Category: Travel

US President Barack Obama has nominated Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir, an Indian-origin diplomat as the next American ambassador to Malaysia. If confirmed by the Senate, Kamala Shirin Lakhdhir would replace Joseph Y Yun as the next US ambassador to Malaysia.

Nomination of Lakhdhir, a career member of the Foreign Service Class of Counselor who was Executive Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs from 2011 to 2015, was announced by the White House along with several other key administration appointments.

“I am confident that these experienced and hardworking individuals will help us tackle the important challenges facing America, and I am grateful for their service. I look forward to working with them,” Obama said. Lakhdhir served as the US Consul General in Belfast, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom from 2009 to 2011.

She previously worked in the Bureau of East Asian and Pacific Affairs as the Director of the Office of Maritime Southeast Asia from 2007 to 2009 and as the Special Assistant to the Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs from 2005 to 2006.

From 2001 to 2005, she was a Political Officer at the US embassy in Beijing. From 2000 to 2001, she served as a Pearson Fellow in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Asia and the Pacific Subcommittee and the House Financial Services Committee, Monetary Policy and Trade Subcommittee.

Since joining the Foreign Service in 1991, Lakhdhir has also served as a Political Officer in Indonesia and as a Consular Officer in Saudi Arabia. She received a BA from Harvard College and an MS from the National War College. Kamla’s father Noor Lakhdhir was born in Mumbai in mid 1920s. He received a scholarship to study at the University of California, Berkeley from where he graduated in 1952. He later moved to New York City.

NEW YORK CITY: The Consulate General of India, New York has begun accepting Indian passport applications through the new India Passport Application Centre (IPAC) in New York, which will be operated by M/s Cox and Kings Global Services with effect from May 9th 2016 (Monday). A service fee of US$ 19.95 (inclusive of all taxes) per application will be charged at the IPAC in addition to applicable passport fee.

The IPAC in New York is located at M/s Cox and Kings Global Services (CKGS)
5th floor, 336 West, 37th Street, New York 10018; Website: www.passport.in.ckgs.us

The hours of operation include: Monday to Friday: Submission of passport applications: 0900 hrs. – 1530 hrs; Collection of processed passports:1530 hrs. – 1800 hrs; and Call Centre and Information Desk: 0900 hrs. – 1900 hrs.

The India Passport Application Centre in New York, which wass operated by M/s BLS International Services Limited has closed its operations on May 6^th 2016 (Friday).

Return of processed passports: Renewed passports for all passport applications accepted by BLS will be returned to applicants by BLS through walk-in collection or through postal dispatch, where the applicant has chosen for postal delivery. For passport applications under processing at the Consulate during the transition period, renewed passports will be returned to the applicants by the Consulate General of India, New York. Applicants are advised to check tracking status of their applications on BLS website. BLS will also inform all those applicants by email whose renewed passports will be returned directly by the Consulate. In such cases, renewed passports will be available for walk-in collection at the Consulate [3 East, 64 Street, New York 10065] or will be dispatched by post, where the applicant has chosen for postal delivery.

All applicants who have submitted their passport applications to BLS IPAC are advised to check status of their application on the BLS website and make immediate arrangements to pick up their renewed passports from BLS, if they are now available at the BLS IPAC.

In order to avoid any inconvenience, applicants who are not in immediate need for renewal of their passports are advised to submit their passport applications to the new IPAC on or after 9 May 2016 (Monday). For further information / clarification, applicants may send an email to the Consulate at < helpline@indiacgny.org >

An Indian American couple has been convicted on charges of H-1B visa fraud and will face up to 30 years imprisonment, the Department of Justice has said. Raju Kosuri, 44, and his wife Smriti Jharia, 45, of Ashburn, Virginia, along with four co-conspirators fraudulently applied for more than 800 illegal immigration benefits under the H-1B visa program.

The indictment alleges that Kosuri has set up a network of shell companies that he presents to immigration authorities as independent businesses in need of Indian workers, but which he in fact owns and controls.

It alleged that Kosuri and his co-conspirators use these entities to file petitions for non-existent job vacancies at Kosuri’s data center in Danville, Virginia. The visa fraud scheme involves the forgery of numerous individuals’ signatures on visa petitions and exhibits without their knowledge.

The indictment alleges that Kosuri has generated gross proceeds of at least $20 million over the life of the scheme, the Justice Department said. The indictment also alleged that Kosuri and Jharia conspired with a consultant named Raimondo Piluso to defraud the Small Business Administration, by submitting fraudulent HUBZone applications.

Kosuri, Jharia, and Piluso are alleged to have concealed the true location, ownership, and employees of a business called EcomNets Federal Solutions in order to obtain federal loan and contract preferences, from which they have generated $150,000 in loan proceeds and five contract awards.

WASHINGTON – On April 1, 2016, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) will begin accepting H-1B petitions subject to the fiscal year (FY) 2017 cap. U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming.

The congressionally mandated cap on H-1B visas for FY 2017 is 65,000. The first 20,000 H-1B petitions filed for individuals with a U.S. master’s degree or higher are exempt from the 65,000 cap.

USCIS expects to receive more than 65,000 petitions during the first five business days of this year’s program. The agency will monitor the number of petitions received and notify the public when the H-1B cap has been met. If USCIS receives an excess of petitions during the first five business days, the agency will use a computer-generated lottery system to randomly select the number of petitions required to meet the cap. USCIS will reject all unselected petitions that are subject to the cap as well as any petitions received after the cap has closed.

H-1B petitioners may still continue to request premium processing together with their H-1B petition. However, please note that USCIS has temporarily adjusted its current premium processing practice based on historic premium processing receipt levels and the possibility that the H-1B cap will be met in the first five business days of the filing season. In order to prioritize data entry for cap-subject H-1B petitions, USCIS will begin premium processing for H-1B cap-subject petitions requesting premium processing no later than May 16, 2016.

H-1B petitioners are reminded that when the temporary employment or training will be in different locations, the state where your company or organization’s primary office is located will determine where you should send your Form I-129 package, regardless of where in the United States the various worksites are located. Please ensure that when temporary employment or training will be in different locations, the address on page 1, part 1 of Form I-129 is for your organization’s primary office. Please note that when listing a “home office” as a work site location on Part 5, question 3, USCIS will consider this a separate and distinct work site location.

H-1B petitioners must follow all statutory and regulatory requirements as they prepare petitions in order to avoid delays in processing and possible requests for evidence. USCIS has developed detailed information, including an optional checklist, Form M-735, Optional Checklist for Form I-129 H-1B Filings, on how to complete and submit an FY 2017 H-1B petition. The optional checklist for FY 2017 will be available within the next week.

Cases will be considered accepted on the date USCIS receives a properly filed petition with the appropriate fees. For more information on the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program and current Form I-129 processing times, visit the H-1B FY 2017 Cap Season Web page or call the National Customer Service Center at 800-375-5283 or 800-767-1833 (TDD for the hearing impaired). We encourage H-1B applicants to subscribe to the H-1B Cap Season email updates located on the H-1B FY 2017 Cap Season Web page.

