Camellia Panjabi: The Queen of Indian Food

July 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshProfiles, Tourism 0

A dream can change one’s life. But with Camellia Panjabi, her dream was to prove to the world that Indian cuisine is as sophisticated and as advanced as French, Japanese, Thai or any other. “We should be proud,” she says, “to be Indian and to be inheritors of such a rich legacy.”

Camellia Panjabi is one of India’s leading culinary personalities, known for her innovative contribution to popularizing Indian regional cuisines within India and London, through trendsetting Indian restaurants. She is also known for having brought the street foods of India from the pavements into plush restaurants both in India and abroad.

It was her passion for learning and popularizing the authentic Indian food that made her dedicate her entire life, sharing of the broad spectrum of Indian cuisine to the rest of the world. In researching the project Camellia was aware of- and succeeded against- certain practical challenges: India was a country with around 1.2 billion people, 14 different languages, 29 States, 7 Union Territories, not to mention various cultures – thereby demonstrating contrasts at least as stark as those found between countries across a varied continent like Europe.

Camellia Panjabi: The Queen of Indian Food — Camellia Panjabi

Little surprise then, to find that a national identity of cuisine was not something originally found in India. Camellia found that recipes were the closely guarded secrets of families across the country. To expand her knowledge of regional Indian cuisine, she embarked upon a project that sought to seek information from those families, private chefs and home cooks, a corollary of which was her publication ‘The 50 Great Curries of India’, which has sold 1.5 million copies, and is probably the best selling cookbook on Indian cuisine outside of India.

In the 1960s when Camellia came down from Cambridge, UK and applied for and was able to join the Tata Administrative Service, which was, in those days was an entirely male bastion. After a stint with Tata Oil Mills, Camellia ended up at Indian Hotels, then no more than a company that managed Bombay’s Taj, which was in a state of decline. Camellia has been credited with innovative ideas that changed the Taj and its success story has come to be admired. From just one Hotel, the Taj group in a span of few years, opened several top notch hotels in major cities across India. The marketing campaigns she launched positioned them as the country’s leading luxury chain.

Until Camellia came along, Indian hotels were not known for their food. It was the Taj that changed all that. Shamiana, the coffee shop at the Bombay hotel, was the first to put things like pao bhaji on the menu and the first 5 star posh hotel in India to offer idlis and dosas on the breakfast menu. When Machan opened in Delhi in 1978, the prices were kept low so that younger people could sample the hotel’s unusual fare – one reason why the old Machan still evokes so much affection in people of my generation.

Camellia was also instrumental in introducing the newly discovered Sichuan Chinese cuisine into India, with The Golden Dragon and The House of Ming which opened in Delhi in 1978. Both changed the way in which Indians looked at Chinese food, and swept India leading to the creation of Chindian food or Sichuan / Ludhianvi cuisine, as India’s leading food critic calls it. Her love of Far Eastern food which led to the opening of Paradise Island restaurant in the Eighties at Taj West End hotel and introduced Indians to the cuisines of Thailand.

Celebrating Queen’s 90th Birthday, Veeraswamy in London Attracts Indian Food Lovers to Join In Its Own 90th Anniversary — Namita & Camellia receiving award for best restaurant London for Amaya

Another contribution that Camellia has been credited with is the Taj’s success in persuading north Indians that there was more to south Indian food than idlis and sambar. It was Camellia who pushed the Taj to explore the cooking of India’s west coast: Goa, Mangalore and Kerala and set up the Karavalli restaurant at Taj Gateway Hotel in Bangalore. It was her love for the peppery hotness of Chettinad food that popularized the cuisine first within Chennai and then it spread all over India and the world. Taj chefs were dispatched to private homes in Karai Kudi district of Tamil Nadu to learn how to cook the best dishes and to learn ancient family recipes. Then she launched ‘the Raintree’, the first Chettinad restaurant in India at the Taj Connemara hotel in Chennai. But till the Taj took the plunge in the 1980s, the food of the south remained restricted to the south.

In 1983 Camellia opened the Bombay Brasserie restaurant in London, which introduced regional Indian cooking to the UK for the first time and changed the way Indian cuisine was perceived in London.

Panjabi’s real passion though is a variation on Indian street food. “Street sellers depend on word of mouth. So they have to make it taste the best,” she says. “My mother who was a doctor, did everything in her power to stop us eating it with reasons of hygiene, but with children there is always a way. That love of the taste of street food stays with us through to adulthood.”

After leaving The Taj, in 2001 Camellia Panjabi joined her family’s restaurant company Masala World in London, which owns Chutney Mary in Chelsea, Veeraswamy, the UK’s oldest Indian restaurant and Masala Zone throughout London. Amaya, their latest venture, winning several awards. In 1989, Namita Panjabi and Ranjit Mathrani formed Chelsea Plaza Restaurants which was later renamed Masala World. The company was formed to create top end restaurant Chutney Mary as an outlet for fine Indian food. The restaurant immediately won accolades and audiences in London. They then bought the ailing Veeraswamy, and turned it around to have a new life as London’s best Indian restaurant, given the award by London’s Time Out magazine.

Camellia Panjabi joined the group as a director in 2001 and together the team of 3 set about the project of Amaya restaurant, which after opening in October 2004 gained a nomination by 7 top food writers of UK as ‘London’s Best Restaurant’ across all cuisines. This was the first city in the world outside India where an Indian restaurant was judged the Best Restaurant. Amaya was also awarded a Michelin star in 2006.

In 2001 they created a new Masala Zone concept and launched it in the colorful Soho district, providing a fresh new approach with Indian street food and the Thali way of eating, including non-vegetarian thalis. The décor of the restaurants is full of spirit using tribal and popular folk art. Now there is a collection of seven restaurants across London.

In 2012, the company as a whole was renamed MW Eat. Most recently, MW Eat moved the iconic restaurant Chutney Mary to beautiful upscale premises on St James’ Street, London and opening Masala Grill on its former site.

Veeraswamy, UK’s oldest Indian restaurant, has been the rendezvous of rich, famous, fashionable lovers of Indian food since its inception in 1926. It celebrates 90 years in 2016 and is credited with being the oldest Indian restaurant in the world. The luxurious, chic, and exotic décor evokes Maharaja’s palaces of the 1920s. A menu of top flight classical dishes from throughout India is combined with more contemporary creations. National Geographic, the highly respected travel magazine, has ranked it as one of the 10 Best Destination Restaurants in the World. No other UK restaurant is in the top 10. Voted “Indian Restaurant of the Year” by them.

Veeraswamy is one of the leading fine dining restaurants serving Indian food in the world today.

For more information go to: http://www.fineindianrestaurants.com/

Celebrating Queen’s 90th Birthday, Veeraswamy in London Attracts Indian Food Lovers to Join In Its Own 90th Anniversary

July 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshTourism 0

We are proud to join in the grand celebration to mark the milestone event in the life of Britain’s longest – serving monarch, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth as the world celebrates her 90^th birthday,” declared Camellia Panjabi, co-owner Camellia Panjabi, a world-renowned expert on Indian food. “It’s another milestone for us as the prestigious Veeraswamy restaurant in London, the oldest Indian Restaurant in the world, turned 90-years-old this year.”

Situated in a prime location overlooking London’s Regent Street, Veeraswamy has been offering the finest classical Indian cuisine since 1926. As the first of its kind, it is celebrated as a great historical restaurant of London and certainly as the grand dame of Indian restaurants and is known for its refined cuisine and opulent Raj-inspired style. It has always exuded a great deal of glamour.

Veeraswamy Old Photo - 1920s — Veeraswamy Old Photo – 1920s

Opened by Edward Palmer, the great-grandson of an English military strategist and an Indian exotic Mughal princess, Veeraswamy, in its early years, served cuisine of the entire Indian sub-continent. Palmer himself was a retired British Indian Army officer and in 1924 – 5 had run the Indian section at the British Empire Exhibition, Wembley, where his company, E.P. Veeraswamy & Co., Indian Food Specialists, sold spices, chutneys and curry pastes and ran an Indian café.

A few years later the restaurant was taken over by Sir William Seaward in 1930, an English Member of Parliament. Throughout the 1930s during the Great Depression trade was very difficult, but the owners used great resourcefulness and came through the challenging times. In the 1940s and 1950s the restaurant became a great success.

From then on, the Veerasawmy was wildly successful and continued to attract a celebrity clientele until the 1960s when it started to decline.

The first ever curry in a can was introduced under Veeraswamy Food Products brand in the early 1950s. The restaurant was sold by Sir William in 1967. The food products business under the Veeraswamy name continued to be owned by the couple into the 1990s.

In 1996, the restaurant was bought by Namita Panjabi and Ranjit Mathrani, then owners of a successful Indian restaurant called Chutney Mary in Kings road Chelsea. The next 18 months were to see more changes than during the previous 70 years. The restaurant décor was completely updated and adopted an ultramodern theme in the late 1990s; however for its 80^th anniversary in 2006, it was redecorated in the opulent 1920s motif.

Veeraswamy is currently owned by the Chutney Mary group whose owners’ profile now includes Chutney Mary, Amaya and Masala Zone chain. The Company bought back the brand Veeraswamy of pickles, curry pastes and chutneys which is now marketed in the UK and worldwide by BARTS U.K.

In recent decades, based on the popularity of authentic Indian food in the UK, Veeraswamy serves a menu of regional Indian cuisines, including dishes from Punjab, Lucknow, Kashmir, Kerala and Goa. “You can taste all varieties of freshly made food under one roof, elegantly served,” says Panjabi.

Camellia Panjabi, who is the author of “50 Great Curries of India,” which has sold over 1.5 million copies, which describes the secrets to creating authentic Indian curries at home, oversees the menu at Veeraswamy.

The menu is different from other Indian restaurants and really interesting. This is the place to experience classic Indian dishes that you may not even find easily even on restaurant menus in India; there are also some amazing modern creations as you relax in opulent Raj-inspired surroundings.

To celebrate its 90^th year, the menu has incorporated a few dishes from the Royal Palace Kitchens of India – from the Nizams of Hyderabad’s Palace kitchen and the Royal Palace at Patiala.

National Geographic claims that Veeraswamy is among the 10 best “destination and special restaurants” in the world. It’s high-class, high value fine dining right in London’s West End. Described as one of the least expensive restaurant on National Geographic’s list of the Top Ten Destination Restaurants on Earth, and as one of the most mind-blowing meals one has ever experienced in life. For more information and to visit the oldest and the finest Indian Restaurant in the world, please visit: http://www.veeraswamy.com

‘Ms. Marvel’ aka ‘Kamala Khan’ Based on Indo-Pak Partition

July 7, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

Marvel aka Kamala Khan has soared in popularity ever since she was introduced by Marvel Comics in 2013. With their latest comic, Marvel traces the roots of the Pakistani-American superhero from New Jersey, and to our surprise it dates back to the Indo-Pak partition.

The first few pages of the comic have recently been released and they show Kamala’s parents, Kareem and Aisha, as Indian Muslims in Bombay in 1947 when the largest human migration in history was underway. They are en route to the newly found Pakistan. Kamala is a fictional superheroine appearing in comic books published by Marvel Comics.

The appearance of the characters – bold gold bangles and shalwar kameez paired with a dupatta – depicts the Muslims of the subcontinent, the Express Tribune reported. In the comic book, Kamala’s parents are anticipating her birth as her mother asks God for a sign that will reassure her of her child’s safe future in Pakistan.

Created by editors Sana Amanat and Stephen Wacker, and written by G. Willow Wilson and artist Adrian Alphona, Kamala is Marvel’s first Muslim character to headline a comic book. Kamala first made her appearance in Captain Marvel #14 (August 2013) before taking over the Ms. Marvel comic book series in February 2014.

The Earth and the People Are Not Inputs to Your Capitalist System

July 6, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

Vandana Shiva interviewed by Ethemcan Turhan – TRANSCEND Media Service

There is this fear of intellectual freedom because the old paradigm must be maintained to continue that project of colonising the earth, colonising people’s minds. The minute people are able to think for themselves, that project is over.

Vandana Shiva is one of the leading thinkers today who advocates food sovereignty, Earth citizenship, climate justice and ecological stewardship. She has been an influential figure in the global justice movement as well as a prolific author on ecofeminism who consistently stressed the importance of gender in socio-ecological change.

Shiva was in Istanbul in late January 2016 to deliver the annual human rights lecture in memory of Hrant Dink, a Turkish-Armenian journalist assassinated in 2007. We caught up with her and conducted this hour-long interview, thanks to the organisers of her talk at Boğaziçi University.

Understanding peace in a time of multiple crises

It is all related: making peace with Earth, making peace with each other and making peace with ourselves. This is really about the interlinked crisis of ecology, the planet and the disintegration of society.

Ethemcan Turhan: Today we live amidst overlapping, multiple crisis. Political, economic and socio-ecological crises. You have come to Istanbul to deliver the annual Hrant Dink Memorial Lecture titled “Making peace with the Earth and with each other”. So let’s start with a question about that. What does “peace” mean in a time of multiple crises?

Vandana Shiva: First it means ending the war and the war is first in the mind because it is the mental frameworks, the paradigms that define us at war with the world. Conquering nature is defined as progress. It also creates real grounds for conflicts between people by creating scarcity because the measures are manipulated. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is the most manipulated figure in the world yet it has become the most powerful number that rules everything. Those who are powerful, of course, want it to be used widely. Yet it fails on the real scarcities of water, soil fertility, food… I mean remember Arab Spring: I remember the image of fruit vendor, bread protestor who were presented as anti-regime saying “No they weren’t asking for bread”. First you create an economy with speculation that has taken basic food from the people then the same big powers also manipulate and say it wasn’t about bread but it was about the regime.

The Earth and the People Are Not Inputs to Your Capitalist System

Then about making peace with ourselves: We are after all part of the world, as chief Seattle wrote “We are the web of life”. We are not separate, we are not outside, we are not the masters of the universe. That’s why I am very critical of some Western thinkers including some Nobel Prize winners who are talking about the Anthropocene as “man managing the planet” and engineering the planet. This is the continuation of the hallucination that has caused the problem in the first place. So when we do not see that we are part of the Earth, our basic knowledge makes us think we can put more and more cars on the road and that this act is unrelated to the health of our lungs. We can chop down more and more trees and cover up more gardens and eventually have intense flooding in cities. These are all parts of having failed to understand our true identities as Earth citizens.

So it is all related: making peace with Earth, making peace with each other and making peace with ourselves. This is really about the interlinked crisis of ecology, the planet and the disintegration of society. I think we are living through periods and this one is about disintegration of the entire civilisation. Syria is an example but also look at large parts of Africa. While I was coming here at the airport in India there were about 2000 Indian peacekeepers flying to the Congo. Why do they fly to Congo? Look at the forest, look at the exploitation of the Congo. There you see the triggering of all the interconnected conflicts.

Anthropocene or Capitolocene?

The new Anthropocene is really a bunch of stupid men beginning with the Gates Foundation who say: “Oh we know what’s good for the Earth! She’s stupid, you’re stupid, they’re stupid and I’m the smart one”.

Ethemcan Turhan: You have mentioned the term Anthropocene. In a recent commentary in Boston Review, you also argue that you consciously avoid the term Anthropocene. Some authors like Jason W. Moore also name the current epoch we live in as ‘Capitolocene’ where geo-bio-physical planetary processes are irrevocably shaped by the capital accumulation. Anthropocene, for its discontents, conveniently and deliberately obscures issues of class, power, global and national inequality, and injustices between peoples and places. What is your take on this?

Vandana Shiva: The problem with using the term Anthropocene is that it does not just put men separate and above. It really puts men above women and reinforces all of the colonisations that fuel this deep divide. The western paradigm started to talk of nature in a different way from the societies across the world and you end up with the thinking from the mechanical reductionist philosophies, like those of Francis Bacon and others. I find it fascinating that they told us not only that nature is dead, but that other cultures were dead too.

This is due to the idea of terra nullius. In fact, I think in this idea of ‘empty earth’ is the seed of the Anthropocene. They bulldoze an ancient 1500 year-old garden in Istanbul because it is considered empty. They also go to historic parts of India and bulldoze farmlands and appropriate land for real estate. We had to fight against a law in India where the government was allowing land to be appropriated from any peasant at any time for builders. We do have a law that says peasants have rights but you know what? Building is the secret joy; real estate has big players. So this whole idea of defining emptiness such as “the earth is empty, there’s no capacity in other cultures” unfolds.

I don’t think it is even a system any more, that’s where I differ with my lovely friends who think that what we still have is a capitalist world order. I call it a mafia order. It’s a bunch of five men. There are no rules of the game anymore.

Recently, I have been writing a book on pulses since this is the year of pulses. What are we left with? Soybean? All our pulses are turned into soybean. It’s in everything you eat. You can’t escape soybeans if they are in processed food. So this idea of emptiness is very much part of it and in the past 250 years the convergence of the fossil fuel age, the rise of industrialism and all that added up to this ‘emptiness’. Fossil fuels gave rise to an industrial mindset that led to the rise of capitalism and deepening of patriarchy as capitalist patriarchy. They are really one undivided whole; they are not really separate. So the new Anthropocene is really a bunch of stupid men beginning with the Gates Foundation who say: “Oh we know what’s good for the Earth! She’s stupid, you’re stupid, they’re stupid and I’m the smart one”.

There is an overuse of the term ‘smart’ in such discourses. The big thing in Paris was ‘climate-smart agriculture’ and we are showing how stupid it is. It is really a stupid idea because it is continuing to push the same idea that caused 50% of the climate crisis and is making our food system deeply vulnerable. So I don’t think it is even a system any more, that’s where I differ with my lovely friends who think that what we still have is a capitalist world order. I call it a mafia order. It’s a bunch of five men. There are no rules of the game anymore.

The old Europe with its social welfare and welfare state system at least had some rules. Yes, there was capital accumulation in it but there was also welfare in it. But now there are no rules for capital accumulation. This is partly because globalisation created a system with a zero responsibility and climate change is such a case where you have outsourcing of all the pollution and it is so convenient for the polluters. You keep growing while you put the climate bill on others to pay. This is like Wild West cowboys. It’s pre-capitalist. It’s primitive accumulation.

Maldevelopment: past and present prospects

The problem is legal deregulation that WTO rules require and criminalisation of environmental activism. So it’s a deeper challenge today because powers are more organised.

Ethemcan Turhan: I think there is something very important in how you describe all this. You are one of the key figures to write on the gendered dimension of ecology. So I want to go back to your book Staying Alive (Zed Books, 1988), where you talk about maldevelopment and call for an ecological-feminist political project. That was 1988, now we are in 2016. Almost 30 years on, how do you see the prospects of such a project? Do you see such an alliance between contemporary movements of environmental justice, degrowth and others? What similarities and differences do you see between those and the anti-globalisation movement of 1990s and early 2000s?

Vandana Shiva: Between 1988 and 2016, when I was writing Staying Alive, I was writing it out of a lived experience being involved in Chipko movement. It is the product of being involved in a movement where women were fighting large dams. Back then, we had big players but they look like nobody in today’s world of power because they were nationally rooted. We did not have a globalised economy so there was a national system and within that national system of course there was brutality. Of course people were being arrested but at the end of the day, there wasn’t a single movement that I was part of up to 1995 that we didn’t win. There was still this little shallow fragile democracy, it was brittle and favoured the powerful, but it could still be shaken. Its processes were still up for use. We created all the environmental laws in that period. Starting from 1981 Forest Law in India, which came out of Chipko movement, all the laws for water, air pollution etc. followed.

The difference between then and now is that today being an environmental activist is belonging to one of the most marked communities and this is not just the case nationally but also globally. All you have to do is to read The Economist. And what The Economist says is happening in Russia, India and probably in Turkey, in Africa. Environmental activists in Africa are being thrown into jail. Why? Because between 1980 and today, once you had the World Trade Organisation (WTO), you had globalisation, you had de-regulation and therefore the right to destroy the environment was enshrined into laws. We were starting to write laws for environmental protection at that time.

Globally now there is a systemic attempt to deregulate. The climate treaty is part of that experience. In 1992, we had the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Third World was leading. My country, India, played a big role. I was advising the Ministry of Environment at that time. Now look, 21 Conference of the Parties (COPs) later they are still struggling. But more than that, the problem is legal deregulation that WTO rules require and criminalisation of environmental activism. So it’s a deeper challenge today because powers are more organised. Back then, I discovered the World Bank as part of my environmental work. I asked “Why would we be planting eucalpytus?” and I found World Bank funding behind it. We organised globally and really put them on the defensive. Five big projects they were funding were all stopped.

You have this strange asymmetry today that corporations are globally organised; they are everywhere. They control every government and governments are doing the same thing everywhere. Yet every opportunity is used to prevent citizens from connecting up. You know a Greenpeace activist was offloaded from an Indian plane because she was invited to give evidence in the British Parliament on a particular coal project that was destroying a very important forest zone. So this is our challenge, our new challenge. You have organised corporate power and they’d like to keep us fragmented and we need to find new ways to stay as one community. That’s why for me the idea of Earth Citizenship is a very important political idea.

“Your GDP is a mismeasure”

What they basically tell us is “hand over control of your lives to us”. It is then up to us to say “Sorry, we’re not here to allow you to make your next buck. We’re here to live a good life”.

Ethemcan Turhan: Within this shift where both corporate and political power is consolidating, we also see a new vision of environmentalism. The new “green economy” where capital harvests nature for profit. This is a new understanding. Even The Economist is now smart and green. Market-based solutions like carbon trading, payment for ecosystem services and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) abound. These and other ‘solutions’ including bioenergy and carbon capture and storage (BECCS) came out of the Paris climate change meetings in December 2015. Social movements call them ‘false solutions’. How do we fight these false solutions?

Vandana Shiva: One thing is very clear: none of our activities can be in silos anymore. When things were comfortable in the 1970s, you could be specialised and just protect the whales or be specialised in dealing with climate or solar energy. Yet there is the old predatory economy, which was always based on stealing nature from communities, enclosing the commons and pretending that it had created whatever wealth was created. According to it, wealth was not created by the people or by nature. Capital was the creative force behind wealth. The new thing with the green economy is both with new technologies (like biotechnology) and new tools of gameplaying in the financial world; anything can be commodified in interesting ways. Those are two new factors added to the old predatory idea.

Then the first job we have is to speak the truth about it. For example, take REDD+. When we talk about it, we need to say that its proponents want to own the photosynthesis process of plants. Such a language gets more people involved, which is the first thing we should do. In the process of doing it, we need to generate a deep awareness and deep love. I think it is people’s love for the Earth that is going to be the political force bigger than all manipulative systems.

The other aspect is that at the end of the day, we know that creating organic/local food communities is a much richer way to live. So when Monsanto merges with Gates Foundation and they then merge with Syngenta, they are eventually all merging to become a one group of players. What they basically tell us is “hand over control of your lives to us”. It is then up to us to say “Sorry, we’re not here to allow you to make your next buck. We’re here to live a good life”.

Ecological responsibility and duty combined with celebration of life and well-being (and all that came out ofLatin America and Bhutan) is what we should seek. When I wrote about maldevelopment or ideas of progress in the past and even degrowth, it has been a theoretical discourse. We said: “Your GDP is a mismeasure”. I think today living differently is the biggest political opposition. That’s where the opposition will come from.

Diversity and decentralisation

I believe diversity and decentralisation are alternatives to globalisation by corporations trying to privatise, commodify, financialise every aspect of our life on this planet.

Ethemcan Turhan: I would like to fast forward from Staying Alive (Zed Books, 1988) to Soil, Not Oil (Zed Books, 2009). In the latter, when you refer to ‘living differently’ you identify two key issues: diversity and decentralisation. But what do these two terms refer to under a planetary emergency? How can we decentralise the economy? Is this politically possible and feasible?

Vandana Shiva: Let me begin with the second one. It is necessary. This very short period in which countries and communities survived with centralised economy, they are all rendered disposable. All you have to do is to look at southern Europe. Beginning with 2010, half of the youth are unemployed. Look at Greece, pensions are taken away. Anything that could be taken to make money was taken away. How are the Greeks surviving today? By building local communities! Because whatever was created out of the European welfare system has been chopped. Today so many young people, who are unemployed, returned to their villages and they are creating local economies.

So there are three things we need to join in this post-growth and post-collapse landscape: I just came back from a beautiful reserve in northeast India where they are trying to build a huge dam. Yet the local people are resisting. They have everything. At every meeting, these people dance. There is so much joy and abundance. Since they are full of diversity, their meals are also so diverse. So you got what I would call ‘pre-development communities’ on whom this horrible globalised development model hasn’t reached and they are the ones now being enclosed since that is where the new possibilities lie. The second point is that we think collapse has not yet happened but we can see ahead and say “enough, this is not a liveable world”. So your objective conditions do not force you to find an alternative but your solidarity with others (whether be it with the oceans, other communities or living beings) push you to find an alternative. And the third point is those who are brought to collapse.

All three above have the same aspirations. We have the potential to create an economy. You can call it local, decentralised anything. Diversity is vital here because it is only through mutual links that such an economy can flourish. I will give you a simple metaphor, because it helps me to understand better. You have a monoculture of maize and you keep putting huge amounts of chemical fertilizers all in the name of feeding the world. Yet only 10% goes for humans while all the rest goes for biofuels and animal feeding.

This is another aspect of the “green economy”, which is devastating for the planet. Diversity allows you to step back from violation of the planetary boundaries because the planetary nitrogen boundary is being broken by synthetic fertilizers. All you have to do is to bring beans back into cultivation. Not soybean but hundreds of thousands of varieties of beans can be brought back. That is the issue everywhere and that is why I believe diversity and decentralisation are alternatives to globalisation by corporations trying to privatise, commodify, financialise every aspect of our life on this planet.

Climate justice

For me at the end of the day, it is about democracy. Are you saying that coal is good for the person who doesn’t have electricity? Let that person who doesn’t have electricity tell you what kind of development they want. Only then we can have true climate justice.

Ethemcan Turhan: From there probably we can move to COP21 Paris (December 2015). It was a big, shiny, celebrated agreement in the diplomatic arena. It even has reference to Mother Earth and climate justice in its non-binding preamble. But again, Indian Prime Minister Modi recently tweeted saying “Paris agreement has no winners or losers. Climate justice has won and we all work together towards a greener future.” The question is: Do we all understand the same thing from climate justice?

Vandana Shiva: Oh we got climate justice in there right? (laughing). For Modi, it’s basically coal. Climate justice in this perspective is simply mining more coal, burning more coal. That’s justice. “You burned coal, now we want to burn coal then we are equal”. And for the real people from movements of climate justice, whether be it indigenous people of Amazon righting REDD+ or be it small farmers/pastoralists of Africa fighting against land grabs in the name of having carbon sinks, climate justice is justice for the Earth. It says don’t cross the limits. It means justice for people, therefore their rights, their rights to land, water, their right to stable climate, biodiversity and knowledge are protected. In that way, very clearly, there are very big differences on what climate justice really means.

Ethemcan Turhan: I would like to continue talking about the relevance of the Indian example also considering the rampant developmentalism in Turkey. At COP21, Prime Minister Modi announced International Solar Alliance with French president Hollande, putting an ambitious target of solar power by 2020. Yet India is also expanding hugely in coal, which puts communities at risk locally and globally. When you ask policy makers, they say “There are 240 million people only in India that have no access to electricity”. So how can one tackle this developmentalist rhetoric?

Vandana Shiva: Not at an abstract level. Not at the level of a number generated automatically to say we have more people who will get electricity. I will give two examples: After Fukushima, local movements’ struggle against nuclear became very intense. Everywhere in India people were fighting nuclear power. They were fighting because it first means land grab. Those people didn’t know what these plants meant for nuclear safety. But once Fukushima was on everyone’s screens, everyone saw that a nuclear plant can have an accident and they said we don’t want one here. I remember a public hearing with the local community where this one woman got up. I never forgot what she said:

“They came and built a dam and said you will get electricity. We still have our lanterns. Then they dug up a coal mine and said you will get electricity. They displaced us second time over and we still don’t have electricity. Now they are coming to say that they’ll build a nuclear power plant so that we can have electricity. We don’t trust them. We’re fine with our lanterns”.

This maldevelopment model is also an inequitable model that is based on deep exclusion. It uses the poor to justify concentration and control over natural resources. But the poor are only there to be used as excuses. They are then forgotten and exploited even more of the little they have. This is the ecological imperative in India: To fight against taking away of that little bit of water, little bit of land, little bit of seed in the name of some progress that will make the rich richer.

The second example is from a part of India, Jharkhand, the tribal state. The authorities say tribals need to develop, so we need coal mining and they will get electricity. Tribals have not allowed a single coal mine to start. For me at the end of the day, it is about democracy. Are you saying that coal is good for the person who doesn’t have electricity? Let that person who doesn’t have electricity tell you what kind of development they want. Only then we can have true climate justice.

Terra viva: new agriculture, new circular economy, new democracy

I would say representative democracy transformed from being of the people, for the people, by the people to of the corporate world, for the corporate world, by the corporate world.

Ethemcan Turhan: That brings us to such notion of democracy, Earth democracy in your words. Recently you co-authored a declaration called Terra Viva, which calls for a new agriculture, a new circular economy and a new democracy. Can you elaborate on how these things work together?

Vandana Shiva: So we wrote Terra Viva with a group of people coming from different backgrounds and different experiences including the former secretary-general of the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD), urban planners, rural sociologists and others. It was the year of soil and we wanted to understand the state of soil globally. That is how all our understanding on Syria, Nigeria and Boko Haram came through. The new agriculture is about an agriculture that works with the Earth, it works with nature because the old agriculture is an agriculture of war.

The instruments and mentality of old agriculture came out of war system and caused huge damage. As much as maldevelopment uses the poor to justify the need to maldevelop, old agriculture uses the poor to say “we need to take more land and food from them and take away their seeds in order to feed them”. So what we need is a new agriculture. Our responses have been fragmented; as citizens we have not been able to generate the power we actually have. If you take the people who fight for bees, people who fight for animals, people who fight for land rights, people who fight for food rights, their fights are not being integrated. This is what we aim to do with Terra Viva.

The second point is the new economy. You can come to a poor country and say “you need to take all the wrong steps” but you can’t say that to an unemployed Greek or Italian youth today. You cannot simply say“you need more of this austerity programme” built into structural adjustment. So you need a new economy and the new economy cannot be the extractive economy. It should be circular economy of giving back. Giving back to Earth because it is the only way you close the broken cycles. Our farmers are dying and the agribusiness is getting richer. 1% is my calculation of what producers get from the price consumers pay for food. So the new economy becomes an imperative.

All we have to do is to say: “I know what real food is, what you’re selling is fake food. I know what real democracy is, yours is a fake democracy”.

Then comes the new democracy because the old representative democracy is as good as dead. First, because since globalisation states are not captive to globalised corporate power, they became what I call ‘corporate states’. They only remember citizens for votes and now even those votes are being bought by corporate money. We have seen that in the USA where it was legally allowed for corporations to buy elections: look at the Koch brothers, look at the amount of money candidate must raise. That’s why Bernie Sanders is such a breath of fresh air.

I don’t know what your last elections in Turkey were like but in India the last elections were media-run elections and for that you need lots of money. It isn’t how close you are to the people. I would say representative democracy transformed from being of the people, for the people, by the people to of the corporate world, for the corporate world, by the corporate world. Which is why you see these concrete jungles grow since urban planning is no more about urban planning in a democratic way. It is not in the hands of municipalities. A builder can totally rewrite the rules and all a builder needs to do is to finance your next elections. So you need a new democracy and that should be participatory.

We are at a point where the alternatives need to grow from ground up, very often we had this thinking globalised policy is causing problems so let’s change the rules of WTO. I have lots of friends who spent all of their time going to WTO meetings. At a certain point, I said no. Instead of going to WTO meetings, let’s set up seed banks, set up seed commons and let’s change the rules. Let’s live by other rules and make it such big movements. Today I can say very happily that ten countries managed to roll back laws criminalising seed saving. In a crazy way, this market-mafia rule wants to make us so stupid. They want to tell us how soil works, how climate works, how society works… All we have to do is to say: “I know what real food is, what you’re selling is fake food. I know what real democracy is, yours is a fake democracy”. So it is really the real lived experience versus fake propaganda of economics, of politics, of agriculture.

Ethemcan Turhan: I am approaching the end of my questions but I still have a question about grassroots organising. We live in an increasingly urbanised world, and at the same time we have this massive industrial infrastructure. So in a new economy, new agriculture, new democracy that’s defined in Terra Viva, what do we do with the leftover of the existing industrial infrastructure as well as their associated massive urban zones?

Vandana Shiva: The first thing is to not let the existing industrial infrastructure fall into disrepair where it is and destroy other people’s lives to replicate an old industrial structure elsewhere. I have been to Eastern Europe where entire towns are laying abandoned, entire places. So you want to make steel? Make it there rather than taking over the land of Indian tribals. Just because globalisation allowed outsourcing what you are witnessing today is a period of deindustrialisation of the Global North and outsourcing of heavy and polluting industry to the Global South. And I think this is totally unfair at every level.

The second issue is taking externalities into account. The only reason the fossil economy can take over is that it manipulated the definitions of efficiency, production, labor, capital and land. As we have written at the end ofTerra Viva, the two most important things are the Earth and the people. And they are not inputs to your capitalist system, sorry sir! They are ends in themselves. Therefore we need to shift these manipulated definitions around.

I sometimes become so surprised about how much we can take an old definition and slave ourselves to it. GDP? 60 years old, not even that old. And everyone says “growth must happen, industrialisation is a must”. So what we do is to take externalities seriously and speak the truth. I once had a debate with one of our most eminent software people where they told me “Oh we have created high growth for India, agriculture is dragging us down so we must reduce the denominator”. Productivity is output/input. The only input is labor and in agriculture that means farmers. So when they say we must reduce the denominator, they refer to farmers. But that denominator is an equal citizen of this land and it is not in your hands to say how many of them you can write off. It is in their hands to decide how they want to farm and what they want to farm. It is in their hands to fight for a just farming system so that the small farmers are not displaced.

A lot of it really is to get out of the colonisation of the mind, which makes so much of the destruction seem inevitable. Once you are free from that, you can start defining things in a different way and what seems impossible in the old paradigm becomes so easy in the new one.

On real life solutions

Ethemcan Turhan: Last two questions are about real life solutions, alternatives. So there is the Navdanya movement, Earth University and other initiatives that you have set up. What role do you see for social movements to build real life alternatives within or outside of the state? The second question is about the role of academia. What role do you see for academia particularly at a time when academic freedoms are increasingly under attack, not least so here in Turkey. This is also the case in countries where universities are increasingly being neoliberalised. So what is your take on these two issues?

Vandana Shiva: At the end of the day, we are in the middle of a war paradigm. There is this fear of intellectual freedom because the old paradigm must be maintained to continue that project of colonising the earth, colonising people’s minds. The minute people are able to think for themselves, that project is over. Assault on academic freedom is built into the kind of economy we live in. It must create immunity for itself and it must reduce into dumbness even though it calls itself ‘smart’. It must unravel into a deeper level of unknowing. Those who played in Wall Street in 2008 had no idea what they were doing. Those who were supposed to regulate them had no idea what was going on and it all came out. So we are literally handing over fate of the planet to casino players for betting on everything.

The real life alternatives, in such a context, means that wherever we see an enclosure, we need to open it up with courage, creativity and solidarity. Those are three things we need most. The big difference between the movements of post-war years and now is that movements then could be very specialised. The labour movement only fought for labour rights, the environmental movement was just an environmental movement, there hasn’t been a strong farmers movement but there were little initiatives. These were never connected to each other.

We also can’t afford to think of academic freedom as only a university exercise. It is only when a university professor and her students connect to real communities through participatory research, new knowledge emerges. And it is a bit like micro-rhizome, you know? I think it is a model for political organisation, whether it is for intellectual freedoms or political freedoms because eventually it is those bonds that you create which quietly build resilience. One tree can be starved but nutrients from others can feed it. The system has become too smart to assault linear challenges. It is only solidarity that matters and we have to be the micro-rhizome of the future.

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Ethemcan Turhan is a Mercator-IPC fellow at Istanbul Policy Center, Sabancı University (Turkey).

TRANSCEND Member Prof. Vandana Shiva is a physicist, ecofeminist, philosopher, activist, and author of more than 20 books and 500 papers. She is the founder of the Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology, and has campaigned for biodiversity, conservation and farmers’ rights, winning the Right Livelihood Award [Alternative Nobel Prize] in 1993. She is executive director of the Navdanya Trust.

CMEs, CEO/Leadership/Women’s Forums, Spiritual Discourses, Educational Seminars, Fashion Show, Mega Entertainment, Awards, Contests, Speeches, & Networking mark AAPI’s 34th annual convention in New York

July 6, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

New York, NY: July 4th, 2016: CMEs, CEO/Leadership/Women’s Forums, Spiritual Discourses, Educational Seminars, Fashion Show, Mega Entertainment, Awards, Contests, Speeches, & Networking were some of the highlights of the 34^thannual convention of 34th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, New York City from June 30^th to July 4^th, 2016.

Attended by a record 2,000 delegates from across the nation, the spectacular event was a way of showcasing the strength and achievements of the more than 100,000 physicians of Indian origin who have earned a name for themselves in this country with their hard work, excellence, compassionate care, academic and scientific endeavors.

Dr. Lodha, who was administered the oath of office as the President of AAPI during the 34th annual convention in New York on July 3rd, 2016 vowed to take the more than three decades old organization to the new heights and “bring all the AAPI Chapters, Regions, Members of the Executive Committee and Board of Trustees to work cohesively and unitedly for the success of AAPI and the realization of its noble mission.”

Acknowledging that leading AAPI is a daunting challenge, Dr. Lodha said, “I’m very honored, privileged and consider myself fortunate to announce that I have an excellent group of dedicated, hardworking, and loyal officers and executive committee members who are with me to take AAPI to new heights.”

Dr. Lodha received the gavel from Dr. Seema Jain, the out-going president of AAPI as the more than 2,000 delegates cheered loudly, greeting the new President of AAPI, the largest ethnic medical association in the United States. Along with him, Dr. Gautam Samadder as President-Elect, Dr. Naresh Parikh as Vice President, Dr. Suresh Reddy as Secretary, and Dr. Manju Sachdev as the Treasurer of AAPI, assumed charge in the presence of leading luminaries from across the nation. Dr. Madhu Agarwal assumed charge as the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, AAPI by the out-going chairman, Dr. Aravind Pillai. He stressed the importance of having YPS president Aditya Desai and MSRF President Atul Nakshi along with a diversified group of regional directors. “Their leadership will help us move forward with our current and future initiatives.”

In his keynote address on the final nite, Preeth Barara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York said, “Welcome to my jurisdiction,” to all the AAPI delegates from across the nation, and added, “It’s an honor to be with the greatest selection of Indian Americans gathered in one place, except for in a spelling bee.” He said, he wanted to address two problems: One affecting people’s physical body and the other affecting the political body. Both are central to our wellbeing, he said …describing personal experiences…I am glad about the way people are responding today to . Opiate addiction, as we are aware that thousands of people are dying of this epidemic.

He advocated the physicians to be in the front line treating this epidemic. He drew the attention of the community to the dangers of over prescribing. “This epidemic is killing our children.” He suggested that physicians educate the patients and the community; provide treatment…we need to get them out of the addiction, he said and added, if the insurance companies are denying they should be scrutinized; and finally, he asked the physicians to “look at your own profession. You are uniquely placed to work with this kind of problem. In a very passionate way, Barara advocated with the AAPI members to be aware of and work towards stopping hate crimes involving South Asian community. “Anything is possible in America, which is like no other place on earth. I am filled with ambition and optimism,” he added.

In her welcome address, Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI, reminded AAPI delegates from across the nation of the historic nature of the convention. “The Future is now– Its time to step up to a new era of innovation through a new age of digital healthcare that transcends biological and chemical medicine into the future. As physicians we must be equipped to tackle the next generation’s unique set of challenges and opportunities in healthcare,” Dr. Seema Jain said.

The convention began here with a panel discussion on “Health Care 2020 & Beyond,” moderated by CNN anchor, Dr. Fareed Zakaria and in an interview style open forum by US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, as well as CEO Forums featuring healthcare leaders on Thursday June 30, 2016. The two hours long discussions were very well attended by a packed audience in rapt silence and attention. The session for the day on “Health Care 2020 & Beyond” moderated by Dr. Fareed Zakaria, had featured Bob Oliver; Omar Ishrak; Michael Antoniades; and Dr. Arthur Klein;.Deepak Nath.

In conversation with Dr. Fareed Zakaria, US Surgeon General – Dr. Vivek Murthy shared with an enthusiastic audience about his background, key public health initiatives, including disease prevention through healthy eating, active living, need for sleep, wise use of modern technologies, and emotional well-being. Describing the importance of his upcoming health education report from his office on the need for ensuring health equity for all communities and fighting off threats to health drugs and addiction, Dr. Murthy said, “How the nation looks at addiction is very important and it can help prevent addiction.” Commenting that incarceration is not a solution to drug addiction, he said, “it adds to the problem.” He said, “If you help change people’s attitudes, we can help solve the problem.” Dr. Murthy had some very important tips on ways to healthy living, which was much appreciated by one and all.

With ribbon cutting and lighting of the traditional lamp below a beautifully decorated arch, Ambassador Arun Singh, India’s Ambassador to the United States, officially inaugurated the annual event of the physicians of Indian origin. In his opening remarks, Ambassador Singh praised the many contributions of AAPI members in the United States and back home in India. “You have excelled in your fields of medicine, and thus make significant contributions through hard work, commitment and dedication to your profession and the people you are committed to serve,” he said. While conveying his greetings and best wishes to AAPI leaders for the success of the convention, Ambassador described the fast growing health sector, particularly the pharmaceutic industry in India.

In his passionate address, Dr. Prasad Srinivasan, a State Representative of the state of Connecticut, challenged his colleagues in the medical profession to be hardworking, dedicated to public cause, family-oriented and stay focused, which are keys to becoming state and national elected officials. “We have the choice to be at the table or on the table. Given our heritage, we the Indian Americans belong at the table. Get actively involved in the affairs of the local community and that’s the path to larger role in the nation,” he said.

India’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, lauded the many initiatives AAPI both in India and the United States, while wishing them a successful convention.

Congressman Lee Zeldin, said, Physicians of Indian origin are well known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, medical skills, research, and leadership. “Indian-Americans constitute about one percent of the country’s population, but you account for nine percent of the American doctors and physicians, serving one out of seven patients being treated across the nation.”

The convention was packed with back to back seminars and CMEs and conferences, including Auxiliary/Spouse Program, Diamond Selection Activity, India Global Engagement Innovation and Entrepreneur Seminar, and inspiring speeches at the Leadership Seminar on “Aligning management thinking with patient care: Building an effective medical practice” by Dr. Dipak Jain and “Should I encourage my child to go to medical school? The future of medical education and medicine as a profession, and Rutgers’ plans as a case study?” by Dr. Brian Storm.

“This is the best of all Leadership Seminars by AAPI,” Dr. Seema Jain declared after the inspirational speeches. During the delicious Dinner Reception, delegates were treated with “Regional Flavors of India.”

The days were filled with back to back CMEs on cutting edge technologies, modern trends in diagnosing treating patients. This CME program has been jointly sponsored by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and has been designed to meet the educational needs of Primary Care physicians – Internists, Family Practitioners, Pediatricians, and Specialists – Cardiology, Oncology, Endocrinology, Surgery and other specialties involved in the care of patients with Atrial Fibrillation, HIV disease, Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, Depression, Prostate and Hematologic malignancies and Back pain.

