Vivek Maru chief executive officer of Washington, D.C.-based Namati, which works to protect community lands, enforce environmental law, and secure basic rights to health care and citizenship around the world; Mallika Dutt, president and CEO, and Sonali Khan, vice president, of Breakthrough, which mobilizes communities to disavow discrimination and violence against women through the use of popular media, leadership training, and advocacy are among the six who have been named recipients of the 2016 Skoll Awards for Social Entrepreneurship.
The three Indian Americans received the coveted award at a special ceremony April 14. The award allots $1.25 million to an organization to scale up its work and increase its impact. The Skoll Foundation has announced the annual awards provide unrestricted funding to social entrepreneurs and organizations that are driving large-scale social change and are poised to have an even greater impact on some of the world’s most pressing problems. This year, the awardees will receive $1.25 million each over three years to scale their work.
Chuck Slaughter, founder of Living Goods, which works to support networks of village health entrepreneurs who go door-to-door teaching families better health practices while selling basic health products; Oren Yakobovich CEO of Videre, which gives local activists equipment, training, and the support needed to safely capture footage of human rights violations and distributes the results strategically with the aim of influencing media, political leaders, and courts; and Bryan Stevenson of the Equal Justice Initiative, which seeks to reform the criminal justice system and secure freedom for those unjustly imprisoned in the United States, were the others who have been honored with the awards.
“Each 2016 Skoll Award recipient is guided by a profound commitment to justice and a deep sense of compassion,” said Sally Osberg, president and CEO of the Skoll Foundation. “These social entrepreneurs know that injustice robs the disadvantaged of opportunities and hope, and that justice represents a human need as fundamental as food or shelter. It is their hunger for justice that has fueled their work to transform the lives of those who have been denied justice by building new systems and institutions to strengthen societies.”
“These social entrepreneurs know that injustice robs the disadvantaged of opportunities and hope, and that justice represents a human need as fundamental as food or shelter. It is their hunger for justice that has fueled their work to transform the lives of those who have been denied justice by building new systems and institutions to strengthen societies,” said Osberg.
As we work to challenge gender norms and envision a world in which gender-based violence is unacceptable, we are grateful to partners like the Skoll Foundation who recognize innovation and invest in it,” said Mallika Dutt, president and CEO of Breakthrough, in a press statement. “When we come together and pool resources we can dismantle rigid gender norms and create the culture change that will allow us all to reach our full potential.”
Breakthrough works to combat gender-based violence by shifting the focus to prevention and transforming the societal and cultural norms that lead to inequality and violence, noted the organization. Breakthrough uses innovative media and cultural strategies to engage youth and young adults.
The organization has reached 15 million people in rural communities in India and 350 million through its media campaigns, and has contributed to raising the average age of marriage by nearly a year in Bihar and Jharkhand, India.
Breakthrough will use its Skoll grant of $1.25 million to expand its work on 500 college campuses in the U.S. In India, Breakthrough will use Skoll Award funding to engage an audience of 150 million through multiple media channels and increase partnerships with states and advocates at the state and national level.
Vivek Maru founded Namati in 2011 to lend structure to billions of people globally who live outside the protection of the law. They can be driven from their land, extorted by officials, and intimidated by violence. Maru founded Namati to place the power of the law in the hands of the people.
Namati trains and deploys grassroots legal advocates who work with communities to advance justice. The organization trains “community paralegals” who serve low-income people in rural areas to gain access to their legal rights. Together with its partners, Namati has supported more than 40,000 clients in eight countries to protect community lands, enforce environmental law, and secure basic rights to healthcare and citizenship.
“(The award) is a generous recognition of the legal empowerment movement. We hope to use this opportunity to raise the profile of legal empowerment with a wider community of allies and supporters,” said Maru in a press statement. According to Sally Osberg, “These six remarkable people give voice and agency to the voiceless and marginalized, and give us good reason to believe in a radically better future.”
“He (Dr. Muhammed Majeed) came as an immigrant to the United States with $8 dollars in his pocket; his ambition was to work and study – both of which he did. His business commitment was very clear, make the best ingredients, give the absolute best service and make sure it’s based on real science,” Shaheen Majeed, Sabinsa’s Marketing Director, described proudly of his dad recently.
Dr. Muhammed Majeed, founder of SAMI/Sabinsa Group of Companies, was born and raised in Kerala, India. He has been a visionary with zeal and commitment all along. It was his urge to establish himself not just as a scientist but also an entrepreneur that made him fly beyond his home turf. In 1975, after obtaining a degree in pharmacy, he came to the United States, where he earned a Master’s Degree in Industrial Pharmacy from Long Island University, New York, and soon he proceeded to do his doctoral degree in the same field from St John’s University, New York.
His experiences working in Pfizer Inc, Carter-Wallace and Paco Research, gave him the exposure and confidence to start something all by himself. In 1988, Dr. Majeed established Sabinsa Corporation in the state of New Jersey, USA with the objective of importing and marketing generic drugs into the US for the drug molecules coming off patents.
Dr. Majeed rightly anticipated and assessed the undeveloped market opportunity that existed in providing Ayurveda-based products to the developed world. “The vision of a research scientist takes on social and commercial expressions.” This in short explains the genesis and growth of Sami Labs Limited.
Dr. Muhammed Majeed
Dr. Majeed was a pioneer in introducing to the US market a new line of products based on Indian herbal plants, the value of Ayurveda, and this ancient Indian system of medicine that could act as a complete curative to various ailments that affect humanity. The persistent efforts made by Dr. Majeed in the early 90’s in the field of Ayurveda did reap benefits among the Americans. They started recognizing the potential of Ayurveda which was soon considered as Alternative medicine. By 2000 it became popularly accepted as Complementary medicine and now it is part of the Integrated medicine.
To facilitate the increased demand for innovative application-based products, Sami Labs Limited (formerly known as Sami Chemicals & Extracts Limited) was set up in 1991 at Singasandra in Bangalore, India, as a research and development facility. The facility now has over 500 talented and committed staff working for the company. Sami Labs combines manufacturing and global marketing of nutraceuticals and fine chemicals with cutting edge research. Although the transition from a researcher to heading a marketing company was a tremendous challenge, Dr. Majeed handled it successfully. Sabinsa Corporation, the research oriented pharmaceutical and nutraceutical marketing company’s main thrust and focus is to research and innovate new products.
Sabinsa’s mission is to provide alternative and complementary natural products for human nutrition and wellbeing. Over the past 27 years, Sabinsa has brought to market more than 100 standardized botanical extracts, and privately funded clinical studies in conjunction with prestigious institutions in support of these products.
Sabinsa Corporation manufactures and markets phytonutrients, Ayurvedic herbal extracts and specialty fine chemicals for nutritional, pharmaceutical and food industries. Sabinsa has carved a niche for itself by its extensive research support for its customers about products, and the scientific credentials of its key technical staff.
Dr. Majeed in the lab
The company grew faster and has made its presence felt across the globe. In order to cater to the expanding global market, Sami Labs has presence and strategic alliances in USA, Europe, Japan, Australia, Middle East, South Africa, China, Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea and Indonesia. The global revenue of the company stood at USD 70 million (for 2015), with an employee strength of 150 people globally, more than 750 in India alone, and having over 110 scientists worldwide. At present, the New Jersey based firm employs over 60 people.
Both QUALITY and INNOVATION were and continues to be the key components that resulted in awards. In addition, Sami pioneered the research and marketing of a number of phytonutrients based on Indian raw materials.
“It is my firm belief that integration of modern scientific techniques into Ayurvedic herbal armamentarium can produce new drug molecules for India and for the world,” Dr. Majeed says. “A revisit into Ayurveda with the help of modern scientific approach from pharmaceutical era can produce very useful and safe products. Drug discovery from Ayurveda using technologies developed in the pharmaceutical era, can result in substantial number of newer molecules for modern therapeutic use.”
According to him, there is a greater need to adopt the modern testing and evaluation tools to identify useful herbal drug molecules. “I call upon all established Ayurvedic groups in India to work with research based groups such as Sami Labs to develop innovative therapeutic products for the molecular age. We at Sami Labs welcome such initiatives,” he says.
Recognizing the many challenges the herbal industry faces today, Dr. Majeed says, “Natural product industry is facing its biggest challenge now. On top of the misguided genomic testing, we are now faced with adulteration of natural products especially Curcumin. Those of us who have spent our careers making and selling products to improve the health of our fellow human beings know that those writing and saying dietary supplements are either dangerous, unregulated or have no benefit are mistaken, and most of the criticism is unfounded.”
Recognizing the importance of respecting and honoring Intellectual Property, which he believes is essential for continued innovation, Dr. Majeed refers to a new threat that “must be stamped out to preserve the integrity of the industry and safety of the products we all make.” He was alarmed, for instance that a company selling Curcumin extract in India for export to the US was adulterating their product with 43% synthetic curcumin, but not revealing the synthetic contents. He calls upon the trade associations and all companies committed to the future of the industry “to work together to discover how widespread this deceptive practice is, and to take action to weed it out.”
Dr. Majeed believes that Sabinsa is not alone in being dedicated to providing high quality, science-based products to enhance human health and wellbeing, and “I call on like-minded companies and the industry’s trade associations to weed out those companies and practices that undermine quality and erode confidence in the entire industry.”
Recognitions and awards came on its way, as Sami Labs and its dedicated staff work hard to innovate and find new natural remedies to prevent and manage the illnesses that affect humanity. Sami Lab’s investment in research and patents, and the pivotal role of these efforts in garnering credibility for scientifically validated ingredients, is a case in point. “For example, our BioPerine® patent brought out the concept that it is not what you eat, but what you absorb that is important in the area of nutrition,” Dr. Majeed says. This formed the basis of a fundamental paradigm shift in how we approach supplementation. Numerous scientific publications in subsequent years validated this concept.
Among the 110 patents now held by Sabinsa and Sami Labs, seven are specific to an ingredient the company trademarked as BioPerine®, Sabinsa’s standardized 95% piperine extract that has been shown in clinical research to increase the absorption of nutrients in nutritional supplement formulations.
After a sizable investment of time and resources, we determined that a 95% purified piperine extracted from pepper was able to enhance the absorption and bioavailability of a large array of dietary ingredients, safely and effectively. The enormous investment Sabinsa made has resulted in seven patents on BioPerine®, with its clearly novel use and process. These patents are strictly enforced in the United States (US 5,536,506; US 5,744,161; US 5,972,382; US 6,054,585), Canada (CA2247467), Europe (EP0810868) and Japan (JP3953513).
Today, black pepper extract is a relatively well known ingredient in nutritional supplement formulas as a bioavailability enhancement ingredient. Prior to Sabinsa’s introduction of BioPerine®, it was unheard of.
Dr. Majeed has provided a service for an untold number of future scientists and entrepreneurs. Not satisfied with his success, Dr. Majeed wanted to share his wealth with those in need and wanted to encourage true research around the world. Dr. Majeed Foundation, which he has so generously established, gives charitable contributions to schools and institutions worldwide by providing computers and rebuilding lecture halls, has recently taken on a mission to provide care to children with cancer.
SAMI’s research based new products picked up recognition from Governments across the world and several in the industry from around the world. Sami received the National award for quality products from the President of India in the area of Basic Drugs. Sami Labs was also honored twice by the Spices Board of India, receiving one award for developing a market for Garcinia cambogia and the other for export performance.
In 1997, Sabinsa Corporation had been ranked America’s 90th fastest growing company by INC. Magazine. Sabinsa also ranked 7th in New Jersey among the fastest growing Technology based companies (New Jersey Fast 50).
In early 1999, Sami Labs started a division called Sami Spices based at Cochin, India to promote procurement and marketing of spices. Sami Labs, Ltd. was named “Best Innovation and Technology Company” at the Food 360° Conference organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).
Dr. Majeed received awards from several Indian American groups for his enterprising work and progress. He also received the 1996 Entrepreneur of the year award by the National Federation of Asian Americans. Sami Labs recently received the “Best Customer Centric Business Partner for 2012” award from Abbott Healthcare. The award was related to Sami Labs supplying ingredients to Abbott for their product MelaGlow New, an innovative depigmentation cream formulated using Sami’s ingredients.
Dr. Majeed was given the Daniel B. Stateman Award for Distinguished Alumni from Dr. David Taft at Long Island University’s 121st Graduation ceremony in Brooklyn, New York in 2010.
The Ellis Island Medal of Honor, which is sanctioned by the U.S. Congress, symbolizes the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity. It recognizes those who have made it their mission to share with those less fortunate their wealth of knowledge, indomitable courage, boundless compassion, unique talents and selfless generosity; all while maintaining the traditions of their ethnic heritage as they uphold the ideals and spirit of America. Dr. Majeed was presented with the medal at a gala event held on May 15th, 2004, on Ellis Island, New York.
In March 2016, Dr. Majeed was honored for his pioneering role in building the nutraceuticals industry when he was inducted into the Hall Of Legends at Natural Products Expo West on in Anaheim California by New Hope Network, which honors the industry’s greatest contributors each year in the Hall of Legends ceremony, with “12 individuals who have devoted significant portions of their lives making this industry what it is today.”
In presenting the award, Fred Linder, New Hope Network Group President, said “Dr. Muhammed Majeed is, quietly, a groundbreaking figure in the nutritional and cosmeceutical ingredients industries. As the founder of both Sabinsa Corporation and Sami Labs, his commitment to utilizing science to discover why traditional Indian herbs are beneficial and then expand their applications has resulted in an array of unique branded ingredients backed by over 100 patents across the globe.”
“It is gratifying to have our dedication to innovation recognized by our peers,” says Dr. Majeed. “We appreciate such recognition of our talented, highly educated and proficient team.”
With more than 100 full-time scientists conducting ongoing research in India and the United States, Sabinsa and parent company Sami Labs Ltd. continue to develop, patent and manufacture phytonutrients for the world market, with ingredients that are both Halal and Kosher certified. Sabinsa is a company dedicated to the principles of tradition, innovation and research. Sabinsa’s efforts have begun to earn the company vast recognition, in addition to growing sales. Dr. Muhammed Majeed worked hard with confidence. His highly successful life story inspires all who are ambitious, want to dream big and work hard earnestly to make those dreams come true. For more information, visit www.sabinsa.com.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of the world’s greatest leaders. The list of Fortune’s World’s 50 Greatest Leaders for the year 2016 features men and women from across the world who have excelled in business, government, philanthropy and arts, transforming and inspiring the world to repeat their feat. The third annual list was announced March 24th.
Fortune has listed Arvind Kejriwal as the 42nd in the list and is the only Indian name to make it to the list. Another person of Indian origin to make it to the list is the Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley, with a rank of 17. And the only other Indian American politician and lawyer Reshma Saujani, based in New York, has also made it to the list at the 20th spot.
The Fortune list sought outstanding leaders in all sectors of society around the world. It recognized those who are inspiring others to act, to follow them on a worthy quest and who have shown staying power.
According to Fortune, Kejriwal, the founder of the Aam Aadmi Party, has worked towards controlling the pollution of one of the busiest metros of India through the odd-even scheme, which has taken a toll on his popularity back in India.
Fortune said “When Kejriwal unveiled a blueprint to tackle the smog in New Delhi — called the world’s most polluted city by the World Health Organization — many were sceptical. A key component: an ‘odd-even’ pilot project in which vehicles were allowed on the roads only on alternate days.”
It also added “The uplifting result of the pilot this January: roads were less clogged, hourly particulate air pollution concentrations dropped by 13 percent, and citizens could breathe deeply.” It also said that the leadership is not just demagoguery, pandering, even populism but the way normal citizens work towards making a change in the life of fellow beings in a way people have never imagined.
The US-based magazine said in a reference to Kejriwal and Domenico Lucano, the Mayor of the Italian town of Riace, who was ranked 40th on the list that when the Delhi Chief Minister risked his career to fight pollution, the Italian mayor showed example by welcoming Middle East migrants to his tiny town—improving its economy and brightening their prospects.
Fortune highlighted the summer of 2015, following the massacre of nine people in a Charleston, S.C., church, when Haley was instrumental in the removal of the Confederate flag from the state capitol grounds. That removal sparked a movement throughout the South to remove the charged symbol, Fortune said. It added that the Republican Haley “is proving that Trumpism isn’t the only way. South Carolina’s Indian American governor was among the earliest in her party to call out GOP presidential front-runner (Donald Trump), warning against ‘the siren call of the angriest voices’— in a nationally televised State of the Union response, no less.”
Reshma Saujani, Founder and CEO, Girls Who Code, that works to close the gender gap in technology has been listed in as the 20th in the list. The 40-year old former Wall Street attorney has given training and internship programs for more than 40,000 girls. In a TED talk in February, which has since accrued more than 800,000 views, Saujani stressed teaching girls to be brave rather than perfect.
Also in the list is Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who according to Fortune is the only female leader among the Organization of Islamic Cooperation member states. “Hasina has deftly navigated the competing demands of Islamic tradition and women’s rights,” says Fortune.
Amazon CEO Bezo topped this year’s list and has been consistently featuring in all three years since Fortune started listing the World’s Greatest Leaders. Pope Francis is listed at the 4th position followed by Apple CEO Tim Cook. The list includes names of German Chancellor Angela Merkel (2), Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi at (3), US astronaut Scott Kelly and Russian cosmonaut Mikhail Kornienko (22), IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde (36), Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation Co-chair and CEO Melinda Gates and Susan Desmond-Hellmann (41), Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (48) and Bhutanese Prime Minister Tshering Tobgay (50).
While introducing the 50 greatest leaders, Fortune wrote: “The leaders you’ll meet here, known and new, will lift your mood and upgrade your assessment of the world’s future. Some may inspire you to join their followers. And those unheard-ofs, so seemingly ordinary, may even prompt you to rethink your own potential as an inspiring leader.”
I have a B.E in Electronics & Communications engineering from NIT Trichy (1977) and a M.S in Computer Science from Southern Illinois University, Carbondale (1984).
I have learnt Carnatic Music for a few years and also co-founded the San Francisco Bay Area Light Music group ‘Pallavi’ in 1996. We have performed in over 30 events in several languages all over California.