India’s Foreign Secretary Dr. S. Jaishankar visited Washington D.C. on 6-9 March 2016. The visit was aimed at reviewing the India-U.S. bilateral relations and preparing for India’s participation at the forthcoming Nuclear Security Summit later this month.

During his visit, Foreign Secretary had meetings with NSA Ambassador Susan Rice, Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker, U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman, Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Under Secretary of State Thomas Shannon, Under Secretary of State Rose Gotteemoeller as well as other senior officials. The meetings focused on further consolidating bilateral relations in the year ahead and enhancing convergence on regional and global issues. In this context, both sides agreed to work for achieving concrete results in key areas of bilateral cooperation including defense, trade& investment and civil nuclear energy. Foreign Secretary also previewed with the U.S. interlocutors the 4th Nuclear Security Summit and India’s participation therein.

In the U. S. Congress, Foreign Secretary had meetings with Chairman of Senate Foreign Relations Committee Senator Bob Corker, Chairman of Senate Armed Services Committee Senator John McCain and Chairman of Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Richard Burr to exchange views on bilateral, regional and international issues.

“When the UN Charter was adopted in 1945 – “we the peoples”-  in whose name the Charter was agreed to  numbered about 2.35 billion worldwide. Today “ we the people” are estimated to be  more than 7.3  billion . “We the peoples” have more than trebled since 1945,” Syed Akbaruddin, India’s Envoy to the United Nations, told the world body members, while urging equitable representation at the United Nations and the Security Council.

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin, Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations was addressing the Informal Plenary Meeting of the Intergovernmental Negotiations on ‘Question of equitable representation on an increase in the membership of the Security Council and other matters related to the Council’: ‘ Size of an Enlarged Council and Working Methods of the Council’ on 22nd February, 2016.

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin pointed out that at the time of the signing of the UN Charter in 1945, the Security Council had 11 members including five permanent members and 6 non-permanent members and the UN comprised of 51 members. In other words, there was one Council member for every five Member-States and 1 permanent member for every 10 members of the General Assembly. Today the membership of the UN has increased more than 3 times.

In essence, it was difficult to understand that if since 1945 the total population of the UN’s membership has increased more than 3 times, the number of  countries members of the UN has increased more than 3 times, Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin asked, there are “voices saying that increase of the size to less than 3 times what it was in 1945 is too much. Can someone explain to me the rationale of this numbers game?:

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin criticized the argument by some at the United Nations that the low 20’s is compact and efficient while the mid 20’s or 27 seats results in undermining the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council.  “Efficiency is not merely an issue of numbers but stems from a broader set of factors such as credibility, equitability, legitimacy and representativeness,” he argued.  “We therefore must recognize that the case for optimal size of the expanded Council needs to be built on contemporary realities, as well as the need to ensure that the under-represented & unrepresented regions including the developing countries of Africa, Latin America and Caribbean and the vast majority of Asia and Pacific find their due place in this long overdue expansion of the size of the Council.”

Ambassador Syed Akbaruddin said, “Enlarged Council should enhance cooperation and coordination with regional and sub-regional organizations, particularly with the African Union as put forward by 5 countries (Australia, Poland, Romania, Viet Nam, Malaysia) and 42 members of L.69 Group. This proposal also has support of 54 African Countries.” Her also urged the UN to “formalize the provisional Rules of Procedure of the Security Council in order to improve its transparency and accountability as proposed by 14 countries (Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago, Singapore, Malaysia, Cuba) and  54 Member States  from Africa.”

New York, NY: Cases of Indian children being smuggled to the United States are a reality, a U.S. diplomat said last week, reacting to a media report that police had busted an international child trafficking racket operating in the southern city of Bengaluru.

Police  said they had arrested 16 members of a gang suspected of sending at least 25 children from the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat illegally to the United States using fake documents in order to acquire visas.

Craig L. Hall, U.S. Consul General in Kolkata, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation he was not aware of this case as the visas had reportedly been acquired from the U.S. consulate in Chennai but said there had been similar cases in the past.

“We have seen examples of this,” Hall said on the sidelines of an international conference on human trafficking in eastern town of Siliguri.

“Last year, the United States issued more a million visas to Indians who were travelling to the United States and among those million, there were very likely cases of children being smuggled and trafficked into the U.S.”

According to a report by the New Delhi Television (NDTV), the children were matched with adult couples and made to pose as a family, presenting false documents at the U.S. consulate to get the required visas for their journey. The adult couples then flew to the United States with the children, left them there and returned to India.

The suspected traffickers told police they were reuniting the children with their parents in the United States, all illegal immigrants, NDTV reported. But it quoted police officials as saying they believed the children were being sold.

Hall said the U.S. consulate in Kolkata was thorough in the way it granted visas and that dozens of applications were rejected annually based on suspicions that human trafficking was involved.

“I know in our consulate in Kolkata, we have good relations with the law enforcement agencies and we have a team in the embassy dedicated and watching out for cases like this and when we suspect them, we investigate together with the Indian authorities,” said Hall.

“Dozens of applications have been blocked as we have thought them to be very suspicious. We feel confident that we have good systems in place and this is something we are vigilant about.”

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, there were 5,466 cases of human trafficking registered in 2014, an increase of 90 percent over the past five years. Activists say this is a gross under-estimation of the scale of the problem.

Thousands of Indians – largely poor, rural women and children – are lured to big cities each year by traffickers who promise good jobs but sell them into domestic or sex work or to industries such as textile workshops.

In many cases, they are not paid or are held in debt bondage. Some go missing, and their families cannot trace them.

Hall said New Delhi and Washington were working together to combat human trafficking and welcomed plans by India to draft a new anti-trafficking law and the creation a central agency to better coordinate between various states and institutions.

Under pressure from Congress to improve tracking of foreign visitors, the Department of Homeland Security has produced its first partial estimate of those who overstay their permits to be in the U.S.Out of 45 million U.S. arrivals by air and sea whose tourist or business visas expired in fiscal 2015, the agency estimates that about 416,500 people were still in the country this year. Nearly 13,000 of those who have overstayed their visa granted to Visit India, the report stated.  The government’s report was limited in scope and includes no reliable trend data that could shed light on whether overstays are growing or declining.

Homeland Security’s methodology and reported results have at least two potential drawbacks. First, the number of overstays counts each person who overstays once, but the 45 million admissions covered by the report include some people who came to the U.S. more than once with visas or other permits that expired in fiscal 2015.

The nation with the most visitors who failed to leave at the end of their authorized stay was Canada, followed by Mexico and Brazil, according to the report. Among total foreign arrivals counted in the report, those three nations accounted for more than a third of those who overstayed.

