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Over 1,000 millionaires fl ocked to UAE in 2018DUBAI: Dubai attracted more than 1,000 million-aires from outside the coun-try, surpassing major cit-ies like Los Angeles, Mel-bourne, Miami, New York, San Francisco and Sydney, according to the “Global Wealth Migration Report” for 2019, developed recently by AfrAsia Bank and New World Wealth.

The report described Dubai as the most promi-nent financial centre in the MidEast and one of the safest cities in the re-gion as well as a popular destination for High-Net-Worth-Individuals (HNWIs) and wealthy expatriates. It also said that Dubai is an example of the power that business incentives have in encouraging business formation.

Approximately 2,000 HNWIs, each with at least

$1 million worth of net as-sets, moved into the UAE in 2018, boosting the local economy. The number of affluent migrants in the UAE rose by two per cent

in 2018, compared with the previous year. The 2019 Global Wealth Migration Re-port said that global wealth migration saw an accel-eration in 2018. Approxi-mately 108,000 millionaires (HNWIs) migrated in 2018, compared with 95,000 in 2017. China saw a mass exo-

dus of 15,000 millionaires in 2018, the most significant of any country in the world, followed by Russia, which saw an exodus of about 7000 millionaires. India saw an

exodus of 5000 millionaires while Turkey saw 4000 and France and the UK 3000 mil-lionaires each.

The report reviewed the major factors that led to HNWIs moving outside their country to find a home that meets their needs. Key ele-ments driving their reloca-

tion included security and safety, modern lifestyle, high standards of living, better educational opportu-nities and healthcare.

Driven by its success as a focal point for global trade and an important transpor-tation hub, Dubai has built a global reputation as a city with a highly developed infrastructure that boasts world-class standards in ev-ery sector. Based on an ethos of peaceful co-existence and tolerance, the UAE has become a worldwide model for harmony between people of different religions and ethnicities.

The country is home to people of over 200 nation-alities. Its strong legislative framework provides high levels of safety and security while its exceptional in-frastructure provides high-quality (Contd. on page 2)

Job creation trebles in Feb: EPFONEW DELHI: Net employ-ment generation in the for-mal sector almost trebled to 8.61 lakh in Feb compared with 2.87 lakh in the same month of last year, accord-ing to the latest Employees’ Provident Fund Organisation (EPFO) payroll data. The re-tirement fund body has been releasing payroll data from April 2018, covering the period starting Sept 2017.

According to the latest data, the highest job cre-ation was recorded in Jan 2019 at 8.94 lakh against the provisional estimate of 8.96 lakh released last month. During Feb 2019, the high-est number of 2.36 lakh jobs were created in the 22 to 25 years’ age group, followed by 2.09 lakh in the 18 to 21 years’ age bracket. The data showed that 80.86 lakh new jobs were created in the 18 months’ period from Sept 2017 to Feb 2019.

Nevertheless, the EPFO has revised downward the number of net subscribers

added or new jobs created from Sept 2017 to Jan 2019 to 72.24 lakh from 76.48 lakh released last month. The sharpest revision was for March 2018 in the lat-est report which showed contraction or exit of 55,934 members from the EPFO subscriptions. Last month,

the EPFO payroll data had showed that as many as 29,023 members exited from its schemes in March 2018.

In Feb 2019, the EPFO data had showed that as many as 5,498 members joined EPFO schemes in March 2018. On contraction in March 2018 numbers, the EPFO said, “March 2018 fig-ure is negative due to large number of exits reported in the month of March, in view of it being the closing

month of the financial year.” The EPFO said the data is provisional as updation of employee records is a con-tinuous process and gets up-dated in subsequent months.

This is age-band wise data of new members regis-tered under the EPFO where the first non-zero contri-bution received during a particular month. For each age-wise band, the estimates are net of the members newly enrolled, exited and re-joined during the month as per records of the EPFO, it added. The estimates may include temporary employ-ees whose contributions may not be continuous for the entire year. Members’ data are linked to unique Aadhaar Identity, it added. The EPFO manages social security funds of workers in the organised or semi-organised sector in India and has more than six crore active members (with at least one-month contribu-tion during the year).

NEW DELHI: The travel spend in India is expected to grow at 13pc to a total of $136 billion by 2021, said a new report by Bain & Com-pany and Google India.

According to the “How Does India Travel” report, the Indian traveller spent around $94 billion in 2018 on around 2 billion domestic and international trips, thus, helping India’s travel and tourism industry achieve unprecedented scale.

“New users perceive that online channels are geared towards more frequent fly-ers and experience-oriented travellers and existing trav-ellers research online but the lack of trust in payments and booking experience make them end up booking offline.

“If travel players tap

Travel industry in India to reach $136b by 2021

these online users through personalised marketing,

messaging and travel plans, they can further augment online travel bookings. This can be done by adopting dig-ital technologies to influence customers early in the jour-ney,” Vikas Agnihotri, Coun-try Director-Sales, Google

India, said in a statement. The report indicates a

12pc growth in transporta-tion ($50 billion) and 13pc growth in lodging ($21 bil-lion) and consumption, which includes spends on shopping, recreation and food, to grow at 13pc ($65 billion) over the next three

years.“There is a perception

amongst consumers that online channels are geared towards premium custom-ers, along with a marked distrust around payment and pricing terms. It is im-perative for businesses to address these concerns in order to effectively tap into the growing base of users,” Arpan Sheth, Partner, Bain & Company said.

As more people come online, smartphone penetra-tion improves and use of digital payments goes up, the report predicts that In-dian travellers would spend an additional $24 billion on online travel bookings over the next three years, a growth from 25pc in 2018 to 35pc in 2021.

WASHINGTON: An Indian-American political action committee (PAC) has en-dorsed Democratic presi-dential candidate Senator Kamala Harris of Indian and Jamaican descent for the 2020 presidential race.

“In such a critically im-portant election, one that will shape policy and poli-tics for generations to come, Indian Americans can’t af-ford to stay on the side-lines,” the Indian American Impact Fund’s co-founder Raj Goyle said in a state-ment. Goyle, also a former Kansas state lawmaker, said it was for that reason that the organisation chose to be “the first Indian-American or Asian-American politi-cal organisation to endorse” Harris, whose mother was from Chennai, reports the American Bazaar.

“In the coming months,

Indian-American PAC endorses Kamala Harris for president

we look forward to mobilising our network of resources to ensure Senator Harris secures the Democratic nomination and is elected the next presi-dent of the US,” Goyle said.

Harris thanked the Im-pact Fund for the endorse-

ment. “This endorsement and the support of the In-dian American Impact Fund and its members means so much to me,” she said in a statement. “Together, we will fight for an America

that restores the values of truth and justice and works for working people, from raising incomes to expand-ing health care.”

The Impact Fund Ex-ecutive Director and former Maryland state delegate Aruna Miller said her group was “proud to endorse” Har-ris. “She is a tested leader who has demonstrated, throughout her career, a strong commitment to our community’s progressive and pluralistic values,” Mill-er said. Harris, one of the first Democrats to launch the presidential campaign in this election cycle, is also one of the front-runners at the moment. If elected, she will become the first woman, the first Indian-American, the first Asian American, and the first African American woman to serve as president.

Kamala Harris

SINGAPORE: With fund-ing from Indian banks and non-banking financial com-panies drying up in the real estate sector, Singapore-based investors are betting big on Indian commercial realty and sunshine sec-tors such as logistics and warehousing, says a report by ANAROCK, a real estate consulting firm.

Singapore-based inves-tors pumped $1.15 billion (SG$1.56 billion) into In-dian real estate in 2015 and 2016 and nearly $3.5 billion (SG$4.73 billion) in 2017 and 2018. It states that top private equity (PE) firms of Singapore such as GIC, Ascendas-Singbridge and Xander are funnelling bil-lions of dollars into India’s realty sector, particularly in South Indian cities. About one-third of the total $ 14.01 billion PE investment in In-dia’s realty sector between 2015 and 2018 was made

S’pore-based fi rms investing heavily in India’s real estate

by Singaporean firms, the highest among domestic and foreign investors.

GIC Private Limited, a sovereign wealth fund established by the Gov-ernment of Singapore to

manage Singapore’s foreign reserves, has invested close to US$2.5 billion in Indian real estate, mainly in cities like Chennai, Mumbai, Ben-galuru, Hyderabad, Delhi and the National Capital Region.

For Ascendas-Singbridge Group, the preferred cit-

ies have been Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai.

Shobhit Agarwal, MD of ANAROCK Capital, said: “With funding from banks and non-banking financial companies drying up, In-

dian developers are being forced to explore debt and equity funding from various PE firms. Singapore inves-tors were on top of the list, followed by PE players from the US and Canada. After establishing a strong base in China, India was their next destination of preference.”

US-Indian mayor of CerritosCERRITOS: Indian- Ameri-can businessman Naresh Solanki, who was voted to the Cerritos City Council has been elevated to mayor. The council, which names a mayor and mayor pro tem each year from the five-person council, chose Solanki.

Solanki had been the mayor pro tem while M a r k Pu l i d o held the reigns of mayor for the past year. Pulido handed off the meeting to City Clerk Vida Barone, who opened nominations for mayor. Councilman Jim Edwards quickly nominated Solanki, with Councilman Frank Yokoyama seconding the nomination.

Solanki was elected to the Cerritos City Council in 2015. He became mayor pro tem in 2016 and 2018. A Cerritos resident since 1988, Solanki previously

served as a Cerritos Planning Commissioner from 2007 to 2015. He is a member of the City Council’s Budget/Finance, Performing Arts, Personnel and Business and Industry committees.

Solanki is the al-ternate delegate to the California Contract Cities Association, San-itation Districts 2, 3, 18 and 19/Waste Manage-ment and South-east Water Coali-tion Joint Powers Authority.

Additionally, Solanki is a member of the Cerritos Optimist Club and the Cerritos Regional Chamber of Commerce. He is involved with and supports local chapters of the Lions Club and Rotary Club as well as Blind Start of America. He owns and is the CEO/president of a chain of retail grocery su-permarkets located through-out Southern California.

Naresh Solanki

SpiceJet hires 500 Jet Airways employeesMUMBAI: Budget carrier SpiceJet said that it has already absorbed over 500 employees, including 100 pilots, of the grounded carri-er Jet Airways and it is open to induct more as it adds more aircraft and routes in the times ahead. The Gurugram-based no-frills airline has already announced induction of 27 more planes -22 Boeing 737s and five tur-boprop Bombardier Q400s – in the fleet to help overcome to an extent the capacity deficit due to Jet Airways temporarily with-drawing its domestic and international services.

SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh in a statement said that his carrier is giving “first prefer-ence” to Jet Airways staff in recruitment. “As we expand and grow, we are giving first preference to those who have recently lost their jobs due to the unfortunate closure of

Jet Airways,” Singh said. He said that SpiceJet has already provided jobs to more than 100 pilots, over 200 cabin crew and 200 plus technical and airport staff recently.

“We will do more. We will also induct a large number

of planes in our fleet soon,” Singh added. The carrier has announced the launch of 24 new flights connecting Mum-bai & Delhi with 16 services connecting Mumbai and four Delhi while the remaining four connecting the two met-ros. “SpiceJet is making all possible efforts to minimise passenger inconvenience and serve Indian customers who are finding it difficult to get seats in this busy season,” Singh added.

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, April 23, 2019

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

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DUBAI: Foreign nationals and foreigner-owned busi-nesses can acquire land on full free-hold in Abu Dhabi, at locations designated as investment zones. The new rights also empower them to develop properties for the land thus acquired.

Earlier, these rights only allowed foreigners to ac-

quire properties in these designated zones. Aldar Properties, in which Abu Dhabi government holds a significant stake, and Im-kan, owned by Abu Dhabi Capital Group, had been testing the waters offer-ing plots for sale at recent launches.

Abu Dhabi allows foreigners free-hold land rights

This strategy has paid off handsomely for Aldar, with the developer confirming Dh2 billion from such plot sales, at its Alreeman (in the Alshamka locality and close to the airport) and Lea projects. At the Lea, located on the northern side of Yas Island, the plots ranged between 405 square metres

to 1,800 square metres, and with prices from Dh990,000.

“We are off to a flying start this year … and we are seeing really strong de-mand for land opportuni-ties within masterplanned communities,” said Talal Al Dhiyebi, CEO of Aldar, in a statement. “Generating over

Dh2 billion from our two re-cent developments — Alree-man and Lea — shows how market sentiment is moving in a positive direction.”

Market sources say even mid-sized developers can now use their land bank to bring in cash. “There are many developers with vari-ous degrees of land holdings and the new Decree allows them to make better use of this,” said an industry source. “They can reduce their land holdings and free up much needed cash when needed.“At a time when off-plan property sales have been on the decline, selling plots offers a viable option.”

Land pricesSo, what of the land pric-

es in Abu Dhabi? Currently, if the intention is to build villas, the land would cost them between Dh200 and Dh400 a square foot and rise to around Dh450 if located by the waterside. Land for multi-floor buildings would be from Dh150 a square foot. The latest decree also gives a push to foreign-owned busi-

nesses to consider owning their own real estate require-ments in the emirate.

Market sources say that more areas in the emirate could be assigned invest-ment zone rights which would allow them to do so. That would even extend to industrial properties built for warehousing and logis-tics needs.

Abu Dhabi’s real estate sector could definitely do with a boost. The latest Cavendish Maxwell update suggests that property prices in coveted locations such as Al Reem Island and Al Reef Downtown were down by 10 to 12pc for apartments in the 12 months to March 31, 2019. “The market remains subdued across communi-ties in Abu Dhabi — inves-tors have shown growing interest in lower-priced inventory, particularly those assets with higher expected yields and flexible payment plans offered by develop-ers. However, the overall sentiment is bearish, with investors waiting for prices to soften further in 2019.

Invest in real estate for long-term UAE visa ABU DHABI: The UAE of-fers plenty of opportunities to foreigners who are willing to invest in real estate sector to secure a long-term visa following a reform process initiated by the government.

Property investors can invest in more than 40 com-munities across the UAE, mainly in Dubai, to secure a long-term visa and better returns on their investment. Majority of foreigners prefer to invest their money in residential properties, but real estate experts suggest that commercial properties can also offer strong returns.

As per the new UAE regulations, property in-vestors can get a five-year residence visa when they invest in a property worth at least Dh5 million. The ruling applies both to sec-ondary and new properties above Dh5 million and Dh10 million. Idential properties in Dubai, particularly in branded or serviced apart-ment categories, above Dh5 million offer investment opportunities for those seek-ing a long-term visa under new regulations.”Certain villa or townhouse com-munities in Abu Dhabi and Northern Emirates like Ras

Al Khaimah also offer such investment opportunities,” a real estate agent said.

He said requirements for these new long-term visa currently state cash-only investments. Therefore, more clarity is required on how this is applicable to single units or entire buildings, land, etc. “Bulk residential units in higher yield areas like International City may prove to be a bet-ter investment option in the Dh5 million and above category, particularly for those with a higher risk appetite, than a single villa where yields tend to hover around five per cent,” said Dhama. “Indians, Pakistanis and Britons will remain top three investors seeking long-term visa through prop-erty investment,” she said while referring to majority of investment in Dubai’s property sector coming from India, Pakistan, Britain and Saudi Arabia.

Five-year visaThere are 31 communi-

ties across the emirate of Dubai where Dh5 million worth of investment can get a five-year visas, according to data provided by Caven-

dish Maxwell. Al Barari, Al Furjan, Arabian Ranches, Arabian Ranches- 2, Blue-waters Island, Business Bay, City Walk, Culture Village, Damac Hills, Downtown Burj Khalifa, Dubai Harbour, Dubai Marina and Dubai Science Park (DuBiotech) are included among those communities.

Taimur Khan, head of re-search for MidEast at Knight Frank, said majority of the properties above Dh5 mil-lion price range are villa properties in locations such as Emirates Hills, The Palm Jumeirah, Emirates Living among others. In addition, there are also a number of luxury apartments which are available in Dubai’s es-tablished prime area such as Downtown Dubai and Palm Jumeirah. “We are also see-ing new offerings come to the market in Dubai Marina, Bluewaters, Jumeirah and City Walk.”

In Abu Dhabi, major-ity of residential properties above Dh5 million are villas on Saadiyat Island while some prime apartments are available above this price point on Saadiyat Island, Yas Island and Al Raha Beach.

India must complete its reform process in next fi ve yearsNEW DELHI: India must focus on growth of labour-intensive sectors to create decent jobs for the masses as well as give “serious thought” to privatising the public sector banks (PSBs), eminent economist Arvind Panagariya has said, em-phasising that the reform process must be completed in the coming five years.

Panagariya, who had served as the first Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog from January 2015 to August 2017, was responding to a question on what the priori-ties should be of the govern-ment that comes into power when India’s mammoth and crucial general elections end next month.

“My personal view is that India must complete its reform process in the com-ing five years,” Panagariya, Director at the Raj Center on Indian Economic Policies at Columbia University, said.

The Deepak and Neera

Raj Centre in The School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) at Columbia University provides research and expertise necessary to inform policy decisions, deliver increased prosperity, and define India’s future role in the global economy.

Highlighting the priority areas, Panagariya said that India needs a clear focus on the growth of labour-intensive sectors such as apparel, footwear, furniture, kitchenware and other light manufactures to create de-cent jobs for the masses.

“We need firms in these sectors that are globally competitive and capture the space in export markets that China has been quitting due to its high wages. This requires flexible labour and land laws and an ecosystem that is yet friendlier to large firms,” he said.

Panagariya elaborated that one way to achieve this is to create Shenzhen-style

Coastal Employment Zones (in China) that create zones of 500 square kilometers or more along the coast that are characterized by highly en-trepreneur-friendly regime with respect to land, labour and international trade.

“Eventually, we must extend this regime to other parts of the country as well, he said.

He stressed that it is also time that “we gave a serious thought to privatising public sector banks (PSBs).

“Experience has shown that public sector owner-ship creates perverse incen-tives that have repeatedly manifested themselves in episodes of accumulation of non-performing assets (NPAs) in PSBs while the same has not been a prob-lem in private and foreign banks,” he said.

Further, public owner-ship has also resulted in dual regulation of PSBs (by the Reserve Bank of India and

the government) and two dif-ferent RBI regulatory regimes for PSBs and private banks.

“The simultaneous role of the government as a pro-vider of banking services through PSBs, policy maker and regulator create obvious conflicts. There needs to a separation of policy making, regulatory and service pro-vision functions,” he said, adding that it is possible to promote social goals with-out ownership of the banks as the experience with prior-ity sector lending illustrates.

“As a last resort, if the government feels that it must have control, keeping the State Bank of India in the public sector (with due governance reforms) may be a reasonable compromise,” Panagariya said.

The noted academician also stressed that serious thought must be given to the consolidation of numerous transfers into a single cash transfer.

RBI has $43b in excess reserves, says BofAMLMUMBAI: A panel named by India’s central bank to study its capital structure is likely to identify excess reserves of up to Rs 3 lakh-crore ($43 billion), or 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product, according to Bank of America Merrill Lynch.

The view from BofAML lends itself to a debate over Reserve Bank of India’s re-serves, with one school of thought believing that the monetary authority holds surplus capital that can be handed over to the govern-ment and the other saying

the RBI has insufficient reserves.

BofAMLs note comes as the panel led by former cen-tral bank Governor Bimal Jalan prepares to submit its report in the coming weeks. While finance ministry officials have supported transfer of surplus reserves to help the government meet budget goals, a cen-tral bank-backed thinktank found that the RBI’s capi-tal buffer that’s below the global average capital to asset ratio.

Our stress tests throw

up a range of one trillion rupees plus only from con-tingency reserves,” Indrani Sen Gupta, chief India econ-omist at Biofilm, said in the note. According to him, In-dia’s central bank maintains higher contingency reserves as a percentage of its total book compared to its peers in Brazil, Russia and South Africa and a lower cap will release more funds.

As such, if the cap is halved to 3.25pc from 6.25pc, currently, that will release Rs 1.3 lakh crore, Sen Gupta added.

No more departure stamps for foreigners leaving S’poreSINGAPORE: Foreigners departing Sin-gapore will no longer need to get their passports stamped at the manned counters.

This is part of ongoing efforts to stream-line procedures at the checkpoints and make them more effective, said the Im-migration & Checkpoints Authority (ICA).

Previously, all foreigners departing Sin-gapore would have their passports stamped with the date of their departure by the im-migration officer at the manned counters.

Since Sept 2016, foreign travellers whose fingerprints have been enrolled via the BioScreen system upon their arrival into Singapore can use automated lanes when they leave the country. They do not receive departure immigration stamps when they use the automated lanes. To further stream-line the departure process, ICA is ceasing the departure immigration endorsements to all foreign travellers departing Singapore through manned counters.

