Recognizing the great contributions of Ratan Tata in India and around the world by leading Indian industry beyond its national borders to create a global brand, emphasizing innovation as the hallmark of commercial success, contributing to U.S.-India ties, and undertaking philanthropy empathetic to people across societies, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace is establishing the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs in recognition of Ratan N. Tata’s leadership on Carnegie’s Board of Trustees.
Senior Fellow Ashley J. Tellis, one of the most renowned experts international security, defense, and Asian strategic issues, has been appointed as its inaugural chair. Tellis previously served as a senior adviser in the U.S. State Department in Washington, at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi, and on the U.S. National Security Council, where he was a special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. He holds a Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.
The Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs has been established at a time when Carnegie’s evolution as a global think tank intersects with disruptive changes in world politics. The Chair’s work will focus on the pressing international security challenges of the emerging world order, especially on U.S. foreign policy in Asia and the Indian subcontinent.
“The one strategic goal of countries that must precede all others is to bring prosperity to their people,” said Tata. “This can be achieved only when nations feel secure with one another in an environment of mutual cooperation and collaboration. I hope that Carnegie’s Chair for Strategic Affairs and its inaugural holder, Ashley Tellis, will contribute to our collective thinking towards that purpose. ”
“I could not be more grateful to Ratan Tata for his generosity and partnership or touched by his personal decency and commitment to Carnegie’s mission,” said Carnegie President William J. Burns. “There is no one more deserving of the Tata Chair than Ashley Tellis—an extraordinary scholar and colleague who has made profound contributions in his field, in the public arena, and at Carnegie. And there is no more important time for institutions like Carnegie to provide ideas and initiatives to help shape a rapidly changing international landscape.”
“I am deeply honored to hold the Tata Chair,” said Tellis. “My relationship with the Tatas goes back many decades. Over thirty years ago, I was privileged to work on J.R.D. Tata’s papers for Keynote, a commemoration of his lifetime of service. I was later supported by the Tata Trusts as I embarked on my immigrant journey to the United States. To now hold the Tata Chair at Carnegie is to come full circle: I am profoundly grateful to Ratan Tata for his friendship and support over the years, and to Bill Burns and Carnegie’s Board of Trustees for giving me the opportunity to work on challenging issues of international security that are dear to my heart.”
Tellis, 55, is at present a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a Washington think-tank, and has played as an important role in the US’ engagement with India, including working on the civil nuclear agreement between the two countries.
He has served in New Delhi before as senior adviser to the US ambassador, and was also on the US National Security Council staff as special assistant to the president and a senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. Ashley Tellis grew up in India and got a master’s degree from the University of Bombay before getting a PhD from the University of Chicago. He is the author of several books.
Tellis holds the Tata Chair for Strategic Affairs and is a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, specializing in international security and U.S. foreign and defense policy with a special focus on Asia and the Indian subcontinent. While on assignment to the U.S. Department of State as senior adviser to the under secretary of state for political affairs, he was intimately involved in negotiating the civil nuclear agreement with India.
Previously, he was commissioned into the Foreign Service and served as senior adviser to the ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in New Delhi. He also served on the U.S. National Security Council staff as special assistant to President George W. Bush and senior director for strategic planning and Southwest Asia. Prior to his government service, Tellis was senior policy analyst at the RAND Corporation and professor of policy analysis at the RAND Graduate School.
He is the author of India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture (RAND, 2001) and co-author of Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (RAND, 2000). He is the research director of the Strategic Asia program at the National Bureau of Asian Research and co-editor of the program’s thirteen most recent annual volumes, including this year’s Strategic Asia 2016–17: Understanding Strategic Cultures in the Asia-Pacific. In addition to numerous Carnegie and RAND reports, his academic publications have appeared in many edited volumes and journals, and he is frequently called to testify before Congress.
Tellis serves on the Chief of Naval Operations Executive Panel. He is a member of several professional organizations related to defense and international studies including the Council on Foreign Relations, the International Institute of Strategic Studies, the United States Naval Institute, and the Navy League of the United States.
Encouraging foresing students who graduate with specialized degrees in the United States, the US administration had allowed them, especially STEM F-1 visa students to avail of the extended 24-month Optional Practical Training (OPT) period, apart from the regulation 12 months of the work-training they receive through the program: a lawsuit to revoke the extension has been dismissed in federal court.
OPT is a period during which undergraduate and graduate students with F-1 visa status, who have completed or have been pursuing their degrees for more than 9 months, are permitted by the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to work for one year on a student visa towards getting practical training to complement their education.
Anti-immigration advocates have been targeting the OPT for several years, terming it as a job killer for American workers, a chance for American employers to avail of cheap labor and exploit foreign students.
Back in August 2015, a D.C. federal judge said the 2008 Department of Homeland Security rule that allows STEM graduates in F-1 status to obtain an additional 17 months of OPT time in the U.S. was deficient. The decision in Washington Alliance of Technology Workers v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security was based on the fact that DHS did not go through the usual notice and comment period required for new regulations. The judge vacated the 2008 rule allowing the 17-month extension, HOWEVER, a stay was put in place until a new regulation could be put in place. That new regulation took effect on May 10, 2016 and allows a new STEM OPT extension of 24-months. The same group of tech workers that challenged the old STEM OPT rule filed a new lawsuit in June 2016 in federal court again challenging DHS policy allowing student visa holders to work after completion of their studies.
The new lawsuit brought by the Washington Alliance of Technology Workers argued that the Optional Practical Training (OPT) program denies labor protections to US tech workers, allows increased competition, allows unfair competition, provides foreign students the benefit of mentoring programs (i.e. the I-983 training plan) without requiring schools to give the same benefit to US workers, and violates procedural rights of US workers by failing to include the question of whether OPT should be expanded in the first place in the regulatory process. Washtech asked the court to issue a declaratory judgement (find in their favor without going through an entire trial) that DHS exceeded its authority by allowing F-1 students the ability to work, vacate the new regulations, and award attorneys fees to Washtech.
The DHS argued in favor of retention of the extended 24-month OPT, and asked the court to dismiss the lawsuit. Last month, a federal court in its ruling, granted only part of DHS’ motion to dismiss, but also denied part of the motion to dismiss. Now, in its final ruling on the case, the federal court has dismissed the lawsuit brought by the WATW, in favor of DHS.
The decision means F-1 visa students in STEM-related studies will continue to get a total of three years of OPT during and after the program they are enrolled in. It also improves the chances of F-1 visa students to gain a good foothold in a job they take up in the US, and to be sponsored by the employer for an H-1B visa.
Annually, 20,000 H-1B visas are reserved for F-1 visa higher degree graduates of US educational institutions. If there are more than 20,000 applications, they are pooled to compete for the general quota of 65,000 H-1B visas which are for all foreign workers.
This year, for the fiscal year 2018, a total of 199,000 H-1B visa applications were received for the 85,000 H-1B visas up for grabs. A lottery was conducted to determine eligible candidates.
The dismissal of the OPT extension case is also good news for H-4 visa holders who have an Employment Authorization Document (EAD), or are expecting an EAD soon. It’s likely that a lawsuit filed by Employment Authorization Document (EAD) for H-4 visa holders, by another anti-immigration group, Save Jobs USA, arguing that EAD for H-4 visa holders hurt American workers, will be dismissed. The decision on the OPT extension is also good news for US educational institutions who will heave a sigh of relief. It was a certainty that an adverse ruling would have impacted their foreign enrollment.
Ellora Thadaney Israni, Pratyusha Kalluri, Sanjay Kishore, Shivani Radhakrishnan, Sanjena Sathian and Ashvin A. Swaminathan are the six Indian-Americans, who are among 30 graduate students who are recipients of the 2017 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowships for New Americans. Also selected this year are Bangladesh born Mayesha Alam, who is working on a PhD in Comparative Politics at Yale University and Suriname born Lorenzo Sewanan, who is pursuing a PhD in biomedical engineering and an MD in the joint degree medical scientist training program at Yale School of Medicine.
Selected from a pool of 1,775 applicants, each of the recipients was chosen for their potential to make significant contributions to U.S. society, culture, or their academic fields and will receive up to $90,000 in funding over two years. The Fellowship supports one to two years of graduate study in any field and in any advanced degree-granting program in the United States. Each award is for up to $25,000 in stipend support, as well as 50 percent of required tuition and fees, up to $20,000 per year, for one to two years.
Israni is the child of immigrants from India, will use her Fellowship to support work towards a JD at Harvard University. Though she was born and raised in the Bay Area, Israni often returned to Pune, India, where her grandparents lived. Kalluri, a PhD student at Stanford University’s Department of Computer Science, was born on the East Coast and raised in Madison, Wisconsin. Her parents left India in the 1980s, seeking better job opportunities in America. \
Kishore will use his Fellowship to support work towards an MD at Harvard Medical School. Born and raised in rural Virginia, Kishore is the youngest child of parents who emigrated from Hyderabad, India. Radhakrishnan, a PhD Philosophy student at Columbia University was born in Middletown, New York, to Indian parents from Bangalore and Baroda who met while working together in the Catskills. Growing up around Gujarati and Tamil, and studying Russian and Latin, Radhakrishnan became interested in linguistic and social identity.
Sathian’s Fellowship will support work towards an MFA in Creative Writing at University of Iowa. The daughter of Indian immigrants who raised her in Bible Belt Georgia, Sathian connected with her twin cultures through the page. She grew up reading Hindu mythological comic books and Arundhati Roy, the New Testament and Flannery O’Connor. Swaminathan, who will use his Fellowship to support a PhD in Mathematics at Princeton University, was born in New Providence, New Jersey.
There are as many as 11 Indian-American students among the 2017 are among this year’s KPCB (Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers) Design and Engineering Fellows who will spend the summer with Silicon Valley startups. Students were chosen from nearly 2,500 applications from over 200 universities, a statement on the KPCB Fellowship website said.
Anushree Agrawal of Yale, Vaibhav Altekar of UC Davis, Rajat Bhageria of UPenn, Advith Chelikani of Caltech, Shrey Gupta of Stanford, Jayendra Jog of UCLA, Shivani Mall of UC San Diego, Aneesh Pappu of Stanford, Ishaan Parikh of University of Maryland, Hrisheek Radhakrishnan of Georgia Institute of Technology, and Akshay Ramaswamy of Stanford are the Indian-American students, who, over the course of the summer, will join KPCB portfolio companies, where they develop their technical or design skills and will be mentored by an executive within the company. Fellows will also be invited to attend both private events held by KPCB as well as by its portfolio companies, where they can meet other talented engineering and design students, network with luminaries in their respective fields, and explore the San Francisco Bay Area, the statement said.
Agrawal, who graduated from Texas Academy of Mathematics and Science in Denton, Tex., will be working at the San Francisco-based Mango Health. After graduating high school in 2015, Agrawal attended University of North Texas for two years, before moving to Yale in New Haven, Conn. According to her LinkedIn page, Agrawal is active with several student organizations at the university including Yale Float (Women in Computer Science) and the Yale Hindu Students Council.
Joining Agrawal at Mango Health is Ramaswamy, a Computer Science major at Stanford. A graduate of Lakeland High School, Ramaswamy is director of Indians 4 Social Change, a civil rights and social action nonprofit, his LinkedIn profile says. He currently works as a product engineer and consultant at Lyftly, a mental health startup geared towards dynamically collecting, monitoring and analyzing physical and mental health data.
Altekar of Lynbrook, New York, will work as an engineering intern at JuicEro. At UC Davis, Altekar has worked as an undergraduate researcher in the Department of Chemical Engineering and Materials Science as well as a Data Science Research Intern. According to his LinkedIn profile, Altekar is also a Systems Engineering Intern at Twitter.
Fellows Bhageria and Parikh will both work at Indiegogo, a crowdfunding website. Bhageria, who’s pursuing his Masters of Science in Engineering, Robotics Engineering and Al (GRASP Lab), is co-founder and managing partner of Prototype Capital, a decentralized venture capital fund investing and adding real value into student-run companies. He completed is Bachelor of Science in Economics, Marketing Operations and Computer Science, his LinkedIn profile says. Parikh is the co-founder of Teaching Assistant for CMSC389K, a one credit course to introduce a modern technology to computer science students. A former president of the university Hackers club, the Montgomery Blair High School student has also interned at the San Francisco-based LendUp, where he developed the iOS and Android mobile apps using React Native.
Joining Slack, which brings team communication and collaboration into one place so you can get more work done, are Chelikani and Pappu. Chelikani, who graduated from the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy, completed his Bachelors in Computer Science from Caltech, where he is currently pursuing his Masters. He is also the head organizer of Hacktech. A Product Engineer & Consultant at Lyftly, Pappu graduated from Pullman High School after which he attended the Washington State University at a starter student before moving to Stanford for his Bachelor of Science in biomedical engineering and computer science.
A former intern at Apple, Gupta is pursuing his Bachelors of Computer Science at Stanford. He graduated as a Valedictorian with High Honors from BASIS Scottsdale. Jog, of San Ramon, Calif., was a Software Engineering Intern at Facebook and is currently completing his Bachelors in Computer Science at UCLA. He will spend the summer working at Pinterest.
Mall, an incoming Software Engineer at Salesforce, will spend the summer as a software developer and machine learning intern at AppDynamics. Her LinkedIn profile describes her as someone who is passionate about problem-solving and technology, focussed on making a positive impact, driven by innovation, confident in my abilities, playing leadership roles, and seeking to work on challenging projects that enable me to make impact, learn, explore and grow.
Radhakrishnan, a BSCS student at the Georgia Institute of Technology, will be working with Synack, has previously worked as a Student Cyber Analyst at the Georgia Tech Research Institute. He has also interned with SalesForce and Digital Scientists.
(New York, NY – April 4, 2017) Sanjana Das, a 22-year-old graduate of Pratham’s Vocational Training Program in India, will speak at the next Pratham NYC Young Professionals event (Tuesday, April 11th from 6 p.m. onwards at Stitch Bar & Lounge @ 247 W 37th Street in midtown Manhattan) about her inspiring life journey thus far.
After an early life of poverty, Das is defying the odds. She grew up in the small village of Kusasthali in the state of Odisha and was forced to leave school after her father passed away from a prolonged illness. Despite these challenges, Das persevered, and with the support of her mother, she completed Pratham’s vocational training program and earned a certificate in hospitality. Today, the diligent 22-year-old is employed in the front office at the three-star Lords Plaza Hotel in Jaipur and has realized her dream of financial independence.
“It is so empowering for us to hear the real-life testimonials of people who have benefitted from Pratham’s incredible work on the ground in India to educate and empower the youth,” said Meeta Manglani, co-chair of the New York chapter of Pratham Young Professionals. “Very rarely do we, the supporters of Pratham around the world, have an opportunity to see where our dollars, our energy and our time is going, unless we travel to India and witness it first-hand. Sharing Sanjana’s story is the responsible way for us to engage the next generation of Pratham supporters.”
Pratham’s Vocational Training Program promotes economic self-sufficiency for young adults through training and job placement. Last year, Pratham equipped 22,000 youth with skills and supported 300 entrepreneurs all over India.
New York, NY, April 7, 2017 – Pratham USA has been awarded a $3.1 million grant from Google.org to strengthen the organization’s technology initiative aimed at making quality education more accessible by creating cooperative learning environments that foster children’s curiosity and improve their learning outcomes.
Studies show that in India, even after several years of attending school, roughly half of all fifth graders can’t read a second-grade text or perform a two-digit subtraction problem. For the last 18 months, Pratham has been exploring the use of technology to sustain the impact of its highly successful literacy programs and to enable students to become self-directed learners outside of school.
The initiative, called Hybrid Learning or H-Learning, leverages tablet-based curricula to empower students in grades five through eight to decide collaboratively what content they will learn and how they will go about learning it. Pratham’s objective is to better understand how a student-focused model can accompany more traditional models, with the goal of scaling these methodologies across India’s rural school ecosystem.
The Google.org funds will support the operational costs, including content development in science, language and math. They will also be used to measure impact and make refinements to scale the program. As part of the grant, Google employees will contribute data analysis.
“This grant from Google is a shot in the arm as we experiment with open learning to achieve education equality,” said Pratham co-founder and President Dr. Madhav Chavan. “We are excited that Google is supporting our work so soon after the Sarva Mangal Family Trust gave us critical capital to develop the digital initiative.”
Pratham is one of nine nonprofits selected for the multi-year grant, which is part of a larger education portfolio to support organizations that are using technology to solve the global education problem.
“Access to learning and information is a part of our core values at Google,” said Brigitte Hoyer Gosselink, Education Lead at Google. “We’re excited to announce our $50M commitment to help scale groundbreaking education nonprofits working to make a quality education a reality for everyone.”
Pratham USA Chairman Deepak Raj also commented on the Google.org grant. “We are very pleased and grateful for this funding, and we celebrate it as recognition of the long-term collaboration between Google and Pratham to bridge the digital divide and provide quality education for all.”
Google.org has been a significant supporter of Pratham for over a decade, having invested $4 million in 2007 to help Pratham establish the autonomous ASER Centre, and again in 2016, awarding $3 million for technology infrastructure to further enhance learning experiences in Pratham’s core programs, including Balwadis (preschools) and Read India learning camps.
Established in the slums of Mumbai in 1995, Pratham is now one of India’s largest non-governmental education organizations, having affected the lives of more than 45 million underprivileged children in the past two decades. To achieve its mission of “every child in school and learning well,” Pratham develops practical solutions to address gaps in the education system and works in collaboration with India’s governments, communities, educators and industry to increase learning outcomes and influence education policy.
Pratham USA is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization with a consistent four-star rating from Charity Navigator that seeks to raise awareness and mobilize financial resources for its work in India. For more information, visit prathamusa.org.
Holy Name Medical Center in Teaneck, NJ has announced the launch of the first hospital-based Indian Medical Program (IMP) in the US. The program, under the umbrella of Holy Name’s Asian Health Services (AHS), is designed to meet the medical needs of this community in a culturally-sensitive environment and provide healthcare amenities to make Asian Indian-American patients and their families feel welcome and comfortable.
“Holy Name Medical Center’s Indian Medical Program continues the hospital’s mission to provide culturally-sensitive care, said Michael Maron, President and CEO, Holy Name Medical Center. “The hospital’s Asian Health Services program has become a national model for building sustainable initiatives that improve population health by partnering with physicians, volunteers and charitable donors.”
Customized services include Indian cuisine items such as Indian Chai, Dal Chawal and traditional Indian vegetarian sandwiches will be added to the hospital menu for inpatients. Indian newspapers and a cable television channel (Sony TV) will be available in patients’ rooms, as well as a dedicated community hotline, and a large network of Indian-American physicians. Translation services will be available in Hindi, Gujrati, Sindhi, Marathi and Urdu.
The IMP is also offering a series of free community health events in northern New Jersey, providing health education resources and health screenings for Diabetes, Hepatitis B, and BMI/body composition. To access a full calendar of community events, visit holyname.org/events.
With a hefty 72.7 percent growth rate, the state’s Asian Indian population reached 292,256 in 2010, accounting for 40.3 percent of the total Asian population. The largest concentrations of Asian Indians in New Jersey are in in Bergen County (24,973) and in Hudson County (37,236).
“Holy Name honors the uniqueness of every individual. Personalizing care for our Asian Indian patients engenders trust and a sense of security, making patients feel at home,” said Kyung Hee Choi, Vice-President of Asian Health Services. “Offering medical services with culturally appropriate health care amenities has made patients feel more comfortable at the Medical Center, encouraging them to undergo preventive screenings and helped them to be more proactive in maintaining their health.”
Holy Name Medical Center’s Asian Health Services (AHS) – which includes the Korean Medical Program established in 2008, the Chinese Medical Program (CMP), the Filipino Medical Program (FMP), the Japanese Medical Program (JMP), and the new Indian Medical Program – provides patients with high quality health care in their native language and in an environment sensitive to their culture.
The program, under the umbrella of Holy Name’s Asian Health Services, is designed to meet the medical needs of the community in a culturally-sensitive environment and provide healthcare amenities to make Indian American patients and their families feel welcome and comfortable, the center said.
“Holy Name Medical Center’s Indian medical program continues the hospital’s mission to provide culturally-sensitive care,” Holy Name Medical Center president and chief executive Michael Maron said in a statement. “The hospital’s Asian Health Services program has become a national model for building sustainable initiatives that improve population health by partnering with physicians, volunteers and charitable donors.”
A respected Indian American academic and an experienced higher education administrator who has spearheaded change at three top national research universities, Debasish ‘Deba’ Dutta, will become the next chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick.
President Robert Barchi announced Dutta’s appointment today at a meeting of the Rutgers Board of Governors. The university conducted a national search before selecting a new leader of the Big Ten institution, which is also a member of the Association of American Universities – a group of 60 prestigious research universities across the nation, according to a press release.
Dutta will begin serving as chancellor on July 1. Dutta comes to Rutgers from Purdue University, where he serves as provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity, with a faculty appointment as a professor of mechanical engineering. Previously, he worked at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.
“Dr. Dutta will be an inspiring, collaborative leader and a powerful voice for Rutgers University-New Brunswick at a pivotal time in its history,” said Rutgers President Robert Barchi, in a statement. “He comes here with impeccable academic credentials, solid administrative leadership and deep experience at three Big Ten institutions.
“We also welcome and applaud Deba’s commitment to diversity. He has a proven track record of success in building diverse, inclusive communities, as he has shown in his efforts as Purdue’s chief diversity officer and at Illinois where he served as chancellor’s advisor on diversity.”
As both the chief academic and diversity officer at Purdue, Dutta is responsible for ensuring that diversity and inclusion are a priority in all areas of the university. During his tenure, he has helped increase the graduation rate, enhance student advising, establish new programs in liberal arts, and expand programs in engineering, computer science, business, nursing and technology.
As chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick, Dutta will oversee the largest of the three major Rutgers University campuses with more than 50,000 students, 4,000 faculty, 12 degree-granting schools, nine academic research centers, four administrative units, a premier Honors College, Douglass Residential College and the Zimmerli Art Museum.
“I am tremendously excited to bring the skills I have developed at Purdue, Illinois and Michigan to lead Rutgers University-New Brunswick,” Dutta said. “I look forward to working with the faculty, staff and students to drive innovation and build a new era of success that will elevate the flagship of Rutgers University to even greater national prominence.
“One of my goals is to provide institutional leadership with an urgency to address current needs, ever mindful of history, and with an eye toward the future. This university is rich with highly accomplished faculty, skilled administrators, and talented and passionate students. I truly believe that when we work together, the possibilities are limitless.”
Dutta is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, as well as a scholar in residence at the National Academy of Engineering.
Before joining Purdue in 2014, Dutta served as associate provost and dean of the graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he was also Gutgsell Endowed Professor and interim vice-chancellor for research. There, he established several new interdisciplinary programs to help foster new research and create collaborations across colleges. He also helped set standards for more than 300 master’s and doctoral programs across disciplines.
Dutta spent three years at the National Science Foundation, where he served as acting director of the Division of Graduate Education and as IGERT program director.
He started his career in 1989 at the University of Michigan, where he was a mechanical engineering faculty member for 20 years. He served as associate chair in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and also the founding director of InterPro, an innovative, interdisciplinary academic unit in the College of Engineering that launched new interdisciplinary graduate programs.
“From conducting grant-funded projects as an award-winning mechanical engineer to his program directorship at NSF to his current service as provost at Purdue, Dr. Dutta has nurtured a rich understanding of the power and value of research,” Barchi said. “He is the right leader to build on the great progress that our AAU institution has made in the past five years and take Rutgers University-New Brunswick to a new level of excellence.”
Dutta holds a Ph.D. in industrial engineering from Purdue, a master’s degree in engineering management from the University of Evansville and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Jadavpur University in Calcutta, India.
He will succeed Richard Edwards, who is returning to the faculty after serving as chancellor of Rutgers University-New Brunswick since 2014.
The board of trustees of Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Feb. 9 announced that Indian American educator Devinder Malhotra was unanimously voted to serve as the interim chancellor at Minnesota State. Malhotra was chosen on an interim basis following an extensive search that didn’t yield a person to hold the post on a permanent basis, the board said in a news release. He will serve in his capacity until a permanent chancellor is named.
“I am very pleased that Devinder Malhotra has agreed to serve in this critical role,” said Michael Vekich, chair of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees. “Dr. Malhotra is a gifted leader with the experience, the understanding of our system, and the collaborative skills required to lead the system while the search continues. In his previous service to Minnesota State as an interim president of Metropolitan State University, he demonstrated his ability to keep us moving forward. Dr. Malhotra will ensure our ability to serve students and communities across Minnesota so we can meet the state’s need for talent. I thank him for his willingness to serve.”
Malhotra has previously served as an interim president of Metropolitan State University from 2014 until his retirement in 2016, demonstrating the ability to keep MSCU moving forward, Vekich noted.
“Dr. Malhotra will ensure our ability to serve students and communities across Minnesota so we can meet the state’s need for talent. I thank him for his willingness to serve,” the board chair added. “I appreciate the confidence that chair Vekich and the board of trustees has placed in me,” said Malhotra in a statement. “And I look forward to once again serving the students of Minnesota State as we continue our critical work.”
In additional to Metropolitan State, Malhotra served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at St. Cloud State University from 2009 to 2014.
He has also been dean of the University of Southern Maine’s College of Arts and Sciences from 2005 to 2009 and the University of Akron Buchtel College of Arts and Sciences associate dean before that. A tenured professor of economics for more than three decades, he has served on the faculty of the University of Southern Maine and the University of Akron. Malhotra holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s from the University of Delhi, and a doctorate from Kansas State University.
At a recent Harvard Business School Conference on ‘Creating Emerging Markets’ held in Mumbai, Shahnaz Husain, who was a ‘Case Study’ and now a ‘Subject’ and part of the Curriculum on Emerging Markets at Harvard, Boston
Prof Geoffrey Jones, Isidor Straus Professor of Business History, Harvard Business School, stated at the conference, “We felt compelled to include Shahnaz Husain in Harvard Business School’s Creating Emerging Markets project, both because of her entrepreneurial role in creating India’s natural beauty market and her strong belief in the importance of corporate social responsibility. In both regards she is a pioneer and a role model, and we were delighted and humbled that she was willing to spare her time to help the project succeed. We anticipate that the interview will be widely used by educators and researchers, and by many others interested in seeing how she became so successful and impactful.”
Shahnaz Husain`s journey as an entrepreneur is a great inspiration for all the young entrepreneurs and startup ventures. Shahnaz Husain is one of the rare and few first generation women entrepreneur, pioneer, visionary and an innovator, who introduced a totally new concept of Ayurvedic Care and Cure worldwide. She created a brand with universal appeal and application. Shahnaz Husain`s brand found place in the international market for Ayurvedic beauty care. In a world ridden with environmental degradation, Shahnaz Husain ventured into the world of nature and its healing powers, taking the Indian herbal heritage of Ayurveda to every corner of the globe with a crusader’s zeal.
Shahnaz Husain was candid in her utterance when questions were thrown to her. The pioneer of Ayurvedic beauty care has achieved unprecedented international acclaim for her practical application of Ayurveda, the ancient Indian system of herbal healing. Just when there was a worldwide “back to nature” trend, Shahnaz Husain recaptured an ancient herbal system and made it relevant to modern demands.
The suave and soft-spoken, Shahnaz’s study of Ayurveda, the Indian holistic system of herbal healing, strengthened her faith in nature after finding that it could offer the ideal answers to protective, preventive and even corrective cosmetic-care. What started as a young women entrepreneur`s dream is today one of the biggest brand in the cosmetic care space, the Shahnaz Husain Group. Shahnaz Husain is the CEO and the Brand Ambassador of the group. Today, the group has a chain of over 400 franchise clinics, shops, schools and spas worldwide, as well as ayurvedic formulations for skin, hair, body and health care covering almost 138 coutries. Her journey, from one herbal clinic to a worldwide chain, is one of unprecedented success. What started as a small business at home at a time when internet was unheard of, went on to become one of the greatest brands across the globe in the ayurvedic care segment.
Caption
Shahnaz Husain, Who was a ‘Case Study’ and now a ‘Subject’ and part of the Curriculum on Emerging Markets at Harvard, Boston, seen with Prof Geoffrey Jones at the Harvard Conference held in Mumbai
After instituting Endowment Chair in Sikh culture, the University of California is on way to create a Chair on Jainism with the active support and collaboration of the Indian community. The chair is part of a larger effort to position U.C. Davis as one of the leaders in the study of Indian religions and the interdisciplinary field of South Asia studies broadly, the university said in a news release.
U.C. Riverside’s College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences and the Department of Religious Studies has announced the establishment of its latest endowed chair, the Shrimad Rajchandra Endowed Chair in Jain Studies on February 17th.
The chair is named after renowned Indian poet, philosopher, scholar and reformer of Jain principles Shrimad Rajchandra, who lived from 1867 until 1901. Several institutions and places throughout India use Rajchandra’s name in dedication for charitable activities. The U.C. Riverside chair is the first to bestow the Rajchandra name as a dedication outside India.
Lasy year, Harkeerat and Deepta Dhillon, an Indian-American couple donated $100,000 to the top American university to support graduate students studying Sikh and Punjabi culture there. The endowment by Harkeerat and Deepta Dhillon to University of California, Riverside, was to help attract graduate students with an interest in Sikh and Punjabi culture, and support fieldwork on Sikh communities in the United States, the univestity said in a statement.
The university requires $1 million to endow a chair. The Indian American families of Mahesh Wadher and Jasvant Modi each pledged $250,000 but have signed for $1 million, while the Jain Center of Southern California and Jain Temple of Los Angeles have agreed to help raise the remaining funds. Additionally, the family of Vijay Chheda has pledged $100,000 towards reaching the $1 million threshold.
Meanwhile, Mohini Jain, an Indian American philanthropist, retired teacher and longtime resident of Davis, Calif., made a $1.5 million donation to U.C. Davis on February 21st to advance the study of Jainism. As part of the gift, the university will establish the Mohini Jain Presidential Chair for Jain Studies in the Department of Religious Studies.
“Jainism is a very ancient and important religion and philosophy that champions truth, nonviolence and a multiplicity of viewpoints,” said Jain in a statement. “In our multicultural, global world, it is important to escape boxed-in points of view. I am hopeful the impact of the chair at U.C. Davis will be a broadening of minds and a renewed focus on dialogue and peace.”
Jain was a research scientist at U.C. Davis in the 1980s and then served as a high school science teacher for 19 years, retiring in 2008. For decades, she has made giving to U.C. Davis a priority, the university said.
The presidential chair will be awarded to a scholar with a well-established record for creative, exceptional and interdisciplinary research on Jainism, the university said.