Congress has required the government to improve tracking of foreign visitors who overstayed their deadline to leave since the late 1990s, but interest ramped up after five of the Sept. 11, 2001, plane hijackers turned out to be foreigners on expired visas. Data on those who overstay also could add detail to the portrait of the nation’s 11.3 million unauthorized immigrants, because it is not known how many arrived legally versus illegally.

The country profile of foreign visitors who overstay and became unauthorized is somewhat different from that of unauthorized immigrants overall. Mexicans made up 49% of unauthorized immigrantsin 2014 (including some who arrived decades ago), but according to the report, they account for only about 9% of foreigners (or 42,000 people) who arrived by air and sea, overstayed and had not left by the end of fiscal 2015. Canadians, meanwhile, account for about 1% of unauthorized immigrants in Pew Research Center’s latest estimate for 2012, but 19% of overstayers who had not departed by the end of fiscal 2015, or 93,000 people.

The Homeland Security report on overstays was limited to foreigners whose permission to be in the U.S. expired during the 2015 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. It examined admissions for business or pleasure by air or sea, which were 85% of arrivals with visitor permits that expired in fiscal 2015, but not other smaller categories such as visas for students or for temporary workers and their families. It covered only those who arrived by sea or air, not land arrivals from Canada or Mexico, which account for most temporary visitors.

The report indicates that the number of foreign visitors who overstay dwindles over time. In all, the report said that out of the 45 million arrivals who were supposed to depart in fiscal 2015, about 527,000 remained in the country after their permission to stay expired, a rate of 1.17%. Some of these overstays later departed, but 483,000 were still in the U.S. at the end of the fiscal year on Sept. 30, a rate of 1.07%. More left the U.S. after that, so by Jan. 4, 2016, an estimated 416,500 were still in the country, a rate of 0.9%. The DHS report said some have likely left since then, or obtained or renewed a legal visa.

If each visitor were counted only once, the 45 million admissions figure would be smaller, and the share of people who overstay would be larger than the reported overstay rate. DHS did not report the number of temporary visitors for business or pleasure who enter the U.S. more than once during the year.

New York, NY; January 24, 2016: Of the nearly nine lakh Indians who visited the US on visitor or business visa in 2015, more than 14,000 overstayed, a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) report has said.

According to the ‘Entry/Exit Overstay Report for Fiscal 2015’, of the nearly 45 million non-immigrant visitor admissions through air or sea, a total of 527,127 overstayed their welcome.

In other words, 98.83 percent left the US on time between October 2014 and September 2015, the DHS report said.

Overstaying means a non-immigrant who was admitted into the US for specific, temporary purpose stayed on after his or her lawful admission period ended.

While the report focuses on non-immigrant visitors on B1 and WB business or pleasure (B2 and WT) visas, it does not include figures pertaining to work visas like H-1B or on F-1 student visas. Due to further departures by individuals by January 4, 2016, the DHS was able to confirm the departures of over 99 percent of non-immigrant visitors scheduled to depart in FY 2015 by air and sea. The number continues to grow.

The DHS report said countries with ties to terrorism had significant numbers still in the US: 1,435 from Pakistan, 681 (Iraq), 564 (Iran), 440 (Syria), 219 (Yemen), 219 (Afghanistan) and 56 from Libya.

New York City’s Commissioner for Immigrant Affairs, Nisha Agarwal, visited India Home’s Desi Senior Center on December 2, 2015, on the occasion of First Year Anniversary of the center. Councilman Rory Lancman and the Consul General for Bangladesh, Shammem Ashan, as well as Dr. Wahedur Rahman, the President of Jamaica Muslim Center, were also invited guests.

Commissioner Agarwal spoke about new initiatives from the Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs that would help immigrant seniors.  She said many immigrant seniors don’t apply for citizenship because of cost, or difficulty with the qualifying exam. She said that many don’t understand that under certain circumstances, especially for older Individuals, the strict requirements are often waived.  She offered to send representatives to Desi Senior Center to help our seniors better understand not only the citizenship process, but also their legal rights.

India Home as “second home”

Councilman Rory Lancman and the Consul General for Bangladesh, Shameem Ashan spoke very highly of the services offered by India Home.  Councilman Lancman, said that he was “enormously proud” of this program,” and the fact that our members come to the center “even in the rain,” and that they consider it their “second home.”

Today there are some 232 million migrants around the world living outside their home country. Many risk their lives to flee poverty and conflict in search of greater economic and social opportunities in more developed regions. But often, they’re greeted with even greater hardship, or worse, become trapped in cycles of abuse and exploitation.

A new film called I Am Not Here by Academy Award-nominated Indian filmmaker Ashvin Kumar, made in association with the United Nations Human Rights Office of the High Commissioner (OHCHR), explores these issues through the lives of three women. From Trinidad, Bolivia, and Bangladesh, they migrated abroad to become domestic workers in New York City, Switzerland, and Malaysia, respectively. Through their stories, the film depicts the isolation, constant fears of deportation, and physical abuse that remain common among this vulnerable group.

On December 18 in Mumbai and December 19 in New Delhi, Asia Society in India hosted screenings of the film followed by a panel discussion with the crew and other migrant advocates. Ahead of the event, director Ashvin Kumar, Christina MacGillivray, the film’s co-producer and lead researcher, and Pia Oberoi, a migration advisor at OHCHR, spoke with Asia Society Blog about the film and exploitation of migrants.

What drew you to making this film?

Ashvin Kumar: From the start, I think I put it out there to the UN that doing a facts-and-stats sort of Nat-Geo type documentary may miss a trick or two. I wanted to go behind the figures and the nameless statistics and tell the human, emotional story about these women. Too often those who make policies forget — or rather, it’s easy to forget — that these are real people with real families and ties. The idea — in my films always — is to link the personal life experience of my audience with those who are appearing on screen. So themes like a mother separated by economic necessity from her child for over two decades. I want to put the audience in those shoes and take them for a short stroll, just to see how it must feel.

How did you choose the subjects of your film?

Christina MacGillivray: It was genuinely a grassroots door-to-door research effort. In most cases, people in an undocumented situation in any country fear sharing their stories because the risk of deportation and arrest are too great. Why come forward on film if you are risking your safety, and the safety and education of your children? It is difficult. To gain trust, I first went through dozens of nonprofits across the three continents. But you also need to speak with a person on the ground in a city in order for them to understand you are here to help. In New York City, it started in one woman’s living room. She gave me another number. I trekked across the city, spoke with another woman and it went on and on like this. In Malaysia I interviewed around 40 women, many of whom had stories nearly as difficult as the young woman in the film. We are grateful to the women — both those who appeared in the film and to the many who shared their stories that led to the film — for the courage it took to come forward and speak out.

How did you get these women to open up on camera?

