FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 26 - MARCH 3, 2016 • 8 Pages www. enritimes.com 5 Mumbai, Maharashtra ( Registration WITH THE RNI UNDER No. 69111/98 Registered No. MNE/96/2015-17 Day of Publishing: Every Friday Mumbai GPO Patrika Channel • Posted: Friday-Saturday FOR NATIONAL & OVERSEAS PLACEMENTS ○ ○ ○ 6 Rest of India) • UAE Dh2 BF200 OB200 KF150 QR2 EMPLOYMENT & NRI TIMES ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ ○ Sourcing or Searching for Overseas jobs NRI TIMESOnline Creating Opportunities for Indians www.enritimes.com Spurt in Gulf remittances to India MUMBAI: The oil crisis and subsequent job losses in West Asia have not affected NRI remittances. In fact banks are witnessing an increase in remittances during the past five months. Federal Bank’s rupee-denominated personal remittances have gone up 32pc to Rs 44,000 crore in the 10month period between April and Jan this year against the same period last year. In the FY15, the growth rate was slightly lower at 28pc. State Bank of Travancore saw a growth of 13pc in remittances to a little above Rs 37,000 crore from Rs 33,000 crore for the period under review. Last fiscal, the bank had seen a growth of 11pc in remittances. State Bank of Travancore and Federal Bank are the leading banks in the remittances business and West Asia accounts for almost 90pc of NRI remittances. The receipts have not been affected in the past few months when several anecdotal evidences have been coming in about people losing jobs and shutting business ventures. During the four-month period between Oct and Jan, Federal Bank’s remittances have gone up by 36pc and in Jan alone the growth was 62pc to Rs 4,870 BRICS meet in Mumbai MUMBAI: Representatives from Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa will meet in Mumbai to discuss urban challenges such as security, public transport and affordable housing. The four powerful emerging economies, along with India, comprise the BRICS group. The “BRICS Friendship Cities Conclave 2016” will be held here from April 14 to 16. Prime Minister Narendra Modi would open the inaugural session which will be also attended by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, RBI governor Raghuram Rajan, British Treasury Minister Jim O’Neill and Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis. The BRICS conference will focus on cities. Every country will have representatives from two or more cities and we will try to gain insights from each other’s experiences on tackling urban challenges,” said state chief secretary Swadheen Kshatriya. O’Neill, an economist, coined the BRICS concept in 2001. The economic bloc is home to more than 43pc of the world’s population and accounts for over 20pc of global GDP. In his invite to Modi, Fadnavis said it was important to establish co-operation between BRICS cities and set up a forum to find solutions to common problems. crore against Rs 3,001 crore in the same month last year. Remittances from the UAE to India and Philippines in particular went up by 20pc, says Sudhesh Giriyan, COO of Xpress Money. The Indian rupee’s value against the US dollar has been falling since December. As of last week, the Indian currency depreciated to 68.68 against the greenback. The rising value of the dollar, to which the UAE currency is pegged, is a boon to remitting expatriates in the UAE. A stronger dollar means UAE expatriates get to send home more rupees, euros or pesos with their monthly income. As of last year, money transfers to India and the Philippines reached $72 billion and $30 billion, respectively, according to World Bank. “We have been seeing continuous surge in remittances in the last three months. A weak rupee is good news for remitters, mostly white-collar expatriates who can take advantage of a weaker rupee and send more money home, generally larger sums that they have been saving up here,” said Giriyan. The Indian currency is not the only one seeing the downward trend. (Contd. on page 2) Saudi Consul-General Abdullah Suliman Al-Esa with Kuwait Consul-General Mansour Al Olaini at the Kuwait National Day celebrations in Mumbai (Also see page-8). NEW DELHI:The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has given its approval for signing of an agreement between India and Maldives for the avoidance of double taxation of income from international air transport. The agreement provides for relief from double taxation for airline enterprises of India and Maldives by way of exemption of income derived by the enterprise of India from the operation of aircraft in international traffic, from Maldivian tax and vice versa. Under the agreement, profits from the operation of aircraft in international traffic will be taxed in one country alone. DUBAI: Axis Bank has announced its plans to further strengthen its remittance offering in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) region by providing new channels of money transfer to existing NRI customers. “The Bank continues to expand its partner network across the GCC region with specific focus on getting into more arrangements with Correspondent Banks while continuing to actively manage our large existing exchange house relationships,” said Rajiv Anand, group executive head , retail banking at Axis Bank. Anand said that this had resulted in a robust growth at a CAGR of 26pc over the past three years in remittance volumes from the UAE and that the bank would continue to look at growing aggressively for FY 16-17 as well. Axis Bank, which caters to NRIs in the UAE through its offices here and through tie ups with other banks and financial institutions in the GCC, offers automated remittance processing engine, AxisRemit Direct, available to exchange houses and correspondent banks. GCC includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE , Qatar, Bahrain and Oman. “Our strategy of expanding our partner network of Exchange Houses and Correspondent Banks in the region is to provide additional channels of money transfer to our existing NRI customers as well as to leverage these relationships to acquire new NRI customers,” Anand said. He said a dedicated operations unit, centralised remittance hub, has also been setup to provide efficient operational support and customer service to our institutional remittance partners. In addition, Online FX Booking Portal, FX Connect, which allows our Partners to carry out real time FX trades with the bank has also been offered. “As DIFC grows further to become a formidable part of the local economy, Axis Bank will play more active role. Through the Representative Offices in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, we support service requirements of NRIs who hold or want to hold a banking account in India. The representative offices are governed by the UAE Central Bank regulations,” he said. Axis Bank has its presence through branches in Singapore, Hong Kong DIFC - Dubai, Colombo and