Over 1,000 millionaires...(Contd. from page 1)tourism facilities, service levels and entertainment offer-ings. The city offers many advantages that make it a haven for the world’s wealthy. Millionaires flock to the emirate due to a range of exceptional business incentives, robust foreign trade and international connectivity. Dubai attracted over 16 million tourists in 2018 and has the ambitious target of welcoming 25 million tourists by 2025. Dubai International Airport (DXB) has retained its position as the world’s busi-est airport with the number of travellers passing through its terminals hitting nearly 90 million last year, up by one per cent from the previous year. Dubai International has been crowned as the world’s busiest hub for international travel for a few years now since outranking London Heathrow in 2014. The number of affluent migrants in the UAE rose by two per cent in 2018 compared with the previous year.

JNPT raises offer to buy Air India towerMUMBAI: State-owned Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (JNPT), India’s biggest con-tainer gateway, has raised its offer price to over Rs 1,300 crore to buy debt-ridden Air India’s iconic 23-storey tower located at Mumbai’s Marine Drive at Nariman Point.

JNPT’s initial bid of some Rs 1,200 crore was higher than the one quoted by the state-run insurer Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC), the only other bidder to participate in the auction, but was below the reserve price set by the cash-strapped national carrier.

“During negotiations, JNPT raised its price bid to over Rs 1,300 crore,” at least

two people familiar with the development said, asking not to be named.

In December 2018, Air India issued a tender to sell its 23-storey building as part of a larger asset mon-etisation plan and allowed only government entities to participate in the bidding for acquiring lease hold rights on “as is, where is basis”.

The move to sell the 2,20,000 square feet build-ing came after a plan to privatise the loss-making carrier fell through last year for lack of bidder interest, forcing the government to abandon the move in view of the general election.

The idea behind the sale of the tower is to give

a much-needed liquidity boost to Air India while ensuring that the iconic building remained in gov-ernment hands. The airline has identified residential and commercial properties for sale in at least 16 cities.

Air India posted a stand-alone net loss of Rs 5,337 crore in FY18 compared to a loss of Rs 6,281 crore in FY17. At the end of the last financial year, it had Rs 21,955 crore in short-term borrowings and Rs 30,227 in long-term loans.

The shipping ministry has been nudging some of the dozen ports owned by the Centre to use their cash reserves to fund waterway and rail connectivity proj-ects as well as for setting up new ports or buying stressed private ports.

JNPT is part of a con-sortium of four major port trusts that acquired state-run Dredging Corporation of India (DCI) from the govern-ment. Separately, JNPT has secured backing from a lend-ers panel to buy debt-laden Dighi Port, located a few ki-lometres away, through the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code (IBC) process.

L&T MBDA seeks approval for SEZ unitNEW DELHI: L&T MBDA Missile Systems Ltd, a joint venture between engineer-ing conglomerate Larsen & Toubro and France’s MBDA, has urged the government to grant a provisional Letter of Approval (LoA) for the company’s proposed Special Economic Zone (SEZ) unit in Coimbatore to start con-struction of facilities.

L&T MBDA is awaiting an industrial licence, and export orders with “critical delivery timelines” were piling up, the company said.

“The unit assured that the manufacturing opera-tions will not start until the grant of industrial licence under the Arms Act 1959 by the Department for Pro-motion of Industrial and Internal Trade (DPIIT).

“The unit also assured that it will abide by condi-tions as required by the Department of Commerce,” according to the agenda note to be considered by the Board of Approval (BoA) for SEZs in its meeting on April 22. The proposed SEZ unit is to come up at the Aspen Infrastructures Ltd SEZ, Co-imbatore, Tamil Nadu, and

will focus on assembly, inte-gration, and functional test-ing of missile sub-systems and missile weapon systems.

The BoA on SEZ, in its meeting in November 2018, had considered a request for LoA by L&T MBDA Missile Systems, but at that time it had not given its approval.

Instead, it directed that the proposal for grant of li-cence may be expeditiously processed on file after re-ceiving necessary applica-tion/documents from the unit and clearances from relevant departments. An application for industrial licence was subsequently made to the DPIIT, and is under its consideration. The unit, however, is continuous-ly pressing hard for a LoA for their SEZ unit pending issu-ance of industrial licence by the DPIIT, as it would allow it to enter into a lease agree-ment with the SEZ developer and undertake construction of manufacturing facilities.

“The unit has mentioned that it has already received export orders with critical delivery timelines. The mis-sile sub-assemblies to be produced by the unit are to be

exported to France for integra-tion into missiles by the unit’s customer MBDA, which will supply the missiles to the Indian Armed Forces.

“To meet the timeline the unit needs to construct specific manufacturing fa-cility for execution of these export orders,” the agenda pointed out.

The matter of the unit was examined by the Depart-ment of Commerce, and it was decided to place the re-quest for the examination of the Boa at its next meeting.

L&T’s joint venture with MBDA, the French missiles

systems company jointly held by Airbus Group, BAE Systems and Leonardo, was incorporated in April 2017 as an Indian company, with L&T holding 51 per cent stake and MBDA holding the remaining 49 per cent.

“To begin with, the JV company will look to de-velop and supply fifth-gen-eration anti-tank guided missiles for coastal and high-speed target drones,” both companies said in a joint statement. Setting up operations as a SEZ unit will help the company save on customs duties on inputs.

3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIESTuesday, April 23, 2019

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NEW DELHI: The All In-dia Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to invite retired faculty of the country’s leading engineering col-leges, such as Indian Institutes of Technol-ogy (IITs) and National Institutes of Technology (NITs), to mentor other struggling in-stitutes to improve the overall quality of education.

“These mentors would be in a bet-ter position to help institutes in improv-ing the quality of education and student experience, which will automatically make the process of acquiring ac-creditation easier for technical institutes,” said Anil Sahasrabuddhe, di-rector, AICTE.

In December 2017, AICTE initiated a mis-sion to introduce better

AICTE to get retired IIT, NIT professors to mentor colleges

NEW DELHI: Infrastruc-ture conglomerate GVK Power and Infrastructure has signed an agree-ment to sell 49pc stake in its airports business to Abu Dhabi Investment Author-ity (ADIA) and National Investment and Infrastruc-ture Fund (NIIF). ADIA is the world’s second larg-est sovereign wealth fund while NIIF is India’s first sovereign wealth fund set up by the government in 2015. Both have signed a term sheet and exclusivity agreement with GVK Power and Infrastructure’s step-down sub-sidiaries GVK Airport Developers and GVK Airport Holdings.

GVK had initiated the process to identify and se-lect preferred investors to raise capital to reduce or

GVK Power sells 49pc stake in airports biz to ADIA, NIIF

refinance debt obligations of up to Rs 5,750 crore. “All pro-ceeds from the proposed transaction will be used by GVK towards retiring debt obligations,” it said in a statement. GVK Chairman G V Krishna Reddy said:

“The funds brought in through this proposed trans-action will help us delever-age as we continue with our endeavours to create the infrastructure for a strong avia-tion hub in India that will provide the impetus for growth and development for the entire country.” He said the future focus will be on delivering Navi Mumbai International Airport, suc-cessfully monetising Mum-bai airport’s real estate and building a strong airports business at GVK.

NEW DELHI: India is in-creasingly becoming a focal point for fashionistas with more than 300 interna-tional brands expected to open stores in the next two years, according to McKin-sey Fashionscope.

A rapidly growing middle-class, increasingly powerful manufacturing sector and strong economic fundamentals make the country too important for international brands to ignore.

“Economic expansion is happening across Asia, but we expect that 2019 will be the year in which India will take centre stage,” said McKinsey’s report titled ‘The State of Fashion 2019.’

The country is being propelled by strong mac-roeconomic tailwinds and is predicted to grow at 8

Over 300 global fashion brands to open stores in India by 2020per cent a year between 2018 and 2022. The Indian middle class is forecast to expand at 19.4pc a year, outpacing China, Mexico and Brazil.

“As a result, India is set to move from being

an increasingly important sourcing hub to being one of the most attractive con-sumer markets outside the Western world.”

India’s apparel market will be worth 59.3 billion dollars (about Rs 4.12 lakh crore) in 2022, making it the sixth-largest in the world and comparable to Britain 65 billion dollars (Rs 4.51 lakh crore) and

Germany 63.1 billion dol-lars (Rs 4.38 lakh crore), according to data from McKinsey’s FashionScope city-level growth forecast-

ing tool.The aggregate income

of the addressable popula-tion (individuals with over 9,500 dollars or Rs 6.6 lakh in annual income) is expected to triple between now and 2025.

“ G i v e n these dy-namics, it is little sur-prise that more than 300 inter-n a t i o n a l f a s h i o n brands are expected to open stores in India in the next two

years.”But the report said India

remains a complex market which presents challenges as well as opportunities.

The apparel business is still largely unorganised with formal retail account-ing for just 35 per cent of sales in 2016. Its share is likely to reach around 45 per cent by 2025, still a relatively low proportion.

“Despite structural chal-lenges that include in-equality, infrastructure and market fragmentation, we expect strong economic growth, scale and rising tech-savviness will com-bine to make it the next big global opportunity in fash-ion and apparel,” it said.

Significantly, China will for the first time in centu-ries overtake the United States as the world’s largest fashion market. “It will be a year of awakening after the reckoning of 2018 -- a time for looking at opportuni-ties, not just challenges.”

PUNE: Attracting, motivat-ing and retaining critical talent is a significant area of focus for all businesses. Unlike in the past when organisations depended on once a year feedback or employee surveys, now digital technology enables the organisation to collect employee feedback on an ongoing basis on various matters right through the employee lifecycle.

Today feedback alone is not the only source for assessing employee morale and decide on what needs to be done. Employee ex-perience at every moment of their association with the organisation, their ori-entation with customers, alignment with the man-agement’s thinking and approach and the quality of

Listening for eff ective employee engagementlearning and collaboration with peers – all of these come together to determine the level of employee en-gagement which in turn impacts the retention fac-tor. The digital system has to therefore facilitate linking of the employee lifecycle data with the feedback from all stake-holders along with factors such as customer orienta-tion, engagement initiatives including learning and coaching, attendance and other experience as well as operational data in order to provide a holistic analysis of morale and quality of en-gagement in the organisa-tion. Arising out of these, dashboards that provide deep insights on multiple factors built around analyt-ics are essential for creating

transparency and timely actions on multiple fronts that have enormous effect on employee engagement.