My Uncle Mr. P. Balasubramaniam was a Rotarian and he used to volunteer at the Sankara Eye Hospital, Coimbatore. He was after me and my brother K. Sridharan since 1996 to start the Sankara Eye Foundation, USA (SEF) to support the Hospital in Coimbatore. I was very reluctant as we did not have much time and I thought that our friends and others would run away from us if we start asking them for donations. We stopped calling our uncle, as he will surely ask about starting Sankara Eye Foundation. Uncle was persistent and will not let it go. Sridharan visited the Hospital in 1997 and came back very inspired and we decided to start SEF. Sridharan’s neighbor Ahmad Khushnood Qazi of Lahore is a CPA and he helped with the 501c-3 papers and the three of us founded SEF in May 1998.
In the first year we hand wrote personal appeals to around 100 of our friends and we raised around $8,000. We organized our first fundraiser on April 3, 1999. It was a multi-lingual light music show by Pallavi at the Foothill College Theater in Los Altos and we raised around $19,000.
The number of free eye surgeries at our Coimbatore Hospital started increasing from 8,000 in 1998 to 15,000 in 1999, 22,000 in 2000 and this is when our volunteer Rajiv Chamraj proposed a big vision – Eradicate curable blindness in India by the year 2020 – Vision 20/20 by 2020. At that time I used to read Swami Vivekananda’s teaching every day to pull through every day at work. I was not motivated by Electronics or Software and I was doing it just to make a living. Coming back to the big vision for SEF, even though it was much beyond us, I thought about what Swami Vivekananda said, “Every human being is divine and can do anything and everything. Think big, even if you are a thief, don’t be a petty thief, be a big thief” and that motivated me and I accepted the big goal. “Ignorance is bliss” really worked for me as I had no idea what it takes to build a Sankara Eye Hospital and others, both in Sankara USA and Sankara India, knew much more than me.
I was like a young child who wanted the candy and would not accept anything else. Others were not ready to accept the big vision as they thought that it was a very big step for the organizations and Murali had no idea. I was very disappointed but would not let it go. I threatened that SEF, USA will work with other service providers in India and build 20 eye hospitals by the year 2020. They said that I was arrogant. The way my uncle persisted in us starting the SEF, USA, I was adamant about “Vision 20/20 by 2020”.
It took some time for SEF and Sankara Eye Care Institutions (SECI India) to accept the big goal but all of us are on board now.
When the vision is big and if the work is genuine, support does come and it did. We now run eight Eye Hospitals in India and 150,000 + free eye surgeries were performed by these Hospitals in 2013. Our next Hospital (ninth) is coming up in Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh and will be inaugurated in October 2014. We have also purchased land in Jodhpur, Rajasthan and Indore Madhya Pradesh for our next Hospitals and we are also looking at Chhattisgarh and Bihar. Our goal is to build at least 20 hospitals in India by the year 2020 and play a big role in eradicating curable blindness.
SEF has now performed close to 1.18 million free eye surgeries and it has become the largest free eye care provider in the world. A key part of our work is self-sufficiency – we expect our hospitals to become self-sufficient by also attracting paying patients. We have a 80:20 model where 80% of the patients are provided services free of cost and we bring these patients from rural India to our hospitals and they are poor. The other 20% of the patients are those who can afford to pay. Out of the eight hospitals in Coimbatore, Krishnankoil, Guntur, Bangalore, Shimoga, Anand, Ludhiana and Rishikesh, two of them – Bangalore and Guntur have become self-sufficiency and they don’t our support from here for recurring services.
SEF is still mostly volunteer run and is supported by over 50,000 donors all over the USA and the collective efforts are paying off. SEF received the top 4-star rating from Charity Navigator for sound fiscal management, commitment to accountability and transparency. We also won the IMC Ramakrishna Bajaj National Quality Performance Excellence trophy in the health care category.
Even though our uncle literally forced us to start the Sankara Eye Foundation, now we realize that this is the best thing that has happened to us. We have made so many friends and that has enriched our lives beyond imagination. Initially I used to think that I was making a difference in the lives of our dear visually handicapped brothers and sisters but now it is dawning on me that I am the biggest beneficiary. I am so fortunate and grateful for this golden opportunity.
Let us, together, eradicate curable blindness – Vision 20/20 by 2020
Jyot se jyot jalate chalo; Prem ki Ganga bahate chalo; Raha mein aye jo din dukhi; Sabko gale se lagate chalo; Prem ki Ganga bahate chalo.
In order to get more information on how to join us on this noble missión, please visit: http://www.giftofvision.org/
NEW YORK — Tennis star Sania Mirza, Indian batting mainstay Virat Kohli and top-seeded badminton player Saina Nehwal lead the pack of over 50 Indians in Forbes’ inaugural list of top “Promising Young Leaders and Game Changers” under the age of 30 in Asia.
The Forbes ’30 Under 30 Asia’ list includes 300 “young and driven entrepreneurs and game-changers” from countries including India, Indonesia, China, Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, Pakistan, Vietnam and Australia who are contributing to their industries in a significant way.
As many as 56 Indians feature in the list with 27-year old Kohli, Mirza and Nehwal and 26-year old actress Shraddha Kapoor leading the pack. “At the top of India’s cricket culture is batting prince Kohli, who led India to a clean sweep in their Twenty 20 series against Australia in January,” Forbes said of Kohli, who was named among India’s highest earning celebrities in 2015 at $11.3 million.
Forbes said from the moment 29-year old Mirza turned pro at age 16 in 2003, she has been the “most successful female Indian tennis player ever” and one of the highest paid and highest profile athletes in the country.
She is currently the world’s number one female doubles tennis player with partner Martina Hingis. Describing 25-year old Nehwal as a “role model” and “Indian badminton queen,” Forbes said the number one ranked women’s singles player in the world is one of 24 top sportspersons from around the world standing for election for the International Olympic Committee’s Athletics Commission during the Rio Games this August.
With 10 categories in total, the Forbes 30 Under 30 Asia list highlights inspiring young leaders in various fields covering consumer technology, enterprise technology, arts, healthcare and science, media, social entrepreneurship, finance, industry and retail.
The entertainment and sports category also includes 27-year old Arunima Sinha, who is the first female and first Indian amputee to climb Mt. Everest in 2013 and 28-year old Chaitanya Tamhane, who is the writer and director of the critically acclaimed movie “Court.”
In May of 2013, the Stanford University neurosurgical resident Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with Stage IV metastatic lung cancer. He was thirty-six years old. In his two remaining years—he died in March of 2015—he continued his medical training, became the father to a baby girl, and wrote beautifully about his experience facing mortality as a doctor and a patient. In this excerpt from his posthumously published memoir, “When Breath Becomes Air,” which is out on January 12th, from Random House, Kalanithi writes about his last day practicing medicine.
Dr. Paul Kalanithi was preparing to wrap up his medical residency in neurosurgery when, in 2013, a CT scan revealed tumors throughout his body. He had stage 4 lung cancer. In his last two years of life, he continued caring for patients. He and his wife became parents. And Kalanithi, a gifted writer, wrote a book, When Breath Becomes Air, a reflection on being a doctor with a terminal illness.
His widow, Dr. Lucy Kalanithi, is on a book tour for When Breath Becomes Air, which has resonated with a wide audience.
“It’s really kind of a bittersweet process, as you can imagine, quite bitter and quite sweet,” she tells NPR’s David Greene. “Paul died nearly 11 months ago, but being able to talk about how I feel and remember Paul is actually very healing for me. So it’s actually kind of wonderful at the same time.”
In her interview on Morning Edition, she reads excerpts from When Breath Becomes Air and talks about her late husband’s life.
On the cancer spreading to his brain and having a neurological impact
Would you trade your ability to speak for another five months of life, or what type of neurologic devastation would make it more reasonable to stop living than to be alive? And these are not theoretical questions in the neurosurgical context. …
Yeah, that was very hard. This whole second half of the book is Paul thinking about how to grapple, in a very real way, with his own mortality. And then when he was diagnosed with a form of metastatic brain cancer called leptomeningeal disease — it’s essentially like tumors are coating your brain and your spinal cord, and it also holds the prospect of seizures or trouble speaking, trouble thinking. So, it was so intense to get this diagnosis on top of everything else that meant that his ability to participate in all of the things that were bringing him meaning — particularly writing this book and being together with our daughter and our family — was really devastating.
On their daughter, Elizabeth Acadia Kalanithi
He was just thrilled to be a dad, and just the fact of having this infant just breathed this unbelievable life into our house. He was the one who initially had the strong instinct to have a child despite his illness. … I said to Paul, “Don’t you think that saying goodbye to a child would make your death more painful?” And he said, “Wouldn’t it be great if it did?” And what he meant by that was the joy and meaning of having a new family member is so great that wouldn’t it be great if that made it even more painful?
On whether Paul’s illness and death gave him the opportunity to help others through similar journeys
Yeah, it’s sort of bringing tears to my eyes … because he makes this joke in the book where he says something like, “Wouldn’t a terminal illness be the perfect gift to this young man who hoped to grasp mortality in a kind of intellectual sense?” Those questions became not at all theoretical. Paul really had to draw on all these things that he had been developing his whole life — he really returned to literature to cope, he fell back on his training as a physician. … What a funny confluence of factors that would prepare a young person to face this in a particular way despite looking at the fiery light of illness in real time.
He died in March 2015 and 10 months later his book was published in the US, where it went straight to No 1 in the New York Times bestseller list. It is now out in the UK. Lucy Kalanithi, a doctor and academic, is his widow. LOK
When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi review – how to live, by a doctor who died aged 37
This fast-selling memoir by an idealist neurosurgeon facing an early death from cancer gains power and poignancy from its detailed descriptions and reflections on mortality
Has the book’s success surprised you?
It’s exceeded our wildest expectations. A month or so before it was published it was getting some critical acclaim but the big question was whether people would actually want to read a book about dying written by a man who had recently died. We weren’t sure. But it turns out they do. I think it is because the book is about living as well as dying. And although it is about what happened to Paul it is also about a universal experience – and it is so beautifully expressed. That’s what people are responding to and holding on to.
How does it feel for you to see him so celebrated after – and because of – his death?
Bittersweet is a vast understatement. But it is fantastic to watch him developing a legacy through the positive reaction. It is very meaningful to me. It’s just under a year since he died and it feels like no time at all: I still want to be thinking about Paul and talking about Paul, and having the opportunity to remember him in a communal way rather than in a lonely way is very helpful.
How would he have felt about the impact of the book?
I think he would have been totally thrilled. His eyes would have been sparkling. He would have been so excited to be part of the conversation around the book because he was so interested in death and mortality.
How did you feel about him writing about your marital problems in the book?
The bottom line is that I felt fine about it. I was surprised at first that he did it because Paul was a relatively private person and I thought of asking him to take it out but then I thought, no, it’s part of the story and it’s important to be authentic. People respond to authenticity and I felt like, OK, go ahead and share it. Now I feel glad it’s in there. It feels real.
There’s a heartbreaking irony in the way his cancer drew you back together and saved your marriage…
I agree. But I think now that it was good timing because our problems came to a head and got out on the table right before he was diagnosed. I often wonder what would have happened if we hadn’t confronted our troubles when we did. As it was, we regained hope in our relationship and started to draw back together literally a week before he found out he had cancer. I think this meant we were in a stronger position to deal with it.
How easy was it to decide to have a baby when you knew he might not live long enough to be a father?
Not at all easy. It was really very considered, as you can imagine. We certainly had our eyes wide open in that we knew it was likely that he wouldn’t live to see her grow up and I would go on to be a solo parent after he died. We first talked about it as soon as he was diagnosed but for a few weeks we were really unsure. We both had the instinct to do it but were both worried about the implications for the other one. I feared it might make his death so much more painful if he had to say goodbye to a child. But he said: “Well, wouldn’t it be great if it did?” His view was that life wasn’t about avoiding suffering, it’s about making meaning. It was obviously a big risk to have a child, to invite more uncertainty and possible pain in to our lives, but it was the best decision I ever made.
I knew that if Paul himself could have described the way he died then he would have done
Did you understand Paul’s decision to push himself back into work to finish his residency after his first bout of lung cancer?
I did understand – because of knowing him the way I did. Not everybody would go back to work in his situation, many people wouldn’t. Everyone has different priorities and Paul endured a certain amount of physical suffering in order to work as a neurosurgeon and to write the book. But he was a natural learner, very driven and a deeply curious, impassioned person. Going back to the operating theatre underscored how much his work was a part of who he was.
Paul’s faith in God has surprised some reviewers. It is rare in a scientist. Do you share it?
He was a top scientist but empirical research didn’t explain for him what it meant to be human. One time I asked him straight out, “Do you believe in God?” and he answered that he thought just as important a question was “Do you believe in love?”, to which his reply would be yes. I thought that was really striking. I would say the same thing.
Writing the epilogue for the book must have been hard for you. How did you approach it?
The hard part was that I have never thought of myself as a writer at all. I’m a doctor: I can write a medical chart and express information. But I’ve never felt compelled to write an essay or anything longer. So when Paul’s editor asked me if I would consider writing an epilogue I was shocked. But I recognised that the story was unfinished and I knew that if Paul himself could have described the way he died then he would have done. I wrote it two months after he died, which was a very raw time and it was actually really helpful and I was so glad to have that opportunity.
Paul’s last paragraph is a beautiful account of the joy your daughter Cady brought him in his final months. What will you tell her about him?
I’ll tell her lots of things but in a sense the book will tell her all she needs to know. Writing it was a way for him to communicate with her after his death. Through reading it and through things he left for her that I am keeping she will understand how much she was loved by him.
What does the future hold for you and Cady?
People keep asking me, “Hey, are you going to stay in your house?” Well, I’ve made a decision not to make any decisions for at least two years. Our house is where Paul and I lived, then where the three of us briefly lived and now it is where Cady and I live. For me it’s now about reforming the space so I can move forward as a doctor, a widow and a mom. I’ve kept a lot of Paul’s things, but a few months ago I painted all the walls white and remade the bookshelves so that he doesn’t have his own bookcase any more, so I am slowly changing things.
At the moment of diagnosis Paul said he hoped I would get remarried. He meant it really lovingly but it was so shocking to me at the time. Now I feel that even if I do ever get remarried I am positive I will love Paul for my entire life. He will stretch into my past and into my future.
Washington, DC; January 24, 2016: With less than year of his presidency left, no one yet knows where the Obamas will head on January 20, 2017, when the next president is sworn in on Capitol Hill. The recent debate over where President Barack Obama will establish a library to house his official papers — a debate now settled in favor of Chicago — serves as a reminder that we’ll soon see the end of the administration and the launch of an Obama post-presidency.
The Obamas are attached to Chicago — the president launched his political career there as a community organizer and celebrated his landmark 2008 election win. Obama’s presidential library and foundation will also be based in the Windy City.
“All the strands of my life came together and I really became a man when I moved to Chicago,” Obama said last year when he made the announcement about the library site. “That’s where I met my wife. That’s where my children were born,” he explained. But so far, there is no clear sign that Chicago is the family’s next destination. “Chicago probably seems a bit too small for them now,” said Peter Slevin, a professor at Northwestern University in the Chicago suburbs and the author of “Michelle Obama: A Life.”
So what will life be like for Barack Obama after two terms at the White House? To judge by recent comments, Obama as an ex-president will end up reverting to his most successful political persona: an inspirational figure helping to guide America forward on painful, thorny issues of race and social justice.
Every time someone close to them shows interest in a lavish property in Palm Springs or Honolulu, the press speculates about a veiled investment for the First Couple. But so far, no dice. Nothing concrete has emerged.
The only hint given by the US president? He has said that family will be his priority. “They — and Michelle — have made a lot of sacrifices on behalf of my cockamamie ideas, the running for office and things,” Obama told ABC in 2013, referring to his daughters.
In early 2017, Malia — the Obamas’ older daughter — will be at university. Sasha, now at the private Sidwell Friends school in Washington, will have more than half of her high school studies ahead of her.
Slevin says that like Clinton, Obama could settle down in the New York. “Their friends are expecting the Obamas to live in Washington and then surely move to New York,” he told AFP.
“New York has much to offer them at a time when they would like to be a bit more anonymous than it is possible to be in Chicago.”
Michelle Obama, a trained lawyer, has repeatedly rejected the idea that she would enter politics as Clinton did following her eight years as first lady. “There are three things that are certain in life: death, taxes and Michelle is not running for president,” Barack Obama said a few weeks ago.
Obama, who enjoys writing, is expected to focus on the traditional — and lucrative — art of writing his autobiography in his post-presidency. “Memoirs have always been an acceptable means of making money and cashing in on the presidency,” says historian Mark Updegrove, who is the director of the Lyndon B. Johnson Presidential Library in Austin, Texas.
Well-paid speaking engagements — at home and abroad — should pour in. “The question is how much you want to commercialize having been the commander-in-chief,” adds Updegrove, the author of “Second Acts: Presidential Lives and Legacies After the White House.”
Obama has said he hopes to work with minority youths in tough neighborhoods — where the dropout rate, unemployment and incarceration rates are higher than elsewhere — to give real meaning to the phrase “equal opportunity.”
While some former presidents of the White House have faded into the background, others have made a significant mark during their so-called second act. John Quincy Adams, who left office in 1829 after failing to win re-election, returned to Congress where he stayed until the end of his life, using his gift for soaring oratory to make the case against slavery.
William Howard Taft, who was president from 1909-1913, then became the chief justice of the US Supreme Court. Could Obama — a former president of the Harvard Law Review who will be 55 years old as he starts his post-White House life — be tempted by the high court?
“I think being a justice is a little bit too monastic for me,” he told The New Yorker in October 2014. “Particularly after having spent six years and what will be eight years in this bubble, I think I need to get outside a little bit more.”
The example of the two Democratic presidents before him — Carter and Clinton, who both launched foundations that are respected beyond America’s borders — could serve as a guide for Obama. Persistent rumors also suggest he could be interested in teaching courses at Columbia University in New York, where he studied in the early 1980s. “I love teaching. I miss the classroom and engaging with students,” he told The New Yorker.
