Govt reopens tourist visa access for Chinese nationals SAMBALPUR l saturday l november 22, 2025 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l CITY EDITION In further signs of thaw, Chinese nationals will now be able to apply for tourist visas through Indian missions and consulates around the world. Issuance of visas to Chinese nationals was suspended following the start of a military stand-off along the LAC in eastern Ladakh that began in May 2020 | P7 AI Image CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ WARANGAL ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Unions growl, India Inc weighs 4 Labour Codes’ notification Minimum wage and social security for all, including gig workers; retrenchment rules eased for employers E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ New Delhi THE Centre on Friday notified the four Labour Codes pending since 2020, ushering in several worker-friendly measures such as universal social security and timely minimum wage, while also trying to make life easy for companies in terms of compliance and paper work. In all, 29 older labour laws were streamlined into four Labour Codes—the Code on Wages, 2019; the Industrial Relations Code, 2020; the Code on Social Security, 2020; and the Occupational Safety, Health and Working Conditions Code, 2020. According to the government, these codes will bring improvements in wages, workplace safety, social security, equality, and employee rights across several sectors. In a first, gig workers have been formally brought under the social security framework. Towards this, aggregators such as Zomato, Swiggy and Uber will have to contribute 1-2% of their , annual turnover. Among the other key reforms are mandatory appointment letters to workers to ensure formalisation and job security expanded rights and , safety for women, including night-shift work and mandatory grievance committees, and free annual health check-ups for workers above 40. Migrant workers in the textile sector, will get equal wages and welfare benefits. They can raise claims for up to three years to settle pending dues, and overtime must be paid at double the wage rate. As for companies, their compliance burden has been eased with the number of returns to file, number of records to keep, and the number of licences to obtain being cut down to size. Also, the retrenchment rules have been relaxed, triggering angry reactions from trade unions. While the government claims the move will go a long way in ease of doing business, it will also increase the operating costs for companies due to higher minimum wages and greater accountability on safety and working conditions. Meanwhile, a joint platform of 10 central trade unions called for a nationwide protest on November 26 demanding the withdrawal of the codes, terming them “anti-worker” and “proemployer”. Some trade unions welcomed the reforms. The next step is framing the rules. As labour is a concurrent subject, the Centre and P10 states have to frame laws and rules.  Big-bang labour reforms 1 29 labour laws streamlined into CODE OF WAGES 4 comprehensive Labour Codes Establishes a statutory right to minimum wages for all, including those in unorganised sector Review of minimum wages every 5 years 2 Equal remuneration to male and female workers CODE ON SOCIAL SECURITY Benefit of pension scheme to all workers of organised, unorganised and self-employed sectors Employees engaged on fixed term (contract) to get same social security benefit as permanent employees Social security fund for the unorganized sector 3 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY, HEALTH AND WORKING CONDITIONS CODE Creating safe working conditions in businessfriendly environment Mandatory, free annual health check-up of workers Database of migrant workers 4 INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS CODE Allows direct, time-bound contracts with full parity in wages, benefits; gratuity eligibility after one year Re-skilling fund to train retrenched employees; amount equal to 15 days’ wages for every worker retrenched SI scam fallout: Govt to constitute dedicated panel for recruitments Wing Commander Namansh Syal sustains fatal injuries E x p r e s s N e w s Se r v i c e @ Bhubaneswar The state cabinet chaired by Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on Friday approved creation of the Odisha Uniformed Services Staff Selection Commission (OUSSSC) for appointments to police and other uniformed services. The commission will be responsible for recruitment of officers and personnel for Odisha police and other uniformed services under the Home, Excise, Forest, Environment & Climate Change and Commerce and Transport departments. It would function under the administrative control of the General Administration & Public Grievance (GA&PG) department. The decision to create an umbrella panel comes in wake of large-scale irregularities in The commission the recruitment processes over will ensure timely, the last few years, creating a transparent, efficient and trust deficit and raising quesmerit-based tion marks on the fairness of recruitment the system. through a Chief secretary Manoj Ahustandardised, ja told mediapersons that the technology-driven proposed commission will enand accountable sure timely, transparent, effiprocess cient and merit-based recruitManoj Ahuja, Chief ment through a standardised, secretary technolog y-driven and accountable process. The cabinet approved the proposal of the GA and PG department for framing of the Odisha Uniformed Services Staff Selection Commission Rules, 2025, to facilitate constitution of the commission and enable its functioning, he said. Ahuja said the current practice of recruitment to various ranks in the Odisha police and other uniformed services is through conduct of examinations and tests through different departmental boards, which has resulted in abnormal delays and irregularities. “In order to streamline the recruitment process, the GA&PG department has proposed to constitute a dedicated recruiting agency CONTINUED ON P5 named OUSSSC,” he said. Nine dead as quake shakes Bangladesh A powerful earthquake struck Bangladesh on Friday outside the crowded capital Dhaka, killing at least nine people and injuring more than 300, authorities said | P9 Combo videograbs of IAF’s Tejas Mark 1 Light Combat Aircraft crashing in a ball of fire during an aerial display at the Dubai Air Show on Friday | PTI Tejas crash at Dubai show System (OBOGS)” was erroneously interpreted as an oil leak. A showpiece Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) At the time of going to print, it was not Tejas Mark 1 of the Indian Air Force clear whether the plane in question was crashed during an aerial display the same one that crashed on Frion the last day of the Dubai Air day There were two Tejas planes in . Show-2025 on Friday. The pilot, Dubai, one static and the other for identified as Wing Commander aerial display . Namansh Syal, sustained fatal inManufactured by Hindustan Aerjuries in the accident. The IAF onautics Ltd, the Tejas is a platform mourned his untimely loss. A for air combat and offensive air court of inquiry is being constisupport. Reconnaissance and antituted to ascertain the cause of the ship operations are its secondary accident. roles. Friday’s accident is the secDeeply The plane crashed around 2.10 anguished at ond involving Tejas in two years. pm local time (3.40 pm IST) during the loss of a The first one crashed in Jaisalmer the demonstration flight. The aer- brave and in Rajasthan on March 12, 2024 ial display of Tejas was scheduled courageous IAF while returning from a tri-services pilot during an exercise in the Pokhran desert. to last eight minutes. Videos the accident showed the aerial display However, that pilot managed to Tejas suddenly dropping height af- in Dubai Air eject safely . Show. My ter a low-altitude manoeuvre. It heartfelt Tejas are set to be the mainstay failed to recover from the dive, hit condolences to of the IAF, which has already inthe ground and was engulfed in a the bereaved ducted 36 of the 40 LCA Tejas Mk1 ball of fire within the airfield of family. The that were initially ordered. In 2021, the Al Maktoum International Air- nation stands the IAF ordered 83 more LCA Tejas firmly with the Mk 1A at a cost of `46,000 crore. In port at Dubai World Central. A post from the @PIBFactCheck family in this November 2023, the defence minishandle on Thursday had dismissed tragic hour try gave initial approval to procure claims that a Tejas at the DubaiAir- Rajnath Singh, an additional batch of 97 Tejas jets show 2025 had suffered an oil leak. Union defence for the IAF. The Congress mourned The post said “intentional drain- minister the tragedy with Rahul Gandhi ing of condensed water from the posting on X: “Deeply saddened by aircraft’s Environmental Control System the loss of our brave IAF pilot in the Tejas (ECS) and On-Board Oxygen Generating crash in Dubai.” M AYA N K SI N G H @ New Delhi