Ashvin Kumar: Be it talking to ex-militants in Kashmir or undocumented women in various parts of the world, there is a cathartic, healing quality in the act of speaking to someone. I try to discover what it is about the person I am talking to that will win their trust. People who have survived ordeals don’t trust easily. The idea is to get behind that bluster they’ve put up as a defense for themselves. In the case of Jennifer [the migrant from Trinidad living in New York City], for instance, it was really hard to get her story properly. We went over it many times, and each time it was facts and figures: “In year so-and-so I came here and did that.” It wasn’t until we got her really comfortable in her bedroom and let the camera roll without interrupting her, gently nudging the conversation along, that we got the interview in the beginning of the film.

We were also dealing with Malay and Spanish for three-quarters of the interviews in the film. Though I was asking the questions, I didn’t understand a word of what they were saying. We had translators with us, but in an interview you don’t want the subject to lose the moment. I had to just look into their eyes, and feel what they were saying and then throw out another question. That was a huge challenge.

The film depicts a 17-year-old domestic worker that had been under the complete control of her employer and suffered extreme torture and sexual abuse — which the employer managed to avoid being prosecuted for. Are there any countries that are doing better than others at protecting vulnerable migrants like this?

Pia Oberoi: Sadly, the abuse of migrant domestic workers (particularly those who are in an irregular situation) is widespread in every region of the world; especially because, in many countries, domestic work is not considered a form of work and is therefore not protected by domestic labor laws. I would refer people to the OHCHR publication Behind Closed Doors, which was drafted to accompany this film and provides a sense of where there is good practice (South Africa has robust laws in place in this regard, as does Uruguay). The countries that are signatories to the recent International Labor Organization (ILO) Convention 189 on domestic work have taken at least a first step towards protecting the rights of these vulnerable people.

There have been frequent reports of cruelty and inhuman treatment directed towards domestic workers in Malaysia, as well as in the Gulf countries (see a recent Amnesty International report on Qatar).

Looking at the big global picture, do you have a sense of whether exploitation of domestic workers is getting any better or worse?

Pia Oberoi: That’s a slightly difficult question to answer, as with most human rights questions! On the one hand, the international legal framework has certainly been buttressed by the ILO Convention 189, as well as other initiatives such as the General Comment No. 1 of the Committee on Migrant Workers, and initiatives such as the joint program of work between OHCHR and ILO. On the other hand, the abuses against domestic workers, given that they take place in private homes with little scrutiny, continue, and even one story like [the 17-year-old girl in Malaysia] is one too many.

The other aspect highlighted by the film is that when someone is in an irregular situation, they are generally vulnerable to exploitation because they are in constant fear of detection and deportation and so cannot challenge an employer who pays them less than the going rate, or a policeman who demands a bribe. Yet in most countries in Europe, for example, there is an almost total lack of legal channels for migrants to enter as domestic workers, meaning that most workers are irregular. We need to value domestic workers as human beings with human rights, and ensure that domestic work is decent work.

What was the most shocking thing you learned in the course of making the film?

Ashvin Kumar: The horrific torture that the girl in Malaysia had to suffer was not dissimilar to horror stories of torture and human rights abuses I’ve chronicled in Kashmir. To hear of such heinous crimes in the domestic space against child of 14 or 15 — with no legal consequences for the perpetrators — in one of the top Asian economies made my skin crawl. Things like that are very, very hard to stomach.

In what could affect hundreds of Indian IT companies, the U.S. Congress has doubled a special fee on the popular H-1B and L-1 visas raising it up to $4,500 to fund a 9/11 healthcare act and biometric tracking system that will. Congressional leaders, while agreeing on the $1.1 trillion spending bill, yesterday decided to impose a special fee of $4,000 on certain categories of H-1B visas and $4,500 on L-1 visas.

According to the agreed bill, the new $4,000 fee would apply to companies having at least 50 employees with 50 per cent of their employees on H-1B or L-1 visa. Such companies would have to pay a new fee of $4,000 for H-1B visas and $4,500 for L-1 visas.

While the specific provisions of the spending bill has no mention of Indian IT companies, the language of the bill has been written in such a way that it would have a big impact on Indian IT companies.

Though the lawmakers behind the bill described it as a temporary provision, the new H-1B and L-1 visa fee increase is for a period of 10 years as against a previous provision of five years. The previous such provision from 2010 to 2015 of $2,000 for H-1B visas lapsed on September 30.

With about 30 million people of Indian origin living outside India, a new global community of Indian origin has been developed. Most people of Indian origin living in developed countries have become highly successful in business and professions. If their professional expertise and financial resources are to be pooled together, it will benefit not only people of Indian origin but also their countries and India. In addition, people of Indian origin could assume a new role in providing help in case of crisis to their communities around the world. That has been the perspectives of the community leadership in the last in the last three decades.

Of the 30 million, about 50% constitute the first generation immigrants from India and their immediate families, generally termed as non-resident Indians (NRIs). This is the group one should reach out for investments and for business and technology collaborations in India. This group also has taken great interest in India’s developments. Where are these communities? They are spread across the Middle East, USA, Canada, U.K. and other European countries, Australia and Southeast and Far Eastern countries.

Some of the issues of the community are as follows: It is in India’s interest to engage those citizens of India to take an active role in its development. With increasing trend in migration, the NRI/PIO population outside India is likely to increase in future. In this borderless society, India must show its Indian citizens living outside India that they are full participants in Indian democracy.

NRI Voting Process in Indian Elections and Representation in Indian Parliament – Need to develop online voting process for NRIs living outside India so that they can vote in Indian elections.

If we take a step further, for 15 million Indian citizens living outside India, there should be representation in the Indian Parliament, either through direct election for a couple seats in Lok Sabha (which may need a constitutional amendment) or appointment of a couple of MPs in Rajya Sabha. Pro-active Role for Indian Missions to Reach Out and Help Indian Citizens Needing Emergency Assistance

Although MOIA has set up such programs, the Indian Missions abroad must be pro-active by reaching out to the Indian cultural and social service community groups to reach out such people and provide services to them in terms of an emergency assistance.

Many NRIs and NRI organizations have taken major initiatives in supporting their former schools and colleges, some have set up schools and colleges in their villages and towns, while others have been supporting social and environmental causes. However, many face major hurdles in such efforts. Even if we set up a charitable organization in India, we can not send money to that charity until and unless it has been cleared by the Home Ministry which takes a long time. This clearance process time must be reduced. NRIs/PIOs are interested in these initiatives. However, we still need the modalities of involving in such initiatives. These include how we can help in various Indian states in such initiatives.

About 110 detainees, largely from South Asia, at three immigration detention centres in Alabama and California are on hunger strike demanding an end to their indefinite confinement and improved conditions.

The hunger strikes started Wednesday at detention centres in Etowah County, Alabama, Theo Lacey facility in Orange County, California, and Otay detention facility in San Diego, California, according to Vice News.

Most of the hunger strikers are Bangladeshi. They also include detainees from India, Pakistan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Ethiopia and Togo.

