Vol 7 Issue 51 - April 25-May 1, 2015

The South Asian Times
e x c e l l e n c e
Vol.7 No. 51 April 25-May 1, 2015 60 Cents
Bobby Jindal strongly

opposes gay marriage
New York: Louisiana Governor
Bobby Jindal has doubled down on
his stance opposing gay marriage.
He wrote in an op-ed in The New
York Times Thursday that the
country must protect his and others religious liberty to do so.
I hold the view that has been the
consensus in our country for over
two centuries: that marriage is
between one man and one woman.
Polls indicate that the American
consensus is changing but like
many other believers, I will not
change my faith-driven view on
this matter, even if it becomes a
minority opinion, Jindal wrote.
Recent controversial religious
freedom bills in Indiana and
Arkansas which say religious
freedom can be used as a defense
against discrimination suits, but
critics say promotes discrimination
have become a rallying cry for
Christian conservatives, the very
voting block Jindal seems deter-
Detailed story on page 7.
j o u r n a l i s m
New York Edition
Follow us on
TheSouthAsianTimes.info
RANA celebrates
Rajasthan Mahotsav
Gov. Bobby Jindal with his wife

during a prayer at the opening
session of the Louisiana State
Legislature in April.
mined to woo ahead of a likely

2016 presidential bid.
Why shouldnt an individual or
business have the right to cite, in a
court proceeding, religious liberty
Continued on page 4
Dr Vivek Murthy sworn in

US Surgeon General
I
Dr Vivek Murthy
i n
n yet another milestone

achievement for the Indian
American community, Dr.
Vivek Murthy, 37-year-old son of
immigrant parents, has become
America's 19th Surgeon General.
At his ceremonial swearing-in
Wednesday at Fort Myer, Virginia,
he said his rise to such a high position was improbable but he got
there by standing on principle.
Nominated for the job by
President Obama, opposition from
the powerful gun lobby delayed his
confirmation by over a year. A
Harvard and Yale alumnus, in 2009
he started a nonprofit, Doctors for
America, with thousands of doctors
and medical students supporting
Obama's healthcare initiatives.
AMB. MULAY INTERVIEW 15
FINE ARTS 18
More pictures and story on page 16-17.

The Rajasthan Association of North America celebrated a
few Indian festivals together to share the experience of
cultural diversity with others and to integrate communities. Over 3,000 people enjoyed the mega event held at
SUNY Old Westbury campus on April 19. Pictured are
(from left) Grand Marshals Rajasthan Home Minister
Gulab Chand Kataria, TV star Shailesh Lodha, Bollywood
actress Jinal Pandya, RANA Founder and President Naveen
Shah and others. (Inset) Haridas Kotahwala, doyen of
Indian jewelers in New York and past president of RANA,
was honored by RANA with the Jaipur Ratna Award. He is
seen with his wife Sharda at the award ceremony.
Comedy King Raju Srivastava

teams up with singer Sugandha
Mishra to perform at Ritz
Theater in Elizabeth, NJ on April
25. The Hil-Hil Hilarious
evening is presented by Aartwo
event organizer and Indus
American Bank. Pictured are
(from left) Indus banks
chairman Anil Bansal, Aartwos
President Reetu Rastogi,
Sugandha Mishra, and Raju
Srivastava at a press conference
in Plainsboro, NJ. Raju
Srivastava also promotes
Narendra Modi's Clean India
campaign wherever he goes as
he is one of the nine people nominated by the prime minister.
SCI-TECH 25
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS 30
Detailed story on page 3.
excellence in journalism
April 25-May 1, 2015
TRISTATE COMMUNITY
Indian Americans running for Congress bank on big donors from community
Washington: When hotel executive Ravi
Patel launched his bid for Congress, he
turned to two familiar groups to finance his
campaign. One was fellow hoteliers. The
other: fellow Indian-Americans.
Behind the nearly $540,000 Patel raised
in the first quarter of 2015, a big sum for a
first-time candidate from Iowa, are dozens
of Indian-American donorsand Patel
says his outreach to them is only just beginning.
Going into the 2016 election, he's just
one of half a dozen Indian-American congressional candidates tapping into an
increasingly active source of campaign
funds, one that is helping more and more
candidates from the influential and well-off
community to run viable campaigns.
"If you're well-steeped in that community, you know the folks who are going to be
supportive," Patel, a Democrat, told
National Journal. "You can absolutely raise
Ravi Patel raised $540,000 in the first

quarter of 2015, a big sum for a firsttime candidate from Iowa. There are at
least 4 more Indian American candidates for the US House in 2016 and,
one for the Senate.
money there."
In the House, Indian-American donors
are rallying around Raja Krishnamoorthi
(from Illinois) and Kumar Barve
(Maryland), and likely candidate Ro
Khanna (California). In the Senate, they are
throwing strong support to Kamala Harris,
the attorney general of California. All are
Democrats.
The most recent quarterly fundraising
reports show dozens of Indian-American
names scattered across their donor lists.
They account for roughly three-quarters of
Barve's individual contributors and more
than 80 donors each in Patel and Khanna's
latest filings. On Harris' report, dozens of
donors also appear to be of IndianAmerican descent.
Buoyed by the group, Khanna brought in
$801,000 from January to March, while
Barve, the only declared candidate in his
Maryland district to raise money in the first
George Washington University about to ban Hindu Svastika

Washington, DC:
George Washington
University here is gearing to ban from campus an important religious symbol, one
which is sacred to
many
Hindus,
Buddhists and Jains,
because it looks like
something else which
may upset the sensibilities of
some students.
The hearing will be held under
the auspicious of Gabriel Slifka,
the
Universitys
Director of the Office
of Student Rights and
Responsibilities, and
Peter Konwerski, VP
and Dean of Student
Affairs.
The University has
seemingly taken the
position that posting
anything which could
be mistaken for a Nazi swastika
even if it is of a different color
and orientation, and/or might be
seen as rotating in the opposite
direction as the Indian svastika is

cannot be displayed on campus,
even by students who are Hindus
or Buddhists.
Its like banning the 6-pointed
Jewish Star of David because
some people might mistake it for
the pentagram symbol and human
sacrifice, or expelling a student
for using the word niggardly
because other students may mistake it for a racist word and get
upset, says George Washington
University public interest law
professor John Banzhaf.
Techie from TN shares Pulitzer

for investigative reporting
New York: A software engineer
of Indian descent shared The Wall
Street Journal's Pulitzer Prize for
investigative reporting in growing
recognition of the importance of
using information technology
tools for reporting as well as for
presentation.
Palani Kumanan, who is a software architect and technical lead
with Dow Jones that publishes the
Journal, was a part of the winning
project's graphics team, according
to Michael Siconolfi, the newspaper's investigations editor.
The Journal won the top journalism award announced Monday for
its mammoth investigative project, "Medicare Unmasked." The

series mined data obtained from
the US government after a prolonged legal fight.
The Journal articles exposed fraud
and waste in Medicare, the government health insurance program
covering about 43 million senior
citizens and about 9 million people with severe disabilities. The
exposures led to Congressional
inquiries and criminal prosecutions.
Kumanan, native of Tamil Nadu,
developed the interactive database
on Medicare billing used to ana-
Software engineer from Tamil

Nadu Palani Kumanan
lyze government payments made

to over 880,000 medical service
providers, including doctors and
hospitals.
In the digital age, coding and software applications are becoming
essential journalism tools and
training institutions have begun
incorporating them into journalism curriculum.
quarter, collected about $66,000. A full

fundraising report for Krishnamoorthi isn't
available yet, but he netted more than
$125,000 in less than two weeks, according
to his campaign. Harris took in $2.5 million
for her Senate bid. In Illinois,
Krishnamoorthiwho lost a congressional
primary in 2012sees his IndianAmerican outreach as more than a source
of financial support. His suburban Chicago
district includes Schaumburg, which has
one of the highest concentrations of IndianAmericans in the country: 11 %.
"This is historically a very successful
community, and the people supporting
them realize this is a way to get qualified
people into office," said Sanjay Puri, chairman of the USIPAC, a bipartisan group that
promotes Indian-American candidates.
Currently, there's only one elected representative from the community in
Washington, Rep. Ami Bera.
Raju Srivastava commends

Modis Swachh Bharat drive
By SA Times Team
Plainsboro, NJ: I take part in

cleaning a public place, like a railway station, in every city I visit to
perform, said standup comedian
Raju Srivastava at a promotional
event for his show slated for April
25 at Ritz theater in Elizabeth, NJ.
Raju Srivastava, who was nominated by Prime Minister Narendra
Modi as one of the nine people
(Nav Ratna) to lead 'Swachh
Bharat campaign, said he has
taken his responsibility very seriously to create public awareness
about it. He was speaking at the
Plainsboro, NJ branch of Indus
American Bank.
A native of Kanpur in Uttar
Pradesh, Srivastava returned his
nomination to contest the 2014
Lok Sabha election on Samajwadi
Partys ticket and joined BJP in
March 2014. Talking to The
South Asian Times, he revealed
that he has even composed a song
for Modis Clean India campaign.
He, however, said that he is not
thinking of contesting elections,
and remains focused on making
people laugh.
For his four shows in US and
Canada presented by Aartwo, he
teamed up with Sugandha Mishra,
a 24-year-old singer and comedian who rose to fame after her
In US and Canada to perform

at four places including New
Jersey, the comedy king talks
passionately about Clean
India campaign.
showing in Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and
The Great Indian Laughter
Challenge.
The New Jersey show is co-presented by Indus American Bank.
The Federation of Indian
Associations (FIA) is community
partner.
Aartwo LLC is NJ-based event
organizer founded by Reetu
Rastogi, with the aim to build
cultural bridges and showcase the
talent from Indian subcontinent to
the people of US. She told the
SATimes that they have received
great response for the NJ show
which uniquely combines comedy
and singing. She expects a full
house at the over 2,000-capaciy
Ritz theater.
TURN PAGE
Shocked by hundreds of drowned migrants, Europe restores rescue mission

Brussels/Rome: Four days after up
to 900 desperate people drowned
trying to reach Europe from Libya,
EU leaders agreed on Thursday to
triple its naval search mission in the
Mediterranean, restoring its funding to last year's level.
Critics called it a face-saving
operation that did not go far enough
to emulate an Italian rescue mission
abandoned six months ago for want
of EU support. And divisions
remained over longer-term proposals, ranging from dealing with
smugglers and African migrant
camps to how to redistribute asylum-seekers around 28 nations
where anti-immigrant parties are on
the rise. But Italian Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi, who had called for
the emergency summit in Brussels
2,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe

have died this year.
after the deadly sinking of a crowded vessel on Sunday pierced many

Europeans' indifference to the fate
of unwelcome migrants, called it "a
Coal block auction likely to fetch

Rs.3,35,370 crore for states
New Delhi: The auction of 67
coal blocks is expected to
fetch a revenue of nearly
Rs.3,35,370 crore for seven
states where the mines are
located, besides additional
benefit of Rs.69,311 crore to
consumers "in terms of reduction of electricity tariffs", parliament was informed on
Thursday.
"Out of 204 coal blocks cancelled by the Supreme Court,
the government has so far
allocated 67 coal mines
through auction and allotment
in 2015 in accordance with
the provisions of Coal Mines
(Special Provisions) Act,
2015, and the Rules made
thereunder," Power and Coal
Minister Piyush Goyal told

the Lok Sabha in a written
reply.
According to a statement
from the central government,
Jharkhand owns the highest
number of coal blocks at 20,
followed by Chhattisgarh at
14 and West Bengal at 11.
The other states which will
benefit from the auctions are
Madhya
Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Odisha and
Telangana. "One coal block,
namely Ardhagram (in West
Bengal), where the successful
bidder was declared, has been
handed over to designated
custodian in view of a court
case," said the central government statement.
big step forward for Europe".

Countries, including Britain which
will send the Royal Navy's helicopter-carrying flagship, pledged air-
craft and boats to Operation Triton,

an EU frontier operation off Italy.
Funding for a similar operation off
Greece was also to be increased.
Officials said the difference could
be felt within days. Italy warned
that, after nearly 2,000 deaths so far
this year out of nearly 40,000 people making the crossing, a summer
season was starting that could push
total arrivals on its shores for 2015
to 200,000, an increase of 30,000
over last year.
"We face a difficult summer,"
said the summit chairman,
European Council President
Donald Tusk. He took pains to
warn that there would be no quick
fix for problems that saw more than
600,000 people seek asylum in the
European Union last year.
Indias visa-on-arrival is
now e-tourist visa
New Delhi:
The Indian
Government has renamed the
online visa scheme for travelers as
e-Tourist Visa (eTV). The scheme
was earlier called Tourist Visa on
Arrival-Electronic
Travel
Authorisation (TVoA-ETA).
A statement from the Ministry of
Home Affairs said last week that
the extension of the scheme to
more countries and airports will be
in a phased manner, in order to
avoid any confusion.
The name of the scheme was creating confusion among tourists as
they presumed that visa is being
granted on arrival. However, the
pre-authorization of visa to foreigners is being given prior to travel.
TVoA-ETA was launched on
November 27, 2014 to 44 countries

at nine airports Delhi, Mumbai,
Chennai, Kolkata, Hyderabad,
Bengaluru,
Kochi,
Thiruvananthapuram and Goa to
facilitate short duration international travellers. Since the launch of
the scheme, 1.1 lakh visas have
been issued by Government under
this scheme, the statement added.
A foreign tourist has to apply
online, upload a photo and passport
and pay a fee online. In 72 hours,
the applicant would receive an ETA
by e-mail.
The 30-day permit would include
sightseeing, visiting friends and
family, recreation, short duration
medical treatment, and a casual
business visit.
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Bobby Jindal strongly opposes ...

