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Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan presenting a memento to Union Tourism Minister Prahalad Singh Patel at the Tourism Ministers’ Conclave-2019 at Kovalam near Thiruvananthapuram.

NEW DELHI: India, the world’s third-largest oil con-sumer, will not be hit by a reduction in oil production due to attack on Aramaco refinery in Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Aramco officials informed the Indian refiners that there would be no short-age of supplies to them. Union petroleum ministry is closely monitoring the situation in consultation with Indian re-finers and Saudi Aramco. A massive drone strike on the world’s largest crude-process-ing facility operated by Saudi Arabia’s Aramco has driven oil prices to their highest level in nearly four months.

The attack has knocked

Saudi assures India of full oil supplyout over half of Saudi Ara-bia’s production as it cut 5.7 million barrels per day or over five per cent of the world’s supply. India im-ports 83pc of its oil needs. Saudi Arabia is its second-largest supplier after Iraq. It sold 40.33 million tonnes of crude oil to India in 2018-19 fiscal, when the country had imported 207.3 million tonnes of oil. Oil prices surged the most on record on Monday, with Brent crude rising by as much as 19.5pc to $71.95 per barrel --- the steepest gain in dollar terms since futures started trad-ing in 1988. US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures

climbed 15.5pc to $63.34, the highest intra-day per-centage gain since June 1998.

Officials at state-owned oil refiners said Saudi Ar-amco has informed that there would not be any major disruption, but has sought flexibility for switch-ing to different grades for continuing supplies. Wood Mackenzie VP for Refining, Chemicals an Oil Markets, Alan Gelder said: “This at-tack has material implica-tions for the oil market, as a loss of five million barrels per day of supplies from Saudi Arabia cannot be met for long by existing inven-tories and the limited spare

capacity of the other OPEC+ group members”.

Spike in crude prices, even if temporary, will be negative for Indian oil market-ing companies and positive for upstream PSUs and GAIL. “Any further escalation of geo-political tensions in the Mid-East region, which cannot be ruled out for now, may add to the woes of global oil supplies for now given lack of buffer from Saudi’s significant spare production capacity,” Kotak Research said.

Crude supplies from Iran and Venezuela have already been curtailed significantly amid sanctions from the US, it added.

Oil prices rise over 20pc afterattack on Aramco plantHONG KONG/NEW YORK: Oil prices saw a record surge on Monday after attacks on two Saudi facilities slashed output in the world’s top producer by half, fuelling fresh geopolitical fears as Donald Trump blamed Iran and raised the possibility of a military strike on the country.

Brent futures surged $12 in the first few minutes of business -- the most in dol-lar terms since they were launched in 1988 and rep-resenting a jump of nearly 20pc while WTI jumped more than $8 or 15pc. Both contracts pared the gains but were both still more

than 10pc up. The attack by Houthi rebels in neigh-bouring Yemen hit two sites owned by state-run giant Aramco and effectively shut down six per cent of the global oil supply.

Trump said the US was “locked and loaded” to re-spond to the attack, while Secretary of State Mike Pom-peo said: “The US will work with our partners and allies to ensure that energy mar-kets remain well supplied and Iran is held accountable for its aggression.”

Oil prices surged Mon-day after an attack on Saudi Arabia’s largest oil process-

ing plant halted output of more than 5.7 million bar-rels of crude a day. But after an initial spike, crude oil prices moderated as traders analysed the likely longer-term implications. By late morning in Asia on Mon-day, US crude oil was up $4.89 per barrel or 8.9pc to $59.73 per barrel early Monday in electronic trad-ing on the New York Mercan-tile Exchange. Brent crude, the international standard, surged $6.02 per barrel or 10pc to $66.25 per barrel. Earlier, US crude jumped more than 15pc and Brent leaped nearly 20pc. Yemen’s

Iran-backed Houthi rebels claimed responsibility for the attack on the Saudi Ar-amco facility that paralysed production of more than half of Saudi Arabia’s global daily exports and more than five per cent of the world’s daily crude oil production.

Most of the output goes to Asia, where markets were mixed on Monday in early trading. Japan’s markets were closed for a holiday, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped one per cent . The benchmark in Indone-sia, which heavily depends on oil imports, dropped 1.6pc. (Contd. on page 2)

Indian start-ups go on hiring spreeMUMBAI: A record $6 billion of venture capital was in-vested in start-ups in India in the first eight months of 2019.

Business has been going well for Hyderabad educa-tion technology start-up 3RDFlix, its founders say, despite a broader slowdown plaguing India’s economy. The company secured $5 million (Dh18.36m) in fund-ing three weeks ago, rev-enues are set to grow by 100pc this financial year over the previous year and the company is creating doz-ens of new jobs, says Charu Noheria, co-founder of 3RD-Flix, which was set up five years ago. “India’s start-up ecosystem has matured a lot,” says Noheria. “Every-body’s figured out that it’s not a short-term game.”

India has a young popula-tion and an average age that’s much lower compared with other ageing populations and that’s a key reason why a great number of start-ups are coming up in India. Many start-ups in India have a similar story to tell, claiming

they are flourishing despite a slowdown in the country’s economic growth, which tumbled to a six-year low of five per cent in the April to June quarter, according to government data. That com-pared with eight per cent in the same quarter last year, with economists attributing the country’s slowing growth to weakening private invest-ment and consumer demand. A Rs 500 billion stimulus package aimed at boosting export promotion was an-nounced by finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

Figures from Venture In-telligence, a Chennai start-up data analysis firm, show that despite the difficult economic backdrop, a record $6 billion of venture capital was in-vested in Indian start-ups in the first eight months of 2019, up from $3.5 billion during the same period a year ago. “India has a young popula-tion and an average age that’s much lower compared with other ageing populations and that’s a key reason why a great number of start-ups are

coming up in India,” says GV Aniruddh, associate director of start-ups and innovation at advisory firm Grant Thornton India. “The economy will return to the uptrend. The overall funding has gone up and there are lot of foreign funds coming to India.”

Start-up entrepreneurs are also being helped by surging smartphone and internet use in the country, creating new opportunities to tap in the technology space. The Indian govern-ment is also playing a more active role in encouraging start-ups, with an initiative in place called Startup In-dia, a campaign rolled out in 2015 aimed at improving the environment for new ventures through funding and tax breaks.Last month, social commerce company Meesho in Bangalore raised $125 million in a funding round led by South Africa’s Naspers. The same month, Indian regional language social network platform, ShareChat, closed a $100m funding round led by Twitter.

Howdy Modi! Trump to share stage with PMHOUSTON: Ending specu-lation around whether he will make a joint appear-ance with Prime Minister Modi, US President Trump’s participation in the Sept 22 “Howdy, Modi!” diaspora event in Houston has been confirmed. The US presi-dent will also address the gathering -– expected to be in the “tens of thousands” as per the White House press secretary. Organisers have closed the registration, once it crossed 50,000 people. From Houston, Modi will fly to New York to attend the annual session of the UN General Assembly.

According to sources, the stage could be used to an-nounce a trade deal, ending months of bitterness over tariffs. Jiten Agrawal, CEO of Expedien, said that Houston was a primary choice due to the fact that trade between Texas and India had been in-creasing multifold. Houston being the energy capital of the world, was an excellent partner for India’s growth.

“India is going to be a US$5 trillion economy in the next few years and needs significant collaboration in healthcare and Texas medical centre being one of the best in country ushers in another

partnership between India and Texas on medical re-search and new treatments,” Agrawal had said. Heads of companies like Lyondell Ba-sil, Schlumeberger, McDer-mott, executives from Exxon, Shell and other similar firms including Walmart would also attend the event, he said.