The detainees are calling for an end to all detention and deportation, according to Fahd Ahmed, executive director of Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM), a New York-based organization that advocates on behalf of South Asian immigrants.

They are also demanding the abolition of the so-called “bed quota,” which requires immigration authorities to hold an average of 34,000 people in detention on any given day, he said. All of the hunger strikers are said to be asylum seekers that have passed the “credible fear” stage of the asylum review process, although some have since had their claims denied, Vice News said.

According to a 2010 Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy, asylum seekers with credible fear findings are supposed to be automatically considered for parole from detention. Some of the hunger strikers have been held for two years.

Many of the hunger strikers are said to support the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), the country’s second largest political group that according to a recent Department of Homeland Security (DHS) decision qualifies as an undesignated “Tier III” terrorist organization.

The latest hunger strike was preceded by a similar action in October, when dozens of immigrant detainees in El Paso and Louisiana’s La Salle facility refused meals for about 10 days.

Former El Paso hunger striker Kamran Ahmed said on Thursday that ICE has mischaracterized his political views in relation to the BNP. “We don’t know why they call us terrorists,” he said. In addition to ending indefinite detention and the ICE bed quota, the latest hunger strikers are also calling for better conditions, including access to better health care, clean clothes and unspoiled food, and a less repressive disciplinary regime.

According to a 2013 report by Detention Watch Network, the conditions at Etowah County Detention Centre, where about 48 people are on hunger strike, “are among the worst in country.” “Many of us even attempted to commit suicide for fearing of the government retribution if deported,” an asylum-seeker named Mahbubur who is being held at Etowah was quoted as saying in a press release about the hunger strike.

The U.S. Congress is considering a new bill that will majorly affect people who are significantly behind on their taxes. The law would give the State Department the right to withhold passports from individuals who are at least $50,000 behind on their tax bill, which is considered “seriously delinquent.”

According to estimates, this affects a fairly small number of people, and there will be exceptions for people who have worked out a payment plan with the IRS and for people who are challenging their bill in court. One group that might be affected by the potential law is expatriates: American citizens who live abroad but still pay U.S. taxes rely much more on their passports on a day-to-day basis than most citizens do.

The Washington Post explains that the we-pull-your-passport-if-you-owe-the-taxman ruling is actually tucked within a bigger bill about highway appropriations. The bill will be voted on next month and is likely to pass, which would put the passport rule into effect as of January 1, 2016.

Although this law is new, there are other things that can affect your passport status. Passports can be taken away from people who have been arrested and are considered flight risks. You should also bear in mind that many countries will not let you enter, even if your passport is valid, if it does not have three to six months remaining on it, or a certain number of empty pages. In other words: check your documents early and often.

The U.S. has expressed concerns over India’s reluctance to recognize a U.S. congressionally mandated visa for people the U.S. government considers victims of human trafficking. “We are deeply concerned by reports that some Indian nationals holding U.S. T-visas have experienced travel restrictions,” the State Department said in a response to questions from Reuters. “The current status of the policy is unclear, and we continue to ask the government of India at high levels in Washington and in New Delhi to fully repeal the policy.”

India has been confiscating the passports of human trafficking victims from the U.S., and is mandating that people carrying such passports name their exploiters, a cause of concern by U.S. officials. In 2013, the U.S. State Department gave T-visas to former Indian employees of Signal International. T-visas are given – rarely – to victims of human trafficking and allow the carrier to return to the home country to collect family and return to the U.S.

The Indian Embassy in Washington said in a statement in response to questions from Reuters: “Many individuals seek to misuse the trafficking visa route to emigrate to the U.S. Appropriate measures are taken in such cases.” India, however, is mindful of hardships “faced by genuinely affected persons” who receive T-visas and provides them with consular services, said the Embassy. “It is not a blanket ban,” said a source at India’s Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi. “We are not throwing the baby out with the bath water. The issue is: how can the U.S. be the sole arbiter of what constitutes human trafficking?”

According to reports, Signal workers from India had been recruited with false promises of a green card that would allow them to permanently remain in the U.S. Many workers – mostly welders and pipefitters from Kerala – paid more than $20,000 to recruiters in India to be able to work in the U.S., repairing the ravaged Gulf Coast which was decimated by Hurricane Katrina.

Once here, the workers were forced to live in cramped, squalid conditions that they were forced to pay for from their salaries. The workers also complained of substandard food and of being treated differently than Signal’s non-Indian employees.

The workers also received only 10-month guest-worker visas, instead of the promised green cards. The guest-worker visas meant that workers could not switch to a different employer, for fear of losing their immigration status. After the workers escaped from Signal’s facilities in Mississippi in 2008, several lawsuits were filed against Signal. The giant shipping magnate settled all suits earlier this year for $20 million, the largest amount ever awarded in a human trafficking case (http://bit.ly/1e0WyQl). Signal then declared bankruptcy, but also issued an apology to the workers, noting it had never meant to exploit them.

As per a Reuters report, between July 2014 and March 2015, at least 20 passports of Indians stamped with T-visas were confiscated by authorities at Indian airports. The news agency cited Jean Stockdale, a church worker who helps trafficking victims apply for the visas from her base in New Jersey.

The confiscating of passports has stopped. But Indian government documents reviewed by Reuters show that New Delhi has imposed restrictions over the past 16 months on Indian passports stamped with T-visas. T-visa holders face long delays in renewing passports at Indian consulates. They also must provide confidential information to the Indian government that they had previously submitted to the U.S. authorities, including details about who had trafficked them, according to the documents, legal advocates and interviews with T-visa holders.

Legal advocates have claimed that India’s failure to recognize all T-visas and its attempt to seek confidential information on alleged traffickers raises the risk that victims or their families will face reprisals. The topic was raised at a hearing on Capitol Hill by Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican from New Jersey who authored the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in 2000, which led to creation of the T-visas.

The Indian Government has declared that Indian passports that are handwritten or issued before 2001 with a validity of 20 years are no longer valid for travel, as of Nov. 24, 2015. As per reports here, the International Civil Administration Organization has deemed that all passports issued anywhere in the world must now be machine-readable to comply with airport regulations worldwide. Foreign governments may deny a visa or entry to a person travelling on a non-machine readable passport from Nov. 25.

Venkata Ramana, a spokesman for the San Francisco Indian Consulate, was quoted to have told the media that “Hand-written Indian passports and passports issued before 2001 must be converted to electronic, scannable passports to conform with international standards.” He noted that many people have already converted their passports, and guided readers to cgisf.org for instructions on how and where to apply for a new passport.

The Indian Embassy noted in a bulletin that 286,000 handwritten passports were still in circulation as of November 2014. The Embassy noted that the Government of India has been issuing machine-readable passports since 2001.

“Indian citizens residing in India and abroad and holding such passports with validity beyond Nov. 24, 2015 are advised to apply for re-issue of their passports well before the deadline in order to avoid any inconvenience in obtaining valid visa or international travel,” stated the Embassy.