As a member of the religious studies department, the holder of the chair will help develop curriculum in Jain studies, offer graduate courses in Jainism, pursue a vigorous research agenda, give public lectures, and contribute to the development of a religions of India and South Asia studies initiative at U.C. Davis by participating in community outreach, it said.
“This gift will further diversify and strengthen our expertise in world religions and is another step toward U.C. Davis serving as a leader in India religions and Asia studies globally,” said Archana Venkatesan, chair of the religious studies department and associate professor of religious studies and comparative literature, in a statement.
The Chair will be focused on Jain religious principles with the chair expected to teach classes in Jain studies. “To teach Jain religion, principles, culture, etc., to undergraduate students,” Dr. Nitin Shah, past-president of JCSC, told India-West when asked about the goals of the chair. Shah is also chair of the External Education Committee at JCSC, professor of anesthesiology at Loma Linda University and chief of surgical ICU at Long Beach VA Healthcare System.
Kishan Bhatt, a Princeton University senior, is among 10 students recognized by Princeton University as Scholars in the Nation’s Service Initiative (SINSI). Bhatt, from Edison, New Jersey, is at the Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton. His focus is global health and health policy as well as American studies. He is also a health policy scholar at Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing.
Established in 2006, SINSI is designed to encourage, support and prepare the nation’s top students to pursue careers in the U.S. federal government, in international and domestic agencies. Through rigorous academic training integrated with work experience, the goal of the highly competitive scholarship program is to provide students with the language and workplace skills needed to succeed in the public policy arena.
This year, for the first time, two groups of students have been admitted to the program. Seniors and first-year Master in Public Affairs students were able to apply for the graduate scholarship, and four graduate scholars were admitted. In addition, all freshmen, sophomores and juniors were invited to apply for new SINSI internships, and six students were admitted. In previous years, a total of five students were selected annually for SINSI during their junior year.
Kishan Bhatt, a senior from Edison, New Jersey, is a Wilson School concentrator and a certificate candidate in global health and health policy and American studies. A U.S. health policy scholar at Princeton’s Center for Health and Wellbeing, he cares deeply about policies that encourage medical innovation, disease prevention and value-based health care delivery.
During summer 2016, Bhatt analyzed clinical cost and outcomes data for Remedy Partners, a technology start-up that serves 1,300 hospitals participating in Medicare’s $12 billion Bundled Payment for Care Improvement program. Previously, he researched counter-bioterrorism strategy at the Federation of American Scientists, publishing a report for federal officials on the legal and biological tools to deter and detect potential disease threats. Bhatt has studied abroad in Spain and directed an international exchange program connecting 80 high school students from Japan and the United States. He serves as a four-year senator for the Undergraduate Student Government, a peer career adviser, an Orange Key tour guide and a fellow with the Human Values Forum.
Also among the 10 recipients was Nabil Shaikh, a senior from Reading, Pennsylvania, whose major is politics, along with pursuing a certificate in global health and health policy. During summer 2016, Shaikh spent two months as a Princeton Global Health Scholar in Hyderabad, where he surveyed more than 100 terminally ill cancer patients on their experiences with accessing end-of-life care, as part of his thesis program.
Nabil Shaikh, a senior from Reading, Pennsylvania, is a politics major and a certificate candidate in global health and health policy and in values and public life. Shaikh, who cares deeply about global access to health care and health disparities, has spent his time at Princeton broadening his understanding of how various actors and policies shape health and wellness in society.
During summer 2016, Shaikh spent two months as a Princeton Global Health Scholar in Hyderabad, India, where he performed thesis research surveying more than 100 terminally ill cancer patients on their experiences with accessing end-of-life care. He then spent time in Trenton, New Jersey, as a policy research intern at the New Jersey Department of Health, focusing on minority and multicultural health. Shaikh is active in the activities of the Muslim Life Program, Muslim Advocates for Social Justice and the Office of Religious Life. He has served as treasurer for the Pace Council for Civic Values and as a freshman trip leader for Community Action.
Saaedah Shiravany, an Iranian MBA student at a top US business school, says news of President Donald Trump’s executive order banning citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the US left her feeling “empty”.
Shiravany (not her real name) worries that she will be unable to graduate because the ban, covering Iraq, Syria, Libya, Sudan, Yemen and Somalia as well as her homeland, would prevent her from participating in an overseas corporate assignment that is a requirement of her course. She fears that if she were to leave the US for the assignment, she may not be able to re-enter the country to complete her studies. “This ban has robbed me of the experience I came here to have,” she says. Leaving the US would mean saying goodbye to completing her MBA next year.
Shiravany is only one among the thousands of students in the USA from abroad, who have expressed and experienced such fears in the past week. Allaying fears of such international students following US President Donald Trump’s controversial executive order targeting immigrants, several American universities are mailing prospective students to let them know that that they are welcome to their campuses, regardless of what the Trump government says.
While these mails are an attempt to reassure immigrant students, these may have also become necessary since the US remains the hub for Indian students. Mubarak Kader, who applied for the engineering management program at Duke University in North Carolina, received a mail from the university this week. “We know many members of the global community are… concerned about the new policies,” wrote the university, adding links to statements from the institution president who promised to bring these concerns “to the attention of policymakers and public”. The president of our university sent out a similar message to us, international students, on the campus. He told us how the university will always be a place for people of different cultures to come together and engage in dialogue,” said a student pursuing law at the University of Miami. Other institutions, like the
University of Michigan and Northeastern University, too, have sent out similar mails to students who may be apprehensive about being subjected to discrimination while at university or being detained at immigration points as witnessed at several US airports over the week.
Anupama Vijay, an education consultant, said: “Indians pursuing professional courses will have no issues as their student visas entitle them to a five-year optional practical training period. Only after this period does securing an H-1B visa become a concern. Their status as students in the US will be untouched by the new policy,” she says.
Committed to helping Asian Indian kids with food allergy
“I have increasingly been seeing children with food allergies in my clinic and in my social circles, with many of them having severe, life-threatening allergies to multiple foods,” says Dr. Chitra Dinakar, the Gies Endowed Faculty Scholar and Clinical Professor in Food Allergy, Asthma and Immunology Research at the Sean N Parker Center, Stanford University. According to Dr. Dinakar, who was until recently a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and Director, FARE Center of Excellence at Children’s Mercy, Division of Allergy/Immunology at Children’s Mercy Hospital, what she saw in her patients had a direct similarity in with recent data that food allergy is considered to be the second wave of the allergy epidemic with up to 8% of children having food allergies in the USA.
Dr. Dinakar was deeply concerned that “a significant percentage of them were of Asian Indian origin, and whose parents and grandparents had no history or knowledge of food allergies. Moreover, some of them had allergies to foods that were not commonly reported in the USA population (e.g. urud dal), and hence were finding it challenging to get appropriately diagnosed and treated.”
Dr. Chitra Dinakar receives Distinguished Fellow Award from American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology
These concerns and studies prompted Dr. Dinakar, who had completed her fellowship in Allergy/Immunology at the Cleveland Clinic Foundation, Ohio, and has been at Children’s Mercy since then to review the scarce literature published on this topic and her search revealed the possibility that Asians have higher odds of food allergy compared with white children, but significantly lower odds of formal diagnosis.
Dr. Dinakar who began her new career in January 2017 at the Sean N Parker Center, Stanford University, found that immigrant populations tended to develop the diseases of the society they migrated to. Australian-born Asians had higher odds of developing atopic disease when compared to Asian-born immigrants, and foreign-born children had an initially lower prevalence of atopic disease, which increased after residing in US for more than10 years.
“I also discovered that there is a significant knowledge gap regarding food allergy trends in the Asian Indian population in the US,” Dr. Dinakar says. According to her, Asian Indians have an ethnically unique diet and may have ‘unusual’ or ‘different’ food allergies than the “Top 8” (milk, egg, wheat, soy, peanut, tree nuts, fish, shellfish). Additionally, there are no standardized tests to diagnose these unique food allergies or recommendations regarding cross-reactive patterns and foods that are a must-avoid. To her surprise, the allergist also found that Asian Indians as a demographic population is typically left out of most large-scale studies since they do not meet the standard research inclusion criteria for “minority ” or “medically underserved” groups. “I therefore believe it is critically important to recognize, diagnose, and treat these unique allergies in this understudied population to optimize nutrition and growth,” says Dr. Dinakar.
Dr. Dinakar chaired the Joint Task Force Practice Parameter Workgroup on Yellow Zone Management of Asthma Exacerbations. She has served on review panels for grant funding programs such as the National Institutes of Health, and has been a member of the UMKC Pediatric Institutional Review Board. She has been involved in more than 50 investigator-initiated, NIH-sponsored, and industry-sponsored clinical trials, and has over 60 peer-reviewed publications, and 2 book chapters. She is an invited speaker at national and international allergy conferences, and mentors junior faculty, A/I fellows, residents and medical trainees.
Loving children comes naturally to this physician of Indian origin. The opportunity to help care for the health and well-being of the future citizens of India, comprising over one thirds of its population, was compelling and irresistible, inspired her to take up this noble Medical profession. On graduating as the valedictorian from high-school, she was fortunate to be selected to join one of the premier medical institutions in India, Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER). Admission at JIPMER is through a nationally competitive entrance examination, and all admitted students receive a generous tuition scholarship from the government of India, which made the decision easy for her.
Dr. Dinakar has been passionately interested in studying food allergy trends among Asian Indians for several years. She began with a pilot survey launched in Kansas City that showed there was a variety of food allergies reported in Asian Indians. She then extended her study to capture a larger cohort throughout the USA in the form of a multi-center collaboration with Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an accomplished pediatrician and food allergy/asthma researcher, from Northwestern University. IRB approval was obtained at the two collaborating institutions, Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City and Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago.
The aims of the ongoing Asian Indian Food Allergy Survey are to 1) understand generational differences in food allergy in the Asian Indian population living in the USA 2) determine the top food allergens in this specific population, 3) and to better understand the interplay between genetics and the environment in the development of atopic illness. The goals are to capture child and parent demographics (including birth country and state, age of migration), history and nature of food allergy diagnosis (including symptoms, age of onset, and testing), and the presence of other atopic illnesses. The key inclusion criteria include being of Asian Indian heritage living in the USA and having a child with food allergy.
Dr. Dinakar and her team reported the preliminary results of the survey at an invited oral presentation at the International Food Allergy Symposium, ACAAI Annual Meeting, San Antonio, TX in Nov 2015. Among the 114 Asian Indian children with food allergies approximately two-thirds of the allergies were reported to be diagnosed by a physician. Over two-thirds of them were diagnosed by blood or skin allergy tests, and approximately one-third were revealed through a supervised oral food challenge. Tree nut was the most common food allergy in this population and was reported in six out of every 10 children. This finding was unexpected since it is not the most common food allergy in the general population of the U.S.A.
Dr. Dinakar notes that, some of other food allergies noted were to chickpea flour, capsicum (variant of green pepper), and to Indian lentils. Despite the small sample size, a large variety of food allergens that are typically not seen in the general population was reported, including foods such as avocado, banana, beef, bulgur wheat, coconut, corn, eggplant, food dye, garlic, ginger, green peas, jalapeño peppers, kiwi, melon, rice and tomato. Additionally, one in ten parents self-reported that they had a food allergy.
“While the study is still on-going, the preliminary findings are important as they reveal that individuals of Indian descent living in the US tend to be allergic to foods that are frequently not thought of as common food allergens,” Dr. Dinakar, whose expertise includes pediatric asthma, food allergic disorders, atopic and immunological disorders, and health care quality and outcomes, says. “I will follow up on this study by evaluating allergic diseases in the Indian subcontinent and determine reasons for the exponential spike.”
Dr. Dinakar, who serves on the Editorial boards of four reputed Allergy/Immunology journals (AllergyWatch (Associate Editor); Annals of Allergy, Asthma & Immunology; Allergy and Asthma Proceedings; Current Treatment Options in Allergy),and serves as the USA Regional Editor of the World Allergy Organization Web Editorial Board, invites all families of Indian origin to participate in the collection of this critically important information at the link below: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/SouthAsianFoodAllergySurvey
“The data we capture will enable us to start gaining an understanding of why Asian Indian families in the USA are increasingly developing severe allergic diseases such as food allergies, asthma and environmental allergies. It will also help us develop appropriate treatment and prevention strategies for this unique population, one that is typically not well-represented in routine research studies.”
As of today, about 350 individuals have responded to the survey, while the team would like to have a group of 1000 or more from different regions of this country to participate in the survey, so that it would adequately reflect the food allergy status of the Asian Indian population living in the USA.
Dr. Dinakar has served in leadership capacities at national Allergy/Immunology organizations. She is a member of the Board of Directors of the American Board of Allergy and Immunology (ABAI) and recently got elected to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (AAAAI). She was on the Board of Regents of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). She also serves on the Executive Committee of the Section of Allergy/Immunology in the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP-SOAI) and is an elected member of the prestigious American Pediatric Societies (APS). She is a former President of the Greater Kansas City Allergy Society and a former Board member of the Shawnee Mission Education Foundation. She is a board member of the Food Equality Initiative and the Food Allergy Support Group of Greater Kansas City.
Dr. Dinakar, who has been awarded with numerous awards was the recipient of the “Distinguished Fellow Award, American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in 2016.
“I was honored to receive the “Distinguished Fellow Award” from the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI), a professional organization of more than 6900 allergists/immunologists from across the world, at their annual meeting in November, 2016. According to the ACAAI website, this award is presented to “a Fellow who has made significant contributions to allergy, asthma or immunology in the United States or Canada and/or has an outstanding reputation as a clinician/teacher, dedication to ACAAI activities, scholarly achievement and leadership qualities”. In the words of Dr. Bryan Martin, the President of the ACAAI, “Dr. Dinakar is incredibly active in the College and has been instrumental in the quality of College educational endeavors. She supports the practicing allergist as a Director of the ABAI, and the College representative on the Council of Pediatrics Subspecialties. She is a wonderful mentor and tireless worker for the allergy community.”
Last year, she was thrilled to receive “The Woman in Allergy Award” by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (ACAAI). The annual award “honors an individual who has advanced the role of women in medicine or made a significant contribution to the specialty”. In the words of the 2016 ACAAI President Dr. James Sublett, “Dr. Dinakar is one of those “go-to individuals” who is always willing, when asked, to step up and take a leadership role. Whether it’s leading the development of a Practice Parameter, or chairing a College committee, we know the job will be done well and on time.”
Some of the awards Dr. Dinakar was bestowed with include, “Excellence in Service” (for Distinguished Editorial Service), Missouri State Medical Association (2016), “Woman in Allergy Award” by the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology (2015), “Acellus Teacher of the Year” award by the International Academy of Science (2015), the “Award of Excellence” by the American Association of Allergists & Immunologists of Indian Origin (AAAII, 2009), “Golden Apple Mercy Mentor Award” by Children’s Mercy Hospital, and an honorary “Kentucky Colonel” awarded by the Governor of Kentucky. She is listed on the Consumer Research Council’s ‘Guide to America’s Top Pediatricians’; Best Doctors in America; Kansas City Magazine’s ‘SuperDocs’ and ‘435 Magazine’ Best Doctors.
“It is energizing to me to know that colleagues I admire and respect believe in my passions,” says Dr. Dinkar with a sense of pride and accomplishment. “At the same time, it is humbling to realize that this honor was possible only because of the unstinting mentorship and encouragement of path-breaking leaders and supportive colleagues. I have found that almost every person I encounter has a story to tell, and their personal battles and victories inspire and motivate me. To me, therefore, the awards are a reflection of the collective “goodness” of the amazing people I have been fortunate to interact with in my life.”
Having had the benefit of experiencing healthcare delivery in two nations, both In India and the US, at near-opposite ends of the spectrum, Dr. Dinakar is well aware of the breakthroughs and limitations in healthcare globally. “I am passionate about minimizing health care disparities and moving healthcare quality forward in every which way I can, one baby step at a time. Having been blessed with receiving top-notch training in both India and the USA, I am passionate about advancing cutting-edge research knowledge in both these countries, and using the expertise and understanding gained to improve global health.” She hopes that her new assignment at Stanford University “will enable me to accomplish my goals.”
Being a pediatrician, and a mother of two young college boys- the older a sophomore at Stanford, and the younger a Freshman at UC Berkeley, Dr. Dinakar is an unabashed and ardent believer in the power and ability of the future global citizens to take mankind forward.
Dr. Dinakar also believes that many young Indian Americans are doubly blessed with having the benefit of both “Nature and Nurture.” In other words, the majority of them have inherited priceless genes and drive that brought their incredibly hard-working and motivated parents/grandparents to cross continents in a desire to ensure a robust future for their progeny. According to Dr. Dinakar, “while there are unique generational, cultural, language, social and economic challenges in growing up as the children of immigrants in the USA, the opportunities presented to them are limitless. After all, this is “the land where dreams come true!”
Addressing the young Indian Americans, Dr. Dinakar says, “You are extraordinarily gifted and loved beyond measure. Feel empowered to unlock your phenomenal potential and translate your dreams into reality.”
Dr. Dinakar finds time and passion to be actively involved in every aspect of her family life. “I believe that my family is a microcosm of the world around me, and how I interact with my family defines and shapes how I interact with the world. I believe that each one of the members of my family tree (vertically and horizontally) is exceptional and extraordinary, and am deeply grateful for the countless ways in which they have enriched and fostered my growth, either directly or by example.”
“I am a kinetic person and enjoy putting my fast muscle fibers and mitochondria to work,” describes Dr. Dinakar of herself. A classically trained Bharathnatyam dancer, she learned ballroom dancing after coming to the USA. She revels in all kinds of dance movements, including Bollywood. A competitive track athlete in school/college, she says, “nostalgic memories motivate me to represent my hospital in the annual Kansas City-wide Corporate Challenge events, where I typically medal in the 100m and 400m sprints, and Long Jump events.” She was the captain of the basketball team in medical school and “I play 2 on 2 basketball with my boys in the driveway, when the weather permits. My boys are talented musicians and I enjoy listening to them. I also love reading good books and watching movies, though I wish there were 36 hours in a day!”
Dr. Krishne Urs, a philanthropist and orthopedic surgeon made a hefty donation to a New York-based university medical center on December 16th. According to the University, the Indian American physician provided the Richmond University Medical Center with $500,000 for its emergency department construction project, according to an silive.com report.
Dr. Urs’ pledge, which will go toward the medical center’s $65 million project, was made during a ceremony in the hospital’s MLB conference room. Daniel Messina, president and CEO of the hospital, accepted the donation from Dr. Urs, and thanked him for his generosity. “We would like to celebrate a very dedicated physician of the RUMC family and recognize Dr. Krishne Urs,” Messina said.
Dr. Urs received his medical degree with distinction from the University of Mysore in India. He arrived in New York City in 1962 and studied to become an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Urs began his practice at St. Vincent’s Medical Center — now Richmond University Medical Center — in 1970. From 1986 to 2001, he served as chief of orthopaedic surgery at St. Vincent’s Medical Center.
Richmond University board chairwoman Kate Rooney, and Joe Torres, who chairs the capital campaign for the ER project, discussed Dr. Urs’ passion for philanthropy.
“Those of us who know Dr. Urs know that philanthropy and generosity are part of his soul and we at the hospital are so fortunate that he and his family have been so generous to our medical center,” said Rooney.
“I’d like to focus on what I feel is the greatest asset Dr. Urs has given us and that’s inspiration,” added Torres. “He told us, and I’m paraphrasing, when an opportunity arises to invest in infrastructure that is linked to such a vital community cause, it gives the donor an opportunity to have a lasting impact on the lives of their children and their grandchildren.”
Dr. Urs discussed the significance of the new emergency department project and what it means to give back to the community. “As many of you know, our community continues to grow and demands have been put on our hospital, especially our emergency room,” he said. “We have been treating over 65,000 patients a year in a space originally designed for 22,000 patients.
“I have spent my entire career in this hospital and it has been part of the fabric of my life and livelihood and I’m so grateful to give back to this organization and the people that it serves.”
Ravi S. Rajan, the dean of the School of Arts at Purchase College, State University of New York, has been named the president of the prestigious California Institute of the Arts December 13. Ravi S. Rajan, Dean of the School of the Arts at Purchase College, and a highly regarded artist whose work reaches across disciplines, has been selected as the fourth president of California Institute of the Arts.
Rajan will begin his tenure June 1, 2017, and succeed President Steven Lavine. “I’m humbled by this opportunity, excited to be a part of this great community, and I look forward to building upon the innovative pedigree of CalArts,” said Rajan.
After evaluating more than 500 applicants, Rajan was appointed in a unanimous vote by the CalArts Board of Trustees, who were advised by a committee encompassing the entire CalArts community.
Rajan will be the first Asian American president of CalArts, one of the world’s premier arts colleges. His innovative and thoughtful leadership, in addition to passion and vision for arts education, aligns with the CalArts community, said Tim Disney, Chairman of the Board of Trustees. “Ravi shows the fiery passion for the arts that was at the core of CalArts founding,” continued Disney. “His commitment to excellence and exploration and innovation will help continue CalArts rich legacy and unbounded future.”
Rajan’s education included undergraduate studies at the University of Oklahoma, before going on to graduate work at Yale. He then launched into a dynamic career combining artistic practice and campus leadership. In addition to executive roles in higher education, Rajan is also a noted collaborator in the production of art, music, theatre/dance, and film/video. He is a member of the Tony Awards Nominating Committee, a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts in London, and President of the Asian American Arts Alliance.
Abigail Salling, a student representative on the presidential search committee, said Rajan was impressive during the interview process. “He was dynamic and energetic, and talked about diversity, student debt, and artistic experience. I think CalArts will be strong under his leadership. I’m excited to see where our school goes.”
David Roitstein, faculty trustee from The Herb Alpert School of Music at CalArts, and also a member of the presidential search committee, echoed Salling’s assessment. “Ravi is exceptionally well-prepared for this role and I am very excited to work together with him.” Roitstein went on to compliment the search process, calling it “one of the highlights of my time at CalArts. It was open, diverse, and extraordinarily thorough.”
As Dean of the School of the Arts at Purchase, Rajan successfully proposed and guided a $100 million capital renovation of the Art + Design division’s facilities, the first such renovation in its history. His boundless advocacy helped strengthen the culture of philanthropy among supporters of the college, resulting in securing the largest individual donations to Purchase College since its founding. In an effort to foster change within the arts on a global scale, Rajan spearheaded the creation of a new MA in Entrepreneurship in the Arts, the first graduate degree of its kind in the world.
“Ravi brings the perfect combination of personal artistic commitment to interdisciplinary approaches, which is vital to CalArts, along with broad experience as an educator, and significant accomplishments as a senior administrator at Purchase College,” said CalArts’ President Steven Lavine. “I am thrilled he will be the person to lead CalArts into its future development as one of the great artistic and educational institutions in the world.”
Standing in the boardroom where top economists chart the nation’s financial future, a team of Rutgers University students beat out competition from Princeton and Dartmouth Thursday to win one of the nation’s most prestigious economic competitions.
The Rutgers team, made up of five undergraduates from the New Brunswick campus, were crowned the winners of the 13thannual College Fed Challenge, a national competition about the U.S. economy and monetary policymaking.
The Rutgers competitors gave a 15-minute presentation analyzing economic and financial conditions, then answered questions from top federal officials at the Federal Reserve in Washington, D.C.
A five-member undergraduate team from Rutgers that included juniors Karn Dalal and Shivram Viswanathan, beat out teams from Princeton, University of Chicago and Dartmouth in competition to win the ‘College Fed Challenge’, a competition that encourages students to learn about the U.S. economy, and the role of the Federal Reserve System, in Washington, D.C. last week.
At the prestigious competition, the Rutgers students evidently demonstrated a grasp of economics that propelled them to the top of the tough national competition.
The Dec. 1 finals took place in the boardroom of the Federal Reserve Bank with five Rutgers undergraduates facing teams from prestigious and Ivy League colleges.
“It was an absolutely stunning moment,” said Jeffrey Rubin, an emeritus professor in the Department of Economics, School of Arts and Sciences (SAS), and the team’s adviser since the competition began in 2003. “There we were in this very imposing boardroom, where the Fed sets policy, and competing against students from these outstanding schools,” he said in a statement.
At the College Fed Challenge students deliver a 15-minute presentation, analyzing current economic conditions and conclude by making a recommendation on monetary policy. The students then respond to a series of questions from a panel of three top economists at the Federal Reserve System who serve as judges.
After defeating Columbia University, among other schools, during the New York Federal Reserve District regional competition in October, the team advanced to the finals feeling relaxed and confident. Shivram Viswanathan, a junior majoring in economics and mathematics, said the other teams’ presentations at the finals were very impressive, and included ambitious and sometimes esoteric references that demonstrated considerable knowledge of macroeconomics.
“But I think what ultimately allowed us to get the edge is our ability to make our presentation in a comfortable, cohesive, and cogent manner,” he said. “We’d tie in a lot of different aspects of the global and domestic economy all at once, working disparate ideas into a single, clear concept.”
But in the boardroom, as the results were announced, the students and Rubin found themselves in a state of disbelief. The judges called the honorable mentions first – ASU, Princeton, and Chicago. “I remember taking a deep breath after the three honorable mentions, and thinking I’d still be happy to get second place,” said Dalal a junior majoring in economics and biomathematics. “Then we hear that second place goes to Dartmouth. That took a moment to register. And then you get that rush in your head and it’s like: ‘Yes! We did it.’”
Jews are more highly educated than any other major religious group around the world, while Muslims and Hindus tend to have the fewest years of formal schooling, according to a Pew Research Center global demographic study that shows wide disparities in average educational levels among religious groups.
These gaps in educational attainment are partly a function of where religious groups are concentrated throughout the world. For instance, the vast majority of the world’s Jews live in the United States and Israel – two economically developed countries with high levels of education overall. And low levels of attainment among Hindus reflect the fact that 98% of Hindu adults live in the developing countries of India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
But there also are important differences in educational attainment among religious groups living in the same region, and even the same country. In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, Christians generally have higher average levels of education than Muslims. Some social scientists have attributed this gap primarily to historical factors, including missionary activity during colonial times. (For more on theories about religion’s impact on educational attainment.
Drawing on census and survey data from 151 countries, the study also finds large gender gaps in educational attainment within some major world religions. For example, Muslim women around the globe have an average of 4.9 years of schooling, compared with 6.4 years among Muslim men. And formal education is especially low among Hindu women, who have 4.2 years of schooling on average, compared with 6.9 years among Hindu men.
Yet many of these disparities appear to be decreasing over time, as the religious groups with the lowest average levels of education – Muslims and Hindus – have made the biggest educational gains in recent generations, and as the gender gaps within some religions have diminished, according to Pew Research Center’s analysis.
At present, Jewish adults (ages 25 and older) have a global average of 13 years of formal schooling, compared with approximately nine years among Christians, eight years among Buddhists and six years among Muslims and Hindus. Religiously unaffiliated adults – those who describe their religion as atheist, agnostic or “nothing in particular” – have spent an average of nine years in school, a little less than Christian adults worldwide.
But the number of years of schooling received by the average adult in all the religious groups studied has been rising in recent decades, with the greatest overall gains made by the groups that had lagged furthest behind.
For instance, the youngest Hindu adults in the study (those born between 1976 and 1985) have spent an average of 7.1 years in school, nearly double the amount of schooling received by the oldest Hindus in the study (those born between 1936 and 1955). The youngest Muslims have made similar gains, receiving approximately three more years of schooling, on average, than their counterparts born a few decades earlier, as have the youngest Buddhists, who acquired 2.5 more years of schooling.
Over the same time frame, by contrast, Christians gained an average of just one more year of schooling, and Jews recorded an average gain of less than half a year of additional schooling.
Meanwhile, the youngest generation of religiously unaffiliated adults – sometimes called religious “nones” – in the study has gained so much ground (2.9 more years of schooling than the oldest generation of religious “nones” analyzed) that it has surpassed Christians in average number of years of schooling worldwide (10.3 years among the youngest unaffiliated adults vs. 9.9 years among the youngest Christians).
Gender gaps also are narrowing somewhat. In the oldest generation, across all the major religious groups, men received more years of schooling, on average, than women. But the youngest generations of Christian, Buddhist and unaffiliated women have achieved parity with their male counterparts in average years of schooling. And among the youngest Jewish adults, Jewish women have spent nearly one more year in school, on average, than Jewish men.
These are among the key findings of Pew Research Center’s new demographic study. A prior study by researchers at an Austrian institute, the Wittgenstein Centre for Demography and Human Capital, looked at differences in educational attainment by age and gender. The new study is the first comprehensive examination of differences in educational levels by religion. Wittgenstein Centre researchers Michaela Potančoková and Marcin Stonawski collaborated with Pew Research Center researchers to compile and standardize this data.
About one-in-five adults globally – but twice as many Muslims and Hindus – have received no schooling at all. Despite recent gains by young adults, formal schooling is neither universal nor equal around the world. The global norm is barely more than a primary education – an average of about eight years of formal schooling for men and seven years for women.
At the high end of the spectrum, 14% of adults ages 25 and older (including 15% of men and 13% of women) have a university degree or some other kind of higher education, such as advanced vocational training after high school. But an even larger percentage – about one-in-five adults (19%) worldwide, or more than 680 million people – have no formal schooling at all.
Education levels vary a great deal by religion. About four-in-ten Hindus (41%) and more than one-third of Muslims (36%) in the study have no formal schooling. In other religious groups, the shares without any schooling range from 10% of Buddhists to 1% of Jews, while a majority of Jewish adults (61%) have post-secondary degrees.
Over three recent generations, the share of Hindus with at least some formal schooling rose by 28 percentage points, from 43% among the oldest Hindus in the study to 71% among the youngest. Muslims, meanwhile, registered a 25-point increase, from 46% among the oldest Muslims to 72% among the youngest.
Christians, Buddhists and religious “nones” have made more modest gains in basic education, but they started from a higher base. Among the oldest generation in the study, large majorities of these three religious groups received at least some formal education; among the youngest Christians, Buddhists and religious “nones,” more than nine-in-ten have received at least some schooling. The share of Jews with at least some schooling has remained virtually universal across generations at 99%.
Gautam N. Yadama, assistant vice chancellor for international affairs and professor at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, has been named dean of the Boston College School of Social Work. Yadama will begin his term in July. He succeeds Alberto Godenzi, who is retiring as dean after 15 years of service.
Yadama, an internationally respected researcher whose interdisciplinary work has focused on understanding the social and environmental challenges of the rural poor in South Asia and China, has conducted extensive community-based research throughout India, China and Nepal.
