Page 13 - Banking Finance December 2019

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INDUSTRY

NEWS
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NEWS
NEWS
NEWS

6 Indians jailed, 2 India, Saudi Arabia sign pact to strengthen energy re-

nabbed for immigration lations
India and Saudi Arabia signed two pacts to add a strategic dimension to their
fraud in US
energy ties, graduating from a purely oil
Hailing from Telengana and Andha buyer-seller equation toward a closer strate-
Pradesh, six Indians arrested in the gic partnership, with the West Asian nation
US in January for an immigration now set to invest in downstream oil and gas
fraud have been sentenced to jail projects in India.
terms of 12 months to 24 months.
They were arrested following the As per the sources, one of the two pacts was
a preliminary agreement between Indian Stra-
Farmington University crackdown,
tegic Petroleum Reserves Ltd and Saudi Aramco that is expected to see a greater
which saw 145 Indian students de-
tained and deported for failing to Saudi role in setting up a second fuel reserve facility at Padur in Karnataka.
“maintain non-immigrant status”. This follows the Narendra Modi government giving the go-ahead to an addi-
tional 6.5 million metric tonnes (MMT) strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) facili-
Farmington University was set up by
ties in Chandikhol in Odisha and Padur in June last year.
US Immigration and Customs En-
forcement in Michigan in 2015 as
part of its undercover operation to Govt plans to set up mega parks near ports
expose immigration fraud. Authori- The government is planning to set up around ten integrated mega parks with
ties claimed that international stu- state-of-the-art infrastructure near ports to attract
dents had enrolled with the univer- foreign direct investment, as informed by the
sity through recruiters to illegally source.
stay in the US. Textile Secretary Ravi Capoor said there has been a
"very good response" from state governments on
Rentals at premium malls the proposed mega parks.
climb for quality spaces He said that there are serious issues regarding India's competitiveness as far as
Even as several malls in India con- exports, cutting across all sectors, are concerned, and that the fear of all Free
tinue to face survival challenges due Trade Agreements essentially comes down to the fact that India is not so com-
to poor management and the grow- petitive.
ing popularity of e-commerce, a "A country which is competitive need not fear about anybody, no country. Our
handful of high-end malls hardly have fears stem from the fact that we know we cannot sustain the onslaught of the
any vacant spaces. most competitive country or that particular product," Capoor added.

BANKING FINANCE | DECEMBER | 2019 | 13