IT Initiative Of NRIs To Help Andhra Pradesh August 20, 2015 11:11
IT initiative by an NRI group has been unveiled by N Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, to help the state in several areas using mobile apps and other technology apps. The non-profit organization, 'Code for AP', in the US supports AP in e-governance, economic and social development. A total of 100 volunteers are working with the organization that aligns with 30 government departments. Technology-based solutions will be offered to the departments to streamline work. Different state government projects including 'Central Fund Monitoring Portal', 'Mobile Device Management', 'Sentry Gate' and 'News Room' have been worked by Code for AP. First of its kind app, the 'Central Fund Monitoring Portal’ will facilitate every department to thoroughly understand each and every scheme launched by the Union government. Government officials on field work are sanctioned tablets and smart phones under the 'Mobile Device Management', facilitating data collection.The security department was empowered thorough an advanced automation system, the Sentry Gate Pass system, that allows access for a visitor into state Secretariat using a smart tab. A free Android application, News Room, allows users from anywhere in the world to access leading Indian newspapers in Telugu and English.Naidu said "During Pushkaram, our government has worked on getting crowd feedback through IVRS system. That worked well. We now want Code for AP to work on applications that will not only support the government, but also come up with innovative ideas for delivering citizen services.” -Sumana
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Proposal To Lift Minimum Wage For H-1B Visas: Donald Trump August 19, 2015 15:05
Donald Trump, Republican presidential front runner, has proposed to lift the minimum wage for H-1B visas, sounding the death knell for the most popular work visas particularly for the Indian technology professionals. This came with the releases of his policy to put American workers first.According to Trump, such move would allow companies to offer IT jobs to unemployed Americans rather than cheaper overseas workers.The real-estate tycoon who is based from the New York lashed out at Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, and Marco Rubio, Florida Senator, for introducing a bill to increase H-1B visas three times more. Currently, the H-1B visas are capped every year to 65,000 each annum by the U.S. Congress.A position paper on immigration reform released by the Trump Campaign said, “Increase prevailing wage for H-1Bs.” This came as an opposition to Zuckerberg’s move to increase H-1B visa number.The position paper said, “We graduate two times more Americans with STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) degrees each year than find STEM jobs, yet as much as two-thirds of entry-level hiring for IT jobs is accomplished through the H-1B program.”“Raising the prevailing wage paid to H-1Bs will force companies to give these coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S., instead of flying in cheaper workers from overseas,” it added.Also Read: Around 200 Indians not paid for five months in oman -Sumana
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Around 200 Indians Not Paid For Five Months In Oman August 13, 2015 17:37
Around 200 Indians working with a construction company based in Oman are not being paid for past five months, according to a recent media report.The workers were quoted by TOI as saying that, "Our salaries are pending for the past five months. We were waiting for the company to pay us, but they have failed to keep their promise. It has become quite difficult to survive.” A complaint was lodged by the workers to get their dues, with the Indian embassy.The workers said, "We have lodged a complaint with the Indian embassy on August 10. We are ready to leave but we need to be paid for our work. We cannot leave empty-handed.”According to workers, the company is not willing to clear their dues and is asking them to leave. The company has project sites in Ibri, Mabelah, Nakhal and Bausher. The company did not make a comment over the workers' claims.A Muscat-based legal advisor was quoted by TOI as saying that, "The Oman government and the labour law guarantee a salary for the workers according to the signed job contract agreed upon at the time of employment. So, if there is any violation in that the workers have the right to approach the labour department.”-Sumana
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NRIs Can Now Enroll For Aadhar August 07, 2015 18:16
Government has decided that Aadhaar enrolment can be made by Non-Resident Indians, Persons of Indian Origin and Overseas Citizen of India which should eventually help them to authenticate their identity digitally, Parliament was informed.“The government has decided that a longer term goal should be to expand Aadhaar enrolment activities in order to ensure that all persons on the Indian soil (Resident Indian, NRIs, OCI/PIO and visa holding visitors) shall be empowered with a unique identity / identifier that can be authenticated on a digital platform any time anywhere,” Planning Minister Rao Inderjit Singh said in written reply to Lok Sabha.All residents including Indian national and foreigners with valid visas can be enrolled and provided Aadhaar number by the UIDAI. UIDAI is working on the policy for Aadhaar enrolment of the NRIs, PIOs and OICs after receiving the direction from the government on the issue. The minister has said in its reply that no timeframe has been formulated at this stage for achieving the goal.Aadhaar is a valid know your customer (KYC) document for various services including banking, telecom, cooking gas subsidy, vehicle registration driving licence, government scholarships, pension and public distribution system..By Premji
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NRIs Can Invest In National Pension System For Social Security Cover July 25, 2015 09:34
Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) India Chairman, Hemant Contractor said that Non-resident Indians (NRIs) can invest in National Pension System (NPS) to obtain a social security cover. PFRDA was communicated by RBI about NRIs being eligible to make such investments. The clarification that effect Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) guidelines to facilitate the investment by NRI’s in NPS will be out shortly.Contractor said that, "There was some ambiguity about whether to add NPS as eligible investment by NRI. So, we took up the matter with RBI and recently they have given this clarification that NPS like insurance and mutual fund could also be eligible investment for NRIs."Importance of NPS scheme for NRIsAccording to Contractor, NRIs living in the Middle-East does not have mandatory social security benefit. Through this window, Non-resident Indians can save money for their old age besides enjoying the tax break as prescribed.Talks between the Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and bankers like SBI, HDFC Bank, Canara Bank, Indian Bank and several other south India-based banks are going on, to tap potential of NRIs."We have started talking to bankers about attracting NRIs to enroll for NPS scheme. We see NRIs as very attractive market for NPS. We would like to push for NPS for the NRIs," Contractor said.The move could increase the subscriber base in addition to the expansion of the pension corpus in the private sector. Currently, corpus under the National Pension System is Rs 91,000 crore.-Sumana
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Supreme Court extends time for NRI e-voting rights July 10, 2015 10:54
The Supreme Court has extended two months more time to the Centre to finish the necessary formalities and arrangements of a legislation seeking to grant right to vote for non-resident Indians (NRI). This would allow e-voting by NRIs and they will not have to fly to their hometowns during elections.A three-judge bench, comprising Chief Justice H L Dattu and Justices Amitava Roy and Arun Kumar Mishra, granted the time.Earlier in April, the apex court granted the Centre a time period of eight weeks to work out the modalities and other features to facilitate proxy voting and e-ballots for NRIs during elections.The apex court, in its January 12 interim order, had said that the e-voting should be implemented at the earliest, to enable around 11 million NRIs worldwide to cast their vote. Voters residing abroad will receive blank postal ballot papers through e-mails. NRIs have to fill them and e-mail to their respective constituency. According to the Election Commission, e-voting has a minimum risk of rigging, manipulation or violation of secrecy in this system. The government allowed the NRIs to vote in 2010, but as per the rules they were expected in their constituency on the day of voting.-Sumana
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Infosys to rely less on US H-1B visa for US facilities July 09, 2015 11:55
Infosys, an Indian IT company, has announced that it will be less reliant on US H-1B visa for its US facilities. Infosys CEO, Vishal Sikka, hopes that the less dependence on the H-1B visa and employment of more local workers will help the company to attain its goal to reach $20 billion revenue by 2020.In response to reports that Infosys was under investigation for misuse of H-1B visas by the US Department of Labor, Sikka was quoted by workpermit as saying that, "We should not be concerned about the H-1B visa issue, I'm an American citizen. Our compliance to H-1B regulations is impregnable and we take our responsibilities extremely seriously along with the countless other companies across our industry sector that do so. However, as the power of innovation increases, we're at a point where we have to become far less dependent on visas and increasingly dependent on innovation."Earlier, US senators Dick Durbin, a Democrat from Illinois, and Senator Jeff Sessions, a Republican from Alabama, made claims of H-1B visa misuse. According to the senators, Infosys has violated H-1B visa rules. Yet there has been no confirmation from the Department of Labor that there is an investigation into H-1B visa misuse by the company.-Sumana
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U.S. back in Visa Business after Major Outage June 24, 2015 12:27
U.S. Department of State is back in the business of issuing visas after the online system abruptly stopped working at consulates worldwide earlier this month. About two thirds of visa issuance facilities are back online and have been issued visas although only 45,000 were handed out on Monday. Of those, 15,000 were issued in Beijing, which is the busiest U.S. consulate in the world. "Significant additional numbers will be issued as the backlog clears," State Department Spokesman John Kirby said. "Many posts have now rescheduled interviews, in many cases as early as the 24th", he added. "Significant additional numbers will be issued as the backlog clears," he said. "Many posts have now rescheduled interviews, in many cases as early as the 24th", he quipped. "So far, it's going well," Kirby ended. The State Department hasn't provided details on what went wrong and why it took so long to fix, beyond saying the database needed to be rebuilt. The department said the failure was related to a hardware device and was not the result of a cyber attack. The same database failed at about the same time last year, throwing summer travel plans in chaos for around 200,000 people. On that occasion, a bug-ridden software patch from Oracle and Microsoft caused the problem. Kirby cautioned that the system was still being tested and as such could still be taken offline again. Throughout the outage, which also affected issuance of U.S. passports at missions overseas, the U.S. has been handled a small number of visa cases. It has issued around 1,250 visas to temporary or seasonal workers from Mexico whose biometric details were already in the system and it has handed out around 3,000 visas related to urgent or humanitarian purposes. The system failure was second of its kind in the recent times. It throws the summer plans of almost 2, 00,000 passengers in chaos, when it failed last summer. - Manohar. M
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Hard Ware Problem Stops Visa Processing in US? June 18, 2015 11:03
