Tag: US

Trump Found Guilty On All Counts In Hush Money Case. What Happens Next?

Staff ReporterUSA 0

A New York jury on Thursday found Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony counts of falsifying business records — the first time a former U.S. president has been convicted of a crime.

The jury reached its verdict in the historic case after 9.5 hours of deliberations, which began Wednesday.

He’ll be sentenced on July 11, four days before the Republican National Convention. He faces penalties ranging from a fine to four years in prison on each count, although it’s expected he would be sentenced for the offenses concurrently, and not consecutively.

Follow live updates here.

“This was a disgrace. This was a rigged trial by a conflicted judge who was corrupt,” he fumed to reporters afterward.

The verdict was read in the Manhattan courtroom where Trump has been on trial since April 15. He had pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment made by his former lawyer Michael Cohen to adult film star Stormy Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential election.

The judge thanked the jurors for their service in the weeks-long trial. “You gave this matter the attention it deserved, and I want to thank you for that,” Judge Juan Merchan told them. Trump appeared to be scowling at the jurors as they walked by him on their way out of the courtroom.

Trump’s attorney Todd Blanche made a motion for acquittal after the jury left the room, which the judge denied.

The conviction comes as Trump is the presumptive Republican nominee for president. He immediately set out fundraising off the news, posting on his website that he’s “a political prisoner” and urging his followers to give money.

Legal experts have told NBC News that even if Trump is sentenced to time behind bars, he’d most likely be allowed to remain out of jail while he appeals the verdict, a process that could take months or more. That means the sentence would most likely not interfere with his ability to accept the Republican nomination for president at the July convention.

President Joe Biden’s campaign praised the verdict in a statement, but stressed that Trump needs to be defeated in November.

“In New York today, we saw that no one is above the law,” the campaign’s communications director Michael Tyler said, but the “verdict does not change the fact that the American people face a simple reality. There is still only one way to keep Donald Trump out of the Oval Office: at the ballot box.”

In his closing argument earlier this week, prosecutor Joshua Steinglass told the jury that “the law is the law and it applies to everyone equally. There is no special standard for this defendant.”

“You, the jury, have the ability to hold the defendant accountable,” Steinglass said.

Trump had maintained the Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office had no case and that there had been no crime. “President Trump is innocent. He did not commit any crimes,” Blanche said in his closing statement, arguing the payments to Cohen were legitimate.

Prosecutors said the disguised payment to Cohen was part of a “planned, coordinated long-running conspiracy to influence the 2016 election, to help Donald Trump get elected through illegal expenditures, to silence people who had something bad to say about his behavior, using doctored corporate records and bank forms to conceal those payments along the way.”

“It was election fraud. Pure and simple,” prosecutor Matthew Colangelo said in his opening statement.

While Trump was not charged with conspiracy, prosecutors argued he caused the records to be falsified because he was trying to cover up a violation of state election law- and falsifying business records with the intent to cover another crime raises the offense from a misdemeanor to a felony.

1 Year After Putin Invaded Ukraine

Staff ReporterWorld 0

War has been a catastrophe for Ukraine and a crisis for the globe. The world is a more unstable and fearful place since Russia invaded its neighbor on Feb. 24, 2022. One year on, thousands of Ukrainian civilians are dead, and countless buildings have been destroyed. Tens of thousands of troops have been killed or seriously wounded on each side. Beyond Ukraine’s borders, the invasion shattered European security, redrew nations’ relations with one another and frayed a tightly woven global economy.

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine—and until that date, the United States had done little to thwart it.  This Friday marks one year since Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. The war has killed thousands, displaced millions, and disrupted global food and energy markets—with no end in sight.  To better understand how this conflict continues to shape geopolitics, and how geopolitics shapes it, Foreign Affairs is publishing an ongoing series of essays about what the war has taught us so far.

The war in Ukraine has touched almost every corner of the world — delivering death and suffering to Ukraine, an energy crisis in Europe, grain shortages in the Middle East and Africa, and compounding inflation across the globe.

“One year later, Kyiv stands. And Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” the American president said as he stood next to Ukrainian leader Volodomyr Zelensky during his surprise visit to the Ukrainian capital, where life has returned more or less to normal since the initial Russian onslaught.

Inside Russia, all aspects of society and the economy have been warped or reoriented in a sprawling effort to support Vladimir Putin’s war effort.  And while the vast number of casualties have been sustained by Russia and Ukraine, countries from Australia to Zambia have seen their own fighters killed in the war.

While the toll of the war is often described in sweeping statistics — 8 million refugees, 1,000 Russians killed in a day or $500 million in aid — over the past 12 months many groups and individuals have come to symbolize resistance to the war and resilience amid the carnage.

Millions of Ukrainians fled from their homeland in the early days of the war, with mostly women and children leaving their husbands, sons, fathers and brothers to fight the invading forces.

Leading scholars consider why some democracies have not joined the coalition against Russia, why Russian President Vladimir Putin persists despite his disastrous war, what can be learned about contemporary conflict from the battlefields in Ukraine, and more. Start reading below.

NATO was created to prevent a major war in Europe, a task it accomplished well for many decades. Apart from the brief Kosovo war in 1999, its members never had to fight together or coordinate a joint response to aggression—until a year ago, when Russia invaded Ukraine. NATO’s response thus offers fresh, real-world evidence about how contemporary alliances work in practice.  Despite a series of blunders, miscalculations, and battlefield reversals that would have surely seen him thrown out of office in most normal countries, President Vladimir Putin is still at the pinnacle of power in Russia.

He continues to define the contours of his country’s war against Ukraine. He is micromanaging the invasion even as generals beneath him appear to be in charge of the battlefield. (This deputizing is done to protect him from blowback if something goes badly wrong in the war.) Putin and those immediately around him directly work to mobilize Russians on the home front and manipulate public views of the invasion abroad. He has in some ways succeeded in this information warfare.

The war has revealed the full extent of Putin’s personalized political system. After what is now 23 years at the helm of the Russian state, there are no obvious checks on his power. Institutions beyond the Kremlin count for little. “I would never have imagined that I would miss the Politburo,” said Rene Nyberg, the former Finnish ambassador to Moscow. “There is no political organization in Russia that has the power to hold the president and commander in chief accountable.” Diplomats, policymakers, and analysts are stuck in a doom loop—an endless back-and-forth argument among themselves—to figure out what Putin wants and how the West can shape his behavior.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on Tuesday that his country would suspend its participation in the New START agreement with the United States, throwing into question the future of the last remaining arms control accord between the world’s two largest nuclear powers. The treaty, which came into force in 2011, places limits on the number of intercontinental nuclear weapons that each country can have and was extended for an additional five years in 2021. Arms control had long been regarded as the last redoubt of constructive collaboration between Washington and Moscow.

Putin showed no signs of backing down as he used his annual state-of-the-nation address to rail against the United States and accuse Ukraine and the West of provoking the war days before the first anniversary of the Russian invasion. “They want to inflict a ‘strategic defeat’ on us and try to get to our nuclear facilities at the same time,” Putin said during his nearly 100-minute speech, which was met with applause from Russian lawmakers and senior officials. “In this context, I have to declare today that Russia is suspending its participation in the Treaty on Strategic Offensive Arms.”

President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday delivered a nuclear warning to the West over Ukraine, suspending a bilateral nuclear arms control treaty, announcing new strategic systems had been put on combat duty and warning that Moscow could resume nuclear tests.

Speaking nearly a year to the day since ordering an invasion that has triggered the biggest confrontation with the West since the depths of the Cold War, Putin said Russia would achieve its war aims and accused the West of trying to destroy Russia.

Cautioning the United States that it was stoking the war into a global conflict, Putin said that Russia was suspending participation in the New START Treaty, the last major arms control treaty between Moscow and Washington.

Responding to Putin’s announcement, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said, “With today’s decision on New START, the whole arms control architecture has been dismantled.”

Experts said it’s too soon to interpret Putin’s remarks as heralding a new nuclear arms race, but with the treaty set to expire in 2026, the Russian leader’s announcement will further complicate diplomatic efforts to extend or negotiate a new treaty between the United States and Russia, which together hold about 90 percent of the world’s nuclear weapons.

The biggest blow to democracy on a global scale was not the war itself but the fact that—despite all “never again” claims—European and Western countries in general agreed and accepted beforehand that another European nation might be deprived of its sovereignty, freedom, and independent institutions, and it might find itself militarily occupied. (If this isn’t how they felt, then they wouldn’t have evacuated their embassies in Kyiv.) President Biden vowed on Tuesday that the United States would “not tire” in its support of Ukraine, describing the American commitment to NATO and Ukraine as a battle for freedom against autocracy in a speech delivered just hours after President Vladimir V. Putin presented a radically different account of the war.

In his national address, Mr. Putin showed no sign that he would change course, instead signaling that Russians should prepare for a long war ahead. He accused the West of a “totalitarian” project to control the world under the guise of spreading liberal values, and declared Russia was suspending the one remaining nuclear arms treaty with the United States.

“They intend to transform a local conflict into a phase of global confrontation. This is exactly how we understand it all and we will react accordingly, because in this case we are talking about the existence of our country.” Defeating Russia, he said, was impossible.

Seattle Is First US City To Ban Caste Discrimination

Deepa BharathCommunity, India 0

(AP) — The Seattle City Council on Tuesday added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to ban caste discrimination and the first in the world to pass such a law outside South Asia.

Calls to outlaw discrimination based on caste, a division of people based on birth or descent, have grown louder among South Asian diaspora communities in the United States. But the movement has been getting pushback from some Hindu Americans who argue that such legislation maligns a specific community.

Tensions within the community were visible at Seattle City Hall on Tuesday as a noisy hearing culminated with a 6-1 vote with a majority of the council agreeing that caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries and that without such laws, those facing caste discrimination in the U.S. will have no protections.

The packed room, which overflowed with activists from both sides bearing banners, chanting slogans, challenging speakers and city officials as they made their comments, laid bare stark divisions over this issue within the South Asian diaspora. A majority of those present in council chambers were supporters of the ordinance and those opposed were a vocal minority.

Picture : NBC

As council members voted in favor of the ordinance, the chamber erupted into cheers of “Jai Bhim,” which means “victory for Bhim” a rallying cry adopted by followers of B.R. Ambedkar, an Indian Dalit rights icon whose given name was Bhimrao. Dalit groups and their supporters say caste discrimination is prevalent in U.S. diaspora communities, manifesting itself in the form of social alienation and discrimination in housing, education and the tech sector where South Asians hold key roles.

Yogesh Mane, a Seattle resident who grew up as an untouchable in India, broke into tears as he heard the council’s decision.

“I’m emotional because this is the first time such an ordinance has been passed anywhere in the world outside of South Asia,” he said. “It’s a historic moment.”

Thenmozhi Soundararajan, executive director of Oakland, California-based Equality Labs, whose advocacy work along with community partners continues to push caste discrimination laws forward, called the council vote “a culture war that has been won.”

Seattle first US City to ban caste discrimination

Seattle City Council on Tuesday added caste to the city’s anti-discrimination laws, becoming the first U.S. city to specifically ban caste discrimination (Feb. 22) (AP video/Manuel Valdes)

“We got the support of over 200 organizations from Seattle and around the country,” she said. “It’s a powerful message that Dalit people are not alone. The South Asian community has united to say we want to heal from the trauma of caste.”

Council Member Kshama Sawant, a socialist and the only Indian American on the City Council, said the ordinance, which she proposed, does not single out one community, but it accounts for how caste discrimination crosses national and religious boundaries. Sawant said the council received over 4,000 emails in support of the ordinance.

“We’ve heard hundreds of gut-wrenching stories over the last few weeks showing us that caste discrimination is very real in Seattle,” she said.

Council Member Sara Nelson who cast the lone dissenting vote agreed with opponents calling the ordinance “a reckless, harmful solution to a problem for which we have no data or research.”

“This could generate more anti-Hindu discrimination and could dissuade employers from hiring South Asians,” she said. “The community that is being impacted is deeply divided on this issue.”

Nelson also said the ordinance would also get the city entangled in legal battles to which Sawant responded: “Bring it on.” Sawant said being fearful of lawsuits is not the way to effect progress or change.

Council Member Lisa Herbold questioned opponents’ logic that the law singles out Hindus and people of Indian descent. “That’s like saying gender discrimination laws single out all men,” she said. “And just because we have a small population that is experiencing (caste discrimination) that doesn’t make it any less important.”

Shobha Swamy, a representative of the Coalition of Hindus of North America said she was disappointed by the council deliberations and line of questioning. The group said they received a show of support from over 100 organizations. “Due diligence wasn’t done,” said Swami, who flew in from Atlanta.

C.H. Srikrishna, a San Francisco Bay Area-based tech worker, said he is worried about the ramifications this ordinance might have for the South Asian community.

“I too want discrimination to end,” he said. “But we need to first determine that widespread discrimination exists.”

Srikrishna, who is Hindu, believes the ordinance does target his religion. “When you say it originated 2,000 years ago, that is implicitly blaming Hinduism,” he said. “That bothers me. I feel betrayed.”

Sanjay Patel, a tech company owner from the Seattle area, said he never felt discriminated against in the U.S. as a member of a lower caste and that the ordinance pained him because it reminded him of a caste identity, which he thought had become obsolete.

“I fear with this law, businesses will be afraid to hire South Asians,” he said. Earlier Tuesday morning, several activists braved cold temperatures and wind gusts to line up outside City Hall so they would get a chance to speak to the council before the vote. But the council restricted public comment at the meeting where more than 300 people had requested to speak virtually and in person. They heard about half of the comments before moving on to deliberations and the vote.

The origins of the caste system in India can be traced back 3,000 years as a social hierarchy based on one’s occupation and birth. It is a system that has evolved over the centuries under Muslim and British rule. The suffering of those who are at the bottom of the caste pyramid — known as Dalits — has continued. Caste discrimination has been prohibited in India since 1948, a year after the nation’s independence from British rule.