Obama delivered one of the most important speeches of his career, a vintage performance that included emotional references to the President’s personal experiences and an explicit promise to keep working on the initiative after he leaves the White House in 2017.
“I grew up without a dad. I grew up lost sometimes and adrift, not having a sense of a clear path. And the only difference between me and a lot of other young men in this neighborhood and all across the country is that I grew up in an environment that was a little more forgiving,” Obama said. “This will remain a mission for me and for Michelle not just for the rest of my presidency, but for the rest of my life.”
New York, NY: January, 25 2016: Indian lawyer and human rights defender Henri Tiphagne will be awarded the 8th Human Rights Award by Amnesty International Germany. The award, which will be presented at an official ceremony on April 25 at the Maxim Gorki Theatre in Berlin, is a recognition of Henri Tiphagne’s exceptional commitment to human rights. “For many decades now, Henri Tiphagne has been tirelessly and bravely standing up for human rights. His organisation’s invaluable work includes campaigning against discrimination and the use of torture in India,” Amnesty International said in a statement.
“Henri Tiphagne and his organisation People’s Watch, while fighting to ensure the rights of others, are themselves being harassed and hampered in their work by the authorities. And there are other civil society organisations in India that are in a similar position. The award is therefore meant to send a strong signal of support to the whole of the Indian human rights movement,” adds Selmin Çalışkan, Director of Amnesty International Germany.
Henri Tiphagne is the founder of the organisation People’s Watch, one of the most notable human rights organisations in India. People’s Watch has been researching and documenting human rights violations, as well as providing legal representation to those affected, for over 20 years. The organisation also actively supports human rights education: In 1997, Henri Tiphagne founded an institute offering training for teachers as well as mentoring around school human rights education programmes. So far, they have managed to reach out to around 500,000 children in 18 Indian states.
In recent years, many organisations have come under intense pressure by the Indian government, and People’s Watch is no exception. The organisation’s bank accounts have been frozen repeatedly since 2012. This meant that some employees had to be dismissed and many programmes needed to be abandoned. The Delhi government in power at the time used the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act to justify this kind of harassment. A complaint filed by People’s Watch against these government actions is still pending. The same legal framework is being instrumentalised for political ends by the current government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Those targeted by the authorities include non-governmental organisations as well as activists and local protest groups campaigning, for example, against forced evictions to make way for new coal mining projects.
Whenever activists and organisations are forced to limit the scope of their work due to this kind of harassment, human rights such as the rights to freedom of expression, assembly and association are under threat.
The Human Rights Award is presented by Amnesty Germany every two years in recognition of individuals or organisations campaigning for human rights under very difficult conditions. With the award, Amnesty International aims to honour and support the awardees’ exceptional human rights commitment and raise awareness of their work amongst the German public. The award is endowed with 10,000 Euros, provided by Amnesty Germany’s foundation Stiftung Menschenrechte, Förderstiftung Amnesty. The Human Rights Award will be presented for the eighth time in 2016. Former award recipients include: Monira Rahman from Bangladesh (2006), Women of Zimbabwe Arise from Zimbabwe (2008), Abel Barrera from Mexico (2011) and Alice Nkom from Cameroon (2014). Henri Tiphagne will be going to Germany several days ahead of the award ceremony in April and will be available for interviews. For more information about Henri Tiphagne’s personal background and the situation in India please contact the Press Office of Amnesty Germany.
Dr. Tejal K. Gandhi, Indian American president of the National Patient Safety Foundation, was recently named one of the 100 Most Influential People in Healthcare by the 13th annual publication of Modern Healthcare. Gandhi, who ranked 49th in the standings, is a board certified internist, associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, and a certified professional in patient safety. Her research interests focus on patient safety and reducing error using information systems.
Gandhi won the 2009 John M. Eisenberg Patient Safety Award for her contributions to understanding the epidemiology and possible prevention strategies for medical errors in an outpatient setting.
In July 2013, Gandhi became president of the National Patient Safety Foundation, and in November 2014, president and CEO of the Foundation. Previously, she had been chief quality and safety officer at Partners HealthCare, where she helped lead the efforts to standardize and implement patient safety best practices across the system.
Prior to that, as executive director of Quality and Safety at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for ten years, she worked to redesign systems to reduce medical errors and improve quality.
Gandhi received her MD and MPh from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, and trained at Duke University Medical Center.
Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati, an Indian American vice chair of the department of ophthalmology and visual sciences, and professor of physiology at the University of Kentucky College of Medicine, was recently elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors.
The designation of NAI Fellows, announced Dec. 15, is awarded to those academic inventors who have demonstrated a proficient spirit of innovation in creating or facilitating outstanding inventions that have made a tangible impact on the quality of life, economic development and the welfare of society.
The 2015 NAI Fellows selection committee included 17 members, comprising NAI Fellows, recipients of U.S. National Medals, National Inventors Hall of Fame inductees, members of the National Academies and senior officials from the USPTO, Association of American Universities, American Association for the Advancement of Science, Association of University Technology Managers and National Inventors Hall of Fame.
The Indian American professor is the first from the UK to receive NAI Fellowship honors.
Dr. Jayakrishna Ambati
“I’m honored and humbled to have been elected to the NAI alongside so many other amazing innovators,” Ambati said in a statement. “This award is really a testament to the outstandingly creative and motivated young scientists that I am fortunate and proud to lead. I look forward to supporting the NAI’s efforts to promote the application of technology and innovation to improve quality of vision and health for people worldwide.” Ambati and his lab also recently received a $2.4 million grant to study the genetics of a new source of DNA discovered at the lab (I-W Nov. 2, 2015).
Among the 582 NAI Fellows named in 2015, more than 80 are presidents and senior leaders of research universities and nonprofit research institutes; another 310 are members of other national academies; 27 have been inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame; 32 earned the United States National Medal of Technology and Innovation and the U.S. National Medal of Science; another 27 are Nobel laureates; and 17 have received the Lemelson-MIT prize, among other awards and distinctions.
Ambati, a 21-year veteran who is board certified by the American Board of Opthalmology, has been awarded several commendations for his work throughout the years. Some of his accolades include being the first ophthalmologist to be named the Doris Duke Distinguished Clinical Scientist; Burroughs Wellcome Fund clinical scientist award in translational research; the Ellison Medical Foundation senior scholar in aging award; and the Harrington Discovery Institute Scholar-innovator award.
Ambati is a graduate of the State University of New York Health Science Center at Brooklyn College of Medicine. He then completed his Fellowship at Harvard Medical School and his residency at the University of Rochester in Rochester, N.Y.
In addition to Ambati, several other Indian Americans and Indian origin innovators received the NAI Fellow honor. Among them were Mauli Agrawal of the University of Texas at San Antonio, Shekhar Bhansali of Florida International University, Sangeeta Bhatia of MIT, Yoginder P. Chugh of Southern Illinois University, Atam Dhawan and Somenath Mitra of the New Jersey Institute of Technology, Sanjiv Sam Gambhir of Stanford University, Shubhra Gangopadhyay of the University of Missouri College of Engineering, Venu Govindaraju of the University of Buffalo, Mir Imran of the University of Pittsburgh, Chennupati Jagadish of the Australian National University, and Anil K. Jain and Ramani Narayan of Michigan State University.
Additionally, Usha N. Kasid of Georgetown University, Meyya Meyyappan of the NASA Ames Research Center, Umesh K. Mishra of U.C. Santa Barbara, Kaushik Rajashekara of the University of Texas at Dallas, Jahangir S. Rastegar of Stony Brook University, A. Hari Reddy of U.C. Davis, Ajeet Rohatgi of Georgia Institute of Technology, Pramod K. Srivastava of the University of Connecticut, Bala Subramaniam of the University of Kansas and Kalliat T. Valsaraj of Louisiana State University were honored. The Fellows will be inducted at NAI’s fifth annual conference in April in Washington, D.C.
Vin Gopal, an Indian American entrepreneur and Monmouth County (N.J.) Democratic Committee chairman, was recently named by PolitickerNJ to its 2015 top 100 “Power List.”
The list ranks the strongest people in the labor movement in New Jersey, and does not include any elected officials, judges or former governors. The list recognized the cream of the crop among chief-of-staff, operative, lobbyist, labor leader, activist, organizer, lawyer, party chairperson, reporter, fundraiser, pastor, professor, teacher and mentors in the state. It is scientifically generated, corresponding to the structure of power as it exists in the state, according to PolitickerNJ.
Gopal came in at No. 94 on the list. Writing about him in the list, PolitickerNJ said Gopal is “a rising star in his party.” It added that “Gopal has little raw chairman’s power in his home county, where Republicans own the freeholder board. But the charismatic chair has worked as hard as anyone in the state developing alliances statewide and has deep roots in the Indian American community, one of the largest growing demographics in the state.”
Gopal was born and raised in Monmouth County, where he has been the Democratic chairman since 2012. Additionally, he is an entrepreneur and business development professional.
A political science graduate at Penn State University, Gopal has served in various leadership roles prior to assuming the chair position in Monmouth County.
He is currently the president of marketing and creative design agency Direct Development LLC. In addition to being part of the Power List this year, Gopal was on the list at No. 96 last year.
Nina Tandon, Rajan Anandan, Ayesha Khanna and Zainab Ghadiyali are the for Indian Americans who have been featured in Foreign Policy magazine’s recent list of 100 Leading Global Thinkers, according to a news report.
The list, released Dec. 1, profiles people who have generated ideas that could promise humankind a better future. It features categories including Decision-Makers, Challengers, Innovators, Advocates, Artists, Healers, Stewards, Chroniclers and Moguls.
Tandon, the co-founder of New York-based EpiBone, was featured among the Innovators, which singled out those whose work has advanced “progress in global health, human rights, security and more.”
The magazine said Tandon was featured “for healing broken bones by growing new ones.” Typically, to reconstruct bone, surgeons must take bone either from somewhere else in a patient’s body, necessitating a double surgery, or from an outside source, such as a prosthesis or a donor.
Nina Tandon
But Tandon has created a third way: growing new bones. A patient’s stem cells are placed in a bone-shaped mold, which is then put into a special chamber that simulates the body’s temperature, nutrient composition and other conditions.
After three weeks, the cells have essentially formed a new bone. This method requires only one surgery and avoids implanting foreign materials, thereby reducing pain and complications, Foreign Policy noted.
EpiBone has successfully replaced the jaw of a pig and is gearing up to start its first clinical trials, to be held within two years. Anandan, the managing director of Google Southeast Asia and India; and Khanna, the Indian American founder of Civic Accelerator, an investment fund company for socially conscious enterprises, were among the Moguls. The group features those who have “showed that progress is possible, whether in corner offices or on factory floors.”
While Sri Lanka-born Anandan is included “for lobbying on behalf of the unconnected,” Khanna was chosen “for nudging women into the corner office.”
Anandan “has used his stewardship of Google in India to greatly improve tech access for the poor by successfully lobbying Indian manufacturers to launch low-cost phones, pushing carriers to bring down the prices of data plans, and increasing the translation of Google products into many Indian languages.”
Additionally, the magazine added that “he’s also one of the country’s most active tech investors: Between January 2014 and June 2015, he was the most prolific, according to Quartz, investing in 15 start-ups.” Anandan’s work, FP added, “simply proves that good business doesn’t have to be at odds with good citizenry.”
In November 2014, Khanna and Shannon Schuyler, head of corporate responsibility at PricewaterhouseCoopers, pooled resources to help women gain access to capital. This spring, with PwC funding, Civic Accelerator’s group of 13 U.S. start-ups — all of which had at least one female founder, and 11 of which were started entirely by women — participated in a 10-week boot camp to test ideas and connect with investors.
Khanna and Schuyler have pledged that at least half of future accelerator-supported ventures will be owned by women. India-born Ghadiyali was featured among the Challengers who have “proved that even sacred cows can be toppled.” The magazine said Ghadiyali was chosen “for cracking the STEM ceiling.”
In Menlo Park, Calif., Ghadiyali and Erin Summers, both engineers at Facebook, are running “wogrammers,” a movement to end the “brogrammer” stereotype and highlight the technical accomplishments of their peers. In its first year, wogrammers highlighted 50 female engineers from around the globe.
‘A moment comes, but comes rarely in history, when we step out from the old to new, when an age ends, and when a soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance’. Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru delivered these inspiring words in his speech, ‘Tryst of Destiny’ in1947. He is still remembered for his vision and commitment to bring India from out of oppression into freedom, modernity, and self-reliance.
As we have celebrated the 125th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14th, 2015, we are in awe as we recollect his contribution, not only towards gaining India’s independence but also for laying a strong foundation of a pluralistic and forward looking India. Yet, half a century after his death, the current leadership of India is busy trying to downplay his legacy for political expediency, and to re-create a nation away from the democratic and secular tradition he has championed.
When India gained Independence, there were monumental challenges resulting from the partition and the ongoing violence between Hindus and Muslims. The urgent task facing the leadership at the time was the resettlement of 6
million refugees, and arresting the spread of further violence. Nehru put together a team of dedicated patriots such as Sardar Tarlok Singh, Sarojini Naidu and S.K. Ghosh to limit the violence, as well as rescue and recover
abandoned and abducted women and children.
When the British left, the Government, headed by Nehru, faced another important task: the national integration of 562 princely states. A newly created State department under the decisive leadership of Sardar Vallabhai
Patel along with Nehru ensured the integration of the country in a remarkably short period of time.
If we look back at history for a moment, we would admire how Nehru brought together exceptional people of different ideologies such as Dr. B.R. Ambedkar, S.P. Mookerjee, John Mathai, C.H. Bhabha and Shanmukham Chetty to be reflective of India’s secular and multi-faceted character in the Constituent Assembly. The Congress party delivered on the promise that the constitution they were about to create would reflect the aspirations of the Indian people.
The constitution of India was amongst the largest in the world with 395 Articles and 9 Schedules. The preamble spells out the basic philosophy and the solemn resolve of the people of India to secure justice, liberty, equality and fraternity for all its citizens. What Nehru has accomplished through this document with significant help and support from Ambedkar also is part of his vision to empower marginalized sections of the society.
Nehru was committed to ensuring social justice and the welfare of the masses as far back as 1938 by setting up the National Planning Committee under the banner of the Congress Party for the very purpose of improving the quality of life of ordinary citizens. These efforts culminated in creating a permanent planning commission to establish a just social order to ensure the equitable distribution of income and wealth. Nehru’s actions in these matters paint him as a socialist, however, he strongly believed that planning was essential to the development needs of a poor country with scarce resources, which needed to be managed optimally.
He was also concerned about the unequal access to land which was a big problem in rural India. After independence, the issue was prioritized, and by 1949, different states had passed land reform legislations to abolish the ‘Zamindari’ system and empowering the rural peasantry while doing away with the institutionalized exploitation by the feudal lords.
Nehru was a strong proponent of self-reliance, clearly recognizing that underdevelopment was the result of a lack of technological progress. Consequently, a new Industrial policy was enacted to develop key industries. While Independent India was in its infancy, he identified the production of power and steel for self-sufficiency and planning. In collaboration with other countries, India built steel plants in Rourkela (Orissa), Bhilai (M.P.) and Durgapur (W. Bengal). Dam projects were undertaken in various places to produce hydro-electric power, including the
flagship Dam at Bhakra Nangal, Punjab. The first oil refinery was inaugurated in Noonmati, Assam in 1962 as another leap forward towards industrialization. Nehru called them ‘the temples of modern India’.
Nehru was determined to foster a ‘scientific temper’ as he provided leadership in establishing many new Engineering Institutes, the most important being the premier Indian Institute of Technology, 5 of which were started between 1957 and 1964. His farsightedness is also evident in granting deemed university status to the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, and setting up the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the Defense Research and Development Organization, and laying the foundation stone for the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research. Nehru’s own words stated that these would become ‘visible symbols of building up the new India and of providing life and sustenance to our people’.
Soon after independence, India embarked upon a nuclear program aimed at developing its nuclear capacity for peaceful purposes. As we know by now, Dr. Homi Bhabha’s pioneering work in this regard is widely acclaimed in
enhancing India’s capabilities in this area. Dr. Vikram Sarabhai, the father of the Indian Space Program helped to establish the Indian Space Research Organization.
Nehru recognized the importance of education as a tool for empowerment and the establishment of the University Education Commission under the Chairmanship of Dr. S. Radhakrishnan and Secondary Education Commission under the chairmanship of Dr. A. L. Mudaliar laid the foundation of education and higher education. The Indian Council of Cultural Relations was also established under Maulana Azad to promote policies pertaining to India’s external cultural relations.
Nehru also played a crucial role as a leader of the non-aligned world, shaping India’s foreign policy for the post-independence period. His charismatic personality, along with deep understanding of the country and the world enabled him to be an effective spokesman for the developing world and an advocate for liberation movements across the globe.
Undoubtedly, Nehru helped to build institutions that stood the test of time. The emerging nations during that period such as Yugoslavia, Egypt and Ghana failed in this regard, and results are quite evident for all of us to
see. Nehru’s vision and leadership were critical in shaping India as we know it today. According to ‘Journey of a Nation’, edited by Anand Sharma, Nehru laid the foundation of a self-reliant, productive and confident India, creating many of its Institutions leaving an indelible stamp on every aspect of the country.
Sadly, there are regressive forces at work now to undo the Nehruvian legacy and to take us back to the age when the soul of the nation was suppressed. Among reflective Indians, especially NRIs, it is time to realize that the ongoing Nehru bashing has been somewhat counterproductive. Nehru’s respect for democratic procedures and his inclusive vision will continue to remain relevant, without which a modern India might cease to exist! To revise a
famous quote to fit this narrative, ‘if India is to progress, Nehru is inescapable… we may ignore him at our own risk’.
Writer is a former Chief Technology Officer at the United Nations and Chairman of the Indian National Overseas Congress, USA.