Employee engagement has moved beyond creat-

ing bonhomie and building relationships. The scope of influence and engagement has enhanced considerably over the past few years par-ticularly on account of con-

nectedness of employees with multiple stakeholders and the opportunity of the top management to be in touch with the grassroot level employees thus mak-

ing it necessary for the organisation to establish linkages in all the new spaces beyond the physical office environment where the employee is present.

The presence in social media, the role of influenc-ers inside and outside the organisation which can be tracked with the help of smart tools and analytics of

various touchpoints in the employee life-cycle could throw light on the engage-ment quotient. For instance, analytics of parameters such as absenteeism, work hours, customer feed-back, customer reten-tion, completion of learning programs and quality of work could help provide

early warnings on the risks the organisation could run with certain employees. The level of participation in offline and online learn-ing programs, volunteer-

ing with sharing of best practices and coaching can also be tracked and made available to build a comprehensive engagement index for the organisation. Such insights would enable the supervisors and HR managers to gauge the cur-rent levels of performance and employee morale to initiate the required steps to manage retention or replacement issues and also provide the required counselling support to such employees. Analytics could help unearth critical is-sues to be addressed and thus prevent the problem from ballooning to other parts of the organisation, impacting a larger number of employees.

Additionally, it is im-portant to have an effective

measurement method to determine the outcomes of employee engagement initiatives resulting in busi-ness outcomes and substan-tiate the case for long term sustainability by establish-ing the ROI. Employee engagement and talent management processes are becoming more data driven whether for deciphering the avenues for engagement or for deciding on the spend and efficacy of the chosen pathways. Ultimately, it is the combination of art and science in listening, sup-ported by timely action that would enable organisations to find place in the list of best employers to work for.

The writer is chairper-son, Global Talent Track, a corporate training solutions company

systems and processes in order to improve the quality of education im-parted in technical in-stitutes across the coun-try, such as imposing a blanket ban on the establishment of new in-stitutes from the 2020-21 academic year.

Last year, AICTE pro-posed well-performing colleges mentor neigh-bouring institutes that were struggling to make the cut. “Making such clusters will prove help-ful to all as one or more colleges can share re-sources and expertise and help each other. In

case colleges can’t find such mentor colleges, we will request retired facul-ty to help such institutes with their expertise,” added Sahasrabuddhe.

The council a lso hoped technical insti-tutes would get at least half of their education

p r o g r a m m e s accredited by the nat ional board of ac-creditation to maintain a good standard of ed-ucation. “Stu-dents always seek accredited

courses in higher educa-tion institutes and are fooled by several smaller and newer institutes. If AICTE makes accredita-tion compulsory, many students, especially in rural India will benefit,” said the assistant director of an engineering insti-tute in Mumbai.

NEW DELHI: If there is vi-able and acceptable proposal to take over the company, Government must take over the airline or merge it with Air India, says the Assoica-tion.

Banks should come for-ward to extend a special and exclusive loan to the grounded Jet Airways for the payment of salary dues of the staff or some subsistence payments to them, against a proper collateral of lien on the accumulation in the staff fund like PF and gratuity, according to the All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA).

“Alternatively, IBA can ask the banks to device a

Extend special loan to help Jet Airways pay staff: AIBEA

special loan scheme to the staff of Jet Airways to tide over their present financial problems,” said CH Ven-katachalam, General Secre-tary, AIBEA, in a letter to Indian Banks’ Association Chairman Sunil Mehta.

“We are happy to observe that the banks are not show-ing any hurry to further lend to Jet Airways, rather, bidders are being invited to take over the airline. When our Banks already have an exposure of Rs 7200 crore to Jet Airways and when the promoter Naresh Goyal is unable to bring in further capital, and when the airline is already cash-starved, it is most prudent that the banks

are not willing to lend any further to them unless and until viable proposals come to take over and run the air-line on proper lines,” he said.

He emphasised that the banks should dispel the wrong impression that when a corporate borrower defaults repayment of the loan or mismanages the affairs of the company, it is the job of the banks to rescue them.

If viable and acceptable proposals do not come at the earliest to take over the company, the Association said that the banks should recommend to the Govern-ment to either take over the airline or merge it with Air India.

NEW DELHI Twitter India has appointed Manish Maheshwari, ex-CEO of Network18 Digital, as the Managing Director for its India operations.

Reporting to Maya Hari,

Twitter`s Vice President and Managing Director of Asia Pacific, Mahesh-

Twitter appoints Manish Maheshwari as India MDwari will be responsible for driving an integrated business strategy to accel-erate Twitter`s audience and revenue growth in the country, the company said in a statement.

B a s e d out of Delhi, he will over-s ee Twi t -ter India`s t e a m s i n D e l h i , M u m b a i and Benga-luru from April 29.

“India is one of our

fastest growing audience markets for Twitter in the

world and our purpose is to serve the public con-versation in India. We are thrilled to have Manish join us at this important time to take our Indian business to the next level,” said Hari.

Prior to Network18, Ma-heshwari held various posi-tions at Flipkart, txtWeb, Intuit, McKinsey and P&G.

“With premium Indian content on the rise in multiple regions across the country, I believe we are scratching the surface of what`s possible with Twitter in India,” said Ma-heshwari.

“I`m bullish about the overall impact that Twitter

India can create in the country and the influence of India on our global platform,” he added.

After Taranjeet Singh, who was elevated as Twitter`s Country Di-rector for India in May 2017, quit the company in September last year, the micro-blogging plat-form which has over 30 million users in India (ac-cording to statista.com), had an interim country head in Balaji Krish.

Krish, Twitter`s global head of revenue strategy and operations, took on the role of interim coun-try head in September 2018.

NEW YORK: Two Indian nationals have been appre-hended by patrol agents at the US-Mexico border in Arizona after they got stranded while trying to enter America ille-gally, authorities said.

Agents assigned to the Ajo Border Patrol Station rescued them following the activation of a US Border Patrol rescue beacon.

They responded to the rescue beacon located ap-proximately 14 miles north-west of the Lukeville Port of Entry in Arizona and found the two men alone in the beacon.

The duo was transported back to the station for pro-cessing, where record checks revealed that they were Indi-an nationals who were trying to enter US illegally

Indians held for illegally entering US

GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, April 23, 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 # 56 will be in next issue.

Fun Corner

Sudoku Puzzle 55 Answer

Your wellness

New research has found that skipping breakfast and hav-

ing dinner late is the worst eating habit and can lead to worst outcomes after a heart attack.

According to a study Cardiology, people with these two eating habits had a four to five times higher likelihood of death, another heart attack, or angina (chest pain) within 30 days of being discharged from hospital following the treatment for a heart ailment.

This was the first study to evaluate these unhealthy behaviours in patients with acute coronary syndromes. Skipping breakfast was ob-served in 58pc, late-night dinner eating in 51pc and both behaviours in 41pc patients.

The study enrolled pa-tients with a serious form of heart attack called ST-segment elevation myo-cardial infarction (STEMI). “One in ten patients with STEMI dies within a year, and nutrition is a relatively inexpensive and easy way to improve prognosis,” said study author, Dr Marcos Minicucci.

He recommended a minimum two-hour inter-val between dinner and bedtime. “It is said that

Late dinner, no breakfast a killer combinationthe best way to live is to breakfast like a king. A good breakfast is usually composed of dairy prod-ucts (fat-free or low-fat milk, yoghurt and cheese), a carbohydrate (whole wheat bread, bagels, cere-als), and whole fruits. It should have 15 to 35pc of our total daily calorie intake,” he added.

The study included 113 patients with a mean age of 60, and 73pc among them were men. Patients were asked about eating behaviours on admission

to a coronary intensive care unit. Skipping breakfast was defined as nothing before lunch, excluding beverages, such as coffee and water, at least three times per week. Late-night

dinner eating was defined as a meal within two hours before bedtime at least three times per week.

Dr Minicucci noted that late-night dinner eat-ing was defined by the two-hour interval between dinner and bedtime, rather than eating late at night. But nearly all participants with this habit were late-eaters.

Previous studies have found that people who miss breakfast and have a late dinner are more likely to have other unhealthy

habits such as smoking and low levels of physi-cal activity. “Our research shows that the two eating behaviours are indepen-dently linked with poorer outcomes after a heart at-

tack, but having a cluster of bad habits will only make things worse. People who work late may be particu-larly susceptible to having a late supper and then not being hungry in the morn-ing,” said Dr Minicucci.

“We also think that the inflammatory response, oxidative stress, and en-dothelial function could be involved in the association between unhealthy eating behaviours and cardiovas-cular outcomes,” he added.

I n t h i s study, statin use before hos-pital admission was higher in the group with unhealthy eat-ing habits and worse outcome.

Dr Minicuc-ci said, “There are some con-troversies re-garding eat -ing habits of patients using s ta t ins . Our study suggests

that patients with STEMI perceive statins as an al-ternative path to health benefits. But these drugs should be an addition to healthy eating habits, not a replacement.”

Men aged above 40, who are suffering from diabetes,

hypertension, coronary artery disease, obesity and metabolic syndrome, are at higher risk of facing lack

o f s e x u a l drive due to Testosterone Def ic iency

Syndrome, according to a study. According to the study by Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, every third per-son above 40 is suffering from lack of libido.

Testosterone Deficien-cy Syndrome (TDS) is a clinical and biochemi-cal syndrome associated with advancing age and marked by symptoms with or without signs and a deficiency in serum tes-tosterone levels.

The study was con-ducted on 745 patients, aged between 40 and 80, to estimate the prevalence of age-associated TDS (male sex hormone) in India.

It found that the prev-alence of symptomatic TDS was present in 359 patients, which is around 48pc.

“Around 84pc of par-ticipants with Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) were found to have TDS sug-gesting that patients hav-ing TDS should be evalu-

ated for CAD or Metabolic Syndrome and vice-versa,” the study noted.

It also found that there is a significant associa-tion between Vitamin D3 deficiency and TDS. Most commonly reported symp-toms are lack of energy followed by poor erection and a loss of libido.

A significant correla-tion was also found be-tween aging and decline of the serum Total Testos-terone (TT).

“In Indian subconti-nent, this syndrome is considered as a general phenomenon associated with aging and very few studies were carried out

to document its true preva-lence and clinical profile, resulting in a lack of ob-jective treatment. Patient should not be ashamed of discussing with doctor and get cured,” said Dr Sudhir Chadha of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital and author of the study.