“What we call feeling healthy, is not just the absence of disease, but having a sense of wholeness within us. If we feel like a complete being in our body, mind and spirit, that is when we are truly healthy,” Sadhguru, founder of Founder of Isha Foundation, told a packed audience, who came to receive his words of wisdom and blessings. Sadhguru, dressed in his long robe and sash, was addressing the delegates at the annual convention of Physicians of Indian Origin on July 2nd, at the Marriott Marquis in New York City on “Life Sense: Technologies for Wellbeing.” Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoked and broadened the thoughts and perception of life of every participant.

Other events included a session by AAPI Charitable Foundation on ways to give back to one’s motherland and the adopted land. Winners of the Research/Poster Presentation were recognized during the AAPI Executive Committee Recognition Lunch, during which, delegates had an opportunity to hear from Dr. Vas Narasimhan, Global Head Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis, Switzerland; Arthur Klien, Medical President at Mt. Sinai Medical Center; Eric Paterson, US VP Diversity Dealer Relations; and Ramakrishna of the Ramakrishna Hospital in Tamil Nadu, India.

Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Aditya Narayan and Indian Idol Juniors, took the AAPI delegates by storm. “Each of the three mega stars led a group of talented artists and stars from Bollywood and from the United States,” said Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Chair of the Entertainment Committee for AAPI Convention. “With 12 leading stars to entertain in one weekend during AAPI convention in the Big Apple, this mega event was truly historic,” he added.

The delegates were treated with scintillating entertainment performance by Bollywood singer Sunidhi Chauhan. Young artists, including Aditya Narayan and Indian Idol Junior Group from India showcased their talents before a packed audience beyond mid-night. The grand finale was a live performance by Shankar Mahadevan and team, showcasing their musical talents before a lively audience.

This year’s Fashion Show was led by Rohini Bedi. The much sought after South Asian designer Rohini Bedi from California presented her exclusive collection 2016, The Colors Of India. Rohini’s collection infused the vibrant colors of the East and the jaw dropping designs that rocked the runways in the West.

As women, you burn yourselves in the process of accomplishing things in life, Chandrika Tandon, a 2011 GRAMMY nominated artist and a Billboard Nominee for top 40 Women in Music 2011, told a packed audience at the Women’s Forum. Being a wife, mother, businesswoman, artiste, each role she plays is so demanding. But, Tandon said, she was able to all of them. Tandon suggested that everyone needs to have the courage that comes from competence; the courage that comes from compassion; and, the courage that comes from contemplation. Woman is a powerful force that can move everything. One must believe that I am the power. I am the light.”

Kim Guadagno, Lt. Governor of New Jersey, Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of Rutgers RWJM School & CEO Rutgers RWJM Group, and Aroon Shivdasani, President of Indo-American Arts Council, shared with the audience their own personal experiences of being a woman. “We all need to have a sense of humor, especially when you have so many roles to play in life and each one is so demanding.”

Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the convention said, “For the very first time in the history of AAPI, both the President and the Convention Chair are women. We are so fortunate to have Dr. Seema Jain as the President of AAPI.” The annual convention this year was organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter.

Dr. Ajay Lodha invited all AAPI members to be part of the new journey, and participate in the upcoming two major evets, he has planned to organize. The Global Healthcare Summit will be held in Udaiipur, Rajasthan from December 28-30, 2016. The 35^th AAPI Convention will be held at the Harrah’s Resort in Atlantic City, New Jersey from June 21-25, 2017. “A new era has begun. AAPI will continue to discover her own potential to be an active and vital player in shaping the landscape of national healthcare delivery system with a focus on health maintenance than disease intervention,” Dr. Lodha said. For more details, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org

“Woman is a powerful force that can move everything” Chandrika Tandon tells at AAPI’s Women’s Forum

July 4, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Women 0

New York, NY: July 3rd, 2016: As women, you burn yourselves in the process of accomplishing things in life, Chandrika Tandon, a 2011 GRAMMY nominated artist and a Billboard Nominee for top 40 Women in Music 2011, told a packed audience at the Women’s Forum during the 34th annual Convention of 34th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, New York City on July 2nd, 2016.

In her opening remarks, Dr. Seema Jain, adhered to the 4 Es, she had presented as the major themes on her inaugural day a year ago, Excellence of Education, Enlightenment, Evolution, and Empowerment of women, stated that “There is a need for empowerment of women, which means women should be respected at work and at corporate and Boardroom table. One would treat them with respect just as you would treat your mom, wife, sister, and daughter.”

Chandrika Tandon addressing the audience

Stating that she is the 3rd woman president in the 34 year-old long history of AAPI, Dr. Jain said, “In spite of the many challenges, we have been able to achieve great things.” Reminding the audience about the tradition of woman being considered a goddess in the Indian tradition, she said, “You go to the temple to pray to the goddess, and that devotion to women must be translated into real life.”

Tandon, who was the keynote speaker at the Women’s Forum, is Chairman of her financial advisory firm, Tandon Capital Associates, Inc. She has worked with more than 40 financial and service institutions all over the world and has spearheaded projects that involved major financial and operational restructuring, global and domestic strategy, and broad-based culture change. Prior to that, she was a partner at McKinsey and Company.

Being a wife, mother, businesswoman, artiste, each role she plays is so demanding. But, Tandon said, she was able to all of them. “I made major tradeoffs. Life as founder-chairman of my company was brutal: Restructuring an Australian company, I’d fly 32 hours to Brisbane, stay nine days, talk to my nine-year-old via nightly video-conference, micro-arranging her schedule. Returning home, I’d talk to my Brisbane team and work non-stop negotiating other clients. I wasn’t the emotionally available mother I wanted to be. Flying 32 hours every nine days took a toll. Then, I was offered a multimillion-dollar deal, spending four days a week in Europe. I considered it, crying non-stop. I had done mega jobs, working with billionaires, flying on private planes. It was emotionally and intellectually heady. Professionally and personally, it was catastrophic. Suddenly, I had no identity: a top businesswoman, unsure I even had a business. I went into myself, came to a new way of seeing “success” as freedom to do what I wanted. I got into spirituality, searched for answers, for purpose. My life had been other-directed. I re-examined my values: What’s important?”

Organizers and AAPI leaders at the Women’s Forum, during AAPI’s 34th convention in New York

Kim Guadagno, Lt. Governor of New Jersey, a panelists on the Women’s Forum stressed the need for women to be more educated than men. She drew the attention of the audience to a New York Times story stating that there are there are more Johns in higher positions in healthcare than all women put together. When asked about the need for legislation, she said, “There are enough policies but, all of us need to implement those policies to avoid discrimination.” She underscored the need “knowing your rights and use them always in the right way is so important.” While stating that “It’s a challenge to play multiple roles,” she shared with the audience about her own personal life when she stayed home for eight years to take care of her three children, she said, ”I gave up my job to care for the family needs.” But it worked well.” According to her, “The biggest challenge is to keep fighting. Women need to support each other and applaud each other’s victory. If you are not doing it no one is going to do it for yourself,” she told the audience.

Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of Rutgers RWJM School & CEO Rutgers RWJM Group, another panelist said, “We have come a long way. There are about 50 percent women in med schools, but the irony is that the board rooms do not have enough women. We have a long way to go on that end.” Her tips for women to succeed and be independent and be able to take charge, are: Be authentic; Be passionate; Be prepared to walk an extra mile; and, Be unstoppable in spite of hurdles. “You know where you want to go and never give up. Choose your partner wisely, who is wlling to share responsibilities with you and someone who can always willing to step up to the occasion.” Stressing the need for compromise, she said, “I strongly believe in promoting equality. You are the role models for all of us here. Keep fighting and support one another.”

Aroon Shivdasani, President of Indo-American Arts Council, shared with the audience her own personal experiences of being called by people as “Fakir of New York City,” who always for the sake of art, and for the sake of the not -for-profit organizations, appeal for financial support. “I lead a not-for-profit and being a woman I am not taken seriously because I am always begging. When you lead a nonprofit, you get to lead and touch so many lives. A lot of people who come out and do these noble endeavors, they do this out of need. It’s not a hobby,” she said.

When asked about the need to choose one’s partner wisely, she said, “Being an Indian woman is so different.” She recommended that “Be sure of what you want to be and be passionate about what you want to achieve. Believe in yourself and go ahead and do it.” She admitted that “women have the corner on guilt. We do it to ourselves. We all need to have a sense of humor, especially when you have so many roles to play in life and each one is so demanding.”

Standing ovation for the women speakers during Women’s Forum

Dr. Rachana Kulkarni, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, who moderated the panel discussion pointed out how women are being judged differently than men in almost every aspect of life. “People’s expectations are weaved into the culture. There is an unconscious gender bias. And I tell my son, not to dependent on women in life.”

Sunanad Gaur, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, in her opening remarks, stated that there are as many as 70% of the healthcare jobs are held by women, but only a handful of jobs in Board “there is an unconscious structural bias. There is a need for looking within and identify ways to move forward in order to be agents of change from within.

Dr. Udaya Shivangi, Co-Chair of Women’s Forum, stressed the need for enhancing professional growth without compromising one’s family, values and interests in life. She shared with the audience how how her mother inspired her to dream and work towards realizing her dreams.

Sharing with the audience about her own life story, which has been an inspiration to millions, Tandon said, “We lived with my grandfather who read to us every night — Shakespeare, English poetry. He made you feel you can be anything you want. It was inconceivable that I’d apply to IIM, or get in. What I got from my grandfather was inner unstoppability. Many people are smarter, more talented. I have inner strength.”

It had been a struggle at every stage of her life. “I fought to go to college, went on a hunger strike for business school until my mother agreed to let me go. A I’d followed my career mindlessly — among the youngest in my IIM class, accepted into Citibank (which took three out of 116 applicants), then McKinsey’s, and my own business. I never stopped. But I wasn’t focused on the lack, I focused on the possibility.”

After much soul searching, she said, “My happiest times were around music.” Despite dizzy business success, Chandrika Tandon’s first love remains music, a passion which came from her mother. She remembers that he mother would switch on the radio at 5 am in the morning.
In the US, to learn music from a master she would leave home at 4 in the morning for a two hour session between 6 to 8 am. She wanted to be home by the time her daughter woke up. Then she started travelling with her music teachers and would squeeze in lessons between business meetings. She was nominated for GRAMMY for her album. Her philanthropy has been inspirational. “support education, wellness and arts. It’s about making life full and enriching in one’s days here. I’m happy I turned away from the work. I’m blessed to have the freedom to choose how I want to spend my days.

Tandon suggested that everyone needs to have the courage that comes from competence; the courage that comes from compassion; and, the courage that comes from contemplation.” Indian women give up anything for others, she said. “Compassion and karma are tied together. We cannot change others. If you cannot take yourself seriously how can others take you seriously?” she asked the delegates. She told the women in attendance, “We are technically brilliant. But our soft skills are terrible,” noting that “our emotional intelligence is the real problem.” She said, “Woman is a powerful force that can move everything. One must believe that I am the power. I am the light.”

Ambassador Arun Singh inaugurates AAPI’s 34th annual convention in New York City

July 2, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

With ribbon cutting and lighting of the traditional lamp below a beautifully decorated arch, Ambassador Arun Singh, India’s Ambassador to the United States, officially inaugurated the 34th annual convention of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the Marriott Marquis on Times Square, New York City on July 1st, 2016.

In her warm welcome address, Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI, reminded the nearly 1,500 AAPI delegates from across the nation of the historic nature of the convention. “Members of AAPI have both collectively and individually been engaged in addressing the huge healthcare related needs of our motherland, India for several decades, by organizing, supporting, partnering and collaborating with local groups in India and making a difference in their villages, cities or states,” Dr. Seema Jain said.

In his opening remarks, Ambassador Singh praised the many contributions of AAPI members in the United States and back home in India. “You have excelled in your fields of medicine, and thus make significant contributions through hard work, commitment and dedication to your profession and the people you are committed to serve,” he said. While conveying his greetings and best wishes to AAPI leaders for the success of the convention, Ambassador described the fast growing health sector, particularly the pharmaceutic industry in India.

Ambassador Arun Singh said, the Indian pharmaceuticals market is growing rapidly, from US$ 6 billion in 2005 to US$ 55 billion by 2020. He also allured to the fact that by 2020, India is likely to be among the top three pharmaceutical markets by incremental growth and sixth largest market globally in absolute size. “Branded generics dominate the pharmaceuticals market, constituting nearly 70 to 80 per cent of the market. India is the largest provider of generic drugs globally with the Indian generics accounting for 20 per cent of global exports in terms of volume,” he said. India’s cost of production is significantly lower than that of the US and almost half of that of Europe. It gives a competitive edge to India over others, he said.

India’s Consul General in New York, Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das, lauded the many initiatives AAPI both in India and the United States, while wishing them a successful convention.

At the Business Meeting, Congressman Lee Zeldin, said, Physicians of Indian origin are well known around the world for their compassion, passion for patient care, medical skills, research, and leadership. “Indian-Americans constitute about one percent of the country’s population, but you account for nine percent of the American doctors and physicians, serving one out of seven patients being treated across the nation.” He praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his inspiring address to the US Congress and his ale leadership, steering the largest democracy in the world to new heights.

The day was packed with back to back seminars and CMEs and conferences, including Auxiliary/Spouse Program, Diamond Selection Activity, India Global Engagement Innovation and Entrepreneur Seminar, and inspiring speeches at the Leadership Seminar on “Aligning management thinking with patient care: Building an effective medical practice” by Dr. Dipak Jain and “Should I encourage my child to go to medical school? The future of medical education and medicine as a profession, and Rutgers’ plans as a case study?” by Dr. Brian Storm. This is the best of all Leadership Seminars by AAPI,” Dr. Seema Jain declared after the inspirational speeches. During the delicious Dinner Reception, delegates were treated with “Regional Flavors of India.”

This CME program is being jointly sponsored the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin and has been designed to meet the educational needs of Primary Care physicians – Internists, Family Practitioners, Pediatricians, and Specialists – Cardiology, Oncology, Endocrinology, Surgery and other specialties involved in the care of patients with Atrial Fibrillation, HIV disease, Diabetes, Dyslipidemia, Depression, Prostate and Hematologic malignancies and Back pain.

Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chair of the Convention Committee, said, CMEs provided comprehensive and current reviews and guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of various disease states to reduce morbidity and mortality and achieve cost effective quality care outcomes, enabling the attendees to gain an understanding of the causation, diagnosis and the best clinical practices for the management of the diverse group of diseases discussed during this program. AAPI members get 10 hours of CME credit hours for attending in these sessions led by world’s leading thought leaders, physicians and healthcare industry leaders.

During the luncheon, AAPI honored AAPI members, who had worked hard to make the convention a memorable one for all. At the dinner reception, past Presidents of AAPI were honored for their leadership and dedication to the growth and wellbeing of the 34-yr old organization that represents the interests of over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin in this country. Out-going Board of Trustee members were also honored with plaques for their contributions to the growth of the organization. For

Dr. Charanji Rihalof the Mayo Clinic addressed the audience on “Effect of Affordable Care Act on Physicians Healthcare Provider and Hospital Systems,” while Naveen Jain, Founder & CEO Blue Dot, spoke passionaletly about “Future of Healthcare in the world of Exponential Technologies” Other speakers of the day included, Dr. Chandy Abraham, CEO, Cayman Hospital. The evening ended with a scintilatin g entertainment performance by Bollywood singer Sunidhi Chauhan. For more information on AAPI and the 34th convention, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org

34th Annual AAPI Convention & Scientific Assembly kicks off with Dr. Fareed Zakaria leading panel featuring major healthcare leaders on “Health Care 2020 & Beyond”

July 1, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Health 0

New York City – June 30, 2016: The 34th annual Convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) began here with a panel discussion on “Health Care 2020 & Beyond,” moderated by CNN anchor, Dr. Fareed Zakaria and in an interview style open forum by US Surgeon General, Dr. Vivek Murthy, as well as CEO Forums featuring healthcare leaders began at the Marquis Ballroom, Marriott Marquis, in Manhattan, NY on Thursday June 30, 2016,

In her welcome address, Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI, said, “This journey that was started in June of 2015 with a clear purpose of 4 E’s: Excellence of Education, Empowerment, Enlightenment, and Evolution, today’s launch of the FIRST CEO Forum discussing “HealthCare 2020 & Beyond” is another major milestone in our progress, taking AAPI to the next level and mainstream.”

A section of the audience listening to Dr. Zakaria and Dr. Murthy on June 30th at Marriott Hotel in New York City during 34th annual convention by AAPI

Describing today’s events to be a “special day in the history of AAPI,” referred to it as “vision being realized.” She said, “It has been my dream to have a high level CEO Forum from all sections of healthcare, featuring leading CEOs from hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, academicians, intellectuals and physicians, who will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients.”

Delivery and access of Healthcare in the United States and around the world is rapidly changing, leading to many describing the healthcare environment as dynamic, complex, and highly uncertain. The manner in which the health care environment is perceived and characterized is important for several reasons. Higher-performing health care providers and organizations are those that are, among other characteristics, able to understand and manage uncertainty and ambiguity in their environments. The Affordable Care Act designed to provide an opportunity to reinvent the health care delivery system to make it more accessible, patient-centered, and comprehensive, with an emphasis on prevention and primary care is under attack and depending on the outcome of the elections it may change.

In this context, through the two CEO Forums being held simultaneously, the AAPI delegates from across the nation had an opportunity to understand the major global developments in the rapidly changing healthcare sector, with an emphasis on new ideas and innovative solutions to America’s complex healthcare related issues. The Forum also offered insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.

In his opening remarks, Anwar Feroz, AAPI’s Honorary Advisor, said, “The CEO Forum will educate the audience on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.”

The panel on Hospital & Technology Leaders &CEOs Description featured: Dr. Arthur Klein, President Mt. Sinai Health Network. Michael Antoniades, President and Chief Executive Officer, RWJUH, New Brunswick; Dr. Ram Raju, President and CEO, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation; Dr. Philip O. Ozuah, Executive V. P. and Chief Operating Officer of Montefiore Medical Center; Dr. Leslie D. Hirsch, President St. Peters Healthcare System; Dr. Shafiq Rab, CIO, Hackensack Healthcare System; Dr. Kevin J. Slavin, President & CEO of St Joseph’s Health System; Amit Limaye, President, Logistical Solutions Inc. AC Birox; Ritesh Patel SVP DIGI; and Aamir Siddiqi, General Manager, TRICE Technologies

The panel on Medical Devices, Technology and Pharmaceutical Leaders &CEO’s Forum was addressed by Bob Oliver, President & CEO Otsuka America; Omar Ishrak, Chairman & CEO Medtronic; Dr. Vasant (Vas) Narasimhan, Global Head Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer,Novartis; Dr. Freda C. Lewis-Hall, Chief Medical Officer, Pfizer; Deepak Nath, President, Abbott Vascular / Senior Vice President, Abbott Laboratories; Dr Shalabh Jain CEO Hyalo Technologies; Dr Ketan Mehta, CEO Neil Med; Naveen Jain, Founder & Executive Chairman – Moon Express; and Dr.Srijoy Mahapatra, MD Vice President, Clinical, Medical and Scientific Affairs, St. Jude Medical.

The over two hours long discussions were very well attended by a packed audience in rapt silence nd attention. The final session for the day on “Health Care 2020 & Beyond” moderated by Dr. Fareed Zakaria, had featured Bob Oliver; Omar Ishrak; Michael Antoniades; and Dr. Arthur Klein;.Deepak Nath.

Dr. Vivek Murthy in conversation with Dr. Fareed Zakaria on the inaugural day of the 34th annual convention by AAPI

The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. Elaborating on the efforts and preparations that have been devoted to put together this unique event, Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the 2016 Annual Convention, said. “We have been working hard to put together an attractive program for our annual get together, educational activity and family enjoyment. I and the Co-Chairs are fortunate to have a dedicated team of convention committee members from the Tri-State region have worked hard to organize this historical event in the heart of New York City,” she said. For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org

Stan Lee’s Indian superhero ‘Chakra’ now in Bollywood film

June 30, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

Comic book legend Stan Lee, whose creations include ‘X-Men’ the ‘Incredible Hulk’ and ‘Iron Man’ among others is now planning to release his first Indian superhero-based film ‘Chakra the Invincible’ set in Mumbai and directed by Vikramaditya Motwane.

Graphic India, a character entertainment company, and Lee’s POW! Entertainment today announced a partnership with Phantom Films, to begin pre-production on the live-action theatrical film for ‘Chakra The Invincible.’ Chakra has been created by Lee along with Graphic Co-Founder and CEO, Sharad Devarajan.

“I’m a fan of Bollywood films and am really excited about launching ‘Chakra the Invincible’ as my first Bollywood superhero movie,” Lee, Chief Creative Officer at POW! Entertainment said in a statement.

Lee helped spawn some of the world’s most popular comic book heroes — The Amazing Spider—Man, The Fantastic Four, The X-Men, Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, and many more, which now dominate the film industry. The upcoming Hollywood flick ‘X-Men: Age of Apocalypse’ is based on another of Lee’s creations.

“Vikramaditya is an amazingly talented filmmaker who I have no doubt can make the Chakra film a massive hit in India and around the world. I only hope he remembers to include my cameo!,” Lee said. Unlike the animated kids property, the film version of ’Chakra’ is set to feature an older version of the character in his twenties, set against the spectacular backdrop of Mumbai.

Motwane who has directed ‘Lootera’ and ‘Udaan’ said it was an “honor and an absolute delight to be making a film based on a Stan Lee character. We’re very excited and we hope to take comic book filmmaking to the next level with Chakra. And no, we won’t forget Stan’s cameo…” he said.

’Chakra The Invincible’ was originally launched as a children’s animated film on Cartoon Network India two years ago, with three new animated TV movies currently in production to be released on Cartoon Network and Toonami later this year.

“In the same way the West has created superheroes or Japan created anime, India has the potential to become one of the biggest creative exporters in the years ahead and bring a new creative voice to the global stage,” stated Devarajan. “After all, it wasn’t just Japanese kids who made Pokemon a success, it was every kid.”

Devarajan is also the co-founder of Liquid Comics, a digital entertainment company that creates content for publishing, theatrical films, animation and games. He was previously CEO of Virgin Comics, which he co-founded with Sir Richard Branson, author Deepak Chopra, Gotham Chopra and filmmaker Shekhar Kapur, and was the co-creator of the acclaimed “Spider-Man: India” comic series from Marvel. He holds a BFA from Syracuse University and an MBA from Columbia University.

The media entrepreneur, also an adjunct professor at Columbia Business School, is an executive producer/producer on a number of theatrical live-action films and television projects, including the film adaptation of “The Leaves” with Lionsgate/Summit; “Ramayan 3392AD” with Mandalay Entertainment; “Dominion: Dinosaurs Versus Aliens,” with filmmaker Barry Sonnenfeld; and “Sadhu: Warrior,” for which he also co-wrote the screenplay and is in development with producer Mark Canton (“300” films, “Immortals”).

Devarajan explained that just like the western superhero, which was really redefined in the 60s by Lee and his creative partners, and drew inspiration from the existing socio-political scenarios, Graphic India “wants to allow creators to tap into today’s culture, contemporary issues, hopes, dreams and fears” to serve as the source of inspiration for their characters and stories. Devarajan said Chakra speaks to the story of this generation – the story of globalization — and that’s what makes Chakra “so special” to him.

“Swatantryaveer Savarkar – Iconic Revolutionary’s Honor Restored At ‘Andaman’ By Modi Govt

June 30, 2016 Staff ReporterCommunity 0

On May 28’ 2016 when India was still celebrating another successful year of Hon. PM Modi’s ever progressive administration, a unique ceremony was unfolding, hundreds of miles from its shores at ‘Central Cellular Jail’ of “Port Blair” in Andaman Islands. On this day, in presence of Amit Shah, President of BJP and other dignitaries, the long awaited honor of one of India’s greatest freedom fighters – ‘Vinayak Damodar Savarkar’, popularly known as “Swatantryaveer Savarkar” was once again being restored. It was not only a tribute to his sacrifices for ‘Bharat’, but also, to his pioneering social efforts to build nationalistic unified society. It was also 133 birth anniversary of this iconic revolutionary. By rededicating ‘Veer Savarkar Jyot’ on this day, PM Modi was rewriting a dark hurtful episode that created a national fire-storm, a decade earlier. Then, the Congress Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar, as an appeasement to his leadership had misguidedly removed the Plaque dedicated to Savarkar from the ‘Memorial for Indian Revolutionaries’ at the ‘Cellular Jail’ and replaced it with the one for, Mahatma Gandhi. The fact of the matter is, though Mahatma Gandhi was an Iconic freedom fighter, he was not a ‘revolutionary’ (‘Krantikaari’) nor had he ever been into Andaman’s draconic ‘kala-paani’ Jail. With this event, PM Modi, also fulfilled the promise he had made to the electorates. ‘Port Blair Airport of Andaman Islands’ was already named as ‘Veer Savarkar International Airport’ by former PM Vajpayee during his administration. It is worth assessing why Savarkar has place of reverence in Indian history.

In the galaxy of Indian revolutionaries, the words ‘Swatantryaveer’ and ‘Savarkar’ are almost synonymous with each other. Born on May 28’1883, he was so much consumed with passion to liberate India from the British rule that at the tender age of 8, he took the oath to liberate his country with all possible means and to fight for it till the end. While studying for ‘Law Degree’ (Barrister) in London on scholarship, he not only sowed the seeds of independence-movement among the Indians studying there, but also, created an international support forum for it. It was there that he wrote his ground-breaking famous book “1857 – First War of Independence” on an epic historic chapter of collective bravery of Princely states of India to overthrow the British ‘Raj’. Savarkar, with his painstaking research showed to the world that this entire episode which the British had derided as nothing short of ‘Sepoy Mutiny’, was in fact, the most courageous effort of gallantry to liberate the country. At the time, this book had the distinction of being proscribed (banished) by two governments, even before it was published. This fearless patriot shook the mighty British rule in India so much so that he was sentenced to two life-terms of 25 years each on trumped up charges for his relentless activities against the British-Raj. Savarkar’s dramatic daring escape to the shores of Marseilles, France from the porthole of the ship that was to carry him to India for the trial is now a part of heroic folklore. His subsequent arrest by the British on French soil became cause-célèbre in the ‘International Court of Law’ at Hague setting the stage for the French government then to topple. At his trial, where he was denied all personal representation, Savarkar, on hearing his sentence courageously rebuked the Judge with, “what makes you think that you are going to last that long in my motherland”. That is exactly what happened. Savarkar went on to live in ‘Free India’ for years to come. Madanlal Dhingra, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Chandra Shekhar Azad, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and scores of others took counseling and inspiration from him during ‘Independence Struggle’. He was the first political leader to demand the absolute political independence for India – not just ‘independence’ – as the only goal for the country’s liberation. Savarkar remains the only Indian to forfeit his degree of ‘Barrister’ because of his refusal to take the pledge of allegiance to the British throne. He was not only a gifted writer, inspiring orator, outstanding poet-dramatist, but also, a comprehensive social reformer. He created an active crusade against the untouchability and religious demagoguery. As a brilliant visionary, Savarkar’s prophesies of pre-independence period are now modern-day India’s stark socio-political realities.

Savarkar was the ultimate prince among all the revolutionaries and spent a decade in its Central Jail in most inhuman conditions. In spite of that, the British could not break his morale or his will to fight the ‘British Raj’. Within the walls of gigantic ‘Cellular Jail’, Savarkar continued his work of eradicating untouchability and illiteracy among the prisoners to unify them. One must read his famous book, ‘My Life Sentence’ (“Mazi Janmthep”) to know what he endured and what he achieved even in his adversity. As Savarkar’s written words, including his poems were like live-wire to ignite fire of independence in the hearts of Indians, he was denied paper, pen-pencil in Andaman prison. Savarkar triumphed over this inconvenience by writing his poems on the prison walls by thorns and making the prisoners memorize them whenever someone was to be released. This is how his inspiring work was transported to underground resistance in India for nationwide circulation. In this captivity, his greatest creation – 10,000 stanzas ‘Kamala- Mahakavya’ – the lengthiest poem ever written in the world – was born. For creating a mass movement for freedom struggle, Savarkar established “Hindu Mahasabha” which became one of the most dominant political forces at the time. To his credit, he asked to dissolve this ‘Party’ after the independence as it had served its purpose (unlike like ‘Congress’). Savarkar’s intellectualism was based solely on Science and Technology, rather than on ritualistic religious notions. Needless to say, his views, at times, were contrarian to age-old Hindu dogmas. He initiated and propagated the concept of ‘Hindutva’ as the primary identity of ‘Bharatbhoomi’, giving rise to ‘Hindu Nationalism’. He defined it, fundamentally, in terms of nation’s consciousness, its cultural soul and eternal heritage – but not in religious terms. He gave self-esteem, national identity, and unflinching courage to ‘Indian nationalists’. Not many people know that Savarkar has been a political guiding light in the life of Hon. PM Modi all along, like many generations before him. Savarkar left this mortal world on February 26’ 1966 by refusing to have any food in his last days, in the best traditions of yogic Hindu philosophy.

Dr. Rita Ahuja, Convention Chair, praises dedicated team of convention committees

June 30, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

(New York, NY – June 20, 2016): The 34^th annual Convention & Scientific Assembly by American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) to be held at the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30-July 4, 2016, offers an exciting venue to interact with leading physicians, health professionals, academicians, and scientists of Indian origin. Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country convene and participate in the scholarly exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the coming year.

“For the very first time in the history of AAPI, both the President and the Convention Chair are women,” pointed out Dr. Seema Jain, Dr. President of AAPI. “We are so fortunate to have Dr. Rita Ahuja to chair the prestigious convention. She brings with her a wealth of knowledge as she has chaired two successful conventions in the past in New York. As an inspiring leader, Dr. Ahuja has led the Federation of Tristate AAPI, and has served as a member of the Board of Trustees, AAPI. And, she has a very dynamic team with her to make this event successful in every way.”

The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. Elaborating on the efforts and preparations that have been devoted to put together this unique event, Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the 2016 Annual Convention, said. “We have been working hard to put together an attractive program for our annual get together, educational activity and family enjoyment. I and the Co-Chairs are fortunate to have a dedicated team of convention committee members from the Tri-State region helping us. We are expecting a record turnout and hence I would encourage early registration to avoid later disappointment. A pool of dedicated AAPI leaders are working hard to make the Convention a unique event for all the participants,” she said.

“AAPI members represent a variety of important medical specialties. Sponsors will be able to take advantage of the many sponsorship packages at the 34th annual convention, creating high-powered exposure to the highly coveted demographic of AAPI’s membership,” Dr. Seema Jain said.

Prominent among those who will attend and address the delegates from across the nation are: Dr. Vivek Murthy, US Surgeon General; Fareed Zakaria, CNN TV Host; Hon. Bill de Blasio, Mayor of NY; Hon. Arun Kumar Singh, Ambassador of India to the United States; Dr. Chandy Abraham, CEO, Cayman Hospital; Dr. Charanji Rihal of the Mayo Clinic; Dr. Vas Narasimhan Global Head Drug Development and Chief Medical Officer, Novartis, Switzerland; Arthur Klien, Medical President, Mt. Sinai Medical Center; Eric Paterson, US VP Diversity Dealer Relations; Ramakrishna of the Ramakrishna Hospital; Preet Bharara, US Attorney; Dr. Brian Storm, Chancellor, Rutgers; and Chandrika Tandon, a Business Woman and Philanthropist.

In addition to the exhibition hall featuring large exhibit booth spaces in which the healthcare industry will have the opportunity to engage, inform and educate the physicians directly through one on one, hands on product demonstrations and discussions, there will be focused group and specialty Product Theater, Interactive Medical Device Trade Show, and special exhibition area for new innovations by young physicians.

“The essence of AAPI is educational,” Dr. Seema Jain, said. “That translates into numerous Continuing Medical Education and non-CME seminars by experts in their fields. CME will provide comprehensive and current reviews and guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of various disease states to reduce morbidity and mortality and achieve cost effective quality care outcomes.”

“The major attractions include 10 hours of cutting-edge CME with renowned speakers, CEO Forum, Innovation Forum, Entrepreneur Forum, Women’s Forum, Men’s Forum, and Product Theaters to highlight the newest advances in patient care and medical technology. Alumni meetings for networking, also an AAPI-India Strategic Engagement Forum to showcase the AAPI initiatives in India like Trauma Brain Injury Guidelines, MoU on TB Eradication in India and recognition of AAPI Award winners will make this Convention unique,” Dr. Sanjay Jain, Chief Coordinating Officer of the Convention, said.

According to Dr. Jagat Narula, MD, CME Co-Chair, “The multidisciplinary CME conference during the convention allows specialists and primary care physicians to interact in an academic forum. World-renowned speakers will discuss gaps between current and best practice of wide-ranging topics of CME sessions.” Dr. Atul Prakash and Dr. Moiz, CME committee members have worked together with Dr. Narula to put together the CME sessions.

The organizing committees are led by Dr. Thomas Alapatt, Host City Chair for the Convention; Dr. Sanjay Jain, Media Chair & Exhibit Hall Co-Chair; Anand Sahu, MD, Banquet Co-Chair: Dr. Virendra Sethi, Food & Catering Co-Chair: Dr. Kishore Ahuja, Dr. Mathew, Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Entertanment Co-Chair; Sudhir Parikh, MD, Political Alliance Co-Chair; Suneet Verma, MD, Website Chair; Chand Rohatgi, MD, Registration Co-Chair; Tarun Shah, MD, Souvenir Co-Chair; Dr. Jayesh Kanuga, Dr. Chitra Kumar, Dr. Shobna Patel; Dr. Parminder Grewal, Dr. Hetal Gor; and Dr. Gaurav Gupta.

Ambassador Arun Singh, India’s Envoy to the United States, who is a keynoter speaker at the Convention had inaugurated the curtain raiser for the 34th annual convention of the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) during a solemn ceremony at the Ballroom of the Indian Consulate in New York on Friday, February 12, 2016.

“Many of the physicians who will attend this convention have excelled in different specialties and subspecialties and occupy high positions as faculty members of medical schools, heads of departments, and executives of hospital staff. The AAPI Convention offers an opportunity to meet directly with these physicians who are leaders in their fields and play an integral part in the decision-making process regarding new products and services,” Dr. Aravind Pillai, Chair of the BOT, said.

“Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the scholarly exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the coming year. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” said Dr. Thomas Alapatt, Host City Chair for the Convention.

Chandrika Tandon will lead the Women’s Forum. The panelists on the Forum include, Kim Guadagno, Lt. Governor of New Jersey; Dr. Sherine Gabriel, Dean of Rutgers RWJM School & CEO Rutgers RWJM Group; and Dr. Maina Chawla Singh, Professor at American University in Washington, DC and Scholar in Residence.

Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Aditya Narayan and Indian Idol Juniors, are all set to take the AAPI delegates by storm during the 34th annual convention. “Each of the three mega stars will lead a group of talented artists and stars from Bollywood and from the United States,” said Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Chair of the Entertainment Committee for AAPI Convention. “With 12 leading stars to entertain in one weekend during AAPI convention in the Big Apple, this mega event will truly be historic,” he added.

Understanding the inherent humanity that unites all nations, religions and cultures, Sadhguru is recognized for his pioneering efforts to nurture global harmony, Dr. Seema Jain, President of American association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), said today, while announcing the 1.5 hours of CME to be led by Sadhguru during Convention in New York.

After years of sitting on the political sidelines, Indian-Americans – affluent, educated and doubling in number every 10 years – are starting to flex their muscles in Washington, says Sudhir Parikh, MD, Political Alliance Co-Chair. A matrimonial session for all ages is an added attraction for all.

This year’s Fashion Show, “The Colors Of India,” is being led by Rohini Bedi, an exclusive Indian fashion designer from California. Rohini Bedi has been custom designing and selling her label throughout various boutiques in India and worldwide. According to Dr. Hetal Gor, Co-Chair of the Committee on Entertainment, “The Fashion Show will have beautiful dancers, dancing to Caribean, Brazil, Hawaian dances, Fusion/Jazz/ Tap dancing, Kathak Dance with a grand finale will be breathtaking performances by Sonali Bhendre.”

Fareed Zakaria, a world renowned journalist and author will lead this in-depth Healthcare 2020 CEO Forum by AAPI, which will look at the major global developments in the rapidly changing healthcare sector, with an emphasis on new ideas and innovative solutions to America’s complex healthcare related issues.

“We are proud to have the Fareed Zakaria leading this prestigious forum,” says Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI. “Representatives from the healthcare industry, including leading CEOs from hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, academicians, intellectuals and physicians, who will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services,” she added. Anwar Feroz, AAPI’s Honorary Advisor, says, “The CEO Forum will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.”

AAPI’s mission is to provide a forum to facilitate and enable Indian American physicians to excel inpatient care, teaching and research, and to pursue their aspirations in professional and community affairs. Representing the interests of the over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin, leaders of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic organization of physicians, for 34 years, AAPI Convention has provided a venue for medical education programs and symposia with world renowned physicians on the cutting edge of medicine.

Representing the interests of the over 100,000 physicians of Indian origin, leaders of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic organization of physicians, for 34 years, AAPI Convention has provided a venue for medical education programs and symposia with world renowned physicians on the cutting edge of medicine.

“Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the scholarly exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the coming year. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” said Dr. Seema Jain. For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org

For More Details, please contact:

Ajay Ghosh

Media Coordinator, AAPI

Phone # (203) 583-6750

Email: ajayghosh1@aol.com

Children of a Lesser God: Human Trafficking Soars in India

June 30, 2016 Staff ReporterCommunity, Editorial 0

Sunita Pal, a frail 17-year-old, lies in a tiny bed in the women’s ward of New Delhi’s Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Her face and head swathed in bandages, with only a bruised eye and swollen lips visible, the girl recounts her ordeal to a TV channel propped up by a pillow. She talks of her employers beating her with a stick every day, depriving her of food and threatening to kill her if she dared report her misery to anybody.

“I worked from 6am until midnight. I had to cook, clean, take care of the children and massage the legs of my employers,” Sunita recounts to the journalist, pain writ large on her face. “In exchange, I got only two meals and wasn’t even paid for the six months I worked at the house. When I expressed a desire to leave, I was beaten up.”

Sunita is one of the fortunate few who got rescued from her hell by an anti-slavery activist and is now being rehabilitated at a woman’s home in Delhi. But there are millions of Sunitas across India who continue to toil in Dickensian misery for years without any succour. Trafficked from remote villages to large cities, they are and sold as domestic workers to placement agencies or worse, at brothels. Their crime? Extreme poverty and illiteracy.

The Global Slavery Index released recently by the human rights organisation Walk Free Foundation states that globally, India has the largest population of modern slaves. Over 18 million people are trapped as bonded labourers, forced beggars, sex workers and child soldiers across the country. They constitute 1.4 percent of India’s total population, the fourth highest among 167 countries with the largest proportion of slaves. The survey estimates that 45.8 million people are living in modern slavery globally, of which 58 percent are concentrated in India, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Uzbekistan.

Between 2011 and 2013, over 10,500 children were registered as missing from Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest tribal states.

Grace Forrest, co-founder of the Australia-based foundation, told an Indian newspaper that all forms of modern slavery continue to exist in India, including inter-generational bonded labour, forced child labour, commercial sexual exploitation, forced begging, forced recruitment into non-state armed groups and forced marriage.

Children of a Lesser God: Human Trafficking Soars in India

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), trafficking of minor girls — the second-most prevalent trafficking crime in India – has surged 14 times over the last decade. It increased 65 percent in 2014 alone. Girls and women are the primary targets of immoral trafficking in India, comprising 76 percent of all human trafficking cases nationwide over a decade, reveals NCRB.

As many as 8,099 people were reported to be trafficked across India in 2014. Selling or buying girls for prostitution, importing them from a foreign country are the most common forms of trafficking in India, say experts. Sexual exploitation of women and children for commercial purposes takes place in various forms including brothel-based prostitution, sex-tourism, and pornography.

Last year, the Central Bureau of Investigation unearthed a pan-India human trafficking racket that had transported around 8,000 Indian women to Dubai. Another report about a man who trafficked 5,000 tribal kids from the poor tribal state of Jharkhand also caught the public eye.

Equally disconcerting are thousands of children which go missing from some of India’s hinterlands. Between 2011 and 2013, over 10,500 children were registered as missing from Chhattisgarh, one of India’s poorest tribal states. They were trafficked into domestic work or other forms of child labour in cities. Overall , an estimated 135,000 children are believed to be trafficked in India every year.

Experts point to the exponentially growing demand for domestic servants in burgeoning Indian cities as the main catalyst for trafficking. A 2013 report by Geneva-based International Labour Organization found that India hosts anywhere from 2.5 million to 90 million domestic workers. Yet, despite being the largest workforce in the country, these workers remain unrecognized and unprotected by law.

This is a lacuna that a national policy in the pipeline hopes to address. Experts say the idea is to give domestic workers the benefits of regulated hours of work with weekly rest, paid annual and sick leave, and maternity benefits as well entitlement of minimum wages under the Minimum Wages Act of 1948.

“Once these workers come under the ambit of law,” explains New Delhi-based human rights lawyer Kirit Patel, “it will be a big deterrent for criminals. But till then, domestic workers remain easy targets for exploitation.”

Despite growing awareness and media sensitization, however, registered human trafficking cases have spiralled up by 38.3 percent over five years from 2,848 in 2009 to 3,940 in 2013 as per NCRB. Worse, the conviction rate for such cases has plummeted 45 percent, from 1,279 in 2009 to 702 in 2013.

Not that human trafficking is a uniquely Indian phenomenon. The menace is the third-largest source of profit for organised crime, after arms and drugs trafficking involving billions of dollars annually worldwide, say surveys. Every year, thousands of children go missing in South Asia, the second-largest and fastest-growing region in the world for human trafficking after East Asia, according to the UN Office for Drugs & Crime.

To address the issue of this modern-day slavery, South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation recently held a conference on child protection in New Delhi. Ministers from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Afghanistan and the Maldives agreed to jointly combat child exploitation, share best practices and common, uniform standards to address all forms of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking.

One of the pioneering strategies adopted at the conference was to set up a toll-free helpline and online platform to report and track missing children. “We need to spread the message to support rescue efforts and rehabilitate victims. With the rapid advance of technology and a fast-changing, globalized economy, new threats to children’s safety are emerging every day,” said India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh at the conference.

Rishi Kant, one of India’s leading anti-trafficking activists, says it all boils down to prioritizing the issue. “For poor Indian states, providing food, shelter and housing assume far greater importance than chasing traffickers. Besides, many people don’t even see trafficking as a crime. They feel it’s an opportunity for impoverished children to migrate to cities, live in rich homes and better their lives!”

Initiatives like anti-trafficking nodal cells — like the one under the Ministry of Home Affairs — can be effective deterrents, say experts. The ministry has also launched a web portal on anti-human trafficking, while the Ministry of Women and Child Development is implementing a programme that focuses on rescue, rehabilitation and repatriation of victims.

But the best antidote to the menace of human trafficking, say experts, is a stringent law. India’s first anti-trafficking law — whose draft was unveiled by the Centre recently — recommends tough action against domestic servant placement agencies who hustle poor children into bonded labour and prostitution. It also suggests the formation of an anti-trafficking fund.

The bill also makes giving hormone shots such as oxytocin to trafficked girls (to accelerate their sexual maturity) and pushing them into prostitution a crime punishable with 10 years in jail and a fine of about 1,500 dollars. Addressing new forms of bondage — such as organised begging rings, forced prostitution and child labour — are also part of the bill’s suggestions.

Once the law is passed, hopefully, girls like Sunita will be able to breathe a little easier.

