Employment&Nri
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 31 - FEBRUARY 6, 2014 • 8 Pages www. enritimes.com
5 Mumbai, Maharashtra ( 6 Rest of India)
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EMPLOYMENT & NRI TIMES
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Send us your comments, suggestions etc. to [email protected]
Saudi Crown Prince to visit India Indo-Saudi defence pact soon
RBI hikes repo by 25bps
RBI has increased the indicative policy
rate (repo) by 25 basis points to eight
per cent to tame inflation. Nevertheless,
it is not necessary that
banks will increase
deposit as well as lending
rates immediately or
uniformly. Repo is the rate
at which banks borrow
short-term funds from
RBI. Inflation, excluding
food and fuel, had been high, especially
in services, indicative of wage pressures
and other second-round effects, RBI
Governor Raghuram Rajan said
releasing the monetary policy. Only by
bringing down inflation to a low and
stable level that monetary policy could
contribute to reviving consumption and
investment in a sustainable way, Dr
Rajan said. (Edit on page 6)
Baby born mid-air
An Andhra Pradesh resident delivered a
baby boy on board the Kuwait Airlines
flight she was travelling in. Airport
authorities have confirmed that both the
mother and the baby are doing fine.
Radha Subramani (37) is a native of
Cuddapah district in Andhra and she was
travelling on board Kuwait Airlines flight
KU 343 that arrived at Chennai Airport
as scheduled at 4:20 am on Wednesday.
Padma awards for Pravasis
Seven persons under the category of
foreigners, NRI and PIO were selected
for the Padma awards. IndianAmerican businessman Ashok Kumar
Mago was selected for the Padma Shri.
Mago, Chairman and CEO of Dallasbased business and investment
consulting company, Mago & Associates,
has helped raise millions of dollars for
Dallas Asian organisations. Others
selected for the Padma Shri are Dr
Siddharth Mukherjee (oncologist) from
the US, Dr. Vamsi Mootha (biomedical
research) also from the US and Dr
Sengaku Mayeda (literature and
education) from Japan. Those awarded
the Padma Bhushan include Lloyd I
Rudolph and Susanne H Rudolph for
literature and education (US) and
Anisuzzaman, eminent faculty of Bengali
language at the University of Dhaka
(literature and education), Bangladesh.
Flight-type fares for 20 new trains
Indian Railways hope to earn more
revenue by replicating the airlines’ fare
model on some trains. It plans to introduce
20 premium trains whose fares will be
determined on the basis of the demand
for tickets as in the case of airlines. This
was decided after a pilot project on the
New Delhi-Mumbai helped the railways
earn 37pc more than it would have got
through fixed fares. These 20 new trains
will be rolled out in a few months.
For news contact:
[email protected]
Phone: 67241622 / 662
/employment & nritimes
EXCHANGE RATES
As on 30th January, 2014 (In rupees)
Currency
US Dollar
Pound Sterling
Swiss Franc
Euro
Saudi Riyal
Bahrain Dinar
Kuwait Dinar
Qatar Riyal
UAE Dirham
Omani Riyal
Buying
Selling
58.80
97.70
65.43
80.40
15.60
155.66
184.58
16.06
15.92
151.76
66.55
110.60
75.21
91.00
18.07
177.89
230.24
18.41
18.24
173.15
Rates are subject to change without notice. Errors & Omissions excepted.
Jer
arghese F
orex Bureau
Jerrr y V
Varghese
Forex
Karnataka Bank Ltd.
Your Family Bank. Across India
Regd.& Head Office: Mangalore-575 002
E-mail: [email protected] Visit us at: www.karnatakabank.com
RIYADH: His Highness Saudi
Crown Prince Salman, deputy
premier and minister of defence, will visit India in February to bolster bilateral ties. He
will be accompanied by a huge
business delegation, said India’s
Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the Council of Saudi
Chambers (CSC) here.
