Australia cuts stay of skilled visa holders to 60 days, Indians to be impacted the most

Australia has announced changes to the 457 visa for skilled  foreign workers to limit their ability to look for another job after their official employment ends, a move that will impact Indians working in the country.

Foreign workers on a 457 visa will only now be able to stay in Australia for 60 days after their employment ends instead of 90.

The 457 visa allows a foreign worker and their family to come to Australia for up to four years after being sponsored by a specific employer to fill a position for which they cannot find an Australian or permanent resident.
The largest number of workers come from India, followed by employees from the United Kingdom and China.

There are a range of different occupations on the list from different salary levels and different education backgrounds, including neurologists, midwives, cabinet makers and lift mechanics. In the last financial year, the largest amount of visas were granted to cooks.

Immigration Minister Peter Dutton yesterday said, "From November 19, 2016 the period that a subclass 457 visa holder may remain in Australia after their employment ceases will be reduced from 90 days to 60 days."

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Adidas launches shoes made of ocean waste, priced at Rs 21,000; All you need to know

German Sportswear company Adidas is on the cutting edge of fashion trends. Adidas is now creating state-of-the-art footgear and achieving its 'sustainability' goal by collaborating with Parley for the Oceans.

Adidas has made shoes from recycled ocean waste.

According to the company, "Last year, they 3D printed a prototype, with the goal of demonstrating how the industry could "rethink design and help stop ocean plastic pollution".

Now those shoes are available to public. 95% of the shoe's upper part is made of ocean plastic, taken from Maldives shore. The remaining part of the shoe is also made mostly out of recycled materials. These contemporary shoes have been called "UltraBOOST Uncaged Parley".

Adidas has made around 7,000 pairs that will be sold offline and online from mid-November. For Adidas fans in India, the company has set aside 60 pairs. 

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Demonetisation: Check out govt's 7-point strategy to contain currency crisis

When Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8 said that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes would cease to be legal tender within a few hours of the announcement being made, the demonetisation move was lauded by some as a major assault on the flow of black money, fake currency and corruption. Even as most people rushed to get their existing currency notes exchanged, few could foretell the extent of cash crunch that would befall the common man in the days to come.

However, ever since banks and automated teller machines (ATMs) resumed exchange of old notes and withdrawal of new currency, the queues for these seem to only be growing. While some continue to laud the government for its initiative to cleanse the economy for the long-term good, many Indians have been facing immediate hardships for want of usable cash in hand.

1. Indelible ink
2. Turning to god
3. Jan Dhan accounts
4. No misuse of bank accounts
5. Task force
6. Ensuring supply of provisions
7. Crackdown on social-media rumours

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Demonetisation: Can India go cashless?

Days after the Narendra Modi-led government decided to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 currency notes, the queues outside banks and ATM centres only seem to get longer. With people scrambling to exchange their old banknotes, the use of plastic money in the form of debit and credit cards is being touted as the way forward. Even the government is promoting cashless transactions to enable people to get by.

1. But how feasible is the idea of a cashless India?
2. Is the total number of cards enough for India to go cashless and still transact freely?
3. What is the current status of POS terminal penetration in India?
4. What do people use debit cards for?
5. What are the challenges in increasing the spread of plastic money in India?
6. Should India go cashless?
   

Economic costs of a money supply crunch and the difficulties in using plastic money on a larger scale across a wider geography in India make it difficult for India to go cashless. Given India’s economic reality, telling people to go cashless might be like telling the poor to eat cake if they can’t find any bread.

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10 key points in Donald Trump's 100-day Presidential action plan

US President-elect Donald Trump had announced in October the plans for his first 100 days in office. Trump’s address at Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, which he termed ‘Contract with the American Voter’, touched upon a range of steps – from declaring China a currency manipulator to cancelling payments to the United Nations for combating climate change and renegotiating the North Atlantic Free Trade Agreement (Nafta).

The speech, which Trump started with “change has to come from outside this broken system” before going on to threaten that he would sue all those women who accused him of making unwanted sexual advances, included the promise to block telecom conglomerate AT&T’s proposed buyout of Time Warner — for an estimated $85 billion — and to break up the Comcast-NBC Universal merger.

Business Standard scans the draft of his 100-day agenda, as detailed on Trump’s website, www.donaldjtrump.com, and lists 10 key takeaways:  

1.Renegotiate Nafta
2.Energy reserves
3.China, a currency manipulator
4.Infrastructure expansion
5.Oust criminal illegal immigrants
6.Regulatory plans
7.Crackdown on lobbying
8.Trump proposed key economic legislations
9.Social legislation
10.Restoring safety

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Jackie Chan wins Oscar after 56 years in film industry

With more than 200 films under his belt spanning a 56-year career, Jackie Chan has finally received an Oscar.