Yadama said he was delighted to join Boston College and lead the faculty at the School of Social Work. “The Boston College School of Social Work is highly visible in the profession for its emphasis on tackling key challenges in social work,” said Yadama. “Its faculty have been significant in shaping the grand challenges for social work and taking on intractable and perennial problems confronting our most vulnerable and disenfranchised. The school is pursuing social work practice rooted in place to generate social innovation, integrate immigrants, explore race and place to provide stable lives for African American children, empower disadvantaged youth, and realize environmental justice in urban spaces.
His research examines the overarching questions of how communities successfully self-govern and collectively provide essential public goods and common-pool resources vital for their livelihoods; how government and non-governmental organizations engage and collaborate with these communities; and how social and ecological interactions influence the sustained implementation of household and community interventions to overcome social dilemmas and improve wellbeing.
A gifted scholar and teacher noted for curricular innovation, he has won Distinguished Faculty Awards from both Washington University and the Brown School of Social Work. Fluent in English, Telugu and Hindi, Yadama has also served as director of international programs at the Brown School of Social Work and as a visiting professor in India, Azerbaijan, Mongolia and the Republic of Georgia.
The author of the recent book Fires, Fuel and the Fate of 3 Billion: The State of the Energy Impoverished, he currently serves as an advisory group member with the Implementation Science Network for the National Institutes of Health, addressing the issue of household air pollution around the world.
In announcing the appointment, Provost and Dean of Faculties David Quigley praised Yadama as a leader whose reputation for interdisciplinary collaboration in the field of social work will benefit Boston College. “The search committee and I are confident that Gautam Yadama is the right leader for the School of Social Work,” said Quigley. “His experience in the communities of Cleveland, metro St. Louis and around the globe, his vision for the field of social work, and his imaginative approach to cross-school collaborations all resonated with faculty, staff and students. I expect that colleagues across campus will quickly come to value Gautam as an important partner.”
Born in India, the son of a United Nations administrator, Yadama came to the United States with his family after high school. He received his bachelor’s degree in management from Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, and master’s and doctoral degree in social policy and planning from Case Western Reserve University.
Pareena Lawrence has been named as the new president of Hollins University, a private women’s college based in Roanoke, Virginia. The University of Delhi graduate, who came to the U.S. in 1989 to earn her Ph.D. in economics from Purdue University, is the first minority woman to serve as president in the university’s 175-year history. She will assume the leadership role in July 2017, succeeding retiring president Nancy Oliver Gray.
Hollins University is one of the oldest women’s universities in the U.S. It has an undergraduate and graduate population of about 800 students. Addressing faculty and students on the day she was named president, Lawrence spoke of her roots and growing up in a household of modest means in Northern India. As a teenager, she was given the opportunity to attend an all-girls high school. “It had a transformational impact on me,” said Lawrence. “I grew in self-confidence, found my voice, developed grit and determination, and learned how to set goals and achieve them.”
She was heavily recruited by the school and turned down other institutions to make Hollins her home. Current president Nancy Oliver Gray is retiring after serving in the role for 12 years. Lawrence takes office in July 2017, she is currently the provost and chief academic officer of Augustana College. Lawrence has a proven track record of doing big things, and she’s hoping to do even more at Hollins.
On a college campus, a sweatshirt gift from the student body was as good as gold for new Hollins President Pareena Lawrence at her introduction Tuesday night. The Indian-born educator has focused on liberal arts, women’s education and international development her entire life.
“As I put all these pieces together it just felt like I’d come full circle and it was time to go lead a women’s only Liberal Arts college,” Lawrence said. Women’s-only education was recently thrust into the national spotlight following the happenings at nearby Sweet Briar College. Lawrence sees this as a prime opportunity for Hollins to thrive across the globe.
Energized by its exemplary success in providing literacy and integrated development in villages across India, “Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation”, two years back, introduced an innovative digitized supplement to rural life to speed up its integration into the mainstream. This was never before conceived, leave alone an adopted approach to affect rural life. Recently, Ekal was honored with the “Digital Trailblazer Award” at the Digital Conclave organized by ‘Hewlett Packard’ in association with ‘India Today Gr.’ for this unique initiative.
The event was held at the Radisson Blue Hotel in Ranchi, Jharkhand on October 21, 2016. Shri Raghubar Das, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand state presented the award to Shri Lalan Kumar Sharma, Program Director of ‘Ekal Gramotthan’ (village renaissance). Several luminaries including Mr. C.P Singh, the Minister for Urban Development, Mr. Sunil Barnwal, Secretary, Information Technology, Jharkhand state, Mr. Vivek Modwal, Country Manager Hewlett Packard and Ms. Aradhna Patnaik, Secretary Education and Human Resource Development attended the event. The award by Hewlett Packard and India Today is a great testament to the impact Ekal is creating in rural India.
Recently, Ekal had another occasion to put a feather in its cap of achievements. On Dec. 2, the US-India Chamber of Commerce of Dallas/Fort Worth, TX conferred ‘Leadership in Community Service Award’ on “Ekal Vidyalaya” at their annual Award Banquet. Dr. Robert Kaplan, President and CEO of Federal Reserve bank of Dallas was the key-note speaker and Hon.
Anupam Ray, Consul General of India (Houston) was the Chief Guest. According to Kaplan Fruitwala, a member of Ekal ‘Board of Directors’ and Reginal President of South-West region, ‘this Award is given after a rigorous and competitive evaluation process with regards to consistency, achievements and contributions to the Society and Ekal is very grateful that ‘US-India Chamber of Commerce’ has recognized Ekal’s efforts”. Last month also saw ‘Better Business Bureau’ (BBB) putting a seal of approval on ‘Ekal’ as the member of ‘Wise Giving Alliance’, a select group of honorable prestigious organizations for public charity.
Ekal, a non-profit organization, runs single teacher schools in over 54,000 rural remote villages that benefit 1.5 Million young children – more than half of which are girls. According to Mohan Wanchoo, who has pledged $200,000 per year for several years, ‘Digital-Ekal’ works on many different levels and is a lightning rod to change the ‘face of villages’ as we know them today.
Through ‘Ekal-On-Wheels’, a mobile computer training lab, Ekal imparts digital literacy to 5,000 students each year. By next year, there would be 9 such computer-fitted van making rounds of villages and 45,000 students computer-literate, each year. They make use of spoken tutorials techniques, specially developed by IIT Bombay. Another initiative of Digital-Ekal is ‘Lok-Vidya’ or educating a common man.
It provides practical information on vast number of topics related to indigenous conditions so as to improve personal health or crop output. To support and flourish this vast number of digital transactions, Ekal has erected several Internet Towers where the power is provided by solar-panels. ‘Tablet-Computer’ pilot program is under way in some of the villages where teachers make use of ‘Tablets’ loaded with educational material.
According to Dr. Shubhangi Thakur, President of ‘Health Foundation for Rural India’ (another wing of ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’), for next year, ‘Tele-Medicine’, that remotely digitally diagnosis most common ailments, is under consideration, with help from ‘John Hopkins University’, Baltimore, USA. There is also a proposal to put the impoverished farmers directly in closer contact with the market-place through digital technology.
Hampered by unsanitary conditions and lack of awareness about personal hygiene, proper healthcare in all its form is a distant call in rural life. Inspired by PM Modi’s ‘Swachchh Bharat’ (Clean India) clarion call, Ekal has embarked on clean environment campaign in several villages where the focus is on awareness and accountability of ones’s action.
Himanshu Shah, CEO of ‘Shah Capital’, who has pledged $100,000 per year for several years, is spearheading these efforts. Village folks are also being trained to conserve clean water and observe cleanliness in daily functionality. For this to become a way of life, habit-changing infrastructure is being vigorously promoted with necessary tools for their success. In short, ‘Ekal’ is expanding its horizon beyond basic Education, healthcare or village-development. With generous support from masses, it wants to play a major role molding the character of the nation itself. Kindly join and help Ekal through www.ekal.org.
“I am proud to say my school district has embarked on a whole child journey. The most important ingredients revolves around our extended recess time (we increased recess from twenty minutes to forty minutes), yoga, meditation and mindfulness work for students K-8. Our staff members have been participating in yoga and mindfulness activities as well,” Dr. Michael J. Hynes PMSD Superintendent wrote in a statement here last week.
Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada, applauded PMSD for coming forward and providing an opportunity to students to avail the multiple benefits yoga provided. Zed urged New York Governor Andrew M. Cuomo, New York State Education Department Board of Regents Chancellor Betty A. Rosa and New York State Commissioner of Education MaryEllen Elia; to work towards formally introducing yoga as a part of curriculum in all the public schools of the state, thus incorporating highly beneficial yoga in the lives of New York’s students.
Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Rajan Zed pointed out.
Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Rajan Zed added.
PMSD, headquartered in Patchogue (New York), whose Mission is “to provide diverse pathways and varied enrichment opportunities that will lead to meaningful learning experiences for all students”, runs 11 schools. Its Tremont Elementary School in Medford, where yoga classes were reportedly held for grades three, four, and five in November, has a “Yoga Room”. An hour-long “Yoga Discussion” was scheduled in “Caffeine with Mike” (Superintendent Hynes) on November 17. Anthony C. O’Brien is PMSD Board President.
S.P. Raj, Distinguished Professor of Marketing and chair of the Department of Marketing, will serve as interim dean, effective immediately. Today’s announcement follows more than a month of conversations between Provost Wheatly, Vice Chancellor and Acting Dean J. Michael Haynie, students, faculty, staff and members of the Whitman School Advisory Council.
“For the last several weeks, I’ve had the good fortune of speaking with a number of stakeholders about the future of the Whitman School,” says Wheatly. “During those conversations, I encountered engaged and passionate students, faculty, staff and alumni, all committed to seeing the Whitman School continue its upward trajectory of growth and success. While many people I spoke with discussed overall qualities and characteristics for an interim leader, an overwhelming number of people specifically recommended Professor Raj. As a former senior associate dean in the Whitman School, Professor Raj is a seasoned leader whose strong institutional knowledge, commitment to shared governance and excellence in teaching and research make him the ideal person to lead the Whitman School in the interim. I am grateful to Professor Raj for stepping into this very important leadership position, and look forward to working with him in his new role.”
Raj, a member of the Syracuse University faculty since 1978, says he is honored to be asked to serve as interim dean at such a critical juncture in the life of the Whitman School.
“Thanks to our incredible students, faculty and staff, the Whitman School continues to be a leader in business education,” says Raj. “I am proud and privileged to have the opportunity to lead one of the University’s highest-achieving schools during this time of transition. I am eager to partner with the great Whitman community as we collectively seek to build on the success achieved in recent years.”
Raj is an expert in marketing strategies, specifically their influence on customer behavior, and on managing new product development and innovation. He has taught marketing strategy, marketing management, integrated marketing communications, marketing and the Internet, and marketing research. His pioneering use of multimedia in the classroom was featured in Apple’s “Imagine” series of videos for educators.
“Professor Raj is a dynamic teacher, a highly sought-after marketing expert and a gifted researcher and publisher,” says Haynie. “After speaking with my colleagues in the Whitman School, our students and our alumni, I am confident the school will continue to thrive with Professor Raj at the helm.”
Raj is the author of several teaching cases, including a best case on Managerial Issues in Transitory Economies awarded by the European Foundation for Management Development in 2006. He consistently receives high commendations for his teaching in full-time and executive programs in the U.S. and internationally. He has published in such prestigious journals as Marketing Science, the Journal of Marketing, the Journal of Marketing Research and the Journal of Consumer Research, among many others. Raj is also the founding editor of the Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies.
Raj has also served as a tenured professor of marketing at Cornell University and as a visiting faculty member at Northwestern University. He earned a Ph.D. and a master’s degree in industrial administration from Carnegie Mellon University and a bachelor’s degree with distinction in electronics engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras, India.
‘Ekal is pulling all stops on village development in India and adopting ground-breaking methodology in the way it operates in rural-tribal areas’ … That’s the profound message that came out of Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation’s (EVF) recently concluded “International Conference” in Orangeburg, N.Y. This 3-day conference, meant for national committees of USA, India, Canada and other countries, was convened not only for brain-storming sessions to critically assess the progress made so far, but also to charter EVF’s course for 2017.
Until now, ‘Ekal’ (as it is popularly known), had targeted 100,000 villages as its ‘goal’ for integrated development. Now, Ekal wants to reach out to all 600,000-plus rural/tribal areas in India. Considering it is already in 62,000 villages, this was inevitable. Another reason for this ambitious undertaking is that it has picked up tremendous momentum in recent years in terms of enterprising entrepreneurs joining its fold everywhere with innovative ideas and actively pursuing various rural projects. At the conference, Himanshu Shah, CEO of ‘Shah Capital’ and ‘Mohan Wanchoo’, CEO of ‘EC Info systems’ each pledged $100,000 to $200,000 per year, for the next several years to uplifting rural lives.
Inspired by PM Modi’s ‘Swachchh Bharat’ initiative, Ekal’s ‘clean environment’ pilot project is already making its mark in some rural and tribal areas. Moreover, water conservation, organic farming, cottage industries that could empower young girls and women-folks are in full swing in most of the villages. There are 53,000 Ekal schools in operation throughout rural India that benefit 1.5 million children – half of which are girls. Lalan Sharmaji, Village Development Field Director for “Ekal-India”, presented numerous examples of Ekal Alumnus, with full details, who have distinguished themselves by obtaining prestigious district and state-level jobs, after graduating from Ekal schools.
There are plans under way to carry out impact-studies by collecting and analyzing data on all Ekal alumni. It is widely known that Ekal renders all assistance without any credence to caste, creed and religion and its overhead is just 10%. What is more! When Ekal-Team met PM Modi this year, he not only applauded Ekal Vidyalaya’s efforts all across rural India, but also, termed it as an extension of ‘Skill India’ campaign.
Bajarang Bagraji, CEO of ‘Ekal Abhiyan’ (umbrella Orgz of ‘Ekal’) unveiled an ambitious plan of multifaceted development of villages for 2017 at this Conference. According to him,’ Ekal will add 5,000 new schools specifically in conflict-zones and enhance the quality of training by resorting to digital technology. For youths, 5 more ‘Ekal-on-Wheels’ digital training-vans are being added, bringing the total of such facility to 9.
Each of these ‘modern-technology’ labs have capacity to train 5,000 youths each year. He further added that ‘Anemia’, which is so prevalent among rural women-folks, would be expressly addressed in 300 villages and soon a pilot project of ‘tele-medicine’ would be started in West Bengal. As for agro-projects, 15,000 nutritional gardens and 25,000 acres of organic farming are being added next year. Currently, a ‘Gramotthan Resource Center’ (GRC) at ‘Karanjho’, Jharkhand is the only encyclopedic information ’citadel’ for villagers to learn modern techniques. It caters to 100 surrounding villages, directly benefitting 100,000 rural folks, and indirectly, affecting almost one million people. Bagraji elaborated that 11 such ‘GRC’s are under way for next year.
The Event-Committee, headed by Dilip Kothekar and Prajna Khisti, is taking a departure from engaging Bollywood ‘Song & Dance Troupe’ for annual ‘Fund-raising Concerts’. For the first time, an innovative group of a dozen talented Artistes from Ekal-villages will be presented in most amazing one-of-a-kind entertainment program consisting of regional folk-songs & dances of India, skits from Ramayan-Mahabharat, folklore episodes etc. Curretly, they are all being guided and trained by the best professionals in stage performances.
Ekal believes this pioneering effort to bring ordinary but talented, village-folks to the forefront of this continent in 60-plus Ekal events will promote their ethnic artistry and will give them consistent patronage at national and international level. Starting with this conference, Ekal-USA is entering into ‘Social-Media’ arena with vengeance. The technology-savvy team, headed by Akshay Joshi includes Avinash Agarwal, Vinita Dogra, Arti Aggarwal and Sheetal Gupta. It will be guided by Prashant Shah, a new member of Ekal-USA ‘Board of Directors’ and shall be advised by Prakash Waghmare and Ranjani Saigal, as necessary. In short, there is new dawn at ‘Ekal Vidyalaya’ on every level.
Chicago, IL: Nearly 200 people assembled in to Sonia Shah Organization’s “Bringing the Worlds Together,” a multicultural fundraising event on Sept. 17 at the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago. Notable guests – including author and humanitarian Greg Mortenson and the consul generals of Pakistan and Macedonia – flowed onto the outdoor terrace on the beautiful late-summer evening, enjoyed Mediterranean cuisine, wandered the open galleries and were treated to hours of traditional Sufi qawwali music performed by the Fanna-Fi-Allah ensemble.
Sonia Shah Organization (SSO) board members Zahir Lavji and Dr. Saira Alvi began the program. Saira recited poetry and Zahir set the stage for updates on SSO’s progress and plans.
“At the tender age of 17,” Sonia was tenacious about providing “basic education to girls in the world who are denied this fundamental human right,” Zahir said. Although Sonia died suddenly in a car accident in 2012, her dream lives on through her mom, Iram Shah, extended family, and a dedicated team of volunteers who run the Chicago-based nonprofit organization.
“Sonia was a gift who keeps giving and tonight I want to share what we have achieved with your generosity and support,” Iram said. “We have come a long way. We have now 75 children in the school. Our filtration plant continues to provide clean drinking water to the village. “Schools are being bombed and destroyed” across Pakistan and Islamic militants have twice attacked school the Kangra village, he said. “But at the Sonia Shah School in the same village is fully functional, due to excellent security, with round-the-clock guards and new closed-circuit TV cameras.
Additionally, all three major initiatives announced in 2015 are complete or well under way: Solar panels will be installed on the Sonia Shah Memorial School by the end of this year, “which will provide uninterrupted electricity and security at night.” A vocational center for women, “where we are teaching women skills that can give them economic independence,” opened in June and “to our surprise 40 women registered the first day. Today we have a wait list of 100 women.” SSO’s first two scholarship recipient students, Aimon Wadood and Zuleyma Codero, started college in Chicago this fall. “These girls are not giving up on their dreams. They are strong and we are all going to help them have a new life,” Iram said.
Zuleyma said the scholarship has made what she thought were impossible dreams a reality. “It is just a whole new experience for me. It gives me hope that I can ensure financial status for my family.” Mortenson in his speech remarked how “I first met Sonia at the Northshore Country Day School, where she was a student” and he was talking about his work in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Sonia “came up to me and told me how she wanted to help change the world.” This remarkable young woman spoke five languages, was the youngest intern on President Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign, and took a gap year between high school and college to spend time in Kangra in Pakistan, her mother’s ancestral village. “This is a remote area, plagued by poverty and violence,” said Mortenson, an SSO board member and author of Three Cups of Tea. Sonia Shah’s determined works on behalf of girls’ education make her a part of what humanitarian Greg Mortenson Saturday called “the greatest revolution of our time.”
When Sonia’s life was cut short, her family and friends decided the Sonia Shah Memorial School and other programs would be her legacy. “Schools are being abandoned” across Pakistan, “but at the Sonia Shah School, the lights are on.” SSO’s continued success is due to people like 13-year-old Ruby Writer, who along with her friends brought the film “Girls Rising” to her Chicago school. “We invited parents and friends and explained how hard it is” to promote girls’ education in these remote areas. “We raised $600.”
When she heard Iram interviewed on WBEZ, Chicago’s public radio station, Ruby knew SSO would be the perfect beneficiary of the funds, she said. All money raised at the event helps SSO to continue its life-changing work on behalf of “young girls in Pakistan who otherwise would never have gone to school, young adult women who had given up on higher education, and mature women learning skills to be economically independent,” Iram said.
“But the journey is not done, we have many mountains to climb together,” she said. “Many [students] come to school without a proper breakfast and appear chronically malnourished. Some of these kids don’t have shoes. We want to provide school lunches, uniforms and medical check-ups and expand the Sonia Shah Scholarship program.” It is a journey of hope and promise, she said. “Please join us.”
New Jersey City University has launched a scholarship program, called The Patel Scholars Program, supporting MBA students from Ahmedabad, India, as also the United States in their educational endeavors at the four-year public university in Jersey City, New Jersey.
The scholarship program has been made possible due to the generosity of its alumnus Chirag Patel, a 1989 NJCU graduate in Business Administration, covers the full cost of tuition, from admission to graduation, for students 5 each from Ahmedabad and the U.S.
The Patel scholars will take part in a program designed to meet their unique needs and engage in cultural activities, internship opportunities and rigorous academic initiatives, on their way to earning an MBA degree. The first batch of students, including 5 from Ahmedabad’s H. A. College of Commerce, and 5 from the U.S. started their classes last week.
While the U.S. students will study for two years for the degree, the students coming from India will have to pursue a 3-year course. The difference in course duration is because of issues relating to credit requirements and transfer of a portion of the credits of the Indian students from their home institutions depending on the NAAC criteria and assessment.
The Patel Scholars from India will take approximately 45 credits of pre-determined general business education studies, to address potential gaps in their general education requirements and knowledge base of the American economy and business climate.
“We are yet to make an official announcement about the Patel Scholars Program which will be done probably next month, but already there is a lot of excitement about this initiative both here and in India,” Daniel P. Elwell, vice president for university advancement, said.
Ramesh Raskar, founder of the Camera Culture research group at the MIT Media Lab and associate professor of media arts and sciences at MIT, is the recipient of the 2016 $500,000Lemelson-MIT Prize. Raskar is the co-inventor of radical imaging solutions including femtophotography, an ultra-fast imaging system that can see around corners; low-cost eye-care solutions for the developing world; and a camera that allows users to read pages of a book without opening the cover. Raskar seeks to catalyze change on a massive scale by launching platforms that empower inventors to create solutions to improve lives globally.
Raskar has dedicated his career to linking the best of the academic and entrepreneurial worlds with young engineers, igniting a passion for impact inventing. He is a pioneer in the fields of imaging, computer vision and machine learning and his novel imaging platforms offer an understanding of the world that far exceeds human ability. Raskar has mentored more than 100 students, visiting students, interns, and postdocs, who, with his guidance and support, have been able to kick-start their own highly successful careers.
“Raskar is a multi-faceted leader as an inventor, educator, change maker and exemplar connector,” said Stephanie Couch, executive director of the Lemelson-MIT Program. “In addition to creating his own remarkable inventions, he is working to connect communities and inventors all over the world to create positive change.”
The Lemelson-MIT Prize honors outstanding mid-career inventors improving the world through technological invention and demonstrating a commitment to mentorship in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The prize is made possible through the support of The Lemelson Foundation, the world’s leading funder of invention in service of social and economic change. Over the next three years, Raskar will be investing a portion of the prize money to support the development of young inventors.
“We are thrilled to honor Ramesh Raskar, whose breakthrough research is impacting how we see the world,” said Dorothy Lemelson, chair of The Lemelson Foundation. “Ramesh’s femtophotography work not only has the potential to transform industries ranging from internal medicine to transportation safety, it is also helping to inspire a new generation of inventors to tackle the biggest problems of our time.”
Dr. Chander Mukhi Kapoor Kapasi, a graduate of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has been recognized by the school’s Legacy Magazine for giving back to her alma mater by creating gift annuity for the school.
Mukhi, who has a master’s in public health from the school in 1975, was featured in the fall issue of the magazine in which the newest member of its alumni society was recognized for her giving back to the school. It noted that Kapasi has always wanted to make a healthy impact on others’ lives. “Dr. Kapasi feels strongly about giving back, and this is why she and her husband have created a gift annuity for the School,” the magazine noted.
“I think it’s about the community, and the need to make a difference in the community. There’s always a joy, a love of giving. It doesn’t have to be too much – whatever you can give,” Kapasi said. “There’s always a joy, a love of giving,” she added. “It’s always good to give to your alma mater. There are new people with new vision, and they have the abilities to do things better now than before, because the paradigm is shifting. Everybody can give something.”
Dr. Chander Mukhi Kapoor Kapasi, MPH ’75, has always wanted to make a healthy impact on others’ lives. After receiving her MD, finishing her postgraduate work, and teaching in India, she spent years in Nairobi, Kenya, with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, where she supervised 19 mobile clinics and trained health workers in family planning and gynecology.
Her graduate education in public health at Harvard was enhanced by her residence in the International House. “It was really the best experience. We [her husband, Dr. Onaly Kapasi, and newborn child] met so many people there from different countries, and I learned so much. Mr. and Mrs. Napier were our ‘house parents.’ They were so helpful.”
Dr. Kapasi feels strongly about giving back, and this is why she and her husband have created a gift annuity for the School. “I think it’s about the community and the need to make a difference in the community. There’s always a joy, a love of giving. It doesn’t have to be too much—whatever you can give. But if you give for the right cause, and if that can make the change, that will be a legacy.”
Dr. Kapasi sees violence by both the public and police as public health threats, a matter of public health concern with public health implications. Her passion is to develop educational programs for both the public and police, which can make a positive difference in the communities we live in.
She continues, “It’s always good to give to your alma mater. There are new people with new vision, and they have the abilities to do things better now than before, because the paradigm is shifting. Everybody can give something.”
Dr. Chander Mukhi Kapoor Kapasi, a graduate of Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, has been recognized by the school’s Legacy Magazine for giving back to her alma mater by creating gift annuity for the school.
Mukhi, who has a master’s in public health from the school in 1975, was featured in the fall issue of the magazine in which the newest member of its alumni society was recognized for her giving back to the school. It noted that Kapasi has always wanted to make a healthy impact on others’ lives. “Dr. Kapasi feels strongly about giving back, and this is why she and her husband have created a gift annuity for the School,” the magazine noted.
“I think it’s about the community, and the need to make a difference in the community. There’s always a joy, a love of giving. It doesn’t have to be too much – whatever you can give,” Kapasi said. “There’s always a joy, a love of giving,” she added. “It’s always good to give to your alma mater. There are new people with new vision, and they have the abilities to do things better now than before, because the paradigm is shifting. Everybody can give something.”
Dr. Chander Mukhi Kapoor Kapasi, MPH ’75, has always wanted to make a healthy impact on others’ lives. After receiving her MD, finishing her postgraduate work, and teaching in India, she spent years in Nairobi, Kenya, with the International Planned Parenthood Federation, where she supervised 19 mobile clinics and trained health workers in family planning and gynecology.
Her graduate education in public health at Harvard was enhanced by her residence in the International House. “It was really the best experience. We [her husband, Dr. Onaly Kapasi, and newborn child] met so many people there from different countries, and I learned so much. Mr. and Mrs. Napier were our ‘house parents.’ They were so helpful.”
Dr. Kapasi feels strongly about giving back, and this is why she and her husband have created a gift annuity for the School. “I think it’s about the community and the need to make a difference in the community. There’s always a joy, a love of giving. It doesn’t have to be too much—whatever you can give. But if you give for the right cause, and if that can make the change, that will be a legacy.”
Dr. Kapasi sees violence by both the public and police as public health threats, a matter of public health concern with public health implications. Her passion is to develop educational programs for both the public and police, which can make a positive difference in the communities we live in.
She continues, “It’s always good to give to your alma mater. There are new people with new vision, and they have the abilities to do things better now than before, because the paradigm is shifting. Everybody can give something.”
UNICEF, Reliance, Global Goals Campaign launch world’s largest Lesson India Program
Marking the first anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, to end poverty, reduce inequalities and combat the threat of climate change by 2030, world leaders, including Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, are set to popularize World’s Largest Lesson, a project that provides a unique opportunity for children and young people to engage with the SDGs.
Launched in September 2015, lessons have taken place in 160 countries. Participating schools used original learning materials about the Global Goals that were translated into 25 languages. The materials included lesson plans, comic books and an animated film introduced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, tennis champion Serena Williams and international football star Neymar Jr. In India alone, the World’s Largest Lesson reached an estimated 3 million children who watched an animation film on the Global Goals.
On the occasion of National Teachers Day, 250 eminent educationalists, UN Global Goals champions, members of civil society, UN bodies, corporates, youth groups, students, teachers and one of the esteemed ambassadors of the World’s Largest Lesson, Indian Actor and youth icon Sonam Kapoor, gathered at GEMS Modern Academy, Gurgaon, to launch The World’s Largest Lesson India,the India chapter of the program, which aims to teach every child in India – nearly 360 million – a lesson about the Global Goals.
Sonam Kapoor, The World’s Largest Lesson India champion, said: “We learn vital lessons every day in our lives and many of these lessons were taught during our childhood. Children are the future of today’s world – they must not only be nurtured but be empowered to be the change they wish to achieve for themselves and others in this world. And this is what The World’s Largest Lesson India programme sets out to do; it will engage children in the effort to achieve the UN’s Global Goals, educating them of the challenges impacting their futures and encouraging them to drive change in their own communities. With India having the world’s youngest population, India has the potential to lead this change and be a global benchmark country that eradicates poverty. But this can only happen if children join this effort which means they must be made aware of the goals that were agreed by our leaders, if inspired to act, they can truly be a super-heroic force of positive change. I pledge my commitment to add further momentum, to spotlight the Global Goals and find opportunities to educate children of this, through everything I do.”
Powered by India partner GEMS Education, the world’s largest K-12 private education provider, and implemented in partnership with UNICEF, The World’s Largest Lesson India will encourage schools to teach at least one lesson on the Global Goals, to make sure children understand and are empowered by the commitments their country has made to ending poverty, inequality and climate change by 2030. Schools are then encouraged to support students to take action to help achieve the goals.
India is a global leader economically and in technology, and has every potential to become a front-runner in ending poverty. The country is at the crossroads of transformation and several strides have been made to address national and global issues, but more can and needs to be done. With over a quarter of the world’s population being under the age of 14 years old and with India having the largest youth population in the world, children and young people will be most affected by the implementation of the goals. The World’s Largest Lesson India initiative aims to engage children and young people in the ambitions of the goals and encourage their participation in this process of change.
The World’s Largest Lesson is an initiative by Project Everyone, an organisation conceived by Writer, Director, Comic Relief Cofounder &UN SDG Advocate Richard Curtis to make the Global Goals famous, so that they stand the greatest chance of being achieved. Speaking about the launch of World’s Largest Lesson India, he said, “We are delighted to launch the World’s Largest Lesson India and are grateful to our foundingpartner GEMS Education for making this happen. We are overwhelmed with the incredible support of partners such asReliance Group, tGELF, the very talented Sonam Kapoor and countless others for helping us to engage children inthe Global Goals.
Children and young people are right at the heart of the Global Goals agenda. The World’s Largest Lesson is based on the idea that if children right across the world grow up knowing about the goals and feeling positive that this is practical plan with a deadline that they can fight for,then I truly believe that this will help them become the first generation to end extreme poverty, the most determined generation to fight inequality and injustice and the last generation to be threatened by climate change. The World’s Largest Lesson is just the first step in this but it’s a very important one and we’re delighted that India’s children can take part. “
GEMS Education is the founding strategic partner for The World’s Largest Lesson India campaign and powers all activities in India. Speaking about their association, MrAmreesh Chandra, Group President of GEMS Education said: “With India accounting to nearly 17% of the world’s population, we have a strategic and resourceful advantage to reshape the world’s priorities, provided we are equipped to understand and execute them effectively. Through the World’s Largest Lesson initiative in India, we are leveraging the GEMS network – 175 schools, over 70,000 children and over 6,000 teachers in India – to spread knowledge of the global goals, pivotal to pursuing national and world development.