Trump’s presence at the Howdy Modi event would send a strong message of sup-port to PM Modi, at a time when American lawmak-ers have expressed “grave concern” over the situation in J&K. Over 50,000 Indian Americans are likely to attend the event. With America go-

ing to poll next year, Trump might use the platform to ad-dress these potential voters. The Houston event will be Modi’s third major address to the Indian-American com-munity after he became the prime minister in 2014 and the first after his re-election in May. The previous two were at the Madison Square Garden in New York in 2014 and the Silicon Valley in 2016. Both the events were attended by more than 20,000 people. The mega event billed as Howdy Modi had attracted great enthusiastic participa-tion from Indian-American community.

More Saudi women take up jobsRIYADH: The number of Saudi women working in the public and private sec-tors has reached 596,700 by the end of the first quarter of 2019 rising by 282.5pc business daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported. There was an increase of 440,700 working women during the current year going up from 156,000 in 2018. The number of economic establishments of the government, the private sector and the non-profitable domain has reached 1.005 million by the end of the first quarter of this year with a slight

decrease of 0.3pc over their number last year which was 1.007 million.

The overall number of the workforce of the public and private sectors was 8.67 million of whom about 6.74 million were non-Saudis representing 77.7pc while the Saudis were 1.93 million repre-senting 22.3pc. The opera-tional revenues of the gov-ernment and private eco-nomic establishments have increased by about five per cent this year to stand at SR865.1 billion while the operational expenses were SR336.8 billion.

InstaReM to power SBI remittancesSINGAPORE: Customers of SBI Remit and SBI Cosmon-ey will now be able to make real-time cross-border pay-ments across selected mar-kets. The service is powered

by Singapore-headquartered financial payments com-pany InstaReM.

Announcing InstaReM’s partnership with SBI Remit and SBI Cosmoney, Prajit Nanu, co-founder and CEO of InstaReM said: “We are delighted to be working to-gether with SBI Remit and

SBI Cosmoney to power their outward real-time re-mittances. This relationship further cements InstaReM’s position as a leading provid-er for real-time payments.” He added that with the collaboration, clients of SBI Remit and SBI Cosmoney “will be able to realise faster turnarounds, while being assured of certainty on de-livery times and payout amounts.”

Joe Kim, CEO of SBI Cosmoney, said, “We are pleased to be partnering with InstaReM in delivering swift, secure and efficient remittance services for our customers.”

2 EMIGRATION Tuesday, September 17, 2019

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

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Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Palaniswami greeted US-Indian Anaheim Mayor Harry Sidhu with a shawl and Tanjore painting during his visit to California. The mayor shared an overview of the city with the visiting chief minister. The 17-member delegation accompanying the chief minister comprised three cabinet ministers, the state’s chief secretary, three principal secretaries and several senior officers.

US-Indian to stand for California assembly seatCALIFORNIA: An Indian-American professional from Silicon Valley launched her campaign at a well-attended event in Cinema Exchange in Milpitas, after announc-ing her run as Democrat for a seat to be vacated by Kansen Chu in California’s 25th district.

Natasha Gupta (28), a corporate professional with a background in environ-mental policy and political activism, is among a host of candidates in the fray, from the district that encompass-es parts of the South and East Bay of the San Francis-co Bay Area, including San Jose and Santa Clara. Gupta, seen as a political outsider, was born and raised in Dan-ville, a conservative town-ship in San Ramon Valley, to immigrant parents from India. She will square off in the 2020 election against Milpitas Vice Mayor Karina Dominguez, Santa Clara County Board of Education Trustee Anna Song, Santa Clara Unified School Dis-trict Trustee Jim Canova, Political Advisor Alex Lee, and former Ohlone Col-lege Trustee Bob Brunton. The Democratic primary is

slated for March 2020.So far, Natasha is the

only Indian-American can-didate in the race. The 25th

district has a sizable num-ber of Hispanic, Indian and Asian American constitu-ents. Gupta said she is going ahead with her campaign, holding small community gatherings and meeting with constituents despite her fulltime job in the Silicon

Valley. The launch of her campaign kick-off event drew dozens of people who complimented her for her

vision and energy. “She’s been campaigning for hardly three weeks and all the com-ponents of a campaign have come together so nicely. Just look at this event (campaign launch). I can see the en-ergy behind this campaign and tell you that Natasha

Natasha Gupta, a Democratic candidate running for California Assembly District 25, addressing the campaign kickoff event in Milpitas, California.

is a winner,” said Saratoga Council member Rishi Ku-mar who is running for US Congress from Silicon Val-ley’s Congressional District 18 in 2020.

Kumar and others pres-ent at the event spoke highly of Gupta’s candidacy. Com-munity advocate and for-mer advisor to the Fremont School District Chinmoy Roy noted, “She has a fire in her belly, she has a vision. And that’s why you need to support her.” Natasha’s plat-form focuses on many of the pressing issues in California today —housing, infrastruc-ture, income inequality — with a differentiating mes-sage. “Our policy priorities need to focus on California’s role in setting moral leader-ship because quite frankly, we can’t hope that it will come from Washington,” she says. Gupta is running on an ambitious agenda of a housing and rehabilitation guarantee for the homeless, a complete reform of the cost of college, California Care for All as a public option, a statewide Green New Deal, and ending the epidemic of gun violence and domestic terrorism.

LONDON: Indians in the United Kingdom held a pro-test at the Victoria Square in Birmingham over the week-end against anti-India propa-ganda on the Kashmir issue even as Pakistani overseas organisations approached the European Parliament. About 40 demonstrators carrying Indian flags showed their support for the move by the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

About 40 demonstrators carrying Indian flags showed their support for the move by the Indian government to abrogate Article 370 that granted special status to

Diaspora in UK march against anti-India protests

US-Indians back Biden to beat Trump NEW YORK: A recent sur-vey found that most voters of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) com-munities believe former US Vice President Joe Biden had the best chance of beating President Donald Trump. Irrespective of the candidate they supported, voters felt Biden was the one likeliest to beat Trump, the report said.

The poll, conducted by Change Research and spon-sored by Investingin US and the AAPI Victory Fund, was released in connection to the first-ever AAPI Democratic Presidential Forum held in Costa Mesa, California. The poll also gauged satisfaction levels for three AAPI can-didates --- Senator Kamala Harris, Representative Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang. Harris is the first US Senator of Indian origin, Gabbard is the first Hindu running for US presidency and Yang is of Chinese origin.

The survey indicated a three-way tie among Biden, Senator Bernie Sanders and

Senator Elizabeth Warren among the AAPI voters in the US. Voters of Indian de-scent are likeliest by far to support Biden, AAPI Victory Fund said in a statement. AAPI voters were most en-thusiastic about Harris and Yang, roughly 55pc would be satisfied with these two, and 15-20pc unsatisfied. However, irrespective of the candidate they supported, voters felt Biden was the one likeliest to beat Trump, the report said. “We found that, while AAPI voters are roughly aligned with other Democratic primary voters on their presidential pref-erences, their choices are being guided by concerns that are unique to their com-munities,” said Ben Green-field of Change Research. “They feel direct threats from White nationalism, racial and religious profiling and are even more focused than other Democratic pri-mary voters on issues like education and preventing gun violence,” he said.

US-Indian couple’s $250m gift helps build medical collegeFLORIDA: An India- American doctor couple’s “impossible” dream to build a state-of-the-art medical college to advance healthcare in Florida and in-ternationally to underserved communities in India and Af-rica has come to fruition with their $250 million gift.

Zambia-born India-edu-cated cardiologist Kiran Patel and his wife, paediatrician Pallavi Patel performed a ribbon cutting ceremony here in the presence of local dignitaries to open the Nova Southeastern University’s (NSU) new regional campus built with their donation. The single largest donation

made by an Indian-American individual or family in the US, included a $50 million gift and an additional $150 million real estate and facil-ity investment by the Patel family foundation .The new three-storey 311,000 square foot medical education com-plex built in just 17 months in Tampa Bay will also serve as a satellite campus for four other colleges, including Dr Pallavi Patel College of Health Care sciences, and the Dr Kiran Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine.