GOPIO 2016 Biennial Convention a Grand Success

June 30, 2016 Staff ReporterCommunity 0

New York City, N.Y. – June 27, 2016 – With the theme “Strengthening Connections between India and Indian Diaspora through Business,” GOPIO International, Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (www.gopio.net), is held its 27^th Anniversary Celebrations and GOPIO Biennial Convention 2016 in New York, USA at the Marriott LaGuardia Hotel with evening banquet held at World’s Fair Marina on June 24-25, 2016. Over 200 delegates from 20 countries participated. GOPIO’s New York Area Coordinator Lal Motwani served as the Convener along with Dr. Asha Samant, Kenny Desai, Shelly Nichani, Nohar singh and Jayant Baxi as Co-Conveners.

The convention was inaugurated at the World’s Fair Marina on June 24^th evening by welcome remarks by Convention Convener Lal Motwani and by GOPIO President Niraj Baxi and at a welcome dinner. The chief Guest was Guyana Prime Minister and First Vice President Moses V. Nagamootoo, a freedom fighter for Guyana. PM Nagamootto invited the Indian Diaspora community to consider Guyana as a destination for investment and business and spoke on many incentives Guyana could offer. India’s Consul General in New York Ambassador Riva Das Ganguly Das representing Govt. of India, delivered the inaugural address in which she noted the role played by GOPIO in launching and building a worldwide movement as a united force for the Indian Diaspora. The evening program ended with classical and semi-classical dances performed by students of Pandit Satya Narayana Charka.

On Saturday June 25, a full day GOPIO conference was held at the New York LaGuardia Marriott Hotel from 9 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. There were 9 sessions to deliberate on the Global Indian Diaspora; evaluate GOPIO’s progress in 27 years; network, exchange ideas, and connect with PIO/NRI delegates from around the world. The conference, organized by Dr. Thomas Abraham, Chairman, Conference Committee and Founder President, GOPIO International, consisted of an inaugural plenary session with keynote speaker Raj Jaswa, former President of TiE Silicon Valley and director and trustee of TiE International, Serial technology entrepreneur, and an Adjunct Professor at several Universities in India. This was followed by two track conference sessions, (1) Business and Technology ventures and opportunities and (2) Social, Political, Gender and Health challenges.

Make in India – Diaspora role
Major Issues of Indian Diaspora
Indian Diaspora Promoting Medical and Pharmaceutical Industries
Diaspora Indian Women Forum – Empowering Diaspora Indian Women
Diaspora in Hospitality and Convenience Foods
Diaspora Writers Form
Promoting Diaspora Entrepreneurship, Technology and Business
Health and Wellness of the Indian Diaspora

The conference ended with a concluding presentations session from the Session Chairs, namely, Prakash Shah, Dr. Rajeev Mehta, Nitin Shah, Dr. Neerja Arun Gupta, Viresh Sharma, Sudha Parekh, Dr. Asha Samant, Jagdish Lodhia and Ram Gadhavi. Several resolutions were presented by a committee headed by Dr. Rajeev Mehta. Resolutions for the conference session were added to these, and will be sent to Govt. of Indian and other government agencies.

The 27^th Anniversary celebrations concluded with a Grand Finale Banquet and Recognition of Businesses and Entrepreneurs with Social Responsibility at the World’s Fair Marina. The honorees were Lord Diljit Rana of Belfast (Northern Ireland, UK), Raj Jaswa of Silicon Valley and TV Asia Chairman H.R. Shah. Dr. Sudhir Parikh, Chairman of Parikh Worldwide Media and Prof. Indrajit Singh Saluja were honored with Media Awards for their contribution and support of the community.

The Chief Guest was Sir Isaac Vivian Alexander Richards, KNH, OBE, known as Viv Richards, a former West Indian cricketer, regarded as one of the greatest batsmen of all time. He was joined in the evening by Antigua & Barmuda Minister Trade, Industry, Commerce, Sports and National Festivals Mr. E.P. Chet Greene. The banquet ended with a Bolliwood performances put together by Dharmatma Saran of India Festival Committee and Anita Bhat of Miss India-CT.

With gratitude, GOPIO acknowledged support of Platinum sponsors Embassy National Bank, State Bank of India, Labidco Port Services Ltd; Gold sponsors Dr. Asha Samant and Kenny Desai; and Silver sponsors Bank of Baroda, Adani North America, S.S. White Technologies Inc. and Dr. Praveen Chopra.

Resolutions passed at the GOPIO Convention in New York (USA) on June 25, 2016

Voting rights for Indian citizens living outside India

The 9 million strong Non Resident Indians (NRIs) i.e. Indian citizens living outside India, have been building India’s image and enthusiastically contributing to the economic development, should be allowed to exercise their right of franchise as enshrined in the Constitution of India.

The Election Commission of India should finalize the procedure for electronic voting before the next general election in India takes place.

Rajya Sabha seats for Non-Resident Indians (NRIs)

NRIs are an important factor in promoting India’s interest, in shaping relations between the “home” and the “host” countries and in helping steer a dynamic shift in India’s economic and political advantage in world affairs. However, 10 million NRIs who are citizens of India, have no representation in the decision making process of the country of their citizenship.

We urge the Government of India to nominate a few prominent NRIs as members of the Rajya Sabha (the Upper House of Parliament) so as to reinforce and further integrate the bonds between India and the overseas Indian community.

Pro-active Role for Indian Missions to Reach Out and Help Indian Citizens Needing Emergency Assistance

Indian Missions abroad must actively help Indians who need consular services in emergency situations.

Engaging NRIs/PIOs for Educational, Health and Social Causes

Many NRIs want to support their alma maters; set up schools and colleges in their villages and towns, and support social and environmental causes. However, they face major hurdles.

The clearance process through the Home Ministry is very time consuming and needs to be streamlined and made more efficient.

Protection of Real Estate and Business Investments as well as Inherited assets

PIOs & NRIs have substantial investments in the residential and commercial real estate in India and the investment is rapidly on the increase. However, the practices and the laws in India do not provide enough relief to the investors when the tenants and businesses refuse to honor their agreements to pay the rents or vacate the premises, honor contracts, etc. The PIO/NRIs find themselves helpless in protecting their investments and inheritance. Moreover, when the NRIs/PIOs make a trip to India to attend hearings, most of the times they find that hearings are postponed by either the court or the litigant based in India.

We want the Govt. to enact legislation to designate Fast Track Courts for NRIs/PIOs for the speedy settlement of their property, business, inheritance and other legal issues in India.

We also call upon the Government of India to enact another legislation to provide Title Insurance to ensure that their ownership in real estate is protected against forged signatures on the deed and for any such fraudulent transfer of their properties.

Discriminative Admission Fee Rates for PIOs and OCI Card Holders

The discriminatory higher fee for foreigners at monuments, hotels & all such places includes Indians who are now citizens of other countries. These are the same people who have been sending over 70 Billion dollars to India, act as the soft power for India abroad and also serve as a huge economic strength. About five years ago, the prime minister of India, through a press release, made entrance fee to monuments and the archeological sites such as Taj Mahal, uniform for all – citizens of India, NRIs/PIOs and the foreign visitors. However, it is yet to be implemented.

GOPIO urges the government to implement uniform entrance fee throughout India including monuments under the jurisdiction of the states.

Taxing of NRIs/PIOs Social Security Benefits in India

Many NRIs/PIOs are moving back to India to be closer to their families. Once they settle back in India, their social security benefits (which are generally tax free in the developed countries (income comes below the tax bracket) are taxed according to the Indian tax rules.

We strongly feel that those who are getting their social security benefits from outside India should receive tax parity similar to Indian retirees and request the Finance Ministry to change the rules. Of course, such person’s Indian income must be taxed as per the rules.

Expand Know India Program

The Know India program has been very successful but is limited to only about 100 students.

It must be expanded to bring a couple of thousands of young people every year including a separate program with GOPIO International If the need arises, community groups in developed countries be asked to sponsor youngsters for this program so that govt. alone does not spend on its expenses.

Set Up for Involvement with Ministries of Commerce, Science and Technology, Power, Rural Development, Tourism

These ministries should have separate NRI/PIO Advisory Committee which should meet on a regular basis to seek ways to involve NRIs/PIOs in developmental activities related to the individual ministries.

Such advisory committee existed informally in a couple of ministries before.

Set up NRI Ministry or NRI Coordination Office with all state governments

Some states take advantage of the home-coming of the Pravasis and organize their own PBD like programs to attract them to their states (since the Pravasis can easily relate to people and places in their home states). States such as Kerala, Gujarat, and UP have already set up direct communication channels with NRIs from their states. Other states are requested to establish direct contacts with NRIs from their respective State.

About GOPIO International

GOPIO – Global Organization of People of Indian Origin

GOPIO is a non-partisan, not-for-profit, secular organization. GOPIO’s volunteers are committed to enhancing cooperation and communication between NRIs/PIOs, building bonds, friendships, alliances, and the camaraderie of citizens and colleagues alike. GOPIO volunteers believe that when they help network the global Indian community, they facilitate making tomorrow a better world for the Indian Diaspora.

GOPIO publishes a very informative monthly newsletter. Interested persons can receive free of charge at www.gopio.net or by request email to: gopio@optonline.net or by calling +1 203 329-8010.

Tata Trusts, Chicago university tie up to work on Indian development challenges

June 26, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation 0

A new initiative between Tata Trusts and the University of Chicago will collaborate in ideation and solution-seeking to complex developmental challenges in crucial areas like sanitation, energy and the environment, a US don of Indian origin who heads the venture said.

“We are planning a three-year pilot of a new integrated approach to development work. We will work in a few verticals to start– health, water and sanitation and energy and the environment,” Anup Malani, faculty director of the newly-created Tata Centre for Development at the University of Chicago (UChicago), told IANS in an interview.

The health vertical will examine healthcare access through insurance with projects in Karnataka and Andra Pradesh. The water and sanitation vertical will begin a major project on decentralised irrigation with water tanks in Telangana. The energy and environment vertical will examine projects to improve reporting of emissions by plants in Gujurat and Maharashtra, to provide rural electrical power via solar microgrids in Bihar, and to encourage individuals to pay for better electricity supply in Bihar.

“We will also work on ideation — the generation of new solutions to development challenges — through two additional projects. We will support an Urban Challenge in Delhi that asks NGOs and government officials to propose new ways to tackle air pollution,” Malani, the Lee and Brena Freeman Professor at the UChicago Law School and Professor at the Pritzker School of Medicine, explained.

“We will also support a partnership between the UChicago’s International Innovation Corps (IIC) and OpenIDEO, a division of the design consulting firm IDEO, to use OpenIDEO internet based platform to crowdsource solutions to, for example, urban sanitation problems, and then to pilot those solutions using IIC teams in collaboration with municipal governments,” he added.

Malani, the co-founder of the IIC and principal investigator on the Indian Health Insurance Experiment, a 12,000-household study of health insurance in Karnataka, also elaborated on how the initiative will work in the southern state.

“First, the TCD will take on a large randomised control trial to examine the benefits and costs of expanding the government’s largest secondary hospital care insurance programme, the Rastriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY), to Above-Poverty-Line (APL) households, a group not currently eligible for RSBY and underserved by commercial insurers.

“Second, it will send an IIC team to work with the Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust (SAST), which operates both RSBY and the Vajypayee Arogyashree (a tertiary care hospital insurance scheme) to help improve the implementation of those schemes,” Malani said.

Indian Priest Presents Paper on Hansen’s Disease During Symposium in Rome

June 26, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Health 0

Rev. Dr. Arputham Arulsamy, Assistant to Director-General, participated at the International Symposium “Towards Holistic Care for People with Hansen’s Disease, Respectful of Their Dignity” at Vatican City from June 9-10, 2016. The symposium was organized by Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, the Good Samaritan Foundation, and the Nippon Foundation.

In his presentation he stated: “The current status of Hansen’s disease (Leprosy) in India and the exemplary exertion of the Catholic Church to reach out to the Socially Excluded people affected by Hansen’s Disease”. He endorsed also the significant mission accomplished by the member institutions of the Catholic Health Association of India (CHAI), to get rid of Hansen’s disease and its boundless initiatives to collectively participate in eradicating this disease.

Rev. Dr. Arputham Arulsamy graduated with a Doctoral degree in Education from Fordham University in New York in 2015. Belonging to the state of Tamil Nadu in India, Dr. Arulsamy is a Catholic priest dedicated his life to work for the Tribal people in the state of Orissa, India.

How SC immigration verdict affects South Asians waiting in line for legal immigrant status

June 26, 2016 Ajay GhoshTravel 0

Asians now represent about a third of the foreign-born population in America—equal with the Mexican foreign-born population. The Asian countries with the largest growth are India (306 percent), South Korea (249 percent), and China (148 percent). They also represent 14 percent of the unauthorized population. That number, according to analysts, will grow in the coming decade. According to reports, if one were to compare with that of 1990, India’s unauthorized U.S. immigration growth far outpaces any other country’s, reaching 914 percent.

In the 1990s, the unauthorized population in America doubled from 3.5 to 7 million. It reached its apogee in 2007 at 12.2 million. Then the recession hit. For example, in 1990, there were an estimated 28,000 unauthorized immigrants from India in the U.S. There’s now more than 284,000. Those numbers mirror the rising share of legal Indian immigrants coming to the U.S., and also America’s growing Indian-American population.

On Thursday, June 16^th, The United Supreme Court, the nation’s highest court, declined to authorize the deportation-relief programs that had been proposed by President Barack Obama. In the immigration case, the court blocked Obama’s executive decision that permitted about four million illegal immigrants whose children were born in the US to remain in the country and be exempt from deportation.

Texas led 26 states in challenging Obama’s decision to bypass the US Congress to launch the first phase of his immigration reform aimed at eventually allowing as many as 11 million people who are living here illegally to stay on.

The 4-4 Supreme Court ruling continues an injunction that started 16 months ago against the implementation of Obama’s Deferred Action for Parents of Americans program and an expanded version of the 2012 Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. The court’s liberals and conservatives deadlocked, leaving in place a lower court’s decision that the president exceeded his powers in issuing the directive.

The verdict is going to affect the large illegal Indian Americans, just as the way they will impact millions of other illegals living in this country.

For millions of the affected families, the Supreme Court deadlock means continued uncertainty about building a stable life in the United States. “Unauthorized immigrant parents have a lot of problems with autonomy at work, their working conditions, not being paid,” Randy Capps, director of U.S. research for the Migration Policy Institute, said. “One would assume that, under the DAPA program, these things would improve.”

In a region filled with immigrants from around the world, the Supreme Court action also affects families from other parts of Latin America, Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and Europe. For instance, a little town, Flushing in Queens, NY is estimated to have around 40,000 undocumented people live in her district. The nation is home to more than 11.1 million undocumented immigrants as per the Pew Hispanic Center in a latest report. This is roughly the equivalent of the entire population of Ohio, the seventh-most populous state in the U.S.

A report released last November by Detention Watch Network, a national coalition working for the reform of the U.S. deportation system, lists the Hudson County Jail in New Jersey as one of the ten worst detention centers in the country. People reported waiting up to months for medical care. They complained about inedible food, the use of solitary confinement as punishment, and denied access to legal assistance

Asian undocumented immigrants have traditionally been less visible and vocal than their Hispanic counterparts. Most of the undocumented immigrants who have gone public in the media about their status are Hispanic. In contrast, one rarely sees Asians talking about the issue on television. Asian undocumented immigrants are usually more economically solvent and upwardly mobile than their Latino counterparts.

According to SAALT, there are about 4.3 million South Asians in the US. Since 2000 the South Asian community as a whole grew 81% over a ten year period. The four largest South Asian groups in America are the Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, and Sri Lankan communities.

South Asians live primarily in metropolitan areas on the East and West coasts. The metropolitan areas with the largest South Asian population are: New York/New Jersey, San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Los Angeles and the Washington DC Metro Area.

In New York City, the Indian, Pakistani, and Bangladeshi communities are among the six largest Asian American groups. South Asians were also the fastest growing Asian group in California in 2000.

There are sizable emerging populations in various parts of the United States, including Houston, Atlanta, and Seattle. 30% of South Asians are naturalized, while 45% of South Asians are not naturalized. Indians are reportedly, the fastest growing undocumented community in the United States between 2000 and 2006.

According to the 2000 US Census, 1/3 of South Asians living between 50%-125% of the poverty line are children. Nearly two-thirds of Bangladeshi seniors live below 200% of the poverty line. Since 2000, unauthorized immigration from Asia has grown at rates much faster than from Mexico and Central America. That’s according to a new report by the Migration Policy Institute. So Trump will need to amend his ideas for “securing our nation’s borders.”

At 6 million, Mexicans still represent the majority of the 11 million unauthorized immigrants in the country. But the percentage of those arriving has slowed since the recession. During that time, however, Asian unauthorized immigration has increased considerably. From 2000 to 2013, it increased 202 percent, according to the report.

The court ruling on illegal immigration has left undocumented immigrants and their advocates despondent. “It’s absolutely crushing,” said Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, legal director of the Center for Legal Justice. “For so many people, this has been their chance at stability.”

Randy Capps said the deferred action programs carried more than just the promise of temporary protections against being deported. It would significantly expand economic and educational opportunities for people who are in the country illegally, and ultimately could positively benefit up to 10 million people, including undocumented immigrants and their relatives, according to a study done by Capps’s organization and the Washington-based Urban Institute.

Rupee to be Asia’s biggest underperformer in near-term: Divya Devesh

June 22, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Finance/Economy 0

Indian Rupee will see a sharp fall (around Rs 69-70 levels) as compared to other Asian counterparts and the RBI’s measures to soothe the depreciating rupee will be closely watched, says Divya Devesh of Standard Chartered Bank.

The volatility seen in the rupee is a knee-jerk reaction post Raghuram Rajan’s bow-out, said Divya Devesh of Standard Chartered Bank. The massive amounts of policy credibility that Rajan has built up in the last 3 years will take a hit, he added.

Uncertainty over who will take over as the next RBI governor and Brexit will also give quivers to the rupee, he maintained. “Rupee will see a sharp fall (around Rs 69-70 levels) as compared to other Asian counterparts and will continue to be the biggest underperformer in the near-term,” said Devesh.

RBI’s measures to soothe the depreciating rupee will be closely watched, he added. In an interview on CNBC-TV18, Devesh referred to the announcement over the weekend of RBI chief Raghuram Rajan’s exit is negative for the currency but global markets today, some of the concerns around Brexit seem to be easing off slightly and as a result of that we have seen little bit of weakness against the dollar and that is why dollar rupee after that initial move higher has retraced slightly.

According to Devesh, in terms of the impact of the announcement on the currency; we are basically looking at three channels. First, Dr. Rajan has built-up massive amount of policy credibility over the last two years and that is definitely going to take a hit. Second, investors generally do not like uncertainty and since we do not yet know who the next Governor is going to be or even when the announcement is going to come through – that is a negative as well for the currency. Third, in terms of timing of the announcement just a few days ahead of the Brexit vote, that also adds to the negativity for the currency in the very near term. So near term we still think that rupee is going to be one of the underperformers in Asia.

Devesh says, in either case irrespective of what the Brexit outcome is, the rupee is going to underperform. “If in case the vote is for a leave, we should see a sharp selloff in the rupee which would be more exaggerated than other currencies in the region, but even in case we see a remain vote and we see a brief risk rally after that, I think INR is again going to underperform the rest of the region as some of the uncertainty around some of the other news will still remain and as a result of that I do not think we will see much gains in the INR,” he says.

The exit of Britain from EuroIt will “be a massive risk off kind of an environment and liquidity is going to be quite terrible as well,” Devesh says. “I think we will most likely be seeing new all time high for the rupee. There might be some resistance from the central bank in terms of trying to limit the upside but if it is a secular dollar, Asia move higher, I do not think the central bank will draw line in the sand. Therefore, I do think that will probably break to new highs for dollar-rupee in case we do see Brexit.” According to him, the Rupee is going to be anywhere between 69-70/USD.

Freida Pinto, Michelle Obama join hands for ‘Let Girls Learn’ initiative

June 22, 2016 Ajay GhoshEditorial, Social Media, Women 0

Actress Freida Pinto has joined hands with the Michelle Obama, the First Lady for Let Girls Learn – a government initiative aimed at helping girls obtain quality education. Freida, along with Michelle Obama, her daughters Sasha and Malia, their grandmother Marian Robinson – will travel to Liberia, Morocco and Spain at the end of June and early July as part of the Let Girls Learn initiative, a statement issued on behalf of the ‘Slumdog Millionaire’ actress, stated.

The focus of the trip, which includes Monrovia, Marrakesh and Madrid, is for them to speak to young girls about the importance of education and staying in school. Starting with Liberia, Freida and Michelle will take part in a discussion which will cover the educational barriers girls face in the country.

In Liberia, Pinto, 31, and Obama will take part in a discussion, which will cover the educational barriers girls face in the country. President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf will meet with the First Lady and Pinto. Next, in Morocco, Hollywood star Meryl Streep will be seen joining Michelle and Freida to discuss the challenges women in the African country deal with on a regular basis.

Pinto, who became popular after her award winning role in Slumdog Millionaire, recently launched a women’s empowerment project at the 69th Cannes International Film Festival. As Plan International’s Girls’ Rights Ambassador, Freida Pinto is fast following in the humanitarian footsteps of Hollywood starlets like Angelina Jolie, Emma Watson and Beyonce, using their fame to help shine a spotlight on issues affecting women and girls around the world.

In a recent interview, Pinto said, “There are events in history that should have shaped the future for women differently, but they haven’t so far and that’s been frustrating. But now there’s a huge amount of awareness and technology has made it possible for people to come together and not isolate their struggles. The struggles of a girl from Africa aren’t that different to those of a girl in India, and in turn, a girl in America. No matter how modern and educated she might think her community or society is, there’s still sexual violence against women, there’s still rape. I think technology has made it easier for people to come together, and their voices are united and louder than ever before.”

Acknowledging that she always knew that she was “born more privileged than some of the girls who I’ve met through Plan,” Pinto believes that she feels “that protection, comfort and privilege I had growing up is something that every girl should have. We’re not asking for a luxury car or a big home, we’re just saying that girls should be able to go to school. That’s not a big ask. There’s a domino effect that may start small but before we know it, we can have an impact on a whole community, then a whole nation, then the world will catch up. We have to start small though.”

Pinto, who had travelled to some of the poorer nations advocating for women’s ruights and education, recalls her earlier trip to Sierra Leone, “where I met one little girl at a school, during a class discussion about what the children wanted to become when they were older. This girl said to me that she’d like to become a finance minister. I was like, ‘Wow, that’s kinda boring but great!’ I asked her why and she said: ‘Because my country does not know how to spend their money on what they should be spending it on, and I would like to help them do that.’ These girls have no choice but to be aware of what’s going on around them and so many of them are using this knowledge to their advantage, which is really inspiring.”

Kunoor Ojha: Sanders’ top student organizer, hired by Clinton campaign

June 22, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Kunoor Ojha, an Indian American, who was previously part of the 74-year-old Bernie Sanders campaign, will serve on Clinton’s campaign as the national campus and student organizing director. In an ongoing effort to extend her campaign’s reach into the younger demographic, Democratic presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton and her campaign team announced June 9 it hired Indian American

Clinton’s announcement of the Illinois-based youth activist Ojha’s hire came hours after President Barack Obama virtually extinguished Sanders’ run for the White House by endorsing his former secretary of state.

Ojha began her political activism as a field organizer on the ‘Obama for America’ campaign in Chicago in 2011, and worked in various state-level campaigns before joining the Sanders bandwagon in 2015. The campaign’s outreach to students, fuelled primarily by the pledge to make college tuition free, saw America’s youth flock to him.

Sanders attracted more support from voters under 30 years old than Clinton and Donald Trump put together — 71 percent in a two-vote race — which kept him in the nomination hunt long after it became clear he wouldn’t make the cut.

Early in the race, Sanders was beating Clinton 84-to-14 among Democrats under 29. Even in the 30-to-44 demographic, he had a 21 percent lead. It was only in the 45-to-64 age group that Clinton retrieved ground (58 percent to 35 percent), increasing it to 69 percent to 26 percent in the 65 and up age group.

Now the Clinton campaign is moving quickly to ensure that the Sanders’ youth brigade remains firmly in the Democratic fold. Although there is little danger of them bolting to the Trump camp — a Harvard Institute of Politics poll earlier this year found 61 percent of voters under 30 would back Clinton, compared to 25 percent for Trump in a two-way race — they want to ensure a high youth turnout. That’s where Ojha comes in.

Ojha has plenty of experience in this area, having worked as a field director for political campaigns tasked with organizing volunteers and ensuring Election Day turn-out. Of course, it will need a lot more to win over the youth, many of whom believe Clinton is part of the “establishment” regardless of political colors.

Kunoor Ojha, the first senior aide to move from the Sanders campaign to Clinton’s, will join Anne Hubert, formerly of Viacom, and Sarah Audelo, who’s worked as a political and field director at Rock the Vote. Hubert will be advising Clinton on multiplatform messaging, outreach and producing content for younger voters. Hubert has also worked in development and programming for MTV and mtvU, MTV’s college network. Ojha will serve as national campus and student organizing director.

GOPIO-CT honors 5 & gives 4 college scholarships at 10th annual gala

June 22, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

(Stamford, CT: June 19, 2016) It was a memorable evening in every possible way. The Ballroom at The Hilton Hotel in Stamford, CT was filled with more than 200 invited guests from across the state of Connecticut, including community leaders, elected officials, and honorees and their families on Saturday, June 18, 2016. The event was the 10th annual Gala and awards nite organized by The Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (GOPIO)-Connecticut Chapter honoring five for their achievements and contributions to the community: The gala included a cocktail reception, dinner, music, live DJ and dances by participants, eloquent speeches, touching life-stories and inspiring narratives on the lives of the five distinguished honorees.

Prominent among those who had attended and spoke at the annual gala included, Congressman Jim Himes, Stamford Mayor David Martin, Norwalk Mayor Harry Rilling, Connecticut State Senators Tony Hwang and Toni Boucher and CT State Assemblyman Dan Carter.

David Smith being recognized with the Friend of GOPIO and the Indian Community award

Sachin Lawande, President and CEO of Visteon Corporation (Van Buren, MI), was recognized for his achievement as a Corporate Leader. Visteon is one of the world’s leading suppliers of vehicle cockpit electronics, serving auto manufacturers around the globe. Sachin was described to be leading a rapid evolution of electronics technology and software to meet the demands of the connected car era. In his response, Laweande, while thanking GOPIO-CT, he said, “May this award given to me today be an inspiration to the younger generation.”

Anjali Sharma, a Greenwich resident, was honored for Community Service and promoting philanthropy. Anjali, a Trustee of AIF, has worked tirelessly to as a humanist and philanthropist to promote India’s development. She won the loudest applause from the audience for her simple narration of the many effort she and her organization do to bring a little cheer in the lives of hundreds of people in India she has been instrumental in touching with her monetary help. While acknowledging the award, Sharma applauded GOPIUO and said, “Your efforts show that you are working to have our community integrated with the mainstream world.”

Annapurna Duleep, a former Norwalk Councilwoman, was recognized for her contributions and achievements in Political Involvement. Anna is the first woman and South Asian to be elected Sheriff of Norwalk City in 2014. She is an ardent proponent of gun control. Duleep urged the participants and the larger Indian American community to “Join with me in the effort to take the community to the next level.”

GOPIO-CT President’s Young Professional Achiever Award was given to Roopa Modha of Shelton, who has been working tirelessly to promote women’s issues using her legal expertise to further women’s causes. Her commitment is to empower women and bring the issues of domestic violence and rape into the public domain. A lawyer by profession, She attended the White House’s United State of Women Summit in 2016.

Dr. Thomas Abraham, Founder President of GOPIO International who is also a Trustee of GOPIO-CT, while introducing, David Smith, FACHE of Stamford Hospital as the recipient of the Friend of GOPIO and the Indian American community award, said, “For the first time, GOPIO-CT is recognizing an employee of an institution. Mr. Smith currently serves as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Chief Strategy and Network Development Officer at Stamford Health, Stamford, Connecticut. He has worked in the Health Care Sector for over 35 years. He is an ardent supporter of good health and healthy food habits. David has supported Indian-American community for many years.” In his response, shared with the audience as to how he developed an increasing taste for India and the people from this large nation. He spoke about his his close association with many people of Indian origin in the US.

GOPIO-CT honors 5 & gives 4 college scholarships at 10th annual gala — Award recepients at the 10th annual gala by GOPIO-CT

GOPIO-CT President’s Young Professional Achiever Award was given to Roopa Modha, who has been working tirelessly to promote women’s issues using her legal expertise to further women’s causes. Her commitment is to empower women and bring the issues of domestic violence and rape into the public domain. In her passionate address, Modha hoped that “this award will inspire many more to join in the efforts to make a just world.” She urged the audience to “be passionate about making a positive impact on others.”

For the second year in a row, GOPIO-CT Scholarship for College Tuitions were given to Gunja Shah, a prospective student at Massachussetts College of Pharmacy; Tanusri Balla, entering University of Pennsylvania; Nikita Jaaswal, who has enrolled to begin her studies at University of California; and Sirin Vahora, amother of two, who has accepted into Norwalk Community Ciollege’s Nursing Program. GOPIO-CT Scholarship Committee consisted of Sanjay Santhanam (Chairman), Hari Srinivasan, Tara Sharma, and Priya Easwaran coordinated GOPIO-CT efforts and led the fund-raising at the event to expand the scholarship to other parts of Connecticut in the coming years.

Proclamations from Governor Malloy, Mayor David Martin, and US Senator Richard Bllomenthal to the awardees were read out at the awards ceremony. In welcoming the guests and dignitaries, Shelly Nichani, President of GOPIO-CT said “We are celebrating the achievements of five distinguished individuals and the award is a reflection of their remarkable accomplishments and commendable services.” He said, over the last ten years, GOPIO-CT has become an active and dynamic organization hosting interactive sessions with policy makers and academicians, community events, youth mentoring and networking workshops, and working with other area organizations to help create a better future.

Congressman Jim Himes, who represents Connecticut’s 4th District in the United States House of Representatives, where he is serving his fourth term, said he was delighted to be at the event to honor the accomplishments of so many talented individuals. He complimented the Indian-American community as the highly educated 3.2 million strong, making tremendous contributions to the economic quality of this country.

“You are the community. You are not part of the community,” Mayor David Martin told the Indian Americans. Pointing to the historic nature of the upcoming general elections in November, Mayor Martin urged the members to register and vote, and thus become ensure that your voices are heard.”

Mayor Harry Rilling said “I am honored to be here to celebrate among friends and am thankful for the warm welcome the Indian community has always extended to me and my family.” He also congratulated GOPIO-CT for its 10 years of service and bringing the Indian community together.

A section of the audience at the 10th annual gala of GOPIO-CT

Niraj Baxi, the President of International GOPIO congratulated the awardees for “bringing honor to your Indian heritage. We are all very proud of you.” He said he was “delighted to be part of the celebration in Connecticut honoring distinguished Indian-Americans and David Smith, a Friend of GOPIO.”

Over the last 10 years, GOPIO-CT, a chapter of GOPIO International has become an active and dynamic organization hosting interactive sessions with policy makers and academicians, community events, youth mentoring and networking workshops, and working with other area organizations to help create a better future. GOPIO-CT – Global Organization of People of Indian Origin – serves as a non-partisan, secular, civic and community service organization – promoting awareness of Indian culture, customs and contributions of PIOs through community programs, forums, events and youth activities.

2nd annual International Day of Yoga celebrations create awareness on the importance of yoga

June 22, 2016 Ajay GhoshHealth 0

As a part of our effort to mark the second International Day of Yoga, numerous yoga related activities and programs are being organized across the United States and around the world. Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness.

June 21st, international yoga day is practiced in various forms around the world and continues to grow in popularity. Recognizing its universal appeal, on 11 December 2014, the United Nations proclaimed 21 June as International Yoga Day by resolution 69/131. International Yoga Day aims to raise awareness worldwide of the many benefits of practicing yoga.

The draft resolution establishing the International Day of Yoga was proposed by India and endorsed by a record 175 member states. The proposal was first introduced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his address during the opening of the 69th session of the General Assembly, in which he said: “Yoga is an invaluable gift from our ancient tradition. Yoga embodies unity of mind and body, thought and action … a holistic approach [that] is valuable to our health and our well-being. Yoga is not just about exercise; it is a way to discover the sense of oneness with yourself, the world and the nature.”

The resolution notes “the importance of individuals and populations making healthier choices and following lifestyle patterns that foster good health.” In this regard, the World Health Organization has also urged its member states to help their citizens reduce physical inactivity, which is among the top ten leading causes of death worldwide, and a key risk factor for non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular diseases, cancer and diabetes.

But yoga is more than a physical activity. In his statement before the vote on the resolution, the President of the 69th session of the General Assembly, Sam Kutesa emphasized this point: “For centuries, people from all walks of life have practiced yoga, recognizing its unique embodiment of unity between mind and body. Yoga brings thought and action together in harmony.”

In a statement UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also pointed out the global benefits of Yoga: “Yoga is a sport that can contribute to development and peace. Yoga can even help people in emergency situations to find relief from stress.”

In the words of one of its most famous practitioners, the late B. K. S. Iyengar, “Yoga cultivates the ways of maintaining a balanced attitude in day-to-day life and endows skill in the performance of one’s actions.”

The United Nations where it all began a year ago has had its own events marking this very important day in human history. Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations New York led the celebrations at the world headquarters of the world body.

” This year’s observance of the International Day of Yoga highlights the important role healthy living plays in the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals, adopted last year by all 193 United Nations Member States,” said BAN KI-MOON, United Nations Secretary-General.

Moon said, Yoga is an ancient physical, mental and spiritual practice that originated in India and is now practiced in various forms around the world. The word ‘yoga’ derives from Sanskrit and means to join or to unite, symbolizing the union of body and consciousness. Yoga balances body and soul, physical health and mental well-being. It promotes harmony among people, and between ourselves and the natural world. Recognizing its universal appeal, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 21 June as the International Day of Yoga.

In the New York region, the Indian Consulate with the association of local Indian – American community is organizing more than 35 events spanning from Boston, MA, to Columbus, OH. The 2nd international yoga day celebrations started on Saturday, June 18th.

The Consulate General of India in association with Sahaja Yoga hosted an event on Tuesday 21 June 2016 at the Consulate General of India, New York. The event on June 21 in the Consulate was presided over by Ambassador Consul General Riva Ganguly Das. Sahaja Yoga led yoga and meditation session which was followed by a demonstration of yoga on poles by Mallakhamb Federation USA. Tanya Wells performed a live music concert.

At the Woodrow Wilson Middle School, Edison NJ, the celebrations continued all day. The two international airports, EWR and JFK, had their own celebrations on June 21st and 22nd with the Newark EWR Terminal B, Level 3 Door 1and at the JFK Terminal 4 Arrivals, becoming the centers of yoga.

Gary Winkler led yoga on all day June 20th at the iconic Times Square. Yoga was held at the Hindu Temple of North America on June 19th from 9:30am to 2:00pm. The Art of Living Foundation had led the celebrations on June 18th at the Art of Living Center in New York City.

The Art of Living also conducted International Yoga day at Boston, with Sri Sri Ravi Shankar leading the celebrations and yoga sessions. For more information on the program, please visit the Consulate’s website:www.indiacgny.org

Let us care for creation, Pope tells Jains

June 19, 2016 Ajay GhoshCulture/Religion 0

Adherents of Jainism, an ancient Indian religion, emphasize non-violence, reject the idea of a Creator, and believe in the eternity of the universe. Pope Francis received representatives of the Institute of Jainology of London on June 1 and emphasized the importance of caring for creation as for a mother or sister, “with tenderness and with peace.”

Adherents of Jainism, an ancient Indian religion, emphasize non-violence, reject the idea of a Creator, and believe in the eternity of the universe. “Creation is the mirror of God, it is the mirror of the Creator, it is the mirror of nature, of all nature, it is the life of nature and also our mirror,” the Pope said to the representatives, who had gathered in Paul VI Audience Hall.

On the previous day, representative of the Institute of Jainology and the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue met for the third time since 1995 and discussed the topic “taking care of the earth, the home of the human family.”

Indian National Overseas Congress, USA Welcomes New Indian Consul General Ambassador Riva Ganguly Das

June 19, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

After extending a very warm welcome and offering a hand of friendship and cooperation to the new Indian Consul General, the senior leaders of the Indian National Overseas Congress, USA wished her all the success in her stewardship of the consulate office in New York. The officials expressed pride and praised her credentials and the high reputation of which she came to New York. The meeting took place on May 31, 2016, at the Consulate in New York.

It was made known by INOC, USA that Capt. Amarinder Singh’s visit to New York had unfortunately delayed their formal courtesy visit to the Ambassador despite the fact that many of its officials had already had the benefit of meeting her earlier at other functions.

The Ambassador treated the group to high tea and listened earnestly to the work INOC, USA was routinely performing in helping the Indian diaspora vis-a-vis services meted out by the Indian government and how they could remain compliant with the requirement of the Indian government regulations relating to items such as, passports, visas, financial transactions, Income taxes, land use, inheritances, and marriages, apart from helping in building bridges and good relations between India and USA. The Ambassador stated that her door is always open, and she is all ears to any suggestion or concerns we may have in which the Consulate could play a constructive role.

The Chairman, Mr. George Abraham, traced the history of INOC, USA, and the rapport that it has had with New Delhi. The President Mr. Mohinder Singh Gilzian mentioned some of the problems several of the Indians here were facing due to lack of local immigrant status. Secretary-General Mr. Harbachan Singh expressed general satisfaction in the improved quality and speed in which the consulate services were currently being rendered and discussed the need for India to continue to build its case for the permanent UN Security Council seat and to pursue it actively. Others discussed how INOC, USA could collaborate on a host of other items with the Consulate, which could benefit the Indian diaspora as well as fulfill their desire to show their love and respect their mother country. The meeting concluded with the intention to remain in close contact in pursuing many of the pending issues. The delegation also included Malini Shah (Chairperson, Women’s Forum), Tejinder Gill (President, Punjab Chapter) and Girish Vaidya (Executive Committee Member).

Email Data of 272.3 Million Stolen Accounts Hacked: On Sale For $1

June 19, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Science & Technology 0

Hundreds of millions of hacked usernames and passwords of email accounts, including those from Google, Yahoo and Microsoft are being traded in Russia’s criminal underworld, Alex Holden, founder and chief information security officer of Hold Security, a security expert is reported to have told Reuters.

Described to be one of the biggest stashes of stolen credentials to be uncovered since cyberattacks hit major US banks and retailers two years ago, the discovery of 272.3 million stolen accounts included a majority of users of Mail.ru, Russia’s most popular email service, and other email users, has sent shock waves across the world.

The latest discovery came after Hold Security researchers found a young Russian hacker bragging in an online forum that he had collected and was ready to give away a far larger number of stolen credentials that ended up totaling 1.17 billion records.

Yahoo Mail credentials numbered 40 million, or 15 per cent of the 272 million unique IDs discovered. Meanwhile, 33 million, or 12 per cent, were Microsoft Hotmail accounts and 9 per cent, or nearly 24 million, were Gmail, according to Holden. Thousands of other stolen username/password combinations appear to belong to employees of some of the largest US banking, manufacturing and retail companies, he said.

After eliminating duplicates, Holden said, the cache contained nearly 57 million Mail.ru accounts – a big chunk of the 64 million monthly active email users Mail.ru said it had at the end of last year. It also included tens of millions of credentials for the world’s three big email providers, Gmail, Microsoft and Yahoo, plus hundreds of thousands of accounts at German and Chinese email providers. “This information is potent. It is floating around in the underground and this person has shown he’s willing to give the data away to people who are nice to him,” said Holden, the former chief security officer at US brokerage RW Baird. “These credentials can be abused multiple times,” he said.

As per reports, Holden was previously instrumental in uncovering some of the world’s biggest known data breaches, affecting tens of millions of users at Adobe Systems, JPMorgan and Target and exposing them to subsequent cyber crimes.

Mysteriously, the hacker asked just 50 Roubles — less than $1 — for the entire trove, but gave up the dataset after Hold researchers agreed to post favorable comments about him in hacker forums, Holden said. He said his company’s policy is to refuse to pay for stolen data.

Such large-scale data breaches can be used to engineer further break-ins or phishing attacks by reaching the universe of contacts tied to each compromised account, multiplying the risks of financial theft or reputational damage across the web.

Hackers know users cling to favourite passwords, resisting admonitions to change credentials regularly and make them more complex. It’s why attackers reuse old passwords found on one account to try to break into other accounts of the same user. After being informed of the potential breach of email credentials, Mail.ru Mail.ru said in a statement emailed to Reuters: “We are now checking, whether any combinations of usernames/passwords match users’ e-mails and are still active.

A Microsoft spokesman said stolen online credentials was an unfortunate reality. “Microsoft has security measures in place to detect account compromise and requires additional information to verify the account owner and help them regain sole access.” Stolen online account credentials are to blame for 22 per cent of big data breaches, according to a recent survey of 325 computer professionals by the Cloud Security Alliance.

Rama-Eshwara original Dance Drama performed by Acharya Performing Arts Academy

June 15, 2016 Staff ReporterEntertainment 0

Chicago IL: Acharya Performing Arts Academy and Nupura Geetha staged an exciting and original dance drama performance on Sunday, May 15th at the Schaumburg Prairie Center of Arts. The feature performance titled “Rama-Eshwara” depicted the saga of rise and fall of Ravana in dance form. The founder of the academy, Vidushi Asha Acharya Adiga, choreographed and directed the play while also playing the role of the chief character Ravana. She beautifully depicted the complex emotions of the character through skillful display of Bharatnatyam dance which was feast to the eyes of the audience.

The program was kicked off by the music students of the Academy singing Ganesh Vandana song. It was followed by a splendid Kathak performance by Guru Prasanna Kasthuri of Soorya Performing Arts, St. Louis. The audience was then regaled by a unique Yakshagana dance performance by Dr. Rajendra Kedlaya and his team from Yakshahejje School of Yakshagana and Performing Arts, Indianapolis.

The dance drama feature performance began with Lord Shiva narrating the story of his greatest devotee, Ravana. Ravana, who is the son of Sage Vaishrava and the demon princess Kaikeshi was a great scholar, capable ruler and adept in Vedas. But, in his desire to defeat Devas, he fell prey to bad qualities such as lust, greed, pride, and envy and made the world suffer. To save the world, Lord Vishnu and Goddess Lakshmi took avathara as Rama and Sita. These events were brought to life through creative choreography performed by the dance students of the academy.

Additional events from Ramayana story were performed culminating in the final war where Rama kills Ravana. The creative choreography was ably supported by the splendid choice of costumes and props such as Pushpaka Vimana. The entire dance drama was accompanied by a live music performance. Madhu Chandrasekaran and Seema Kasturi were the singers supported by Srinivas Magaraja Rao on Mridangam, Neela Amaravadi on Veena, Prashanth Kallur on Flute and Muralidhar Kaje on Chande.

More than 300 strong audience gave a standing ovation at the end of the brilliant performance. Academy’s artistic director Vidushi Asha reaffirmed her commitment to continue to spread the rich culture of India through classical dance and music.

Nupura- Geetha, Inc. is a nonprofit organization for Art & Culture. It was newly established to realize a creative vision of presenting performing arts of India though performances and productions, share and spread the Indian culture.

Ro Khanna Leads Mike Honda to Win California’s 17th Congressional District Primary

June 15, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Rohit Khanna, an Indian American attorney from Fremont, CA is reported to have won the primary with the narrowest of victories over incumbent Mike Honda in the primary elections on June 7 in his fight for California’s 17th Congressional District where. Khanna totaled 38.3 percent of the vote while Honda earned 38.1 percent. A total of 33,785 voters sided with the 39-year-old challenger, 177 more than Honda’s 33,608 votes.

