress of the country in the field of amuse-

ment industry and urged the stakeholders in boosting the sector further. Sohan-sinh Jadeja said: “In today’s era, amusement parks are not just about rides and fun games but have evolved as a tourist destination from rides, exhibits, F&B options, retail outlet and quality ac-commodation. In the coming decade, we expect the indus-try to more than double in the coming decade”.

India has over 160 plus amusement parks and the future growth of the sector are going to be away from the city limits along with resorts and hotels at a tourism desti-

nation. Amusement parks in India attract over 30 million (three crore) visitors annual-ly. Children and youth visit the park either in school groups or with families and constitutes 50pc of park visi-tors. Adults constitute the remaining 50pc as they ei-ther visit with their families or in corporate groups.

Further, Malls are effec-tively leveraging the pres-ence of an Indoor Amuse-ment Centers (IAC’s) for drawing crowds and ringing up sales. IACs are not just providing new experiences, but serve as an added at-traction, giving over large

swaths of space to entertain-ment companies and ex-pecting them to become the main draws. This includes expansive family entertain-ment centers, destination experiences and so on.

IAAPI is a non-govern-ment, not-for-profit, industry-led and industry-managed organisation, playing a pro-active role in development of this sector. Founded in 1999, IAAPI is India’s premier busi-ness association having over 445 members from the pri-vate sectors including small and medium enterprises con-sisting of park operators and equipment manufacturers.

French woman keeps her datewith Kerala temple festivals

Arlette Corlotti from Southern France enjoying the Manapully Temple Vela in Palakkad.

Age has not de-terred 78-year-old Arlette Corlotti, a retired college teacher hailing from Southern

France, from flying to Ker-ala every year for the past 12 years to enjoy its cul-ture and varied festivities. Though she usually stays for five days in a year on the outskirts of Palakkad

at the Kandath Tharavad, this year she decided to stay here for 10 days.

In the past few days, she has witnessed the Kalle-

pully Kummatti, Manapully temple Vela which paraded 30 caparisoned elephants and 150 artistes on the Panchavadyam, the Uthral-likavu temple Vela in Wa-dakkancherry in Thrissur

district where there were 33 elephants and on Saturday evening she witnessed the Puthiyangam vela. She also loves the Kanyarkali here.

“Arlette Corlotti is a retired teacher from Lycee Daumier in Marseille, France. For the past 12 years she has been coming here regularly. Last year, she came in mid-Nov to witness the Kalpathy car

festival. The year before she had witnessed the Chinakathoor pooram. Usually, she visits during Jan, Feb and March.

“She would also squeeze in time to go and witness the Theyy-am. She is well-versed in Ramayana and the Ma-habharatha,” said Bhag-waldas of the Kandath Tharvadu in Thenkurissy, who plays host to many tourists. During the visits to the Poorams, there will be floats or the “Van-diveshams” where people dress up as characters in Hindu epics. Many Ker-alites would be amazed to find Arlette Corlotti explaining the signifi-cance of each character as though she is a native of India. Two years ago, she stayed awake the whole night to witness the Arat-tupuzha Pooram, says Bhagwaldas. “This year my itinerary was to attend the Rajim Maghi Punni Mela in Raipur, Chhattis-garh, Joranda mela in Odi-sha and onward to Kerala. My main area of interest is culture.

Oman Air gears up to attract more touristsOman Air will revisit its national priori-ties and its role in enabling tourism to diversi-fy the economy for sustain-able growth.

As per the national avia-tion strategy for 2030, the airline will focus on devel-oping a route network (as a destination airline) that brings direct inbound tour-ists. The company will focus on partnerships with airlines to enlarge the network in tar-get markets. The product of-fering in the airline will be tailored for tourists passen-gers which include offering authentic Omani experience and tourism focused servic-es at the airports.

Speaking about the

plans for Oman Air, Musta-fa al Hinai, CEO, Oman Avi-ation Group (OAG), said: “Oman Air’s restructuring or transformation strategy has been in place for the last three years. There has been a major difference in the financials of the com-pany as the revenues in-creased by 27pc. More than the manpower costs, we have certain fixed costs re-lated to procurement and international contracts, which were renegotiating to keep costs down.”

As per the strategy re-port, the airline is expected to operate a harmonised fleet with more economy long-range narrow-bodied aircraft for thin routes.

“Oman Air has a fleet of 55 aircraft, which include three 787-8s, seven 787-9s, six A330-300s, four A330-200s, five 737-900s, 21 737-800s, four Embraers and five 737 max (grounded).” Under the long term strat-egy, the loyalty programme will be integrated with source market alliances and the local hospitality sec-tor. The airline will have a tiered fare structure with premium ancillary experi-ences. Sales and marketing will be integrated with the tourism sector as the airline will seek to promote Oman as a tourist destination on-line, abroad and onboard.