Continued from page 1
as a reason for not participating
in a same-sex marriage ceremony
that violates a sincerely held religious belief? That is what Indiana
and Arkansas sought to do, he
wrote in the op-ed. That political leaders in both states quickly
cowered amid the shrieks of big
business and the radical left
should alarm us all.
Back home in Louisiana, Jindal
is advocating for a more restrictive bill: one that gives broad
protections against state action to
those who oppose gay marriage.
Given the changing positions
of politicians, judges and the
public in favor of same-sex marriage, along with the potential for
discrimination against Christian
individuals and businesses that
comes with these shifts, I plan in
this legislative session to fight for
passage of the Marriage and
Conscience Act, Jindal wrote in
the op-ed, referring to the bill.
Jindals opposition to gay marriage may help him attract social
conservatives, but Republicans
and
particularly
young
Republicans have begun softening on the issue in recent years.
In a recent Pew Research Poll,
61% of young Republicans said
they support same-sex marriage.
Its this shift that Jindal op-ed
seems angled to address.
Conservatism faces many
challenges in todays America.
Hollywood and the media elite
are hostile to our values and they
tip the scales to our liberal opponents at every opportunity. Yet
the left has lost repeatedly in
state elections all over America.
Republicans control 31 governorships.
We control nearly 70 percent of
state legislative chambers, the
highest proportion since at least
1900, the first Indian American
governor argued.
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TRISTATE COMMUNITY
Indian-origin scientist develops

first self-powered camera
New York: Computer scien30x40 pixels.
tist Shree K. Nayar from the
In Nayar's prototype camColumbia University has inera, which is housed in a 3D
vented the world's first fully
printed body, each pixel's
self-powered video camera
photodiode is always operatthat can produce an image
ed in the photovoltaic mode.
each second, indefinitely, of a
When the camera is not
well-lit indoor scene.
used to capture images, it can
Nayar designed a pixel that
be used to generate power for
not only can measure incident
other devices, such as a
light (a ray of light that strikes
phone or a watch.
a surface) but also convert the
According to Nayar, the
incident light into electric
image sensor could use a
power.
rechargeable battery and
"We are in the middle of a
charge it via its harvesting
digital imaging revolution. A
capability.
camera that can function as an
"But we took an extreme
untethered device forever -approach to demonstrate that
without any external power
the sensor is indeed truly
supply -- would be incredibly
self-powered and used just a
useful," said Nayar, who
capacitor to store the harvestShree K Nayar heads the computer
heads the computer vision labed energy," he noted.
vision laboratory at the Columbia
oratory at the Columbia Engi"We believe our results are
Engineering.
neering.
a significant step forward in
At the heart of any digital
developing an entirely new
used in the photovoltaic model.
camera is an image sensor, a chip
This mechanism enables each generation of cameras that can
with millions of pixels.
pixel to measure the intensity of function for a very long duration The key enabling device in a light falling on it.
- ideally, forever -- without being
pixel is the photodiode which proNayar, working with research externally powered," the authors
duces an electric current when ex- engineer Daniel Sims, and con- wrote. The team is set to present
posed to light.
sultant Mikhail Fridberg of the its work at the international conThe photodiode in a camera pix- consultancy firm ADSP Consult- ference on computational photogel is used in the photoconductive ing used off-the-shelf components raphy at the Rice University in
mode while in a solar cell it is to fabricate an image sensor with Houston April 24-26.
Kanwal Singh named dean

of Sarah Lawrence College
Yonkers, New York: Dr. Kanwal

Singh, an Indian American with
M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the
University of California at Berkeley,
has been named dean of Sarah
Lawrence College, effective Aug. 1.
Singh earned her degrees in theoretical physics at the University of
California at Berkeley and her BS in
physics with departmental honors,
summa cum laude, from the University of Maryland at College Park.
She held a National Defense Science and Engineering Doctoral Fellowship and a post-doctoral fellowship from the American-Scandinavian Foundation.
Her research focused on constructing models in order to understand low-temperature, low-dimensional systems, such as thin films of
superfluids or superconducting material.
She has taught at Middlebury College, Wellesley College, and Eugene
Lang College. Singh also received a
competitive fellowship from the
American Association for the Advancement of Science for scientists
interested in policy at the national
level, working at the National Science Foundations Directorate of
Kanwal Singh
Education and Human Resources.

Singhs work at the foundation focused on large-scale, multi-year efforts of local school districts in partnership with institutions of higher
education to improve science and
mathematics teaching. This experience expanded and strengthened her
interests in science education. She
also worked with Bank Street College of Education for several years
as a consultant on a Carnegie Corporation-funded project to help improve its teacher education program.
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NRI TV Film Club launched

New York: Consul General of
India in New York Amb.
Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay formally launched www.NRITVFILMCLUB.com in the presence of
scores of prominent people from
the Indian community, media
and entertainment at the consulate ballroom on April 17. He
congratulated Emmy nominated
filmmaker Tirlok Malik, founder
of NRI TV Film Club, by saying
It is a wonderful idea. Very
much needed. And it will make
the bridge between Hollywood
and Bollywood by creating NRIwood.
The virtual film club is for the
audience to watch movies made
by NRIs, about NRIs, with NRIs.
It is just like a micro mini Netflix for NRI movies, a guest
said. NRI TV Film Club website
is also a platform to promote and
create opportunities for NRI talent in film, television, and new
media. It is a collective effort of
filmmakers and artists.
The website already carries 15
films made in America by NRIs
with local talent. Some of these
films are award winning and
shown worldwide. The film club
will produce and show more
CG Mulay and the virtual film club founder Tirlok Malik
films, TV Sitcom, Web Series.

Membership for the club is $35.
These movies have immigrant
themes but with universal emotions.
Many of these films don't reach
wider audience. But with the
new technology of streaming
movies just like Netflix, we are
able to bring these movies for the
audience to watch worldwide.
There are more than 25 million

NRIs worldwide and their families in India.
We believe you will enjoy
these movies, says actor-filmmaker Tirlok Malik whose credits include Lonely in America,
Khushiyan and On Golden
Years. He adds, I am glad other
NRI filmmakers have shared this
vision with me and joined me.
TRISTATE COMMUNITY
IN BRIEF
Jatin Pandit named brand

ambassador of World Congress on
Preventive Healthcare 2015
r. Sumita Chowdhury,
Chairperson for the
World Congress on Preventive Healthcare, at a press
conference at Signature India,
Houston, on April 9 announced
that Bollywood celebrity and
music director Jatin Pandit will
be the brand ambassador for the
World Congress on Preventive
Healthcare 2015. This Congress
will be held at the George R.
Brown Convention Center in
Houston from July 10-12.
The World Congress on Preventive Healthcare (Prevention2015.org) is a part of the
North American Bengali Conference (NABC) 2015, a non-profit
organization that will attract
more than 10,000 visitors from
all around the world. Entry is free
and
is
open
to
all
(NABC2015.org) and the primary focus of this Congress will
be on the local South Asian community.
At the event, Dr. Chowdhury
appealed to the South Asian community to unite and conquer the
epidemics of cardiovascular diseases and diabetes and called on
Jatin Pandit
each member of the community

to join the South Asian Cardiovascular Registry and contribute
to the advancement of science.
The World Congress on Preventive Healthcare is organizing free
screenings for clinical cardiac
risk parameters, blood tests for
advanced lipid parameters, diabetes testing, cardiac rhythm
evaluations, and endothelial
function tests.
Global Punjab TV has launched road show Hello Global

Punjab with Kanwar Sandhu in the US and Canada from
April 20 to May 2015.
NRI Federation launched with a grand gala

ith the aim to unite
global Indians and Indian associations under
one umbrella organization, NRI
Federation spearheaded by Deepak and Surbhi Kavadia was
launched at a grand gala last
weekend. Bollywood Star Bappi
Lahiri, who will also be the brand
ambassador of the organization,
and the Home Minister of Rajasthan Gulabchand Kataria
graced the event.
Over 500 attendees, including
several dignitaries and influential
community leaders were present at
the event that took place at the
landmark Hindu Temple Society
of North America's auditorium in
Flushing, New York.
The Federation came into existence in September, 2014 when
Deepak and Surbhi Kavadia met
Prime Minister Narendra Modi at
a Dinner Ceremony in New York
just after he gave the historical
speech at Madison Square garden.
Touched by PM Modis inspirational words, the Kavadias decided to create this non-profit organization to represent all overseas In-
Group photo of honorees

(Photo by Nala Singham)
dians living across the globe, with

the aim of assisting NRIs through
various programs namely Adoption & Donations for Smart Village, Health & Medical Cultural
Heritage Fairs, Preserving Vedic
Cultural Heritage & Education
Youth Development & Education
Program, Disabled & Underprivileged Child Support Program,
Senior Center & Programs,
Women Empowerment & Safety,
etc.
Padmashree Dr. Sudhir M.
Parikh, Dr. Ajay K. Lodha, Prabha
Golia were honored for their dedicated and ongoing services to the
community at the inaugural gala.
TV Asia Owner H.R.Shah was
honored for his tireless contribution and dedication to media industry via TV ASIA.
Dr. Ajay Lodha applauded the
wonderful cause and the global
platform encouraging attendees to
register for the same. He offered
his individual support as well as
on behalf of American Association
of Physicians of Indian origin
(AAPI) to help wherever needed.
SAPACs annual breakfast to honor young leaders

East Meadow, NY:
The
SAPAC's (South Asian-American
Political Action Committee) Annual Spring Breakfast will be held
on April 26th at the Mint Restaurant in Garden City, NY. With the
theme Leaders of Tomorrow, this
event is specifically dedicated to
the community youth to recognize
their impact on the society. At the

event 16 outstanding young leaders from various communities
who are residents of Long Island
will be recognized for their excellent service to improving our community. We are expecting many
professionals, community, civic
and business leaders as well as
elected officials. We will also be

having many representatives from
different communities, creating a
great networking base beyond just
the South Asian community, said
Zahid Syed, the force behind
SAPAC.
For more info: Email: SAPACLI@aol.com
Motivational teacher Mukesh Gangani (left) led a well-attended Ultimate Mind Power
seminar on April 17 in New Hyde Park, NY.
More information at www.mukeshmotivational.com
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
Ashok Saxena named Provost

of University of Arkansas
New York: Ashok
ment as the senior
Saxena,
former
leader at Galgotias
University
of
University, a new priArkansas College of
vate, multidisciplinary
Engineering dean,
research university
and current head of
near Delhi.
the Department of
As vice chancellor
B i o m e d i c a l
(the equivalent of the
Engineering, has been
campus CEO in
selected to serve as
Indian/British higher
University
of
education)
of
Ashok Saxena
Arkansas provost.
Galgotias University,
The
Indian
Saxena oversaw the
American academic will serve in institutions growth from zero to
this role until a new chancellor can 6500 students.
appoint the next provost.
He also helped India gain admisSaxena was selected by Dan sion to the Washington Accord, an
Ferritor, the incoming interim chan- international engineering accreditacellor for the Fayetteville campus, tion organization, said a press
who expects Saxena to be in the role release. Saxenas awards and recogup for to 18 months, depending on nition include the Georgia Tech
the timeline for hiring the next chan- Outstanding Research Author Award
cellor. The provost serves as second (1993) and the Wohler Medal
to the chancellor of the university (2010). Saxena received his B.S. in
and serves on the chancellors exec- mechanical engineering from the
utive committee.
Indian Institute of Technology and
Saxena was the rst permanent his masters and doctoral degrees in
head of the Department of materials science and metallurgical
Biomedical Engineering, which was engineering from the University of
created in 2012. He has a long and Cincinnati.
distinguished career in academia.
His major industrial experience
As a researcher, Saxena has was at the Westinghouse Research
always worked in multidisciplinary and Development Center in
elds, focusing mainly on mechani- Pittsburgh, where from 1976 to
cal engineering and materials sci- 1985 he rose to the rank of Fellow
ence. He has been interested in the Scientist.
biomedical eld for over a decade.
Prior to coming to UA, he was
Saxena served as dean of the chair of the Georgia Tech School of
College of Engineering from 2003 Materials Science and Engineering
until 2012, when he stepped down and was named Regents Professor
in order to serve a two-year appoint- in 2002.
company. Im condent that she

will build on the great work the
team has accomplished under
(Ramdevs) leadership.
Suryadevara will lead GMs
global treasury operations,
including capital planning and
capital market activities, and participate in business development,
risk management and investor
relations.
Ramdev will head the nance
team for GM International, GM's
operating segment that generates
$14 billion in revenue.
Suryadevara was named chief
investment ofcer of GM Asset
Management in July 2013, in
charge of about $80 billion in
assets in GMs dened benet
Dr Vivek Murthy sworn in as America's