With 17 global goals for sustainable development to be achieved in the next 15 years, GEMS Education sees this as a priority to teach the next generation of world leaders. As a value driven institution, GEMS Education has already been encouraging students across its international campuses to embrace responsibility for over the last 55 years; and today we are looking beyond us, and reaching out to the country as a whole to help propagate the world’s priorities – the UN global goals”.
UNICEF Executive Director Anthony Lake said: “The World’s Largest Lesson will do more than teach children about the global goals. It will engage them in the effort to achieve those goals – educating them about the challenges that are shaping their futures and encouraging them to drive change in their own communities. Young people can help achieve the global goals by holding their leaders accountable for the promises they are making – and by holding themselves accountable for building a better future for everyone.”
During the event a number of individuals, corporates and organisations confirmed to take action to support the World’s Largest Lesson India initiative by spreading awareness of the lesson plans through their distribution channels, networks, media reach, the children and teachers they support, and employees.
Leading the support is Reliance Group, one of India’s largest business conglomerates who were also the first corporate partner for the 2015 India campaign. This year, the group shall promote The World Largest Lesson India initiative through its various customer-facing platforms.Other notable pledges came from NGOs; AkshayaPatra, the world’s largest free midday meal programme reaching over 1.4 million children in India, Save the Children; and youth and education empowerment organisations such as The Global Education & Leadership Foundation (tGELF).
With GEMS Education’s support, The World’s Largest Lesson Indiaprogramme has produced new comics and animated shorts specifically created for India’s children. Based on the popular animated superhero characters Chakra the Invincible and Mighty Girl, created by legendary icon, Stan Lee, Chief Creative Officer at POW! Entertainment andSharad Devarajan, Co-Founder & CEO of Graphic India.The comics will bring to life through creative storytelling four key issues impacting India today : Goal 6 – clean water and sanitation (WASH), Goal 5 – gender equality, Goal 4 – quality education, Goal 13 – climate action.
The comic books will be translated into English and five regional Indian languages – Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Telegu and Tamil – and will be available to download and view for free from 15thOctober 2016 from The World’s Largest Lesson India website.The involvement of high-profile personalities who will co-edit some of the comic books, will add further appeal for the lesson programme amongst children. If you are interested in partnering with The World’s Largest Lesson India, please email wllindia@sterlingmedia.co.uk. More information is available at: https://www.globalgoals.org/worldslargestlessonindia/ and at: www.youtube.com/theglobalgoals
Seventeen-year-old Malvika Raj Joshi doesn’t have a class X or XII certificate but has made it to the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), thanks to her computer programming talent. Her’s is a story about a mother’s conviction to break stereotypes and the self belief of her teenage daughter, who showed why “merit” has more weightage than “marks”.
The Mumbai teenager has been provided scholarship by MIT as she is pursuing her Bachelor of Science degree after getting a seat for being a three-time medal winner (two silver and a bronze) at International Olympiad of Informatics or commonly known as Programming Olympiad. The MIT has a provision for accepting students who are medal winners at various Olympiads (Maths, Physics or Computer) and it was Malvika’s medals that ensured that she can fulfil her aspirations of pursuing research work in her favourite subject — Computer Science.
Malvika recalls those early days during an emailed interaction from Boston. “When I started unschooling, that was 4 years back, I explored many different subjects. Programming was one of them. I found programming interesting and I used to give more time to it than to other subjects, so, I started liking it at that time,” she says.
Malvika found it difficult to get admission in elite Indian institutes like IIT, which has strict rules as one needs to pass class XII exams. In fact only institute where she got admission was Chennai Mathematical Institute (CMI) where she was enrolled into M.Sc level course as her knowledge was on par with B.Sc standard.
“There is absolutely no question that Malvika’s admission to MIT is based on her superlative achievements at IOI. It is a credit to MIT’s flexibility that they can offer admission to a student who demonstrates excellent intellectual potential despite having no formal high school credentials,” says CMI’s Madhavan Mukund, who is also National Co-ordinator of Indian Computing Olympiad.
However, Madhavan made it clear that Malvika is not a product of the system but despite it. “This is possible only for a student whose academic achievements are outstanding, which is the case with Malvika’s performance at IOI,” he has a word of caution. But this young Mumbai girl’s fascinating story starts about four years ago when her mother Supriya took an unbelievably tough decision.
She was in class VII at Dadar Parsee Youth Assembly School in Mumbai and doing exceedingly well in academics when her mother decided to pull her out of school. “We are a middle class family. Malvika was doing well in school but somehow I felt that my children (she has younger daughter Radha) need to be happy. Happiness is more important than conventional knowledge,” Supriya told PTI explaining her decision.
“I was working with an NGO that takes care of cancer patients. I would see students who are in 8th or 9th standard being affected by cancer. It affected me deeply and I decided that my daughters need to be happy.” The decision no way was an easy one. “In India, people are still not very aware about the term “home schooled” or “unschooled” as it is commonly referred. It also took sometime to convince Malvika’s father Raj, an engineer who runs his own business.
“My husband Raj wasn’t convinced initially as it was a risky proposition. The kids won’t have a 10th or 12th standard certificate and there was bound to be fear. I quit my NGO job and designed an academic curriculum for Malvika. I created a simulation (classroom like situation) at home. The confidence I had as a mother was that I am capable of imparting knowledge in my daughter’s.” But it worked. “Suddenly I saw that my daughter was so happy. She was learning more than ever –from the time she woke up to the time she was off to sleep. Knowledge became a passion,” the proud mother recalls.
For three consecutive years, she was among the top four students who represented India at the Programming Olympiad. Madhavan, who prepared Malvika for all three Olympiads, spoke about her brilliance. “During the past three years she spent extensive periods at CMI acquiring the background in mathematics and algorithms that she needed to excel at Informatics Olympiad. As part of this training for IOI, she had to fill in unexpected gaps in her education arising from the fact that she had not been formally enrolled in school.
“For instance, she had never studied matrices. She was never intimidated even when faced with a mountain of things to learn, and went about achieving her goals very methodically.” When Supriya was asked if more parents want to know about her daughter, she laughs as she says, “They are all interested in knowing how to get into MIT. I just tell them that we never aimed for her admission in MIT. I tell parents to understand what their children like.”
A Department of Education study showed that Asian-American enrollment at Brown and Yale has been stagnant since 1995, and at Dartmouth since 2004, despite an increase in highly qualified Asian-American students applying to these schools during that time.
In fact, data show that Asian Americans must score, on average, “approximately 140 point[s] higher than a White student, 270 points higher than a Hispanic student and 450 points higher than a Black student on the SAT, in order to have the same chance of admission.” The groups suspect Yale, Brown, Dartmouth, and other Ivy League schools “impose racial quotas and caps to maintain what they believe are ideal racial balances,” harkening back to the days of the Chinese Exclusion Act and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II.
While the population of college age Asian-Americans has doubled in 20 years and the number of highly qualified Asian-American students “has increased dramatically,” the percentage accepted at most Ivy League colleges has flat-lined, according to the complaint. It alleges this is because of “racial quotas and caps, maintained by racially differentiated standards for admissions that severely burden Asian-American applicants.”
Now, a coalition of Asian-American organizations have asked the Department of Education to investigate Brown University, Dartmouth College and Yale University, alleging they discriminate against Asian-American students during the admissions process, The Wall Street Journal reported last week.
The schools named in the complaint all said they used a holistic approach and evaluated each applicant individually in an effort to build a diverse class. The complaint, said a spokesman from Brown, is without merit.
The complaint is the latest in a long line against selective colleges on behalf of Asian-American applicants, but the Education Department has never found that schools are deliberately discriminating against members of that group.
The Education Department does not confirm receipt of complaints. Last year the Education Department dismissed a complaint against Harvard University, deferring to the much-anticipated Supreme Court ruling on the race-conscious undergraduate admission policy at the University of Texas at Austin. Oral arguments for that case were heard in December.
The complaint filed Monday by the Asian-American Coalition for Education, which consists of more than 100 organizations, makes many of the same points as the previous complaint against Harvard. It charges that the number of Asian-Americans at the three schools is capped and a special “just-for-Asians admissions standard” is in place. Admissions officers “often treat Asian-American applicants as a monolithic block rather than as individuals, and denigrate these applicants as lacking in creativity/critical thinking and leadership skills/risk taking.”
According to reports, after the Department of Education started investigating Harvard in 1988, its admission rate of Asian-Americans jumped to 16.1% in 1991 from 10.8%. After students filed a complaint against Princeton in 2006, its admission rate increased to 25.4% in 2014 from 14.7% in 2007.
One crosses many landmarks in the course of a 177-year journey. Even so, August 8, 2016 marked an important milestone for the Times Group as the first academic session of Bennett University+ formally got underway.
The university, promoted by Times Group, already has two research papers on management in reputed journals to its name and five part-time PhD students in engineering. But it’s only just getting started+ .
“We’re starting with 300 students but hope to reach 12,000 in 10 years,” said Vineet Jain, managing director, Bennett and Coleman Co. Ltd (BCCL), and also the university’s first chancellor, addressing the new students and their parents. “Education…is arguably the best means to open the mind and expand it. It is our endeavour to equip you for the future…with academic skill on par with the best universities in the world.”
Registration for the post-graduate MBA programme began over a week ago; for engineering, it started on Sunday. Through Monday, students and their parents trooped into the spanking new premises+ of the university in Greater Noida, ready to make it home for the next couple of years. The total number admitted is about 240 and students have come from all over the country.
Apart from Jain, Shrijeet Mishra (COO, BCCL), Yaj Medury (vice-chancellor), Suneet Tuli (dean, engineering), Saji Gopinath (dean, management), Anil Kumar (director, external relations) and Ajay Batra (Centre for Innovation and Entrepreneurship), and the rest of the faculty were on hand to meet the excited students and parents. Ravi Soni, physics professor at Indian Institute of Technology, who’d come to drop his son off had queries about the engineering curriculum, to which Jain responded, “It is being designed with the support of Georgia Tech.” “This will be the private university everyone will talk about,” said an impressed Soni. Jain was introduced to many among the university’s diverse student body – including four sisters from Telanganaand Sankarsh Chanda from Hyderabad who has already written a book on finance and picked Bennett because he believes it’ll help him get his finance start-up going. “He left all the colleges in Andhra Pradesh,” said his mother, Sangeeta Chanda. But most just wanted to meet the people they’re entrusting their kids to and click photographs.
“The infrastructure here is very impressive and the faculty is renowned. But, more than that the varsity’s thrust is on the process of self-exploration, which is very rare here. We already have had a workshop at Pegasus, Dehradun. I am looking forward to more such workshops with international organisations as well,” Surbhi Arora, a first year MBA student said. A few minutes before, Mishra had told students, “You will discover yourself”. Raj Jain, CEO, BCCL, told students to take the next few years finding out “who [they] really are.”
Management student Ayesha Akhtar said she likes the “hatchery” of the varsity where students can develop and test ideas. “Our focus will be on entrepreneurship across courses. Even an engineer would be taught entrepreneurship,” assured the chancellor. As one teacher put it, entrepreneurship training isn’t an extra – it has been worked into the curriculum.
Vice-chancellor Yaj Medury hopes to start an undergraduate business administration course and expand the engineering programme to include civil engineering and biotechnology. “This is just the beginning of the journey,” said Vineet Jain, promising more programmes in engineering, management, journalism, law, design, pure sciences, liberal arts and public policy. “I know you are too knowledgeable to be given gyan. But don’t stop being curious and never stop questioning conventional wisdom,” he concluded.
BOSTON, Mass. — Biomedical researchers in India will soon be using microscopes invented at University of Massachusetts Boston. According to UMass Business News, physics professors D.V.G.L.N. Rao and Chandra Yelleswarapu have reached a licensing deal with Lab Engineers (India), a registered corporation in Bangalore, India, based on their patent for a Fourier phase contrast and multimodal microscope.
This new technology is less cumbersome, has fewer moving parts, and is more user-friendly. Additionally, the images created by the microscope will be brighter. This is the first licensing deal for an invention solely owned by UMass Boston.
The two Indian American researchers’ invention builds on the technology of the phase contrast microscopes, which have been used in labs since the 1950s. Combining phase and fluorescence imaging, it allows scientists to see the structure and function of a cell simultaneously.
Currently, microscopes that show both types of images must take two different images and combine them via a computer. This new technology can also be adapted for quantitative phase imaging with potential applications in monitoring drug efficacy in cancer diagnostics.
The licensing deal with Lab Engineers has been in progress for five years. This is the first such agreement between UMass Boston scientists and a private company. According to Rao, the growth of the biotech and medical industries in India has created demand for this type of technology.
As India is emerging as an economic power on the world stage, there is another contrarian reality by its side which is quite unsettling. Even in this technologically advance new millennium, there are tens of thousands rural-tribal areas in India, which are yet to be touched by the existential necessities and amenities, that we all routinely take for granted. Many of these areas seem frozen in time. There are no approachable roads nor basic educational or healthcare facilities within their reach.
“Ekal Vidyalaya Foundation”, has been supporting functional-literacy, healthcare, and integral development in such places, for past 27 years. As of now, there are 53,000 Ekal-schools (and counting), in almost 30 states throughout India, including in Nepal & Jammu-Kashmir. For just $365, Ekal is able to provide education and healthcare training to a group of 30-40 children (termed as one Ekal school) for the entire year. The main objective of this social-venture is not only to eradicate illiteracy, but also, to empower these rural lives by providing sustainable village-based skills. ‘Ekal’ achieves this objective by raising funds, primarily in India and USA.
Every year Ekal-USA, hosts a series of fund-raising concerts, between February and June, in all major U.S. metropolises by bringing well-known Artistes from India. In addition, the funds are also raised by direct appeals to consistent, major donors. In recently concluded fund-raising efforts, ‘Ekal’ hosted 62 concerts, all across U.S. through its satellite ‘Chapters’. According to Dr. Jawahar Taunk, Regional President of Florida, $400,000 was raised in his region alone.
Through concerts only, Ekal has raised more than $4 Million so far this year. In addition, for newly initiated ‘Endowment Fund’, $1 Million has been pledged by couple of generous donors in U.S. and Canada. A handful of entrepreneurs have also picked up their own specific projects based on necessities in certain areas. Inspired by Hon. PM Modi’s clarion call for ‘Clean-India’ campaign, Himanshu Shah of ‘Shah Capital’, has taken responsibility to make a cluster of villages ‘environmentally clean’ by devoting his personal resources. Moreover, considering 30% of total funds come into Ekal-coffer, each year, during November-December, Ekal is pretty confident to cross $7.5 Million mark, this year, just for USA alone. This is also a great tribute its 1,000 strong selfless dedicated volunteers in USA.
This year ‘Ekal’ had invited two groups of artistes to headline its various events. One group was headed by ‘Rajdeep Chatterjee & Pallabi Roy Chowdhuri’ and another was headed by ‘Anand Vinod & Vibhavari Yadav’. All the concerts pulled record crowds everywhere confirming, once again, not only the popularity of the quality programming by Ekal, but also, people’s overwhelming support to this divine cause. All concerts were preceded by DVD-briefing on Ekal’s major activities and futuristic plans. During the concerts, the people were also treated to highly focus ‘Power-Point’ presentation that depicted Ekal’s historic progress from its inception, allocation of funds and the model for accountability, at every level. It is worth noting that Ekal renders its services without any credence to caste, creed, religion and region and its overhead is in single digit.
Iconic CEO of ‘ZEETV’, Dr. Subhash Chandra’s induction as the Chairman of ‘Ekal Global’ has been a boon to “Ekal Abhiyan” in attracting major industrial houses and entrepreneurs. Earlier this year, while releasing Subhash Chandra’s autobiographical book, ‘ZEE Factor’, Hon.PM Modi also lauded Ekal’s awe-inspiring comprehensive rural work as a role model for other organizations to follow. Now, Students and young adults around the country are also gravitating to Ekal to play a key role in this ‘people’s movement’. Earlier this year, “Health Foundation for Rural India (‘HFRI’)”, a health wing of “Ekal Abhiyan” had taken a group of Medical student from USA to Indian villages under its ‘Internship Program’.
The rationale behind it was, not only to acquaint them with unique healthcare problems in rural areas, but also, to groom them for selfless service for these neglected masses. Every month, new donors are coming on board to support Ekal as they realize that it is the largest grass-root NGO movement of its kind, globally undertaken by Indians and NRIs. Ekal is in dozen countries, including in some ‘Middle-East’ regions. To support and participate in ‘Ekal Movement’, kindly visit its web: www.ekal.org
Pratham’s flagship Read India program was one of 14 programs from across the globe selected by the Brookings Institution for an in-depth study on scaling and learning. The recently released study, Millions Learning: Scaling up quality education in developing countries, tells the story of where and how effective learning interventions have scaled up in low- and middle-income countries.
Researchers identified 14 core ingredients in different combinations that contribute to scaling quality learning and found that success often occurs when new approaches and ideas are allowed to develop and grow on the margins and then spread to reach many more children and youth.
Key lessons learned from the Read India case study included: Pratham’s willingness to experiment with and rigorously test new teaching-learning models provides its government partners with an evidence-based menu of program options, which enable flexible, context-specific decision making to maximize impact in the presence of competing needs and scarce resources.
Pratham’s philosophy of “learning by doing” helps to maintain the organization’s focus on keeping learning methodologies, activities, materials, and assessment tools simple so they can be embraced by individuals at all learning levels and by governments with a wide range of resources.
Pratham’s commitment to an evidence-based approach ensures purposeful integration of monitoring and evaluation into its operations and decision making.
Pratham’s comprehension that change happens locally allows it to strategically institutionalize interventions by leveraging existing government infrastructure, resources, and policy opportunities when possible.
Pratham’s understanding that making small, incremental change visible at a large scale is necessary to show stakeholders that change is possible.
Pratham’s ability to identify and partner with the local champions within the government—and to use evidence from the Learning Camps to ignite their excitement—has been critical for garnering political will and support at the top to create the conditions needed to scale up and have an impact from below.
Pratham’s flexible, long-term focused donors allow for the building of trust, which gives Pratham the organizational autonomy, space, and independence needed to experiment, take risks and innovate.
The Indian American Muslim Council (IAMC – iamc.com), an advocacy group dedicated to safeguarding India’s pluralist and tolerant ethos expressed satisfaction that progress was made in reversing some of the Islamophobic content that had been injected into the California curriculum.
On July 14, 2016, the California State Board of Education passed recommendations to accurately include Sikh history in the curriculum framework. The purpose of this framework is to provide clear guidance for educators, curriculum leaders and textbook publishers.
For years, the Sikh Coalition has been working tirelessly with community leaders and scholars from across the nation to ensure that Sikh and South Asian history is documented accurately. In California, advocates from a multi-faith and multi-caste community came together to form South Asian Histories For All (SAHFA). This coalition worked together to advocate for the accurate inclusion of Sikh, Dalit, and Muslim history in the California curriculum framework.
At the public hearing in Sacramento on July 14th, the Board of Education responded positively to a letter by the Muslim Studies Faculty Group, a formidable collective of 25 scholars on Islam and Muslim Civilization from premier institutions such as Harvard, UCLA, Georgetown University and Berkeley. The scholars had called on the Board to delete Islamophobic content from the curriculum, while also urging a reversal of false and malicious statements on Islamic history introduced by the Hindu nationalist lobby in the US
Adding to the weight of scholarship represented by the letter from the Muslim Studies Faculty Group, was a letter from the major American Muslim organizations , urging the State Board of Education to reverse the factually incorrect and biased edits that had made their way into the curriculum framework during the review process. These edits comprised of painting Islamic history in the Indian subcontinent as one of forced conversions, and projecting Islam as an inherently war-mongering religion. The hearing witnessed a large turnout from the American Muslim community, who were motivated by the desire to ensure that their faith was not misrepresented in order to serve an Islamophobic and Hindu supremacist narrative.
Essentially, the State Board of Education accepted three of the five edits recommended by the Muslim Studies Faculty Group, and overturned several edits proposed by the alliance of Hindu nationalist organizations comprising of Hindu American Foundation (HAF), Uberoi Foundation and the Hindu Education Foundation (HEF).
IAMC has expressed its sincere appreciation for all the coalition partners in the “South Asian Histories For All” (SAHFA) coalition, a broad-based interfaith and inter-caste alliance comprising of Dalits, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs and Christians, as well as the American Muslim organizations whose support was instrumental in achieving this progress.
Despite much pressure brought upon the State Board of Education (SBE) by the Hindu nationalist groups, the SBE accepted alternative language recommended by the Muslim Studies Faculty Group that represent a more accurate and balanced portrayal of the faith and its complex history.
“It is ironic that while publicly claiming to seek a fair portrayal of Hinduism, Hindu nationalist organizations expended considerable resources in order to inject Islamophobia into the California curriculum,” said Mr. Umar Malick, President of the Indian American Muslim Council. “The State Board of Education’s courageous stance in resisting political pressure and a well-funded PR machinery demonstrates that those seeking to normalize anti-Muslim bigotry are running a fool’s errand,” added Mr. Malick.
Indian American Muslim Council is the largest advocacy organization of Indian Muslims in the United States with chapters across the nation. For more information, please visit our website at: http://iamc.com/
Father of India’s White Revolution late Dr. Verghese Kurien was honored by his alma mater – the US-based Michigan State University, which unveiled his bust at its campus. Kurien’s bust was unveiled at International Center on Thursday, June 30.
“It is always an honor when your alma mater recognizes you,” Dr Kurien’s Chennai-based daughter Nirmala told the media. “In his entire lifetime, my father had received 15 honorary doctorates from across the world but he had got his first honorary doctorate from Michigan State University – East Lansing in presence of his own teacher professor Farrell in 1965. The university has always recognized his contributions,” said Nirmala.
Kurien (1921-2012) received a master’s degree in 1948 from the MSU Department of Mechanical Engineering. He returned to India and became the architect of India’s “white revolution,” which transformed the nation from being a milk-deficit country to the world’s biggest milk producer.
Leo Kempel, dean of the MSU College of Engineering, said Kurien is an excellent example of Spartans Will. “No graduate from the College of Engineering, or maybe even MSU, transformed more lives than Dr. Kurien, and he used a mindset of breaking up a problem and solving it piece by piece,” Kempel explained.
Satish Udpa, MSU executive vice president of administrative services, said as a little boy in India – he would wake up early to retrieve water and the family’s daily ration of milk. By the 1980s, milk was available everywhere and the need to ration milk was gone, thanks to Spartan Engineer Verghese Kurien. “India becoming the largest producer of milk in the world was made possible entirely by this individual,” Udpa added.
“When Dr. Kurien returned to India from the USA, he was touched by the discouraging state of monopolized milk production at the time. He decided to dedicate his life not only to the empowerment of the farmers producing it, but also to make India the world’s largest producer of dairy.
“His billion-liter idea, Operation Flood, transformed India from a milk-deficient nation to the world’s largest milk producer, surpassing the United States in 1998. He made the country self-sufficient in edible oils, too.”
Kurien founded 30 institutions, which today are owned, managed by farmers, and run by professionals, Mallikarjuna explained. Kurien was responsible for the creation and success of the Amul brand of dairy products, including the invention of milk powder from buffalo milk as opposed to cow’s milk. That success led to Kurien’s appointment as the founder-chairman of the National Dairy Development Board in 1965 and a charge to replicate Amul’s model nationwide across India.
Praising his alma mater, Kurien had once said that Michigan State University had gave him “the best education money could buy.” Born in Kozhikode, Kurien had graduated in science from Loyola College in Chennai and obtained his degree in engineering from the Guindy College after which he completed his masters’ degree in mechanical engineering with dairy engineering as a minor subject from the US-based varsity in 1948.
Upon his return to India, he was assigned to a Government Creamery located at Anand to serve his bond period. But at the end of 1949, when he got release orders from his job from the Government Creamery and he was all set and eager to pack off to Mumbai, the then chairman of Amul Dairy Tribhuvandas Patel had requested him to stay in Anand and help him put his co-operative society’s dairy equipment together.
Dr. Tushar B. Patel of Princeton, New Jersey has been named a finalist in the Public Health Hero category in the 2016 NJBIZ Healthcare Heroes awards program.
The award program produced by NJBIZ, New Jersey’s premier business news publication, was sponsored by Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ, Hackensack University Medical Center, CareOne Management, LLC, Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP, New Jersey Hospital Association, and Comcast Spotlight.
The Healthcare Heroes finalists were recognized and the winner in each category was announced during an awards breakfast and ceremony on June 21 at The Palace at Somerset Park in Somerset, New Jersey.
The honorees were also highlighted in a special supplement to NJBIZ. The Palace at Somerset Park hosted over 400 guests, where everyone came together to celebrate these courageous and noble healthcare specialists and organizations.
The event, which began with networking and breakfast, was followed by the awards presentation. The major sponsors–Allen Karp, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of NJ, Jason Kreitner, Hackensack University Medical Center, Beth Durney-Stasyshyn, CareOne Management, Ed DePaola with Arthur J. Gallagher & Co., and James A. Robertson with McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter, LLP–presented the awards on stage to each honoree.
The finalists and winners were chosen by an independent panel of judges, including Suzanne Ianni of Hospital Alliance of New Jersey, Dr. Carole Kenner at The College of New Jersey, Barbara Rossi at Fairleigh Dickinson University, and Judy Schmidt of New Jersey State Nurses Association.
The four judges evaluated the nominations using a scoring system based on heroic actions or programs, impact of nominee’s heroic actions and accomplishments within healthcare.
In 2015, Dr. Patel was also named a finalist in the Volunteer of the Year category in NJBIZ Healthcare Heroes honoree. He was also the recipient of the New Jersey State Governor’s Jefferson Awards for Public Service in Health Care Professional of the year category in 2015.
Dr. Patel has been providing his self-less and dedicated volunteer services to needy people in south Asian communities throughout the New Jersey for more than last 15 years with various non-profit organizations and also serves as President of Indian Health Camp of NJ, a non-profit organization since 2006.
Dr. Kinshuk, who goes by single name, has been named the dean of University of North Texas College of Information in the US. He received his doctoral degree from De Montfort University in England, a master of science in mechanical computer aided engineering from Strathclyde University in Scotland and a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from University of Rajasthan in India.
Prior to joining UNT, Kinshuk was the associate dean of the faculty of science of technology at Alberta, Canada-based Athabasca University, where he had been since 2010.
In that role, he helped start new graduate programmes, gained external research funding, developed strategies for student recruitment and promoted senior students and alumni to serve as mentors for new students. Prior to this, he served as director in the School of Computing and Information Systems.
Kinshuk also served as Industrial Research Chair in Adaptivity and Personalisation in Informatics for the National Science and Engineering Council of Canada. “Dr Kinshuk brings with him great leadership and research experience,” Finley Graves, provost and vice president for academic affairs at UNT, said in a statement. “We look forward to Dr Kinshuk working with our faculty to articulate a clear vision for the future of the College of Information.”
Kinshuk will start his new position from August 15. “I’m really looking forward to joining such a progressive university and my esteemed new colleagues,” Kinshuk, who also served as the president and chief executive officer of Smart Informatics Ltd., said in a statement. “I know the College of Information has high expectations and I hope to meet them and raise those even more. I am keen to contribute to the college’s success and help make the University of North Texas even more prestigious.”
Kinshuk’s career also includes a variety of other academic positions. At Massey University in New Zealand, Kinshuk was the director of the Advanced Learning Technologies Research Center, as well as an associate professor, and before that, a senior lecturer.
He also was a research fellow for the German National Research Centre for Information Technology in St. Augustin, Germany. Earlier in his career he was an instructor at the Academy of Computer Education in India, as well as a part-time lecturer at the Government Polytechnic College in India.
A team of Indian American students and professors at New York University Tandon School of Engineering has created a way to help the rehabilitation process for stroke victims through smartphone-integrated wearable devices.
NYU Tandon professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering Vikram Kapila guided the students throughout the project. Kapila, who also oversees the engineering school’s Mechatronics Lab, was assisted by Dr. Preeti Raghavan, of NYU Langone’s Rusk Rehabilitation Ambulatory Care Center. Raghavan helped students Ashwin Raj Kumar and Sai Prasanth Krishnamoorthy transform the original idea into a working prototype.
The wearable mechatronic devices, which included a jacket to measure arm placement, a glove to measure wrist and finger placement and finger joint angles, and a finger trainer built of hand-friendly compliant material, was created to improve the repetitive process patients undergo to relearn basic skills lost following a stroke.
All the materials were connected by a smartphone. When a patient performs an exercise assigned by a physician or physical therapist, microcontrollers quantify the action and display that information via the smartphone to both the patient and medical provider, according to an NYU news release.
Essentially, it allows patients to engage in a virtual reality game where they observe the performance of the unaffected side of their body and attempt to mimic the movement on the affected side.
“Smartphone-integrated stroke rehabilitation is a marked improvement over the conventional treatment programs of the past,” said Kapila. “The medical community acknowledges that while the central nervous system is highly adaptive and has the ability to regain functions with concerted effort, a patient must assiduously practice those regained skills. This makes stroke rehab a long and sometimes trying ordeal.”
The smartphone-enabled technology doesn’t pigeonhole the patients into relying on caregivers and therapists. Allowing the stroke survivors to make progress in their own home boosts morale and keeps them motivated to continue the rehab process, according to the statement.
“Providing patients with immediate feedback and placing that feedback in the context of a virtual reality game that they can use within their own homes is definitely encouraging and motivational,” Kapila noted.
The system, which patients can wear for everyday activities, providing measurement results correlating to existing research-standard devices, is expected to sell for less than $1,000. Similar devices are selling for roughly $8,000, according to NYU.
Additionally, the team and their device took third place in a national competition for biomedical and bioengineering students, BMEidea.
“It is an honor to place in a competition as prestigious as BMEidea,” said Raj Kumar, a doctoral candidate in mechanical and aerospace engineering. “We are very grateful for the guidance and mentoring of Prof. Kapila and Dr. Raghavan.”
Added Krishnamoorthy, a master’s degree student in mechatronics and robotics engineering, “We are also excited that our work may one day make life easier and more rewarding for the many people who suffer from strokes each year.”
Going forward, the students hope to form a company with the patent-pending technology and launching a startup at the NYU Tandon new-business incubators.
