Melting Pot

Source: Economic Times - -

Indian government has accepted China’s request for a month’s extension of the September 30 deadline for its citizens employed here to convert their business visas into employment visas and has allowed the applicants time until October 31 to do the needful.

However, the government has made it clear that no further relaxation would be made in the latest deadline. In other words, all the Chinese workers working in India who continue to be on a business visa will have to leave the country after October 31.  The one-month grace period for securing an employment visa will not only take care of the interests of Chinese workers who may have either learnt late of the new visa rules or had their applications rejected due to inadequate knowledge of the required format but will also avoid sudden inconvenience and delays in the business projects currently in progress. Around 25,000 Chinese skilled workers are employed in projects across the country, albeit on a multiple-entry business visa. Many of these Chinese workers were travelling to countries like Bangladesh and Pakistan during the validity of their Indian visa, raising some security concerns.

The new visa regime, announced three months ago, required the Chinese to give up their business visa and secure a fresh employment visa before September 30 to be able to continue working here. No more than 1,000 work visa requests were received while around 2,000 applications were pending in the Indian High Commission in Beijing.

The government had set the three-month deadline for the Chinese to secure fresh employment visas, which gave them 45 days to submit their applications, which would then take another 45 days to be processed. The failure of the most of the Chinese employees here to switch over to the new visa regime even till the last week of September, which in the normal course would have required them to leave India, led Chinese envoy Zhang Yan to approach the Union home ministry to seek an extension of the September 30-deadline .

Keen to be seen as sympathetic to Beijing’s concerns, especially after the media hype over “incursions” by the Chinese troops, government of India decided to honour the request. Also, the view was that since it was a mistake on our part to admit Chinese workers on a business visa, we must rectify it ourselves rather than penalising the Chinese for no fault of theirs.

FOLLOWING RULES

Government has made it clear that no further relaxation would be made in the latest deadline. All the Chinese staff working in India who continue to be on a business visa will have to leave the country after October 31  Around 25,000 Chinese workers are employed in projects across the country, albeit on a multiple-entry business visa  Many of these workers were travelling to Bangladesh and Pakistan during the validity of their Indian visa

A decision by Air India management to restore productivity linked incentives (PLI) of 7,000 of its employees failed to pacify the striking pilots, heightening the possibility of an increase in air fares in some of the country’s busiest routes.

More than 30 flights, including six international ones, were cancelled as Air India’s pilots reported sick for the second day running. “The fares could jump by up to 10% if the strike continues as many people are looking to rebook their tickets,” said a travel agent, requesting anonymity.   Executive with a private airline said private airlines would see an increase in bookings if the strike continues beyond the weekend. He also predicted a 5-10% hike in fares.  

Air India’s executive pilots have been on sick leave since Friday midnight after the airline board approved a 25-50% cut in PLI for nearly a fourth of its 31,000 employees.  Expat pilots and members of the Indian Commercial Pilots’ Association were spared the cut.  Air India said the airline would resume normal operations on Monday. However, captain VK Bhalla, a senior executive pilot leading the agitation, said the strike will continue. “Our chief (Air India chairman and managing director Arvind Jad-hav) is playing a game by inviting only one group of pilots in Mumbai for talks,” he said.

Earlier this month pilots of Jet Airways, India’s largest airline by passenger numbers, had resorted to industrial action, disrupting operations leading to a loss of Rs 100 crore during the five-day strike.

Air India is seeking an equity infusion of Rs 5,000 crore from the government to stay afloat, after accumulating losses to the tune of Rs 7,200 crore as on March 2009.   Meanwhile, the civil aviation ministry has called a meeting of all domestic carriers on Tuesday to take stock of the current situation in the aviation industry.

Source: Kolkata Online, Express India - -

The festival of our heart it might be, but Durga Puja also embraces those who are not technically a part of the city. Some are overwhelmed by it some take to it like fish to water. Shaun Kenworthy, a celebrity chef and entrepreneur, tells us why Puja was just waiting to happen to him

Ever since I have been in Kolkata (from 2001) it does not fail to amaze me, what an extensive celebration of art the Pujas are. I used to stay in Lord Sinha Road for some time after I came to the city and nothing much happened there in terms of Puja. But later, especially after I got married, I took to traveling to Kumartuli 2-3 weeks before the Pujas. The scene at the idol makers’ quarters around that time is resplendent with colours, interesting forms and multi-tasking artisans running against time to meet deadlines. It’s from then that you realize that the Puja is a celebration of art more than anything else. The pandals, the themes, organizers competing with each other to come up with the best Puja idea, just vindicates my belief that it all boils down to art and beauty, rather than religion.