Addressing a joint business
council meeting, Chidambaram said: “I met with the
crown prince this morning and
we mutually agreed that the
business community of the two
countries could play a major
role in further enhancing bilateral trade relations.” The crown
prince received Chidambaram
and the accompanying delegation and reviewed bilateral relations and discussed ways to
Saudi Crown Prince Salman (right) holds talks with Finance
Minister P Chidambaram in Riyadh.
boost ties.
Chidambaram said the ensuing visit of the crown prince
would be a follow-up of the earlier visit by Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosques His Highness
King Abdullah in 2006, which
was reciprocated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010.
The two countries had signed the
“Delhi Declaration” and the
(Contd. on page 2)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and India have finalised plans to endorse a historic defence pact
next month amid efforts to provide a major boost to the two
countries’ fledgling defence
ties.
“The proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU)
for defence co-operation will be
signed during the visit of
Crown Prince Salman, deputy
premier and minister of defence, to New Delhi in February,” Indian Finance Minister
Chidambaram said. Chidambaram said that the Kingdom
and India “have been able to
make significant progress in
their relationship over the past
few years.”
A joint panel, constituted by
the Kingdom and India, has
been working to prepare a draft
defence pact, which was
agreed to by Crown Prince
Salman and Defence Minister
A K Anthony during the
latter’s visit to Riyadh in 2012.
Once endorsed, the defence
pact will allow for shared use
and exchange of defence-related information, military
training and education, as well
as co-operation in areas varying from hydrography and security to logistics. The joint
commission meeting, cochaired by Chidambaram and
Commerce Minister Tawfiq AlRabiah, also called for “boosting co-operation in security
fields, especially in the exchange of information to curb
crime, money laundering and
drug-trafficking.”
Gold imports by NRIs baffle govt SBT garners Rs 5,300 cr
EL Vaidyanathan
MUMBAI: Both legal and
illegal inflow of gold
through Gulf NRIs and professional carriers has
baffled the customs authorities and income tax
vigilance departments in
Kerala. Now the matter has
been referred to Intelligence Bureau as there is a
doubt that a powerful
mafia is behind these operations. Last month (Dec,
2013) alone, the total quantity of legal gold brought by
Gulf passengers is pegged
at 2068kg through the
Kozhikode International
Airport.
Australian fellowship for
Kerala diaspora study
KOCHI: Australia’s prestigious Griffith University
has awarded a fellowship to
a Kerala researcher to study
the ethno-cultural moorings of the diaspora community from the state,
which left the shores of
Malabar generations ago.
Abbas Panakkal will work
for a year at the Nathan
campus of the university in
South East Queensland
while pursuing the study.
“There are Malabar communities living in the south
pacific, some of them forcefully brought there as indentured labourers and
some others who also migrated to the region, in the
late 18th and 19th centuries,” said Panakkal.
This month, as of Jan
25, this figure stands at
1248 kg. As per the existing rules, a person who
had stayed abroad for six
months without a break is
eligible to bring one kg gold
through legal channel by
paying a customs duty of
10pc ( at the present value,
it amounts to about Rs 2.6
lakh). Gold carriers are
paid Rs 50, 000 per kg of
gold sent by the smugglers.
This charge and the duty
amount are paid at the departure airport in the Gulf
and they are also given a
secret cord. The person
who will receive the gold
will be waiting at the air-
port (his identity such as
the colour of his shirt or a
copy of a particular newspaper he holds in his hand
are given in advance) and
once the secret cord is exchanged correctly, the gold
is passed on to him.
Normally,the photo of the
carrier is sent through the
mobile phone to the receiver to save time. The
corresponding gold import
figures through this airport
in Oct and Nov are 31kg
and 235 kg respectively.
Kozhikode is only one of
the three international airports in Kerala. The corresponding figures from the
Thiruvananthapuram and
Kochi airports are not
readily available but on an
all-India level, December
saw 2,500kg of gold
brought in this way.
Alarmed by this legal
gold flow, the IB has now
asked the immigration authorities to provide the address, photograph and other
details of those bringing in
“legal gold’. Already, their
bank accounts and background are checked to see
whether they have the financial clout to buy so
much gold. The income tax
department is also involved in screening the financial background of gold
bringing NRIs.