Hyalo Technologies, founded by Shalabh Jain, has been awarded 2015 Healthcare Innovators Awards during a solemn ceremony. The award, sponsored by prestigious companies and organizations, such as the Philadelphia Business Journal, Comcast, Independence Blue Cross, & Pennsylvania BIO, recognized individuals, companies and products that are leading the pack in health care and life sciences and are bringing innovation to the Greater Philadelphia area’s community.
The awards ceremony attended by leaders from across the nation in the healthcare, technology and business was held at a cocktail reception awards program on October 22, 2015 at the Crystal Tea Room at the Wanamaker Building in Philadelphia, PA.
“The hard work, innovation and achievements of my entire team has paid off,: said, Shalabh Jain, Entrepreneur, Founder, and Chairman & CEO of Hyalo Technologies, after receiving the award. “It’s indeed an honor for me and my dedicated team at Hyalo Technologies, founded in 2013,” he said with a sens of pride.
Son of immigrants of Indian origin from New Jersey, this young and talented youth decided on becoming an entrepreneur after attending medical school. Instead taking the traditional route of practicing medicine, Shalabh Jain founded Hyalo Technologies. His vision was to launch a Biopharmaceutical company that establishes the next generation of drug delivery. His newly founded company strives to leverage technology and research to effectively enhance efficacy and therapeutic effect.
Shalabh Jain: Founder, Chairman & CEO of Hyalo Technologies at the 2015 Healthcare Innovators Awards in Philadelphia, PA on October 22nd 2015
According to Shalabh, “Through its innovative biodegradable drug delivery system, the HyaloSphere, Hyalo Technologies drastically reduces systemic side effects and increases patient compliance.” The HyaloSphere, known to be the only drug delivery system that offers the combination of nanotechnology, timed-controlled drug release, target specific drug delivery, sequential drug delivery intelligence, an accelerated healing process, and 100% biodegradable layers. Applications for this drug delivery system can range from, but are not limited to: cancer, pain management, vaccinations, bacterial infections, diabetes, psychiatric disorders & skin diseases.
Success does not come easily. Shalbh had a clear vision and he had planned everything in his mind, before venturing into this new startup. Utilizing his background in pharmaceutical sciences and medicine, along with his life savings from jobs working as a student, he set out to persuade his very first investors.
After successfully obtaining seed funding, in the end of 2013, Shalabh spent the next year and half beginning his research & development in Switzerland, and procuring raw materials, as well as specialized lab equipment.
In 2014, Hyalo Technologies was finally up and running at the startup incubator located at the University City Science Center on UPENN’s campus in Philadelphia, PA. The next step was to build a team to carry out research & development of the HyaloSphere. Shalabh recruited his former college professors from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia. In addition, the company convinced seasoned pharmaceutical executives with more than 25 years of experience in the industry to join Hyalo Technologies. “These experts in drug delivery, pharmaceutical development, and corporate business have come together to make the dream of Hyalo Technologies into reality,” Shalabh says.
Shalabh and his parents with the Hyalo Team
In the last year under the leadership of the company’s visionary leader, Shalabh Jain, Hyalo Technologies research & development program has made progressive strides, and through its rigorous research and development. Hyalo Technologies has established a unique proprietary process to produce the HyaloSphere and a pipeline of new products. Currently the company is in advanced research stages, has filed for several patents on new technologies, and is on route to clinical trials for several of these products.
Shalabh hopes to take this company to the next level. The company is in current business decisions with major American, European, Indian, and Asian pharmaceutical and biotech companies.
This young and confident Entrepreneur is seeking collaboration from anyone who can be part of his endeavors. “Hyalo Technologies is open to collaborations such as Joint Ventures, strategic partnerships, and licensure deals with established biotech and pharmaceutical companies to produce and market their products globally.”
It is shear heart breaking to know that Iconic Hindu Activist, Shri Narainji Kataria is no longer with us. The ‘Hindu Lion’ that roared relentlessly for more than 30 years in the interest of his community, passed away quietly in his sleep, sometime on Nov.2 night. In all his approaches to tackle various issues, Narainji was like Iconic ‘Shri Balasaheb Thakare of USA’ – fearless, passionate, and determined to uphold the dignity of ‘Hindus and Hindutva’. Narainji was a hardcore nationalist, a superb community organizer and an incomparable relentless political activist for Hindu-diaspora in USA for three decades. When it came to Hindu aspirations, related worthy socio-political causes or injustice feted to Hindus, he was unapologetically partisan in his ‘politicking’. If I can recall, I met him for the first time in 1984 during the “10th International Vishwa Hindu Parishad Conference” at ‘Madison Square Garden’, in NYC, NY. From the beginning, I was impressed by his boldness and courage with which he expressed his inner thoughts in conversations. I really got to know him well, soon thereafter, when, we, as the part of Indian community converged on Washington D.C., to pressurize the U.S. Congress to deny state-of-the-art AWAC surveillance Planes to Pakistan. The friendships that started then got strengthen over the years as, we went through countless events, rallies, protests, and issues-centric conferences together.
Narainji Kataria
Narainji was a victim of a horrific historic trauma called the ‘Partition of India’. As a teenager in Sindh, what he saw and experienced during the ‘Partition’ was what essentially shaped him for the future. He was born on February 15, 1930 in Sukkur, Sindh, which became Pakistan after the partition. His parents died when he was quite young and so, as the eldest son, he, not only had to look after his family of 3 siblings but also ensure their safe passage to India. After, settling down in Ulhasnagar near Mumbai, he once again started pursuing his passion for education, earning a Master’s Degree in History while simultaneously working day and night, to support his family. In May 1956, he married ‘Bhagwantiji’ and had two daughters, Meena and Rajni. After a stint at “Bhabha Atomic Research Ctr (BARC)” in Mumbai, Narainji came to USA in early 1970s and started working as ‘Legal Asstt.’ for the Law firm of ‘Cahill Gordon’, till he retired in 1998.
From the beginning, Narainji, was troubled by Hindu’s callous indifference towards preserving and propagating their culture & religion. He strongly felt that vested interests of some of the minority sections of the society, were bent upon marginalizing Hindu society and nation’s character with the help of leftist Media. To educate the masses about this impending danger, he used his proficiency in writing. He was not only a gifted prolific writer but also had the ability to rouse the readers through his razor-sharp, opinionated prose. Narainji probably had the most exhaustive listing of e-mails through which he reached out to tens of thousands of this supporters and admirers, on weekly basis. He invested every single waking moment of his life to awaken Hindus. There wasn’t anyone like him nor there would be at least in foreseeable future. He had admirers, not just in USA but also in other countries. The guy who was so ‘vocal’ in his writings was surprisingly very shy or at loss of words when it came to public-speaking and tried to avoid it as much as possible. Nevertheless, he gave numerous interviews on TV and Radio and arranged record number of protests and rallies with his inseparable dear friend, Arishji Sahani. I, myself, had participated in 12-15 of them. He also founded “Hindu American Intellectual Forum” to take his mission to the elites of the society. To bring the entire Hindu-diaspora on a single ‘Hindu’-platform, irrespective of its minute sub-divisions, he successfully started organizing “Hindu Sangathan Din” (meaning, Hindu Solidarity Day), 20 years back. Now, it is one of the most eagerly-awaited events in New York. Once during his Mumbai trip, he wanted to meet Shri Balasaheb Thakare whom he idolized and asked me to arrange it. As a Maharashtrian, I knew some people who were very close to ‘Balasaheb’ and so I obliged.
Narainji Kataria
Always sharply dressed in suite and tie, Narainji was a people’s person with his trademark broad smile and over-spilling enthusiasm to attend every event that brought Indian community together. On lighter side, with his ‘favorite-Uncle’ persona, also came a child-like mischievousness. Though, he was very devoted to his family, he invariably moved everywhere without them. Once on a rare occasions, when I met his wife for the first time, I said to him, “now, at last I know that you are married”. With his usual hearty laugh, and without missing a beat he responded,” what makes you think that I am really married to her”? Narainji was very passionate about music, especially old nostalgic Bollywood melodies, and could play ‘Banjo’ like a pro. His exuberance, energy and uprightness made him almost ageless. Moreover he had that rare ability to make anyone feel that he was their age. Queens-borough President once proclaimed a ‘Narain Kataria Day’ in Queens-County, NY in his honor to acknowledge his contributions to the society. Once he confided in me that many a times he had been threaten of bodily harm, by his distractors but he simply couldn’t care less. His happiest days in life were when BJP got majority in the Parliament in 2014 and when Shri Narendra Modi became the Prime Minister of India. Sadly, it was also the time when his wife of more than a half-century passed away in September of that year. In spite of this loss of a life-time, Narainji, without taking refuge in his personal grief, worked hard organizing support-rallies in New York for PM Modi, when he visited USA in 2014 and in 2015.
Narainji was larger-than-life and touched millions of lives, inspiring countless among them not just on East-coast or in USA but in several other countries. So many adjectives have been tagged on him from all over the world after his departure. Make no mistake – each one of them is true and help define him. He was one of a kind ‘Karmayogi’ who served ‘Bharat’ and ‘Hindus’, residing thousands of miles away in a modest one-bedroom apartment with his family.
Dr. Ajay Lodha, President-Elect of American Association of Indian Physicians and an active member of the Rajasthan Association of North America was appointed a member of the Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos’s MWBE Advisory Council recently. Nassau County on Long Island has a growing number of Indian American population.
The appointment of Dr. Lodha is yet another way of the County recognizing the importance and influence of the Indian Americans, who are known to be highly successful, and are known for their achievements in education, high per capita income and business.
The mission of the council is to assist the County in doubling the participation of the Minority and Women Owned Business Enterprise businesses in the contracting process. The advisory council will assist the Comptroller’s office in monitoring the County’s compliance with MWBE Goals and encourage MWBE firms to participate in County contract opportunities.
Dr. Ajay Lodha
Dr. Ajay Lodha hides a power house of entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Lodha has extensive background of overseeing quality assurance and quality improvement. A graduate of RNT Medical College, Udaipur, Rajasthan, completed his residency at Flushing Hospital, NY, and Founder and President of Queens Medical Services, a primary care practice with two locations serving Queens, NY, Dr. Lodha is the past President AAPIQLI, RAJMAAI, RANA. He is also credited with founding the COO of NYS Elite ACO, as well as being a partner in two skilled nursing facilities on Long Island.
His vision for AAPI ‘is to increase the global awareness of APPI. I would like to see us lobby Congress for an increase in the number of available Residency Positions so as to help alleviate the shortage of Doctors. That younger physicians and MSRF members feel fully integrated into AAPI and take a more active role.” His experiences in organizing conferences and meetings which help to bring members together and attract new members which is vital to the success of the organization.
In his capacity as the Member of Nassau Advisory Council on MWBE I will make sure through my connection to Indian-American community to increase awareness of the Nassau County Government MWBE out-reach program. I hope to assist the office in organizing educational seminars for South Asian business owners, where they can learn how to apply for contracts.”
Mahendra Pratap Kawatra of Sands Point, New York died peacefully surrounded by his family on Wednesday, October 28. He had just celebrated his 80th birthday in June with family and friends in Manhattan.
Born in a province in undivided India that in 1947 was ceded to Pakistan as part of the Partition of India, he set out on foot at the age of 12. Leaving all possessions behind, he walked with his father – a prominent businessman – his mother, aunts, uncles, and siblings, through the Indian border to Lucknow, in a months long journey covering hundreds of miles. Once resettled, while his father worked methodically to once again set up a business, Mahendra worked diligently in school, and his hard work and academic brilliance won him a succession of academic awards – which he supplemented by selling salt, tomatoes, and garments, using his bicycle to support himself and his family. His exceptional performance in school was followed by acceptance with full scholarship to the University of Delhi, and culminated in a baccalaureate degree with a gold medal, then an MS and PhD in physics..
Dr. Kawatra first came to the United States in 1963 as a Fulbright Smith-Mundt Scholar, taking an appointment at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and working with a Nobel Laureate there and later at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. In 1964, he moved to New York, accepting research and teaching positions first at the Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences at New York University, then Fordham University. In 1971, he was hired by the City University of New York, where he served forty-four years as Professor of Mathematics and Physics. During that time, he received numerous awards and tributes for scientific excellence and teaching expertise, including several Distinguished Service Awards.
A prolific researcher, Dr. Kawatra published numerous papers in prominent national and international peer-reviewed scientific journals , including Physical Review and Physics Letters, on topics in theoretical and experimental physics and in scientific pedagogy. His main scholarly interests were in the areas of atomic physics and the transport properties of magnetic noble metal alloys. He received highly competitive grants from the National Science Foundation, the US Office of Naval Research, the US Department of Education, and the New York State Department of Education.
His major published works include Dynamical Aspects of Critical Phenomena and Essentials of Linear Programming. He has been listed in Who’s Who and in American Men and Women of Science. Like his father, he also excelled as a businessman, founding, along with his wife, a real estate investment firm in 1978 that he was actively involved in managing until his last days.
In 1962, Mahendra met Ved Suri, quite famously at a train station, via serendipity and a dash of sisterly intervention. The courtship was by letter, and of fairly short standing, as Mahendra quickly informed Ved that he was getting married. Horrified, she read on, and discovered that he was indeed getting married – to her – on September 30, 1962. As always, Mahendra’s persistence prevailed, and they married to the tunes of the finest police band in all of India.
Knowing even then that his beautiful bride could not stomach passage on a cargo ship, he left for his Fulbright and waited until he’d earned enough to bring her over the more respectable way – by air through London. Together, they raised three girls in New York, where Mahendra was an active member of the community and of political life in Port Washington, Nassau County, and New York State. He was a member of the Board of Appeals in the Village of Sands Point and a member of the Nassau County Democratic Committee. He was also passionate about the Indian-American experience, and served with distinction for many years as a member of the Board of Trustees of the Dharma Association of North America and a member of the Executive Committee of the Indian-American Forum. He was also a founding member of the Center for India Studies at Stony Brook, a former Vice President of the Indian Association of Long Island, and a former member of the Board of Trustees of the Hindu Temple in Flushing, Queens. He received countless awards, recognitions, and citations from local and governmental organizations, including the Nassau County executive, the Nassau County legislature, the Town of Hempstead, the Town Board of Oyster Bay, as well as the Founders Award for the India Day Parade USA and the Republic Day Commemoration.
A deeply religious man, Dr. Kawatra was a highly respected academic, a loving husband and father, an astute businessman and an upstanding member of his community who loved entertaining friends in the house he built and in which he took great pride. He named it Shagun, the quintessential Hindu symbol of auspiciousness.
In addition to his wife, Dr. Kawatra leaves behind his daughters Anjali, her husband Adithya Gandhi and their children Pooja, Maya and Arjun; Anita, her husband Keith Palzer and their children Anna and Marco, and Sandhya, her husband Vikrant Dalvi and their children Siddharth and Akshay. He is also survived by his sisters Santosh Madan and Pushpa Das and his brother Krishan Lal Kawatra.
Kiva, a San Francisco-based nonprofit headed by Premal Shah, a Stanford graduate , was last week awarded a $500,000 grant after being voted one of the top four winners of the Google Impact Challenge.
The non-profit website connects people through lending to alleviate poverty. Since 2005, over 1 million small businesses in 75 plus countries have been financed by Kiva lenders. It provides 0 percent interest loans to small businesses around the world, and locally in Oakland, California that are socially impactful but financially excluded, India-West reported.
Premal Shah
The winning organizations, whose named were declared Oct 21, will receive support from Google volunteers, and access to co-working space at the Impact Hub Bay Area, the paper said. The remaining organizations in the top 10 earned a $250,000 grant. Kiva has been named as one of Oprah’s Favorite Things and a Top 50 Website by TIME Magazine,’ Shah writes in his LinkedIn profile.
Media quoted Shah as saying in an interview that the role of small business entrepreneurship in local economies is critical in creating new jobs and revitalizing neighborhoods, but that they are too often overlooked by larger lending institutions because their credit history may be too short, business too young, or their ideas appear to be too risky to lenders. He told the media that these entrepreneurs have all the elements of success and have the passion and the plan. The only thing they need is a small amount of capital to start or to expand.
Shah’s inspiration for Kiva came when he was volunteering in a slum in India while on leave from PayPal, where he had been an early employee and Principal Product Manager. For his work as a social entrepreneur, Premal was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and selected to FORTUNE magazine’s “Top 40 under 40″ list.
Shah began his career as a management consultant and graduated from Stanford University. The grant will allow Kiva to continue to provide the 0 percent loans for the small businesses that need it most. But Shah told the paper that the hope is for Kiva not only to help out businesses on a local level, but globally, too.
The idea is to reach as many people, no matter where they are, because talent is everywhere. “We know that talent resides in every neighborhood and town across the country and the world,” Shah noted. “But while talent is universal, opportunity is not. Kiva is a place where the doors to opportunity can be unlocked by anyone, anywhere willing to lend their support.”
Google Impact Challenge advisers looked for projects with innovative approaches, ambitious plans to improve the lives of local residents, and adventurous leadership teams to realize their vision and they narrowed the list from 25 to 10 before the competition went into the people’s hands. Voting took place Sept. 29 through Oct. 20. The $500,000 grant winners were the “People’s Choice” honorees.
Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the New Delhi-based Sulabh Sanitation Movement, has been named the recipient of the New York Global Leaders Dialogue (NYGLD) Humanitarian Award for 2016. “Pathak is a great humanitarian who for decades has enhanced the quality of life for millions of fellow human beings,” NYGLD chairman Phil Scanlan, said in a statement. “He embodies our philosophy of leadership, namely, that leadership is focused on creating collaborative new space in the service of others.”
Pathak and his project were nominated for the award after Scanlan along with advisory council members Pam Kwatra and Ketan Patel saw some of Pathak’s works first-hand.
Pathak founded Sulabh International, a social and behavior change coalition of which Sulabh Sanitation Movement is a part, to promote the adoption of improved hygiene practices throughout India.
Sulabh engages about 50,000 people and has constructed roughly 1.3 million household toilets and 54 million government toilets. Because of Sulabh’s work, about 15 million people use those toilets daily.
