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4 principles of Obama’s immigration reform policy

4 principles of Obama’s immigration reform policy

US President Barack Obama's comprehensive immigration reform policy, which is taking shape under the recently introduced legislation by a bipartisan group of four Democrats and Republicans each in the Senate, highlights the path to legal citizenship for over 11 million illegal immigrants in America.

Here are the four principles of Obama's common sense immigration system.

Strengthen border security

The proposal gives law-enforcement agencies the tools they need to make communities safer from crime and strengthens their ability to remove criminals and apprehend and prosecute threats to national security.

Streamlining legal immigration

The proposal provides visas to foreign entrepreneurs looking to start businesses in the US, helps the most promising foreign graduate students in science and maths stay in US after graduation, and reunites families in a timely manner.

Earned citizenship

The proposal provides undocumented immigrants with a legal way to earn citizenship so they can come out of the shadows. It holds them accountable by requiring they pass background checks, pay taxes and learn English.

Cracking down on employers hiring undocumented workers

The proposal is designed to stop businesses from exploiting the system by knowingly hiring undocumented workers. It holds these companies accountable, and helps employees verify their status.

Kerala's NRI tycoons invest millions in projects back home

A number of businessmen who made their fortunes elsewhere are investing in massive projects in the state.

Billionaires like Pillai and Yusuffali are important not because of the quantum of investment they have made but by the endorsement that they have given to the state in the international business circle.

Take a look at four prominent billionaires from the group.

Yusuffali was only 16 years old in 1973 when he embarked on a 14-day voyage to join his family members who were running a small trading establishment in the Abu Dhabi souk.

Yusuffali went on to become a regular supplier of frozen foods and other items to expatriates from Western countries. Soon he forayed into the wholesale distribution of frozen foods in poultry and meat. 

The turning point came when he opened the first retail outlet in Abu Dhabi. 

The Kuwait-Iraq war was under way when Yusuffali decided to take the risk of investing more money in the business. 

His venture not only turned out to be successful but also won him the support of the rulers as he was one of the very few who stayed back and made investments, while others were leaving.

The big expansion came in 2000, when he opened the first hypermarket in Dubai. Soon, the LuLu brand spread all over the UAE, Oman, Kuwait, Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Today, Yusuffali is the managing director of the $4.75-billion Abu Dhabi-based LuLu Group.
Politicians from his home state describe him as the 'unofficial ambassador' of Kerala in the Gulf region. 

His role in settling disputes between Kerala and Dubai over the SmartCity project — an IT special economic zone being set up in Kochi in a joint venture between the Kerala government and a subsidiary of Dubai Holdings — or his role as facilitator of investment or as the provider of jobs to nearly 24,000 Malayalees have all contributed to this title.

In Kerala, the LuLu group's first investment was a convention centre in Thrissur at a cost of Rs 145 crore. The LuLu Shopping Mall and Marriott Hotel in Kochi have been built at a cost of Rs 1,600 crore.

The two other projects of the LuLu group in the state are a flight catering service at a cost of Rs 65 crore and the Airport Marriott Hotel in Kochi at a cost of Rs 150 crore.

In other words the group has so far invested Rs 1,960 crore in projects in Kerala.

Apart from this, the LuLu group is one of the leading investors in the equity of a local bank and Cochin International Airport Ltd.
Pillai, head of a $3-billion business empire, comes from a farming family, but he of course had other plans. Right from his younger days he was on the lookout for opportunity and he found it in the construction sector. 

After completing a few projects in Kochi, Kerala's only industrial area, he decided to chase his dreams in West Asia. In 1978 he reached Saudi Arabia and soon started his own company with a local partner. 

The construction company he floated, Nasser S al-Hajri Corporation, initially had 150 people working for it. Today, the company employs 70,000 people and has a presence in West Asia, Australia, Africa and the United States.

The RP group has made investments in the state's tourism, health and trading sectors.

'We have so far invested Rs 1,500 crore in Kerala,' says Pillai. His group started investing aggressively in Kerala in the past few years, buying hotels and resorts in Kovalam and Kozhikode and promoting another one in Kollam. 

The group entered organised retailing in Kerala with the RP Mall in Kozhikode. Its forayed into health and education by setting up the Upasana hospital and Nursing College in Kollam.
The founder of the Mfar group, is a diploma holder in civil engineering, who started his career in the Northeastern states. But he soon migrated to Dubai and, after a short while, to Oman. 

He found a local partner and launched the Gulfar group, which forayed into the construction of key infrastructure projects like highways, hotels, bridges and the oil sector. Later the group expanded to Qatar and became a major player in the construction sector there, too.

In 1997, Ali founded Mfar Holdings to begin a real estate business. His other local businesses include construction, hospitality and manufacturing.

Mfar is one of the very few groups to set up a manufacturing unit in the state. The company has spent Rs 50 crore to set up an activated carbon unit. 'The unit exports nearly Rs 150 crore worth of activated carbon every year,' says MM Abdul Basheer, director of Mfar Hotels and Resorts Ltd.

It has also set up MIV Logistics, a container freight station in Kochi.

Vladimir Putin calls Bashar Assad to discuss Syrian peace moves

Moscow:  Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday discussed the conflict in Syria with President Bashar al-Assad by phone in their first talks in more than two years, praising his readiness to send delegates to peace talks and destroy chemical arms, the Kremlin said.

An official statement gave few details of the conversation on Thursday between Assad and Putin, whose support has helped the Syrian government avoid tougher international sanctions and avert U.S. military strikes.

The Kremlin's description appeared intended to portray Assad as taking a constructive approach to ending the bloodshed and to underline Moscow's potential role as an interlocutor.

Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said it was their first conversation in at least two years, making it the first since Putin returned to the presidency in May 2012 after a stint as prime minister.

The Kremlin statement said Putin, who made the phone call, and Assad had discussed the long-delayed peace conference which the United States and Moscow are trying to arrange in Geneva.

"Putin underscored the efforts by Russia and its partners to prepare for the Geneva 2 international conference and gave a positive assessment to Bashar al-Assad's readiness to send a Syrian government delegation to this event," it said.

"The hope was expressed that the main opposition groups will show a constructive approach and take part in the conference."

CHEMICAL WEAPONS

Putin "expressed satisfaction" with Syria's cooperation in the destruction of its chemical arms under an agreement which defused the threat of U.S. military strikes after a deadly poison gas attack Washington blames on Assad's forces.

Assad denies responsibility for the attack, which killed hundreds of people, and Moscow says there is insufficient evidence to pin the blame on the Syrian leader's army.

Putin also urged Assad's government to do all it can to alleviate the suffering of civilians and voiced concern over what he called persecution of Christians and other religious minorities by extremists in Syria, apparently blaming this on Islamist militants fighting Assad's government.

Mostly Orthodox Christian Russia is fighting Islamist insurgents at home and has expressed concern about Islamist forces among the rebels in Syria. It has warned that Western intervention in Syria could cause the violence to spread.

Russia has been Assad's most powerful backer in the conflict, sending arms and blocking Western efforts to condemn or pressure him.

Moscow says it is not trying to prop up Assad, but maintains his exit cannot be a precondition of peace talks.

Putin has said Russia has no special relationship with Syria, which buys weapons from Moscow and hosts its only naval base outside the former Soviet Union.

Russia has also accused Assad of mishandling protests in 2011 and failing to avert the slide into civil war.