“This is an astounding upset and an amazing victory for the people of the 17th District,” Khanna said in a written statement. The 17th Congressional District covers Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, north San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont and Newark. “The people want a representative in Congress that is ready to get to work for them.”

The grassroots campaign has flipped the recorded net contributions in Honda’s favor, but because the Democratic incumbent is battling the House Ethics Committee for allegations he had congressional aides perform campaign work during government business hours, the candidates’ cash-in-hand was heavily tilted in Khanna’s favor, $1.96 million to $792,208, according to recent financing reports.

In the 2014 primary election, Honda handily defeated Khanna by more than 20 percent of the vote. The two met again in the general election later that year, with Khanna gaining significant ground. Honda ultimately won the election by a mere 3.6 percent.

“This year, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, alike, sent a strong message,” Khanna said. “The time for politicians that use their office to help themselves and their donors, but not their constituents, is up; the time for politicians that take money from PACs and lobbyists is up; the time for politicians that don’t have the energy, desire or ability to reach across the aisle and get things done is up.”

Meanwhile, Honda delivered a business-as-usual approach in an emailed statement, focusing on his campaign rather than the results. “This campaign and my commitment to public service has always been about expanding opportunities for Silicon Valley’s families,” Honda said. “I am incredibly proud of my track record of delivering for workers, seniors and middle class families. As a senior appropriator I’ve been able to secure millions in funding for the nanotechnology industry and $900 million in funding for (Bay Area Rapid Transit) and other critical investments across the district.”

The incumbent added, “With individuals ready to trample on the middle class bank rolling my opponent’s campaign, we know that this is going to be one of the closest congressional races in the country. I am ready to fight tooth and nail between now and Nov. 8 so I can continue delivering for middle class families and turning progressive ideals into results.”

While celebrating the victory in the primary, Khanna understands there’s ground to be gained if he expects another win in November. “There’s still more work to do on this campaign in the coming months. … With our upset last night, we’re more strongly positioned at the beginning of the general election this year,” he said, adding that with continued support in the grassroots approach, “we’ll celebrate another win in November.”

Rohit “Ro” Khanna is an American teacher, lawyer and politician. He served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary in the United States Department of Commerce under President Barack Obama. Khanna is a member of the Democratic Party and was an unsuccessful candidate for the United States House of Representatives in California’s 17^th District, which encompasses a large part of Silicon Valley, including Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Cupertino, north San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont and Newark.

Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Aditya Narayan To Enthrall Audience At AAPI’s 34th Annual Convention in New York

June 12, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Entertainment 0

New York, NY: Shankar Mahadevan, Sunidhi Chauhan, Aditya Narayan and Indian Idol Juniors, are all set to take the AAPI delegates by storm during the 34th annual convention organized by the American Association of Physicians of Indian origin (AAPI) at the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30-July 4, 2016.

“Each of the three mega stars will lead a group of talented artists and stars from Bollywood and from the United States,” said Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Chair of the Entertainment Committee for AAPI Convention. “With 12 leading stars to entertain in one weekend during AAPI convention in the Big Apple, this mega event will truly be historic,” he added.

“In addition to live entertainment by famous Bollywood stars, the 2016 AAPI Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly offers an exciting venue to interact with leading physicians, health professionals, academicians, and scientists of Indian origin,” said Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI. “Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country will convene and participate in the scholarly exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the coming year.”

The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. Elaborating on the efforts and preparations that have been devoted to put together this unique event, Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the 2016 Annual Convention, says, “We are expecting to have a record attendance of more than 2,000 delegates including Physicians, Academicians, Researchers and Medical students at the convention,” she adds.

Shankar Mahadevan will be accompanied by his son Sidharth Mahadevan, along with Antra Mitra and Sukriti Kakkar, who are well known in the Music industry as the “Young Generation Artists.” They will perform live at the much anticipated AAPI’s annual convention. An accomplished musician in Tamil cinema, Shankar is a part of the Shankar Ehsaan Loy trio team that provides music to Bollywood films. Though a software engineer by profession and having worked with Oracle Corporation, Shankar’s interest in music made him venture into the field of music. He got his first award as a playback singer in Chennai film music, collaborating with A. R. Rahman and winning a National Film Award for his song in Kandukondain Kandukondain. Since then, he has given hundreds of enchating numbers to the Bollywood world. The grand finale of the AAPI convention will be by Shankar Mahadevan and his team, who will take the audience to the memory line of Bollywood music on the final night, before a packed audience.

Sunidhi Chauhan, the young and talented artist behind the hit evergreen numbers like ‘Dhoom machale dhoom’, ‘Sheila ki jawaani’, ‘Beedi jalaile’ and many more, will be performing live on Friday, July 1st. Sunidhi Chauhan is an Indian playback singer, who is famous for her songs in Bollywood. She has also recorded songs for Oriya, Punjabi, Marathi, Kannada, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Bengali, Assamese and Nepali films. She first got recognized through the music show Meri Aawaz Suno. She entered into the world of playback singing with the 1996 Bollywood film, Shastra. Later she sang for the films like Gang, Veergati, Dahek, Bade Dilwala, Raja Ki Aayegi Baraat and Samar. Just at the age of nineteen, Chauhan had lent her voice to over 350 songs. She made her International debut with the song Heartbeat, a collaboration with Enrique Iglesias.

Aditya Narayan, an actor, television host, music composer and singer, made his first screen debut with Ram Gopal Varma’s Rangeela in which he also got an opportunity to sing with Asha Bhonsle, will anchor the show by the Indian Idol Juniors. “For the first time in history, the winners of the Indian Idol Juniors are performing on a stage program,” said Dr. Mirchandani. Ananaya Narayanan, Nityashree, Nahid, Moti Khan, and Vaishnav, the last five finalists on the Indian Idol show will performed live, showcasing their talents on July 2nd.

Aditya Narayan, who was born in Mumbai, was raised into a musical family as his father, Udit Narayan, the famous playback singer and mother Deepa Narayan. Zee TV is working on launching the next season of its most popular singing talent show Sa Re Ga Ma Pa. And the iconic show will be once again hosted by singer-actor Aditya Narayan.

Fashion Show by talented young artists from across the country will cake walk on July 3rd.

Dr. Seema Jain, who assumed charge of this premier ethnic organization representing 100,000 physicians and residents, gave credit to the support of AAPI executive committee, hard work of local Chapter members, and the organizing committee chaired by Dr. Rita Ahuja. “Success of credit goes to the entire national organizing committee, AAPI executive committee, and Board of Trustees and all the AAPI members,” she said.

AAPI is a forum to facilitate and enable Indian American Physicians to excel in patient care, teaching and research and to pursue their aspirations in professional and community affairs. For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org and www.aapiusa.org

New Media Film Fest Lineup Includes ‘Nepal Heroes,’ ‘The Achiever’

June 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Entertainment 0

Over one hundred films, including Indian and other South Asian films, have been selected to be screened June 7-9 at the Landmark Theater in Los Angeles, during the seventh annual New Media Film Festival, which celebrates the ever-changing world of new media.

Indian director Aaditi Dutt’s short film, “Nepal Heroes,” which has won accolades at other film festivals, including the IndieFEST Film Awards, will be screened in the Socially Responsible Content category. The 3:39 minute film, which Dutt wrote, traces how ordinary people came together to make an extraordinary difference in helping the people of Nepal recover from the April 2015 earthquake.

Also featuring in the same category is a three-minute music video, called “Anti-Street Harassment PSA.” Directed by Katherine Filaseta, the video, inspired by Bollywood, depicts a woman walking down the street. This short public service announcement makes a statement about street harassment in New York City through a re-appropriation of the lyrics of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” by Alycia Lang. Anita Singh is the assistant director of this short, while the director of photography is Srinath Ravichandran. Abhinav Chintakunta has co-edited the video with Filaseta.

“Four Million Threads” a 48-second short produced and filmed by U.S. filmmaker Jackie Hurwitz, is an interactive journey into Bangladesh’s garment industry: the women joining the workforce, the managers on the top floor, and the disaster that changed them all.

The Web series category will showcase a one-minute micro documentary series, “One Minute Meal: Ganesha’s Favorite Meal.” In one minute, Director James Boo takes the viewers to a celebration of Ganesh Chaturthi in Queens, New York City, which includes a peek into the rituals, prayers, songs, dances, and food.

“The Achiever,” by filmmaker Nardeep Khurmi, has been selected in the Web series category. “The Achiever” is the story of a man who puts little effort in to life and gets by on even smaller victories.

A three-minute-long animated film by UK filmmaker Roxi Khan, “Save My Soul,” will be screened in the Machinima category. The premise of the film is: A very important decision must be made via text message. If they choose riches, someone will die; if they reject riches, no one will die but they will not be rich — the countdown has begun!

“Save My Soul,” “The Achiever,” “1 Minute Meal: Ganesha’s Favorite Meal” and “Four Million Threads” will see their world premiere at the fest.

Human right violations, intolerance major irritants on Modi’s visit to USA

June 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshEditorial 0

Religious intolerance and violence, constraining minority rights and the restrictions on civil society organizations in India have become major irritants on otherwise successful Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to the U.S. The issues are reported to have featured prominently in the conversation between Modi and President Barack Obama, according to senior U.S. administration officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity. However, responding to a question whether human rights issues came up during the talks, Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar, however, said: “No, I do not believe the subject came up today in the discussions.”

A number of Indian American groups have also protested against Modi’s visit to the US Capital. A group of Sikhs from across the nation also staged a protest against Modi in front of the White House, even as the Indian Premier was meeting with the US President.

Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations has called for a Prayer Vigil across the US Capitol during Indian Prime Minister Modi’s speech to the US Congress. In a statement issued, here, FIACONA stated that while FIACONA has welcomed Modi to Washington in the past when he was elected
Prime Minister of India, however, this Prayer Vigil is organized to pray for the people of India who are being harassed, intimidated and attacked by Modi’s followers. “Modi continues to be silent about the violence against Christians. Modi has failed in his constitutional obligation to protect the lives and property of all citizens, including the Christians,” the statement stated.

Just as Modi and Obama were concluding their discussions, the U.S. Congress Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission began a hearing on “the current state of human rights in India, challenges to fundamental freedoms, and opportunities for advancement” on Tuesday.

“…In spite of…constitutional protections, religious minority communities, including Sikhs, have experienced harassment and violence, often at the hands of Hindu nationalist groups, while impunity for the perpetrators of the violence persists. State-level “anti-conversion” laws allow government officials to decide whether conversions from Hinduism are legal – but choosing a religion is a private act that should not be subject to government regulation,” James P. McGovern, co-chairman of the Commission said.

Deposing before the Commission as a witness, Musaddique Thange of the Indian American Muslim Council said: “The Prime Minister who is able to tweet birthday greetings to prominent people, took months before he even addressed the attacks on five churches and a Christian school, and even then his words fell short of an unequivocal condemnation. Modi’s response to the campaign of forced conversions to Hinduism, launched by extremist organizations like Vishwa Hindu Parishad, was to challenge the opposition to support the anti-conversion law that is generally implemented in a way that seeks to curb conversions out of Hinduism.”

In a related development, a group of 18 bi-partisan members of the U.S. House of Representatives wrote to Speaker Paul Ryan, ahead of Modi’s address to the joint session of the Congress on Wednesday urging him to prioritize religious freedom in India during his meeting with Mr. Modi, “especially in light of ongoing violence and harassment against religious minorities, including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs”.

The group led by Republican Trent Franks and Democrat Betty McCollum, wrote: “Religious minority communities — including Muslims, Christians, Buddhists, and Sikhs — have endured ongoing violence and harassment for decades in India, and continue to live in a climate where known perpetrators commit violence with impunity. It is in the best interest of the United States and India to reaffirm religious freedom as a shared value in this growing partnership, and ensure that conversation concerning justice and accountability for such horrific acts of violence continues.”

A U.S. official who briefed the media said these issues came up while the leaders discussed the rise of extremism. “While enhancing security measures, democratic freedoms must be protected. Issues related to the role CSOs, violence against minority communities were discussed in the context of the rise of extremism, and how this can be tackled in a democratic society,” the official said. The official said democracies have a particular challenge in dealing with extremism, as it has to deal with the problem without negating freedoms.

Clinton clinches historic Democratic nomination – Sanders vows to fight on

June 8, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Hillary Clinton clinched the Democratic presidential nomination on Tuesday, June 7 becoming the first woman in American history to top the ticket of a major political party and putting immediate pressure on primary rival Bernie Sanders to step aside.

Hillary Clinton celebrated her triumph as the first woman to lead a major party in a race for the White House, scoring big wins in California and New Jersey, New Mexico, and North Dakota to cement her grip on the 2016 Democratic Party presidential nomination. The former first lady, U.S. senator and secretary of state spoke to supporters at a raucous event in Brooklyn, New York, and placed her achievement in the context of the long history of the women’s rights movement. “Thanks to you, we have reached a milestone,” Clinton said in a speech. “We all owe so much to who came before.”

Marking the historic moment, Clinton said: “This campaign is about making sure there are no ceilings, no limits on any of us.” She also congratulated Sanders, calling his campaign and the debate he brought about income inequality good for the party – while also saying this is a moment to “come together.”

The Vermont senator has, however, vowed to keep fighting for “every delegate.” Far from bowing out, he vowed to campaign through the final primary next Tuesday in Washington, D.C., and then “take our fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania,” the site of the convention.

She will become the first female nominee for a major US political party. Clinton had reached the threshold with a big win in Puerto Rico and a burst of last-minute support from super-delegates, AP said late on Monday night. Superdelegates are party insiders who can pledge their support for a candidate ahead of the convention but do not formally vote for them until the convention itself.

It has taken a long 227 years to get even this far. George Washington was elected president of a newly independent America in 1789. Forty-three men later (42 of them white) Hillary Clinton makes history today by being the first female nominee for the White House.

Hillary Clinton, a former secretary of state, New York senator and First Lady, leads Sanders by over three million votes, 291 pledged delegates and 523 super-delegates, according to AP’s count. She has won 33 caucuses and primaries to his 25 victories.

Sanders has argued that super-delegates — elected officials and other party leaders who are not bound to vote for the candidate their state selected in its primary contest — should not be counted in the final tally even if they have made formal commitments to individual candidates.

His campaign believes that they can still put the nomination within reach for the Vermont senator by convincing Clinton-backing super-delegates to switch their support to Sanders, who they note performs better than Clinton in hypothetical head-to-head contests against GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump.

In a potential move toward reconciliation, the White House revealed that President Obama called both Clinton and Sanders Tuesday night – and plans to meet with Sanders at the White House on Thursday, June 9 to discuss “how to build on the extraordinary work he has done to engage millions of Democratic voters.”

Kamala Harris wins California Senate primary convincingly

June 8, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Kamala Harris, the first ever person of Indian Origin to win a state wide election in the state of California, was declared the winner of the Senate primary in California early Wednesday, June 8th morning, handily beating her competition with 40 percent of the vote with over 80 percent of precincts reporting, according to the Associated Press.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D) was trailing far behind Harris with 18 percent of the vote, but she was still in second place. If that result holds, it means the two Democratic women would face off against each other in November for the seat of retiring Sen. Barbara Boxer (D). In third place as the early returns were being counted was Duf Sundheim, the former California Republican party chair. The top two vote-getters, regardless of party, advance to the general election.

Harris, 51, the state’s attorney general, was easily the top vote-getter among a field of 34 candidates. “I am just thrilled. I am a proud daughter of California and I cannot be more proud than I am tonight,” Harris said in San Francisco. “We have run a campaign, and we will continue to run a campaign, that is about fighting for the ideals of our country. We have so many challenges as a country and we are prepared to lead,” she said, citing passing comprehensive immigration reform, combating climate change, reforming the criminal justice system and “eliminating that income divide that is making so many families suffer.”

Harris has been campaigning across the golden state to succeed retiring Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer. Karris, a progressive, has always been in the forefront of Civil Rights, Equality and Openness. Harris used herself as an example, saying that she never would have been elected were it not for the educational opportunities she received because of the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education Supreme Court ruling that found segregation in public schools to be unconstitutional. Harris said that ruling allowed her to be a member of the second class that integrated Berkeley public schools in the 1960s.

She is a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., and earned her law degree at UC Hastings College of the Law in San Francisco. Harris as a veteran prosecutor and astute, ambitious political leader. Harris also has been a strong Obama supporter since he was a U.S. Senate candidate from Illinois.

For more than a decade, she worked as a prosecutor in Alameda County and San Francisco, and tried cases involving charges of drunk driving, sex crimes, assault and homicide. Her transition to electoral politics began in 2003 during her successful campaign to unseat San Francisco Dist. Atty. Terence Hallinan. Harris was elected attorney general in 2010, narrowly beating L.A. County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley, a Republican. She was reelected in 2014 by a wide margin.

Her parents divorced when Harris was a toddler and her late mother, who was a breast cancer researcher at UC Berkeley, raised Harris and her sister, Maya, to be proud African American women during a tumultuous time in the United States. Harris was a student in the second class to integrate Berkeley’s public schools in the late 1960s. Her sister has served as advisor to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign and is a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

Harris’ national profile got a boost when Obama gave her a speaking role at the Democratic National Convention in 2012. The headlines continued in 2013 when Obama apologized publicly for having described her as “the best-looking” attorney general in the country.

Throughout her political career, Harris has articulated clear positions on many controversial, divisive issues that could come before the nation’s high court. Harris favors the protection of abortion rights, an end to the federal ban on medical marijuana and a path to citizenship for immigrants in the country illegally. She backs major changes in the criminal justice system, in part to address racial disparities, including shorter sentences for low-level drug crimes and a shift in government funding from prisons to crime prevention.

As attorney general, Harris has taken actions conservatives would no doubt take issue with during a Senate confirmation hearing, should one ever occur: She refused to defend Proposition 8, the 2008 ballot measure that outlawed same-sex marriage in California until the U.S. Supreme Court found it unconstitutional. Harris defended a state law that required members of public employee unions to help pay for collective bargaining.

“I’m not surprised. She’s a representative of the best of California. She’s been a marvelous attorney general, and she’ll be an exceptional senator,” said California state Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones, on the Associated Press naming Kamala Harris the first-place finisher in the U.S. Senate primary

Harris and Sanchez each drew national attention and support because each is poised to make history if elected: Harris would be only the second black woman and the first woman of Indian heritage elected to the Senate, and Sanchez would be one of the first Latinas.

In the Senate race, Harris, a native of Oakland and a former San Francisco district attorney, jumped into the race immediately after Boxer announced she was leaving the Senate at the end of her fourth term. She won the endorsement of the California Democratic Party, and two weeks ago Gov. Jerry Brown (D) gave her his blessing. Harris also has been backed by some of the state’s largest labor unions, the Congressional Black Caucus’s PAC and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.).

Historic Modi visit boosts bilateral ties between India & USA

June 8, 2016 Ajay GhoshIndia, Politics, U.S. 0

India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, making his second visit to the White House in two years, and his fourth visit to the United States since he was elected Prime Minister of India only two years ago, announced a crucial step toward ratification of the Paris Agreement to limit greenhouse gases, bringing the accord close to full implementation, giving a jolt of momentum to the international fight to curb global warming.

President Barack Obama welcomed Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the White House for their seventh meeting since Modi took office in 2014, underscoring the warm relationship between the two leaders and the world’s largest democracies. Modi is to address the U.S. Congress on Wednesday. “We discussed how we can, as quickly as possible, bring the Paris Agreement into force,” Obama told reporters during talks in the Oval Office.

So far, countries representing about 50 percent of global emissions have announced that they will submit legal paperwork to the United Nations documenting their compliance with the deal. The pact will become binding when at least 55 countries representing 55 percent of global emissions formally join. The inclusion of India, the world’s third-largest emitter after China and the United States, would guarantee that the deal will go into effect before the next American president takes office.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who had arrived in Washington, DC June 6 on a three-day visit, met with Obama at the White House in the morning, and the two then had a working lunch. The two countries also pledged to expand military cooperation and outlined principles for cooperation on cyber issues.

Following the meeting, the leaders of the world’s largest democracies also announced the agreement to cut the use of hydrofluorocarbons, potent planet-warming chemicals produced by coolants in refrigerators and air-conditioners.

Both the nations announced that they intended to complete a deal in which India will buy six nuclear reactors from Westinghouse by June 2017, fulfilling an agreement struck in 2005 by President George W. Bush. The price is still under discussion, but more difficult issues like liability have been resolved. Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington, DC June 6 on a three-day visit.

Economic cooperation was also on the list for Tuesday’s meeting, with Modi expected to meet with business leaders. India has the world’s fastest-growing large economy, but it is not growing fast enough to provide jobs to even a significant fraction of the one million people entering the work force there every month.

U.S. Ambassador to India Richard Verma and Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia Nisha Biswal were among the top officials present at the base to receive Prime Minister Modi.

“India and USA are natural partners, two vibrant democracies that celebrate their diversity and pluralism. Strong India-USA ties benefit not only our two nations but also the entire world,” Modi had said.

Interview: Sudarsan Raghavan on Afghanistan’s ‘Pivotal Transformations’

June 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation, Entertainment 0

For a year beginning in late 2014, Sudarsan Raghavan wrote a series of dispatches from Afghanistan for the Washington Post that, through their examination of daily life in the country, transcended conventional stories of war, poverty, and instability. In one particularly memorable article, Raghavan profiled Sara Bahayi, Afghanistan’s only female taxi driver; in another, he explained how years of occupation has left a large American cultural footprint in cities like Kabul.

On Thursday, May 26, Sudarsan Raghavan appeared in conversation at Asia Society in New York with Marcus Brauchli and John Hockenberry to discuss his award-winning reporting in Afghanistan. The event will be available worldwide via free live webcast.Learn more

In recognition of his exemplary reporting from Afghanistan, Asia Society last month awarded Raghavan with its 2016 Osborn Elliott Prize, an honor recognizing excellent reporting on Asia. On Thursday, Raghavan — now the Post’s Cairo bureau chief — will appear in conversation with Marcus Brauchli, the Jury Chair for the Oz Elliott Prize and a veteran journalist, and John Hockenberry, host of The Takeaway for PRI and WYNC, at Asia Society in New York.

Asia Blog recently caught up with Raghavan to talk about the challenge of reporting in Afghanistan, the resilience of the Taliban and why, despite the country’s struggles, he remains optimistic about its future. The conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

Your dispatches from Afghanistan go beyond military battles and political intrigue and get into daily life in the country. What was the most challenging aspect of reporting in Afghanistan?

The most challenging aspect is getting to the epicenter of the story. With the Taliban controlling or present in more areas now than at any time since 2001, it’s become increasingly dangerous and risky to travel outside Kabul. And with most U.S. troops departed, the availability of military embeds — which most Western journalists once relied on for reaching remote areas — has drastically shrunk.

Trips outside Kabul required careful, often extensive, planning and research. It meant cultivating trustworthy tribal elders, as well as Afghan military commanders and officials, to help get into certain areas. It also required at times passing through or near Taliban and ISIS areas. In Helmand Province, for example, the Taliban were literally walking distance away from many frontline positions I visited. Whenever I traveled, I wore an Afghan salwar kameez to help blend into the landscape.

The reporting, I believe, was worth the risk. It was essential to uncovering the truth unfolding on the ground, to portraying the daily struggles of ordinary Afghans and giving them a voice.

What surprised you the most from your time in the country? What’s something that a typical newspaper reader in the United States may not realize about Afghanistan?

Good question. I was surprised by the extent to which urban Afghans were influenced by American culture. It’s quite normal to hear anti-American sentiments, and the collective sense among Afghans is that they’ve not benefited from the tens of billions spent by the United States to improve their lives. Still, I’ve met Afghan teens into skateboarding, Afghan rappers who love Eminem. There’s a George Bush Market (named after “W”) where you can buy wrap-around Oakley sunglasses. There are even regular Texas hold-em poker games run by Afghans in Kabul!

I was also surprised by how organized and vocal Afghans have become, especially the long-oppressed Hazara ethnic minority. It’s not uncommon these days to see massive protests in the streets against government policies and alleged abuses. But I remember visiting Afghanistan when the Taliban emerged in the mid-1990s, and again after the 9/11 attacks and the 2004 elections, and they were quite subdued compared to these days.

Has the 15-year presence of the U.S. Military — as well as billions of dollars in reconstruction and aid — had a positive effect on the country? Is Afghanistan at all a better place now than 2001?

It’s a mixed picture, leaning more to the negative than positive. Speak to the average Afghan, and he or she will tell you that they have seen little impact on their lives from America’s billions in reconstruction and aid. Instead, the common refrain is that much of the money has been wasted or stolen by corrupt officials and contractors. And there’s much truth to this. Just look at the scores of reports from the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction, the U.S. government’s watchdog agency, which details the immense extent to which U.S. taxpayer dollars have been misspent in Afghanistan.

Many Afghans still remember with fondness the days of the Soviet occupation of the 1980s. That’s because the Soviets built apartment complexes, factories, universities, and other buildings that still stand today and are used by countless Afghans. The American intervention, many Afghans believe, will not leave anything of much permanence, at least visibly. However, there has been at least one positive impact of American aid: a vibrant, free Afghan media. In 2001, when the Taliban regime was toppled, there was no independent media. Today, there are hundreds of print, TV, and radio outlets across the country. The vast majority were initially funded by U.S. aid, and continue to be supported today.

American aid officials consider the independent press to be among, if the not the most, significant legacy that the United States will leave behind. But even this achievement is under threat. Both the Taliban and the government are increasingly targeting Afghanistan’s journalists. Many have fled the country or have decided to censor themselves. And as the U.S. departs, the money to fund journalism is shrinking. Most of these media outlets are unlikely to survive, unless they find other sources of funding.

What do you think most accounts for the resilience of the Taliban?

I think Pakistan has provided the Afghan Taliban with the sanctuary and support that allows them to be resilient. It’s no surprise that Taliban leader Mullah Mansour was allegedly killed by a U.S. drone strike inside the Baluchistan region of Pakistan. Secondly, the Afghan security forces, riddled with corruption and low morale, has struggled to fight the Taliban. That has allowed the Taliban to launch successful offensives and seize areas. Today, the insurgents are showing a battle discipline and initiative far superior than the U.S.-trained and equipped Afghan forces. The militants are also well-funded, deriving revenues from opium cultivation and smuggling, as well as marble and gemstone mining and exacting taxes in areas they control. The Afghan central government’s constant infighting also helps the Taliban survive.

Is there an optimistic case for Afghanistan?

Afghanistan has long been an important part of my adult life. I wrote my first-ever story — on Afghan war orphans — when I was working for a French NGO in Peshawar. That was in 1992, and since then I’ve been making repeated trips back to the country, covering all its pivotal transformations. So I want to believe that one day Afghanistan will become peaceful again. I want to feel optimism. But every time I return, I see new players — and old ones — seeking power and wealth, driven by tribal and regional loyalties with little care for the nation. And by now, 24 years since I first wrote that story, I have met several generations of ordinary Afghans shattered by war, corruption, and poor leadership.

At the same time, I’ve met incredible Afghans who are struggling to improve their lives against all odds, like the country’s only female taxi driver in Mazar-e-Sharif. I’ve met young Afghans educated in the U.S. and Europe who are now back in their homeland trying to make a difference. I’ve met countless others with big dreams. As long as such Afghans continue to believe in themselves and work towards improving their country, there will always be hope for Afghanistan.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta second most popular doctor in US

June 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment, Health 0

New York: Indian-American neurosurgeon, Dr. Sanjay Gupta has emerged as the second most popular doctor in the US on Twitter, with over two million followers on the micro-blogging website, a new study has found. The #DocsOnTwitter study by researchers at Augustana University in the US analyzed tweeting habits of medical professionals in the country from 2006 to 2015. Gupta, with 2,031,428 followers on Twitter, serves as associate chief of the neurosurgery service at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia and as assistant professor of neurosurgery at the Emory University School of Medicine.

Gupta, 46, is best known as the chief medical correspondent for CNN and has won multiple Emmy awards. He also uses his Twitter account primarily for professional use, giving his opinions and medical advice. ”We just wanted to see how doctors are engaging with other people on Twitter,” Paige Schwitters, an Augustana student who contributed to the report, was quoted as saying by ‘argusleader.com’. The group worked with internet research firm BrightPlanet to evaluate Tweets and break the accounts down by age and gender.

The researchers sorted through 4,500 users. The most followed Twitter accounts belonged to celebrities, public figures or TV personalities. The top three followed doctors on Twitter are: Dr. Drew Pinsky (@drdrew) with 3.18 million followers, Dr. Gupta (@drsanjaygupta) who has 2.03 million followers, followed by Dr. Asa Andrew (@drasa) with 1.03 million followers. Drew with 3,183,017 followers, is an American board-certified internist, addiction medicine specialist and a media personality.

Researchers analysed about 3.4 million tweets to determine when and how physicians were most likely to use Twitter. The study also shows doctors are using Twitter on the go and are less likely to use the micro blogging site for legal reasons. Many avoid announcing their personal business on social media because of rules for patient privacy and insurance, according to the report.

“We just wanted to see how doctors are engaging with other people on Twitter,” one of the researchers, Paige Schwitters, was quoted as saying by Argus Leader, part of the US Today network.

Gupta joined CNN in the summer of 2001. “Gupta, a practicing neurosurgeon, plays an integral role in CNN’s reporting on health and medical news for all of CNN’s shows domestically and internationally, and contributes to CNN.com,” according to his biography mentioned in CNN.

“His medical training and public health policy experience distinguishes his reporting from war zones and natural disasters, as well as on a range of medical and scientific topics, including the recent Ebola outbreak, brain injury, disaster recovery, health care reform, fitness, military medicine, and HIV/AIDS,” it added.

Five arrested for fraud in IRS Phone scams

June 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

WASHINGTON — J. Russell George, Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA), announced the arrests of five individuals based upon criminal complaints alleging that they were involved in schemes to impersonate Internal Revenue Service (IRS) agents and use the threat of arrest to obtain money from victims by falsely representing that the victims owed back taxes or other fees.

TIGTA agents arrested the five suspects in Miami, FL, without incident on May 23, 2016, for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud. According to the court documents, the suspects are responsible for almost $2 million in schemes that defrauded more than 1,500 victims.

“These arrests indicate that TIGTA is making significant progress in our investigation of the IRS impersonation scam that continues to sweep the country, resulting in reported taxpayer losses of more than $36 million, averaging more than $5,700 in losses per taxpayer,” the Inspector General said. “The scammers are relentless and so are we,” he added. “Our investigators will not rest until we have brought each individual involved to justice.”

The five individuals are: Jennifer Valerino Nunez, Dennis Delgado Caballero, Arnoldo Perez Mirabal, Yaritza Espinosa Diaz, and Roberto Fontanella Caballero. The criminal complaints were filed with the following courts: the U.S. District Court for the District of Minnesota on May 18, 2016 (Yaritza Diaz and Roberto Caballero); the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas on May 16, 2016 (Arnoldo Mirabal); and the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Arkansas on May 10, 2016 (Jennifer Nunez and Dennis Caballero).

According to the court documents, the suspects knowingly conspired with others to commit wire fraud by falsely impersonating IRS agents and demanding money under such false pretenses. Victims received telephone calls from people claiming to be from the IRS, who told them the IRS would arrest them if they did not make payment immediately. The callers made these threats and used other methods of intimidation to persuade the victims to wire money, utilizing MoneyGram, Walmart–2–Walmart, and other wire services.

“No legitimate United States Treasury or IRS official will demand that anyone make payments via MoneyGram, Western Union, Walmart–2–Walmart, or any other money wiring method, for any debt to the IRS or the Department of the Treasury,” George said.

“Nor will the Department of the Treasury demand that anyone pay a debt or secure one by using iTunes cards or other prepaid debit cards,” he said, adding, “Hang up on these fraudulent callers and go to the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration (TIGTA) scam reporting page to report the call.”

Investigators verified the identity of the suspects and their activities through a variety of investigative procedures. TIGTA Special Agents conducted the investigations that led to the arrests of the suspects. TIGTA received assistance in one of the investigations from the Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging led by Chairman Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Ranking Member Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri). The suspects have been referred to the appropriate Office of the U.S. Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice, for prosecution and additional legal action.

Ro Khanna confident of winning Primary in California

June 2, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Ro Khanna is in a pitched battle against an eight-term Democrat, who has been in public office for 35 years, is confident of winning the California’s 17th Congressional District Primaries on June 7.

Now, according to a San Francisco Bay Area CBS affiliate, KPIX polls, the already hotly-contested race for the highly contested seat may be tighter than expected. Honda is said to have had 31 percent support and 25 percent polled for the challenger Ro Khanna, shrinking the lead to 6 percent.

In 2014, Honda had led Khanna by 20 percentage points in the polls leading up to the Primaries. However, Khanna fell short to Honda for the 17th Congressional District seat by only 3.6 percent in the General Elections.

Honda, who is now entrenched in an ongoing ethics investigation by the House Ethics Committee, had narrowly beat the Indian American attorney from Fremont, Calif., in the 2014 race for the same seat. “Congressman Honda and his office gave special favors to donors,” Khanna said in the KPIX report. “So it started as this investigation about the mingling of staff but it became something much worse.”

Throughout the campaign, Khanna has steadfastly turned away donations from lobbyists, corporations and Political Action Committees, signing a pledge in refusal of their money. That comes at a cost, with funding increasingly hard to come by, Khanna said in the report. He added that only nine people running for federal offices throughout the country are doing what he is doing.

Despite that, Khanna has outraised Honda and holds nearly $2 million in the bank while Honda, needing to spend much of his raised money on legal fees, has roughly $800,000 cash in hand. Khanna has been endorsed by many who previously sided with Honda in 2014, such as California Secretary of State Alex Padilla and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo. President Barack Obama abstained from making an endorsement, previously having endorsed Honda.

“The difference between this cycle and last is Ro Khanna now has a new line of attack, and he was only within striking distance last election,” said one Bay Area Democrat who has not endorsed in the race. “It’s going to be close.”

Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, a Khanna supporter, believes that Silicon Valley voters are paying close attention to the Honda ethics probe. “For the people that come to this Valley to start businesses, they know the big competitive advantage is the rule of law, transparency, honesty, a level playing field and merit — not who you know,” Rosen said. “It’s merit that rises to the top, and Ro is a person of merit.”

Khanna, who spent a couple of years in Washington as a deputy assistant secretary in Obama’s Commerce Department, lost to Honda last cycle by just 3.6 percentage points. But for Khanna, the son of Indian immigrants, there is a risk of going too negative this time around.

Meanwhile, it was ironic that some members of the Indian American community gathered at the Zutshi home on May 15 for a “meet and greet” event supporting Mike Honda. The event was co-hosted by state Senator Bob Wieckowski, Toni Shellen and Jeevan Zutshi. “Unlike his competitor, a perennial candidate, Mike Honda has a fabulous record of service,” Jeevan Zutshi told the gathering.

His views were echoed by other Indian Americans present who felt that Indian American candidates must not run against those who have served the Indian American community for decades, according to a press release. Other activists who spoke were Tara Sreekrishnan, Jean Holmes, Henry Hutchins, Tejinder Dhami, Bridgette Hendrikson and Kameshwar Eranki.

California’s 17th Congressional District includes much of California’s Silicon Valley cities such as Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Santa Clara, as well as north San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont and Newark. Khanna and Honda are expected to have a rare intraparty battle in November, with both progressive candidates expected to advance past California’s June 7 primary, in which the top two candidates move on to the general election regardless of party.

Rishi Nair wins 28th annual National Geographic Bee contest

June 2, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation, Youth 0

Rishi Nair, a 12-year-old Indian American kid, was declared the winner of the 28^th annual contests of the 2016 National Geographic Bee contests held on May 25 in Washington, D.C.

Making the contest historic was the fact that at the National Geographic Bee competition Indian-origin contestants maintained their dominance by sweeping all the top three slots. Saketh Jonnalagadda and Kapil Nathan were the other two young prodigies who won the second and their places respectively at the prestigious competition.

Indian-American students continued their dominance at the prestigious national bee competitions with seven out of 10 finalists made it to this year’s National Geographic Bee championship hailing from the community. This is the fifth consecutive year that an Indian- American has won the prestigious national tournament. Last year Karan Menon had won the competition. The 1^st prize carried a cash award of $ 50,000, a lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society and an all-expenses paid trip to Alaska for a Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic eight-day adventure.

A sixth grader at Williams Magnet Middle School, Nair, by winning the 28th annual event, will join in the National Geographic Sea Lion expedition, and will include a stop at Glacier Bay National Park, in recognition of the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service. Jonnalagadda, the 2^nd prize winner, is an eighth grader at Stony Brook Middle School, earned a $25,000 college scholarship. Nathan, the 3^rd place winner, is a sixth grader at Brock’s Gap Intermediate School who was also a top 10 finalists in 2015, earned a $10,000 college scholarship.

Nair, a sixth grader from Florida took top honors, beating a total of 3 million students from 11,000 schools in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, U.S. Atlantic and Pacific territories and Department of Defense Dependents Schools who had taken part in the 2016 bee. Earlier, the winners of 54 state-level competitions convened in the nation’s capital May 23 for a preliminary round to determine the finalists. Seven of the 10 finalists who competed for the bee’s ultimate prize were Indian Americans.

The final question, which clinched the win for Nair, was: “A new marine sanctuary will protect sharks and other wildlife around Isla Wolf in which archipelago in the Pacific Ocean?”. The answer was: “Galapagos Islands”. Nair, whose parents hail from Kerala, is the second Florida student to win the National Geographic Bee. In 2010, eighth-grader Aadith Moorthy of Palm Harbor was the national champion. Rahul Nagvekar in 2012, Sathwik Karnik in 2013, Akhil Rekulapelli in 2014 and Karan Menon in 2015 were the previous four winners.

The seven other finalists, which included Indian Americans Rishi Kumar, 10, of Maryland; Pranay Varada, 13, of Irving, Texas; Samanyu Dixit, 12, of Matthews, N.C.; and Ashwin Sivakumar, 11, of Beaverton, Ore., each won $500 for making it to the top 10.

The final round, moderated by humorist and journalist Mo Rocca, between Nair and Jonnalagadda consisted of seven questions. The eventual winner got off to an early lead by correctly answering “Switzerland” to the question, “The Gotthard Base Tunnel, expected to open in early June, will be the world’s longest rail tunnel. This tunnel is located in which country?”

Nihar Janga, youngest winner on record of Scripps National Spelling Bee Contest

June 2, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation, Youth 0

Nihar Janga, at age 11, made record by becoming the youngest winner of the bee on record at the annual Scripps National Spelling Bee, which ended in a tie for the third consecutive year, with Jairam Hathwar and Nihar Janga declared co-champions after a roller-coaster finish. Jairam, 13, is the younger brother of 2014 co-champion Sriram Hathwar.

“I’m just speechless. I can’t say anything,” Nihar said as he hoisted the trophy. “I mean, I’m only in fifth grade.” The 11-year-old breezed up to the microphone with confidence, and most of his words, he knew right away. He looked like the strongest speller onstage, stronger even than his eventual co-champion, 13-year-old Jairam Hathwar, a blue-chip speller whose older brother hoisted the trophy two years ago.

Nihar, from Austin, Texas; and Jairam, from Painted Post, New York, were declared co-champions. It was the third year in a row that the bee ended in a tie. Scripps made the bee, broadcast on ESPN, tougher after two consecutive ties, forcing the last two spellers to get through three times as many words as in years past.

Bee organizers insisted they’d be OK with another tie, but they changed the rules to make it less likely. Instead of a pre-determined list of 25 “championship words” for the final three spellers, the bee instead forced the top three to go through up to 25 rounds. And the difficulty of the words could be adjusted as necessary.

Third-place finisher Snehaa Kumar of Folsom, Calif,, bowed out in the first championship round. Nihar and Jairam had to spell 24 words apiece before it was over. Nihar and Jairam have grown close over the past year, communicating mostly online. They chatted while others were spelling, high-fived after their words and embraced after they won. The timing of Nihar’s misses was almost too perfect to believe, and Nihar denied afterward that he misspelled on purpose. He said he just didn’t know the words.

“I wanted to win, but at the same time, I felt really bad for Jairam,” he said. Both were inspired by their favorite athletes. As the confetti fell, Nihar crossed his arms in homage to Dez Bryant’s touchdown celebrations. The Dallas Cowboys receiver responded with a congratulatory tweet.

Jairam, whose dad takes him to play golf when he’s had enough spelling practice, channeled his favorite player, Jordan Spieth. “When he hits a bad shot, he always bounces back, on the next shot or the next hole,” Jairam said. “When I missed those two words, I didn’t let them get to my head, and I just focused on the next word.”

This was the 89th bee, and while Scripps’ records from early years are incomplete, the youngest known champion was Wendy Guey, who won 20 years ago at age 12. The last to win in his first attempt was Pratyush Buddiga in 2002.

Nihar said he didn’t feel pressure to become the youngest winner for two reasons. First, he never expected to win. Second, most of the crowd’s attention was on an even younger speller: 6-year-old Akash Vukoti. “He did pretty good for a first-grader,” Nihar said. “He’s going to go places.”

Nihar and Jairam’s parents are immigrants from south India, continuing a remarkable run of success for Indian American spellers that began in 1999 with Nupur Lala’s victory, which was later featured in the documentary “Spellbound.” The bee has produced Indian American champions for nine straight years and 14 out of the last 18.

Divya Nag, Amit Agarwal among top 10 ‘Most Creative People in Business’ List

May 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness 0

Indian Americans Divya Nag and Amit Agarwal have made it to the top 10 on the Fast Company’s 100 “Most Creative People in Business” list. The annual list, in its eighth year dating back to 2009, was released May 16.

Nag was ranked No. 2 on the list, just behind composer, lyricist and performer Lin-Manuel Miranda. She was selected “for moving Apple into the doctor’s office,” according to the Fast Company piece.

She leads the team at Apple that created ResearchKit, an open-source developer toolbox that piggybacked on the company’s HealthKit framework — which allows users to store and share health data — to allow doctors and researchers to create apps that make it easy to participate in medical research, Fast Company explained.

“Through Apple’s new CareKit tools, doctors can automatically alert outpatients when it’s time to take their medications or exercise — while patients can reciprocate with continual updates on their condition,” Fast Company wrote. “Doctors and hospitals are already using CareKit apps to provide better care, staying in touch with post-surgery patients, and there are countless applications for monitoring diabetes, mental health, pregnancy and more,” it added.

Nag dropped out of Stanford and founded Stem Cell Theranostics, a company dedicated toward revolutionizing the drug discovery process. Additionally, she founded StartX Med in 2012 and served as the chief product officer and head of network management and R&D at StartX.

Coming in at No. 10 on the list is Agarwal, who made the list “for extending Amazon’s reach, one vendor at a time,” Fast Company said. Agarwal has been a staple at Amazon since 1999. The IIT Kanpur and Stanford University graduate started with the e-commerce company as a software developer. Throughout his career he has held various roles, including managing director of the Bangalore-based development center, shadow and technical adviser to the CEO, vice president of international expansion and his current role of vice president and country manager at Amazon India.

“In less than three years, Agarwal grew the division to become competitive with homegrown rivals Flipkart and Snapdeal, and is using the country’s underdeveloped logistics and payment infrastructure to his advantage,” Fast Company wrote. He has also established many “India first” innovations, it added.