youngest Surgeon General
Washington, DC: Son of Indian
immigrant parents, Dr. Vivek
Murthy says his rise to the position
of "America's Doctor" was improbable but he got where he was by
standing on principle.
"As I look around this arena, I
am struck by a simple truth: by any
reasonable measure, I shouldn't be
standing here," he said at his ceremonial swearing in as America's
19th Surgeon General Wednesday
at Fort Myer, Virginia. "My family
was never supposed to have left
our ancestral village (of Hallegere
in Karnataka's Mandya district).
My father is the son of a farmer in
rural India.
"He was supposed to have been a
farmer, as was I," recalled Murthy,
37, as a crowd of supporters that
included Vice President Joe Biden
watched.
"But for my grandfather's insistence that his son get an education
- even if that meant going into debt
- we might have never left that village to go out in the world and - as
my grandfather also insisted - start
xing what needed xing."
"We were not supposed to have
become Americans. My parents
stopped in three other countries including a brutal dictatorship - on
their journey to get here," said
Murthy, who is now the highest
ranking Indian-American in the
Obama Administration.
"They saved up money and
GM appoints two Indian American women to key finance posts
New York: General Motors has

appointed two Indian American
women executives to key nance
posts.
Dhivya Suryadevara was named
vice president, nance, and treasurer, effective July 1, replacing
Niharika Taskar Ramdev, who
has been named chief nancial
ofcer for GM International.
Suryadevara will retain her current responsibilities as CEO and
chief investment ofcer of GM
Asset Management.
CGM executive vice president
and chief nancial ofcer Chuck
Stevens said that Suryadevaras
experience in leading our asset
management team will serve her
well in this important role for the
plans. She was previously managing director of investment strategy and xed income for GM
Asset Management and also led
the plans xed income and derisking efforts. Suryadevara
began her career at GM in treasury in 2004.
Ramdev was named VP, nance
and treasurer, in April 2014. She
was previously chief nancial
ofcer for GM's global purchasing and supply chain operation, a
post she held since August 2011.
Ramdev has held several leadership roles in GM, including assistant treasurer for GM and regional treasurer for GM international
operations. She joined GM in
1996.
Dr Vivek Murthy at the swearing-in ceremony
scrounged for information about

job opportunities, always knowing
that America was the destination,"
he said. "They knew that here more than any other place in the
world - they would not be limited
because of who they were or where
they came from. "And in Miami,
they found a community of immigrants from all over the world who
continue to hold on to that vision
of America as an article of faith,"
said Murthy. And even after being
nominated for this job by President
Barack Obama, "I almost didn't get
to be your Surgeon General," he
said alluding to the opposition of
the powerful gun lobby that left
him cooling his heels for more than
a year. "Had it not been for so
many of you in this room - and

thousands of dedicated individuals
that I have never even met - I
would not be standing here. We got
here by standing on principle," said
Murthy.
According to the surgeon general's website, Murthy graduated
from high school in Miami and
then received his bachelor's degree
from Harvard.
From there, he earned his medical degree and master's in business
administration at Yale University.
The Surgeon General oversees
the US Public Health Service
Commissioned Corps (USPHS), an
elite group of over 6,700 uniformed ofcer public health professionals.
Alabama cop pleads not guilty to

assaulting Indian grandpa
Washington, DC: A former
Alabama police ofcer has pleaded
not guilty to charges of using
"unreasonable force" against an
Indian grandfather who was left partially paralyzed after being slammed
face-rst to the ground.
An unarmed Sureshbhai Patel, 57,
who does not speak English, was
allegedly assaulted by Eric Parker
Feb 6 while he was taking a morning walk in front of his son's house
in a Madison, Alabama suburb.
Parker, 26, appeared before US
Magistrate Harwell Davis in federal
court in Huntsville Tuesday along
with his attorney Robert Tuten, who
told the court Parker was pleading

not guilty, according to AL.com
Davis ordered a $5,000 bond for
Parker. He faces a felony charge
carrying a maximum sentence of 10
years in prison. The federal case has
been set for June 1 trial. Parker is
facing a federal charge of "deprivation of rights under color of law,"
which US Attorney Joyce White
Vance said includes the right to be
free from "unreasonable force." He
has also pleaded not guilty to a misdemeanor assault charge in
Limestone County. That will be handled in a separate court appearance
next month.
NATIONAL COMMUNITY
GOPIO Chicagos rst Business Conference &

Annual Gala a success
Hindu temple vandalized in Texas
Chicago: More than 200 high profile

US political leaders, including two
Congressmen, three state senators,
state treasurer, a village president, a
Padmashree, Indian Consul General,
a few dozen artists, CEOs, CFOs,
and distinguished guests attended the
Global Organization of People of Indian Origins (GOPIOs) inaugural
business conference and annual gala
held on April 18 at the Oakbrook
Marriott Hotel in Oak Brook.
Among those who attended were
Congresswoman Tammy DuckGOPIO members and invitees at the event
worth, also a Democratic candidate
(Photo credit: Newseastwest.com
for the US Senate, Indian Consul
General Dr. Ausaf Sayeed, Congressman Danny Davis, Former Illinois Deputy over various kinds of visas to India.
Congresswoman Duckworth, urged the InTreasurer Raja Krishnamoorthi, Illinois State
Senators Don Kotowski, Tom Cullerton, dian community to build upon their success as
and Michael Noland, Illinois State Treasurer professionals and entrepreneurs and to beMichael Frerichs, Padmashree Dr. Bala Bal- come more active participants in the electoral
achandran, and Oak Brook Village President, process.
Congresswoman Duckworth introduced
Dr. Gopal Lalmalani. In his address, Gladson
Varghese, President of GOPIO Chicago, an- Raja Krishnamoorthi who intends to succeed
nounced that his chapter will provide a plat- her as the US Representative from the Illinois
form for business community in Chicago to 8th district. Raja urged Indian community
network and learn about tax incentives for do- members to vote and have their opinions
counted in the 2016 elections.
ing business in India.
Padmasree Dr. Bala Balachandran, former
The Indian Consul General highlighted the
key steps that the new Indian government un- Dean of Northwesterns Kellogg School of
der the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Management gave the keynote address. He
Modi has initiated to promote Indo-US busi- asked everyone to put aside their egos and act
ness. He also tried to sort out the confusions on achieving their dreams.
New York: In the latest attack on Hindu

houses of worship in the US, a temple has
been vandalized in Texas "horrifying" both
Hindus and non-Hindus, who have offered
to help the temple clean the damage, media
reported.
In the attack at the North Texas Hindu
Mandir in Lake Highlands suburb of Dallas, vandals painted symbols of devil worship on the temple's door, media reports
said on Saturday.
The attackers left behind on a shed at the
temple the mark of Mara Salvatrucha, an
international gang originating among immigrants from the predominantly Catholic
nation of El Salvador and active in the US.
The 11CBS network in Dallas-Fort
Worth area reported that a temple board
member, Krishna Singh said mandir members discovered the graffiti last Monday.
"That was a big shock, really," the network
quoted her as saying.
Dallas police have sent detectives from
their gang unit to investigate the incident,
according to WFAA, an ABC network affiliated local station.
The temple supports community charities like food banks for the poor and an organization that helps victims of child
abuse.
According to 11CBS, "666" and an upside cross were painted on the temple door.
They symbolize devil worship.
Some Christian leaders, including a former candidate for the Republican Party's
presidential nomination, Pat Robertson,
have called Hinduism "demonic."
The attack is the latest in a series of

attacks on Hindu places of worship.
Two temples were vandalized in
Washington State in north-west US
in February.
Robertson is a pastor who has a following of millions in the US and abroad and
his TV show, Club 700, is carried on Christian Broadcasting Network, which says on
its website that it operates in India. The attack is the latest in a series attacks on Hindu places of worship. Two temples were
vandalized in Washington State in northwest US in February.
In August, a statue of Shiva at the Vishwa Bhavan Hindu Mandir in Monroe in the
state of Georgia was desecrated with black
paint. The local sheriff's office arrested two
people in connection with the attack.
Between July and October in Loudon
County in Virginia, police have documented 17 separate incidents of anti-Hindu vandalism, the Hindu American Foundation
said.
IN BRIEF
Sri Sri Ravi Shankars talk to kick off

First International Day of Yoga celebrations
brate IDY 2015 in all the
mbassy of India,
Washington DC will
countries around the world.
present
Nurturing
Embassy of India is planning
to organize a series of events
Peace through Yoga and
Meditation a talk by Sri Sri
culminating on June 21, 2015
to celebrate the IDY.
Ravi Shankar on April 29
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar is a
from 6.30-7.45 pm at the Embassy marking curtain-raiser
renowned spiritual leader and
global humanitarian. He has
for the First International Day
of Yoga Celebrations. On Dec
devised practical tools and
techniques that help individu11, 2014 India's Permanent
Representative introduced
als achieve calmness of mind
the draft resolution in the Spiritual leader Sri Sri and clarity of thought. In
Ravi Shankar
1981, Sri Sri established the
United Nations General Assembly. The draft text reArt of Living Foundation, an
ceived broad support from 170 Member educational organization with a presence in
States, including USA, and the draft text over 150 countries. The Foundation's indiwas adopted without a vote. Hence, June 21, vidual development programs offer tools to
2015 is the first International Day of Yoga. eliminate stress and foster a sense of wellGovernment of India is planning to cele- being.
Baisakhi celebrated at
Embassy Residence, Washington, DC
mbassy of India hosted a
reception on April 18 to
celebrate Baisakhi. The
festival symbolizes the harvest
season, and thanksgiving for a
bountiful harvest. It also marks
the founding of the Khalsa by
Guru Gobind Singh.
Over three hundred guests including prominent Indian American community leaders, doctors,
engineers, lawyers, bankers, scientists, and other professionals
attended the celebrations. Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and
Minister of Environment and
Forest Prakash Javadekar participated in the celebration and
greeted the community.
Invocation by Bhai
Kirpal Singh of the
Sikh Foundation of
Virginia, accompanied by Bhai Onkar
Singh and Bhai
Karam Singh. (Inset)
Indias Finance Minister Arun Jaitley seen
with Charge d'Affaires Ambassador
Taranjit Singh Sandhu.
US AFFAIRS
Death in custody puts spotlight on missing black men

Washington: As yet another black
man died, this time in police custody,
unleashing a fresh wave of protests
asking whether black lives matter, a
media report spoke of some 1.5 million missing black men in America.
For every 100 black women not in
jail, there are only 83 black men, the
New York Times reported Monday
noting this gap - driven mostly by
incarceration and early deaths - barely
exists among whites with just one
missing white man for every 100
white women.
"African-American men have long
been more likely to be locked up and
more likely to die young, but the scale
of the combined toll is nonetheless jarring," NYT said.
"It is a measure of the deep disparities that continue to afict black men
and the gender gap is itself a further
cause of social ills, leaving many
communities without enough men to
be fathers and husbands," the daily
said.
The city with at least 10,000 black
residents that has the single largest
proportion of missing black men is
Ferguson, Missouri, where a fatal
police shooting last year led to nationwide protests.
Ferguson, where a Justice
Department investigation found wide-
Justice Department
to investigate
Baltimore death
While about a dozen other unarmed

black men died in police shooting in
about a year, Freddie Gray died in
police custody.
spread discrimination against black

residents, has 60 men for every 100
black women in the age group.
The NYT report came as Baltimore,
Maryland, police released videos
Monday showing the arrest of a man
who died of a severe spinal injury suffered in police custody.
Six ofcers have been suspended,
but investigators say they still don't
know how it happened, according to
CBS News.
With protesters marching through

Baltimore streets and lawmakers pleading for federal help, U.S. authorities
launched a civil rights probe Tuesday
into the death of a 25-year-old man
whose arrest by police led to horrified
screams and a broken spinal cord.
The U.S. Justice Department said it has
been "monitoring'' the case of Freddie
Gray, who died Sunday, a week after he
was arrested by Baltimore police. The
death of Gray, who is black, is the latest
to spark outcry and protest across the
nation for perceived heavy-handed
police treatment of minorities.
"Based on preliminary information,
(Justice) has officially opened this matter
and is gathering information to determine whether any prosecutable civil
rights violation occurred," the department said in the statement.
Members of the Maryland congressional delegation had called on Attorney
General Eric Holder to take the action
Tuesday.
Brothers Koch will bankroll 5 GOP

candidates in primaries
Wichita, Kan.:
Charles Koch said
he is considering
throwing his political might into the
Republican presidential primary for
the first time and is
likely to provide
financial help to
Charles and David Koch
several contenders
before settling on a single candidate.
Koch, his brother David and their team have identified
five candidates who have the right message and "a good
chance of getting elected," he told USA Today. They are
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, former Florida governor
Jeb Bush and Senators Ted Cruz (Texas), Rand Paul
(Kentucky) and Marco Rubio (Florida).
"Those are the ones we have talked to the most and who
seem to be the possible leaders," he said.
"What we've told them all is that right now, we're not
supporting anyone," Koch said. "We're telling them that if
they want our support, one way to get it is articulating a
good message to help Americans get a better understanding and a better appreciation of how certain policies
will benefit them and will benefit all America."
The Kochs run Koch Industries, a multibillion-dollar
privately held conglomerate with interests in the energy
industry, as well as building supplies and other products.
They have been active donors to Republican candidates.
For the first time, Charles Koch also outlined that roughly
$300 million would be spent directly on electoral politics in
2016, including federal and state elections. This would rival
the almost $400 million the Republican National
Committee raised and spent in the 2012 election cycle.
Obama sounds alarm on climate damage in visit to Everglades