“Since TDS is signifi-cantly associated with metabolic and lifestyle diseases, patients require multi-disciplinary ap-proach. They should be evaluated and managed by combined efforts of andrologist, cardiologist and endocrinologist,” said Dr Vipin Tyagi, co-author of the study.

Every third male above 40 in India lacks sex drive

The Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL) has invited

applications from inter-ested and eligible candi-dates for the recruitment of Engineer Trainee and Executive Trainee at bhel.in. Candidates can visit the official website of BHEL now to apply for the same. The positions up for grabs are for Engineer Trainee (Mechanical or Electrical or Civil or Chemical) and Executive Trainee (HR) & Executive Trainee (Fi-nance). Check the details mentioned to know more about the vacancy.Dates to noteOnline application process starts: April 16, 2019 (10 PM)Online application process ends: May 6 (11:45 PM)Online payment of fees closes: May 8, 2019 (6 PM)Date of Examination: May

BHEL recruitment 2019: Multiple vacancies on offer25, 26, 2019Post details

The vacant posts are for Engineer Trainee (Mechani-cal or Electrical or Civil or Chemical) & Executive Trainee (HR) & Executive Trainee (Finance). Here are the specifications-Mechanical – 40Electrical – 30Civil – 20Chemical – 10HR – 20Finance – 25Salary

Engineer /Execut ive Trainees will undergo train-ing for one year

They will get a basic pay of Rs 50,000/- in the scale of pay of Rs 50,000-1,60,000/- in the training period

Once the candidates are absorbed as Engineers/Executives, they will get scale of pay of Rs 60,000-1,80,000/- with a basic pay

of Rs 60,000/-The approximate CTC is

Rs 12.0 Lakhs per annum for ETsEligibility CriteriaEngineer Trainee (Me-chanical or Electrical or Civil or Chemical)

– Bachelor’s Degree in

Engineering/Technology or Five-year integrated Mas-ter’s degree or Dual Degree programme in Engineering or Technology in Mechani-cal or Electrical or Civil or

Chemical– Upper Age limit: 27 Years as on April 1, 2019

– 29 years for candidates having 2 years’ full time Post Graduate in Engineer-ing or Business Administra-tion/ ManagementExecutive Trainee (HR)

– Regular bachelor’s degree with at least 60pc marks in aggregate in all years with 2 years of PG degree/diploma in HR management/ Personnel

Management and Indus-trial Relations/ Social Work/ Business Administration– Upper Age limit: 29 Years as on April 1, 2019Executive Trainee (Fi-nance)

– Full time regular Bach-elor’s degree from a rec-ognized Indian University with Qualified Chartered or Cost and Works Ac-countants from recognised Institutions in India– Upper Age limit: 29 Years as on April 1, 2019Selection Process

– Candidates will have to appear for a Computer Based Examination

– Based on the exam, candidates will be shortlist-ed for the interview round

– The final merit list shall be prepared on the basis of 75pc weightage to Examination Score & 25pc weightage to interview stage.

Chhattisgarh Vyapam has issued a notifi-cation for a number

of posts. Applications have been invited for posts of teachers, lecturers, assis-tant teachers and exercise teachers. Interested can-didates can apply on or before April 25. But before applying, the candidates are advised to go through the detailed notifications uploaded on the official website www.cgvyapam.choice.gov.in.

The application pro-cess for lecturer post has already started from April 16, for assistant teacher (science) posts from April 26, for teachers and as-sistant teachers (English) from May 7. Teachers will be selected on the basis of written test, followed by an interview.Some important details:Eligibility Criteria

The applicants must have passed Higher Sec-

CG Vyapam issues notifi cation for 14,850 teachers posts

ondary, B.El.Ed, Diploma, Graduation, TET, BA/ B.Sc.Ed or BA.Ed/ B.Sc.Ed, B.Ed, Teacher Eligibility Test (TET)Age Limit: Minimum age- 21 and maximum age – 35.How to Apply: The can-didates can apply online through the official web-site: cgvyapam.choice.gov.inimportant DatesLecturer Post: Starting Date of Application– April 16; Last Date of Applica-tion- May 12Asst Teacher (Science): Starting Date of Applica-tion- April 26;Last Date – May 26Teacher & Asst Teacher (English): Starting Date of Application – May 7;Last Date – June 9Asst Teacher (Science), Teacher (E & T Cadre): Starting Date of Applica-tion – May 14; Last Date – June 16Exam Date for Lecturer:

July 14, 2019Exam Date for Asst Teach-er (Science): July 28, 2019Exam Date for Teacher & Asst Teacher (English): August 11, 2019Number of posts: Total posts: 14,580Assistant Teacher (E-Cad-re) Science – 2020 posi-tionsAssistant Teacher (T-Cadre) Science – 1980 positionsAssistant Teacher Science (Lab) E-Cadre – 789 posi-tionsAssistant Teacher Science (Lab) T-Cadre – 411 posi-tionsLecturer – 3177 positionsTeacher E-Cadre – 2545 positionsTeacher T-Cadre – 2896 positionsTeacher (English) – 456 positionsAssistant Teacher (English) -Science Group – 153 po-sitionsAssistant Teacher (English) – 153 positions

The Election Commis-sion of India (ECI) has allowed degree

colleges in the state to continue the recruitment process to hire more than 3,500 people for teaching and non-teaching staff in their government-aided sections, but directed that the names of successful candidate’s appointments should be announced after the final phase of polling in Maharashtra on April 29.

The state government had since March 10 halted the recruitment process to avoid a violation of the Model Code of Conduct (MCC) imposed by the ECI for the ongoing gen-eral elections. As many as 3,580 positions - around 40pc vacant positions for teachers in degree colleges and universities - will be filled after the state lifted its freeze on teacher re-cruitment after three years.

In a letter to the chief electoral officer of the state last week, the ECI said that while 89 colleges that have

EC clears way for teacher recruitment in Mahapublished advertisements for 703 appointments could continue with the selection process, 29 colleges were permitted to issue adver-tisements for 167 posts.

During the model code of conduct period, the gov-

ernment is prohibited from announcing and imple-menting new schemes and policies, lest it influence the electorate.

On March 22, state education minister Vinod Tawde in a letter to the governor and chancellor of the state’s public universi-

ties, Ch Vidyasagar Rao, had sought permission to conduct interviews for the recruitment process and issue no-objection certificates (NOCs) to col-leges. He said the decision to appoint college staff was

taken before the code of conduct came into effect.

“The government has issued NOCs to colleges to appointment staff. Some colleges have issued re-cruitment advertisements before model code of con-duct came into effect. It’s necessary to conduct inter-

views [of the applicants] and make appointments in the prescribed duration for the benefit of students,” read the letter.

Tawde added that col-leges that have applied for NOCs should be is-

sued certificates and be allowed to issue advertisements.

The National Forum for Quality Education (NFQE), a Mumbai-based non-governmen-tal organisation, had requested the ECI to intervene in the is-sue. “The recruitment process was on a hold for more than three years. There are around 10,000 teaching aspi-rants who have cleared

the qualifying examinations and are awaiting recruit-ment. Their appointment doesn’t violate MCC,” said Ramesh Zade, president, NFQE.

“We will now request the commission to allow issuance of NOCs to the colleges as well.”

The Indian Institute of Technology-Jodh-pur will be setting

up the industry’s largest Artificial Intelligence (AI) Super computer.

IIT Jodhpur has signed a memorandum of under-standing with NVIDIA (US based company) to install NVidia DGX-2, a state of the art machine with 512 GB of GPU memory and an enterprise grade AI infrastructure.

This would be India’s first AI Super computer.

Director of IIT-Jodhpur, Santanu Chaudhury said the AI Super computer would be utilised for solving various national technological challenges related to infrastructure (Tele Communication, Smart Cities), healthcare, scientific research & de-

IIT-Jodhpur to set up India’s largest AI supercomputer

velopment, agriculture, education among others. He further said the com-pany would support the institute in operating the super computer for three years through various technical workshops.

This would help the Institute faculty mem-bers, technical staff and students to simulate and operate AI Super com-puter.

The Institute has also planned to extend this facility to industries and nearby academic institu-tions to promote activities related to scientific and technological research. The super computer would help IIT Jodhpur collaborate with other global leading universi-ties and research organ-isations, he added

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, April 23, 2019

I was recently terminated from my posi-tion at a school in Dubai due to budget cuts. I was half-way through my cur-rent limited two-year contract. For the termination compensation, I was given one week’s notice and told I would be given three month’s salary for termi-nating the contract. My contract states: “The company may terminate your employment at any time by giving three months’ prior written notice or payment in lieu of notice.” I’ve discussed with HR that they also need to provide pay-ment in lieu of notice for 2.75 months, so for a total of three months’ notice. They have replied that the company is only required to provide three months compensation. Are they correct? For my final settlement and accounting of accrued leave, does unused leave from the previous year carry over to the next? I’ve read some things about Article 78 that would imply this is the case, but would like to be certain before ask-ing. I’m sure the company will tell me their policy does not allow carryover of leave, but if the Labour Law says it does, I would imagine that would be enforceable. Can you clarify?

This is a private school, so UAE La-bour Law applies. Where an employee on a fixed term contract is made redun-dant, Article 115 of UAE Labour Law is relevant and this states: “Should the employment contract be of a determined term… he shall be bound to compensate the worker for the damage incurred thereto, provided that the compensation amount does not exceed in any case the total wage due for the period of three months or for the remaining period of the contract, whichever is shorter, unless otherwise stipulated in the contract.” Due to the provisions in the law, it is not common for fixed-term contracts to include a notice period. If it does, this notice must be given in addition to the early termination compensation. The wording in JV’s contract refers to notice or payment, so no additional notice period has to be given, provided com-pensation for the three months is paid. Therefore, the employer is correct. In respect of annual leave that has accrued but has not been taken, this depends partly on company policy. However, the official UAE government website states, as per Article 78 of UAE Labour Law: “If the worker is requested to work during his total annual leave or a part of it and the leave is not carried forward to the next year, the employer must pay him his regular salary, in addition to a leave allowance, which is equal to his basic wage only. In all cases, annual leaves may not be forwarded for more than once within two consecutive years.” Therefore, if leave is not carried over then it should be paid so the individual does not lose out. However, a company does not have to allow for leave to be carried forward although their guidelines should be clearly communicated to all employees.