The airline is likely to benefit from the govern-

ment policy of negotiating reciprocal open skies poli-cy, balancing the economic, trade and tourism benefits that will flow from opening up the international avia-tion markets. “The govern-ment will declare Duqm, Salalah and Suhar airports as open skies for various in-ternational airlines in a step to attract investments and promote trade and tourism in these regions. Necessary facilities would be available for airlines interested in op-erating to these airports.” The government aims to develop an economic regu-latory framework that pro-motes fair competition with the sector, involving the private sector.

Corona: India cancels visa on arrivalfacility for Jap, Korean nationalsIndia has temporarily sus-pended visa on arrival services for nationals of Japan and South Korea in view of the surge in the number of coronavirus cases in the two countries. The development comes a day after India evacuated 119 Indians and five foreign-ers who were on board the coronavirus-hit cruise ship, Diamond Princess, moored off the Japanese coast.

Out of the 3,711 people on board the ship, over 700 people tested positive for the disease. Elsewhere in the country, over 160 people have been found to be infect-ed with the disease in Japan. With COVID-19 cases sur-

passing 2,000, South Korea has become the largest clus-ter to have infections outside China. A total of 13 people have died of the virus in the country. More than 90pc of the new cases were in Dae-gu city, the epicentre of the outbreak in South Korea and the neighbouring North Gyeongsang province. “In view of the recent outbreak of COVID-19, visa on arrival which was available only for nationals of Japan and South Korea has been temporarily suspended,” the Indian em-bassy tweeted. “Regular vi-sas continue to be processed and may be applied for,” it said. Earlier, India had on Feb 2 suspended e-visa facil-

ity for Chinese travellers and foreigners residing in China following surge in the num-ber of COVID-19 cases in the country. Further tightening the visa rules, India on Feb 4 cancelled the existing visas for Chinese and foreigners who had visited the country in the last two weeks. The novel coronavirus emerged in early Dec and traced to a market in Hubei’s capital Wuhan that sold wild ani-mals.

The death toll due to the deadly disease rose to 2,788 in China with 44 more deaths, while the confirmed cases climbed to 78,824, ac-cording to Chinese health of-ficials.

Despite corona, Ultra Music Festto go ahead in Abu DhabiThe first Ultra Music Festival (UMF) Abu Dhabi, an electronic dance music (EDM) festival that’s expected to attract sev-eral thousand visitors, will go ahead with extra medical precautions in place amid the COVID-19 outbreak, or-ganisers have said. “There are no plans to cancel, post-pone or move the 2020 pro-duction,” said organisers.

Scheduled to take place on March 5-6, Ultra organis-ers posted an update on the health and wellness segment of their website confirming to fans that the event will go ahead as planned. The event will see performances from DJ Snake, Kshmr, Grammy award winning ZEDD, Ma-jor Lazer, Eric Prydz, and Afrojack to name a few. The first festival to be organised in the region, UMF is an annual dance music festi-val founded in Miami, US, where approximately 1.7 lakh people attend annually. Alongside the flagship event in Miami, larger interna-tional franchises take place across the globe.

The notice said: “Event organisers have been co-ordinating with the relevant authorities regarding public health issues and will con-tinue to co-ordinate with and follow the recommendations and protocols relating to risk reduction and preventative measures by, Abu Dhabi De-partment of Health and other regulatory agencies.” Hand-washing and sanitising sta-tions will be placed through-out the event site.

It added: “Please visit the Centers for Disease Con-trol and Prevention’s sug-gested safety precautions, the WHO suggested safety precautions, the UAE Min-istry of Health and Preven-tion website and, or your lo-cal country’s counterparts, for more information.” The notice said there is no high-er priority than the health, safety and overall well-being of attendees, artists, crew and local community.

Aviation fuel prices drop by 10pc, but airfares may not be cutThe fortunes of domestic airlines are likely to be hit by the coronavirus outbreak, which has impacted global air travel. The domestic price of aviation turbine fuel (ATF) dropped by around 10pc but there was no word on domestic airlines cutting fares. The latest decline is said to be the steepest fall in ATF prices in the last four or five months, airline officials said. Domestic airlines declined to comment on the ATF price dip, claiming that they had not received any official notification. Till about 6 pm, the IOC website was showing prices in rupees per kilolitre for domestic and inter-national airlines, which was applicable from Feb 1 this year.

The downward revision comes at a time when the domes-tic industry is bracing for a traditionally tepid quarter, when air travel takes a backseat, thanks to school examinations and corporates being busy with the financial year-end. Industry watchers say domestic airfares move in sync with market conditions and not cost of inputs. “Our fares are already com-petitive, taking into account the varying market conditions. It is difficult to immediately say whether any airline will drop fares or not,” said a senior airline official, on condition of anonymity. Given the price sensitivity of the Indian market, usually when one airline cuts fares, others follow suit.

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