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FRIDAY, N0VEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4 , 2014 • 8 Pages www. enritimes.com
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Sourcing or Searching
for Overseas jobs
NRI TIMESOnline
Creating Opportunities for Indians
www.enritimes.com
Vibrant Gujarat
housefull
Telangana to hire one-lakh people
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has announced that his
government would fill up all vacancies
in government departments by relaxing
the upper age limit by five years. “We
will take up the process in the next fourfive months. Unemployed youth need
not get disheartened,” he said in the
Assembly in reply to the debate on
unemployment initiated by BJP member
K Laxman under Rule 344. The
government, KCR said, will fill up around
one lakh jobs. He asserted the
government had clarity on the issue and
pointed out that the exact number of
vacancies would be known once the
Kamalanathan Committee allocates state
cadre employees between AP and TS.
India’s forex reserves at $315.55b
India’s foreign exchange reserves grew
by $419.4 million to $315.55 billion for
the week ended Nov 14. The reserves
had fallen by $778.4 million to $315.13
billion for the week ended Nov 7.
According to the RBI’s weekly statistical
supplement, foreign currency assets, the
key component of the forex reserves,
gained $422.7 million at $290.06 billion
in the week under review. The foreign
currency assets had declined by $726
million at $289.63 billion in the previous
week (Nov 7). The foreign currency
assets, expressed in US dollar terms,
include the effect of appreciation or
depreciation of non-US currencies such
as the pound sterling, euro and yen held
in reserve. India’s reserve position with
IMF was down $0.9 million to $1.52
billion. The value of SDRs was lower by
$2.4 million at $4.22 billion.
Visa on arrival for 43 countries
Visa-on-Arrival and Electronic Travel
Authorisation for 43 countries, including
the US, Australia, Fiji and Pacific Island
countries, is in place. Following Prime
Minister Modi’s announcement in this
regard, a draft bill for amending the
Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which will
enable merger of the PIO (Person of Indian
Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizenship of
India) schemes, is expected to be brought
to the cabinet for approval shortly. The
government has already announced
fulfilment of the announcements made by
the prime minister — such as granting visa
for life to PIO card holders, exemption from
police reporting for PIOs staying in India
for long- term and issuance of long-term
(10 year) visas to US nationals on a
reciprocal basis.
CK Prasad to head Press Council
Former Supreme Court judge CK Prasad
is set to be appointed as the head of the
Press Council of India. Information and
broadcasting ministry sources said
Prasad has been selected by a
committee headed by Vice President
Hamid Ansari and a communication has
been received in this regard.
For news contact:
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Phone: 67241622 / 662
/employment & nritimes
EXCHANGE RATES
As on 27th November, 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
57.70
91.05
59.86
72.15
15.28
152.63
175.83
15.75
15.61
148.81
65.25
103.10
68.79
81.65
17.70
174.41
218.98
18.05
17.89
169.76
Rates are subject to change without notice. Errors & Omissions excepted.
Jer
arghese F
orex Bureau
Jerrr y V
Varghese
Forex
AHMEDABAD: Vibrant
Gujarat-2015 has outgrown Ahmedabad after
Modi became prime minister. It is fully booked and
now the state government
is taking on rent every accommodation available —
from dharamshalas, homes, bungalows, farmhouses, schools, marriage
halls and service apartments for participants.
Moreover, iNDEXTb is
setting up 300 luxury
tents close to the Mahatma Mandir. Tourism
Minister Saurabh Patel
said: “Considering the
Dubai Ruler His Highness Shaikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum at the
huge inflow of tourists for
opening of Emirati Media Forum in Dubai.
(Contd. on page 2)
Vadodara hosts
VCCI exhibition
VADODARA: Vadodara
Chamber of Commerce &
Industry (VCCI) is hosting
the Vibrant VCCI-2014, a
five-day exhibition of industrial and allied products, till Dec 1 at Navlakhi
ground. This time the exhibition is organised as a
part of Vibrant Gujarat
Summit 2015.
Spread over an area of
about nine-lakh sq ft, the
exhibition has over 500
stalls. It attracts participants from blue chip companies, public as well as
private sectors and also
from small and medium
enterprises (SMEs). The
number of visitors during
the five-day exhibition is
expected to cross the mark
of five lakh.
He said the move
would encourage foreign
companies to invest in the
Kingdom and transfer their
technology without any
fear as it guarantees the
availability of qualified
and skilled foreign workers
for five years.
“I am very happy,” said
Mohammed Ali, managing
director of Jeddah National
Hospital.
“This is good not only
for expats but also for the
Kingdom,” he said, adding
that it would encourage experienced guest workers to
stay in the Kingdom instead
of going to Europe, America
and Australia in search of
better job opportunities. He
said the five-year iqama
programme would help
expats to make long-term
plans. “One-year iqama was
creating uncertainty. Doctors and paramedics were
unwilling to come to the
Kingdom,” he said.
Salah Karadan, former
chairman of International
Indian School Jeddah’s
managing committee, said
the move would help expat
children to stay long
abroad for higher education.
