Travelling through Britain? You need a transit visa
New Delhi: The UK has announced that Indians will need a direct transit visa (DATV) from today to travel through the country. This is to check the growing instances of illegal immigration. The British Home Office announced that from 0001 BST (UK time) on 16 October, apart from the Indians, nationals of Pakistan, Bangladesh, Angola, Cameroon and Lebanon will need DATV to travel through the UK.

Previously these countries' nationals had required visas to visit Britain, but had been able to travel without one if they were passing through, within 24 hours, on their way to a third country. A grace period for those who have already made their travel plans will operate until 23.59 hours on 20 October. Any transit passenger who bought their ticket on or before 15 October will not be refused entry solely on the basis of not holding a valid transit visa.
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One-time package for sick PSUs announced
New Delhi: The Union Cabinet has decided to extend one-time financial support to sick and loss making central public sector undertakings (CPSUs). The move is based on the recommendations of the group of ministers on payment of outstanding statutory dues and salary/wages of the employees of the CPSUs and other issues. Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Sushma Swaraj said: "The one-time financial support to sick and loss making CPSUs will be based on action plans of the administrative ministries and departments for revival or closure or disinvestments of the enterprise."

The payment of such dues would be, to the maximum extent possible from the resources of PSUs but to the extent inevitable, one time budgetary support will be provided by the government to meet the resource gap on case-to-case basis, she said. Further, the outstanding statutory dues and salaries/wages of workers and employees in the CPSUs will be cleared preferably within a time limit ranging between two months to one year. For the profit making enterprises, as well as the loss making enterprises having the capacity to clear the outstanding dues from their own profits or operating surpluses would do so preferably within a period of two months.
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