Top U.S. House of Representatives from the Foreign Affairs Committee called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress during a visit to Washington in June this year. Invitations to address the Senate and House are considered a great honor. There have been only two in the past year: Pope Francis, on September 24, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on April 29, 2015.
The invitation would be a sharp turnaround for a leader who was once barred from the United States over massacres of Muslims. In 2002, when Modi had just become Gujarat’s chief minister, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots in the state. The administration of President George W. Bush denied Modi a visa in 2005 under a 1998 U.S. law barring entry to foreigners who have committed “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”
“Given the depth of our relationship with India across a range of areas – defence, humanitarian and disaster relief, space cooperation, conservation and innovation – we believe this is an ideal opportunity for the Congress to hear directly from the prime minister,” Representatives Ed Royce, the Republican committee chairman, and Eliot Engel, the panel’s ranking Democrat, wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan. The letter to Ryan was also signed by Republican Representative George Holding and Democrat Ami Bera, the co-chairmen of the Congress Caucus on India and Indian Americans. A spokeswoman for Ryan said she had no announcement at this time about whether Ryan would extend the invitation.
A new Hindu Religious & Cultural Center (HRCC) is opening in Morgantown (West Virginia) on April 30. Grand opening ceremonies, to be held on April 30 and May one, will reportedly include nutan prarambhostav, yatra, murthi sthapana, cultural program, kids’ activities, discourse, etc. Two priests, Samudrala Venkatacharyulu from Pennsylvania and Satyanarayana Sastry from Ohio, will conduct the sacred rituals during the ceremonies. All are welcome to attend.
Meanwhile, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, commended efforts of temple leaders and area community for realizing this Hindu temple. Rajan Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, further said that it was important to pass on Hindu spirituality, concepts and traditions to coming generations amidst so many distractions in the consumerist society and hoped that this temple would help in this direction. Zed stressed that instead of running after materialism; we should focus on inner search and realization of Self and work towards achieving moksh (liberation), which was the goal of Hinduism.
HRCC, whose objectives include “promote spiritual, cultural, civic, and social improvement”, has been conducting services on Sundays and Tuesdays at the previous location. It has also been celebrating various festivals; conducting education program for children; teaching various Indian languages; offering arts, yoga, classical dance and classical music classes; organizing religious discourses; and undertaking humanitarian projects, including charitable giving; reports suggest.
Chetan Desai, Cherie Bharti, Geeta Grover and Gunjan Gupta are President, Vice President, Treasurer and Secretary respectively. Morgantown, settled in 1772 and claimed to be “one of the best small cities in the country” and “a city of distinction”, is located along the Monongahela River and is home to West Virginia University. It has ranked among “Best Places to Retire” and “10 Great Places to Live”. Marti Shamberger, Bill Kawecki and Jeff Mikorski are Mayor, Deputy Mayor and City Manager respectively.
The Treasury Department has decided to place a portrait of Harriet Tubman on the new $20 bill and keep Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill. The choice of Tubman for the $20 bill makes a lot of sense, by contrast, The New York Times wrote. Tubman’s list of achievements is long and distinguished. She escaped slavery and helped scores of others to flee to freedom on the Underground Railroad. She worked as a scout and spy for the Union during the Civil War, gathering intelligence that proved incredibly useful. And she was a suffragist who helped fight for women’s right to vote after the Civil War.
In addition to the decision to place Tubman on the $20 bill, the Treasury secretary, Jacob Lew, also announced that the back of the $10 bill would feature images of five suffragists – Lucretia Mott, Sojourner Truth, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, Alice Paul and Susan B. Anthony – and the back of a new $5 bill will have an image of Marian Anderson, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Eleanor Roosevelt. Designs for the three bills will be unveiled in 2020 and the first to go into circulation will be the new $10, followed by the $20 and the $5.
Although it will take years before these bills go into circulation, as Lew says designing anti-counterfeiting measures takes time, and for the first time the Treasury will add tactile features to the notes for blind and visually impaired people, Lew and the Federal Reserve, which orders currency notes from the Bureau of Printing and Engraving, are expected to do everything they can to speed up the introduction of these bills.
Jackson has been on the $20 bill since 1928 and it is not clear exactly why he was put there in the first place. That seems like quite a lot of time to have one highly controversial and destructive personality on American currency. And Lew says that Jackson will remain on the back of the $20 bill in some form, so he won’t exactly be gone and forgotten.
WASHINGTON — Suicide in the United States has surged to the highest levels in nearly 30 years, a federal data analysis has found, with increases in every age group except older adults. The rise was particularly steep for women. It was also substantial among middle-aged Americans, sending a signal of deep anguish from a group whose suicide rates had been stable or falling since the 1950s.
The suicide rate for middle-aged women, ages 45 to 64, jumped by 63 percent over the period of the study, while it rose by 43 percent for men in that age range, the sharpest increase for males of any age. The overall suicide rate rose by 24 percent from 1999 to 2014, according to the National Center for Health Statistics, which released the study on Friday.
The increases were so widespread that they lifted the nation’s suicide rate to 13 per 100,000 people, the highest since 1986. The rate rose by 2 percent a year starting in 2006, double the annual rise in the earlier period of the study. In all, 42,773 people died from suicide in 2014, compared with 29,199 in 1999.
“It’s really stunning to see such a large increase in suicide rates affecting virtually every age group,” said Katherine Hempstead, senior adviser for health care at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, who has identified a link between suicides in middle age and rising rates of distress about jobs and personal finances.
Researchers also found an alarming increase among girls 10 to 14, whose suicide rate, while still very low, had tripled. The number of girls who killed themselves rose to 150 in 2014 from 50 in 1999. “This one certainly jumped out,” said Sally Curtin, a statistician at the center and an author of the report.
American Indians had the sharpest rise of all racial and ethnic groups, with rates rising by 89 percent for women and 38 percent for men. White middle-aged women had an increase of 80 percent.
The rate declined for just one racial group: black men. And it declined for only one age group: men and women over 75.
The data analysis provided fresh evidence of suffering among white Americans. Recent research has highlighted the plight of less educated whites, showing surges in deaths from drug overdoses, suicides, liver disease and alcohol poisoning, particularly among those with a high school education or less. The new report did not break down suicide rates by education, but researchers who reviewed the analysis said the patterns in age and race were consistent with that recent research and painted a picture of desperation for many in American society.
“This is part of the larger emerging pattern of evidence of the links between poverty, hopelessness and health,” said Robert D. Putnam, a professor of public policy at Harvard and the author of “Our Kids,” an investigation of new class divisions in America.
The rise in suicide rates has happened slowly over many years. Federal health researchers said they chose 1999 as the start of the period they studied because it was a low point in the national suicide rate and they wanted to cover the full period of its recent sustained rise.
The federal health agency’s last major report on suicide, released in 2013, noted a sharp increase in suicide among 35- to 64-year-olds. But the rates have risen even more since then — up by 7 percent for the entire population since 2010, the end of the last study period — and federal researchers said they issued the new report to draw attention to the issue.
Policy makers say efforts to prevent suicide across the country are spotty. While some hospitals and health systems screen for suicidal thinking and operate good treatment programs, many do not.
She noted that while N.I.H. funding for suicide prevention projects had been relatively flat — rising to $25 million in 2016 from $22 million in 2012 — it was a small fraction of funding for research of mental illnesses, including mood disorders like depression.
The new federal analysis noted that the methods of suicide were changing. About one in four suicides in 2014 involved suffocation, which includes hanging and strangulation, compared with fewer than one in five in 1999. Suffocation deaths are harder to prevent because nearly anyone has access to the means, Ms. Hempstead said. And while the share of suicides involving guns declined — guns went from being involved in 37 percent of female suicides to 31 percent, and from 62 percent to 55 percent for men — the total number of gun suicides increased..
The question of what has driven the increases is unresolved, leaving experts to muse on the reasons.
Julie Phillips, a professor of sociology at Rutgers who has studied suicide among middle-aged Americans, said social changes could be raising the risks. Marriage rates have declined, particularly among less educated Americans, while divorce rates have risen, leading to increased social isolation, she said. She calculated that in 2005, unmarried middle-aged men were 3.5 times more likely than married men to die from suicide, and their female counterparts were as much as 2.8 times more likely to kill themselves. The divorce rate has doubled for middle-aged and older adults since the 1990s, she said.
Disappointed expectations of social and economic well-being among less educated white men from the baby-boom generation may also be playing a role, she said. They grew up in an era that valued “masculinity and self-reliance” — characteristics that could get in the way of asking for help.
“It appears this group isn’t seeking help but rather turning to self-destructive means of dealing with their despair,” Professor Phillips said. Another possible explanation: an economy that has eaten away at the prospects of families on the lower rungs of the income ladder.
Dr. Alex Crosby, an epidemiologist at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he had studied the association between economic downturns and suicide going back to the 1920s and found that suicide was highest when the economy was weak. One of the highest rates in the country’s modern history, he said, was in 1932, during the Great Depression, when the rate was 22.1 per 100,000, about 70 percent higher than in 2014.
“There was a consistent pattern,” he said, which held for all ages between 25 and 64. “When the economy got worse, suicides went up, and when it got better, they went down.” But other experts pointed out that the unemployment rate had been declining in the latter period of the study, and questioned how important the economy was to suicide.
The gap in suicide rates for men and women has narrowed because women’s rates are increasing faster than men’s. But men still kill themselves at a rate 3.6 times that of women. Though suicide rates for older adults fell over the period of the study, men over 75 still have the highest suicide rate of any age group — 38.8 per 100,000 in 2014, compared with just four per 100,000 for their female
WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2017. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption, a press release issued by the USICS stated.
USCIS will use a computer-generated process, also known as the lottery, to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.
USCIS will first randomly select petitions for the advanced degree exemption. All unselected advanced degree petitions will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not duplicate filings.
Application for the highly sought after visa program began on April 1, for the fiscal year 2017 beginning October 1, this year. Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process.
This is fourth consecutive year that the Congressional mandated cap has been reached in the first five days of the filing. Majority of these estimated 200,000 H-1B visa applications are “certainly” either by companies that have Indian owner like TCS or companies that have substantial operations or development centres in India like IBM, Stock said in response to a question.
President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Victor Nieblas Pradis said the “avalanche” of petitions for H-1B visas mean that USCIS will once again randomly determine which of those petitions will actually be considered for one of the 85,000 available visas.
USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the congressionally mandated FY 2017 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and, Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.
U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov
“Of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons,” wrote President Barack Obama in an article he wrote for The Washington Post. Quoting former President Ronald Reagan, who had said “we seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth,” Obama wrote, “That’s why, seven years ago in Prague, I committed the United States to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and to seeking a world without them.” Obama inaugurated the first Nuclear Security Summit nearly six years ago, after a landmark speech in Prague in 2009 laying out the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.
More than 50 world leaders along with international organizations like the United Nations and INTERPOL attended the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit 2016 of Obama’s presidency, March 31st – April 1st focusing on efforts to lock down vulnerable atomic materials to prevent nuclear terrorism, which he called “one of the greatest threats to global security” in the 21st century. While speaking at the nuclear security summit in Washington, Obama said, the world faced a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear terrorism despite progress in reducing such risks. But he insisted: “We cannot be complacent.”
While addressing the Summit leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India pledged to accord a high national priority to nuclear security through strong institutional framework, independent regulatory agency and trained and specialized manpower, while developing and deploying technology to deter and defend against nuclear terrorism, by making efforts to stop nuclear smuggling and strengthen the national detection architecture for nuclear and radioactive material.
These biannual nuclear summits, aimed at locking down fissile material worldwide that could be used for doomsday weapons, were proposed by President Obama back in 2009, barely two months into his presidency. “We must insure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon,” he declared, calling such a scenario “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.” In that same April 2009 speech, Obama challenged the world’s keepers of some 2,000 tons of highly enriched uranium and plutonium to “secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.”
Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, proliferation of nuclear weapons has increased tremendously. During the Cold War, much of the debate centered on the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear weapons have continued to be a major preoccupation of America, with more nations acquiring the nuclear weapons and many more trying to build nuclear arsenals. But, the most dangerous threat has been from the terrorist and rogue groups that have been stealing and making all out efforts to get hold of enriched uranium, a component that is used to build nuclear weapons.
Deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have fueled concern that Islamic State could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and develop radioactive “dirty bombs”. Militants were found to have videotaped the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear plant, Obama said. Obama said the required 102 countries had now ratified an amendment to a nuclear security treaty that would tighten protections against nuclear theft and smuggling. “Our nations have made it harder for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear materials. We have measurably reduced the risks,” Obama said. But he acknowledged that with roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material stored around the word, “not all of this is properly secured.”
While gains have been made, arms-control advocates say the diplomatic process – which Obama conceived and championed – has lost momentum and could slow further once he leaves the White House in January, next year. A boycott by Russian President Vladimir Putin, unwilling to join in a U.S.-dominated gathering at a time of increased tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, added to doubts that the meeting would yield any major decisions.
Moscow, which holds the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpiles, ended virtually all its nuclear cooperation with the U.S. more than two years ago as part of the political fallout from tensions over Ukraine. “One could argue that without Russia there to weaken some of the [summit’s] statements, as it has done in the past, you could probably get more forceful results,” says Olga Oliker, a Russia expert at CSIS. “I mean, there’s progress that could be made on a number of areas, but there are a lot of areas where Russia’s absence is sort of a missing elephant in the room.”
Seated from left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Barack Obama, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi
World leaders and international organizations pledged to boost communal efforts to secure nuclear materials. But there won’t be any more global summits on the issue in the near future. The leaders said in a joint communique at the summit’s close that this year’s meeting will be the last. They’re turning to the United Nations, Interpol, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other entities to take over responsibility for the issue. The broad goal of the summit process has been to address the threat of nuclear terrorism by minimizing and securing weapons-usable nuclear materials, enhancing international cooperation to prevent the illicit acquisition of nuclear material by non-state actors such as terrorist groups and smugglers, and taking steps to strengthen the global nuclear security system.
The world leaders say there’s more work to prevent nuclear terrorism and promote disarmament, which requires further international cooperation President Barack Obama says there’s a persistent and evolving threat of terrorists conducting a nuclear attack.
For now, U.S. experts are less concerned about militants obtaining nuclear weapon components than about thefts of ingredients for a low-tech dirty bomb that would use conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material and sow panic. U.S. officials said they had no doubt that Islamic State, which controls swaths of Syria and Iraq, was interested in obtaining such materials, but authorities had no explicit evidence that the group had tried to do so.
Rightly so, in his concluding remarks at the Nuclear Summit 2016, President Barack Obama urged world leaders on April 1st to do more to safeguard vulnerable nuclear facilities to prevent “madmen” from groups like Islamic State from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon or a radioactive “dirty bomb.” Obama said no group had succeeded in obtaining bomb materials but that al Qaeda had long sought them and cited actions by Islamic State militants behind recent attacks in Paris and Brussels that raised similar concerns. There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible,” he said. “It would change our world.”
Nine countries together possess more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia maintain roughly 1,800 of their nuclear weapons on high-alert status – ready to be launched within minutes of a warning. Most are many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill millions of people, with the effects persisting for decades.
China is seeking to soon achieve a nuclear triad (land, air, and sea-based nuclear delivery capabilities). Analysts estimate that China’s inventory is close to two hundred and fifty warheads. This includes short, intermediate, and long-range ballistic missiles. Some experts say China has as many as sixty long-range missiles with ranges between 4,350-9,320 miles. North Korea’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons has been never ending.
Southern Asia is home to three nuclear powers—China, India, and Pakistan—that continue to expand and modernize their arms programs. Motivated by the need to address perceived security threats, each is seeking to expand ballistic missile and cruise missile-based nuclear delivery systems. Such nuclear competition is dangerous given mounting mistrust and a dearth of diplomatic measures in place to reduce risk of confrontation. Experts estimate that Pakistan has 110 to 130 warheads and two types of delivery vehicles (PDF): aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles. Pakistan’s chronic political instability, spotty nonproliferation record, and ongoing threats posed by militant forces have focused special concern on the safety of its nuclear materials.
India possesses a developed strategic nuclear program and currently fields nuclear-capable aircraft and ballistic missiles controlled by a civilian command structure, the Nuclear Command Authority. New Delhi has an estimated stockpile of 110 to 120 warheads and is expanding its military nuclear capabilities. In 2011, New Delhi spent approximately $4.9 billion (PDF) on nuclear weapons, up from $4.1 billion the previous year, according to Global Zero, a nongovernmental disarmament movement.
The United States and India negotiated a landmark civil nuclear deal beginning in 2005, which was later signed into U.S. law in 2008. Washington saw the deal as a practical way to overcome barriers to cooperation and also because it believed “it would be better to have India inside the international nonproliferation tent than outside,” says CFR’s Alyssa Ayres. Other nuclear energy powers also boost India’s civilian program: Tokyo pledged to negotiate a nuclear energy pact, a deal with Australia allows the export of uranium to India, and Russia has assisted India for years on the construction of reactors, with new deals in the works between the two countries. While India remains outside the NPT and the CTBT, its civilian nuclear facilities are now under IAEA safeguards and India has signed and ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol.
The failure of the nuclear powers to disarm has heightened the risk that other countries will acquire nuclear weapons. The only guarantee against the spread and use of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them without delay. Although the leaders of some nuclear-armed nations have expressed their vision for a nuclear-weapon-free world, they have failed to develop any detailed plans to eliminate their arsenals and are modernizing them.
According to analysts, nuclear safeguards like those that have emerged from previous Nuclear Security Summits are playing an increasingly important role in protecting the world from security threats. White House Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes all but declares that goal accomplished, pointing to the achievements of the previous three summits. “Because of these efforts, it is harder than ever before for terrorists or bad actors to acquire nuclear materials,” Rhodes told reporters in a conference call prior to this week’s summit. “That, of course, makes all of our people more secure.”
According to Sharon Squassoni, a non-proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington defense think tank, the job isn’t finished, warning that the political pressure to get it done is waning. “We know what to do,” she says. “The question is, do we have enough willpower and money and attention to do it.”
There is an increasing anger among the majority of people in the country towards the American establishment, towards the mainstream American politicians and towards both the political parties. The rise and growing popularity of unconventional politicians with varied ideologies and outlook to the future of the United States in both the Republican and the Democratic Parties may be explained, to some extent due to this growing frustration among the middle class and the poor in this country.
Income inequality is one of the major global issues talked about today. It is the bane of the working class’s existence. It’s more evident in the United St6ates today than ever before. In the US, income inequality increased the most among all the developed nations – the richest 1% growing by 275%, while wages of the poor grew by only 20% in 30 years. This growing inequality has immense consequences flor the nation’s future. As the children of the rich are getting better services, and in turn, a higher likelihood of social and cognitive development, which means that they are more likely to take up the high paying executive positions than the others, whose parents were perhaps not so lucky. Unequal starting points only mean that the finishing points will be unequal as well, and it’s important that every nation needs to address this problem by giving everyone a uniform starting point, meaning that people win the race based on merit, rather than a never-ending cycle of rich breeding rich.
Over the past four decades, the American middle class has been shrinking relative to upper- and lower-income groups, both of which represent bigger shares of the population than at any time since at least 1971, a new Pew Research Center report finds. An analysis finds that, the upper-income tier has grown the most in the financial and natural-resources industries, and among executives and managers. At the same time, the lower-income tier increased the most among retail sales workers and “operators,” a grouping of mostly blue-collar manufacturing-type jobs.
The increased income inequality since the 1980s is due to a decreasing real minimum wage, which means, the real wages were growing slower than inflation, contributing to increase in the inequality. The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, states that the total net worth of those on the list in 1982, the first year the list was compiled, was $93 billion. In 2014, that number was $2.3 trillion, up 2,400%. At the same time, median household income in the United States rose only about 180%.
Both income inequality and the minimum wage have become hot-button political issues in recent years, particularly since the rise of the Fight for $15 campaign and the release of Thomas Piketty’s tome Capital in the 21st Century. Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) talk about income inequality as a major economic problem and advocate for raising the minimum wage as one possible solution for the issue.
In this context, it’s a welcome initiative that two of the nation’s largest states – California and New York – are exploring proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Kim Weeden, director of the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University, says while raising the minimum wage will unlikely decrease the levels of income inequality, it would make a huge difference for those struggling to make ends meet.
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont admitted that raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour could cause a rise in prices but added the benefits outweigh the risks. In a Feb. 12Medium post, Hillary Clinton wrote, “As president, I will work to raise the federal minimum wage back to the highest level it’s ever been — $12 an hour in today’s dollars — and support state and local efforts to go even further.”
However, there are those in the Republican Party and others, who think that increasing the minimum wages will not help in diminishing income inequality. According to Heritage Foundation expert James Sherk, labor economists have found no correlation between higher minimum wages and lower poverty. Raising the minimum wage simply would not reduce poverty. Sherk says, raising the minimum wage will not affect many poor families. Higher minimum wages cost some workers their jobs. Raising the minimum wage makes these entry-level jobs harder to find. That makes it harder for less skilled workers to gain the skills necessary to get ahead. And finally, the welfare state claws back raises that low-income families do receive. Low-income workers qualify for a host of means-tested federal benefits. These include food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. As workers’ incomes rise they qualify for less and less aid—effectively an additional tax on their income.
As per other analysts, a declining minimum wage throughout the 1980s was likely not the primary reason that the income of poor people moved farther away from that of the wealthy. That means raising the minimum wage is likely not the solution to reducing inequality, though it very well might be helpful to that bottom rung of workers. America could need a higher minimum wage for the poorest workers, while also needing a different — and likely much more difficult — solution to income inequality for everyone in the 99 percent.
The exact cause of income inequality is up for debate. But many people, including Piketty, think it has to do with the returns that the already wealthy see on their holdings, causing the rich to see more and more wealth every year, even as incomes don’t budge.
Middle income is defined as households making between two-thirds and double the median household income, which is about $42,000 to $126,000 annually in 2014 dollars for a household of three. The upper income is defined as more than twice the median, and “lower income” as less than two-thirds of it. Accordingly, at the end of the 1960s, about 61 percent of all American adults were part of the middle class. Today, only half of all Americans can consider themselves middle class, and that might have something to do with income inequality.
As more people fall out of the middle class and into poverty, more people are also climbing up into wealth. “Better off” households — defined by Pew as earning more than $125,608 a year or twice the “median income” — now make up more than 20 percent of the US population.
Shawn Donnan of the Financial Times says, “We’re seeing a real divergence in American society. What’s interesting about these numbers that have come out from the Pew Research Center and that we’ve built our series around is that, really, this is the broadest measure in terms of income of the American middle class out there.”
Another notable change seen in middle class America is its racial makeup. “Between 1971 and 2015, the American middle class has become less white than it used to be,” Dannon says. “It was 80 percent white in 1971, and the next biggest ethnic group was Hispanics at 11 percent, and you found 7 percent of the middle class was black. Those numbers have improved, but they probably haven’t improved as much as many of us would have thought. Today, the American middle class is 67 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, and 11 percent black. The big winners, in terms of really surging in the middle class, have been Asian Americans, who now make up 6 percent of the American middle class.”
Though the middle class seems to be shrinking on the whole, the upper class appears to be growing. Though some Americans are working their way into the higher income brackets, many too are also slipping below the middle class threshold. “Just under half of America is sitting in the middle, and then, really, you’ve got one-fifth of America living on less than $31,000 a year — half of them below the poverty line — and then you have the fifth at the top,” Dannon says. “That lower end has continued to grow since 1971. In 1971 it was 16 percent of the population, and in 2015 it’s 20 percent of the population. It has gone up since the crisis in 2008, which clearly has played a big role in this and making everyone feel a lot more fragile.”
“The share of middle-income adults who are ages 65 and older doubled from 9 percent in 1971 to 18 percent in 2015,” the Pew study finds. But Dannon also says that many older Americans are working longer. “The fact that older people are hanging on in the workforce longer could be a result of lifestyle choices, and it could be a result of economic reality,” he says.
According to Weeden, in inflation-adjusted terms, the real value of the minimum wage is lower today than it was at its late-1960s peak. This decline in the real value of the minimum wage, coupled with the decline in unionization and the rise of automation, accounted for much of the growth in income inequality in the 1980s. In the last 25 years, however, most of the extraordinary growth in income inequality has occurred at the top of the wage distribution, as the incomes of the top one percent and especially the top 0.1 percent pulled away from everyone else’s.
While there is a push to increase the minimum wages, there is also a demand to increasing income taxes on top earners, and in turn giving those funds to those on the bottom. It sounds like simple math, and has an allure for many politicians and American families alike, but a new Brookings research suggests that this proposal would actually do little to reduce inequality.
Tax the rich more. It’s a popular idea on the 2016 campaign trail, but a new study says that won’t do much to dent inequality in America. Many of America’s uber rich, including billionaires Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon, have said they would be willing to pay more in tax. Buffett has repeatedly pointed out that his overall tax rate is lower than his secretary’s. In the past, America’s top income tax rate has been as high as 91%. It was 50% as recently as the mid-1980s. The current top rate is the same as it was during President Bill Clinton’s time in office.
Bernie Sanders has proposed a “billionaire surtax” of 10% that he says would only impact the nation’s 530 billionaires. He also wants to increase the inheritance tax — what people pay when they transfer land or money to their kids — from 40% to a top rate of 55%. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have all proposed eliminating the “carried interest loophole” that allows many hedge fund managers to tax their investment income at a lower tax rate (20% versus 39.6%).
In a new paper from Brookings Economics Studies, Brookings Senior Fellow William G. Gale and Nonresident Seniors Fellows Melissa S. Kearney and Peter R. Orszag found that raising the top income tax rate to 50 percent would mean an additional $6,464 in taxes owed for households in the 95-99th percentiles of income and an additional $110,968 for households in the top 1 percent. Extremely wealthy households in the very top 0.1 percent could expect to experience an average income tax increase of $568,617. As per the analysis, increasing the top marginal tax rates for those in the 95th percentile and up had a “trivial effect on overall income inequality.” only lowering the gap modestly.
So raising taxes for top earners didn’t move the needle on inequality. Re-distributing revenue from the 50 percent tax rate would result in $1,760 in additional post-tax income for households in the lowest quintile of earners. They also found that tax hikes for top earners could raise critical revenue for the federal government, and redistribution policies would still provide substantial benefits to low-income households, if not economic mobility as a whole.
The researchers also looked at what would happen if all the extra money raised from the tax hike on the rich were given to America’s poorest. Lower-income families would receive about $2,650 a year, they found. That kind of redistribution would lessen inequality a little bit more, but the country would still remain far more unequal than it was in the 1970s. The need to close the gap between the rich and the poor and according the majority poor, lower middle class and the middle class their right to thrive is a basic necessity. They need to be able to meet their daily needs and offering them resources to grow and become productive citizens rather than become a burden on the nation, means, investing in the present by raising the minimum the income, redistributing the wealth of the nation to invest in the products and services that will enhance the quality of the lives every citizen.
Chicago IL: A globally-known Egg Artist, Farha Sayeed, wife of Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India in Chicago, held her first solo Egg Art exhibition in Chicago – “The Easter Eggstravaganza” – at the prestigious Chicago Symphony Center in Chicago, Illinois from March 20-21, 2016. A part of the sale proceeds of the Exhibition will go to the America-India Foundation’s Maternal and New Born Survival Initiative (MANSI). The event attracted hundreds of art lovers, state officials, and diplomats from several countries.
Farha exhibited seventy Egg Art pieces during the exhibition comprising creations made out of egg shells of Ostrich, Rhea, Emu, Goose, Duck, Turkey and Guinea. All these pieces were intricately hand-carved in minute detail and embellished with crystals, rhinestone chains, and golden filigree. These creations not only captured the imagination of the visitors but also left them awe-struck.
Over three hundred persons participated in the inaugural ceremony held on Sunday, March 20th, 2016 and dozens of others visited the exhibition during the rest of the day. Renowned tabla maestro Padma Bhushan Ustad Zakir Hussain was one of the internationally renowned persons who graced the event. He praised Farha for the precision and ingenuity demonstrated in her creations.
The other prominent dignitaries who participated in the event included Mr. Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer, Office of Governor Bruce Rauner, State of Illinois; Mr Dennis Jung, Outreach Coordinator, Office of Governor Bruce Rauner; Ms. Nettie Lasko, Immigrant Assistance Program Coordinator, Office of the Attorney General; Ms. Emily Berman, Deputy Director, Office of the Mayor; Ms. Patricia Maza-Pittsford, Dean of the Chicago Consular Corps, Dr Gopal Lalmalani, Mayor of Oak Brook; Hon’ble judges Anthony Simpkins and Divya Sarang, Seann Nelipinath, President of the India Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Paula Garrett Ellis, President of Now Art India; Raja Krishnamoorthi, Congressional candidate for Chicago’s 8thDistrict, Mr. Zain Raj, President & CEO of Shapiroraj and Mrs. Lubaina Raj. Mr. Vimal & Bulbul Bahuguna, Board Members of the American India Foundation, and Consul General’s mother Mrs Kaneez Fatima. Consuls General of Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Philippines, Pakistan, Lithuania, Serbia and several other countries also participated in the event.
During her remarks Farha Sayeed mentioned that she got exposed to Egg Art seventeen years ago while she was in Qatar. “The fragility of an eggshell appealed to me as a unique medium to test my creativity”, she said, adding “I can switch over easily from painting to carving to calligraphy to etching on the egg shell and the scope seems to be unlimited.” Farha mentioned that over the years she had attempted introducing Indian motifs and calligraphy into her art.
Mr. Zain Raj outlined the activities of the American India Foundation with particular reference to the Maternal & Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI) and thanked Farha for supporting this noble cause.
Consul General of India Dr. Ausaf Sayeed said that while art is important in its own right, it assumes social significance when it is used as a vehicle to find enduring solutions to the problems faced by the people, particularly women and children. He outlined the Consulate’s support to various socio-cultural activities undertaken by the American-Indian Diaspora in Chicagoland.
While all the egg art exhibits were widely appreciated by the visitors, “Eggstravaganza” and “Nirvana”, the lead pieces of the exhibition and a combination of the egg shells of Ostrich, Rhea, and Goose eggs, along with “Apostles of Peace”, a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa on an Emu egg shell, drew particular admiration.
Earlier, Farha has hosted her solo exhibitions titled “EGGSPERIENCE” in Copenhagen, “EGGCELLENCE” in Jeddah, “EGGXOTICA” in New Delhi, and “EGGSPRESSIONS” in Sana’a. She had also participated in the Dallas Egg Show 2015 along with other international egg artists. Farha, a member of the international Egg Artists Guild, is considered a pioneer in promoting egg art in India.
WASHINGTON: An Indian-origin journalist with a CBS, a major US television network, was heckled by Donald Trump’s supporters and arrested by police during a protest at the Republican presidential frontrunner’s campaign rally here, media reports said.
CBS News reporter Sopan Deb was detained by police while covering the protest that broke out last night following the cancellation of Trump’s rally in Chicago. Deb was covering the clash between protesters and the Republican front-runner’s supporters when he was detained, the news organisation said.
“Deb was filming video of a man whose face was bloody and laying on the ground near police at the time of his arrest,” according to a ‘CBS This Morning’ report.
Deb alleged that he was thrown to the ground and handcuffed without notice or warning, the CBS news reported. Illinois State Police charged Deb with resisting arrest though the network reported that neither his video, nor that of a nearby film crew, showed any sign of resistance.
“I have never seen anything like what I am witnessing in my life,” Deb tweeted after the incident. Deb, who has been covering Trump’s campaign ever since he announced his presidential run last June, said “A Trump supporter just asked me at Reno event if I was taking pictures for ISIS. When I looked shocked, he said, ‘yeah, I am talking to you’.”
The president of CBS News is standing by one of the network’s journalists who was arrested outside a Donald Trump rally that was canceled amid violence between Trump supporters and protesters.
David Rhodes tweeted that journalist Sopan Deb, who was covering the rally at the University of Illinois’ Chicago campus on Friday, was handcuffed and charged with resisting arrest. “On tape you see he did not resist, identified himself as working press,” Rhodes said in his tweet.
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to questions. Trump cancelled his campaign rally here citing security concerns after hundreds of people gathered at the arena to protest against his ‘politics of hatred’ and scuffled with his supporters in the largest-ever demonstration against the Republican presidential front-runner.
Of late journalists have been at receiving end at the Trump campaign. Foreign journalists have been made totally out of bound while the domestic media are put inside an enclosure at all his rallies and are not allowed to move out of that.
In the last few weeks, several journalists have been scuffled by security agents and Trump’s supporters. The developments forced the White House Correspondents Association (WHCA) to issue a rare statement.
“Broadly speaking, the WHCA unequivocally condemns any act of violence or intimidation against any journalist covering the 2016 campaign, whether perpetrated by a candidate’s supporters, staff or security officers. We expect that all contenders for the nation’s highest office agree that this would be unacceptable,” WHCA president Carol Lee said in a statement early this week.
“We have been increasingly concerned with some of the rhetoric aimed at reporters covering the presidential race and urge all candidates seeking the White House to conduct their campaigns in a manner that respects the robust back-and-forth between politicians and the press that is critical to a thriving democracy,” said Lee, White House correspondent of The Wall Street Journal.
