The great learning Tree Pty Ltd

(ramneek Madahar, rMA# 0428459)

For appointments, please call 02 9745 3106 or 0412 764 660 or email: enquiries@tglt.com.au uNIt 6, 24-26 Morwick St., Strathfield, NSW 2135 (5 min. walk from Strathfield Station. opp. Strathfield recreational Club/tennis Courts)

* Provision of complimentary advice &/or assessment for our eligible students &/or their employers is at our sole discretion.

India declines Snowden’s asylum request

India recently said it has declined the asylum request of fugitive former CIA agent Edward Snowden who blew the whistle on US data mining.

“I can confirm that on July 2, our embassy in Moscow did receive a communication dated June 30 from Mr Edward Snowden. That communication did contain a request for asylum,” said India’s external affairs ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin in New Delhi.

“We have carefully examined the request. Following that examination we have concluded that we see no reason to accede to the request,” he said.

Snowden, who is holed up in Moscow airport has sought asylum from 21 countries, including India. His US passport has been revoked.

The 30-year-old blew the whistle on massive data mining by America’s National Security Agency (NSA), using its top-secret Prism programme.

India said earlier that it would be “unacceptable” if it is revealed that the cyber snooping has infringed on the privacy laws of Indian citizens.

Snowden has reportedly sent asylum requests to 20 countries, including Austria, Bolivia, Brazil, China, Cuba, Finland, France, Germany, India, Italy, Ireland, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain, Switzerland and Venezuela.

Snowden has been trapped in Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport since June 23 after flying in from Hong Kong, from where he leaked top secret documents detailing NSA surveillance programmes.

WikiLeaks recently posted a statement attributed to Snowden on its website, in which he slams President Barack Obama for “using citizenship as a weapon”.

“Although I am convicted of nothing, (the US) has unilaterally revoked my passport, leaving me a stateless person,” Snowden says in the statement. “Without any judicial order, the administration now seeks to stop me exercising a basic right. A right that belongs to everybody. The right to seek asylum”.

“Their purpose is to frighten, not me, but those who would come after me,” says the statement.

SpiceJet to be first to import aviation fuel: Ajit Singh

A year after allowing domestic airlines to directly import aviation fuel to save on costs, Civil Aviation Minister Ajit Singh has said that he expected budget carrier SpiceJet to be the first to opt for this.

“We have allowed them (airlines) to directly import fuel by entering into tie-ups with other companies. I expect SpiceJet to be the first to directly import the fuel. When they will start is up to them,” Ajit Singh said in an interview in New Delhi.

SpiceJet was also the first private carrier to get approval to directly import fuel.

The approval was granted by the Director General of Foreign Trade under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, clearing the airline’s application to source aviation turbine fuel directly from overseas suppliers, a top company official said.

Last year, the company’s chief executive officer Neil Mills had said that the carrier was negotiating with leading oil marketing companies to start directly importing fuel.

A ministerial group headed by then

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had Feb 22, 2012, allowed domestic airlines to directly import fuel, which till that time came under the restricted import list and could only be imported by certain public sector units.

The move was said to enable airlines to cut operating costs by about 10-15 percent.

Even the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had said it will form a joint ventures with airlines, state-run units and Reliance Industries to provide cheaper fuel.

Currently, ATF sold in the country is nearly 50-60 percent costlier than in overseas markets like Bangkok, Singapore or Dubai as an additional 4-34 percent state sales tax hikes the prices.

Ajit Singh also said his ministry was working on a mechanism to bring the sales tax to a uniform four percent, a move the industry says will considerably bring down prices.

Fuel comprises about 50 percent of the total operating costs of airlines in India.

High fuel prices have dented the Indian civil aviation sector as major airlines bleed under the high sales tax regime. Fares are also increased time-to-time on the pretext of the soaring fuel prices.

A momentous week of US decisions impacting Indians

From the passage of a comprehensive Senate immigration bill to a series of US Supreme Court rulings on minority voting rights to gay marriages, the last week of June in Washington was one of momentous decisions with wide implications for Indians.

The Senate immigration bill passed with a 68-32 vote with 14 Republicans joining all the 54 Democrats, for one, is a mixed bag for India with IT service companies like TCS, Wipro and Infosys and US companies doing business with them complaining about higher fees for H1B and L1 visas for highly skilled workers.

Indian techies, on the other hand, are happy over the prospect of wider opportunities with the cap on H1B visas being raised from 85,000 to 195,000.

Students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and maths), too have been put on the fast track for green cards, though critics complain it would spur a brain drain from India.

But South Asian organisations led by South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) have branded it a “deeply flawed” bill as it limits family-based immigration options for siblings and adult married children and “creates needless barriers in the pathway to citizenship” for 11 million undocumented immigrants, including some 260,000 Indians.

With the Republican controlled House of Representatives working on its own versions of immigration reform, the US corporate lobby, Indian techies as also South Asian organisations are hoping to influence the final shape of the bill before it lands on President Barack Obama’s desk, if ever, after its passage by a deeply divided Congress.

South Asian organisations are also elated over the US Supreme Court decision to declare unconstitutional a key section of the Clinton era Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA), which only recognised marriage between man and woman for hundreds federal benefits.

Desi gays are happy that same-sex couples will be able to petition for the immigration of their partners, despite the fact that those provisions were not included in the Senate bill.

SAALT has also welcomed another Supreme Court decision on Texas University, Austin’s use of race in its admissions policy for promoting diversity within education.

Despite common misperceptions to the contrary, South Asians support and benefit from holistic race-conscious admission policies, SAALT said as “South Asian students, along with all other students, enjoy a richer learning environment when they are immersed in a diverse educational setting.”

However, SAALT has condemned the Supreme Court decision to invalidate a key section of the historic Voting Rights Act of 1965 which required several Southern states with a history of racial discrimination to get any changes in voting laws cleared by the US Department of Justice or a federal court.

While the court recognised that racial discrimination continues to plague the ability of many to vote, it asked the Congress to update the criteria for a state to be covered by the special provision in the light of recent increased minority voter turnout.

Noting that South Asian and other voters of colour continue to encounter barriers at the polls because of race, religion, and language ability and restrictive voter identification proposals, SAALT said the community will not be immune from the court’s “disappointing” ruling.

South Asian communities have also welcomed the passage of two bills by New York City Council on community safety, which curb discriminatory policing practices and expand the basis for prohibited profiling and discrimination.

In addition to the current prohibition on profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, and national origin, the ban would now include age, gender, gender identity or expression, sexual orientation, immigration status, disability or housing status.

Telecom Commission approves 100 percent FDI in sector

The Telecom Commission recently approved 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector.

A Department of Telecom (DoT) official said in New Delhi that the department will send a detailed note to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP), which will subsequently forward it to the cabinet for approval.

Raising the FDI limit from the current 74 percent will help in flushing fresh funds into the sector. Of the 74 percent FDI allowed at present in the sector, 49 percent is done through automatic route and the rest after approval from the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB).

The Commission also discussed creation of Telecom Finance Corporation (TFC) to address the sector’s funding challenges, and asked for a detailed project report on this.

IAnS