The 62-year-old action star was awarded an honorary Oscar at the Eighth Annual Governors Awards at the Hollywood and Highland Center in Los Angeles on Saturday night, reported E! online.

Tom Hanks, Michelle Yeoh and Chris Tucker presented Chan with the award.

Hanks compared Chan to the likes of John Wayne and Buster Keaton.

Chan accepted his award, calling it a "dream" and shared his memories growing up and watching the Oscars with his parents.

"My dad always said, 'Son, you get so many movie awards in the world, when are you going to get one of these?' Then I just look at my dad. 'Ha, ha, ha. Dad, I only make comedy action movies,'" he shared.

The star remembered seeing Sylvester Stallone's Oscar when he had a meeting with him at his house 23 years ago.

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Trump slump coming?

Let’s be clear: Installing Donald Trump in the White House is an epic mistake. In the long run, its consequences may well be apocalyptic, if only because we have probably lost our last, best chance to rein in runaway climate change.

But will the extent of the disaster become apparent right away? It’s natural and, one must admit, tempting to predict a quick comeuppance — and I myself gave in to that temptation, briefly, on that horrible election night, suggesting that a global recession was imminent. But I quickly retracted that call. Trumpism will have dire effects, but they will take time to become manifest.

In fact, don’t be surprised if economic growth actually accelerates for a couple of years. Why am I, on reflection, relatively sanguine about the short-term effects of putting such a terrible man, with such a terrible team, in power? The answer is a mix of general principles and the specifics of our current economic situation.

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Donald Trump may not live full-time in White House

Donald Trump may not live in the White House full-time after assuming the US Presidency in January and is discussing with his advisers about splitting his time between Washington and his penthouse apartment in Manhattan, a media report said.

Trump advisers say the President-elect was "shocked" when he won the election, according to a report in the New York Times and is now contemplating how many days a week he will have to stay in the White House since he is extremely fond of his sprawling and luxurious penthouse apartment, decorated in 24-carat gold and expensive marble, in Trump Tower on the posh Fifth Avenue in New York.

RELATED STORY:   Amma Is Back, Modi In Tears, Trump's $1 Pay: 5 Key Developments Of The Day

 "Trump, a homebody who often flew several hours late at night during the campaign so he could wake up in his own bed in Trump Tower, is talking with his advisers about how many nights a week he will spend in the White House. He has told them he would like to do what he is used to, which is spending time in New York when he can," a report in the New York Times said.

While the future first lady Melania Trump is expected to move to Washington, the couple's 10-year-old son Barron is midway through a school year and it is unclear when the move would happen.

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Donald Trump vows to immediately deport up to 3 million undocumented immigrants

In line with his hardline immigration stance, President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to immediately deport up to three million undocumented immigrants, saying "we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate".

"What we are going to do is get the people that are criminal and have criminal records, gang members, drug dealers, where a lot of these people, probably two million, it could be even three million, we are getting them out of our country or we are going to incarcerate," Trump told CBS News.

RELATED STORY: Donald Trump May Not Live Full-Time In White House

"But we're getting them out of our country, they're here illegally," the 70-year-old business tycoon-turned politician said in an excerpt released ahead of broadcast of the interview.

During the election campaign, Trump had warned that those countries which do not accept these illegal immigrants, he would enforce the legal provision of stopping of issuing of visas to people of those countries.

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The great Indian jugaad: How some are beating the Rs 1000 note ban

Even as the Modi government on Tuesday declared that Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 would no longer be legal tender, the average Indian, with his prowess in the art of jugaad, found ways to beat the system, thanks to a 50-day window given for exchange of these banknotes.

Despite the panic visible across all cities, there always are some opportunists ready to take advantage of someone’s desperation. They always find ways to play the system. And, in this case, they have turned religious places, non-government organisations (NGOs) and gold jewellers into laundering centres. At many places, even the retail shops have become money-exchange centres, they are giving Rs 400 in exchange for Rs 500 notes. Even some bank managers are getting offers for a 20 per cent cut in lieu of exchange of Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes.

So, what are the ways and means the hoarders are employing to get rid of their old notes? Business Standard documents the ways that have come to light so far:

1. Buying gold
2. Paying salary in advance
3. Praising the lord
4. Banking on the Jan Dhan Yojana
5. Falling back on the family
6. Taking the hawala route
7. Offering a 20% cut to bankers
8.  Getting luxurious at gyms, salons and bars

However even as black-money hoarders scurried to offload their cache via sales of cash, distress bullion buying and questionable currency swaps, the taxman soon played catch-up by conducting raids on jewellers and suspected hawala operators across Mumbai, Delhi and parts of Punjab through Thursday.

 

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