Neil Makhija, a young Indian-American is running for Pennsylvania state Assembly from District 122, and as a son-of-the-soil born and raised in Carbon County, he hopes to build a grassroots campaign. Neil Makhija, 29, is a first-generation American, a Harvard Law School graduate and former aide to U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, D-NY, and to Vice President Joe Biden.
“Neil is a stellar candidate in his own right, but he’s also from an incredibly competitive district that Democrats can win,” according to Manan Trivedi, an Iraq War veteran who has tried twice to win a seat in the U.S. Congress. The Pennsylvania Democratic Party has identified Makhija’s hometown region as a top pickup opportunity in 2016, Trivedi notes.
The 122nd district, just north of Allentown in the Lehigh Valley, was held for decades by the former Democratic Speaker of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Keith McCall. When Speaker McCall retired, the GOP won the seat in the Republican wave of 2010. “The county still is Democratic and 2016 is the right time to take back this seat,” Trivedi says.
On his election website neilforPA.com, Makhija says his parents witnessed the power of the American Dream in just one generation. “My father worked in a thread factory in India for under a dollar a day, and was determined to provide his children with a better way of life,” His parents left India and moved to a small town in Pennsylvania thirty five years ago, the place where he was born and brought up.
Makhija says he learnt the values of hard work, empathy, and resilience from his parents, and growing up worked small jobs and rose up the ladder – from scooping ice cream at Leiby’s Restaurant and washing bikes at Pocono Whitewater, to working for the Office of Vice President Joe Biden and in the United States Senate.
He attended Harvard on a scholarship endowed by a Carbon County coal magnate. “That gift – a reminder of our region’s role powering America’s Industrial Revolution – inspired me to use my education to fight for a new vision of economic prosperity in Carbon County,” he says, and he is now ready to give back.
His priorities he says are to invests in the people and harness 21st-century innovation, fight for the middle class, and for world-class education for children, helping seniors, as well as for protecting the environment.
In “The End of Karma,” Somini Sengupta delivers a portentous warning that echoes Ambedkar’s, updated for the present. “The End of Karma” shifts in and out of three modes of narrative. The weakest involves Sengupta’s recollections of a childhood in India and North America, as well as her decision, during the stint in New Delhi, to adopt a baby girl. Her interest in India’s youth, she suggests, was quickened by this entry into her life by her daughter, a bona fide member of these restless generations, a unit of India’s demographic dividend. But much of this feels tenuous, the sort of material an editor commonly asks for, reproaching a writer because her manuscript is Not Personal Enough. The book’s second mode is expository — summations of news, history and statistics, which Sengupta delivers in cool, swift language. Two pages about Laloo Prasad Yadav, a powerful politician in the state of Bihar, are a marvel of economy, laying bare his background, his machinery of caste politics, his wrecking of Bihar, and his folksy charisma.
In November 1949, India had been independent for slightly more than two years, and through that duration, a drafting committee labored to devise a constitution for the new nation. The work was nearly finished, but critics grumbled about how long it had taken; one pundit thought the panel ought to have been called the “drifting committee.” B. R. Ambedkar, the Columbia-educated lawyer heading the group, defended his colleagues. Their task was difficult. The constitution incorporated 395 articles and 2,473 amendments, a density that reflected India’s complications — its iniquities of caste, its poverty, its various languages and faiths. India already had political democracy (one vote per citizen), but the constitution also needed to foster social democracy. “How long shall we continue to deny equality in our social and economic life?” Ambedkar said in a speech. “We must remove this contradiction at the earliest possible moment, or else those who suffer from inequality will blow up the structure of political democracy.”
The lives of India’s poor and its lowest castes have improved in many ways, but the country remains riddled with inequality; in fact, over the last 35 years the gulf between the wealthiest and the most impoverished has widened.
A quarter of India’s 1.25 billion people are younger than 15; every month, until 2030, nearly a million Indians will turn 18, raring for more education and employment prospects. The size and energy of such a work force is a nation’s dream — the celebrated “demographic dividend.” But the state’s failure to supply these young people with schools, universities and jobs, and to help them climb into prosperity, will tug India into perilous waters, Sengupta writes. “In the coming years, India can thrive because of its young. Or it can implode. Or both. There’s little time left.”
Sengupta, a reporter for The New York Times, served as the newspaper’s New Delhi bureau chief from 2005 to 2009. She had first left India 30 years earlier, when her father decided, in the teeth of a nationwide crackdown on civil liberties, to move the family to Canada and thence to the United States. Now, returning to a transformed nation — its economy in bloom, its cities abuzz — she sensed a fresh impatience of aspiration. Sengupta refers to the Hindu notion of karma, a preordained destiny based on the virtues and sins of previous lives, a psychic past that is impossible to escape. The invocation is loose. She avoids making the unwise argument that Hindu fatalism had, in earlier years, persuaded Indians to be resigned to their hardscrabble times. It is only that, right now, “the demands of India’s young are pushing India to break free of its past. They are no longer willing to put up with their lot.”
In the book’s most vibrant sections, Sengupta profiles seven young Indians, shadowing some of them over years. All grew up in poor or lower-middle-class homes — the socioeconomic brackets that hold a majority of India’s populace — and their lives illustrate the ways in which the state is failing its youth.
A young woman named Rakhi from one of West Bengal’s numerous underdeveloped villages joins a Maoist insurgency after her family slides suddenly into penury. She can list the people she has killed: “Each leaves a vivid memory,” Sengupta writes. “The time of day, the season of the year, the name of the victim.” Near Mumbai, the police, provoked by a right-wing mob, arrest two girls who complained, on Facebook, that the city had come to a grinding halt just to accommodate a politician’s funeral cortege. In Gurgaon, a 17-year-old named Varsha thirsts for more education, so that she can become a cop. Her father, who drives an auto rickshaw, has to be cajoled out of his reluctance: Schools cost money and pull his daughter too far out of the orbit of their world. “He loves her, but he also sabotages her. . . . She keeps pushing the bounds, and he has to figure out how far to let her go.”
Sengupta’s finest profile is of Anupam Kumar. In Patna, Bihar’s capital, Anupam grew up in a tiny brick house with a corrugated tin roof; pigs prospected in a trash dump next door. His father, like Varsha’s, drove an auto rickshaw. His mother, recognizing brightness in Anupam, scoured the neighborhood for affordable private schools and tuition classes, short-circuiting the abysmal, erratic government schools. “The latest survey results, from 2014, showed that most Indian children in Class 5 are functionally illiterate,” Sengupta writes. “More than half cannot subtract.”
Anupam studied hard, entered the most competitive engineering school in the country, lost his way there, switched colleges, then got an M.B.A. and began working for India’s equivalent of the Securities and Exchange Commission. “Anupam is no Horatio Alger. His country is not a country of Horatio Algers,” Sengupta notes carefully. His story gains its potency by hinting at the reserves of talent and intelligence within India, but also by revealing how close India is coming to squandering it all, content to watch only the prodigious few burst free of the gravitational field of their past.
Athens, Ga. – Divided political parties rarely win presidential elections, according to a study by political science researchers at the University of Georgia and their co-authors. If the same holds true this year, the Republican Party could be in trouble this presidential general election.
The study, which examined national party division in past presidential elections, found that both national party division and divisive state primaries have significant influence on general election outcomes.
In this election cycle, the nominee of a divided Republican Party could lose more than 3 percent of the general election vote, compared to what he would have gained if the party were more united.
“History shows that when one party is divided and the other party is united, the divided party almost always loses the presidential election,” said Paul-Henri Gurian, an associate professor of political science at UGA. “Consider, for example, the elections from 1964 through 1984; in each case the divided party lost.” The study measures party division during the primaries and indicates how much the more divided party loses in the general election.
The study found that divisive state primaries can lead to a 1 to 2 percent decrease in general elections votes in that state. For example, Hillary Clinton received 71 percent of the Democratic vote in the Georgia primary, while Donald Trump received 39 percent of the Republican vote. According to the historical model, a Republican-nominated Trump would lose almost 1 percent of the Georgia vote in the general election because of the divided state primary.
National party division has an even greater and more widespread impact on the national results, often leading to decreases of more than 3 percent nationwide.
Looking again at the current presidential election cycle, Trump had received 39.5 percent of the total national Republican primary vote as of March 16, while Clinton had received 58.6 percent of the Democratic vote. If these proportions hold for the remainder of the nomination campaign (and if these two candidates win the nominations), then Trump would lose 4.5 percent of the vote in the general election, compared to what he would have received if the national Republican Party was not divided.
“In close elections, such as 2000, 2004 and 2012, 4-5 percent could change the outcome in terms of which party wins the presidency,” Gurian said.
The results of this study provide political analysts with a way to anticipate the impact of each primary and, more importantly, the impact of the total national primary vote on the general election results. Subtracting the percent of the Republican nominee’s total popular vote from that of the Democratic nominee and multiplying that by 0.237 indicates how much the Republican nominee is likely to lose in the November election, compared to what would otherwise be expected. The 4.5 percent figure calculated through March 16 can be updated as additional states hold their primaries. (The same can be done for each individual state primary by multiplying by 0.026.) The study was conducted by Paul-Henri Gurian and Audrey Haynes, together with Nathan Burroughs, Lonna Atkeson and Damon Cann.
Washington, DC: Prime Minister Narendra Modi embarked on a three – nation tour to Belgium, United States and Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, March 29, 2016 from the Indian capital.
According to Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup, the Prime Minister will reach Brussels, the capital of Belgium on Wednesday. Nandini Singla, Joint Secretary (Europe West) said, the Prime Minister will take part in a series of activities at Brussels apart from addressing Indian diaspora.
The Prime Minister will also take part in India-EU summit where he will take forward the ongoing consultations with the European Union, EU on finalization of Broad based Trade and Investment Agreement, BTIA. The Prime Minister is the first foreign dignitary who will be on the state visit to Belgium just a week after the deadly terror bombings which rocked Brussels.
In his second leg of the tour, the Prime Minister will attend the fourth Nuclear Security Summit at Washington DC on Thursday and Friday this week. He will present national progress report outlining the measures being taken by New Delhi for strengthening nuclear security and safety of nuclear technologies and devices. He is also likely to have bilateral meetings with heads of some countries.
The final stop over of his trip is to Saudi Arabia where 2.96 million Indians are residing. Modi will visit office of two Indian companies besides holding talks with Saudi leadership’s on trade and investment among other issues. Some agreements are expected to be signed in Brussels and Saudi Arabia during the Prime Minister’s Modi’s visit.
First Lady Michelle Obama chose a floral gown made of Kashmiri fabric and embroidery by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan for dinner on the concluding day of the Obamas’ visit to Cuba last week. “The dress Michelle Obama selected for the Cuban dinner was in a Kashmiri fabric,” the New York Times reported. “It was embroidered with an Indian floral motif, and was similar to one in the same fabric from the designer’s pre-fall collection,” it added. The embroidery on the gown was Kashmir’s traditional “Ari work”. The dinner’s dress code was “casual cocktail”.
Celebrated designer Khan told the media “after what America has done for me, coming from India, I need to give back to this country. She (Michelle Obama) has made my brand and put America back in fashion,” he said. “I would do anything for her.” Barack Obama is the first US President since 1928 to undertake a three-day visit to Cuba along with his wife Michelle Obama and senior officials.
In the end, Mrs. Obama went with Naeem Khan, the Indian-American designer she has worn often. “I had sent her a couple of different things,” Mr. Khan said in an interview on Tuesday morning. “I had no idea. You never know what she’s going to wear. I guess I got pretty lucky.”
Khan is responsible for some of Mrs. Obama’s best looks, including the gown she wore to a state dinner for India in 2009. (Cathy Horyn, then the fashion critic of The New York Times, wrote, “She probably never looked better.”) He has also become something of a family favorite: The first daughters Malia and Sasha Obama wore Naeem Khan dresses for their first appearance at a state dinner at the Canada dinner this month. (“I guess they see their mom in all the glam and want to be like her,” Khan said. “I was very happy when they chose something.”
Women are generally more religious than men, particularly among Christians
Standard lists of history’s most influential religious leaders – among them Abraham, Moses, Jesus, Muhammad, Siddhartha Gautama (the Buddha) – tend to be predominantly, if not exclusively, male. Many religious groups, including Roman Catholics and Orthodox Jews, allow only men to be clergy, while others, including some denominations in the evangelical Protestant tradition, have lifted that restriction only in recent decades. Yet it often appears that the ranks of the faithful are dominated by women.
Noting similar gender differences in other countries, mainly in Europe, some social scientists have argued that women are universally more religious than men across all societies, cultures and faiths. More controversially, a few sociologists have theorized that the gender gap in religion is biological in nature, possibly stemming from higher levels of testosterone in men or other physical and genetic differences between the sexes.
How and why men and women differ in religious commitment has been a topic of scholarly debate for decades. Even today, it continues to inspire much academic research, as well as discussions among the general public. To contribute to this ongoing conversation, Pew Research Center has amassed extensive data on gender and religion in six different faith groups (Christians, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Jews and the religiously unaffiliated) across scores of countries, including many with non-Christian majorities. Data on affiliation in 192 countries were collected from censuses, demographic surveys and general population surveys as part of the Center’s multiyear study projecting the size and geographic distribution of the world’s major religious groups from 2010 to 2050. Data on religious beliefs and practices come from international Pew Research Center surveys of the general population in 84 countries conducted between 2008 and 2015.
Based on these wide-ranging and comprehensive datasets, this study finds that, globally, women are more devout than men by several standard measures of religious commitment. But the study also reveals a more complex relationship between religion and gender than has been commonly assumed. While women generally are more religious, men display higher levels of religious commitment in some countries and religious groups. And in other contexts, there are few, if any, discernable gender differences in religion.
On all the standard measures of religious commitment examined in the study, Christian women are more religious than Christian men. By contrast, Muslim women and Muslim men show similar levels of religiousness on all measures of religious commitment except frequency of attendance at worship services. Because of religious norms, Muslim men attend services at a mosque much more often than Muslim women do.
Measuring levels of religious commitment in widely differing societies and faiths is a tricky endeavor. Rather than trying to use a single indicator, this report looks at a variety of measures of commitment, including religious affiliation, frequency of worship service attendance, frequency of prayer, and whether religion plays an important role in a person’s life. Depending on the specific measure, data are available for varying numbers of countries because not all surveys asked the exact same questions.
In 61 of the 192 countries, women are at least 2 percentage points more likely than men to have an affiliation. In the remaining countries, women and men display roughly equal levels of religious affiliation because in many cases nearly all people of both genders identify with some religious group. There are no countries in which men are more religiously affiliated than women by 2 percentage points or more.
Among Christians, women attend religious services more often, but among Muslims and Orthodox Jews, men attend more often
Another useful indicator of religious commitment is how often women and men say they attend religious worship services. The biggest exceptions to the overall pattern of women exceeding men in religious commitment can be found on this measure. Among Christians in many countries, women report higher rates of weekly church attendance than men. But among Muslims and Orthodox Jews, men are more likely than women to say they regularly attend services at a mosque or synagogue. Higher levels of weekly attendance among Muslim and Jewish men are due in large part to religious norms that prioritize men’s participation in worship services. In Orthodox Judaism, communal worship services cannot take place unless a minyan, or quorum of at least 10 men, is present. And in most Islamic societies, Muslim men are expected to attend communal Friday midday prayers in the mosque, while women can fulfill this obligation individually, either inside or outside the mosque.
Worldwide, this results in a mixed attendance pattern. Out of 81 countries where Pew Research Center surveys have asked about worship service attendance, women report greater levels of weekly attendance in 30 countries, most of which have Christian majorities or large Christian populations. In 28 countries – mostly places with Muslim majorities or large Muslim populations – men report greater weekly attendance than women. In the remaining 23 countries, the difference between women and men in self-reported attendance is not statistically significant.
Another measure of religious commitment concerns prayer, which can take place privately as well as publicly. Pew Research Center surveys have asked people in 84 countries how often they pray. In about half of those countries (43), substantially more women than men say they pray on a daily basis. Only in Israel, where roughly 22% of all Jewish adults self-identify as Orthodox, does a higher percentage of men than women report engaging in daily prayer. In the remaining countries, women and men are about equally likely to say they pray daily.
The difference between women and men in self-reported rates of daily prayer is the biggest average gender gap found in this study. Across the 84 countries for which data are available, the average share of women who say they pray daily is 8 percentage points higher than the average share of men. Even religiously unaffiliated women in some countries, including the United States and Uruguay, report praying daily at higher rates than unaffiliated men do.
Sacramento, CA: Having served two four-year terms on the San Jose, Calif., City Council, Ash Kalra has filed his nomination to run for state Assembly in California’s 27th district. The Indian American candidate’s candidature will appear on the ballot for the June 7 primary. “This was an exciting moment for me,” Kalra said in an email statement, adding he was proud to have his father on hand for the filing. “We have come so far since I first announced my campaign and the momentum just continues to build.”
In addition to the news of Kalra running for Assembly, the politician also recently opened his new campaign headquarters on Monterey Highway in San Jose, which was attended by a number of local dignitaries including Sen. Jim Beall, Assembly member Kansen Chu and supervisors Dave Cortese and Cindy Chavez.
“Our grassroots effort is constantly growing and we need your help to deliver my message to San Jose voters,” Kalra said. The district has been represented the past six years – three terms – by Democrat Nora Campos, who cannot run again as she has reached the term limit.
Ash Kalra has called San Jose home for over 37 years. In that time, he has developed a passion for serving his neighbors and making sure that our government is solving problems – not creating them.
Ash made history by becoming the first Indian-American to be elected to the San Jose City Council, where he currently represents District 2. In his time as a Councilmember, he has fought against cuts to public safety including standing up in favor of restoring the SJPD burglary unit and Violent Crimes Enforcement Team, worked to provide incentives for companies to locate and grow in San Jose and has been a champion for more transit options including the BART to Silicon Valley extension. Ash has been one of the foremost advocates of clean energy and reducing our dependence on fossil fuels while preserving our open spaces and protecting our surrounding habitat. Ash has been a voice for public safety, better schools, improved public transportation and a healthier environment.
Since 1999, Ash has been a law professor at Lincoln Law School of San Jose. Previously, he also taught at San Jose State University and at inner city Washington, DC high schools.
Prior to serving on the City Council, Ash was an attorney for the Santa Clara County Public Defender’s Office for 11 years. Most of his time was spent in drug treatment court where clients were given the opportunity to complete a rehabilitation program and turn their lives around. In addition, Ash served on numerous non-profit boards, including Somos Mayfair, the Asian Law Alliance, the South Asian Bar Association, Fresh Lifelines for Youth and the Santa Clara County Bar Association. Ash also helped to found the Hayes Neighborhood Association in the neighborhood in which he grew up and still lives today. Ash Kalra earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Communications from the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Law Degree from Georgetown University.
Mountain View, CA – March 27, 2012 – Over 800 of Silicon Valley’s top civic and South Asian community leaders, gathered at the Santa Clara County Convention Center Saturday, March 24th, to celebrate “Scarlet Night,” the fourth annual fundraising gala of the South Asian Heart Center at El Camino Hospital. The event pushed the Center past its annual goal of raising $300,000, generating more than $250,000 from ticket sales, individual donations, auction proceeds and corporate sponsorships to support the Center’s work to end the epidemic of heart disease among South Asians. Equally important, it raised awareness of just how critical this work has become.
Dr. Abraham Verghese, acclaimed author and Stanford physician who delivered the keynote speech, spoke of his own awakening to the prevalence of heart disease in the South Asian community, and how the South Asian Heart Center’s “science-based” approach won his support. His remarks emphasized South Asians’ unique needs when it comes to prevention. “If South Asians were to follow the diet through which Bill Clinton has achieved such exceptional results – extremely low in fat and carbs – it would be completely wrong for them, as that type of diet is not suitable for the South Asian genetic makeup. That is why a place like the South Asian Heart Center is so critical. It is focused on the particular issues that affect this population.”
Emmy Award-winning NBC TV news anchor Raj Mathai said his own family members experienced the devastating effects of heart disease at an early age, which is one reason he agreed to emcee the event. “This isn’t just an event, it is an eye opening experience,” he said. “What the South Asian Heart Center is doing for the Bay Area South Asian community is tremendous. It’s now our responsibility to get tested.”
One of the evening’s most poignant moments came when Ashish Mathur, executive director of the Center, asked those who personally have been affected by heart disease, including through a family member or close friend, to stand up. Nearly everyone in the room responded.
The impact the disease has had on the community was emphasized through comments of the speakers. Scarlet Night co-chair Rita Sharma recounted how her father suffered a fatal heart attack during an intercontinental air trip. “My father was a cardio-thoracic surgeon –and he had no idea that he had the disease!” she said. Co-chair Poornima Kumar also watched her father suffer a heart attack early in life. “The prevention and timely intervention offered by the South Asian Heart Center can make a huge impact on our health,” she said. “We do not need to be helpless victims of our genes.”
In spite of its serious message, there were plenty of ways to enjoy the evening, including a casino, a silent auction of collection-worthy wines and autographed copies of Dr. Verghese’s bestselling “Cutting for Stone,” and music, dance and comedy acts, topped off with a live auction and dancing to DJ Salim.
The delicious, mostly vegetarian meal, prepared by Amber India Restaurant’s Executive Chef Vittal Shetty, illustrated how meals can be brimming with flavorful appeal and nutrition while avoiding unhealthy fats and sugars. Each dish included significant amounts of nutrient-rich vegetables, underlining the message of the day: “eat more vegetables.” The posters at the winter vegetable soup serving stations declared, “Have you had your vegetables today? How about in a soup?”
For the Center’s earliest supporters and volunteers, the night represented a “coming of age.” Nancy K. Bugwadia, MS, RD, CNSC, chairperson of the South Asian Heart Center’s Nutrition Committee, said, “I’ve been associated with the Center for the past five years and it’s wonderful to see its phenomenal growth and the awareness of heart disease it has created in the South Asian community. What inspires me to continue is the passion I see here–to fight and win the battle against this epidemic.”
The Scarlet Night lead sponsor was the Silicon Valley Memory Clinic. Other top sponsors included Anthem eHome and Loan, Headstrong, PNG Jewelers, St. Jude Medical and Zojio Technologies. Additional sponsors included Building Kidz School, Farmers Insurance Group, Medtronic, New York Life, Pannu Dental Group, and Radio Zindagi.
“It’s hard to express the gratitude and satisfaction those of us who work at the Center feel at seeing the groundswell of support at this event,” said Mathur. “It’s the realization of a dream, but we cannot take it for granted. There is still so much more to do.”
Planning already is beginning for next year’s event, which will take place March 16, 2013. For more information and pictures from the event, go to www.southasianheartcenter.org/scarlet.
M.R. Rangswami, founder of Indiaspora, has been honored in Washington, D.C., with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the U.S. China Education Trust, at its inaugural event on March 17th. “The best years are still ahead of me,” said the Indian American venture capitalist, who founded Indiaspora in 2012.
“This is a lifetime achievement award. But I feel like I’m just getting started,” Rangaswami told the media shortly after the event, which was held at the Mayflower Hotel in the nation’s capital.
“I wish I had started the ‘giving back’ part of my journey earlier than I did. It is the most gratifying phase of life,” he said, adding: “Indian Americans need to get more engaged in their communities and politics. We need to also be role models and give more than our fair share to help others who are not as fortunate.”
Indian American philanthropist and entrepreneur Frank Islam introduced Rangaswami at the dinner, noting that he had founded the Sand Hill Group in the San Francisco Bay Area’s Silicon Valley. Founded in 1997, Sand Hill is one of the first software “angel investing” firms.
Islam also noted that Rangaswami in 2007 founded the Corporate Eco-Forum, a by-invitation-only membership organization for Global 500 companies that demonstrate a serious commitment to the environment as a business strategy. Today, the Forum has 70 members. He remarked on Rangaswami’s humble career beginnings at a manufacturing company in the U.S. “That job was not at the top of the totem pole – in fact, it was near the bottom,” said Islam.“For a first meeting, it was very productive,” he said.
James Chao, founder of Foremost Maritime Corporation, was also honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award. His daughter, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, accepted the award on her father’s behalf.
USCET was founded by former U.S. Ambassador Julia Chang Bloch in 1998 to promote U.S.-China Relations. This was the first year the organization gave out lifetime achievement awards.
Rangaswami was reported to have told the media that the event was designed to begin a U.S./China/India dialogue, which cohesively examines the relationship between the three countries, “going beyond borders and shipping lanes,” he explained.
“We have so many shared values,” said Rangaswami, who founded Indiaspora with the aim of catalyzing the Indian American community to make an impact both in the U.S. and India. He noted that both countries are looking to get more of its citizens into the middle class. “It opened a new window for Indiaspora to look externally for other diaspora organizations to partner with,” he said. “This is the first time there has been a discussion like this.”
Prior to the awards ceremony, USCET brought together former Ambassador Nicholas Platt – who has served in Pakistan, the Philippines and Zambia – and former Indian Ambassador Thomas Pickering – who has also served in Russia, Israel, El Salvador and Nigeria – for a panel discussion on the development of India and China as global economic powerhouses. International security expert Ashley Tellis – who formerly served as a special advisor to the U.S. ambassador to India – joined the discussion, along with Wu Xi, the deputy chief of mission from China to the U.S.
Indicted Indian American restaurateur Harendra Singh is no longer able to pay his business attorney, according to a court filing reported by Newsday, a popular daily from Long Island, NY. Singh has been in jail since December 2015 after he violated his bond conditions by fraudulently submitting a loan application, pending trial.
Smithtown lawyer Howard Greenberg, who has represented Singh for years on many of his business dealings, withdrew as counsel last month on a lawsuit against two of Singhs’ companies by a valet company.
“The defendants are unable to meet present financial obligations to our office for the continuing litigation in this matter and such obligations have been outstanding,” Greenberg said in a court filing asking State Supreme Court Judge Randy Sue Marber in Mineola permission to withdraw. Greenberg also wrote that Singh’s incarceration since Dec. 16 has “made communication and defense of the case a near impossibility.” Marber granted the request on Feb. 24.
Woodbury-based All Metro Valet Parking, Inc. sued two of Singh’s companies — SRB Catering Corp. and SRB Woodlands, Inc. — in 2014 for $26,378 plus interest on what it claimed were unpaid bills from the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014.
In September, Singh was indicted on 13 federal charges including bribing an Oyster Bay official to obtain $20 million loan guarantees on loans that were supposed to be for capital improvements at the town golf course and Tobay Beach.
Many of Singh’s companies face lawsuits from creditors. The largest pending lawsuit comes from the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp., which last year sued Singh’s companies in federal court for more than $3.1 million in pension liabilities owed by the company that operated the Water’s Edge in New York City.
Harendra Singh plea deal has made no progress – A federal prosecutor had said in February 2016 that the government and the defense are having discussions aimed at a plea deal that would resolve the bribery case of Long Island restaurateur Harendra Singh.
Appearing before U.S. District Court Judge Sandra Feuerstein, the prosecutor on the case, Catherine Mirabile, had said both sides were “working toward a possible resolution” of the case however no progress has been reported on any kind of deal.
Sonika Vaid’s AmericanIdol journey came to an end one week after performing the Frozen song “Let it Go,” but that doesn’t mean her Disney dreams are dashed. After being saved by the judges twice, Indian American singer Sonika Vaid saw her “American Idol” journey ending on March 24 from the Fox singing competition show after she failed to rack up enough audience votes.
The 20-year-old student, who made history as the first contestant of South Asian descent to advance to the ‘Top 5’ of the reality singing completion, had been an early favorite of the judges since opening auditions, who had constantly made admiring comments about her powerful voice.
“I always wanted to work with people like Disney. I have grown up watching Disney movies [and the] Disney channel,” Vaid, 20, told reporters on a conference call on Friday (March 25). “I just love the music that they put out — their whole vibe.”
“Disney is always a dream. That would be really awesome,” the singer said. “I just really like pop and maybe a little bit of R&B, but now that I sang rock on the show, that’s always an option, but pop is something I am really going to just stick to.”
Vaid looked like a gorgeous Disney princess right out of a movie, singing songs like Evanescence’s “Bring Me to Life” in a flowing black dress. The singer said she loved to get all dolled up, “even for the dark songs.”
“I was singing Evanescence in this beautiful gown that made me feel like I was going to the Oscars. The wardrobe team was just insane,” she said. “The dress I was going to wear for [the Sia song] “Love Me Back to Life” was breathtaking. I’m a little sad that I didn’t get to wear it because it’s really beautiful.”
While working with the mouse is at the top of Vaid’s wish list, she also wants to stick with pop if she continues to pursue music. The episode marked the Martha’s Vineyard resident’s third time in the bottom, and now that there were no saves left on the farewell season of the show, Vaid, whose rendition of pop hit “Clarity” by DJ Zedd featuring English singer Fox on March 17 couldn’t pull in the fan votes, was sent home.
“Being in this competition has been the biggest journey of my life,” Vaid, who sobbed on being axed, said in her final words before thanking the judges and her mother.
“I think I got more comfortable being onstage. I just feel so blessed to be here right now. This has been such an amazing experience. I came out of my comfort zone and it’s been like a dream for me.”
Only two Indian Americans in the past have made it to the finals of the much famed singing competition. Sanjaya Malakar advanced to the seventh place on the sixth season while Anoop Desai achieved a sixth place finish on the eighth season of the show.
Vaishak Kumar and Kriya Patel, two Indian-American students are among 3 winners of the generous 2016 President’s Engagement Prize at the University of Pennsylvania. Seniors Vaishak Kumar and Kriya Patel as well as Melanie Mariano were named the recipients of the $150,000 prize announced March 23, by UPenn President Amy Gutmann.
“Vaishak, Melanie and Kriya embody the very best qualities of Penn undergraduates: their eagerness and ability to translate knowledge into real-world impact and to apply their Penn education toward the betterment of humankind,” Gutmann is quoted saying in a press release.
“These projects represent a most remarkable range of Penn-educated talent, determination and public-spirited enterprise among our students. They will no doubt be outstanding ambassadors of public service, and I look forward to seeing the results of their projects.”
Each awardee receives as much as $100,000 for project implementation expenses and $50,000 for living expenses. The Prizes, first awarded last year, are competitively awarded annually to Penn seniors to design and undertake local, national or global engagement projects during the first year after they graduate.
Kumar, a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, plans to use cost-efficient technology and novel research to help farmers in India boost their productivity. He will be part of the NESARA Agricultural Extension program. His initiative will employ mobile technology to improve farmer education in India, where the plight of farmers continues to be of great concern. He will also set up a low-cost mobile laboratory to provide farmers with timely, personalized information. Kumar is being mentored by by Devesh Kapur, director of UPenn’s Cener for the Advanced Study of India.
Patel, also a senior in the College of Arts & Sciences, will help women about to be released from the all-female Riverside Correctional Facility in Philadelphia apply for and secure health insurance and identification prior to release. The project entitled “Coming Home to Continued Care, by providing that access to health insurance, will allow the women to stay on their much-needed medication, aiding them with the process of re-entry into society. Patel will keep track of the women for at least three years to monitor the effects of continued care on recidivism rates. She is being mentored by Kathleen Brown, a practice associate professor of Nursing.
Mariano, a Nursing senior, will carry out a project to do with helping library patrons obtain health information, medical counseling and preventive health services.
The U.S. Department of Justice has opened a civil rights investigation into the decision by Bernards Township in New Jersey authorities for denying application by the community to build a mosque in the township, according to a report by NJ.com
The March 16 report said quoted a spokesman for the New Jersey U.S. Attorney’s office in Newark that the civil rights investigation by the Department of Justice will look into whether the township violated the rights of members of the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge over its prolonged, and ultimately failed, application to build a mosque on Church Street.
The report about the investigation came after the Islamic Society of Basking Ridge, led by the former mayor, Mohammad Ali Chaudry, filed a lawsuit in federal court in Newark earlier in March, accusing the town’s planning board of breaking a law unanimously passed by Congress in 2000 protecting houses of worship from being unduly burdened by land use regulations.
The New York Times had earlier reported that the story involving the proposal to build the Mosque began in November 2011 when Chaudry, a retired AT&T executive who has also served as the township’s mayor decided with some friends to open a mosque in the township where he has lived for some 40 years and has been on its board of education and has led a task force to create the town’s community center.
But the society could not have its mosque proposal sanctioned by the board as the latter rejected it year after year under one ground or the other. The NYT report said what followed after the initial proposal were 39 public hearings, and nearly four years of demands by town officials and planning board members for one change after another. “Each solution proposed or agreed to by the Islamic Society led to objections on other grounds. Often, members of the public raised issues — some saying that a bucolic area was not the right setting for a mosque, or that it might interfere with a volunteer fire department station across the road,’ the report said.
A leading opponent of the mosque project said that Islamic Shariah law is “one of the greatest threats to American values and liberties,” and led a relentless campaign of challenges to virtually every aspect of the project.
The suit was filed about three months after township planners unanimously rejected the proposal to build the mosque. Among other things, the lawsuit filed the society has called for appointment of a monitor to oversee compliance with all federal laws in all committee and planning board decisions for five years.