Everglades National Park, Fla.: Visiting
Floridas Everglades on Earth Day, President
Obama sounded the alarm about damage from
climate change he said was already wreaking
mayhem in Florida and across the US.
In an implicit rebuke to Floridas governor
and other Republicans, on Wednesday Obama
accused those who deny the man-made causes
of climate change of sticking their heads in the
sand. He said rising sea levels that have
infused the Everglades with harmful salt water
have already jeopardized Floridas drinking
water and its $82 billion tourism industry.
Obamas quick visit to the South Florida
landmark marked his latest attempt to connect
the dots between carbon emissions and reallife implications. With his climate change
agenda under attack in Washington and courthouses across the US, Obama has been on a
mission to force Americans to envision a
world in which cherished natural wonders fall
victim to pollution.
The vast Everglades, known as the River of
Grass, fuel the regions tourism economy and
President Obama in Floridas Everglades
water supply. Now roughly 1.4 million acres,

the park comprises most of whats left of a
unique ecosystem that once stretched as far
north as Orlando.
Yet damage that started early in the 20th
century, when people drained swamps to make
room for homes and farms, has only grown
more alarming as sea levels rise. Researchers
fear by the time the water flow is fixed, the
Everglades native species could be lost to
invasive plants and animals.
Lynch to become first black woman attorney general

Washington, DC: President
Obama's long-stalled nominee for
attorney general, federal prosecutor Loretta Lynch, was on her way
to a confirmation vote Thursday
after senators extricated themselves from a partisan dispute over
abortion that had stood in her way.
An agreement announced by
Senate leaders allowed both
Republicans and Democrats to US Attorney General
save face on a once-uncontrovernominee
sial bill to help sex-trafficking
Loretta Lynch
victims that had turned into a litmus test on abortion. The vote on
final passage of the trafficking bill
took place Wednesday.
Lynch, who would become the
nation's first black female attorney
general, replacing Eric Holder, is
now the US attorney for the
Eastern District of New York.
Lynch was expected t win confirmation in Senate with at least
five Republicans supporting her
besides Democrats.
Corporate Office: 385 Seneca Avenue, Ridgewood NY 11385

718.821.3182, www.AtlanticDialysis.com
10
INDIA
India stunned as farmer kills self at AAP rally

New Delhi: An AAP rally attended by thousands against the land
ordinance turned tragic this week
when a Rajasthan farmer, his
crops ruined by untimely rains,
hanged himself from a tree in the
heart of the capital, shocking
India and sparking an ugly political blame game.
"Gajendra (Singh)'s death has
saddened the nation," Prime
Minister Narendra Modi's office
said, referring to the father of
three who climbed a neem tree at
the Jantar Mantar protest site and
died after tying his scarf around
his neck to a stout branch.
The statement came hours after
the dramatic death when Aam
Aadmi Party leader Kumar
Vishwas, addressing the mass
gathering, suddenly spotted the
man on the tree, seemingly precariously perched, and asked
police and AAP activists to bring
him down.
To this reporter on the media
stage, it looked as if the man was
holding on to two branches with
his outstretched hands. He was
bearded with a thick moustache
and wore a bright red Rajasthanistyle headgear.
Three party activists clambered
up the tree and untied the scarf.
But before they could take a good
grip of him, the limp body slipped
from their hands and fell with a
Farmer Gajendra Singh committed suicide by hanging himself from a tree at an AAP rally at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi.
thud, only to cause chaos at the

rally.
Shouting anti-police slogans,
some volunteers rushed the man
to the Ram Manohar Lohia
Hospital, around two kilometers
away where doctors declared him
dead.
One of the AAP activists on the
tree fainted -- on the branch.
Others went up and brought him
down after sprinkling water on his
face.
A hand-written suicide note in
Hindi found at the spot said the
man was taking his life because
rains had destroyed his crops. He
ended the note with "Jai Jawan,
Jai Kisan, Jai Rajasthan".

In no time, a political war erupted. Taken aback by the suicide,
AAP leaders blamed Delhi Police,
saying police did not even
respond to their appeals to bring
the man down from the tree.
"Police didn't play their role
properly. They should have made
efforts to save Gajendra Singh. It
were AAP activists who put their
lives at risk and brought him
down and took him to hospital,"
said Kumar Vishwas.
Asked why the rally was not
halted after the incident, AAP
leader Sanjay Singh said: "If we
had stopped the rally, there would
Farmer's suicide: Parties question

lack of sensitivity
New Delhi: The suicide
of a farmer at an AAP
rally reverberated in the
Lok Sabha with parties
lamenting the lack of
sensitivity and questioning why the incident
which took place in full
public view could not be
stopped.
Opposition parties, led
by the Congress, also
demanded loan waiver
and immediate compensation for farmers affected by the recent
inclement weather.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Deputy Chief
"When the incident Minister Manish Sisodia during the rally in New Delhi.
was taking place, why
didn't anybody stop him. Why didn't the emerge from this...One is how insensitive
police personnel do anything. Why did the our society has become and the other is
leaders present there continue with their how our farmers are suffering."
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam
speeches. Also some insensitive comments need to be introspected," Congress Singh Yadav said: "This is not a question
of just the government but all of us. We
leader Deepinder Hooda said.
"We are all human beings first. We all have given loan waiver and irrigation has
need to introspect. When he was trying to been made free. We should do something
hang himself, some people were clap- together so that farmers don't commit suicide." Earlier, the house had to be
ping," he added.
Trinamool Congress MP Saugata Roy adjourned for nearly 40 minutes after the
said: "I express deep anguish and sorrow opposition created a ruckus demanding an
at the suicide of the farmer. Two points immediate discussion on the issue.
have been a stampede or other law

and order problems."
Police denied AAP's charges
and said an inquiry was on to find
out what happened. The investigation was ordered by Home
Minister Rajnath Singh, to whom
Delhi Police reports.
The Bharatiya Janata Party hit
out at the AAP. Its spokesman
Sambit Patra asked: "Why didn't
AAP leaders stop the farmer from
committing suicide?"
The first to reach the hospital
was Congress leader Ajay Maken,
who blamed both police and the
AAP for the suicide. Congress
vice president Rahul Gandhi came
calling later.
In Rajasthan, the family of the
deceased farmer said he was shaken after losing his entire wheat
crop to untimely rains.
Gopal Singh, an uncle of
Gajendra Singh, said that the man
was not compensated by the state
government.
"He had around 25 bighas
(around 2.5 hectare) of land and
grew wheat. His crop was
destroyed by rains and hailstorm...
So far no compensation has been
given to us."
The Congress announced Rs.2
lakh as compensation to the dead
man's family.
Can't abandon farmers: Modi

New Delhi: Prime
Minister Narendra Modi
has sought a collective
response from political
leaders to the agrarian
crisis caused by unseasonal rains and resolved
not to "abandon" the
farmers.
Speaking in the Lok
Sabha, Modi said: "It
should be our determination to find a solution to
this problem. The issue
has been there for long...
we will have to think
together where we went wrong and what
were the deficiencies in the system that
resulted in the crisis."
Modi appealed to leaders across the
political spectrum to come together and
share their suggestions to address the
problem of the rising number of farmers'
suicide in the country.
"For years the issue of farmers com-
mitting suicide has been a

matter of great concern...
There is nothing more
important than the life of
the farmer," the prime
minister said, adding that
the government would
ensure help to them in
every possible way.
Modi stated that he was
pained by a farmer's death
at the Aam Aadmi Party
rally here and said: "Ab
hum apne kisano ko nahi
marne denge (we won't
let our farmers die anymore)."
"We can't abandon our farmers... I welcome good suggestions (to address the
situation) by all," he added.
His statement came after a farmer from
Rajasthan, whose crops were destroyed
by unseasonal rain, hanged himself from
a tree here during an AAP rally. The rally
was called to protest against the contro-
INDIA
11
Rahul Gandhi, Prasad spar over net neutrality

New Delhi: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi has accused
the government of floating a trial
balloon on net neutrality even as
Communications and IT Minister
Ravi Shankar Prasad said his
regime was in favor of free and
fair access to the World Wide
Web.
In his second intervention in the
Lok Sabha since his return from a
56-day sabbatical, Gandhi raised
the issue of net neutrality and
said: "Every youth should have a
right to the net. But the government is trying to hand over the
internet to some corporates."
He said: "I would request the
government to please change the
law or make a new law to ensure
net neutrality."
The 44-year-old Congress
leader continued with his support
for net neutrality outside the
house as well.
"If the government wanted to
After returning from 56-day sabbatical, Congress vice

president Rahul Gandhi at the Parliament in New Delhi.
protect net neutrality, why did it

begin a consultation. It is a trial
balloon to see if the reaction is
strong. We are giving a strong
reaction so that the process is
closed."
Gandhi also found support in
the new general secretary of the
Communist Party of IndiaMarxist, Sitaram Yechury, a

Rajya Sabha member.
"I think ours is the only party
which has passed a motion on this
in its national congress," Yechury
said.
Prasad, who also spoke both
inside and outside the house, said:

"This government appreciates the
net activism of the youth. Our
prime minister (Narendra Modi)
has said we have to make the net
available without discrimination."
The minister said there was,
indeed, the need for mobile governance, and the government
wanted the net to reach everybody.
"Neither is our government
under pressure of any corporate
nor will it ever be."
Referring to the Telecom
Regulatory Authority of India
(TRAI) initiating a debate on the
matter, the minister said the
watchdog has the mandate to
debate, but it is the government
that has the power to take a decision.
"We want to ensure internet for
everybody. We have asked for a
report within two weeks."
Network neutrality, or open
inter-working, means that in

accessing the World Wide Web,
one is in full control over how to
go online, where to go and what
to do as long as these are lawful.
It advocates that firms that provide internet services should treat
all lawful internet content in a
neutral manner.
In March, telecom regulator
TRAI released a paper inviting
comments from users and companies on how over-the-top services
should be regulated in the country. It has asked stakeholders to
send suggestions by April 24 and
counter-arguments need to be
submitted by May 8.
A committee on net neutrality
was also set up by the Department
of Telecommunications (DoT),
which will submit its report by
the second week of May to help
the government make a comprehensive decision on the contentious issue.
Boat with eight Pakistanis, After expulsion, Yadav, Bhushan describe AAP as khap
narcotics seized off Gujarat coast
Mumbai/Ahmedabad: Indian
defense agencies have seized a
boat with eight Pakistanis on
board and carrying narcotics
worth around Rs.6 billion ($95
m), in the Arabian Sea off the
Gujarat coast on Monday, the
government has confirmed.
The vessel, fitted with sophisticated communication systems,
was intercepted in international
waters in a joint operation by the
Indian Navy (IN) and the Indian
Coast Guard (ICG).
The eight Pakistani nationals
and the boat - the origin and destination of which were not disclosed - are being taken to
Porbandar port in Gujarat for
further investigations by law
enforcement
officials,
Intelligence Bureau personnel,
Indian Navy and ICG.
"The initial investigations by
ICG Sangram have led to recovery of 232 packets of narcotics
(suspected to be heroin and
worth up to Rs.600 crores in the
international
market).
Additionally, satellite communication phones and Global

Positioning Systems, being used
to facilitate trans-shipment of the
contraband to another boat were
also confiscated," the statement
said.
Following intelligence inputs,
the operation to trace the suspicious vessel was launched on
April 18 in close coordination
with the Indian Navy western
command, along with the ICG
north-west regional headquarters. Later, multiple units of the
Indian Navy, including INS
Nirghat and INS Kondul, and
ICG Sangram joined the search,
besides extensive aerial searches
by their Dorniers, IL-38 and P8I
aircraft.
This is the first major operation by the Indian agencies in the
Gujarat region after the January
1 incident this year when a suspected smuggling boat had
blown up, creating a major controversy between India and
Pakistan.
RBI directs banks to include