Shanghai, Representative Offices at Dubai and Abu Dhabi, Dhaka and Axis Bank UK, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the bank. ter for direct flights to the Gulf hub during his visit to Coimbatore, by asking him to include the city in the Bilateral Services Agreements (BASA). Nevertheless, the minister was not in favour of allowing foreign carriers to expand their services in India, instead saying that he would recommend either Air India or Air India Express to launch a connection. “It is shocking to know that Air India Express has increased (Contd. on page 2) NEW DELHI: So far, e-tourist visas were available for 113 countries at 16 Indian airports. The home ministry will extend e-tourist visa scheme to 37 more countries from Friday, taking the total number of beneficiary countries to 150. The government had launched the e-tourist visa facility on Nov 27, 2014. An e-tourist visa lets you travel to India without having a visa stamp on your passport. It is given once you actually land and thus saving you the trouble of sending your passport to the embassy to get a visa beforehand. Here is how it works: Upload the form and photo online, pay the visa fee online receive the eTV via email, show it on arrival in India. Till now, the scheme was made available to 113 countries at 16 Indian airports designated for providing etourist visa service. The etourist visas of over 7.50 lakh have been issued under the scheme. At present, on an average 3,500 e-tourist visas are being granted daily to foreign nationals. India-Maldives tax accord okayed Axis Bank strengthens Gulf NRI services Bahrain has 36,000 Plea for direct Dubai illegal expat workers flight from Coimbatore MANAMA: There are 36,000 illegal expat employees in Bahrain, a drop from around 60,000 six months ago, it was claimed this week. Ali Al Kooheji, operations vicepresident of the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA) said during a meeting: “Six months ago, the figure [for illegal expat workers] was around 60,000. Through various measures including an amnesty, inspections and awareness campaigns, we were able to bring it down to almost 36,000.” Al Kooheji added that 3,782 workers have been classed as ‘runaway’, based on the number of formal complaints made by employers. And a total of 17,000 people registered to work in Bahrain have reportedly left the kingdom. Al Kooheji was speaking at the third open consultative meeting of the trade and retail sector committee at Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He said the number of illegal expat workers had been reduced. For news contact: editorial@enritimes.com Phone: 67241622 / 662 /employment & nritimes EXCHANGE RATES As on 25th February, 2016 (In rupees) Currency US Dollar Pound Sterling Swiss Franc Euro Saudi Riyal Bahrain Dinar Kuwait Dinar Qatar Riyal UAE Dirham Omani Riyal Buying Selling 64.00 89.20 64.50 70.50 16.90 169.80 189.20 17.40 17.20 165.30 72.40 100.90 74.20 79.90 19.60 194.00 235.50 19.90 19.80 188.50 Rates are subject to change without notice. Errors & Omissions excepted. Jer arghese F orex Bureau Jerrr y V Varghese Forex COIMBATORE: Fed up with a lack of response from local bureaucrats and politicians over their request to start a direct flight to Dubai, residents of Coimbatore have decided to take matters into their own hands. Local newspaper reported that several organisations in the Tami Nadu city, including the local branch of the Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCIC), have launched an online petition, which is already receiving significant interest. “In just a day our petition on www.change.org received more than 1,000 votes from residents and Coimbatore citizens living elsewhere,” R. Raveendran, from the Residents Awareness Association of Coimbatore (RAAC), claimed. The petition has also been posted on other websites and on social media, he added. In September last year, both the ICCIC and the RAAC had petitioned India’s civil aviation minis- Now e-visa to 150 countries Illegal Indian migrants to suffer if Trump wins India third largest issuer of passports WASHINGTON: Illegal Indian immigrants in the US could be among the worst affected if Donald Trump implements harsh anti-immigration measures as the next president. A report from the Latin American Social Sciences Institute, Mexico, has concluded that one-third of all Asian illegal immigrants who were detected while attempting to enter the US between 2007 and 2015 were from India. A total of 2,450 illegal Indian immigrants were apprehended by Mexican authorities before they reached the Mexico-US border near the state of Texas, the study states. But in many cases, the detained illegal immigrants were let off PUDUCHERRY: India now ranks third in the world after China and the US in issuing passports with the number having doubled since 2010, a senior official of the external affairs ministry has said. The number of passports issued went up from around 60 lakh five years ago to 1.2 crore last year, Joint Secretary of Ministry Muktesh K Pardeshi said. “In 2010 we embarked on a journey for passport Seva programme to set up new centres. Now there are 37 passport offices and 90 Seva kendras. India has become a major passport issuing country in the world and is today ranked third in the world after China and US in issuing passports,” Pradeshi said. as Mexican laws are ill- growing also in Mexico, he equipped to deal with the in- added. The public at large in flux. Mexico learnt about Prof Rodolfo Indians using their Cassilas, the author country as a transit of the report, told a route to the US in TV channel that 2010 when a drug Trump’s anti-immicartel on Mexicogration plans are US border killed 72 radical and need immigrants over an greater international evident payments attention as they can issue. “One out of potentially trigger a the 72 killed was new kind of internafrom India and that tional crisis. The Donald Trump is when the internatrend of smuggling Asian nationals through Mexican border tional dimension connecting has been well established for South Asia with Central Asia the past few decades, said became clear to the masses, but Cassilas. But Mexican society is the government has not so far now better informed and de- openly discussed the Asian dimands for stricter laws are mension,” Casillas said. “That illegal immigrants from India and the rest of South Asia in general reaching the US shows co-ordination among transnational human traffickers located in Central America, Asia and the US. They can also move other things, drugs for example,” Casillas said. Both Mexico and the US are aware of the utility that human traffickers have for serving other criminal network. “For that, undocumented immigrants are so important for both Mexico and the US,” Casillas said, explaining that the argument of greater security might be used to take anti-immigrant measures in the US if Trump’s plan to become the President comes true.