The NSU had renamed the two colleges located in its Fort Lauderdale camps,

about 400 km away, in Sept 2017 when the Patels an-nounced the largest philan-thropic gift in its history. “I feel that it is more important than ever to advance the current state of health care,” said Kiran C. Patel. “It is rare for someone to have the opportunity to impact the world in this way and, as an immigrant to the US, I am particularly honoured to be able to make a difference in people’s lives around the world. “ The Patels’ gift will provide support for equip-ment and the hiring of ad-ditional faculty and staff in the Tampa Bay area, as well

as an endowment to sustain the operation of the college’s new location besides an en-dowed scholarship fund for students.

Their goal is to be in-volved in the training and education of generations of physicians and other health care providers who will serve in areas with the great-est need across the US and worldwide. The new campus has received accreditation from the Commission on Os-teopathic Accreditation. The first batch of 150 osteopathic medicine (DO) students has already joined the college and will graduate in 2023.

Jammu and Kashmir.The protest was organised by the Indo-European Kashmir Forum (IEKF) and Hindu Council UK (HCUK). The protestors raised slogans of “Bring back Pandits”, in support of the return of Kashmiri Pandits to the Val-ley, and carried placards that read, “Abrogation of Article 370 and 35A will integrate Kashmir with India”.

Meanwhile, the Pakistani organisation Friends of Kash-mir group in the European Parliament (EP) recently held an event to discuss the situ-ation in the valley with the Members of the EP, during which neutral observers not-ed bias on the part of their

pitch to the parliament. It was noted that the situation in J&K is steadily returning to nor-malcy, while the propaganda against India is proving to be exaggerated and unfounded.

“J&K and Ladakh remain free from violence or abuse. The heavy security presence in the valley is slowly being reduced, but remains in place to maintain law and order and provide a sense of security to the people against the threats of terror-ism that have been made by Pakistan,” an EP report said. It added that it is unfortu-nate on the part of Pakistan to carry out the malicious propaganda campaign on the situation in Kashmir.

Dimple Ajmera Victorious in N Carolina primary race

Dimple Ajmera

NORTH CAOLINA: Char-lotte, North Carolina, held its primary election on Sept 10 with the incumbents victorious across the board, including Indian Ameri-

can councilwoman Dimple Ajmera among those moving on to the general election.

In addition to Mayor Vi Lyles winning her Democrat-

ic primary with nearly 87pc of the vote, City Council atlarge candidates, includ-ing incumbent Democrats Ajmera, Braxton Winston, James Mitchell and Julie

Eiselt, moved on to the fall ballot. Republi-can Joshua Richardson, who had no opponent in the primary, will also be on the November ballot for the four City Council at-large seats, according to reports.

Winston was the top vote-getter in the at-large primary, in which four candidates were selected to move forward. Ajmera tallied the third most votes

with 36,796 for 15.89pc, a point behind Mitchell and .03 points ahead of Eiselt. The general election will be Nov. 5. (Contd. from page 1)

“To take Saudi oil pro-duction down 50pc, that’s shocking,” said Jonathan Aronson, a research analyst at Cornerstone Macro. The attack may add to anxiety about the stability of the world’s oil reserves. “Saudi Arabia has been a very reli-able supplier of oil in the world,” said Jim Burkhard, who heads crude oil re-search for IHS Markit. This attack is “adding a geopoliti-

Oil prices rise over 20pc after attack on Aramco...cal premium back into the price of oil.” That means oil prices would rise because of worries about more unrest hurting supply. Higher oil prices tend to hurt the econ-omy as consumer costs rise.World reserves

Still, existing reserves were expected to help bridge any shortfalls and work was under way to restore produc-tion at the Abquaiq plant. The Wall Street Journal re-ported that Saudi officials

said a third of crude output will be restored by Monday. Bringing the entire plant back online may take weeks. Officials said they would use other facilities and ex-isting stocks to supplant the plant’s production. The world’s richest countries have oil reserves of more than two billion barrels, but releasing those to allevi-ate supply concerns could potentially backfire and result in higher prices on the

market as traders worry that there is a problem with tight supply, he said.

According to the Joint Organisation Data Initiative, Saudi Arabia has nearly 27 days’ worth of reserves. It holds reserves at home and in Egypt, Japan and the Netherlands. Chris Midgley, global head of analytics for S&P Global Platts, estimates prices could surge into the “high $70” per barrel range. It could go even higher if

disruptions are prolonged, but that is not expected, he said in a research note. The situation is better today than it would have been a decade ago, thanks to the US energy boom.

The US has a cushion because it and Canada both produce plenty of oil, leav-ing the US less reliant on the MidEast. But it’s still a global market. “If you take oil any-where out of system it affects everybody,” said Burkhard.

NEW DELHI: You can get your latest photograph up-dated in the Aadhaar card without submitting any documents. Not only this, details such as biometrics, registered mobile number and email id can also be up-dated without any problem. You just need to walk into an Aadhaar Centre with your Aadhaar card. The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has issued a notice that no documents will be required to update the personal information of the Aadhaar cardholders. Aadhaar card users who want to update their details like photograph, biometrics, mobile number or email id, will now simply have to visit

You can update your Aadhaar

any of the official Aadhar Seva Kendra and update their details. “No document required for update of pho-tograph, biometrics, Ggnder, mobile number and email ID in your Aadhaar. Just take your Aadhaar and visit any nearby Aadhaar Kendra. For appointment at UIDAI-run exclusive Aadhaar Seva Ken-dra,” UIDAI tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, the UIDAI had shared a list of valid documents that can be submitted for requesting an update of details such as name, address and date of birth. The UIDAI-run Aadhaar Seva Kendras are available in several cities like Delhi, Bhopal, Agra, Chennai, Vijay-awada, Hisar and Chandigarh.

New Jerseygovernormeets PMNEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday met New Jersey Governor Philip D Murphy and as-sured him of government’s support as the US state seeks to pursue meaningful co-op-eration with states in India. The prime minister received Murphy on his first visit to India in his present official capacity. The governor is visiting Agra, Mumbai, Hy-derabad and Ahmedabad apart from Delhi.

“Modi welcomed the governor’s desire to pro-mote closer commercial and people-to-people relations between New Jersey and India and assured him of the government of India’s support as New Jersey seeks to pursue meaningful co-operation with the Indian states,” a release said. It added that the governor briefed the prime minister of his priorities for building his state’s relations with India and committed to working towards a robust partnership between India and the US.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019 3GULF JOBS & OPPORTUNITIES

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GULF JOBS & CAREERS 5Tuesday, September 17, 2019

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Indian Institute of Tech-nology (IIT) graduates are known to have

founded the highest num-ber of billion-dollar start-ups in India. However, what is less well-known is that some IIT gradu-ates are also leading the way in the mental health space.

Organisations, includ-ing 1to1help.net, YourDost and Moodcafe, that are founded by IIT alumni have brought technol-ogy into mental health and are driving unique initiatives to reach out to thousands of people who are highly vulnerable to suicide. And, what is common to these found-ers is that they have all seen stress, depression, and even suicide at close quarters during their days at the IITs – a factor that inspired them to set up ventures in this space.

IIT graduates lead way in mental health tech1to1help.net, co-found-

ed by IIT Roorkee alumnus Anil Bisht and wife Archa-na, has till date, completed 600,000 counselling ses-sions and serviced over 1.8

million employees at 400 Indian and multinational enterprises. “We are the only EAP organisation in the mental health space in

India that has a proprietary suicidal risk prevention protocol in place. This has helped us successfully ad-dress over 4,000 suicidal risk cases,” says Anil Bisht.

The leading employ-ee assistance programme (EAP) provider plans to expand into more business segments and introduce ad-

ditional services that will further help the emotional well-being of employees.