The Embassy also noted: “Many international travelers may not realize that having an unexpired passport is sometimes not enough to obtain visas or to enter certain foreign countries. Indian citizens traveling on passports which may expire in less than six months should renew their passports before any upcoming international travel. The universal practice in vogue now is: ‘Once your passport crosses the nine-year mark, it is time to get new passport,’” said the Embassy, adding that it was especially important to check the validity of passports for minors, whose travel documents are only valid for five years. Adults receive 10-year passports.

While there are as many as 11.2 million illegal immigrants in the US, a new report said about 450,000 of them are from India. The South Asian nation is the fourth top source country of unauthorised immigrants after top-ranked Mexico, according to the report based on the 2012 census, released by the Pew Research Centre, a Washington think tank.

Ranking second, with considerably fewer unauthorised immigrants than Mexico, is El Salvador (675,000 in 2012). It is followed by Guatemala (525,000), India (450,000), Honduras (350,000), China (300,000) and the Philippines (200,000). Republican leaders, who will control both houses of Congress next year as a result of the November elections, have warned Obama that any executive action would torpedo the chances for a bipartisan immigration reform bill.

Among the groups widely thought to be under consideration for relief from deportation are long-time US residents with US-born children, the report noted. Mexicans are the largest national origin group in 36 of America’s 50 states. Mexicans are not the largest group in three New England states, the area around the nation’s capital as well as Alaska, Hawaii and Louisiana.

India is the largest birth country of unauthorised immigrants in New Hampshire, the report said.

New Jersey had the biggest gain in between 2009 and 2012, jumping 75,000 to 525,000 as many immigrants from India and Ecuador crossed illegally into the state. It was followed by Florida, increasing 50,000 to 925,000. Pennsylvania was third, rising 30,000 to 170,000.

It saw increases from several regions including Honduras, India and the Dominican Republic.

The number of unauthorised immigrants in the US has remained unchanged around 11.2 million since 2009 after decades of rapid growth, the report noted.

But there have been shifts in the states where unauthorised immigrants live and the countries where they were born.

Unauthorised immigrants currently make up 3.5 percent of the nation’s population of 316 million, the report said. Preliminary estimates show the unauthorised population was 11.3 million in 2013. The number of unauthorised immigrants peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million, when this group was four percent of the US population.

Washington, DC: If you ever thought that you could go to India and seek a visa at the airport to be a tourist in India, you may be in for a shocking surprise. Addressing “misunderstandings” over its Visa on Arrival scheme, the government of India has renamed the tourism initiative “Visa Online.”

The visa on arrival was intended to be sought and obtained upon arrival at select international airports in India. However, the government seems to have wrongly coined the term, as per reports here. The Visa on Arrival scheme allows visitors from about 44 countries to apply for a visa four days before the date of arrival. Because of its name, however, international visitors were given to misunderstand the scheme and assumed that they would receive their visas on landing in India, officials said. Since they hadn’t applied in advance, they had to return home.

Fewer travelers to India were expected to have used the visa outsourcing service of Cox and Kings Global Services following a new initiative launched in November that guarantees a 30-day visa on arrival to visitors from the U.S. and 43 other countries.

The Indian Ministry of External Affairs announced the “Tourist Visa on Arrival enabled with Electronic Travel Authorization” plan Nov. 27, 2014 in New Delhi, noting that the new plan was designed to positively impact India’s economy. K.J. Srinivasa, deputy consul general at the Indian Consulate in San Francisco, told India-West that the new visa application process was designed to ease the bureaucratic process involved in short-term travel to India, adding: “Indian Americans are the target for this scheme, which was designed to promote tourism.”

Mahesh Sharma, Union Minister of Tourism and Culture, in announcing the new initiative, said: “The implementation of TVoA enabled with ETA will send a clear and powerful message that India is serious in making travel to the country easy.” Speaking to reporters at the launch, the minister noted that India has a unique advantage in the tourism sector, owing to its geographical location. He also assured that his ministry would ensure a safe and secure environment for visiting foreign tourists.

Forgoing the often-cumbersome process of applying for a visa through Cox and Kings Global Services, the Indian Embassy’s visa outsourcing service in the U.S., tourists and “casual business” travelers to India can apply online for a 30-day visa.

The Tourism Ministry approached the Home Ministry and asked for the name change to end the confusion. “There is a question about the terminology on whether it is e-visa or visa on arrival. I think this issue should be addressed in a different manner. “We declared it as Visa on Arrival. (But) basically it is Electronic Travel Authorization,” Union Tourism Minister Mahesh Sharma told reporters on the sidelines of the launch of “Visit Kerala 2015.”

Tourism Secretary Lalit K. Panwar said: “Now, we will be calling it as Visa Online. If you call Visa Online, there will be no confusion because you will get visa online in your inbox. So, we can call it as Visa Online,”

Prospective tourists must apply at least four days before the visit to India, and submit a $60 fee. The process also requires the applicant to scan his/her passport and submit it through the Web site as well as uploading a photo. An “electronic travel authorization” is then sent to the traveler’s e-mail address, which must be printed out and carried.

The ETA can only be used at nine airports in India: Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Goa. It is valid for 30 days after the date of arrival. The three-page application is located at: indianvisaonline.gov.in/visa/tvoa.html.

India and the U.S. are working on a pact that will exempt a certain category of Indians, like former Presidents, Prime Ministers and other “high dignitaries”, big industrialists and some film stars, from immigration checks in America.

Top immigration officials of the two countries recently held a meeting for implementation of the Global Entry, a US Customs and Border Protection programme that allows expedited clearance for pre-approved, low-risk travellers upon arrival in the United States.

The meeting discussed what categories of people from India could be exempted from the immigration checks in the US, sources said. In this context, the names of former President Pratibha Patil, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and Gautam Adani and film stars Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan were specifically mentioned, they said.

Significantly, Shahrukh was once detained at a US airport because his name resembled that of somebody on the watchlist. “The US has been pressing for India’s inclusion in the Global Entry so that high dignitaries, frequent flyers and top industrialists could visit America without any hassle,” a source said.

Individuals included in the list enter the US through automatic kiosks at select airports. At airports, programme members proceed to Global Entry kiosks, present their machine-readable passport or US permanent resident card, place their fingerprints on the scanner for fingerprint verification and complete a customs declaration.

The kiosk issues the traveller a transaction receipt and directs the traveller to baggage claim and the exit. Two foremost criteria for inclusion of the Global entry programme for any individual is that he or she should not have any criminal record or anyway connected with any money laundering case.

So far, citizens of seven countries are getting benefits of America’s Global Entry programme. The countries are The Netherlands, Panama, South Korea, Germany, Peru, Mexico, Canada. Brazil and India are likely to be part of the programme next year.

