Mumbai: It is now mandatory for any foreign worker to have an annual salary above Rs. 11 lakh to get an Indian employment visa. A Ukrainian citizen has approached the Bombay High Court against the ministry of external affairs, challenging a policy that mandates a minimum annual salary of $25,000 (over Rs. 11 lakh) as compulsory requirement for getting an employment visa, reports Nauzer K Bharucha of the Economic Times.
Many companies across the country hire foreigners legally at lower salaries though it's not a publicized fact. Stelmakh Leonid Lulia, 25, was not granted visa by the Indian embassy in Kiev, Ukraine. She explains that her job at J P Morgan will lapse if she does not join in a week's time. "This is a sensitive constitutional matter on foreigners' right to employment and will have wide ramifications on foreign employees in the Indian services industry," says Prashant Uchil, Stelmakh's counsel. The matter is expected to come up on Friday before a division bench of Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice S C Dharmadhikari for urgent relief.
On June 3, she made an application to the Indian embassy in Kiev for an employment visa along with all supporting documents of her employer. "Petitioner submits that she was curtly told by the consul officer at the embassy that she would not be granted employment visa as the rule has been introduced from April 2010 mandating a salary in India equivalent to $25,000 per annum for issuance of an employment visa," it said.
"It is for the embassy to give adequate notice of such drastic change so that applicants of such visas as also employers may plan accordingly," she said. The petition has also said this `unreasonable' classification of people earning less than $25,000 and more than $25,000 is "violation of Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which applies to foreigners also". It has also asked the court to decide whether the denial of employment visa by the respondent is illegal and went against the tenets of international law governing free movement and work opportunities
Toronto: Canada should quickly ratify the landmark nuclear deal with India as it will bring more prosperity and cleaner energy to it and also help Ottawa to become 'clean energy superpower', a leading Canadian newspaper commented today.
"The deal is an opportunity for Canada," the Globe and Mail said in its editorial on the nuclear deal signed between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and his Canadian counterpart Stephen Harper, 36 years after Ottawa slapped sanctions on India after it exploded an atomic device.
"India is not and should not be treated as a pariah state over its nuclear programme. It has not signed the Non-Proliferation Treaty, but it has also promised to never launch nuclear weapons first against an enemy," it said.
Wellington: Now you can potentially charge your cellphone battery just by walking with a new charger which can be fitted with the sole of your shoes and produce power when you walk.
Mobile phone company European Telco Orange has developed a charging prototype - a set of thermoelectric gumboots or Wellington boots with a 'power generating sole' that converts heat from the wearer's feet into electrical power.
The boot was designed by Dave Pain, managing director at GotWind, an energy firm.
Pain said the boot uses the Seebeck effect, named after physicist Thomas Johann Seebeck, in which a circuit made of two dissimilar metals conducts electricity if the two places where they connect are held at different temperatures, reported TVNZ.
"In the sole of the Wellington boot there's a thermocouple and if you apply heat to one side of the thermocouple and cold to the other side it generates an electrical charge," Pain said.
"That electrical charge we then pass through to a battery which you'll find in the heel of the boot for storage of the electrical power for later use to charge your mobile phone."
These thermocouples are connected electrically, forming an array of multiple thermocouples. They are then sandwiched between two thin ceramic wafers.
When the heat from the foot is applied on the top side of the ceramic wafer and cold is applied on the opposite side, from the cold of the ground, electricity is generated.
But the power boots have one drawback. You need to walk for 12 hours to generate one hour's worth of charge.
Pain, however, said his company was working on improving the technology, which could then also be used in other forms of clothing.
"The technology's not just limited to footwear, or indeed boots, but you could for example make clothing out of it, you know, a headband, for example," he said
Bangalore: China would soon launch a new facility for people to access TV, Internet and mobile phone through a single device combining broadcasting and telecommunication technologies.
Users will be able to access all the three through a single device, an official statement said.
A pilot scheme to integrate the three systems would be launched in 11 Chinese cities including Beijing [ Images ] and Shanghai. However, the statement gave no schedule and did not elaborate on the development of the trial programme.
The programme, known as "three networks integration" in Chinese, aims to make the three systems compatible and allow users to make telephone calls, surf the Internet and watch television through only one cable or wireless entrance, official Xinhua news agency reported.
Currently, TV, telecom and Internet networks are separated in China, and different operators provide access to cable TV, telecommunications and the Internet.
The State Council, China's Cabinet, said in January that the program would be accelerated through pilot projects from 2010 to 2012, focusing on trials connecting broadcasting and telecommunication networks.
It vowed to achieve comprehensive integration by 2015. China first proposed the program in 1998.But it was delayed because of conflicts of interest between different administrators and service operators, said Wu Jichuan, previously minister at the information industry ministry, the predecessor of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).
In China, the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television regulates radio and TV while the MIIT is responsible for telecoms and Internet industries.
The programme will boost investment and consumption by 668 billion yuan ($98.38 billion) over the next three years, said Wu Hequan, vice president of the Chinese Academy of Engineering.
