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EVERYONE WANTS NRIS’ SHARE IN COCHIN AIRPORT |
Nearly 10,000 Non-Resident Indians who invested Rs 10 per share for a stake in India’s first greenfield airport 10 years back are a happy lot today. The country’s private airport players, including the two Ambani groups, are now willing to pay as much as Rs 350 per share to the NRIs. The movers and shakers in the airport modernisation industry have now set their eyes on the Cochin International Airport Limited, which is planning to go public this year. The Indian government’s ambitious plans to modernise and privatise the country’s two biggest airports in Mumbai and Delhi urned out to be controversial early this month. The Cochin airport has many firsts to its credit. It is India’s first aviation venture owned by the public. All the other airports and other infrastructural facilities are owned, managed and operated by the government. Before CIAL gets listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange the who’s who of India’s private airport industry are wooing the big NRI shareholders offering them huge premiums.
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NRIS PLEDGE RS 250 CORE INVESTMENT IN MANGALORE |
Non-Resident Indian entrepreneur and New Medical Centre (NMC), Abu Dhabi, managing director B.R. Shetty, along with other NRIs, has expressed willingness to invest over Rs 250 crore on private public participation (PPP) basis for the overall development of Mangalore and its surroundings.
The investment will be channelled for the development of 11 identified components, including, tourism, industrial, information technology, port area, SEZ, library, infrastructure facilities, Kadri Park, Mangala Stadium, swimming pool, international airport, Wenlock Hospital and Lady Goschen Hospital. Shetty has asked the government to provide all the support for NRI investment in Mangalore. |
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GOVT TO GET TOUGH ON DECEIVING NRI GROOMS |
| Beware all you Indian men planning to “have the best of both worlds” by fooling your wife abroad and young women back home. In fact, not just Indians, but also foreign nationals are likely to be under the scanner of the Indian authorities if they plan to take away a bride from here. The newly-appointed Minister of Overseas Indians Affairs, Vayalar Ravi, and the Chairperson of India’s National Commission for Women (NCW) came together at a recent national consultation on NRI marriages and talked tough. The number of cases of unscrupulous NRI men defrauding and exploiting unsuspecting young women and their parents is on the rise, and the concern has mounted to the extent on amending the relevant laws. Most of the complaints received by the national commission for women pertain to dowry and non consummation of marriages, marriages of convenience, concealment of earlier existing marriage by the husband, and lack of social security faced by an Indian woman on foreign soil once the marriage is broken for no fault of hers. |
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WE NEED TO MAKE HEALTHCARE AFFORDABLE FOR RURAL POPULATION |
Dr Vijay N. Koli, president-elect of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin, is focusing on harnessing medical tourism opportunities in India. A doctor by profession, a dancer who uses the craft to express himself and a community worker doing his bit for the betterment of the society, Dr Koli is a man with many faces. The community service done by him is unique at a time when ‘emergency’ as per medical terms is still not established strongly among the medical and legal fraternity in India.
Says Koli, “There is reverse brain drain of specialists trained in the US but they are unable to practice here due to two factors: NRI-US citizen with PIO Card and NRI-dual citizenship issues.” While the medical community is looking at servicing India, there seems to be less support from the Indian government as PIO card holders are not eligible to take the screening test and it is learnt that 42 cases have been rejected by the Medical Council of India. This issue can only be resolved at a Cabinet-level meeting and only the Ministry of External Affairs can arrange it, he says. |
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