“Discussions are continuing. We expect it to kick off for Indian citizens some time in next year. If the programme becomes successful, the list would be enhanced,” the sources said. India proposes to prepare a list, which will initially have around 2,000 individuals like top industrialists, film stars, former occupants of high ranking posts and frequent flyers, the sources said.

Every applicant will have to go through a rigorous background check by Indian security agencies before sending the name to the US authority which will give the final nod after again doing a thorough background check.

Security agencies will keep doing background check of every individual included in the list periodically and if any adverse report comes in-between, the individual will be removed from the list, they said. However, even in case someone is removed from the elite list, such person can still enter USA but will have to go through the routine processes.

The idea behind the Global Entry programme is to reduce pressure on US immigration officials as they would have no role if anyone carrying the machine-readable passport arrives at the designated airports.

The official said in later phases, the government would launch a dedicated website where any Indian can apply online to be included for the programme. Travellers must be pre-approved for the Global Entry program. All applicants undergo a rigorous background check and in-person interview before enrolment.

While Global Entry’s goal is to speed travellers through the process, members may still be selected for further examination when entering the United States. Any violation of the program’s terms and conditions will result in the appropriate enforcement action and termination of the traveller’s membership privileges. As of December 2014, Global Entry was available at 42 US airports and 12 preclearance locations.

Ambassador Arun K. Singh visited Chicago from 27th to 28th August, 2015. During the visit, Ambassador Singh had useful interactions with Governor Bruce Rauner, Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel, Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, Congressman Danny Davis, President of the Chicago University Mr Robert J. Zimmer, President of the Art Institute of Chicago Dr. Douglas Druick and Mr Pradeep K. Khanna, Associate Chancellor, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and several senior government functionaries, Illinois business leaders, besides prominent members of the Indian-American community, including academicians, scientists and members of the judiciary.

On August 27, 2015 Ambassador Singh had a detailed interaction with Governor Bruce Rauner and his high-level Economic Team comprising of Mr James (Jim) Schultz, Director of the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity, Mr. Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the State of Illinois, Mr. Erik T. Brejla, Head of Strategic Partnerships, Office of International Trade and Investment, State of Illinois, Ms. Christinet T. Dubley, Director, Illinois Film Office and Ms. Kelley Folino, Deputy Chief of Staff for Outreach, Office of the Governor. The Ambassador was accompanied by Dr Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India, Chicago, Shri O.P.Meena, Consul and Ms. Gunjan Bajpayee, Marketing Assistant.

Ambassador Singh mentioned about the growing strategic convergence and expanding economic cooperation between India and the US, with bilateral trade in goods and services exceeding US$ 120 billion. He mentioned that the Indian investments in US has grown significantly in the last five years, reaching US$15 billion and this has helped in the creation of 90,000 jobs in the US.

Ambassador Singh extended an invitation to Governor Bruce Rauner to lead a high-level trade mission to India in near future, which was accepted by Governor Rauner in principle. Ambassador Singh stated that the visit would definitely enhance ongoing business and economic cooperation between India and the State of Illinois, which is the largest trading partner of India in the US Midwest with a two-way trade of over US$ 2 billion.

Ambassador Arun K. Singh was warmly welcomed by Mayor Rahm Emanuel at his office on August 27, 2015. Ambassador Singh briefed Mayor Emanuel on various economic reforms initiated by the Government of India which had led to unprecedented and attractive business opportunities for Chicago companies including in the fields of healthcare, infrastructure, renewal energy and education.

Ambassador Singh spoke about the historical connection between Chicago and India, recalling the visit of Swami Vivekananda in 1893 to deliver his landmark address at the Parliament of World Religions. Ambassador Singh agreed with Mayor Emanuel on the need to further strengthen the Sister City relationship between New Delhi and Chicago in the realm of healthcare, education, trade & commerce and art & culture.

Consul General Dr Ausaf Sayeed thanked the Mayor for his support to the International Yoga Day, ‘Eye on India’, ‘Ragamala’ and the South Asian Film Festival. Mayor Emanuel acknowledged that the shooting of Indian films, had generated significant attention in Chicago. He said that he would be happy if more such shootings take place in Chicago. Mayor Emanuel accepted Ambassador’s invitation to lead a high-level trade mission to India in the near future.

During his visit the Ambassador interacted with several entrepreneurs and business leaders of Chicago. On August 27, 2015 he addressed a Business Round Table hosted by the World Business Chicago in collaboration with theDelhi Committee of the Chicago Sister Cities International. On August 28, 2015 he addressed CEOs of several US companies during a Business Round Table organized by the Illinois Chambers of Commerce in collaboration with the Illinois Department of Commerce & Economic Opportunity.

Ambassador visited the Art Institute of Chicago and met with Dr. Douglas Druick, President, Mr David Thurm, Chief Operating Officer, Art Institute of Chicago and other officials where he reviewed the Vivekananda Memorial Programme for Museum Excellence and other India-specific programs of the Art Institute. Ambassador Singh also visited the Fullerton Hall where Swami Vivekananda’s plaque has been installed.

Ambassador visited the University of Chicago (UC) campus and had detailed discussions with Mr. Robert J. Zimmer, President of UC, Mr Ian Solomon, Vice-President and Dean Ms. Martha Roth on the ways and means of strengthening India’s educational collaboration with the University of Chicago.

Ambassador Singh reviewed the functioning of the “Vivekananda Chair” set up in 2014 with an endowment from India’s Ministry of Culture in commemoration of the 150th Birth Anniversary of Swami Vivekananda. Ambassador Singh conveyed his appreciation to the University for offering undergraduate programmes in several Indian languages including Bengali, Hindi, Malayalam, Marathi, Pali, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu.

In a separate meeting with officials of the University of Illinois from the campuses of Urbana-Champaign and Chicago, the Ambassador expressed his satisfaction with their longstanding ongoing collaborations with India, including with prestigious Indian institutions such as IIT (Kharagpur), GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology(Pant Nagar), Jawaharlal Nehru Krishi Vishwa Vidyalaya (Jabalpur) etc. During a reception hosted by Consul General Dr Ausaf Sayeed in honour of Ambassador on 27th August, 2015, Ambassador Singh lauded the 100,000-strong Indian-American community in Chicago for their valued contribution to the State of Illinois and for acting as a useful bridge between the two countries

This week, for the fourth time in a row, the annual gathering of the apex intergovernmental body of the United Nation deliberating on peace and non-violence will take place at the U.N. headquarters in New York. President of the ongoing 69th session of the General Assembly Sam Kahamba Kutesa has convened the fourth U.N. High Level Forum on the Culture of Peace on Sep. 9.

This daylong event is an opportunity for U.N. Member States, U.N. system entities, media and civil society interested in discussing the ways and means to promote the Culture of Peace and to join the discourse on strengthening the global movement for the implementation of the U.N. Declaration and Programme of Action on the Culture of Peace as adopted by consensus by the General Assembly on Sep. 13, 1999.

It also creates a platform for various stakeholders to have an exchange on the emerging trends and policies that can significantly impact on advancing the culture of peace.

The adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action on Culture of Peace was a watershed event as a possible response to the evolving dynamics of global war and security strategies in a post-Cold War world. It has been an honour for me to Chair the nine-month long negotiations that led to the adoption of the Declaration and Programme of Action.

This historic norm-setting document is considered as one of the most significant legacies of the United Nations that would endure generations. I would always treasure and cherish that. For me this has been a realisation of my personal commitment to peace and my humble contribution to humanity.

In the responsibility that the United Nations – as the only universal body – must shoulder in fulfilling its Charter obligation of maintaining international peace and security worldwide, stronger focus on prevention and peace building is essential.

The United Nations needs to be more than a fire brigade rushing in to put out the conflagrations and then withdraw from the scene without doing anything to ensure that fires do not break out again.

In a historical perspective it is worthwhile to note that asserting and re-affirming the commitment of the totality of the United Nations membership to build the Culture of Peace, the General Assembly has been adopting resolutions on the subject every year since 1997.

The Assembly, through its annual substantive resolutions, has highlighted the priority it attaches to the full and effective implementation of these visionary decisions which are universally applicable and sought after by the vast majority of all peoples in every nation. It recognises the need for continuous support to the strengthening of the global movement to promote the Culture of Peace, as envisaged by the United Nations, particularly in the current global context.

The Forum in 2013 included Ministerial level participation and at its 68th session, the General Assembly adopted, by consensus, Resolution 68/125 on “Follow-up to the Declaration and Programme of Action on a Culture of Peace”, which was co-sponsored by 105 Member States.

This year the keynote speaker at the Forum is the fifth grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, Mr. Arun Gandhi, who prides calling himself “The Peace Farmer” as he sows the seeds of peace and non-violence following the footsteps of his grandfather whose birthday on Oct. 2 is observed by the United Nations and the international community as the International Day of Non-Violence.

He builds on the message of last year’s keynote speaker Ms. Leymah Gbowee, 2011 Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is a global legend leading civil society activism for peace and equality. Of course, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will join the Forum at the opening with his ardent advocacy for the culture of peace.

The 2015 Forum will comprise of two multi-stakeholders interactive panels which will focus on: (1) “Promotion of the Culture of Peace in the context of the Post-2015 sustainable development agenda; and (2) “Role of the media in the promotion of the culture of peace”.

This High Level Forum is taking place at a time of some of the worst violence against civilians we have seen in recent years. Clearly, the hope that the new millennium would be a harbinger of peace has turned out to be rather misplaced.

The lesson in this, I believe, is that however much the world around us changes, we cannot achieve peace without a change in our own minds, and thereby in the global consciousness.

The wealth and the technology can only open up the opportunity to better the world. We must have the mind to seize that opportunity; we must have the culture of peace developed in each one of us both as an individual as well as a member of the global society.

Also, we must remember that technology and wealth can be put to destructive use too. The difference between war and peace, between poverty and prosperity, between death and life, is essentially prompted in our minds.

Peace is integral to human existence — in everything we do, in everything we say and in every thought we have, there is a place for peace. Absence of peace makes our challenges, our struggles, much more difficult. I believe that is why it is very important that we need to keep our focus on creating the culture of peace in our lives.

One lesson I have learned in my life over the years is that to prevent our history of war and conflict from repeating itself – the values of non-violence, tolerance, human rights and democratic participation will have to be germinated in every man and woman – children and adults alike.

When we see what is happening around us, we realise the urgent need for promoting the culture of peace – peace through dialogue – peace through non-violence. In a world where tragedy and despair seem to be everywhere, there is an urgent need – if not an imperative – for a global culture of peace.

Each of us can make an active choice each day through seemingly small acts of love, compassion, forgiveness, empathy, cooperation or understanding, thereby contributing to the culture of peace. Eminent proponents of peace have continued to highlight that the culture of peace should be the foundation of the new global society.In today’s world, more so, it should be seen as the essence of a new humanity, a new global civilisation based on inner oneness and outer diversity.

(Ambassador Chowdhury is Chair of the U.N. General Assembly Drafting Committee for the Declaration and Programme of Action on Culture of Peace).

Britain’s very own home affairs select committee now wants prime minister David Cameron to review its earlier decision to abolish the post study work visa which allowed international students to work for two years in UK after finishing their education here.

In an exclusive interview with the media, the chairman of the highly influential House of Commons committee Keith Vaz said, “Yes, we absolutely should review this policy. When looking at this situation, the home affairs select committee recommended a review of post study work visas to alleviate the clearly negative elements of the current policy”.

Vaz who was recently appointed the vice-chairman of the Labour Party added to TOI, “At present, we are seeing an unprecedented decline in the number of Indian students, which is a serious problem for our educational institutions, our economy and for the students themselves, who have been dissuaded from attending some of the most prestigious universities in the world”.

According to Vaz, “the best way to establish relations between countries is through young people from India coming to study in the UK”. He added, “I want them to come and study in London, Leicester and Liverpool”.

This comes a day after Scotland told TOI of its plans to introduce a special visa that will allow Indian students to work in Scotland at least for two years after they finish their education degree there. Post-study work visa was abolished by the UK government in April 2012. This had led to a 50 per cent dip in Indian students visiting British universities for higher education.

Scotland’s Europe and international development minister Humza Yousaf said Scotland plans to start the fresh talent working in Scotland scheme visa. This visa will be for Indian students to study in a Scottish university post which they can work only in Scotland.

In an earlier report, the home affairs select committee had said that any cap on student visas would be unnecessary and undesirable. It had said, “Any cap could seriously damage the UK’s higher education industry and international reputation. We fully support the government in seeking to eliminate bogus colleges and deterring bogus students from even attempting to enter the UK. International students make up 10 per cent of first degree students and over 40 per cent of postgraduate students at UK universities. It is important to note that international students do not take up places that could otherwise be taken up by UK students. They pay more than UK students for their courses and, in effect, subsidize the educational system in the UK”.

International students in UK universities come from over 190 countries. The UK is just below the US in terms of the total number and diversity of international students in its higher education institutions. In total, during the 2013/14 academic year, international students contributed £1,003 million in fee income to London universities.

A recent report said, “We estimate that the direct income from tuition fees contributed £1,317 million to UK GDP; £717 million directly, £183 million via the supply chain and £417 million via the spending of employees. In addition, the £1,003 million in tuition fee income from international students generated a total of 32,800 jobs. We estimate that, in total, friends and relatives that visit international students in London spent £62 million in 2013/14. This spending will contribute £65 million to UK GDP”.

In 2013-14 there were almost 67,500 international students attending London universities – making up 18% of the total student population in the capital, and 22% of the 3,10,000 international students across the UK. The decline in Indian students choosing to study at UK universities has been flagged up as a worrying trend as a new study said that international students coming here contribute nearly 2.3 billion pounds to the British economy every year.