The U.S. is the second most popular destination for Indians living abroad, according to the Migration Policy Institute, which estimates the U.S. diaspora grew from about 206,000 in 1980 to about 2.7 million in 2021. The group South Asian Americans Leading Together reports that nearly 5.4 million South Asians live in the U.S. — up from the 3.5 million counted in the 2010 census. Most trace their roots to Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Over the past three years, several colleges and university systems have moved to prohibit caste discrimination. In December 2019, Brandeis University near Boston became the first U.S. college to include caste in its nondiscrimination policy. The California State University System, Colby College, Brown University and the University of California, Davis have all adopted similar measures. Harvard University instituted caste protections for student workers in 2021 as part of its contract with its graduate student union.

Vivek Ramaswamy Announces US Presidential Bid

Staff ReporterProfile, USA 0

A multi-millionaire Indian-American bio-tech entrepreneur who has flirted with politics for only a few years formally threw his hat into the 2024 US Presidential election on Tuesday, boldly announcing that he is seeking the Republican presidential nomination.
Vivek Ramaswamy is only 37, but he sent political pundits scrambling to view his resume after declaring his long-rumored candidacy on Fox News’ highest-rated news show hosted by Tucker Carlson. In a separate oped in Wall Street Journal, whose offering of a platform showed how seriously he is being taken, Ramaswamy declared that he is “launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.”
“To put America first, we need to rediscover what America is. That’s why I am running for president,” Ramaswamy wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial. “I am launching not only a political campaign but a cultural movement to create a new American Dream—one that is not only about money but about the unapologetic pursuit of excellence.”

Ramaswamy is a biotech and health care entrepreneur who has written two books, “Nation of Victims: Identity Politics, the Death of Merit, and the Path Back to Excellence” and “Woke, Inc.: Inside Corporate America’s Social Justice Scam.”

Born in Cincinnati, Ohio, Ramaswamy is a first-generation Indian-American whose parents immigrated from Palakkad, Kerala, and embraced the American dream. His father, Ganapathy Ramaswamy, an engineer, worked for General Electric, and his mother, Geetha, was a geriatric psychiatrist in Cincinnati. His brother, Shankar Ramaswamy, is also a bio-technologist and Co-Founder and CEO of Kriya Therapeutics, a bio-tech firm and his wife, Apoorva Tewari, is an Assistant Professor and surgeon at the Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center.

Vivek Ramaswamy himself has had a spectacular academic career, graduating in biology from Harvard College and earning a law degree from Yale in 2013, during which time he was also a partner at a financial firm managing its bio-tech portfolio. His personal fortune, said to be in the region of $ 500 million, is said to be built largely around Roivant Sciences, a pharmaceutical company that he founded in 2014. In 2021, he stepped down as CEO of Roivant to begin a political journ ..

“We embrace secular religions like climatism, Covidism and gender ideology to satisfy our need for meaning, yet we can’t answer what it means to be an American,” Ramaswamy wrote in the Journal.

“The Republican Party’s top priority should be to fill this void with an inspiring national identity that dilutes the woke agenda to irrelevance,” he continued.

The editorial also called for securing the border, eliminating affirmative action and repealing civil service protection for federal employees.

He filed a statement of candidacy with the Federal Election Commission earlier Tuesday and is scheduled to speak at a Polk County GOP event in Iowa on Thursday.

Why Has India Not Condemned Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine?

Staff ReporterIndia, World 0

In the year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Western democracies have condemned Moscow, slapped wide-ranging sanctions on it, cut back on Russian oil and gas and sent unprecedented amounts of arms and ammunition to help Ukraine defend itself.

But the world’s biggest democracy — India — hasn’t done any of that.

India has solidified ties with Moscow. Prime Minister Narendra Modi met with Vladimir Putin in September and called their countries’ friendship “unbreakable.” He did tell the Russian president it’s “not a time for war.” But a year on, Modi still refuses to assign blame for the violence, and has voiced more concern over the spike in global food and fuel prices triggered by the war.

Meanwhile, as Europe eschews Russian oil and gas, India has doubled down on buying Russian oil at bargain prices — much to Washington’s chagrin. And India continues to place orders for Russian-made weapons.

All this is a reminder that, a year into this war, condemnation of Russia is far from unanimous. Much of the global south actually sees the West’s focus on Ukraine as a distraction from other, more pressing issues like food security, inflation and mounting debt.

Analysts and political scientists cite four main factors shaping India’s policy toward Ukraine and Russia: History, energy, arms and influence.

Factor #1: The India-Russia relationship goes way back

India was still under British colonial rule when Russia opened its first consulate there in 1900, in Mumbai. But relations really took off during the Cold War.

Picture : Politico

“It started out as strategic sympathy for the Soviet Union, in the backdrop of India getting independence from the British. So it’s an anti-colonial experience, anti-imperialism,” says Rajeswari (Raji) Pillai Rajagopalan, a political scientist at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi. “And as the Cold War picked up, it became a more anti-West, anti-U.S. sentiment they shared.”

The end of the Cold War didn’t change that. Neither has the Ukraine war. India’s nationalist TV news channels often accuse the United States — rather than Russia — of doing more to ruin Ukraine.

In November, Modi’s top diplomat, S. Jaishankar, traveled to Moscow, where he stood alongside his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov and called their countries’ relationship “steady and time-tested.”

Modi has called for a cease-fire in Ukraine, without condemning Russia’s attacks. Some of his political opponents say that doesn’t go far enough, and point toward India’s actions rather than its words.

“The actions that India is engaged in so far do not reflect any remorse or even mild criticism of the events in Ukraine,” says Praveen Chakravarty, a political economist affiliated with the opposition Indian National Congress party. “If anything, it seems to aid and abet.”

Factor #2: India wants cheap Russian oil

India has one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. (The IMF forecasts 6.8% growth for India this year, compared to just 1.6% for the United States.) By 2030, India is forecast to be the third-largest economy in the world, behind the U.S. and China.

It’s already the third-largest oil consumer in the world. And it needs even more to fuel all that growth. But because India has few oil and gas reserves of its own, most of the oil it needs has to be imported. It’s also a relatively poor country, particularly sensitive to price.

That’s where Russia comes in. India still buys more oil from Middle Eastern countries than Russia. But its Russian share has skyrocketed. In December, India imported 1.2 million barrels of Russian crude. That’s a whopping 33 times more than a year earlier. In January, the share of Russian crude rose to 28% of India’s oil imports — up from just 0.2% before Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Indian officials have defended those purchases by saying it’s their job to find bargains for their citizens. And Jaishankar, the foreign minister, has suggested it’s hypocritical of wealthier Westerners to ask them not to.

“Europe has managed to reduce its imports [of Russian gas] while doing it in a manner that is comfortable,” Jaishankar told an Austrian TV channel last month. “At 60,000 euros or whatever is your per capita income, you’re so caring about your population. I have a population at 2,000 dollars [per capita annual income]. I also need energy, and I am not in a position to pay high prices for oil.”

Last April, Jaishankar visited the White House for a virtual summit between Modi and President Biden. There, U.S. officials told their Indian counterparts they understand India’s energy needs and were hoping only that India would not “accelerate” Russian oil purchases.

India basically ignored that. But the Biden administration now says it’s actually fine with that.

Earlier this month, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for Energy Resources Geoffery Pyatt said Washington is “comfortable” with India’s approach on Russian oil. And Karen Donfried, the assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian Affairs, said the U.S. is not looking at sanctioning India for this.

Here’s one possible explanation for Washington’s change of heart: India is buying Russian crude at deep discounts — something the West can’t do because of sanctions, or doesn’t want to do because of the optics. Then India refines that same Russian oil and exports it onward to the U.S. and Europe. So the West gets Russian oil, without getting its hands dirty.

“U.S. treasury officials have two main goals: keep the market well supplied and deprive Russia of oil revenue,” Ben Cahill, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, recently told Bloomberg. “They are aware that Indian and Chinese refiners can earn bigger margins by buying discounted Russian crude and exporting products at market prices. They’re fine with that.”

Factor #3: Moscow is India’s biggest arms dealer

India’s military has historically been equipped with Russian and Soviet weapons. Most of those contracts date back to the Cold War, a conflict in which India was officially non-aligned but close to Moscow. So most of India’s arsenal was — and still is — Soviet-made.

By now, some those 30-something-year-old weapons are deteriorating. “Let’s just go to the [Indian] Air Force. Most of those Sukhois and MiGs [fighter aircraft] are referred to as ‘flying coffins.’ Very often Indian pilots die when they are testing, or flying, those,” says Aparna Pande, a political scientist at the Hudson Institute in Washington. “So India knows they need to be replaced.”

Indian defence experts may have been the only ones not surprised to see Russian tanks falling apart in Ukraine this past year, Pande says. They’ve been unhappy with Russian equipment for years.

So the Indian government has started replacing some of its Soviet-made aircraft and artillery with French, Israeli and American versions. But it’s a time-consuming and costly task to update India’s entire arsenal, Pande notes.

“Let’s say my entire apartment had only IKEA furniture, and now I decide, ‘OK now I want to change it, and I want West Elm.’ I cannot just replace one chair. I have to change my entire dining table and all the chairs,” Pande explains. “So what India has done [in terms of updating its weapons] is piecemeal. But those big ticket items are still Russian-made. So that’s the change which has to happen, and this is what will reduce the Russian influence.”

Despite the Indian government’s efforts to diversify, Moscow continues to be India’s biggest arms dealer — more than 30 years after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. Russia has reportedly supplied India with around $13 billion in weapons in the past five years alone. There’s one big reason India needs all these weapons: China.

Factor #4: India wants to prevent Putin from getting closer to China’s Xi Jinping

India’s biggest foreign policy preoccupation is not Ukraine or Russia. It’s China. The two countries share a more than 2,000-mile disputed border. Satellite imagery shows China may be encroaching on Indian territory. Soldiers clashed there in June 2020, and again this past December.

And as the West isolates Russia, India fears Putin is already looking eastward, toward Beijing. “You’re already seeing a very close Russia-China relationship emerging, even in the last few years,” says the ORF’s Rajagopalan. “So the current Indian approach is, we don’t want Russia to go completely into the Chinese fold. Because for India, China has become the No. 1 national security threat.”

Despite the Ukraine war, that’s true for Washington too. So even if Washington doesn’t like it, Biden administration officials say they understand why India has not condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and they’re willing to grant India a wide berth.

They may even see India’s continued ties with Putin as useful — to try to mitigate just how far the Ukraine war drives him into Xi Jinping’s arms.

Hillary Clinton During Visit To IIT Gandhinagar, Urges Students To Shut Off Social Media To Have Time For Self-Reflection

Staff ReporterTechnology, Youth 0

Known globally for her humanitarian outlook and advocacy for social justice and women’s rights, former First Lady and Secretary of State of the United States of (US) and philanthropist Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Indian Institute of Technology Gandhinagar (IITGN) as a part of her India visit and interacted with faculty, students, and the larger IITGN community. She was joined by senior officials of the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI).

During a town hall at the Institute titled “Insights from Her Journey”, Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton emphasised the need to take climate action and adopt sustainable alternate solutions in our day-to-day lives.

Picture : TheUNN

Citing an example from her visit to a salt pan farm, where women are using solar-powered pumps, she expressed confidence in India’s ability to meet the alternate energy needs and said, “Alternative clean energy is India’s future, and it would not burden the country, but instead, it can reduce costs and generate more income for the communities. Today India is well-positioned to adopt clean energy to achieve economic growth. But it requires organisation from the public sector, the private sector, and civil society. So, with creative thinking, scientific know-how through institutions like IITGN, bringing down the costs of such alternatives, and decentralising, I really believe that the opportunity for India in being a leader in clean energy is so dramatically available.”

Hillary Clinton during the town hall at IIT Gandhinagar

The former first woman Senator from New York state also underscored the importance of higher education to prepare young people for tomorrow and said, “Education at all levels is the key to the continuing effort for economic and social equality and justice. And higher education is very important to prepare our young generation for future endeavours. It is at the heart of how we continue to provide opportunity, and so it is important to open higher education to as many students as possible with a variety of educational institutions.”

Picture : TheUNN

She also encouraged girls and women to develop enough resilience and support each other in dealing with adversity, “Dealing with adversity is a challenge regardless of gender, but as women, we must develop enough resilience and confidence to go through the adversity. It requires constant preparation all through your life. And it cannot happen overnight; it can be built through childhood and young adulthood. So it is important that parents express confidence in their children and provide an impartial upbringing. My parents had given equal opportunity to me and my two brothers and expected us to stand up for ourselves and be responsible. So from a very young age, I was given an opportunity to pursue my interest and develop my own path in life. Women in professional and public life realise that sexism and misogyny are still around, and sadly it has become quite redolent on social media, which has become a new challenge that we have not confronted before. So, it is important that other women support women who are adversely affected.”

Answering a question from one of the students about key lessons and takeaways from the Covid-19 pandemic, Secretary Clinton said, “There are several lessons, but most importantly, 1) We need to have supply chains in our countries and immediate regions so that we are not dependent and are able to provide what we need; 2) We have to do a much better job in communicating public health messages. There is a lot of uncertainty, which is
understandable at the start of such a Global pandemic, but we didn’t really communicate effectively with large portions of our population. India and the United States did a great and quick job in bringing vaccines to the market compared to other countries.

But we have to have global responses to curb it, and every country, especially China, has to be more open and transparent in sharing accurate information in real-time. They cannot continue to guard information the rest of the world needs to know; 3) We need to be smarter about getting enough access to healthcare that people might need if it happens again. Public health infrastructure should not collapse when an emergency hits. The whole world should come together and try to cooperate about how we are going to prepare for whatever comes next.”

Sharing her thoughts on the importance of self-reflection and introspection while being in leadership roles, Secretary Clinton said, “We are living in such a fast-paced world and being overstimulated by information as well as misinformation. So I think it’s especially important to shut off social media and your phone in order to have that time for self-reflection. Do an activity like arts, exercise or just a walk in nature without any other digital distractions, which helps you relax and distress.”