Currently the team is refining their prototype, which they hope to be testing on several patients worldwide, including from India, where Kumar (NIT Tiruchirappalli) and Krishnamoorthy (University of Bangalore) each earned their bachelor’s degrees.
Freida Pinto, the Indian actress who shot to fame for her role in the Oscar-winning movie Slumdog Millionaire, says her passion in life goes beyond the film world. Speaking at a meeting headlined by First Lady Michelle Obama June 28, in Marrakech, Morocco, Pinto told the gathering of young girls she was committed to education even before she entered cinema. Pinto accompanied the First Lady Michelle Obama on the Morocco leg of her “Let Girls Learn” trip to several countries in Africa. Hollywood actress Meryl Streep was also present at the meeting in Dar Diafa Restaurant in Marrakech.
“I want to be the storyteller, a storyteller who’s responsible, who is enthusiastic, and who the people back there will listen and then take the story to the rest of the world, to the United States, to back home in India” Pinto said in her remarks following those of Michelle Obama.
“I have a passion, and my passion goes beyond what I do for my day job, which is acting and producing and being part of the film world,” Pinto said. Her stardom gave her the platform to further the idea of bringing education to the girl child. “… that start that I got in 2008 put my (sic) on a platform,” noting that she came from “a very simple, middle-class family,” and her parents “worked really, really hard to put me in the best possible school, the best possible college, get the best education they could afford.”
Even before Slumdog gave her a wider platform, Pinto said, she had been working to help girls who couldn’t get a basic education, with the help of her mother, who was also a teacher. With Slumdog fame, “I realized this voice that I got suddenly started becoming really powerful. I was setting somewhat of a trend,” Pinto said.
She went on to find the right organizations and people to move forward, among them Meryl Streep, and Mrs. Obama. “I have a lot to learn. I have a lot to learn from people like Meryl Streep, Isha (Moroccan activist), and Mrs. Obama,” Pinto gushed. “It’s important for girls to be able to stand their ground. It’s important for you to not be shy to raise your voices.” Streep and Pinto, along with Obama and her two teenage daughters, Sasha and Malia, also gathered at the King’s Palace to join Princess Lalla Salma for a traditional Moroccan iftar, a dinner to break the fast of Ramadan.
This year marks CACF’s 12th year of organizing the Asian American Student Advocacy Project (ASAP). In our largest cohort to date, this year’s ASAP comprised of 40 members from all across NYC. CACF believes that Asian Pacific American (APA) youth have a meaningful role in promoting justice and equity. In ASAP, high school youth are empowered to share their stories, and make sure their voices are represented alongside the voices of decision makers and officials.
On June 17th, 2016 ASAP held a community briefing where they updated community stakeholders on their work in the past year. As an eventful year for ASAP, they reported back on all their advocacy endeavors. Some notable actions were: developing and conducting community surveys for the Department of Health & Mental Hygiene on the impact of tobacco use on APA youth; discussing the impacts on bullying of APAs to the Federal Department of Justice and Department of Education; and launching their own campaign to establish Ethnic Studies in NYC public schools.
Over 100 people attended this year’s briefing. This event was attended by various city official offices including the City Comptroller’s Office; the Public Advocate’s Office; theCity Council Speaker’s office, and members of the City Council Education Committee and the NYC Department of Education.
The number of out-of-school children between 6 to 13 years has come down from approximately eight million in 2009 to six million in 2014. Sixty nine million children under age five will die from mostly preventable causes, 167 million children will live in poverty, and 750 million women will have been married as children by 2030 across the globe if current trends continue, a Unicef report released on Tuesday warned.
Notably, the year 2030 has been set the target date for the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The State of the World’s Children, Unicef’s annual flagship report, portrays a grim picture of what is in store for the world’s poorest children if governments, donors, businesses and international organisations do not accelerate efforts to address their needs.
“We have a choice: Invest in these children now or allow our world to become still more unequal and divided,” said Unicef Executive Director Anthony Lake.
In the Indian context, the report focused on education. It noted that India has achieved much, particularly in ensuring children’s access to school through the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and implementation of the Right to Education Act.
The number of out-of-school children between 6 to 13 years has come down from approximately eight million in 2009 to six million in 2014. Yet challenges remain, it said.
Releasing the report, Unicef Representative in India Louis-Georges Arsenault said, “The early years are foundational and children who start behind stay behind. There are long-term consequences, particularly for the most marginalised children, when they enter school without a quality preschool education. The gaps between disadvantaged children and other children become harder to bridge at later points in their education,” he added.
In India, the highest percentage of children not attending pre-school education is from the Muslim community (34 per cent), followed by Hindus at 25.9 per cent, the report showed.
“In India, out of the 74 million children between 3-6 years, about 20 million were not attending any preschool education in 2014, and it is the children from the poorest families and marginalised communities who are often left behind,” the report said.
The report pointed to the evidence that investing in the most vulnerable children can yield immediate and long-term benefits. “On average, each additional year of education a child receives increases his or her adult earnings by about 10 per cent. And for each additional year of schooling completed, on average, by young adults in a country, that country’s poverty rates fall by nine per cent,” it said.
The release of the report saw participation of senior officials of the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the Ministry of Women and Child Development, other central ministries, academics, and civil society activists.
New York Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME) has granted $1 million to the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism to help New York City’s community and ethnic media outlets stay competitive in the current media landscape and bring them further into the digital age. The announcement of the grant was made, Monday, June 27 by MOME Commissioner Julie Menin at a well-attended press conference at CUNY School of Journalism in Midtown Manhattan.
Mayor de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito announced an expansion of New York City’s outreach and engagement with community and ethnic media in January of this year. The initiative includes the launch of an online directory of ethnic and community media for city employees to use in outreach and informational and paid campaign efforts.
The funding will allow a major expansion of training opportunities for journalists working at these publications, which have an enormous readership and are of vital importance to communities around the city.
In addition, the J-School’s broadcast facilities will be officially renamed the “Made in NY Broadcast Center” in recognition of MOME’s commitment to this important element of New York’s media sector. “The diversity and breadth of New York City’s community and ethnic media reflects the diversity of our city as a whole, and it is crucially important to keep these outlets thriving,” said MOME Commissioner Julie Menin. “These publications add key perspective to our local news landscape, and they keep New Yorkers in the know – whether their native language is English or Bengali. We look forward to collaborating with the J-School on this important initiative, which builds on their history of providing excellent training for journalists at ethnic and community publications.”
“Since 2006, the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism has been dedicated to opening doors for a diversity of reporters and ensuring that everyone in the media industry has access to the new tools of the trade,” said CUNY J-School Dean Sarah Bartlett. “This partnership with the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, which ensures that the community and ethnic press throughout New York City will have many opportunities to benefit from professional training sessions, recognizes and builds on the CUNY J-School’s track record.”
New York City is the ethnic media capital of the world, with more than 350 community and ethnic outlets that produce news in dozens of languages for print, radio, television and the web. A significant portion of New Yorkers – one-third of whom are foreign-born – rely on these outlets as a key source of news and information. Combined circulation of daily and weekly community and ethnic publications reaches 4.5 million people -more than half of New York City’s population.
The CUNY J-School launched the Center for Community and Ethnic Media (CCEM) in 2012 to address the need to support these news outlets in particular, and help them tackle the unique challenges they face.
While New York’s community and ethnic outlets are a key element of the city’s media landscape, many of them are struggling to keep up with the quickly evolving world of tech-driven journalism. In addition, many of the news outlets that CCEM serves are under financial pressure.
Their employees often wear multiple hats: reporter, publisher, editor, publisher, photographer, ad salesman, and social media director. These publications are stretched thin: they often cannot afford to devote resources to professional development, and few have been able to fully migrate to a digital environment.
Through this grant, MOME will provide CCEM with the means to create new, affordable courses building on the J-School’s current offerings in subjects such as social media, video storytelling, podcasting, and broadcasting techniques. It is estimated that MOME’s grant will allow the J-School to train 200 to 300 journalists per year over five years.
Potential courses supported by this grant, which will be developed by CCEM in collaboration with the J-School’s CUNY J+ professional development division include: Multimedia and data visualization: Journalists will receive training with tools for multimedia presentation, training on Microsoft Excel, and sessions on how to effectively use data visualization. Video: Courses will focus on video storytelling for the web, the fastest-rising application in the news industry and one that is increasingly drawing the attention of advertisers.
“I join my colleague and co-director Karen Pennar in thanking Commissioner Julie Menin and the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment for their very generous grant to support a new training initiative at the CUNY J-School’s Center for Community and Ethnic Media,” said J-School CCEM co-director Jehangir Khattak. “By helping this sector to adopt new technologies effectively, the Center’s training initiative will help community and ethnic media outlets improve the quality of their journalistic content, and support them in the important role they play in increasing the civic engagement of the diverse communities they serve.”
The IIT Association of Greater New England (IIT AGNE) and the PANIIT USA have planned to the 2016 Leadership Conference at the Rhode Island Convention Center, Providence, RI, from August 12-14, 2016. Since 2013, these IIT conferences have enjoyed participation from senior business executives as well as academic and technology decision makers. The theme for this year is, “Leading transformation for a better tomorrow: Technologies that lift the human spirit.”
The event is to have a dazzling array of thought leaders across industries and technologies, a gathering to paint a vision of the future. To highlight the opportunities for change and to explore how it will impact you personally, at work and within the larger society. The theme of the 2016 Leadership Conference “Leading transformation for a better tomorrow: Technologies that lift the human spirit” highlights the transformational impact science and technology have on our lives. The meet is open to everyone and not just IIT alumni, it was announced last week at the Indian consulate last week during a special event organized at the Indian Consulate in New York.
The 21st century is witness to accelerating change across economies and beyond political boundaries. With growing populations, global climatic changes, and resource limitations the challenges seem daunting. In the past human ingenuity has delivered a constant stream of innovations to address such issues. What will tomorrow bring?
New England is host to world class thought leaders and game-changing innovations that address these challenges and can dramatically transform the future. Their ideas and innovations have ranged from technologies that augment life at home to enhancements that address health and lifestyle of changing demographics; from large scale disruptions in established industries to major policy impacts at city, state and national levels.
According to the conference chair, Raj Laad, “The conference will bring together a dazzling array of thought leaders in areas where New England leads the rest of the world such as Life sciences and Healthcare, Energy and Environment, Big Data and Education. With over 1,200 attendees and 100 speakers expected, you are sure to find it a fun, exciting and enriching experience.”
Key speakers featured at the conference include Massachusetts-based technology and social entrepreneur Dr. Gururaj Deshpande, CEO and founder of TripAdvisor Steve Kaufer, COO of GR Boston Eric Gebhardt, FedEx EVP of Marketing Rajesh Subramaniam, chair of NASA MARS mission Dr. Amitabha Ghosh and Dean of Harvard Business School, Dr. Nitin Nohria. The wide ranging series of keynotes, panels and discussions in the conference would revolve around topics related to Life sciences, Healthcare, Energy and Environment, Finance, Frontiers of Technology, Education, Women in technology. A highlight of the conference is the Business Plan competition, where emerging entrepreneurs can pitch their ideas to potential investors.
New York, NY: Child Rights and You America Inc, a 501c3 non-profit that works to ensure children their rights, hosted its annual benefit dinner ‘Pledge 2016’ on June 10th 2016, at The Taj Pierre in New York.
The annual event witnessed high profile guests come together to support the cause of children. Legendary actress Sharmila Tagore, Ernst & Young Partner Don MacNeal, Comedian Dan Nainan and Center 10 founder Roopa Unnikrishnan were the speakers at the event.
India has made tremendous economic strides in the last decade, but its children continue to battle deprivation of their rights. With their rights vastly ignored, millions of children are out of the safety net, forced into labor, malnourishment, abuse and illiteracy.
Speaking at Pledge 2016, Shefali Sunderlal, President, CRY America said, “Only 54% of children complete their education in India due to obstacles such as child labor, child marriage, distance from schools and gender discrimination. CRY America works with grass-root Projects, communities and local authorities to ensure children have quality education, healthcare and are protected from causes which hinder their development.”
“Investments in children are essential to a child’s and the communities well-being. Ensuring children get their due enables them to reach their full potential and realize their dreams. Thus far, CRY America has impacted the lives of 618,915 children living across 3,084 villages & slums through support to 70 Projects. This has been possible only because of the support received from 25,000 donors and 2,000 volunteers across the USA”, she added.
Legendary Indian actress, Sharmila Tagore shared, “Lack of education and healthcare holds back the development of children. Together, we have a powerful voice and the resources to help organizations like CRY ensure that children have the right to live, learn, grow and play. Support CRY America and make a difference to a child’s life and your own!”
Pledge 2016 was attended by 140 high profile guests from NY, NJ, CT and PA who came together to support CRY America’s work to benefit children. Guests included Anita & Ajay Agarwal, Rupal & Harsh Patil, Roopa Unnikrishnan & Sree Sreenivasan, Roopam & Sanjeev Jain, HR Shah, Dr. Naveen & Rashmi Mehta, Sandeep & Nilima Jain, Sunil & Suman Bagaria, Arati & Srikanth Nagaraj, Meenakshi & Vikas Mahajan, Shikha & Mohit Bhatia, Reena & Samir Mathur, Kamal & Kirin Arora, Bobby & Jagruti Bansal.
Advisory Board member and NY Dinner Committee Chair Anita Agarwal said, “All of us are here because CRY is important to us and we want to make a difference to children’s lives. Many of us have grown up in India with CRY Greeting Cards and the poster of Raju carrying bricks! I will never forget Rippan Kapur’s [CRY Founder] passion for ensuring that underprivileged children get their due share of rights. Thank you joining me this evening and making Pledge 2016 for child rights a great success.”
The evening raised $110,000, which will be directed towards funding several Projects that ensure lasting change for children. Items auctioned at the dinner included paintings donated by prominent Indian Artists Ram Kumar, Jehangir Sabavala, JMS Mani, Prakash Deshmukh, Pravin Utge, & Deepa Vedhpathak; designer clothes donated by JJ Valaya, Sabyasachi, & Anita Dongre; jewelry donated by Velvetcase.com, Raj Jewels, & Amrapali; a cricket ball autographed by Saurav Ganguly, a baseball autographed by Bill & Hillary Clinton, Abbey Road Album autographed by the Beatles, among others.
CRY America thanks its Media Sponsors Star Plus, TV Asia, India Abroad; its Major Gift donors People Software Inc, GDB International, Air India, Navika Capital, Stratus and its Event Sponsors Nanak Foods, Raj Jewels (www.rajjewels.com), Ravi Bhatia, DJ Sunny Patel, Sajawat, Indus American Bank, Amogh Agency, Caesar & Napoli PC, Bollywood Funk NYC, Sukhadia’s, Deep Foods, The Mall at Oak Tree and The Taj Pierre for their generous support.
Since its inception 13 years ago, CRY America has enabled people to take responsibility for the situation of underprivileged children. Sunderlal concluded, “CRY America believes that ‘YOU’ have the power to change children’s futures and give wings to their dreams. Your support will allow us to ensure that thousands of children are able to go to sleep educated, healthy and protected. Your solidarity is needed today, more than ever.”
CRY – Child Rights and You America Inc. (CRY America) is a 501c3 non-profit organization that is driven by its vision of a just world in which all children have equal opportunities to develop to their full potential and realize their dreams. With the support of over 25,153 donors and 2,000 volunteers, CRY America has impacted the lives of 618,915 children living across 3,084 villages and slums through support to 70 Projects in India and USA.
A new initiative between Tata Trusts and the University of Chicago will collaborate in ideation and solution-seeking to complex developmental challenges in crucial areas like sanitation, energy and the environment, a US don of Indian origin who heads the venture said.
“We are planning a three-year pilot of a new integrated approach to development work. We will work in a few verticals to start– health, water and sanitation and energy and the environment,” Anup Malani, faculty director of the newly-created Tata Centre for Development at the University of Chicago (UChicago), told IANS in an interview.
The health vertical will examine healthcare access through insurance with projects in Karnataka and Andra Pradesh. The water and sanitation vertical will begin a major project on decentralised irrigation with water tanks in Telangana. The energy and environment vertical will examine projects to improve reporting of emissions by plants in Gujurat and Maharashtra, to provide rural electrical power via solar microgrids in Bihar, and to encourage individuals to pay for better electricity supply in Bihar.
“We will also work on ideation — the generation of new solutions to development challenges — through two additional projects. We will support an Urban Challenge in Delhi that asks NGOs and government officials to propose new ways to tackle air pollution,” Malani, the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor at the UChicago Law School and Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine, explained.
“We will also support a partnership between the UChicago’s International Innovation Corps (IIC) and OpenIDEO, a division of the design consulting firm IDEO, to use OpenIDEO internet based platform to crowdsource solutions to, for example, urban sanitation problems, and then to pilot those solutions using IIC teams in collaboration with municipal governments,” he added.
Malani, the co-founder of the IIC and principal investigator on the Indian Health Insurance Experiment, a 12,000-household study of health insurance in Karnataka, also elaborated on how the initiative will work in the southern state.
“First, the TCD will take on a large randomised control trial to examine the benefits and costs of expanding the government’s largest secondary hospital care insurance programme, the Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), to Above-Poverty-Line (APL) households, a group not currently eligible for RSBY and underserved by commercial insurers.
“Second, it will send an IIC team to work with the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), which operates both RSBY and the Vajypayee Arogyashree (a tertiary care hospital insurance scheme) to help improve the implementation of those schemes,” Malani said.
MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee held contests in Dallas and Houston to find the best speller in the asian (Indian American) community. With a huge turnout this year as well, the Bee attracted some top talent as well as young and new spellers that competed for the coveted prizes and titles.
In the Dallas Regional, Ananya Kodali (14) of Highland Village, Texas was the regional champ, Rohan Rajeev (13) of Edmond, Oklahoma, was the first runner up, and, Smrithi Upadhyayula (14) of Coppell, Texas, was second runner up.
In Houston, Raksheet Kota (13) from Katy, Texas was named regional champ, Alex Iyer (13) from Hill, Texas was first runner up. Abhirami Jeeyseelan (13) of Baton Rouge, Louisiana second runner-up.
The event is open to children of South Asian descent up to 14 years of age and was organized by the South Asian advertising firm Touchdown Media Inc. and sponsored by MetLife, a leading global provider of life insurance, annuities, employee benefits and asset management.
The 2016 MetLife South Asian Spelling Bee is scheduled to be conducted in 12 locations across the United States. Regional level events will be held in Los Angeles, the Bay Area, Dallas, Houston, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Charlotte, Washington, D.C. Metro, New Jersey, New York and Boston. All events will be free to attend and open to the public. Accra, Ghana was announced as the 13thcenter from where spellers of South Asian descent will qualify for the finals.
“For the past eight years, the Bee has consistently provided a firm platform for the community to come together and hone their craft. It’s become a family activity that contributes towards the overall development of the child. We are proud to enter our Ninth consecutive year and look forward to engaging some of these wonderful spellers,” said Rahul Walia, founder of the South Asian Spelling Bee and CEO of Touchdown Media Inc.
The top two spellers of each regional competition will advance to the finals to be held in New Jersey in August. Similar to previous years MetLife has once again funded the $10,000 champion’s grand prize that will be awarded to the winner at the finals.
The University of Texas at Austin’s Harry Ransom Center has acquired the archive of Indian author and philosopher Raja Rao (1908-2006). Rao, whom the New York Times Book Review in 1964, described as “perhaps the most brilliant — and certainly the most interesting — writer of modern India,” was the recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature and numerous other literary awards. His estate donated the archive to the Ransom Center, a humanities research library and museum at UTA.
Rao was the author of numerous works of fiction, short stories, poetry, talks, essays and “The Great Indian Way: A Life of Mahatma Gandhi” (1998), about Mohandas Gandhi’s time in South Africa. His archive includes a range of materials, from unpublished works to manuscripts of his well-known novels “Kanthapura” (1938), “The Serpent and the Rope” (1960) and “The Chessmaster and his Moves” (1988).
It also has materials in several of the languages that Rao spoke including English, French, Sanskrit and his native Kannada. Rao joined the UTA faculty in 1966, teaching Indian philosophy until 1980. In 1963, he gave a series of talks called “Saints and the Sage: The Revival of Hindu Philosophy in Contemporary India,” which shared Indian philosophy with America. The archive includes edited transcripts of the talks.
“Departing boldly from the European tradition of the novel, Raja Rao has indigenized it in the process of assimilating material from the Indian literary tradition,” said R. Parthasarathy, professor emeritus of English at Skidmore College. “He has put the novel to uses to which it had not perhaps been put before by exploring the metaphysical basis of writing itself, of in fact the word.”
Born in southern India in what was then the kingdom of Mysore, Rao got his B.A. from Madras
University. He did his postgraduate studies in literature and history in France, at the University of Montpellier and at the Sorbonne. In 1964, Rao won the Indian National Academy of Letters’ Sahitya Akademi Award for Literature for the philosophical novel “The Serpent and the Rope.”
In 1969, he was the recipient of the Padma Bhushan Award, one of India’s highest awards for literature, and in 2007 he was posthumously awarded the Padma Vibhushan by the government of India.
Naperville, IL: Mayor Steve Chirico and Mayor Emeritus George Pradel presented 2016-Lotus Excellence Awards to students of Indian origin. The Lotus Excellence awards are an initiative of the Indian Community Outreach Board-NICO to recognize the achievers in Indian American community. Mayor Pradel Leadership Award was announced last year at the time of his retirement and is given to a senior with outstanding leadership skills. Mayor Chirico was the chief guest at the event and addressed the students and parents with best wishes. He was happy to see and know that such bright students live in his own city of Naperville. He encouraged youth to take part in extracurricular activities and said that he was so proud of these young bright minds.
Mayor Emeritus, Pradel was the guest of honor and has always been a supporter of NICO Board and their projects. He commended the students for their hard work and encouraged them to keep following their passion and dreams.
Krishna Bansal, Chairman of the NICO welcomed the guest and said: “The primary mission of NICO 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”.
Saily Joshi, a NICO Board Member said the awards were presented to students who excelled in the field of Academics, Sports, Arts (Visual, Film, Music, Dance, Digital Arts, Painting, Photography, Poetry, Drama, Theater etc.), Leadership, and Community Service. The cash award of $500 was presented to multiple recipients in each award category. Eligible Students came from District 203, District 204, IMSA and home-schooled children. Joshi went on to mention the importance of recognizing students for all these disciplines and not just academic achievement. “It is important to encourage our next generation to excel in fields that are traditional to our community”, she added.
Madhur Limdi, a NICO Board Member said: “In the Indian culture a Lotus flower is associated with many divine beings; you all must have seen the image of Goddess Lakshmi seated on a lotus flower, while showering wealth on her devotes,” Madhur Kimdi added.
Narayan Tata, a NICO Board Member said that art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life. A true artist finds his medium and expresses oneself so fluently that other mere mortals are mesmerized by their creativity and resulting art.
“Awards of Excellence” were presented to Binita Gupta for her Leadership & overall achievements. Gupta received the first Mayor Pradel Award for Leadership. Nihal Dantluri and Anvita Hariharan were awarded in the Art’s Category, and Murugan Narayanan and Yash Agarwal were awarded in the academic achievement. A large number of people attended the event which included board members, Naperville community leaders, and supporters from the Indian community. Those who are interested in having more information, ma lease visit NICO Board’s website- www.napervilleindian.com
Mayor Steve Chirico, Mayor Emeritus George Pradel, Krishna Bansal, Chairman of the NICO along with Board presented 2016-Lotus Excellence Awards to students of Indian origin.
A Catholic elementary school in Alberta (Canada) treated its students with a yoga class on May four as a part of Mental Health Awareness Week initiative. Ecole Our Lady of the Rosary School (EOLRS) in Sylvan Lake, a Pre-Kindergarten to Grade 2 publicly funded English-French Catholic school, whose “Motto” is “Learning, Listening and Following Jesus” and which provides “education in a Catholic environment”, has posted four pictures on its Facebook of pupils doing yoga.
Welcoming EOLRS for offering multi-faceted yoga to its students as Mental Health Awareness Week activity, Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada today, urged all Canadian public and private schools to launch yoga programs for various benefits.
Yoga, referred as “a living fossil”, was a mental and physical discipline, for everybody to share and benefit from, whose traces went back to around 2,000 BCE to Indus Valley civilization, Zed, who is President of Universal Society of Hinduism, noted.
Rajan Zed further said that yoga, although introduced and nourished by Hinduism, was a world heritage and liberation powerhouse to be utilized by all. According to Patanjali who codified it in Yoga Sutra, yoga was a methodical effort to attain perfection, through the control of the different elements of human nature, physical and psychical.
According to US National Institutes of Health, yoga may help one to feel more relaxed, be more flexible, improve posture, breathe deeply, and get rid of stress. According to a recently released “2016 Yoga in America Study”, about 37 million Americans (which included many celebrities) now practice yoga; and yoga is strongly correlated with having a positive self image. Yoga was the repository of something basic in the human soul and psyche, Zed added.
Local Blyss Yoga; which quoted India’s renowned yoga teacher B.K.S. Iyengar (“It is through your body that you realize you are a spark of divinity.”) on its website; reportedly conducted the class. Mission of EOLRS includes “committed to making Christ known to children” and its website states: “Our Catholic faith is nurtured and experienced in all classes, celebrations, and prayer”. Diane Kulczycki is the EOLRS Principal, Dr. V. Paul Mason is Superintendent of Red Deer Catholic Regional Schools and Father Les Drewicki is the Parish Priest.
For foreign-born students desperate, the University of Northern New Jersey seemed like the perfect solution: They did not have to go to class, but they could. They just needed to pay a broker anywhere from $3,000 to $12,000. Over the last three and a half years, more than a thousand agreed.
University of Northern New Jersey, which has been declared by the US government as a fake — part of an elaborate sting operation that resulted in the arrest of 22 brokers who arranged for students to enroll from mostly Asian countries with students, who were eager to stay in the United States, get coveted student visas and work at their dream jobs.
These brokers belonged to an underground network of recruiters operating throughout the country who acted as middlemen between students and fraudulent schools known as visa mills, the government said.
Twenty-five students were listed as anonymous co-conspirators, but officials say all of them knew they were committing fraud by not going to class. Within days, 1,076 of them were ordered to appear in immigration court, facing deportation or even a lifetime ban from the United States.
“They were 100 percent fully aware,” said Alvin Phillips, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security. “All purported students are recorded at some point or another fully going along with the pay-to-stay scheme.”
There are both audio and video recordings from the president’s office in New Jersey, when students called or visited, Mr. Phillips said. He personally witnessed some of these exchanges, and heard students admit they knew the university would not have classes.
But in interviews, more than a dozen students insisted that they were collateral damage in the sting operation, duped by both the brokers and the government.
In some cases, their efforts to verify the university or even transfer were rebuffed by the brokers, they say. In other instances, the students point to what they say was active deception by the government: in-person meetings with the university’s supposed president, letters confirming they could work instead of go to class, and Twitter messages about classes canceled because of bad weather.
n October, A., a young man from Shanghai living in New York City, was so frustrated when the university had not sent a needed eligibility form that he rented a car and drove to the campus. (A., like most of the students, insisted on being identified only by an initial because their immigration cases were still pending or their families back home did not know their situation.)
Six Indian American students, from Sacramento, Calif.-based Mira Loma High School, are among the15 member team that won the school’s first ever Science Olympiad National Tournament last month. The 32nd annual event was held May 20 and May 21 at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Among the Mira Loma High team were sophomores Adith Arun and Nikhil Gupta; juniors Vijay Srinivasan, Pranav Kodali and Muthu Chidambaram; and senior Nishita Jain. Additionally, sophomore Sunil Shenoy and junior Ravina Sidhu were among the three Mira Loma alternates at the tournament.
Other team members of the Scott Martinez, Mark Porter and Rochelle Jacks-coached Mira Loma High School included Claire Burch, Sarah Gurev, Ellanor Treiterer, Shaina Zuber, Sidrah Siddiqui, David Yang, Evelyn Zhang, Helen Burch and Carson Flamm.
Throughout the two-day event, there were 23 events in biology, astronomy, physics, chemistry, epidemiology, meteorology, coding and engineering. The hour-long hands-on and lab events are led by experts from government agencies, top universities, industry and Science Olympiad state chapters, with many running simultaneously.
The Mira Loma team, which was pared down to 15 from a pool of nearly 100 students trying out, won medals in 12 of the events. Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Daniel Wright Junior High won the middle school competition.
“These winning teams exemplify the best America has to offer in science, technology, engineering and math,” Science Olympiad president and co-founder Gerard Putz said in a statement. “We are proud of their achievements and know their schools and communities will welcome them home like champions.”
The annual national tournament brings together 120 middle school and high school teams who won state-level tournaments. Mira Loma won in the Northern California tournament and is believed to be the first team from the area to win the national tournament.
For claiming the top spot in the tournament each of the 15 team members received a $3,000 UW-Stout Chancellor’s Scholarship, with the potential of renewal for a second year for $1,500.
The Science Olympiad is a Chicago-area-based national nonprofit organization founded in 1984 and dedicated to improving the quality of K-12 STEM education, increasing student interest in science, creating a technologically literate workforce and providing recognition for outstanding achievement by both students and teachers.
More than 225,000 students on 7,600 teams from all 50 states competed in 400 regional, state and national Science Olympiad tournaments last year.
Anushka and Anjali Walia, of Fremont, Calif., Indian American twin sisters, have been named among the 20 finalists by the American Chemistry Society for the U.S. Chemistry Olympiad team. The 15-year-old Walia sisters, juniors at Fremont-based Irvington High School, and 18 others from across the country are vying for the four open spots on the Olympiad team that will travel to the Eastern European city Tbilsi in Georgia for the 48th International Chemistry Olympiad.
This is Anjali’s first opportunity at making the U.S. team, while Anushka was a top 20 student in 2015. The finalists were selected from a series of exams. More than 16,000 students throughout the U.S. participated in the exams, with the top 20 selected to take part in a two-week study camp at the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va.
The camp began May 31, during which the students will receive college- and graduate-level training with a focus on organic chemistry through June 15. Additionally, they are participating in a series of lectures, problem-solving exercises, lab work and testing.
Upon the conclusion of the camp, the top four students, as well as two alternates, will be selected to be part of the U.S. team. Also competing for the Olympiad team are Miles Dai, Brendan Yap, Allen Zhang, Brian Daniels, Lily Ireton, Alex Liu, Steven Liu, Benjamin Nguyen, Zilu Pan, Eric Qian, Yusha Sun, Kevin Tang, Joyce Tian, Harrison Wang, Shannon Weng, Junyu Yang and Lillian Zhu.
The Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio-based American Chemical Society is a 157,000-member nonprofit chartered by the U.S. Congress. It is one of the world’s largest scientific societies, providing access to chemistry-related research through its multiple databases, peer-reviewed journals and scientific conferences. The International Chemistry Olympiad, pitting teams from more than 70 nations, is scheduled to run from July 23 through Aug. 1.
At least 25 Indian students in their first semester of computer sciences program at Western Kentucky University have been asked to return to India or find placement in other schools, because they did not meet the admission standards of the varsity, The New York Times said on Tuesday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi was on a US visit.
Some 60 Indian students were enrolled for the program in January this year and the university was said to have used international recruiters to enroll them. James Gary, the chairman of Western Kentucky’s computer science programme, told the Times that “almost 40” of the students did not meet the requirements of their admissions, even though they were offered remedial help by the university.
This means that 35 students may be allowed to continue while 25 “must leave”, the newspaper said. Gary said permitting the students to continue in the programme would “be throwing good money after bad” because they were unable to write computer programmes, a necessary part of the curriculum and a skill that US schools teach to undergraduates.
“If they come out of here without the ability to write programmes, that’s embarrassing to my department,” Gary said, explaining why the university could not permit them to continue. The students had been admitted after a recruitment campaign in India where the recruiters had run advertisements offering “spot admission” to the university, as well as tuition discounts.
The university Senate has now endorsed a resolution expressing concern about the recruitment campaign which was part of the university’s efforts to lift enrolment and revenue in the face of deep state budget cuts, the newspaper said.
The university in a statement said it had altered its international recruitment efforts in India. The school will also send members of the computer science faculty to India to meet with students before offers of admission are made in the future.
The chairman of the Indian Student Association at Western Kentucky University, Aditya Sharma, has expressed concern for the students who have been asked to leave. “I definitely feel badly for these students,” said Sharma, a graduate student in public health administration. “They’ve come so far. They’ve invested money into it.”
But he admitted that some of the students had adopted what he called a “casual” approach to their studies. “They could not meet their G.P.A. (grade point average), so the university had to take this decision.”
Students of Indian origin from the ninth through the 12th grade have won Special Awards at the 2016 Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, organized by the Society for Science and the Public in partnership with the Intel Foundation. The teen winners, who won awards or recognition from more than one association or organization, are comprised of high school students who won a top prize at a local, regional, state or national science fair.
Receiving a first place award of $2,500 for her Sustainable Urban Design project from the Alcoa Foundation was Naveena Bontha, 16, of Richland, Wash., while the second spot was won by Pujan Sanjaykumar Patel, 16, of Rochester, Minnesota, who earned $1,500 for his Sustainable Design In Transportation project.
Megha Vyakaranam, 15, from Independence High School in Frisco, Texas, won the Ricoh USA Inc.’s Ricoh Sustainable Development Award of $12,500, for her project, “A Super Soaker for Greenhouse Gas: The Design and Synthesis of a Novel Metal Organic Framework for Adsorption and Storage of Gases like CO2.”
Vineet Edupuganti, of Portland, Oregon, took home the American Chemical Society’s first prize of $4,000 for his project, “Fabrication, Characterization, and Modeling of a Biodegradable Battery for Transient Electronics”; Anjali Chakradhar, of Lincroft, New Jersey, won the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists’ fourth prize of $250; Harish Palani, of Portland, Oregon, won the American Geosciences Institute’s third place award of $500; and Siona Prasad, of Alexandria, Virginia, won the American Intellectual Property Law Association’s first place award of $1,000.
A second place award of $1,000 from the American Physiological Society went to Aarushi Iris Pendharkar, 14, of Worcester, Mass.
Sapna K. Patel and Nikhil Sanjay Patel, of Oviedo, Florida, walked away with the American Psychological Association’s top awards. While Sapna won the first award of $1,500, Nikhil grabbed the third spot winning $500. Divya Vatsa, of Scottsdale, Arizona, also placed third.
The American Society for Horticultural Science presented a $500 award to Ambika Murali, of Pago Pago, American Samoa, while the American Statistical Association gave a second place award of $1,000 to Swetha Revanur, of San Jose, Calif.
Indian American winners of Arizona State University’s Intel ISEF Scholarship were: Divya Vatsa, of Scottsdale, Arizona; Ritika Bharati, Vedik Navale and Sachin Ganesh Konan of Chandler, Arizona; and Pujan Sanjaykumar Patel, of Rochester, Minnesota.
Shishir Dholakia and Shashank Dholakia, of Adrian C. Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, Calif., won the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and the American Astronomical Society’s Priscilla and Bart Bok first award of $1,000 for their project, “A Search and Exploration of Multi-Exoplanet Systems Using Novel Photometric and TTV Algorithms for the K2 Mission.”
ASU Rob and Melani Walton Sustainability Solutions Initiatives’ first prize of $2,500 went to Shantanu Jakhete, of Stuart, Florida. Drexel University’s full tuition scholarship was won by Ananya Satyawadi, of Pittsburgh, Pa; Aditya Jog, of Mason, Ohio; and Arjun Srinivasan Ramani, of West Lafayette, Indiana. An all expense paid trip from the European Organization for Nuclear Research-CERN to tour CERN was given to Rucha Joshi, of Austin, Texas.
Vikul Gupta, of Portland, Oregon, won the Bruno Kessler Foundation Award; Vineet Shah, of Poolesville, Maryland, won GoDaddy’s $1,500 Forward Thinker Award; and Rahul Ramesh, of Chandler, Arizona, won GoDaddy’s $1,500 Mobile Application Award. Google’s Thinking Big Award went to Shreyas Kapur, of Delhi, India.
Karthik Yegnesh, of Eagleville, Pa., took home the K. T. Li Foundation’s Special Award of $1,000, scoring second place; Columbia, South Carolina-based Sarayu K. Das and Portland, Oregon-based Chaitanya Dasharathi Karamchedu, won King Abdul-Aziz & his Companions Foundation for Giftedness and Creativity’s $1,000 award for Water Technology; Karthik Yegnesh, of Eagleville, Pa., won Mu Alpha Theta, National High School and Two-Year College Mathematics Honor Society’s first prize of $1,500; while Arvind Krishna Ranganathan, from Mumbai, India, grabbed the second spot winning $1,000.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s top award of $5,000 was won by Shishir Dholakia and Shashank Dholakia, of Santa Clara, Calif.; Nikhil Murthy from Portland, Oregon, won the second prize of $2,000; and Eshika Saxena of Bellevue, Wash., and Delhi, India’s Shreyas Kapur, came in third, each earning $1,000.
Shreveport, Louisiana-based Meghana Srivyas Rao won the National Anti-Vivisection Society’s second prize of $2,000, while Dublin, Ohio-based Rama Nidhya Balasubramaniam won a third place prize of $1,000.
For a year beginning in late 2014, Sudarsan Raghavan wrote a series of dispatches from Afghanistan for the Washington Post that, through their examination of daily life in the country, transcended conventional stories of war, poverty, and instability. In one particularly memorable article, Raghavan profiled Sara Bahayi, Afghanistan’s only female taxi driver; in another, he explained how years of occupation has left a large American cultural footprint in cities like Kabul.
On Thursday, May 26, Sudarsan Raghavan appeared in conversation at Asia Society in New York with Marcus Brauchli and John Hockenberry to discuss his award-winning reporting in Afghanistan. The event will be available worldwide via free live webcast.Learn more
In recognition of his exemplary reporting from Afghanistan, Asia Society last month awarded Raghavan with its 2016 Osborn Elliott Prize, an honor recognizing excellent reporting on Asia. On Thursday, Raghavan — now the Post’s Cairo bureau chief — will appear in conversation with Marcus Brauchli, the Jury Chair for the Oz Elliott Prize and a veteran journalist, and John Hockenberry, host of The Takeaway for PRI and WYNC, at Asia Society in New York.
Asia Blog recently caught up with Raghavan to talk about the challenge of reporting in Afghanistan, the resilience of the Taliban and why, despite the country’s struggles, he remains optimistic about its future. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.
Your dispatches from Afghanistan go beyond military battles and political intrigue and get into daily life in the country. What was the most challenging aspect of reporting in Afghanistan?
The most challenging aspect is getting to the epicenter of the story. With the Taliban controlling or present in more areas now than at any time since 2001, it’s become increasingly dangerous and risky to travel outside Kabul. And with most U.S. troops departed, the availability of military embeds — which most Western journalists once relied on for reaching remote areas — has drastically shrunk.
Trips outside Kabul required careful, often extensive, planning and research. It meant cultivating trustworthy tribal elders, as well as Afghan military commanders and officials, to help get into certain areas. It also required at times passing through or near Taliban and ISIS areas. In Helmand Province, for example, the Taliban were literally walking distance away from many frontline positions I visited. Whenever I traveled, I wore an Afghan salwar kameez to help blend into the landscape.
The reporting, I believe, was worth the risk. It was essential to uncovering the truth unfolding on the ground, to portraying the daily struggles of ordinary Afghans and giving them a voice.
What surprised you the most from your time in the country? What’s something that a typical newspaper reader in the United States may not realize about Afghanistan?
Good question. I was surprised by the extent to which urban Afghans were influenced by American culture. It’s quite normal to hear anti-American sentiments, and the collective sense among Afghans is that they’ve not benefited from the tens of billions spent by the United States to improve their lives. Still, I’ve met Afghan teens into skateboarding, Afghan rappers who love Eminem. There’s a George Bush Market (named after “W”) where you can buy wrap-around Oakley sunglasses. There are even regular Texas hold-em poker games run by Afghans in Kabul!
I was also surprised by how organized and vocal Afghans have become, especially the long-oppressed Hazara ethnic minority. It’s not uncommon these days to see massive protests in the streets against government policies and alleged abuses. But I remember visiting Afghanistan when the Taliban emerged in the mid-1990s, and again after the 9/11 attacks and the 2004 elections, and they were quite subdued compared to these days.
Has the 15-year presence of the U.S. Military — as well as billions of dollars in reconstruction and aid — had a positive effect on the country? Is Afghanistan at all a better place now than 2001?
It’s a mixed picture, leaning more to the negative than positive. Speak to the average Afghan, and he or she will tell you that they have seen little impact on their lives from America’s billions in reconstruction and aid. Instead, the common refrain is that much of the money has been wasted or stolen by corrupt officials and contractors. And there’s much truth to this. Just look at the scores of reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the U.S. government’s watchdog agency, which details the immense extent to which U.S. taxpayer dollars have been misspent in Afghanistan.
Many Afghans still remember with fondness the days of the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. That’s because the Soviets built apartment complexes, factories, universities, and other buildings that still stand today and are used by countless Afghans. The American intervention, many Afghans believe, will not leave anything of much permanence, at least visibly. However, there has been at least one positive impact of American aid: a vibrant, free Afghan media. In 2001, when the Taliban regime was toppled, there was no independent media. Today, there are hundreds of print, TV, and radio outlets across the country. The vast majority were initially funded by U.S. aid, and continue to be supported today.
American aid officials consider the independent press to be among, if the not the most, significant legacy that the United States will leave behind. But even this achievement is under threat. Both the Taliban and the government are increasingly targeting Afghanistan’s journalists. Many have fled the country or have decided to censor themselves. And as the U.S. departs, the money to fund journalism is shrinking. Most of these media outlets are unlikely to survive, unless they find other sources of funding.
What do you think most accounts for the resilience of the Taliban?
I think Pakistan has provided the Afghan Taliban with the sanctuary and support that allows them to be resilient. It’s no surprise that Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was allegedly killed by a U.S. drone strike inside the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Secondly, the Afghan security forces, riddled with corruption and low morale, has struggled to fight the Taliban. That has allowed the Taliban to launch successful offensives and seize areas. Today, the insurgents are showing a battle discipline and initiative far superior than the U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan forces. The militants are also well-funded, deriving revenues from opium cultivation and smuggling, as well as marble and gemstone mining and exacting taxes in areas they control. The Afghan central government’s constant infighting also helps the Taliban survive.
Is there an optimistic case for Afghanistan?
Afghanistan has long been an important part of my adult life. I wrote my first-ever story — on Afghan war orphans — when I was working for a French NGO in Peshawar. That was in 1992, and since then I’ve been making repeated trips back to the country, covering all its pivotal transformations. So I want to believe that one day Afghanistan will become peaceful again. I want to feel optimism. But every time I return, I see new players — and old ones — seeking power and wealth, driven by tribal and regional loyalties with little care for the nation. And by now, 24 years since I first wrote that story, I have met several generations of ordinary Afghans shattered by war, corruption, and poor leadership.
At the same time, I’ve met incredible Afghans who are struggling to improve their lives against all odds, like the country’s only female taxi driver in Mazar-e-Sharif. I’ve met young Afghans educated in the U.S. and Europe who are now back in their homeland trying to make a difference. I’ve met countless others with big dreams. As long as such Afghans continue to believe in themselves and work towards improving their country, there will always be hope for Afghanistan.
Uma Swaminathan, a New Jersey-based community activist and a fighter against injustice in NJ school system last week released her book “Healing with Herbs – Ancient Ayurvedic Wisdom for Health and Longevity” at a gala book signing event in Odyssey Book Store in Chennai.
Jaico Publications in India has now brought out the Indian edition of the book entitled “Healing with Herbs- Ancient Ayurvedic Wisdom for Health and Longevity”. The book is considered a treasure in view of the world-wide interest in its contents which include subjects like yoga, organic food, health concerns, cultural moorings and the universal yearning for youthfulness and longevity, according to the author.
It is written in a simple, personalized, chatty, and highly readable style which would appeal to all age groups, from the very young right up to the aged and it contains many lively colorful photographs taken by the author herself.
It speaks of yoga practices that can increase memory power, of tropical fruits that can even cure cancer, of increased sensitivity and intuition through proper diet and cleansing, how to lose weight and bring out one’s natural aura, the sacred geometry of the traditional Kolam art and even cooking recipe.
Swaminathan was referred to as Rosa Parks of Indian Community by Indian media in the US for putting a brave fight against her suspension on fabricated grounds under racial bias. After three years, she was reinstated by the Courts and the Board squandered taxpayers’ hard earned money to justify their illegal actions to destroy a competent school teacher because of her ethnic Indian background.
T.S.Krishnamurthy, former Chief Election Commissioner of India; V. Selvaraj, former Chairman of Madras Port Trust; Prabhala Subash, a famous DJ and CEO of Masala FM radio, Mr. Chari, a retired IAS officer and others felicitated her.
Swaminathan is a US Citizen of Indian-origin and she owns an ancestral apartment in Chennai, where she stays while in India. She has specialized in cultural anthropology while studying at the Rutgers’ University in NJ. Her initial schooling was in Chennai and in Patna, Bihar. In her youth in India, she learned to fly monoplanes and got her private pilot’s license.
She studied classical Indian dance and is a prolific painter. Shea had also spent a few years in Tokyo, Japan, where she was honored by Princess Hitachi, Prime Minister, Kaifu’s wife, for bridging understanding and cultural awareness between India and Japan. She was made the Chief Marshal of the International Parade in Tokyo. She has been in leadership roles in the US and is past President of the Association of Indians in America. She is also a practicing Reiki Master.
Last year, Swaminathan authored a unique 250- page book “Herbal Transformations- Ancient wisdom revealed for health and longevity”. The American edition of this book is being marketed by Amazon.com.
Rishi Nair, a 12-year-old Indian American kid, was declared the winner of the 28th annual contests of the 2016 National Geographic Bee contests held on May 25 in Washington, D.C.
Making the contest historic was the fact that at the National Geographic Bee competition Indian-origin contestants maintained their dominance by sweeping all the top three slots. Saketh Jonnalagadda and Kapil Nathan were the other two young prodigies who won the second and their places respectively at the prestigious competition.
Indian-American students continued their dominance at the prestigious national bee competitions with seven out of 10 finalists made it to this year’s National Geographic Bee championship hailing from the community. This is the fifth consecutive year that an Indian- American has won the prestigious national tournament. Last year Karan Menon had won the competition. The 1st prize carried a cash award of $ 50,000, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses paid trip to Alaska for a Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic eight-day adventure.
A sixth grader at Williams Magnet Middle School, Nair, by winning the 28th annual event, will join in the National Geographic Sea Lion expedition, and will include a stop at Glacier Bay National Park, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Jonnalagadda, the 2nd prize winner, is an eighth grader at Stony Brook Middle School, earned a $25,000 college scholarship. Nathan, the 3rd place winner, is a sixth grader at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School who was also a top 10 finalists in 2015, earned a $10,000 college scholarship.
Nair, a sixth grader from Florida took top honors, beating a total of 3 million students from 11,000 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, U.S. Atlantic and Pacific territories and Department of Defense Dependents Schools who had taken part in the 2016 bee. Earlier, the winners of 54 state-level competitions convened in the nation’s capital May 23 for a preliminary round to determine the finalists. Seven of the 10 finalists who competed for the bee’s ultimate prize were Indian Americans.
The final question, which clinched the win for Nair, was: “A new marine sanctuary will protect sharks and other wildlife around Isla Wolf in which archipelago in the Pacific Ocean?”. The answer was: “Galapagos Islands”. Nair, whose parents hail from Kerala, is the second Florida student to win the National Geographic Bee. In 2010, eighth-grader Aadith Moorthy of Palm Harbor was the national champion. Rahul Nagvekar in 2012, Sathwik Karnik in 2013, Akhil Rekulapelli in 2014 and Karan Menon in 2015 were the previous four winners.
The seven other finalists, which included Indian Americans Rishi Kumar, 10, of Maryland; Pranay Varada, 13, of Irving, Texas; Samanyu Dixit, 12, of Matthews, N.C.; and Ashwin Sivakumar, 11, of Beaverton, Ore., each won $500 for making it to the top 10.
The final round, moderated by humorist and journalist Mo Rocca, between Nair and Jonnalagadda consisted of seven questions. The eventual winner got off to an early lead by correctly answering “Switzerland” to the question, “The Gotthard Base Tunnel, expected to open in early June, will be the world’s longest rail tunnel. This tunnel is located in which country?”
Nihar Janga, at age 11, made record by becoming the youngest winner of the bee on record at the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which ended in a tie for the third consecutive year, with Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga declared co-champions after a roller-coaster finish. Jairam, 13, is the younger brother of 2014 co-champion Sriram Hathwar.
“I’m just speechless. I can’t say anything,” Nihar said as he hoisted the trophy. “I mean, I’m only in fifth grade.” The 11-year-old breezed up to the microphone with confidence, and most of his words, he knew right away. He looked like the strongest speller onstage, stronger even than his eventual co-champion, 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar, a blue-chip speller whose older brother hoisted the trophy two years ago.
Nihar, from Austin, Texas; and Jairam, from Painted Post, New York, were declared co-champions. It was the third year in a row that the bee ended in a tie. Scripps made the bee, broadcast on ESPN, tougher after two consecutive ties, forcing the last two spellers to get through three times as many words as in years past.
Bee organizers insisted they’d be OK with another tie, but they changed the rules to make it less likely. Instead of a pre-determined list of 25 “championship words” for the final three spellers, the bee instead forced the top three to go through up to 25 rounds. And the difficulty of the words could be adjusted as necessary.
Third-place finisher Snehaa Kumar of Folsom, Calif,, bowed out in the first championship round. Nihar and Jairam had to spell 24 words apiece before it was over. Nihar and Jairam have grown close over the past year, communicating mostly online. They chatted while others were spelling, high-fived after their words and embraced after they won. The timing of Nihar’s misses was almost too perfect to believe, and Nihar denied afterward that he misspelled on purpose. He said he just didn’t know the words.
“I wanted to win, but at the same time, I felt really bad for Jairam,” he said. Both were inspired by their favorite athletes. As the confetti fell, Nihar crossed his arms in homage to Dez Bryant’s touchdown celebrations. The Dallas Cowboys receiver responded with a congratulatory tweet.
Jairam, whose dad takes him to play golf when he’s had enough spelling practice, channeled his favorite player, Jordan Spieth. “When he hits a bad shot, he always bounces back, on the next shot or the next hole,” Jairam said. “When I missed those two words, I didn’t let them get to my head, and I just focused on the next word.”
This was the 89th bee, and while Scripps’ records from early years are incomplete, the youngest known champion was Wendy Guey, who won 20 years ago at age 12. The last to win in his first attempt was Pratyush Buddiga in 2002.
Nihar said he didn’t feel pressure to become the youngest winner for two reasons. First, he never expected to win. Second, most of the crowd’s attention was on an even younger speller: 6-year-old Akash Vukoti. “He did pretty good for a first-grader,” Nihar said. “He’s going to go places.”
Nihar and Jairam’s parents are immigrants from south India, continuing a remarkable run of success for Indian American spellers that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.” The bee has produced Indian American champions for nine straight years and 14 out of the last 18.
A California commission mandated with recommendations and revisions of school textbooks has rejected demands of replacing India with South Asia for pre-1947 references, which had become a major bone of contention from various academic groups in the U.S.
The California Department of Education’s Instructional Quality Commission, at its hearing on May 19 — which was marked by the presence of a large number of academicians, teachers and students from both sides — decided not to replace mentions of India with South Asia in the new framework for History Social Science textbooks in California.
During its meeting, the commission also decided to restore the mention that Hindu sages Valmiki and Vyasa were born non-Brahmins. It also agreed to replace the word “untouchable” with “Dalit” as demanded by the various Dalit groups.
The final draft of the framework was voted by the commission May 19, and will be submitted to the State Board of Education to be approved later this year. In July, a final decision will be reached, and a final draft of the framework will be created. Over a hundred Indian American parents and children testified at the public hearing at the CDE, opposing the proposal, and seeking restoration of the word ‘India.’
Earlier this year, the Commission had proposed to replace instances of ‘India’ by ‘South Asia’ in its school textbooks at the behest of the South Asia Faculty Group, led by top academicians like professors Kamala Visweswaran of the University of California at San Diego, and Lawrence Cohen and Robert Goldman of the University of California at Berkeley. The group had suggested that all mentions of ‘India’ before 1947 had to be replaced with “South Asia.”
The suggestions were opposed by another group of 41 academics led by professors Barbara McGraw of Saint Mary’s College of California, and Diana Eck of Harvard University who called the proposal “anachronistic” and “not historical.”
“Hinduism should be represented in California K-12 textbooks in a manner comparable to other religions fairly, accurately and equitably,” said McGraw. “This debate concerns a teaching document for K-12 teachers. It should not create unnecessary obstacles for a more constructive understanding of the Indian subcontinent and the world’s third largest religion,” McGraw said.
Hindu-Americans groups have welcomed the decision. “Coming from an underprivileged community myself, I am really proud that our collective efforts were able to bring the contributions of Sage Vyasa and Sage Valmiki back into the framework,” said Sandeep Dedage, coordinator for the Hindu Education Foundation USA.
In separate statements, the Hindu Education Foundation USA (HEF) and Hindu American Foundation (HAF) welcomed the decision to replace the word “untouchable” with “Dalit” as demanded by Dalit groups.
“We have nothing but the utmost sympathy and respect for the victims of caste discrimination who spoke about their experiences at the hearing,” said Murali Balaji, Director of Education at Hindu American Foundation. “For years, the American perception of Hinduism and India has been overly simplistic and inaccurate, in part due to the content of California textbooks,” said Samir Kalra, senior director for the Hindu American Foundation. “There are nearly a million Indian and Hindu-Americans who call California home, so it’s important for them to see their cultural and religious heritage represented with accuracy and parity,” Kalra said.
The Overseas Indian Facilitation Centre (OIFC) http://www.oifc.in/is a joint venture between the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India and the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), for enhancing economic & knowledge engagement of Overseas Indians with India.
OIFC has introduced the India Fellows Program (IFP) – a collaborative effort of the Government of India through OIFC and the Indian School of Business (ISB) Centre for Executive Education. The program’s objective is to showcase the economic opportunities in India and provide connects with India based entrepreneurs for young Overseas Indian entrepreneurs & professionals to interact with, and explore potential opportunities.
The IFP is designed to offer an insider’s view to the dynamic markets of India, it’s business environment, it’s socio-cultural norms, and emerging opportunities for you to explore India as a viable business opportunity.
The highlights of the program are: India Residency: 12-day India Residency, comprising of ten days of intensive experiential classroom sessions at the ISB campuses in Hyderabad & Mohali, and two days in Delhi; Experiential Approach: An immersive, practical and hands-on learning approach that includes cases and simulations, visit to markets and different consumer segments, group activities and field visits; Networking: Opportunity to network with Indian entrepreneurs and senior government officials; Faculty: World-class faculty and senior industry, government and sector experts as guest speakers; \Year-long Engagement through monthly webinars and Google Hangouts; and, Follow OIFC regular updates and its initiatives & programmes through its social media platforms. For more details on IFP visit: www.isb.edu/indiafellows.
Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, Consul General of India in New York inaugurated the 3rd International Hindi Conference , America at the Indian Consulate, April 29. Speaking on the occasion, she appreciated the efforts of the organizers, particularly of the conference coordinator Ashok Ojha for organizing in a short time a conference at which a number of scholars from India are also participating, besides a large number of Hindi scholars, Hindi lovers and Hindi promotes.
Ambassador Das also referred to the efforts of Ministry of External Affairs at promoting Hindi. She said that realizing the importance of Hindi language, MEA has created an independent Hindi section which aims at training diplomats in the use of Hindi and ensures Hindi is given due place in the departmental communications.
The conference was aimed at offering thought-provoking discussions on topics of common interest and entertaining programs including a Kavi Sammelan by leading poets from India and the Diaspora. The conference was organized by Hindi Sangam Foundation in collaboration with the Consulate General of India and various other social and cultural organizations in the Tri-State area. Educational experts, scholars, policy makers, business owners, professionals as well as writers and poets from the U.S., Europe, India and other parts of the world will participate in the conference.
The sessions also included discussions on ‘Teaching Hindi as a heritage language’, ‘Global perspectives of Hindi language and literature’, and ‘Development of Hindi around the world’.
A poetry and essay competition has been organized for students of Middle and High Schools. L.T. Ngaihte, Consul, Consulate General of India will present awards to the winners of the competition.
According to Prof. Gabriela Nik Ilieva, Chief of the Academics Committee, the conference offered unique opportunity for collaboration among stakeholders from various fields including education, business and commerce, art, politics and administration for the growth of Hindi as a world language.
Ambassador Das assured the organizers that the consulate will continue to extend all cooperation in promoting Hindi. Earlier, Conference coordinator Ashok Ojha in his welcome address to the Consul General praised her for her support in organizing the conference. He said he was happy to acknowledge the great support Government of India and Ambassador Das have provided. He added that he was confident the Consulate would continue to provide the all out support for propagating and promoting Hindi. Prof. Heinz W. Wessler, Institute for Linguistics and philology, Uppsala, Sweden delivered the keynote address. Prof. Wessler is born a German. He spoke on Hindi as a language of expression of diverse issues relating to culture, religion and politics.
Speaking in relatively chaste Hindi, given the fact that Hindi is an acquired language for him he said that media whether print or electronic has been helpful in promoting Hindi. He advocated use of common Hindi as spoken by the younger generation. He said there is nothing wrong if some foreign language words are spoken by a person expressing in Hindi. He referred to Munshi Prem Chand’s “Godaan” in which, one comes across the language of common people. He gave details of a number Hindi publications in a number of countries. He also spoke of databases. The video presentation he gave was quite interesting.
Others who spoke on the occasion included Dr. Bejoy Mehta, chairman of board of trustees, Hindi Sangam Foundation; H. R. Shah, president of TV Asia & chairman of Bharatiya Vidya BHAVAN board of trustees. Purnima Desai, trustee of Hindi Sangam Foundation made a thanksgiving reference and said the organizers were moved to receive an overwhelming support for the International Hindi Conference and requested the audience to turn up for all sessions over the next two days, which also includes a Kavi Sammelan conducted by Prof. Bindeshwari (Bindu) Aggarwal. A cultural performance was presented by students of Rimli Roy.
Evergreen TV Asia anchor Vikas Nangia was a delight as master of ceremonies.
The inaugural session was attended by more than 150 scholars, writers, Patrons and lovers of Hindi.
The main objectives of the Third International Hindi Conference 2016, was to continue providing an effective forum for networking among Hindi and other language professionals and supporters. Dr. Manoj Kumar Mohapatra, Deputy Consul General, Consulate General of India, presided over the concluding event of the conference, which will be held on Sunday, May 1. Speakers and supporters of the conference will be honored at the concluding event of the conference.
Among U.S. schools, New York University, the University of Southern California, Northeastern University, Columbia University and the University of Illinois rank one through five for schools with the highest international student populations. More than 10,000 international students were enrolled at each school in March. As many as 77 percent of all international students were from Asia. The top 10 countries of citizenship for international students included: China, India, South Korea, Saudi Arabia, Canada, Vietnam, Japan, Taiwan, Brazil and Mexico.
The number of Indian students in American universities and colleges is over 194,000, a jump of more than 31 percent in one year. “The number of F&M students from India studying in the U.S. grew from 148,360 in March 2015 to 194,438 in March 2016, an increase of 31.1 percent,” according to the latest ‘SEVIS by the Numbers,’ a quarterly report on foreign student trends prepared by Student and Exchange Visitor Program.
There are nearly 1.2 million international students with F (academic) or M (vocational) status studying in the U.S. SEVIS is part of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. Based on data extracted from SEVIS on March 7, international student enrollment at U.S. schools increased 6.2 percent compared to March 2015.
In March, there were 8,687 U.S. schools with SEVP certification to enroll international students, a three per cent decrease from the previous year, ICE said in a release. According to the report, 82 percent of F & M students from India pursue degrees in a STEM field. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics. “More STEM students are from India than any other country,” it said.
On the other hand, 69 percent of all F&M students who pursue mathematics and statistics coursework are from China, it said. ICE report said 40 percent of international students studying in the U.S., equaling almost 479,000 individuals, were enrolled in STEM coursework.
Approximately 417,000 international students from Asia pursued STEM studies, an increase of 17 per cent since March 2015, it added. In March, more than 75 percent of the M (vocational) student population was male. Sixty-four percent of M students majored in transportation and materials moving, with a focus on air, ground or marine transportation.
BOSTON, MA: The Calcutta Club USA and The Boston Pledge presented their Second International SANSKRITI 2016 – Literature, Arts, Theater and South Asian Book Fair on April 24 at Thoreau Elementary School, MA.
Hundreds of viewers decked in the Indian traditional attire gathered in the hall with lots of enthusiasm and eagerness to browse through the book tables and listen to speeches of prominent personalities.