A never expected problem has been wondering most of the US Visa applicants across the globe. The suspected hardware snag at the state department's computer system has been not allowing the officials to process the bio-metric and other crucial data collected at the embassies and consulates. According to the statement issued by the spokesman of the state department, John Kirby, the technical experts have been trying to fix the issue. Over 100 experts from both private and public sectors across the US are working to get a solution. By next week, the problem could be solved and the visa processing work can be resumed, as per the media reports. "Certainly we regret this inconvenience to travelers, recognize that this is causing hardship for those that are waiting for visas, and in some cases their family members or employers in the United States," Kirby said. He also said, "That's why we're taking it so seriously. So we're going to get it done, we're going to get it done right, and we're not going to rush as well," while noting the importance of the issue. "We're working on this as fast as we can, but it's important to get it done right. Of course, we're going to continue to post regular updates on our website," Kirby added. Lakhs of travelers and students, including the job seekers and employees from various nations are awaiting the US visa to fly. This is really one of the severe technical problems faced by the government department. -Kannamsai
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US investigates Indian firms June 15, 2015 15:42
U.S. government is investigating two Indian outsourcing firms and a California power company regarding whether they have violated U S labor and immigration laws by replacing American workers with foreigners on temporary work visas. The Labor Department said that it is trying to ensure that the Indian companies and Southern California Edison have complied with the terms of the nation’s skilled-worker-visa system. The controversy has come out in the recent months after, whether the foreign workers, who are typically having H-1B visas, displace or complement U.S. workers. A spokeswoman for Tata said, “the company maintains rigorous internal controls to ensure that we are fully compliant with all regulatory requirements related to U.S. immigration laws.” Walt Disney Co. and Fossil are also being accused by their former employees of replacing them with foreign workers who they have trained. A Disney spokeswoman said this didn’t happen and said the company’s resort division had added 70 U.S. based IT positions. Fossil officials did not respond to requests for comment and the watchmaker said it is doing what it believed is right for the company. By Premji
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For this Hyderabad student, iPhone is literally more precious than his life June 15, 2015 13:12
It seems even USA, the so-called poster child of development, is unable to deal with its crime rate and the expats are getting victimized more than often times. In the Sunday attack, a 23-year old Hyderabad student was shot dead by unidentified muggers after a Tiff over “just” an iPhone (well, it’s not just in this case). Sai was hailed from Kushaiguda in Kapra, Hyderabad. Upon his graduation in engineering at Geetanjali College in Keesara, Hyderabad, Kiran applied for Masters in Management Studies at Atlantis Masters at Atlantis University in Miami, Florida. Sai Kiran got a green signal for his course from University officials and he landed in Florida on May 2. Kiran was on the phone with one of his friends on Sunday morning (as per Indian Standard Timings) and had just walked out of his residence. All of a sudden he was accosted by a group of Black Americans. Kiran was reportedly shot four times after he refused to hand over his iPhone. He had last spoken to his parents around 12.15 a.m. (IST) on Sunday. Neither the family members nor his friends expected his death call so sooner. The family of Sai Kiran was in deep shock and the calmness clouded over the vicinity. Kumar's family is seeking the help of the Telangana government and the centre to bring his body back to India. - Manohar. M
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11 Indo-Canadians honoured with ICCC Annual Awards 2015 June 08, 2015 15:59
India and Canada have become stronger in relationship followed by the agreement of trade and nuclear supply to India, and the recent visit paid by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Canada has honoured 11 Indo-Canadians for strengthening the trade and ties between two countries. At the 'ICCC Annual Awards 2015' ceremony, 11 Indian-origin persons, including Avinash Mehra, a vice president of the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, were handed over the trophy and citation by Toronto Mayor John Tory and President of the Indo-Canada Chambers of Commerce (ICCC) DP Jain. The recipients of the award are Nisha Agnihotri, Avish Sood, Rajiv Manucha, Prashant Pathak, Hargurdeep Singh, Asim Ghosh, Jag Parmar and Venkatesh Mannar. The Indian-origin persons were congratulated by the PM Stephen Harper, Governor General David Johnston, Premier of Ontario Kathleen Wynne. Vishnu Prakash, India’s High Commissioner to Canada also among those who admired the Indo-Canadians. At the event, Mayor of Markham, Frank Scarpitti, has received the President's award 2015 for his contribution in furthering the bilateral trade and investment between the two countries. The non-profit, non-partisan organisation ICCC, which was founded in 1977, works towards enhancing the bilateral ties in the areas of social, cultural and economic developments in both the nations. "The two countries enjoy historic bilateral relations and there is a room to expand trade, cooperation on energy, agriculture and education through strategic partnership. The Canada-India friendship is also one of unrealised potential.It has the ingredients to be one of the greatest partnerships for both our countries," Jain said. Tory lauded the role of the Indo-Canadians in fostering the bilateral relationship and said, "Toronto is the best place to live and work in the world." "Indo-Canadian community has done more than making its mark in Canada. They have cemented the foundation of the Indo-Canadian friendship and are a key driver of the relationship in numerous endeavours between our two countries," Tory said. The awards to popular personalities in empowering Indo-Canada ties enhances their responsibilities and ensures further promotion in various programmes between two nations. -Kannamsai
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