Secretary Clinton also shared a few anecdotes from her college life and motivation to keep going in her professional career in public service. Welcoming the distinguished guest, Prof Rajat Moona, Director, IITGN, said, “It is a matter of great honour to host Secretary Hillary Clinton at IIT Gandhinagar today, who has done immense work for various communities around the world. It is this philosophy of improving lives and giving back that has guided the endeavors of IIT Gandhinagar over the years. We believe in adopting a global outlook in our academic and research activities and applying it to address some global as well as regional challenges. Our effort has been to equip our students not only with cutting-edge scientific and technological knowledge but also social empathy.”

Earlier to her interactive town hall, which was moderated by Prof Bhaskar Datta, Secretary Hillary Clinton also visited Palaj village and appreciated significant efforts of the Desai Foundation (one of the Commitment Makers being recognized by Clinton Global Initiative) and their initiatives along with their partnership with IITGN’s social outreach programmes, NEEV and NYASA, in impacting rural youth, women, and communities through skilling,
entrepreneurship, and health programs.

Through the grassroots-level training projects, mentoring, and networking opportunities provided by NEEV, youth and women from these areas have been able to earn a sustainable livelihood and support their families. Through health camps organized by NYASA and its team of student volunteers, hundreds of residents of nearby villages are provided free medical check-ups by expert physicians, orthopaedics, gynaecologists, dermatologists, ophthalmologists and dentists. The beneficiaries are also provided free medicines, spectacles, and essential information related to health and nutrition.

Prof Harish P M, Dean of General Administration, who also coordinated the entire event at IITGN, said, “Our students and community members were eagerly looking forward to hearing from Secretary Clinton, and we were all delighted that she could take time out of her hectic visit to speak to the students. Both her journey and her words were a source of great inspiration for many of our students. Her words of appreciation for our social outreach programme NEEV and student initiative NYASA along with our partnership with Desai Foundation have given us a great impetus to continue creating a more inclusive environment.”

As a gesture of gratitude for spending time with IITGN students, Secretary Clinton was honored with thoughtful gifts as a memory from IITGN, including “Meghadutam – The Cloud Message”, a book having an English translation of the famous lyrical poem by classical Sanskrit poet and dramatist Kalidasa, by Prof Srinivas Reddy, a Guest Professor at IITGN, and an indo-western jacket made using exquisite Mashru silk with traditional Ajrakh print, specially designed and crafted for the guest by artisans of NEEV-IITGN.

Secretary Clinton was in India to help advance Clinton Global Initiative – CGI’s Commitments to Action that are providing employment opportunities and critical health care services to girls and women, while also providing critical support for climate resilience in the region. These Commitments were made by members of the CGI community at the CGI 2022 Meeting, which resulted in 144 new Commitments to Action addressing climate resilience, global health equity, inclusive economic growth, the global refugee crisis, and other critical global challenges.

The Desai Foundation, an IIT Gandhinagar partner in their work to engage students + teachers in social work in the nearby areas, welcomed Secretary Clinton to Palaj village. Here she saw three of their flagship programmes – Heroes for Humanity, a programme born from the COVID pandemic that employs 500 local village residents and provides them with training to deliver local programming. This programme was a part of CGI’s Commitments to Action at the CGI 2022 Meeting. The second is their flagship Asani Sanitary Napkin and Menstrual Equity Programme. And lastly, the Desai Foundation Health Camp, in collaboration with the IITGNNYASA students, a programme that brings healthcare to rural communities.

AAPI Plans 41st Annual Convention in Philadelphia

Ajay GhoshHealth 0

(Philadelphia, PA; February 8, 2023) “It is with great pleasure that we announce that the 41st Annual Convention and Scientific Sessions organized by American Association of Physicians of Indian origin (AAPI) will be held from July 6th to 9th, 2003 in the historical city of Philadelphia, PA,” Dr. Ravi Kolli, President of AAPI announced here today.

Highlighting the importance of AAPI and the contributions of AAPI members in the United states, Dr. Kolli, a senior Psychiatrist by profession said, “Today, AAPI is strong representing over 120,000 Indian American physicians, 130 local Chapters, who make up of 10% of total physicians in the US and nearly 50% of International Medical Graduates, rooted in every corner of the nation, who serve every 7th patient in the US. We are proud of our achievements and our contributions to the healthcare industry and the millions of people we serve.”

“We invite you to the 41st Annual Convention in the historic city of Philadelphia, PA,” Dr. Sanjay Gupta Convenor of AAPI Convention 2023 said. “We have convened a fantastic group of people to meet the needs of the convention and are very excited about this great event. Please reach out to any one of the representatives from the Philadelphia Host Team with questions or comments.”

Picture : TheUNN

“The 2023 AAPI Annual Convention & Scientific Assembly offers an exciting venue to interact with leading physicians, health professionals, academicians, and scientists of Indian origin,” said Dr. V. Ranga, Chair of AAPI BOT. “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. We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia.”

The Covid pandemic has impacted all aspects of human life as never been before. The past three years have been challenging to everyone, particularly to those who are assigned with the responsibility of caring for the sick, even as hundreds of millions are affected by the pandemic. Physicians and other health professionals on the front lines of COVID-19 care have experienced so many unknowns during the pandemic. They’ve also put their own health and the well-being of their families on the line to provide care.

“At this critical juncture in human history, AAPI, the largest ethnic medical organization in the country is focusing on themes such as how to take care of self and find satisfaction and happiness in the challenging situations they are in, while serving hundreds of patients everyday of their dedicated and noble profession,” Dr. Anjana Samadder, President-Elect of AAPI said.

Describing the importance of the host city, Dr. Satheesh Kathula, Vice President of AAPI pointed out, “Philadelphia is one of the most exciting, urban chic cities in the world. It is one of the leading regions for the Life Sciences, Energy, and Financial Services industries. Philly is home to the University of Pennsylvania and has 9 medical schools in the surrounding area will bring in many more participants and excellent world-class speakers.”

Pointing to the accessibility and convenience of reaching Philly, Dr. Meher Medavaram, Secretary of AAPI said, “Traveling to Philadelphia is only one hour and 20 minutes from New York City and 1 hour and 45 minutes from Washington, D.C. via Amtrak’s Acela Express line. Thirty airlines serve Philadelphia International Airport with 625 daily nonstop flights to 121 domestic destinations and will attract many attendees.”

Dr. Sumul Rawal, Treasurer of AAPI said, “Exhibitors and Corporate Partners will remain our top priority as we work together to provide a world-class forum for increased interactions between sponsors, exhibitors, and attendees. The ease with which attendees can move between the exhibit hall, conference and ballrooms, and their hotel rooms will ensure maximum attendance and visibility for Sponsors and Exhibitors.”

The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin Convention offers an exciting venue to interact with leading physicians, health professionals, academicians, and scientists of Indian origin. The 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.

While urging all AAPI members to make plans and be part of the historic Convention, Dr. Kolli said: “We have a wonderful team planning and organizing the event to make the 2023 annual convention a memorable experience. Please reach out to any one of the representatives from the Philly team for any of your queries.” Please visit www.aapiconvention.org for more details or call the AAPI office at (630) 990 2277 for further information.

Spirits Beat Brews In Consumption

Bruce Schreiner & Jim SalterBusiness, Lifestyle 0

(AP) — Producers of spirits have new bragging rights in the age-old whiskey vs. beer barroom debate. New figures show that spirits surpassed beer for U.S. market-share supremacy, based on supplier revenues, a spirit industry group announced Thursday.

The rise to the top for spirit-makers was fueled in part by the resurgent cocktail culture — including the growing popularity of ready-to-drink concoctions — as well as strong growth in the tequila and American whiskey segments, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said.

In 2022, spirits gained market share for the 13th straight year in the fiercely competitive U.S. beverage alcohol market, as its supplier sales reached 42.1%, the council said.

After years of steady growth, it marked the first time that spirit supplier revenues have surpassed beer — but just barely, the spirit industry group said. Beer holds a 41.9% market share, it said.

“Despite the tough economy, consumers continued to enjoy premium spirits and fine cocktails in 2022,” Distilled Spirits Council President and CEO Chris Swonger said.

Overall spirit supplier sales in the U.S. were up 5.1% in 2022 to a record $37.6 billion, the group said. Volumes rose 4.8% to 305 million 9-liter cases.

Seemingly unfazed, Brian Crawford, president and CEO of the Beer Institute, insisted that beer “remains America’s number one choice in beverage alcohol.”

“It’s interesting to hear liquor companies boast about making money hand-over-fist while simultaneously going state-to-state hunting for more tax carveouts from state legislatures,” Crawford said in a statement.

Benj Steinman, president of Beer Marketer’s Insights, a leading beer industry trade publication, said the beer industry saw unprecedented growth in the 1970s, growing at a pace of 4% annually. As recently as 2000, beer’s share in the alcohol market was 58%.

Over the past several decades, beer’s growth has essentially been flat. Meanwhile, spirits have flourished, especially over the past two decades.

“I think there’s just a long arc on these things,” Steinman said.

Steinman and

chief economist at the Brewers Association, a craft beer industry trade group, agreed there are several reasons for the shift to spirits.

“Some of it’s just the younger generation coming up, looking for a lot of variety,” Steinman said. “They sometimes like spirits. Cocktail culture is another thing.”

Watson cited data showing that liquor has become 20% cheaper relative to beer in recent decades. “Price is a particularly large part of the story,” he said.

Another factor is advertising and marketing. Watson pointed to the success of spirits in its outreach to women. Steinman said distilled spirits now advertise freely, something they didn’t do generations ago.

“They’ve increased their availability. They’ve increased their ability to advertise. They’ve had a lot of legislative and policy wins that have enabled growth for distilled spirits,” Steinman said. For spirit producers, reaching the market share milestone was worth toasting.

At Baltimore Spirits Company in Maryland, the head distiller and the manager of its cocktail bar said they are pleased with the rise in the consumption of spirits.

Eli Breitburg-Smith, head distiller and cofounder, said the distillery founders saw a space in the market to make rye whiskey as consumer demand was growing.

“We did see that it was going to be on the rise,” he said. “Now, I don’t know that we thought it would be overtaking beer or anything like that, but we felt like there was a good space in the market for new whiskey, original whiskey, and people that … were making a unique product.”

Gregory Mergner, the general manager of the distillery’s cocktail gallery, said he didn’t anticipate spirits rivaling or surpassing beer for market share.

“As ubiquitous as beer is. I don’t think anybody could have foreseen whiskey overtaking it,” he said. The spirit sector’s rise has coincided with a growing thirst for high-end, super-premium products.

That trend toward premiumization slowed overall in 2022. But it remained strong because of growth in the tequila/mezcal and American whiskey categories, the Distilled Spirits Council said.

More than 60% of the spirit sector’s total U.S. revenue last year came from sales of high-end and super-premium spirits, mostly led by tequila and American whiskey, said Christine LoCascio, the group’s chief of public policy and strategy. Those high-end products fetch the highest prices.

“While many consumers are feeling the pinch from inflation and reduced disposable income, they are still willing to purchase that special bottle of spirits choosing to sip a little luxury and drink better, not more,” LoCascio said.

Within the spirit sector, vodka maintained its as status the top revenue producer at $7.2 billion, though sales were flat in 2022, the group said.

In the tequila/mezcal category, sales rose 17.2%, or $886 million, totaling $6 billion, it said. Sales for American whiskey were up 10.5%, or $483 million, to reach $5.1 billion, it said. The American whiskey category includes bourbon, Tennessee whiskey and rye whiskey.

Brandy and cognac sales were down 12.3%, with revenues totaling $3.1 billion.

Premixed cocktails were the clear leader as the fastest-growing spirit category.

Sales for premixed cocktails, including ready-to-drink spirit products, surged by 35.8%, or $588 million, to reach $2.2 billion, the council said.

Meanwhile, spirit sales volumes in restaurants and bars — referred to as on-premise sales — continued to recover from pandemic-era shutdowns but they remained 5% lower than 2019 levels, the council said. Those sales represent about 20% of the U.S. market.

Off-premise sales volumes at liquor stores and other retail outlets remained steady in 2021 and 2022, after experiencing sharp gains during the pandemic restrictions in 2020, it said.

Meanwhile, there is a crossover strategy brewing in the alcohol market.

Steinman said that even the big players in the beer industry “are playing in all these different growth arenas, including spirits.”

Molson Coors changed its name in 2019, going from Molson Coors Brewing Co. to Molson Coors Beverage Co. Watson noted that the No. 2 canned ready-to-drink liquor product, Cutwater, is made by Anheuser-Busch InBev.

For beer producers, the reversal in market-share rankings is no reason to cry in their suds.

Watson cautioned that the market share trend could flip, calling it “likely at some point we’ll see beer grow again at the expense of other segments.”

Facing Economic Headwinds, AAHOA Members Urge Continued Support of Hotel Industry

Staff ReporterEconomy, Hospitality 0

Laura Lee Blake, President & CEO of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association (AAHOA), released the following statement in response to ongoing reports that economic headwinds could force more hotel owners into serious financial challenges, including bankruptcies – such as a recent filing by a leading Burger King Franchisee – and out-of-court restructurings this year:

“Our members have taken extraordinary steps over the past three years, and, in numerous cases, counted on pandemic relief aid to weather the worst of COVID-19. Many continue to operate on thin margins with smaller workforces. The tight labor market has made it difficult to hire.

“Hotels and other small businesses are the backbone of local economies, and AAHOA Members – the vast majority of whom are first- and second-generation immigrants – are resilient. However, staffing shortages, rising interest rates, and the possibility of a recession this year, even a mild one, are creating further strain on an industry that is still struggling to recover from a devastating pandemic.

Picture : Hospitality Net

“The Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing by TOMS King reminds us that small businesses, including restaurants and hotels, continue to suffer long-term impacts from COVID-19 and an overall uncertain economic environment with high inflation and labor shortages. As President Biden noted in his State of the Union speech this week, the entrepreneurial spirit is very much alive with a record number of Americans starting small businesses. But the outlook for many of those businesses remains cloudy.