No gratuityI worked for a private company in Abu Dhabi from April 2013 to March 2018.

I went on holiday to my home coun-try but did not return on time so the company sent me a termination letter. I have since re-joined the company from Jan and I would like to know if I am eligible for any end-of-service gratuity for when I was with them before?

When an employee fails to return to

Leave carryoverwork after annual leave or leaves service without giving proper notice, they can be marked as an absconder. It appears that as you did not return and so were in breach of contract, you were sent a termination letter which was valid per Article 120 of UAE Labour Law which states: “The employer may dismiss the worker without prior notice in any of the following cases: Should he be ab-sent without valid cause for more than 20 non-consecutive days in one year or for more than seven consecutive days.” The law goes on to say, in Article 139: “The worker shall be deprived of his end-of-service gratuity in the following two cases: Should he be dismissed from service for any of the reasons set forth in Article 120 hereof, or should he leave his employment in view of avoiding the dismissal therefrom in accordance with the said Article.” This confirms that you are not entitled to an end-of-service gratuity for his previous time with the company, as it is forfeited due to the circumstances of his unauthorised departure.My employer claims they do not have a placement for me anymore and I was offered an 18 days of local leave from March 1 to 18. I am struggling to find new employment and have decided to resign. I joined the company on June 16, 2014. My basic salary was Dh2,000. How should I expect my gratuity to be calculated?

You have not clarified what you mean by local leave but it seems this may be unpaid. A company cannot just decide an employee must take leave and the employee should be paid in full unless they agree to unpaid leave. If there is no longer a role for you in this company, the employer should terminate the posi-tion and you 30 days’ notice or more if required in your contract. All employees must be paid in full for the notice pe-riod, whether they are actually working during this period or not. I understand you are on an unlimited contract.

It is better for you to be terminated by the company rather than for you to resign, as if you leave on your own ac-cord it will reduce the gratuity amount due for you. This is clarified in UAE Labour Law and Article 132 says: “The worker having spent one year or more in continuous service shall be entitled to an end-of -service gratuity upon the termination of his service. The days of absence from work without pay shall not be included in the calculation of the period of service, and the gratuity shall be calculated as follows: 1) The wage of 21 days for each of the first five years of service. 2) The wage of 30 days for every additional year. Always provided that the total gratuity does not exceed the wage of two years.”

The situation will change if an em-ployee resigns with fewer than five years of service. This applies if you leave be-fore June 16. This is set out in Article 137 of the law: “Should the worker bound by an employment contract with undetermined term leave his work by his own choice after a continuous service of one year at least and three years at most, he shall be entitled to one-third of the end-of-service gratuity set forth in foregoing Article. Should his continuous service be of three years at least and five years at most, he shall be entitled to two thirds of the said gratuity, and to the full gratuity should it exceed five years.”

To clarify, if you resign now, you will be entitled to two-thirds of the full gratuity figure, so calculated as 14 days per year of service, rather than at 21 days. Any partial years must be paid pro-rata, per Article 133: “The worker shall be entitled to a gratuity for the served fraction of a year, provided that he completes one year of continuous service.”

In each case, the end-of-service gratu-ity is calculated on the basic salary only and does not include any allowances or bonuses. The final payment must also include any days of annual leave that have accrued up until the final day of service but have not been taken.

GULF FAQs

ABU DHABI: The foundation stone for the first traditional Hindu Temple was laid in Abu Dhabi. The “Shilanyas Vidhi” ceremony was presid-ed over by Mahant Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha -- the religious and social organisation building the temple. The ceremony started with rituals led by

Stone laid for fi rst Hindu temple in UAE

Pujya Ishwarcharan Swami. Sanskrit verses filled the air as priests described to devotees how each ritual had to be conducted.

Community leaders and devotees followed the direc-tions from their respective seated areas which had a tray placed in front of them containing a brick, rice, flowers, nuts etc. Once

the ceremonies were com-plete, between 10.50am and 10.55am the foundation stone was laid by priests and BAPS Hindu Mandir committee head and com-munity leader BR Shetty. There were some 50 priests who had come from India and were part of the cer-emonies.

The temple will be built

in phases with all pink stones and marbles being transported from Indian state of Rajasthan to the UAE capital. The stones of the temple will be hand-carved by artisans in India and then transported to Abu Dhabi. And once completed, this will be the first traditional Hindu stone temple in the Middle East

The Shilanyas Vidhi of the first traditional Hindu temple in the UAE was performed in the presence of Mahant Swami Maharaj, the spiritual leader of BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha. Earlier, Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak received Mahant Swami Maharaj at the airport.

WASHINGTON: Singa-pore has extradited an Indian national to the US to face charges in a call centre fraud that scammed millions of dol-lars from victims in the United States, the Justice Department announced Friday.

Hitesh Madhubhai Pate (42) of Ahmedabad, India was scheduled to be ar-raigned Friday in a Hous-ton, Texas federal court for his role in a case that was first announced in 2016, charging 60 people with wire fraud and mon-ey laundering conspiracy.

Patel ran the HGlobal call center, one of five India-based operations which allegedly worked together in an operation

Indian extradited to US in call centre fraudwhich targeted mostly South Asians living in the US. Callers pretending to be US tax or immigration officials threatened them with arrest and deporta-tion if they did not remit money to the government.

The victims were then directed to people work-ing with the call centres in the

US to collect the “fines” through prepaid debit cards or wire trans-fers and the money was quickly laundered out of the country. “This extradi-tion once again demon-strates the Department’s unwavering commitment to disrupt and dismantle the India-based call centre scam industry and to work with our foreign partners

to hold accountable those who perpetrate schemes that defraud our citizens,” said Assistant Attorney General Brian Benczkows-ki in a statement.

Justice officials said that in the past six years more than 15,000 people have been cheated of over $75 million in scams in which callers pose as agents of the Internal Rev-enue Service, the federal tax agency. So far, in the Indian call centre case, 24 domestic US defendants have been convicted and sentenced to up to 20 years in prison, the Justice Department said. “The remaining India-based defendants have yet to be arraigned in this case,” they said.

MUSCAT: Top Royal Oman Police official re-vealed that most expa-triates with failed busi-nesses are writing bogus cheques before flying out of the country perma-nently. These expats are mostly company owners who have shut down shop and do not intend to hon-our the issued cheques as

they are unable to pay money.

According to reports, Lt Col Fahad Al Hosni, Assistant Director at the Criminal Investigation Department of Muscat Police Command, said: “For expats who have is-

Oman warns expatsover bogus cheques

sued bounced cheques, the majority were com-pany owners leaving the country writing cheques with not enough money. These bounced cheques are referred to the ROP, Public Prosecution and then courts.”

Al Hosni warned that defaulters will be dealt with strictly and authori-

ties will liaise with Inter-pol to track down expats who have fled after writ-ing bogus cheques. ROP statistics revealed that number cheque bounce cases increased to 3,054 in 2018 compared with 2,963 cases in 2017.

SAMRALA (Punjab): A pall of gloom descended on Kubbe village near Samrala when the news of Harjit Singh’s be-heading in Saudi Ara-bia in con-nection with a m u r d e r case reached there. Harjit’s parents and other family members were shocked to know that he had been be-headed on Feb 28.

Gurdev Singh, elder brother of the deceased, said Harjit had gone to Saudi Arabia in 2007 when he was 21 years old. He started driving in a company called Al Majid. Gurdev said in 2015, a quarrel took place in Harjit’s company after which four youths, includ-ing Harjit and Satwinder of Hoshiarpur, were taken to a police station. Later, they were sent to jail in Riyadh in connection with the murder of an Indian-origin youth. Gurdev said Harjit had told them that he had been wrongly implicated in the murder case.

Gurdev said they had

Indian executed in Saudisent letters to Foreign Min-ister Sushma Swaraj, social activist SPS Oberai and Bibi Amanjot Kaur Ramoowa-

lia for help and had been hopeful of the safe return of Harjit. Gurdev said he had spoken to Harjit over phone on Feb 24 and at that time too, his brother had no knowledge about the capital punishment. Harjit’s parents Budh Singh and Jaswinder Kaur said neither the government of Saudi Arabia nor the Indian embassy had informed them about the beheading. They termed the death sentence as their son’s murder and “high-handedness” by the Saudi Arabia government. They said they had been waiting for the safe return of their son but it seemed that they would not even be able to see at least their son’s body.

LOUISIANA: An Indian-origin physician in the US has been charged with conspiracy to unlawfully dispense controlled sub-stances and commit health-care fraud.

Neurologist Anil Prasad, 62, of Mandeville, Louisi-ana, was charged with one count of prescribing con-trolled substances outside the course of professional practice for no legitimate purpose and one count of conspiracy to commit healthcare fraud, accord-ing to US Attorney Peter G Strasser.

The court documents said that between Novem-ber 2016 and July 2018, Prasad worked at a pain management clinic in Slidell.

US-Indian physician charged with healthcare fraud

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, April 23, 2019

SBI General Insur-ance said that it has launched a product

to protect businesses from financial and reputational losses due to cyber-attacks.

In the initial phase, the focus will be on SMEs and mid-market businesses, but later the product can cater to larger business conglom-erates as well, the insurer said in a statement.

This offers protection

SBI Gen Ins launches cyber defence insuranceagainst the growing threat of cyber breaches and is designed to protect against major insurable cyber expo-sures like hacking attacks, identity theft, disclosure

of sensitive information and business interruption. “Over the years, digital advancement has expo-nentially increased cyber risk exposures for almost all types and sizes of busi-nesses. Cyber attackers

work on the theory that majority of the businesses do not spend adequately on shoring up their cyber security,” it said.

They work on the pre-sumption that cyberattack techniques that have been used on large enterprises will work on relatively smaller enterprises. The product offers both first and third-party coverage benefits including coverage options for contingent busi-ness interruption, system failure, reputational loss, multimedia liability and computer crime, it said.

The crisis response ser-vice that comes with this product enables swift and efficient management of cyber events and provides IT forensic investigations, legal advice, reputational and PR management, it added.

India’s largest IT services company Tata Consul-tancy Services (TCS) said

it has deployed an integrated solution for India Post that has helped modernise a net-work of more than 1.5 lakh post offices in the country.

In 2013, the Mumbai-based company had an-nounced receiving an over Rs 1,100- crore multi-year contract from the Depart-ment of Posts (DoP) for an end-to-end IT modernisation programme. The partnership was aimed at equipping India Post with modern technolo-gies and systems to enable it to offer more services to the customers in an effective manner.