Chairman of VCCI Exhibition 2014 Nilesh
Shukla said: “Apart from
offering opportunities to
SMEs, the expo serves as
a platform for foreign participants to exhibit their
(Contd. on page 2)
Oman to tax
remittances
MUSCAT:The proposal
for a two per cent levy on
the billions of rials that
expatriates send home
every year has been approved by Oman’s Majlis
al-Shura or the lower
house of the council of
Oman, to overcome a
budget deficit due to drop
in oil prices.
“The approval to tax
expatriate remittances is
one of the several steps
proposed to overcome the
budget deficit, which the
Sultanate will face while
adjusting the oil price,”
said Tawfiq Al Lawati, a
Shura member.
RIYADH: Foreign investors and guest workers
have welcomed the Saudi
government’s reported
plan to issue resident permits (iqamas) for five
years instead of one. They
said the move would
boost the Kingdom’s economic prog ress.
“This is a great step on
the part of the government
and will have a tremendous impact on businesses,” said Siddeek
Ahmed, CMD of Eram
Group while responding to
the passport depar tment’s
plan to implement a pro-
KUWAIT CITY: A bill imposing a five-year residency cap on foreigners in
Kuwait and a ban on bringing their families into the
country has been cleared
by the parliament’s legal
and legislative committee.
The bill, submitted by
MP Abdullah Al Tamimi,
also limits the size of any
expatriate community to
less than 10pc of the Kuwaiti population, now estimated to be 1.25 million.
Under the proposal, no
community should be
larger than 1.25 lakh
people. NRIs, the largest
community in this northern Arabian Gulf country,
with more than 6.7 lakh
members and the Egyptian
community, the largest
among Arabs with around
5.2 lakh people, would be
dramatically affected and
thousands of foreigners
would have to leave the
country. The Bangladeshi,
Pakistani, Filipino and Syrian communities among
the largest in Kuwait would
also see their numbers
slashed.
The bill applies to unskilled and semi-skilled expatriates who make up the
largest segment of the communities in Kuwait. Highly
qualified and skilled expatriates are not included in
the proposal promoted by
Al Tamimi as seeking to address the alarming demographic issue in Kuwait.
The committee also reportedly called for removing the
NEW DELHI: The Indian
diaspora must be a part of
the country’s development, Prime Minister
Narendra Modi said after
his recent visit to Myanmar,
Australia and Fiji.
“We want to create an
environment where our
diaspora also feel that
they can contribute towards India’s development journey,” he opined
in a blog. “That is also the
reason I urged NRIs to
keep sharing their views
and thoughts (with the
Indian government),” he
added. “On a personal their warmth in words. “I
note, the affection (I got) could see that they were
proud of India and the
changes happening in India. I could see dreams
and expectations in their
eyes. As I said during the
Indian
community
programme in Sydney, we
are fully aware of the expectations and we will
leave no stone unturned
in creating the India of
from the Indian commu- their dreams,” he added.
nity was touching,” Modi During his three-nation
said. “Be it in Myanmar, visit that lasted 10 days,
Australia and Fiji, I will Modi had announced
not be able to describe visa-on-arrival facilities.
posal to extend the iqama
validity from one to five
years.
Maj-Gen Sulaiman AlYahya, director general of
the passport department,
said there is a plan to
change the name of iqama
to resident ID and extend
its validity up to five years.
Speaking to reporters in
Riyadh, he emphasised
that the proposal would be
implemented shortly.
He said the department
was also studying a proposal to extend the validity of Saudi passport to 10
years. Col. Mohammed Al-
Hussain, spokesman of the
department in the Makkah
region, said he did not
have any more details.
Nevertheless, informed
sources said the proposal
would be implemented
soon after its endorsement
by Interior Minister Prince
Mohammed bin Naif.
Al-Yahya’s statement
was widely applauded.
“The extension of iqama to
five years will provide job
security to expatriates. It
will also help contracting
companies to complete
their projects on time,” said
Siddeek Ahmed.
Kuwait to impose five-year residency cap Umrah visa goes online
six-month period accorded
to expatriates who leave the
country before their residency visa is cancelled. Under the bill, foreigners will
also be banned from brining their families into the
country. GCC, EU and US
citizens as well as consultants and doctors will be
exempted from this provision. The legal and legislative committee assesses
whether the bill is in line
with the constitution and
laws of the country.
Now, it will have to
pass the interior and defence committee as the
next step in the long process to come into force. If
it is passed by the parliamentary panel, it is taken
up by lawmakers who de-
Modi lauds Indian diaspora
bate its merits at parliament. If it is endorsed, it is
referred to the government.
Kuwait is home to
around 2.5 million expatriates, mainly unskilled
Asian labourers in the construction sector and domestic helpers, who make
up two-thirds of the total
population.
JEDDAH: Umrah operators are now ready to receive
online applications for visas, Haj Minister Bandar
Hajjar has said.
Hajjar said they opened up for applications on Nov
23. He urged companies working in the field to provide the best services for pilgrims, who are their responsibility on arrival in the Kingdom. He said the
online system had run smoothly last year, with over
six million applications processed. Only 6,000 pilgrims had remained illegally in the Kingdom, he said.
“Facilitating the pilgrimage of (Contd. on page 2)
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