“AAHOA Members need certainty and continued federal assistance while these economic headwinds rage. While restaurateurs received grants from the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, hoteliers have not seen the same support. Many need solutions to address, among other things, the pending payments due on COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDLs) by waiving interest and/or deferring for another year.

“Additionally, the government should lift constraints on H2-B visas by expanding eligibility to include India so there are options available for addressing employers’ needs for additional seasonal workers. Finally, for all franchisees, the Federal Trade Commission should thoughtfully review the Franchise Rule, including extending the Rule beyond the presale disclosure to protect small-business owners’ investments. AAHOA Members also support the 12 Points of Fair Franchising to promote long-term, mutually beneficial relationships between Franchisors and Franchisees that will help sustain the franchise business model and grow the hospitality sector.”

AAHOA is the largest hotel owners association in the world, with Member-owned properties representing a significant part of the U.S. economy. AAHOA’s 20,000 members own 60% of the hotels in the United States and are responsible for 1.7% of the nation’s GDP. More than one million employees work at AAHOA member-owned hotels, earning $47 billion annually, and member-owned hotels support 4.2 million U.S. jobs across all sectors of the hospitality industry. AAHOA’s mission is to advance and protect the business interests of hotel owners through advocacy, industry leadership, professional development, member benefits, and community engagement.

Social Media’s Impact On Human Mind

Neha Suraj MathewMedia 0

Social media is a curated virtual platform that helps people connect and network with each other across the world. But what kind of influence and pressure do these platforms put on individuals? How does this influence an individual’s mental health?

It is seen that the constant use of social media platforms often leads individuals to experience feelings of inadequacy, dissatisfaction, isolation, and loneliness. These emotions could worsen into states of depression, anxiety, and stress. Anxiety is the mental health concern most associated with social media. The major concerns associated with social media-related anxiety are the feeling of missing out on popular topics, and social interactions, and the negative comments associated with them. The desire for acceptance and validation from peer groups, along with the constant comparison, contributes to the development of anxiety-related concerns.

The heavy use of social media can also impact the cognitive functioning of the human brain. It shortens the attention span and makes the individual less receptive to distractions. It may also influence and shape a person’s behavior and personality based on interactions and usage on these platforms.

A research study published in September by the American Economic Review found a link between the Facebook app and anxiety and depression-related health concerns. The research was supported by survey data collected from college students across campuses in the U.S. The study was useful in demonstrating that the more time a person spends on an online platform, the more unhappy he tends to become.

Celebrities, models, and other personalities have also addressed the public in general to spread awareness about the negative effects of social media. The pop star Selena Gomez has launched an online platform to help and educate people about mental health. “I really, really want people to be understood, seen, and heard. It’s okay to not be okay,” she shared during one of her conversations. Kendal Jenner, during one of her interviews with Vogue for the series Open Minded, shared her experience with social media. “I find that the more I’m looking at the screen, the more detached I feel from my own body or from what’s happening right in front of me.” “My relationship with social media is a bit addictive right now, which I don’t like, and I’m not proud to say that, but I also feel like that’s something that probably most of us can relate to.”

Limiting your personal exposure to social media in a planned manner can be beneficial if it makes you feel more worried. Giving oneself a specific amount of time to spend on social media or allowing oneself a period of time at the end of the day to do so are two other examples that could be used to lessen the effects of social media.

Air India-Boeing Deal Will Create 1 Million Jobs In America

Staff ReporterBusiness, Travel 0

US President Joe Biden has hailed Air India’s decision to purchase 220 Boeing aircraft and hails it as a ‘historic agreement’. Releasing a statement of Joe Biden, the US said, “The United States can and will lead the world in manufacturing. I am proud to announce today the purchase of over 200 American-made aircraft through a historic agreement between Air India and Boeing.”

Aiming to upgrade its fleet and expand its operations, Tata-owned Air India on 14 February confirmed it will buy a total of 470 wide-body and narrow-body planes from Airbus and Boeing. On February 10th, reports stated that Air India signed agreements with Airbus SE and Boeing Co. for about 250 orders and commitments in total, made up of 210 of the A320 single-aisle family models and 40 A350s wide-bodies.

“The order comprises 40 Airbus A350s, 20 Boeing 787s and 10 Boeing 777-9s wide-body aircraft, as well as 210 Airbus A320/321 Neos and 190 Boeing 737 MAX single-aisle aircraft. The A350 aircraft will be powered by Rolls-Royce engines, and the B777/787s by engines from GE Aerospace. All single-aisle aircraft will be powered by engines from CFM International,” Air India said in an official statement.

“This purchase will support over one million American jobs across 44 states, and many will not require a four-year college degree. This announcement also reflects the strength of the U.S.-India economic partnership,” the statement added.

Apart from this, Biden in his statement expressed hope to deepen partnership even further by continuing to confront shared global challenges and create a more secure and prosperous future for people.

On AI-Boeing deal, PM Modi held telephone conversation with the President of the US Joe Biden on February 14th and expressed satisfaction at the deepening of the India-US Comprehensive Global Strategic Partnership, which has resulted in robust growth in all domains.

Both the leaders welcomed the announcement of a landmark agreement between Air India and Boeing as a shining example of mutually beneficial cooperation that will help create new employment opportunities in both countries. PM Modi also invited Boeing and other US companies to make use of the opportunities arising due to the expanding civil aviation sector in India.

Air India said that the first of the new aircraft will enter service in late-2023, while the bulk are expected to arrive from mid-2025 onwards. Adding more, the AI said that it has already started taking delivery of 11 leased B777 and 25 A320 aircraft to accelerate its fleet and network expansion.

The first of the refitted aircraft – with an entirely new cabin, new seats and inflight entertainment system – will enter service in mid-2024, said AI.

With AI signing MoUs for 68 Trent XWB-97 engines, it has now become the biggest ever order for the Trent XWB-97, which exclusively powers the Airbus A350-1000. Also, AI’s order of 12 Trent XWB-84 engines – the sole engine option for the Airbus A350-900 – is also being considered a huge order. Though no financial details of the order have been disclosed. This is the first time that an Indian airline has ordered the Trent XWB and the deal will make Air India the largest operator of the Trent XWB-97 in the world.

“Today’s announcement marks an exciting and truly remarkable occasion for Tata Group and Air India; the size and magnitude of this order reflects the level of their ambition for the future. I congratulate them on taking this bold step towards becoming one of the world’s greatest airlines and I would like to thank them for putting their trust in Rolls-Royce to power them on this journey,” Rolls-Royce plc’s CEO Tufan Erginbilgic said while sharing his thoughts.

Reacting on the deal, Tata Sons and AI’s Chairman N Chandrasekaran noted Air India is on a large transformation journey. He said, “Air India is on a large transformation journey across safety, customer service, technology, engineering, network and human resources. Modern, efficient fleet is a fundamental component of this transformation.”

“This order is an important step in realising Air India’s ambition, articulated in its Vihaan.AI transformation program, to offer a world class proposition serving global travellers with an Indian heart,” he said.

“These new aircraft will modernize the Airline’s fleet and onboard product and dramatically expand its global network . The growth enabled by this order will also provide unparalled career opportunities for Indian aviation professionals and catalyze accelerated development of the Indian aviation ecosystem,” he added.

Rep. Ro Khanna Elected Co-Chair Of India Caucus

Staff ReporterUSA 0

Congressman Ro Khanna, 46, a Democrat who represents California’s 17th Congressional District, is the co-chairman of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans, along with his Republican House colleague Mike Waltz (R-Fla) in the 118th Congress.

“The Indian-American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the US-India partnership. I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice,” Khanna told the media.

Picture : Newsweek

The India Caucus is a bipartisan coalition of lawmakers that was established in 1993 to bolster New Delhi-Washington relations. Prior to Khanna, Congressman Ami Bera was the first Indian-American to be elected as the co-chair of the Caucus in 2015-2016 during the 115th Congress.

“I’m going to try to make it about not just us India, but also the Indian-American community and highlighting the contributions of that community,” Khanna was quoted to have said.

Indian Americans are the second-largest immigrant group in the US, with their population estimated to be around four million. As the profile of the community has grown, so too has its social, economic, and political influence.

There are presently five Indian Americans serving in the Congress, popularly known as the ‘Samosa Caucus’ — Ami Bera, Ro Khanna, Raja Krishnamoorthi, Pramila Jayapal, and Shri Thanedar. Khanna’s appointment comes amidst reports that he may be looking at a potential presidential run in 2024.

His recent moves have sparked speculation among Democrats in several key states that the Congressman has his eyes set on a higher office, according to Politico. “If President Biden didn’t seek re-election, his name would have to be on the list of top contenders,” Stacey Walker, founder of the Iowa-based firm Sage Strategies, said.

Khanna — son of immigrant parents from Punjab — is seen as one of the leaders of his party’s progressive wing, and a relative newcomer on the scene who has broad appeal and formidable skills.

On US-India relations, he said last month that the relationship between the two democracies could define the 21st century. Khanna had said in November 2022 that the US needs a strong defense and strategic partnership with India, especially in the face of escalating aggression from China. In September last year, he had introduced a standalone bill in the US House of Representatives seeking a waiver to India against the punitive CAATSA sanctions.

Rep. Ro Khanna will be a co-chair of the Congressional Caucus on India and Indian Americans, he said in an exclusive interview last week. Khanna, a Democrat who has been representing California’s 17th Congressional District since 2017, will co-chair the caucus with Rep. Mike Waltz,.

“When I started on this journey, in my 20s, there was a huge novelty to having someone of Indian origin even enter politics,” he said. “The Indian American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the U.S.-India partnership. … I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice.”

The caucus, which was established in 1993 to strengthen relations between the U.S. and India, was previously chaired by Rep. Brad Sherman, D-Calif., and former Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio. Khanna said he hopes to take the caucus beyond its original goal. The Indian diaspora in the U.S. has its own unique needs, he said, and the position could be an opportunity to bring them to the forefront.

“I’m going to try to make it about not just us India, but also the Indian American community and highlighting the contributions of that community,” he said. “I think being Indian America and being part of the community, knowing so many of the community leaders, knowing the passions and interests of young people, I’ll be able to do that.”

Khanna said that having spent much of his career in Northern California’s Silicon Valley, he has been immersed in Indian American issues for years. The rising tide of Hindu nationalism is on the forefront of the diaspora’s collective consciousness; from professional spheres to college campuses, reports of Islamophobia and casteism abound in South Asian spaces.

Khanna hasn’t shied away from such conversations, and his vocalness has sparked outrage from right-wing Indian Americans. In 2019, 230 Hindu and Indian American entities wrote letter criticizing Khanna for denouncing Hindu nationalism (also known as Hindutva) and for advocating religious equality on the subcontinent.

“It’s the duty of every American politician of Hindu faith to stand for pluralism, reject Hindutva, and speak for equal rights for Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Buddhist & Christians,” Khanna tweeted at the time.

They also criticized Khanna for joining the Congressional Pakistan Caucus and for speaking out against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s revoking the state of Kashmir’s autonomy.

“Of course, we have to fulfill the strategic partnership and we have to respect the democratically elected leadership in India,” Khanna told NBC News. “I will work to strengthen that while also upholding these human rights values.”

“When I started on this journey, in my 20s, there was a huge novelty to having someone of Indian origin even enter politics,” he said. “The Indian American diaspora can play such an important role in helping strengthen the U.S.-India partnership. … I think this is a historic moment for our community. I think we’re really emerging and coming into our own as a strong voice.”

“Of course, we have to fulfill the strategic partnership and we have to respect the democratically elected leadership in India,” Khanna told NBC News. “I will work to strengthen that while also upholding these human rights values.”

“These kids of H1B are like the Dreamers,” Khanna said. “You have kids who came here when they were 2 or 3. They don’t have citizenship. … Even though they have grown up their whole life here, they’re in a vulnerable position.”

With both Republican and Democratic representatives serving on the India Caucus, including Khanna’s co-chair Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Khanna is aiming to mobilize bipartisan support for safeguarding young adults who find themselves in this position.

Khanna held a town hall on Saturday, bringing awareness to Asian American and Pacific Islanders’ mental health in the wake of the deadly shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay, California. Though the shooters in both cases were Asian men, Khanna said they amplified a mounting fear of simply existing in community spaces once considered safe.

With numerous high-profile acts of violence against Asians in the last few years, community members are feeling more “distant” from America than ever, he said.

“We had so much outreach to our office from constituents…people afraid, concerned, anxious about being Asian American in the United States,” he said. “These shootings, even though the perpetrator was Asian American, I think they triggered for so many in our community a sense of vulnerability.”

Khanna says taking on this greater role in the India Caucus feels like the culmination of generations of work in the public sphere. His grandfather Amarnath Vidyalankar spent his life fighting for India’s independence from British rule, even spending a few years in jail for the cause. Vidyalankar became a member of India’s first Parliament after independence in 1947.

Growing up with this knowledge has shaped Khanna’s strong beliefs in equality and religious freedom, he said, something he hopes to bring with him while chairing the caucus.  “Because of my grandfather, I was influenced by Gandhi’s thinking, by Nehru’s beautiful speeches about liberal democracy, about pluralism,” he said. “Those are the values I champion. … I’ve spoken out where I think those values are being challenged.”

India Likely To Allow Foreign Universities

Staff ReporterEducation 0

Can India create a higher education system worthy of its aspirations as a full-fledged knowledge economy? That’s still to be determined. But India is on the verge of taking a major, long-awaited first step in the right direction: With the recent release of draft rules by the country’s higher education regulator – the University Grants Commission – India is moving closer to allowing high-quality foreign universities to set up campuses to help meet the country’s growing appetite for advanced education.

Crucially, under the rules, which will have to be approved by Parliament, foreign universities would get the freedom to decide their own curriculums, fix fees and hire faculty at terms of their choosing. They would even be allowed to repatriate earnings. That all might seem underwhelming to readers accustomed to the U.S. system. But it would be a radical – and, eventually, perhaps game-changing – shift for India.