Pathak, 72, is a graduate of Patna University, where he received his M.A. in sociology and English, as well as his doctorate. Added Kwatra, “My colleagues and I have been motivated by the way an Indian sanitation activist through his movement is changing the lives of millions of Indians. It’s highly commendable that his work is restoring the dignity of the marginalized and mainstreaming them in society.”
The NYGLD thought leadership platform fosters international understanding, collaboration and intergenerational connectivity, bringing together public and private sectors, as well as civil society, according to the statement. Leaders across the globe come together to exchange ideas and resolve planetary challenges.
Pathak is a great humanist and known as a social reformer for his 42 years long campaign against untouchability in different parts of India, a statement issued by NYGD stated. “Pathak’s belief that providing the simple things we take for granted such as toilets can be a tool for social change and that innovation is integral to improving the lives of those on the margins of society,” Kwatra added. Pathak will be honored April 12, 2016, in New York.
Sania Mirza created history by becoming the first female tennis player from India to achieve the world number one rank in doubles, following her stupendous title win at the WTA Family Circle Cup with partner Martina Hingis, in Charleston, NC.
With this historic victory, Sania Mirza from India has become world No.1 in tennis doubles after winning the Family Circle Cup in Charleston with partner Martina Hingis. Sania is also first female player from the country to win Grand Slam tournaments. Before Sania, only Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhuapthi had achieved the top rank when they dominated men’s doubles circuit in the last 90s.
No Indian woman had ever been No. 1 in singles or doubles until the 28-year-old Mirza. She says she’s proud of the achievement and thanks Hingis for helping her get there. The two have won their past three events, capturing titles at Indian Wells and Miami before the Family Circle. Mirza says this is an honor she’ll treasure for the rest of her life. She says she’ll always be able to say she held a No. 1 ranking, and that’s something “very special.”
Sania Mirza with Martina Hingis
“When you start off as a child playing tennis, you dream of being No. 1 in the world,” Mirza said in a statement released by the WTA. “It’s a dream for every person; very few get there. I feel extremely honored to be No. 1. It’s something that I’ve worked for all my life. I hope this makes girls in India believe that anything is possible; we can achieve anything we want if we put our mind and body to it.”
The top-seeded Indo-Swiss pair blew away the challenge of Casey Dellacqua and Darija Jurak 6-0 6-4 in just 57 minutes in the lop-sided final of the USD 731,000 clay court event. Sania took 470 points from the win to take her tally to 7965 as she jumped past Italy’s Sara Errani (7640) and Roberta Vinci (7640) to sit atop the ranking table. The official ranking chart will be issued on Monday.
It is Sania’s third successive title win with Hingis and they have not lost as a single match since joining forces in March. They won trophy in Indian Wells, which was their first tournament together and followed up that with win in Miami. Sania and Hingis have lost only three sets in 14 matches, spread over three tournaments.
They have already become the world number one team in the Race to Singapore, the season-finale, where top-8 team compete at the end of year. Sania and Hingis strolled past their rivals as they bageled them in just 22 minute to take the opening set. They lost serve in the first game of the second set but broke back immediately.
If the unseeded Australian-Croatian pair had any chance to make a comeback, it was by cashing in on chances and they did not help their cause by squandering two break opportunities in the fifth game of the second set as the winners opened up a huge 4-1 lead. Casey and Darija though kept fighting and gradually reduced the margin.
Serving for the match, Sania and Hingis were broken, perhaps the enormity of the achievement made the Indian nervous. They kept their nerves and broke their opponents for one final time in the 10th game to close the match in their favor.
In the past calendar year, Mirza has won seven doubles titles with three different partners, including three with Hingis. For her career, Mirza has 26 doubles titles and three Grand Slam mixed doubles titles.
While Mirza is the first woman from India to reach the top of the WTA doubles rankings, which were introduced in 1984, she is the fourth woman from Asia to complete the feat. “It’s a dream for every kid to be No1 one day,” said Mirza. “I can’t think of a better person to do it with. When we came here we had one thing in mind, to get No1, and she (Hingis) really helped me get there. She helped me through some tough moments this week. She’s just a great person and a great player. We also become the No1 team in the world today with this. I hope we have many, many more tournaments and end the year on a high as well.”
Jay Rajan, a Business Instructor, has been named Albright College’s new holder of the William E.C. and Mary Dearden Endowed Chair in Business. An innovative Indian American educator, Rajan, who joined the college’s faculty in 2006, specializes in international marketing, consumer behavior, advertising and social media marketing.
Jay Rajan
She spent 16 years in industry, working for major global advertising agencies, including Mindshare, J. Walter Thompson, Ogilvy and Bozell, and has handled media planning, digital media and strategic planning for global brands such as IBM, Unilever and Nike. Prior to joining the Albright faculty, Rajan taught marketing and consumer behavior at the University of Connecticut’s School of Business.
As the holder of the Dearden Chair, Rajan will maintain the position for three years and serve as faculty adviser to the Society of Dearden Scholars, comprised of business, accounting and economics students with high academic accomplishments, who also demonstrate strength of character and leadership befitting a business leader of tomorrow.
Rajan will develop and coordinate, in conjunction with the Dearden Scholars, special events and programs for the society, including activities to enhance business education and bolster career and networking opportunities. She will also manage and administer the Dearden Honors Society endowed fund to support the activities of the society and its awards. Rajan earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of Madras, and her masters of business administration from Bangalore University.
October 22, 2015- New York, NY– The Coalition for Asian American Children and Families (CACF) celebrated its 29th year at the 2015 Culture+ Cocktails for a Cause on Tuesday, October 20, at the Rubin Museum in New York City. Three outstanding leaders were honored for improving the lives of Asian Pacific American children and families.
“All children have the right to grow up free from prejudice and empowered to become leaders in their communities,” said Kathy Ko Chin, president and CEO of the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and recipient of the 2015 CACF Caring for Children award. “I thank the Coalition for recognizing me and look forward to our continued work together to promote better policies for Asian and Pacific Islander children.”
Samidh Guha, Partner at Jones Day, said, “I am really honored to be receiving this award from CACF and want to congratulate CACF for the incredible work that it does to improve the lives and the futures of APA children and families. I would also like to recognize the amazing achievements of Kathy and Fatima, whose work and commitment to the betterment of the less fortunate is inspiring.”
“I am honored to be recognized by CACF. During my time in the Bloomberg Administration I worked with CACF and its member organizations on key policy issues and real community needs,” said Fatima Shama. “In my new role at The Fresh Air Fund, I look forward to partnering once again to ensure we reach and serve NYC’s Asian American Children and Families.”
“CACF is a unique organization that brings together the diverse Asian Pacific American community so that when united, we are able to fight for better policies, funding, and services for children and families. We could not have asked for better honorees that embrace and embody the vision of CACF. With the funds raised from this event, CACF can continue its crucial work as a voice for the most vulnerable in our community,” said Sheelah A. Feinberg, Executive Director of CACF.
The 2015 Culture+Cocktails for a Cause was sponsored by the Ong Family Foundation; Abigail E. Disney & Pierre N. Hauser; Bloomberg Philanthropies; Satomi Kosuga; the Koh Family; HealthPlus, The New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation; Larry Lee, and Jennifer Cutis and Curtis McGraw Webster.
Dr. Joseph M. Chalil MD, MBA, FACHE is an Adjunct Professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida and the Chairman of Global Clinical Research and Trial Network of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI). AAPI is the second largest physician organization in the US second only to AMA, and the largest ethnic medical organization in the country.
Formerly, a Physician Executive at Boehringer Ingelheim and a veteran of the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, Dr. Chalil is also board certified in healthcare management, and has been awarded Fellowship by the American College of Healthcare Executives, an international professional society of more than 40,000 healthcare executives who lead hospitals, healthcare systems and other healthcare organizations.
Dr. Chalil holds three US Patents, and his research includes Clinical Trial Management in Cystic Fibrosis, Multiple Myeloma, and publications in American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Chalil is a Visiting Professor at various universities and board member of various companies.
With more than six million subscribers on Youtube, her own hashtag and a recent Teen Choice Award nomination, there’s no question Lilly Singh is taking the Internet by storm. Indo-Canadian YouTube star Lilly Singh tied with two other celebrities to become the eighth highest-earning YouTube celebrity at $2.5 million as part of Forbes magazine’s first stab at ranking YouTube stars.
The comedienne, had a three-way tie on the list of the “World’s Highest Paid YouTube Stars,” appearing in the Nov. 2 issue of Forbes, with prankster Roman Atwood and chef Rosanna Pansino. The top earner was Sweden’s Felix Kjellberg, 25, better known as “PewDiePie” at $12 million. YouTube stars make money mainly by getting paid to interact with products on their channels and sharing ad revenue with YouTube. Some, such as Singh, also star in movies, write books, go on tour, sell music or cut endorsement deals.
The 26-year-old Canadian, who is known to online fans as IISuperwomanII, admits there have been some famous faces who have helped her forge an incredible career to date. Singh recently completed her “A Trip to Unicorn Island” world tour and will be releasing a documentary based on the tour soon. Forbes, better known for its list of billionaires, said it measured earnings before management fees and taxes and came up with the figures based on data from online sources such as Nielsen, IMDb and interviews with managers, lawyers, industry insiders and the stars themselves.
Indian-American Aziz Ansari has debuted on the Forbes list of Highest-Paid Comedians 2015 with $9.5 million in earnings, thanks to his fan-favorite role as Tom Haverford on the NBC hit “Parks and Recreation”. Like many other celebrities, Ansari, who is ranked sixth, has taken his fame from the stage and screen to the page, the U.S. business magazine noted.
His book, Modern Romance – a sociological investigation into the dating and love lives of millennials – earned him an advance in the seven-figures. It also brought him name recognition among Tinder-swipers and Hinge-matchers.
Jerry Seinfeld ranks as the top-earning comedian, having raked in $36 million. Kevin Hart came in second on $28.8 million with Terry Fator in third at $21.5 million. According to Forbes, “Women are noticeably absent from the list, and in the standup and television comedy business in general-a problem that goes back decades”. Since 1959, only three comediennes have won the Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album (Kathy Griffin, Whoopi Goldberg and Lily Tomlin), it noted.
The list measures earnings before subtracting management fees and taxes between June 1, 2014 and June 1, 2015. One of the most interesting developments in comedy in recent years is the growing action on the smallest screen. The Internet has given comedians new platforms on which to make money from their jokes, Forbes said.
“And just as in many areas of the entertainment industry, Netflix is changing the game. Thanks to comedy special exclusives, funnymen Peters, Louis C.K. and Ansari all added significant amounts to their earnings,” it said. Indian American comedian Aziz Ansari released the trailer for his upcoming comedic Netflix series, “Master of None,” Oct. 22. “Watch the trailer for my new Netflix series MASTER OF NONE,” Ansari posted on Twitter with a link to the trailer.
Indian-American parents of gay children must connect with each other to better understand their children and build a solid foundation for their future, according to former top Obama administration official. Gautam Raghavan, 34, who was the White House liaison for the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender population from 2011 to 2014, and the Defense Department liaison before that, says he has seen a gamut of reactions from Indian-American families toward their gay children, ranging from rejection to acceptance.
Prior to joining the White House, Gautam served as the Deputy White House Liaison for the U.S. Department of Defense and as the Outreach Lead for DoD’s “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group. Gautam previously worked for the Obama campaign, Democratic National Committee, and Progressive Majority, and is a graduate of Stanford University.
From 2011 to 2014, Gautam served as President Barack Obama’s liaison to the LGBT community as well as the Asian American & Pacific Islander community. In this role, Gautam directed the White House’s outreach around major policy developments advancing LGBT equality, including President Obama’s support for marriage equality and the implementation of the Supreme Court’s decision in Windsor, the signing of an Executive Order prohibiting federal contractors from discriminating against LGBT workers, the roll out and implementation of a Presidential Memorandum on international LGBT human rights, and administrative actions prohibiting LGBT discrimination in housing, health care, and other areas.
From 2009 to 2011, Gautam served as Deputy White House Liaison for the U.S. Department of Defense and as Outreach Lead for the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Working Group, where he directed all outreach and communications with key external stakeholders, including organizations advocating for and against repeal, scholars and research institutions with relevant expertise, and gay and lesbian military families and veterans.
Prior to joining the Obama Administration, Gautam worked to strengthen the progressive movement and expand the Democratic Party as Director of the 2008 Obama Campaign’s Asian American Finance Committee, Midwest Finance Director for the Democratic National Committee under Chairman Howard Dean, and in other positions for the DNC and Progressive Majority.
A first-generation immigrant, Gautam was born in India, raised in the Seattle suburbs, graduated from Stanford University, and currently lives in Washington, D.C. with his husband Andrew. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the Point Foundation and Stanford Pride and sits on the Advisory Committee for The Council for Global Equality.
Graduating from Stanford University, Raghavan served in the Democratic National Committee, was on the Presidential campaign of then Senator Barack Obama, served in the White House, and married his college sweetheart Andrew Masloski, five years ago. The couple now plans to address one of his mother’s first concerns when he told her he was gay – add some children to expand his nuclear family.
Raghavan left the Obama administration, choosing instead to work with a Denver non-profit at its Washington, D.C. office. The Gill Foundation, where he is vice president of policy, advocates for LGBT equality and has given more than $277 million since its founding in 1992 to efforts to secure that goal.
“I was born in India and it’s not lost on me that my life would have been very different if my parents had not come here. I would not have been able to marry my husband, or have the protections that I have here,” Raghavan said.
“Our family tradition has always been fairly progressive and open-minded on a broad range of issues, so I’m not surprised they – and my extended family – were quick to support me,” Raghavan said. He concedes that not every Indian-American gay’s story is as rosy, and believes one of the things needed is to create more public spheres on the Internet and elsewhere, that give space to Indian-American gays to tell their stories. Sounding abashed about being cast as a role-model, Raghavan encouraged Indian-American gays, like others, to explore the umpteen options open to them in this country. There’s no limit to what a gay Indian-American can achieve in this country given acceptance and family support, he emphasizes.
“Models of advocacy that have worked here may not work elsewhere,” Raghavan said but added activists and advocates in India are using some of the same tactics and tools that worked here in America – for example, enlisting the support of pro-gay celebrities. The more we can do to share strategies and lessons learned, the better,” he said, adding, “I’m confident both the Indian diaspora community and global LGBT community will continue to support efforts in India to revoke 377.”
At the Gill Foundation, his focus is on the program entitled “Freedom for all Americans” modeled on the previous campaign “Freedom to Marry” all directed at raising awareness and sending the right messages about what LGBT people are like, to communities traditionally seen as dug in. The Gill Foundation is focusing on the South, particularly on business, faith, and conservative communities, which he says would be most helpful in spreading the message. “We have to push back against the traditional narrative that people of faith are against equality for gays,” he says. And that goes for cultural communities as well, like Indian or Chinese Americans.
Anita Adalja, an Indian American farmer manager, was among 12 individuals from across the country who were recognized as White House Champions of Change for Sustainable and Climate-Smart Agriculture at an event in Washington, D.C. Oct. 26.
These individuals were selected by the White House for their achievements and will be honored for their exemplary leadership and innovation in agricultural production and education. The Champions have helped implement agricultural practices that promote soil health and energy efficiency, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Adalja, a manager at the Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food and Agriculture, has worked to create a more equitable and sustainable food system by increasing food access, sustainable farming, farmer training and ‘farm-to-school’ education. Under her management, Arcadia Farm grows thousands of pounds of naturally grown produce that is sold in low- or no-food access areas in Washington, D.C., through its mobile farmers’ market program. A social worker by training, Adalja has previously farmed at One Woman Farm in Gibsonia, Pa., and was the farm manager for Common Good City Farm in Washington, D.C.
The awards ceremony featured remarks by U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack and was live-streamed Oct. 26 at 2 p.m. ET. “My commitment to food access, food justice and community building was solidified through this experience. From there, I threw myself into farming by attending an apprenticeship programme at the Center for Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems in Santa Cruz. I haven’t looked back since,” she said in a United States Department of Agriculture blog recently.
The Champions have helped implement agricultural practices that promote soil health and energy efficiency, improve water quality, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Anita, has worked to create a more equitable and sustainable food system by increasing food access, sustainable farming, farmer training and farm-to-school education.
Under her management, Arcadia Farm grows thousands of pounds of naturally grown produce that is sold in low-or no-food access areas in Washington, through its mobile farmers’ market program. A social worker by training, Adalja has previously farmed at One Woman Farm in Gibsonia, Pa, and was the farm manager for Common Good City Farm in Washington.
Born and educated in India, Ajay Ghosh, The Chief Editor of Universal News Network, came to the United States to pursue his higher studies in Journalism in 1997. Having a Master’s Degree in Social Work, he worked as a freelance writer on social issues for numerous publications on in Delhi and served as the Editor of The Voice Delhi.
After graduating with a Master’s Degree in Journalism from the School of Journalism at Marquette University, Milwaukee, WI, his life as a professional journalist began in the summer of 1999 in New York City. Starting as a reporter for India Post, he worked as the New York Bureau Chief of Indian Reporter and World News from 2000 to 2005.
From 2002 to 2008, Ajay worked as the Executive Editor of NRI Today, a monthly magazine, published from New York. He was instrumental in launching The Asian Era, a colorful magazine published from New York and worked as the Chief Editor from 1999 to 2015. He had worked for about two years as the New York Bureau Chief of India Tribune, a weekly newspaper, published from Chicago.
Since early 2014, he has been working as the Bureau Chief of The Indian Express, North American Editions. In 2014, he along with Dr. Joseph Chalil launched The Universal News Network, an online publication (www.theunn.com) and continues to serve as the Chief Editor of the web-portal.
In 2010, Ajay was appointed as the Media Consultant of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI, the largest ethnic association representing over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin in the United States. He has been recently appointed as the Media Coordinator of GOPIO-CT, considered the most vibrant GOPIO Chapter in the world.
With the objective of bringing together the journalists of Indian origin scattered across the United States, Ajay along with his friends/colleagues in the media, was instrumental in forming Indo-American Press Club last year, and had served as the founder President of Indo-American Press Club.