And then, from one of the firsts Pujas I celebrated in Kolkata, I used to take a boat trip in the Ganges and witness the immersion. The immersion too made for a mind-boggling, dramatic scene, the euphoria was like nothing I had seen before in life.

I didn’t visit many pandals the first Puja I spent here, but last year I was invited to a friend’s house, who has a Puja in his house. It was the first time I saw a sandhi puja and I was left speechless. The diyas, the incense smoke, the whole buzz – it was fabulous. I intend to return for the sandhi puja again this year.

Shaun Kenworthy is a celebrity chef, consultant and entrepreneur. He came to India from England in 2000 and now shuttles between the two countries. He is married to a Bengali, former model and painter Pinky.

Source: Times of India - -

You may have graduated from premier medical schools like Harvard or Johns Hopkins but you will not be able to practise in India till you have cleared a screening test conducted by the Medical Council of India, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The screening test will also be mandatory for those students who have got MBBS degrees from a country with which India has a reciprocity agreement. Under this rule, foreign nationals with medical degrees from their countries could practise in India without appearing in the screening test and Indians with MBBS degree from home could go there and treat patients. 

The new SC ruling has changed the ground rules. From now, if an Indian student gets a medical degree from a foreign country covered under the reciprocity clause and wants to practise in India, he can do so only after clearing the MCI's screening test.  At present, certain medical qualifications of UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are covered under the reciprocity clause. 

The worst affected would be Indian students who had made a beeline for medical degrees from colleges in Nepal after the MCI had refused to recognise medical degrees from institutes in erstwhile USSR countries, which had liberal admission criteria.  Students went in droves to get admission in medical colleges in Nepal, with which India has a reciprocity clause, and had approached the SC after MCI said they were required to appear in the screening test.

Dismissing their plea against the screening test, a Bench comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justices P Sathasivam and J M Panchal said, "Appellants have to appear in the screening test conducted by the National Board of Examination in terms of the Screening Test Regulations made by the MCI."

Accepting the argument of senior advocate Maninder Singh, who appeared on behalf of MCI, the Bench clarified that the screening test was mandatory for all Indian students who wanted to practise in India after obtaining MBBS degrees from foreign universities.

"A person who is a citizen of India and obtains a medical qualification granted by any medical institution in any country outside India, recognised for enrolment as medical practitioner in that country, shall not be entitled to be enrolled on the medical register maintained by a state medical council or to have his name entered in the Indian medical register after March 15, 2002, unless he qualifies the screening test prescribed," said Justice Panchal, writing the judgment for the Bench.

The screening test applicability from March 15, 2002, was envisaged keeping in mind the fact that a large number of private agencies started sponsoring students for medical studies in institutions outside India for commercial considerations.

"It was noticed that such students also included those who did not fulfil the minimum eligibility requirements for admission to medical courses in India. Serious aberrations were noticed in the standards of medical education in some foreign countries, which were not on par with standards of medical education available in India," the SC said justifying its ruling.

It was therefore felt necessary by Parliament to make a provision to enable MCI to conduct a screening test to satisfy the regulatory body about the adequacy of knowledge and skills acquired by citizens of India, who obtained medical qualifications from universities or medical institutions outside India.

 Last week, the United States asked its citizens living and travelling in India to keep a low profile during the festival season. There is a high possibility of terror attacks, the travel advisory warned. It was around this time that a stand-up comic performing at a private event in a Juhu hotel, asked if any Americans were in the audience.

Source: www.expressbuzz.com

It all started with the ‘Beautiful India’ competition. An initiative taken up by Global Adjustments 12 years back to enrich the experience of the expatriate community and bring forth their love of India through the photographs they have taken.

This led to "Looking for P James."

The book depicts the journey of Darren Burnham through beautiful vignettes of the old Madras and the new Chennai.“When Darren approached me with an idea about this book, I was thrilled by the concept. The images spoke to me. It was the view of someone who loves Chennai, India, our food, our culture, and our idiosyncrasies. It was an outsider’s view of the inside,” says Ranjani Manian, founder-CEO of Global Adjustments Private Limited. 

From the elusive and magical P James whose name is scrawled across the city to the ‘old’ and ‘new’ door numbers and the crowds at T Nagar to the golden Marina, Looking for P James has managed to capture the essence of Madras.“Madras bashai to Madisar saris, he tells the story like a native.For expats like Darren, this book was one of the ways to show his love for Chennai, which remained a home to him for five years. And it remains an example of the beautiful infusion of the West and the Indian touch which we always strive for,” says Ranjani Manian.