And India’s higher education system badly needs shaking up. Setting aside issues of quality (as if those can be set aside), India does not come close to providing sufficient seats to those aspiring to higher education – a glaring shortcoming as India’s burgeoning middle class strives to prepare their children for the opportunities of the future.

India’s system has its successes, of course, but they are narrow. Just nine Indian higher education institutions made the top 500 of the most recent QS World University Rankings. The top one – the Indian Institute of Science (at 155) – is a highly specialized institution focused on postgraduate studies and research in the sciences. The other eight are part of the well-known Indian Institutes of Technology, which specialize in engineering. The highest-ranked comprehensive university was the University of Delhi, falling in the 520s.

That is simply not good enough. All told, India has just over 1,000 institutions of higher learning. China, with a similar population, has three times that. The United States, with a much smaller population, has four times as many.

India’s gross enrollment ratio for higher education – the percentage of college-age adults who are enrolled – is around 27 percent, much lower than in advanced economies and even other emerging economies such as Brazil and China. Expect that figure to increase. If the supply of higher education cannot keep pace, more students will look overseas, as so many already do. Canada, the United States, Australia and Britain are primary destinations. The “import” of higher education from other English-speaking countries makes no sense for a country that prides itself on a service-based economy and its English language advantage. Education should be a sector that provides export earnings.

So, what’s the problem? Overregulation, as with so much of the Indian economy. Other parts of the economy have been liberalized over the years, but not higher ed.

More than half of Indian colleges and universities are government-run – around 200 by the federal government and 400 by state governments. Of course, it is not uncommon for countries to have large public university systems. But India grants little autonomy to such institutions, which have no freedom to set tuition and fees – kept artificially low by the pressures of populist politics.

Thus, institutions are totally dependent on the government for funding, eroding what autonomy exists on paper. The federal and state governments have serious fiscal constraints, and higher education always struggles in the competition for resources. Faculty salaries are benchmarked with civil servants, but at a somewhat lower level; tenure and promotions are based on service time, not merit. There is no way to reward stellar talent.

Private universities, too, are overly regulated and cannot operate for profit. That deters the best entrepreneurs from entering the sector.

Critics argue that allowing in foreign universities will not solve the problem, and it’s true it won’t be a cure-all. But if even a small number of acclaimed universities establish campuses, it would both improve overall quality and inject some competition into a sector that badly needs it. It should also induce more top academic talent to stay in India.

More important, it would set a precedent that Indian universities, both public and private, can and will use to argue for greater liberalization and freedom. They will push for a level playing field, which will eventually be granted. In the long run, high-quality foreign university campuses and improved Indian institutions can attract students from Africa and elsewhere in Asia, turning higher ed into the growth-and-jobs pillar that it should be in a world-leading economy.

Of course, it would be better if Indian institutions could get the benefits of change before, or at least alongside, foreign universities. But in India’s reform-resistant system, sometimes all you can do is open one window at a time.

Dhiraj Nayyar is the director for economics and policy at Vedanta Resources, whose philanthropic arm runs three not-for-profit colleges in India.

Immigrants Use Less Welfare Than Natives

Staff ReporterImmigration, USA 0

In the United States, the Welfare Reform in 1996 dramatically changed welfare participation rules by imposing restrictions on immigrant welfare use.

Several studies have been conducted to asses the use of welfare programs by different ethnic groups in the US. An immigrant in the United States consumed 27.3 per cent less welfare than native-born Americans, the public policy think tank, Cato Institute said in its report. The report called for further reforms to reduce expenditure on welfare by building a higher wall around the concept of the ‘welfare state’ than around the country.

According to the report, the average value of welfare benefits per immigrant was $6,063 in 2020, or 27.3 percent less than the $8,335 average for native‐​born Americans.

Immigrants consumed 36.9 percent less Social Security, 26 percent less Medicare, 10.7 percent less Medicaid, 11.5 percent less SNAP benefits, and 87.6 percent less TANF benefits than native‐​born Americans on a per capita basis. However, immigrants consumed 11.4 percent more in SSI benefits than natives, which translates to $19 more than natives on a per capita basis. Immigrants individually also consumed 42.9 percent more WIC benefits than native‐​born Americans, which translates to $7 more than natives per capita.

On the other hand, ssing data from 1995 to 2018, Huang and colleagues investigated the effects of demographic factors, macroeconomic trends, and policies on the welfare participation gap between immigrants and natives in the US.

This study covered 24 years of data, spanning times of economic recessions and recoveries, changes in welfare policy regimes, and policies towards immigrants. The authors found that immigrants’ participation in means-tested programs would have been much less overall and greatly below those of natives, after adjusting for individual characteristics such as educational attainment. This article was published in Population Research and Policy Review, a leading interdisciplinary international journal of population research.

The study also found that business cycles impact immigrant and native welfare participation differently. Immigrant participation in Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program, and State Children’s Health Insurance Program are more sensitive to the business cycle than native participation, providing some evidence that immigrant “dependence” on safety net programs is temporary and closely linked to the economy.

The lead author, Xiaoning Huang, is a doctoral candidate at Columbia School of Social Work and a fellow at Columbia China Center for Social Policy. The coauthors are Dr. Neeraj Kaushal, professor at Columbia School of Social Work, and Dr. Julia Shu-Huah Wang, assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong and an associate at Columbia China Center for Social Policy.

On the policy front, the analysis suggested that program eligibility explains only a modest proportion of the overall immigrant-native gap in welfare use. This finding offers an alternate perspective to supplement previous research that has found substantial impacts of policy on welfare use. While the restrictive welfare policies can significantly influence welfare use, the rules are not as consequential as an individual and household characteristics in “explaining” the difference in immigrant and native households’ welfare participation.

These findings underline the limits of restrictive welfare policies, advocate for better social safety net programs to protect immigrants and their children from economic downturns and adverse health events, and support inclusive policies such as DACA and the DREAM Act to invest in immigrants’ human capital development.

U.S. Shoots Down Chinese Spy Balloon Off The Coast Of South Carolina

Staff ReporterWorld 0

The U.S. military shot down a suspected Chinese spy balloon off the coast of South Carolina on Saturday afternoon, the Pentagon said, while China called the downing an overreaction.

“On Wednesday, President Biden gave his authorization to take down the surveillance balloon as soon as the mission could be accomplished without undue risk to American lives under the balloon’s path,” U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a statement.

Austin said military commanders “had determined downing the balloon while over land posed an undue risk to people across a wide area due to the size and altitude of the balloon and its surveillance payload.”

Speaking on Saturday, President Biden told reporters he gave the order on Wednesday. U.S. officials “said to me, ‘Let’s wait ’til the safest place to do it,’ ” he said. “They successfully took it down, and I want to compliment our aviators who did it,” Biden added.

The downing came shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration said it had “paused departures from and arrivals to” three East Coast airports — in Wilmington, N.C., Myrtle Beach, S.C., and Charleston, S.C. — “to support the Department of Defense in a national security effort.” Flights through these airports resumed shortly after 3 p.m.

China responds with “dissatisfaction and protest”

Picture : The Drive

U.S. and Chinese officials have given conflicting information on the balloon’s purpose. The Chinese government said the balloon is strictly used for meteorological research and accidentally went adrift into U.S. airspace. China’s foreign ministry on Saturday expressed “strong dissatisfaction and protest” over what it called the U.S.’s “use of force to attack a civilian unmanned airship.” It called the shooting down an “obvious overreaction and a serious violation of international practice.”

The Pentagon has said the balloon was being used for surveillance. Its presence already led Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday to postpone a historic trip to Beijing, as tensions continue to rise between the two countries over national security.

U.S. officials earlier this week decided against shooting down the balloon after the Biden administration said it did not pose a national security threat. The Pentagon shared reports on Friday of a second balloon, belonging to China, that could be seen floating over Latin America. Colombia’s Air Force said on Saturday that an object with characteristics of a balloon had traveled through its airspace on Friday.

The balloon traveling through the U.S. quickly became an internet celebrity as meteorologists, storm chasers and others shared sightings on social media as it continued on its path across the U.S. Others criticized the Biden administration for not taking quicker actions to stop it.

Blinken postpones his Beijing trip after a Chinese balloon spotted

“The China balloon flying over the U.S. is a direct assault on our national sovereignty,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted on Friday. “Biden’s refusal to stop it is a dereliction of duty. From flying balloons to open borders, Biden has no regard for our national security and sovereignty.”

After its downing on Saturday, Republican Sen. Tim Scott of South Carolina said it “should have been shot down before it crossed the continental United States, not after. We still don’t know what information was collected and where it was sent,” he said. “This was a dereliction of Biden’s duty, and let’s hope the American people don’t pay a price.”

Austin praised Biden’s decision to shoot down the balloon. The Canadian government assisted in the “tracking and analysis of the balloon,” according to Austin.

“Today’s deliberate and lawful action demonstrates that President Biden and his national security team will always put the safety and security of the American people first while responding effectively to the PRC’s unacceptable violation of our sovereignty,” he said in the statement.

On Saturday, people shared sightings of the balloon on social media. Earlier, in South Carolina, the York County Sheriff’s Office tweeted that the balloon was more than 60,000 feet in the air and urged people not to take matters into their own hands. “Don’t try to shoot it!!” the office tweeted. “Your rifle rounds WILL NOT reach it. Be responsible. What goes up will come down, including your bullets.”

UN Urges World Leaders to Declare ‘Climate Emergency’ at Virtual Climate Summit

Staff ReporterEnvironment, Nation, World 0

Global climate leaders took a major stride towards a resilient, net zero emissions future today, presenting ambitious new commitments, urgent actions and concrete plans to confront the climate crisis.

World leaders should declare a “climate emergency” in their countries to spur action to avoid catastrophic global warming, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in opening remarks at a climate summit on Saturday.

On the fifth anniversary of the 2015 Paris Agreement, more than 70 world leaders are due to address the one-day virtual meeting in the hope of galvanizing countries into stricter actions on global warming emissions.

Guterres said that current commitments across the globe did not go “far from enough” to limit temperature rises. “Can anybody still deny that we are facing a dramatic emergency?” Guterres said. “That is why today, I call on all leaders worldwide to declare a State of Climate Emergency in their countries until carbon neutrality is reached.”

The summit showed clearly that climate change is at the top of the global agenda despite our shared challenges of Covid-19, and that there is mutual understanding that the science is clear.

Climate destruction is accelerating, and there remains much more to do as a global community to keep the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

However, the summit showed beyond doubt that climate action and ambition are on the rise. The announcements at or just before the summit, together with those expected early next year, mean that countries representing around 65 per cent of global CO2 emissions, and around 70 per cent of the world’s economy, will have committed to reaching net zero emissions or carbon neutrality by early next year.

These commitments must now be backed up with concrete plans and actions, starting now, to achieve these goals, and the summit delivered a surge in progress on this front.

The number of countries coming forward with strengthened national climate plans (NDCs) grew significantly today, with commitments covering 71 countries (all EU member states are included in the new EU NDC) on display. As well as the EU NDC, a further 27 of these new and enhanced NDCs were announced at or shortly before the summit.

A growing number of countries (15) shifted gears from incremental to major increases. Countries committing to much stronger NDCs at the Summit, included Argentina, Barbados, Canada, Colombia, Iceland, and Peru.

The leadership and strengthened NDCs delivered at the summit mean “we are now on track” to have more than 50 NDCs officially submitted by the end of 2020, boosting momentum and forging a pathway forward for others to follow in the months ahead.

Saturday’s announcements, together with recent commitments, send the world into 2021 and the road to the Glasgow COP26 with much greater momentum. The summit showcased leading examples of enhanced NDCs that can help encourage other countries to follow suit – particularly G20 countries.

Following this Summit, 24 countries have now announced new commitments, strategies or plans to reach net zero or carbon neutrality. Recent commitments from China, Japan, South Korea, the EU and niw Argentina have established a clear benchmark for other G20 countries.

Britain Prime Minister Boris Johnson said: “Today we have seen what can be achieved if nations pull together and demonstrate real leadership and ambition in the fight to save our planet.

“The UK has led the way with a commitment to cut emissions by at least 68 per cent by 2030 and to end support for the fossil fuel sector overseas as soon as possible, and it’s fantastic to see new pledges from around the world that put us on the path to success ahead of COP26 in Glasgow.

“There is no doubt that we are coming to the end of a dark and difficult year, but scientific innovation has proved to be our salvation as the vaccine is rolled out. We must use that same ingenuity and spirit of collective endeavour to tackle the climate crisis, create the jobs of the future and build back better.”

China and India vowed to advance their commitment to lower carbon pollution at the summit. President Xi Jinping was one of the first leaders to address the virtual conference and he said China will boost its installed capacity of wind and solar power to more than 1,200 gigawatts over the next decade. Xi also said China will increase its share of non-fossil fuels in primary energy consumption to around 25% during the same period. And “China always honors its commitments,” Xi promised.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India was ramping up its use of clean energy sources and was on target to achieve the emissions norms set under the 2015 Paris agreement. India, the second-most populous nation on Earth and the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter, is eyeing 450 gigawatt of renewable energy capacity by 2030, Modi said.

 

Pakistan Markets Hindu, Christian Women as ‘Concubines’: U.S. Official Says

Staff ReporterNation, World 0

US Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom Samuel D. Brownback claimed that Pakistan is marketing Hindu and Christian women as “concubines” and “forced brides” to China.

Talking to reports last week, the top US diplomat for religious freedom said that one of the sources of “forced brides” for the Chinese men is “religious minorities, Christian and Hindu women, being marketed as concubines and as forced as brides into China”.

That was happening “because there’s not effective support and there’s discrimination against religious minorities that make them more vulnerable,” he said.

He mentioned this as one of the reasons for designating Pakistan as a country of particular concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act.

Because of the one-child policy imposed by China for decades, there is an acute shortage of women given the cultural preference for boys leading to Chinese men importing women from other countries as brides, mistresses and laborers.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom had recommended placing India also on the CPC list, citing among other issues the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), but Secretary of State Mike Pompeo rejected the suggestion when he announced the designations Dec. 7.

Brownback, however, said that Washington was watching the Indian situation closely and “these issues have been raised in private discussions at the government, high government level, and they will continue to get raised.”