New York, NY: Niraj Baxi of Silicon Valley (USA) has been elected as the President of Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO) last week. According to a press release, the new international executive council conducted elections electronically for the first time, where 208 of the 223 international delegates from 21 countries cast votes, electing a new team to lead the global organization in the coming years. Other elected officers are: Noel Lal (Sydney, Australia) as Executive Vice President, Mr. Ram Gadhavi (New Jersey, USA) Vice President, Dr. Rajeev Mehta (USA), Dr. Pradip Sewoke (France), Mrs. Suman Kapoor (New Zealand), and Mr. Rajidre Tiwari (The Netherland) as International Coordinators. The election process was supervised by GOPIO Chairman Inder Singh who will continue in that position.
Formed in 1989 at the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin, GOPIO has now reached most countries with a sizable Indian Diaspora population. Past GOPIO elections were generally held at its biennial conventions wherein only a fraction of the international delegates could participate. However, with new technologies being available, the present election was held electronically with a record participation by 93% of the international delegates.
With India at the threshold of accepting new technologies and business investment, the new team has come up with a motto, “GOPIO Means Business” so as to attract Indian Diaspora entrepreneurs and businessmen to take more interest in investing in India in all spheres, in business, philanthropy, education healthcare and social causes. With an investment and business friendly government in India, we see a lot opportunity for the Indian Diaspora to invest and actively participate in India’s development,” said President Niraj Baxi.
GOPIO Executive Vice President Noel Lal said that GOPIO would reach out all countries where we have the Diaspora presence. Vice President Ram Gadhavi who has brought Gujarati Diaspora writers on a common platform in the US, plans to extend it to all Indian writers on a global GOPIO forum.
GOPIO Founder President Dr. Thomas Abraham, who also serves as the Executive Trustee of GOPIO Foundation said that GOPIO will increase its social and philanthropic activities in India as well as in countries with a large Indian Diaspora population. Baxi further said that he would work towards making GOPIO the voice of any and all NRIs and PIOs and would take initiatives in growing GOPIO all countries and regions of the world.
“In all our internal and external activities, we want to bring about fairness, transparency and accountability; there are many challenges that lie ahead of us and we need good wishes and continued hard work from everyone,” Baxi continued.
In 1984, Niraj visited various countries, becoming the first emissary of the National Federation of Indian American Associations (NFIA), which sponsored the First Global Convention of People of Indian Origin in 1989. He coordinated NFIA and GOPIO organized the 90th Anniversary of Gadar in San Francisco. Niraj has served as Regional Vice President of GOPIO. Niraj has served in several positions at NFIA and became its President in 2003. He is also active in many civic, political and community service Associations. Professionally, Niraj is a third generation insurance and financial services professional.
Originally from Fiji, Noel came into GOPIO at the 2000 GOPIO Convention in Zurich, Switzerland. Executive Vice President – Noel Lal (Sydney, Australia) served as the Regional VP and International Coordinator for the Oceania region. Noel is also a current Trustee of the Foundation for Educating Needy Children in Fiji. A Justice of Peace in Australia, Noel is an engineer by profession is currently the Managing Director of South Pacific Engineering Pty Ltd.
For four decades, Vice President, Ram Gadhavi (Wayne, New Jersey, USA) has been involved in various community activities, starting with the India Cultural Society of NJ where he served as its Chairman, helped build the Gandhi Mandir, was Secretary/President of the Federation of Indian Associations (FIA of CT, NJ & NY) where he organized the 1st India Day Parade, President of Gujarati Literary Academy of NA, Secretary of Bharatiya Vidyà Bhavan (USA), and as founding Co-Convener of the first GOPIO Convention in 1989. A chemical engineering project manager of Lummus Co., Ram, after retirement, started a home building and re-modelling company.
International Coordinator for North America – Dr. Rajeev Mehta (Piscataway, New Jersey, USA) is the Founder President of GOPIO-Central Jersey (and served in this capacity 2008 to 2012). He also served as Co-chair of the GOPIO Health Council (2010-2014), Co-Convener of the 2011 GOPIO International Biennial Convention held in New Jersey, and Chair of GOPIO Health Council 2014 onward. He has organized several health camps on behalf of GOPIO Central Jersey. He is a researcher, clinician and professor at Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Jersey. For more information, contact GOPIO President Niraj Baxi at email president@gopio.net or 408-307-9845 or visit www.gopio.net
The City of New York has announced that based on an analysis of seasonally adjusted job numbers for February 2016 provided by the New York State Department of Labor, New York City added 4,500 jobs in February, reaching a record total of just below 4.3 million jobs across all five boroughs. Since Mayor de Blasio took office in January of 2014, New York City has added 256,700 private sector jobs, an increase of 7.4 percent.
Since Mayor de Blasio took office, the strongest employment gains are in Health Care & Social Assistance, with growth of nearly 48,000 jobs, and Professional, Scientific, & Technical Services, with growth of over 38,000 jobs.
“We continue to see an impressive jobs return on smart investments we’re making in the city’s fastest growing sectors that will provide New Yorkers throughout the five boroughs with jobs for decades to come,” said Deputy Mayor for Housing and Economic Development Alicia Glen.
“The numbers don’t lie: over last two years, we’ve seen the largest number of jobs in the history of our City,” said NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer. “It’s five-borough employment growth that tells us we’re on the right track toward a productive, innovative, and equitable City. But we’re not stopping here. We’re looking forward to getting more New Yorkers access to good-paying, career-building jobs in the years ahead.”
Under the de Blasio administration, New York City has also seen a dramatic increase in the growth of jobs in neighborhoods outside of Manhattan. According to the most recent available data, the number of private sector jobs in boroughs outside of Manhattan increased by 6.4 percent since Mayor de Blasio took office, more than double the rate of the 2.9 percent increase in Manhattan, and significantly higher than the 4.7 percent increase in a comparable timeframe from 2011 to 2013 in the outer boroughs, demonstrating increased economic opportunity for many New Yorkers in neighborhoods that had been previously left behind.
Mayor de Blasio has been particularly focused on creating good middle class jobs that are accessible to New Yorkers from all backgrounds. The Mayor recently announced a suite of initiatives that will grow the city’s industrial and manufacturing economy, including the $150 million NYC Industrial Developer Fund, launched earlier this month, which will help create new space for the next generation of industrial jobs. Last week, Mayor de Blasio announced the 2017 launch of Citywide Ferry Service, which will connect New Yorkers in neighborhoods from Soundview to the Rockaways with good job opportunities in all five boroughs. Earlier today, the de Blasio administration announced a major expansion of initiatives to support minority and women-owned developers and contractors, including a $10 million loan fund that will allow for real estate development and job creation.
New York City Economic Development Corporation is the City’s primary vehicle for promoting economic growth in each of the five boroughs. NYCEDC’s mission is to stimulate growth through expansion and redevelopment programs that encourage investment, generate prosperity and strengthen the City’s competitive position. NYCEDC serves as an advocate to the business community by building relationships with companies that allow them to take advantage of New York City’s many opportunities.
HICKSVILLE, NY: Indian American Forum presented, Thursday March 25, the Fifth Annual Outstanding Women’s Achievements Awards, as part of Women’s History month, in recognition of the contributions made by women in the Tri-State area of New York.
Five women who excelled in their professions and community services received the Outstanding Women’s Achievements Awards. IAF Chairperson Indu Jaiswal spoke about the organization and the awards
Dr. Manjeet Chadda, Professor of Radiation & Oncology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, for dedication in Medicine and Community Services; Dr Runi Mukherji Ratnam for dedication in Education & Social Services; Sunita Sadhnani for dedication in Business Development and community services; Meera T Gandhi for dedication as Humanitarian and Social promotions; and Jyoti Gupta for her dedication in Music and Cultural promotions
Nassau County Executive Edward P. Mangano said in a message:”The Indian American Forum has established a distinguished record of excellence, working diligently on behalf of causes and ideals, which uphold the principles of Human decency and brotherhood”.
Citations were presented to honorees and they were praised fortheir efforts and congratulated for their achievements. Among the gathering, several elected dignitaries were present who included MS Judi Bosworth, Supervisor for the Town of North Hempstead,
Councilwoman Hon. Dorothy L Goosby, and Town Clerk from Town of Hempstead Nasrin Ahmed. Among the gathering were seen a former President of IALI Satnam Singh Parhar, HAB Bank VP Rizwan Qureshi, and Dr. Dev Ratnam whose wife Dr. Runi Mukherji Ratnam was one of the five honorees.
Nalini Malani from India was among the three artists honored by The Asia Society as artists, art collectors, art dealers, and members of the Hong Kong business community packed the Conrad Hotel at the kick off Art Basel Hong Kong, a week of major art events in the city. Cai Guo-Qiang and Yoshitomo Nara, were the other two artists to be honored, as Asia Society Vice President for Global Arts & Cultural Programs Boon Hui Tan put it, “touching our souls.”
The artists — giants in contemporary Asian art — were named “Asia Arts Game Changers” at Asia Society’s 2016 Asia Arts Awards for their transformative work in the field. All three artists have been showcased, often early in their careers, by Asia Society. Nara, whose fanciful — and sometimes unsettling — illustrations of children were recognized for being “the mirror image of ourselves,” has had major shows at Asia Society Museum in New York (Nobody’s Fool, 2010) and at Asia Society Hong Kong (Life is Only One: Yoshitomo Nara, 2015).
Malani, a “champion of the marginalized,” had her work shown at Asia Society Museum in New York as a part of Traditions/Tensions: Contemporary Art in Asia (1996) and in the one-person exhibition Transgressions(2014). Cai Guo-Qiang’s solo exhibition An Explosion Event: Light Show Over Central Park was on view at Asia Society Museum, New York, in 2003. His work was also featured in the Society’s groundbreaking 1998 exhibition Inside Out: New Chinese Art.
Guests at the Hong Kong event, which included Asia Society’s global board of trustees, also bid on works of contemporary Asian art, donated by the artists themselves to benefit Asia Society’s work. A standout was the painting Noble’s Virtue by Chinese icon Pan Gongkai, who was also on hand for the event.
“Artists often feel isolated and uncertain,” said Cai, who thanked Asia Society for its long-time support and inspiration, and said the honor “will encourage me to be more courageous in my work.”
Beyond the celebration of today’s contemporary stars, the evening’s main theme was Asia Society’s role as a standard bearer for new artists. Said Cai, “Wherever Asia Society goes, Asia follows.”
NEW YORK —Vasudeo S. Gaitonde, one of India’s most important abstract artist’s masterpiece painting ‘Untitled’ fetched a whopping $2.8 million at Sotheby’s, leading the sales at a week-long auction of Southeast Asian works of art at the auction house here, last week, during ‘Asia Week New York.’
Sotheby’s sales of Indian, Himalayan and Southeast Asian works of art altogether raised $55 million. Gaitonde’s painting, the largest-known canvas by the artist, led both the sales and all of Sotheby’s Asia Week New York auctions. The art sale included works by India’s modern masters, including Amrita Sher-Gil and Raja Ravi Varma.
The auction was commissioned by Air India to commemorate the addition of transatlantic flights to their schedule, the auction house said in a statement. “Our sale built on the growing western interest in modern and contemporary South Asian art with great results for artists, such as Nasreen Mohamedi and Bhupen Khakhar, who are soon to be the subjects of exhibitions at the newly-opened Met Breuer… They joined the likes of V.S. Gaitonde and Amrita Sher-Gil at the highest echelons of the auction market,” Yamini Mehta, international head of department of Indian and South Asian art at Sotheby’s, said.
An untitled portrait of a lady in a russet and crimson sari by Varma, India’s earliest oil painter, went for almost 2.5 times its estimate, selling at $586,000. Henry Howard-Sneyd, chairman of Asian Arts, Americas and Europe at Sotheby’s, said the Asia Week total of about $55 million was at the “top of pre-sale expectations, proving that clients across the globe remain actively engaged in collecting the finest examples of Asian Art.”
“He (Dr. Muhammed Majeed) came as an immigrant to the United States with $8 dollars in his pocket; his ambition was to work and study – both of which he did. His business commitment was very clear, make the best ingredients, give the absolute best service and make sure it’s based on real science,” Shaheen Majeed, Sabinsa’s Marketing Director, described proudly of his dad recently.
Dr. Muhammed Majeed, founder of SAMI/Sabinsa Group of Companies, was born and raised in Kerala, India. He has been a visionary with zeal and commitment all along. It was his urge to establish himself not just as a scientist but also an entrepreneur that made him fly beyond his home turf. In 1975, after obtaining a degree in pharmacy, he came to the United States, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Industrial Pharmacy from Long Island University, New York, and soon he proceeded to do his doctoral degree in the same field from St John’s University, New York.
His experiences working in Pfizer Inc, Carter-Wallace and Paco Research, gave him the exposure and confidence to start something all by himself. In 1988, Dr. Majeed established Sabinsa Corporation in the state of New Jersey, USA with the objective of importing and marketing generic drugs into the US for the drug molecules coming off patents.
Dr. Majeed rightly anticipated and assessed the undeveloped market opportunity that existed in providing Ayurveda-based products to the developed world. “The vision of a research scientist takes on social and commercial expressions.” This in short explains the genesis and growth of Sami Labs Limited.
Dr. Muhammed Majeed
Dr. Majeed was a pioneer in introducing to the US market a new line of products based on Indian herbal plants, the value of Ayurveda, and this ancient Indian system of medicine that could act as a complete curative to various ailments that affect humanity. The persistent efforts made by Dr. Majeed in the early 90’s in the field of Ayurveda did reap benefits among the Americans. They started recognizing the potential of Ayurveda which was soon considered as Alternative medicine. By 2000 it became popularly accepted as Complementary medicine and now it is part of the Integrated medicine.
To facilitate the increased demand for innovative application-based products, Sami Labs Limited (formerly known as Sami Chemicals & Extracts Limited) was set up in 1991 at Singasandra in Bangalore, India, as a research and development facility. The facility now has over 500 talented and committed staff working for the company. Sami Labs combines manufacturing and global marketing of nutraceuticals and fine chemicals with cutting edge research. Although the transition from a researcher to heading a marketing company was a tremendous challenge, Dr. Majeed handled it successfully. Sabinsa Corporation, the research oriented pharmaceutical and nutraceutical marketing company’s main thrust and focus is to research and innovate new products.
Sabinsa’s mission is to provide alternative and complementary natural products for human nutrition and wellbeing. Over the past 27 years, Sabinsa has brought to market more than 100 standardized botanical extracts, and privately funded clinical studies in conjunction with prestigious institutions in support of these products.
Sabinsa Corporation manufactures and markets phytonutrients, Ayurvedic herbal extracts and specialty fine chemicals for nutritional, pharmaceutical and food industries. Sabinsa has carved a niche for itself by its extensive research support for its customers about products, and the scientific credentials of its key technical staff.
Dr. Majeed in the lab
The company grew faster and has made its presence felt across the globe. In order to cater to the expanding global market, Sami Labs has presence and strategic alliances in USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, Middle East, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Indonesia. The global revenue of the company stood at USD 70 million (for 2015), with an employee strength of 150 people globally, more than 750 in India alone, and having over 110 scientists worldwide. At present, the New Jersey based firm employs over 60 people.
Both QUALITY and INNOVATION were and continues to be the key components that resulted in awards. In addition, Sami pioneered the research and marketing of a number of phytonutrients based on Indian raw materials.
“It is my firm belief that integration of modern scientific techniques into Ayurvedic herbal armamentarium can produce new drug molecules for India and for the world,” Dr. Majeed says. “A revisit into Ayurveda with the help of modern scientific approach from pharmaceutical era can produce very useful and safe products. Drug discovery from Ayurveda using technologies developed in the pharmaceutical era, can result in substantial number of newer molecules for modern therapeutic use.”
According to him, there is a greater need to adopt the modern testing and evaluation tools to identify useful herbal drug molecules. “I call upon all established Ayurvedic groups in India to work with research based groups such as Sami Labs to develop innovative therapeutic products for the molecular age. We at Sami Labs welcome such initiatives,” he says.
Recognizing the many challenges the herbal industry faces today, Dr. Majeed says, “Natural product industry is facing its biggest challenge now. On top of the misguided genomic testing, we are now faced with adulteration of natural products especially Curcumin. Those of us who have spent our careers making and selling products to improve the health of our fellow human beings know that those writing and saying dietary supplements are either dangerous, unregulated or have no benefit are mistaken, and most of the criticism is unfounded.”
Recognizing the importance of respecting and honoring Intellectual Property, which he believes is essential for continued innovation, Dr. Majeed refers to a new threat that “must be stamped out to preserve the integrity of the industry and safety of the products we all make.” He was alarmed, for instance that a company selling Curcumin extract in India for export to the US was adulterating their product with 43% synthetic curcumin, but not revealing the synthetic contents. He calls upon the trade associations and all companies committed to the future of the industry “to work together to discover how widespread this deceptive practice is, and to take action to weed it out.”
Dr. Majeed believes that Sabinsa is not alone in being dedicated to providing high quality, science-based products to enhance human health and wellbeing, and “I call on like-minded companies and the industry’s trade associations to weed out those companies and practices that undermine quality and erode confidence in the entire industry.”
Recognitions and awards came on its way, as Sami Labs and its dedicated staff work hard to innovate and find new natural remedies to prevent and manage the illnesses that affect humanity. Sami Lab’s investment in research and patents, and the pivotal role of these efforts in garnering credibility for scientifically validated ingredients, is a case in point. “For example, our BioPerine® patent brought out the concept that it is not what you eat, but what you absorb that is important in the area of nutrition,” Dr. Majeed says. This formed the basis of a fundamental paradigm shift in how we approach supplementation. Numerous scientific publications in subsequent years validated this concept.
Among the 110 patents now held by Sabinsa and Sami Labs, seven are specific to an ingredient the company trademarked as BioPerine®, Sabinsa’s standardized 95% piperine extract that has been shown in clinical research to increase the absorption of nutrients in nutritional supplement formulations.
After a sizable investment of time and resources, we determined that a 95% purified piperine extracted from pepper was able to enhance the absorption and bioavailability of a large array of dietary ingredients, safely and effectively. The enormous investment Sabinsa made has resulted in seven patents on BioPerine®, with its clearly novel use and process. These patents are strictly enforced in the United States (US 5,536,506; US 5,744,161; US 5,972,382; US 6,054,585), Canada (CA2247467), Europe (EP0810868) and Japan (JP3953513).
Today, black pepper extract is a relatively well known ingredient in nutritional supplement formulas as a bioavailability enhancement ingredient. Prior to Sabinsa’s introduction of BioPerine®, it was unheard of.
Dr. Majeed has provided a service for an untold number of future scientists and entrepreneurs. Not satisfied with his success, Dr. Majeed wanted to share his wealth with those in need and wanted to encourage true research around the world. Dr. Majeed Foundation, which he has so generously established, gives charitable contributions to schools and institutions worldwide by providing computers and rebuilding lecture halls, has recently taken on a mission to provide care to children with cancer.
SAMI’s research based new products picked up recognition from Governments across the world and several in the industry from around the world. Sami received the National award for quality products from the President of India in the area of Basic Drugs. Sami Labs was also honored twice by the Spices Board of India, receiving one award for developing a market for Garcinia cambogia and the other for export performance.
In 1997, Sabinsa Corporation had been ranked America’s 90th fastest growing company by INC. Magazine. Sabinsa also ranked 7th in New Jersey among the fastest growing Technology based companies (New Jersey Fast 50).
In early 1999, Sami Labs started a division called Sami Spices based at Cochin, India to promote procurement and marketing of spices. Sami Labs, Ltd. was named “Best Innovation and Technology Company” at the Food 360° Conference organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Dr. Majeed received awards from several Indian American groups for his enterprising work and progress. He also received the 1996 Entrepreneur of the year award by the National Federation of Asian Americans. Sami Labs recently received the “Best Customer Centric Business Partner for 2012” award from Abbott Healthcare. The award was related to Sami Labs supplying ingredients to Abbott for their product MelaGlow New, an innovative depigmentation cream formulated using Sami’s ingredients.
Dr. Majeed was given the Daniel B. Stateman Award for Distinguished Alumni from Dr. David Taft at Long Island University’s 121st Graduation ceremony in Brooklyn, New York in 2010.
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is sanctioned by the U.S. Congress, symbolizes the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity. It recognizes those who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America. Dr. Majeed was presented with the medal at a gala event held on May 15th, 2004, on Ellis Island, New York.
In March 2016, Dr. Majeed was honored for his pioneering role in building the nutraceuticals industry when he was inducted into the Hall Of Legends at Natural Products Expo West on in Anaheim California by New Hope Network, which honors the industry’s greatest contributors each year in the Hall of Legends ceremony, with “12 individuals who have devoted significant portions of their lives making this industry what it is today.”
In presenting the award, Fred Linder, New Hope Network Group President, said “Dr. Muhammed Majeed is, quietly, a groundbreaking figure in the nutritional and cosmeceutical ingredients industries. As the founder of both Sabinsa Corporation and Sami Labs, his commitment to utilizing science to discover why traditional Indian herbs are beneficial and then expand their applications has resulted in an array of unique branded ingredients backed by over 100 patents across the globe.”
“It is gratifying to have our dedication to innovation recognized by our peers,” says Dr. Majeed. “We appreciate such recognition of our talented, highly educated and proficient team.”
With more than 100 full-time scientists conducting ongoing research in India and the United States, Sabinsa and parent company Sami Labs Ltd. continue to develop, patent and manufacture phytonutrients for the world market, with ingredients that are both Halal and Kosher certified. Sabinsa is a company dedicated to the principles of tradition, innovation and research. Sabinsa’s efforts have begun to earn the company vast recognition, in addition to growing sales. Dr. Muhammed Majeed worked hard with confidence. His highly successful life story inspires all who are ambitious, want to dream big and work hard earnestly to make those dreams come true. For more information, visit www.sabinsa.com.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of the world’s greatest leaders. The list of Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders for the year 2016 features men and women from across the world who have excelled in business, government, philanthropy and arts, transforming and inspiring the world to repeat their feat. The third annual list was announced March 24th.
Fortune has listed Arvind Kejriwal as the 42nd in the list and is the only Indian name to make it to the list. Another person of Indian origin to make it to the list is the Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, with a rank of 17. And the only other Indian American politician and lawyer Reshma Saujani, based in New York, has also made it to the list at the 20th spot.
The Fortune list sought outstanding leaders in all sectors of society around the world. It recognized those who are inspiring others to act, to follow them on a worthy quest and who have shown staying power.
According to Fortune, Kejriwal, the founder of the Aam Aadmi Party, has worked towards controlling the pollution of one of the busiest metros of India through the odd-even scheme, which has taken a toll on his popularity back in India.
Fortune said “When Kejriwal unveiled a blueprint to tackle the smog in New Delhi — called the world’s most polluted city by the World Health Organization — many were sceptical. A key component: an ‘odd-even’ pilot project in which vehicles were allowed on the roads only on alternate days.”
It also added “The uplifting result of the pilot this January: roads were less clogged, hourly particulate air pollution concentrations dropped by 13 percent, and citizens could breathe deeply.” It also said that the leadership is not just demagoguery, pandering, even populism but the way normal citizens work towards making a change in the life of fellow beings in a way people have never imagined.
The US-based magazine said in a reference to Kejriwal and Domenico Lucano, the Mayor of the Italian town of Riace, who was ranked 40th on the list that when the Delhi Chief Minister risked his career to fight pollution, the Italian mayor showed example by welcoming Middle East migrants to his tiny town—improving its economy and brightening their prospects.
Fortune highlighted the summer of 2015, following the massacre of nine people in a Charleston, S.C., church, when Haley was instrumental in the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. That removal sparked a movement throughout the South to remove the charged symbol, Fortune said. It added that the Republican Haley “is proving that Trumpism isn’t the only way. South Carolina’s Indian American governor was among the earliest in her party to call out GOP presidential front-runner (Donald Trump), warning against ‘the siren call of the angriest voices’— in a nationally televised State of the Union response, no less.”
Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code, that works to close the gender gap in technology has been listed in as the 20th in the list. The 40-year old former Wall Street attorney has given training and internship programs for more than 40,000 girls. In a TED talk in February, which has since accrued more than 800,000 views, Saujani stressed teaching girls to be brave rather than perfect.
Also in the list is Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who according to Fortune is the only female leader among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states. “Hasina has deftly navigated the competing demands of Islamic tradition and women’s rights,” says Fortune.
Amazon CEO Bezo topped this year’s list and has been consistently featuring in all three years since Fortune started listing the World’s Greatest Leaders. Pope Francis is listed at the 4th position followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The list includes names of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2), Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at (3), US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (22), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde (36), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair and CEO Melinda Gates and Susan Desmond-Hellmann (41), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (48) and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay (50).
While introducing the 50 greatest leaders, Fortune wrote: “The leaders you’ll meet here, known and new, will lift your mood and upgrade your assessment of the world’s future. Some may inspire you to join their followers. And those unheard-ofs, so seemingly ordinary, may even prompt you to rethink your own potential as an inspiring leader.”
From the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, “In Other Words” (Knopf, 231 pp., **½ out of four stars) is a powerful nonfiction debut— which has been described as an “honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words.”
According to critiques, In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her.
As per some critiques, there’s a beautiful medium-length essay lost somewhere in Jhumpa Lahiri’s unilluminating and self-regarding new book In Other Words. Its conceit is exciting — one of the most gifted living writers of English prose deciding mid-career to write in Italian, daring failure — and it has moments of the cool and piercing emotional acuity that characterize her four previous books.
But too few of them, and thematically Lahiri (The Lowland, The Namesake) never moves far past her initial awe at the act of audacity it has taken her to write these essays and short fictions. Late on she says she composed them “as if they were homework for my Italian lessons.” Well, we think — yes, that sounds about right.
Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.
What drove this experiment, in which Lahiri presents her Italian writings and their English translations (by Ann Goldstein) on facing pages? Language is essential to the identity of many of Lahiri’s Indian-American characters, and In Other Words describes the author’s own linguistic history. Her first memories of speech are of learning Bengali, but it was in English that she became American, and in English that she achieved fame as a writer.
By this light, her adoption of Italian seems felicitously ambiguous, another gesture of rebirth. She moves to Rome, and, writing in the city’s language, with a little dictionary at hand, says, “I’m aware of a state of deprivation. And yet, at the same time, I feel free, light. I rediscover the reason I write, the joy as well as the need.”
There’s the promise of something profound in this cleansing reinvention, midway upon life’s journey. But In Other Words never does much more than reiterate this central idea, declining to follow it too deep into the reaches of autobiography — Lahiri is steelier than ever here — and alighting instead on a series of year-abroad banalities about the minor errors involved in learning a new language.
Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.
And indeed she treats these not with any sense of humor, which might have given them charm, but with deep gravity, a quality that pushes the book from disappointing to irritating. The tutors and publishers and friends who fill its vignettes are all solemnly reverent about her journey into Italian, and she herself refers to other writers famous for working in a second language (Conrad, Beckett, Nabokov) without quite the same irony and self-doubt that attended their transitions.
Add to this an understandable diminution in the excellence of her prose (phrases like “a stunning clarity,” which could be selling you a television, keep popping up), and a more surprising impoverishment of imagery (within a few pages she twice identifies new words in Italian as jewel-like, a weary simile from the outset), and you have a good author’s first bad book.
But even a bad book by a writer as gifted as Jhumpa Lahiri has something to offer. “Why do I write?” she asks at one of this volume’s elusive high moments, which call to mind the power of which she’s capable. “To investigate the mystery of existence. To tolerate myself. To get closer to everything that is outside of me.” It will be thrilling when she resumes that project.
WASHINGTON: With India setting an ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatts (Gw) of clean energy by 2022, a top US official said that India has the potential to be “a change agent” for the rest of the world in the renewable sector though the transformation process is going to be tough.
“India could really be a change agent for the rest of the world in the renewable energy sector if they get it right. So we have a vested interest in helping them get that right,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Transformation Melanie Nakagawa said.
And as India embarks on the $1 trillion project to build its infrastructure from road to ports, she said it is a great opportunity for the world, “to showcase” India as a country that gets the sustainability future right. But at the same time, she acknowledged that it is going to be tough.
“I think that there’s a story to be written there as they get closer to it but it’s going to be tough.I mean it’s going to take not just the political will, but it’s going to take the reforms and the policies needed to actually see this possible future happen,” she said.
Noting that Indian government needs $100 billion in investment including $70 billion of debt financing to meet their 175 gigawatt target by 2022, the US official said those numbers can’t be met with public finance alone. And necessary reforms are needed to attract private investment.
“India’s commitments on the 175 gigawatt renewable energy target by 2022, their commitments on solar, their commitments also in the finance infrastructure space, this all makes it a really impressive political will, signal and political will,” Nakagawa said.
India has set itself an ambitious target of generating 175 gigawatt of power by 2022 from renewable sources that includes 100 Gw from solar, 60 Gw from wind, 10 Gw from biomass and 5 Gw from small hydroelectric project.
India and the US are working closely together in this field. The US-India Clean Energy Finance Task Force which was established in September 2015 has had three meetings so far.
This is a government-to-government task force focused on clean energy investment and finance.It’s complimented by a private sector led task force called a Clean Energy Finance Forum, the which is led by Uday Kemkha and SunEdison.
The task force, she said, has proposed three recommendations for how the US can work with India on getting to scale clean energy projects. The three proposals on the table include standardizing power purchase agreements; first loss facility and looking at the idea of warehousing and securitization for renewable energy projects.
“This is all about reducing project risk in the renewable energy space; different ways you can reduce project risk,” the US official said. The first loss facility helps get at reducing that risk, she observed. The idea of warehousing and securitization of renewable energy project assets is sort of bundling smaller scale projects into a larger project.
“This is a government-to-government dialogue on a pretty technical issue, but one that is really fundamental to how you would actually see scalable investment happen in India in the renewable energy space. Because these are some of the most systemic and problematic barriers to the larger scale investments that are needed to hit the renewable energy targets,” she said.
According to Nakagawa, the Task Force is discussing just the enabling environment from a finance perspective. “What we’re looking at is the specific window of project based investment for the renewable energy sector and what are the impediments to that,” she said.
India is likely to surpass up-and-coming markets in 2016, according to a survey conducted by Morgan Stanley. Even as it was predicted that there would be a sizeable weakening of conviction among investors of the country when compared with that in the second half of 2015, media reports suggest.
The American multinational financial services company said that 52 percent of the respondents in the poll projected India to surpass emerging markets this year. On the other hand, 85 percent of the respondents had predicted the same in the previous survey conducted in the second half of 2015.
Apprehension has risen over the current shape of global economy and has set off a risk averse sentiment among global investors. This has induced several of them to withdraw money from riskier assets—including India—and move to gold and developed world bonds.
It is however, important to note that the survey conducted by Morgan Stanley showed a greater part of foreign investors to continue the course of their steadfast hope in India’s growth story. Underpinning this is the fact that the Sensex has climbed up 10 percent since Union finance minister, Arun Jaitley, presented the Budget for 2016-17 on February 29.
Foreign investors have injected nearly Rs 13,000 crore into Indian equities after pulling out nearly Rs 26,200 crore between the months of January and February this year. For the third time in a row, market participants support the claim that earnings growth is a key driver of market performance while all other factors have lost their place.
WASHINGTON: The U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC) led a mission on exploring avenues for joint collaboration and investment in clean technology across three Indian cities — New Delhi, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad.
The trade body comprised of 350 top-tier U.S. and Indian companies advancing U.S.-India commercial ties led talks to grow bilateral cooperation in innovation, protecting the environment and meeting the country’s ambitious clean energy targets.
The delegation included USIBC members working in the US-India energy corridor, presenting a board range of opportunity in the renewable energy space such as GE, AES, 8minutenergy, First Solar, Applied Materials, CH2M among others, it said last week.
The Indian government has augmented its solar target fivefold to 100 GW and wind target to 60 GW by 2022, representing a $125 billion investment opportunity, USIBC noted. The objective of the meetings was to create sustained engagement on national and state-level policies and regulatory frameworks, such as the National Solar Mission and state solar policies, and thereby, ensure a level playing field for all participants, it said.
There has been considerable progress in transmission, but the problem of congestion remains, both at the interstate and intra-state levels, USIBC said. Through its meetings with senior Government of India officials, the delegation explored avenues for joint collaboration and technical exchanges in areas such as energy storage and transmission infrastructure, wind and solar power generation, energy efficiency technology and services.
It also articulated how investors can work in stride with both state and central governments to meet the country’s ambitious clean energy targets of installing 175 GW by 2022. “The strong focus on renewable energy will help increasing access to energy for all Indian citizens as part of Prime Minister (Narendra) Modi’s ambitious reform agenda,” USIBC president Mukesh Aghi said.
“There is also an urgent need for long-term financial solutions in the clean energy economy. American enterprise is eager to help in all ways possible,” he said. The delegation engaged with senior Government of India leaders to develop an action plan for a regulatory and infrastructure environment that will further foster innovation, attract investment, create jobs and fulfil initiatives such as Make in India, Innovate in India,” Aghi said. The delegation met among others officials in key central ministries and Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh Chief Ministers Anandiben Patel and N. Chandrababu Naidu.
Not long ago, a group of Indian-Americans had formed a political action committee to campaign for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner and had assured that they would everything possible to help him win the party nomination and the elections in November this year.