The speakers included Bratati Bandyopadhyay, Shilajeet Mukherjee, Dr. Amit Chaudhuri, an eminent Indian English author and academician from Calcutta, Partha Ghosh, Shobhaa De, a well-known journalist, Srijato Bandopadhyay, a popular poet of the Bengali younger generation and a winner of Ananda Puroskar award in 2004 for his book Udanta Sawb.
The chief guest of the event was Honorable Indian Ambassador to the United States, Arun Singh who delivered his inspiring speech on the Role and Contributions to the American Economy.
The Book Fair commenced simultaneously in the morning in the main hall. The book fair floor was full of book tables that displayed a number of books by leading publishers and sellers like Roy Bookstores, Kolkata; Bodhi Praashan, Jaipur; Tulika Books, Marlboro; Grandparents by Aaria, Nashua, Barely Read Boo, Sudbury; Wellesley Books/Penguin RH; Authors Direct – Worldwide.
This was followed by authors’ ‘Recital & Reading’ session that included Sudipta Bhawmi, Sunayana Kachroo, Partha Banerjee, Anay, Chandu Shah, and Neela Bhattacharya Saxena who recited enthusiastically about their works. All the writers, speakers, artists and directors were recognized with much gratitude for their time and active participation in the event.
Special thanks were given to the sponsors like Billion Bricks, Singapore; H4training, Boston; Urban Public, Denver; Chettinad Grill, Dr. Gauri Dutta, Kohinoor Collections, Raj Dogra Realty, Moksha Spa, A1 Home Medical Supplies, Huntington Learning Center, DOPL, Kolkata; Teamwork Arts, Ltd, Delhi for their encouraging support.
New York, NY: Samiya Fagun, a Bangladeshi student at Newtown High School in Elmhurst, Queens, has been crowned the winner of the fourth annual Congressional District Art Contest, known locally as Meng art contest after U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens). Meng announced April 25 that this year’s contest marked the first time that a student of Bangladeshi descent has won the competition.
A total of 46 students – including several others of South Asian descent – from 13 high schools participated in the contest. Meng presented all of them with special certificates of Congressional recognition. More than 650,000 high school students throughout the United States have participated since the competition began in 1982.
The contest, which consisted of entries from Queens high school students, is part of “An Artistic Discovery”, the national art contest sponsored each year by the House of Representatives that showcases the artwork of all Congressional district art contest winners from across the nation.
Beginning this June, Fagun’s winning artwork – along with the winning pieces from art contests in Congressional districts throughout the United States – will be displayed for one year in the historic Cannon Tunnel, a heavily-traveled corridor of the United States Capitol.
Fagun, along with one of her parents, will also be awarded round-trip airplane tickets to Washington, D.C. – courtesy of Southwest Airlines – to join Meng at the opening ceremonies of the national art competition.
The ceremony scheduled for June takes place on Capitol Hill and will recognize Fagun’s exceptional artistic talents as well as those of all the other young artists from around the country. Fagun, 18, and the winners from each Congressional district art contest will also be eligible for a scholarship from the Savannah College of Art and Design in Georgia. A resident of Elmhurst, Fagun won the competition for her watercolor drawing entitled “Moments of Life.” She emigrated to the U.S. from Dhaka three years ago. She plans to attend City College of New York in the fall and may pursue a major in art.
A committee that is entrusted with writing history books for schools in the state of California, finds itself at the center of a raging debate over how to tell the story of South Asia as it tries to update textbooks and revise curriculums. The textbook dispute has come up as the state’s Instructional Quality Commission debates a new framework for the kindergarten to 12th grade social science curriculum, an effort meant to include new research and reflect the state’s increasing diversity. The State Board of Education will vote on the final changes next month.
The dispute centers on whether the region that includes modern-day India, Pakistan and Nepal should be referred to as India or as South Asia, to represent the plurality of cultures there — particularly since India was not a nation-state until 1947. It also touches on how the culture of the region is portrayed, including women’s role in society and the vestiges of the caste system.
It might seem somewhat arcane. But it has prompted petition drives, a #DontEraseIndia social media campaign, and a battle of opinion pieces.
According to the Hindu American Foundation, nearly half of the 2.5 million Hindus in the United States live in California. The Hindu-American group has been particularly active in trying to shape California’s history curriculum. “The civilization that is being covered is Indian,” said Suhag Shukla, the executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, which started the social media campaign #DontEraseIndia. “When you talk about ancient India, that’s the birthplace of Indian students,” she said.
When the committee met earlier this spring, dozens of students turned out at the State Capitol, some in tears, earnestly telling the educators that anything other than India would amount to erasing their heritage. Among other issues that has prompted criticism are: the portrayal of so-called comfort women in World War II; the Armenian genocide; and the discrimination against Sikhs in the United States.
“We have a lot of people engaged in this because we have such a vibrant, diverse state,” said Tom Adams, the deputy superintendent of the California Department of Education, adding, “What we’re really trying to do here is make sure that the children of California have a curriculum that helps them understand all these groups.”
A New York Times report drew attention to “a fight that mirrors similar arguments being made in India, where Hindu nationalist governments have begun overhauls of textbooks in some states. On one side are advocates from the Hindu American Foundation, which seeks to shape the image of Hinduism in the United States. Backed by some scholars, they want the entire area under dispute to be referred to as India, reflecting what they say is the most important influence in the area. They also want the caste system to be explained as a phenomenon of the region, not as a Hindu practice — an idea that is not universally accepted in India. A group of other scholars challenge the historical accuracy of this view. They say the area should be referred to as South Asia. They also say the foundation is trying to sanitize history by wiping out any link between Hinduism and castes.
Quoting Vidhima Shetty, a high school freshman, who had stated, “The board is confusing our cultural terms with geographical terms. By removing India as a term from the textbooks this leaves Indian-American children with no ethnic or cultural identification to turn to. When we acknowledge ourselves as South Asians, us Hindus are forced to re-identify ourselves as something we are not.”
The ongoing strong fight for accuracy in history books has been described by The New York Times as “a reflection of the transformation in California’s population, where Asians, including South Asians, are the fastest-growing demographic.”
NEW YORK, April 26, 2016—The Lahore Literary Festival (LLF), one of South Asia’s premier cultural events, will travel to Asia Society New York on May 7-8. This is the first time that a Pakistani literary festival takes place abroad.
LLF in New York will explore contemporary Pakistan, and feature artists, writers, and cultural commentators. In keeping with Asia Society’s mission of promoting mutual understanding between Asia and the U.S., the Festival will present American audience with a more nuanced view of Pakistan, with discussions on fiction and nonfiction writing, music, arts, popular culture, and politics.
Saami Brothers Qawwal performing Qawwali devotional music from the Sufi traditions of Pakistan, will be held on Sunday, May 8. The eight–member ensemble, one of the most accomplished and traditional performers of the form today, will close the first New York edition of the Lahore Literary Festival.
Qawwali blends Iranian, Central Asian, and South Asian poetic, philosophical and musical elements, combining popular music with classical traditions. Strong voices and explosive hand-clapping seek to transport musicians and audience closer to the divine. An ensemble of usually twelve male performers conveys a religious message through music and song based on mystic poetry. The texts usually deal with divine love (‘ishq), the sorrow of separation (hijr, firaq), and union (visal) – these concepts symbolically reinforced and illustrated by the music.
The Saami Brothers were founded by four sons of the critically acclaimed Maestro Ustad Naseeruddin Saami. They grew up in a family with rich musical heritage, referred to as Qawal Bachcha Delhi Gharana. The lineage of this gharana, or “house,” leads back some 800 years, all the way back to Saamat Bin Ibrahim, a principal student of the Sufi saint Hazrat Ameer Khusro.
Keeping the flame of the gharana alive, the Saami Brothers are well versed in a number of languages, and weave various genres of Eastern classical music beautifully into their performances. For this performance, the Brothers will sing the music of Khusro, who is regarded as the “father of Qawwali.” This program is part of Asia Society’s ongoing initiative Creative Voices of Muslim Asia.
Festival participants include former WWF International president Syed Babar Ali; musical artist Zeb Bangash; New York Times columnist Roger Cohen; artist Salima Hashmi; former Ambassador to the U.N. Abdullah Hussain Haroon; physicist Tasneem Zehra Husain; actor, director and screenwriter Sarmad Khoosat; journalist and foreign policy author Ahmed Rashid; and author Sadia Shepard. It will also feature a musical performance by the eight-member qawwal ensemble the Saami Brothers.
LLF, founded by Razi Ahmed in 2012 aims to reclaim and employ Lahore’s cultural significance and influence. A global city under the 12th century Sultanate, capital of the Mughal Empire under Akbar, and cradle of the modern Punjabi civilization under Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Lahore has fired the imagination of artists for centuries, inspiring global literature and thought from Milton’s Paradise Lost to Kipling’s Kim to Massenet’s Opera Le Roi de Lahore to John Masters’ Bhowani Junction. This program is part of Asia Society’s ongoing initiative Creative Voices of Muslim Asia.
“I am different from every other girl in my village, because I believe I have a good future ahead of me,” Bhavani, a student at Shanti Bhavan told an audience of over one thousand people at a Northwestern University function.
Bhavani and Vijay, two 11th graders from Shanti Bhavan, came to the U.S. last month through its partnership with Tufaan Entertainment. The first in their families to travel overseas, they were full of wonder as they explored museums, tried new foods, and saw the world open up to them in a way they had never experienced before.
“I know now that I can make my dreams real. I’ve been given a special opportunity and I want to make the most of it.” – Vijay, reflecting on his dreams of becoming a software engineer after visits to Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
Bhavani and Vijay come from humble backgrounds and their families face discrimination, but through education and support at Shanti Bhavan, these children have a bright future.
Shanti Bhavan Children’s Project opens the door for a world of possibilities through high-quality education at our residential boarding school, and subsequently at top-tier universities. More than an education, Shanti Bhavan is a home and a community. However, we know that none of these accomplishments would be possible without the generosity and support of our donors. “No matter how large or small, your contribution can make a difference to promising young people like Bhavani and Vijay,” said the founder Abraham George, who left his well-paying job in the US to start this not-for-profit, in the rural area near Bangalore, India. “We have three classes of children in top colleges such as Christ University, Mount Carmel, St. Josephs and Jyoti Nivas. Your support will ensure we are able to continue their high-quality education, housing, clothing, food, and medical care,” George added.
Shanti Bhavan’s mission is to adequately develop the most vulnerable and disadvantaged children of India’s “lowest caste” by providing them world class education and instilling globally shared values to enable them to aspire to careers and professions of their choice.
The organization provides a holistic, high quality focused education to children on a beautiful boarding school campus. For these communities, Shanti Bhavan is a beacon of hope that shines a path of opportunity for their children. It is an oasis built within the confines of crushing poverty supported by a devoted administration and global network of volunteers. Our children see that a better world isn’t just an idea but a real possibility.
Students Nithya Menon and Shivana Anand, both from Irvine, Calif., won the Top Heritage Award in the high school and middle school academic categories, respectively, at the Indian American Heritage Foundation’s 30th Annual Heritage Foundation awards function held on Sunday, April 10, 2016 at Cerritos Sheraton Hotel, Cerritos, California.
Tejal Gala won the second place while the third place winner was Vikas Munukutta in the GHigh School category. Others who were awarded at the annual event included, Vibha Vijayakumar, Kanhai Shah, Chirag Bisht, Kriti Kumar, Ashwath Manivannan, Varun Mandi, and Megan Phansalkar. The second place winner in the Middle school category was Sreekar Kasturi while the third place winner was Rishi Shah. The fourth and fifth awards went to Abhinav Ganguly and Ria Arora respectively. Sreekar Kasturi and Shivana Anand also won the Visual and Performing Arts awards instituted in honor of “Teachers, parents and family.”
Vikas Munukutta won Outstanding Achievement Award and revolving trophy in Visual & Performing Arts. Tejal Gala shared the Award and revolving trophy in Math, Science and Technology with Varun Mandi, Kanhai Shah shared award and revolving trophy in sports with Deeksha Chaturvedi, while Kriti Kumar shared award and trophy in community service with Navya Katragadda.
Consul General of India, San Francisco Ambassador Venkatesan Ashok who was the chief guest speaking to the gathering empathized the importance of education and preserving the cultural heritage of India and applauded IAHF for the great work it is doing in promoting this. He also donated $20,000 to the IAHF from the leftover Parvasi Diwas funds. The CGI took the opportunity to talk about the petition regarding the California Department of Education’s move to make changes in textbooks by replacing ‘India’ with South East Asia. He urged all present to support the petition as it is important for all Indian- Americans.
Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez, Cerritos Mayor Pro Tem, Naresh Solanki and Artesia Mayor Pro Tem Ali S Taj were the guests of honor. Sanchez spoke about the importance of education and culture and about her long time association with the Indian-American community. She thanked all the organizers and the students for the tremendous work they put in.
Inder Singh, the main organizer, in welcoming the attendees, appreciated the support by the sponsors who provided necessary funding for the continuity of the awards program. He also thanked the judges who undertook the grueling task of evaluating the applicants, and praised his “working crew” — team of volunteers — who worked hard to make the event a success. He said, “An individual, howsoever brilliant, intelligent and smart, would find it difficult, if not impossible to match the collaborative efforts of an effective team,” adding that he was blessed with a team which has been providing selfless service for the cause of youth.
The IAHF has been recognizing the achievements of youth, graduating from high and middle schools in Southern California for the past 30 years. The Foundation started with just five scholarship awards in 1987 and now gives 24 scholarships annually.
SEATTLE AND NEW ORLEANS – Dr. Sunil Hingorani, a member of the Clinical Research and Public Health Sciences divisions at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, will present recent groundbreaking developments in treating pancreas cancer with engineered T-cells at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2016 in New Orleans on April 16.
Hingorani, a pancreatic cancer specialist, teamed up with Fred Hutch immunotherapy experts Drs. Phil Greenberg and Ingunn Stromnes in successful efforts to breach the cancer’s physical and immunological walls using immunotherapy, a type of treatment that harnesses or refines the body’s own immune system with T-cells engineered to recognize and destroy cancer cells.
Specifically, Hingorani’s team created T cells with a high affinity to a “relatively” tumor-specific antigen. Why relatively? Notoriously difficult pancreatic tumor cells don’t produce many unique proteins that allow for completely tumor-specific T cells. Instead, the team had to look for proteins that are expressed in unusually large amounts in the tumor cells and minimally expressed elsewhere. The T cells then were engineered to attack those.
But there was a potential problem: That same targeted mesothelial protein also can be found in the linings of the heart and lungs. However, in tests on mice with pancreatic tumors and immune system responses nearly identical to those in humans, the engineered infused T cells parked only briefly in those linings (without harming them) and then moved along to attack the tumor cells. What’s more, they killed those cells over a 10-day period, as did subsequent infusions.
Additionally, Hingorani and his team have worked to develop an enzyme that can help defeat the tumor’s high interstitial pressures and potentially open the door for greater penetration and effectiveness of T cells and other types of agents. By the end of the year, Hingorani hopes to have the human version of the T cell in clinical trials.
This work was supported by a Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center/University of Washington Cancer Consortium Cancer Center Support Grant, the Giles W. and Elise Mead Foundation, the Safeway Foundation, a gift from Maryanne Tagney and David Jones, the National Cancer Institute, and grants from the Korean Research Institute of Bioscience and Biotechnology, Juno Therapeutics, the Irvington Institute Fellowship Program of the Cancer Research Institute and the Jack and Sylvia Paul Estate Fund to Support Collaborative Immunotherapy Research.
Editor’s note: For researcher bios, photos and more, please visit fredhutch.org/media.
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.
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.
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: 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.)
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.
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.
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.
Sujit Choudhry, Dean of the prestigious law school at the University of California at Berkeley, is taking an “indefinite leave of absence” from his position after he was sued for sexual harassment by his former executive assistant, who claims he made inappropriate advances toward her, officials at the University of California at Berkeley said.
Later reports say, the 45-year-old Indian-origin dean of a prestigious US law school has resigned from his post, days after a lawsuit was filed against him by his executive assistant alleging that he sexually harassed her over a period of several months.
University Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Claude Steele said in a statement that Choudhry will be “stepping down to his faculty position and salary” and the school will name an interim dean. “A thorough investigation of this case found that Dean Choudhry’s behavior in this situation violated policy,” Steele said, “and that he demonstrated a failure to understand the power dynamic and the effect of his actions on the plaintiff personally and in her employment.
“Based on the findings of the investigation I believed that a combination of disciplinary actions, monitoring of his behavior and formal training would be an appropriate and effective response, and would produce the necessary changes in his behavior.”
The complaint was filed against Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry and the University of California Board of Regents, claiming sexual harassment, retaliation and failure to stop it, among other actions. Tyann Sorrell, the former executive assistant, claims in the lawsuit that from September 2014 to March 2015, Choudhry sexually harassed her — rubbing her shoulders and arms, kissing her cheeks and giving her bear hugs that pressed her body against him, according to court documents. Sorrell claims that when she told supervisors, they first failed to stop Choudhry, and then tried to retaliate.
Choudhry has not yet spoken publicly about the allegations against him. Choudhry took over the position in July 2014, according to the university. Soon after, Sorrell claims, Choudhry started to initiate sexual contact.
Sorrell, a 41-year-old mother of five, claims in the lawsuit that “Choudhry’s kissing and hugging plaintiff was a near daily occurrence. The hugs became tighter and more lingering and the kissing more intimate in that over time Choudhry’s kisses began to land closer and closer” to her mouth, according to the court documents.
“She wondered what she had done to make him think it was OK for him to touch her,” according to the documents. “She was worried about her reputation and what her work colleagues thought of her. At the same time, she worried about upsetting him and possibly losing her job, on which her family depended.”
Sorrell said she is a victim of domestic and sexual abuse and claims in the lawsuit that the unwanted sexual contact made her anxious and depressed — causing her to lose sleep and dread her going to work. She said she suffered “insomnia, hair loss, depression and anxiety” as a result.
By March 2015, Sorrell said she had “had enough” and wrote a six-page email to Choudhry, telling him she felt “violated and humiliated” and forwarded the email to human resources, according to court documents.
It was reported to UC Berkeley’s Office for the Prevention of Harassment and Discrimination. “During the investigation, Dean Choudhry admitted to hugging, kissing, messaging (sic) and/or caressing” her several times a week, according to the documents. He purportedly said he had grabbed her hands, “putting them on his waist. He also admitted to hugging and kissing other female employees.”
The Berkeley School of Law was ranked No. 8 in the most recent U.S. News & World Report list of best American law schools. The law school has pioneered curriculums like intellectual property law and technology-related law and offers specialized curricular programs in areas such as Energy and Clean Technology Law and Environmental Law.
Choudhry is “an internationally recognized authority on comparative constitutional law and comparative constitutional development,” according to his Berkeley Law biography. He has served as a consultant to the World Bank Institute and is a member of the United Nations Mediation Roster. Prior to joining Berkeley Law, the biography states, Choudhry was a professor at the NYU School of Law and a faculty chair at the University of Toronto.
“In 2010, he was one of four Canadians to receive the Trudeau Fellowship, the Canadian equivalent of the MacArthur awards,” it states. “Professor Choudhry holds law degrees from Oxford, Toronto and Harvard, was a Rhodes Scholar, and served as law clerk to Chief Justice Antonio Lamer of the Supreme Court of Canada.”
UC Berkeley chancellor Nicholas Dirks and Provost Claude Steele said in a statement that they were wrong to not to take action against Choudhry even though the investigative report had supported the victim’s claims. “The dean’s resignation is an outcome in the best interests of Berkeley Law and the university as a whole. At the same time we are under no illusion that a resignation could or even should bring this matter and broader, related issues to a close,” they said.
Chicago IL: Chicago State University student body of 5000 and its faculty is waiting for Mr. Chandrababu Naidu’s visit to its campus to receive an honorary doctorate. CSU first time in its history announced an honorary doctorate to a foreign head of government Mr. Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of State of Andhra Pradesh, India.
As university prepares to host him at a mega event, top officials of university requested the Indian media to give more insights about the Chief Minister’s visit and its impact on CSU and South Side of Chicago.
Speaking about the CSU, Dr. Thomas J. Calhoun, Jr, President of Chicago State University said that, the Chicago State University is one of the great universities in Illinois, formed 150 years ago. Speaking on this awarding honorary doctorate to Chandrababu Naidu, Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, India, Dr. Calhoun, Jr, said that Chicago State University’s Board of Governors unanimously awarded an honorary doctorate to the Chief Minister. We anticipate that he will be visiting our campus to be awarded the degree. His work is world renowned. The way he utilized high technology to bring a higher standard of living for the people of low or meagre resources, and be very competitive in nationally and internationally in IT areas. On CSU acting as possible gateway for commerce between Andhra and Illinois, Dr. Calhoun said that, the two states have a lot to offer each other.
Dr. Angela Henderson, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs said that, entire CSU community is very excited and deeply honored that the Chief Minister will be visiting us. His visit will reverberate educationally, economically and having him visit us from India to speak to us and work with us will offer hope and inspiration to all.
Noted political science Professor Dr. Bernard Rowan in his comments described the Chief Minister as a great leader and a person open to other cultures and societies and in the mission of serving those whom not have been served as properly as they should have been in the past, and building a bridge to the future.
Dr. David Kanis, Professor and Vice President in his remarks said that, “We are anxiously waiting for the arrival of the Chief Minister. What he could do to the South Side of Chicago is to inspire the both old and young to do special things with their lives.”
Professor Rohan Attele, Chairman of Department of Computer Science and Mathematics, said that :the Chief Minister’s address will leave an indelible mark on our minds. His greatest legacy and the one he would cherish the most would be his inspiration of the young minds. They will be inspired to create, innovate, and lead the communities we serve on paths of upward mobility.”
Speaking about the Chief Minister’s visit, Dr. Rao Achanta, Chairman University-Industry Partnerships, said that, for past few years we have made tremendous progress in collaboration with universities in the Telugu speaking states. Dr. Achanta said that Mr. Chandrababu Naidu is only the second Head of a Government to receive an honorary doctorate from the University.
Chicago State University faculty and student body of more than a five thousand, eagerly await his visit. It will leave a long lasting impression on our minds inspiring them to succeed, adopt IT and various technologies for the betterment of their lives and contribute for uplifting of underserved communities.
Harvard, MA: A group of Sanskrit scholars in India are calling for an American professor working on a groundbreaking project on Indian classics at Harvard University to be removed because of his “deep antipathy” to Indian ideals and culture, according to a Change.org petition filed last week.
Columbia University Professor Sheldon Pollock, a respected Sanskrit scholar and the author of “The Language of Gods in the World of Men: Sanskrit, Culture, and Power in Premodern India,” is the editor of a $5 million project by Harvard University Press to publish dozens of Indian classical texts with English translations.
More than 132 professors from some of India’s most prominent universities — some of them from the Hindu right — have signed the petition, which calls for Pollock’s removal as editor and “mentor” of the Murty Classical Library of India series; the project is funded by a Harvard graduate Rohan Murty, the son of Infosys co-founder Narayana Murty.
The petitioners argued that the work of translating the ancient texts should be done in India and “not outsourced wholesale to American Ivy Leagues.”
Ramesh C. Bhardwaj, professor and head of the Department of Sanskrit at Delhi University, said that the issue was an academic one, rather than personal. Pollock had associated himself with “Marxist” scholars in India, he said, and his work does not “provide the true picture of Indian heritage.”
Rohan Murty told the media that Pollock “has been critical to the success of the library, and Harvard and I look forward to having him on the board for many years to come.” The government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the support of Hindu nationalists, has been trying to promote pride in India’s centuries-old knowledge systems and to reinvigorate Sanskrit, India’s ancient language, with classes and a new government committee to expand Sanskrit in schools and colleges.
Pollock was among a group of Western academics who signed a petition in support of students at the campus of Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi who were arrested and charged with sedition after they allegedly chanted anti-India slogans at a rally, another strike against Pollock, his critics wrote. The issue blew up into a national debate about freedom of expression and nationalism.
“It is crystal clear that Pollock has shown disrespect for the unity and integrity of India, the Indian scholars wrote, adding that “such an individual cannot be considered objective and neutral enough to be in charge of your historic translation project.”
They also asked for clarification on how Sanskrit words that are non-translatable words would be treated, whether there would be any link between the ancient texts and present day social and political problems and whether theoretical methods in Europe would be used to interpret the Indian texts.
Indian-American studemnt from New York University and Cooper Union college in Manhattan, New York, gathered at Washington Square Park to support JNU Students Union leader Kanhaiya Kumar and other students who were arrested on sedition charges last month, Washington Square News newspaper reported Feb. 29.
An Indian-American student said during the protest that the primary purpose of the event was to raise awareness about Kumar’s arrest. “[Kumar] was arrested for making these comments against the government, even though he was not actually saying anything against the government, he was just having this poetry reading,” Anjana Sreedhar said. “We are protesting against the fact that he was arrested under the sedition law which is very antiquated and very outdated,” Sreedhar added.
Sreedhar, along with several other students read English transcripts of Kumar’s speech during the poetry reading and asked if his words warranted arrest. They also encouraged passersby and attendees to attend a forum discussion at Cooper Union next week.
A student activist at the NYU Sumathy Kumar said she attended the rally because she wants to show her support to the JNU students who were “beaten and arrested and so much violence was being committed against them just for speaking out”.
“I am an activist, and I think we take it for granted sometimes that we have the right to dissent and that home where my parents are from and where I call my ancestors are from, they are not allowed to dissent,” Kumar said.
Anthropology professor Tejaswini Ganti said that she was glad students were voicing support for JNU’s students and that universities should be an open forum for all opinions – even those that dissent against the governing party.
(Austin, TX: March 4, 2016) – Dr. Vivek H. Murthy, U.S. Surgeon General was honored by the Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus during its 10th annual Michael & Susan Dell Lectureship in Child Health on Thursday, March 3rd, 2016 at the Blanton Museum of Art.
Dr. Murthy was the keynote speaker and lectureship award recipient. Murthy spoke to nearly 400 attendees about creating resilient communities and raising healthy children. He then discussed ongoing public health issues in Texas, including youth tobacco use, with Deanna Hoelscher, Ph.D., R.D., director of the Center for Healthy Living and associate dean of the Austin Regional Campus.
“I believe there are four key things we must do to strengthen the health of our children. First, we must create a culture where healthy equals happy, where the healthy choice is the desirable choice. Second, recognize we can’t change our kids’ health behaviors until we change the environments in which they live. Third, health is not just about the body, but about mind and spirit, and we should invest in emotional well-being. Fourth, cultivate the ability of kids to give & receive kindness, to treat kindness as a source of strength,” said Murthy.
“It’s clear that Dr. Murthy understands the importance of prevention in the promotion of health, both here in the U.S. and globally, and shares our vision of ‘healthy children in a healthy world.’ We believe he embodies the essence of this award, and we are delighted to have him as our 10th Michael & Susan Dell Lectureship in Child Health award recipient,” said Cheryl Perry, Ph.D., regional dean of UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus.
Faculty from UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus collaborated with the U.S. Surgeon General’s Office for its 2012 report on preventing tobacco use among youth and young adults.
Murthy was confirmed on Dec.15, 2014 as the 19th U.S. Surgeon General. As “America’s doctor,” Murthy is responsible for communicating the best available scientific information to the public regarding ways to improve personal health and the health of the nation. He also oversees the operations of the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, comprised of approximately 6,700 uniformed health officers who serve in locations around the world to promote, protect and advance the health and safety of the nation.
The Michael & Susan Dell Lectureship in Child Health includes an award for researchers and leaders in child health, bringing world-class speakers to the Austin area each spring. The annual lectureship was established in 2007 by UTHealth School of Public Health, with funding from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation.
The Michael & Susan Dell Center for Healthy Living was founded in 2006 with a grant from the Michael & Susan Dell Foundation to The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth) School of Public Health. The Center for Healthy Living was established to conduct research to better understand and influence behaviors and environmental conditions that affect healthy living, with a vision of “healthy children in a healthy world.” The Center is housed at UTHealth School of Public Health Austin Regional Campus. For more information, visit www.msdcenter.org.
The University of California, Irvine has decided to reject over a $6 million gift from donors affiliated with the Dharma Civilization Foundation, which would endow four chairs in Hindu, Sikh, Jain and Buddhist studies. The decision comes after faculty members objected to the establishment of the chairs, saying proper procedural practices had not been followed, and alleging that DCF is affiliated with Hindu fundamentalist organizations.
Catherine Liu, a professor at UC Irvine’s Film and Media Study Department, said that due diligence was not followed in accepting the donation and that DCF had not been properly vetted. Moreover, Liu claimed, South Asian scholars at UCI were excluded from the process of consultation. She reiterated the protesting professors’ belief that many of DCF’s members have ties to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh and the Hindu Swayamsevak Sangh.
“This country has studies of most religions, but not Hinduism. We need Indian scholars to defend and create a narrative,” Ushakant Thakkar, who has helped establish a Chair in Indian Studies, said. Thakkar refuted such statements, noting that he is married to a Catholic woman, and his children practice Jainism and Buddhism.
The Thakkar Family chair was established at UCI in May 2015 in the university’s School of Humanities. Donations have also been secured to endow a chair in Jain Studies, one in Sikh Studies, as well as the Swami Vivekananda-DCF Chair in Modern India Studies. Plans are also in the works to endow a chair in Buddhist Studies and one in Parsi Studies; DCF has connected with the Godrej family to possibly fund the latter.
DCF was established in 2012 with the goal of establishing Indian religious and cultural studies at several U.S. universities. The organization was created after Shiva Bajpai, who served as professor of history and director of Asian Studies at California State University, Northridge, and psychiatrist Manohar Shinde, who was on the teaching faculty at UCLA’s School of Medicine, found there was a lot of misrepresentation of Hindus and India in current academia, and a lack of religious scholars, according to Thakkar, who serves as the chairman of DCF. Bajpai, who has a Ph.D. in ancient Indian history, has few contemporaries of his genre.
“I feel strongly violated, humiliated and discriminated against,” nephrologist Ushakant Thakkar, who gave $1 million to fund the Thakkar Family-Dharma Civilization Foundation Presidential Chair in Vedic and Indic Civilization Studies, has been reported to have told the media. “The university pursued us for two years. We never wanted to be in a place that was not receptive,” the Indian American physician added.
But shortly after the first chair was established, faculty at UC Irvine began a petition drive protesting the endowments. A total of 391 professors from UCI and other universities throughout the world have signed an online statement, which states that DCF has ties to fundamentalist groups in India, and seeks to establish its own agenda through the gift.
DCF has stipulated, however, that the chair of Vedic Studies must be held by a Hindu scholar and practitioner, and also proficient in Sanskrit as the Vedas are written in Sanskrit. DCF will take its money elsewhere, though it will be difficult to endow chairs at other universities as “the name of DCF has been tarnished as a fundamentalist organization,” said Thakkar.