ABU DHABI: UAE projects
market grew for the second
consecutive year and is
expected to touch $132 billion worth of projects in the
next three years, according
to regional project tracker
MEED Projects.
The UAE projects market exceeded expectation
in 2013 by hitting $34 billion worth of major contract awards. While some
way off the levels seen in
the five-year period between 2006 and 2010,
when between $42 billion
and $62 billion worth of
contracts were awarded
annually, there is optimism
that the UAE projects market could return to levels
above $40 billion over the
next two or three years.
Dubai’s construction
and infrastructure projects
were the major driver of
UAE projects’ expansion
between 2005 and 2008,
with at least $20 billion
worth of contracts being
awarded in each of those
years. This period was followed by a three-year
slump in which the value
of contracts struggled
above $7 billion. Both 2012
and 2013 hit the $11-billion mark and the indications are that Dubai will
average $20 billion a year
for the next three years.
Furthermore, MEED Projects recorded more than
500 new projects in 2013,
the largest number of new
projects created in any year
since 2008. This resurgence of positive sentiment
returned to the UAE
economy during 2013, culminating in the award of
Expo 2020 to Dubai in Nov.
“This is already translating
(Contd. on page 2)
UAE projects to hit $132b
India may open second consulate in UAE
DUBAI: Indian Aambassador to the UAE
TP Seetharam has said the Indian government is considering opening the second
Indian consulate in the UAE in one of the
Northern Emirates. Indian expatriates in
the Northern Emirates may get an additional consulate for them. He said the Indian government is considering opening
the second Indian consulate in the UAE
after the UAE government reciprocated the
permission to open a UAE consulate in
Kerala. Nevertheless, the plan is not likely
to materialise immediately due to budget
constraints, he added. In 2011, the UAE
embassy in Delhi had showed interest in
establishing a consulate in Kerala. The
consulate would open in Thiruvananthapuram in three months. The mission
is expected to help ease documentation
work, currently done from the UAE consulate in Mumbai, apart from boosting
trade and tourism. According to
Seetharam, the agreement for opening the
consulate has a reciprocal approach and
the Indian government could open one
more consulate here. The envoy said the
mission would seek to consult the NRI community for deciding the location. “It has to
be in a central location where there is a large
number of Indians and it cannot be too close
to the existing consulate (in Dubai),” he told
reporters. However, he said it was not possible to put a time-frame for the proposal
since the Indian missions had budgetary
constraints due to the austerity measures
being taken by the Indian government.
NRI deposits
Victor Phillip
MUMBAI: The Keralabased State Bank of
Travancore (SBT), belonging to the SBI group,
has received deposits of
about Rs 5,300 crore from
NRIs in the first eight
months of the current financial year as against Rs
3,400 crore received during the 12 months of the
previous financial year.
Having peaked in August,
nevertheless, NRI remittances have started to
taper down to normal levels now.
The fall of the rupee as
well as Nitaqat uncertainty in Saudi Arabia
helped the bank in attracting increased NRI
deposits, according to RBI
sources in Mumbai.
At the end of March
2013, the NRI deposits of
SBT stood at Rs 18,700
crore, up 22pc from Rs
15,309 crore on March 31,
2012. This has already
grown by 28pc to Rs 24,000
crore at the end of November. From a daily average
of $15 million, remittances had shot up to $25
million in August. The remittance went up to $750
million during the month
as against $375 million
earlier.