The CAA expedites citizenship for Hindus, Christians, Buddhists and Sikhs fleeing religious persecution in neighboring Islamic or Muslim majority countries but does not prevent Muslims from getting citizenship after following the usual procedures.

The U.S. has a legal provision similar to the CAA which is known as the Specter Amendment that is tucked into the budget bill giving asylum to some non-Muslim minorities from Iran, while pointedly excluding Muslim.

Asked by a Pakistani reporter if there was a double standard in Pompeo giving Pakistan the CPC designation and not India, Brownback said that while in Pakistan, a lot of the actions against minorities are taken by the government, that was not the case in India.

“Pakistan has half of the world’s people that are locked up for apostasy or blasphemy,” he said.

He said that in India, some of the actions like the CAA are taken by the government but there are others like “much of its communal violence” and then when they take place, “we try to determine whether or not there has been an effective police enforcement, judicial action after communal violence takes place.”

“That doesn’t mean that we don’t have problems with the statute (CAA),” he said. “The violence is a problem. We will continue to raise those issues. Those are some of the basis as to why Pakistan continues to be on the CPC list and India is not,” he said.

“These are issues that people spend a great deal of time reviewing and we review extensively the situation in Pakistan, in both countries,” added Brownback, whose formal title is Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom.

Answering an American reporter’s question as to why Pompeo did not follow the USCIRF recommendation to designate India as a CPC, Brownback said, “I can’t go into the decision-making process that the Secretary went through.”

But, he said, Pompeo is “well aware of a lot of the communal violence that is happening in India as well as aware of the statutes that have been enacted and some of the issues associated with the (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi government and, as I said, he has raised at the highest level, but just decided at this point in time not to place them on a CPC or a special watch list.”

Brownback said that there were also “several recommendations made by the commission that the secretary did not follow, and this was one of them.”

Pompeo did not follow the recommendations to designate Russia and Vietnam as CPCs. In addition to Pakistan, Pompeo put China, Myanmar, Eritrea, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan on the CPC list.

Time is right for push on U.S.-India ties, says Asia Society Policy Institute Paper

Staff ReporterIndia, U.S. 0

The U.S. strategic partnership with India provides an opportunity to advance many of the key foreign policy objectives of the Donald Trump administration, according to a new issue paper published by the Asia Society Policy Institute.

“The convergence of U.S. and Indian security interests and policies, together with parallel ‘America First’ and ‘India First’ economic policies, holds potential benefits for both nations,” Dr. Marshall M. Bouton, Senior Fellow for India at the Asia Society Policy Institute, writes in the paper.

The issue paper posits that President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, both highly-nationalistand pro-business, are likely to find common ground. Additionally, “strong bipartisan support in Congress for U.S.-India ties and official optimism in India about relations with the United States under the Trump administration argue for seizing the opportunity decisively.”

The issue paper urges the Trump administration to move rapidly on five fronts: Develop with Prime Minister Modi a common strategic view of the U.S.-India relationship, especially as it relates to shared interests in China, Pakistan, and Afghanistan; Make India a clear strategic and diplomatic priority; Demonstrate American commitment to India’s expanding role in Asia; Develop new avenues for U.S.-India cooperation on defense and security; Manage economic relations, especially on trade and immigration issues, positively while looking for ways to expand ties.

“Among the major countries that seek the administration’s attention, India stands out for the opportunities it offers to advance U.S. objectives,” Bouton writes. “The two nations’ security interests are increasingly aligned. Their economic interests could be an obstacle to closer partnership but, with careful management and imaginative leadership, could become a new frontier in the relationship.”.

For 60 years, the Asia Society has sought to explain the diversity of Asia to the United States and the complexity of the United States to Asia, and to be a bridge in problem-solving within the region and between Asia and the wider world. With a problem-solving mandate, the Asia Society Policy Institute builds on this mission by tackling major policy challenges confronting the Asia-Pacific in security, prosperity, sustainability, and the development of common norms and values for the region.

BAPS celebrates Indian-American culture at the Texas capitol building in Austin

Staff ReporterCulture/Religion, India, U.S. 0

The BAPS Swaminarayan Sanstha hosted a celebration of Indian-American culture at the historic Texas State Capitol in Austin earlier this month. The celebration was sponsored by State Representative Matt Rinaldi of House District 115, who represents a BAPS temple in Irving, Tex.

On the morning of Feb. 1, a group of BAPS representatives were recognized during the 85th Legislative regular session, where a resolution commemorating this inaugural event was read. The resolution also noted the myriad of contributions by Indian-Americans to the Lone Star State and lauded BAPS’ commitment to community service in Texas and across the nation, a BAPS press release said.

Throughout the day BAPS members from across Texas met with their respective state representatives and senators to share the background on the Hindu faith and on the Indian-American community’s history and growth.

Hosted by BAPS, at the historic Texas State Capitol on Feb. 1, State Representative Matt Rinaldi of House District 115 fondly spoke of the contributions of Indian-Americans to the Lone Star State.

“This event is not only a chance for Indian-Americans to learn about government, but also for their government to learn about Indian culture and to provide a learning experience for senators and representatives,” the press release quoted Rep. Rinaldi as saying.

Throughout the celebration, speakers shared their thoughts on the diverse contributions of Indian-Americans to the economic and cultural fabric of Texas. “We value what BAPS has done for our community, from its Walkathon to its Health Fair…BAPS works tirelessly to make Irving, Texas and our district a better place,” Rep. Rinaldi continued.

“I am honored to be here this evening. I know firsthand from my work and relationship with BAPS about what a great job it does and how it impacts thousands of lives across the state,” Chris Wallace, president of the Texas Association of Business said. His remarks highlighted the importance of nurturing and advancing the relationship between the growing population of over 275,000 Indian-Americans in Texas and the state government, the press release noted.

The program also touched on the role of the BAPS temples. “Inspired by His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, places of worship, such as the beautiful, hand-carved stone mandir in Stafford, Texas, reflects the diverse culture of our state and demonstrates that the contributions of the Indian-American diaspora go beyond simply the economic realm,” said Ketan Inamdar of Missouri City, Tex.

The current spiritual leader, Mahant Swami Maharaj, as always inspired the Indian- American community to celebrate our shared culture and develop a sense of identity and pride in our heritage, he said.

Loreto & Hazel Kudera sentenced to 2 years for visa fraud

Staff ReporterU.S. 0

Loreto Kudera, 45, and Hazel Kudera, 43, who admitted to giving false information to U.S. immigration authorities when applying for H-1B visas for foreign nurses and previously forfeited $1 million were sentenced to two years of probation.

U.S. District Judge J. Garvan Murtha sentenced attorney Loreto Kudera and Hazel Kudera, the owner of several medical staffing agencies, to two years of probation as well as separate $25,000 fines, according to documents filed in the federal court docket.

The couple pled guilty on June 9 to conspiring to commit immigration fraud by falsely stating to the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services in St. Albans, Vermont, that foreign nurses whom the pair were helping to secure work in the U.S. would be working in specialty occupations, as required by the H-1B visa program. Later that month, the pair agreed to forfeit $1 million in illegal proceeds from the scheme.

“As Judge Murtha recognized, Loreto Kudera is a good and decent man who exercised mistaken judgment in doing a bad and foolish thing with honest intentions,” Loreto Kudera’s attorney told the media. “We’re grateful for the judge’s wisdom and compassion in realizing that Mr. Kudera has suffered enough — especially where the scheme’s acknowledged ringleader and mastermind escaped prosecution entirely.”

Hazel Kudera’s attorney, Richard Willstatter of Green & Willstatter., said that Judge Murtha carefully considered the facts and the arguments of both sides. “His thoughtful and reasoned decision to sentence Hazel Kudera to probation and a fine reflected his consideration of all the facts before him and the goals Congress set for sentencing,” Willstatter said. “Hazel Kudera is a good person, but she made a terrible error in judgment in committing a crime. The court recognized that imprisonment was neither necessary nor appropriate.”

Prosecutors say that Hazel Kudera owns multiple staffing agencies in New York that specialize in providing nurses to hospitals, outpatient and skilled nursing facilities. According to the government, during the course of the scheme, she and Loreto Kudera, who was formerly an attorney at the New York immigration and real estate firm the Law Offices of Barry Silberzweig PC, submitted at least 100 fraudulent applications to authorities, and profited from the filing fees they collected from the nurses and from the health care facilities that paid Hazel Kudera’s staffing agencies.

Hazel and Loreto Kudera, prosecutors say, seeking to game the limited number of H-1B visas that are available each year, falsely stated that the foreign nurses would be working in specialty occupations at prevailing wage rates when in actuality they were going to work as licensed practical nurses or registered nurses at much lower rates of pay, mostly at nursing homes. LPN and RN are not considered to be specialty occupations by USCIS, according to the office of Eric S. Miller, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Vermont.

During the scheme, Hazel Kudera was the owner of NYC Healthcare Staffing — formerly known as P&K of New York Management Services Inc. — and LHK Consulting, which were medical staffing companies that share the same Fifth Avenue address in Manhattan, court records show.

As part of the alleged scam, Hazel Kudera falsified a staffing agreement between NYC Healthcare Staffing and Dewitt Rehabilitation, which operates rehabilitation and nursing care facilities, listing job positions that didn’t exist, such as clinical coordinator and health care quality assurance manager, in order to prop up the false job titles she provided to USCIS, according to prosecutors. Loreto Kudera, among others, knew that information was false, but used it anyway when applying for H-1B visas, according to the government.

“As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, We Will Resist.”

Ajay GhoshCulture/Religion, India, U.S. 0

Asian Americans critical of Trump’s policies

“As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, We Will Resist,” said a statement issued by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs). “We stand at a critical juncture in world history. The election of Donald Trump as president of the United States represents a direct threat to millions of people’s safety and to the health of the planet.”

While expressing its commitment to equality, inclusion, and justice, “we pledge to resist any efforts by President-Elect Trump’s administration to target and exploit communities, to strip people of their fundamental rights and access to essential services, and to use rhetoric and policies that divide the American people and endanger the world,” the statement said.

Trump’s campaign used explicit racial appeals to win the support of disaffected white voters, promising to restore their economic and social standing by deporting millions of immigrants, building a wall, creating a Muslim registry, banning Muslim immigration, and punishing Black dissent.

“The actions of the Republican Hindu Coalition today do not reflect the breadth and diversity of the Indian American community, or our Diaspora,” asserted Bera at a press conference organized by the AAPIVictory Fund Jan. 31, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

“I’m very troubled by the Executive Order,” Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi, D-Illinois, told the media, especially as it affected Green Card holders. The Trump administration’s exemption of permanent residents soon after passing the Executive Order, he contended, was a “reversal” in the face of the public outcry, and insisted that the order itself was “an assault on the Constitution.”

Sunita Viswanath, a co-founder and board member of Sadhana: Coalition of Progressive Hindus, appealed to Indian Americans to “resist” the Trump order. The Sikh Coalition, an advocacy organization, strongly objected to the Trump temporary ban supported by RHC. “The Sikh Coalition rejects this order as unconstitutional and will continue to stand in solidarity with communities targeted by discriminatory policies,” the organization said, adding, “We support an immigration system that treats people with fairness and dignity, not one based on stereotypes masquerading as law,”

On the social media networking site Twitter, activist Deepa Iyer called for a “Twitterstorm” against RHC on Jan 31. The author of the award-winning book, “We Too Sing America: South Asian, Arab, Muslim and Sikh Immigrants” and a Senior Fellow at the New York City-based Center for Social Inclusion, Iyer tweeted, “Progressive Hindus stand w/Muslims, refugees, condemn #Muslimban; call out GOP Hindu Coalition.”

Meanwhile in the New York region, as many as 19 Indian-American academics from universities in New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania joined over 4,000 scholars from prestigious institutions across the nation Jan. 27, opposing President Trump’s executive order last week for a suspension of visas and other immigration benefits to nationals from certain Muslim countries.

The academics that included Nobel laureates, members of the National Academy of Sciences and faculty and department heads of universities and educational institutions from New York to California, signed an open letter opposing Trump’s 90-day suspension of visas and other immigration benefits to all nationals of Iran, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. The ban is likely to become permanent after the 90-day suspension period. As many as 90 Indian-American professors and other academics across the U.S. had signed the letter, including people from Columbia, Cornell, Harvard and MIT, among others.

The academics have outlined three main reasons for their opposition, including the executive order’s discrimination against a large group of immigrants and longtime residents of the U.S. which is based solely on their country of origin, all of which have a majority-Muslim population. This executive order “is inhumane, un-American and entirely disproportionate to the threat it is purporting to address,” the letter said.

“This executive order would significantly damage the United States’ reputation for academic excellence in higher education. United States research institutions directly benefit from the work of thousands of researchers from the nations affected by this executive order,” the letter said.“The United States academic community relies on these talented and creative individuals for their contributions to the cutting-edge research,” it added.

The prominent Indian-American academic signatories to the letter include Karna Basu, Associate Professor of Economics, Hunter College, City University of New York; Kalyan Chatterjee, Distinguished Professor of Economics and Management Science, Department of Economics, The Pennsylvania State University; Anind K. Dey, Professor and Department Head, Human-Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University; Sampath Kannan, Henry Salvatori Professor and Chair, Computer and Information Science Department, University of Pennsylvania and Yash Kanoria, Assistant Professor of Decision, Risk and Operations, Graduate School of Business, Columbia University. The academics urged President Trump “to reconsider his stance to be more consistent with the longstanding values and principles of this country.”

“The actions of the Republican Hindu Coalition today do not reflect the breadth and diversity of the Indian American community, or our Diaspora,” asserted Bera at a press conference organized by the AAPIVictory Fund Jan. 31, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

LA Times reported that 28 other Asian American politicians in California and around the nation have sent a letter to President Trump asking him to rescind his executive order banning citizens of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Yemen and Libya from entering the U.S. for 90 days.

The letter noted that Asian Americans have been targeted with similar policies in America’s past, including the Chinese Exclusion Act in the 1880s, which was the nation’s first major law excluding specific immigrants from the county. During World War II, Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps.