According to a 2018 World Health Organisation report, India is the most

depressed country in the world, with at least 6.5pc of the population suffering from some form of serious mental disorder. On World Suicide Prevention Day (September 10), it is important to note that every hour, a student commits suicide in In-dia.

IIT Guwahati alum-nus Richa Singh, who runs emotional well-ness platform YourDost, had a friend who com-mitted suicide fearing a bad placement.

IIT Roorkee-IIM Ahmed-abad graduate Mikul Patel who co-founded mental health startup Moodcafe with fellow IIT-R grad Ra-

hul Ratan Mirdha, also had a friend who attempted to commit suicide.

Moodcafe is a free, anonymous chat platform where users on the app can connect with trained listen-ers and communicate with them, much like through WhatsApp.

The startup, says Patel, is also associated with a suicide p r e v e n -tion cen-t r e , t h e Vandreva-la Foundation that provides help when immediate inter-vention is needed.

Moodcafe recently or-ganised a first-of-its-kind ‘time donation’ camp where individuals donated time and were provided with training to hear out other people’s problems.

The startup - director-writer Homi Adajania and Rajnish Dhall, founder of

Micro Housing Finance Corporation are among its seven investors – has had over 10,000 users so far.

It is now working on tie-ups with corporates, educational institutions and the government. On the cards are workshops at the Bank of Baroda, the Bajaj Group and even the police force in Gujarat.

“ W e intend to move ac-tively to complete

healthcare services and even provide quarterly analytics to corporates to suggest areas of work,” says Patel.

Given the stigma in In-dia around seeking mental help, anonymity helps.

YourDost provides a technology platform where people can anonymously seek support and guidance from 1,000-plus trained

psychologists, counsel-lors, career coaches and life coaches. It already has tie-ups in place with corporates as well as educational institutions, including some IITs.

Co - founder Richa Singh says it has helped over 10-12 lakh individu-als so far, and follow a red flag protocol for all people who reach out to them contemplating suicide.

“We get as many as 4-5 such calls a day. If we feel that someone is at high risk of committing sui-cide, or needs immediate psychiatrist intervention, we breach confidentiality and reach out to their family/college/company to make sure they get help. We also escalate it to our crisis management team who do extensive sessions till the individu-als are better,” says Singh.

Regular tea drinkers have better-organ-ised brain regions

-- which is associated with healthy cognitive function -- compared to non-tea drinkers, a study claims.

The research, pub-lished in the journal Ag-ing, examined neuroimag-ing data of 36 older adults for the study.

“Our results offer the first evidence of positive contribution of tea drink-ing to brain structure, and suggest that drinking tea regularly has a protec-tive effect against age-

Drinking tea regularly may boost brain functionrelated decline in brain organisation,” said team leader Feng Lei, Assistant Professor at the National University of Singapore (NUS).

Past studies have dem-onstrated that tea intake is beneficial to human health, and the positive effects include mood im-provement and cardiovas-cular disease prevention, researchers said.

The team, includ-ing researchers from the University of Essex and University of Cambridge in the UK, recruited 36

adults aged 60 and above, and gathered data about their health, lifestyle, and

psychological well-being.The elderly partici-

pants also had to undergo neuropsychological tests

and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI).

The study was car-ried out from 2015 to 2018.

Upon an-alysing the participants’ c o g n i t i v e performance and imag-ing results, the research team found that individ-

uals who consumed either green tea, oolong tea, or black tea at least four times a week for about 25

years had brain regions that were interconnected in a more efficient way.

“We have shown in our previous studies that tea drinkers had better cogni-tive function as compared to non-tea drinkers.

Our current results relating to brain network indirectly support our pre-vious findings by showing that the positive effects of regular tea drinking are the result of improved brain organisation brought about by preventing dis-ruption to interregional connections,” Feng said.

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D I S C L A I M E R

N A T I O N A L

NEW DELHI: The educational hub of Chandigarh will now boast of a first-of-its-kind digital simulation lab that will help skill development for critical electro-mechanical equipment design and manufacturing. The lab will be set up by the National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR) in collaboration with engineering services firm ABB India.

Students from electrical and me-chanical engineering departments of the institute have been working with ABB on online remote condition monitoring of motors and issues of motor casings for some time now. So, the Simulation Center of Excellence (SCoE), as the lab is called will provide opportunities for NITTTR students as well as faculty to

Chandigarh gets new simulation labcomplete further research on complex industrial systems.

ABB signed the MoU with NITTTR, a flagship institute under the Ministry of Human Resource Development and one of the initial four institutes, set up to realize the need for training technical manpower.

“A combination of knowledge and ex-pertise developed through the right skill-ing initiatives would be the key to take the Indian economy to the next level of growth. ABB India over decades has been working on various initiatives to catalyze teaching, learning and skill development on best in class global technology and practices,” said Sanjeev Sharma, Manag-ing Director, ABB India.

The funding for the project is part of ABB India’s CSR initiative.

6 IN FOCUS Tuesday, September 17, 2019

GULF FAQs

I am from India and have defaulted on payments for a credit card and a personal loan in Dubai. I am currently in India and would like to know if I can get a police clearance certificate from Dubai. Is it pos-sible if I am not there?

Police in the UAE will issue residents with a good conduct certificate via a spe-cific procedure, assuming the individual has a clean record. The certificate states whether a person has a criminal record or not and is often required when moving to another country. The system is designed for those still resident with ID cards to request the certificate before leaving the country, however, it is possible to apply if outside the UAE but the fee is higher. The service fee will be Dh300 instead of Dh200 for expatriates who are resident. Someone who is no longer resident in the UAE will need to get a fingerprint card approved by the UAE or any GCC council and submit this with two recent passport-sized photo-graphs, a copy of a valid passport, a copy of their last UAE visa and the reason for the application. This can usually be done online via the Dubai Police GHQ website. The question, however, is whether you can get a certificate that states that you have been a good citizen. Defaulting on a debt is a criminal offence in the UAE and you have done this more than once. As payments are more than three months in arrears it is likely that the banks have registered police cases for debt and this will mean that a clear certificate will not be available and also that you will be unable to re-enter the UAE without being detained.

Foul languageI work in a mainland company in Dubai. One of our managers uses foul language and expletives while directing or check-ing our work progress. Is there a law against this kind of behaviour? Where do we complain?

Pursuant to your queries, you and other employees, who have objection to foul language being used by your manager, may write a letter to him to refrain from using such abusive language and copy this letter to the ministry of HR and Emiratisation. This is in accordance with Article 155 of the Federal Law No. 8 of 1980 regulating employment relations in the UAE (the “Employment Law”), which states: “Where a dispute occurs between one or more employers and all or certain of their employees and the parties fail to settle it amicably, they shall observe the following procedures:

1) The employees shall submit their com-plaint or claim in writing to the employer and at the same time send a copy of it to the employment department.

2) The employer shall reply in writing to the employee’s complaint or claim within seven working days from the date of receipt of the complaint. He shall at the same time send the ministry a copy of his reply.

3) Where the employer fails to reply within the prescribed time limit or where his reply does not lead to a settlement of the dispute, the competent ministry shall, either of its own motion or at the request of one of the parties to the dispute, mediate with a view to reaching an amicable settlement.

4) Where the complainant is the employ-er, he shall submit his complaint directly to the ministry, which shall mediate between the parties to settle the dispute amicably.”

You may also explore the possibility to initiate a criminal complaint against the manager who used abusive language against you and other employees. If a dis-pute occurs, the employees should submit their complaint or claim in writing to the employer and at the same time send a copy of it to the employment department.