Bahrain king
coming to India
DAVOS: Hailing itself as a
gateway to the Gulf,
Bahrain has sought huge
investments from Indian
firms across sectors and a
high-profile delegation led
by its King Hamad bin Isa
Al Khalifa is likely to visit
India next month. Besides,
Bahrain also wants to sign
a new double taxation
avoidance agreement with
India, with which an investment protection pact is
already in place, said Kamal
Bin Ahmed Mohammed,
who heads Bahrain Development (Contd. on page 2)
5 Mumbai, Maharashtra ( 6 Rest of India)
• UAE Dh2 BF200 OB200 KF150 QR2
FOR NATIONAL & OVERSEAS PLACEMENTS
○
○
○
Registration WITH THE RNI UNDER No. 69111/98
Registered No. MH/MR/NORTH EAST/96/2012-2014
EMPLOYMENT & NRI TIMES
○
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Send us your comments, suggestions etc. to [email protected]
Saudi Crown Prince to visit India Indo-Saudi defence pact soon
RBI hikes repo by 25bps
RBI has increased the indicative policy
rate (repo) by 25 basis points to eight
per cent to tame inflation. Nevertheless,
it is not necessary that
banks will increase
deposit as well as lending
rates immediately or
uniformly. Repo is the rate
at which banks borrow
short-term funds from
RBI. Inflation, excluding
food and fuel, had been high, especially
in services, indicative of wage pressures
and other second-round effects, RBI
Governor Raghuram Rajan said
releasing the monetary policy. Only by
bringing down inflation to a low and
stable level that monetary policy could
contribute to reviving consumption and
investment in a sustainable way, Dr
Rajan said. (Edit on page 6)
Baby born mid-air
An Andhra Pradesh resident delivered a
baby boy on board the Kuwait Airlines
flight she was travelling in. Airport
authorities have confirmed that both the
mother and the baby are doing fine.
Radha Subramani (37) is a native of
Cuddapah district in Andhra and she was
travelling on board Kuwait Airlines flight
KU 343 that arrived at Chennai Airport
as scheduled at 4:20 am on Wednesday.
Padma awards for Pravasis
Seven persons under the category of
foreigners, NRI and PIO were selected
for the Padma awards. IndianAmerican businessman Ashok Kumar
Mago was selected for the Padma Shri.
Mago, Chairman and CEO of Dallasbased business and investment
consulting company, Mago & Associates,
has helped raise millions of dollars for
Dallas Asian organisations. Others
selected for the Padma Shri are Dr
Siddharth Mukherjee (oncologist) from
the US, Dr. Vamsi Mootha (biomedical
research) also from the US and Dr
Sengaku Mayeda (literature and
education) from Japan. Those awarded
the Padma Bhushan include Lloyd I
Rudolph and Susanne H Rudolph for
literature and education (US) and
Anisuzzaman, eminent faculty of Bengali
language at the University of Dhaka
(literature and education), Bangladesh.
Flight-type fares for 20 new trains
Indian Railways hope to earn more
revenue by replicating the airlines’ fare
model on some trains. It plans to introduce
20 premium trains whose fares will be
determined on the basis of the demand
for tickets as in the case of airlines. This
was decided after a pilot project on the
New Delhi-Mumbai helped the railways
earn 37pc more than it would have got
through fixed fares. These 20 new trains
will be rolled out in a few months.
For news contact:
[email protected]
Phone: 67241622 / 662
/employment & nritimes
EXCHANGE RATES
As on 30th January, 2014 (In rupees)
Currency
US Dollar
Pound Sterling
Swiss Franc
Euro
Saudi Riyal
Bahrain Dinar
Kuwait Dinar
Qatar Riyal
UAE Dirham
Omani Riyal
Buying
Selling
58.80
97.70
65.43
80.40
15.60
155.66
184.58
16.06
15.92
151.76
66.55
110.60
75.21
91.00
18.07
177.89
230.24
18.41
18.24
173.15
Rates are subject to change without notice. Errors & Omissions excepted.
Jer
arghese F
orex Bureau
Jerrr y V
Varghese
Forex
Karnataka Bank Ltd.
Your Family Bank. Across India
Regd.& Head Office: Mangalore-575 002
E-mail: [email protected] Visit us at: www.karnatakabank.com
RIYADH: His Highness Saudi
Crown Prince Salman, deputy
premier and minister of defence, will visit India in February to bolster bilateral ties. He
will be accompanied by a huge
business delegation, said India’s
Finance Minister P Chidambaram at the Council of Saudi
Chambers (CSC) here.
