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Second Arrest from Sania Mirzas House -Malayali Youth Arrested for Banging into Sania Mirzas House-- ET Mohammed Bashirs Wife Enters Parliament on Budget Day

1,50,000 Overseas Indians Return home due to Recession

Indian Missions in the Gulf Countries in Saudi Arabia, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar have informed the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs that there has been no report of any large scale adverse impact on Indian workers because of global economic slowdown and recession, though there has been report of some job losses.

Vayalar Ravi, the Minister of Overseas Indian Affairs informed the Parliament on Tuesday that the Indian Mission in United Arab Emirates (UAE) has reported that accurate figures of return of Indian workers are not available. "It is estimated that ranging from 50,000 to 1,50,000 workers have returned to India as a result of the delay in execution of projects due to economic slow down and recession. They have further informed that most of the workers have returned to India on leave without pay with the expectation that they would be able to return to work in the UAE once the situation improves," said a written statement. More than ninety percent of Indian Emigration is to the Gulf Countries.

Further information received from Indian Missions in Afghanistan, Syria, Sudan, Brunei, Libya, Jordan, and Lebanon, indicate that there is no report of Indians affected by global recession there. Indian Mission in Yemen has informed that there is negligible impact on Indian workers due to global recession. Indian Mission in Indonesia has stated that there is no large scale impact of recession in Indonesia. Indian Mission in Malaysia has informed that small number of Indian workers have returned to India due to slowdown of the Malaysian economy in the context of current global recession.

The professionals immigrate mostly to the Western World. Report received from Germany, Canada, United Kingdom, New Zealand and Australia indicates that there is no report of such return of Indians because of recession and economic slowdown, the minister said.

Report received from United States of America (USA) indicates that the recession in USA has affected almost all sections of the people. However they have informed that Indians working in the United States are mostly professionals and the extent of job losses by Indians is, therefore, slightly mitigated by their indispensability to the organization. The exact number of Indian affected by the recession is indeterminate.

Defence Deals with israel on Hold: Antony

 The Government has recently decided to put on hold for the present dealings with Israeli Military Industries, Israel, Singapore Technology, Singapore, BBT, Poland, Media Architects Pte Ltd., Singapore, HYT, Pune, TS Kishan & Co. Pvt Ltd., New Delhi and RK Machine Tools, Ludhiana. These companies figure in the FIR recently registered by CBI against a former Director General Ordnance Factories and some others. The exercise to review Defence Procurement Procedure (DPP)-2008 for increasing transparency in procurement is underway.The Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Manmohan Singh meeting the British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, on the sidelines of G-8 Summit, in L’Aquila, Italy on July 08, 2009.

July 9, 2009 Kerala news

UAE Eyes Iraq Power Sector --Taqa) Terminates Relationship with Standard and Poors --Dubai-based company to support India in power front - Kerala Earthquake Prone State- Defence Deals with Israel on Hold, Antony-Afghanistan Seeks Indian partnership for road transport development -Kuwait open to investing war reparations into Iraq--

Cost of living rises for expats in Abu Dhabi and Dubai

The new Cost of Living Survey from leading global HR consulting firm Mercer has today revealed Dubai as the most expensive city in the GCC for expats to live in, having risen to 20th place from a ranking of 52nd last year. The UAE capital Abu Dhabi isn't far behind, rising 39 places from 65th to 26th in the ranking.The cost of living for expats based elsewhere in the GCC has also risen, with Kuwait City, Kuwait moving from 94th to 77th; Manama, Bahrain from 112th to 82nd; Riyadh, Saudi Arabia from 119th to 90th, and Jeddah is the least expensive city in the region ranking 109th from 126th. The remaining cities in the GCC didn't fall in the 143 rankings of the study.

 

Based on the spending habits of expat communities in 143 cities across six continents, the Mercer Cost of Living Survey measures the comparative cost of over 200 items in each location, including housing, transport, food, clothing, household goods and entertainment; where possible these are international brands.

Commenting on the study, Bassam Gazal, who heads the Mercer Survey practice across the Middle East said: "As a direct impact of the economic downturn over the last year, there have been significant fluctuations in most of the world's currencies. As currency fluctuations play a large role in the cost of living rankings this, has had a profound impact on this year's ranking.

 

"In the cases of Dubai and Abu Dhabi, a stronger U.S. dollar meant an increase in rankings for these cities. That being said, in this study the currency fluctuations and inflation rates affect only the expatriate programmes for which the Cost of Living survey is dependent on - accounting for the jump in rankings for the GCC countries included."