Retirement ageI am a 70-year-old expatriate. I had resided in the UAE for four decades and have a vast experience in hospitality industry. I intend to be employed with the hotel industry until the UAE Employment Law permits me to do so. My previous employer did not renew my work permit and residence visa due to age factor. Now I am visiting the UAE on three-month long-term tourist visa and looking for a job offer of senior manage-ment position with any hotel, preferably in the emirate of Sharjah. Recently, I had a meeting with one of the hotel owners and few of my acquaintances have an opinion that one can be employed after 70 years of age if Dh5,000 per year is borne by the

Can I get police clearance from India?

employer. In that case, I will be willing to bear the said cost. My son is based in the UAE and he is requesting me to be under his dependent residence visa so that I can go ahead to work with any hotel industry in the UAE. What is the correct position?

Since January 2011, the Ministry of HR & Emirtisation has been accepting requests for work permits of individuals over the age of 60 years up to the age of 65, thereby enhancing the retirement age from 60 to 65. As per the prevailing provisions, for all employees working in private sector entities registered under the Federal laws of the UAE, the retirement age is 65 years. However, the age limit of 65 years on the retirement may be further increased consid-ering the individuals’ nature of work, his credentials, expertise which is important for the entity he is working for. Further to this, employment visa may be issued to an employee annually after he/she attains the age of 65 years. The employer should bear the charges of Dh5,000 payable to Ministry of HR and Emirtisation. This is in accordance with Cabinet of Ministers Resolution No. 27 of 2010 on the fees and penalties for services provided by ministry. In the event your son sponsors your visa as his dependent, your employment is subject to the approval of the Ministry of HR & Emirtisation.

Changing jobsI am a BBA (Honours) graduate and cur-rently employed on a limited contract of two years on a salary of Dh4,500. If I want to switch my company on a salary more than Dh5,000 but less than Dh12,000, can my new employer request to cancel my ban? What is the surety that the ban will be cancelled depending upon my afore-mentioned qualification. Also, my current employer had written in my offer letter that if I am transferred locally to other emirates, my salary will be increased as per life style of that emirates but in labour contract they had not written such things and told me at the time of signing that it is just formality, just sign it. What should I do? If they are shifting me to Abu Dhabi, what are the mandatory things the company is bound to do with respect to health insur-ance, minimum salary package, transport and other things?

It is presumed that your employment is subject to provisions of the Federal Law No 8 of 1980 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (the “Labour Law”). Pursuant to your question (as per my understanding), it may be noted that employees who terminate their employment after the completion of two years of continuous service, may not have to face an employment ban if both the employer and the employee have agreed to such termination of the employment con-tract. This is in accordance with Article 2 of the Ministerial Order No. 1186 of 2010 on “Rules and Conditions of Granting a New Work Permit to an Employee after Termination of the Work Relationship in Order to Move from One Establishment to Another” (the “Ministerial Order”), which states: “The following two conditions must be met in order to grant the work permit mentioned in Article (1) of this resolution:

1-Agreement between the employee and the employer to conclude the work relation-ship. 2-The employee must have spent at least two years with the employer.” Pursuant to the foregoing, if you can secure a NOC from your current employer no employment ban should be imposed on you.

However, your prospective employer may not be able to help you in the removal of your ban, if a ban is imposed. Further, it may be noted that your professional qualifi-cation may not be sufficient to remove any employment ban on you. Also, it may be advised that where an employee executes two employment contracts, the provisions which are more beneficial to the employee will always be applicable. This is in concur-rence with the provision of Article 7 of the Labour Law which states: “Any stipulations contrary to the provisions of this Law, even if it was made prior to its commencement, shall be null and void unless they are more advantageous to the worker.”Hence, if it is mentioned in your offer letter that you shall be entitled to more benefits in the event you are transferred to another emirate, your employer should provide the same.However, this is an ambiguous matter as your definition of more benefits may be different from that of your employer.

Muralee in Kuwait, meets leaders

Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan is being received at the Kuwait International Airport by Indian Ambassador Jeeva Sagar.

KUWAIT: Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan arrived in Kuwait on an official two-day visit. He was received at the Kuwait International Airport by Indian Ambassador Jeeva Sagar along with protocol officials from the ministry of foreign affairs, Kuwait. Muraleedharan is making his maiden visit to Kuwait

since he assumed office as the minister of state for external affairs in the second NDA government headed by Narendra Modi. The minister visited NBTC Group premises and the workshop in Mina Abdul-lah and interacted with around 300 Indian work-ers. He also visited the fe-male shelter of the Indian embassy and interacted

with laborers.Later in the evening, the

minister attended a dinner reception that was hosted by the Indian Ambassador in honor of the visiting dignitary at Millennium Hotel, Salmiya. Muraleed-haran also interacted with the Indian community members during the recep-tion. The minister’s visit is expected to further boost

the deep-rooted bilateral relations between Kuwait and India.

The Indian expatriate community is the largest in Kuwait numbering over nine lakh currently. The minister is accompanied by Dr Nagendra Prasad, Joint Secretary (Gulf re-gion), ministry of external affairs and his private sec-retary Nandakumar.

LONDON: A gang of thieves stole an 18-carat gold toilet from Britain’s Blenheim Palace, police said, caus-ing flooding that dam-aged the world-famous stately home. The ful-ly-functioning toilet, dubbed “America”, was created by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan and estimated to be worth around $5 million. A 66-year-old man was arrested following the burglary, which took place before dawn at the 18th-century estate near Oxford, southern England.

The toilet was one of the star attractions in an exhibition of Cattelan’s works that opened at the palace, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Visitors were

Gold toilet stolen from British palaceable to book time slots to use it – but only for three minutes each, to limit the queues. More than one lakh people used the loo

during the year it was on display at New York’s Gug-genheim Museum. “The offenders broke into the palace overnight and left the scene at about 4.50 am. No-one was injured during the burglary,” police said in

a statement.Detective Inspector Jess

Milne of Thames Valley Police said she believed “a group of offenders used

at least two vehicles” – and left a mess behind them. “The piece of art that has been stolen is a high-value toilet made out of gold that was on display at the palace,” she said.

The palace is home to the 12th duke of Marl-borough and his family, and was also the birth-

place of British wartime leader Winston Churchill. The duke’s brother, Edward Spencer-Churchill, who founded the Blenheim Art Foundation, said last month he was relaxed about secu-rity around the gold toilet.

LONDON: A key representa-tive body of Indian students in the UK has kick-started a campaign with a letter to British Prime Minister Bo-ris Johnson calling on him to ensure that the recently announced two-year post-study work visa is offered to all international students currently studying in the country.

The National Indian Stu-dents and Alumni Union UK (NISAU-UK) says plans to make the new Graduate Visa route, announced by the UK government last week, valid from the 2020-21 co-hort of students had caused “significant unrest and con-fusion” among students in the process of beginning the 2019-20 academic year this month.

“We strongly recommend that international students with valid Tier-4 student leave at the point of an-nouncement of the scheme ---- on Sept 10, 2019, and afterwards, be eligible for the Graduate visa,” notes the NISAU UK’s letter issued to Downing Street. “We un-derstand that details of the Graduate visa route may still be under development… it would seem that students

Indian students launch campaign for extension of UK work visa offer

who have started their stud-ies before Sept 2020 may be out of scope. This has led to significant unrest and confusion amongst current and incoming students who are arriving now for the Sept 2019-20 academic year,” it says.

As one of the student bodies, which had actively campaigned for the post-study visa to be re-instated, the NISAU UK welcomed the government’s announcement of a new Graduate Visa open to allow eligible students to work, or crucially look for work, in any career or posi-tion of their choice, for two years after completing their studies.

Nevertheless, they warn that current and incoming students are concerned about potential discrimination they

may face from employers who would have the option to offer a job to someone with two years leave to re-main in the country as op-posed to the current level of four months. “It seems unfair that current and incoming students would be unable to

experience the world-class work experiences that the UK has to offer, even though they choose to come here despite there being no con-firmed post-study work visa in place,” the letter signed by the NISAU UK’s Founder and Chair Sanam Arora and president Mohanish Borana. The organisation claims that the latest 42pc hike in the number of Indian students applying to UK universities was a direct result of the expectation that the post-study offer would be fully

re-instated. “As the dynamic living bridge between our two great nations, the Indian student and alumni commu-nity plays a significant role in the bilateral relationship and the “Graduate” visa will enable us to contribute fur-ther to this special partner-ship,” the NISAU UK adds.