Addressing a joint business
council meeting, Chidambaram said: “I met with the
crown prince this morning and
we mutually agreed that the
business community of the two
countries could play a major
role in further enhancing bilateral trade relations.” The crown
prince received Chidambaram
and the accompanying delegation and reviewed bilateral relations and discussed ways to
Saudi Crown Prince Salman (right) holds talks with Finance
Minister P Chidambaram in Riyadh.
boost ties.
Chidambaram said the ensuing visit of the crown prince
would be a follow-up of the earlier visit by Custodian of the Two
Holy Mosques His Highness
King Abdullah in 2006, which
was reciprocated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2010.
The two countries had signed the
“Delhi Declaration” and the
(Contd. on page 2)
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia and India have finalised plans to endorse a historic defence pact
next month amid efforts to provide a major boost to the two
countries’ fledgling defence
ties.
“The proposed memorandum of understanding (MoU)
for defence co-operation will be
signed during the visit of
Crown Prince Salman, deputy
premier and minister of defence, to New Delhi in February,” Indian Finance Minister
Chidambaram said. Chidambaram said that the Kingdom
and India “have been able to
make significant progress in
their relationship over the past
few years.”
A joint panel, constituted by
the Kingdom and India, has
been working to prepare a draft
defence pact, which was
agreed to by Crown Prince
Salman and Defence Minister
A K Anthony during the
latter’s visit to Riyadh in 2012.
Once endorsed, the defence
pact will allow for shared use
and exchange of defence-related information, military
training and education, as well
as co-operation in areas varying from hydrography and security to logistics. The joint
commission meeting, cochaired by Chidambaram and
Commerce Minister Tawfiq AlRabiah, also called for “boosting co-operation in security
fields, especially in the exchange of information to curb
crime, money laundering and
drug-trafficking.”
Gold imports by NRIs baffle govt SBT garners Rs 5,300 cr
EL Vaidyanathan
MUMBAI: Both legal and
illegal inflow of gold
through Gulf NRIs and professional carriers has
baffled the customs authorities and income tax
vigilance departments in
Kerala. Now the matter has
been referred to Intelligence Bureau as there is a
doubt that a powerful
mafia is behind these operations. Last month (Dec,
2013) alone, the total quantity of legal gold brought by
Gulf passengers is pegged
at 2068kg through the
Kozhikode International
Airport.
Australian fellowship for
Kerala diaspora study
KOCHI: Australia’s prestigious Griffith University
has awarded a fellowship to
a Kerala researcher to study
the ethno-cultural moorings of the diaspora community from the state,
which left the shores of
Malabar generations ago.
Abbas Panakkal will work
for a year at the Nathan
campus of the university in
South East Queensland
while pursuing the study.
“There are Malabar communities living in the south
pacific, some of them forcefully brought there as indentured labourers and
some others who also migrated to the region, in the
late 18th and 19th centuries,” said Panakkal.
This month, as of Jan
25, this figure stands at
1248 kg. As per the existing rules, a person who
had stayed abroad for six
months without a break is
eligible to bring one kg gold
through legal channel by
paying a customs duty of
10pc ( at the present value,
it amounts to about Rs 2.6
lakh). Gold carriers are
paid Rs 50, 000 per kg of
gold sent by the smugglers.
This charge and the duty
amount are paid at the departure airport in the Gulf
and they are also given a
secret cord. The person
who will receive the gold
will be waiting at the air-
port (his identity such as
the colour of his shirt or a
copy of a particular newspaper he holds in his hand
are given in advance) and
once the secret cord is exchanged correctly, the gold
is passed on to him.
Normally,the photo of the
carrier is sent through the
mobile phone to the receiver to save time. The
corresponding gold import
figures through this airport
in Oct and Nov are 31kg
and 235 kg respectively.
Kozhikode is only one of
the three international airports in Kerala. The corresponding figures from the
Thiruvananthapuram and
Kochi airports are not
readily available but on an
all-India level, December
saw 2,500kg of gold
brought in this way.
Alarmed by this legal
gold flow, the IB has now
asked the immigration authorities to provide the address, photograph and other
details of those bringing in
“legal gold’. Already, their
bank accounts and background are checked to see
whether they have the financial clout to buy so
much gold. The income tax
department is also involved in screening the financial background of gold
bringing NRIs.