“Your 2,800-word executive order drips with cruel irony as it turns away refugees trying to escape the same Islamic terrorism and violence that you naively claim will be repelled from our shores if we only embrace your bigoted and cowardly directive,” the letter stated

Meanwhile the Republican Hindu Coalition, which worked closely with Donald Trump’s presidential campaign and his transition team, is in the eye of a storm within the Indian-American community for its support of the President’s temporary ban on people from seven countries – an executive order that has itself brought forth an eruption of protest by many around the country.

“We applaud the Trump administration for taking this decisive move to protect our citizens from Islamic terror,” Shalabh Kumar, chairman of RHC said. That unqualified support for the ban has invited a storm of criticism from many Indian-Americans, Hindus and non-Hindus, political activists and former administration officials.

The majority-Democrat Indian-American community has lashed out against his stand. California Congressman Ami Bera, Democratic Party activist Shekar Narasimhan, and author and activist Deepa Iyer and others, have assailed the RHC for supporting the temporary ban. Others rejected the Executive Order as “illegal,” and former Indian-American diplomats said it made Americans less safe.

Two other Hindu organizations, Hindu American Foundation and the Sadhana Coalition have come out against Trump’s ban which indefinitely bars Syrian refugees from entering the United States. It also suspends all refugee admissions for 120 days and blocks all citizens of seven Muslim-majority countries considered high-risk – Iran, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen — from entering the United States for 90 days.

Subba Rao Kolla, Puneet Ahluwalia to make bids to Virigina Assembly

Staff ReporterCommunity 0

Subba Rao Kolla, an Indian-American Republican from Washington DC, announced he will run against incumbent Democrat John Bell for the Virginia House of Delegates 87th District seat, the media reported.

Another Indian-American Republican leader from Virginia Puneet Ahluwalia is contesting for Virginia’s House of Delegates for the 34th district against incumbent Kathleen Murphy. Ahluwalia, 10th District Representative on the Virginia Republican State Central Committee, served as a financial chair of the Asian American presidential inaugural ball in January.

Kolla, a real estate businessman and a community activist, if elected, will become the first Indian-origin member of the Virginia House of Delegates, American Bazaar reported. Kolla immigrated to the U.S. in the 1990s and became an American citizen in 2008.

“Whether helping new citizens navigate the area and become citizens or volunteering as I have for the past three years on the Loudoun County Board of Equalization, I understand the importance of having accessible, hands-on help from our elected officials.

“My top priorities as a member of the State House will be education, transportation and working with small businesses and taxpayers to reduce government interference and regulation. As a conservative Republican, I believe the government that governs least, governs best,” he added.

The success of our community demands us to be active and participate in mainstream politics. It is our responsibility to strengthen the diversity of our nation,” he said. “We should be supporting President Trump and Republican leadership in creating and promoting American jobs with strong emphasis on balanced trade between US-Indo Pacific Region. We should not lose focus on eradicating terrorism and enemies of democracies,” he added.

Ahluwalia said that he would work to strengthen the Republican Party’s base in Virginia, among other things. “We will watch our allies’ back and it is important that communities, including the Indian-American community that has benefited most from this great nation, play a pivotal role in the revival process. I had a choice but I chose to stand up and participate in the political process and serve the public of 34th district,” Ahluwalia said. “Our nation is at a crossroad where we will take new positive direction as we embark on a journey to make our nation stronger.”

He added: “I have the support of my wife, kids and friends, and supporters and very importantly the leadership of the Republican Party, especially Barbara Comstock.” A Delhi Public School (DPS) alumni, Ahluwalia heads consultancy and IT businesses in the Washington DC area, along with active participation in the US politics, since 1998-99.

Kolla is a realtor in Loudoun County, having worked in real estate for over 10 years, and is well-known among the local Telugu community. He holds an M.Tech degree from the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur, and owns his own real estate firm, Advin Realty.

He is also engaged with the Indian-American community, both at the local and national level. His work with the community has been lauded by former Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell as well as by the Telugu Association of North America (TANA). Kolla was one of the delegates during the Republican National Convention held in Cleveland last July.

Republic Day Celebrations at Indian Embassy

Staff ReporterIndia, U.S. 0

​The Embassy of India in Washington, D.C. observed India’s 68th Republic Day at its premises. Ambassador Navtej Sarna paid floral tribute to the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in front of the Embassy, after which he unfurled the national flag.

Ambassador Sarna addressed the guests and read out the address by Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. This was followed by singing of patriotic songs by a young Indian American. Over 200 members of the Indian-American community attended the celebrations. Documentaries titled “A Day in the Life of India” and “INDIAN ARMY: An Instrument of National Power” were screened on the occasion.

Picture Caption: Ambassador Navtej Sarna reads out the Republic Day message of President Pranab Mukherjee at Republic Day celebrations at the Embassy of India in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26.

Indian American partnership with Capitol Hill continues

Staff ReporterPolitics, U.S. 0

Indo-American Community Services (IACS), a national non-profit supporting the South Asian Community is continuing its annual partnership connecting collegiate students with Congressional internships in Washington, D.C. The non-partisan organization places exceptional students in Congressional offices on both sides of the aisle. This program continues the organization’s efforts to encourage civic and political engagement within the Indian-American community.

For eight weeks, both graduate and undergraduate students are exposed to policy making in the nation’s capital, firsthand. Along with gaining unparalleled insight into public service, legislation construction, and constituent care, selected interns are awarded a $2000 stipend after successful completion of the program. Congressman Bill Foster, Foreign Affairs Chairman Ed Royce, Senator Dan Sullivan Senator Mark Kirk, Congressman Danny Davis, and Congresswoman Robin Kelly advocate for and hosted IACS interns in their D.C. offices.

IACS is excited to see the growth of Indian-American service in government, with this year’s election of five Indian-American representatives to Congress. In its sixth year, the IACS internship program is looking to expand the reach of this enriching opportunity to more students across the country. “We have already begun outreach efforts to Indian-American student groups across the country, in hopes of shedding greater awareness to this program,” said Joy Dhar, co- IACS internship liaison. “Sruthi Rao and I are looking forward to continuing our correspondence and helping place candidates with an interest in public service in Congressional internships.”

The summer 2017 internship program application is live & will be accepted through January 31st, 2017. For more information, please visit www.iacsinfo.org

Protest March at Austin Airport against President Trump

Staff ReporterU.S. 0

By Tania Romero & Seema Govil

The protest on Sunday this week against President Trump’s executive order at Austin Bergstrom International Airport began with a Facebook post.  The night before, activist John Burleson saw that only 19 people were interested in going.  But by Sunday morning, that number had reached almost 300+ people on the Facebook page. At the start of the protest at 2pm, a near 500 protesters gathered outside of the arrival area, as an outcry against president Trump’s executive order, imposing temporary restrictions on immigrants and refugees entering the U.S. from seven Muslim-majority countries.

The mass shockwaves of disapproval could be seen in the assembly of diverse crowds at international airports across the nation.  Attorneys and local political leaders were among protesters who perceive this present mandate as a violation of the first amendment in the Constitution, fueling the increasing discriminatory fervor against Islam religion.

Several crowd members at the protest in Austin took turns speaking into a megaphone to share their own stories. A young Sudanese Muslim-American woman, with her child strapped across her chest, recounted her uncertainty as to whether her husband visiting family in Sudan will return safely next Friday.   She told the crowd “No ban on Muslims.  No walls.  We need to be united.”

Her words struck a chord with other participants, who proceeded to share their own immigrant family stories in solidarity.  One man held a sign in support that read “6thGeneration Immigrant”, and a retired Army officer stated, “this is not what my family fought for in this country.”

The Austin community continues to deliver a welcoming message to Muslims and refugees, by organizing a gathering at the First English Lutheran Church on Monday night and at the Texas Muslim Capitol Day on Tuesday, January 31st.

 

Trump’s war on immigrants

Ajay GhoshTravel, U.S. 0

As per estimates by South Asian Americans Leading Together, currently, more than 450,000 people of Indian origin living in the U.S. are stated to be undocumented.. In an executive order, President Donald Trump stated, he will withhold federal funding from “sanctuary cities,” which provide protection from deportation to the nation’s 11 million undocumented residents, and reauthorized the “Secure Communities” program.

“Sanctuary jurisdictions across the United States willfully violate federal law in an attempt to shield aliens from removal from the United States,” stated Trump in the executive order. “These jurisdictions have caused immeasurable harm to the American people and to the very fabric of our Republic,” he said.

The freshman Senator from California, Kamala Harris, a Democrat, said in a press statement: “Because of these executive orders, our nation is now less safe: immigrants will report fewer crimes, more families will live in fear, and our communities and local economies will suffer.”

“California has an outsized stake in this fight. No state has more immigrants than we do – both documented and undocumented. I intend to continue fighting back aggressively and speaking up for the vulnerable communities that are being attacked by this administration,” she said.

The new law has been criticized for racial profiling, as law enforcement officials can pick up anyone they suspect of being undocumented. In a joint press release issued Jan. 26 by the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association and SABA, the organizations noted that Trump’s “xenophobic executive orders” target people of color and encourage racial and religious profiling of Muslims and Sikhs, among others.

“Today’s executive orders push the nation further away from core American values of equality and freedom, sow fear in communities of color that already face increasing violence, hostility and attacks, and make us and the country less safe — all under the guise of national security,” stated Suman Raghunathan, executive director of SAALT, in a press statement.

The Secure Communities program mandates local law enforcement to act as immigration agents. Under the aegis of the program, police have the authorization to ask for proof of residency from anyone they interact with. That information is then turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to determine whether the person has committed a deportable offense.

Sanctuary cities are those that have stated they will not participate in the Secure Communities program, and provide protection from deportation to undocumented residents within their jurisdiction. Trump has pledged to strip federal dollars from sanctuary cities.

As per analysts, legal permanent residents can also be deported if they have committed an aggravated felony, or a crime of moral turpitude, which is vaguely defined. Laws vary from state to state, but in New York, for example, evading a subway fare would potentially make a legal resident deportable. In other states, a traffic violation could lead to the deportation of a legal resident.

Asian Americans Advancing Justice’s Los Angeles chapter held a press conference Jan. 26, decrying the president’s action. “We are deeply troubled by the direction of our country and this administration’s apparent desire to appease his anti-immigrant and white supremacist supporters,” said the organization in a press statement.

Lakshmi Sridaran, director of National Policy and Advocacy at SAALT, is reported to have stated: “For the first time, we are seeing an impact throughout the entire spectrum of our immigration system,” she said. “Everyone is under suspicion,” stated Sridharan. “It is a recipe for disaster,” she said, reinforcing the fact that law enforcement can ask for proof of residency from legal and undocumented residents.

“Essentially, the police officer in a local community cannot just walk up to you and ask for your papers, but they can arrest you for something and then send your biometric data to DHS or ICE, who will then run your information through a database to determine if you are here legally,” she clarified.

Aravinda Pillalamarri, 47, an Indian-American woman was stopped, quizzed about immigration status in the United States. Aravinda Pillalamarri, along with her husband had been the inspiration behind Shahrukh Khan’s film Swades, was stopped and asked by police if she was in the US “illegally”, an incident which comes amid rising fears over President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

She was walking in her Bel Air neighborhood in Maryland on the morning of December 21, a routine with her, when she said she was stopped by a Bel Air Police Department officer, The Baltimore Sun reported. Pillalamarri, who was born in India but moved with her parents to the US when she was young, was asked by the police officer about what she was doing and she replied that she was walking.

The officer continued to ask several questions. When she asked why the officer was asking her so many questions, he replied because someone had called police. “Walking while brown?” Pillalamarri then asked the officer.

The report said a police supervisor arrived at the scene and began to question Pillalamarri more aggressively. The supervisor told her she wasn’t free to leave because she “was under criminal investigation”.

She was asked why she didn’t have an identification with her. “Why don’t you have ID?” she said the supervisor asked her. “Are you here illegally?” Once the officers had run her name through their computer system, Pillalamarri said, she was allowed to leave and walked to her home, just a few doors away. Pillalamarri has lived in Bel Air for more than 30 years and is a US citizen. Her parents came to America from India when she was a baby. She went to Bel Air High School.

“Only when the supervisor asked ‘are you here illegally’ did my sense of colour, and of being unequal, come forth and my interest in my civil rights took a back seat to get out of the situation safely,” she was quoted as saying.

“Public safety does not need to come at the cost of civil rights,” she added. “I am sharing this incident here not to ask anyone here to find fault or take sides. We are all on the same side and can use this as an opportunity to learn and improve. The responsibility to uphold civil rights is one that all of us share, and we need to do our part and also expect the police to do their part.”

All legal residents are encouraged to carry their green cards. Undocumented residents will live in fear of any type of interaction with police and are unlikely to seek help from law enforcement when needed.

Trump’s ban on 7 Muslim nations affects businesses across US

Staff ReporterBusiness, U.S. 0

Using his newly-acquired executive fiat, President Donald Trump declared a ban on immigrants from seven Muslim majority nations, including Iraq, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Libya, Somalia and Yemen blocking all refugees from entering the US for 120 days. In Syria’s case, the suspension is indefinite.

The Executive Order on “Protecting the Nation from Terrorist Attacks by Foreign Nationals,” by President Donald J. Trump has been described by many as a war on Muslim refugees around the world. While civil libertarians reacted with fury to what was seen as a strike against American ideals of welcoming refugees and immigrants, concern in Silicon Valley centered on the fallout of the executive order on its globalized work-force, particularly if the orders are enforced randomly.

In television interviews explaining the ban, Trump said travelers from Muslim-majority countries left out of the ban — Afghanistan, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia — will face what he called “extreme vetting,” while dismissing concerns that his actions will inflame tensions in the Muslim world.
“The world is as angry as it gets,” the President countered. “What, you think this is going to cause a little more anger?”

