Singh to Saudi Arabia for an on-the-spot assessment of the situation arising out of job cuts involving thousands of Indian workers, employed mainly in the construction industry. Of these, almost 7,000 workers have been laid off from Saudi Oger Ltd—a construction firm headquartered in Riyadh. According to Swarup, a total of 7,700 Indians workers, recently laid off, are housed in 20 camps in Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah. On Tuesday, Swarup said the Indian embassy in Riyadh had convened a meeting of community social workers and volunteers with ambassador Ahmed Javed. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait are taking steps to reduce the economy’s reliance on oil, introducing measures like corporate taxes and merging state entities to downsize the government, a Bloomberg news report said on Tuesday.

Source: Mint August 02, 2016 14:37 UTC