San Francisco-based Kakul Srivastava was slotted in at No. 25 on Fast Company’s list. The publication said she earned a spot “for seeing the people behind the code.” The MIT and U.C. Berkeley graduate serves as the vice president of product management at GitHub, as well as on the Cure Violence advisory board. Previously, she served as CEO at Project Sublime, product manager at Adobe Systems and chief product officer at WeWork, as well as executive positions with Yahoo, Tiny Speck Inc., Tomfoolery Inc. and Flikr.

“Historically, GitHub users have been engineers working together on open-source projects, but Srivastava is rethinking its capabilities for the masses, in an era when everyone from farmers to animators is learning to program,” Fast Company wrote. Among her additions to the company are word processor-style editing tools and easier ways for members to help improve their code.

Yoga guru Baba Ramdev, who founded Haridwar, India-based Patanjali Ayurved in 2006, was No. 27 on the publication’s most creative list. Fast Company slotted him in the top 30 “for disrupting India’s $49 billion consumer packaged goods market.”

Patanjali Ayurved makes many products, including spices, soaps and cosmetics. Ramdev has helped expand the brand’s product line and “is making global firms like Procter & Gamble and Unilever squirm,” it said.

At No. 65 on the Most Creative People in Business list was Mountain View, Calif.-based Confluent co-founder and chief technology officer Neha Narkhede. She made the list “for teaching businesses to read Kafka.”

Among the companies who rely on software co-developed by Narkhede are Netflix and CA Technologies. The six-year-old Apache Kafka technology, which funnels data from disparate sources of information — web analytics, sales data and social media — into a single stream that employees can use to build or enhance their projects, has become “so integral to the tech world that Silicon Valley engineers brandish Kafka expertise on their resumes,” Fast Company said.

Apple is in India for Next Thousand Years, Says CEO Tim Cook

May 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness 0

“I am looking at India holistically and we are here for the next thousand years,” Apple CEO Tim Cook emphasized May 20 as the 55-year-old chief of Cupertino-based tech giant entered the final leg of his four-day India tour. Apple, which recently announced that it’s going to open offices in India with more than 4,000 jobs dedicated to working on Apple Maps, said that it’s going to stay in India for the foreseeable future and far beyond.

In an interview with the media, Cook said: “India is much more strategic. We are thinking about a really long innings in the country. We are here for next thousand years. We are not making the most but the best. We will never make a product that we are not proud of.”

“Apple has a bright future for retail in India. We will sell pre-owned phones with a new warranty. We want India to have best Apple products,” he stressed, adding that he instantly feels like he belongs here in India. When asked about China, Cook said: “India is different than China,” adding that the announcements about Apps development facility in Bengaluru and Maps Development Centre in Hyderabad were just the beginning.

“We are in India for the next thousand years,” Tim Cook said. “Our horizon is very long. We are focused on best, not most. So it doesn’t bother me that we don’t have top market share.”

“If you think about automobiles, brands like Lexus and Mercedes have been selling certified pre-owned cars,” Cook explained. “We have this program in the U.S. and in most parts of the world. When they are sold, they are sold with warranty, just like a new product. We would never sell a product that we didn’t think was right.” Cook also said Apple is going to “logically look at” manufacturing iPhones in India, too.

Sadhguru To Address Delegates On Need To Build A Culture Of Health In Society During AAPI’s 34th Annual AAPI Convention in New York

May 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Health 0

(New York, NY: May 19, 2016): Understanding the inherent humanity that unites all nations, religions and cultures, Sadhguru is recognized for his pioneering efforts to nurture global harmony, Dr. Seema Jain, President of American association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), said today, while announcing the 1.5 hours of CME to be led by Sadhguru during AAPI’s 34th Convention in New York.

AAPI’s 34th annual convention will be held at the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30-July 4, 2016. Expected to have a record attendance of more than 2,000 delegates including Physicians, Academicians, Researchers and Medical students, “the annual convention offers extensive academic presentations, recognition of achievements and achievers, and professional networking at the alumni and evening social events,” she added.

Having Sadhguru at the Convention with his unique ability to make the ancient yogic sciences relevant to contemporary minds, and acts as a bridge to the deeper dimensions of life, will make the convention and the delegates from across the nation richer, in so many ways, said, Dr. Rita Ahuaja, Chairwoman of the Convention. “His approach does not ascribe to any belief system, but offers methods for self-transformation that are both proven and powerful,” Dr. Ahuja added.

Named one of India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru is a realized Yogi and mystic who works tirelessly towards the physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing of all. Sadhguru’s work has deeply touched the lives of millions worldwide through his transformational programs.

“We need to create a culture of Health in society, instead of investing in just healthcare,” Sadhguru says. “What we call feeling healthy, is not just the absence of disease, but having a sense of wholeness within us. If we feel like a complete being in our body, mind and spirit, that is when we are truly healthy.”

An author, poet and internationally renowned speaker, Sadhguru’s wit and piercing logic provoke and broaden our thoughts and perception of life. Sadhguru has been an influential voice at major global forums including the United Nations, World Economic Forum, the UK House of Lords, TED among many others.

Just as he has stated, “Your success in this world essentially depends on how well you can harness the prowess of this body and this mind,” Sadhguru believes in dedicating his life for the service of humanity. He established Isha Foundation, a non-profit organization supported by over three million volunteers worldwide. From powerful yoga programs to large-scale humanitarian projects for rural upliftment, education for the underprivileged, environmental restoration, as well as holistic and healthy living, the foundation’s activities are designed to create an inclusive culture and establish global harmony.

His fundamental vision is to offer the science of inner wellbeing to every human being – a science vitally helping realize the ultimate potential within. From this vision stem a multitude of projects, programs, and methods, all towards the same aim: to raise every human being to the peak of their potential, be exuberant, all-inclusive, in harmony within themselves and the world.

Perhaps Sadhguru’s mission is most succinctly summarized in his own paradoxical words: “I have no mission of my own. It is just that when you see a certain need around you, you do what you can do – that’s all. But I have a dream, that someday, walking on a street anywhere in the world, I would be able to meet lots of enlightened or realized beings. That would be the greatest blessing to happen to the world.”

The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. In addition to offering over 12 hours of cutting edge CMEs to the physicians, the event will have 12 hours of product theaters/promotional opportunities, six plenary sessions, a first ever multi-segment CEOs Forum, and a first ever women’s leadership forum. The convention will be addressed by senior world leaders, including US Senators, Presidential candidates, Nobel Lauretes, Governors, Congressmen, and celebrities from the Hollywood and Bollywood world.

“Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the scholarly exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the coming year. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” said Dr. Seema Jain. For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org and www.aapiusa.org

RUMC Names Cardiac Cath Lab After Dr. Samala Swamy

May 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshHealth 0

New York: The Cardiac Catheterization Lab of the Richmond University Medical Center was dedicated in honor of Dr. Samala Swamy, who has been a leading cardiologist on Staten Island for more than 35 years. The Indian American physician emigrated from India to the United States to assume a residency position at St. Vincent’s Medical Center and became the hospital’s first cardiology fellow in 1974, has pledged $250,000 to support the capital campaign for a new Emergency Department.

Since August of 2014, Richmond University Medical Center took a giant step in improving the borough’s cardiac care, announcing at last its ability to provide “door-to-balloon” care in the critical 90 minutes after a person has a heart attack. The balloon is part of a treatment called angioplasty or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), and with the approval from the state Department of Health to upgrade its catheterization lab to perform PCIs, the hospital is equipped to follow through on both emergency and elective procedures.

Dr. Swamy, who has been a leading cardiologist on Staten Island, has not only witnessed profound advancements in his field — but in many ways he has also helped shape them. Dr. Swamy was also one of the first cardiologists on Staten Island to use cardiac catheterization for the diagnosis of coronary heart disease for the benefit of his patients.

In recognition of his contribution to the betterment of cardiac care in our borough, Dr. Swamy was awarded the “Humanitarian Award” by the former St. Vincent’s Medical Center, and the “Excellence in Medicine” award by the Staten Island Chapter of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Swamy is boarded in medicine, cardiology, nuclear medicine and interventional cardiology. Over the years, he has trained many cardiology fellows, who are very successful doctors today. Dr. Swamy is married to Veeramani. They are the parents of three children, sons Sudheer and Sumanth and daughter, Sumana.

Reshma Jagsi’s study finds that 30 percent of female doctors in US sexually harassed

May 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Women 0

New York: Every seventh patient seen in the country are by physicians of Indian origin. The largely influential Indian American community boasts of its success in Medicine, Academia and Research. Now, a new report claims that a third of high-achieving female physicians or scientists in the US have been victims of sexual harassment, say researchers led by an Indian-origin scientist. In addition, 30 percent of women compared to four percent of men said they had experienced sexual harassment in their professional careers.

The findings showed that women were more likely than men to report both perceptions and experiences with gender bias. Gender bias was perceived by 70 percent of women as against 22 percent of men and 66 percent of women said they experienced gender bias compared to 10 percent of men.

“The perception among many of us is that this type of behaviour is a thing of the past. So it’s heartening to see quite how many relatively young women in this sample reported experiences with harassment and discrimination,” said study author Reshma Jagsi, associate professor at the University of Michigan Medical School.

“This is a sobering reminder that our society has a long way to go before we achieve gender equity,” Jagsi added. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, showed that the situation reflects a larger societal problem.

Women who experience these types of harassment may be less likely to report these incidents if they feel they are unique and aberrational. “We need to recognise the degree to which sexual harassment and gender inequality continue to be an issue in academic medicine,” Jagsi noted.

Researchers surveyed 1,066 men and women who had received a career development award between 2006-2009 from the National Institutes of Health. The physicians were asked a number of questions about their career experiences, including questions about gender bias, gender advantage and sexual harassment.

Medicine is a notoriously grueling career, with punishing hours, rampant burnout and the threat of crippling student loan debt. And for women, the landscape can be even bleaker. New findings suggest that 30 percent of top women clinician-researchers have experienced blatant sexual harassment on the job.

The study, published in JAMA included more than 1,700 men and women who’ve received K-awards, prestigious career development awards handed out by the National Institutes of Health.

Sixty-six percent of the women who responded to the survey said they’d personally experienced some form of gender bias in their career, compared to just 10 percent of men. And 70 percent said they perceived gender-based biases against women in the the field, though not necessarily personally.

Perhaps more shocking, 30 percent of the women said they’d experienced outright sexual harassment, including sexist remarks or behavior, unwanted sexual advances, bribery, threats and coercion.

“I had a misperception that overt sexual harassment was largely a thing of the past, a vestige of another generation,” admitted study author Dr. Reshma Jagsi of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who frequently lectures on why relatively few women reach the senior ranks in academic medicine.

In a survey of academic medical faculty conducted in 1995 (but published in 2000), more than 50 percent of women said they’d experienced harassment in their careers, compared to just 5 percent of men. Jagsi said she had expected to see a significant dip in incidents of sexual harassment in the latest survey, particularly given that the makeup of medicine has changed so much and women now make up roughly half of all medical students.

Syamantak Payra wins Intel’s Top Award

May 25, 2016 Ajay GhoshScience & Technology, Youth 0

Syamantak Payra, 15, of Friendswood, Texas, received one of two Intel Foundation Young Scientist Awards of $50,000 for developing a low-cost electronically aided knee brace that allows an individual with a weakened leg to walk more naturally. Intel Corporation and the Society for Science and the Public announced the winners in Phoenix May 13 at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair, the world’s largest high school science research competition. When Payra tested his prototype with two individuals partially disabled by polio, it almost immediately restored a more natural gait and increased mobility.

Besides Payra, the other Young Scientist Award was won by Kathy Liu, 17, of Salt Lake City, Utah, for developing an alternative battery component that could significantly improve battery performance and safety. Han Jie (Austin) Wang, 18, of Vancouver, Canada, received the first place Gordon E. Moore Award and US$75,000 in prize money for developing microbial fuel cells.

“Our top winners this year – Austin, Syamantak, and Kathy – clearly demonstrate that age has no bearing on your ability to conduct research and come up with solutions to important problems,” said Maya Ajmera, president and CEO of Society for Science and the Public.

“We congratulate them not only for their success, but on their dedication and hard work. They and the rest of the Intel ISEF finalists are the rising stars of STEM and we look forward to watching them pursue their passions and in turn make the world a better place for future generations.”

The Intel International Science and Engineering Fair honors the world’s most promising student scientists, inventors and engineers. Finalists are selected annually from hundreds of affiliated fairs. Their projects are then evaluated onsite by approximately 1,000 judges from nearly every scientific discipline, each with a Ph.D. or the equivalent of six years of related professional experience in one of the scientific disciplines.

Payra attends Clear Brook High School in Friendswood. His solution is both inexpensive and easy to use. He started with an off-the-shelf brace that only costs about $2,000. To this he added a motor-driven actuator. Its motor moves a piston in and out, which flexes the knee. A small computer that clips to the user’s belt or slips into a pocket controls that motor. That computer, in turn, receives signals from a sensor that reports the position of the opposite leg. According to Intel, together, all of the parts in Syamantak’s system will add only about $500 to the cost of the starting brace.

Vikas Khanna screens documentary on food at Cannes

May 25, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment, Social Media 0

Vikas Khanna, the celebrity chef, premiered his documentary ” Kitchens of Gratitude ” at the ongoing 69th Cannes Film Festival on Saturday, May 21. The documentary is the chef’s ideology that food has always been the thread which brings people together and that it transcends all barriers of caste, creed, faith — thus, encouraging people to share.

The documentary was unveiled by Mohan Kumar , India’s Ambassador to France along with Leena Jaisani, senior director – Media and Entertainment division at Ficci, at the India Pavilion at the fest.

“Michelin starred Chef Vikas Khanna is not just a culinary ambassador of India but is also helping create awareness of our culture globally. For Indians, food is a sacred expression of sharing and caring and with ‘Kitchens of Gratitude’, he has personified it. This is a small step but will go a long way in building bridges amongst communities and nations,” Kumar said in a statement.

While researching on how food was cooked in the Harappan civilisation, Khanna discovered that daily cooking was a communal activity in those times and he did not find a single reference to the use of small cooking pots, which bears out this finding. The fact that everyone used to get together for cooking and eating asserts his belief that the “unifying power of food was stronger even before religion came into being.”

Khanna then created, directed and shot a 15 minute documentary which captures this belief. The documentary feature personalities like Dalai Lama, Deepak Chopra, Mata Amritanandmayi (spiritual leader) and Pastor Craig Mayes of the New York Mission among others.

“‘Kitchens of Gratitude’ for me is solely about how food has always been the thread that brings people together encourage people to share. The documentary examines how shared food experiences help break the walls that divide people. “I firmly believe that our children must know that every faith welcomes everyone. No faith ever promotes discrimination. It is food that binds us together, and it must continue that way,” Khanna said.

New Poll Shows Trump beating Clinton in General Election

May 25, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

NEW YORK: Donald Trump’s presidential campaign has been given a boost by a new poll showing the presumptive Republican nominee winning November’s general election against likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

An ABC News/ Washington Post poll published on Sunday shows Trump with a two percent advantage over Clinton with registered voters in a hypothetical general election matchup. According to Langer Research, Trump’s “enhanced competitiveness reflects consolidation in his support since his primary opponents dropped out”.

While positive news for the Trump campaign, it was tarnished by the fact that such a slim advantage falls within the 3.5 point margin of error. However, this was now the fifth poll since the end of the April to put the billionaire ahead of, or tied with, Clinton.

The findings are also echoed in a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll published on Sunday which shows that Clinton’s 11 percent lead over Trump has narrowed to a mere 3 percent, 46 to 43. This was in stark contrast to a potential battle between Bernie Sanders and Trump, which found the former with a 15 point margin, 54-39 percent.

The ABC/Washington Post poll also shows that 58 percent of Americans think Trump is “unqualified to be president,” while 76 percent believe he “doesn’t show enough respect for those he disagrees with.”

While Clinton supporters may find some solace in this, it won’t come as welcome news that the presumptive Democratic nominee has something in common with her Republican archrival.

When Clinton’s “unfavorable” rating is combined with Trump’s, the two, together, are the most unpopular likely candidates for a presidential election since the ABC/Post election polls began. Hillary is disliked by 53 percent of Americans, while 60 percent disapprove of The Donald. On the other hand, Bernie Sanders was found to be “unfavorable” by only 38 percent.

One aspect of the findings that may leave Democrats particularly worried is that Trump has a 13 percent advantage over Clinton among independents. This is a reversal from the March findings, which showed Clinton leading by 9 among the grouping.

In a tight race, independents could decide who is elected as 45th president of the US in November, and if Trump can hold onto this lead, the Republicans may just take back the Oval Office. The ABC News/Washington Post poll was based on a sample of 1,005 people from across the country, including 829 registered voters, all of whom were surveyed between May 16 and 19. The WSJ/NBC News poll was conducted between May 15 and 19 with a sample of 1,000 registered voters and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points.

New York Indian Film Festival Concludes, Showcasing Indian Cinema To World

May 21, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

New York, NY: The 16th annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) held its inaugural gala May 7, at the Skirball Center for Performing Arts. Billed as the oldest, most prestigious Indian film festival in the U.S., this year’s smorgasbord of independent, art house, alternate, and diaspora films, screened over the period May 7-14, includes 40 screenings (35 narrative, 5 documentary), all seen for the first time in New York City. In addition, the festival also featured five programs of short films.

“It was a very exciting night,” Shivdasani said. “We never actually had a language film for opening night. This was a complete departure and what that means is we are getting bolder,” she laughed. Baretto is an emerging filmmaker and neither the director or the cast are well known. “Still we had a lovely opening,” Shivdasani said.

Numerous film-makers with their cast appeared on the red carpet speaking about their films. Celebrities spotted at the gala included author Salman Rushdie, filmmaker Mira Nair, author and actress Madhur Jaffrey, India’s Consul General in New York Riva Ganguly Das, and author Suketu Mehta.

The 7-day festival highlighted various cinemas of India’s different regions, all subtitled in English. Among the languages this year were Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Kannada, Malayalam, Telugu, Assamese, Haryanvi and Urdu.

“Each of these language films have been gems,” Shivdasani said. “And another thing different in this year’s festival is we’ve never had so many panels before,” Shivdasani noted. Panels where representatives of each of the language films discussed their experiences; an LGBT panel, a new directors panel, among others.

The festival also featured the National Film Development Corporation of India-restored first films of filmmakers, and a three-generations sidebar, films of Bimal Roy, Basu Bhattacharya and Aditya Bhattacharya. Two National Award winners, Famous in Ahmedabad and Daarvatha, were among the 40 or so shorts being screened. The lineup also included 2016 National Award winners, A Far Afternoon, Birds With Large Wings, and The River of Fables, an Assamese language feature film.

The dance troupe, Manhattan Andaaz performed. The master of ceremonies was Sree Srinivasan, chief digital officer of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Aroon Shivdasani, executive and artistic director of the Indo-American Arts Council, which puts the show together, welcomed the guests.

Nair, who is “Face of the Festival” according to Shivdasani, spoke about the growing influence of the festival and dwelt on her new film about Uganda, her second home.

The film, Nachom-ia-Kumpasar (Let’s Dance to the Rhythm) was screened, followed by a discussion with director Bardroy Baretto, producer Angelo Braganza, and actress Palomi Ghosh, moderated by NYIFF Director Aseem Chhabra. The Konkani feature film is a tribute to Goan music and musicians of the 1960s and 1970s, narrated through the emotional rollercoaster of a love story, telling the nostalgic tale of musicians who lived and died unrecognized, unappreciated and unsung.

A high-priced ticket gala benefit dinner attended by some 250 invitees rubbing shoulders with filmmakers and celebrities, concluded the evening. Ghosh, the lead character in the Konkani film, upon request, sang a few songs impromptu at the gala, bringing people to their feet to dance.

Among diaspora films was Good Ol’ Boy, a feel-good, coming-of-age story of Smith, a 10-year old growing up in small-town America in 1979, featuring some well-known actors in Samrat Chakrabarti (Midnight’s Children, The Waiting City) and Poorna Jagannathan (Delhi Belly, Nirbhaya).

Soumitra Chatterjee Bengali starrer, Peace Haven, is the story of three septuagenarian friends who embark on a journey to build their very own mortuary. Multiple award winner and fresh from the international film festival circuit, Parched, is about four ordinary women in rural Gujarat who talk unapologetically about men, sex and life as they struggle with their individual boundaries.

The highlight was the world premiere of Kagaz Ki Kashti (Paperboat), which tracks the life of a down-to-earth, small-town boy, who made it big in the Ghazal world breaking through the norms and mixing western instrumentation. to make this classical genre simple and hummable.

Filmmaker Hansal Mehta’s “Aligarh” was chosen as the closing film of the 16th annual New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF). The festival, which concluded on Saturday, screens feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the independent, art-house, alternate and diaspora genres every year.

“Aligarh” is based on the real life incident of Srinivas Ramchandra Siras, an academician at the Aligarh Muslim University who was suspended from his job because of his sexual orientation. The film stars Manoj Bajpayee and Rajkummar Rao.

Before attending the fest, Rajkummar took to Twitter on Saturday night and wrote: “Going to one of my favourite cities in the world. New York. ‘Aligarh’ has been chosen as the closing film of the prestigious New York Indian film festival.” Mehta was excited that the American city would witness their “labour of love”. “Aligarh” has been lauded at many film festivals, including Indian Film Festival of Los Angeles, where it received a special mention.

The New York Indian Film Festival (NYIFF) is the oldest, most prestigious film festival screening premieres of feature, documentary and short films made from, of, and about the Indian subcontinent in the Independent, arthouse, alternate and diaspora genres. Seven days of screenings, post-screening discussions, industry panels, award ceremony, special events, nightly networking parties, red carpet galas, media attention and packed audiences build an awareness of Indian cinema, entertain & educate North Americans about the real India, and add to the amazing cultural diversity of New York City. Please visit: the NYIFF website.

Obama casts Trump philosophy as one of ignorance, isolation

May 21, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

President Barack Obama cast Donald Trump’s positions on immigration, trade and Muslims as part of an ignorance-and-isolation philosophy that the president says will lead the U.S. down the path of decline. Obama used his commencement speech Sunday at Rutgers University to tear into the presumptive Republican nominee, without ever mentioning his name. Time and again the president invoked specific Trump policies to denounce a rejection of facts, science and intellectualism that he said was pervading politics.

“In politics and in life, ignorance is not a virtue,” Obama told some 12,000 graduates at the public university in New Jersey. “It’s not cool to not know what you’re talking about. That’s not keeping it real or telling it like it is. That’s not challenging political correctness. That’s just not knowing what you’re talking about,” the president said. “And yet, we’ve become confused about this,” he added.

Obama’s rebuke came as Trump closes in on clinching the GOP nomination, raising the prospect that November’s election could portend a reversal of Obama’s policies and approach to governing. In recent days, Trump has started focusing on the general election while working to unite a fractured Republican Party around his candidacy. Democrats are readying for a fight against a reality TV host they never anticipated would make it this far.

Obama has mostly steered clear of the race as Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders compete into the summer for the nomination. But in speeches like this one, he has laid out themes that Democrats are certain to use as they work to deny Trump the White House. He’s urged journalists to scrutinize Trump’s vague policy prescriptions and not to emphasize what he calls “the spectacle and the circus.”

Trump has barreled his way toward the nomination by emphasizing the profound concerns of Americans who have felt left behind by the modern, global economy, summed up in his ubiquitous campaign slogan of “Make America great again.” He’s called for keeping Muslim immigrants out of the U.S., gutting Obama’s trade deals with Asia and Europe, and cracking down on immigrants in the U.S. illegally. In his speech, Obama told graduates that when they hear people wax nostalgic about the “good old days” in America, they should “take it with a grain of salt.”

“Guess what? It ain’t so,” the president said, rattling off a list of measures by which life is better in the U.S. than in decades past. Yet Obama cautioned that both Democrats and Republicans were responsible for over-magnifying the country’s problems. And he appeared to push back gently on Sanders, whose rallies are packed with young Americans cheering the candidate’s calls to uproot an economic system he says is rigged in favor of the extremely rich. “The system isn’t as rigged as you think,” Obama said.

Looking out at a sea of red and black gowns at High Point Solution Stadium, Obama said the pace of change on the planet is accelerating, not subsiding. He said recent history had proved that the toughest challenges cannot be solved in isolation.

“A wall won’t stop that,” Obama said, bringing to mind Trump’s call for building a border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. “The point is, to help ourselves, we’ve got to help others — not pull up the drawbridge and try to keep the world out.”

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who ran against Trump for the GOP nomination and has since become one of his most vocal surrogates, didn’t attend the president’s speech at Rutgers. Instead, he spent the day at nearby Princeton University for his son’s baseball game — the Ivy League championship.

The president, who returned to Washington after his speech, will deliver a final commencement address on June 1 at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Earlier in May, Obama echoed similar themes about progress in the U.S. when he spoke at historically black Howard University in Washington.

Donald Trump Mocks Indian Call Centers

May 21, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Republican presidential front runner Donald Trump has used fake Indian accent to mock a call center representative in India during an election rally last week. The real estate tycoon said that he called up his credit card company to find out whether their customer support is based in the US or overseas.

“Guess what, you’re talking to a person from India. How the hell does that work?” he told his supporters in Delaware. “So I called up, under the guise I’m checking on my card, I said, ‘Where are you from?’” Trump said and then he copied the response from the call center in a fake Indian accent. “We are from India,” Trump impersonated the response. “Oh great, that’s wonderful,” he said as he pretended to hang up the phone. “India is great place. I am not upset with other leaders. I am upset with our leaders for being so stupid,” he said.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has slammed the remarks by Trump saying it shows disrespect towards the community and is reflective of his divisive rhetoric. “Donald Trump mocking Indian workers is just typical of his disrespect that he has shown to groups across the spectrum,” said John Podesta, chairman of the Clinton Campaign.

“He has run a campaign of bigotry and division. I think that’s quite dangerous for the country when you think about the fact that you need friends, allies. The kind of campaign he is running breeds disrespect across the globe and breeds division and danger here at home,” he told reporters in Germantown, Maryland after formally launching ‘Indian- Americans for Hillary’, an effort by the community to rally behind the Democratic presidential front runner. Podesta was reacting to Trump’s apparent use of a fake Indian accent to mock a call centre representative in India during a campaign rally in Delaware this week.

Meanwhile, an Indian-American entrepreneur also hit out at Trump, calling his comments “demeaning”. “When Donald Trump fakes the accent of an Indian at the help desk, it is demeaning and demonising to me personally,” said Frank Islam, a top Indian-American bundler in the Clinton campaign who has helped raised more than USD 100,000 for her

“Celebration of the Glory of Hyderabad” Attracted Huge Crowds

May 21, 2016 Staff ReporterCulture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: “Hyderabad has always remained as a point of convergence of many different cultures, traditions, festivals, and religions that gave it its distinct cosmopolitan character. Hyderabad’s lingua franca, ‘Dakhini’, is a unique blend of several languages, typifying the true plural character of the city, where people belonging to different castes, creed, and religions live in peace and harmony and participate in each other’s festivals with enthusiasm”, said Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India in Chicago. Dr. Sayeed was delivering the inaugural address at the “Celebration of the Glory of Hyderabad” held under the patronage of Consulate General of India in Chicago on Sunday, May 15th, 2016 at Shalimar Banquets, Addison, IL.

Offering insights into the objectives of celebrating the glory of the famed city, the Ambassador said, the event is to showcase ‘Ganga-Jamuni Tehzeeb’ and portray the “Hyderabadiyat” rather than merely glorifying Hyderabad’s historical achievements. “The Hyderabadi Tehzeeb is the traditional mix of civility, hospitality, courtesy, and grace in social interaction, the hallmark of which is respect and consideration”, added Dr. Sayeed.

“While Hyderabad has been protecting and preserving its age-old culture and traditions, it has been proactive in welcoming and embracing the contemporary socio-economic changes. It has emerged as the ‘Best liveable city’ in India and gained reputation as a home for such global giants as Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Google, Facebook,” Dr. Sayeed pointed out.

Qadir Ali Baig Theatre Foundation, Hyderabad presented two internationally-acclaimed plays: “Spaces: Story of Hyderabadi Haveli” and “Quli: Dilon ka Shahzaada”. With a blend of fine and performing arts, embellished with Indian classical and shadow dances, period sets and costumes, the play takes audience back in time to the 17th century Indian kingdom of Golconda through a philosophical tale of true love. Lead actors Padmashri Mohammed Ali Baig Noor Baig, along with their troop, who were especially flown from Hyderabad to present the phenomenal plays, stole the thunder by their explosive performances.

The Siasat Urdu Daily, Hyderabad, show-cased hundreds of art pieces of the calligraphy made by artists from India, as a part of the Urdu and Arabic Calligraphy Exhibition. The calligraphy exhibits of Nayeem Saberi and Faheem Saberi, paintings of Lateef Farooqui, embroidery of Naseer Sultan, and wood work of Mohammed Mazharuddin were displayed at the Exhibition. The Calligraphy Exhibition was jointly inaugurated by Dr. Ausaf Sayeed and Zahid Ali Khan, Editor-in-Chief, The Siasat Daily. The visit of Zahid Ali Khan, Editor of the Urdu daily, graced the event with his visit exclusively to participate at the celebrations.

The crowning glory of the event was a qawwali program considering the fact that it has been a powerful part of the rich culture of Hyderabad. Riaz Qawwal and his party from Houston delighted audience, beyond tier expectations, by presenting popular qawwalis.

Mir Z Khan, in his address, said that a part of the proceeds of the event will benefit “Feed the Hungry” in Hyderabad and youth education programs in India. He stated that the Steering Committee of the Event, Ashfaq Hussain Syed (Secretary), Iqbal Ali M.Baig (Treasurer), Dr. Prem Rupani, Dr.Muzaffar Mirza, Sami Siddiqi, Tasneem Osmani, Iftekhar Shareef, Gazala Rahman, Syed Sharafat Hussain, Anis Khan, Syed Hussain, Khalid Osmani, and Ali Jaffer worked tirelessly, day in day out for over two months, to ensure that the event turns out to be a high watermark of success.

Dr. Prem Rupani, a prominent member of the Hyderabadi community in Chicagoland, said that with the establishment of such world class educational institutions as Indian School of Business, Indian Institutes of Management, Indian Institutes of Technology, and a string of professional, technical, and vocational educational institutions, Hyderabad is emerging as the most preferred destination for students from a number of countries. Similarly, he added, the mind boggling growth in Industry, Services, and Business, India has become a mighty force to reckon with at the global plane.

“Awards of Excellence” were presented to Azher Quader, Dr. Vidyasagar, AliNiazee, Dr. Chitturi, Kaiseruddin, Nazneen, and Sadiq Naqvi for their landmark contributions in different domains of work. The Steering Committee presented a special award to Dr. Sayeed for his exceptionally good contribution for the overall welfare of the Indian-Americans in Chicago.

The event was attended by over 1,100 eminent persons from different walks of life. Prominent among the dignitaries who attended the event included, Dr.Gopal Lalmalani, Mayor of Oak Brook, Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer, Office of the Governor of IL, Raja Krishnamoorthy, Democratic Party nominee for the 8th Congressional District of Chicago, and Krishna Bansal.

The event kick started with the singing of the National Anthems of the United States and India.

The authentic Hyderabadi dinner served to the guests was relished by one and all. Azam Nizamuddin, the MC of the event, anchored the proceedings of the event in a professional fashion manner.

Indian Students Shine In Formula SAE Hybrid Car Design Contest

May 18, 2016 Ajay GhoshScience & Technology, Sports, Youth 0

A group of undergraduate engineering students from Bangalore won second place in design and project management categories at the prestigious International Formula SAE hybrid car design competitions held last week in Loudon, New Hampshire.

In a field of 28 teams from various countries, including Japan, Russia, Taiwan and Canada besides USA, the team from Ashwa Racing Workshop at R.V. College of Engineering in Bangalore won fourth overall position in the competition held May 4-6.

The Formula Hybrid event founded and run by the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College, is part of the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) Collegiate Design Series and is regarded as the most complex and dynamic of the series.

“This was no mean feat given that the 20-member team of undergraduate students that included girls managed, despite time constraints, all aspects of the process of development, including shipping the car to the United States in time for the competition. That is impressive!” Rajat Bhatnagar of Atomic Launch of N.H. that helps companies launch new ventures and facilitates investments, management, product development, said.

The team members met with Riva Ganguly Das, Consul General of India in New York when they arrived in the city en route to Loudon May1 and briefed her about the design and the competition. Bhatnagar said he had been working to take care of the team in N.H. after being requested to do so by the consul general.

The sponsorship, including travel, lodging and food expenses, was borne and shared by Atomic Launch, and the team members. “We finished 2nd in design and project management events and 4th overall out of 28 registered teams. The prototype was designed, manufactured and assembled in Bangalore itself and was shipped all the way to New Hampshire,” Bhatnagar said quoting the students in response to a question. The prototype was shipped to U.S. March 10 and it reached the event site April 28.

The judges at the competition belonged to the Thayer School of Engineering, IEEE professionals, alumni of former Formula Hybrid team and many other people from various walks of life. Motor racing professionals who have been officiating at FSAE events were also part of the organizing committee or were judges.

To a question, the tem said that to build the race-car alongside their academics, it took them 10 months to complete. The cost incurred is around $25000.

RZ-X6H is a series hybrid prototype which is powered by both the motor, Agni-95R and Pulsar 220cc bike engine. The prototype weighs 318kg with a space framed chassis and uses a lithium ion battery with custom BMS (Battery Management System).

The students said the main design goal in building this race-car was performance and the challenge was to abide by the 35.5 MJ energy limit rule and suitably decide on the architecture to increase performance.

The Formula Hybrid Competition is an interdisciplinary design and engineering challenge for undergraduate and graduate university students. They must collaboratively design and build a formula-style electric or plug-in hybrid racecar and compete in a series of events.

This educational competition emphasizes innovation and fuel efficiency in a high-performance application. The Indian team that included Govind Shenoy, Lalith Keerthan, Abdul Rehman, Shamveel Mohammed, Manraaj Singh, Anushree H N, Nikitha Bhushi, Aishwarya L U and Gokul Suresh, will return to the competition next year with an electric car.

The Power of Money in Politics

May 17, 2016 Ajay GhoshEditorial, Politics, U.S. 0

The recent guilt plea by Congressman Ami Bera’s father, 83-year-old Babulal Bera, that he had violated campaign finance laws by making excessive contributions to his son’s Congressional campaign and now facing a 30-month prison term after pleading guilty to two counts of violating campaign finance laws has brought to the fore the discussions about the power of money in the election process in the greatest democracy in the world. While, no one can condone the so-called illegal ways of contributing money to his son’s tough election battle in the state California, Babulal Bera’s action is so insignificant to the way the rich are influencing the elections and their outcomes across the nation.

In this context, the US Supreme Court ruling in 2013, with the then conservative majority by a 5-4 margin affirming their earlier decision disallowing any limit on corporate election spending, is very significant. Everyone knows the impact of the court’s ruling that has ushered in an era of unprecedented money power that is unleashed on the citizens of this country, influencing their beliefs and voting patterns.

The Supreme Court ruling not only allows individuals and corporations to contribute unlimited money to their respective political parties and candidates, but also they could remain anonymous from disclosing their names and the amount to the public. In the name of the First Amendment, corporations and individuals pour in millions of Dollars into campaigns. The irony is that these biggest donations are given to tax-free advocacy groups of political parties and campaigns in defiance even of the admonition in Citizens United that independent contributions should be disclosed. Congress can — and should — require disclosure of secret donations. The Internal Revenue Service should crack down on political organizations that pose as tax-exempt “social welfare” organizations to avoid current disclosure rules.

The net result of this ruling and its national implications are that rich people are going to buy our elections. Estimates say, the money raised during the 2012 cycle of elections has exceeded an unprecedented three Billion Dollars. If President Obama had vowed to raise a Billion Dollars, his opponent, Mitt Romney raised more money than the President every month since he secured his Party’s nomination.

The 2016 election cycle is going to break all the past records. More than six months before the General Elections, according to a Washington Post report, of the $461.7 million donated so far to support Democratic candidates, 17 percent has been raised by super PACs and other independent groups. The presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton raised $191 million and allied super PACs and other independent groups raised$72.9 million. The presidential campaign of Bernie Sanders raised $184.3 million and allied super PACs and other independent groups raised$4.4 million. Republican Party is not behind in any away. Of the $765.6 million donated so far to support Republican candidates, 55 percent has been raised by super PACs and other independent groups.

This is a blow to democratic governance. It means that the political process in this country is going to be up for sale. It allows billionaires to buy the political process. Businesses all over the place want to do away with regulation on business practices. The banks and finance companies are for deregulation. They don’t want government regulation. The corporations that do not want government regulators to monitor their shady deals could pour in millions of Dollars to elect a President or a Member to the Congress or a Senator of their choice and who would favor their unregulated plundering and mismanagement of wealth and ways to generate profits. This is also true with the elected Judiciary members, where there are cases where corporations have poured millions into an election to oust or have a Judge favorable to deregulation elected to the Courts.

It was of some relief to note Justice Stephen Breyer sharing his unwillingness to accept the majority’s belief, expressed in Citizens United, that independent expenditures do not give rise to corruption or even give the appearance of corruption. He also pointed out that the majority conservative Justices had made it plain that they did not have the slightest interest in reconsidering or altering its (unjust) decision.

Democracy is of the people, by the people and for the people, where a majority decide the type of government and leaders they want to rule over the country. However, when money decides who the winner is and the ruling party is going to be, it is not true democracy. A small minority with its money power is able to buy votes, influence elected officials and ultimately has a greater say in policy making. The more the money the rich spend, the more chance they have, they think, of getting their way and of getting policies that are more to their liking. Billionaires come in and spend tens of millions of dollars to defeat a candidate they don’t like or to support a candidate they do like.

The First Amendment is about freedom of speech. It’s not about freedom to spend unlimited amounts of money in an election to buy votes and influence elections and policies. There’s a difference between speaking freely and the sort of influence-peddling that campaign finance reform laws attempt to protect. And in allowing unlimited political spending, this court has opened the door to corruption and to special interest domination of politics. David Axelrod, President Obama’s political strategist, recently invoked a common perception about the 2012 campaign by blaming the Supreme Court for empowering 21st-century “robber barons trying to take over the government.” And that’s not democracy.

‘Sikh Project’ To Spread Awareness Of Sikh Identity In U.S.

May 17, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

New York, NY: The backlash against colored people, especially after the 9/11 attacks seems to continue. The Sikhs in the US feel they are more likely to face profiling, bigotry and backlash than the average American because of the two symbols of their distinct identity – beard and turban.

To dispel this misperception and spread better awareness about the religion, a new Sikh art exhibit will be held in New York later this year to showcase the pride taken by the community in their religious and cultural practices. UK-based photographers Amit and Naroop will click portraits of Sikh Americans under “The Sikh Project” mounted by The Sikh Coalition. These portraits will be unveiled around the 15th anniversary of 9/11.

The Coalition is the largest Sikh American advocacy and community development organization in the US and works towards the realization of civil and human rights for all people, particularly Sikhs. After their critically acclaimed exhibit in the UK, the two photographers, who are proud of their Sikh heritage, said they are “very excited” about their upcoming exhibition.

“We are very excited! In the US, it will serve as an educational piece as well as an art project as the awareness of the Sikh identity is still misunderstood; so we are hoping it will have a wider impact,” the two photographers told this correspondent in an email interview from New York.

The photography exhibit, which explores the beauty, style and symbolism of the Sikh articles of faith, will include both turbaned men and women and feature a combination of iconic Sikh Americans and a few selected winners.

Speaking about how the idea of ‘Sikh Project’ came to them, the two photographers said it was in 2013 that it struck them when they “noticed men of different backgrounds and ages growing beards for fashion, as part of their identity. Being Sikh photographers, we wanted to show that in our culture, the beard has been a part of the Sikh identity for hundreds of years,” they said in the joint interview.

Talking about the response of the people, the two photographers said it has been “fantastic”.

“The subjects involved have seen the success we have had, so they are excited to be involved. It’s the complete opposite of the UK Singh project as nobody wanted to be involved at first and it took a while for it to build momentum.” They strongly feel that such exhibition will help in showing the Sikh community in the US in a positive light and help fight bigotry they face in their daily lives. “All we can do is to try our best to spread the message. From the response we have had, it appears to have done the job, but there are always more people to reach.”

Holi Celebrations In New York City Showcases Indian Culture

May 17, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity, Culture/Religion 0

Holi, the festival of colors, was celebrated at the Dag Hammarskjold Plaza in mid-town Manhattan on April 30, as thousands of men, women and children, came to enjoy the festival of colors in what organizers see as a trend toward globalization of the ancient Hindu festival celebrating the onset of Spring. The event attracted a multicultural, international crowd that enjoyed throwing colors and dancing to Indian and fusion music played by live bands, as well as watch groups of dancers perform.

Organized by NYC Bhangra Dance Company & School, the event attracted more than 10,000 people, whose numbers were tracked by the wristbands issued, organizers told Desi Talk. It was the largest of the seven “Holi Hai” events held so far by NYC Bhangra, Megha Kalia, founder of the school said.

“The concept of Holi is catching up all over the world. But it’s also about how you package it,” Kalia said. This was a free, family-friendly, no-alcohol event, the only one of its kind in the city, she said. The event was completely funded by NYC Bhangra, and cost more than $60,000 in total costs, with permits, insurance, etc. making up 30 percent, besides execution, production and cleaning, Kalia said.

“There were people from all walks of life, there was great energy. You really saw the magic unfold before you,” she said describing her experience of merging with the crowds in her Bhangra costume and encouraging groups of attendees, including some very shy kids, take to the floor to dance to the beat. A week before, thousands came to celebrate Holi in Brooklyn that featured a local talent in a music and art festival.

2 Young Volunteers From India Honored In USA

May 13, 2016 Ajay GhoshYouth 0

Mahima Varma, 17, of Kolkata and Nikhiya Shamsher, 13, of Bangalore, were honored on May 1st at a gala awards ceremony at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History during the 21st annual presentation of the U.S. Prudential Spirit of Community Awards. Mahima and Nikhiya were presented with special commemorative trophies by Prudential Financial CEO John Strangfeld during the evening event held each year in May to present awards to America’s top two youth volunteers from each state. The honorees were also personally congratulated for their outstanding volunteer service by Academy Award-winning actress Hilary Swank.

Mahima and Nikhiya were named top youth volunteers by India’s Pramerica Spirit of Community Awards program in April. They received awards including an all-expense-paid trip for the special recognition events in Washington, D.C.

Mahima, a class XII student at Loreto House, Kolkata, is the co-founder and regional chair of “Girls for Tomorrow,” a nationwide movement to spread awareness about rape and teach young girls self-defense. In the aftermath of the Nirbhaya incident, Mahima was actively involved in many peace marches and protests. With an understanding that it would take years to change societal mindsets, she and two friends decided to empower girls instead of waiting for change to happen.
With the help of professional teachers, Mahima brings self-defense classes and life skill workshops to girls in three organizations: Udayan, a home and school for children with leprosy, Child Care Home, for girls rescued from red light areas, and Bastee Welfare Center, a literacy center for young mothers.

Nikhiya, a class VIII student at Greenwood High School, Bangalore, has launched two initiatives to educate the underprivileged – “Bags, Books and Blessings” and “Yearn to Learn.” Nikhiya started Bags, Books and Blessings after she realized that there were many children like her who did not have the basic resources to go to school.

She started her donation campaign in school, distributed brochures, put up posters, sent emails to all parents in the school database, and took turns with her friends to visit every classroom to motivate students to donate their schoolbags, textbooks, notebooks, stationery and other items.
Nikhiya also designed a website and urged journalists to spread the word so that more schools would donate. Her efforts yielded results and the donations started pouring in.