'third gender' in forms
Chennai: The Reserve Bank of
India on Thursday directed banks to
include 'third gender' in all forms
and applications enabling transgenders to avail banking services.
Citing the Supreme Court judgment in the National Legal Services
Authority vs Union of India, the
central bank said all transgender
people were to be treated as 'third

gender'. "The Supreme Court, in
that case, upheld transgender persons' right to decide their self-identified gender and directed the centre
and state governments to grant legal
recognition of their gender identity
such as male, female or as third
gender," the RBI said..
New Delhi: After being expelled

from their Aam Aadmi Party for
anti-party activities, Prashant
Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav
lambasted the party, describing it
as a Khap Panchayat (kangaroo
court).
Although the two leaders termed
their expulsion from the party as
illegal, they said they would not
contest it in the court.
The AAP late Monday night
removed Bhushan, Yadav, Ajit Jha
and Anand Kumar for anti-party
activities.
A fortnight after its historic victory in the Delhi polls, the party
plunged into a crisis, with its
founding members Bhushan and
Yadav accusing its chief Arvind
Kejriwal of having developed
"dictatorial tendencies".
Speaking at a press conference
here, Bhushan, accompanied by
Yadav, said: "It is no longer AAP.
It is Khap."
"Ideally we can approach the
court against all that they did. The
reconstitution of the national disciplinary committee, the removal
of Admiral Ramdas as the party
Lokpal - everything was illegal.
The question is why should we
spend our energy in court?" he
added.
The two leaders said though
they were sad over their expulsion, they felt relieved as the
"drama" is now over.
Without mincing words,
Bhushan went on to describe
Kejriwal as a "dictator" who along
with his "coterie" takes decision in
the party.
Reacting to Bhushan's and
Yadav's allegations, AAP leader
Ashutosh later said the dissident
leaders had disrespected AAP's
Prashant Bhushan and Yogendra Yadav.
Political Affair Committee -- its

key decision making body.
"The leaders should have some
shame as they have disrespected
the Political Affairs Committee
(PAC), National Executive and
National Council they were a part
of. They should not talk about
democracy now," he said.
Detailing about the procedure of
expulsion, Dinesh Waghela, a
member of AAP's National
Disciplinary Committee, said the
committee had gone through the
replies of the rebel leaders properly.
"We found that Bhushan, Yadav,
Anand Kumar and Ajit Jha had
indulged in anti-party activities.
We unanimously decided to expel
all the four rebel leaders from the
party," he said.
"An e-mail in this connection
was sent to all the four expelled
leaders on Monday night," he said,
adding: "We will resend the copy
of expulsion letter to them if they
have not received it earlier."
The party also termed the allegations levelled against its leaders
Pankaj Gupta and Ashish Khetan
by Bhushan as "baseless", saying
the party would not order any
inquiry against them.
Bhushan accused AAP's general
secretary Pankaj Gupta of accepting Rs.2 crore donation from shell
companies and Khetan of writing
a planted story in a magazine
defending a telecom company,
allegedly involved in the 2G spectrum scam.
Meanwhile, Khetan, in response
to Bhushan's allegation against
him, said the charges are baseless,
and added that if the allegations
were proved, he would quit public
life.
"If Shanti Bhushan or Prashant
Bhushan provide any proof
regarding their allegations against
me, I will quit the public life. If
they fail in giving any proof, they
should also quit the public life.
The charges made against me bear
no truth," Khetan told reporters.
12
OP-ED
Modi shows India's stewardship at green talks

By Rajendra Shende
S President Barack Obama, in his 166word eulogy in Time magazine that
named Prime Minister Narendra Modi
among the 100 most inuential people in the
world, termed him "India's reformer-in-chief"
who had "laid out an ambitious vision to
...unleash India's true economic potential while
confronting climate change".
Modi tweeted thanks to Obama. But his government, determined to walk the talk, went
beyond. On the same day it submitted 11-page
formal proposal to the headquarters of the
United Nations Environment Program in
Nairobi to seize the stewardship in the global
negotiations that implicated cross-cutting
themes on climate change and ozone layer protection. Interestingly it was mainly because of
India that the parleys were all but stalled for
last six years and haunted the negotiating sessions year after year.
India's proposal would be discussed in the
extraordinary meeting of 197 countries in
Bangkok next week. A second meeting will be
held in late July in Paris and the final Meeting
of the Parties will be in UAE the first week of
November - before the climate change meeting
in Paris.
India's proposal is based on common but differentiated responsibility. It proposes developed countries going faster in the phase down
of HFCs and developing countries going slower. It also requires financial and technology
transfer assistance for developing countries.
Narendra Modi is clearly changing the climate of climate-change negotiations to

be held in Paris at the end of this year.
It is a dramatic but well-studied and strategic

proposal to phase-down production and consumption of hydro fluorocarbons (HFCs).
These are greenhouse gases (GHGs) that have
up to 12,000 times more global warming
potential (GWP) than carbon dioxide - the
most talked about GHG. HFCs are part of six
GHGs included in the Kyoto Protocol on climate change, whose emissions are to be
reduced. HFCs are primarily used as refrigerants, for example in car air conditioning and
refrigerators, and in insulating foams.
India's political leaders, since 2010, contin-
ued to please international communities, particularly in G-20 meetings and in summits with
Obama, by agreeing to action on HFCs, but in
international negotiations the country played
different tunes to fudge the debate.
Come Modi, and transformation and a forward-looking stance is evident. The pros and
cons of HFC reduction were assessed and
reforms in the approach were found to be
inevitable. It was realized that reduction in
HFCs would provide the fastest and the most
desirable climate mitigation in the near-term. It
also will build critical momentum for a suc-
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
cessful outcome in Paris for the challenging

climate negotiations in December.
Proposing a HFC phase-down under the
well-established institution of the Montreal
Protocol would give obvious advantage of
financial assistance, transfer of the latest technology and incentives for the developing countries as realized under the CFC phase out.
Early phase-down and selecting better energyefficient technology was considered to be part
of Modi's priority of inclusive development.
As per researchers, the HFC phase-down can
provide mitigation equivalent to 100 giga
tonnes of CO2 by 2050 and avoid up to 0.5
degrees Celsius of warming by the end of century. As the atmospheric lifetime of HFCs is
only 10-15 years as against 100 years in case
of CO2, the phase-down of HFCs could lead to
early benefits.
In other words, the adverse impact of climate
change could be pushed back by 10-15 years.
A simultaneous effort to embrace super-efficient appliances in India, including room air
conditioners, can effectively double the climate mitigation from phasing down HFCs, as
per a report by Indian researchers at
California's Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.
Their analysis showed that moving to superefficient room air conditioners could save for
India enough electricity to avoid building up to
120 medium-sized power plants in the next 15
years.
Modi is clearly changing the climate of climate-change negotiations to be held in Paris at
the end of this year.
OP-ED
13
Net neutrality in India still a myth, but don't log off

By Aparajita Gupta
mid the raging debate globally over net neutrality,
which has evoked a strong
reaction from stakeholders in India,
domain experts feel that an
unshackled access to the Internet
world isn't feasible in India yet but
attempts must continue for egalitarianism.
"Building a net neutral network is
technologically not possible to
implement. It's a utopian idea - no
basis in technology," said Ravi V.S.
Prasad, a telecom consultant who
has designed several data-com and
telecom networks in the past 30
years.
"No telecom engineer will say
that network neutrality is feasible.
The concept that each data is treated equally does not hold good. You
can't design data. The Internet
inherently prioritizes data on a
scale of 0-7 points basis," Prasad
said.
Explaining further, he said a network architecture gives highest priority to network management, followed by online gaming, speech,
videos and then still images, music
files, movie downloads and file
transfers. These cannot be on the
FlipKart has recently decided to opt out of Airtel Zero

a platform against Net neutrality.
same footing.
Network neutrality, or open interworking, means in accessing the
World Wide Web, one is in full control over how to go online, where to
go and what to do, as long as these
are lawful. So firms that provide
Internet services should treat all
lawful Internet content in a neutral
manner.
It also required such companies
not to charge users, content, platform, site, application or mode of
communication differentially.
These are also the founding principles of the Internet and what has
made it the largest and most diverse
platform for expression in recent
history.
Giving a slightly different perspective
was
Subimal
Bhattacharjee, member of Research
Advisory Network under the
Global Commission on Internet
Governance - an initiative of the
Davos-based World Economic
Forum launched last year to articulate the future of internet governance.

"It is practically impossible to
build a net-neutral network, but it
has to be attained - or at least
attempted. This is what will support
innovation. Otherwise, the Net will
not remain open and free,"
Bhattacharjee said.
"Also, every telecom service
provider is an intermediary under
the Information Technology Act, in
any case. If an operator tries to give
an advantage to some players by
taking a fee and improving their
services, it is not allowed under
Section 79 of IT Act."
Similarly, Abhilekh Verma, partner with the legal and corporate
consultancy firm Khaitan and Co.,
said the argument favoring neutrality of the internet is an important
one. "But one also has to note that
in India, the internet penetration
leaves a lot to be desired."
In India, there were some 95 million broadband connections as of
end-February. There was also a
growing appetite among netizens in
India to log on to social networking
sites - Facebook, for example,
claims 118 million active users in
the country.
Another votary of net neutrality is

technology evangelist Sam Pitroda,
who, at the instance of then prime
minister Rajiv Gandhi, was responsible for India's telecom revolution
in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
"Net neutrality in India is fundamental to the future of democracy,
development, demography and disparity. It is not about business, economics, customer service or the
opinion of a few educated elites,"
Pitroda said.
He gave the example of the US
and said after a brief debate there,
the administration felt its importance. "However it required interventions at the highest level to push
net neutrality. Short term issues
cannot be allowed to create a fog
and confusion in the minds of people."
The Netherlands, Mexico, Brazil,
Chile and Ecuador have also adopted net neutrality.
As the situation stands in India
today, the telecom watchdog
released a paper inviting comments
from all stakeholders on what are
called the over-the-top services.
Responses have to be filed by April
24 and the counter-arguments by
May 8. The suggestions will subsequently follow.
The views expressed in Op Eds are not necessarily those of The South Asian Times.
OSAP Loans NOW available to Ontario applicants !!!
May & Sept 2015
14
INDIA FEATURES
Breaking the menstrual taboo

By Shweta Sharma
New Delhi: Toronto-based poet
Rupi Kaur's image showing bloodstained pants was recently deleted
by the mobile photo and video sharing service Instagram, stating it
goes "against community guidelines". Menstruation has always
been a "taboo" subject resulting in a
conspicuous silence surrounding
this natural body function in
women.
Experts feel this silence needs to
be replaced with a conversation that
would result in changing mindsets
from rejection to confidence.
Despite women's emancipation,
many girls and women still face
rejection during "those days" and
are asked to not visit a temple, not
to attend pujas, not cook food, sit
on separate beds and not discuss it
with the male members of the family.
"Menstruation is a taboo across
the globe. Myths associated with it
are mostly observed in developing
countries especially in villages.
Many boys/men don't even know
the basic science/biology behind
menstrual hygiene. Until and unless
we create basic awareness about
menstrual hygiene among girls,
women, boys and men, the situation
will not change," Jaydeep Mandal,
founder, of Aakar Innovations that
enables women to produce and dis-
Toronto based artist and poet Rupi Kaurs a photograph she took
as part of "Period.," a project for her visual rhetoric course at the
University of Waterloo, was removed from her
Instagram account -- twice.
tribute affordable, high-quality

compostable sanitary napkins within their communities, said.
Nupur Gupta, consultant and unit
head, gynecologist and obstetrician
at Gurgaon's Paras Hospital, said
breaking a taboo starts with broaching the subject.
"The best place to do so is in
schools, where the topic can be
incorporated into hygiene and sexual education. This requires sound
knowledge (and in some cases also
the courage of teachers) on how to
use sanitary items and related
issues," Gupta told IANS.

Understanding that menstruation
is a distinct biological female
attribute women should be "proud"
of needs to be fostered, she added.
Kathy Walkling, co-founder at
Eco Femme, a social enterprise
working in the area of menstrual
hygiene management, said that consequences of this include adolescent girls not given accurate
preparatory information prior to
onset of menstruation.
Listing the other consequences,
Walkling said: "Insufficient atten-
tion in society to the needs of adolescent girls for privacy and a dignified way to manage menstruation,
expectations of girls and women to
adhere to many rules and restrictions that for many are perceived as
constraining (e.g. not entering temple) and for those who cannot
afford it and adoption of unhealthy
practices such as using unsanitary
materials to absorb the menstrual
flow."
Serving the needs of economically disadvantaged girls and women
in India, Eco Femme provides menstrual health education and free
washable pads to adolescent girls
through its Pad-forPad programme.
Experts point out that menstrual
hygiene has an important role in
genital tract infections and is also
one of the causes of cervical cancer.
According to gynecologists, use
of alternative sanitary care measures such as unsterilised cloth, sand
and ash make women susceptible to
infections and diseases.
Cervical cancer is one of the leading causes of cancer deaths among
women in India, with approximately 1.32 lakh new cases being diagnosed and about 74,000 deaths
every year. Filling this lacuna, Aditi
Gupta and Tuhin Paul-founded
Menstrupedia, a friendly guide to
periods that helps girls and women
stay healthy and active during their
periods. Menstrupedia aims at
delivering informative and entertaining content through different

media and shattering the myths and
misunderstandings surrounding
menstruation for ages.
"The culture of silence is the
main cause of all the problems and
awareness is the only way out.
Urinary tract infections are very
common. Only 12 percent of Indian
women used sanitary napkins,"
Gupta said
"It's self-esteem and self-confidence which is hampered the most.
If a girl or a women can't even talk
about her natural biological
process, how will she ever talk
about any violence that she faces on
her body," she asked.
Gupta added that information
about menstruation is not complex,
it is a small amount of information
that every girl and woman should
be provided with - and that too at
an early age so that she is better
prepared to take care of herself during her cycle.
"But its complex to achieve this
when teachers skip the chapter on
periods, the school curricula
address this only in class eight and
nine while girls get their periods in
class six or seven. When a girl gets
her period, it's the mothers who say
not to speak about it even to their
father or bothers. We raise our girls
with shame and boys with ignorance," she added.
A home left behind 25 years ago for good