“At the heart of this trans-formation is the Core System Integration (CSI) program designed and implemented by TCS. This involved de-ploying an integrated ERP

TCS modernises 1.5 lakh post officessolution that caters to mail operations, finance and ac-counting, and HR functions, and connects its vast network of more than 1.5 lakh post of-fices, making this the largest distributed e-postal network in the world,” TCS said in a

statement.The integrated solution

supports requirements of over five lakh employees, services over 40,000 concur-rent users, and processes over three million postal transactions a day, making this one of the largest SAP implementations globally, it

added.On the front-end, TCS

said, it has implemented its Point of Sale (PoS) solution across 24,000 post offices with over 80,000 PoS ter-minals and has also built a web portal with consignment

tracking capabilities, and set up a multi-lingual call centre for customer support. “An important objective of the transformation is to use the department’s nation-wide reach to drive financial inclu-sion and accessibility of citi-zen services in remote areas.

“This is being accom-

plished through over 1.3 lakh DARPAN 1 hand-held devices that Gramin Dak Sevaks use to provide postal, banking, insurance, and cash management services in re-mote villages, even those without network connectiv-ity,” TCS said. TCS Business Group Head (Public Services) Debashis Ghosh said postal services across the world are reinventing themselves to stay relevant to a new generation in the digital era.

“We are proud to have partnered with the Depart-ment of Posts in this pio-neering, mission mode initia-tive to build a world class, future-ready digital platform that the nation can be proud of. With this, the depart-ment can offer smart postal services, enriched customer experiences, and innovative value-added services to the citizens of India,” he added.

E-commerce firm In-diaMart expects to maintain a com-

pounded (CAGR) of 29 pc for the next two years, mainly on account of big brands joining the platform, a top company official said.

The business-to-busi-ness (B2B) company, which is in the process of getting listed, posted revenue of Rs 429 crore in 2017-18 and operating profit of Rs 46 crore. “Last three years our revenue has grown at CAGR of 29 percent. Similar growth should be possible this year and next year also,” IndiaMart co-founder and CEO Dinesh Agarwal said.

“We have been gen-erating internal cash which we will deploy once we get listed. We have democratised infor-mation for around five crore products with 47

IndiaMart expects 29pc CAGR revenue growthlakh suppliers through our platform. Most of the firms listed on our platform are small and medium enterprises. Now we are going to focus on big brands,” Agarwal said.

The company expects to raise up to Rs 600 crore from the initial public of-fer (IPO). Regarding timing of the IPO, Agarwal said the company will assess the situation post elec-tions. “We are a profitable firm. The IPO is to provide

exit route to some of the investors and get new ones on board,” he added.

The existing inves-tors include Intel Capital, Amadeus Capital, West-Bridge Capital, Quona

Capital and Accion Fron-tier Inclusion Mauritius. The company has also started working on its software as a service (SaaS) platform and pay-ments services with es-crow account facility.

“Bridging the trust gap

between buyer and seller will be a big achievement for us. That is why we will focus on develop-ment payment and escrow facilitation. The other fo-cus area will development of our own SaaS platform for mobile,” Agarwal said.

SaaS refers to a model where customers access software over the Internet.

Agarwal said that there are SaaS platforms avail-able for medium and large enterprises but for small entrepreneurs like carpenters or vendors in small towns who operate mainly through mobile phones, there is hardly any decent service avail-able. We will develop SaaS more for the pur-pose of value addition. Significant percentage of revenue will come from big brands, followed by payments and SaaS,” Agarwal said.

Lending major HDFC Bank on Saturday re-ported a 22.6pc in-

crease in its net profit for the January-March quarter on a year-on-year basis.

The bank’s net profit for the fourth quarter of financial year 2018-19 stood

at Rs 5,885.1 crore, HDFC Bank said in a regulatory filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. After providing Rs 3,069.3 crore for taxa-tion, the Bank earned a net profit of Rs 5,885.1 crore, an increase of 22.6pc over

HDFC Bank’s Q4 net risesthe quarter ended March 31, 2018,” the bank said in a statement.

“Net interest income (interest earned less interest expended) for the quarter ended March 31, 2019 grew by 22.8pc to Rs 13,089.5 crore, from Rs 10,657.7

crore for the quarter ended March 31, 2018, driven by average asset growth of 19.8pc and a core net inter-est margin for the quarter of 4.4pc.” For the full fiscal 18-19, its net profit grew by 20.5pc to Rs 21,078 cr.

Reliance Industries has stated that it will start natural gas production

from R-Cluster gas field in the flagging KG-D6 block in the Bay of Bengal from the second half of the 2020-21 fiscal. Reliance and its partner BP Plc of UK had in June 2017 announced an investment of Rs 40,000 crore in the three sets of discoveries to reverse the flagging production in KG-D6 block. These finds were expected to bring a total 30-35 million cubic metres (1 billion cubic feet) of gas a day onstream, phased over 2020-22.

R-Cluster will be first to come on stream. “R-Cluster development is on track for first gas in 2H FY21,” Reliance said in an investor presenta-tion after its fourth-quarter earnings. Four of the planned six wells that would produce gas from the field have been completed and the fifth one is being drilled currently, it said.

RIL to start gas output from R-Cluster

Paytm Payments Bank Ltd (PPB) said that it has appointed entre-

preneur Sairee Chahal to its board of directors. Chahal is the founder and CEO of SHEROES -- a community platform for women.

“We are delighted to have Sairee Chahal on our board. She has comprehen-sive experience of customer service ecosystem. We will benefit from her knowledge and expertise,” PPB Manag-ing Director Satish Gupta said in a statement.

PPB, which was incor-porated in August 2016, formally began its opera-tions in 2017.

Paytm Founder Vijay Shekhar Sharma holds 51pc stake in PPB, while the rest is held by One97 Communications.

Paytm Payments Bank appoints Sairee Chahal to board

Singapore -based merchant plat -f o rm company

Pine Labs on Friday said it has ac-quired gift solution company, Qwikcilver, for $110 million. Last month, the com-pany had signed a definitive agreement to acquire Qwikcilver.

“We have acquired Qwikcilver for $110 mil-lion, funded via internal cash reserves and with additional funding from existing investors,” a company statement said.

The company is backed by Sequoia In-dia, PayPal, Temasek, Actis Capital, Altimeter Capital, Madison In-dia Capital and Sofina. Qwikcilver is a gift card service provid-er, man-

Pine Labs acquires gift solution fi rm for $110m

aging an annualised gross transaction value of $1.5 billion across India, Middle East and South East Asia.

With this acquisition, Qwikcilver and Pine Labs have a combined gift solutions business comprising 250 brands and retailers and 1,500 enterprise customers.

Qwikcilver co-found-er and chief executive officer, Kumar Sudar-shan, has joined the Pine Labs leadership team, the release said.

Pine Labs provides financing and last-mile retail transaction tech-nology. Its offer-ings are used by one lakh mer-chants in 3,700 cities and towns across India and Malaysia.

Mo b i l e d e -vice maker Infinix ex-

pects around 50-60pc growth in its smartphone sales this year with its focus on customers in the economy segment, a top official of the company said.

“This year we will focus more on smart-phones in the range of Rs 5,000-10,000. Overall we expect sales volume growth to be about 50-60 per cent this year,” In-finix Mobile CEO An-ish Kapur said. According to Counterpoint Research, Infinix was among the top three fastest-growing

Infi nix Mobile expects up to 60pc growth in smartphone sales

smartphone brands in the country in the last quarter of 2018. The sales volume of Infinix grew by 146pc in the Octo-ber-December

2018 period.K a p u r

said that the company will target people in socio-eco-nomic class B and C by introducing s o m e f e a -tures that are available in phones priced in the range of Rs 15,000-20,000. When asked about the compa-ny’s plan for 5 G , Ka p u r

said that adoption of 5G technology in India will take time and the usage will be limited.

“We will try to reach out to more and more people in tier-2 and -3 towns. Our fo-cus will remain on a limited set of devices. In the first half of the year we will launch around 2-3 smartphones and a similar number of devices in the second half,” Kapur said.

The company has plans to expand its portfolio to wearable devices this year but has excluded them from business growth pro-jection. In the next 2-3 months, we will launch wearable devices. It will be also for our target group in the range of Rs 1,000-3,000 a unit. We are also evaluat-ing some accessories that we can get for our target market,” Kapur said.

Gautam Adani-led Adani Group, which recently forayed into

petrochemical and airport spaces, is continuing with aggressive expansions, with a focus on new business areas like logistics, min-ing, energy, construction and agro commodities, in order to diversify its port-folio, which has paid rich dividends to the company in the last few years.

Sources close to the company said it is aggres-

Adani on aggressive expansion across sectorssively bidding for projects in logis-tics, mining, en-ergy, construction and de-fence in next few months.

In January this year, Ad-ani Group forayed into the petrochemicals sector, after signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with German chemicals major BASF SE, to evaluate a joint investment in the acrylics value chain entailing an in-vestment of two billion eu-ros (about Rs 16,000 crore). The proposed site for the

facility is at Mundra port in Gujarat and a feasibility study will be completed by the end of 2019.

In February, the group forayed into the airport space as it bagged the rights to operate, manage and develop half-a-dozen airports in the country, namely Ah-medabad, Luc-know, Jaipur, Guwahati, Thiruvananthapuram and Mangalore, over the next 50 years.

“With these six airports

under concession, the Ada-nis will become the third largest private airport oper-

ator in terms of passengers handled, after the GMR group and GVK group,”

ratings agency ICRA said in a note.

City Gas is another area the company is betting on. In the ninth city gas bid in No-vember last year, Adani Gas bagged licence to retail Compressed Natural Gas to automobiles and piped cooking gas to households in 13 cities and towns. In the same round, it also won the licence for another nine geographical areas in a joint venture with state-owned Indian Oil

Corporation.Further, in the tenth

bid round concluded last month, it bagged rights to two geo-graphical areas in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. The group, which is already active in construction space, also bid for redevelopment of Dharavi slum in Mum-bai, one of the most ambitious slum redevelopment proj-ects in the country. The company has already ex-pressed its plans to actively

engage in the construction business.

Adani Enterprises said on Saturday that its sub-sidiary Adani Defence Systems and Technolo-gies has acquired Alpha Design Technologies. “Ad-ani Defence Systems and Technologies — a wholly owned subsidiary of the firm — has acquired the control of Alpha Design Technologies,” Adani En-terprises said in a BSE filing.