Britain had ended its two-year post-study work visa offer during Theresa May’s term as UK home sec-retary in 2012, widely seen as responsible for a major drop in student numbers from countries like India. By announcing the new Graduate Visa last week, Boris Johnson had effectively re-instated the policy ended by his predecessor and the announcement was widely welcomed by the university chiefs. “Although 82pc of our Indian graduates are satisfied with their careers wherever they are working, we know that they value the opportu-nity to spend some time in the UK working after their degree. This visa will make it significantly easier for them to do that,” said Vivienne Stern, Director, Universities UK International, which had been lobbying for such a visa for many years.

DUBAI: Three members of a Dubai-based Indian family, including an eight-month-old baby, were killed in a road accident in Oman, the Consulate General of India in Dubai has confirmed. Three Omani nationals were also killed in the accident which took place on Friday on the highway that connects the UAE to Salalah, Oman.

The victims were identi-fied as Gousulla Azmathul-lah Khan, his wife Ayesha Siddique and their baby son Hamza, the Consulate General said. The couple’s three-year-old daughter is battling for life at an Omani hospital. The Omanis’ ve-hicle overturned, after which the Dubai residents’ car crashed into it.

NRIs killed in Oman road mishap

CORPORATE NEWS 7Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Infosys has inaugurated its Technology and Inno-vation Centre in Arizona

for which it plans to hire 1,000 locals by 2023, the company said. The IT servic-es company also announced that it has surpassed its Spring 2017 commitment to hire 10,000 American workers as part of its ongo-ing efforts to accelerate the pace of innovation for US enterprises.

The Arizona Technology and Innovation Centre, tem-porarily located at The Ari-zona State University (ASU) Scottsdale Innovation Cen-tre, has a special focus on autonomous technologies,

Infosys plans to hire 1,000 locals for its Arizona Technology Centre

Internet of Things (IOT), full-stack engineering, data science and cybersecurity.

Infosys’ investment in Arizona will amplify top lo-cal talent alongside the best

global talent to shrink the IT skills gap in the state.

Hiring is currently in

progress and the centre will move to its permanent loca-tion, a 60,000-square-foot facility, in the ASU Novus Innovation Corridor by 2020, accommodating up to 500

employees, Infosys said in a release.

“The inauguration of

our Arizona Technology and Innovation Centre is an important milestone in our efforts to help American enterprises accelerate their digital transformations,” said Salil Parekh, chief executive officer Infosys. “Today’s inauguration marks our sixth Centre opening in the United States, allowing Info-sys to seamlessly collaborate with our clients across the country in an agile manner.”

The centre includes a series of living labs, show-casing new prototypes in virtual reality, augmented reality and robotic technolo-gies, and serves as a space to foster co-creation, training

Ashok Kumar Pradhan, Managing Director and CEO, United

Bank of India, said that though the merger of the bank with Punjab National Bank and Oriental Bank of

Commerce is likely to come into force from April 1, 2020, the integration of HR and IT is expected to take more time.

“Though the balance sheet merger is likely to happen by April 1, 2020, it will take another 3-6 months post that for the HR and IT integration to be complete,” Pradhan told newspersons post an interactive meet with the Kolkata-based employees and customers of the three banks.

The complete harmoni-

Merged entity of PNB, OBC, UBI operational by next April

sation among the merged entities would take another 12-14 months post merger, he added. The meeting was also attended by the senior officials of PNB and OBC.

While the board of PNB

has given in-principle ap-proval for the amalgama-tion, United Bank and OBC will seek board approval on September 18.

The merger of Punjab Na-tional Bank, Oriental Bank of Commerce and United Bank of India is likely to create the second largest bank in India. Before the proposed merger, the amalgamated entity’s capital adequacy ratio would be over 13pc.

The merged entity will have a “huge appetite for growth” and would be

equipped with sufficient funds to finance large proj-ects, he said.

The bank officials clari-fied that there has been ‘no restrictions’ on any of the three banks for fresh lend-

ing before the merger takes place.

The lenders have to-gether formed as many as 23 working groups for various functional areas, including products, processes, human resources, credit and bad loans with participation of top officials from the three banks so as to streamline the process of amalgamation.

“The best of products, services and processes across each of these verticals will be identified and offered to the customers,” he said.

Muthoot Fincorp, a Muthoot Pappachan Group company, in

the coming weeks, plans to come out with a Rs 500-crore non-convertible debenture (NCD) issue (including Rs 250-crore greenshoe option) to fund business growth, a top official said.

The fund mobilised would be used for augmenting work-ing capital and to enhance lending, Thomas John Muth-oot, Chairman and Managing Director, Muthoot Pappachan Group, told media persons. Muthoot Fincorp provides gold loans and MSME loans. It has a credit rating of ‘A+’ with a stable outlook.

He made it clear that

Muthoot Fincorp plans Rs 500cr NCD issue

Union Minister for IT and Communication Ravi Shankar Prasad unveiling the plaque to inaugurate Maritime Telecommunication Service & Pilot Project in Maharashtra for tracing stolen mobiles in Mumbai. MoS for Communication Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre was also present.

and collaboration. Through these living labs, the centre is said to allow Infosys to develop cross-functional so-lutions to pressing business challenges in areas such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, user experi-ence and advanced digital technologies, such as big data and cloud.

As part of Infosys’ com-mitment to workforce devel-opment and resolving the STEM skills gap in the US, the company announced a partnership with InStride that will allow its employees to complete degree programs and continue education courses through ASU.

raising non-convertible de-bentures (NCD) had nothing to do with the economic slowdown.

“In fact, we are doing this at the right time, when domestic financial markets are very active. There is also good demand for gold and MSME loans. As of today, we don’t need equity. We need debt resources,” he said.

Thomas Muthoot also said that Muthoot Fincorp already had board approval for raising debt resources of Rs 1,000 crore.

“What we are looking to soon raise will be the first tranche. This will be fol-lowed by another tranche in December,” added Muthoot.

Fuelled by a rapidly rising demand for services and content

as more and more Indians go online using smart-phones, the country’s app economy is poised for a strong growth, with the number of application de-velopers being expected to surpass those in the US by 2024.

According to the Pro-gressive Policy Institute (PPI), India is expected to overtake the US as world’s largest developer popula-tion centre by 2024. A report by PPI reveals that India has 1.674 million app economy jobs as on August 2019, a growth of 39pc from 1.208 million in 2016. By comparison, the US had 2.246 million similar jobs as on April 2019 and the

India to have world’s largest app developers base by 2024

European Union, including Switzerland and Norway, had 2.093 million jobs as of July 2019.

The findings were re-vealed at an event organ-ised by the Internet and Mobile Association of In-dia (IAMAI). To estimate the number of core app economy jobs, the report uses a multi-step procedure based on data from online job postings. Bangalore was the leader with 362,000 jobs, followed by Delhi at 248,000 and Mumbai with 137,000. Hyderabad created 128,000 jobs, while Pune’s figure stood at 113,000.

The IAMAI said the growth of the app economy is likely to continue, as people are increasingly us-ing mobile apps as their interface to their home,

cars, schools, and health-care providers. The rise of Internet of Things (IoT) will guarantee the need for

more highly functional and sophisticated apps, serv-ing an essential role in interacting with the digi-tal environment. India is

already one of the leading countries for mobile app usage, given more than 500 million smartphone users.

PPI in its report said, “We anticipate fast-growing demand for a new genera-tion of apps to act as the human interface for in-

creasingly-digitised physi-cal industries. Companies will need internal apps for their workers, and external apps for their suppliers and customers.”