By Shilpa Raina
have always found it tedious to
answer the question: Which is
your hometown? Not because I
am a daughter of an army officer or
belong to a family of travelers, but
because I was born in Srinagar and
was brought up in Jammu. I have
been using this statement since the
early 1990s to introduce myself,
deliberately avoiding the word
Kashmiri migrant.
The feeling of being a migrant or
displaced in your own country
brings in a sense of irreparable loss
as it evokes blurred memories of
childhood and reinforces the turmoil
the community of Kashmiri Pandits
faced when mass exodus took place
in early 1990s, uprooting over
100,000 Hindu Pandits from their
homes due to an Islamist insurgency
that still festers.
Sympathy is the last thing
Kashmiri Pandits want, but unfortunately this is what has always been
the offering. It is, I feel, because
many fail to understand the sense of
homelessness that has stayed with
us ever since. And it is this permanent restlessness that a bleak
thought of going back to our "home"
brightens up our soul, even though
temporarily. But this soul was shat-
The Modi government plans to build composite clusters to

rehabilitate Kashmiri Pandits. But the younger generation of the
community displaced 25 years ago has moved on, settled down
elsewhere in the country and alienated
themselves from the idea of Kashmir.
tered the day it was known that the

government plans to build composite clusters to rehabilitate displaced
Pandits. We have always longed for
home, but this home, ironically,
doesnt belong to the world we
reside in now.
This world doesn't break into curfews, offers employment opportunities, doesn't deprive me of cinema
halls and it is where I can fearlessly
and proudly wear my Indianness on
my sleeve. And this is the place
where the displaced Pandits have
restarted their life and rebuilt the

foundations of their cultural composition. It is their home now and 25
years is a long time for memories to
fade away silently. These two
decades have also alienated the
young Kashmiri generation from the
struggle because they understand
the importance of the word
Kashmir only when they apply for
Kashmiri quota for higher education.
Please don't judge me for the rude
statement, but when I look around I
feel those who started their life in

exile at a young age, adjusted to the
newly found environs, and those
who were born outside the Valley
never really had the umbilical cord
attached to their roots.
Whereas the older generation still
romances nostalgia and laments
about the life and times they had in
Kashmir during their growing-up
years, especially its picturesque
marvels, chilling winters and difficult treks, the younger generation is
introduced to these elements via
personal anecdotes and stories. It
would be apt to say that many of us
have moved on, settled down and
alienated ourselves from the idea of
Kashmir. A subtle proof of this
statement is that we are building a
generation that cant speak the
Kashmiri language. In many houses,
parents speak to their children in
Hindi so that they are not laughed at
for the funny accent . We have
compromised and adjusted to the
rules of the new world.
Uprooting an entire community
from their homes not only displaces
its people, it silently withers away
the intangible culture and shared
history. Culture, indeed, has become
the biggest casualty of our neverending exile. So when we have left
so much behind, what is there to
look forward to? Why does the soul

feel wretched at the thought of these
"clusters" that invite mirth and disbelief at the same time? This proposal has already generated another
controversy related to rehabilitation
of Pandits and questioned the vision
of the government that aims to bring
us home with dignity.
But lets honestly ask ourselves
How many of us are actually willing
to return to the Valley? Are we mentally prepared to push the restart
button again?
There would be a handful who
would want to go back for a better
life, with the hope to shun the life of
penury. There are those who still
haven't sold their homes and those
who pine to go back home for mental peace.
But, it isn't just the question of
building houses and rehabilitating.
Does the government have employment plans to ensure they are not
merely fulfilling poll promises but
are addressing real issues that relate
to rehabilitation holistically?
As a Pandit friend, who is currently teaching in a school in, informs
me how living in Kashmir is like
living in an Islamic state and if anyone wants to come here, he/she
should only come as a tourist and
not for settling down.
DIPLOMACY
15
Building bridges in a better environment

By Robert Golomb
hen the then 53-year-old
Dnyaneshwar Mulay was appointed as Consul General of India in
New York in April 2013, it was said to come
as little surprise to the people of India. Mulay
had become well known throughout that
nation of one and a quarter billion people for
his stellar record during his 30-year career as
an Indian Foreign Service (IFS) officer. That
service included assignments to a variety of
key diplomatic positions in locations as
diverse as Tokyo, Moscow, Port Louis and
Damascus. At home, his assignments covered
an array of mostly major financial posts,
including the high profile position of Director
of the Ministry of Finance.
In addition, Mulay had become celebrated
in India for his accomplishments in another
field - that of literature. His 15 non-fiction
books, in which he analyzed often complex
educational, social, environmental, theological, technological and international issues,
had won him national and international critical acclaim, along with a host of prestigious
literary awards; also critically heralded were
his one book of poetry, which describes the
dilemma of young men and women trying to
find meaning in post-Independence India,
and his one novel, which was based on his
own life story: that of rising from a humble
childhood to his current prominence.
If you guessed, however, that with such an
impressive resume, Ambassador Mulays first
initiative as Consul General, back in 2013
would be directly connected to his prior
impressive public and private career, you
would be wrong. In fact, Mulay informed
me when I interviewed him in the historic
Consulate General building named New
India House in Upper East Side of
Manhattan recently, My first task when I
took over 18 months ago was to try to cleanse
unnecessary papers stored in the building.
Actually the papers he was referring to,
some of which were past travel documents of
those visiting India going as far back as to
just a few years after the turn of the 20th century, needed to be disposed of. Citing the age
of the building, Mulay explained, When I
first toured the Consulate, which is 111 years
old, I saw that the basement, sub-basement
and passageways were jumbled with stacks
of countless cupboard and documents, many
very old.
Mulay added that beyond his initial alarm
about the unkempt appearance of the building, he feared the clutter presented a serious
fire hazard; he also noted that he was concerned that this disarray would make it
unnecessarily difficult for the Consulates 20member staff to effectively organize current
documents, including visa applications and
passports of Indian Americans and others
visiting India today.
To address these concerns, Mulay said he
applied the basic philosophy of Swachh
Bharat, a highly publicized national cam-
Consul General Mulay and his wife Sadhna Shanker, an

Indian Revenue Service officer, greeting Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on his visit to New York last year.
paign spearheaded by Prime Minister

Narendra Modi on coming to power about a
year ago, to clean and restore streets, roads
and highways throughout more than 4,000
Indian towns. We have attached the word
Swachh {clean} to our own campaign which
we call Swachh Consulate, Mulay
explained. On a Consulate level, Swachh
Consulate applies the same fundamental principle Prime Minister Modi used in his comprehensive Swachh Bharat national clean up
campaign.
That principle, Mulay elaborated, is
simply that a clean environment is essential
to the physical and spiritual health and well
being of every human being. For us, of
course, cleanliness and, in turn, orderliness
were prerequisites to achieving our goal of
being able to safely store and accurately track
the more than two hundred thousand documents entrusted annually to us by temporary
and long term visitors from America to India
and Indian passport applicants.
However, just as Mulay was reportedly
receiving high marks from his superiors in
New Delhi for achieving that goal, they
assigned him to oversee another environmental related project in the Consulate. The
Government of India and the Metropolitan
Museum of Art of New York partnered in a
plan to modernize and renovate the Consulate
Building, just about as we were completing
the initial clean up. This modernization
involves conservation of this landmark building, its interiors, woodwork, ceilings and
fireplaces, he stated.
The project he continued, also involves
the complete renovation and modernization
of all of the visitor areas; this is extremely
important because, in addition to people of
Indian backgrounds, many of the visitors to
our consulate are ordinary Americans,
tourists coming from a variety of nations, foreign and American dignitaries, government
officials and business leaders, and, also,
members of the worldwide media. For them,
our building is like a first glimpse of India
itself. We all now feel proud that the clean,
modern, beautiful ambiance of the Consulate
Editors note: Amb. Mulays autobiography in Hindi, Maati Pankh aur Aakash
will be released May 8 at the Consulate by Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, USA.
Ambassador Mulay with Charles R. Kaye (second from left),

former Chairman of the US-India Business Council.
With India-US trade touching $ 100 billion in the
past calendar year, Mulay is helping further develop
this already burgeoning financial relationship.
Amb. Mulay with business and community leaders at an event at the consulate.
One of his initiatives has been to organize a monthly Media India Lecture Series
focusing on Indias global image, identity, aspirations, roles and projection.
presents to all {of them} the image of a country that is emerging as a world leader.
While this project consumed a great deal of
his time and energy, Mulay said he understands that such work is an essential part of
the job. Improving upon and maintaining
the physical condition of the consulate building has historically always been one of the
two basic responsibilities assigned to the
Consul General of every nation, he
explained.
Mulay, however, made it a point to emphasize that the time and effort he continues to
devote to performing this first responsibility
does not interfere with his ability to perform
the second of the two jobs traditionally associated with the position of the Consul
General which is to promote and increase
trade between the home and host country.
With trade between America and India trending upwards in recent years, reaching nearly
100 billion dollars this past calendar year, a
historical high constituting a 60% increase
from pre-Modi India, Mulay said he feels
exhilarated to be working in a position where
he can help further develop this already bur-
geoning financial relationship between these

two nations.
I feel extremely fortunate at this exciting
time to be Consul General in America and
thus to be able to work for implementing the
vision of Prime Minister Modi who has reinvigorated the economic relationship
between our two great nations, Mulay stated. There has been under Prime Minister
Modi a steady rise in the exchange of goods,
services, labor and capital between America
and India. And the main beneficiaries from
both nations have been the consumer and the
worker.
The married father of two sons and one
daughter, all young adults, Mulay, a selfdescribed optimist, added that he believes,
The close relationship now developing
between India and America will be the bridge
to a better economic future for every adult
and every child from both nations, and, in
these days of a global economy, the entire
world.
Lets hope his prediction comes true.
The author (MrBob347@aol.com) is a
nationally published columnist.
Just as Mulay completed the initial clean up of the consulate building, he was
tasked to oversee the modernization and conservation of the landmark building
now called New India House in a partnership between Government of India and
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
16
FESTIVALS
By combining a few Indian festivals together, RANA wanted to share Rajasthans rich culture
& heritage and the experience of diversity with others and to integrate communities.
The grand parade in the SUNY College at Old Westbury featured an elephant,
horses and camels.The entire campus was decorated to create authentic Indian
ambiance - even a village scene that displayed a charpoy and swings, etc.
Old Westbury, NY: Over 3,000 people from various Indian communities
gathered April 19 at the SUNY College here to celebrate Rajasthan Mahotsav. The colorful and musical
scene resembled the fabled festivals
of Rajasthan complete with a grand
parade featuring elephants, horses
and camels to various dance & musical performances showcasing the variety and depth of Indian culture.
Speaking on the occasion, Naveen
Shah, President of RANA (Rajasthan
Association of North America) said
that the objective of the Mahotsav
was not just limited to entertaining
ourselves, but to enrich from the talent & wisdom which we all bring to
this part of the world. We wanted to
share our rich culture & heritage and
the experience of diversity with others and to integrate communities,
laying the foundation of culture for
future generations.
Grand Marshal actress Jinal pandya, RANA co-founder Kamlesh Mehta, Rajasthan
Minister Gulab Chand Kataria (Grand Marshal), Dr Ajay Lodha, RANA President
Naveen Shah and Vice-President Kanak Golia at the start of the parade.
Renowned physician and pediatrician Dr. Ajey Jain (2nd from left) was
presented the Rajasthan Shiromani award.
RANA President Naveen Shah, with Vice President Kanak Golia

by his side, speaking at the Mahotsav.
RANA President Naveen Shah honoring Home Minister of

Rajasthan Gulab Chand Kataria with a traditional safa
. Kamlesh Mehta is on the left.
Rajshree Shah, wife of RANA Founder & President Naveen Shah,
and Nimmi Mehta, General Secretary and wife of RANA Founder
Kamlesh Mehta, seen carrying the Gangaur after the prayers.
Also seen is Kanak Golia, Vice President of RANA.
Men, women and children were all seen dancing to the vibrant
beats of Indian band and dhol.
RANA was founded in 1999 by

Anand Bhandari, Kamlesh Mehta,
Krishna Mehta, Naveen Shah, Rajesh Shah and Sunil Shah to preserve
and promote Rajasthan culture and
Sunday, Home Minister of Rajasthan