They had formed a group called, ‘Indian-Americans for Trump 2016’, which was registered as a political action committee (PAC) on January 21st with the federal election commission, with the aim of garnering support of Indian-Americans to have Trump become the next US President. Dr. Sudhir Parikh, CEO of Pariskh Media, A.D. Amar, a business professor with Seton Hall University in New Jersey and a New York-based Attorney Anand Ahuja had initiated the group.
Anand Ahuja, Attorney and Counselor at Law and Vice President for Indian Americans for Trump 2016, had said that there is a “wrong media created perception that Trump is against Muslims and minorities. And as far as being against H1B visas – either you can increase H1B visas or you can say invest in India – you cannot have it both ways.”
However, Dr. Sudhir Parikh has released a short statement through news agencies, withdrawing his support for Trump and disassociate himself from the PAC: “I allowed myself to be identified with that group because some members of the group are friends of mine. I wish to clarify that I no longer belong to the group and I do not support the candidacy of Mr. Donald Trump.
“For over three decades I have supported both Democrat and Republican candidates based on their individual merits and their commitment to the interests of the Indian-American community and US-India relations. I remain committed to this course,” Parikh added.
The front runner in the Republican Primaries has been criticized, among others by leading Indian American political leaders. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, had described Trump as a “madman”. Jindal had criticized his Republican Party colleague as a “non-serious, unstable, substance-free narcissist.” Other phrases Jindal had used to describe are: “egomaniac,” a “carnival act,” “shallow,” “insecure,” “weak” and of course, a “madman.” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is a rising star in the Republican Party had described Trump’s character and qualities as “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president.”
US President Barack Obama said that the real estate tycoon is exploiting people’s fear amid a stagnant and rapidly changing economy. “I think somebody like Mr Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign,” Obama told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview. “When one combines the demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through because of the financial crisis, because of technology, because of globalization, it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration and fear,” said the president.
Traditionally Indian Americans have voted for the Democratic Party. In 2008, nearly 90 per cent of Indian Americans voted for President Barack Obama. According to Dr. Parikh, he feels that Indian Americans have far more in common with the Republicans than the Democrats as “Our family values are the same as what the Republican Party is talking about, against abortion and same sex relationships. We are the most affluent community in America, with higher per capita income than even the Jews… it makes sense to vote Republican.”
Winning Asian American votes is very critical to winning the presidency. Although, they are not as larger as the Hispanics or the Blacks, Asian/Indian Americans are an influential group in the national and statewide elections. No one can win the presidency with the White votes alone. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won 56 percent of white voters and won a landslide victory of 44 states. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 59 percent of whites and lost with 24 states. According to reports, in the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama won 73 percent of the Asian American vote. The Democratic presidential vote share among Asian Americans has steadily increased from 36 percent in 1992, to 64 percent in the 2008 election to 73 percent in 2012.
Both the parties have been working hard to win the Asian American votes, except for that Trump has been critical of the Muslims, has spoken against H-1B Visa, which has helped mostly Asians to immigrate to this country. Trump said: “They are taking our jobs. China is taking our jobs. Japan is taking our jobs. India is taking our jobs. It is not going to happen anymore, folks!”
(Chicago, IL; March 28, 2016): Healthcare industry in the United States and around the world is rapidly changing, leading to many describing the healthcare environment as dynamic, complex, and highly uncertain. The manner in which the health care environment is perceived and characterized is important for several reasons. Higher-performing health care providers and organizations are those that are, among other characteristics, able to understand and manage uncertainty and ambiguity in their environments. The Affordable Care Act designed to provide an opportunity to reinvent the health care delivery system to make it more accessible, patient-centered, and comprehensive, with an emphasis on prevention and primary care is under attack and depending on the outcome of the elections it may change.
With a view to help AAPI members better understand the recent trends in the delivery of healthcare to millions across the nation, the forthcoming 34th annual convention, organized by the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the prestigious the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30th to July 4th, 2016 will conduct a CEO Forum, moderated by Mr Fareed Zakaria, CNN and will be featuring world renowned leaders from various segments of healthcare. . “The 2016 AAPI Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly offers the participants at the convention a rare platform to interact with and listen to leading physicians, healthcare professionals, academicians, scientists, and leaders of the hospitals, technology , medical device and pharmaceutical companies,” says Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI.
“With the changing trends and statistics in healthcare, both in India and US, we are refocusing our mission and vision, AAPI would like to make a positive meaningful impact on the healthcare delivery system both in the US and in India,” Dr. Jain says. The CEO Forum will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.
The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. Elaborating on the efforts and preparations that have been devoted to put together this unique event, Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the 2016 Annual Convention, says, “We are expecting to have a record attendance of more than 2,000 delegates including Physicians, Academicians, Researchers and Medical students at the convention. The annual convention offers extensive academic presentations, recognition of achievements and achievers, and professional networking at the alumni and evening social events,” she adds.
A pool of dedicated AAPI leaders are working hard to make the Convention a unique event for all the participants, she said. Among those who are part of the organizing committees include, Dr. Thomas Alapatt, Host City Chair for the Convention, Dr. Parminder Grewal, Dr. Hetal Gor, and Dr. Gaurav Gupta co-chairs for the convention; Dr. Virendra Sethi, Dr, Anand Sahu, Dr. Kishore Ahuja, Dr. Mathew, Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Dr. Jayesh Kanuga, Dr. Chitra Kumar, Dr. Hemant Patel; Dr. Rupak Parikh, AAPI YPS President: Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali, President of AAPI MSRF; Dr. Sanjay Jain and Mr. Anwar Feroz Siddiqi who are also some of the prime advisors/coordinators of the Convention.
Representing the interests of the over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin, leaders of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic organization of physicians, for 34 years, AAPI Convention has provided a venue for medical education programs and symposia with world renowned physicians on the cutting edge of medicine.
“Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the years to come. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org and www.aapiusa.org
Washington, DC: March 28, 2016: Peyton Manning, the NFL’s only five-time Most Valuable Player and a 14-time Pro Bowl selection, who has earned his place among the greatest quarterbacks in league history, and Kevin O’Leary, Entrepreneur, Investor, Journalist, Commentator and TV Personality, currently serving as the chairman of O’Leary Funds and the Manager of the publically traded family of O’Leary Global Equity and Income Funds, are the keynote speakers at the 2016 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show being held in Nashville, TN from March 29th to April 1st.
Expected to have over 4,000 in attendance, the 2016 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show offers something for everyone. From the trade show floor that offers one-stop shopping for every hotelier to the educational programs and esteemed guest speakers, this is sure to be an experience you’ll never forget. As always, the entire event also will feature authentic Indian cuisine, world-class entertainment, thrilling Bollywood performances, and much more.
Sunidhi Chauhan, Kumar Sanu, Karan Patel, M0uni Roy, Rithvik Dhanjani, Sanjeeda Shaik, Gunjan Singh, Rishikeash Ranade, and Torsha Sarkar are among from the Bollywood world, who will be performing on stage to entertain the packed audience from around the world.
The Convention is one of AAHOA’s most exciting events of the year. With more than 4,000 attendees per year, the AAHOA Annual Convention is the largest convention and trade show in the industry. At the convention, the Government Affairs team will host a number of seminars to discuss key issues facing the hospitality industry in state capitals and on capitol hill. Additionally, the Government Affairs team will have a booth where attendees can stop by, and find out what our team is doing for you.
In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act created the opportunity for more than 300,000 Asian Indians to come to the United States over the course of the succeeding two decades. Many of these new immigrants arrived in America with backgrounds as entrepreneurs and business owners. During the 1970s, Indian Americans saw tremendous opportunities for prosperity in the hospitality industry, and many began to save their money in order to purchase hotels. Word quickly spread throughout the community about the potential of the hotel industry as a niche market, and the Indian American influence in hospitality began.
These new hoteliers faced discrimination within the industry, particularly from banks and insurance companies. To overcome these obstacles, hoteliers collaborated to form various groups, culminating in the creation of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) in 1989.
In 2014, AAHOA celebrated its 25th anniversary and is currently one of hospitality industry’s most respected and influential organizations. AAHOA represents more than 14,000 members nationwide, who own more than 20,000 properties, amounting to more than 40% of all hotels in the United States. AAHOA members employ nearly 600,000 American workers, and account for nearly $10 billion in payroll annually. AAHOA truly represents America’s hotel owners.
AAHOA promotes and protects the interests of its members by inspiring excellence through programs and initiatives in advocacy, industry leadership, professional development, membership benefits and community involvement. The Convention is the premier event of the year by AAHOA that one can’t afford to miss. For more details on AAHOA and the 2016 convention, please visit: www.aahoa.com
The Pope during consistory of cardinals last week announced September 4 as the date for Mother Teresa’s canonization, the media reported. After months of anticipation, the date for Mother Teresa’s canonization was announced as September 4, which this year will also mark a special jubilee for workers and volunteers of mercy, Catholic News Agency cited Pope Francis as saying.
The Pope had cleared the way in December for sainthood for the Nobel peace laureate, who died in 1997 aged 87. The Albania-born nun and missionary was by far the most high-profile of the five candidates for sainthood considered by the Vatican panel on Tuesday.
It is not clear whether the Pope will bow to appeals from the Catholic church in India and travel to Calcutta for the ceremony or, as Vatican sources say is more likely, preside over one in Rome, the Guardian reported.
Mother Teresa was born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu on August 26, 1910, in Skopje, Macedonia. After joining the Sisters of Loretto at the age of 17, she was sent to Calcutta, where she later contracted tuberculosis, and was sent to rest in Darjeeling.
On the way, she felt what she called an order from God to leave the convent and live among the poor. After she left her convent, Mother Teresa began working in the slums, teaching poor children, and treating the sick in their homes.
Known across the world as the Mother, Teresa was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for her work with the poor, sick, old and lonely in the slums of Kolkata. She died on September 5, 1997, and was beatified just six years later by Pope John Paul II on October 19, 2003. More than 300,000 pilgrims went to Rome in 2003 for Teresa’s beatification — the first step towards sainthood.
Pope Francis joined the—now truly #blessed—Instagram community on Saturday, posting his first photo on the popular app. “Pray for me,” the caption says, repeated in eight other languages. The photo, posted with the handle @franciscus, shows Francis kneeling with his head bowed in prayer.
“I am beginning a new journey, on Instagram, to walk with you along the path of mercy and the tenderness of God,” Francis posted on Saturday on Twitter, where he has more than 8.89 million followers.
“Watching Pope Francis post his first photo to Instagram today was an incredible moment. @franciscus, welcome to the Instagram community! Your messages of humility, compassion and mercy will leave a lasting mark,” Instagram CEO and co-founder Kevin Systrom posted on Instagram on Saturday.
Systrom met with Pope Francis at the Vatican last month to discuss the unifying power of images, giving him a curated book of Instagram photos during the visit.
In “Eat, Chew, Live,” Dr. John Poothullil argues it is time to reevaluate the accepted theory of insulin resistance as the cause of Type 2 diabetes, because medical research has yet to explain how it happens or why. In his view, it is illogical that millions of people are suddenly developing insulin resistance.
After 20 years of research, Poothullil has demonstrated that Type 2 diabetes is not caused by the hormonal disease of insulin resistance, but rather by a very normal metabolism that goes haywire when people over consume grains, according to a press release.
In Western nations, it is the consumption of wheat-flour breads, rice, corn, packaged foods, cakes, pizza, donuts, and other grain-based flour products. In many developing nations, it is the increasing consumption of rice.
With illustrations of the science involved, Poothullil explains that muscle cells, the largest share of cells in the body, can get their energy from glucose or fatty acids. When people over consume grains over a period of time, they eventually fill up their natural allotment of fat cells.
The further consumption of grains means that the fatty acids broken down from the glucose in grains have nowhere to be stored. The fatty acids thus start to flow freely in the bloodstream, and are easily used as fuel by muscle cells rather than glucose.
This metabolism, which Poothullil calls the “fatty acid burn switch,” leaves the glucose in the bloodstream, leading to high blood sugar and eventually to the diagnosis of diabetes.
The key to preventing or reversing Type 2 diabetes, Poothullil said, is to stop consuming grains as much as possible. Type 2 diabetes must be viewed as a nutritional condition that can be treated by a change of diet, rather than a hormonal disease that requires medication or insulin injections.
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Researchers estimate that each year 1,825 college students ages 18-24 die from alcohol-related unintentional injuries, including motor vehicle collisions. About 20 percent of college students meet the criteria for an alcohol use disorder, with one in four college students report adverse academic consequences from drinking, including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall.
“Alcohol abuse, binge drinking in particular, is thought to be a rite of passage for college students; but in reality it’s a very serious health epidemic in the United States,” said Peter Hendricks, Ph.D., associate professor at the University of Alabama at BirminghamSchool of Public HealthDepartment of Health Behavior. “It is important to understand what alcohol is, why it’s problematic, and what a person can do to minimize the risk should they choose to drink.”
Moderate drinking, as defined by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, is no more than one drink per day for women and no more than two drinks per day for men, translating to seven or fewer drinks per week for women and 14 or fewer drinks per week for men. A standard drink is a 12-ounce beer, 8-ounces of malt liquor, a 5-ounce glass of wine or a 1.5-ounce shot of liquor.
Binge drinking, which is especially problematic, is four drinks in two hours for women and five drinks in two hours for men. More than one-third of college students engage in binge drinking monthly.
“Alcohol leads to impulsive decisions and can be addictive,” Hendricks said. “Even though it’s legal for those 21 years of age and older, college students should be aware of the dangers of drinking alcohol.”
Megan McMurray, clinical psychology intern at UAB, notes that drinking alcohol in excess is dangerous and can quite easily lead to death. Overdose of alcohol can occur when a person has blood alcohol content sufficient to produce impairments that increase the risk of harm. Age, drinking experience, gender, the amount of food eaten and even ethnicity can influence BAC. Critical signs and symptoms of alcohol poisoning include: Confusion; Vomiting; Seizures; Slow breathing; Irregular breathing; and Hypothermia.
“As BAC increases, so does alcohol’s effects and the risk for harm,” McMurray said. “Even small increases in BAC can decrease coordination, make a person feel sick and impair judgment. This can lead to injury from falls or car crashes, leave one vulnerable to sexual assault or other acts of violence, and increase the risk for unprotected, unintended intercourse.”
McMurray explained further, “When BACs get even higher, amnesia or blackouts occur. If a person has signs of alcohol poisoning, it is very dangerous to assume that an unconscious person will be fine by “sleeping it off.’”
Alcohol acts as a depressant, impairing basic bodily functions, such as the gag reflex, leaving people vulnerable to choking on their own vomit and dying in their sleep. Alcohol can also irritate the stomach, making the suppression of the gag reflex especially problematic.
Furthermore, on a national level, 696,000 students between the ages of 18-24 are assaulted every year by another student who has been drinking and 97,000 students between the ages of 18-24 report experiencing alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape each year.
According to an article published in Lancet in 2010, alcohol is rated as the single most harmful of all abused substances, ranking higher than heroin, crack cocaine and methamphetamine.
“Alcohol is ingrained in our culture, and binge drinking is perceived as a lighthearted, fun and humorous rite of passage among college students,” Hendricks said. “It’s crucial to communicate the dire risks of binge drinking and challenge the notion that alcohol use is a normal and harmless part of the college experience.”
Hendricks recommends that those under the legal drinking age of 21 refrain from drinking alcohol. Moderate drinking (again, no more than two drinks per day for men and one drink per day for women) may be considered for those over the age of 21. Hendricks offers suggestions that may help reduce the harm of immoderate alcohol use: Alternate each alcoholic beverage with a glass of water; Eat a full meal before drinking occasions; Sip drinks slowly and avoid taking shots, chugging or using a beer bong, as drinking quickly leads to a steep BAC curve and subsequent impairment; Do not mix alcohol with other drugs as this increases risk of toxicity and harm. Mixing alcohol with benzodiazepines (for example, Xanax and Klonopin) is especially problematic and can lead to death; Have a safe ride home by designating a driver or using public transportation, taxi or safe rides; Never leave your friends; Do not accept drinks from someone you do not know. Never take your eyes off of your drink; Intoxicated individuals cannot provide consent to sexual contact or intercourse; and Sexual contact or intercourse with an inebriated person may be considered rape in most states.
SAN DIEGO, March 13, 2016 —Women can choose from a wide selection of birth control methods, including numerous oral contraceptives, but there’s never been an analogous pill for men. That’s not for lack of trying: For many years, scientists have attempted to formulate a male pill. Finally, a group of researchers has taken a step toward that goal by tweaking some experimental compounds that show promise.
The researchers present their work today at the 251st National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS). ACS, the world’s largest scientific society, is holding the meeting here through Thursday. It features more than 12,500 presentations on a wide range of science topics.
One compound that’s been studied as a potential male contraceptive is testosterone. “At certain doses it causes infertility,” says Jillian Kyzer, a graduate student working on the topic. “But at those doses, it doesn’t work for up to 20 percent of men, and it can cause side effects, including weight gain and a decrease in ‘good’ cholesterol.”
Bringing any male contraceptive to market requires it to satisfy several requirements, explains Kyzer’s team leader, Gunda I. Georg, Ph.D., who is based at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. It would have to be soluble so it could be taken by mouth. It would start working fairly quickly, and it wouldn’t diminish libido. It would be safe even if taken for decades. And because some users would eventually want to have children, its impact on fertility would be reversible, with no lingering ill effects on sperm or embryos. “That’s a very high bar for bringing a male contraceptive to market,” Georg points out.
These hurdles have driven many investigators from the hunt, yet Georg’s team perseveres. “It would be wonderful to provide couples with a safe alternative because some women cannot take birth control pills,” she says.
Drug companies, including Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), have created some experimental male contraceptives, but these too have drawbacks, Kyzer says. For instance, one of the company’s test compounds is good at inhibiting fertility but isn’t very soluble, so it can’t be taken by mouth. “No one wants to inject themselves with a needle once a day or once a week for most of their lives,” she notes.
Another Bristol-Myers Squibb experimental compound can be taken orally but isn’t very selective in terms of its cellular targets in the body. That means the compound not only interacts with the retinoic acid receptor-α, which is involved in male fertility, but also with two other retinoic acid receptors that are unrelated to fertility. That flaw could cause side effects.
Kyzer and several of her colleagues are creating numerous substances that are similar in their chemical structure to the Bristol-Myers Squibb compounds. Although the optimal contraceptive for men remains elusive, Georg’s team has made some progress. For example, the researchers are gaining a better understanding of how tweaks to the chemical structure of their test compounds affect the substances’ cellular interactions in the body. One of those tweaks added a polar group to the molecule, which made the test compounds more soluble. Another tweak replaced an amide bond in the BMS compound with slightly different bonds that are known in the field of medicinal chemistry to mimic an amide bond. As intended, that change improved the test compounds’ stability, meaning they would last longer in the body. Unfortunately, both types of modifications also reduced the specificity of the compounds for the intended retinoic acid receptor-α target.
The group continues to refine the chemical structures to achieve the ultimate balance of solubility, specificity and stability as they aim to design a better male pill. They are now investigating hybrid compounds that incorporate scaffolds and structural features from several other compounds known to interact with the retinoic acid receptor.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Indo-Canadian YouTube sensation Lilly Singh have made TIME’s list of the 30 Most Influential People on the Internet. For its second annual list, TIME said it sized up contenders by looking at their global impact on social media and their overall ability to drive news.
Acknowledging Modi’s huge social media following, with more than 18 million Twitter followers and over 32 million Facebook likes, the list described Modi as an “Internet star.” It hailed the Indian leader’s unconventional use of social media to “break news” and “conduct diplomacy,” mentioning in particular Modi’s announcement on Twitter of his visit to Pakistan last year.
But it also pointed out the faux pas made by Modi when he wished Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani a happy birthday on the wrong day. Last year Modi was among TIME’s 100 Most Influential People in the world along with scoring a spot in their inaugural list of the 30 Most Influential People on the internet.
About Singh, TIME noted that the “Indo-Canadian vlogger is rapidly becoming one of the biggest stars on YouTube, both on and off-screen.” It added that as her “alter ego Superwoman, she is equal parts funny and motivational, which has helped her amass more than 8 million subscribers and over 1.1 billion total views.”
Earlier this year, Singh, who is popularly known as Superwoman, made the Forbes’ Top-10 list of Top-Earning YouTube Stars. In September 2015, the 26-year-old video star also won “Best First-Person Series,” beating out four other video stars, at VH1’s “5th Annual Streamy Awards” in Los Angeles.
The YouTube personality acknowledged the honor in an Instagram post stating: “What an honor! Thank you! Hopefully people are influenced to also wear sweat pants all day like me. Then I wouldn’t be considered lazy. I would be trendy. GOALS.”
(Los Angeles, CA – March 18, 2016) After 22 sold-out screenings at mainstream and South Asian film festivals around North America in 2015 and multiple audience and jury awards under its belt, the smart, witty, coming-of-age comedy feature, “Miss India America,” will have a special, red-carpet screening, followed by a Q&A with the cast/team, in Los Angeles on March 24th. The limited theatrical release will take place at theaters in Washington, D.C., Chicago and San Jose starting on Friday, March 25th, for a one-week run. Following the theatrical release, the movie will be available on the following broadband platforms starting Tuesday, April 5th: Amazon, GooglePlay, iTunes, Vimeo, Vudu, Xfinity and Sling.
The brainchild of husband/wife creative team Ravi Kapoor (director/co-writer) and Meera Simhan (actor/co-writer), the cross-cultural comedy is set against the backdrop of the Indian beauty pageant world in Los Angeles. Inspired by Simhan’s one-woman-show of the same title, “Miss India America” stars Texas native Tiya Sircar (The Internship, 17 Again, Vampire Diaries) andHannah Simone (of Fox television series New Girl fame), along with a supporting cast of talented actors, including Kosha Patel, Satya Bhabha, Cas Anwar, Rizwan Manji, Anjali Bhimani and Bernard White. Produced byMegha Kadakia and Saurabh Kikani and distributed by MarVista Entertainment, the feature film “establishes an authentic tone that pays respect to Indian cultural norms, while poking gentle fun at these traditions,” raves The Hollywood Reporter.
Seattle, WA: A masked man burst into a 7-Eleven near Seattle early Sunday morning, swinging a hatchet and slicing the store clerk. Before the masked man could seriously hurt anyone, though, a customer who was drinking his morning coffee pulled out a concealed weapon and fatally shot the attacker. Authorities did not name the attacker or the customer, but they did hail the concealed weapon owner as a hero.
“This could have been disastrous,” King County Sheriff Sgt. Cindi West told KIRO7. “Had this guy not shot, who knows what would have happened? We might have a dead clerk right now, and instead we have a dead bad guy.”
The clerk, Kuldeep Singh, suffered minor cuts to his stomach. He, too, thanked the customer for saving his life. “He [was] killing me,” Singh, 58, said of the hatchet-wielding attacker. Singh added that the customer was a “nice guy.”
West said that the incident will be investigated fully but that the 60-year-old customer was currently being considered a Good Samaritan. The “customer, the shooter, is shaken up but from everything that we see right now from the scene – there’s no wrongdoing on his part,” she told King 5. “In fact, he probably saved a life in this case.”
The incident near Burien, Wash., about eight miles south of downtown Seattle, probably will add to the ongoing debate about concealed weapons and their effect on crime.
Concealed-weapon ownership has skyrocketed in recent years as more states have moved to allow it. The percentage of Americans who believe owning a gun will protect them and others also has risen steadily.
There is little consensus on the efficacy of concealed weapons in reducing crime, however. Although supporters of concealed-weapon ownership argue that it discourages crime, some studies have shown it has no effect. Other studies have found it actually increases crime.
Sacramento, CA: Harmeet Dhillon, vice chair of the California Republican Party, is currently running unopposed to represent the state as committeewoman for the Republican National Committee. The RNC allots each state a chairman to the National Committee, along with one committee man and one committee woman. The state’s delegates will vote for the posts April 30, during the upcoming California Republican Party convention in Burlingame, Calif.
Linda Ackerman, who has held the post for eight years, earlier this month said she would not run again this year. Her term will end after the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, which begins July 18.
Indian American attorney Dhillon’s term as vice chair of the state party ends this year. She told India-West it was “a natural progression” for her to take on a role at the national level. The role entails determining the party’s policy for the next four years and deciding the party’s presidential candidate during the 2020 election cycle.
Dhillon has previously served as the GOP’s chairman in San Francisco County and has served as vice chair of the state party since 2013, the first Indian American to serve in that role. In a Feb. 22 statement announcing her candidacy, Dhillon said she has worked tirelessly to build a strong Republican Party in the state.
“I’ve fought hard for the party and for the future of California in just about every way a volunteer can – and as I have been doing since I was a teenager in the conservative movement,” she said.
“It’s time that California had a strong advocate in the RNC, to promote California’s interests at the national party level. For too long, California has been neglected by our national party,” said Dhillon.
Dhillon has won the endorsement of almost all members of the California State Senate and Assembly Republican Caucuses. She has also won the endorsement of the California Republican Party’s Board of Directors and a majority of county chairmen. She has assembled a team of volunteers who plan over the next six weeks to speak to every delegate in the state to pledge their support. Dhillon said she hopes for a unanimous vote.
The 2016 presidential election cycle poses some interesting challenges for the Republican Party, Dhillon told India-West, noting that billionaire contender Donald Trump has brought more interest and a greater number of people to the polls.
“Trump as the leading candidate is not in keeping with the image of our party. There is a lot of hand-wringing going on, because he’s ‘not one of us,’” said Dhillon. “But a lot of Republicans equally feel that the party has not done its job” in keeping the Obama administration in check, she said.
The veteran politician — who has run unsuccessfully for the state Assembly and Senate — said obliquely that she differs from Trump’s ideology, leaning more towards the late Jack Kemp and Ronald Reagan’s style of conservative policy. “I will support the nominee of the party,” she added, noting that she is not supporting anyone at this juncture.
California will more than likely determine the party’s nominee, said Dhillon, noting there was no chance that Republican contenders Texas Senator Ted Cruz or Ohio Governor John Kasich would drop out of the race before the national convention. Kasich has stated his support for a brokered convention, even if one candidate does have the necessary number of delegates to get the party’s nomination.
If Trump continues to amass delegates at his current rate, no one will have the required number of delegates — 1,237 — to win the nomination outright. After the Mar. 15 primaries in Illinois, Ohio, Florida, Missouri and North Carolina, Trump had amassed 673 delegates, while Cruz had 411 and Kasich 143.
A total of 885 delegates still remain un-allotted. Trump would have to win 564 more delegates to get the party’s nomination outright, a feat which Dhillon predicts is mathematically impossible.
Freida Pinto is the latest actress to join forces with Andy Serkis for his directorial debut, Jungle Book: Origins. Pinto is not only loaning her voice, but is playing one of the actual flesh-and-blood roles alongside Matthew Rhys and Rohan Chand. Freida Pinto, who found popularity with her appearance in “Slumdog Millionaire”, is excited to be a part of “Jungle Book: Origins”. She says her life has come full circle with the Hollywood project.
Freida is voicing Mowgli’s adoptive mother in the Warner Brothers’ motion capture live-action adventure adaptation of “The Jungle Book”, based on the novel by Kipling. And the actress asserts that the film is worth the wait. “It’s going to be a while for ‘Jungle Book…’. It will release in 2017. I am pretty excited about it because we all used to watch it on Doordarshan every Sunday. We loved watching it. Life kind of becomes full circle to participate in a project like that,” Freida told the media.
Directed by Andy Serkis, who also gives voice to friendly bear Baloo, the cast includes names like Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Indian-American child actor Rohan Chand as Mowgli. She added: “It is Andy and I am super excited.”
Slumdog breakout Pinto was in 2011’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes with Serkis who is directing Jungle Book from a script by Callie Kloves. He’s also producing with Steve Kloves and Jonathan Cavendish. Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Benedict Cumberbatch feature in the voice cast.
While there is still time for “Jungle Book: Origins” to hit the screens, Freida is back on the screen with her next project, Terrence Malick’s film “Knight of Cups” opposite Hollywood’s “The Dark Knight” Bale. The film hit the screens in the US last week.
The actress told Entertainment Tonight that she’s very excited about the role. “I read The Jungle Book and watched the TV series in India growing up, and for me, to finally be part of the film that reminds me so much of my childhood is just amazing,” she said.
“It’s one of those films that I feel, no matter what age group you are, you’re going to enjoy that film, and I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve done something like that, because most of my films have not been good enough for children. A little too intense, so I’m very happy to finally be doing a film that can be [watched by kids].”
Staten Island, NY: Nausheen Rahman, a 28-year-old Indian American woman in New York is being held without bail on a murder charge after police say she gave birth to a girl and threw the newborn away in a garbage can at her home. Rahman was arraigned March 14 on Staten Island.
Nausheen Rahman allegedly told investigators she gave birth to the baby on Friday. She then cut the umbilical chord, and put the baby girl into a plastic bag and into a trash can, according to the criminal complaint. She was then arrested on Saturday at about 11:30 a.m. inside her home on Richmond Hill Road near New Springville. Rahman was charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. An attorney for her declined to comment.
A source told the New York Daily News that oxygen was found in the baby’s lungs. Investigators believe that finding may mean the baby was alive when Rahman allegedly dumped it, according to an msn.com report.
The infant’s body was discovered unconscious and unresponsive at the New Springville neighborhood home by officers March 12 after responding to a 911 call around 11:30 a.m. Emergency crews pronounced the baby dead at the scene. Police were called to Rahman’s address after she showed up at Staten Island University Hospital March 11, complaining of pain, police sources told the Daily News.
Rahman told authorities that she had given birth but said the baby had died, sources said. Rahman allegedly admitted to throwing the child in the trash before going to the hospital, the Daily News reported.
The New York Police Department said officers responded to a 911 call at the home on Richmond Hill Road in the New Springville neighborhood. The condominium is just a few blocks from the Staten Island Mall. Police found the newborn baby unconscious and unresponsive. Emergency crews pronounced the child dead at the scene
It’s not clear where Rahman gave birth. The medical examiner’s office says the cause of death was pending further study, according to an Associated Press report. Rahman was also charged with unlawful concealment of a corpse. Police continue to investigate.
She was not aware that the sex of the baby was a girl because she threw the baby in a trash bag so quickly that she didn’t take the time to look at the child and assumed it was a boy, according to the district attorney. Rahman allegedly lied to her parents and family about being pregnant and they said they were unaware.
According to a New York Times report, when Rahman appeared in court on Staten Island, her parents sat near the back of the courtroom with their heads in their hands. “The actions of this defendant are so horrendous and so reprehensible that it shocks one’s conscience,” Jane Grinberg, an assistant district attorney, said, according to the Times report. Grinberg said that Rahman had seen a doctor about her pregnancy, but that she kept it a secret from her parents. Her lawyer, Michael Robert Rosas, said he doubted the prosecution’s version of events.
“We’re going to conduct our own investigation and see where it leads,” he said, the Times reported. Neighbors around the Honey Bee Condominiums on Staten Island, where Rahman lived with her parents and two younger brothers, said they had no idea she was pregnant. She often wore traditional clothes from India, they said, and the fabrics hung loose around her frame, reported the Times, adding that Judge Raja Rajeswari ordered her to held without bail.
BOSTON. TX — Mahashivaratri was celebrated with great zeal and religious fervor at the Shivalaya Temple of Greater Boston on March 7. More than 800 devotees of all age groups thronged the shrine to participate in Rudra Abhishekams and offered worship. The temple witnessed heavy rush from early morning.
In the evening, Shiva Tandava Nritya, Shiva Kalyanam and Bhajans were also organized as part of cultural programs of the celebration. Children presented an amazing Tandava Nritya performance with all appropriate characters by wearing masks and wigs. Pleasant Shiva Bhajans were sung by Shri Mohan ji and his family members.
Temple priest Pandit Jay Narayan Badal Ji performed Abhishekams with all Vedic rituals and mantras without showing any exhaustion. He also performed Shiva Kalyanam with all the vivah rituals.
Devotees sang Punjabi melodious Shiva Vivah songs in chorus and created a special spiritual atmosphere in the shrine. Shri Chirag put all the programs together very agreeably and nicely. He appreciated temple children’s interest and enthusiasm.
The temple arranged delicious Maha Prasadam to all the devotees and special Prasadam to those devotees who were observing fasting. Shri Sudarshan Ji, Shri Subhas Bansal Ji and Shri Dutt Ji, Shri Prem Chawla, Shri Veda Ji, Shri Harkirth Singh and team served Maha Prasad .
Temple president Shri Vijay Kumar Selhi Ji thanked generously all the devotees for making this event a memorable and outstanding one. He appreciated and thanked all the volunteers of the temple who worked hard with great dedication and commitment.
NEWARK, NJ: Brunton Bissesar Singh, 55, was fatally shot while walking to work in the Newark early on Sunday., March 13th. He was walking to work on the 400 block of Roseville Avenue shortly before 6 am when the fatal shots rang out, Acting Essex County Prosecutor Carolyn A. Murray and Newark Public Safety Director Anthony Ambrose said in a joint statement.
Brunton Bissesar Singh, of Newark, supported his son and wife in his home country of Trinidad and Tobago, according to Roberto Mendez Spaccavento. No arrests have been made. An investigation is ongoing, and the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office did not release any details Monday. An investigation by the prosecutor’s office’s Major Crimes and Homicide Task Force remains active.
