The latest developments confirm that the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has instructed its officers to defer to previous approvals for extending visas, including the H-1B work visa. How Does This Affect? This simply means that USCIS is reverting to its earlier long-standing guidance which was issued in 2004. Prior to this the Trump administration had revoked this guidance and treated each and every visa extension as a new application. This change in…

NEW DELHI: India on Thursday recorded more than 3.79 lakh new cases of Covid-19 and over 3,600 daily deaths in the last 24 hours. As per Union health ministry data, more than 1.8 crore people have fallen ill due to the coronavirus with over 2 lakh succumbing to the pandemic. India saw a record single-day rise of 3,79,257 new coronavirus infections pushing the total tally of Covid-19 cases to 1,83,76,524,…

NEW DELHI: Less than a year after taking a sharp protectionist turn, the government of India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi is relying on overseas help to fight the world’s worst Covid-19 crisis. Nations including the US, the UK, France and Germany have pledged aid after a second wave of the pandemic overwhelmed India’s healthcare system. Even China, with whom New Delhi is entangled in a border standoff, has offered assistance….

NEW DELHI: India is looking at getting around 550 oxygen generating plants, 4,000 oxygen concentrators and 10,000 oxygen cylinders from abroad to deal with the coronavirus pandemic, foreign secretary Harsh Vardhan Shringla said on Thursday. Shringla also said that India is looking at procuring 400,000 units of Remdesivir medicine from Egypt besides exploring to get it from countries like the United Arab Emirates, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan. At a media media…

With an aim to negate chance of tax evasion, the Income Tax Department incepted Tax Deduction at Source (TDS) on transaction in certain cases, which includes rental payment. As per the income tax law, TDS on rent paid can be categorised in two parts — rent paid buy a businessman and rent paid by an individual or Hindu Undivided Family (HUF). TDS on rent paid by a businessman is mentioned in Section…

Covid-19 has unleashed a devastating second wave in India. The government has proven woefully unprepared for this crisis. We can blame hubris or incompetence or a combination thereof for India’s unfolding tragedy. However, it should now be everyone’s goal to shorten the duration of the broader crisis, which won’t remain restricted to this second wave. A humanitarian and economic catastrophe looms. With this in mind, we write to warn against…

In a bad news for over 50 lakh central government employees and more than 65 lakh pensioners who are hoiping for hike in Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR) from the month of July, there Travel Allowance (TA) will not increase from July 1, as per media reports. Live Mint reported that the TA of the central government employees will not be increased because their current DA is not…

On one hand, it is good news for bank employees but for the customers, the month of May is surely not going to be easy. The reason being is that all public and private sector banks across India will remain closed for up to 12 days in May 2021, including weekends and for various festivals. On the occasion of Eid-UI-Fitr, banks in most of the states will remain closed on May…

Most leading banks such as SBI, ICICI Bank and HDFC Bank are offering a low rate of interest on their saving account compared to the rates offered by Small Finance Banks. Irrespective of the amount SBI offers 2.7 per cent per annum to their savings bank account holders. And, both ICICI Bank and HDFC bank offer 3 per cent per annum on deposits up to Rs 50 lakh on the…