Source: The Indian Express -  'Cooking With Stella', Dilip Mehta's much awaited debut film which explores India's capital city through the eyes of a Canadian expat, will have it's world premiere at the 34th Toronto International Film Festival.

The Delhi born photojournalist-turned-filmmaker's debut feature is a social satire set in Delhi's diplomatic enclave, the Canadian high commission to be precise, offering a warm and sensitive comment on the struggles of the domestic workforce found across well-to-do urban homes.

Co-produced by Mumbai's BR Films 'Cooking With Stella's star cast including Lisa Ray, Don Mc Kellar, Seema Biswas and Shriya Saran will be present at the premiere, but the saddening news that Ray is suffering from an incurable strain of cancer, is sure to cast a long shadow on the event.

"As a lifelong professional photographer who loves New Delhi, I was sensitive to the images of the city... and of India. Of course poverty and despair are huge parts of life in the capital city, but that is not the world that this particular movie sets out to explore," said the director.

The film opens with a half-Indian career-diplomat, Maya (Lisa Ray), arriving in Delhi to take up her new posting in the Canadian high commission. She is accompanied by her chef-husband, Michael (Don McKellar), and baby. The family is greeted by Stella Elizabeth Matthew (Seema Biswas), who has served as a cook in the high commission for three decades.

What emerges on the screen is a convincing composite portrait of a city which encompasses everything, the beauty of the monuments, the wonderful parks, the chaotic roads and the crowded markets infested with shopkeepers, as seen through the eyes of an open-minded outsider who is willing to accept, learn and absorb.

"So much of the film is based on my experiences living in Delhi, and my fascination with how different cultures interact in all sorts of ways, but especially around the question of the omnipresent domestic help and how it represents a culture shock for new arrivals in India," says Mehta.

The film is not completely devoid of Bollywood thrills, with a bit of masala thrown in the form of a love story involving the nanny, Tannu (Shriya Saran) and Stella's godson Anthony (Vansh Bhardwaj).

"It was great to get these moments with just the right amount of exaggeration and comedy without ruining the sweetness of Tannu and Anthony's love story," says Dilip.

Dilip and his sister, Deepa Mehta, the film's co-screenwriter and executive producer, were both born in Delhi but are Canadian citizens.

Dilip, served as production designer of the Oscar-nominated 'Water' besides directing the much-applauded feature-length documentary 'The Forgotten Woman' which chronicled the life of widows in contemporary India.

Source: online.wsj.com

After returning to India after a few years abroad, a surprising lesson awaited me: Being Indian can be a liability.

As I looked for apartments in New Delhi in recent weeks, it soon became apparent that there's a type of caste-system that prevails among some landlords here.

Shefali Anand

Of course, landlords, and the real estate brokers who represent them, have every right to be selective when it comes to choosing tenants. But in Delhi, depending on which neighborhood one is looking in, this profiling goes much beyond a check of the tenant's income and background. In upmarket neighborhoods, some landlords decide tenants' suitability depending on their nationality or gender. Bottom line: Foreigners are preferred over Indians. Other landlords don't want to rent to single women.

I was faced with this discrimination a couple of weeks ago, when I called a broker in response to an advertisement on Delhi's Craigslist. This site is populated mostly by brokers, who seem to be targeting a foreign/expatriate community. I zeroed in on an advertisement for a fully-furnished, studio apartment with a terrace for just $400 (approx. Rs. 20,000) per month, in the Defence Colony area of South Delhi. This neighborhood is close to the heart of town and has many nice restaurants and cafes, and understandably very much in demand. While $400 is not exactly a small amount in India, it seemed a pretty good deal.

The broker confirmed that the place was still available and answered a couple of my questions. But as soon as I asked when I could come see it, he told me it would never be mine.

"The landlord only wants to rent it out to foreigners," he said in English.

"What?" I asked. "Why?"

That was just their condition, he said. "Even if you offer to pay twice the advertised rent, you cannot get it."

Well, that left little else to discuss.

Some days later, another broker rejected me for the same reason. Apparently, it wouldn't have even mattered if I were an American citizen; my Indian roots were the problem.

The explanations for this criteria requirements is vague. One broker said that landlords fear that Indians won't vacate the apartment when their lease is up (even though that would be breaking the law), whereas a foreigner would always leave at some point. Another one said landlords believe that foreigners would maintain the apartment better than an Indian.

To be sure, some other landlords in Defence Colony didn't have a problem with my nationality. Still, I feel like I lost out on several potentially good options due to this arbitrary criteria.