Singh had been a member of Spaccavento’s nutrition club, Health-Figure & Wellness on Roseville Avenue, for several years and had become a close friend. Lacking relatives in the United States, Singh bonded with the club members. “He has absolutely nobody,” Spaccavento said. “We were his family.”
Singh frequented the nutrition club every day to get a protein shake or a cup of tea and relax in front of the television, Spaccavento said. He said Singh was a popular member of the community. “Everybody in the neighborhood loved him,” Spaccavento said.
Their friendship extended beyond the nutrition club, with Singh helping Spaccavento’s family for two months after Spaccavento had surgery. “He would come early, he would help my wife clean up the place, help her close the gates and everything,” Spaccavento said. “He was really nice.”
Singh was walking to his job at Pit Stop gas station on Park Avenue and 16th Avenue early Sunday when shots were fired, according to Spaccavento. He said Singh was an hour late to work that day because he had forgotten to change his clocks for Daylight Saving Time.
About 50 of Singh’s friends gathered in front of the nutrition center Sunday evening to remember him. “I put some candles, his picture and flowers,” Spaccavento said. “We all gathered together, and we prayed.”
The homicide is the first in Newark since February 21 when a 32-year-old Irvington man was shot and killed in the West Ward. The city’s total for the year stands at 18, according to an NJ Advance Media count.
New York, NY: Four days before two ancient Jain and Hindu statues estimated to be worth $450,000 were to be auctioned off, US officials swooped on the international art auction house Christie’s here and seized them, according to the Homeland Security Department.
The statues seized March 11 by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) special agents in “Operation Hidden Idol” were of Rishabhanata, the first Jain Thirthankar, and of Revanta, a son of God Surya, the HSI said. They were to have been auctioned on March 8 during Asia Week in New York, an event that draws top-tier art collectors and museum curators from around the world. Christie’s said it was unaware the statue of Rishabhanata and the panel of Revanta were stolen in India and brought into the U.S. illegally.
On behalf of the Indian government, Consul General Riva Ganguly Das commended the “HSI for the exceptional work done in locating and retrieving the sculptures brought into the United States by organized crime syndicates.”
The 10th century Rishabhanata sandstone statue is from Rajasthan or Madhya Pradesh and is valued at about $150,000, according to the HSI. It stands about 57 centimetres tall and depicts the Tirthankar seated in vajrasana position (crossed leg pose) and flanked by two devotees.
The sandstone panel of Revanta and his entourage is from the 8th century. It is considered “a very rare representation of the equestrian deity”, and is estimated to be worth $300,000, according to the HSI. In its statement, the HSI acknowledged the assistance of the government of India and Interpol in its investigations carried out with the Manhattan district attorney Cyrus Vance’s office.
Christie’s had included the two artifacts in an auction entitled “The Lahiri Collection: Indian and Himalayan Art, Ancient and Modern,” during Asia Week New York, the HSI said. The event’s organizer, the Asia Week New York Association, billed it on its website as “a collaboration of top-tier Asian art specialists, major auction houses, and world-renowned museums and Asian cultural institutions” in the New York area. Nineteen art dealers are participating in the India and Southeast Asia segment and have listed a range of art ranging from modern and ancient paintings and miniatures to bronze sculptures and artifacts.
“This seizure at the beginning of an international event as well recognized as Asia Week New York sends two important messages,” said Angel M. Melendez, the special agent in charge of New York HSI. “First and foremost, it demonstrates that we are committed to protecting cultural heritage around the world, and second, it demonstrates that we are monitoring the market to protect prospective buyers as well.”
India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Syed Akbaruddin tweeted, “Stealing India’s precious heritage doesn’t pay dividends.” HSI, which is part of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement division of the Homeland Security Department, said the Rishbhanata statue “appears to have been sold by Oliver Forge to London-based Brandon Lynch Ltd. between 2006 and 2007”.
And the Revanta panel, “according to images provided by the source dealer, appeared to have contained an ‘orphan fragment’, a piece perfectly broken off to be sold by the smugglers after the sale of the main part of the sculpture”, the HSI said.
In its four years “Operation Hidden Idol” has uncovered networks of temple-looters preying on India. In what is probably the biggest ever ancient artifact crackdown, the HSI and the Manhattan district attorney’s office announced last July they had seized over 2,500 items worth over $100 million from a single network allegedly run by art dealer Subhash Kapoor.
He is in custody in Chennai in connection with alleged temple thefts from the state. The HSI said that in the past 12 months, four US museums and one major collector have surrendered illicit cultural property linked to Kapoor. One of them was a statue of the poet Manikkavichavakar taken from the Sivan temple in Sripuranthan village in Tamil Nadu. It is estimated to be worth $1 million. In addition, Australia has returned to India a 900-year-old Chola-era bronze Nataraja and a stone statue of Ardhanariswara from around 1100.
In a related incident, in their fifth raid in a week focusing on South Asian antiquities they say were looted, investigators have seized three items from a leader in the field, the Nancy Wiener Gallery of Manhattan.
The seized items were valued at nearly $1 million, according to agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations and officials of the Manhattan district attorney’s office, who are jointly conducting an investigation into the trafficking of illicit artifacts.
The raids, which federal officials said have netted some $4 million in antiquities, have been staged during Asia Week New York, an annual celebration of Asian art that is typically a time for high sales in that market.
The items from the Wiener gallery, which were seized on Thursday, included a 10th-century bronze Buddha from Thailand or Cambodia valued at $850,000. Also seized were a red sandstone relief of a couple from India’s second-century Kushan period, valued at $100,000, and an eighth-century Indian or Pakistani limestone carving of the Hindu deities Shiva and Parvati, valued at $25,000 to $35,000. A lawyer for Ms. Wiener declined to comment.
Last year, Ms. Wiener was involved in a dispute with the National Gallery of Australia over a rare Kushan Buddha that the museum purchased from her gallery for $1.08 million. The museum returned the statue to India after it said it determined that documents claiming it was legally exported from India were fraudulent and that the item had been looted. Ms. Wiener ended up refunding the purchase price.
Angel M. Melendez, special agent in charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New York, said that the week of raids had been successful. “We want to protect innocent buyers who might purchase items with false documentations,” he said. “This is a transnational crime but also a boutique crime, and that makes for very complex investigations.”
Jersey City, NJ: With Bollywood superstar Salman Khan Tweeting about the Video of Indian American Kid Rapping, Sparsh Shah, a 12-year-old Indian American rapper based in New Jersey, got global recognition. Salman Khan on March 14 tweeted a video of him rapping to Eminem’s song “Not Afraid.”
The video of this boy sitting in a wheelchair and rapping was posted on YouTube at the beginning of this year, Jan. 2 — don’t miss the decorated Christmas tree in the background — but, post-Khan’s tweet, it got over 1.6 million hits. No mean feat by any stretch.
When Khan Bhai (known to applaud and promote true talent) posts something on his Twitter page, his fans sit up and notice — the Tweet was liked by 7,000 fans and re-tweeted over 3,000 times.
After the video was posted, everyone wanted to know more about the talented rapper. His Twitter page describes him as “a singer/song writer/rapper born with brittle bones (120+fractures), but an unbreakable spirit,” and states, “He aspires 2 sing in front of a Billion people one day.” Now that’s quite a dream. Shah noticed Khan’s Tweet and thanked him promptly in a Tweet.
New York, NY: The Consulate General of India. organized an evening of Art Exhibition by Mr. Nayan Mitra followed by speech on “Meditations and Arts” by Ms. Nilima Madan on Friday, March 11, 2016 in the Consulate’s ballroom. The program was attended by a large number of Indian community membershe program started with singing of Guru Mantra followed by Durga Stuti, an Orrisi dance. Consul General Ambassador (Mrs) Riva Ganguly Das welcomed the attendees. Mr. Nayam Mitra spoke about his Art work, the inspiration and what it means to him, followed by a speech on Meditation and Arts by Ms. Nilima Madan.
“Think in Hindi before you prepare your document in Hindi”, India’s newly appointed Consul General Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das would like her staff to think in Hindi in order to present better documents in the official language of India. The Consul General was speaking on the occasion of kick-off of the Third International Hindi Conference 2016 at an event held at the Consulate Ball Room on March 14.
“We are doing a lot of work in Hindi. If we think in Hindi we can produce more accurate documentation”, she explained pointing out her support to the cause of Hindi. Emphasizing the commitment of Government of India for promoting Hindi, the consul general said that more opportunities for Hindi learning should be created. She elaborated upon a diverse Hindi program conducted by Indian Council for Cultural Relations, a Ministry of External Affairs initiative that supports Hindi scholars in various countries around the world. The conference is scheduled to be held from April 29 to May 1 at the Consulate Ball Room.
Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, Minister of External Affairs, Government of India,sent a message for the success of the conference. Ashok Ojha, coordinator of the conference, explainedthat the theme of the conference was, “Hindi Language: A Democratic Voice of Complex Issues in Education, Literature, Arts and Media”. According to Ojha Sweden based Hindi scholarHeinz Werner Wesslerhas agreed to deliver his key-note address at the inaugural event on April 29.
Ojha requested conference participants to register online through the link: http://www.hindiconferenceamericas.com/re gister/ He said that a Kavi Sammelan is scheduled onApril 30, the second day of the conference. A Humorous Hindi Play, ‘UdanKhatola’, and a story session, ‘Kahani Manch’, will also be held during the conference.
A number of speakers including Dr. Susham Bedi of Columbia and CUNY, Dr. Seema Khurana of Yale, and Dr. Rakesh Ranjan of Columbia, spoke at the kick off event. According to Khurana she will prevail upon Yale to host the conference in 2018. Others who spoke in favor of Hindi included Prof. Indrajit Saluja, Mrs. Purnmia Desai, head of Shikshayatan cultural organization, Col Veerendra Tavathia and media professional Sunil Hali. A cultural presentation by danseuse Rimli Roy and a poem recitation was performed at the function
Jersey City, NJ: The Middlesex County Office of Culture and Heritage announced February 1 that Isha Vyas, Division Head of Arts and History Program Services, has been elected President of the Association of New Jersey Cultural & Historic Agencies.
“I am honored to accept the position of the President of this Association,” said Isha Vyas. “This is a wonderful opportunity and a huge responsibility. I look forward to working with all the leaders of the Cultural and Historic agencies from all 21 counties to further the mission of this important organization.”
Former president of the Association and Chair of the Artpride New Jersey Foundation, Mary Eileen Fouratt said: “As a past president I’m thrilled that Isha Vyas has stepped up to be the new President of the ANJCHA. As a leader of one of the largest and most effective County Cultural & Heritage Agencies, she is well equipped to lead this group of leaders from the 21 counties.”
The Association’s mission is the education, coordination and communication of the activities of member agencies to serve the historic and arts communities. Established in 1993, members include the Cultural and Historic Agencies of each of the 21 New Jersey Counties.
“The work of the county agencies is so critical to our communities, bringing high quality and affordable arts, history and cultural events, supporting artists and arts groups and contributing to our local economies,” Fouratt said. “I look forward to continuing to work with Isha and seeing where her ideas take this organization.”
“Isha’s influence has really allowed our Culture and Heritage Office to thrive and grow, and I know she will excel in bringing that same influence to other counties throughout our state,” said Middlesex County Freeholder Director Ronald G. Rios. “On behalf of the Board of Chosen Freeholders, I would like to offer our congratulations to Isha and wish her the best of luck in this new endeavor.”
“When you look at the high quality of Middlesex County’s own Culture and Heritage programming, it’s easy to see why Isha was chosen as president of this Association,” said Freeholder Kenneth Armwood, Chair of the County’s Business Development and Education Committee. “She deserves our congratulations as well as thanks for the continuing excellence of her contributions.”
Vyas has been treasurer of the organization since 2012. Additionally, she is the Vice President of the Board of Trustees of Woodbridge Township Public Libraries; a member of the New Jersey State Historical Records Advisory Board and a trustee of Advocates of New Jersey History.
New York, NY: Raina Massey of Elmont, New York, was arrested recently for allegedly orchestrating a multi-pronged H-1B visa fraud scheme through her shell Newark-based company, Care Worldwide (CWW). Information was made available to media through a press release by the office of US U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman of State of New Jersey.
Raina Massey, 51, is charged by complaint with two counts of wire fraud, one count of visa fraud, and one count of aggravated identity theft. She is scheduled to appear this afternoon before U.S. Magistrate Judge Joseph A. Dickson in Newark federal court.
Non-United States citizens must have some kind of authorization to work legally in this country. H-1B visas are non-immigrant visas designed to allow U.S.-based employers to recruit and employ non-U.S. citizen professionals. H-1B visas are employer, not employee, driven, and are only issued for a specified, limited duration for “specialty occupations.”
Foreign workers admitted under the H-1B program are known as “beneficiaries” of the visas. To obtain an H-1B visa, an employer has to apply on behalf of the beneficiary and complete various forms required for the visa to be approved. One of those forms is U.S. Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Form I-797C, which is used to memorialize, among other things, that an application for an H-1B visa has been successfully filed on behalf of an H-1B beneficiary and that the application has been vetted by the U.S. government. Beneficiaries do not have to pay any fees in connection with the visa application and are not responsible for finding their own employment.
From February 2012 through March 2015, Massey and others are reported to have executed the fraud scheme through her company, CWW, which purported to be a clinical research company, but was actually a shell company that did little to no legitimate work of any kind. Massey and others sought out and advertised for qualified foreign professionals, purportedly to work for CWW in clinical research positions as beneficiaries of H-1B visas. These beneficiaries became victims of the scheme because the advertised positions did not actually exist.
Massey and others are reported to have demanded and took illegal payments from victims in exchange for purportedly filing H-1B visa applications on behalf of the victims.
Each wire fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison; the visa fraud count carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison; and the aggravated identity theft count carries a mandatory sentence of two years in prison, to run consecutive to any sentence imposed on any other count. Each count carries a potential fine of up to $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense.
U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the U.S. Department of State, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge David Schnorbus of the New York Field Office, and investigators from the U.S. Attorney’s Office, under the direction of Supervisory Criminal Investigator Thomas Mahoney, for the investigation leading to today’s arrest.
New York, NY: Pia Padukone’s new book, “The Fasces of Strangers” will have a launch event planned for March 30@7pm at the Barnes and Noble on Upper West Side at 2289 Broadway (Between 82/83 Streets) in New York City.
The highly acclaimed author of Where Earth Meets Water, Pia Padukone returns with an arresting exploration of family and culture. When native New Yorker Nicholas Grand applies for an international student exchange program, he thinks it’s an opportunity to broaden his horizons and meet some interesting people. He never imagines that a single year would have repercussions that would follow him throughout his lifetime.
Nicholas is sent to Estonia, where he meets shy, sensitive Paavo, his beautiful sister, Mari, and their gruff father, Leo—a family grappling with the challenges of life in a small country struggling to assert its post-Soviet identity. Nicholas sets off on an unforgettable journey through a foreign landscape that ultimately teaches him that some bonds can never be broken.
Bridging two uniquely captivating cities, The Faces of Strangers traces the intertwined lives of two seemingly symmetrical families from extraordinarily different worlds. This compelling odyssey through friendship and self-discovery illuminates the universality of how deeply we are defined by our connections with others.
Growing up in New York City has its privileges, which certainly helped shape Pia’s life. Her future in writing was cemented early, at age 12 when she won the Barnard College Young Women’s Writing Award – long before she was eligible to enter (at age 18).
Pia derives much literary inspiration from the world around her – witnessing interactions while running in Central Park, overhearing delicious snippets of gossip in waiting rooms, as well as those ever-engaging exchanges on the subway. All these combined with her fascination with her parents’ past lives in India before they settled in New York were the impetus behind Where Earth Meets Water.
During her years in London, Pia wrote for Star News and the London desk of the Associated Press, covering many high-profile stories including the protests against the Iraq War. She wrote press kits and position papers for a Member of Parliament representing Birmingham. Pia and her husband Rohit maintain a reading and eating blog, Two Admirable Pleasures, which combines their two loves: the written word and the recipes that are inspired by them.
Pia is a graduate of Stuyvesant High School and the London School of Economics. She entered the professional writing world as a copywriter in pharmaceutical advertising. Pia was a finalist for Seventeen Magazine’s fiction writing award and more recently a winner of the Women on Writing Flash Fiction Contest.
New York, NY: Friends and colleagues of journalist Arthur J. Pais, who died in January this year in New Jersey at the age of 66, fondly remembered the legendary Indian-American scribe during a memorial service at the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in midtown Manhattan, New York City.
Arthur, an Editor at Rediff.com and India Abroad — the Indian-American newsweekly owned by Rediff.com — was 66. After a distinguished career in Indian journalism, Arthur and his wife Betty moved to the United States in the early 1980s.
He was a prolific writer and no subject — films, literature, social trends, news — escaped his attention. His insatiable curiosity and diligence enlivened every feature he wrote and his loss is an irreplaceable loss to all of us at Rediff.com
Tributes to Arthur from colleagues and friends in the US and India were posted on Facebook. When informed about Arthur’s passing, Salman Rushdie replied: ‘This is sad news indeed. My condolences to his family and to all of you, his colleagues. Thanks for letting me know.’ Actress and cook book writer Madhur Jaffrey wrote: ‘Very sad to hear the news.’
“Today we have gathered here to celebrate the life of Arthur,” Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the co-founder of South Asian Journalists Association said at the outset of the memorial service. Many of Arthur’s former colleagues from India Abroad weekly where he worked as an editor till his death packed the auditorium, sharing their memories of Arthur described by journalist Lavina Melwani, as “our community’s story-teller.” Sreenivasan described the event as a “lovely, joyous celebration of a man who made us all smile.”
Besides his friends and admirers, Arthur’s wife Betty Pais and some of her relatives, were present as well. Some shared anecdotes about Arthur who was a writer, a foodie, a movie aficionado and mentor for some, and above all a friend of almost everybody who came to know him. Some described Arthur as a man who lived for the story.
Among those who paid tributes to Arthur included Aseem Chhabra, Rediff.com columnist and contributor, Suleman Din, Managing Editor, Sourcemedia Investment Advisory Group, P Rajendran, Deputy Managing Editor, India Abroad, and Arun Venugopal of WNYC. The memorial which was webcast live were watched by an estimated 30,000 people.
New York, NY: Indian American former Goldman Sachs director Rajat Gupta has been released after completing his two-year prison term, weeks after a U.S. court agreed to rehear his appeal to throw out his 2012 insider-trading conviction. Gupta, 67, was “released” on March 11, according to his record at the Federal Bureau of Prisons.
While Gupta’s prison term was to end on March 13, since the date fell on a Sunday, he was released on Mar. 11, four years after he lost his insider trading trial and suffered multiple legal setbacks to overturn his conviction. The Harvard-educated executive was convicted in his 2012 trial of passing confidential boardroom information to his one-time friend and business associate Raj Rajaratnam.
Apart from the two-year prison term, he was fined $5 million, and the Securities and Exchange Commission also slapped a $13.9 million penalty against him. Gupta started out his prison term in 2014 at FMC DEVENS, an administrative security federal medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp in Ayer, Mass.
Ever since his conviction in June 2012, Gupta filed several appeals, including to the U.S. Supreme Court, to overturn his conviction and prison term, but the courts rejected his arguments and affirmed his sentence.
However, it was only early last month, just weeks before his prison term was to end, that he had some legal respite when the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals agreed to rehear an appeal to throw out his insider-trading conviction.
The minimum-security prison camp where Gupta did his time is about 40 miles (60 kilometers) west of Boston and formerly the site of a military base. Rajaratnam, who is serving 11 years for trading on inside tips, is at an adjacent medical center because he has diabetes and kidney disease. Gupta completed the last two months of his prison term at his home in Manhattan, after being released on Jan. 5 from the Devens correctional facility.
Even though he was not in the prison center, he remained a federal inmate until his release on March 11. He was confined to his Westport, Conn., home and was required to wear an ankle bracelet that monitored his movements.
According to AP, Gupta’s lawyers said in their latest appeal that his 2012 conviction on conspiracy and securities fraud charges should be tossed because he was innocent and the jury was improperly instructed.nHis attorney Gary Naftalis says he is pleased with the court’s ruling and believes there are meritorious issues to present on appeal.
A former McKinsey & Co. managing partner, Gupta is the highest-profile executive convicted in a U.S. crackdown on insider trading at hedge funds. Gupta was found guilty in 2012 of passing illegal tips to Rajaratnam, a co-founder of the Galleon Group LLC hedge fund. He told Rajaratnam about Berkshire Hathaway Inc.’s $5 billion investment in Goldman Sachs and the bank’s financial results for two quarters in 2008. Since August 2009, federal prosecutors in New York won 80 convictions.
New York, NY: Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd. announced “Zeal for Unity,” a peace initiative to bridge the gap between India and Pakistan through cultural experiences Mar. 15. The initiative took off at the Wagah Border with six Indian and six Pakistani filmmakers coming together and showing their support in a token gesture. We use the word “token,” because they have already supported the initiative and the 12 films are ready.
The channel feels that this is a momentous step toward changing the way people across India and Pakistan see, feel and think about each other. Though the Border Security Force is said to have denied the media permission to be there at the Wagah Border at the last moment (this had been announced in the itinerary and was the unique selling point of this trip for the media contingent), the photographers were taken for a photo-op showing the filmmakers meeting and greeting each other — on the Indian side but not AT the border. Like a photographer told this reporter, “Good you guys did not come! It was a complete anti-climax!”
At the main press conference held at the Sarhad Restaurant a kilometer away from Wagah, the filmmakers mentioned how the concept, along with the freedom to choose what films they would like to make, fired their enthusiasm, and they agreed instantly to ZEEL’s proposal that came via phone calls from Shailaja Kejriwal, chief creative of special projects, ZEEL. Punit Goenka, managing director of ZEEL, and Sunil Buch, chief business officer of ZEEL, were also present.
Sharing his thoughts about the initiative, Goenka said, “The Zeal for Unity initiative is in line with our corporate brand philosophy of ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam – The World is My Family.’ The objective of this initiative is to bring together creative minds, filmmakers, cultural exponents and thought leaders from both India and Pakistan to facilitate an apolitical exchange environment of peace and harmony.”
Kejriwal, while thanking her bosses as well as her team, added, “The 12 films, especially created to celebrate this historic initiative, will be simultaneously showcased in both the countries. As we progress, we aim to continue this cultural dialogue between people from both sides of the border through varied forms of art.”
Buch, explaining the logo that was unveiled with the tag-line ‘It Takes Two,’ said, “To do anything constructive in life, it takes more than a single individual or a solo effort. It takes two to move ahead, always. And that is the value proposition that we have chosen. A simple yet powerful thought that it takes two to bring change, and sustained change can only be brought about through concentrated efforts of people from both countries. ‘Take Two’ also fits in intrinsically with all art media, especially films, where it is multiple takes that bring to life the creative imagination and aspiration of storytelling that indelibly changes the hearts and minds of people. Also, the symbol as it is designed also indicates the ‘V’ or Victory sign.”
New York, NY: America India Foundation has announced the third season of the Youth Ambassador Program (AYAP)! In its vision to build a lasting bridge between the United States and India, AIF has proudly launched the Youth Ambassador Program (AYAP), a service-learning experience in India for U.S. high school students.
“This immersive, service-learning experience for US high school students fosters an awareness of social development in India through visits with local communities, Indian peers and schools, leading NGOs, and the private sector. Students engage with an AIF-designed service-learning curriculum and gain firsthand experience of issues of poverty and other challenges facing vulnerable communities,” a press release issued by AIF said.
AYAP has partnered with the Frugal Innovation Lab in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University to integrate curriculum and hands-on activities that cultivate empathy alongside fundamental technology skills. Applications for the 2016 program in Bangalore, June 18-July 3, are open now!
AIF is looking for passionate high school students with an interest in building cross-cultural and global citizenship skills, and learning how to apply their learnings to improve the lives of underprivileged communities in India and beyond.
Now in its third year, AYAP seeks to foster an awareness of social development in India for participants through visits with local communities, Indian peers and schools, leading NGOs, and the private sector. Students engage with an AIF-designed service-learning curriculum and gain firsthand experience of issues of poverty and other challenges facing vulnerable communities.
Participants engage with Indian peers throughout the program to build relationships and work together to develop solutions to local problems. Students learn how to make sense of development challenges and to help advance social justice.
Program Objectives include: Facilitate an understanding of social, economic and environmental challenges facing vulnerable communities in India; Foster two-way cultural awareness among students from the U.S. and India; Expose students to the NGO and private sector roles in advancing social justice; Explore frugal innovation in education, livelihoods and environmental issues; Spark continued collaboration with AIF; and, Cultivate Youth Ambassadors individual social responsibility to the local and global community at large.
AYAP has partnered with the Frugal Innovation Lab in the School of Engineering at Santa Clara University to integrate curriculum and hands-on activities that cultivate empathy alongside fundamental technology skills.
AYAP participants return to the U.S. as global citizens, inspired to advance social change in India and beyond. AYAP creates a long-term leadership opportunity for continued collaboration with AIF, its programs and communities it serves across the country.
Washington, DC: Between six and seven trillion dollars worth of black wealth lies hidden in tax havens across the world, according to a fresh estimate by a trio of senior economists from the Bank of Italy. Indians’ share in this is estimated at $152-181 billion, by one calculation. This is only wealth invested in shares and debt securities or held in bank deposits. It is impossible to get a handle on other wealth invested in physical assets like real estate, gold or art.
Released this week, these estimates follow the train of several such estimates in recent years with Gabriel Zucman, of London School of Economics, estimating it at $7.6 trillion, Boston Consulting Group at $8.9 trillion and Tax Justice Network at $21 trillion.
All of this wealth is held in tax havens, which are jurisdictions with weak regulations and strong secrecy laws, using shell companies to conceal original identities. The Italian economists analysed data from IMF and the Bank of International Settlements (BIS) to arrive at the figure. When asked by TOI to estimate the Indian share in this gigantic treasure trove, the researchers were cautious.
There can be two ways of doing this, they told TOI via email. One is to assume that the Indian share in this global hidden wealth was simply the same as India’s share in global GDP, that is, about 2.5% in 2013, the year for which this data pertains. By this measure, the Indian share of hidden wealth is $152-181 billion. That’s about Rs 8.9 to 10.5 lakh crore. Another way of finding out the Indian share of undeclared assets is to look at the Indian share in actual declared portfolio assets—about 0.07% of the total—and assume that the same is valid for hidden assets. By this way, India’s share in black assets works out to $4-5 billion or about Rs 25,000-30,000 crore.
These figures for India are just indicative and the three economists — Pellegrini, Sanelli and Tosti — were insistent that they “have to be considered with great care and in no way can represent firm data”. But, having said that, there is no other way of getting even a glimpse of the secret stockpile of wealth stashed away abroad by Indians. So, as a ballpark figure, it does give a hint of what lies buried.
Why is there a big discrepancy between the two methods of calculating India’s hidden wealth in tax havens? As the Italian researchers explained, Indians seem to have a much lower propensity for investing in foreign financial assets — that’s why their share in global offshore financial assets, as calculated from IMF data, is a puny 0.07%. But will this reluctance extend to secret investments too? Nobody knows.
In all probability, Indian share in foreign black money is somewhere between the two estimates computed above. This is supported by estimates of offshore wealth growth by various agencies. In the Global Wealth 2015 Report, the Boston Consulting Group says that shares of offshore wealth from Middle East and Africa region, Latin America and Asia Pacific were higher than Western Europe and North America, although it also points out that Asia-Pacific contribution is not so high.
Washington, DC: The foreign trips of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Cabinet colleagues cost the Indian exchequer Rs. 567 crore in the last financial year (2015-16), an increase of more than 80% from the previous year, budget documents show. This is besides the over Rs. 500 crore his bureaucrats spend on their travel each year on an average.
The total tour expenses of the PM and his ministers went up from Rs 269 crore as estimated in the budget at the beginning of the 2015-16 fiscal to Rs 567 crore, as per the revised estimates towards the end of the year. In addition, the total tour expenditure of bureaucrats was over Rs 1,500 crore in the three years up to 2014-15.
The UPA-2 Cabinet and its PM spent almost Rs 1,500 crore on travel between 2009-10 and 2013-14. In comparison, the travel bill of the NDA government in three years (between 2014-15 and 2016-17) is estimated at Rs 1,140 crore.
The PM, however, has pledged to slash his expenditure on foreign trips by over 54% in the next financial year which will restore it to the level of UPA’s expenditure towards the end of its term in 2014.The travel bill of the Cabinet and the PM includes expenditure on travel by ministers, ministers of state and ex-PMs and the aircraft used by VVIPs — the PM, President and Vice-President.
Though Modi flaunts a leaner Cabinet, with 64 members compared to UPA’s 75 members, the salary bill of his ministers went up by more than 25% last year compared to 2013-14, the UPA’s last year in office. The allowances of his ministers also shot up to Rs 10.20 crore, which shows an increase of 8% over the expenditure made by theUPA Cabinet.
The cabinet secretariat, which assists the PM, has added a strength of at least 300 since 2015. The strength of the cabinet secretariat as on March 1, 2015 was 900 which increased to 1,201 in 2016, according to the budget.
The travel bills of successive governments have not been impacted by the downturn in the economy since 2008-09. Every year, the finance ministry comes out with a press note announcing a 10% cut in non-plan expenditure that imposes restriction on first class travel by bureaucrats and a cut on foreign delegations of Union ministers besides restrictions on conferences in five-star hotels. Interestingly, the curb on first class travel by senior bureaucrats is lifted in the second half of the fiscal every year.
WASHINGTON – On April 1, 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2017 cap. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.
The congressionally mandated cap on H-1B visas for FY 2017 is 65,000. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for individuals with a U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the 65,000 cap.
USCIS expects to receive more than 65,000 petitions during the first five business days of this year’s program. The agency will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public when the H-1B cap has been met. If USCIS receives an excess of petitions during the first five business days, the agency will use a computer-generated lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to meet the cap. USCIS will reject all unselected petitions that are subject to the cap as well as any petitions received after the cap has closed.
H-1B petitioners may still continue to request premium processing together with their H-1B petition. However, please note that USCIS has temporarily adjusted its current premium processing practice based on historic premium processing receipt levels and the possibility that the H-1B cap will be met in the first five business days of the filing season. In order to prioritize data entry for cap-subject H-1B petitions, USCIS will begin premium processing for H-1B cap-subject petitions requesting premium processing no later than May 16, 2016.
H-1B petitioners are reminded that when the temporary employment or training will be in different locations, the state where your company or organization’s primary office is located will determine where you should send your Form I-129 package, regardless of where in the United States the various worksites are located. Please ensure that when temporary employment or training will be in different locations, the address on page 1, part 1 of Form I-129 is for your organization’s primary office. Please note that when listing a “home office” as a work site location on Part 5, question 3, USCIS will consider this a separate and distinct work site location.
H-1B petitioners must follow all statutory and regulatory requirements as they prepare petitions in order to avoid delays in processing and possible requests for evidence. USCIS has developed detailed information, including an optional checklist, Form M-735, Optional Checklist for Form I-129 H-1B Filings, on how to complete and submit an FY 2017 H-1B petition. The optional checklist for FY 2017 will be available within the next week.
Cases will be considered accepted on the date USCIS receives a properly filed petition with the appropriate fees. For more information on the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program and current Form I-129 processing times, visit the H-1B FY 2017 Cap Season Web page or call the National Customer Service Center at 800-375-5283 or 800-767-1833 (TDD for the hearing impaired). We encourage H-1B applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season email updates located on the H-1B FY 2017 Cap Season Web page.
HOUSTON, TX – March 14, 2016 – Houston’s global community, including the crème de la crème of the bayou city’s business, political and society circles, gatheredWednesday evening (March 9) for Asia Society Texas Center’s Tiger Ball 2016, celebrating contemporary Korea. A record crowd of more than 700 guests strolled into the grand Chevron Gala Pavilion, named for the event’s presenting corporate sponsor. Reception hosts, Kathy and Glen Gondo, welcomed the throng of guests into the grand tent with tantalizing sushi, provided by Sushic, the Sushi Company. While Taiko drummers with Memorial Jumbo Group performed, guests flowed from a magnificent tent into the world-class Yoshio Taniguchi-designed building, where volunteers modeling Jasmine Shinhyo Park’s stunning traditional gowns greeted them as they entered the Fayez Sarofim Grand Hall to enjoy the Yeesookyung exhibition. Then, it was on to a lavish dinner catered by City Kitchen. Patrons finished the evening with dancing and an auction in which they bid on once-in-a-lifetime experiences including throwing out the first pitch at a Houston Astros game to sparkling diamond earrings and luxurious travel and dining packages.
Gala Co-Chairs, Lou Ann and Alexander C. Chae and Susan and Michael K. Jhin, and guests honored Asia Society Texas Center’s Board Chairman Edward “Eddie” R. Allen III and wife Chinhui Juhn. Asia Society’s Executive Director Bonna Kol and Joni Baird of Chevron presented the honorees, Eddie and Chinhui, with the Tiger Ball 2016 award for their continued support of Asia Society.