A study by policy think tanks – ICRIER and Borad-band India Forum – in July 2017 suggests that a 17% growth in total inter-net traffic in India during 2015-16 contributed to an increase of Rs 7 lakh crore in the GDP, of which at least Rs 1.36 lakh crore or $20.4 billion was due to Internet-based app ser-vices. It estimated that the internet economy could contribute up to $537.4 bil-lion to the GDP by 2020, of which a minimum of $70.9 billion or Rs 18.28 lakh crore could be attributed to apps.

Atomberg Technologies, which is into manu-facturing of smart and energy-efficient ceiling fans, is looking to launch other home appli-

ances such as mixer, grinder and air coolers.The Mumbai-headquartered start-up founded by

IIT Bombay graduates is hopeful of launching the home appliances range in the next 12-18 months. The company, which is currently present in 12-15 cities, is also looking to expand its operations by moving into newer towns and cities.

“Our R&D team is working on it (home appliances) and we hope to be able to launch the home appli-ances range including mixer, grinder and air coolers in the next 12-18 months,” Manoj Meena, CEO and Co-Founder, Atomberg Technologies

The company, which recently raised Series A fund of $10 million, will utilise the same for product diversification as well as geographical expansion.Business growth

Since the time of its launch in 2015, Atomberg has sold close to 4 lakh units of ceiling fans till March 2019. The company is hopeful of achieving 25pc growth in sales to touch 5 lakh units by March 2020.

The ceiling fan market in India is estimated to be around Rs 10,000 crore and has been growing at a CAGR of around 8 per cent in the last few years. However, the premium segment (fans priced at Rs 2,000-8,000) has been growing at a much faster rate of around 25pc.

Atomberg to launch new range of home appliances

Public sector lender Bank of Baroda said that its

capital rais-ing commit-tee will meet soon to con-sider rais-ing funds through bonds.

“The capital raising committee (CRC) of whole-time directors of the bank is scheduled to be held on September 18 to consider

BoB committee to consider raising fundsraising of debt capital for the bank through issuance

o f B a s e l I I I c o m -pliant tier II bonds /addi t ion-al t ier 1 bonds,” the

bank said in a regulatory filing.

The bank, however, did not elaborate on the quan-tum of funds it plans to raise.

Life insurance compa-nies have approached the Insurance Regu-

latory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) for permission to start sell-ing indemnity-based health insurance products once again, although general insurance companies are not too happy with the proposal.

“Given the low penetra-tion of health insurance in the country, there is enough

Life insurers seek IRDAI nod to sell indemnity-based health insurancescope and also requirement for sale of more of these products. Life insurance companies already sell pro-tection for critical diseases such as cancer cover, and also have a huge distribu-tion network across the country, which can be used to sell health insurance,” said two persons familiar with the development, adding that they have ap-proached the regulator on the issue.

The IRDAI had, in 2016, issued new health insurance regulations, un-der which it had barred life insurers from selling indemnity-based health insurance products, either as an individual or a group policy, and also from offer-ing single premium health insurance products under the unit-linked platform.

It had allowed only general insurers and health insurers to offer individual

health products with a minimum tenure of one year and maximum of three years, provided the pre-mium remains unchanged for the tenure.

“Life insurance com-panies now can no longer offer comprehensive pro-tection to a customer who may be looking for term insurance as well as health insurance and have to refer them to another company. This also poses to be a

major challenge,” noted an executive with another insurance company.

Life insurers have to tie up with a general or health insurance company to provide health plus life products.

Sources said life insur-ance companies have pro-posed reviewing the cur-rent bar to IRDAI Chairman Subhash Chandra Khuntia, although the regulator is yet to take a view on it.

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8 Travel / Entertainment

Printed by Supreeth MJ and published by him on behalf of IPEPCIL Publications Pvt Ltd. and printed at Inquilab Off set Printers Ltd.,156, D J Dadaji Road, Tardeo, Mumbai-400 034, Maharashtra and published from Offi ce No. 1001, 10th Floor, Navjivan Commercial Premises Co-op. Society Ltd., Lamington Road, (Dr.D.B.Marg), Mumbai Central, Mumbai - 400 008. • Editor: E.L. Vaidyanathan • Volume No.: 1, Issue No. 98 • RNI No. MAHENG/2018/76663.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

EXCHANGE RATESEXCHANGE RATES

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

As on 16th September, 2019 (In rupees)

Currency Buying Selling

Australian Dollar 47.75 50.75 Bahraini Dinar 185.30 195.30British Pound 87.45 90.45Canadian Dollar 52.50 55.50Emirati Dirham 18.85 19.85 Euro 77.65 80.65 Kuwaiti Dinar 230.40 240.40Omani Rial 181.10 191.10Qatari Riyal 18.00 20.35 Saudi Riyal 18.55 19.55 Singapore Dollar 50.60 53.60 Swiss Franc 70.80 74.50US Dollar 70.30 72.80

Source:

DANCE FESTIVAL IN SINGAPORERhythm International Dance Festival brought together 10 exotic dance forms from across the world as part of Singapore’s Bicentennial celebrations. It was “a showcase of cosmopolitan Singapore’s rich multi-cultural tapestry with over 50 multi-ethnic artists who are all residents of this island nation,” said Festival Director Anindita Ghosh. Two consecutive shows with an additional surprise ele-ment of a flash-mob were held.

Singapore Tourism Board woos Indian visitorsAs part of an ongoing

plan to develop tour-ism with India, travel

planners SOTC and the Sin-gapore Tourism Board (STB) have collaborated in launch-ing a unique series of 3-D art installations featuring the Lion City’s attractions across malls in three cities – Mum-bai, Bengaluru and Delhi.

With the unique 3-D art installations, the objective is to showcase the most iconic locales of Singapore in an instant. Customers can take pictures and share them on their social media platforms.

With such posts, the cus-tomers stand a chance to win a free holiday by answering three questions about Sin-gapore. Besides the 3-D art installations, SOTC and STB have also partnered to create a set of promotional videos

Vistara to link Delhi, Indore

Vistara airline will start a daily flight on Delhi-Indore route

from Oct 26 this year.With this, Indore becomes 30th destination on its network.According to Vistara, the flight will depart from Delhi airport at 6.55 am daily and arrive at Indore airport at 8.20 am.

The return flight will leave Indore at 8.55 am and arrive at Delhi airport at 10.25 am daily.Vinod Kannan, the chief strategy officer, Vistara, said, “A key manufacturing centre that’s now also emerging as a major SME hub, Indore has seen a significant spike in demand for greater air con-nectivity to the rest of the country.

”The airline connects 30 destinations, including three international, and operates over 1,200 flights per week using 32 aircraft in its fleet.

for Singapore to showcase the history, culture, cuisine, adventure and wildlife and scenic landscapes of the city, in line with the STB’s destination brand, ‘Passion Made Possible’.

“Singapore is a beautiful city, rich in culture and heri-tage which offers a varied set of attractions for Indian tour-ists. This collaboration will bring the sights of Singapore, which is on every traveller’s bucket list,” Daniel D’Souza, president and country head of leisure at SOTC Travel said. India is a huge tour-ist destination market for countries worldwide. Sin-gapore, Taiwan, Azerbaijan and Korea are investing in advertising in India to woo tourists. Earlier this year, the STB collaborated with St+art India Foundation for

the second time to promote their local talent and tourism in India through a series of displays and workshops featuring street artists and other creative talents from Singapore. India continues to be the third-largest visitor source market for Singapore, contributing over one mil-lion annual visitors for the fourth year in a row.

“This will help amplify our reach to Indian consum-ers and provide a glimpse of the new and refreshed expe-riences. STB has embarked on a series of initiatives this year, from engaging the travel trade to interesting brand collaborations to com-municate how Singapore re-mains a special destination,” GB Srithar, regional director of India, MidEast and South Asia at STB said.