8 Travel / Entertainment

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As on 22nd April, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 48.40 50.90Bahraini Dinar 180.10 190.10British Pound 88.85 91.85Canadian Dollar 50.85 53.35 Emirati Dirham 18.45 19.45Euro 76.80 79.80Kuwaiti Dinar 223.80 233.80Omani Rial 176.05 186.05Qatari Riyal 18.60 19.60Saudi Riyal 18.05 19.05Singapore Dollar 50.00 52.50Swiss Franc 67.10 70.10US Dollar 68.60 70.60

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IPEPCIL Publications (P) Ltd.IPEPCIL Publications is publishing NEWS AND NRI CONNECT,

which is the “Gateway to Global Opportunities”. Published from In-dia’s business capital Mumbai, this bi-weekly (Tuesday and Friday) newspaper is circulated pan-India. This English newspaper carries Gulf and national placement advertisements and provides authentic and useful information of Indian and overseas recruitment, critical news packets of job opportunities and crucial changes in policies that affects the industry.

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Cabin crew hold placards during a protest organised by Jet Airways employees at Jantar Mantar in Delhi.

Will Reliance take over Jet Airways?Petro-textiles-telecom

giant Reliance Indus-tries may take a stake

in the grounded Jet Airways even as it is looking at a possible bailout of the flag carrier Air India reeling under heavy debt, according to reports.

Mukesh Ambani-led Re-liance Industries had not submitted an Expression of Interest (EoI) to the lenders for buying the beleaguered Jet Airways. Nevertheless, reports said Reliance in-dustries may join Etihad Airways, which controls 24pc stake in Jet Airways, in its bid at a later date. Abu Dhabi’s Etihad had earlier submitted an EoI to the lenders.

Etihad can increase its stake to 49pc in Jet Airways under the automatic route as per the existing FDI rules in civil aviation that permit NRIs to buy 100pc in carri-ers. However, Etihad would need permission from the government to increase its stake beyond that.

Overall planReliance declined to

comment. “Our company evaluates various opportu-nities on an ongoing basis.

We have made and will continue to make necessary disclosures in compliance

with our obligations under SEBI (Listing Obligations and Disclosure Require-ments) Regulations 2015 and our agreements with the stock exchanges.” the spokesperson told a leading financial newspaper.

Talks are ongoing with respect to funding. “This is precisely the reason for the

delay in resolution and the consequent grounding of Jet Airways,” the report said

citing the source.The interest in Air In-

dia is part of Reliance’s overall plan, said another source.

“It is a boardroom strat-egy and could be considered at a later stage. Discussions are slowly picking pace since the interested parties are of the view they still

have time.” A preliminary information memorandum was issued by the govern-

ment in March last year for the beginning of the Air In-dia’s disinvestment process. However, a ministerial panel chaired by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had to defer the strategic plan to sell government’s 76pc stake in the airline after failing to get any bids.

The government had

then taken the decision to sell the subsidiaries and assets of Air India to cut its debt of Rs 48,781 crore as on March 31, 2017.

Jet Airways had unpaid dues of Rs 8,414 crore to lenders as on March 31, 2018. Five-six EoIs have been received by SBI Capi-tal Markets from private equity companies, foreign carriers and other parties. SBI Capital Markets is cur-rently looking at the en-tire sale process on behalf of lenders. Lenders might close the deal by May 10 even as April 30 is the last date for submitting binding bids by parties.

In Feb, Jet Airways and Air India’s share in the domestic market stood at 11.4pc and 12.8pc respec-tively. However, Jet Airways’ business took a significant hit since last year because of reduced operations. Jet Air-ways and Air India had 16.8 pc and 13.2pc consolidated market share respectively in last Feb.

The combined share of both airlines is below 25pc t as on date. On the other hand, Indigo — the largest carrier in the country has 43.4pc market share now.

Air India Express mulls leasing some Jet Airways’ Boeing 737s

Air India Express, the international budge t a rm o f

Air India, is examining the possibility of leasing some Boeing 737 aircraft of grounded carrier Jet Airways, which are parked at different airports due to non-payment, through

a firm decision is yet to be taken, a top company official said.

Before halting opera-tions temporarily mid-last week due to severe cash-drought, the private carrier was forced to ground 69 planes owing to non-pay-ment of rentals to lessors.

Later, on April 16, it grounded the rest of the planes in its fleet, when

it decided to temporarily suspend all its domestic and international services. Air India Express parent, Air India, is already dis-cussing a proposal to lease five of Jet Airways wide-body planes, Boeing 777s.

“We are looking at leas-ing (B737 of Jet Airways)

aircraft but there is no firm decision on this issue so far. As a matter-of-fact, there are a lot of other things that have to be looked at, like slots, sec-tors and timings, among others,” Air India Express chief executive officer Shyam K Sunder told a leading news agency over phone from Kochi, the airline’s headquarter.

Singapore’s Changi Airport dons ‘Jewel’

Jewel Changi Airport has a HSBC Rain Vortex, which is the world’s tallest indoor waterfall.

Changi Airport of Sin-gapore has literally added a sparkling

jewel in its crown! Well, we are talking about the latest addition at the airport, “Jew-el” which is an engineering marvel spread over 135,700 sqm complex built on the site of the former Terminal-1 open air car park.

Jewel Changi Airport has a ‘HSBC Rain Vortex’ which is the world’s tallest indoor waterfall. The main attrac-tion at the Jewel is a “HSBC Rain Vortex” which is the world’s tallest indoor water-fall. It is a spectacular sight with 10,000 gallons of water rushing through roof per minute. The entire structure is a distinctive dome shaped façade made of glass and steel which blends gardens, attractions activity areas, retail, dining and much more. Costing some SG$1.7 billion (US$ 1.3 billion), Jewel is designed by world-renowned Israeli-Canadian architect Moshe Safdie. He also designed the iconic Ma-rina Bay Sands triple tower structure, a fixture on Sin-gapore’s cityscape which all visitors to the island make it a point to photograph.

The building of Jewel is integrated into Terminal-1 and connected to Terminal-2 and 3 via walkways and travellators with a light rail system connecting Termi-nals 2 and 3 via Terminal 1.Canopy Park

The building also har-bours a lush green sanctuary

that is the Shiseido Forest Valley. Accessible from ev-ery level, the tranquil retreat is a reminder of Singapore

and a garden city even be-fore a traveller steps out of the airport. The Indoor Forest has over 120 species of plants including ferns and orchids. There are also curated plants and two olive trees from Spain which are each more than 100 years

old. Canopy Park which is at the top level of the garden features more gardens and leisure facilities.

Jewel also houses the first YOTELAIR property in Asia. With 130 smartly-de-signed cabins that optimise space in its Premium, Ac-cessible and Family cabins, these rooms can be booked for a minimum of four hours,

ideal for short daytime lay-overs or overnight stays. YOTELAIR also features time-saving airline style self-check-in kiosks that will facilitate a hassle-free check-in process. “The vision for Jewel Changi Airport is to be a destination where “The World meets Singapore, and Singapore meets the World”. The unique proposition of world-class shopping and dining, seamlessly inte-grated with lush greenery, fulfils the needs of increas-ingly discerning travellers for a meaningful and expe-riential journey, even for brief layovers,” said its CEO Hung Jean.

“Moreover, by provid-ing innovative and fresh experiences for Singapore residents and working pro-fessionals in its vicinity, Jewel will invigorate Singa-pore’s eastern precincts and provide more opportunities for the public to enjoy time with family and friends,” he added. Notably, the vision for Jewel is to be a distinc-tive world-class lifestyle destination that will be a game changer for Changi Airport to keep it ahead of its rivals amidst intensifying global competition.

SpiceJet, Emirates sign pact for code share partnership

Budget carrier Spicejet has announced signing of an initial pact for code share partnership with Gulf Car-rier Emirates. The reciprocal partnership will allow

opening of new routes and destinations for passengers of the two airlines, SpiceJet said.

“I am delighted to an-nounce that as part of Spice-Jet’s international expansion strategy, we have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) for a code share agreement,” SpiceJet CMD Ajay Singh said in the statement. SpiceJet passengers from 51 domestic destinations will be able to access Emirates’ network across the US, Europe, Africa and Middle East, it added. Code-sharing allows an airline to book its pas-sengers on its partner carriers and provide seamless travel to destinations where it has no presence.

Bengaluru Airport serves 33.30 million passengers in 2018-19

The passenger traffic at the Kempegowda International Airport,

Bengaluru (BLR Airport) continues to grow at an in-credible pace. At the end of FY 2018-19, a record 33.30 million passengers transited through the Airport, making it one of the fastest growing airports in the world.

The addition of new airlines and new routes to familiar destinations were the main driving factors as BLR Airport achieved this new milestone in passen-ger numbers, registering a 23.8pc growth over the pre-vious year’s 26.91 million. During the 12-month pe-riod, domestic traffic con-tinued to be the main driver of growth, accounting for 28.82 million passengers, an upswing of 24.8pc over last fiscal’s 23.09 million. A total of 4.48 million passen-gers travelled to and from international destinations – a growth of 17.5pc over the previous year’s 3.81 million.

The BLR Airport offers a wide air-route network – with over 37 passenger air-lines and 12 cargo airlines

connecting Bengaluru to the rest of the world. Amongst the airports in South India, BLR Airport continues to be the destination of choice for both domestic and inter-national flights, the press release said.

Hari Marar, MD, Banga-lore International Airport, said that creating a smooth and pleasant travel experi-ence for passengers remains his top priority. “Passengers at the BLR Airport have come to associate our Air-port with a high-quality travel experience. Maintain-ing this experience poses a challenge, given the growth in passenger volumes we are currently witnessing.

However, with careful hourly capacity manage-ment and investment in new technology, BIAL is committed to provide this

to the best of our ability,” he said.

He also said the BLR Airport has introduced sev-eral technology initiatives such as the fully-automated self-bag-drop machines, enabling passengers to com-plete the baggage check-in in under 45 seconds and the Smart Security Lane with Automated Tray Retrieval System to make travel seam-less. “Our other pioneering initiative that is set to go live soon is the biometric-based self-boarding solu-tions as part of Government of India’s Digi Yatra pro-gramme,” he added.

Meanwhile, the BIAL, operator of the BLR Airport, has undertaken a massive Rs 13,000-crore capacity expansion to cater to the long-term demands of the aviation market in India.