Among the supporters in attendance were Anne and Albert Chao, Y. Ping Sun and David Leebron, Andrea and Bill White, Isla and Thomas Reckling, Claudia and Roberto Contreras, Lily and Charles Foster, Margeret Alkek Williams, Joanne Herring, Phoebe Tudor, and Asia Society’s grand patron Nancy C. Allen.
The $1.2 million raised by Tiger Ball 2016 benefits exhibitions and programs, which promotes mutual understanding between the U.S. and Asia and strengthens the partnerships of all of Houston’s diverse communities.
Next year, Tiger Ball 2017 celebrates the magnificence of India, honoring long-time supporters Sushila and Durga Agrawal, who were also in attendance last night. To inquire about 2017 sponsorships, please contact Sadhavi Chauhan at Schauhan@AsiaSociety.org.
With 12 locations throughout the world, Asia Society is the leading educational organization promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among the peoples, leaders, and institutions of Asia and the United States. Asia Society Texas Center executes the global mission with a local focus, enriching and engaging the vast diversity of Houston through innovative, relevant programs in arts and culture, business and policy, education, and community outreach.
Washington, DC: Attorney Jay Chaudhuri won the March 15 Democratic primary election for the 16th district state Senate seat in North Carolina to advance to the general election Nov. 8, beating Ellis Hankins with a two-third margin. Chaudhuri received 19,844 votes, or 63.14 percent, while Hankins got 11,584 votes, or 36.86 percent.
Chaudhuri, 46, a lawyer with ties to state government, will face the sole Republican candidate, Eric Weaver, in November, in a district that historically elects Democrats. “I’m honored that the voters have chosen me to be the Democratic nominee for the election in November,” Chaudhuri said. “We’re going to fight hard to continue Josh Stein’s tradition of being a champion for progressive values, and I look forward to bringing everyone together to work toward providing a world-class education for all our students and building an economy that works for all North Carolinians.”
The Senate seat for the district, which encompasses much of western Raleigh and Cary, has been vacant since Sen. Josh Stein decided to run for attorney general. Chaudhuri resigned as general counsel to North Carolina Treasurer Janet Cowell May 1, 2015, and later announced his candidacy for the state Senate June 2, 2015.
The Indian American candidate said that education is the overriding issue in his campaign. The Republican-dominated General Assembly in North Carolina, he charged, has “not made its focus on investing in public education. Teachers are leaving (North Carolina) for other states,” he had told India-West, adding that he views public education funding as “investing dollars in economic development.”
Born in Chattanooga, Tenn., and a resident of Cameron Village in Raleigh, with his wife, Sejal Mehta, a former New York prosecutor, and their two children, Chaudhuri has an extensive background in state government.
In addition to serving as general counsel and a policy adviser to Cowell, he was also Cooper’s special counsel and legislative counsel when Cooper was state Senate Majority Leader. Before that, Chaudhuri clerked for now Chief Judge Linda McGee of the North Carolina Court of Appeals and was Jacob K. Javits Fellow for former U.S. Sen. Russell D. Feingold of Wisconsin.
Chaudhuri’s parents, Debi and Mithu Chaudhuri, left India 50 years ago and settled in Fayetteville, N.C., where his father worked at the Veteran Administration Hospital.
Chaudhuri graduated from Davidson College in Charlotte, N.C., the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs in New York and the North Carolina Central University School of Law.
Chaudhuri said in a press release last June that, while serving as general counsel to Cowell, he helped recover more than $100 million for state pension and unclaimed property funds and led efforts to establish the first ever Innovation Fund, a $230 million fund to support and invest in businesses with significant operations in North Carolina.
The Democratic primary for Stein’s seat was one of the more expensive legislative races with both candidates raising six figures. The race heated up when Chaudhuri sent campaign mailers publicizing some of Hankins’ donations to Republicans in the 1990s. Hankins, 62, former executive director of the N.C. League of Municipalities, responded with a “voter alert” confirming that he made the donations at the request of a former employee to improve relationships with Republicans. He criticized his opponent, saying they had a gentleman’s agreement to run a clean campaign.
Washington, DC: Amol Punjabi, 17, of Marlborough, Mass., and Maya Varma, 17, of Cupertino, Calif., were chosen as first-place winners, along with Paige Brown, 17, of Bangor, Maine, in the prestigious 75th anniversary of the Intel Science Talent Search competition. Second-place winners included Meena Jagadeesan, 17, of Naperville, Ill., and Milind Jagota, 18, of Bethlehem, Pa. Kunal Shroff and Kavya Ravichandran were third-place winners, winning in Basic Research and Innovation, respectively. Michael Zhang, 18, of Berwyn, Pa., and Nathan Charles Marshall, 17, of Boise, Idaho, won second and third place, respectively, in the Global Good category.
Overall, six Indian American teenage students were among the nine winners announced by the Intel and the Society for Science and the Public in a joint statement on March 15. Described to be among the most promising high school students and were celebrated for their scientific achievements in Washington, D.C, the winners walked away with the three first-, second- and third-place prizes of $150,000, $75,000 and $35,000, respectively.
Punjabi won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Basic Research in the prestigious competition. He developed software that could help drug makers develop new therapies for cancer and heart disease. Punjabi is also the lead author of a paper on nanoparticles published in ACS Nano and co-author of a paper on a related topic in Nanoscale. He is also the lead pianist for his high school’s jazz workshop and captain of the Science Olympiad team.
Varma won the First Place Medal of Distinction for Innovation. She used $35 worth of hobbyist electronics and free computer-aided design tools to create a low-cost, smartphone-based lung function analyzer that diagnoses lung disease as accurately as expensive devices currently used in medical laboratories.
Varma is proficient in five programming languages, holds leadership roles in multiple honor societies and science and math clubs, and has won grand prizes in several prestigious science competitions. “The Society congratulates Amol, Paige and Maya,” said Society for Science and the Public president and chief executive Maya Ajmera, who is also a Science Talent Search alumna. “They and the rest of the top winners of Intel STS 2016 are using science and technology to help address the problems they see in the world and will be at the forefront of creating the solutions we need for the future.”
Jagadeesan won in Basic Research for investigating an object in algebraic combinatorics, or the mathematics of counting, to reveal a novel relationship between classes of graphs. Jagota won in Innovation as he studied the performance of random nanowire networks as a less costly alternative to the transparent conductors now used in touchscreen devices.
Shroff, 17, of Great Falls, Va., discovered new relationships between the key protein associated with Huntington’s disease and the biological processes of cellular death that cause Huntington’s symptoms. His work may lead to new treatments. Ravichandran, 17, of Westlake, Ohio, studied the use of nanomedicine to destroy potentially fatal blood clots that can cause heart attacks and strokes.
The winners were pared down from 1,750 entrants. The six Indian American winners came from a list of 40 finalists, which included 14 Indian Americans and South Asians. Indian Americans and South Asians accounted for 70 of the 300 semifinalists named in the competition.
Washington, DC: Niraj Antani, R-Ohio, fighting to retain his Ohio State Assembly seat, won the GOP primary after running unopposed on March 15. Antani, who recently was named the second most influential Republican under the age of 30, announced he was running for re-election in December. “I think I’ve been able to be effective for my community,” the Indian American legislator told the media in the January report. “The legislature has been able to cut taxes, prevent overall increased spending and increase education spending.”
A graduate of Ohio State University, receiving a bachelor’s in political science, as well as a juris doctorate degree from the University of Dayton School of Law, Antani was previously the communications director for the Ohio State University College Republicans during the 2012 presidential election, as well as the chair for the Young Americans for Romney in Ohio.
Antani was named to Forbes Magazine’s list of the top “30 Under 30” people in the United States for Law and Politics in 2015. In addition, he was named to the “Top 30 Conservatives Under Age 30 in the United States” list by Red Alert Politics. And in 2013, the Montgomery County Republican Party named him the “Republican Man of the Year.”
The young GOP candidate will be campaigning against Patrick Merris, who ran unopposed in the Democratic primary. “I was grateful that I was unopposed in the Republican primary and was glad to have received nearly 15,000 votes in the primary,” Antani was quoted to have said. “I look forward to the campaign in the fall, so I can continue my work to expand the American Dream to all those who work for it.”
He represents the 42nd District, which covers most of southern Montgomery County. At age 24, he is the youngest currently serving member of the House. In addition, he is the second Indian-American state elected official in Ohio history, and the first Indian-American Republican. During the Romney campaign in 2012, Antani worked for the Ohio State Director & Senior Adviser to the campaign. In 2010, he worked for U.S. Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen in Washington, DC. In Ohio, Antani worked for then State Representative – now State Senator – Peggy Lehner in 2009, as well as U.S. Congressman Mike Turner in his Dayton office in 2007.
A strong conservative, Antani is a member of the NRA and volunteers for Dayton Right to Life. He is a member of the Rotary Club of Miamisburg, serves on the executive board of the non-profit Dayton International Festival, Inc., and he chairs the Ohio Republican Party Asian Pacific American Advisory Council. Antani has appeared on Fox News, PBS NewsHour with Judy Woodruff, C-SPAN, CNBC, and Chuck Todd’s radio show. In addition, he has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, Forbes Magazine, and Newsmax.
Antani said a lot of people have criticized him for his age, but he sees it as an advantage. “I believe our generation should have a voice. The legislature in Columbus should look like who they serve, they should not all just be one age demographic,” he said. “A lot of people who told me to wait to run, they told me I was too young, too inexperienced. I did not believe that. Candidates should be chosen on their merit, on who is going to be the best candidate.”
Washington, DC: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will join the ranks of prominent global leaders at Madame Tussauds in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok next month, the world famous wax museum announced March 16th.
Describing him as a “hugely important figure in world politics,” the museum said the Indian prime minister had given the museum’s team of artists and experts a sitting at his residence in New Delhi earlier this year.
“Madame Tussauds has crafted figures of very distinguished dignitaries from around the world — how could I regard myself worthy of being alongside them? But when I was informed that your decision had emanated from public opinion and public sentiment, I was comforted,” Modi said in a statement to the museum.
“During my sitting, I observed the team carefully and was deeply impressed by its dedication, professionalism and skill. I have visited Madame Tussauds three or four times and had the pleasure of getting myself photographed standing next to the figures of various dignitaries,” he said.
The wax figures at each of the museum’s locations around Europe and Asia will be dressed in Modi’s “signature kurta” in cream with a jacket and he will be featured in a traditional pose “making a namaste gesture.”
“Prime Minister Modi is a hugely important figure in world politics, a position supported by his place in the top 10 of Time Magazine’s ‘Person of the Year List 2015’,” said museum spokesperson Kieran Lancini.
“His massive social media presence — he is currently the second most followed politician on twitter after President Obama — also confirms the intense interest the public have in him, a fact supported by the requests our guests have made for us to create his figure.
“We are delighted to be including the prime minister’s figure in our attractions in London, Singapore, Hong Kong and Bangkok,” he said. Each figure took a team of Madame Tussauds’ artists four months and cost around 150,000 pounds to create.
“Guests will be able to stand shoulder to shoulder and measure up to one of the most powerful men in the world – and even grab a selfie when the figures arrive in their locations,” the museum said. The launch in London and all other centers is expected around late April and it is yet to be confirmed if Modi would be personally unveiling himself in wax at any of the four locations.
A new branch of Madame Tussauds is also set to open in New Delhi as part of the India-UK Year of Culture in 2017, announced during Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the UK last November.
Washington, DC: The Indian National Overseas Congress I(INOC) accorded a warm reception to former External Affairs Minister of India and Senior Congress Leader Shri Salman Khurshid in Washington DC on March 19th.
INOC(I) President, General Secretary and member met Salman Khurshid and briefed him of the activities of the Organization and also spoke to him on the issues and concerns of the Diaspora in the USA. Salman Khurshid was on a visit to address the Prestigious George Washington University and took time off to attend the meeting with INOC(I).
President INOC(I) – Lavika Bhagat Singh spoke on the several initiatives that she and Chairman Shudh Parkash Singh undertook – especially the Chalo Punjab campaign that was successful and she hoped that this initiative could be again taken up during the forthcoming Punjab Elections. She also spoke on the past events on literature and culture that she had hosted on the Capital Hill and were attended by the Congress leaders like Dr. Karan Singh and Shashi Taroor. She hoped that INOC(I) can host an event in the near future to help build stronger economic cooperation between USA and India. She was hopeful that the event will involve successful and renowned economists in this initiative that she is planning.
Rajender Dichpally briefed Salman Khurshid on the successful elections to INOC(I) conducted for the first time ever. He said we are grateful to our true leader Shudh Parkash Singh for his decision to hold elections democratically. Rajender also spoke on the activities of various chapters like Kerala, Punjab and Telangana that are helping spread the Congress ideology in the USA.
He hoped that the Indian National Congress will work closer with INOC(I) in helping spread the message of Pluralism and Nationalism among the Diaspora and hoped to see more meaningful visits of Congress Leaders to the USA like the present visit of Shri Salman Khurshid. There were other prominent economists, entrepreneurs and thinkers who attended the meeting between INOC(I) and Shri Salman Khurshid.
Attached Photo: Shri Salman Khurshid *Former External Affairs Minister of India) with Smt.Lavika Bhagat Singh (President – Indian National Overseas Congress(I)) and Rajender Dichpally (National General Secretary – Indian National Overseas Congress(I))
Washington, DC: Students from abroad pursuing degrees in science, technology, education or mathematics will have the option of remaining in the U.S. for three years for practical training, according to a new rule announced on March 11 by the Department of Homeland Security. The law will extend the post-graduation work authorization period for international students studying STEM fields in the U.S as of May 10th this year. The rule will come as relief to thousands of international students whose futures in the U.S. were thrown into question after a federal judge invalidated a 2008 rule governing the program on procedural grounds.
The new rule addresses a program known as optional practical training, or OPT, which permits international students to work in the U.S. for 12 months after graduation. Under the 2008 rule, students studying STEM fields were eligible to apply for a 17-month OPT extension, for a total of 29 months of work authorization.
The new rule published will lengthen the extension from 17 to 24 months and enable students to apply for an extension at two different points of their academic career (after two different degree levels, e.g., a bachelor’s and a master’s), rather than only once. The ability of international graduates to work for up to three years at two different points in their academic careers while remaining on their F-1 student visas could allow them more time and flexibility to seek ways to stay in the U.S. legally, if that’s their choice.
The new rule also includes new reporting requirements for employers, students and university officials and, for the first time, requires employers to put in place formal training plans. “We’re viewing STEM OPT as a continuation of their training,” said Rachel Canty, the deputy director of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which issued the rule. “It’s not just regular employment. You see this with the institution of this new training plan, which emphasizes that the student and employer have to sit down together to say how are we going to use this job, how are they going to take the skills they learned in school and apply it to a work environment.”
“The new rule for STEM OPT will allow international students with qualifying degrees to extend the time they participate in practical training, while at the same time strengthening oversight and adding new features to the program,” said Lou Farrell, director of the Student and Exchange Visitor Program, in a press statement.
Only students who have earned a degree from a school accredited by a U.S. Department of Education-recognized accrediting agency and certified by SEVP may apply for a STEM OPT extension. On Mar. 11, DHS launched a new Web site — studyinthestates.dhs.gov — that explains the OPT extension program for prospective foreign students. DHS estimates there are roughly 34,000 foreign graduates enrolled in OPT or OPT Extension programs. Critics of the program cite a private survey which reports there are more than 120,000 foreign graduates enrolled in these programs.
Employers participating in the program must enroll in the government’s E-Verify program. They must pay STEM OPT trainees wages similar to regular employees with similar backgrounds. Trainees must work a minimum of 20 hours a week and cannot replace a full-time, part-time, temporary or permanent U.S. worker. DHS said it has built in the latter safeguard to guard against adverse effects on U.S. workers.
The rule also includes new provisions intended to protect international students and American workers. It requires that hours, duties and compensation for STEM OPT participants be commensurate with terms and conditions for “similarly situated U.S. workers” and requires employers to attest that students hired through the program are not replacing Americans.
Herein lies the controversy surrounding the program. Proponents of OPT argue that the lure of post-graduation employment opportunities will help the U.S. attract international students and enable industry to identify top foreign talent, particularly in technical fields for which there are few qualified American job applicants. Opponents, however, argue that the program harms Americans by flooding tech fields with cheaper-to-hire foreign workers. (On the cheaper question, critics argue that policies that exempt some international students on F-1 visas, and their employers, from Social Security and Medicare taxes make them less expensive to hire than U.S. workers. International students generally begin paying Social Security and Medicare taxes after five years in the U.S.)
Washington, DC: Raja Krishnamoorthi , who won the Democratic Party primary on March 15, 2016 is all set to join the 11th Congress in the Nation’s Capital from the 8th Congressional District in the state of Illinois, that includes the Chicago suburbs of Hoffman Estates, Schaumburg and Palatine.
Krishnamoorthi won the Democratic primary, defeating his two opponents, Michael Noland and Deborah Bullwinkel. Krishnamoorthi believes he has a very good chance to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives in Illinois’ 8th Congressional District, and is now focused on winning the general election in November. “So far, the dynamic has been favorable, but we can’t take anything for granted,” Krishnamoorthi said. “We have to make sure we get our message out.”
Krishnamoorthi is currently president of Sivananthan Labs, where he works on leading research teams developing semiconductor technologies, improved military technologies, solar cells and biosensors to detect weapons of mass destruction. He was formerly the Illinois Deputy Treasurer and served as the policy director for Barack Obama’s successful U.S. Senate campaign in 2004.
Raja Krishnamoorth
Krishnamoorthi noted that he has received endorsements from many politicians, including Democratic Representatives Jared Polis ’96 of Colorado and Derek Kilmer ’96 of Washington, local community leaders and advocacy groups in Chicago and Washington, D.C.
Sunil Bhave, a member of the District 59 School Board, explained that Krishnamoorthi is a very genuine person who is able to get along with people who have different opinions, which is a very rare quality that is needed in Congress. “Within a minute of talking to him, you just want to shake his hand and give him a hug,” Bhave said. “He listens to what people have to say.”
Born in New Delhi, India, Krishnamoorthi moved to the United States when he was three-months-old so that his father could complete a graduate degree in industrial engineering. He grew up in Buffalo, N.Y., and moved to Peoria, Ill., where his father was a faculty member at Bradley University. There, he graduated from Richwoods High School.
He explained that he decided to apply to the University because of the strong engineering school, which was where he intended to major. He also said that the liberal arts component and the presence of the Wilson School was key, because it would enable him to take humanities and science classes at the same time. “Princeton’s structure accommodated all of those interests at the same time,” he said. “I could not find that anywhere else.”
Krishnamoorthi graduated summa cum laude from the University. Krishnamoorthi received a degree in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and a certificate from the Wilson School. His independent project dealt with natural gas powered engines and his senior thesis for the Wilson School dealt with foreign directed investment in India, due to his interest in economic development.
He explained that he transferred from Electrical Engineering to Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering because of his interest in the large number of practical applications, such as combustion engines and solar cells. “I was able to take courses where the professors and the teaching assistants were available to mentor and shepherd me through some very difficult coursework,” Krishnamoorthi added. “They allowed me to excel.”
After graduating, Krishnamoorthi spent two years as a strategy consultant and dealt with how a business should grow, whether through increasing revenue or cutting costs. He had always wanted to go to law school because of his interest in government and public policy. “There’s nothing like law school that prepares you for that,” Krishnamoorthi said. “You really learn about the bones of our legal system and the Constitution, and how the federal government operates.”
He then graduated from Harvard Law School in 2000, clerked for Judge Joan Gottschall at the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Illinois for a year. He assisted Judge Gottschall in deciding cases, and dealt with procedural motions arising in the cases. “It’s a real workout in terms of researching and writing and learning to express yourself persuasively,” he said.
Krishnamoorthi then joined law firm Kirkland and Ellis in Chicago, Ill., as an attorney. He dealt with many different types of law, including contract law, securities law, white-collar criminal prosecutions and bankruptcy litigation. In addition, he did some pro-bono work and was particularly proud of helping a man who had been persecuted in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Krishnamoorthi was then appointed by Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan to be the Special Attorney General with the Public Integrity Unit. He took this position after a former colleague at Kirkland and Ellis became the head of the Public Integrity Unit and asked Krishnamoorthi to come and join him.
Krishnamoorthi’s first foray into politics occurred in 1999, when he worked on Barack Obama’s Democratic primary campaign for the 1st Congressional District of Illinois. Obama lost, but asked Krishnamoorthi to become policy director for his Senate campaign in 2004. As a policy director, he educated Obama on various issues and formulated policy that would set him apart from his competitors. He also helped Obama prepare for debates.
In 2007, Krishnamoorthi left Kirkland and Ellis to become the Deputy Treasurer of Illinois. He was appointed by the Treasurer, who was formerly the banker of Obama’s 2004 Senate campaign. Krishnamoorthi focused on writing the policies aimed at promoting economic development, and was impressed by the amount of money managed by the state.
His first foray into elected office came in 2010, when Krishnamoorthi sought the Democratic nomination for Illinois State Comptroller, who maintains the state’s accounts and authorizes checks and payments. He noted that he possessed a unique set of skills that would help him in this position.
“One the one hand, I was an attorney who had investigated ethics abuses,” he said. “On the other hand, I had some financial training as the Deputy Treasurer.” Krishnamoorthi lost to David Miller in the Democratic primary by just over a percentage point. He said that he was able to meet great people during his bid, which encouraged him to try again for elected office. From his first run, he learned that he needed to raise more money to get his message across.
In 2010, Krishnamoorthi joined Sivananthan Laboratories as the president after meeting Dr. Sivalingam Sivananthan, the founder of Sivananthan Labs, when Krishnamoorthi was running for Comptroller.
In 2011, Krishnamoorthi decided to run for the House of Representatives in the 8th District of Illinois. He noted that he jumped into the race because he wanted to defeat then Rep. Joe Walsh, a Tea Party Republican. “He was then the Donald Trump of the U.S. Congress,” Krishnamoorthi said. “He was a horrible guy who played on people’s fears and tried to demagogue on the issues.”
Krishnamoorthi said that his second attempt at elected office was a positive experience because the discussions he had with his opponents were civil and ideas-focused. However, he lost the Democratic nomination to Tammy Duckworth, who went on to become the Representative for the 8th District. Krishnamoorthi then became an advisor to Rep. Duckworth. Last year, Rep. Duckworth announced that she would step down from the House of Representatives to run for the U.S. Senate. Krishnamoorthi subsequently declared his candidacy for the 8th District in 2015, and won the Mar. 15 Democratic primary.
“South Asians turned out in higher numbers than normal this time,” Krishnamoorthi said, hoping that would be the “new normal” in the future. During an event organized by the South Asian community, Raja Krishnamoorthi in his stirring eloquence spelled out his vision –when elected – to usher a new day in the United States Congress with pressing legislative agenda that seeks to strengthen working families, making college affordable, bolstering small businesses, reforming immigration system, improving America’s infrastructure. More importantly Raja Krishnamoorthi assured that he would passionately pursue critical agenda for Americans in bringing about economic equality, protecting Social Security, Medicare and fiercely advocating policies to help working families and raising minimum wage.
Keerthi Kumar Ravoori, Event Convener in his welcome remarks said that we as Indian Americans stand on the precipice of a shining hope and brighter promise with Raja Krishnamoorthi nearing to enter the portals of the U.S. Congress with comprehensive legislative goals. Keerthi Ravoori characterized Raja Krishnamoorthi as a ‘legislative genius’ who would passionately pursue meaningful legislative agenda by hitting the ground running when elected.
Dr. Vijay Prabhakar, Event Co-Chair in his remarks vociferously emphasized that the candidacy of Raja Krishnamoorthi represents a chance of a life time for the current and the future generations. He stridently challenged every Asian American to rise up and stand shoulder to shoulder to help Raja cross the finish line victoriously so that all Americans can see this eminent political personality as a shining inspiration for the entire nation.
His campaign has mainly revolved around keeping people in the middle class and strengthening the middle class and he has advocated for a set of policies to achieve this. Krishnamoorthi wants to raise the minimum wage, pass paid maternity leave, reduce student debt burdens and focus on building a clean-energy economy.
Krishnamoorthi noted that many of his policies have bipartisan support, and he wants to work to find common ground. He explained that there are many Tea Party Congressmen who support expanding solar energy. “Some folks believe that solar energy has become a liberty and independence issue in the Southwest and Florida, because they can cut the cord with their utilities,” he said. “It has the promise of combatting climate change and creating jobs.”
Some other races that would affect Indian-Americans’ political standing nationally and at state levels include California state Attorney General Kamala Harris’ run for the U.S. Senate; incumbent California Democratic Rep. Ami Bera, running for his third term from District 7; Maryland state Assemblyman and former Majority Leader Kumar Barve, the first Indian-American to win a state assembly seat back in 1990, still seeking his party’s nomination in his bid for the U.S. Congress from District 8; civil rights advocate and Washington state Assemblywoman Pramila Jayapal’s run for the Senate from District 7; attorney Neil Makhija, chosen by the Democratic Party to run for the Pennsylvania state House from District 122; and three-term Vermont state Rep. Kesha Ram’s bid for Lt. Governor, among others.
I have a B.E in Electronics & Communications engineering from NIT Trichy (1977) and a M.S in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (1984).
I have learnt Carnatic Music for a few years and also co-founded the San Francisco Bay Area Light Music group ‘Pallavi’ in 1996. We have performed in over 30 events in several languages all over California.
My Uncle Mr. P. Balasubramaniam was a Rotarian and he used to volunteer at the Sankara Eye Hospital, Coimbatore. He was after me and my brother K. Sridharan since 1996 to start the Sankara Eye Foundation, USA (SEF) to support the Hospital in Coimbatore. I was very reluctant as we did not have much time and I thought that our friends and others would run away from us if we start asking them for donations. We stopped calling our uncle, as he will surely ask about starting Sankara Eye Foundation. Uncle was persistent and will not let it go. Sridharan visited the Hospital in 1997 and came back very inspired and we decided to start SEF. Sridharan’s neighbor Ahmad Khushnood Qazi of Lahore is a CPA and he helped with the 501c-3 papers and the three of us founded SEF in May 1998.
In the first year we hand wrote personal appeals to around 100 of our friends and we raised around $8,000. We organized our first fundraiser on April 3, 1999. It was a multi-lingual light music show by Pallavi at the Foothill College Theater in Los Altos and we raised around $19,000.
The number of free eye surgeries at our Coimbatore Hospital started increasing from 8,000 in 1998 to 15,000 in 1999, 22,000 in 2000 and this is when our volunteer Rajiv Chamraj proposed a big vision – Eradicate curable blindness in India by the year 2020 – Vision 20/20 by 2020. At that time I used to read Swami Vivekananda’s teaching every day to pull through every day at work. I was not motivated by Electronics or Software and I was doing it just to make a living. Coming back to the big vision for SEF, even though it was much beyond us, I thought about what Swami Vivekananda said, “Every human being is divine and can do anything and everything. Think big, even if you are a thief, don’t be a petty thief, be a big thief” and that motivated me and I accepted the big goal. “Ignorance is bliss” really worked for me as I had no idea what it takes to build a Sankara Eye Hospital and others, both in Sankara USA and Sankara India, knew much more than me.
I was like a young child who wanted the candy and would not accept anything else. Others were not ready to accept the big vision as they thought that it was a very big step for the organizations and Murali had no idea. I was very disappointed but would not let it go. I threatened that SEF, USA will work with other service providers in India and build 20 eye hospitals by the year 2020. They said that I was arrogant. The way my uncle persisted in us starting the SEF, USA, I was adamant about “Vision 20/20 by 2020”.
It took some time for SEF and Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI India) to accept the big goal but all of us are on board now.
When the vision is big and if the work is genuine, support does come and it did. We now run eight Eye Hospitals in India and 150,000 + free eye surgeries were performed by these Hospitals in 2013. Our next Hospital (ninth) is coming up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and will be inaugurated in October 2014. We have also purchased land in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and Indore Madhya Pradesh for our next Hospitals and we are also looking at Chhattisgarh and Bihar. Our goal is to build at least 20 hospitals in India by the year 2020 and play a big role in eradicating curable blindness.
SEF has now performed close to 1.18 million free eye surgeries and it has become the largest free eye care provider in the world. A key part of our work is self-sufficiency – we expect our hospitals to become self-sufficient by also attracting paying patients. We have a 80:20 model where 80% of the patients are provided services free of cost and we bring these patients from rural India to our hospitals and they are poor. The other 20% of the patients are those who can afford to pay. Out of the eight hospitals in Coimbatore, Krishnankoil, Guntur, Bangalore, Shimoga, Anand, Ludhiana and Rishikesh, two of them – Bangalore and Guntur have become self-sufficiency and they don’t our support from here for recurring services.
SEF is still mostly volunteer run and is supported by over 50,000 donors all over the USA and the collective efforts are paying off. SEF received the top 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for sound fiscal management, commitment to accountability and transparency. We also won the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Performance Excellence trophy in the health care category.
Even though our uncle literally forced us to start the Sankara Eye Foundation, now we realize that this is the best thing that has happened to us. We have made so many friends and that has enriched our lives beyond imagination. Initially I used to think that I was making a difference in the lives of our dear visually handicapped brothers and sisters but now it is dawning on me that I am the biggest beneficiary. I am so fortunate and grateful for this golden opportunity.
Let us, together, eradicate curable blindness – Vision 20/20 by 2020
Jyot se jyot jalate chalo; Prem ki Ganga bahate chalo; Raha mein aye jo din dukhi; Sabko gale se lagate chalo; Prem ki Ganga bahate chalo.
In order to get more information on how to join us on this noble missión, please visit: http://www.giftofvision.org/
A 17-year-old Sikh high school senior gave an hour long presentation, highlighting the insidious bullying faced by Sikh children in schools across the United States during the four-day National Conference on Bullying and Child Victimization in Orlando, Fla. last month.
S. Karanveer Singh, who has written and published a solution-oriented comprehensive book, ‘Bullying of Sikh American Children – Through the Eyes of a Sikh American High School Student,’ spoke Feb. 23 at the conference that was attended by educators, law enforcement officials, probation officers, psychologists, community workers as well as groups like the American Sikh Council.
The American Sikh Council put up an exhibit and disseminated literature about bullying of Sikh American children and the Sikh Faith by educating nearly all of 400 attendees from 47 states as well as Canada and the United Kingdom.
S. Karanveer Singh, S. Kavneet Singh, S. Gulbarg Singh and S. Ishwar Singh represented the American Sikh Council and attended the Feb. 21-24 conference at the Hilton-Double-Tree.
The empathy and concern for the Sikhs by the attendees was visible at the conference with over 125 people, including school administrators, counselors and teachers tied the turban in a show of symbolic solidarity with the Sikhs.
The audience was most appreciative of the information, and proactive approach taken by Karanveer Singh to minimize bullying. High-ranking law enforcement officials complimented the incredible effort put forth by Singh as an “upstanding American role model” to diminish the pain and suffering of peers and others around him. He was commended by many that this extremely useful and timely book can be used by anyone, and not just Sikh Americans.
The eyes, heart, pancreas, kidneys, esophagus, liver and bone marrow of a Bengaluru youth have granted a new lease of life to at least eight persons in New York. This followed his family’s decision to donate all his organs after he was declared brain-dead in Brooklyn Hospital Centre on Sunday.
Rajeev Naidu, 24, was admitted to the hospital with lung infection on February 21 and was undergoing treatment under the care of his roommates. Rajeev was pursuing masters in engineering from New York University in Washington Square South. He was a meritorious student and staunch follower of New Zealand cricketer Brendon McCullum.
“My parents and I haven’t seen Rajeev since he fell ill in February . We never expected this. My husband Jayanth has gone to the US to bring his body home. We are proud of whatever he did while he lived and equally proud of him for promoting a greater cause by donating his organs,” said his elder sister Kruthika Purushottam, a techie with HP. The family is expecting the body to arrive in Bengaluru by Thursday .
His last rites are likely to be performed on Friday . Rajeev, from Vidyanagar in Bommasandra, southeast Benglauru, completed BE in Computer Information Science from PESIT University in 2014. Rajeev worked in Dilip Material Handling Equipment, a local company in Bommasandra, for a year before taking admission for masters in NYU in 2015.
“Rajeev was an amazing person -kindhearted, helpful and always sported a smile. He would approach classmates, juniors and seniors to talk to them and help them. He was a great student and one of the top scorers in our university. Rajeev has made India proud by donating organs to those who needed them in US,” said Tejaswini Reddy, a classmate from PESIT.
Eighteen-year-old Sataparna Mukherjee, a Class 12 student from a village around 30km from Kolkata, has been selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) for its prestigious Goddard Internship Programme under the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS). She is among five scholars chosen from across the world for this programme.
Nasa’s GIP selects five exceptional individuals from across the world every year and funds their entire education after school.
Sataparna, who will appear for her school-leaving exams this year from St Judes School, Madhyamgram, in Kamduni – it gained notoriety for a brutal gangrape in 2013 – will be at Oxford University, where she she will pursue graduation, post-graduation and PhD (as Nasa faculty) in aerospace engineering at its London Astrobiology Centre.