Gulab Chand Kataria was the Grand
Marshal of the parade and TV star
Shailesh Lodha MC. Bollywood actress Jinal Pandya was also Grand
heritage and to support the home

state in the fields of education and
healthcare. It has held four international conferences so far.
At the 2nd Rajasthan Mahotsav on
In a first for New York, a traditional Gangaur procession was organized. Gangaur festival is celebrated by women in Rajasthan in
the honor of Goddess Parvati who is regarded as the epitome of marital love, strength, courage, and excellence.
Marshal.
At a glittering ceremony in the
evening, noted industrialist and
Chairman of Vedanta Resources Plc,
Anil Agarwal was honored (in absentia) with Rajasthan Ratna Award. The
doyen of Indian Diamond & Color
Stone Association Haridas Kotahwala was presented the Jaipur Ratna
Award and renowned pediatrician
Dr. Ajey Jain received the Rajasthan
Shiromani award.Vice President of
RANA Kanak Golia said, An event
of such magnitude has never been
done before in the tristate area. Celebrating festivals together will not
only help our communities to integrate into our country of adoption,
but also in promoting our rich
cultures, traditions and heritage.
This was also the first time that a
traditional Gangaur parade was
FESTIVALS
(from left) Poets Arun Gemini, Ved Prakash Ved and Ritu Goel
who regaled the audience.
There were over 16 different cultural & musical performances

showcasing the variety and depth of Indian culture.
17
Doyen of Indian jewelers in America, Haridas Kotahwala (middle standing with his
wife Sharda) was honored as Jaipur Ratna. Indian Consul General Dnyaneshwar
Mulay (to his right) was an honored guest at the Rajasthan Mahotsav.
Over 3,000 people from various Indian communities took part in the celebrations
of Rajasthan Mahotsav.
organized featuring elephant, camels

and horses along with a marching
band and dhol players. Men, women
and children were seen dancing to the
beats of drums and music from India.
There were over 16 cultural & musical performances by various dance
schools, poetry recital by Ritu Goel,
stand up comedy by Anish Shah and
humorous & satirical poetry recitals
by poets Arun Gemini and Ved
Prakash Ved.
Meena Bazaar featured booths displaying Indian dresses, jewelry, paintings, artifacts and not to forget Indian
Kulfi and Paan. The entire campus
was decorated in authentic Indian setting by House of Dipali with the center of attraction being a Village Scene
complete with Charpai, Swings, etc
found in Rajasthan and India.
Cuisine including Rajasthani,
Gujarati, South Indian, and Punjabi
along with traditional sweets and savory snacks was catered by Mint
Caterers of Long Island to the festival
goers. Maya Foods, a supplier of ethnic foods, co-sponsored juices and
drinks.
RANA has expressed gratitude to
SUNY College of Old Westbury for
providing the venue and crowd control services, The South Asian Times,
TV Asia & Ashok Vyas from ITV
Gold for providing media coverage,
to the sponsors corporate/business
(numbering 42), organizational (5),
and individuals (including RANA
Board members who paid $1,000
each) -- as well as all the Host committee members and countless volunteers for devoting their time, money
and effort towards the successful organizing of the Mahotsav.
RANA Secretary Nimmi Mehta (right) participating in a ritual

associated with Gangaur festival.
Getting ready for the big event
An Indian band and dhol played vibrant, foot-tapping beats.
18
FINE ARTS
Delhi Art Gallery stretches its canvas to New York

The inaugural show at the massive new gallery on Upper East Side displays works of 42 masters of modern Indian
art. The gallery plans to hold four exhibitions in a year and has made its mission to teach people about Indian art.
By Jinal Shah
n uncanny figurative rendition of
Christ descending, F.N. Souzas
oil paintings depicting seminude
courtesans and dancers from the temple
walls, and G.R. Santosh's Shiva Shakti
Series are among the masterpieces on display at the massive new 7,000 sq ft gallery
in the iconic Fuller building in the old art
neighborhood of Upper East Side in New
York.
The exhibition, titled India Modern:
Narratives from 20th Century India, is the
first comprehensive attempt by Indias
Delhi Art Gallery to provide an overview
of the modern art movement in the 20th
century India. At the gallery, visitors can
explore and see how historical, political,
social and economic events intersected and
diverged from developments in modernist
art.
The canvases and sculptures at the New
York gallery have been curated from the
extensive Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) collection of over thirty thousand museum quality artworks from over two centuries,
which parallel or closely follow contemporary movements in the West.
Established in Delhi in 1993, DAG is
arguably the largest archive of Indian
modern art and India Modern offers a
glimpse into the work of Indias most significant and trailblazing artists.
The gallery was established by Rama
Anand, mother of the current MD, Ashish
Anand who built the gallery to what it is
today, said Neil Blumstein, gallery director in New York.
With three franchises already in India,
two in Delhi and one in Mumbai, the
gallery arrived in New York with a mission: to make Indian modern art a contender in the market here. And with its
inaugural show, the gallery has put a persuasive foot forward.
The post-independence era marked the
emergence of Indian modern art. The
exhibition includes rare works by 42
artists from that era, including those
Souza, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza, Ram
Kumar, Akbar Padamsee, Avinash
Chandra, S.K. Bakre, Manjit Bawa and
Santosh. Their use of different mediums,
stylistic considerations, and bold themes
shaped the development of India's modern
art. After independence there was a
movement to create art that is more specifically Indian in subject matter, ethnography and feel. These are artists who reacted
to the western condition, to the revivalism
of an Indian trope that rejected academic
realism to create something very new,
said Blumstein.
India Modern traces the origins of
Indian modernism to the 19th century and
continues through important movements
such as the revivalist Bengal School or
Santiniketans thrust towards modernism.
Artists such as Rabindranath Tagore,
Abanindranath Tagore, Gaganendranath
Tagore, Raja Ravi Varma, Amrita SherGil,
Nandlal Bose and Jamini Roy became

known as early modernists pioneering the
concept of a pan-India language in modern
art. All of them are considered national
treasures. The Indian government
restricts the exhibition or sale of their
work or art pieces that are over 100 years
old.
The modern art movement flourished
under the Bombay-based Progressives
Artists' Group. The group was formed in
1947 as a bridge between avant-garde and
the emergent radical contemporary art of
the post-colonial India. Works of the six
founding members of this Group Souza,
Raza, Husain, K.H. Ara, Bakre, H.A. Gade
-- and their associates from that period are
all on display at India Modern as well as
of other notable names.
To better understand the nuances of each
artwork in the exhibition, a catalog featuring individual paintings and sculptures and
a timeline of Western and Indian modernism has been prepared for viewers and
collectors.
Delhi Art Gallery has works for sale but
they also have educational mission and
vocation to teach people about Indian art.
In India, schools dont do much of arts
education, the museums dont do much on
arts and outreach either, so the gallery felt
the need to fill that void, said Blumstein.
We in India have taken modernism for
granted. For long, the term has been loosely used, with very little awareness of what
it includes or omits, writes Ashish Anand
in the catalog. What the West understands
and takes as a given is something that in
India remains a mystery, perhaps because
art in India cannot strictly be viewed from
the same trope as that of Western art.
Perhaps this is true of most countries, but
it is especially true of colonized nations
where new engagements with art in the
West were imposed without the benefit of
growing their local practices organically.
Since its inauguration on March 17, the
show has attracted serious art connoisseurs, art dealers, collectors, students and
curious art lovers wanting to learn more
about Indian art.
Whats great is we have people walking
in, they know a lot about Western art but
have never seen a single Indian painting of
20th century. They had no idea that this
work is being done, and its great to see
the sense of bewilderment and wow factor
on people, added Blumstein.
Unlike the steep rise in the demand for
Chinese art in the US, Indian modern art
has not had many takers especially after
the recession, said Blumstein. One reason
is the lack of knowledge about Indias art
that this gallery intends to take on with its
year-round shows.
The gallery here is a permanent gallery.
The current show will be on for three
months. We plan to do three more exhibitions this year, similar in quality and sculpt
to this one: in mid-June, in September and
one in December most likely. It will be an
annual schedule four times a year.
Some of the masterpieces

on show at the gallery.
F. N. Souza. Mother and Child

1961, Oil on canvas, 44.2 x 38.2.
Ganesh Pyne. Untitled 2004, Dry

pastel & conte on paper,
17.0 x 16.0.
Manjit Bawa.
Untitled
2000, Oil on
canvas, 55.2
x 65.2.
S.K. Bakre. Sculpture titled Solid

State Still Life (White Metal).
K.K. Hebbar. Drought 1973, Oil on

canvas, 37.5 x 39.
DIASPORA
19
Indian-origin millionaire caught shoplifting in Britain US seeks extradition of Indian origin
London: An Indian-origin millionaire director of a

company in Britain was caught in a supermarket hiding in his bag meat and wine worth 200 pounds (about
$300), and has been awarded by a court 12 months'
community service for shoplifting, media reported on
Wednesday.
Ronan Ghosh, 39, was shopping at the Tesco outlet
in Birmingham, West Midlands, on February 21 and
he only paid for the items in his trolley but did not pay
for the items he kept in his bag, a court heard.
The 16 million-pound-a-year turnover global recycling firm's boss was spotted on the store's security
cameras stowing away the expensive items. He was
detained by a guard and police were called, the Daily
Mail reported.
Ghosh, who lives in a luxury 550,000-pound house
in leafy Solihull, pleaded guilty to theft at the
Birmingham Crown Court.
He claimed in the court that he had visited the store
after an argument with his girlfriend and he had not
intended to steal the goods.
Charnjit Jutla, the defence lawyer, told the court that
Ghosh is the director of RG Recycling company that
supplies high-value machinery for the recycling
industry.
"It is a global business. It has a yearly turnover of 16
million pounds," Jutla was quoted as saying. "It beggars belief as to why he finds himself in this court. He
accepts full responsibility for what he has done."
UK trader for 2010 Dow 'flash crash'
Ronan Ghosh was caught at Tesco outlet hiding

meat and wine worth $300 in his bag
Jutla said Ghosh was "disappointed with himself and

shocked and embarrassed."
The defence lawyer told the court that on the day in
question, Ghosh's father told him that his mother had
been diagnosed with skin cancer and that worried him
a lot. Jutla said there was also a will being discussed
within the family which had put considerable strain on
Ghosh.
Judge Murray Creed sentenced the businessman to a
12-month community service. He was also ordered to
complete 80 hours' unpaid work and pay 575 pounds
in costs.
Man fatally shot in Canada
Washington, DC:
intent of cancelling
US
authorities
it before execuhave sought extration.
dition from Britain
A m e r i c a n
of an Indian origin
authorities had
trader accused of
requested Sarao's
contributing to the
extradition to stand
"flash crash" of
trial in America
2010 that briefly
following
his
wiped out nearly
arrest in London
$1 trillion in stock
on Tuesday.
market value.
But Sarao told
Navinder Singh
the British court
Sarao, 36, from Navinder Singh Sarao on Wednesday that
West
London,
he did not consent
appeared in a Westminster
to being extradited to the US
Magistrates'
Court
on
and that he would apply for
Wednesday and said he would
bail, the NBC report said.
oppose extradition to the US,
District Judge Quentin Purdy
NBC News reported from
said a full extradition hearing
London US officials have
will be held in August.
charged Sarao with wire fraud,
Charges against Sarao were
commodities fraud and manipfiled in a federal complaint in
ulation, and one count of
Illinois in February, but were
"spoofing" -- when a trader
unsealed on Tuesday following
places a bid or offer with the
his arrest.
mafia turf war, family says man not a criminal
Indian-origin poet Rajvinder Singh

excels with German oeuvre
Vancouver: The
not a gang member. He
family of a young
was loved by everyone
Surrey man killed
who knew him, the
over the weekend
statement read. Arun
in a violent shootwas a fine young man
ing
incident
who loved his family and
police believe is
had a bright future ahead
connected to the
of him.
ongoing gang turf
The family thanked
war there was a
everyone who has sent
fine young man
condolences and the
who had a bright
media for respecting
future.
their privacy. And they
Arun Bains, the
said they are determined
Arun Bains
nephew of Surrey
to support the commuNDP MLA Harry Bains, was gunned nitys efforts to end the violence and
down Sunday near 88th Avenue and spare another family this pain.
126th Street. The 22-year-olds death
This is an extraordinarily painful
is believed to be connected to the time, the statement read. Arun was
recent spate of gun violence between the heart of our family. We are still trytwo rival groups fighting for control of ing to accept the reality that our son,
the street-level drug trade, brother, cousin, and nephew is gone.
Vancouverdesi reported.
There has been a total of 22 shootIn an emotional statement sent out ings in Surrey and Delta since early
Tuesday, the Bains family offered a last month.
tender picture of the young man,
Mounties have determined that least
describing him as the heart of the 14 of those shootings are related to a
family and someone who was loved clash between a South Asian group and
by all.
a Somali group fighting for control of
Arun was not a criminal. He was the drug trade.
Chandigarh: Creative literaHis poems are inscribed in

ture is generally linked to a
stone are displayed at four
writer's mother tongue. Not so
public places, which include
Rajvinder Singh, an Indianthe city park and three senior
origin poet whose German
schools in Trier, one of the
oeuvre has seen over a hunoldest German cities where
dred articles written on him
Karl Marx was born and
over the years.
brought up. Rajvinder Singh
Essentially a poet and a
is the only living poet, cershort story writer, besides
tainly the only living Indian
being a feature journalist, this
poet whose verses have been
Berlin based Rajvinder Singh has
"Punjabi by heart" has 14 been declared poet-laureate in three cast in stone and displayed
anthologies of poetry to his
in public park and schools.
of the 12 German states.
credit, two in his mother
How did he achieve this
tongue and 12 in German, which he lovingly calls mastery in German? "One always learns one's
his "stepmother-tongue."
mother tongue unconsciously, but one learns other
Based in Berlin since January 1981, the 60-year- languages very consciously," he explained.
old bearded Rajvinder Singh's latest project is to
"For me, too, learning German was an ultra-conmake literature in modern Indian languages accessi- scious act that I had to accomplish and acquire a
ble to the wider world through translations. To this certain mastery through laying bare the etymology
end, he is now translating Punjabi novel 'Parsa', by and morphology of this language to be able to write
Gyanpeeth award winning novelist Gurdial Singh, in it."
into German.
The poet, who launched a 'Nobel for India 2013'
Declared poet-laureate in three of the 12 German campaign and was declared the poet laureate of
states, Rajvinder Singh wrote his Ph.D. thesis in Trier in 2007, said: "I am simply a dialogue addict
semiotics at Berlin's Technical University.
whose basic engagement is to promote understandRajvinder Singh, who was born in Punjab's ing amongst people in general through dialogue as I
Kapurthala town and had spent his initial years also now belong to both India and Germany. It's natural
in Chandigarh and Jammu, occupies a pretty promi- for me to promote Indo-German educational and
nent place in German literary circles.
cultural partnerships."
Police suspect shooting connected to ongoing drug
20
SUBCONTINENT
China plans $45 bn investments in Pak, signs 51 MoUs