The US tech industry, substantially staffed with immigrants, was thrown into a tizzy last week. Immigrants make up much of the workforce in Silicon Valley, including many executive roles, and the tech industry has long advocated for more open immigration laws in the U.S., saying they need more skilled foreigners to fill technical jobs.

The new restrictions will have a major impact on American technology companies that hire skilled staff from all over the world on special H1B visas, mostly used by Indian IT firms.

“There have already been reports of green card holders, who are allowed to work in the U.S., being prevented from getting on flights. However, green cards are not specifically mentioned in the executive order,” the Wall Street Journal said. After pressure from across the nation, the White House has stated that Green Card holders will be allowed entry into the country.

Although the move appeared to affect the tech industry only marginally, it was criticized among others by the chief executives of Facebook and Google — Mark Zuckerberg and Sundar Pichai — besides many lawmakers and civil liberties activists because of possible wider fall-out.

As per reports, Google recalled scores of its immigrant staffers from foreign travels who are from countries cited by the Trump administration, amid reports of US-bound passengers being off-loaded from planes in some of the affected countries.

“We’re upset about the impact of this order and any proposals that could impose restrictions on Googlers and their families, or that could create barriers to bringing great talent to the US,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai, an immigrant from India himself, wrote in a “Get Back to US Now” memo to employees. “It’s painful to see the personal cost of this executive order on our colleagues… We’ve always made our view on immigration issues known publicly and will continue to do so.”

According to The Wall Street Journal, at least 187 Google employees who normally live and work in the US have been affected by the ban. “Our first order of business is to help Googlers who are affected,” Pichai wrote while recalling employees who are currently abroad and might be at risk. “If you’re abroad and need help please reach out to our global security team.”

Facebook’s Zuckerberg also wrote in a post that that he’s “concerned about the impact of the recent executive orders,” while recounting that his great grandparents came from Germany, Austria and Poland, and his wife Priscilla’s parents were refugees from China and Vietnam.

“We wouldn’t wish this fear and uncertainty on anyone—and especially not our fellow Googlers,” he wrote. “In times of uncertainty, our values remain the best guide.” Microsoft has also warned its shareholders that curbs on immigration could have a material impact on its business.

Sen. Kamala Harris leads women’s march in DC

Staff ReporterU.S. 0

Women march globally for rights for everyone

 

Sen. Kamala Harris (D-California) was “walking on a cloud” after speaking to thousands at the women’s march in Washington, media reports here stated. Her message: All issues are women’s issues. We will not retreat when being attacked. We will stand up and we will fight.”

California’s newest Democratic senator reflected on Trump’s inauguration speech just the day before, calling it a “dark” message for Americans.”

As the Women’s March on Washington had swelled in support, attracting attention and supporters in the lead-up to Saturday’s demonstrations on January 21, its name has become something of a misnomer. Women traveled from all over the country to be at the D.C. march, including many from across the nation. To them, and all people who were hoping for a different outcome, she expressed hope and the need to fight for equality and justice around the world.

Similar marches have been organized in all 50 states, several U.S. territories and countries around the world. They have tried to express solidarity with the aims of the original march: opposition to President Trump’s agenda, and support of women’s rights and human rights in general. In Sydney, London, New Delhi, and other cities, demonstrators broke out their signs and pink hats before even their compatriots in D.C. could.

While some protests were principally marching to express solidarity with the demonstrators in the U.S., others are directly raising issues of misogyny on a more local level. In New Delhi, protesters carried signs reading “I will go out,” to protest sexual harassment in public spaces.

“I am concerned that we are on a path to appeal to our lesser instincts instead of our better selves,” the first ever Senator of Indian origin, said. She went on to echo something Trump emphasized in his inauguration speech: The people have the power.

“There are thousands and thousands of people here today. And I think everyone should take note, that this is a very powerful voice – they’re activated and they must be taken seriously.”

The senator spent about 45 minutes backstage greeting people before her speech. Along the way she said she ran into someone who was best friends with her mother when they were students at UC Berkeley during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. “This is absolutely personal to me. This is absolutely personal to me.”

“The fight for civil rights will be fought and won with each generation. Whatever gains we make will not be permanent,” she said. “That’s the nature of it, so let’s not be dispirited.… Let’s just get up, pick ourselves up and get out there and fight. Fight for equality, fight for fairness, fight for justice.”

Trump talks to Modi

Staff ReporterIndia, U.S. 0

Donald Trump tells Narendra Modi he considers India a ‘true friend’

President Donald Trump is reported to have invited Modi to visit the United States later this year, during a phone call on Tuesday, four days after the Republican President took oath as the 45th President of the US. During the call, “President Trump emphasised that the US considers India a true friend and partner in addressing challenges around the world,” the White House said in a readout of the call.

Trump spoke with India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi in a call last week, one of the few world leaders the new US President has spoken to since taking office on January 20th.

According to a White House statement, Trump emphasized that Washington considers India a “true friend and partner in addressing challenges around the world.”  The new US leader also said he was looking forward to welcoming Modi in the US later this year.

Modi’s a frequent visitor to the US; he’s made four official visits since he assumed office in 2014. Last June marked the seventh time he had met former President Barack Obama.  On the call, Trump and Modi were said to have discussed opportunities to strengthen their partnership on the economy and defense, though no details were given. They also discussed security in south and central Asia, a region that encompasses Pakistan and Afghanistan, and resolved to “stand shoulder to shoulder in the global fight against terrorism.”

The leaders discussed economic and defense co-operations and regional security issues, the White House said in a statement. He was the fifth word leader President Trump spoke to after coming to office. The two men expected to find common ground going forward on terrorism and security, particularly in regard to the terrorist threat from neighboring Pakistan, experts said.

PM Modi was one of the first leaders to congratulate President Trump after his victory in the November elections and the inauguration last week. In a series of tweets, the Prime Minister had said he looked forward to working with President Trump to “further deepen” India-US ties and “realise the full potential of our cooperation”.

President Trump, whose “Buy American, Hire American” policy and plans to clamp down on H-1B visas has caused some unease in the Indian IT industry, has so far been positive about India. During his election campaign, he mentioned India as the only other nation besides Israel, with which he wanted to strengthen ties. Expressing personal admiration for PM Modi, Trump had called him a “great man” who was “very energetic in reforming India’s bureaucracy”.

Trump also said he had “great confidence” in India. “Generations of Indian and Hindu Americans have strengthened our country…your values of hard work, education and enterprise have truly enriched our nation.”

 

See You in Court, Mr. President

Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

Deepak Gupta leads lawsuit against Trump

Deepak Gupta of the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) is part of the watchdog team that sued President Donald Trump for violating the Emoluments Clause, a constitutional provision that prohibits federal officials from accepting “any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever” from a foreign state without congressional approval.

The Trump International Hotel, along with Trump Tower in New York and many other of Donald Trump’s business interests, all figure in a federal lawsuit filed, claiming that President Trump is violating the Emoluments Clause when foreign entities book rooms at the D.C. hotel or lease Trump office space.

The emoluments lawsuit against Donald Trump is an audacious gamble. The clause clearly bars Trump from receiving payments from foreign governments, including from state-owned corporations. Yet Trump’s business empire, from which he refuses to divest, is continually receiving emoluments from foreign states in the form of cash, loans, licensing deals, and building permits. (In 18th-century parlance, an “emolument” was any good or service of value.)

So CREW has asked U.S. District Judge Ronnie Abrams to rule that Trump’s acceptance of these emoluments is unconstitutional and prohibit him from taking any more. This suit may well fail. If it does, it could help Trump, taking emoluments off the table as grounds for impeachment and allowing his administration to dismiss the issue as fatuous harassment. Democrats would lose a potent rallying cry, and the emoluments criticism would fade from the political arena. The suit is an audacious gamble; it could certainly backfire. But even if it does, it will have a silver lining—functioning as the opening volley in a sustained assault on Trump’s unlawful conflicts of interest.

The Emoluments Clause has never before been tested in court—although the legal luminaries who joined CREW’s complaint appear convinced that judicial intervention is necessary. Eminent constitutional law professors Laurence Tribe and Zephyr Teachout, as well as Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California–Irvine School of Law, are participating in the suit along with Deepak Gupta, a Supreme Court advocate of considerable renown.

In an interview with NPR, Deepak Gupta talked about the non-profit’s lawsuit against President Trump claiming he is violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution. “The Supreme Court in the 1980s decided a case called Havens that involved housing discrimination organizations,” Gupta said. And that could be a precedence, Gupta said.

Describing that a potential gift to Trump, “describes something that I give you without getting anything in return. And emolument describes a payment where maybe I expect something in return. And the argument that the Trump lawyers are making is, well, this is OK as long as it’s fair market value. That ignores the fact that built into the price is some profit that comes to Donald Trump. And this is not just some abstraction. It’s happening already. And diplomats have told news organizations on the record that they are moving their business there because they want to curry favor with the president.”

Stating the objective of the suit, Gupta, said, “The purpose of this lawsuit is not simply to get some documents in discovery. Although Discovery will be important because President Trump has been so secretive about his holdings. But this is not just about the tax returns. This is about testing the proposition that the framers really meant it when they said that the president has to have undivided loyalty to the American people and should not have financial entanglements with foreign governments.”

Ajit Pai appointed to lead US Communications Commission

Ajay GhoshPolitics, U.S. 0

 

Ajit Varadaraj Pai has been appointed as the Chairman of the United States Federal Communications Commission, appointed by President Donald Trump in the earliest days of that administration. He is the first Indian American to hold the office.

Ajit Pai is the senior Republican on the Federal Communications Commission. He was nominated to the FCC by President Barack Obama and was confirmed unanimously by the United States Senate on May 7, 2012.

Commissioner Pai’s regulatory philosophy is informed by a few simple principles. Rules that reflect these principles will result in more innovation, more investment, better products and services, lower prices, more job creation, and faster economic growth.

Pai introduced a proposal that would not only extend that waiver for a full five years, but expand it. If passed by the rest of the agency’s commissioners, any service provider with fewer than 250,000 subscribers will not be bound by the transparency requirements.

The plan mirrors a similar, bipartisan proposal in Congress, and Pai, in a statement, argued that the regulations would have an unreasonable impact on small business. “Federal regulations have a disproportionate effect on small businesses — businesses that are often the linchpin of a more competitive marketplace and that don’t necessarily have compliance resources,” he said. Still, it will likely be disappointing to any customers buying service from one of those providers and hoping to keep track of what they’re paying for.

When the FCC passed its net neutrality rules in 2015, they included transparency measures for internet service providers. Big providers were required to submit information to regulators and consumers on data caps, fees, and speeds, but the order also included a temporary waiver for providers with less than 100,000 subscribers. After a re-extension, the transparency requirements would have gone into effect this month. Pai has made no secret of his hostility to the net neutrality rules, saying recently that the rules’ “days are numbered.”

Commissioner Pai has been an outspoken defender of First Amendment freedoms. Public safety is a top priority for Commissioner Pai. He took action to ensure that consumers can reach emergency services whenever they dial 911. Commissioner Pai has fought to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse in federal programs. He was the first commissioner to demand an end to corporate welfare in a recent major spectrum auction; the agency ultimately agreed, saving taxpayers over $3 billion. Pai was the first member of the FCC in over two decades to call for revitalizing the AM radio band; the basic reforms he proposed were adopted in 2015. He also urged the FCC to create a task force to study the “Internet Protocol Transition” and report on obsolete rules that could be repealed; that task force was created. He proposed a way for the FCC to address petitions filed by the public much more quickly; that “rocket docket” is now in place and has dramatically sped up the agency’s decision-making.

Dimple Ajmera to become city’s first Asian-American Charlotte City Council member

Staff ReporterCommunity, Politics, U.S. 0

Dimple Ajmera was named to Charlotte City Council on Monday night and will become the city’s first Asian-American on the council.  Ajmera, 30, was appointed to finish the term of Democrat John Autry in District 5, which covers much of east Charlotte. Autry stepped down from the seat in January to become a member of the North Carolina House.

The Charlotte City Council appointed Dimple Ajmera to the District 5 seat vacated by John Autry. The Charlotte Housing Authority  Ajmera works at TIAA in University City as a project manager. Without knowing English, she immigrated with her family to the United States from India when she was 16. She graduated from Southern High in Durham and then the University of Southern California. She has served on the Charlotte Housing Authority board.

Five other people applied for the position: Ariel Chambers-Woodruff, Johnell Holman, Marjorie Molina, Matthew Newton and Queen Thompson. Ajmera was a unanimous choice.

But before the vote, Democratic council member Al Austin nominated Matt Newton, an activist who has worked to reform the Citizens Review Board. Democrat Claire Fallon said Newton was her choice, but that she was going to support Ajmera because she would “go with the majority.”

Newton came to the meeting with a vocal group of supporters. Austin told him that Monday’s vote was “not the end but the beginning.”

Ajmera will be sworn in later this week. Her term ends in December.

In deciding whom they should appoint, council members said they preferred someone who would not run for the seat this year.

“I told them I will fill the term for 11 months,” Ajmera said. “I’ll support whoever decides to run for the district.”

DuPage Senior Citizen Council celebrates 68th republic day

Staff ReporterCommunity 0

Chicago IL:  DuPage Senior Citizen Council organized 68th Republic Day Celebration at Shahi Banquets, North Avenue, Lombard IL. Various local artists entertained the seniors and celebrated republic day. Program started with US and Indian National anthem.

Prachi Jaitly, Director, Bollywood Arts Academy performed semi-classical dance on a Bollywood medley paying tribute to the legendary actresses Asha Parekh and Saadhna. She performed on Raat Ka Sama, Khat Likh De Sawariya Ke Naam and Jhumka Gira Re.

A famous local singer Ishaan Ahmed sang patriotic songs like Ye desh hai veer jawano ka, Mere desh ki dharti.  Another singer, Avni Khanna sang beautiful numbers like Chalta Chalte from Pakeeza and Dama dam Mast kalander. Another local artist Hema Shastri danced on Yashomati Maiya se bole nand lala. The program featured flag hoisting and cake cutting by the founding president of FIA Sunil Shah. The entire program was very well coordinated by Moneek Khan.

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