HICKSVILLE, NY: Hicksville Middle School’s Meteorites robotics created last year has made tremendous progress, reaching the finals in the FIRST LEGO Robotics Competition.
The South Asian dominated team comprises: Somya Mehta, Sejal Gupta, Rishika Thayavally, Viveka Jain, Victor Lobo, Dylan Gaznabbi, Rohan Manjrekar, Esha Singh, Aniket Sonika and Jaskaran Kohli. Catherine Temps is their coach, and their mentor is Indian American Shiv Chopra, President of Hicksville High School’s robotics program. Lauren Colwell and Michael Johnson are also mentors.
The Meteorites will meet JFK middle school’s Robotic Raccoons and other teams in the finals to be held on February 28 at Longwood High School, in Suffolk County, Long Island.
This year’s tournament theme being Trash Trek, the Hicksville Meteorites team tried to solve the problem of microbeads, little plastic balls that threaten the environment. Seeking help from professors and politicians, they were able to learn more about the issue and find solutions. And of course, the team was regularly meeting for the past several months to build and program the LEGO robot to perform tasks relating to trash as required by the competition.
A rookie team, Hicksville Middle School’s Meteorites has reached the FIRST LEGO Robotics Competition. Their mentor Shiv Chopra (front row, extreme right) is President of Hicksville High School’s robotics program.
Ohio State University and Delhi-based IndoGenius have developed an online course to help students learn about the importance of India. The course, which was launched last month by Ambassador to India, Richard Verma, at the American Center in New Delhi will be delivered via the world’s largest online course platform, Coursera.
The massive open online course (MOOC) is funded through the U.S. Department of State’s Passport to India initiative, which is jointly managed by Ohio State and IndoGenius. Passport to India seeks to increase the number and diversity of American college and university students studying abroad and interning in India by 2020.
The program was launched by former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2011 to create a hub for U.S.-India higher education partnerships and to develop a stronger bond between the youth of both countries by increasing American student mobility.
“With India’s growing economy it is critical for our future leaders to understand India’s cultural, historic and economic importance in world affairs,” said William Brustein, vice provost for global strategies and international affairs at Ohio State. “Engaging young Americans to experience the depth and breadth of India firsthand will only produce stronger U.S.-India relations. For Ohio State to take a leadership role in this transformative process is an exciting and important opportunity.”
The curriculum for the course was developed by Brian Joseph, a distinguished university professor of linguistics at Ohio State and Nick Booker, co-founder of IndoGenius, and implemented through the Office of Distance Education and eLearning.
The course titled, The Importance of India, covers a broad range of topics, from India’s ancient trade relations with the Roman Empire, South East Asia and China to India’s rapidly growing startup ecosystem and its role in creatively solving global problems through technology.
The course’s final lecture is dedicated to presenting study, startup and internship opportunities in India along with references and advice for those wishing to travel to India.
By educating students about India through the online course, Ohio State and IndoGenius are hoping it will make a significant contribution toward meeting Passport to India’s goal of increasing the number of students studying abroad in India annually from its current, 4,583 to at least 10,000 in the next four years.
“India is relevant to American students of all backgrounds and interests,” said Booker of IndoGenius. “The Passport to India MOOC will demonstrate how India’s economic and civilizational re-emergence has renewed the importance of India. Take any of the grand challenges faced by the world today and if you can innovate a solution that works in India it can work anywhere.”
The course is free for anyone in the world and currently open for enrollment on coursera.org Indian students are actively encouraged to join and learn alongside their American peers. Those interested in learning more about Passport to India and its directory of 60+ study abroad and paid internship opportunities in India can do so at www.passporttoindia.com.
Rohit N. Kulkarni, senior Investigator in the Section on Islet Cell and Regenerative Biology at Joslin Diabetes Center, world-renowned for its deep expertise in diabetes treatment and research, has been named Professor of Medicine by Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Kulkarni’s research focuses on investigating signaling pathways impacting growth and function of pancreatic islet cells with the long-term goal of improving therapeutic approaches for the treatment of type 1 and type 2 diabetes and obesity-associated conditions. Dr. Kulkarni’s lab also focuses on the role of growth factor signalling in the renewal and differentiation of embryonic stem (ES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells with the aim of studying mechanisms that underlie differentiation into pancreatic endocrine cells.
“Dr. Kulkarni has made many seminal scientific discoveries throughout his career. He is internationally recognized for his work with beta cell growth and regeneration, a topic that is critical to the treatment and cure of diabetes,” said George King, M.D., Chief Scientific Officer at Joslin Diabetes Center and Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. “We are excited to have Dr. Kulkarni as a faculty member at Joslin and look forward to collaborating with him in the years to come.”
Dr. Kulkarni joined Joslin and the Harvard Medical School faculty in 1999. He has held several leadership roles at Joslin, including the Director of the Diabetes Endocrinology Research Center (DERC) Specialized Assay Core from 2002 to 2012. Currently, Dr. Kulkarni serves as the Associate Director of the induced Pluripotent Stem Cells (iPS) Core of the DRC at Joslin. In his own lab, he mentors post-doctoral fellows, graduate students and visiting scientists in addition to supervising research assistants.
Dr. Kulkarni contributes to the educational symposia organized by Joslin, the American Diabetes Association, and the JDRF in the areas of diabetes and obesity in addition to symposia organized by Harvard Stem Cell Institute in the area of stem cells and is a faculty member of the BBS Program at Harvard Medical School. He also serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Clinical Investigation, Diabetes, Endocrinology, and Journal of Biological Chemistry.
Kulkarni, an M.D. and Ph.D., received his medical degree and doctorate of philosophy from St. John’s Medical College and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School, University of London, England respectively. While pursuing his doctoral thesis on regulatory peptides modulating islet function in Sir Steve Bloom’s laboratory in England, Kulkarni trained in the Diabetes Unit at Hammersmith Hospital in London.
He moved to Boston where he obtained the F32 National Research Scholarship Award and completed a post-d fellowship in the laboratory of C. Ronald Kahn, chief academic officer and senior investigator at Joslin Diabetes Center and the Mary K. Iacocca Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Chicago IL: “The world of work has been undergoing a metamorphosis, on account of the surging tide of liberalization, privatization, and globalization. As a result, existing careers are losing their sheen and new careers are cropping up, at a mind-boggling pace. This calls for systematic, scientific, and objective career planning by youth in order to ensure that the careers that they choose are in line with these global trends”, said Hitesh Gandhi, Executive Vice President, Gandhi Samaj of Chicago (GSC) in his welcome address at the Second Annual Youth Career Planning Seminar. The event was organized by the GSC at Poplar Creek Public Library 1405 Spark Ave Streamwood IL 60107 on January 31st2016 between 1:00 and 4: 00 PM.
Continuing his address, Gandhi urged the students to consider their aptitude, debt that they are willing to carry, job prospects, and average expected salary before deciding on their majors. “It is of utmost importance to carefully consider the academic, financial, and social issues before zeroing in on the right college to pursue higher education”, he added.
Neha Gheewala, a noted IT and Financial Auditor, said that graduates with accounting major have the highest percentage of job offers, followed by economics, computer science, and engineering. He advised students to equip themselves with a degree in accounting as well as such certifications as Certified Public Accountant, Certified Management Accountant, Certified Internal Auditor, Chartered Global Management Accountant, Certified Financial Manager, Certified Fraud Examiner, Certified Government Financial Manager, Certified Financial Planner, etc. in order to take a lion’s share of emerging career opportunities.
Ashi Shah, a well-known Dentist, said that demand for qualified dentists, during 2014-’24, is expected to increase at the rate of 18%, when compared to a mere 7% in other occupations. He advised students to appear for Dental Admission Test to secure admission in a reputed School. He added that dentists can pursue higher education to become Orthodontist, Oral Surgeon, Periodontist, Prosthodontist, Endodontics, etc.
Dipesh Gandhi, Clinical Risk Manager, AMITA Health Adventist Midwest Health, stated that entry into Law School requires a good score at the Law School Admission Test. He said that in order to practice law, law graduates must successfully sit for and pass the State Bar Examination. He added that Health Law, which calls for clinical and legal experience, is very specialized area which offers career opportunities in such areas as Medical Malpractice, Medical Malpractice Defense, Corporate Transactions, Managed Care, Fraud and Abuse, etc.
Jay Gandhi, a professional Pharmacist, said that the increasing requirement for prescription medicines will lead to more demand for pharmacists in a wide range of settings, including Community Pharmacies, Hospitals, Pharmaceutical Industry, Government Departments, Academics, etc. He advised students to appear for Pharmacy College Admission Test in order to secure admission in a college of their choice.
Hiren D. Ghayal, Youth Secretary, GSC said that a graduate degree in Clinical Psychology opens a number of doors in such fields as Teaching, Research, Assessment, Treatment, Consultation Services, Clinical Supervision, etc. “One can either establish his own private practice or find well-paying jobs in Mental Health Clinics, Healthcare Service Organizations, Hospitals, Schools, Universities, etc.”, he added.
Rebecca Romero said that pursuing college education is a worthwhile proposition considering the fact that the median weekly earnings of those with bachelor degree and above was in the range of USD 1101-1591, whereas, it was as low as USD 668 for those with High School Diploma. She added that Illinois Student Assistance Commission’s Student Portal (http://www.studentportal.isac.org/) helps students with each step in the college-going process by giving them best-in-class online tools and the information they need to make smart college choices, navigate the financial aid process, and manage their money.
Anita Gajula from My College Planning Team said that those with the most knowledge often receive the most financial aid rather than those with the greatest financial need. She advised students to go through the following two books before selecting a college: “Colleges that Change Lives” by Loren Pope; “Paying for Colleges without Going Broke” by Kalman Chany.
Hary Gandhi, Joint Secretary, GSC spoke about multiple career prospects in different branches of engineering. Keith Stewart from the Princeton Review gave an overview of the two most popular standardized College Entrance Tests—ACT and SAT.
The presentations were followed by a Questions-and-Answers Session. All the speakers provided detailed answers to the questions raised by the students to their satisfaction. They shared their contact details and encouraged the students to feel free to seek their guidance as and when it is required. The event was sponsored by C2 Education, My College Planning Team, DeVry University, The Princeton Review, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, and the Poplar Creek Library. Sai Saffron, Spice Box, Asian Media USA, and TV Asia extended support, in multiple ways, in organizing the event. Ashwin Bodalia, Treasurer, GSC proposed a vote of thanks.
High school students from throughout the nation are testing their knowledge in all-things India for this year’s United States Academic Decathlon. The 2015-2016 event is still in the qualifying stage, but the underlying theme of this year’s competition is India. Teams of nine — three “A” or Honor students; three “B” or Scholastic students; and three “C” or below Varsity students — compete in 10 areas.
Among the study points the teams will be tested on include art, economics, literature, mathematics, music, science and social science. Additionally, the 10 phases will be rounded out by an essay exam, as well as speech and interview events.
All the tests have India as the backdrop. For example, questions in literature will be focused on India-based literature, or Indian economics. The culmination of the decathlon is a Super Quiz relay, including multiple-choice questions from art, economics, literature, music, science and social science. One team will represent their state for the Decathlon. The event is scheduled to take place April 28 through April 30 in Anchorage, Alaska.
The University of Chicago, has established the Anupama and Guru Ramakrishnan Professorship in Sanskrit Studies with a $3.5 million gift from Guru and Anupama Ramakrishnan. The Chair supports a faculty member whose work focuses on the ancient classical language. Gary Tubb, professor in South Asian Languages and Civilizations and faculty director of the University’s Delhi branch, will be the first scholar to hold the new position, according to an announcement January 26th.
With this new initiative, the University already known for its strong South Asia studies department, has added a new chair to fund the study of Sanskrit. Guru Ramakrishnan, MBA’88, is a founding partner at Meru Capital Group; Anupama Ramakrishnan is on the advisory board of the Agastya Foundation, a Bangalore-based NGO that funds and operates educational programs in rural India. They also support a scholarship program for Indian students at Chicago Booth School of Business.
This year, the Department of South Asian Languages and Civilizations is celebrating its 50th anniversary, and the Committee on Southern Asian Studies marks its 60th year at the university in 2016 and several events are planned in April. Considered the oldest literary language of South Asia, Sanskrit is also the longest continuously taught South Asian language at UChicago, offered at the University since 1892.
“Sanskrit really stands out among the world’s languages – alongside other classical languages – as being a single language that provides access to an extraordinarily broad range of texts and histories,” Tubb is quoted saying. He is the author of Scholastic Sanskrit: A Handbook for Students, and several other books.
“We are delighted to fund this chair in Sanskrit – one of the oldest languages that has given the world the Vedas, Upanishads and other exceptional works of spirituality, poetry, music and dance,” the Ramakrishnans are quoted saying.
We are thrilled that Professor Tubb will be the first chair, especially in light of his lifelong dedication and passion for Sanskrit. Most importantly, the University of Chicago’s long-term commitment to scholarship in Sanskrit made it our institution of choice to partner with on this important initiative,” they added.
New York, NY; January 24, 2016: Fourteen Indian-American students have been selected to compete for $1 million in prizes at the prestigious Intel Science Talent Search Competition this year by fielding high-level projects ranging from cancer vaccines to complex mathematical theories.
They are among the 40 US high school students who made it to the finals of the competition sponsored by Intel Corporation and conducted by the Society for Science & the Public.
Announcing finalists chosen from among 300 semi-finalists from across the nation Jan. 20, the president of the society, Maya Ajmera, said, “Finalists of the Intel Science Talent Search are the innovators of the future.”
“Their research projects range from highly theoretical basic research to innovative practical applications aimed at solving the most vexing problems,” she added.
Last year an Indian-American won second place medal and two others, third place medals in the competition. The finalists will travel to Washington in March for the competition that will award a total of more that $1 million in prizes from the Intel Foundation.
The previous winners of the Science Talent Search competition include 12 Nobel laureates, two Fields Medals awardees and 18 MacArthur Foundation “Genius” Fellows. One of the MacArthur fellows is computer scientist Maneesh Agrawala, a 1990 Science Talent Search finalist.
Indians traditionally form one of the biggest ethnic contigents at the competition. Although the last time an Indian won the top prize was in 2012 when Nithin Reddy Tumma received it for cancer research, every year Indians have been winning other prizes. Last year, Saranesh (Saran) Thanika Prembabu won a second place medal and Shashwat Kishore, and Anvita Gupta were awarded third place medals.
Washington, DC: January 24, 2016: Howard County Public School System in the state of Maryland, has unanimously voted to add Diwali, Eid al-Adha and Chinese Lunar New Year’s Eve in the school holiday calendar, for the first time in the school system’s history.
Indian-American community hailed the decision by Howard County Public School System, which manages 71 schools and serves nearly 50,000 students, as “historic”. “I am extremely pleased by the Board’s ability to discuss and unanimously agree to seek ways to recognise the diverse backgrounds of Howard County’s students and families,” Board of Education Chairwoman Christine O’Connor said in a statement after the eight member board unanimously supported such a motion. “We want to do our best to find flexibility within the calendar to provide opportunities for all students to experience all cultures within our community,” O’Connor said.
The motion in this regard as proposed by board member Janet Siddiqui. “By taking this vote, the Howard County Board of Education has shown a great way forward in acknowledging diverse religious holidays without violating the spirit of church-state separation,” said Murali Balaji education director of Hindu American Foundation.
HAF and Chinmaya Mission started a petition that collected over 250 signatures in under three weeks, while the Board received nearly 500 emails from parents asking for inclusion of Diwali.
Indian Students at Centennial High School (ISAC) also collected and submitted signatures for the effort, said Balaji, who along with several Chinmaya Mission members, testified at the Board’s hearing last month.
“This vote is proof that it is indeed possible to accommodate the religious needs of multiple faith communities in diverse school districts,” said Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) Maryland Outreach Manager Zainab Chaudry, who has submitted testimony on the holiday inclusion issue.
“Religious pluralism is the hallmark of an integrated and inclusive society. We see that reflected in the Howard County Board of Education’s decision,” Chaudry said. According to Baltimore Sun, as of the 2014-2015 school year, 42 percent of Howard County students were white, 22 percent were black, 19 percent were Asian, nine percent were Hispanic and six percent were of two or more races. The school system does not record the religious backgrounds of its students, it said.
A controversy over $1.5 million donation by the Dharma Civilization Foundation to University of California at Irvine’s School of Humanities started last week with more than 350, including varsity students, signing an online petition questioning the non-profit’s motive behind the gift.
The petitioners questioned the donations by the foundation, saying they are worried that it might be an attempt to exert too much influence over hiring and may be pressuring professors.
The university announced the setting up of three new endowed chairs in October last year with the help of donations including from DCF. It said that the chairs will be named the Dhan Kaur Sahota Presidential Chair in Sikh Studies, Shri Parshvanath Presidential Chair in Jain Studies, and Swami Vivekananda-Dharma Civilization Foundation Presidential Chair in Modern India Studies.
The setting up of the chairs is aimed at expanding UCI’s scholarship in South Asian religions and culture. An Orange County Register report said quoting the vice president of the foundation that the current controversy is a “tempest in a teapot.”
“This petition has regrettably cast aspersions and doubt on the motivations and intentions of the Dharma Civilization Foundation” Kalyan Viswanathan, executive vice president of DCF, was quoted as saying.
It also said that the organization “rejects the accusations put forth both by the petition and the people who have endorsed it as false and having little basis in fact.”
The foundation’s objective is to simply “find safe academic environments for the accurate and respectful study of the Dharma traditions of India” in the U.S., including Hinduism, Indian Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism,” DCF was quoted as saying.
One of the criticisms against the foundation was that it brought prospective candidates to campus – which struck some as over-the-line. “DCF acknowledges that for members of the University faculty to engage with potential candidates for these proposed chairs through informal contact, at an early stage when the chairs have not yet been approved, and the faculty search committees have not yet been constituted could have given the appearance of an intent to exercise undue influence in the selection process,” Viswanathan was quoted as saying in a letter. “DCF had no such intentions, and regrets that some of its actions may have been cause for such misunderstanding.”
Some faculty members like Catherine Liu, a media studies professor in UCI’s School of Humanities, were, however, not convinced by DCF’s line of argument, saying that UCI is a secular, public university and does not teach faith-based scholarship.
“I don’t know what this scholar/practitioner line is – but DCF is implying that only a Hindu can teach Hinduism. We are not a seminary. I don’t think they understand that and I don’t think the Dean has communicated to them the nature of the academic enterprise,” Liu was quoted as saying.
UCI is still reviewing the gifts, and no decisions have been made yet, said university spokeswoman Cathy Lawhon.
Indra K. Nooyi, CEO and chairman of PepsiCo and a 1980 graduate of Yale University, made a landmark gift to endow the deanship of the School of Management
With the gift, the amount of which was not divulged by the university, Nooyi becomes the most generous graduate of Yale School of Management in terms of lifetime giving to the school. She is also the first woman to endow the deanship at a top business school, Yale said in a press release.
Nooyi has previously made substantial contributions to the construction of Edward P. Evans Hall at the Yale School of Management, including gifts to name the Nooyi Classroom and the Isaacson Classroom in memory of Professor Larry Isaacson. With her latest gift of the deanship, she also inaugurated the Fifth Decade Innovation Fund, named in recognition of the school entering its fifth decade.
“My experience at the Yale School of Management forever altered the course of my life,” Nooyi is quoted saying. “My gift to this wonderful institution pales in comparison with the gift that Yale gave me—the fundamental understanding that leadership requires an expansive worldview and a deep appreciation of the many points of intersection between business and society.”
She said she hoped the endowment will teach future generations of leaders that the most successful companies of tomorrow will do more than make money. “They will make a difference and create shareholder value by improving the quality of life in every market in which they operate,” she said.
PepsiCo is the second largest food and beverage company in the world. Nooyi, 60, has been the CEO of PepsiCo since 2006, and chairman since 2007. She is the chief architect of “Performance with Purpose,” the company’s promise to deliver top-tier financial performance integrating sustainability into its business strategy, the company bio says. Under her watch the company diversified its product line so that today, less than 25 percent of its global revenue is derived from carbonated soft drinks and approximately 20 percent comes from the company’s nutrition businesses. She has also promoted environmental sustainability in business practices, leading to reducing the company’s use of water by 23 percent and improving energy efficiency by 16 percent, according to the release.
Born in Chennai, then Madras, Nooyi studied at Madras Christian College, graduating with a degree in chemistry, physics and math. She studied at the Indian Institute of Management, Calcutta, before attending Yale. Considered among America’s top corporate visionaries, Nooyi was appointed to the U.S.-India CEO Forum by President Obama. She is also a member of the Foundation Board of the World Economic Forum and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences. She is married to Raj Nooyi, a management consultant, and the couple has two daughters, Tara and Preetha. Nooyi lives in Greenwich, Connecticut.
Prior to joining PepsiCo in 1994, Nooyi worked in senior roles at Asea Brown Boveri, Motorola, and the Boston Consulting Group. She serves as a member of the boards of U.S.-China Business Council, U.S.-India Business Council, the Consumer Goods Forum, Catalyst, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, and Tsinghua University. She is a past member of the Yale Corporation, the top governing board and policy-making body for the university. She is also a member of the, and was
The Carnegie Endowment for International Peace has announced that Carnegie India, its sixth international center, will open in April 2016. Based in New Delhi, Carnegie India will produce high-quality public policy research about critical national, regional, and global issues. As with Carnegie’s centers in Beijing, Beirut, Brussels, Moscow, and Washington, Carnegie India will be staffed and led by local experts who will collaborate extensively with colleagues around the world.
Raja Mohan will serve as the founding director of Carnegie India. Mohan has been a nonresident senior associate at Carnegie since 2012, as well as a distinguished fellow at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi, and a visiting research professor at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. He also served as a member of India’s National Security Advisory Board. From 2009 to 2010, Mohan was the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the U.S. Library of Congress. Previously, he was a professor of South Asian studies at the Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi and the Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore. He is a columnist for the Indian Express and previously worked as the diplomatic editor and Washington correspondent of the Hindu.
“I am deeply honored to serve as the center’s founding director and to work even more closely with longtime Carnegie colleagues across the world. I look forward to the center contributing to India’s rich intellectual tradition through the in-depth, nonpartisan research of our scholars,” Mohan said. “I am confident that Carnegie India will add to Carnegie’s global reputation for quality, integrity, and independence.”
The center’s research and programmatic focus will include the political economy of reform in India, foreign and security policy, and the role of innovation and technology in India’s internal transformation and international relations. It will build on decades of scholarship on India and South Asia across Carnegie’s programs, in particular the work of Vice President for Studies George Perkovich, Senior Associate Ashley J. Tellis, and Associate Milan Vaishnav, while placing special emphasis on developing a cadre of young, up-and-coming Indian scholars.
Shivnath Thukral will serve as Carnegie India’s managing director. He was group president of corporate branding and strategic initiatives at Essar, a $35 billion corporation. He spent fifteen years as a TV anchor and business analyst for India’s premier English TV news channel New Delhi Television, and was managing editor of the business television news channel NDTV Profit. A graduate of the Delhi School of Economics, he interned at the U.S. Senate and was awarded the Eisenhower Fellowship in 2012.
The center’s creation has been supported by Carnegie India’s Founders Committee, a group of Indian and international donors co-chaired by former cabinet secretary and Indian ambassador to the United States, Naresh Chandra, and former United States ambassador to India, Frank Wisner.
“On behalf of the entire Founders Committee, we want to congratulate Carnegie on the formal launch of Carnegie India,” said ambassadors Chandra and Wisner. “India—with its strategic partnership with the United States and its growing role in the Asia-Pacific and around the world—is a significant development on the international landscape and a natural area of focus for Carnegie.”
President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Williams J. Burns, said, “We are very proud to add Carnegie India to Carnegie’s network of international centers. We are especially proud to have Raja Mohan serve as its founding director and grateful for the generous support of our donors and Founders Committee members that made this milestone possible.”
It has been announced that Dell has awarded AIF a multi-year grant to support our Digital Equalizer (DE) program. Aiming to impact 61,000 students and 2,500 teachers in four states, this generous grant will help bridge India’s educational and digital divide and bring technology literacy and 21st century skills to more young people in the country. Since 2007, Dell has been a staunch supporter of our Digital Equalizer program.
With 70% of India’s one million public schools lacking basic computing technology, the country is facing significant challenges to prepare its youth for success in the global economy. Since 2002, Digital Equalizer has been bringing technology to schools across India and utilizing technology to transform teaching and learning into a collaborative, project-based approach. The program is creating public education reform by targeting under-resourced government schools. This approach helps teachers to be more effective while motivating and inspiring students to continue their education and open doors of opportunity to higher education and career success. To date, the program has touched the lives of over 1 million children.
The grant from Dell will create impact in the various ways that includes having training & resource centers with state-of-the-art technology, offering professional development to school administrators, and enriching math, science, and social science content. As India’s economy continues to grow, it is vital that the country’s youth have access to technology and are better prepared for the job market.
Cyber Security market, currently at $1 billion, is expected to grow to $35 billion by 2025. The demand for skilled professionals in the space is very high. In this context, PricewaterCooper India and NIIT University (NU) have entered into a strategic partnership for creating a trained talent pool of cyber security professionals in India. For this purpose, academic experts from the university and senior professionals from PwC India have co-created a two-year work-integrated specialised master’s programme in cyber security.
“In today’s digitised environment securing our cyberspace has become a priority for businesses and citizens across the world,” said Rajendra S Pawar, chairman NIIT group. “This calls for a team of trained professionals who are equipped to combat the challenges that are posed by hackers every day.A Our partnership with PwC India is a step in that direction,” he added.
The program blends academic and professional education and industry-led research in the cyber security space is the key driver in the curriculum. “Cyber security is a major focus area and the growth driver for PwC India. With this programme with NU, PwC India is collaborating with academia to bring industry-ready talent into the market, readily employable with required customised skills set,” said Deepak Kapoor, chairman, PwC India.
The number of foreign students who have come to India in 2012 was 76,753 which rose to 93,693 in 2013, according to records of the Ministry of Home Affairs. “More number of foreign students came to India this year with the highest draw from Malaysia followed by Afghanistan and Bangladesh,” India’s Human Resources Department Minister Smriti Irani has said. Irani, while replying to a written question in Lok Sabha, also said, there is no definite trend about the number of foreign students coming to the country.
Dipping by almost half, a total of 44,620 foreign students came to India last year. The figures, however, rose to 66,885 in 2015. Maximum of 6,471 students came to India from Malaysia followed by 5,605 from Afghanistan and 5,431 from Bangladesh, respectively. Other countries from which over 2,000 students came to India last year included Sudan, Yemen, Thailand, Sri Lanka Iran, Iraq, Nigeria and Korea.
His is a story straight out of a dream, and has reached a shimmering chrome. Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai, shot to fame when he became the CEO of tech giant Google in August. Earlier, while heading Google’s products division, his vision of a separate browser (Chrome) impressed the then CEO Eric Schmidt. Pichai joined Google in 2004 and rose to the top. He was also a potential candidate for the top jobs at Microsoft and Twitter as well.
Hailing from a middle-class Chennai family, Pichai earned a Mettalurgical Engineering degree from IIT Kharagpur, an MS from Stanford University and an MBA from Wharton School of University of Pennsylvania. Prior to joining Google, he worked with Applied Materials and McKinsey & Company. But his love for math, science and software took him to the Silicon Valley. By his own admission, as a child, Pichai was an average student and didn’t score high grades that would have fetched him a seat at one of Delhi’s top colleges. His engineer father earned Rs 3,000 a month in the 70s; Pichai’s annual package from Google is $50 million.
Sundar Pichai had a hall full of students from Delhi University’s Shri Ram College of Commerce eating out of his hands. From software to India’s education system, T20 cricket to Lionel Messi, India’s biggest success story in Silicon Valley took a range of questions from students, teachers and social media users during his maiden visit to India since becoming Google’s CEO.
Referring to India’s educational system as “strong”, Sunder Pichai pointed out that “to move forward, creativity is an important attribute.” He added that students in the US have a more practical approach, compared to India where things are rather methodical. “In the US, education is experiential, very hands on. People learn to do things, project-based experiential learning. Teach students to take risks. System shouldn’t penalise students for taking risks.”
Pichai said it was a global phenomenon but significantly pronounced in India. “It is global problem. Less than one third in usage in rural areas. Most women in rural areas don’t think the internet applies to them. The most important thing we can do is to bring them online.”
Google’s public Wi-Fi project in India will be the largest rollout of public internet anywhere on the globe, he said. “We are very excited about the public Wi-Fi project. (It is the) largest such project in the world, covering 400 railway stations. Reason why we are doing it is, in India when you bring access to the Internet, it changes people’s lives.” The Google CEO recalled how he used to travel by train from Chennai to IIT Kharagpur and would be more concerned of getting food on his train rather than internet!
On a question why Android updates are named only after western desserts (a question he must have faced many times before) Pichai said he is open to the idea and may even do an online poll on it and it may become a reality. He was responding to a question from the audience. Pichai isn’t big on sweets though, and recalled how in his childhood he would add “sambhar” to his “payasam”!
On the difference between the startup space in India and the Silicon Valley in the US, Pichai said he pleasantly surprised to find a similar wave of growth in India. He said the quality of ideas by Indian startup founders is the same as that of entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley and that India is well positioned to become the Silicon Valley of the East. “India has an unique opportunity. All the relevant things are already here. Very well positioned in that sense.I don’t see any difference between entrepreneurs here and the Silicon Valley”, he said.
It turns out that the Google CEO is a huge football fan and loves FC Barcelona! Pichai revealed that he was big Barcelona and Lionel Messi fan. He also said that he loved former Indian captain Sunil Gavaskar and was there at the second tied test in Chennai back in 1986.
Project Loon will very soon be a reality in India, Pichai said, adding that “Google was in talks with telecom operators and regulatory authorities in the country to bring it to India, especially for rural areas which lagged in connectivity.” Pichai said India has been the starting point for Google on many projects. “We do thing first in India like YouTube Offline which started in India and is now in 77 countries. It is a goal to build things here. We do things we can build here at scale which will apply to the world.”
The World’s Largest Lesson is an initiative by Project Everyone, an organisation conceived by Writer, Director, Comic Relief Cofounder &UN SDG Advocate Richard Curtis to make the Global Goals famous, so that they stand the greatest chance of being achieved. Speaking about the launch of World’s Largest Lesson India, he said, “We are delighted to launch the World’s Largest Lesson India and are grateful to our foundingpartner GEMS Education for making this happen. We are overwhelmed with the incredible support of partners such asReliance Group, tGELF, the very talented Sonam Kapoor and countless others for helping us to engage children inthe Global Goals.