In addition, Ajay taught Social Work Seminar and guided students at the Graduate School of Social Work, Fordham University in New York City since 2006. He has been working as the Administrator of the Mental Health Clinic at Saint Dominic’s Home, Bronx, New York from 1999 to 2014. Worked as the Treatment Coordinator at Saint Vincent’s Hospital’s Westport Campus, which serves patients with mental health issues, and had a bief stint as a Senior Social Worker at Children’s Village that serves children and families for over 150 years. At present, he works as a Social Worker at Yale New Haven Hospital.
Ajay Ghosh is married to Mini, his closest friend and wife for nearly two decades and the couple are blessed with three beautiful daughters, Archana, Navya, and Ahana. The Ajay Family lives in Trumbull, CT.
Ritesh Veera, a senior investment banking executive at Maxim Group in New York City, works with client companies in a multitude of industries including: healthcare, technology, energy and media. His work involves helping companies to raise financing using an array of financial instruments including IPOs, private financing, mergers and acquisitions and more. As an advisor to CEOs and startup Entrepreneurs Ritesh has been able to build a track record of success having closed transactions valued over $2B. Prior to joining Maxim Group, Ritesh served as V.P. at Provident group, a mid-market investment bank where he worked in emerging growth sectors. Early in his career Ritesh served as V.P. at Rodman & Renshaw where he spearheaded the India intiative providing him with expertise in the emerging markets. Throughout his career, Ritesh has built a strong reputation for high performance, integrity and accountability.
As an active angel investor and advisor, Ritesh has worked with and mentored over 15 early stage companies including Druva, Vuclip, Fab-alley, Zeel and Consure Medical. Ritesh holds an MBA from Baruch College and holds a BBA from Mumbai University. Recently, the Asian American Business Development Center in New York City awarded Ritesh the 2014 Outstanding 50 Asian Americans in Business Award.
Excerpts from an interview of Mr. Veera with Ajay Ghosh, The Editor in Chief:
Ajay: What made you choose finance/investment to be your career?
Mr. Veera: There are people out there who have a dream, a vision or a goal that they wish to achieve. They want to bring their product or service to the marketplace but often find the idea of raising money or receiving financial advice very difficult because it’s hard to find someone who gets your vision. Also, trust and credibility is very important in finding someone who can give you the exposure you need. I went into finance because I want to help people achieve their goals of becoming entrepreneurs. My father is an entrepreneur and I got to live through his experiences. By helping other entrepreneurs raise capital or provide financial advice, in my own small way I feel as though I’m helping people bring their dreams into reality. Also, what appeals to me about finance is the global aspect of the market. We live in such a fast, global and connected world that I can be doing business in Brazil one week and India the next. It’s exciting to me to meet people from all over the world who value what we do.
Ajay: Challenges you face to be a successful investment banker
Mr. Veera: Every job these days is quite challenging. With a global marketplace, there are more people doing what you’re doing in more parts of the world than ever before. For me, the challenge is about connecting with entrepreneurs in a meaningful way. What I have discovered is that the relationships we make with people are so critical to the success of a project and with the lack of time and resources, this has become a big challenge. Instead of spending weeks and months with a possible client, we might only spend a few days. Compressing that time to get to know the entrepreneur and their life vision and that of their business is getting challenging.
Ajay: What’s the high point of your career?
Mr. Veera: One of the most important project I worked on was to help this small company that is researching a treatment for cancer to raise capital and provide strategic advice . Who knows if they will ever find that treatment for such a devastating disease but I can say that it was meaningful for me to help them continue that search. In my small way, I can feel proud helping this company move forward in this area.
Ajay: What was the most proud moment of your business career and your personal life.
Mr. Veera: Having my parents come to New York City, where I work and meet my co-workers. This was special because growing up with such humble means in Mumbai, I could not envision working in the famous Chrysler building on 42nd street in the heart of Manhattan. I felt proud when they got a chance to see the fruit of my hard work through the positive remarks from my co-workers and friends.
Ajay: What is unique about Ritesh Veera and what has made you stand out
Mr. Veera: For me, what I find thrilling is finding the right question to ask the people I work with and my clients. There’s a lot of knowledge that exists out there in the world but what is so critical these days is finding the connection points between A and B through a powerful question that makes someone really think. So I ask clients really tough questions because I want to get at the source of why they do what they do and how they plan to do it. Insightful questions also provide value to the client because it helps them to become better at what they do. That’s what I really enjoy – asking the right questions.
Ajay: How do you pick the right investment for your clients
Mr. Veera: I don’t pick investments for my clients. Instead, I help them raise capital for their business ventures. Whether they’re a biotech company, a clean energy, industrial, or a technology business, I help them to find investors who will back their dreams and turn them into a reality.
Ajay: Share with us something about the India intiative you have taken and about the potential in the emerging markets
Mr. Veera: India is at a turning point. With the election of Narender Modi, there is a sense of pragmatic optimism I see everywhere – in small businesses to large global companies to the real estate sector to infrastructure. With Prime Minister Modi’s visit to the US in September, there appears to be a fresh new approach to the US-India dialogue. Our clients are bullish on India in that many believe that cross border transaction or other opportunities can be more of a reality than ever. One company that I work with in the bio-pharmaceutical space is keen to work with Indian pharmaceutical companies to explore substantive opportunities. It demonstrates that in our global business environment, US companies are seeing India not only as a market but also as a place to partner with well regarded Indian companies.
Ajay: What to look for in the next 12 months to 24 months in the investment sector
Mr. Veera: A couple of areas to think about as we head into the latter part of 2014 could be: the biotech sector where there is some real growth of opportunities given the advances in medicine and research. Also, the technology sector as well as energy might offer some interesting areas to explore. For us, one aspect that is really important is the management team and their vision for their product or service. You can have a terrific product but if the management is unable to execute and bring their vision to market, then it doesn’t matter how much capital you have.
Ajay: Any suggestions to our readers to learn from your life/career and to look for in choosing the right kind of investment portfolios
Mr. Veera: My role in investment banking is to help Companies raise capital and provide strategic advice for their business venture not necessarily to pick the right investments. What I can say is that everyone should consider working with a investment professional – whether to help them with their personal finance strategy or to help them raise capital for their business venture. A licensed, capable and service focused professional can make the world of difference.
Ajay: Would you like to tell us something about your family and education
Mr. Veera: My parents live in Mumbai and I have an older brother and sister. I am married to Manasi who is from Calcutta. I grew up in a business family with my father being in the garment business for most of his life. Being raised in a business family gave me a real appreciation for how important of a role a business can play in helping to create jobs and opportunities for others. By helping out as much as we could in the family business, my siblings and I got to appreciate first hand what it’s like to help each other grow and develop through life’s challenges.
My education is from Mumbai, which was a great place to learn not only about academics but about life. Being in a city of so many millions is just raw life which you have to deal with on a daily basis. It was fantastic.
Ajay: Anything else you want our readers to know about you and the investment industry
Mr. Veera: I do believe that our work in helping people realize their dreams of becoming successful entrepreneurs, providing jobs and opportunities for society, is valuable. I thoroughly enjoy working in this area and find that we are on the cusp of some great innovations in technology, health and energy. My hope is that through my work in a small way – to be a part of bringing those innovations to more people throughout the world.
Ohio’s well-known Indian community leader Nirmal Sinha was inducted into the Ohio Civil Rights Hall of Fame on October 15. As a representative of the Asian Indian community, Nirmal has held many important positions and received national recognition for his civil rights contribution. Serving as President and Trustee of the Federation of Asian Indian Associations (FIA) of Central Ohio, President of the Asian Indian American Business Group (AIABG) and a member of the Asian Indian Alliance of Ohio, Sinha has helped Ohio grow in its diversity and acceptance of the Asian Indian Community.
Sinha’s commitment to improving relationships among all races and nationalities is also evidenced in his work with the Muslim and Sikh communities following the attacks of September 11, 2001. He provided invaluable service in alleviating the fears and improving relations during that time of uncertainty and unrest.
Sinha’s work has extended beyond Ohio to the national and international stage. In order to promote trade and international relations of Ohio, Sinha regularly hosts business leaders and diplomatic delegates from various countries such as Russia, China, South Africa and India. He accompanied Governor Voinovich and President Clinton during their visits to India for promoting international trade and cultural relations.
As Commissioner of the Ohio Civil Rights Commission from 1991 through 2006, Sinha developed programs to welcome new immigrants to the U.S. and created outreach programs for various ethnic groups including Asian and Hispanic communities.
1n 2003, Mr. Sinha received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor which recognizes American citizens who celebrate their history, traditions and values of their ancestry while exemplifying the values of the American way of life. In 2007, President of India Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam presented Pravasi Bharatiya Samman to Mr. Sinha for his contribution to the global Indian Diaspora. As one supporter said, “Mr. Sinha approaches every challenge with empathy, reason, passion and dignity.”
In another recognition of his contribution in the field of child rights and abolition of child slavery, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize recipient Kailash Satyarthi has become the first Indian to be honored with Harvard University’s prestigious “2015 Humanitarian of the Year” award.
The child rights activist received the award during a ceremony organised at the Harvard University campus in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on Friday, last week. “I humbly accept the award on behalf of millions of left out children, for whose rights we strive to work for. Let us all pledge together to eradicate child slavery from the world,” Satyarthi said in his acceptance speech.
“We believe that your notable contributions to Indian child rights deserve special recognition,” wrote S Allen Counter Jr, director of the Harvard Foundation, to Satyarthi in the recognition letter.
The annual award is given to an individual whose work has served to improve the quality of life of people and inspired them to reach greater heights. Recently, Satyarthi succeeded in getting child protection and welfare-related clauses included in the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The crusader for child rights expressed the hope that he would “see the end of child labour” across the globe in his lifetime.
“I am positive that I would see the end of child labour around the world in my lifetime as the poorest of the poor have realised that education is a tool that can empower them,” Satyarthi had told IANS on the sidelines of a media interaction organised at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club last year. “Hence, they are educating their children while the number of child labourers are gradually decreasing around the world,” Satyarthi added.
Quoting figures from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), he said the latest data has shown that the number of child labourers around the world is 168 million as compared to 260 million in the mid 90s. Calling children his religion, Satyarthi said the issue of child labour has received a lot of attention after he won the Nobel prize but the momentum should be maintained.
“I never go to temples but when I see a child I see god in them. Children are my religion…This issue must not die. The children need a voice and they need everybody’s support especially the media,” he told IANS.
Satyarthi, along with Pakistan’s Malala Yousufzai, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2014. In January this year, Satyarthi met US president Barack Obama during his three-day visit to India to attend the annual Republic Day parade in Delhi. Satyarthi has worked for child rights for over 30 years through the Bachpan Bachao Andolan, an NGO which is credited with freeing over 80,000 children from bonded labor across India.
In a ceremony held at the United Nations, Asia Society honored Aasif Mandvi, Kiran Bir Sethi, Chanda Kochhar as ‘Asia Game Changers.’ Philippine boxing great Manny Pacquiao and nine other dignitaries were honored as the second annual class of Asia Game Changers for making a transformative and positive difference for the future of Asia and the world. Honorees also included Chinese telecommunications magnate Lei Jun, Indian/American comedian and actor Aasif Mandvi, and Emirati fighter pilot Mariam al-Mansouri. Chanda Kochhar, the CEO of ICICI Bank won the award for taking the Bank to the next level of achievements.
Kiran Bir Sethi, an education innovator whose Design for Change organization has improved learning outcomes across India, spoke of the importance of spotlighting instructors. “It’s because of honors like [Asia Game Changers] that the response goes from ‘oh, you’re just a teacher’ to ‘teachers are game changers’.”
Other honorees spanned the scientific, artistic, and military world across the continent: Isamu Akasaki, Hiroshi Amano, and Shuji Nakamura, inventors of LED light bulbs and 2014 Nobel Prize winners for physics; and Li Cunxin, the Artistic Director of the Queensland Ballet.
After receiving the award, Pacquiao credited his humble upbringing in a village outside General Santos City, Philippines, for forming his desire to give back to the community. “I’ve experienced in life not having shelter and having to sleep in the street,” he said. “So even with my success I will never forget my past.”
Against the backdrop of New York’s East River and Queensboro Bridge, Pacquiao and his fellow awardees mingled with Asia Society trustees, officers, and other guests from around the world. Josette Sheeran, Asia Society’s President and CEO, began the ceremony by noting that Asians have received insufficient recognition for their contributions to the world. “More than 950 Nobel prizes have been awarded since 1901, and less than six percent have gone to Asians — even though 60 percent of the world’s population is in Asia and Asia has 50 percent of the world’s patents.
“We at Asia Society want to recognize the brilliance of Asia — those who are changing the world for the better.” In his acceptance speech, Mandvi spoke of comedy’s role in eroding negative stereotypes and tackling issues — such as Islamophobia — that often elude more conventional comedians. Recounting a career that began in Off-Broadway productions before achieving widespread recognition a decade ago as the “Middle East Correspondent” for The Daily Show, Mandvi struck a characteristically humorous tone in his remarks. Referring to Pacquiao, his fellow awardee, Mandvi joked: “Little known fact about Manny — he also always wanted to be a fake news correspondent. I guess I won that, Manny. Good luck.”
Pacquiao was introduced by John McEnroe, the American tennis great. “I was fortunate enough to meet Nelson Mandela, and one of the things he said to me was that sports have the potential to change the world,” McEnroe said. “And Manny Pacquiao is one of the individuals who can do that.”
Sridhar Kota, an Indian American engineering professor will lead a U.S. consortium to identify emerging advanced manufacturing technologies to enhance the country’s innovation ecosystem, manufacturing competitiveness and national security, the White House has announced.
Sridhar Kota, Herrick Professor of Engineering and director of the Institute for Manufacturing Leadership at the University of Michigan, will lead MForesight: The Alliance for Manufacturing Foresight, the White House said Oct. 2.
“‘Foresight’ is the key word. In this ‘think-and-do’ tank, we will identify emerging technologies early on, so the nation can invest public and private sector dollars in a way that builds the infrastructure, knowledge and workforce skills needed to anchor manufacturing technology in this country,” Kota said.
“With collective access to over 30,000 subject matter experts across a wide range of industries, MForesight will serve as a continuous mechanism for research coordination across the public and private sectors,” he added.
The group will examine a broad range of technologies. It could, for example, investigate how to cost-effectively improve quality control in drug-making in order to reduce shortages in certain cancer medications.
It could explore how best to manufacture emerging platform technologies such as flexible electronics, which have a wide variety of applications in places like consumer goods, defense and even health care.
Technologies will be evaluated based on economic impact, job growth, likelihood of co-investment by the private sector, impact on multiple industry sectors, and the likelihood of the U.S. gaining a first-mover advantage, among other criteria.
“Engineering and scientific advancements based on fundamental research have been the main drivers of U.S. economic growth over the past half century,” said France Cordova, director, National Science Foundation.
“Thanks to innovative technologies enabled by manufacturing research, production has grown at its fastest pace in more than a decade, creating significant economic value for the nation. To continue to reap these benefits, we must seek new research frontiers for manufacturing and pursue them for high-impact U.S. manufacturing innovation and economic competitiveness,” Cordova noted.
Kota, a mechanical engineering professor and entrepreneur, served as assistant director for advanced manufacturing at the White House from 2009 to 2012.
He helped to create President Obama’s Advanced Manufacturing Partnership in 2011 and the Manufacturing Innovation Institutes in 2012.
The National Science Foundation and the U.S. Commerce Department’s National Institute of Standards and Technology are funding MForesight with a three-year, $5.8 million cooperative agreement.
South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley was honored on by the Harvard Foundation for Intercultural and Race Relations for her leadership in removing the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol building grounds this summer. The award was given at a dinner ceremony by Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter at Winthrop House in Harvard College, Cambridge, Mass on October 1st, 2015.
In her speech, Haley talked of a “New South” that was tackling historical problems of racial and economic inequality, the Harvard Crimson reported in its online edition. Haley also indicated the Republican Party was committed to solving the problems of the poor and people of color in her state. “I would not have won the Republican primary if this were a racially intolerant party,” she is quoted saying in the Crimson.
Haley is considered a “Rising Star” in the party, and her national image rose dramatically following her decision to remove the Confederate flag from statehouse grounds after the massacre of 9 black members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C. by white supremacist Dylann Roof.
Haley spoke about the difference between how South Carolinians responded to the massacre compared to the violence that ensued in Ferguson, Missouri and Baltimore, Maryland, after killings of unarmed blacks at the hands of police there. The uprisings, she said, hurt black people already facing police violence whereas in South Carolina people came together to mourn the loss of life.
Harvard Foundation Director S. Allen Counter presented her with an award of appreciation for her calls to remove the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol this past summer. In remarks in Winthrop House, Haley described the bright future of a “New South” dedicated to tackling historical problems of racial and economic inequality. She also offered a defense of the Republican Party and its values in solving problems for low-income people and people of color in her state.
Haley entered the political spotlight this summer after nine black members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., were shot and killed, allegedly in a racially motivated attack by Dylann Roof. Haley called for the removal of the Confederate flag from the South Carolina state capitol in the wake of the killings, and many people throughout the country celebrated her subsequent signing of the bill that took the flag down.
Reflecting on her choice to call for the removal of the flag, Haley said that “the State House belongs to all people, and it needed to be welcoming to all people. That was not possible with the flag flying,” she concluded.
Haley spoke in depth about how South Carolina residents responded to this summer’s massacre, contrasting it with the violence that erupted in cities like Ferguson, Mo., and Baltimore after killings of unarmed black people at the hands of police there.
Haley, while maintaining that “black lives do matter,” argued that the uprisings in other cities in fact hurt black people who face police violence. Charleston, in contrast, saw no violence in the wake of the church massacre, with Haley describing the local reaction as a peaceful coming together to mourn the loss of life. Haley met with University President Drew G. Faust and Dean of the College Rakesh Khurana during her visit, according to Counter.