Sataparna told the media, “It all started in May last year when I was a member of a group on a social networking site where there were many members, including some scientists. One day I shared some of my thoughts on ‘Black Hole Theory’, and one of the members of this group gave me Nasa’s official website and told me to post my findings, which I did.” Sataparna’s paper on Black Hole Theory, and how this could be used to create a ‘Time Machine’, was hugely appreciated. “I am very happy to get this opportunity where I will also work as a researcher at the Nasa centre in London,” she said.
Under the Goddard Internship Programme, Sataparna will work as an “employee and researcher”, where she will be part of its earth science and technology development programme. Nasa is paying her a generous sum as honorarium, apart from bearing all her expenses. Her father Pradip Mukheree, a headmaster of a primary school who led a people’s movement against goons and political pressure to drop the infamous June 2013 Kamduni gang-rape case, said, “She has made us, and the entire country, proud.”
Pulak Chakraborty, a professor of English at the Nabagram Hiralapal College, who’s acting as Sataparna’s referee at Oxford, said, “She is a very good student and her ability should not be judged through her marks alone. She is original, and that has made her attain so much.”
“She is going on August 17,” said Pradip. “Though every cost is borne by the university and Nasa, we will arrange for the passage money, which is quite high. I am thinking of taking a loan because I don’t want to let this opportunity go,” he said.
With young workforce and continuing policy reform, India has not only emerged as the fastest-growing economy, but its stars also shine bright amid the current global gloom, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Managing Director Christine Lagarde said last week.
“It’s fitting we meet in India,” said Lagarde in her remarks at at “Advancing Asia” summit here. “It’s the world’s fastest growing large economy, on the verge of having its largest, youngest ever workforce — and, in a decade’s time, set to become the world’s most populous country.”
She also announced a training and technical assistance centre here for capacity development.
With Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the podium, Lagarde said it was an opportune time to toast India’s achievements — and Asia’s achievements — which, she added, was a rare bright spot in this current global economic turmoil.
“India stands at a crucial moment in its history — with an unprecedented opportunity for transformation. Important reforms are underway. Think, for example, of ‘Make in India’ and ‘Digital India’. With promise of more reforms to come, India’s star shines bright.”
At the same time, Lagarde said, Asia remains home to two-thirds of the world’s poor, many of whom live in India. To address that and also make Asia’s 4.4 billion people realise their full potential, she listed six priorities: Broadening access to services like health and finance through steps like Jan Dhan Yojana; Leveraging fiscal policy impact with instruments like conditional cash transfer programs; Empowering women with access to education, dismantling barriers; Providing amenities like water, sanitation and electricity, with better infrastructure; Greater global trade integration for more sustained growth; and Tackling the challenge of climate change.
India has been working on several of these initiatives, said Lagarde, like the plan for universal access to banking services by 2018. “Through the Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana scheme, over 210 million previously un-banked people have opened a bank account since August 2014, with social transfers paid directly,” she said, lauding the scheme. “Then with Aadhaar system, India has come up with a groundbreaking way to deliver targeted subsidies. Almost one billion people have Aadhaar numbers, and the potential to use this for delivering payments and other services — including for women — is tremendous.”
Lagarde also announced that the IMF will open a new Regional Training and Technical Assistance Center for South Asia, which will be its first fully-integrated institution and a model for future capacity development work. Indian officials said capacity development at the central and state levels in fiscal policies can enhance revenue mobilisation and help in the development of policies for more effective financial management. This is expected to help economic development and inclusive growth. It will benefit other member countries of the IMF in the region — Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, and Sri Lanka — with support from external partners like Australia and the Republic of Korea.
UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council on Friday approved its first-ever resolution tackling the escalating problem of sexual abuse by UN peacekeepers who act as predators when sent to protect vulnerable civilians in some of the world’s most volatile areas.
The United Nations has been in the spotlight for months over allegations of child rape and other sexual abuses by its peacekeepers, especially those based in Central African Republic and Congo. The UN says there were 69 allegations of sexual abuse and exploitation by peacekeepers in 2015, with an additional 25 allegations so far this year.
The resolution was approved by a vote of 14-0 with Egypt abstaining after a last-minute amendment it proposed that would have weakened the text was defeated.
The US-drafted resolution endorses Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s plan for reform, including his decision to repatriate military or police units “where there is credible evidence of widespread or systemic sexual exploitation and abuse.”
It also asks Ban to replace contingents where allegations are not properly investigated, perpetrators are not held accountable or the secretary-general is not informed on the progress of investigations. The Egyptian amendment would have required that all three conditions are met before a military or police unit is sent home, not just one of them as now required.
It’s up to the home country of the soldier or police officer to conduct the investigation and determine the punishment if allegations of sexual abuse or exploitation are proven.
The United States, the biggest financial contributor to UN peacekeeping operations, said it wanted the UN’s most powerful body to send a strong signal that it will not tolerate the escalating problem.
“To the victims of sexual exploitation and abuse by peacekeepers, we pledge that we will do better, US Ambassador Samantha Power said after the vote. “We will do better to ensure that the blue helmets that we send as your protectors will not become perpetrators.”
Secretary-General Ban called the resolution “a significant step in our collective efforts to combat the terrible damage caused to victims of sexual exploitation and abuse” and pledged to ensure protection and support for those who have been abused, his spokesman said.
More than 100,000 troops and police are deployed in the UN’s far-flung peacekeeping operations, the vast majority from developing countries. The United Nations reimburses troop contributing countries for salaries and provides allowances for peacekeepers.
As part of the secretary-general’s reforms, the United Nations has for the first time begun naming the countries of alleged perpetrators, a move meant to pressure states to pursue allegations that, UN records show, they often have let slide. Ban has also pledged to speed up investigations and to make information available about outstanding allegations on a new UN website.
Egypt, Russia and several other countries had argued that the council resolution would punish thousands of peacekeepers for the actions of a few. They say the issue should be addressed in the General Assembly instead. But General Assembly actions are not legally binding, while Security Council resolutions are.
Egypt’s UN Ambassador Amr Abdellatif Aboulatta said libeling and “branding entire states” is totally unacceptable and “drastically and inevitably affects the morale of the troops.” He said it would have been more appropriate if the Security Council focused on the root causes of sex crimes including training and supervision at camps for peacekeepers.
One of the 25 allegations this year is against an Egyptian peacekeeper in the Central African Republic. Egyptian authorities are investigating the case, according to the UN website. Russia and China supported the Egyptian amendment but then voted in favor of the resolution.
Russia’s deputy UN ambassador Petr Iliichev said it was “wrong” for the council to reject the Egyptian amendment which reflected the view of troop contributing countries. But he said Russia decided to support the resolution because the final text was expanded to call for all forces deployed by the Security Council – a reference to French troops accused of sexually abusing children in Central African Republic and African Union soldiers in Somalia, Darfur and elsewhere.
Medical tourism to India has grown many folds in the past few years. The surge in foreign patients seeking Indian health facilities for specialized and cost-effective medical care has resulted in the mushrooming of online start-ups that help foreign nationals find the best treatment in the country. One such medical tourism start-up, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com, which was started nine years back, is now serving as a one-stop solution provider for foreign medical tourists.
“We have patients coming in from all over the world. However, Africa, GCC (Gulf Cooperation Council) and CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) regions contribute towards the sector by as much as 30 percent of the total inflow,” said Anurav Rane, CEO, PlanMyMedicalTrip.com.
“There are a lot of different medical and surgical options for medical tourists coming to India. Primarily, medical tourists get elective procedures done such as cosmetic surgery, hip and knee replacements, dental procedures and infertility treatments,” he told IANS.
According to a white paper by the Confederation of Indian Industry and Grant Thornton, the Indian medical tourism market is set to touch $8 billion by 2020, up from the current $3 billion.
Saed Saber from Egypt recently came to India for knee replacement. “I wanted to get my knee replacement done but was confused as to how I should go about it. Since options in my country are limited with a high price tag for treatment, I started exploring for options, that is when I came to know about PlanMyMedicalTrip.com,” he said.
Saber visited PlanMyMedicalTrip.com to get his queries answered. “I got to know several options for hospitals across India and also got all the necessary procedures sorted for me in no time,” he told media.
IndiaHealthCareTourism.com, inaugurated recently by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, is an initiative by the government to boost healthcare tourism. It is a web portal that helps and guides the patients who are looking for treatment options in India. It lists 93 topmost medical centers, 30 ayurveda and wellness centers and one special category center.
Another online venture, Medi Connect India, deals with the latest technologies like IVF (infertility), robotics surgeries, stem cell therapies, etc.
“The main reason behind India becoming a hub for medical tourism for foreigners is cost-effectiveness. Here in metro cities you would get world-class treatment under the best doctors in a much cheaper way than what they would end up paying in their respective countries,” Shalini, assistant team lead, Medi Connect India, told IANS.
“In countries like Africa, a lot of modern treatments and good doctors are not available and hence they find India a good destination for medical reasons. Here, the best treatments are available with no waiting time in the company of highly-qualified doctors,” she added.
Medi Connect India has won the “National Tourism Award” for two consecutive years for excellence in medical tourism. To serve foreign nationals better, most of the top-rated hospitals in India have also hired language translators to make patients, especially from Balkan and African countries, feel comfortable and help facilitate their treatment.
According to the CII-Grant Thornton white paper, Chennai, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi-NCR are the most favored medical tourism destinations for foreigners who avail treatments in India. Cost is a major driver for nearly 80 percent of medical tourists across the globe, it added.
The cost factor and availability of accredited facilities have led to the emergence of several global medical tourism corridors like Singapore, Thailand, India, Malaysia, Taiwan, Mexico and Costa Rica — and India appears to have taken a lead.
WASHINGTON, D.C., March 14, 2016 – This year, AARP Foundation is again providing free tax assistance and preparation for taxpayers with low- to moderate- income through the AARP Foundation Tax-Aide program. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide, in its 48th year, is the nation’slargest free tax assistance and preparation service, giving special attention to the older population. Taxpayers do not need to be a member of AARP or a retiree to use this service.
AARP Foundation Tax-Aide has more than 5,000 locations in neighborhood libraries, malls, banks, community centers and senior centers. There’s no fee and no sales pitch for other services and AARP membership is not required. Some locations offer assistance in additional languages, including Chinese, Tagalog, Korean, Japanese, and Vietnamese.
“Our bilingual volunteers generously give their time to help taxpayers who don’t speak English or speak English as a second language prepare their returns,” said Daphne Kwok, AARP Vice President of Multicultural Leadership, Asian American and Pacific Islander Audience Strategy. “We need more bilingual volunteers so if you can help translate, please join our Tax-Aide volunteer team so that we can expand our services to Asian American & Pacific Islander communities.”
In 2015, AARP Foundation Tax-Aide’s 35,000 volunteers have provided 2.6 million people with free tax help. AARP Foundation Tax-Aide volunteers are trained and IRS-certified each year to ensure their knowledge of revisions to the U.S. tax code. Taxpayers who used AARP Foundation Tax-Aide received $1.3 billion in income tax refunds and more than $250 million in Earned Income Tax Credits (EITCs).
For more information on documents to bring to the tax site or to locate an AARP Foundation Tax-Aide site, visit www.aarp.org/findtaxhelp or call 1-888-AARPNOW (1-888-227-7669). AARP Foundation Tax-Aide is offered in conjunction with the IRS.
AARP Foundation is working to win back opportunity for struggling Americans 50+ by being a force for change on the most serious issues they face today: housing, hunger, income and isolation. By coordinating responses to these issues on all four fronts at once, and supporting them with vigorous legal advocacy, the Foundation serves the unique needs of those 50+ while working with local organizations nationwide to reach more people and make resources go further. AARP Foundation is a charitable affiliate of AARP. Learn more at www.aarpfoundation.org.
WASHINGTON, D.C: There have been studies that have found that America gains much by attracting talented, educated and resourceful workforce from among the world through its popular H1-B Work Visa, Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump stoked another controversy by vowing to abolish the visa program, popular among Indian techies. IT professionals from India and major Indian IT companies are major beneficiary of H-1B, a non-immigrant visa in the US which allows US employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in speciality occupations.
Donald Trump has said the H-1B visa programme he uses to employ highly-skilled foreign workers at his own businesses should end as it is “very unfair” for American workers and has been taking away their jobs. The last Republican presidential debate in Miami began with all the four White House aspirants slamming the H-1B visa system — popular among Indian techies, with Florida Senator Marco Rubio even naming Tata and India as part of his anti- H-1B rhetoric.
“I know the H-1B very well. And it’s something that I frankly use and I shouldn’t be allowed to use it. We shouldn’t have it. Very, very bad for workers. It’s very important to say, well, I’m a businessman and I have to do what I have to do,” Trump said while responding to a question on foreign workers, in particular H-1B visas. “When it’s sitting there waiting for you, but it’s very bad. It’s very bad for business, it’s very bad for our workers and it’s unfair for our workers. We should end it,” he said.
Trump’s website calls for eliminating the H-1B class of visas that allow companies to import high-skilled workers from countries like India. “We do need highly skilled, and one of the biggest problems we have is people go to the best colleges,” Trump said.
However, Trump had recently said in political rally, “They’ll go to Harvard, they’ll go to Stanford, they’ll go to Wharton, as soon as they’re finished they’ll get shoved out. They want to stay in this country,” he said. “They want to stay here desperately, they’re not able to stay here. For that purpose, we absolutely have to be able to keep the brain power in this country,” Trump said in response to a question.
“I’m changing. I’m changing. We need highly skilled people in this country, and if we can’t do it, we’ll get them in. But, and we do need in Silicon Valley, we absolutely have to have,” Trump, 69, said during the Republican presidential debate in Detroit. Responding to a question on his views on immigration in particular highly skilled people, Trump said America needs highly skilled professionals.
“So you abandoning the position on your website…?” he was asked. “I’m changing it, and I’m softening the position, because we have to have talented people in this country,” Trump said.
However, within an hour of his statement, which was interpreted differently by immigration experts, Trump clarified his position. “The H-1B program is neither high-skilled nor immigration: these are temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay,” Trump said.
“I remain totally committed to eliminating rampant, widespread H-1B abuse and ending outrageous practices such as those that occurred at Disney in Florida when Americans were forced to train their foreign replacements,” he said in his statement.
Florida Senator Marco Rubio immediately slammed Trump for his policy change. “Tonight, Donald Trump finally took an actual position,” Rubio said in a statement provided by his campaign. “But as soon as the debate was over, his handlers made him reverse himself. The Republican nominee cannot be somebody who is totally clueless on so many issues, including his signature issue,” he said.
India’s Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar visited Washington D.C. on 6-9 March 2016. The visit was aimed at reviewing the India-U.S. bilateral relations and preparing for India’s participation at the forthcoming Nuclear Security Summit later this month.
During his visit, Foreign Secretary had meetings with NSA Ambassador Susan Rice, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, Under Secretary of State Rose Gotteemoeller as well as other senior officials. The meetings focused on further consolidating bilateral relations in the year ahead and enhancing convergence on regional and global issues. In this context, both sides agreed to work for achieving concrete results in key areas of bilateral cooperation including defense, trade& investment and civil nuclear energy. Foreign Secretary also previewed with the U.S. interlocutors the 4th Nuclear Security Summit and India’s participation therein.
In the U. S. Congress, Foreign Secretary had meetings with Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee Senator John McCain and Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Richard Burr to exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues.
Following a milestone year in international development in which world leaders endorsed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the 60th Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) will focus firmly on implementation of the ambitious agreement. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adopted by UN Member States in September 2015 are a universal roadmap for people and planet, addressing the key challenges of the 21st century, such as poverty, inequality and climate change. Gender equality and the empowerment of all women and girls is a goal in itself, and recognized as a central means to achieving the SDGs. Success depends on rigorous implementation.
The Commission is the single largest forum for Member States and other stakeholders to commit to new actions for advancement of women and their empowerment. This year’s CSW is the first after the adoption of the new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The session thus will build on the momentum garnered in September 2015 when, in conjunction with the adoption of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, more than 90 governments answered UN Women’s call for action to “Step It Up for Gender Equality”. World leaders pledged measurable actions to tackle structural barriers and remaining challenges to the achievement of gender equality in their countries. Civil society and businesses leaders complemented these pledges committing to combat stereotypes and shift practices towards fostering greater equality and opportunity.
“This gathering of so many of the key partners in the implementation of Agenda 2030 makes this a crucial opportunity to combine our strengths and align decisively around the central issues for action,” said UN Women Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka.
The priority theme for the 60th session will be women’s empowerment and its link to sustainable development. Discussions by governments will focus on creating a conducive environment for gender-responsive implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, through actions to ensure enabling laws and policies, solid institutional infrastructures, adequate financial resources, strengthening of participation mechanisms, and investment in sex-disaggregated data, to guide national action.
Research underlines the benefit of women’s empowerment and gender equality for societies everywhere: for instance, if women played an identical role to men in labor markets, as much as USD 28 trillion could be added to global annual GDP by 2025. When women are at the peace tables, their participation increases the probability of a peace agreement lasting at least two years by 20 per cent, and 35 per cent over 15 years. And a child born to a mother who can read is 50 per cent more likely to survive. Yet, global reviews undertaken in 2015, during the 20 years’ commemoration of the historic Beijing Conference, revealed while there has been progress on women’s rights and gender equality, it has not been enough. Today, only one in five parliamentarians is a woman and women continue to earn less, have fewer assets and bear the burden of unpaid work and care.
Violence against women continues to affect one in three women, making it one of the most widespread human rights violations. The Commission will evaluate progress in the implementation of its agreed conclusions of 2013, on ending violence against women and girls, a pandemic that also comes with enormous economic costs to society.
The high-level meeting from 14-24 March underlines the determination of governments and activists to move the needle on women’s rights and gender equality. This year over 1,000 NGOs have pre-registered more than 8,100 of their representatives for the meeting. More than 200 side events will be hosted on the UN premises by Member States and UN entities, many of them in collaboration with civil society, about 150 of them in the first week of CSW alone, alongside 450 parallel events by NGOs, in the vicinity of the UN.
ST. LOUIS – A lifesaving therapy for premature babies and people with injuries that prevent them from eating can cause severe liver failure and gut atrophy. A Saint Louis University researcher is studying how to prevent the damage from parenteral nutrition (PN), which is more commonly known as intravenous feeding.
Ajay Jain, M.D., a SLUCare pediatric hepatologist and gastroenterologist and the medical director of the pediatric liver transplant program at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital, received a $703,620 grant from the National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases to continue studying strategies for PN-associated injury.
The funds will further his work into the role of bile acid activated receptors FXR and TGR5 in PN-associated hepatic and gut disease. The grant also provides support for research into gut microbes.
The NIH grant builds on previous research. Jain, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University, received a $150,000 grant from the North American Society for Pediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition (NASPGHAN) in 2015 and a $50,000 grant from the American Society of Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition (ASPEN) Rhoads Research Foundation in 2014.
People receive PN when part, or all, of their digestive system doesn’t function normally. A solution containing carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals and other nutrients essential for normal nutrition is given intravenously.
It is a common and critical therapy for sick babies, children and adults all around the world. Despite being a life saver, PN causes several complications, Jain said, including a life threatening and potentially fatal liver and bowel disease – especially in fragile NICU babies.
The cause of the liver and bowel disease is unknown, Jain said, but is likely caused by several factors. No established therapies exist to treat or prevent the onset of the liver and bowel disease.
Jain’s research focuses on understanding the interplay of bile acid regulated pathways that modulate the gut-liver axis during PN infusion. He says the way the gut and liver communicate to maintain normal health is disrupted while a patient receives intravenous nutrition.
In a clinical setting, Jain has found mitigation of PN-associated side effects if at least some nutrition can be provided via the gut.
“It almost appears as if some food delivery to the gut is of paramount importance to generate critical signals to maintain normal health and prevent such injury,” Jain said. Jain’s research also will assess the role of the gut microbiome during parenteral nutrition.
“There are about a 100 trillion bacteria in the gut. In fact, microbial genome exceeds the human genome by almost a 100 fold, making us genetically 99 percent bacteria and 1 percent human,” Jain said. “PN may change the finely regulated gut microbiome. Our measures are aimed at restoring the normal gut-liver cross talk and the gut microbiome to as close to normal again as possible.”
Jain said his work on PN, funded through competitive SLU grants (Presidents Research Fund, Fleur-de-Lis grant, Liver Center grant) and foundation grants including the American Liver Foundation award, has yielded encouraging new data. With the NIH funding, Jain aims to: Critically evaluate gut and hepatic injury during PN therapy; Explore the mechanisms that regulate PN pathology; and Address alteration in gut microbiota.
Jain’s previous work has identified unique molecules and pathways that are altered during PN. In this project, he will assess these molecules and devise strategies and pharmacological therapies to correct the defect and mitigate complications.
Such research could help bring a paradigm change to current preventative strategies. “It would be the biggest reward if we can ultimately devise interventions to help PN-associated injuries, which unfortunately maximally affects our most vulnerable and most precious population segment – the babies,” Jain said.
The Saint Louis University Liver Center enjoys worldwide recognition as a center of excellence for research and treatment of liver diseases and liver cancer.
Established in 1836, Saint Louis University School of Medicine has the distinction of awarding the first medical degree west of the Mississippi River. The school educates physicians and biomedical scientists, conducts medical research, and provides health care on a local, national and international level. Research at the school seeks new cures and treatments in five key areas: infectious disease, liver disease, cancer, heart/lung disease, and aging and brain disorders.
Chicago IL: Naperville Indian Community Outreach (ICO) has launched the Lotus Excellence Awards for students of Indian origin who have excelled in such fields as Academics, Sports, Arts (Visual, Film, Music, Dance, Digital Arts, Painting, Photography, Poetry, Drama, Theater etc.), Leadership, and Community Service. The applicants for the award should have good academic standing with a minimum GPA of 3.0 on a scale of 4.0 or 4.0 on a scale of 5.0.
The cash value of each award is $500. There can be multiple recipients in each award category. Students of School District 203, 204 or residents of Naperville studying at Private Schools/Home Schools/IMSA are eligible and encouraged to apply.
The last date for the submission of applications for the award is April 4th, 2016. Selected applicants will be notified by April 15th, 2016 and the award presentation will take place on April 21st, 2016. Interested students are expected to fill out the application form available at the following website: https://napervilleindian.wufoo.com/forms/ico-lotus-excellence-award-application-form/.
“The primary mission of ICO is to embrace, preserve, and promote the Cultural Heritage and contributions of Indian-Americans while educating them to get involved with the City of Naperville”, said Krishna Bansal, Chairman of the India Community Outreach, and advised students of Indian origin to submit applications for the ICO’s Lotus Excellence Awards, in large numbers.
Saily Joshi, ICO Board Member, advised the applicants for the award to complete the applications in their entirety and cautioned them that failure to do so will result in their applications being disqualified from the selection process.
Additional information about the Lotus Excellence Award can be had on the following website: www.napervilleindian.com, stated Smita Bhatia, another ICO Board Member.
Indian American singer Sonika Vaid gave it her all for a shot at the last spot in the ‘Top 6’ of “American Idol,” when she took on Whitney Houston’s classic, “I Have Nothing,” on March 10. According to reports, the 20-year-old Vaid, however, failed to amass enough audience votes, which put her in the bottom 3 of the competition.
The episode saw the other two contestants from the ‘Top 8’ being eliminated from the competition, but Vaid, who received glowing reviews from the judges, also won their safety after her emotion-oozing performance.
The judges thought that Vaid did enough justice to the classic number, and decided that she belonged in the ‘Top 6.’ The judges, though impressed with her performance, however, felt that she still needed to loosen up.
The Massachusetts-based singer has been on top for much of this competition alongside being a judges’ favorite, who have often complimented her on her sterling vocals. In fact, during the auditions of the singing competition show, judge Harry Connick, Jr. had remarked that she had a “winning voice,” and that “this is one of the only times, this particular season, that I saw somebody that I can think can actually win this thing.”
The March 10 show kicked off with duet performances during which Vaid teamed up with Avalon Young to sing “Rise Up” by Andra Day. The duo brought out the best in each other. The ‘Top 5’ contestants will be revealed March 17 during a two-hour episode of “American Idol,” which airs Thursdays at 8 p.m. EST on Fox. The series finale will air in the first week of April.
Muslims and Sikhs in Maryland have joined the camp of Donald Trump claiming that the Republican presidential frontrunner is not actually against their communities. Members of the two groups – “Sikh Americans for Trump” and “Muslim Americans for Trump” – whose members are mostly South Asians, held its first meeting in a Maryland suburb that was addressed by a representative from the Trump campaign. According to media reports, the organizers of the meeting argued that the view of Trump about minority community has been “twisted” and “taken out of context” by the mainstream media. They also said that the billionaire real estate magnet would create more jobs in the country which would benefit the minorities.
“He (Trump) is not at all against the Sikhs or the Muslim community. What he says is given spin. The mainstream media gives a spin because they are scared of him. He is not the status quo. He is not taking anybody’s money,” Jasdip Singh, who helped organize the “Sikh Americans for Trump” in Maryland, was quoted as saying in a news agency report widely published in Indian newspapers.
A prominent member of the Sikh community, Singh is chairman of the Maryland governor’s Commission on South Asian Affairs and chairman of the Board of Sikh Associations of Baltimore. He said when Trump talks about Muslims, he does not talk about all Muslims or American Muslims. “He spoke in the context of the refugee crisis that was happening in Syria. We (Sikhs) agree with him. Muslim Americans agree with him that we should not bring people into this country before we can vet them. And this was a temporary measures proposed by him,” Singh said.
Trump is not against the minorities, he said, adding that he believes that his presidency will be good for India. Sajid Tarar, a Pakistani-American, who helped organize the Muslim Americans for Trump, said that of all the presidential candidates, Trump is the only one who has achievements to show.
“We believe, he has the ability and capacity to change America. He has built a huge empire. He is self-funding the campaign. There is no special interest behind him,” Tarar said. “There is a war going on against Trump. Every message and speech of his has been twisted,” he said referring to the Trump’s call to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the country.
Kesha Ram, 29, an young Indian American, is seeking to win a statewide election in Vermont to be this north eastern state’s next Lieutenant Governor. Having served four two-year terms as a state representative in the Legislature, Ram is now shifting her focus to the post of lieutenant governor.
“When I first ran for the legislature, it was the start of the great recession,” Ram said of her first campaign when she was just 21 and ending her college career. “We were lucky if we could shape our future. It felt important to be a voice for our experience.” During her four terms and eight years in the state House, Ram has dedicated herself to improving civic engagement opportunities for residents of Vermont, as well as helping vulnerable populations get access to much-needed services.
Inspired by then Senator Barack Obama whom she introduced in 2006, at a rally when he came to endorse Sen. Bernie Sanders, Ram now she feels she accomplished enough in the legislature since 2008, and that it’s time to move on. But it’s a crowded field with at least three Democrats and a Republican vying in the Aug. 9 primaries.
But this time to the Lieutenant Governor’s office, a part-time post with a just a couple of ceremonial duties. She however, plans to change that. Vermont is one of 11 states that uses an open primary system, in which registered voters do not have to be members of a party to vote in that party’s primary.
Vermont’s current Lieutenant Gov. Phil Scott, a Republican, is running for governor in a state that has elected presidential candidate and avowed Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders to the U.S. Senate for many years now. Ram, vying for the seat being vacated by Phil Scott, R-Vt., who is running for governor in 2016, is up against fellow Democrats Garrett Graff, Brandon Riker and Sen. David Zuckerman. Former Sen. Randy Brock is the only declared Republican running, while Dr. Louis Meyers has declared his candidacy as an independent. The primary election for the lieutenant governor seat in Vermont is set for Aug. 2; the general election is Nov. 8.
“I feel I’ve accomplished quite a bit in my time in the state legislature,” said Ram, the daughter of a white mother and Indian father, and great-great granddaughter of renowned civil engineer Sir Ganga Ram.
Born to a father who immigrated to the U.S. from India and mother born-and-raised in Illinois, Ram grew up in the Los Angeles area, where her parents met while they attended UCLA. “My father had a passion for opening a small business,” Ram said. Her parents started an Irish pub, McGinty’s Irish Pub, and the hard work it took her father to get that going was instilled early on in Ram. She chose to direct that passion and energy into political work.
Even while she was attending the University of Vermont, which she chose because she felt a “strong sense of community” during a visit prior to committing to the school, she had developed her political voice. The young Indian American served as the university’s student body president and was still enrolled as a senior when she ran for, and won, a spot as state representative eight years ago.
“As lieutenant governor, I’m able to create an opportunity agenda for the entire state,” Ram said, adding that the office is open part-time but she is devoted to working the position full-time, even when not in session. “(The position) relies on relationships and brings people together for a common goal. I have proven I can do this during my time in the legislature.”
She counts among those accomplishments expanding incentives for first-time home buyers; protecting victims of sexual abuse, leading the move to pass human trafficking laws, revenge porn laws, and stalking laws; as well as getting Vermont to recognize the Native American Abenaki tribe so that it qualifies to apply for benefits.
“I am seen as a consensus lawmaker,” Ram says. And the youth she wanted to represent then now face newer problems, which she claims she could address better from her new perch as Lt. Governor.
“The reason I got into politics was because our generation was struggling in the height of the recession, where we hardly had a place on our parents’ couch,” she said. “Now our young people are facing problems as first time-homebuyers, meeting student debts etc. There are very few people who can speak for them.” Work for the past eight years on making higher education affordable, dealing with debt, evidently was not enough, she concedes.
“The position is what you make of it,” Ram counters. “I see myself as a ‘Connector-in Chief’” –bringing people together.” Vermont, unlike many other states, requires the governor and Lieutenant Governor to run on separate tickets and not the same slate. It may end up having different party leaders occupying those offices. She believes her consensus building skills will be important.
In a bid to gain advantage in the Democratic presidential primary, Bernie Sanders’s campaign has distributed a video last week showing Hillary Clinton on television in India in 2012 saying there are “pluses and minuses” to outsourcing U.S. jobs. Appearing on Indian station NDTV during her tenure as secretary of state, Clinton was asked during a town hall-style public affairs program for her thoughts on outsourcing from the United States to India.
“Well, you know, it’s been going on for many years now,” Clinton said on the program, “and it’s part of our economic relationship with India, and I think there are advantages with it that have certainly benefited many parts of our country, and there are disadvantages that go to the need to, you know, improve the job skills of our own people and create a better economic environment, so it’s, like anything, it’s, you know, got pluses and minuses.”
The two Democratic campaigns offer very different interpretations of her comments and their broader significance. Sanders’s camp is prepared to argue that Clinton’s words, spoken abroad, show an insensitivity to the plight of U.S. workers, including those in trade-battered Michigan, which has shed far more than its share of manufacturing jobs.
Clinton’s team, meanwhile, says that there’s really nothing to see here: that what Clinton said is consistent with her view that trade can be a mixed bag and the president needs to work to maximize its advantages for the United States.
Sanders’s campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, said he’s convinced Clinton’s comments will not play well in Michigan “when so many communities like Detroit and Flint have been hurt so badly by outsourcing. Secretary Clinton should explain to the people of Michigan how they have benefited from outsourcing of their manufacturing jobs,” Weaver said.
Clinton’s aides argue that during the campaign she has demonstrated a much deeper commitment than Sanders to rebuilding the U.S. manufacturing sector. “Hillary Clinton is the only candidate in this race with a comprehensive agenda to create jobs, revitalize manufacturing communities and break down barriers for small businesses to start and grow,” said Clinton spokesman Jesse Ferguson. “Rather than attacks on the past, Senator Sanders should tell Michigan voters how he will create manufacturing jobs and grow our economy.”
Sanders said, he has consistently opposed “disastrous” trade deals, starting with the North American Free Trade Agreement in the 1990s, that Clinton supported during her tenures as first lady, a senator from New York and secretary of state. Sanders has also been critical of the length of time it took for Clinton to reach her current opposition to the Trans Pacific Partnership, a pending pact championed by President Obama that Sanders opposed from the outset.
The Asia Society Policy Institute (ASPI) released a report this week calling for India’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. At the report’s release event at the Indian Embassy in Washington, D.C., ASPI President Kevin Rudd remarked that “Indian membership in APEC … is good for India, good for APEC, good for the region, and good for the world.”
The report India’s Future in Asia: The APEC Opportunity makes the case for Indian membership by outlining the significant benefits of including the country, the world’s fastest growing major economy and the third largest in Asia. My co-author Harsha V. Singh and I also suggest steps that India and APEC could consider to ease the country’s path toward membership.
India’s economy is only partly integrated into the global economy, particularly regional trade arrangements in a dynamic Asia-Pacific. The emergence of regional trade agreements such as the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) threatens to further distance India from the global supply chains critical to Prime Minister Modi’s “Make in India” initiative. India’s entry into the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC), which accounts for nearly 60 percent of global GDP, would provide a pathway for greater integration into the region’s economy. It would also ensure that trade remains a unifying force in the region, where competing trade regimes are straining ties.
With this in mind, ASPI had convened a high-level, international task force to develop a strategy for India’s membership in the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum. The project has developed the case for India’s membership in APEC, identifying the benefits and obstacles to it, and is seeking to generate support for India’s membership in India and among APEC members.