ABU DHABI: UAE projects
market grew for the second
consecutive year and is
expected to touch $132 billion worth of projects in the
next three years, according
to regional project tracker
MEED Projects.
The UAE projects market exceeded expectation
in 2013 by hitting $34 billion worth of major contract awards. While some
way off the levels seen in
the five-year period between 2006 and 2010,
when between $42 billion
and $62 billion worth of
contracts were awarded
annually, there is optimism
that the UAE projects market could return to levels
above $40 billion over the
next two or three years.
Dubai’s construction
and infrastructure projects
were the major driver of
UAE projects’ expansion
between 2005 and 2008,
with at least $20 billion
worth of contracts being
awarded in each of those
years. This period was followed by a three-year
slump in which the value
of contracts struggled
above $7 billion. Both 2012
and 2013 hit the $11-billion mark and the indications are that Dubai will
average $20 billion a year
for the next three years.
Furthermore, MEED Projects recorded more than
500 new projects in 2013,
the largest number of new
projects created in any year
since 2008. This resurgence of positive sentiment
returned to the UAE
economy during 2013, culminating in the award of
Expo 2020 to Dubai in Nov.
“This is already translating
(Contd. on page 2)
UAE projects to hit $132b
India may open second consulate in UAE
DUBAI: Indian Aambassador to the UAE
TP Seetharam has said the Indian government is considering opening the second
Indian consulate in the UAE in one of the
Northern Emirates. Indian expatriates in
the Northern Emirates may get an additional consulate for them. He said the Indian government is considering opening
the second Indian consulate in the UAE
after the UAE government reciprocated the
permission to open a UAE consulate in
Kerala. Nevertheless, the plan is not likely
to materialise immediately due to budget
constraints, he added. In 2011, the UAE
embassy in Delhi had showed interest in
establishing a consulate in Kerala. The
consulate would open in Thiruvananthapuram in three months. The mission
is expected to help ease documentation
work, currently done from the UAE consulate in Mumbai, apart from boosting
trade and tourism. According to
Seetharam, the agreement for opening the
consulate has a reciprocal approach and
the Indian government could open one
more consulate here. The envoy said the
mission would seek to consult the NRI community for deciding the location. “It has to
be in a central location where there is a large
number of Indians and it cannot be too close
to the existing consulate (in Dubai),” he told
reporters. However, he said it was not possible to put a time-frame for the proposal
since the Indian missions had budgetary
constraints due to the austerity measures
being taken by the Indian government.
NRI deposits
Victor Phillip
MUMBAI: The Keralabased State Bank of
Travancore (SBT), belonging to the SBI group,
has received deposits of
about Rs 5,300 crore from
NRIs in the first eight
months of the current financial year as against Rs
3,400 crore received during the 12 months of the
previous financial year.
Having peaked in August,
nevertheless, NRI remittances have started to
taper down to normal levels now.
The fall of the rupee as
well as Nitaqat uncertainty in Saudi Arabia
helped the bank in attracting increased NRI
deposits, according to RBI
sources in Mumbai.
At the end of March
2013, the NRI deposits of
SBT stood at Rs 18,700
crore, up 22pc from Rs
15,309 crore on March 31,
2012. This has already
grown by 28pc to Rs 24,000
crore at the end of November. From a daily average
of $15 million, remittances had shot up to $25
million in August. The remittance went up to $750
million during the month
as against $375 million
earlier.
Bahrain king
coming to India
DAVOS: Hailing itself as a
gateway to the Gulf,
Bahrain has sought huge
investments from Indian
firms across sectors and a
high-profile delegation led
by its King Hamad bin Isa
Al Khalifa is likely to visit
India next month. Besides,
Bahrain also wants to sign
a new double taxation
avoidance agreement with
India, with which an investment protection pact is
already in place, said Kamal
Bin Ahmed Mohammed,
who heads Bahrain Development (Contd. on page 2)
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