Shashi N. Kumar, an Indian American has been named to two posts at the Maritime Administration. Currently the academic dean at the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, Kumar will take on the roles of deputy associate administrator and national coordinator for the Maritime Education and Training at MARAD’s headquarters in Washington, D.C. At MARAD, Kumar is expected to lead the efforts in bolstering the country’s pool of merchant marines and help address the needs of state and federal maritime academies.
Dr. Shashi Kumar
“After serving at the United States Merchant Marine Academy since January 2007 as the academic dean and as interim superintendent three times, I am moving on to pursue other challenges,” Kumar said in a statement. Kumar is a graduate of the University of Ulster, Maine Maritime Academy and the University of Wales, Cardiff, the latter from which he earned his doctorate in applied economics.
He has been honored with a number of awards pertaining to his service and leadership over the years, and, in June, was named an honorary alumnus of USMMA. A member of several marine- and maritime-based organizations, Kumar got his start in the industry at Neptune Orient Lines Ltd. in Singapore as the company’s master mariner in 1979. After about seven years there, Kumar moved on to the Maine Maritime Academy where, from 1987 to 2007, he served as the founding dean of the Loeb-Sullivan School of International Business and Logistics. Kumar will be leaving USMMA this month.
After giving a new definition to fashion in her films and red carpet appearances, Kangana Ranaut, has now turned designer for a limited edition collection called ‘Marquee’ for fashion label, Vero Moda to create a collection that reflects her own style sensibility.
There are five broad themes — Dandelion Dreams, Deep Lake, Red Velvet, Royal Enchantment and Gold Rush — that make the “VERO MODA MARQUEE by Kangana Ranaut” collection. The designs include casual, formal and occasion wear.
“For the collection, I pretty much followed what globally is going to be trend. We have exciting categories with no confusion. There are dresses for brunches, gigs and many such special occasions so there is no confusion. You can just pick the right outfit and flaunt it,” Kangana told IANS when asked about the USP of the collection. The actress showcased her first show as a designer at Mehboob Studio here last week and it had to be one big affair.
From celebrities like Dino Morea, Elli Avram taking the front rows to the thumping live music while the models sashayed down the ramp in glamorous outfits, brought spark to the night. While Dandelion Dreams is a very dreamy collection with botanical design elements, exquisite and artfully crafted beaded embroidery in a buffet of diffused dandelion design patterns, Deep Lake takes inspiration from the colors of a deep lake.
Red Velvet is a classic theme with a very sexy and a bold feel. All the pieces in this story were very dramatic, accentuated with lace and embroidered in rich florals. Inspired by royalty, Royal Enchantment had a rich mix of luxe embroideries in interesting geometric patterns. Finally, Gold Rush takes its inspiration from the ‘Midas touch’ and sweeps golden hues into its mix, giving a metallic twist to the all over metallic gold fashion to minimalism.
PepsiCo chairman Indra Nooyi and Hindustan Times Group chairperson Shobhana Bharatia were honored with the 2015 Global Leadership Award by the U.S. India Business Council Sept. 21 at its annual gala for their commitment to driving a more inclusive global economy and their roles as women leaders. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and Secretary of State John Kerry were among those who spoke at the gala.
Noting that USIBC plays an important role in strengthening the India-U.S. relationship, Nooyi said there are tremendous opportunities ahead to work together in new ways that capitalize on their collective strengths, paving the way to shared prosperity.
In other news, a venture capital fund backed by Reliance Industries Ltd. and a United States-based technology firm have signed an agreement to bring cutting-edge software technologies to India. Reliance-backed GenNext Ventures and Ecorithm’s partnership was announced on the sidelines of the inaugural India-U.S. Strategic and Commercial Dialogue.
Ecorithm’s powerful suite of technologies can be applied to build systems and various other enterprise solutions to improve operations, optimize systems, and minimize energy use, a media release said.
“As we bring Ecorithm into India, we are keen to deploy the technology to optimize the energy efficiency of our buildings and raise the standard of environmental design and operation for buildings and enterprises to global levels,” said Vivek Rai Gupta, managing director of GenNext Ventures. Asserting that India offers immense opportunities, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj sought investments from United States industry leaders in public and private sectors.
In her address at U.S. India Business Council’s 40th annual gala Sept. 22, Swaraj said U.S. businesses are “best placed” to make their business decisions. “But it would help if I underline here the scale of India’s economic ambition and the size of economic opportunity that it represents for both our countries,” she said.
“We have plans to boost urbanization, and we are determined to provide affordable power and housing for all. We want to connect manufacturing in India with global supply chains… to develop product-based and service-based industrial and governance platforms around Digital India,” she said.
All of these initiatives and plans present commercial and business opportunities for U.S. industries to partner with India’s public and private sectors for a “win-win outcome,” the minister said. Meanwhile, John T. Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco, has been elected as the new chairman of the U.S. India Business Council.
Kartik Chandran, an Indian American environmental engineer was among the 24 talented individuals honored as prestigious MacArthur Fellows for 2015, it was announced Sept. 28.
Chandran, 41, an associate professor in the department of earth and environmental engineering at Columbia University in New York, was one of the Fellows recognized by the foundation for his innovative work.
“The fellowship bestows great honor and a greater responsibility towards overcoming the global challenges that we as a society face today,” the engineer told the media. The MacArthur Foundation fellowship program awards unrestricted fellowships to talented individuals who have shown extraordinary originality and dedication in their creative pursuits, and a marked capacity for self-direction.
Fellows are selected through a multi-phase nomination process and are evaluated by an independent selection committee comprised of about a dozen leaders in the arts, sciences and humanities professions, as well as for-profit and nonprofit communities.
Typically, 20 to 30 fellows are selected each year.
Chandran, who received a B.S. from the Indian Institute of Technology at Roorkee and a doctorate from the University of Connecticut, has focused on integrating microbial ecology, molecular biology, and engineering to transform wastewater from a troublesome pollutant to a valuable resource.
He approaches wastewater treatment with the goal of producing useful resources such as fertilizers, chemicals, and energy sources, in addition to clean water, in a way that takes into account the climate, energy and nutrient challenges faced today.
“I expect to leverage and build upon the fellowship award to specifically address the interlinked challenges relating to clean water, sanitation, energy and nutrients, among others,” he said.
The Indian American has determined an optimal combination of microbes to remove nitrogen from waste while minimizing the release of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.
In addition, while using ammonia-oxidizing bacteria, he has enabled the transformation of bio-generated methane gas into methanol, a chemical that is both easily transported and widely useful.
His solutions are imaginative and locally appropriate, according to the MacArthur description of his work, citing a project he did in rural Ghana re-engineering source-separation toilets to provide sanitation and recover nutrients to use in agriculture.
Chandran’s bio on the fellowship program page goes on to say he is “demonstrating the hidden value of wastewater, conserving vital resources and protecting public health.”
New York, NY: “Bank of Baroda is a premier public sector bank serving about 50 million customers through its 4,300+ branches across 25 countries spread around the globe,” Ashok Kumar Garg, who has assumed charge as the Chief Executive (US Operations) of Bank of Baroda, said in an exclusive interview with this writer in his mid-town Manhattan office here. “Ours is a top ranking bank of international standards. We are committed to augmenting stake holders’ value through Competence, Care and Concern ” he added.
Garg comes to the world’s economic capital, after having served as the Managing Director of Bank of Baroda (Uganda) Ltd. Kampala, Uganda, where he also had the distinction of serving as the Chairman of Baroda Capital Markets Ltd., Uganda, the Director on the Board of Uganda Securities Exchange (USE) and as a Director on the Board of Uganda Institute of Banking & Financial Services Ltd., Kampala.
“I have dedicated my career of 34 years to the service of the Bank,” Garg, who had joined this premier Bank in 1979, says. Having a Masters Degree in Commerce and a Bachelor’s Degree in Law from Delhi University, Garg, an aluminous of Shri Ram College of Commerce (SRCC), Delhi University, is a Certified Associate of Indian Institute of Banking & Finance (CAIIB). Committed to serving his numerous assignments around the world with diligence and dedicationt, Garg rose through the ranks with hard work and “with the blessings of God.” Over the decades, he has acquired rich experience of diverse banking operations, a thorough knowledge of Project Management, Compliance function, Training and Development, Risk Management, Financing of Retail, SME, Wholesale, Agriculture and International Trade.
Under his stewardship Bank of Baroda (Uganda) Ltd., Kampala, has been conferred with many awards and accolades in 2013. Notable among these are: International Award for Business Excellence 2013 conferred by the Global Trade Leaders’ Club, Madrid, Spain; Superbrand East Africa 2013-2014 conferred by Superbrands, the world’s largest independent arbiter of branding. Garg was conferred with the Pearl of Africa Lifetime Achievement Award 2013 by Public Opinions, Uganda. The only Banker who was honored with this award in 2013, Garg has also been accredited in the Uganda Who is Who Book of Records which was launched at the hands of the Prime Minister of Uganda.
Having served in a wide range of responsibilities in domestic as well as international operations of the Bank in various capacities, Garg had the distinction of holding key leadership positions, especially as the Deputy General Manager (Rural and Agriculture Banking) at the Corporate Office of the Bank at Mumbai, as Regional Head of Kanpur Region (UP) with 207 outfits, and Deputy Regional Head of Delhi Metro Region-I with business of around INR 160,000 million. He also had a stint of three years as Financial Controller of Bank of Baroda, London, Head of Training Institute at Baroda and Project Manager of Lending Automation Software at Corporate Office, Mumbai.
“Ours is a story scripted in corporate wisdom and social pride,” Garg says with a sense of pride “It is a story of ordinary bankers and their extraordinary contribution in the ascent of Bank of Baroda to the formidable heights of corporate glory. It is a story that needs to be shared with all those millions of people – customers, stakeholders, employees and the public at large – who in ample measure, have contributed to the making of an institution.”
Licensed in 1978 by New York State Banking Department (now known as New York State Department of Financial Services (NYSDFS), Bank of Baroda commenced its operations in New York in Feb1979 and has completed over three decades of excellent service in USA. The New York Branch of Bank of Baroda is a State Chartered, FDIC Insured Bank and is a designated Wholesale Banking Institution. Bank’s name spells security, safety, soundness, service with smile and swiftness in operations. Customer delight is its motto.
In his capacity as the Chief Executive of Bank of Baroda’s US operations Garg’s topmost priority is to continue to ensure that the Bank is in compliance with the regulations and is adhering to all aspects of federal banking regulations, even while making the bank more attractive and competent to its corporate clients.
Showing pictures of his close association with the local communities during his prior assignments across the world, especially through initiating eco-friendly measures that will benefit the larger society, and the social lives of the people, Garg intends to emulate some of those practices in the US. Towards this end, Garg has plans to bring the bank into the lives of the Indian American community. He plans to reach out to all sections of the NRI community, participating in the cultural, social and economic lives of the people, touching every aspect of their lives.
As compared to other banks, Bank of Baroda’s technology deployment is not restricted to only core banking solution. As Bank of Baroda, New York Branch is a Whole Sale banking entity; it is not dealing with retail banking customers, Garg points out. The Bank offers Business Checking Accounts and Certificate of Deposits to its customers as well as loan facilities for Business, Services and Industry, Syndicated Loans and Trade Finance to its constituents.
Bank of Baroda started its overseas journey by opening its first branch way back in 1953 in Mombassa, Kenya. Since then the Bank has come a long way in expanding its international network to serve NRIs/PIOs and locals. Pointing to the remittance facility for Registered remitters, called Rapid Funds 2 India, Garg says, Bank of Baroda, New York Branch provides a unique facility of Free Rupee Remittance to India. Money can be remitted instantly to an account with Bank of Baroda or to any other bank in India for credit to Savings Bank/Individual Current Account /Fixed Deposit with Bank of Baroda. For more details on the New York Branch, Please visit: www.bankofbaroda-usa.com
(Orlando, FL: June 21st, 2015) During a terrific convention attended by over 2,500 participants, Dr. Seema Jain, took the oath of office as the President of AAPI on Saturday night, June 20th, 2015. The delegates from across the nation came together to celebrate their achievements and to plan for ways to move forward, enriching and supporting one another for the greater good of humanity through education and dedication to their motherland India and to their adopted land, the United States at the 33rd annual historic convention organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the Reniassance Hotel Convention Center, Orlando, FL from Wednesday, June 17th to Sunday, June 21st, 2015. In her first ever Presidential address, Dr. Jain said, “Today, I am pleased to announce our strategic plan for the next 12 months. With your support, dedication and hard work we will make sure that this is a turning point in the history of AAPI. Our key strategic initiatives will be as follows: Excellence of Education, Empowerment,
Enlightenment, and Evolution.”
Dr. Ravi Jahagirdar, the out-going President of AAPI, in his address, said, “When I became the President of AAPI, the vision for AAPI was spelled out on a traditional Vedic concept of “Panchasheel” , the five action pillars: Education, Community/Charitable service, Member Support Programs, Mentorship / Mantle, and Legislative Action, to further the voluminous achievements of the past 33 years. As he handed over the reign of AAPI to Dr. Seema Jain on Saturday night at a terrific gala, Dr. Jahagirdar had this to say with much satisfaction and pride, “And as this tumultuous year of achievements for AAPI draws to the close, it is with a premonition that the future will be even more productive and that AAPI is now on an unmistakable march into a bright future.”
Dr. Jayesh Shah, past President, AAPI administered the oath of office as the more than 2,500 delegates cheered loudly, greeting the new President of AAPI, the largest ethnic medical association in the United States. Along with Dr. Jain, Dr. Ajay Lodha as President-Elect, Dr. Gautam Samadder as Vice President, Dr. Naresh Parikh as Secretary, and Dr. Suresh Reddy as the Treasurer of AAPI assumed charge I n the presence of leading luminaries and over 2,000 AAPI delegates from across the nation. Dr. Aravind Pillai was administered the oath of office as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, AAPI by the out-going chairman, Dr. Ajeet Singhivi.
Cutting edge CMEs that offered insights into several healthcare and medical issues, focus on ways to actively participate in the nation’s legislative process, on ways to prevent diseases, while working with the government of India and voluntary agencies to effectively train physicians in India, fashion show, women’s forum, fashion shows, mega entertainment by Bollywood Stars, Sonu Nigam, Dr. KJ Yesudas, cultural programs, healthy living, yoga, health walk, meditation, honoring those who worked hard to make a positive impact in their respective areas of work, and networking and renewing of friendships and bonds were some of the highlights of the 33rd annual convention in the magical city.
The convention was inaugurated here on Thursday, June 18th, 2015 with AAPI members rededicating themselves to give back to their motherland, India. A major objective of AAPI has been about giving back to India and USA. AAPI India Engagement was a way of coordinating these individual efforts for the sake of streamlining them and to make it easier and sustainable in the a way that more members can contribute and help make a positive impact in the lives of millions of Indians.
AAPI had three dynamic speakers, Vani Tripathi, Dr. Margaret McLaren, and Bhakti Sharma, at the Women’s Forum, who were selected for not only for their enthralling speaking abilities and their expertise in their fields, but also for the varied messages they were able to individually convey to a packed audience at the Discovery Hall.
The event also dthe AAPI Golf Classic, AAPI’s Got Talent and the Be Fit Be Cool Walk in partnership with the Orlando Health Foundation as part of AAPI’s National Childhood Obesity program. Notable Speakers at the event included US Surgeon General Vice Admiral (VADM) Vivek H. Murthy, Kailash Satyarthi, 2014 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, recognized for his works against child labor; Sri Sri Ravi Shankar a humanitarian leader and a spiritual teacher; Preet Bharara, US Attorney for the Southern District of New York; and several top Indian performers including Mystic India, Jay Sean, Sonu Nigam and K J Yesudas.
The conference provided an enriching platform for members comprised of medical, mental health, and dental physicians in American to engage with the latest in medical technology, research and advances in the world of all types of medicine and dental. The convention included CME and DME accredited courses as well as variety of panel discussions, presentations and a research competition. There were forums for AAPI Young Physicians Group (AAPI YPS) and for AAPI MSRF for medical students, residents and fellows. A nearly sold out Exhibitor Hall included medical and pharmaceutical products, jeweler, fashion designs, devices and equipment and medical and dental, practice-related services.
Delegates of AAPI that represents nearly 100,000 Physicians, Fellows, and Residents in the United States, were led to meditate after an inspiring address on Yoga and Health by global thought and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravi Shankar. The unique event served as a platform for the AAPI members to discuss the importance of meditation in resolving the nation’s pressing health concerns and how Ayurveda, Yoga, and Meditations, the ancient traditions of India offer solutions to the most pressing health problems of the world.
Dr. Jain called upon AAPI members to join in this historic journey: “AAPI’s mission is clear, our programs will continue to strive and our impact is infectious on benefiting society. We as physicians make significant contributions for the betterment of people’s lives. As members we can make these contributions through the 4 E’s: Excellence of Education, Empowerment, Enlightenment, and Evolution. Today I ask you to set aside your differences, and join me in this noble journey to make our mission possible! We make history – starting today!”
Vini Samuel, Montesano, Washington mayoral candidate aced a primary election and is on her way to becoming the nation’s first Indian American female mayor. The tiny town of Montesano in northwest Washington state has approximately 2,300 registered voters; about half voted in the primaries. Samuel garnered 47 percent of the vote, trumping incumbent Mayor Ken Estes, who received 27 percent, and Montesano city councilman Tyler Trimble, who won 25 percent. Samuel will face off against Estes in the Nov. 3 election.
The candidate believes she has clinched the race. “I just need to keep my head down and stay out of trouble,” Samuel laughingly toldIndia-West in a telephone interview. If elected, Samuel will also be Montesano’s first female mayor and its first minority mayor.
Samuel, who was born in Quilon, Kerala, and raised in Juneau, Alaska, characterized the tiny town of Montesano as “a little piece of Americana.” “The kids still bike on the streets and go fishing. You enter a different reality,” she said, comparing it to the mythical town of Mayberry, RFD, which was the setting for the popular 1960s television sitcom, “The Andy Griffith Show.”