When Nikhiya learned that many schools do not have laboratory facilities due to limited resources, she decided to fill this void through fundraising efforts that raised a total of Rs. 4.18 lakhs. So far, Yearn to Learn has set up 11 laboratories in three schools in Bangalore, benefitting 2,250 students. Nikhiya says, “We may not be able to solve the world’s problems, but we can make the little part of the world where we live, a better place.” The Prudential Spirit of Community Awards were created by Prudential in 1995 to encourage youth volunteerism and to identify and reward young role models.

“Rangla Punjab” a colorful treat and sweet taste of Punjabi culture in Chicago

May 13, 2016 Staff ReporterCulture/Religion 0

Chicago IL: The Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago (PCS) presented its lagship annual event “Rangla Punjab 2016” to celebrate Vaisakhi festival on Saturday April 23, 2016, at Meadows Club Banquet Hall in Rolling Meadows, Illinois. More than 200 participants rendered 30 spectacular variety acts in a talent show attended by more than 1000.

Punjabi Cultural Society of Chicago (PCS) has been organizing this traditional Punjabi cultural program titled “Rangla Punjab” for more than two decades. This is the single largest annual Punjabi cultural variety event in Chicago area that show cases the Punjabi performing arts, develops and promotes the local community talent.

The program divided in four segments included dazzling performances of Bhangra and Giddha dances, delightful Punjabi songs, and melodious music, by local and guest artists from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana and Michigan.

Artists of all ages, teenage boys and girls, college students, and adults dressed in a variety of Punjabi colorful costumes and performed their best on stage. Young children were trained by PCS volunteer instructors who were practicing since January of this year for this event.

The variety program were emceed by Jaslin Kaur Nanua & Harmanjit Kaur Dhillon; Mona Bhalla; Guru Dhaliwal & Surinder Singh Sangha; Raskirth Singh & Rajinder Singh Mago.
PCS Vice President Surinder Singh Sangha welcomed the audience. The program opened with singing of a prayer “shabad” by a group of young children from Palatine Gurdwara Gurmat School. Rajinder Singh Mago assisted by Raibrinder Singh Ghotra, Bikram S Chohan, Gagandeep Singh Multani, Pardeep Singh Deol, Parvinder Singh Nanua and Sundeep Singh managed the back stage coordination.

Ronny Kular conducted the awards and recognition ceremonies in cooperation with Sunny Kular. All the sponsors, item coordinators, participants and their families were thanked for their support. Outgoing PCS president Vick Singh was awarded a plaque for his excellent services during his term. Vick Singh thanked his team for their full support in 2015. Outgoing PCS Hon. Chairman Amritpal Singh Sangha was also honored with a plaque.

Priyanka Chopra Has All Praises For Obama After Meeting In White House

May 13, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

Washington, DC: Actress Priyanka Chopra was elated to meet the “very funny and charming” US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner here. The 33-year-old actress, who found global recognition with her character Alex Parrish in the American TV series “Quantico”, looked ravishing in a deep-cut, striped black gown at the dinner held on April 30 night.

The actress was among some of Hollywood’s biggest names like Bradley Cooper, Lucy Liu, Jane Fonda and Gladys Knight to have been invited for the special dinner, which will take place at the White House, said a statement from Priyanka’s representatives.

Priyanka also shared a photograph of herself along with the two. The U.S. President looked dapper in a black suit and crisp white shirt which he teamed with a black bow tie, while Michelle Obama looked lovely in an embellished beige gown.

“Lovely to meet the very funny and charming Barack Obama and the beautiful Michelle Obama,” Priyanka captioned the photograph. “Thank you for a lovely evening. Cannot wait to start working on your girls education program,” she added.

Clinton Promises To Appoint More Asian Americans In Her Administration

May 13, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Washington, DC: Even as both the leading political parties in the United States are wooing the influential Asian American community and seeking to win their trust and votes, Democratic Party’s leading presidential contender, Hillary Clinton has promised to appoint more members of the Asian community in her administration, is she were to win the White House in the upcoming Presidential elections to be held on November 8^th this year. “I want to let you know that I will make sure that you are well represented in my administration if I am fortunate enough to be your president,” Clinton said, according to news reports.

In a video snippet of her speech on the Web, the presidential hopeful urged the enthusiastic audience which shouted her name repeatedly, that they needed to join her campaign, adding, “I want you to be involved not just in my campaign, but more importantly, really governing our country in a way that keeps alive the promise of America,”

Indian Americans have been nominated to several key position under the current Obama administration as never been before. Urging them to be more politically active, President Obama praised the Asian community in his keynote address, and took credit for hiring more Asian-Americans than any past administration. “You’re part of the lifeblood of this nation. You are our teachers and our faith leaders, our doctors, our caretakers, our artists, our shopkeepers, our police officers and firefighters,” Obama said. “You are our soldiers and our sailors, airmen, marines, coast guardsmen, defending our freedom every day. And, increasingly, you are a powerful, visible force in American political life.”

According to Sekhar Narasimhan, founder of the super-PAC AAPI Victory Fund, the takeaway for him from the President’s message was that Asian Americans needed to get moving, get to the polling booths, to make a difference. “Only 56 percent of Asian-Americans are registered to vote, and Indian-Americans probably even less,” said Narasimhan who is also co-chair of the Democratic National Committee’s Indo-American Council. “Indian-Americans are very apathetic, even in the simple act of voting. Our data shows that in the 6 swing states, Nevada, Colorado, Ohio, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida, we are the margin of victory.”

Comedian and author Aziz Ansari was presented with the Vision Award at the gala, along with actor Alan Yang who was the co-star in his latest feature documentary “Master of None. “We need more minority creators,” Ansari said in his acceptance speech, NBC News reported. “Don’t wait for white people to open the door for you,” he added.

The event was emceed by two Indian-Americans, actor Parvesh Cheena and economist and entrepreneur Sonal Shah. Cheena best known for his role on NBC’s sitcom Outsourced and as the voice of the Transformer Blades on Discovery Family Channel’s “Transformers: Rescue Bots.” Shah is currently executive director of the Beeck Center for Social Impact & Innovation and previously was the director of the White House office of Social Innovation and Civic Participation. The 22nd annual gala was attended by more than 1,000 guests including members of Congress, among them Rep. Ami Bera, D-California, political activists, community leaders, and celebrities as well as White House Champions of Change.

Harmeet Dhillon, First Woman Of Indian Origin On Republican National Committee

May 12, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Harmeet Dhillon has become the first ever woman of Indian Origin to be a member of the powerful Republican National Committee. With election to the nation office during the California state GOP convention, Dhillon is expected to be charged with representing the California Republican Party during July’s national convention.

The election to the national committee is another milestone to Dhillon, after she had become the first woman to be elected as the party’s vice chair, where she is currently serving in her third year. Her campaign for committeewoman was unopposed, she did receive the endorsement of nearly every major member of the party within the state. Dhillon, who was born in Chandigarh, and is a Sikh, got elected at the California Republican Party convention.

“I don’t particularly like the way that our debates have been structured,” Dhillon said. “I don’t particularly like the timing and the sequence of the primaries in some states, and I think that we need some changes there.”

According to her, “Donald Trump, seems to be very popular amongst Indian-American first-generation immigrants. I think when a lot of them came to this country they wanted to become millionaires and they wanted to be real estate barons and (they see him and think) ‘look, that guy did it,’ so there’s a lot of admiration for his business acumen and his success story.”

A nationally recognized trial lawyer, Dhillon, 47, was born in India, but raised in rural North Carolina after her Sikh parents moved to the US. “For the next four years starting in late July, I will help shape the policies of the party of Abraham Lincoln and Harriet Tubman, the party of liberty and opportunity,” Dhillon said in a statement, after the election. Based in San Francisco, Dhillon among other things also sat on the board of the American Civil Liberties Union, and once made a financial contribution to Kamala Harris’ campaign for local office.

Following her clerkship with Paul V Niemeyer of the US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, Dhillon’s practice in New York, London, and the San Francisco Bay Area has focused on federal and state commercial litigation and arbitration, with a particular emphasis on unfair competition/trade secret misappropriation, intellectual property (including trademark litigation and internet torts), complex contractual disputes, and First Amendment litigation.

“I could not have done this without the support of a huge number of friends old and new and my family, who have brought me to where I am today. Thank you to my parents Parminder Kaur Dhillon and Tejpal Singh Dhillon for instilling conservative values in me. I am truly honored,” she said.

Email Data of 272.3 Million Stolen Accounts Hacked: On Sale For $1

May 11, 2016 Ajay GhoshScience & Technology, Social Media 0

Hackers know users cling to favorite passwords, resisting admonitions to change credentials regularly and make them more complex. It’s why attackers reuse old passwords found on one account to try to break into other accounts of the same user. After being informed of the potential breach of email credentials, Mail.ru Mail.ru said in a statement emailed to Reuters: “We are now checking, whether any combinations of usernames/passwords match users’ e-mails and are still active.

Google acquires start-up founded by Indian-origin entrepreneur

May 11, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Science & Technology 0

As part of its plans to scale training offerings, Google has acquired Synergyse Training, a business technology start-up founded by an Indian-origin entrepreneur, the California-based search engine giant announced here last week. Toronto-based Synergyse that puts a virtual guide into Google Apps, training you to be productive and stay up to date with changes was founded by Varun Malhotra and his business partners.

“We’re happy to announce Synergyse will be joining Google, and we intend to make the product available as an integral part of the Google Apps offering later this year,” Peter Scocimara, senior director, Google Apps Operations, said in a blog post.

“In 2013, we launched Synergyse Training, with a mission to teach the world how to use Google Apps. Synergyse Training for Google Apps puts a virtual guide into Google Apps, helping users get the most out of their Google Apps experience and training them to be more productive,” Synergyse founders said in an official statement released. “We’re proud to have served more than 4,000,000 people and 3,000 organisations globally,” the statement added.

“By joining the Google Apps team, we can accelerate our mission because we will be working even closer with the teams that build Google Apps,” the statement noted. With the new acquisition Synergyse Training for Google Apps will be free, enabling all Google Apps customers to take advantage of the solution, the company said. Malhotra specialises in training and strategy and has over 10 years of experience in the enterprise space.

Scocimara said Synergyse will be joining Google, and the company intends to make the product available as an integral part of the Google Apps offering later this year.

“By providing the right help at the right time, Synergyse will help our customers with the critical task of change management in the enterprise, and bolster the training and support programs we already offer today,” he said.

Infosys and Levi Strauss & Co. Highlight American India Foundation Annual Bay Area Gala

May 11, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness 0

San Francisco, CA: The American India Foundation (AIF) hosted its Annual Bay Area Gala, bringing together 600 guests, including some of the San Francisco Bay Area’s most influential corporations, venture capitalists, entrepreneurs, Fortune 500 CEOs, luminaries, and community leaders to raise more than $1.5 million on Saturday, April 30, in support of AIF’s poverty alleviation solutions across India. The evening showcased the organization’s groundbreaking work in vocational training and advocacy for India’s disabled population, the Ability-Based Livelihoods Empowerment (ABLE) initiative.

AIF Co-Founder and Co-Chair Lata Krishnan welcomed the audience, thanking sponsors and supporters, while introducing the organization’s new leadership, Co-Chair Ajay Banga, CEO of Mastercard, and AIF President and CEO Alex Counts, longtime CEO of Grameen Foundation. Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director of Infosys, and Chip Bergh, President and Chief Executive Officer of Levi Strauss & Co., were each presented with the AIF Corporate Leadership Award at the Hilton Union Square in San Francisco. A longtime supporter of AIF, Dr. Sikka spoke of the growing importance of the India-US relationship, and how Infosys has embedded social stewardship in its business practices on both continents. “It is my deeply held belief that every individual should be encouraged and supported to reach their true potential. All around us are passionate and determined people who have achieved great things, often overcoming significant personal hardship to flourish. Only by sharing what we have with each other can we amplify our human potential,” said Dr. Sikka. “At Infosys we care deeply about purposeful work – since our founding and through our global Foundations, ours is a culture of creating local and lasting impact in the communities we are part of. In the same spirit, the work of the American Indian Foundation aims to not only solve immediate problems but to develop understanding and knowledge that helps bring meaningful change to communities and positively impact future generations. At Infosys, we are proud to share the same values and mission.”

Abra Annes led a stunning live auction and fundraising drive, which raised a remarkable $404,000 dedicated to the Ability-Based Livelihoods Empowerment (ABLE) initiative. The drive was preceded by a captivating personal testimony by Sophia Shetty, a hearing-impaired woman whose life was changed through the ABLE initiative. “For the first time I realized I had choices that I could make,” said Sophia. “I have an identity of my own, which I never thought I would. I love my job. My colleagues respect me. I am the most hardworking person in my department. I love sewing and I always get more work. But there are millions of deaf people in India who don’t have the same opportunities like I do. They will be dependent on others their entire lives. But all of us are capable of doing something; we are not helpless. If we have the training, we can contribute to the society, take care of our families. It is my dream that all the deaf people in India can get to where I am.”

Award-winning comedian Dhaya Lakshminarayanan emceed the event and delivered humor throughout. Guests enjoyed an exquisite menu designed by internationally acclaimed chef and James Beard Foundation winner Madhur Jaffrey, and a lively performance by Britain’s Got Talent top performer Signature.

AIF’s Ability-Based Livelihoods Empowerment (ABLE) initiative is revolutionizing the industry paradigm in India by providing equal opportunity and access to employment for persons with disabilities, based on a simple belief – it is one’s ability, not disability, that defines any individual. ABLE trains persons with disabilities in fundamental and specialized skill sets – and facilitates their entry into the job market through a robust advocacy platform for disability inclusion, promoting

The American India Foundation is committed to catalyzing social and economic change in India and building a lasting bridge between the United States and India through high-impact interventions in education, livelihoods, public health, and leadership development, with a particular emphasis on empowering girls and women to achieve gender equity. Working closely with local communities, AIF partners with NGOs to develop and test innovative solutions and with governments to create and scale sustainable impact. Founded in 2001 at the initiative of President Bill Clinton following a request from Prime Minister Vajpayee, AIF has impacted the lives of 2.3 million of India’s poor and aims to reach 5 million by 2018.

Debate Erupts in California Over Curriculum on History Of Indian Region

May 11, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation 0

A committee that is entrusted with writing history books for schools in the state of California, finds itself at the center of a raging debate over how to tell the story of South Asia as it tries to update textbooks and revise curriculums. The textbook dispute has come up as the state’s Instructional Quality Commission debates a new framework for the kindergarten to 12th grade social science curriculum, an effort meant to include new research and reflect the state’s increasing diversity. The State Board of Education will vote on the final changes next month.

The dispute centers on whether the region that includes modern-day India, Pakistan and Nepal should be referred to as India or as South Asia, to represent the plurality of cultures there — particularly since India was not a nation-state until 1947. It also touches on how the culture of the region is portrayed, including women’s role in society and the vestiges of the caste system.

It might seem somewhat arcane. But it has prompted petition drives, a #DontEraseIndia social media campaign, and a battle of opinion pieces.

According to the Hindu American Foundation, nearly half of the 2.5 million Hindus in the United States live in California. The Hindu-American group has been particularly active in trying to shape California’s history curriculum. “The civilization that is being covered is Indian,” said Suhag Shukla, the executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, which started the social media campaign #DontEraseIndia. “When you talk about ancient India, that’s the birthplace of Indian students,” she said.

When the committee met earlier this spring, dozens of students turned out at the State Capitol, some in tears, earnestly telling the educators that anything other than India would amount to erasing their heritage. Among other issues that has prompted criticism are: the portrayal of so-called comfort women in World War II; the Armenian genocide; and the discrimination against Sikhs in the United States.

“We have a lot of people engaged in this because we have such a vibrant, diverse state,” said Tom Adams, the deputy superintendent of the California Department of Education, adding, “What we’re really trying to do here is make sure that the children of California have a curriculum that helps them understand all these groups.”

A New York Times report drew attention to “a fight that mirrors similar arguments being made in India, where Hindu nationalist governments have begun overhauls of textbooks in some states. On one side are advocates from the Hindu American Foundation, which seeks to shape the image of Hinduism in the United States. Backed by some scholars, they want the entire area under dispute to be referred to as India, reflecting what they say is the most important influence in the area. They also want the caste system to be explained as a phenomenon of the region, not as a Hindu practice — an idea that is not universally accepted in India. A group of other scholars challenge the historical accuracy of this view. They say the area should be referred to as South Asia. They also say the foundation is trying to sanitize history by wiping out any link between Hinduism and castes.

Quoting Vidhima Shetty, a high school freshman, who had stated, “The board is confusing our cultural terms with geographical terms. By removing India as a term from the textbooks this leaves Indian-American children with no ethnic or cultural identification to turn to. When we acknowledge ourselves as South Asians, us Hindus are forced to re-identify ourselves as something we are not.”

The ongoing strong fight for accuracy in history books has been described by The New York Times as “a reflection of the transformation in California’s population, where Asians, including South Asians, are the fastest-growing demographic.”

Modi invited to address joint session of U.S. Congress

May 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Washington, DC: April 28, 2016: Narendra Modi has achieved yet another milestone during his tenure as the Prime Minister of India. Modi has been invited to address a joint meeting of the US Congress on June 8 during his visit here, Speaker of the US House of Representative Paul Ryan said on Thursday, April 28, 2016.

“The friendship between the United States and India is a pillar of stability in an important region of the world,” Ryan told reporters during his weekly press conference. “This address presents a special opportunity to hear from the elected leader of the world’s most populous democracy on how our two nations can work together to promote our shared values and to increase prosperity. We look forward to welcoming Prime Minister Modi to the US Capitol on June 8,” he said. Modi was invited by President Barack Obama for a bilateral visit when he was in Washington, DC for the nuclear summit.

India has not announced the PM’s visit yet, but Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar is in Washington to finalize the agenda of the visit that is reportedly at the behest of U.S. President Barack Obama. If Modi accepts the invitation and addresses the Congress, he will be the fifth leader of India to have the honor to address the joint session of the US Congress. Earlier, Prime Ministers Manmohan Singh (July 19, 2005), Atal Bihari Vajpayee (September 14, 2000), P V Narasimha Rao (May 18, 1994) and Rajiv Gandhi (July 13, 1985) addressed the joint meeting of the US Congress.

The tradition of foreign leaders and dignitaries addressing Congress began with the Marquis de Lafayette of France, who spoke in the House chamber on December 10, 1824. Ronak D Desai, a Fellow at New America and an Affiliate at the Belfer Center’s India and South Asia Program at Harvard University, has been quoted to have said, “an invitation to Prime Minister Modi to address a Joint Meeting of Congress is significant, given past US policy towards Modi during his time as Chief Minister of Gujarat.”

In a bipartisan initiative, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Ed Royce, the Ranking Democratic member Eliot Engel and Representatives George Holding, and Dr. Amerish ‘Ami’ Bera had written to the speaker on April 20, requesting him to invite Modi to address Congress.

Top U.S. House of Representatives from the Foreign Affairs Committee had called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi to address a joint meeting of Congress during a visit to Washington in June this year. Invitations to address the Senate and House are considered a great honor. There have been only two in the past year: Pope Francis, on September 24, and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, on April 29, 2015.

The invitation would be a sharp turnaround for a leader who was once barred from the United States over massacres of Muslims. In 2002, when Modi had just become Gujarat’s chief minister, more than 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed in sectarian riots in the state. The administration of President George W. Bush denied Modi a visa in 2005 under a 1998 U.S. law barring entry to foreigners who have committed “particularly severe violations of religious freedom.”

“Given the depth of our relationship with India across a range of areas – defence, humanitarian and disaster relief, space cooperation, conservation and innovation – we believe this is an ideal opportunity for the Congress to hear directly from the prime minister,” Representatives Ed Royce, the Republican committee chairman, and Eliot Engel, the panel’s ranking Democrat, wrote to House Speaker Paul Ryan. The letter to Ryan was also signed by Republican Representative George Holding and Democrat Ami Bera, the co-chairmen of the Congress Caucus on India and Indian Americans. A spokeswoman for Ryan said she had no announcement at this time about whether Ryan would extend the invitation.

Modi’s visit is likely to be the last official meeting between the two leaders during President Obama’s final year in office.

Dr. Ajay Lodha Honored With Ellis Island Medals Of Honor

May 10, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

New York, NY: May 9th, 2016: Dr. Ajay Lodha, President-Elect of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), the largest ethnic medical society, representing the interest of over 100,000 Indian American physicians, was honored with the prestigious Ellis Island Medals of Honor on Saturday, May 7th, this year. Dr. Lodha, who was the past president of Rajasthan Association of North America (RANA) and AAPIQLI received the award during the 28th annual Ellis Island Medal of Honor ceremony, held on Ellis Island in New York.

“I am humbled for being chosen to receive this prestigious award,” Dr. Lodha said soon after receiving the award. “I feel there are lot more Indians here in the United States, who are doing outstanding job and make us feel very proud. This award is for all of them.”

1. Dr. Ajay Lodha with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor — Dr. Ajay Lodha with the Ellis Island Medal of Honor

Dr. Ajay Lodha hides a power house of entrepreneurial skills. Dr. Lodha has extensive background of overseeing quality assurance and quality improvement. The honor is yet another way of the Empire State recognizing the importance and influence of the Indian Americans, who are known to be highly successful, and are known for their achievements in education, medicine, community service and business, and high per capita income, Dr. Lodha added.

Dr. Lodha, a former Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President of Caritas Health Care System representing St. John’s Hospital and Mary Immaculate Hospital, is an Internist by profession. A graduate of RNT Medical College, Udaipur, Rajasthan, DR. Lodha completed his residency at Flushing Hospital, NY. He is the Founder and President of Queens Medical Services, a primary care practice with two locations serving Queens, NY since 1995 and is a partner in Hillaire and Nesconset Nursing homes and is a partner of ACO.

In 2008, Dr. Lodha was part of a coalition that built a state-of-the-art 11 bed Surgical Intensive Care Unit for Government Hospital located in Udaipur, Rajasthan, India – free care is given to all the patients. Dr. Lodha in his commitment to the health of the community has organized numerous Health Fairs, Blood Pressure Screenings, and Medical Awareness programs as well as the delivery of educational materials at churches, temples and senior centers. Dr. Ajay Lodha was appointed a member of the Nassau County Comptroller George Maragos’s MWBE Advisory Council last year.

Dr. Ajay Lodha walking up the podium to receive the award on May 7th

Dr. Lodha will assume office as the President of AAPI during the AAPI Convention on July 3rd, 2016. 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. Dr. Lodha lives on Long Island, New York with his wife Dr. Smita and their two children Amit and Shweta.

Ninety distinguished individuals were bestowed with the honor this year, amonf them were five, who are of Indian origin. Padma Lakshmi, an author, actress, model, television host and executive producer, and Dr. Rekha Bhandari, an internist in Brooklyn, New York and is affiliated with Brooklyn Hospital Center and Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center, were among other Indian Americans who received the award last week.

Dr. Ajay Lodha, with his wife, Dr. Smita and their two children Amit and Shweta

To date, nearly 2,000 U.S. citizens have received the medals. The National Ethnic Coalition of Organizations awards Ellis Island medals to Americans who “embody the spirit of America in their celebration of patriotism, tolerance, brotherhood and diversity.” NECO recognizes “individuals 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.”

Kumar Barve Loses Congressional Bid In Maryland

May 4, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Washington, DC: Kumar Barve, the lonest serving Indian American in the state legislature of Maryland, lost his bid for the Democratic Party nomination for his Congressional race from District 8 in the state of Maryland in the April 26 primary election, accruing only two percent of the total votes.

Nine Democratic candidates vied for Maryland’s 8th Congressional District seat, which was left open by Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who is running for the U.S. Senate. Maryland state Senator Jamie Raskin won the Democratic primary with 33 percent of the vote, and will face off against Republican attorney Dan Cox in the Nov. 8 general election. “I ran the best race I could run under the circumstances,” Barve was reported to have told the media. He noted that the race was one of the most expensive in the country, with fellow Democrat David Trone – who came in second – pouring more than $12 million of his own money. Raskin raised almost $2 million, while news anchor Kathleen Matthews, who came in third, raised $2.5 million. Barve had raised more than $600,000.

Barve, who had received a significant endorsement from UNITE-HERE, an international labor union representing 275,000 hospitality workers around the country, among many others, shocking defeat in the primaries held in the state.

During his campaign, Barve, 58, who was born in Schenectady, N.Y., and lived for many decades in Maryland, had stressed his Indian heritage and the example set by his grandfather. “The government tried to strip my grandfather of his citizenship because he wasn’t white, but my grandfather stood strong and fought to defend his rights all the way to the Supreme Court,” Barve says on his website. “His story inspired my journey into public life and I follow in his footsteps and stand up for those who need a voice.”

Barve, 58, is the first Indian-American to be elected to a State Assembly in the history of this country back in 1990. He is credited with authoring several key bills that became law in the heavily Democratic state. He has led his Montgomery County delegation. He served as Majority Leader from 2002 to 2015, and is currently chairman of the House Environment and Transportation Committee.

Former chairman of the Montgomery County Democratic Central Committee George Leventhal, indicated that the seasoned Indian-American legislator’s defeat was a gain for the Assembly. “Montgomery County is fortunate to have both Ana Sol Gutierrez and Kumar Barve serving us so well in the Maryland General Assembly. Although both fell short in their congressional campaigns, they will return to Annapolis with their reputations enhanced and their understanding of our constituents’ needs deepened. I have great respect for both of them,” Leventhal posted on his Facebook page after the primary. Another constituent, Alan Banov commented, “Kumar Barve and Ana Sol Gutierrez were much better qualified than the “money” candidates! they had paid their dues and knew how to legislate.”

Barve said, he will support Raskin in the general election, as well as Van Hollen, and the Democratic presidential nominee. Raskin is virtually certain to win, said Barve, noting that two-thirds of voters in the 8th district are registered as Democrats.

Barve said he did the best he could under the circumstances. He lamented that he was able to secure only 2 percent of the votes despite having some 4,000 Indian-Americans in the state. “Only 300 were registered to vote in a Democratic primary,” Kumar said about his Indian-American constituents.

Barve urged Indian Americans to register to vote in the primaries and state their party preference, noting that primary elections largely determine the fall general election. A large number of Indian Americans are registered as independents, which does not allow them to vote in certain states during the primary elections.

The Durga Project Panned At Battery Dance In New York

May 4, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

(Thursday, April 26, 2016) New York City’s dance ambassador to the world, Battery Dance, introduces an Indo-American, collaborative dance interpretation of Hindu Goddess Durga’s Shakti (strength) and Bhakti (devotion) through the world premiere of “The Durga Project,” featuring renowned classical Indian dancer Unnath H.R. and five of Battery’s Western-trained dancers.

The 30-minute choreographic fantasy, which weaves together the movement vocabularies, sonorities and aesthetics of the United States and India, will also be complemented by works commissioned by European and African choreographers: “Inter/Ago,” created in 2015 by Tadej Brdnik, the recently retired Martha Graham principal dancer and choreographer, who has danced with Battery Dance since 1998; and “Observatory,” created in 2014 by Theo Ndindwa, founder of South Africa’s iKapa Dance Theatre, and since performed in tours of South America, Europe, Asia and at the first Cape Town International Dance Festival in 2015.

World premiere of “The Durga Project” is planned to be held on May 11th at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; May 12th at 7 p.m., followed by a VIP gala at the Schimmel Center for the Arts (3 Spruce Street), Pace University, New York City. For Tickets, please visit: http://batterydance.org/ny-season/

Indian-Americans more tilted towards Democrats, says Sangay K Mishra in new book

May 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics 0

Jersey City, New Jersey: “Indian-Americans are overwhelmingly supporters of Democratic party. But unlike African-Americans these groups are open to persuasion,” Sangay K Mishra, author of the book ‘Desis Divided: The Political Lives of South Asian Americans’ said in a recent interview.

The new book about voting patterns in the United States authored by Mishra seeks to explain how the Indian American community has switched its party support over the past decade and a half. Mishra’s book delves into how the Republican Party’s anti-immigrant stance following the Sept. 11 attacks on the U.S. has leaned the Indian American community towards Democrats.

Explaining the reason for Indian-Americans voting overwhelmingly towards Democratic party, Mishra said it has to do with developments after the recent terrorist attacks on American soil. “Post 9/11 the whole racial hostility has really pushed them towards the Democratic party, because the Republican party has the consistently taken anti-immigrant position. Post 2001, they have moved away from the Republican Party, which is seen more as a party which is opposed to immigrants, which is opposed to immigrant integration,” he said.

At a time, when candidates are fighting for each delegate in closely-contested primary elections in both the parties, Indian Americans in some of the key states like New York, New Jersey, Maryland and California, where they have a sizeable presence, can tilt the equation one way or the other, the author said. “Indian Americans are overwhelmingly supporters of the Democratic Party. But unlike African Americans these groups are open to persuasion,” Mishra said.

Mishra said despite two Indian-Americans – Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley – gaining top positions in the Republican party, this has not made much difference. “The way in which election has developed in the last few months, Republicans have not shown any inclusive side of their party. Anti-immigration, anti-Muslim rhetoric has been very very high. Given this kind of rhetoric, I do not expect much shift in the way the Indian Americans are voting,” Mishra said.

Referring to a survey, Mishra, an assistant professor of political science at Drew University in New Jersey said, “So more than 80 percent of Indian Americans who voted, voted for Democrats. That goes against the idea that Indian Americans since they are affluent they tend to vote more Republican.” Mishra specializes in immigrant political incorporation, Indian diaspora, global immigration and racial and ethnic politics.

GOPIO Aims AT “Strengthening Connections between India and Indian Diaspora trough Business”

May 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness 0

New York City, N.Y. – Apr. 29, 2016 – GOPIO International, the Global Organization of People of Indian Origin (www.gopio.net), has announce the 27th Anniversary Celebrations and GOPIO Biennial Convention 2016 to be held in New York, USA at the Marriott Hotel near LaGuardia Airport on June 24-25, 2016. The theme of the conference is “Strengthening Connections between India and the Global Indian Diaspora through Business and Technology,” and will provide an opportunity to connect and network with people of Indian origin worldwide.

Delegates from over 25 countries are expected to attend the convention which starts on Friday, June 24 with an inauguration and welcome reception. Next day, June 25 will consist of a full day conference sessions to deliberate on the Global Indian Diaspora; evaluate GOPIO’s progress in 27 years; network, exchange ideas, and connect with PIO/NRI delegates from around the world. The event will end with a Grand Finale Banquet at the World’s Fair Marina Banquet Hall on Saturday June 25 evening.

The conference will evaluate, assess, debate, discuss and deliberate on the current, critical issues of interest and concern that confront over 25 million people of Indian origin, living in countries outside of India. GOPIO International President Niraj Baxi invites all PIOs (People of Indian Origin) and NRIs (Non Resident Indians) to avail of this opportunity to attend, emphasizing “This conference will examine several pertinent issues, providing a unique forum for education, information and interactive participation.”

Baxi continued, “On behalf of the newly elected Executive Council of GOPIO International, I invite all GOPIO members to join us at our 2016 Biennial Convention, and help unite forces as we reach across to Indian community worldwide. We want to be the voice of any and all NRIs and PIOs taking initiatives to grow and strengthen our organization. Given our new motto of “GOPIO means business”, the thrust of this convention will be to help connect the global Indian community, enable and promote intra-Diaspora business ventures, as well as bilateral sharing of business resources with India.”

Lal Motwani, Convener, GOPIO Convention 2016 and GOPIO Tri-State New York Area Coordinator extends his invitation to join in, saying “This convention will have a great emphasis on Diaspora’s involvement and contribution in Business, Technology and Investment. Therefore, it is beneficial for you to participate, network and to be known in the Diaspora. We have a great opportunity for you to provide exposure to your business and/or service as a sponsor of the convention, or to place an advertisement in the souvenir journal brought out at the convention.”

The major thrust of this year’s conference sessions will be on Entrepreneurship, Business, Technology and Investment within the Diaspora and India. A second track of conference will be organized by GOPIO Council chairs to develop their strategy for future actions.

Commenting on the upcoming Convention 2016, GOPIO founder president and Conference program chairperson Thomas Abraham said that GOPIO has come a long way since 1989 to sensitize governments across the world on issues of the Indian Diaspora in a timely manner and seek solutions to them. “In 27 years, the Indian Diaspora has moved from outside the political main stream in many countries to political leadership, and this trend will continue. The objective now is to mobilize the Diaspora resources, both professional and financial to help not only India but the Diaspora itself, and the countries they come from,” said Dr. Abraham.

GOPIO leadership hopes that this convention will help charter its course for the organization. “During the last many years, GOPIO has made rapid strides as there have been several new chapters and increased awareness of GOPIO’s advocacy role for issues of the Indian Diaspora,” said Inder Singh, Chairman of GOPIO International.

“In the past, GOPIO election has been conducted at the General Body meeting at our Biennial Convention. As the previously scheduled General Body meeting got postponed for reasons beyond the control of the convention organizing team, we moved forward with the election, which could not be postponed. So now, as per GOPIO Bylaws the new team has organized the General Body meeting at the 2016 Biennial convention in New York City. With leadership of experienced GOPIO people in New York area taking charge to manage and deliver the convention, and the fact that New York area has many delegates to fulfill Bylaws requirement for this meeting quorum, it was a smart decision to hold the General Body meeting, along with the convention in New York.” continued Singh. More details of the convention will be available at http://www.gopio.net/ or contact: GOPIO Convention General Convener Lal Motwani at 516-581-3332.

Fareed Zakaria To Lead Healthcare 2020 CEO Forum With Healthcare Leaders From Around The World At AAPI’s 34th Annual Convention

May 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshCommunity 0

(New York, NY; April 26, 2016): For over three decades, the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) has been in the forefront, educating, informing, advocating and providing a forum for the over 100,000 members whom it represents to have a collective voice in the healthcare industry in the United States.

The fluid political climate in the nation makes the healthcare industry and those who provide and benefit from healthcare services ever more challenging. Now, as the healthcare industry is rapidly evolving with the changes constantly impacting the providers, the Government, and patients, AAPI is once again playing a lead role in bringing together leaders from across the spectrum to discuss and provide insights into what to look for in the year 2020 in the healthcare sector.

Fareed Zakaria writes a foreign affairs column for The Post. He is also the host of CNN’s Fareed Zakaria GPS and a contributing editor for The Atlantic. Before being named to his position at time in October 2010, Zakaria spent 10 years overseeing Newsweek’s editions abroad and eight years as the managing editor of Foreign Affairs. He is the author of “The Post-American World” (2009) and “The Future of Freedom” (2007). Born in India, Zakaria received a B.A. from Yale College and a Ph.D. from Harvard University.

“The AAPI CEO Forum, planned to be held on June 30th from 4 to 6 pm will help the delegates at the Convention in New York City at the prestigious the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30th to July 4th, 2016 better understand the recent trends in the delivery of healthcare to millions across the nation,” said Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chair Person of the Convention Committee.

Anwar Feroz, AAPI’s Honorary Advisor, says, “The CEO Forum will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.”

Dr. Seema Jain says, “Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the years to come. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org and www.aapiusa.org

Dr. Narendra Kumar: Past President Of AKMG/AAPI & Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Recipient

May 3, 2016 Ajay GhoshProfiles 0

“I am humbled and honored by this great honor bestowed on me today,” Dr. Narendra Kumar, president of American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) said, soon after receiving the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman, the Government of India’s highest civilian honor for non-resident Indians in Kochi, India from Shri Pranab Mukherjee, president of India,on January 9th, 2013 during the 11th annual Parvasi Bharatiya Diwas. “I consider this award as the recognition of the achievements and contributions of 100,000 physicians of Indian origin in the United States, whom I represent as its sitting president,” Dr. Kumar added. Dr. Kumar received the award for his achievements in the field of medicine, community service, global leadership and contributions to building bridges between India and the United States.

It’s been a steady growth to prominence for Dr. Narendra Kumar, who took charge of AAPI in June 2012, during its 30th annual Convention in Long Beach, CA. Soon after assuming office, Dr. Narendra Kumar told his fellow physicians: “We will put all our energy in a positive direction in order to restore AAPI’s image, improve financial health, and bring unity, integrity and stability to our organization.”

Sen. Harry Reid Addressing AAPI Legislatiave Day under the leadership of Dr. Kumar in Washington DC

In less than six months, Dr. Kumar and his extraordinarily committed team have worked hard to fulfill those prophetic words. AAPI today is more united than ever, financially stable, expanding steadily and is on the right path strengthening the organization and its 100,00 members, seeking ways to contribute to their motherland.

His leadership qualities and organizational skills came to the forefront and have been hailed by one and all during the Nine-City Musical Tour in the United States as well as during the most recent Global Healthcare Summit 2013 in Kochi, India. With over 1,200 delegates from around the world, the Summit was historic for the number of delegates and the quality of discussions led by world renowned physicians, ceos, and scholars from around the globe, in addition to the many initiatives planned to benefit millions of people in our motherland.

For many, leading such an organization is an honor. However, Dr. Kumar sees this as a responsibility, and said, “I have tried my best to carry on this responsibility with ever greater commitment and dedication.” Serving in various capacities in his local Michigan chapter and subsequently the parent-body, AAPI, Dr. Kumar has an intimate knowledge of the “nuts and bolts” of this giant organization.

When others were hesitant to commit money towards Shreya Ghoshal Musical Tour, especially after he had inherited several hundred thousand Dollars of debt from his predecessors, Dr. Kumar showed courage and innovation, encouraging AAPI and its local Chapters around the nation to play an active role that resulted not only in generating over $1.2 Million but also, brought the Chapters and the national organizations together.

“It all began with the idea of strengthening the relationship between the AAPI Chapters and national office,” Dr. Narendra Kumar says with a sense of pride. “The concept of this program to bring together various local Chapters and its members and Fellows closer has been in my mind for several years. Drs. Jayesh Shah, Ravi Jahagirdar and Hemant Dhingra enthusiastically embraced this idea and the net result of our collaboration and dialogue is the Multi-City Tour.”

Being a leader of an umbrella organization representing over 130 member associations nationwide, and having a total membership of over nearly 100,000 physicians and fellows of Indian origin, Dr. Kumar has ascended to leadership with his decades of hard work and dedication to the organization and the people it is committed to serve. As a Regional Director of AAPI, Dr. Kumar had attended almost all the local AAPI chapter meetings in his region in an attempt to serve as a liaison between the local chapters and the national organization. He has been instrumental in recruiting hundreds of new AAPI patron members to AAPI.

The Pravaasi Bharat Diwas (PBD) Meeting held in New Delhi in January 2007, “gave me a chance to prove my ability to act as political liaison in organizing special interviews with India’s top dignitaries,” Dr. Kumar recalls. Since then, it has been a steady ascendance for Dr. Kumar, culminating in his current position as the president of AAPI.

As the AAPI Treasurer, Dr. Kumar was able to fulfill his promise to keep AAPI finances in proper order by maintaining fiscal stability, accountability and enhance financial health. “It is important to keep financial matters transparent to the membership,” he says.

A man of integrity and giving his best to every effort that he has undertaken both in his professional, family and social life, Dr. Kumar has won the admiration of everyone. In the words of Dr. Jayesh Shah, past President of AAPI, “Dr. Kumar is kind of person that you immediately feel like he is your friend. To describe Dr. Kumar in 3 words: He is personable, go getter and passionate. He can translate any dream into reality by hard work, perseverance, and commitment.”

An accomplished physician and surgeon in the United States, specializing in Otolaryngology- Head & Neck Surgery, Dr. Kumar is a Board Certified Sleep Medicine specialist and founder/Medical Director of Sound and Sleep Diagnostic Labs which includes 4 Sleep Labs in the state of Michigan. Dr. Kumar, who had completed his medical degree from Trivandrum Medical College, Kerala and post-graduate residency from Banaras Hindu University (Varanasi , India ) and Case Western Reserve University , Cleveland, Ohio , is committed to giving back to the community and to the enhancing of opportunities for the professional growth of physicians of Indian origin.

Dr. Kumar with former President of India, Dr. Abdul Kalam Azad

On his commitment to social causes in addition to his professional leadership, Dr. Kumar, who is a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, candidly admits, “Over the past 10 years, I have become increasingly involved in social, professional and political arenas and have taken active leadership roles in various Medical Organizations.”

Dr. Kumar has been involved in social professional and political arenas and has taken active leadership roles in various medical organizations both in USA and abroad. Encouraging his fellow physicians to give generously towards noble causes, Dr. Kumar says, “As members of AAPI, we have not forgotten our roots and are engaged in several activities such as conducting Indo-US Healthcare Summit in Kochi this year that will blaze new trail in healthcare sector in India and will pave way for new frontiers in public private partnership.”

During his tenure in 2004 as the Silver Jubilee President of Association of Kerala Medical Graduates, AKMG Executive Committee was dedicated in taking this organization to the next level by promoting increased member participation, partnering with global AKMG chapters in India and the Middle East, which included the inauguration of AKMG Emirates in Dubai, and furthering its mission to charitable projects. “I was instrumental in establishing Electronic Learning Resource Centers in various government medical colleges in Kerala, raising over $500,000 in alumni donations.

Dr. Kumar leading a delegation to meet with Prime Minister Narendra Modi

Dr. Kumar was instrumental in organizing the Heart-Heart program in conjunction with the Lions Club of Kerala, India which provided free open heart surgery for 150 indigent patients in Kerala, India. In 2004, he helped raise over $150,000 for the charitable wing of AKMG-Humanitarian Services, thru the AKMG Silver Jubilee convention held in Detroit. In 2010, as the Fund Raising Committee Chair- Tri-City Hindu Temple of Mid-Michigan, USA, he helped raise over $2 million to build a Hindu Temple in Michigan.

Dr. Kumar has been active in the political realm too. Since 2002, he has been organizing Indo-American Political Fund Raising events and made substantial contribution for State Governors, Senators, and Congressman Election Campaigns enhancing political image of Indian American Community. In May 2005, as the co-President of the Indo-Pak Friendship Society Convention, organized in Saginaw, Michigan, attended by over 1,200 participants, he was instrumental in enabling the people of these two nations to work together for fostering peace and cooperation.

Dr. Kumar with A K Antony, former Defense Minister and Ramesh Chennithala, Home Minister of the State of Kerala — Dr. Kumar with A K Antony, former Defense Minister and Ramesh Chennithala,
Home Minister of the State of Kerala

Recognizing his leadership and contributions, the AMA honored him with the Leadership Award in 2008. In the same year, he was bestowed with the Kerala Ratna Award and the MAPI Presidential Award. In 2004, Dr. Kumar received the Distinguished Leadership award from Michigan State Medical Society (MSMS), from the President of MSMS. In 2009, he was given the Keraleeyam-Kerala Ratna Leadership Award in New Delhi, presented by Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan, for enhancing the image of Kerala through dedicated service. In 2011, he received the Distinguished Leadership Award from AKMG (Association of Kerala Medical Graduates). Dr. Kumar is also the recipient of Flag Award from Michigan State Medical Society; AKMG Purple Heart Award for Philanthropy; Leadership Award from Kerala Center in New York; and Certificate of Appreciation from R.K. Foundation, Inc. USA. Most recently, he was awarded with the Excellence Award by Price Holding and GOPIO during the Kerala Investment Consortium in Kochi on January 5th, 2013.

Dr. Kumar is married to Meenakshi for 35 years and the couple are blessed with two children, Sarada and Ramesh. Dr. Ramesh Kumar graduated with a Medical Degree from Amrita Institute of Medicine in Kochi, India, and is currently a Ramesh Kumar is a Urology Resident at Henry Ford, Michigan. Sarada completed her Masters in Healthcare Administration from the University of Michigan and is currently on sabbatical, taking care of the family and with her husband, Dr. Arjun Das’ medical practice in Toledo, Ohio. Their 6-year-old grandson and 6-month-old grand-daughter are the pride of the family.