Even in the U.S., some landlords and brokers continue to discriminate. But there is no way they could as explicitly as the landlords here do, because the U.S. has stricter fair housing laws. In contrast, in India we can only rely on the Indian Constitution, which prohibits discrimination on the basis of caste, color or religion etc. But there are plenty of "catches" in the law which, in essence, allow landlords to refuse anyone they want, explains Kaviraj Singh, managing partner of Delhi-based law firm Trustman & Co.

This is not a new phenomenon, and is hardly unique to Delhi in a country still trying to shake off its discriminatory caste system. Indeed, people who eat meat and eggs can forget about renting in some posh addresses in Mumbai. These buildings are often primarily occupied by Gujaratis or Jains, two Hindu communities that are strictly vegetarian.

Thankfully, Delhi is more accepting of 'non-vegetarians,' so I didn't strike out on that front. But being a single woman was a negative.

"She plans to rent this apartment?" one potential landlady said to my broker outside her building, as if I wasn't standing right there. "She's too young. I don't think it will be possible." It was unfathomable to her that a single woman would live by herself.

One 85-year landlord said she preferred not to rent out to single women because they might bring over boyfriends to their apartments. Once, she said, explaining away her discrimination, the police showed up after a young woman tenant left with a man at 3 a.m. The cops alleged that there was prostitution going on in the building.

Where my gender has not been an issue, I have been questioned about other details--my religion, caste and sub-caste, because landlords prefer some castes over others.

So distrustful landlords seem of individuals that most prefer what is called a "company lease," with an employer vouching that tenants really will leave. Some landlords will accept a "comfort letter", written by an executive of your company on the letterhead, vouching that you will fulfill all obligations of the lease.

And so I remain on the hunt.

My revised strategy is to widen my search to include other, less foreigner-dominated neighborhoods. When a broker recently asked about my background, I emphasized that I work for an American company and my boss, who is a white American (yes, I specified his skin color) can write a letter to vouch for me. I told him my newspaper is owned by Rupert Murdoch, who owns one of the largest Indian cable TV channels, Star TV. Those foreign ties seemed to please my broker; he called me back within a day to propose three apartments to look at. I just hope the landlords won't slam the door when a fellow Indian face greets them.

Source: www.expatriatehealthcare.com/news

Almost 90 per cent of expatriate workers in the Middle East think the social norms of a country have an impact on their working life, says new research.

Conducted by Dubai-based recruitment firm Bayt.com, the study revealed 88 per cent of the 14,844 expats surveyed needed time to acclimatise to a new country.

The poll found that workers have varied experiences of working overseas. Just over one-third (34 per cent) said they felt cultural differences unavoidably affected life in and out of work, while a further 34 per cent said although their lifestyle had changed, their productivity had not.

Commenting on the findings, Amer Zureikat, Bayt.com's regional manager, said the results "demonstrate that professionals moving to new countries for the purpose of employment expect new cultural norms to influence their lives - at home, at work, or both".

Last week saw reports suggesting the recession has had a significant impact on migration patterns around the world.

Commissioned by the BBC World Service and conducted by independent research agency the Migration Policy Institute, the study found a trend for workers staying put during the downturn.

Moving abroad? Get a free quote for your international medical insurance online.

The High Court here has issued a notice to the Jet Airways management, promoter Naresh Goyal, the Union aviation ministry and the Director General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) on the appointment of foreign pilots in the airline. Jet has been asked to reply by September 16. The Court's direction today came in response to two different petitions filed by the National Aviators Guild (NAG), the recently formed union of (Indian) pilots in Jet, which just went on strike. The NAG has asked the court to take action against the management for engaging foreign pilots, when there are experienced and senior Indian pilots out of jobs.  "This is clearly a violation of DGCA norms" said the NGA. The guild has also asked the court to closely monitor the operations of Jet Airways, since the airline is allegedly not taking safety of passengers into consideration. The petition stated that on Tuesday, a Jet flight took off from Chennai to Brussels with two pilots, whereas according to DGCA norms there should be three pilots. "There is a clear violation of the guideline by the Airways and the management has not taken care of safety of passengers. The airline also violated DGCA norms on foreign air crew temporary authorisation (FATA), which states that an airline can engage foreign pilots only if there is a shortage, whereas Jet Airways has sufficient pilots"� said the Guild in its petition.

Helios Capital said the markets were likely to be rangebound for a while but said he saw an upside soon and had a bias towards 5,000 rather than 4,000 on the Nifty by October. He added that he saw no reason for the markets to fall a lot. He expects midcap stocks to continue to do well, adding that valuations did not necessarily have to look cheap to buy.