“I want to preserve this place. You really don’t have pockets like this anymore,” stated Samuel, who has lived in Montesano for 18 years with her husband, Guy Bergstrom, who works for the Democratic Caucus in the Washington state House of Representatives, and their son, Thomas, 13. Samuel’s parents, Pona Samuel and Samuel Thomas, also live nearby.
Montesano – about 50 miles away from Olympic National Forest – features three lakes. The town is also the county seat for Grays Harbor County. Samuel, who has previously served on Montesano’s city council, said she was campaigning on the issue of transparency in city politics. She questioned the recent sale of a parcel of waterfront property which sold well under market for about $20,000. The sale was approved by the city council with the stipulation that an easement would be built to allow residents to have waterfront access at the property.
Instead, the property was developed without the easement, disallowing public access to the waterfront, she said. Speculation about a backroom deal between Estes and the developer has been rife. Samuel also sounded off against Estes’ interactions with a deaf city councilwoman, Marisa Salzer, who had requested an interpreter during city council meetings. A confrontation on the issue became more divisive when the city attorney asked Salzer for copies of her private e-mail, alleging the councilwoman used her official and private accounts interchangeably. Salzer has since resigned and wrote in her resignation letter: “I can no longer tolerate the unfair working conditions of discrimination and harassment against me for requesting accommodations from the city for my hearing disability.”
Samuel said she also wants to leverage limited resources for the town’s three elementary schools. Washington state provides insufficient funding and the tax base of the small town cannot meet the schools’ budgetary needs. “But the community here is amazing. I have never seen them say no to anything related to kids,” she told the media.
Samuel regards Wi-Fi as basic infrastructure and said she wants to have free Wi-Fi access throughout the downtown area. Washington’s baby boomers are increasingly moving into Montesano, attracted by lower housing prices in a scenic location. The candidate said more services need to be in place for the town’s aging population.
Samuel attended Western Washington University, where she received a B.A. in history and English literature; she obtained her law degree from Seattle University.
NEW YORK: The American Federation of Muslims of Indian Origin (AFMI) has honoured India-born entrepreneur and philanthropist, Frank Islam with the “Pride of India” award, the media reported. India’s Consul General in New York Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay conferred the award upon Mr Islam who had donated $222,000 in May this year to the Aligarh Muslim University in India, India New England daily reported.
“It is a distinct honour and privilege to be here tonight to accept the AFMI ‘Pride of India’ award. It is also a privilege to be asked to speak as a part of AFMI’s silver jubilee celebration,” Mr Islam was quoted as saying.
“I have received many awards. But this one is extra special because it comes from this prestigious organisation in its silver jubilee year,” Mr Islam added. “I must admit that receiving this award and joining such luminaries does not make me proud. It makes me humble,” he noted.
Islam, 63, was born in Azamgarh in Uttar Pradesh and is married to Debbie Driesman, 61. Apart from being a successful entrepreneur, philanthropist and civic leader, he is also a thought leader with a special commitment to civic, educational and artistic causes.
He currently heads the FI Invest Group – a firm that he established after he sold his information technology firm called the QSS Group in 2007, the report added. Islam serves on several boards and advisory councils including the Kennedy Center Board of Trustees, the U.S. Institute of Peace, the Woodrow Wilson Center and the Brookings Institution in Washington D.C.
He has written two books on the American condition, titled “Working the Pivot Points: To Make America Work Again” (2013) and “Renewing the American Dream: A Citizen’s Guide for Restoring Our Competitive Advantage” (2010). The donation to the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) will be used towards building the Frank and Debbie Islam School of Management with an endowed chair and building a technical college for girls in Azamgarh in memory of his mother Qumran Nisan.
Past winners of “Pride of India” award include noted lyricist and song writer Javed Akhtar and Rehman Khan, former Union minister of minority affairs in India. The AFMI, a philanthropic charity formed by American Muslims of Indian Origin in the 1989, celebrated its silver jubilee convention on August 29. The AFMI strives to improve the socio-economic status of the underprivileged Indian Muslim minorities through education.
Dr. Aaron Chatterji, an Indian American associate professor at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, was recently presented with the 2015 SMS Emerging Scholar Award from the Strategic Management Society.
Inaugurated in 2007, the prize is awarded annually to a relatively young or new scholar who displays exemplary scholarship that promises to have an impact on future strategic management practice.
As an SMS Emerging Scholar awardee, Chatterji will be recognized at the SMS Annual International Conference and will receive prize money of $5,000 sponsored by the Strategy Research Foundation. He will also have the opportunity to present his research at the conference.
Chatterji previously served as a senior economist with the White House Council of Economic Advisers, where he worked on a wide range of policies relating to entrepreneurship, innovation, infrastructure and economic growth. For the 2014-2015 academic year, he was on leave as a visiting associate professor at Harvard Business School.
Chatterji’s research and teaching investigate some of the most important forces shaping our global economy and society: entrepreneurship, innovation, and the expanding social mission of business. He has received several awards, including an inaugural Junior Faculty Fellowship from the Kauffman Foundation to recognize his work as a leading scholar in entrepreneurship, and the Rising Star award from the Aspen Institute for his contributions to understanding the intersection of business and public policy.
His research has been published in leading academic journals and has been cited by the New York Times, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and the Economist. He has authored several op-ed pieces in top newspapers, including the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, appeared on national TV and radio, and was recently profiled in The Financial Times and Fortune.
Chatterji has also testified as an expert witness at the House Committee on Small Business and the U.S. Department of State and served as a Fellow at the Center for American Progress. Chatterji serves as a board member for Durham Communities in Schools, an education-focused non-profit, and advises private, public and social sector organizations on innovation and strategy.
Chatterji is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations and previously worked as a financial analyst at Goldman Sachs. He received his Ph.D. from the Haas School of Business at the University of California at Berkeley and his B.A. in economics from Cornell University.
Dr. Vivek Murthy, Indian American U.S. Surgeon General, flew from Boston to California to marry fellow doctor Alice Chen in her home state, on August 22nd, 2015. “As I prepare for my wedding & write my vows, I remember Maya Angelou’s timeless advice: #Love recognizes no barriers,” Murthy tweeted Aug. 20 with a photo of his new wife. Chen responded to the tweet with, “Love is all you need. #grateful #happy.”
In addition to holding the position of surgeon general, Murthy, 37, is also a physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and a teacher at Harvard Medical School. Chen is a practicing internal medicine hospitalist and assistant clinical professor at the University of California, Los Angeles, along with serving as executive director for Doctors for America, an organization working towards equal access to high-quality health care, according to the Doctors for America Web site.
President Barak Obama has nominated 37-year-old Indian-American physician Dr. Vivek Murthy to be the US Surgeon General, making Dr. Murthy the country’s 19th surgeon general for an office that was established in 1871. As the US Surgeon General, the young and talented Indian American is entrusted with leading spokesperson on matters of public health in the US and the operational head of the 6500-strong US Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, one of the seven uniformed services of the United States that includes army, navy, air force and marines.
A graduate of Yale University, where he earned a medical degree and an MBA, he will easily be, by far, the youngest surgeon general in US history. He will also be the first surgeon general of Indian origin, recognizing the immense contribution of the Indian-American community to health care in the United States.
Stating that it is a fitting public recognition of his tireless work and leadership in championing a system where everyone has equal access to quality healthcare, AAPI, the entire Indian American community has been looking forward to bringing the experience and perspective of everyday doctors to the table to help shape the national prevention strategy.
The surgeon general, known as “America’s doctor,” represents the Health and Human Services Secretary and assistant secretary in addressing public health practice. According to an account on Epernicus.com, Murthy says “I study people’s journeys to find inspiration in their work.”
Among other accomplishments, Dr. Murthy founded other health groups addressing issues such as the availability of medicine in rural areas and HIV/AIDS. In 1997, he graduated with a degree in biochemical sciences from Harvard, and later attended Yale University to receive degrees in medicine and business. He had previously served as President Obama’s appointee to the Presidential Advisory Council on Prevention, Health Promotion, Integrative and Public Health. He is an attending physician in general internal medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.
Headquartered in Iselin, New Jersey, Indus American Bank operates a full service branch in Iselin, Jersey City, Parsippany, Plainsboro and Hicksville (NY) and plans to expand to other cities in New Jersey and New York. Indus American Bank has been founded specifically to serve the needs of the South Asians, one of the fastest growing segments of the Asian ethnic group over the coming decade. Presently, Indus American Bank serves both the business as well as the retail customer.
The bank specializes in core business banking products for small to medium-sized companies with emphasis on real estate based lending as well as all the other products that are offered by main-stream banks. Indus American Bank’s focus is to establish and maintain long term relationships with its customers by creating mutually beneficial relationships built on trust and integrity.
The Indus American Bank has become a landmark in the history of Indian immigration to the US with its financial success as well as its efforts to reach out to the community, sponsoring events like India Day Parades and other worthy causes in the tristate. Over the years, it got acclaim for its work to make a difference in the life of the desi community.
To a large extent, the credit for this goes to Anil Bansal, one of the founders and the largest shareholder of the bank in 2005 in Iselin, New Jersey and its chairman since 2011. He became executive chairman next year. His philosophy of helping the community, while doing business has changed the face of the bank from a mere financial organization to a social service partner of the community.
As a community bank, the Bank caters primarily to the needs of consumers and small businesses. More importantly, as a niche community bank it better understands the unique needs of our clients. We do not use a cookie-cutter approach and tailor our solutions to meet the unique needs of our constituents. As a community bank we rely on the community for the funding of our loans, which are concentrated in our geographic footprint. So in effect we act as the community intermediary to channel funds from those who have excess liquidity to those in the community who need funds for growth. We say “Let’s grow together”.
The Bank was established with the mission to be of service meeting the unique banking and financial services needs of consumers and businesses in the Indian-American community in the New York/New Jersey market area. The Bank is striving to be the Bank of Choice for consumers, businesses, their owners and their employees in our catchment area as defined by the CRA Assessment Area. The Bank strives to deliver on the promise of understanding the unique needs of our customers and providing solutions with exceptional personalized service. Help the customer’s business grow through an emphasis on relationship banking over transaction banking.
According to Bansal, while the Bank was founded to serve the needs of the South Asian community, our customers happen to be manly of Indian origin. There are a few reason for this. Over the last 10 years the Indian economy has not only been booming but has also opened up to overseas investment. The sheer size of the Indian population also provides a much broader and deeper base for recent immigrants compared to the other South Asian countries.
Anil Bansal with Senator Bob Menendez
The past one decade has been a period of steady growth. “They say timing is everything. The Bank opened in 2005 and the financial crisis started in 2007. Yes, we hit some serious head winds but were able to come out of the turbulence stronger and resilient. Overall we have been able to achieve the goals we envisaged and believe are on the track for more broad and deeper market penetration.”
As for the future plans for growth, Bansal says, “We follow our clients or members of the community. In ten years we have 5 branches despite the deep recession. We expect our growth to gain momentum as the economy gathers steam and we are able to attract more customers with new and improved products and services. We are celebrating our 10th anniversary with an even greater contribution to the community, both in terms of contributions and time devoted by our employees.
Anil Bansal, Executive Chairman is one of the founders of the Bank and is the largest shareholder. Presently the Bank has over 200 shareholders from within the community. The bank’s market area had been defined to include Middlesex, Mercer, Monmouth, Morris, Passaic, Union, Bergen, Essex, and Hudson Counties in New Jersey and Nassau County in New York. Loans have also been made in the five boroughs of New York City to include Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, Manhattan and the Bronx. The population in the defined counties is in excess of 6.7 million.
Anil Bansal with Gov. Christie of NJ
The New York and New Jersey metro areas have the largest concentration of Indian-Americans in the country. Indian-Americans are one of the fastest growing ethnic groups in the U.S. Indian-Americans generally have higher than average household incomes, savings rates, and ownership of real-estate. Bansal believes that while statistically overbanked, there is significant deposit growth in the market to support a niche institution with strong ties to the community. The existing branch network represents a good platform for delivery of services.
And he is full of confidence. “We expect to see continued improvement in the real estate market and government agencies are taking steps to stimulate this sector, being so critical for the overall economy. While Indians have been good savers, they have also been very astute investors. Our advice would be to continue on the path with diversification as a goal. We as a community have done very well in America, our adopted country. We should use our success in continued contributions to our mother land an our adopted country. India is on the cusp of major changes and we as Indian-Americans can play a crucial role.”
According to Bansal, Indus American Bank takes pride in promoting religious and social community events and participating in outreach programs. “We have supported and will continue to support events like India Day Parade which showcase India’s rich history and culture and symbolize India’s growing economic power in today’s world,” he said.
Bansal said that Indus American Bank is committed to the development and growth of the communities in which we operate. “We partner with our communities and build on those relationships.” Bansal has played a leading role in the development of the bank since inception. When IAB started operations in 2006, Mr. Bansal was co-chairman of the bank and over the years has been active in the growth of the institution. As a matter of fact, IAB was selected in 2009 by NJ BIZ as one of New Jersey’s top 50 fastest growing companies, a result of the vision and guidance of the Board.
When he took over as chairman he said, “I am excited at the opportunity to work closely with my colleagues on the Board and with Bank Management to build on the existing business. I believe there is huge potential for the Bank and the community to grow together. We are committed to serving the needs of our customers and the communities we operate in.”
Last year, the bank felicitated Mok Singh, a well-known entrepreneur and president of Sita World Group and Air World Alliance, who rode on the bank’s float as a guest of honor at the India Day Parade in New York City. “The presence of Mok Singh is very appropriate for the occasion as he has brought pride to the Indian American community with his election as president of Skål International, the largest organization of professional travel and tourism leaders around the world which promotes global tourism and friendship,”
Bansal continues as chairman of IA Bancorp, the holding company and the Executive Chairman of Indus American Bank. He has been active in the South Asian business community and is presently president of Asian Indian Chamber of Commerce. The bank has been founded specifically to serve the needs of the South Asians, one of the fastest growing segments of the Asian ethnic group over the coming decade. Presently, the bank serves both the business as well as the retail customer.
Anil Bansal with Shashi Tharoor
An alumnus of IIT Kanpur (BTech-1977), University of Notre Dame (MS materials science-1979) and Syracuse University (MBA-1985), Bansal worked with various institutions in the US before embarking on setting up his own businesses. After graduation, he worked as a senior project manager for Perkin Elmer and later GTE Corporation as an engineer and was primarily responsible for new product development.
He has led successful computer and real estate companies and his interests also include investments in the restaurant business. He is presently CEO of First National Corporation, a real estate investment and management company and Chairman of vSplash, an international web design and development company.
As an international corporate business leader he is on the board of several corporations and charity foundations. In addition, he served for 15 years as vice chairman of the board of trustees at PBI Regional Medical Center, a prominent non-profit acute care hospital located in the City of Passaic in New Jersey.
Bansal also runs the Bansal Foundation, which helps provide academic scholarships and medical help to needy Indians children worldwide. He was on a state level board to suggest strategies for revitalizing Asian American community, when Jon Corzine was the governor of New Jersey.
As a private entrepreneur he was responsible for the introduction of Apple Computers to the school system throughout New Jersey. He understood the importance of computers in daily life decades before it became a reality and he formed a company to supply and train customers in the use of computer systems.
Anil Bansal graduated from IIT Kanpur in 1977 and came to the United States for a master’s degree in metallurgical engineering. After working for a few years as a metallurgist at Westinghouse and GTE, he got more interested in marketing and decided to do an MBA. After completing his MBA, he joined Perkins Elmer but soon decided to go out on his own and start his own business. He tried different businesses, eventually starting a computer business selling PCs to homes and businesses which was fairly successful, and at the height of the 1994-95 computer boom had around $25 million in annual sales. At the time, he had started another business, a real estate company acquiring and renting properties in New Jersey, which is still operating.
In 2005, Bansal joined with few friends who felt there was a need for a bank focused on the Indian immigrant community in US, especially in the New Jersey area which had the second largest Indian-American population. By December 2005, they had got the approvals, raised the capital and opened their first branch in Iselin, New Jersey. Within four years, Indus American Bank had over $200 million in assets with several branches in New Jersey-New York area, serving Indian owned businesses and communities, with personalized services and a staff that can communicate in Hindi, Gujarati, Punjabi, Malayalam, Sindhi and English. In 2009, the bank was honored as one of “Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies” in New Jersey by NJBIZ.
Anil Bansal with his wife Kumud
Bansal began his next venture in 2006, this time in the restaurant business. “I want to try different things” says Bansal, “There are two factors to it -I am a very curious person and I like to learn new things and there are passions that go in different ways, some people have a passion to go deeper into one field, other people have a passion to start and grow business’s, I happen to have a passion where I want to do something different every five years.” Within two years of opening, his restaurant, Mantra in Paramus, New Jersey, was named one of the “25 Best Restaurants in New Jersey” by New Jersey Monthly. Bansal also serves his community as the President of the Asian American Chamber of Commerce, an association of Indian/South Asian businesses in New Jersey, helping create an environment for the businesses to network and
Promote interactions with the state government. He was the vice chairman of Beth Israel Hospital in Passaic for 15 years. Bansal also represented New Jersey state in a national level committee on Diversity, supporting the Governor of New Jersey in promoting diversity in the state and in efforts to create local grassroots organization. “New Jersey is the most diverse state in the US, with immigrants representing countries all over the world, and Indians are the fastest growing new immigrants coming in” said Bansal.
“As a true community bank, Indus American Bank is committed to the development and growth of the communities in which we operate. We partner with our communities and build on those relationships,” Bansal noted. “We believe long-term relationships breed long-term success, which is why we say “come grow with us. Our customers feel proud and refer to us as “My Bank” and feel free to speak their own language with our multilingual employees. All decisions are made locally and our President and senior management team are readily available and accessible to all of you: our customers and partners.”
As we work to challenge gender norms and envision a world in which gender-based violence is unacceptable, we are grateful to partners like the Skoll Foundation who recognize innovation and invest in it,” said Mallika Dutt, president and CEO of Breakthrough, in a press statement. “When we come together and pool resources we can dismantle rigid gender norms and create the culture change that will allow us all to reach our full potential.”