Dr. Kumar is a proven leader entrusted with the task of leading this prestigious global organization that represents the influential and committed members of AAPI. Under his effective leadership, AAPI has become a force to reckon with. AAPI’s stellar role has come in for appreciation with the political leaders both in India and the United States. Ever smiling, affable and approachable, Dr. Kumar is a solid leader in the AAPI tradition.

India Among 175 Countries That Sign Landmark Climate Deal At United Nations

April 28, 2016 Ajay GhoshEnvironment 0

UNITED NATIONS: While there is so much uncertainty, misunderstanding, differences of opinions, ideologies, and tensions around the world between the nations, there was one solemn moment today that brought nearly all the nations and almost the entire humanity together for a common goal: to preserve the Earth for future generations.

The Climate Summit at the world headquarters of the United Nations was symbolic of the urgency felt by the entire world to address the rapidly changing climate, and to recognize the need to stop the degradation of the resources and the Earth itself we have been blessed to have.

Leaders from at least 175 countries signed the Paris Agreement on climate change on Friday, April 22, 2016 as the landmark deal took a key step forward, potentially entering into force years ahead of schedule. “We are in a race against time,” U.N. secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told the gathering. “The era of consumption without consequences is over.”

As many as 175 countries, including India, China and the US, signed the Paris Agreement on climate change at the UN headquarters in New York on Friday, to coincide with ‘International Mother Earth Day’. This was the first day of the signing ceremony of the historic global deal. That such a large number of countries signed the agreement in a single day is significant. The previous record for the most countries to sign an international agreement on one day was set in 1982, when 119 countries signed the ‘Law of the Sea Convention’.

The Paris Agreement, the world’s response to hotter temperatures, rising seas and other impacts of climate change, was reached in December as a major breakthrough in U.N. climate negotiations, which for years were slowed by disputes between rich and poor countries over who should do what. Under the agreement, countries set their own targets for reducing emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The targets are not legally binding, but countries must update them every five years. The agreement aims to take multiple measures to save the world from disastrous consequences of climate change and was adopted by 195 countries in Paris

The agreement will be open for signature for one year – till April 21, 2017. However, merely signing the agreement will not make it operational. The United Nations says 15 countries, several of them small island states under threat from rising seas, did that on April 22nd by depositing their instruments of ratification. The agreement will enter into force once 55 countries representing at least 55 percent of global emissions have formally joined it. Many now expect the climate agreement to enter into force long before the original deadline of 2020. Some say it could happen this year. After signing, countries must formally approve the Paris Agreement through their domestic procedures.

India’s Union Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar signed the agreement on behalf of India. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and some heads of state and government, including French President Francois Hollande addressed the gathering. Also on the list of speakers was Mahindra Group chairman and managing director Anand Mahindra, as a representative of the business and corporate world.

India has maintained that the burden of fighting climate change cannot be put on the shoulders of the poor after decades of industrial development by the rich nations. It has announced plans to quadruple its renewable power capacity to 175 gigawatts by 2022 as part of the government’s plan to supply electricity to every household. However, India has so far not indicated when it would ratify it.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, holding his young granddaughter, joined dozens of world leaders for a signing ceremony that set a record for international diplomacy: Never have so many countries signed an agreement on the first available day. States that don’t sign Friday have a year to do so.

The United States has said it intends to join the agreement this year. The world is watching anxiously: Analysts say that if the agreement enters into force before President Barack Obama leaves office in January, it would be more complicated for his successor to withdraw from the deal because it would take four years to do so under the agreement’s rules. The United States put the deal into economic terms. “The power of this agreement is what it is going to do to unleash the private sector,” Kerry told the gathering, noting that this year is again shaping up to be the hottest year on record.

“The world must work together to ensure that the goals of the Paris Agreement are realized. US commitment to leadership in this arena has helped start a process that must last beyond your presidency,” a group of 145 US lawmakers said in a letter to US President Barack Obama.

China, the world’s top carbon emitter, announced it will “finalize domestic procedures” to ratify the Paris Agreement before the G-20 summit in China in September. Ban immediately welcomed the pledge. Maros Sefcovic, the energy chief for another top emitter, the 28-nation European Union, has said the EU wants to be in the “first wave” of ratifying countries.

French President Francois Hollande, the first to sign the agreement, said Friday he will ask parliament to ratify it by this summer. France’s environment minister is in charge of global climate negotiations. “There is no turning back now,” Hollande told the gathering. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also announced that his country would ratify the agreement this year.

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe brought applause when he declared, “Life itself is at stake in this combat. We have the power to win it.” Countries that had not yet indicated they would sign the agreement Friday include some of the world’s largest oil producers, including Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Nigeria and Kazakhstan, the World Resources Institute said.

Scientific analyses show the initial set of targets that countries pledged before Paris don’t match the agreement’s long-term goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), compared with pre-industrial times. Global average temperatures have already climbed by almost 1 degree Celsius. Last year was the hottest on record. The latest analysis by the Climate Interactive research group shows the Paris pledges put the world on track for 3.5 degrees Celsius of warming. A separate analysis by Climate Action Tracker, a European group, projected warming of 2.7 degrees Celsius. Either way, scientists say the consequences could be catastrophic in some places, wiping out crops, flooding coastal areas and melting Arctic sea ice.

According to reports, as the Paris Agreement moves forward, there is some good news. Global energy emissions, the biggest source of man-made greenhouse gases, were flat last year even though the global economy grew, according to the International Energy Agency. Still, fossil fuels are used much more widely than renewable sources like wind and solar power.

Under Article 21 of the Agreement, the Paris accord will enter into force on the 30th day after the date on which at least 55 parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) deposit their “instruments of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession” with the depositary at UN headquarters.

The Paris deal is the most ambitious climate change agreement in history. It established a long term, durable global framework to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions where 195 countries will work together to put the world on a path to keeping global temperature rise well below 2 degrees Celsius. These countries had also agreed to pursue efforts to limit the increase in temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Parth Bharwad Making a Run for Cupertino, California, City Council

April 28, 2016 Staff ReporterCommunity, Politics 0

Parth Bharwad, a teenager in Cupertino, Calif., has joiond the race to win a city council seat to instill a youthful voice and bring a fresh perspective into the city’s government. According to reports, Parth Bharwad, 19, announced he is running for the council seat in the city he’s called home for the past eight years. Currently a sophomore at Cupertino-based De Anza College, majoring in political science and finance, the young Indian American believes he can change the landscape of the city.

“I believe that you are never too young to make a difference in your community,” he wrote on his webpage. “Since my freshman year of high school, I have been active in the community through volunteering and club activities. I was treasurer and then president of Monta Vista’s Indo-American Student Association and have helped raise over $15,000 for non-profit organizations. We hosted multiple events throughout the Bay Area and at Monta Vista which is how we raised the money. We brought together hundreds of students for cultural dance events, concerts, and talent shows,” he added.

His campaign themes include three fundamental issues: youth empowerment; smart energy; and growth & development. “Cupertino is famous for many things, but what generally tops the list if being the headquarter of Apple Inc. Apple is building a wonderful new campus in Cupertino that is going to bring thousands of new jobs to the city. I believe that growth and development is key for Cupertino but has to be done with proper planning and execution. I have laid out my views on growth and development including support and reservations on various projects,” he says.

“The youth in Cupertino are some of the finest students across the United States with outstanding school ranking and test scores. I believe that local government should be more involved in providing students with the right opportunities to grow and explore in their field of choice,” the teen candidate says. “Protecting the environment is a job that everybody on this Earth has. Similar to how we clean our homes and ensure they are in the best condition, we have to make sure that our planet Earth is taken care of as well. I believe that the first step in protecting the environment is to be aware of the issues. Cupertino is already doing a great job at protecting the enviroment and we need to continue to support eco-friendly initiatives.”

MoneyGram Cricket Bee: Winners announced for Bay Area regional contest

April 28, 2016 Ajay GhoshSports 0

METUCHEN, NJ: Over 200 people registered for the Bay Area regional of the MoneyGram Cricket Bee held at Chabot College on April 17. The three winners of the second regional, answered trivia questions on Cricket to solidify their position at the finals. Auroshish Mishra of Belmont, CA was declared second runner up, Bharat Jayakumar of Sunnyvale, CA was first runner up and the Regional champion was Ravishkumar Bhavsar of Union City, CA.

The competition allows cricket fans to compete for prizes while sharing their knowledge of the game in an effort to win a cash prize of $10,000.

Open to those 18 and older, the contest began with regional rounds in New Jersey, completed San Francisco and will conclude in Toronto, each testing participants’ general cricket knowledge. The regional contest will have two components, a written test and an oral test. In the written qualifier, contestants will be asked 35 questions. They must get at least 25 correct in order to advance to the oral round. In the oral round, the contest will be held on a miss and out basis; simply if a contestant misses the right answer, they are eliminated.

Unlike quiz shows, the Cricket Bee will be conducted so that contestants are actually competing with themselves and the question posed to them as opposed to their peers. Cricket enthusiasts can still participate at the remaining center in Toronto (Apr 24). Contestants can register to compete in the game of their choice at www.cricketbee.com. A sample set of questions and sources will be provided for the participants.

“We are proud to sponsor the 2016 Cricket Bee,” says Joann Chatfield, MoneyGram’s vice president of marketing. “We know that the passion for cricket unites friends and loved ones around the world and brings them closer together. It’s always exciting to be a part of initiatives that support out South Asian communities.

Kawan Foods serves as the powered by sponsor for the innovative event and has been deeply involved with the South Asian community through various initiatives and hopes to connect with the entire Cricketing community here in the US and Canada.

“We want to congratulate the winners of the regional contest and wish them continued success in their endeavor to win $10,000,” said Tim Tan, MD Kawan Foods. “There was a lot of excitement and immense talent at the regional which goes to show how passionate people are about the game. Participants had an opportunity to network and interact with other cricket players and enthusiasts from various cities and I am very happy to have our first set of finalists” said Rahul Walia, Founder of the Cricket Bee

TV Asia serves as the exclusive broadcaster for the event and has been a strong proponent of promoting Cricket in the country. “Our studio was abuzz with the contestants and I was excited to see how much trivia and knowledge they had to share. It’s definitely a great platform for cricket enthusiasts across the country and we are excited to see them at the finals” said HR Shah, chairman and CEO of TV Asia and an avid cricketer himself. The finals are slated for May 7th and are open for the public to watch. You can reserve seats by calling 732-710-4361.

Indian Superhero created by Lee’s POW! Entertainment and Graphic India

April 28, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

New York, NY: April 25, 2016 –As the global film industry continues to be dominated by superhero films based on Stan Lee’s co-creations, including the upcomingX-Men: Age of Apocalypse,the legendary creator is now planning his first Bollywood film for India.

Graphic India, India’s leading character entertainment company, andLee’sPOW! Entertainment,announced today a partnership with Phantom Films, to begin pre-production on alive-action theatrical film for “Chakra The Invincible,” the first Indian superhero created by Lee along with Graphic Co-Founder & CEO, Sharad Devarajan.

The film will be directed by acclaimed filmmaker, VikramadityaMotwane(Lootera, Udaan) who is currently working on the screenplay with Lee and Devarajan. Phantom’s MadhuMantena will produce the film with Devarajan and POW! Entertainment’s Gill Champion. Datta Dave at Tulsea (Motwane’s agent) brought the parties together and structured the arrangement. Unlike the animated kids property, the film version of Chakra will feature an older version of the character in his twenties, set against the spectacular backdrop of Mumbai.

“I’m a fan of Bollywood films and am really excited about launching Chakra the Invincible as my first Bollywood superhero movie,”commented Stan Lee, Chief Creative Officer at POW! Entertainment. “Vikramaditya is an amazingly talented filmmaker who I have no doubt can make the Chakra film a massive hit in India and around the world. I only hope he remembers to include my cameo!”

Says Vikramaditya, “It’s an honor and an absolute delight to be making a film based on a Stan Lee character. We’re very excited and we hope to take comic book filmmaking to the next level with Chakra. And no, we won’t forget Stan’s cameo…”

“Stan Lee’s characters have generated $15 billion at the global box office, creating some of the most beloved icons in entertainment. More people likely know the face of Spider-Man than they do the Mona Lisa,” commented Graphic’s Co-Founder & CEO, Sharad Devarajan. “With VikramMotwane, we have been fortunate to find both a groundbreaking director and a passionate comic book fan, who will be able to create something uniquely Indian, but also authentic to Stan’s pantheon of superhero storytelling.”

Chakra The Invincible was originally launched as a kids animated film on Cartoon Network India two years ago, with three new animated TV movies currently in production to be released on Cartoon Network and Toonami later this year. The hero also built a worldwide following through a digital mobile series launched on Rovio’s ToonsTV available through the Angry Birds game – resulting in more than 40 million views for the Indian superhero. Chakra has also had hundreds of thousands of comic books released worldwide in India and North America.

GRAPHIC INDIA is a character entertainment company focused on creating leading characters, comics and stories through mobile and digital platforms. Graphic’s stories include, Ramayan 3392A.D., The LeavesandThe Sadhu, allcurrently in development as Hollywood feature films; 18 Days, a reimagining of the great eastern epic, the Mahabharata, by acclaimed graphic novel creator, Grant Morrison which was launched as an animated digital series in partnership with YouTube India; Devi, a female superhero from acclaimed filmmaker, ShekharKapur; Chakra The Invincible, the first superhero for India from legendary creator Stan Lee; and numerous other heroes and stories. www.GraphicIndia.com

POW! Entertainment, Inc. (OTCQB: POWN), a multi-media entertainment company, was founded by noted comic book writer Stan Lee, together with award-winning producer Gill Champion and the late intellectual property specialist Arthur Lieberman. Phantom Films is India’s first ‘Directors’ Company’. It was formed by four young creative minds of the country, viz. VikasBahl, Anurag Kashyap, VikramadityaMotwane and MadhuMantena in 2011.

Vivek Maru, CEO of Namati Named Recipient of Skoll Foundation Awards

April 27, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Profiles 0

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.”

Salman Khan Will Be India’s Goodwill Ambassador at Rio Olympics

April 27, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment, Sports 0

Bollywood actor Salman Khan has been named goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent for the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro — an unprecedented appointment in the run-up to the quadrennial extravaganza. The announcement was made in the presence of Olympic medallists and Rio star athletes such as boxer MC Mary Kom, hockey captain Sardar Singh, and shooter Apurvi Chandela, among others. The next Olympics will be held at the Brazilian capital of Rio de Janeiro from August 5-21, 2016.

The association between Salman Khan and the Indian Olympic Association was facilitated by IOA’s official marketing agency IOS Sports & Entertainment. Speaking on this new association with IOA Salman said, “I am honoured that Indian Olympic Association has chosen me as the goodwill ambassador for the Indian contingent for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.”

Commenting on the announcement IOA President N. Ramachandran said, “His association will not only attract sports lovers but also help motivate the players to do well in the Olympics. We are sure our association with Salman Khan will go a long way.”

The athletes too welcomed the move with Mary Kom saying, “This is a big moment for all of us that Mr. Salman Khan has joined us as our family member during Rio Olympics. My preparations for Rio Olympic qualification are going on and I will be competing in the World Championship soon.”

The Indian Olympic Association (IOA), which made the announcement at its headquarters here, chose Salman from a list of two to three candidates which also included Shah Rukh Khan and veteran actor Amitabh Bachchan.

However, the IOA reportedly chose Khan as he is considered to be more connected with the youth and is known to be a sports enthusiast. The 50-year-old is a youth icon and an inspiration for bodybuilding fans across the country. His latest film ‘Sultan’ is a sports-drama which sees Salman in the role of a wrestler who rises from small town origins to achieve international success.

“We welcome Salman Khan as the goodwill ambassador of the Indian contingent for Rio Olympics and his association is in line with our focus to create the required excitement in the country. His association will not only attract sports lovers but also help motivate the players to do well in the Olympics. We are sure our association with Salman Khan will go a long way,” IOA president N. Ramachandran said in a statement. This is the first time that a Bollywood superstar will be a goodwill ambassador for the Indian contingent at the Olympics. A host of sports stars including M.C. Mary Kom, Sardar Singh, Ritu Rani, Deepika Kumari, Apurvi Chandela and Manika Batra were also present on the occasion.

Praising the sportspersons for their hard work and dedication, Khan hoped that they will be able to win medals at the Olympics. ” It is a matter of great national pride that our athletes are performing better and better at the Olympic Games and I think we should all join hands in giving them every support and cheer for them so that Rio 2016 becomes our best Olympic tally. They are extremely talented and hard working. They are not here due to anybody’s recommendation. They are here because they are the best in the country. That is the reason why they are going to the Olympics.”

175 Countries Sign Landmark Climate Deal At United Nations

April 23, 2016 Staff ReporterEnvironment 0

UNITED NATIONS: While there is so much uncertainty, misunderstanding, differences of opinions, ideologies, and tensions around the world between the nations, there was one solemn moment today that brought nearly all the nations and almost the entire humanity together for a common goal: to preserve the Earth for future generations.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry holds his granddaughter as he signs the Paris Agreement on climate change, Friday, April 22, 2016 at U.N. headquarters. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Arun Jaitley Bullish on India’s Economic Prospects

April 22, 2016 Staff ReporterFinance/Economy 0

NEW YORK — Few major economies have performed as well in recent years as India’s, which registered an impressive 7.5 percent GDP growth in 2015. But in an address delivered at Asia Society in New York on Monday, Arun Jaitley, the country’s Minister of Finance, Corporate Affairs, Information and Broadcasting, said that India is far from realizing its vast potential.

“Given our own standards and expectations, of being able to grow faster and eradicate poverty and transform ourselves into a developed economy, we could probably do a little bit better,” he said.

Jaitley is optimistic that India will manage this feat. Under the Make in India initiative, launched in 2014 by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, New Delhi has embarked on an ambitious program to create jobs for millions of its citizens, who together comprise the world’s second-largest population. Infrastructure development is central to this plan. India has invested in building regional airports throughout the country and, according to Jaitley, there are now 233 highways under construction.

But the country’s challenges to achieving its economic goals remain significant. Despite its breakneck growth in recent years, India remains a poor country dominated by an agricultural sector that employs more than half of the national population. And while India has taken steps to spur growth — such as maintaining low interest rates — the economy remains hampered by high logistics costs.

Nevertheless, Jaitley remains confident that, given the country’s trajectory, India will continue to show rapid growth in the years and decades to come. “This is an opportunity we cannot afford to miss,” he said.

In addition to Jaitley, Monday’s event also featured remarks by Indian ambassador to the U.S. Arun Kumar Singh, CII President Naushad Forbes, and Shaktikanta Das, Secretary of the Department of Economic Affairs in the Indian Ministry of Finance. Asia Society Policy Institute President Kevin Rudd introduced each speaker and then moderated a Q&A session following the prepared remarks.

Aishwarya Rai Receives Global Indian of the Year Award

April 22, 2016 Staff ReporterEntertainment, Sports 0

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has won the ‘Global Indian of the Year’ award, and was honored at Non-Resident Indian of the Year award function held in Mumbai in the west Indian Maharashtra state on the evening of April 11.

The actress, 42, dedicated the award to her daughter, Aaradhya. “I was very passionate about making it more than a perceived beauty pageant. For me, I all along believed that it was the opportunity to represent an Indian woman on the international platform. I believe that from then until today, in 2016, it continues,” Bachchan said in a statement here.

“I am glad to have been chosen to be a feature film artist and a career woman. I have had so many opportunities, personally, professionally, socially,” she said. The “Dhoom 2” actress will be seen next in “Sarabjit” alongside Randeep Hooda and Richa Chadda.

Besides Bachchan, noted tennis player Sania Mirza was also honored at the NRI of the Year Awards 2016. Altogether 17 individuals were given the awards under different categories like – entrepreneur, professional, academics, arts & culture, philanthropy, special jury award, global icon of the year and India’s global icon award. The NRI of the Year Award recognises outstanding achievements of the Indian diaspora globally.

India Has Largest Youth Population 356 million10-24 year-olds in India

April 11, 2016 Staff ReporterIndia, Youth 0

United Nations: With 356 million 10-24 year-olds, India has the world’s largest youth population despite having a smaller population than China, a recent report by the United Nations has stated. The report titled ‘The power of 1.8 billion’, said 28 per cent of India’s population is 10 to 24 year-olds, adding that the youth population is growing fastest in the poorest nations. Global number of youths is highest ever.
China is second with 269 million young people, followed by Indonesia (67 million), the US (65 million) and Pakistan (59 million), Nigeria with 57 million, Brazil with 51 million, and Bangladesh with 48 million, the United Nations Population Fund’s (UNFPA) State of the World’s Population report said.

It said that developing countries with large youth populations could see their economies soar, provided they invest heavily in young people’s education and health and protect their rights. Within this generation are 600 million adolescent girls with specific needs, challenges and aspirations for the future, the report said.
As the world is home to 1.8 billion young people between the ages of 10 and 24 year, 9 in 10 of the world’s young population live in less developed countries. “Young people are the innovators, creators, builders and leaders of the future. But they can transform the future only if they have skills, health, decision-making, and real choices in life.
“Today’s record 1.8 billion young people present an enormous opportunity to transform the future,” UNFPA Executive Director Babatunde Osotimehim said. The potential economic gains would be realised through a “demographic dividend”, which can occur when a county’s working age population is larger than the population that is dependent.
“Never before have there been so many young people. Never again is there likely to be such potential for economic and social progress. How we meet the needs and aspirations of young people will define our common future,” the report said.
In order to maximise the dividend, countries must ensure their young working-age populations are equipped to seize opportunities for jobs and other income-earning possibilities, the UN agency said.

Pope Francis Pushes Church to be More Open to the Divorced

April 11, 2016 Staff ReporterCulture/Religion 0

The Eucharist is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak’

In his first major teaching on family issues, Pope Francis advances the power of local bishops to include divorced and remarried Catholics in church life, perhaps even letting them celebrate the Eucharist, while largely sidestepping hot-button social issues like gay marriage and married clergy.

The drama around this document—titled “Amoris Laetitia,” Latin for “The Joy of Love”—has been building for more than two years, ever since Pope Francis first announced he would call Catholic bishops together to examine modern family crises around the world.

The document is Pope Francis’ official response to the two major meetings of bishops he hosted at the Vatican to discuss marriage and family issues—the Extraordinary Synod on the Family in 2014 and Synod of the Bishops in 2015.

Per Vatican custom, Pope Francis considered the bishops’ insights from these events, added his own, and wrote a formal teaching to guide the church on the issues. The result is this 270-page formal letter, called an apostolic exhortation, addressed to bishops, priests, married couples, and lay people about “love in the family.”

The letter is more about pastoral method than doctrine about the marriage itself. Pope Francis seeks to encourage families with practical guidance amid the myriad of challenges they face around the world, including unemployment, migration, poverty, gambling, alcoholism, polygamy and societal pressures that ignore the longstanding Catholic teaching of marriage. The document notes that what seems normal for a bishop on one continent is considered “strange and almost scandalous” for another, and he wants local bishops to seek local solutions.

“I understand those who prefer a more rigorous pastoral care which leaves no room for confusion,” Pope Francis says. “But I sincerely believe that Jesus wants a Church attentive to the goodness which the Holy Spirit sows in the midst of human weakness, a Mother who, while clearly expressing her objective teaching, ‘always does what good she can, even if in the process, her shoes get soiled by the mud on the street.’”

This openness can at times seem to give vague answers. Pope Francis says that divorced and remarried people are “not excommunicated” and should not feel “discriminated against”—he stops short of directly saying they are welcome to take the bread and wine at Eucharist, but then adds in a footnote: “I would also point out that the Eucharist ‘is not a prize for the perfect, but a powerful medicine and nourishment for the weak.’”

On Wednesday, two days before the letter’s release, he met with a support group for divorced and remarried couples. In September, he made it easier for couples to obtain an annulment, which is not a divorce but a finding by Catholic officials that a marriage between a man and a woman was not a real marriage—a necessary step to return to celebrating Eucharist in the church now.

Several others of his most interesting lines are also the least clear. “The experience of the broad oriental tradition of a married clergy could also be drawn upon,” he writes, without specificying what that means in the context of the debate over married clergy in non-Eastern traditions. As expected, Pope Francis reminds Catholics that gay marriage is not marriage and that couples that cohabit are still in “irregular” unions. He only mentions gay marriage twice, but he also suggests that unions that are not marriages in the Church’s eyes can offer limited wisdom: “The Synod Fathers stated that the Church does not disregard the constructive elements in those situations which do not yet or no longer correspond to her teaching on marriage.”

Pope Francis does name a few specific policies he wants churches to implement. Local churches, he says, need to develop and deepen programs for marriage preparation—engagement periods are often too short, and couples need more training before they walk down the aisle. There should also be specialized regional counseling centers for families going through crises, he says, especially separation and divorce. He also asks for pastoral programs for migrant families and the relatives they’ve left behind.

Much of his teaching on marriage for spouses is fairly simple, similar to what one would expect from a local parish pastor. Don’t be arrogant, especially to non-believing family members. Forgive and trust each other. Show affection. Don’t keep secrets from each another. Be open-minded. Care for the elderly. Don’t fall asleep with your electronic device because it might mean you are ignoring your spouse. For churches, he also offers some practical suggesions: train ministers to better help families, mentor young couples, and encourage couples especially when they have young children or are empty-nesters.

To look at this document simply for a definitive Francis answer on a controversial topic misses the bigger picture. Pope Francis is trying to create a new culture of how bishops lead, and he wants them to think first of the person and her circumstances, instead of doctrine in the abstract. He sets the example and references teaching of bishops conferences frequently in the letter, including those in Spain, Korea, Mexico, Columbia and Kenya. It is important to remember that this teaching is for the world’s 1.2 billion Catholics, not just a subset in a specific country.

One of the most important parts of this teaching may not actually the letter itself, but the conversation it has provoked for the past two years. The synod gatherings themselves were particularly heated, but brought dialogue about issues that can get ignored. At the three-week meeting in 2014, one of the bishops’ working documents sparked a media firestorm when it included a section called “Welcoming homosexual persons.”Interpreters looking for revolution quickly learned they’d overreached. The section was later struck down, but a point had been made: Catholics across the world were deeply discussing issues, which is the Francis way.

Mercy, in the end, remains his constant theme. “No one can be condemned for ever, because that is not the logic of the Gospel!” he writes. “Here I am not speaking only of the divorced and remarried, but of everyone, in whatever situation they find themselves.”

Global Tax Avoidance Huge Problem: Obama

April 11, 2016 Staff ReporterBusiness, U.S. 0

In his first reaction to the leaked ‘Panama Papers’ that revealed names of thousands of world leaders and celebrities who have stashed money in tax havens, President Barack Obama has said that global tax avoidance may be running into trillions of dollars worldwide. “There is no doubt that the problem of global tax avoidance, generally, is a huge problem,” Obama said adding the issue has been brought up in G7 and G20 meetings.

“There has been some progress made in coordinating between tax authorities of different countries so that we can make sure that we’re catching some of the most egregious examples,” he said. “But as I said before, one of the big problems that we have is that a lot of this stuff is not illegal. Unless the United States and other countries lead by example in closing some of these loopholes and provisions, then in many cases you can trace what’s taking place, but you can’t stop it. There is always going to be some illicit movement of funds around the world. But we shouldn’t make it easy. We shouldn’t make it legal to engage in transactions just to avoid taxes,” he asserted.

“That’s why I think it is important that the Treasury acted on something that’s different from what happened in Panama. The corporate inversions issue is a financial transaction that is brokered among major Fortune 500 companies to avoid paying taxes,” he said.

“But the basic principle is making sure that everybody is paying their fair share, and that they don’t just have a few people who are able to take advantage of tax provisions, that’s something that they really have to pay attention to.

“This is all net outflows of money that could be spent on the pressing needs here in the United States. The volume that you start seeing when you combine legal tax avoidance with illicit tax avoidance, or some of the activities that we’re seeing, this is not just billions of dollars. It’s not even just hundreds of billions of dollars. Estimates are this may be trillions of dollars worldwide, and it could make a big difference in terms of what we can do here,” Obama said.

Obama urged the Republican-controlled Congress to close legal loopholes so as to prevent American companies from evading taxes and shipping jobs overseas. “We should keep building an economy where everybody has a fair shot, and everybody plays by the same rules,” Obama said a day after the US Treasury Department issued new set of rules making it more difficult for US companies to save taxes by shipping jobs abroad.

Americans, he stressed, should be able to know that big corporations aren’t playing by a different set of rules. “In the news over the last couple of days, we’ve had another reminder in this big dump of data coming out of Panama that tax avoidance is a big, global problem. Its not unique to other countries because, frankly, there are folks here in America who are taking advantage of the same stuff. A lot of it is legal, but that’s exactly the problem,” Obama said.

H-1B Applications For 2017 Reach Target

April 11, 2016 Ajay GhoshTravel, U.S. 0

WASHINGTON – U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has reached the congressionally mandated H-1B cap for fiscal year (FY) 2017. USCIS has also received more than the limit of 20,000 H-1B petitions filed under the U.S. advanced degree exemption, a press release issued by the USICS stated.

USCIS will use a computer-generated process, also known as the lottery, to randomly select the petitions needed to meet the caps of 65,000 visas for the general category and 20,000 for the advanced degree exemption.

USCIS will first randomly select petitions for the advanced degree exemption. All unselected advanced degree petitions will become part of the random selection process for the 65,000 general cap. The agency will reject and return filing fees for all unselected cap-subject petitions that are not duplicate filings.

Application for the highly sought after visa program began on April 1, for the fiscal year 2017 beginning October 1, this year. Before running the lottery, USCIS will complete initial intake for all filings received during the filing period, which ended April 7. Due to the high number of petitions, USCIS is not yet able to announce the date it will conduct the random selection process.

This is fourth consecutive year that the Congressional mandated cap has been reached in the first five days of the filing. Majority of these estimated 200,000 H-1B visa applications are “certainly” either by companies that have Indian owner like TCS or companies that have substantial operations or development centres in India like IBM, Stock said in response to a question.

President of the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) Victor Nieblas Pradis said the “avalanche” of petitions for H-1B visas mean that USCIS will once again randomly determine which of those petitions will actually be considered for one of the 85,000 available visas.

USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions that are otherwise exempt from the cap. Petitions filed on behalf of current H-1B workers who have been counted previously against the cap, and who still retain their cap number, will also not be counted toward the congressionally mandated FY 2017 H-1B cap. USCIS will continue to accept and process petitions filed to: Extend the amount of time a current H-1B worker may remain in the United States; Change the terms of employment for current H-1B workers; Allow current H-1B workers to change employers; and, Allow current H-1B workers to work concurrently in a second H-1B position.

U.S. businesses use the H-1B program to employ foreign workers in occupations that require highly specialized knowledge in fields such as science, engineering and computer programming. For more information on USCIS and its programs, please visit uscis.gov

2 Million Dollar Car in New York Auto Show

April 6, 2016 Staff ReporterBusiness 0

At the New York Auto Show on Thursday (March 24, 2016), Koenigsegg showed its $2 million Regera “hypercar” for the first time ever in the United States. It’s a big deal because while the small Swedish company has never had much of a presence stateside, it is billing this futuristic coupe as the ultimate “Bugatti killer.”

“There is something very natural about it, very intuitive,” company founder Christian von Koenigsegg said during the unveiling. “And it’s attainable. We can reach 200 miles per hour in 0.6 miles. And that’s pretty much unheard of. So if you have a racetrack with that straight, you can go 200 miles per hour pretty easily. So it’s attainable speed, attainable power.”

Indeed, the 1,500-plus-horsepower Regera combines three electric motors with a traditional combustion engine: There is a 1,200-horsepower twin turbo 5-liter V8 (attached to one of the electric motors), plus two electric motors at the back wheels that help produce a combined 720e horsepower. Von Koenigsegg boasted that despite the 1,500-plus-hp official report, the true power rating may be closer to 1,800.

Regera also has a unique direct drive system that replaces the traditional transmission system. “This is the only combustion-engine sports car I know that doesn’t have a transmission,” von Koenigsegg said, adding that he had the idea for the car years ago but developed the necessary technology only recently. “The engine is also directly connected to the rear axle. That was possible because of the electrification.”

At 3,000 pounds, with carbon fiber construction and totally automatic doors and rear half, the Regera is still extremely light. “To keep the car light, we didn’t want to add things we don’t need,” von Koenigsegg said. Translation: While the car has Apple Car Play and Internet access inside, don’t expect to see a cup holder.

That devotion to shedding ounces helped give the car a seamless acceleration to its top speed of 248 mph, which it can hit in just under 20 seconds. Zero to 60 mph takes 2.8 seconds. Those specs aren’t quite as impressive as Bugatti’s new Chiron (288 mph top speed and 2-second-flat sprint time), but von Koenigsegg said it’s the nuance that makes the difference.

“No other car can go faster up to 230 mph—or in such a short distance,” he said. Look for the Regera to come on sale at the Manhattan Motorcars dealership later this year. The plan is to build 80 of them; half have already been sold.

5th Annual Outstanding Women’s Gala On Long Island Held

April 6, 2016 Staff ReporterWomen 0

By Indu Jaiswal

Long Island, NY: The Indian American Forum (IAF) honored five women leaders for their leadership and contributions to the larger society and humanity during the 5^th annual gala organized on Long Island, New York. As Town of North Hempstead Supervisor Judi Bosworth, Town of Hempstead Councilwoman Dorothy Goosby, Town of Hempstead Clerk Nasreen Ahmed (Among many other VIPs) walked into Antun’s of Hicksville on Thursday March 24, they all very well felt the pride and achievement in the air. The Grand ball room was full of so many accomplished and elite, who’s who of the society gathered for one singular purpose, to be the part of and celebrate 5th Outstanding Women’s Achievements Gala, part of Women’s History Month and International Women’s Day Celebrations.

IAF, led by Indu Jaiswal, known for her strong commitment and dedication to the community cause was the organizing force behind the gala. This year well known business woman Vandana Govil was the Chairperson of the Gala. And of course the hall was beautifully decorated with spring flowers and theme. Evening started with prayers led by Amita Karwal and Sunny Marerkar. Indu Jaiswal Chairperson of IAF in her remarks welcomed all the guests congratulated all the honorees and praised their efforts in achieving such success. Vandana Govil congratulated all the honorees and also thanked all the guests

American National Anthem was sung by Gurbani Kaur Sethi and Indian National Anthem sung by Amita Karwal… Master of Ceremonies Mr Anuj Rihal and Chanbir Kaur Sethi made the evening enjoyable. Chanbir Kaur coordinated a brief Q&A session with the honorees discussing and emphasizing their accomplishments

In addition to Judi Bosworth who was also presented with an award, 5 other distinguished women who had excelled in their profession and community services were presented with Outstanding Women’s achievements Awards

Dr Manjeet Chadha for dedication in medicine and community Services. Dr Chadha is Professor of Radiation Oncology at the Icahn School of medicine at Mount Sinai , and the Director of the Department at mount Sinai Beth Isreal. She also served as the Director for Breast and Gynecologic cancer programs for Radiation Oncology at Continuum Cancer enter. Dr Chadha is a fellow of the American Society of Radiation Oncology, an honor bestowed on highly select oncologist

Jyoti Gupta for dedication in Music and cultural promotions. Jyoti is extremely involved in social and cultural activities, which include singing shabads, acting, dancing, comedy and helping others. Jyoti is in active member of India Association of Long Island and IDPUSA. As chair of Sangeet Forum of IALI Jyoti organizes monthly musical programs for seniors and adults.

Sunita Sadhnani for dedication in Business Development and Community Services. Sunita is the Founder of Bollywood Preforming Arts, long island’s first ever entertainment and dance studio to promote Indian traditional and Bollywood dance… Sunita also started and she founded Glamorous Event Planners for entertainment and special big events. Sunita is a member of most event and Planners associations, and stays on top of trends by regularly attending national Conferences, She is also a member of the Rotary of the Jericho Sunrise Rotary Club, and she is also an accomplished singer

Dr Runi Mukherji Ratnam for dedication in education and Social Services. Dr Ratnam is professor of Psychology in the department of Psychology, State University of New York Old Westbury. She has served as its chair for almost a decade. She has been actively involved for many years with the Center for the study of Asian American Health, Langone Medical Center, New York School of Medicine, Center for immigrant Health, the Montefiore Medical Center as well as the university Hospital at Einstein College of Medicine. Runi is the President of SACSS and Founder of Young Indian Culture Group.

Meera T Gandhi for dedication as Humanitarian and Social Promotions. Meera T Gandhi id the CEO of and founder of Giving Back Foundation. She is an international community leader committed humanitarian and philanthropist dedicated to solutions to human suffering and deprivation around the globe. The foundation is based in New York and has offices in India HK, and London. Transformational Education of the girl child is the primary mission of the giving back foundation.

Judi Bosworth was all in praises for the efforts of Indian American Forum and Indian American Community. She congratulated all honorees and stressed the importance of role women are playing in this world. Citations of behalf of Nassau County Executive Edward P Mangano were presented by Zahid Syed, Chairman of Human right Commission Nassau County to all honorees. Syed praised their efforts and congratulated them for their achievements. Citations were presented from the town of Hempstead Supervisor Anthony Santino by Councilwoman Goosby and town Clerk Nasrin Ahmed. New York State Senator Jack Martins also sent citations for the honorees

Among those present during the event were Bobby Kalotee Founder of IAF, Nassau County Human right Commissioner Sharanjit Singh Thind, Dr Ajay Lodha, Incoming President National AAPI,Beena Kothari, President of India Association of Long Island, Sher Madra , Shammi Singh and Peter Bheddah, Board of Directors of Nargis Dutt Foundation, Shashi Anand well known business woman, Hassena Moopan from Domestic Harmony Foundation, Rizwan Qureshi from HAB Bank, Roopam Maini from Indus American Bank, Sudesh Mukhi from Arya Semaj of Long Island, Sangeeta Bahl, President of Rotary Club, and several other dignitaries were present

Vocal performances presented by Sunny Marerkar and Amita Karwal, Dance performances presented by Bollywood Performing Arts and Shilpa Jhurani and her students from Arya Dance academy. Mr Mohinder Taneja and Animesh Goenka gave special thanks for all of our sponsors and media partners…

Board of Trustees Dr Bhupi Patel, Surinder Rametra, Bobby Kalotee, Dr Ved Kawatra, Animesh Goenka, Volunteers Nirmala Rametra, Jaya Bahadkar, Anu Gulati, Dr Meena Jaiswal, Vijay Goswamy, Tejal Kamath and Many other helped in making the event a grand success. It was indeed a very successful evening, showcasing and honoring outstanding women achievers, who are successful in business, cultural, professional, education, and medical. Community and social services.

Indian Consulate In New York To Streamline Passport Services

April 6, 2016 Staff ReporterTravel 0

Responding to numerous complaints from the public of poor and inefficient consular services at the Indian Consulate, New York Consul General Riva Ganguly Das, in her first interaction with the media on March 30^th, reached out to streamline and improve the quality of services rendered by the Consulate and its affiliate organizations in the New York region.

Ambassador Ganguly Das announced the decision by the Government of India to engage a new company, CKGS, to take over from the present BLS International company, against whom some complaints from the community, have been received, to take care of the passport services.

“We have to have a system which is responsible to the people. Our expectation is that they (the new company) will provide excellent services to the people and without any problem or harassment,” Ganguly Das said.

The new company will take over from May 7, but those who would have applied already through the current contractor before the term of the BLS expires, would get services from the consulate for emergency services.

During the interactive meeting, Ganguly Das opened the floor for reporters, asking them for suggestions as to what the consulate could do better for the community as well as for the press corps. In the next two hours after her introductory remarks around noon March 30, there were questions, including about better consular services, better media coordination by those in charge at the consulate, and more interaction with the vernacular media in the New York region. There were some three-dozen-odd media personnel at the event.

Ganguly Das said that first and foremost she wants to engage with the media and would like to reach out to the community through them in addition to the consulate’s own outreach efforts.
She wanted the media to carry important messages from the consulate for the community through their columns.

The new Consul General said that one of her targets is to engage with the young Indian-Americans. “The challenge is to bring young people to engage with us”, and asked for suggestions from journalists towards that goal. “We want to interact intensively and extensively with the community here and the consulate is open for messages and suggestions from the community.”

Nuclear Weapons: Greatest Threats To Global Security

April 1, 2016 Ajay GhoshEditorial 0

“Of all the threats to global security and peace, the most dangerous is the proliferation and potential use of nuclear weapons,” wrote President Barack Obama in an article he wrote for The Washington Post. Quoting former President Ronald Reagan, who had said “we seek the total elimination one day of nuclear weapons from the face of the Earth,” Obama wrote, “That’s why, seven years ago in Prague, I committed the United States to stopping the spread of nuclear weapons and to seeking a world without them.” Obama inaugurated the first Nuclear Security Summit nearly six years ago, after a landmark speech in Prague in 2009 laying out the goal of a world free of nuclear weapons.

More than 50 world leaders along with international organizations like the United Nations and INTERPOL attended the fourth and final Nuclear Security Summit 2016 of Obama’s presidency, March 31st – April 1st focusing on efforts to lock down vulnerable atomic materials to prevent nuclear terrorism, which he called “one of the greatest threats to global security” in the 21st century. While speaking at the nuclear security summit in Washington, Obama said, the world faced a persistent and evolving threat of nuclear terrorism despite progress in reducing such risks. But he insisted: “We cannot be complacent.”

While addressing the Summit leaders, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India pledged to accord a high national priority to nuclear security through strong institutional framework, independent regulatory agency and trained and specialized manpower, while developing and deploying technology to deter and defend against nuclear terrorism, by making efforts to stop nuclear smuggling and strengthen the national detection architecture for nuclear and radioactive material.

These biannual nuclear summits, aimed at locking down fissile material worldwide that could be used for doomsday weapons, were proposed by President Obama back in 2009, barely two months into his presidency. “We must insure that terrorists never acquire a nuclear weapon,” he declared, calling such a scenario “the most immediate and extreme threat to global security.” In that same April 2009 speech, Obama challenged the world’s keepers of some 2,000 tons of highly enriched uranium and plutonium to “secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years.”

Since the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, proliferation of nuclear weapons has increased tremendously. During the Cold War, much of the debate centered on the U.S.-Soviet nuclear balance. Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, nuclear weapons have continued to be a major preoccupation of America, with more nations acquiring the nuclear weapons and many more trying to build nuclear arsenals. But, the most dangerous threat has been from the terrorist and rogue groups that have been stealing and making all out efforts to get hold of enriched uranium, a component that is used to build nuclear weapons.

Deadly bomb attacks in Brussels last month have fueled concern that Islamic State could eventually target nuclear plants, steal material and develop radioactive “dirty bombs”. Militants were found to have videotaped the daily routine of a senior manager of a Belgian nuclear plant, Obama said. Obama said the required 102 countries had now ratified an amendment to a nuclear security treaty that would tighten protections against nuclear theft and smuggling. “Our nations have made it harder for terrorists to get their hands on nuclear materials. We have measurably reduced the risks,” Obama said. But he acknowledged that with roughly 2,000 tons of nuclear material stored around the word, “not all of this is properly secured.”

While gains have been made, arms-control advocates say the diplomatic process – which Obama conceived and championed – has lost momentum and could slow further once he leaves the White House in January, next year. A boycott by Russian President Vladimir Putin, unwilling to join in a U.S.-dominated gathering at a time of increased tensions between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine and Syria, added to doubts that the meeting would yield any major decisions.