Globally, Tokyo knocked Moscow off the top spot to become the world's most expensive city for expatriates. Osaka is in second position, up nine places since last year, with Moscow now in third place. Geneva climbs four places to fourth position and Hong Kong moves up one to reach fifth. Johannesburg has replaced Asunción in Paraguay as the least expensive city in the ranking.

 

In Mercer's survey, New York is used as the base city for the index and scores 100 points, all cities are compared against New York and currency movements are measured against the US dollar. It is the world's most comprehensive cost of living survey and is used to help multinational companies and governments determine compensation allowance for their expatriate employees.

 

Abu Dhabi National Energy Company (Taqa) Terminates Relationship with Standard and Poors

 

 

ABU DHABI, UAE, [1 July 2009] – The Abu Dhabi National Energy Company PJSC (TAQA), a publicly listed company on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX: TAQA), announced today that it has terminated its relationship with Standard & Poor’s (“S&P”) effective 30 June 2009. This decision follows an internal review of the new ratings methodology for Government-Related Entities (GRE) published by S&P.

Peter Barker-Homek, Chief Executive Officer of TAQA, said:

“Following our review of the new methodology published by S&P on 30 June, we do not believe these criteria will result in a rating that will accurately reflect the credit-worthiness of TAQA. The underlying fundamentals of our business have not changed. TAQA is the majority owner of the plants that supply 98% of the power and water needs for the Emirate of Abu Dhabi, we have strong ties to the Government of Abu Dhabi through both ownership and the membership of our board of directors; the implicit support of the Government is unchanged and has consistently been confirmed in both word and deed.

 

S&P promulgated new methodology that will affect Government Related Entities (GRE) worldwide. This new methodology affects GREs regardless of whether their relationship with the sovereign or their economic viability remains unchanged since they were first given a rating by S&P. S&P formally confirmed our rating in May, 2009. In summary TAQA has not changed, but S&P has.”


Dubai-based company to support India in power front

 

Coastal Energen Private Ltd, the power generating flagship company of Dubai-based Coal and Oil Group, on Wednesday extended its support to India and particularly to Tamil Nadu to meet the anticipated shortfall of power in future, reported the PTI. Full Report

Kerala Earthquake Prone State 

According to a study carried out by the scientists of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore and others making use of historical and instrumental earthquake data of the region, the central midland region is more prone to seismic activity compared to other parts of Kerala.

Responding to a question by Idukki Member of Parliament P T Thomas, Minister of State for Science and Technology, Prithviraj Chavan said: "India Meteorological Department is already maintaining a country wide network of 55 seismological observatories for round the clock monitoring of seismic activity in the country. As part of this network, one state-of-art seismological observatory is functioning at Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala and one is operational at Peechi, in project mode."

He said the Kerala Government is also maintaining a local network of seismic stations in Idukki region of Kerala. Information pertaining to earthquakes occurring anywhere in the country including Kerala is promptly disseminated to all concerned state and central government agencies for initiating disaster mitigation, relief and rehabilitation measures.

Afghanistan seeks Indian Help for Road Transport Development

India has assured Afghanistan of its full cooperation in improving its transport system and infrastructure. R.P.N. Singh, Minister of State for Road Transport & Highways assured a delegation of Afghanistan government led by Engineer. Raz Mohammad Alami, Deputy Minister (Technical and Operation), Ministry of Transport & Civil Aviation (MoTCA).

While appreciating the cooperation extended by Government of India in re-building and re-construction of Afghanistan, Mr. Alami stated that a significant chunk of fleet of the buses earlier donated by India in 2002-2003 were lying idle due to want of spare parts and maintenance. The Afghan delegation wanted co-operation of India in setting up of Vehicle Maintenance Workshop in Kabul for repair and maintenance of the buses donated by India. Besides, the Afghan Minister also requested that the Afghan Technicians and Engineers may be given training in various institutions in India. He also requested for signing a Memorandum of Understanding on various fields of Transport Sector with India.

The Afghan delegation also wanted the cooperation of India in the field of setting up of Driver Training Schools. Representative from Ashok Leyland who were present at the meeting, along with representatives of Tata Motors ,said that they would extend their state-of-art facilities of driver training in India as well as if need be, set up a similar facility in Afghanistan.

Representatives of Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland stated that they already have a small set up of maintenance depot and dealership in Kabul which can be augmented to cater to their needs. Minister of State (RT&H) directed the Ministry officials to discuss the matter with the Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland representatives and find ways to extend co-operation to Afghanistan.