Some of the members of the Task Force included are, Kevin Rudd (chair), who is the President of the Asia Society Policy Institute. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister and as Foreign Minister. As Chair of the Independent Commission on Multilateralism, Mr. Rudd is leading a review of the UN system. Ajay Banga (co-chair) is President and Chief Executive Officer of MasterCard and a member of its board of directors. He serves as a member of President Obama’s Advisory Committee for Trade Policy and Negotiations. He chairs the U.S.-India Business Council and serves on the U.S.-India CEO Forum. Amb. Shyam Saran (co-chair) was Foreign Secretary of India from 2004 to 2006 and currently serves as Chairman for the Research and Information System for Developing Countries (RIS), a think tank specializing in studies on economic and trade issues.
Founded in 1989, APEC is a 21-member organization dedicated to regional economic integration and helping its members improve their trade and investment ties. India has wanted to become a member since the mid-1990s, but has thus far not been included.
At the report’s launch, India’s Ambassador to the United States Arun Kumar Singh called on APEC to welcome India, arguing that “for APEC to fully realize its potential in the Asia-Pacific and the world at large, it needs to reflect 21st century realities. This would entail inclusion of economies such as India, given their economic size and potential.”
“This is a particularly opportune moment to push forward for India’s membership in APEC,” Rudd emphasized. “The United States, China, Japan, and Russia — four key APEC economies — have welcomed, formally, India’s interest in becoming a member of APEC. Prime Minister Modi has developed constructive relationships with many of these countries, and this can prove useful in building support for Indian membership.”
There is today a striking alignment between APEC’s interests and India’s economic agenda. It’s time for India and APEC to seize the opportunity. India has expressed interest in APEC membership since the mid-1990s but has not been included as a member. Despite the growth in India’s trade and investment relationships with the region over the past 15 years, current members continue to have concerns about including India as a member.
LIVINGSTON, NJ–(Marketwired – March 01, 2016) – Milestone Scientific Inc. (NYSE MKT: MLSS), a medical R&D company that designs, patents, incubates and commercializes a growing portfolio of innovative injection technologies, announced the appointment of Joseph M. Chalil, MD, MBA, FACHE to the company’s Global Advisory Board, where he will aid in the commercial development and worldwide rollout of the company’s medical instruments.
Dr. Chalil is a physician and executive at Boehringer Ingelheim, the world’s largest privately held pharmaceutical company. Dr. Chalil is also the Chairman of Global Clinical Research and Trial Network of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the second largest physician organization in the US, second only to the AMA, and has served as scientific advisor to AAPI for the past five years.
Dr. Chalil holds three US patents and his research includes clinical trial management in cystic fibrosis, multiple myeloma, and publications in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. He is a visiting professor at various universities and board member of various companies. Dr. Chalil is an expert in US healthcare policy and a strong advocate for patient centered care. Recent honors include; Recipient of the prestigious 2015 AAPI National Presidential Award; Recipient of the 2013 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award; 2013 AAPI New York President’s Award winner; Honoree by the American Association of Cardiologists of Indian Origin (AACIO) for his achievements in the field of cardiology in 2013; and Boehringer Ingelheim President’s Club winner for 2011 & 2014.
Leonard Osser, CEO of Milestone Scientific, commented, “We welcome the involvement of Dr. Chalil as we enter the final stages of our U.S. clinical trials for the epidural instrument. Dr. Chalil brings an impressive background and a wealth of commercial and regulatory experience as a senior executive at the world’s largest privately held pharmaceutical company. As a successful inventor and physician, he also brings a unique perspective from both an entrepreneurial and clinical perspective. We look forward to working closely with Dr. Chalil as we advance toward finalization of our 400 patient epidural study and then begin the full commercial rollout of our epidural instrument following regulatory marketing clearance.”
Milestone Scientific Inc. (MLSS) is a medical R&D company that designs, patents, incubates and commercializes a growing portfolio of innovative injection technologies. Milestone’s computer-controlled systems make injections precise, efficient, and virtually painless. For more information please visit our website: www.milestonescientific.com.
Indian American model and television personality Padma Lakshmi has written a revealing autobiography, which includes intimate details of her failed marriage to celebrated author Salman Rushdie. Laxmi, 45, one of the judges on the television show “Top Chef,” chronicles details of her relationship with the Mumbai-born Booker Prize-winning author in her memoir “Love, Loss and What We Ate.” “I just wanted my own identity. I was making the transition out of one stage of my life and into another. But in order to do that, it required that I wasn’t everywhere that he (Rushdie) needed me to be,” she told People magazine.
“Love, Loss And What We Ate,” a memoir by Padma Lakshmi, who became a celebrity in her own right since she divorced Rushdie in 2007 after a three-year marriage, was quoted in the media saying the memoir started off as a book about health and healthy eating using her own life as an example, instead ended up as a reflection on “love and heartbreak” – spanning her tumultuous affair and marriage to Rushdie, the painful break up, to finding love again with billionaire Teddy Forstmann, who died three years ago.
A vivid memoir of food and family, survival and triumph, Love, Loss, and What We Ate traces the arc of Padma Lakshmi’s unlikely path from an immigrant childhood to a complicated life in front of the camera. Long before Padma Lakshmi ever stepped onto a television set, she learned that how we eat is an extension of how we love, how we comfort, how we forge a sense of home—and how we taste the world as we navigate our way through it. Shuttling between continents as a child, she lived a life of dislocation that would become habit as an adult, never quite at home in the world. And yet, through all her travels, her favorite food remained the simple rice she first ate sitting on the cool floor of her grandmother’s kitchen in South India.
Poignant and surprising, Love, Loss, and What We Ate is Lakshmi’s extraordinary account of her journey from that humble kitchen, ruled by ferocious and unforgettable women, to the judges’ table of Top Chef and beyond. It chronicles the fierce devotion of the remarkable people who shaped her along the way, from her headstrong mother who flouted conservative Indian convention to make a life in New York, to her Brahmin grandfather—a brilliant engineer with an irrepressible sweet tooth—to the man seemingly wrong for her in every way who proved to be her truest ally. A memoir rich with sensual prose and punctuated with evocative recipes, it is alive with the scents, tastes, and textures of a life that spans complex geographies both internal and external.
The memoir also details her relationship and bitter split with venture capitalist Adam Dell, who is the father of her daughter that she conceived when she was still with Forstmann. All this, of course, is not very new as the tabloids over the years had several exposes on the three-way relationship. What’s new, steamy and dark in the memoir is all about the author of “The Moor’s Last Sigh” and “The Satanic Verses.”
The Indian-American model and the host of the popular Top Chef was 28 when she started an affair with the married 51-year-old writer. A report in the Daily News said “the pair first met in 1999 at a party. On their first real date — Rushdie initially wooed her by phone since she lived in Los Angeles — the pair fell into bed.” The report quotes her memoir saying, “at 3 a.m., I woke with a start. I’m naked in a married man’s bed.”
The two married after Rushdie divorced his third wife. While their early years were full of passion (Lakshmi, reportedly, alludes to great sex and great food) things began to sour as she focused on her career, a report in the People magazine said. “I just wanted my own identity,” the report quotes her saying. “I was making the transition out of one stage of my life and into another. But in order to do that, it required that I wasn’t everywhere that he (Rushdie) needed me to be.”
Gleaning from the reports, their relationship strained at two levels – professional and personal. Lakshmi bitches about how Rushdie had to be consoled each year when he didn’t win a Nobel Prize, even as she describes how disappointed she was at his disinterest in her career and success.
At the personal level, things had deteriorated when Lakshmi could not keep up with Rushdie’s sexual demands because of a condition that was much later diagnosed as endometriosis, which caused chronic pain. “It’s not that I didn’t want to be there for him, but something was very deeply wrong … And I didn’t understand it. And that caused a whole lot of misunderstanding,” Lakshmi says in her memoir.mAccording to the Telegraph, Lakshmi accuses Rushdie of describing her as “a bad investment” after she refused his sexual advances, and paints him as a cold and heartless husband.
The last straw was when after one five-hour surgery, Lakshmi returns home “with stitches in four major organs and stents in both kidneys. Rushdie left the next day for a trip.” “The show must go on, after all,” he apparently told Lakshmi, on his way out the door. Next time she stepped out of the house, Lakshmi went to see a divorce lawyer. She writes about how at first their marriage was blissful, and Rushdie used to make breakfast for her every morning. But the book then goes on to paint a portrait of a demanding husband in need of constant attention. Lakshmi claims Rushdie was insensitive to a medical condition. Lakshmi later divorced Rushdie in 2007 and went on to become involved with Ted Forstmann, the billionaire chief executive of sports and artist management company IMG, who died in 2011 at age 71. She has a six-year-old daughter with venture capitalist Adam Dell.
New York-based Rushdie, 68, has not responded to his ex-wife’s claims so far. Shortly after his marriage to Lakshmi ended, Rushdie had said, “It’s strange, given that I’ve been married four times, but I actually don’t think marriage is necessary.” “Girls like it, especially if they’ve never been married before. It’s the dress. Girls want a wedding; they don’t want a marriage. If only you could have weddings without marriages,” Rushdie had said. Love, Loss, and What We Ate is an intimate and unexpected story of food and family—both the ones we are born to and the ones we create—and their enduring legacies.
WASHINGTON — President Obama is reportedly vetting Sri Srinivasan, 49, federal appellate judge who has enjoyed substantial support from Republicans in the past, as potential nominee for a Supreme Court vacancy that has set off a brutal election-year fight.
Jane L. Kelly and Merrick B. Garland, both federal appellate judges, and Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal trial judge, are among others, reportedly being vetted by President Obama for the vacancy in the highest Court in the country. Reports state that they are undergoing background checks by the F.B.I. The White House has not given any indication in this regard.
“President Obama is vetting Merrick B. Garland and Sri Srinivasan, federal appellate judges who have enjoyed substantial support from Republicans in the past, as potential nominees for a Supreme Court vacancy that has set off a brutal election-year fight,” The New York Times reported March 5.
Taken together, the names help flesh out a list of potential nominees for an appointment that could reshape the court and the country. A replacement for Justice Antonin Scalia, a conservative icon who died on Feb. 13, could hold the deciding vote on matters of abortion rights, guns, the environment, campaign finance and a wide range of other issues.
Srinivasan is currently the U.S. circuit judge of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which many call as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court. He is not only considered a favorite of Obama, who called him a trailblazer, but also his nomination was confirmed by a record 97-0 vote.
Srinivasan was sworn in as judge Sept. 26, 2013, making him the first Indian American to be on the bench of the U.S. Courts of Appeal for the District of Columbia Circuit. Retired Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O’Connor has called Srinivasan “fair, faultless and fabulous.” He received the Attorney General’s Award for Excellence in Furthering U.S. National Security in 2003, and the Office of the Secretary of Defense Award for Excellence in 2005.
Amidst protests from Republicans, President Obama has said he has an obligation under the Constitution, which says he “shall” nominate Supreme Court justices, to fill the vacancy. Public opinion polls indicate that large majorities of Americans believe that the Senate should hold confirmation hearings.
Simratpal Singh, a Sikh captain, has won an appeal against the US Army for its regulations for special testing to decide whether his hair, turban and beard interfere with the fit and functioning of his helmet and gas mask.
Federal Judge Beryl A. Howell for the District of Columbia ruled March three that the Army cannot impose extra testing on Singh. The ruling, however, dealt with the specialized testing and did not address the issue whether the Army should waive its grooming rules for Singh, according to a New York Times report.
Singh, 28, filed a suit Feb. 29, arguing that singling him out for such testing was religious discrimination. It said that special testing was not “even remotely comparable” to how soldiers in similar cases have been treated.
The Army granted Singh a temporary exemption in December of last year that was extended until March 31. But evidently, Singh did not want to wait until the exemption ended and violate the rules, and filed the suit against the army.
“Getting a court order against the Army is huge—it almost never happens,” Eric Baxter, senior counsel at the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which represents Singh, was quoted as saying by the Libertarian Republic. “It goes to show just how egregious the Army’s discrimination against Sikhs is. Thankfully the Court stepped in to protect Captain Singh’s constitutional rights. Now it’s time to let all Sikhs serve.”
The Becket Fund pointed out that Singh is a Bronze Star recipient and that more than 100,000 soldiers have received exemptions for their beards, often for medical reasons such as acne.
Singh, who grew up in Seattle, reluctantly complied with the Army grooming requirements for nine years, from the time he enrolled at West Point until last fall. He graduated from West Point in 2010 with honors, with a degree in electrical engineering. He graduated from Ranger School, served as a platoon leader in Afghanistan and was awarded a Bronze Star, among other decorations, according to The New York Times.
Judge Howell noted that thousands of other soldiers had been allowed to grow beards or long hair without similar testing. He said that in the past seven years, the military has made religious accommodations for two Muslims, a Jewish rabbi and three Sikhs who were backed by some of the same groups behind Captain Singh, including one called the Sikh Coalition.
“Requiring the plaintiff to undergo the specialized testing for further processing of his religious accommodation is a substantial burden when such testing is not required for soldiers to obtain exception from the Army uniform and grooming regulations on grounds other than adherence to the Sikh religious articles of faith,” Judge Howell wrote, according to The New York Times.
Harsimran Kaur, legal director of the Sikh Coalition, said in a statement that the coalition has been advocating for the simple, straightforward, equal right to serve for years and held onto the belief that the military would correct this injustice once they realized their mistake. “The military’s treatment of Captain Singh makes it clear that they deliberately want to squash diversity and religious freedom in their ranks and that’s not something that any court or American should ever tolerate.”
Arnav Krishna, an Indian American boy, with his terrific memory skills and mathematical abilities, is all set to lock horns with two other finalists in the second season of Lifetime Television’s competition “Child Genius: Battle of the Brightest”, a media report said. Nine-year-old Arnav Krishna from New York stands a chance to win a whopping $100,000 college fund and the title of Child Genius 2016, the American bazaar reported on Wednesday.
The Lifetime Television cited Arnav as someone “with an eye to becoming an architect and a mathematician when he is older” and as one who is always inquisitive and bears a researcher’s instinct. “Arnav is off to a good start with successive rankings in national math competitions,” Lifetime Television was quoted as saying.
In addition to his academic prowess, Arnav is also good at playing tennis. He loves piano, swimming and chess. The second edition of the competition, which premiered onJanuary 7 this year, featured some of the most extraordinary and talented children in the US as they braced for the ultimate battle of the brains.
The competition, created in cooperation with the American Mensa — a standardized intelligence test, takes place over ten weeks and tests the nation’s brightest young minds on their knowledge in categories such as math, spelling, geography, and current events. The winner of the competition will be declared on Thursday night. Arnav’s mother Seema Krishna is a marketing executive, and father Vijay Krishna works as a financial services executive.
The Sikh Coalition was honored at the New York University Islamic Center’s 3rd Annual Benefit Gala on February 21, 2016. The Sikh Coalition received the Community Choice Award for its commitment to advocacy for all people, including the Muslim American community. Executive Director Sapreet Kaur and Board Member Manmeet Kaur accepted the award on behalf of the Sikh Coalition during the event. The Sikh Coalition was honored alongside leaders in the Muslim American community.
The Sikh Coalition is a community-based organization that works towards the realization of civil and human rights for all people. The Coalition serves as a resource on Sikhs and Sikh concerns for governments, organizations and individuals.
Jayendra Baldevbhai, an Indian-American store manager from Flushing, New York, says he is proud of suing the New York City Police Department for wrongful arrest and that it is not about the money. Jayendra Baldevbhai, was arrested May 20 last year for allegedly selling name-brand Burberry umbrellas. The charges were dropped after 3 hearings, but the store manager felt wronged and got an attorney, Samuel Cohen, a civil rights lawyer, to take up his case, which was filed March 7 in the Southern District Court in New York.
When he was arrested that day before his surprised customers, and taken to the Fifth Precinct, he was fearful, The Daily News reported. He was charged with third-degree trademark counterfeiting, and though the charges were dropped, Baldevbhai was evidently deeply affected by what he saw as an injustice. “That’s why I am suing the NYPD. I am feeling really proud of myself for it,” he said. “It’s not about the money. It’s the wrongful arrest – innocent people being arrested for nothing.”
Baldevbhai told the media that he could not reveal the amount of money he was demanding as compensation on the advice of his attorney. According to the lawsuit, NYPD plainclothes officers walked into his store and spent half an hour examining the goods, specially the umbrellas being sold at his store, the New York Daily News reported. Even though the umbrellas were clearly marked with another name Baldevbhai was handcuffed and taken away on grounds he was selling fake Burberry umbrellas.
Pictures of the umbrella show it is a combination of blue, white, and red plaid, very different from the classic Burberry colors that are dark brown, light brown combination of Tartan plaid. The blue and white umbrellas were clearly marked ‘Conch Umbrellas America Corp’ the lawsuit claims. Despite that, an officer asked Baldevbhai to quote a price on it and arrested him when he replied.
“I said ‘$7.99,’” Baldevbhai told New York Daily News, “He said, ‘You’re under arrest.’” Despite repeatedly telling the cops that these were Conch umbrellas with a prominent label declaring that, the officers “just basically ignored all my answers,” Baldevbhai is quoted saying.
The lawsuit also alleges that the NYPD officers had no warrant but did have an affidavit from a Burberry representative stating that the company held a trademark for a particular Tartan plaid, but did not specially identify the umbrellas at Spring Mart, the news report said.
Born and brought up in Gujarat, Baldevbhai is married with three children ages 13, 12, and 10, he said. He came to the U.S. 20 years ago. His lawyer, Samuel Cohen told New York Daily News the lawsuit was meant to prevent similar incidents in the future. Cohen is a civil rights attorney and works on cases involving excessive force and false arrest litigations, also representing and counseling individuals and small businesses in various matters. He could not be reached by press time. The New York City Law Department told the New York Daily News no comments were available until Baldevbhai’s allegations were reviewed.
Long Island, NY: HAB BANK, nation’s oldest and largest South Asian American bank, hosted a dinner for Healthcare Professionals at Akbar Restaurant, Garden City, New York, Sunday, March 6, 2016. The event was organized under the auspices of K.K. Mehta, President & Senior Partner of K.K. Mehta Associates PLLC.
Saleem Iqbal, President & CEO of HAB BANK welcomed invited guests and thanked them for taking the time out, during a weekend, to be at the Healthcare Professional dinner. He advised the guests that HAB is honored and thankful to K.K. Mehta for co-hosting the event with HAB. Mr. Iqbal, in his presentation highlighted the rich history and strengths of HAB.
During his presentation, Iqbal announced HAB’s new product solely targeted to Healthcare Professionals especially doctors. HAB’s new Healthcare Professional loan goes up to $500,000 and can be used for various purposes including working capital, equipment acquisition, and Insurance premium financing. He pointed out that the loan decisions are made within 72 hours once the documentation requirements are complete.
Iqbal told the guests that the Bank believes in building long-term relationships and has a wide range of products and services such as online banking, Remote Deposit Capture, Merchant Services for businesses. He also brought up the Bank’s Commercial Real Estate loans designed to help investors acquire properties with loans up to $5,000,000.
Mehta, in his remarks, thanked the guests for their presence and being part of dinner highlighting HAB Bank’s Healthcare Professional loans and other services for individual and businesses. He urged the guests to consider moving to HAB Bank and establishing their relationship. However, he clearly mentioned that in order to maintain integrity and independence, he, nor his firm, KK Mehta CPA PLLC, does not enter into any alliance with third party organizations. The attendees should evaluate their banking needs on their own, and KK Mehta CPA PLLC does not take any responsibility.
HAB’s management was in attendance including, Rizwan Qureshi, SEVP, Zilay Wahidy, EVP, Nasir Khan, SVP, Kamal Puri, Branch Manager Jackson Heights, Mehmood Syed, Senior Business Development Officer, Danial Tariq, Manager Hicksville Branch, Ismail Ahmed, Manager Richmond Hill Branch, Girish Vazirani, Manger Iselin Branch, and Moazam Ali, Hicksville Branch.
HAB BANK was founded in 1983 and since its inception, it has played a key role in nurturing and strengthening the South Asian community with branch network located in New York, New Jersey and California. Through the years, the Bank has evolved in response to needs of its customers and maintains a close relationship with the community it serves. The Bank’s core products are Commercial Real Estate Mortgages, International Trade Services, US Small Business Loans and a well-designed commercial banking products and services for small to medium sized businesses. The Bank also has a wide range of consumer products and services including personal checking, savings, CDs, and full-service online banking. The Bank is fully committed to remain engaged and pro-active in meeting the banking requirements of its customer and, above all, continues to work towards “Building Relationships”.
K. Mehta CPA Associates PLLC is a full service accounting, tax and consulting firm serving the New York Metropolitan region since 1978. Firm’s clients range from individuals to multi-national organizations of all types and sizes. The company serves a broad range of industries and professions. Our firm is committed to providing the highest level of professional and personalized services in a cost effective manner. K.K. Mehta CPA Associates are one of the largest accountants for healthcare and hospitality industry. The firm strives hard to look for strategies and techniques to minimize your taxes and assist you in growing your business.
Grabbing a handrail on the New York subway transfers as much bacteria as shaking hands with 10,000 people. That’s according to a recent study that found the Big Apple has by far the most bacteria in its subway system compared with other US cities. Many of the bacteria founds have been known to cause respiratory problems and skin infections, although scientists stress most are harmless and could even be good for our immune system.
Travelmath, a logistics website, sent a team to gather bacteria samples from public transit systems in five major cities: New York, Washington, D.C., Chicago, Boston, and San Francisco.The study found that while ‘surprisingly few germs’ were on handrails on most cities, there was one major exception: New York. The Big Apple’s subway system has more than three times as many travelers as the city’s other four transit systems combined.
The team found to have an average of two million colony-forming units (CFU) per square inch. CNTraveler notes that this is 900 times dirtier than an airplane tray table. On the other end of the spectrum was the subway in Boston, with a sample that turned up a scant average of about 10 CFU per square inch.
Bay Area Rapid Transit in San Francisco was the second grubbiest subway, with 483 CFU per square inch; the Chicago ‘L’ train was third with 180; and the Washington, D.C. Metro turned up only 30. The average for every city’s transit system was about 400,000 CFU per square inch, though excluding the bacteria-ridden New York subway dropped the average to 176 CFU. ‘We dug deeper to break down the bacteria we found by type: Bacillus, yeast, and various gram-positive and gram-negative strains,’
TravelMath writes on its blog. ‘The subway in New York contained an even split of gram-negative rods (which can cause respiratory and other infections) and yeast (types of which commonly live on skin and rarely cause infection).
‘The L train in Chicago was home to the most varied bacteria types, the brunt of which were yeast. ‘BART in San Francisco and the Metro in Washington, D.C. both predominantly hosted gram-positive cocci, which are a common cause of skin infections.’The Metro was the only location that yielded type II gram-positive cocci, and only BART and the L-train contained Bacillus, which can cause a range of infections, including respiratory illnesses.
‘Our samples from the Boston subway, home to the fewest bacteria, didn’t reveal any specific types,’ TravelMath writes. The firm is quick to point out that not all of this bacteria is dangerous. In fact, studies have shown that exposing people to different types of bacteria boosts their immune system.
The study follow similar research done last year by scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College. They spent 18 months swabbing turnstiles, ticket kiosks, railings and benches for DNA in New York.
They found 15,152 different types of microorganisms that share the train with its 5.5 million riders. At the time they linked these to bubonic plague, anthrax and meningitis – but the scientists have since retracted these claims.
Principal Investigator Dr Chris Mason and his team released findings from their ‘PathoMap’ study, a map of all the microorganisms and DNA present on surfaces in the New York City subway. The study, which used a super computer to study more than 10 billion biomedical fragments, was apparently inspired by Dr Mason seeing his daughter, then in preschool, sticking toys in her mouth in 2010.
Scientists and volunteers started the project in 2013 and found 637 known bacterial, viral, fungal and animal species when swabbing the spaces between commuters and street musicians and logging the data in real time with a mobile app. Most of the bacteria the group found were harmless, though nearly half (48 per cent) of the DNA found matched no known organisms, according to the published study at Cell.com. The mysterious finding ‘underscores the vast wealth of unknown species that are ubiquitous in urban areas,’ project leader Ebrahim Afshinnekoo said.
Researchers also saw 67 different bacteria species associated with diseases on the subway’s surfaces in about 12 per cent of their samples, though bacteria in general made up nearly 47 per cent. Some bacteria associated with ailments such as food poisoning are found at nearly half of the 466 open stations shared by germs, riders and rats.
Thankfully, more serious bacteria are less common. The New York City Department of Health disputed the finding of plague on the subway, according to the Wall Street Journal. The most diverse station was the G train’s Myrtle-Willoughby stop in Brooklyn, with 95 different bacteria groups. South Ferry station, which was submerged and temporarily closed after Superstorm Sandy in 2012, showed unique sets of bacteria normally found in marine environments.
Bedminster, NJ: Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora is scheduled to open with a reception on Thursday March 17th, 5-7 pm at The Center for Contemporary Art, 2020 Burnt Mills Rd, Bedminister, NJ.
Erasing Borders is a richly provocative exhibition by artists of the Indian diaspora who confront issues of sexuality, terror, disease, the environment, racial and sectarian politics in painting, prints, installations, video, and sculpture. With great technical mastery and diversity of theme and style, these works combine traditional Indian aesthetics with Western elements, and speak to the powerful experience of personal and cultural dislocation in the global village. In its twelfth year, Erasing Borders is curated by Vijay Kumar and produced by the Indo-American Arts Council. Free and open to the public.
The Center for Contemporary Art in collaboration with the Indo-American Arts Council is hosting annual “Erasing Borders Exhibition of Contemporary Indian Art of the Diaspora.” The Indo-American Arts Council’s production “Erasing Borders,” curated by Vijay Kumar, is a stimulating exhibition that presents artists of the Indian diaspora who challenge issues of sexuality, terror, disease, the environment, racial and sectarian politics in painting, prints, installations, video, and sculpture. The diverse theme and style of the art juxtaposes traditional Indian aesthetics with Western elements. It also expresses the hardship of personal and cultural disturbance throughout the worldwide community.
New York, NY: A coalition of groups representing women in politics is pushing for Jenifer Rajkumar to replace former New York State Assemblyman Sheldon Silver in a special election. Rajkumar, an attorney and district leader in the 65th Assembly district, previously sought a city council seat. Sheldon Silver, 71, lost his seat recently when he was convicted on all seven felony counts of corruption, including extortion, money laundering and theft of honest services.
Rajkumar is one of several Democrats seeking to replace Silver in his lower Manhattan Assembly district. The former speaker stepped down from the top post in January following his arrest, but retained his seat in the back of the Assembly chamber. Rajkumar is optimistic despite the Democratic County Committee in the 65th Assembly District overwhelmingly endorsing someone else for the Special Election.
Seven Democrats are in the running to fill the vacant seat. Democratic District Leader Alice Cancel has been endorsed by the Democratic County Committee of the 65th District, where Rajkumar trailed 3rd in the vote count. Others include Working Families Party candidate Yuh-Line Niou, chief of staff to Queens Assemblyman Ron Kim, who has been endorsed by the chairman of the state Assembly’s Black, Puerto Rican, Hispanic and Asian Legislative Caucus; District Leader Paul Newell; and a local community board chairwoman Gigi Li.
Rajkumar practices civil rights law, with a specialty in employment discrimination, worker’s rights, class actions, and whistleblower lawsuits. She was part of the litigation team in Velez v. Novartis, on behalf of a class of 5,600 women in their disparate pay and pregnancy discrimination claims. The U.N. named this one of the top ten cases in the world advancing women’s equality, and it resulted in the largest ever jury award in an employment discrimination case.
Rajkumar has helped represent whistleblowers taking a stand against corporate greed and corruption in multiple qui tam actions under the Federal False Claims Act, where she has helped secure millions of dollars for her firm’s clients. She recently originated an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of NOW, Equal Rights Advocates, and other national women’s groups where her firm argued for equality for women in nontraditional fields such as construction, firefighting, and mining. Rajkumar graduated from Stanford Law School. She was named a “Rising Star” by City & State and received a “Young Woman of Achievement Award” from WIN in 2012.She was selected as a 40 Under 40 Rising Star by City & State, one of New York’s premier news soures for politics, in its annual 40 Under 40 Rising Stars list., Rising Star, City & State, 2012.
The young Indian American was selected from an extremely competitive pool for a 2012 WIN Young Woman of Achievement Award, awarded annually to five high achieving women below the age of 35 by national nonprofit that seeks to train the next generation of women leaders. Selectors included WIN Advisory Council Members who are women at the top of their fields in government, nonprofit, law, and politics. Presented award in Washington, DC at a ceremony attended by about 300 people., Young Women of Achievement Award, WIN (Women’s Information Network), 2012. She was declared a “Local Heroine’ by the Battery Park paper The Broadsheet.
The Indian-American has been an elected Democratic Leader since 2011 and has deep roots in the area, which she emphasized would carry her through. Rajkumar has been endorsed by the Jim Owles Liberal Democratic Club named after the well-known gay rights advocate. Last December, a coalition of national women’s groups endorsed Rajkumar, including the Women’s Campaign Fund. A few weeks ago, a coalition of Latino leaders in the Lower East Side endorsed her as well.
“In a nation now ranked 86th in the world in the number of women in elected office and dropping, it is essential that we support the political ascendancy of women like Jenifer Rajkumar,” said Siobhan “Sam” Bennett, the author and political advocate who is a former president and CEO of the Women’s Campaign Fund. “Beyond her obvious qualifications, as a young minority woman she embodies exactly what is needed to correct our nation’s long-term electoral course. I’m proud to support her current candidacy and to have been one of those to encourage her to run for office at the beginning of her bright political career.”
Former Deputy Mayor Ninfa Segarra also endorsed Rajkumar’s Assembly bid, calling her an “ideal candidate.” “She has the ability to unite the many different communities in the district and provide a strong voice fighting for the district’s needs. Jenifer has the skill sets and temperament to succeed in New York State government,” Segarra said.
If elected, Rajkumar would be joining a Legislature that has seen an increasing number of women holding seats, with female representation hitting a new high of 55 members this year. Gov. Andrew Cuomo is expected to call a special election for Silver’s seat for April 19, the same day as the presidential primary in New York.
NEW YORK, March 14, 2016 — Asia Society is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2016 with special exhibitions and signature events across the Society’s global network that kick off this week in New York. The anniversary year celebrations opened on March 15 with a special dinner and gala reception in New York, celebrating the legacy of collecting and exhibiting Asian art that John D. Rockefeller 3rd (1906–1978) and Blanchette Hooker Rockefeller (1909–1992) set in motion for Asia Society. On March 21, at Asia Society Hong Kong Center, Sheeran and Judith Rodin, president of The Rockefeller Foundation, will lead a conversation with Asia Society Trustees about the Rockefeller legacy in terms of global philanthropy.
Asia Society was founded on June 28, 1956, by John D. Rockefeller 3rd in New York to build understanding between the peoples of Asia and the United States. The Society has since grown from a small New York institution to a global organization with 12 centers across Asia, the U.S. and Europe, and unparalleled networks in the field of Asian arts, policy and education.
“Six decades ago, John D. Rockefeller 3rd had the vision to create an institution that would build bridges between the U.S. and Asia, at a time when Asia was poorly understood,” said Asia Society President and CEO Josette Sheeran. “He saw the potential of Asia when few did — and today that vision has proved prescient. Today, Asia is rising in every way — in influence, in standards of living, and in the global imagination — and this year we will honor Rockefeller’s vision, and his great legacy.”
Asia Society Museum will honor the Rockefeller legacy in the arts with the New York exhibition “In and Out of Context,” which juxtaposes historical and contemporary works to trigger more informed and distinctive ways of thinking about the artworks, their creators, and how they are displayed. Works of traditional art from the Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller 3rd Collection of Asian Art, bequeathed to Asia Society in 1979 after Rockefeller’s death, are displayed next to contemporary works from the Asia Society Museum Collection. “In and Out of Context” runs through January 8, 2017.
Also on display at Asia Society New York is the installation “60 on 60: Asia Society Celebrates Six Decades in Photographs,” which presents some of the highlights of the organization’s history in snapshot form. From Rockefeller’s early stewardship of the institution to its global expansion, from its impactful policy and education work to its inspiring exhibitions and performances, these photographs capture the essence of what has transpired at Asia Society in New York and its other centers around the world.
Asia Society is also marking the anniversary with a short documentary film about the organization’s history, narrated by NBC News anchor and Asia Society Trustee Emeritus Tom Brokaw. A collection of articles from Asia Society leaders, past presidents, and global thinkers reflecting on Asia’s role in the world today and its future will be published as a magazine — in print and online. Commemorative exhibitions and events are also being planned across Asia Society’s global network.
“60 is an important number in many Asian cultures,” Sheeran said. “It signifies that one has completed a full cycle of life. So for this institution more than most, this is an occasion to celebrate.”
Asia Society is the leading educational organization dedicated to promoting mutual understanding and strengthening partnerships among peoples, leaders and institutions of Asia and the United States in a global context. Across the fields of arts, business, culture, education, and policy, the Society provides insight, generates ideas, and promotes collaboration to address present challenges and create a shared future. A nonprofit, nonpartisan organization, Asia Society is headquartered in New York with state-of-the-art cultural centers in Hong Kong and Houston, and offices in Los Angeles, Manila, Mumbai, San Francisco, Seoul, Shanghai, Sydney, and Zurich.