Moscow, which holds the world’s largest nuclear weapons stockpiles, ended virtually all its nuclear cooperation with the U.S. more than two years ago as part of the political fallout from tensions over Ukraine. “One could argue that without Russia there to weaken some of the [summit’s] statements, as it has done in the past, you could probably get more forceful results,” says Olga Oliker, a Russia expert at CSIS. “I mean, there’s progress that could be made on a number of areas, but there are a lot of areas where Russia’s absence is sort of a missing elephant in the room.”

Nuclear Weapons: Greatest Threats To Global Security — Seated from left, Chinese President Xi Jinping, President Barack Obama, and India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi

World leaders and international organizations pledged to boost communal efforts to secure nuclear materials. But there won’t be any more global summits on the issue in the near future. The leaders said in a joint communique at the summit’s close that this year’s meeting will be the last. They’re turning to the United Nations, Interpol, the International Atomic Energy Agency and other entities to take over responsibility for the issue. The broad goal of the summit process has been to address the threat of nuclear terrorism by minimizing and securing weapons-usable nuclear materials, enhancing international cooperation to prevent the illicit acquisition of nuclear material by non-state actors such as terrorist groups and smugglers, and taking steps to strengthen the global nuclear security system.

The world leaders say there’s more work to prevent nuclear terrorism and promote disarmament, which requires further international cooperation President Barack Obama says there’s a persistent and evolving threat of terrorists conducting a nuclear attack.

For now, U.S. experts are less concerned about militants obtaining nuclear weapon components than about thefts of ingredients for a low-tech dirty bomb that would use conventional explosives to disperse radioactive material and sow panic. U.S. officials said they had no doubt that Islamic State, which controls swaths of Syria and Iraq, was interested in obtaining such materials, but authorities had no explicit evidence that the group had tried to do so.

Rightly so, in his concluding remarks at the Nuclear Summit 2016, President Barack Obama urged world leaders on April 1st to do more to safeguard vulnerable nuclear facilities to prevent “madmen” from groups like Islamic State from getting their hands on a nuclear weapon or a radioactive “dirty bomb.” Obama said no group had succeeded in obtaining bomb materials but that al Qaeda had long sought them and cited actions by Islamic State militants behind recent attacks in Paris and Brussels that raised similar concerns. There is no doubt that if these madmen ever got their hands on a nuclear bomb or nuclear material, they would certainly use it to kill as many innocent people as possible,” he said. “It would change our world.”

Nine countries together possess more than 15,000 nuclear weapons. The United States and Russia maintain roughly 1,800 of their nuclear weapons on high-alert status – ready to be launched within minutes of a warning. Most are many times more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945. A single nuclear warhead, if detonated on a large city, could kill millions of people, with the effects persisting for decades.

China is seeking to soon achieve a nuclear triad (land, air, and sea-based nuclear delivery capabilities). Analysts estimate that China’s inventory is close to two hundred and fifty warheads. This includes short, intermediate, and long-range ballistic missiles. Some experts say China has as many as sixty long-range missiles with ranges between 4,350-9,320 miles. North Korea’s quest to acquire nuclear weapons has been never ending.

Southern Asia is home to three nuclear powers—China, India, and Pakistan—that continue to expand and modernize their arms programs. Motivated by the need to address perceived security threats, each is seeking to expand ballistic missile and cruise missile-based nuclear delivery systems. Such nuclear competition is dangerous given mounting mistrust and a dearth of diplomatic measures in place to reduce risk of confrontation. Experts estimate that Pakistan has 110 to 130 warheads and two types of delivery vehicles (PDF): aircraft and surface-to-surface missiles. Pakistan’s chronic political instability, spotty nonproliferation record, and ongoing threats posed by militant forces have focused special concern on the safety of its nuclear materials.

India possesses a developed strategic nuclear program and currently fields nuclear-capable aircraft and ballistic missiles controlled by a civilian command structure, the Nuclear Command Authority. New Delhi has an estimated stockpile of 110 to 120 warheads and is expanding its military nuclear capabilities. In 2011, New Delhi spent approximately $4.9 billion (PDF) on nuclear weapons, up from $4.1 billion the previous year, according to Global Zero, a nongovernmental disarmament movement.

The United States and India negotiated a landmark civil nuclear deal beginning in 2005, which was later signed into U.S. law in 2008. Washington saw the deal as a practical way to overcome barriers to cooperation and also because it believed “it would be better to have India inside the international nonproliferation tent than outside,” says CFR’s Alyssa Ayres. Other nuclear energy powers also boost India’s civilian program: Tokyo pledged to negotiate a nuclear energy pact, a deal with Australia allows the export of uranium to India, and Russia has assisted India for years on the construction of reactors, with new deals in the works between the two countries. While India remains outside the NPT and the CTBT, its civilian nuclear facilities are now under IAEA safeguards and India has signed and ratified the IAEA Additional Protocol.

The failure of the nuclear powers to disarm has heightened the risk that other countries will acquire nuclear weapons. The only guarantee against the spread and use of nuclear weapons is to eliminate them without delay. Although the leaders of some nuclear-armed nations have expressed their vision for a nuclear-weapon-free world, they have failed to develop any detailed plans to eliminate their arsenals and are modernizing them.

According to analysts, nuclear safeguards like those that have emerged from previous Nuclear Security Summits are playing an increasingly important role in protecting the world from security threats. White House Deputy National Security Advisor Benjamin Rhodes all but declares that goal accomplished, pointing to the achievements of the previous three summits. “Because of these efforts, it is harder than ever before for terrorists or bad actors to acquire nuclear materials,” Rhodes told reporters in a conference call prior to this week’s summit. “That, of course, makes all of our people more secure.”

According to Sharon Squassoni, a non-proliferation expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington defense think tank, the job isn’t finished, warning that the political pressure to get it done is waning. “We know what to do,” she says. “The question is, do we have enough willpower and money and attention to do it.”

Will Raising Minimum Wages & Raising Taxes On The Rich Solve Income Inequality?

April 1, 2016 Ajay GhoshEditorial 0

There is an increasing anger among the majority of people in the country towards the American establishment, towards the mainstream American politicians and towards both the political parties. The rise and growing popularity of unconventional politicians with varied ideologies and outlook to the future of the United States in both the Republican and the Democratic Parties may be explained, to some extent due to this growing frustration among the middle class and the poor in this country.

Income inequality is one of the major global issues talked about today. It is the bane of the working class’s existence. It’s more evident in the United St6ates today than ever before. In the US, income inequality increased the most among all the developed nations – the richest 1% growing by 275%, while wages of the poor grew by only 20% in 30 years. This growing inequality has immense consequences flor the nation’s future. As the children of the rich are getting better services, and in turn, a higher likelihood of social and cognitive development, which means that they are more likely to take up the high paying executive positions than the others, whose parents were perhaps not so lucky. Unequal starting points only mean that the finishing points will be unequal as well, and it’s important that every nation needs to address this problem by giving everyone a uniform starting point, meaning that people win the race based on merit, rather than a never-ending cycle of rich breeding rich.

Over the past four decades, the American middle class has been shrinking relative to upper- and lower-income groups, both of which represent bigger shares of the population than at any time since at least 1971, a new Pew Research Center report finds. An analysis finds that, the upper-income tier has grown the most in the financial and natural-resources industries, and among executives and managers. At the same time, the lower-income tier increased the most among retail sales workers and “operators,” a grouping of mostly blue-collar manufacturing-type jobs.

The increased income inequality since the 1980s is due to a decreasing real minimum wage, which means, the real wages were growing slower than inflation, contributing to increase in the inequality. The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, states that the total net worth of those on the list in 1982, the first year the list was compiled, was $93 billion. In 2014, that number was $2.3 trillion, up 2,400%. At the same time, median household income in the United States rose only about 180%.

Both income inequality and the minimum wage have become hot-button political issues in recent years, particularly since the rise of the Fight for $15 campaign and the release of Thomas Piketty’s tome Capital in the 21st Century. Democratic presidential hopefuls Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) talk about income inequality as a major economic problem and advocate for raising the minimum wage as one possible solution for the issue.

In this context, it’s a welcome initiative that two of the nation’s largest states – California and New York – are exploring proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour. Kim Weeden, director of the Center for the Study of Inequality at Cornell University, says while raising the minimum wage will unlikely decrease the levels of income inequality, it would make a huge difference for those struggling to make ends meet.

Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont admitted that raising the national minimum wage to $15 an hour could cause a rise in prices but added the benefits outweigh the risks. In a Feb. 12 Medium post, Hillary Clinton wrote, “As president, I will work to raise the federal minimum wage back to the highest level it’s ever been — $12 an hour in today’s dollars — and support state and local efforts to go even further.”

However, there are those in the Republican Party and others, who think that increasing the minimum wages will not help in diminishing income inequality. According to Heritage Foundation expert James Sherk, labor economists have found no correlation between higher minimum wages and lower poverty. Raising the minimum wage simply would not reduce poverty. Sherk says, raising the minimum wage will not affect many poor families. Higher minimum wages cost some workers their jobs. Raising the minimum wage makes these entry-level jobs harder to find. That makes it harder for less skilled workers to gain the skills necessary to get ahead. And finally, the welfare state claws back raises that low-income families do receive. Low-income workers qualify for a host of means-tested federal benefits. These include food stamps, housing vouchers, Medicaid, and the Earned Income Tax Credit. As workers’ incomes rise they qualify for less and less aid—effectively an additional tax on their income.

As per other analysts, a declining minimum wage throughout the 1980s was likely not the primary reason that the income of poor people moved farther away from that of the wealthy. That means raising the minimum wage is likely not the solution to reducing inequality, though it very well might be helpful to that bottom rung of workers. America could need a higher minimum wage for the poorest workers, while also needing a different — and likely much more difficult — solution to income inequality for everyone in the 99 percent.

The exact cause of income inequality is up for debate. But many people, including Piketty, think it has to do with the returns that the already wealthy see on their holdings, causing the rich to see more and more wealth every year, even as incomes don’t budge.

Middle income is defined as households making between two-thirds and double the median household income, which is about $42,000 to $126,000 annually in 2014 dollars for a household of three. The upper income is defined as more than twice the median, and “lower income” as less than two-thirds of it. Accordingly, at the end of the 1960s, about 61 percent of all American adults were part of the middle class. Today, only half of all Americans can consider themselves middle class, and that might have something to do with income inequality.

As more people fall out of the middle class and into poverty, more people are also climbing up into wealth. “Better off” households — defined by Pew as earning more than $125,608 a year or twice the “median income” — now make up more than 20 percent of the US population.

Shawn Donnan of the Financial Times says, “We’re seeing a real divergence in American society. What’s interesting about these numbers that have come out from the Pew Research Center and that we’ve built our series around is that, really, this is the broadest measure in terms of income of the American middle class out there.”

Another notable change seen in middle class America is its racial makeup. “Between 1971 and 2015, the American middle class has become less white than it used to be,” Dannon says. “It was 80 percent white in 1971, and the next biggest ethnic group was Hispanics at 11 percent, and you found 7 percent of the middle class was black. Those numbers have improved, but they probably haven’t improved as much as many of us would have thought. Today, the American middle class is 67 percent white, 15 percent Hispanic, and 11 percent black. The big winners, in terms of really surging in the middle class, have been Asian Americans, who now make up 6 percent of the American middle class.”

Though the middle class seems to be shrinking on the whole, the upper class appears to be growing. Though some Americans are working their way into the higher income brackets, many too are also slipping below the middle class threshold. “Just under half of America is sitting in the middle, and then, really, you’ve got one-fifth of America living on less than $31,000 a year — half of them below the poverty line — and then you have the fifth at the top,” Dannon says. “That lower end has continued to grow since 1971. In 1971 it was 16 percent of the population, and in 2015 it’s 20 percent of the population. It has gone up since the crisis in 2008, which clearly has played a big role in this and making everyone feel a lot more fragile.”

“The share of middle-income adults who are ages 65 and older doubled from 9 percent in 1971 to 18 percent in 2015,” the Pew study finds. But Dannon also says that many older Americans are working longer. “The fact that older people are hanging on in the workforce longer could be a result of lifestyle choices, and it could be a result of economic reality,” he says.

According to Weeden, in inflation-adjusted terms, the real value of the minimum wage is lower today than it was at its late-1960s peak. This decline in the real value of the minimum wage, coupled with the decline in unionization and the rise of automation, accounted for much of the growth in income inequality in the 1980s. In the last 25 years, however, most of the extraordinary growth in income inequality has occurred at the top of the wage distribution, as the incomes of the top one percent and especially the top 0.1 percent pulled away from everyone else’s.

While there is a push to increase the minimum wages, there is also a demand to increasing income taxes on top earners, and in turn giving those funds to those on the bottom. It sounds like simple math, and has an allure for many politicians and American families alike, but a new Brookings research suggests that this proposal would actually do little to reduce inequality.

Tax the rich more. It’s a popular idea on the 2016 campaign trail, but a new study says that won’t do much to dent inequality in America. Many of America’s uber rich, including billionaires Warren Buffett and Jamie Dimon, have said they would be willing to pay more in tax. Buffett has repeatedly pointed out that his overall tax rate is lower than his secretary’s. In the past, America’s top income tax rate has been as high as 91%. It was 50% as recently as the mid-1980s. The current top rate is the same as it was during President Bill Clinton’s time in office.

Bernie Sanders has proposed a “billionaire surtax” of 10% that he says would only impact the nation’s 530 billionaires. He also wants to increase the inheritance tax — what people pay when they transfer land or money to their kids — from 40% to a top rate of 55%. Donald Trump, Jeb Bush and Hillary Clinton have all proposed eliminating the “carried interest loophole” that allows many hedge fund managers to tax their investment income at a lower tax rate (20% versus 39.6%).

In a new paper from Brookings Economics Studies, Brookings Senior Fellow William G. Gale and Nonresident Seniors Fellows Melissa S. Kearney and Peter R. Orszag found that raising the top income tax rate to 50 percent would mean an additional $6,464 in taxes owed for households in the 95-99th percentiles of income and an additional $110,968 for households in the top 1 percent. Extremely wealthy households in the very top 0.1 percent could expect to experience an average income tax increase of $568,617. As per the analysis, increasing the top marginal tax rates for those in the 95th percentile and up had a “trivial effect on overall income inequality.” only lowering the gap modestly.

So raising taxes for top earners didn’t move the needle on inequality. Re-distributing revenue from the 50 percent tax rate would result in $1,760 in additional post-tax income for households in the lowest quintile of earners. They also found that tax hikes for top earners could raise critical revenue for the federal government, and redistribution policies would still provide substantial benefits to low-income households, if not economic mobility as a whole.

The researchers also looked at what would happen if all the extra money raised from the tax hike on the rich were given to America’s poorest. Lower-income families would receive about $2,650 a year, they found. That kind of redistribution would lessen inequality a little bit more, but the country would still remain far more unequal than it was in the 1970s. The need to close the gap between the rich and the poor and according the majority poor, lower middle class and the middle class their right to thrive is a basic necessity. They need to be able to meet their daily needs and offering them resources to grow and become productive citizens rather than become a burden on the nation, means, investing in the present by raising the minimum the income, redistributing the wealth of the nation to invest in the products and services that will enhance the quality of the lives every citizen.

Egg Artist Farha Sayeed Hosts Solo Egg Art Exhibition – “Egg-Stravaganza”

March 30, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

Chicago IL: A globally-known Egg Artist, Farha Sayeed, wife of Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Consul General of India in Chicago, held her first solo Egg Art exhibition in Chicago – “The Easter Eggstravaganza” – at the prestigious Chicago Symphony Center in Chicago, Illinois from March 20-21, 2016. A part of the sale proceeds of the Exhibition will go to the America-India Foundation’s Maternal and New Born Survival Initiative (MANSI). The event attracted hundreds of art lovers, state officials, and diplomats from several countries.

Farha exhibited seventy Egg Art pieces during the exhibition comprising creations made out of egg shells of Ostrich, Rhea, Emu, Goose, Duck, Turkey and Guinea. All these pieces were intricately hand-carved in minute detail and embellished with crystals, rhinestone chains, and golden filigree. These creations not only captured the imagination of the visitors but also left them awe-struck.

Over three hundred persons participated in the inaugural ceremony held on Sunday, March 20th, 2016 and dozens of others visited the exhibition during the rest of the day. Renowned tabla maestro Padma Bhushan Ustad Zakir Hussain was one of the internationally renowned persons who graced the event. He praised Farha for the precision and ingenuity demonstrated in her creations.

The other prominent dignitaries who participated in the event included Mr. Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer, Office of Governor Bruce Rauner, State of Illinois; Mr Dennis Jung, Outreach Coordinator, Office of Governor Bruce Rauner; Ms. Nettie Lasko, Immigrant Assistance Program Coordinator, Office of the Attorney General; Ms. Emily Berman, Deputy Director, Office of the Mayor; Ms. Patricia Maza-Pittsford, Dean of the Chicago Consular Corps, Dr Gopal Lalmalani, Mayor of Oak Brook; Hon’ble judges Anthony Simpkins and Divya Sarang, Seann Nelipinath, President of the India Chamber of Commerce, Ms. Paula Garrett Ellis, President of Now Art India; Raja Krishnamoorthi, Congressional candidate for Chicago’s 8thDistrict, Mr. Zain Raj, President & CEO of Shapiroraj and Mrs. Lubaina Raj. Mr. Vimal & Bulbul Bahuguna, Board Members of the American India Foundation, and Consul General’s mother Mrs Kaneez Fatima. Consuls General of Germany, Sweden, South Africa, Philippines, Pakistan, Lithuania, Serbia and several other countries also participated in the event.

During her remarks Farha Sayeed mentioned that she got exposed to Egg Art seventeen years ago while she was in Qatar. “The fragility of an eggshell appealed to me as a unique medium to test my creativity”, she said, adding “I can switch over easily from painting to carving to calligraphy to etching on the egg shell and the scope seems to be unlimited.” Farha mentioned that over the years she had attempted introducing Indian motifs and calligraphy into her art.

Mr. Zain Raj outlined the activities of the American India Foundation with particular reference to the Maternal & Newborn Survival Initiative (MANSI) and thanked Farha for supporting this noble cause.

Consul General of India Dr. Ausaf Sayeed said that while art is important in its own right, it assumes social significance when it is used as a vehicle to find enduring solutions to the problems faced by the people, particularly women and children. He outlined the Consulate’s support to various socio-cultural activities undertaken by the American-Indian Diaspora in Chicagoland.

While all the egg art exhibits were widely appreciated by the visitors, “Eggstravaganza” and “Nirvana”, the lead pieces of the exhibition and a combination of the egg shells of Ostrich, Rhea, and Goose eggs, along with “Apostles of Peace”, a tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Mother Teresa on an Emu egg shell, drew particular admiration.

Earlier, Farha has hosted her solo exhibitions titled “EGGSPERIENCE” in Copenhagen, “EGGCELLENCE” in Jeddah, “EGGXOTICA” in New Delhi, and “EGGSPRESSIONS” in Sana’a. She had also participated in the Dallas Egg Show 2015 along with other international egg artists. Farha, a member of the international Egg Artists Guild, is considered a pioneer in promoting egg art in India.

Naeem Khan Impresses America’s First Family With Impressive Designs

March 30, 2016 Ajay GhoshFashion 0

First Lady Michelle Obama chose a floral gown made of Kashmiri fabric and embroidery by Indian-American designer Naeem Khan for dinner on the concluding day of the Obamas’ visit to Cuba last week. “The dress Michelle Obama selected for the Cuban dinner was in a Kashmiri fabric,” the New York Times reported. “It was embroidered with an Indian floral motif, and was similar to one in the same fabric from the designer’s pre-fall collection,” it added. The embroidery on the gown was Kashmir’s traditional “Ari work”. The dinner’s dress code was “casual cocktail”.

Celebrated designer Khan told the media “after what America has done for me, coming from India, I need to give back to this country. She (Michelle Obama) has made my brand and put America back in fashion,” he said. “I would do anything for her.” Barack Obama is the first US President since 1928 to undertake a three-day visit to Cuba along with his wife Michelle Obama and senior officials.

Speculation ran to two prominent Cuban-American designers whose work Mrs. Obama has championed: Isabel Toledo, whose canary-yellow dress and coat she wore to her husband’s first inauguration, and Narciso Rodriguez, whom she has worn several times, most recently to the State of the Union address in January.

In the end, Mrs. Obama went with Naeem Khan, the Indian-American designer she has worn often. “I had sent her a couple of different things,” Mr. Khan said in an interview on Tuesday morning. “I had no idea. You never know what she’s going to wear. I guess I got pretty lucky.”

Khan is responsible for some of Mrs. Obama’s best looks, including the gown she wore to a state dinner for India in 2009. (Cathy Horyn, then the fashion critic of The New York Times, wrote, “She probably never looked better.”) He has also become something of a family favorite: The first daughters Malia and Sasha Obama wore Naeem Khan dresses for their first appearance at a state dinner at the Canada dinner this month. (“I guess they see their mom in all the glam and want to be like her,” Khan said. “I was very happy when they chose something.”

Dr. Muhammed Majeed: Founder, SAMI/Sabinsa Group of Companies

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshProfiles 0

“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: Founder, SAMI/Sabinsa Group of Companies — 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.

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.

“In Other Words” By Jhumpa Lahiri, Ann Goldstein (Translation)

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

From the best-selling author and Pulitzer Prize winner, “In Other Words” (Knopf, 231 pp., **½ out of four stars) is a powerful nonfiction debut— which has been described as an “honest, engaging, and very moving account of a writer searching for herself in words.”

According to critiques, In Other Words is a revelation. It is at heart a love story—of a long and sometimes difficult courtship, and a passion that verges on obsession: that of a writer for another language. For Jhumpa Lahiri, that love was for Italian, which first captivated and capsized her during a trip to Florence after college. Although Lahiri studied Italian for many years afterward, true mastery always eluded her.

As per some critiques, there’s a beautiful medium-length essay lost somewhere in Jhumpa Lahiri’s unilluminating and self-regarding new book In Other Words. Its conceit is exciting — one of the most gifted living writers of English prose deciding mid-career to write in Italian, daring failure — and it has moments of the cool and piercing emotional acuity that characterize her four previous books.

But too few of them, and thematically Lahiri (The Lowland, The Namesake) never moves far past her initial awe at the act of audacity it has taken her to write these essays and short fictions. Late on she says she composed them “as if they were homework for my Italian lessons.” Well, we think — yes, that sounds about right.

Seeking full immersion, she decides to move to Rome with her family, for “a trial by fire, a sort of baptism” into a new language and world. There, she begins to read, and to write—initially in her journal—solely in Italian. In Other Words, an autobiographical work written in Italian, investigates the process of learning to express oneself in another language, and describes the journey of a writer seeking a new voice.

What drove this experiment, in which Lahiri presents her Italian writings and their English translations (by Ann Goldstein) on facing pages? Language is essential to the identity of many of Lahiri’s Indian-American characters, and In Other Words describes the author’s own linguistic history. Her first memories of speech are of learning Bengali, but it was in English that she became American, and in English that she achieved fame as a writer.

By this light, her adoption of Italian seems felicitously ambiguous, another gesture of rebirth. She moves to Rome, and, writing in the city’s language, with a little dictionary at hand, says, “I’m aware of a state of deprivation. And yet, at the same time, I feel free, light. I rediscover the reason I write, the joy as well as the need.”

There’s the promise of something profound in this cleansing reinvention, midway upon life’s journey. But In Other Words never does much more than reiterate this central idea, declining to follow it too deep into the reaches of autobiography — Lahiri is steelier than ever here — and alighting instead on a series of year-abroad banalities about the minor errors involved in learning a new language.

Presented in a dual-language format, this is a wholly original book about exile, linguistic and otherwise, written with an intensity and clarity not seen since Vladimir Nabokov: a startling act of self-reflection and a provocative exploration of belonging and reinvention.

And indeed she treats these not with any sense of humor, which might have given them charm, but with deep gravity, a quality that pushes the book from disappointing to irritating. The tutors and publishers and friends who fill its vignettes are all solemnly reverent about her journey into Italian, and she herself refers to other writers famous for working in a second language (Conrad, Beckett, Nabokov) without quite the same irony and self-doubt that attended their transitions.

Add to this an understandable diminution in the excellence of her prose (phrases like “a stunning clarity,” which could be selling you a television, keep popping up), and a more surprising impoverishment of imagery (within a few pages she twice identifies new words in Italian as jewel-like, a weary simile from the outset), and you have a good author’s first bad book.

But even a bad book by a writer as gifted as Jhumpa Lahiri has something to offer. “Why do I write?” she asks at one of this volume’s elusive high moments, which call to mind the power of which she’s capable. “To investigate the mystery of existence. To tolerate myself. To get closer to everything that is outside of me.” It will be thrilling when she resumes that project.

NRIs Back Away From Supporting Donald Trump

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Not long ago, a group of Indian-Americans had formed a political action committee to campaign for Donald Trump, the Republican presidential front-runner and had assured that they would everything possible to help him win the party nomination and the elections in November this year.

They had formed a group called, ‘Indian-Americans for Trump 2016’, which was registered as a political action committee (PAC) on January 21^st with the federal election commission, with the aim of garnering support of Indian-Americans to have Trump become the next US President. Dr. Sudhir Parikh, CEO of Pariskh Media, A.D. Amar, a business professor with Seton Hall University in New Jersey and a New York-based Attorney Anand Ahuja had initiated the group.

Anand Ahuja, Attorney and Counselor at Law and Vice President for Indian Americans for Trump 2016, had said that there is a “wrong media created perception that Trump is against Muslims and minorities. And as far as being against H1B visas – either you can increase H1B visas or you can say invest in India – you cannot have it both ways.”

However, Dr. Sudhir Parikh has released a short statement through news agencies, withdrawing his support for Trump and disassociate himself from the PAC: “I allowed myself to be identified with that group because some members of the group are friends of mine. I wish to clarify that I no longer belong to the group and I do not support the candidacy of Mr. Donald Trump.

“For over three decades I have supported both Democrat and Republican candidates based on their individual merits and their commitment to the interests of the Indian-American community and US-India relations. I remain committed to this course,” Parikh added.

The front runner in the Republican Primaries has been criticized, among others by leading Indian American political leaders. Former Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, had described Trump as a “madman”. Jindal had criticized his Republican Party colleague as a “non-serious, unstable, substance-free narcissist.” Other phrases Jindal had used to describe are: “egomaniac,” a “carnival act,” “shallow,” “insecure,” “weak” and of course, a “madman.” South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who is a rising star in the Republican Party had described Trump’s character and qualities as “everything a governor doesn’t want in a president.”

US President Barack Obama said that the real estate tycoon is exploiting people’s fear amid a stagnant and rapidly changing economy. “I think somebody like Mr Trump is taking advantage of that. That’s what he’s exploiting during the course of his campaign,” Obama told National Public Radio (NPR) in an interview. “When one combines the demographic change with all the economic stresses that people have been going through because of the financial crisis, because of technology, because of globalization, it means that there is going to be potential anger, frustration and fear,” said the president.

Traditionally Indian Americans have voted for the Democratic Party. In 2008, nearly 90 per cent of Indian Americans voted for President Barack Obama. According to Dr. Parikh, he feels that Indian Americans have far more in common with the Republicans than the Democrats as “Our family values are the same as what the Republican Party is talking about, against abortion and same sex relationships. We are the most affluent community in America, with higher per capita income than even the Jews… it makes sense to vote Republican.”

Winning Asian American votes is very critical to winning the presidency. Although, they are not as larger as the Hispanics or the Blacks, Asian/Indian Americans are an influential group in the national and statewide elections. No one can win the presidency with the White votes alone. In 1980, Ronald Reagan won 56 percent of white voters and won a landslide victory of 44 states. In 2012, Mitt Romney won 59 percent of whites and lost with 24 states. According to reports, in the 2012 presidential election, Barack Obama won 73 percent of the Asian American vote. The Democratic presidential vote share among Asian Americans has steadily increased from 36 percent in 1992, to 64 percent in the 2008 election to 73 percent in 2012.

Both the parties have been working hard to win the Asian American votes, except for that Trump has been critical of the Muslims, has spoken against H-1B Visa, which has helped mostly Asians to immigrate to this country. Trump said: “They are taking our jobs. China is taking our jobs. Japan is taking our jobs. India is taking our jobs. It is not going to happen anymore, folks!”

AAPI’s 34th Annual Convention To Have CEO Forum Featuring Healthcare Leaders From Around The World

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshHealth 0

(Chicago, IL; March 28, 2016): Healthcare industry in the United States and around the world is rapidly changing, leading to many describing the healthcare environment as dynamic, complex, and highly uncertain. The manner in which the health care environment is perceived and characterized is important for several reasons. Higher-performing health care providers and organizations are those that are, among other characteristics, able to understand and manage uncertainty and ambiguity in their environments. The Affordable Care Act designed to provide an opportunity to reinvent the health care delivery system to make it more accessible, patient-centered, and comprehensive, with an emphasis on prevention and primary care is under attack and depending on the outcome of the elections it may change.

With a view to help AAPI members better understand the recent trends in the delivery of healthcare to millions across the nation, the forthcoming 34th annual convention, organized by the Association of American Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) at the prestigious the Marriott Marquis, Time Square in New York from June 30th to July 4th, 2016 will conduct a CEO Forum, moderated by Mr Fareed Zakaria, CNN and will be featuring world renowned leaders from various segments of healthcare. . “The 2016 AAPI Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly offers the participants at the convention a rare platform to interact with and listen to leading physicians, healthcare professionals, academicians, scientists, and leaders of the hospitals, technology , medical device and pharmaceutical companies,” says Dr. Seema Jain, President of AAPI.

“With the changing trends and statistics in healthcare, both in India and US, we are refocusing our mission and vision, AAPI would like to make a positive meaningful impact on the healthcare delivery system both in the US and in India,” Dr. Jain says. The CEO Forum will focus on the changing trends in the healthcare sector and how they impact the providers, hospitals and corporations as well as the patients. The Forum will also offer insights into managing efficiently the growing costs in the delivery of healthcare services.

The annual convention this year is being organized by AAPI’s New Jersey Chapter. Elaborating on the efforts and preparations that have been devoted to put together this unique event, Dr. Rita Ahuja, Chairwoman of the 2016 Annual Convention, says, “We are expecting to have a record attendance of more than 2,000 delegates including Physicians, Academicians, Researchers and Medical students at the convention. The annual convention offers extensive academic presentations, recognition of achievements and achievers, and professional networking at the alumni and evening social events,” she adds.

A pool of dedicated AAPI leaders are working hard to make the Convention a unique event for all the participants, she said. Among those who are part of the organizing committees include, Dr. Thomas Alapatt, Host City Chair for the Convention, Dr. Parminder Grewal, Dr. Hetal Gor, and Dr. Gaurav Gupta co-chairs for the convention; Dr. Virendra Sethi, Dr, Anand Sahu, Dr. Kishore Ahuja, Dr. Mathew, Dr. Ratan Mirchandani, Dr. Jayesh Kanuga, Dr. Chitra Kumar, Dr. Hemant Patel; Dr. Rupak Parikh, AAPI YPS President: Dr. Dhaval Bhanusali, President of AAPI MSRF; Dr. Sanjay Jain and Mr. Anwar Feroz Siddiqi who are also some of the prime advisors/coordinators of the Convention.

“Physicians and healthcare professionals from across the country and internationally will convene and participate in the exchange of medical advances, to develop health policy agendas, and to encourage legislative priorities in the years to come. We look forward to seeing you in New York!” For more details, and sponsorship opportunities, please visit: www.aapiconvention.org and www.aapiusa.org

For More Details, please contact:

Ajay Ghosh
Media Coordinator, AAPI
Phone # (203) 583-6750
Email: Ajayghosh1@aol.com

2016 AAHOA Annual Convention & Trade Show In Nashville, TN

March 29, 2016 Ajay GhoshBusiness, Tourism 0

Washington, DC: March 28, 2016: Peyton Manning, the NFL’s only five-time Most Valuable Player and a 14-time Pro Bowl selection, who has earned his place among the greatest quarterbacks in league history, and Kevin O’Leary, Entrepreneur, Investor, Journalist, Commentator and TV Personality, currently serving as the chairman of O’Leary Funds and the Manager of the publically traded family of O’Leary Global Equity and Income Funds, are the keynote speakers at the 2016 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show being held in Nashville, TN from March 29th to April 1st.

Expected to have over 4,000 in attendance, the 2016 AAHOA Convention & Trade Show offers something for everyone. From the trade show floor that offers one-stop shopping for every hotelier to the educational programs and esteemed guest speakers, this is sure to be an experience you’ll never forget. As always, the entire event also will feature authentic Indian cuisine, world-class entertainment, thrilling Bollywood performances, and much more.

Sunidhi Chauhan, Kumar Sanu, Karan Patel, M0uni Roy, Rithvik Dhanjani, Sanjeeda Shaik, Gunjan Singh, Rishikeash Ranade, and Torsha Sarkar are among from the Bollywood world, who will be performing on stage to entertain the packed audience from around the world.

The Convention is one of AAHOA’s most exciting events of the year. With more than 4,000 attendees per year, the AAHOA Annual Convention is the largest convention and trade show in the industry. At the convention, the Government Affairs team will host a number of seminars to discuss key issues facing the hospitality industry in state capitals and on capitol hill. Additionally, the Government Affairs team will have a booth where attendees can stop by, and find out what our team is doing for you.

In 1965, the Immigration and Nationality Act created the opportunity for more than 300,000 Asian Indians to come to the United States over the course of the succeeding two decades. Many of these new immigrants arrived in America with backgrounds as entrepreneurs and business owners. During the 1970s, Indian Americans saw tremendous opportunities for prosperity in the hospitality industry, and many began to save their money in order to purchase hotels. Word quickly spread throughout the community about the potential of the hotel industry as a niche market, and the Indian American influence in hospitality began.

These new hoteliers faced discrimination within the industry, particularly from banks and insurance companies. To overcome these obstacles, hoteliers collaborated to form various groups, culminating in the creation of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA) in 1989.

In 2014, AAHOA celebrated its 25th anniversary and is currently one of hospitality industry’s most respected and influential organizations. AAHOA represents more than 14,000 members nationwide, who own more than 20,000 properties, amounting to more than 40% of all hotels in the United States. AAHOA members employ nearly 600,000 American workers, and account for nearly $10 billion in payroll annually. AAHOA truly represents America’s hotel owners.

AAHOA promotes and protects the interests of its members by inspiring excellence through programs and initiatives in advocacy, industry leadership, professional development, membership benefits and community involvement. The Convention is the premier event of the year by AAHOA that one can’t afford to miss. For more details on AAHOA and the 2016 convention, please visit: www.aahoa.com

Dr. John Poothullil’s Book ‘Eat, Chew, Live’ Says, Grains Cause Type 2 Diabetes

March 24, 2016 Ajay GhoshEducation, Health 0

In “Eat, Chew, Live,” Dr. John Poothullil argues it is time to reevaluate the accepted theory of insulin resistance as the cause of Type 2 diabetes, because medical research has yet to explain how it happens or why. In his view, it is illogical that millions of people are suddenly developing insulin resistance.

After 20 years of research, Poothullil has demonstrated that Type 2 diabetes is not caused by the hormonal disease of insulin resistance, but rather by a very normal metabolism that goes haywire when people over consume grains, according to a press release.

In Western nations, it is the consumption of wheat-flour breads, rice, corn, packaged foods, cakes, pizza, donuts, and other grain-based flour products. In many developing nations, it is the increasing consumption of rice.

With illustrations of the science involved, Poothullil explains that muscle cells, the largest share of cells in the body, can get their energy from glucose or fatty acids. When people over consume grains over a period of time, they eventually fill up their natural allotment of fat cells.

The further consumption of grains means that the fatty acids broken down from the glucose in grains have nowhere to be stored. The fatty acids thus start to flow freely in the bloodstream, and are easily used as fuel by muscle cells rather than glucose.

This metabolism, which Poothullil calls the “fatty acid burn switch,” leaves the glucose in the bloodstream, leading to high blood sugar and eventually to the diagnosis of diabetes.

The key to preventing or reversing Type 2 diabetes, Poothullil said, is to stop consuming grains as much as possible. Type 2 diabetes must be viewed as a nutritional condition that can be treated by a change of diet, rather than a hormonal disease that requires medication or insulin injections.

Freida Pinto Playing in ‘Jungle Book: Origins’

March 23, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment 0

Freida Pinto is the latest actress to join forces with Andy Serkis for his directorial debut, Jungle Book: Origins. Pinto is not only loaning her voice, but is playing one of the actual flesh-and-blood roles alongside Matthew Rhys and Rohan Chand. Freida Pinto, who found popularity with her appearance in “Slumdog Millionaire”, is excited to be a part of “Jungle Book: Origins”. She says her life has come full circle with the Hollywood project.

Freida is voicing Mowgli’s adoptive mother in the Warner Brothers’ motion capture live-action adventure adaptation of “The Jungle Book”, based on the novel by Kipling. And the actress asserts that the film is worth the wait. “It’s going to be a while for ‘Jungle Book…’. It will release in 2017. I am pretty excited about it because we all used to watch it on Doordarshan every Sunday. We loved watching it. Life kind of becomes full circle to participate in a project like that,” Freida told the media.

Directed by Andy Serkis, who also gives voice to friendly bear Baloo, the cast includes names like Benedict Cumberbatch, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Indian-American child actor Rohan Chand as Mowgli. She added: “It is Andy and I am super excited.”

Slumdog breakout Pinto was in 2011’s Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes with Serkis who is directing Jungle Book from a script by Callie Kloves. He’s also producing with Steve Kloves and Jonathan Cavendish. Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, and Benedict Cumberbatch feature in the voice cast.

While there is still time for “Jungle Book: Origins” to hit the screens, Freida is back on the screen with her next project, Terrence Malick’s film “Knight of Cups” opposite Hollywood’s “The Dark Knight” Bale. The film hit the screens in the US last week.

The actress told Entertainment Tonight that she’s very excited about the role. “I read The Jungle Book and watched the TV series in India growing up, and for me, to finally be part of the film that reminds me so much of my childhood is just amazing,” she said.

“It’s one of those films that I feel, no matter what age group you are, you’re going to enjoy that film, and I feel like it’s been a while since I’ve done something like that, because most of my films have not been good enough for children. A little too intense, so I’m very happy to finally be doing a film that can be [watched by kids].”

Annapurna Sriram’s Star Is on the Rise

March 23, 2016 Staff ReporterEntertainment 0

Rutgers, NJ: Between taking center stage in Jesse Eisenberg’s off-Broadway production The Spoils last spring and getting cast alongside Damian Lewis and Paul Giamatti this winter in Showtime’s Billions, it’s safe to say Annapurna Sriram’s star is on the rise.

But three years ago, the 2011 Mason Gross BFA’s career was in slumpsville. “I hadn’t had work. I’d had a bad break up and bad representation,” she said of the rough patch that lasted about six months. “When you’re as ambitious and impatient as I am, it felt like ‘I’m wasting precious time!’ ” Acting is the only vocation the Nashville native had ever envisioned for herself. “I decided I wanted to be an actor because I was so bad at school growing up,” said Sriram.

She chased her dream with gusto: hustling for gigs before she entered a performing arts high school, graduating from Rutgers’ Mason Gross School of the Arts with an agent and landing her first community theater gig – with Red Bank’s Two River Theatre – when the ink on her diploma was barely dry.

Yet there she was, paying rent on her Gowanus, Brooklyn, apartment with babysitting money. That’s when a friend with a small local record label asked her to do a web comedy series. Sriram was so hungry for the opportunity to get back to her craft that she not only worked for free she also footed the bill.

“I maxed out a credit card feeding everyone and buying all the props, and I edited it on a pirated version of Final Cut Pro,” the 26-year-old said of the project. She built a set in her apartment and clearly had fun creating an eccentric cast of musical characters for the “Gowanus Music Lab Presents” webisodes.

And then, the project was scrapped. “I thought the whole thing was for nothing,” said Sriram. But the experience – which showed off the half-Indian, half-white actress’s newfound comedic chops and her ability to inhabit a variety of racially diverse characters – was her ticket.

“Those tapes booked me my first TV job on South of Hell, ” she said of the 2015 supernatural horror WEtv series starring Mena Suvari. “People kept telling me, ‘You have a way different range than we had assumed.’ ” The irony that her ethnically mixed background is an advantage in her field, while still a disadvantage in the real world for so many who look like her is not lost on Sriram.

“It’s a fad. We’re in a day and age where being ethnically ambiguous – which is what I am – is a commodity,” she said. “My goal and my purpose in the industry is to reclaim what the face of America really looks like and show that being other is just as American as being white.”

Last year Eisenberg tapped Sriram to play the girlfriend of The Big Bang Theory’s Kunal Nayyar in his dark comedy The Spoils about an obnoxious trust fund millennial and his snarky circle of friends.

“He is so funny, so smart,” said Sriram of Eisenburg. “And Scott Elliot is one of the most amazing directors. He’s similar to (Mason Gross associate head of acting) Kevin Kittle in his style. He really wants simple, authentic work.”

For Sriram, The Spoils was a turning point: It was the moment when her Mason Gross training came full circle. “A lot of the stuff we learned at Rutgers was marinating. It was in me, but I didn’t know how to use it fully,” she said. “The Spoils was the first time that the pieces were starting to come together for me.”

Then it was back to the small screen for a meaty three-episode role on “Billions,” which airs 10 p.m. Sundays on Showtime. Sriram plays Tara Mohr, the hard-partying, blackmailed employee of Giamatti’s U.S. attorney character. “TV is definitely something I’m still figuring out. It requires this super high level of relaxation and trust in yourself,” she said. “Paul made the room safe. He’s incredibly funny and light and really a joy to work with.”

Though Sriram has developed relationships with other advocates and mentors in the industry, such as Giamatti, she said she is indebted to her first cheerleaders: Kittle and Barbara Marchant, head of acting at Mason Gross.

“Kevin and Barbara are so incredible in the way that they teach. They just pour their lives into it,” she said. “They come and see my work still. The relationship was beyond just having a professor because their job is basically to carry us into a career. They were kind of like shepherds in that way.”

These days, Sriram is happy to report that she is fully supporting herself through her acting career. (“I also have a roommate and one bedroom, which helps,” she said.). She is grateful for the success she’s experienced. “I’m aware of how lucky I’ve been. But there’s still a long way I want to go.”

Sparsh Shah, a 12-year-old Indian American rapper gets global recognition

March 23, 2016 Ajay GhoshEntertainment, Youth 0

Jersey City, NJ: With Bollywood superstar Salman Khan Tweeting about the Video of Indian American Kid Rapping, Sparsh Shah, a 12-year-old Indian American rapper based in New Jersey, got global recognition. Salman Khan on March 14 tweeted a video of him rapping to Eminem’s song “Not Afraid.”

The video of this boy sitting in a wheelchair and rapping was posted on YouTube at the beginning of this year, Jan. 2 — don’t miss the decorated Christmas tree in the background — but, post-Khan’s tweet, it got over 1.6 million hits. No mean feat by any stretch.

When Khan Bhai (known to applaud and promote true talent) posts something on his Twitter page, his fans sit up and notice — the Tweet was liked by 7,000 fans and re-tweeted over 3,000 times.

After the video was posted, everyone wanted to know more about the talented rapper. His Twitter page describes him as “a singer/song writer/rapper born with brittle bones (120+fractures), but an unbreakable spirit,” and states, “He aspires 2 sing in front of a Billion people one day.” Now that’s quite a dream. Shah noticed Khan’s Tweet and thanked him promptly in a Tweet.

TheUNN Corporation

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