India plans its own checks on Boeing 737 Max jetsIndia plans to conduct its own checks and demand

simulator training for all pilots before Boeing Co.’s 737 Max jets can fly in the country again, even if the US

Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) were to clear the grounded jets.

India plans to start its own assessment only after the FAA, the certifying authority of US-made jets, declares the aircraft fit to fly. The Indian Directorate General of Civil Aviation doesn’t expect Boeing’s best-selling plane to fly in the country before next year.

India would join the European Aviation Safety Agency, which is planning to send its own pilots to the US to con-duct flight tests of the 737 Max, in making its own deter-mination after two fatal crashes involving a malfunctioning flight-control system prompted regulators around the world to ground it. Boeing warned this week that the jet may re-turn on a “phased” timetable if regulators worldwide make decisions at their own pace, without following the US’ lead. Boeing said it continues to work with global regulators and customers as they determine training requirements in their home markets. A representative for India’s civil aviation ministry didn’t immediately respond to a text message.

SpiceJet, India’s second-biggest airline, is one of the biggest buyers of the plane, with as many as 205 on order, and Jet Airways has also ordered more than 200 of these jets — before it stopped flying in April after running out of cash.

Aerofl ot to resume Mumbai-Moscow fl ight

Russian flag carrier Aeroflot plans to re-vive its services to

Mumbai from the second quarter of the next fiscal year, even as its New Delhi-Moscow route continues to see high demand.

The airline said India remains a priority market and sees “immense” growth potential with traffic surg-ing dramatically since the doubling of its services to New Delhi in 2016, clocking around three lakh passengers annually. Connecting India for more than six decades now, Aeroflot currently flies twice daily between the two capitals, the airline told a TV channel .The move is significant as New Delhi and Moscow are eyeing to nearly treble bilateral trade to US$ 30 billion by 2025 from around US$ 11 billion now.

“Aeroflot is set to resume services to Mumbai with a daily flight deploying an

Airbus A330 from July 2020,” said the airline spokesperson, emphasising that given its size and potential, as well as the positive legacy of bilateral ties, India remains a prior-ity market for Aeroflot. The

Russian flag carrier deploys a wide-body A330 for its New Delhi operations. Pointing out that the Moscow-New Delhi route contributes “strongly” to its trans-continental ex-pansion into the Europe-Asia transit market, the airline said the traffic on the route spiked 16pc in the Jan-Aug

period of 2019.Traffic increased dramati-

cally back in summer 2016 when Aeroflot started the second daily flight to New Delhi. Since then the annual passenger numbers on the

route have been consistently reaching three lakh. “We are in a sustainable expansion mode adding new routes or frequencies. Our focus is on providing a world-class of-fering for both business and leisure passengers. Transit passengers connecting India and Europe enjoy the shortest

time on our service,” said the spokesperson. Aeroflot cur-rently serves 159 destinations across 54 countries.

As part of its strategic goals for 2023, the Russian carrier also has plans to treble the international transit traf-fic from five million in 2017 to 10-15 million in 2023 as it sees immense potential to expand connections be-tween Asia and Europe, with China being its most dynamic growth market. Aeroflot also claims to have an “indisput-able competitive advantage in the Europe-Asia transit segment”, as it “offers flights up to three hours shorter than its peers” on these routes via Moscow, and claims to offer the lowest tickets. The most recent bilateral negotiations between India and Russia took place in Jan, which resulted in an agreement to increase frequency on the Moscow-Mumbai route to 15 (up from eight previously).

UAE Deputy Prime Minister Mansour bin Zayed attends the concluding ceremony of the Camel Festival at Taif with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.

Air India suffers Rs 4,600cr lossAir India posted an

operating loss of around Rs 4,600

crore in the last financial year mainly due to higher oil prices and foreign ex-change losses but the debt-laden carrier expects to turn operationally profitable in 2019-20, according to senior officials.

Reflecting tough business conditions, the airline’s net loss stood at about Rs 8,400 crore while total revenues touched around Rs 26,400 crore in 2018-19, one of the senior officials revealed. Another senior official said the airline is projected to post an operating profit of Rs 700 to Rs 800 crore in 2019-20, provided oil prices do not shoot up significantly and there is no steep fluc-

tuation in foreign exchange rates. However, the airline incurred an operating loss of Rs 175 to Rs 200 crore in the three months ended June as closure of Pakistan airspace for Indian carriers resulted in higher costs and caused a daily loss of Rs 3 to 4 crore when the restrictions were in place.

Air India had a loss of Rs 430 crore in the four-month period when Pakistan closed its airspace after the Bala-kot air strikes. The official noted that load factor and yields are improving for Air India, which currently flies to 41 international and 72 domestic destinations. Load factor is a measure of seat occupancy and yield refers to average fare paid per passenger. The situation

is anticipated to improve further as more wide-body planes would be available for operations in the coming months, the official added.

Air India had grounded several of its wide-body aircraft for maintenance and most of them are in the process of being re-inducted into the fleet. Air India is to start flying to Toronto from Sept 27 and to Nairobi in Nov. The airline has a debt burden of more than Rs 58,000 crore and servicing the loans is a major chal-lenge as the annual outgo is more than Rs 4,000 crore. The official who was quoted first said the carrier is fac-ing a financial crisis and disinvestment is the op-tion. Aviation consultancy CAPA South Asia CEO and

Director Kapil Kaul said Air India’s financial position is likely to “significantly improve” in the current fi-nancial year. “CAPA expects a closer to break-even in FY 20 excluding increased costs incurred due to closure of Pakistan airspace.

With oil prices expected to stay below $60, expect a closer to break-even for Air India in FY 20, he told a TV channel. Noting that improved financial perfor-mance would be a positive for divestment, Kaul said a fully divested Air India that is well capitalised and with improved governance and management would ensure that the airline has a relevant future. India needs a stron-ger Air India which is viable without taxpayers’ support,

he added. The government has decided on disinvest-ment of Air India as part of efforts to revive its fortunes.

Bees delay Air India fl ight

An Air India flight was delayed by several hours af-ter a swarm of bees landed on the cockpit window, attacking ground staff when they tried to remove

them. The insects landed on the window just before the plane was due to leave Kolkata 136 passengers, including Bangladesh’s information minister. Ground staff tried to shoo the insects off, angering them, and when attempts to use the windscreen wipers failed officials switched to “plan-B” and blasted them off with water.

“Fire tenders were deployed to spray water to dislodge the honey bees and they could be driven away after nearly an hour-long operation,” airport official Kaushik Bhattcharya said. The flight to Agartala in north-eastern India eventually took off more than three-and-a-half hour late. Bees swarm when a queen bee leaves an existing colony to found a new home together with thousands of worker bees.

Flydubai wants to linkmore Indian citiesFlydubai has plans to

launch new direct ser-vices to several air-

ports in India and is cur-rently awaiting regulatory approvals to begin these services, a senior executive of the airline has said.

“We are looking at a num-ber of airports in India that we can potentially operate to. Announcements will be made only when the necessary approvals are ob-tained,” Sudhir Sreedharan, vice president, commercial operations of Flydubai, told a TV channel. Aviation in-dustry sources in India said Visakhapatnam in Andhra is among the new destina-tions Flydubai is looking at to commence operations in the near future and that it has held discussions with India’s aviation ministry and regulatory officials concern-ing the new route.

Flydubai executives,

however, did not comment on any specific route plan. “We continuously look at opportunities to �expand our operations in the market in India. Any discussions re-garding bilateral agreements are done at a government level,” Sreedharan said.

“We remain committed to opening up underserved markets that had no or very little direct connections to the UAE. We will continue to look at more opportunities to strengthen the air links in the region and provide more passengers with more options to travel whether on business or economy,” he added. Restrictions on flying rights and passenger seat capacities under the bilateral air services pact between India and the UAE have been hampering air-lines the launch of new and additional services between Dubai and India.