Islamabad: Pakistan and China
have signed 51 agreements and
Memoranda of Understanding
(MoUs) for cooperation in diverse
fields with visiting Chinese
President Xi Jinping unveiling a
$45-billion investment plan that
can help Pakistan end its chronic
energy crisis and transform it into a
regional economic hub.
Xi, who arrived in Pakistan on a
two-day visit this week, and
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif witnessed the signing of the
agreements in Islamabad.
The two leaders also unveiled
plaques of eight projects to be
undertaken in Pakistan with
Chinese assistance.
The projects and agreements
relate to China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor, energy, infrastructure,
agriculture, research and technology, education and other fields.
The prime minister said the
agreements and MoUs signed by
the two countries have sound financial and technical backing.
He reaffirmed that friendship
with China was the cornerstone of
Pakistan's foreign policy.
He said there were strong public
Nishan-e-Pakistan for Jinping
Islamabad: Chinese President Xi Jinping was conferred with the

Nishan-e-Pakistan, Pakistan's highest civilian honour, by President
Mamnoon Hussain at a brief ceremony here at Aiwan-e-Sadr.
The ceremony the presidential house was attended by Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif, federal ministers, members of National
Assembly and Senate, services chiefs and the Chinese president's
accompanying delegation.
Nishan-e-Pakistan is the highest of civil awards and decorations
given by the Pakistan government for the highest degree of service to
the nation. The award was established on March 19, 1957.
Late Indian prime minister Morarji Desai was also conferred this
award in 1990.
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif with
Chinese President XI Jinping.
sentiments driving the two countries' relations, which provide a

sound basis for their strength.
Sharif said the most prominent
hallmark of Pakistan-China relationship was consistency and
resilience, irrespective of political
developments, changes in the two
countries and major regional and
international developments.
Pakistan-China ties have
remained robust. Relations between
the two are based on shared ideals
Pakistan, China to fight

terrorism jointly
and principles of mutual trust,

mutual benefit and respect, he said.
In his remarks, President Xi said
the main objective of his visit was
to further cement and give new
boost to the strategic partnership
and friendly ties with Pakistan.
He assured Sharif that China
would continue playing its part for
sustainable socio-economic development of Pakistan with particular
focus on development in
Balochistan province.
The Chinese president said special attention would be paid to further strengthen economic strategic
partnership with Pakistan in next 10
years.
The Chinese president will unveil
a $45-billion investment plan that
can help Pakistan end its chronic
energy crisis and help transform it
into a regional economic hub.
The investments offer a real
opportunity to change the scope
Sino-Pakistan relationship "from
geo-politics to geo-economics",
said Federal Minister for Planning
and Development Ahsan Iqbal.
Case led over attack on Khaleda Zia

Dhaka: An official of the ruling
Awami League has filed a complaint against BNP activists in connection with the attack on
Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP) chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia in Dhaka during
a poll campaign, police said.
Khaleda was attacked in Kawran
Bazar area while canvassing for the
party-endorsed Dhaka north mayor
aspirant Tabith Awal, bdnews24
reported.
She escaped unharmed but several vehicles in her motorcade were

damaged.
Her security staff claimed that
bullets were fired at Khaleda's
vehicle but it could not be verified.
A senior police official said
Awami
League's
Dhaka
Metropolitan Ward 26 unit chief
Jahirul Haq filed the complaint on
Monday night. Prime Minister
Sheikh Hasina dubbed the whole
episode as a "drama".
17 Indian pilgrims killed in Nepal

accident
Chinese President Xi Jinping with Pakistani President

Mamnoon Hussain in Islamabad.
Islamabad: Pakistan and China

would together fight terrorism
to root it out, Pakistan Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif said
addressing a joint sitting of parliament's both houses, which
was convened to honor visiting
Chinese President XI Jinping.
"Our joint efforts against terrorism have succeeded so far
but we need to intensify our
efforts," Sharif said.
Talking about the mega
Pakistan-China Economic
Corridor, Sharif said: "It is a
catalytic project that will help us
combine the geo-economic
streams of our countries."
"The corridor symbolizes our
commitment to create win-win
partnerships which threaten
none and benefit all," he added.

Sharif said young entrepreneurs, academics, media persons, teachers, students and professionals from both countries
will sustain their friendship and
make it even more productive.
Before Sharif, Xi addressed
the joint sitting and described
Pakistan as China's "dependable" friend, stressing that bilateral ties are based on mutual
trust and support.
"As soon as I set foot on this
beautiful soil, my colleagues
and I were immediately
immersed in the ocean of
warmth and friendship. I felt
like returning to the home of my
own brother," the visiting president said.
The projects for which the whopping investments are expected to

constitute the China-Pakistan
Economic Corridor, and foresee the
creation of road, rail and pipeline
links that would cut several thousand km off the route to transport
oil from the Middle East to China,
while bypassing India.
Beijing hopes to increase investments in Pakistan as part of its
ambitions to expand its trade and
transport footprint across Central
and South Asia, while countering
US and Indian influence in the
region.
Kathmandu: At least 17 Indian pilgrims

were killed and 28 others injured when a
bus carrying them plunged into a river
while negotiating a sharp bend along a
downhill section of the Prithvi Highway
in Nepal, police said. According to
Superintendent of Police Narayan Singh
Khadka, the accident took place at 6.40
a.m. when the bus carrying 45 Indian pilgrims from Gujarat skidded off the Prithvi
Highway, rolled down 200 metres and
plunged into Jhyapre river in Dhading
district, some 50 km west of Kathmandu.
Khadka said 14 people died on the spot
while three others succumbed in hospital.
The 45 Indian pilgrims aboard the bus
were returning to Gorakhpur in India after
visiting the Pashupatinath temple in
Kathmandu. Personnel of the army, police
and armed police along with local residents carried out the rescue work at the
accident site. Indian Ambassador to Nepal
Ranjit Rae visited the various hospitals to
meet the injured pilgrims, the embassy
said in a statement.
Khaleda Zia was attacked in

Kawran Bazar area while canvassing for the party-endorsed
aspirant Tabith Awal.
Sri Lanka denies role in

Rajapakse summons issue
Colombo: The Sri Lankan government has denied any

involvement in the move to
question former president
Mahinda Rajapakse on bribery
allegations.
Deputy Foreign Minister
Ajith Perera told journalists
here that the decision to question Rajapakse was taken solely
by the country's independent
anti-graft
agency,
the
Commission to Investigate
Allegation of Bribery or
Corruption.
"The government had never
wanted to order such a probe
because such a move was politically not advisable at this
moment," Xinhua news agency
quoted him as saying. "If this
move had political connections

then it would have been carried
out much earlier or would have
been put off for later."
There was uproar in the Sri
Lankan parliament on Monday
and Tuesday over the summons
issued on the former president
by commission director general
Dilrukshi Dias Wickremesinghe
over an allegation that
Rajapakse had bribed a member
of the ruling United National
Party with a ministerial post.
Opposition parliamentarians
alleged that the government had
resorted to political harassment
against the former president
who is largely responsible for
the defeat of the Tamil Tiger
rebels in the island nation.
INTERNATIONAL
21
Headley joined LeT "full time" after 9/11

Washington: A PakistaniAmerican key plotter of the
November 2008 Mumbai terror
attacks has revealed that he decided to join Pakistani terror group
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) "full time"
following the 9/11 attacks in the
US.
Born Daood Gilani in the US to
an American mother and a
Pakistani father, David Coleman
Headley makes the disclosure in a
draft memoir made available to the
makers of an "American Terrorist",
a TV documentary telecast this
week.
Working with LeT, Headley, former drug smuggler turned informant for the US Drug Enforcement
Administration, used his US passport to travel to India, scout locations for the plot, film them and
even find a landing site for the
plot's attackers.
Writing about his first encounter
with Lashkar militants, Headley,
who is serving 35 years for his role
David Coleman Headley, a key plotter of November 2008

Mumbai terror attacks.
in the Mumbai attack, describes

how he was "very impressed with
their dedication to the cause of the
liberation of Kashmir from Indian
occupation." Headley's memoir
offers a unique window into his
turn toward extremism, his training
with LeT and his preparations for
an abortive attack on a Danish
newspaper for publishing cartoons
of the Prophet Muhammad, according to report by ProPublica and

Frontline.
In one passage, Headley, who
frequently visited Pakistan, writes:
"On one of my trips, October 2000,
I made my first contact with
Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), quite by
accident. I attended their annual
convection in November. Marking
his decision to join Lashkar "full

time" following the 9/11 attacks,
Headley says that by 2002 the
group asked him to take "the Daura
Aamma, the basic military training
course offered by LeT."
It was one of several training
programmes he writes about, the
report says noting "by 2005,
Lashkar's plans for Headley are
coming into focus."
"He is trained in explosives, but
perhaps most importantly, Lashkar
asks him to change the name given
to him at birth by his Pakistani
father and American mother Daood Gilani."
"He chooses David, which is
English for Daood; Coleman,
which was his grandfather's name;
and Headley, which was his mother's maiden name," the report said.
It was a bureaucratic act, but
intelligence officials cited by the
report say the change made
Headley that much more difficult
to track.
"Finally, in June, my immediate

superior, Sajid Mir, instructed me
to return to the United States,
change my Muslim name to a
Christian sounding name and get a
new US passport under that name,"
he writes.
"He now informed me I would be
going to India, since I looked nothing like a Pakistani in appearance
and spoke fluent Hindi and Urdu it
would give me a distinct advantage
in India," Headley added.
Around the same time, Headley
was conducting regular reconnaissance of targets in Mumbai.
The plan was to capture an
Indian fishing vessel, which constantly strayed into Pakistani
waters, and commandeer it all the
way to Mumbai.
But western intelligence soon
learn of the plot, and close in on
Headley. He was arrested on
October 3 2009 at O'Hare
Airport,Chicago on his way back to
Pakistan.
US denies IS leader Baghdadi hurt in air strike Japanese train sets world
speed record
Washington: The leader of Islamic

State, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has
been seriously wounded in an air
strike in western Iraq, sources have
told the Guardian. The Pentagon,
however, said there was no reason to
think the self-styled caliph was
wounded.
A source in Iraq with connections
to the terror group revealed that
Baghdadi suffered serious injuries
during an attack by the US-led
coalition in March.
The source said Baghdadis
wounds were at first life-threatening, but he has since made a slow
recovery. He has not, however,
resumed day-to-day control of the
organization. Baghdadis wounding
led to urgent meetings of IS leaders,
who initially believed he would die
and made plans to name a new
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr

al-Baghdadi
leader. Two separate officials a

western diplomat and an Iraqi adviser separately confirmed the strike
took place on March 18 in the alBaaj a district of Nineveh, close to
the Syrian border. But Pentagon
spokesperson Colonel Steve Warren
said there was nothing to indicate

that Baghdadi had been wounded or
killed. There had been two previous reports in November and
December of Baghdadi being
wounded, though neither was accurate. The diplomat confirmed an air
strike on a three-car convoy had
taken place on that date between the
village of Umm al-Rous and alQaraan.
The attack targeted local Isis leaders and is believed to have killed
three men. Officials did not know at
the time that Baghdadi was in one of
the cars.
Hisham al-Hashimi, an Iraqi official who advises Baghdad on Isis,
told the Guardian: Yes, he was
wounded in al-Baaj near the village
of Umm al-Rous on 18 March with
a group that was with him.
New Zealand PM sorry for pulling waitress' hair

Wellington: New Zealand Prime
Minister John Key has publicly
apologized to a waitress who
labeled him a "schoolyard bully"
for repeatedly pulling her ponytail
on visits to her cafe.
As women's groups expressed
outrage, Key said he now realized
his behavior was inappropriate but
insisted he was merely "horsing
around", not acting maliciously. "It
was all in the context of a bit of
banter that was going on," he told
TVNZ, saying he apologized and
gave the woman two bottles of
wine when he realized she had
taken offense.
The unnamed Auckland waitress
recounted her story in an anonymous column on left-wing website
thedailyblog.co.nz, saying the con-
New Zealand Prime Minister

John Key.
servative leader's actions reduced

her to tears. She said Key persisted
in tugging her hair on at least half
a dozen separate occasions, even
though she had clearly signaled
her displeasure and once warned
his security detail she would punch

him if he continued.
At one point, Key's wife
Bronagh told him "leave the poor
girl alone", the woman wrote, saying that the prime minister gave
the impression "that he just didn't
care". "He was like the schoolyard
bully tugging on the little girls'
hair trying to get a reaction, experiencing that feeling of power," she
said in the blog.
The waitress said Key eventually
got the message and stopped tormenting her in late March, telling
her he had not realized how upset
she was at his behavior, which
lasted for several months.
"Really?! That was almost more
offensive than the harassment
itself," she wrote.
The maglev train clocked 603 kms per hour.
Tokyo: A Japanese high-speed

train broke its own world speed
record, clocking 603 kilometres
per hour (374.69 miles per hour),
after having set the previous
record less than a week ago.
The maglev - magnetically levitated -- train broke the record during a 42-km test run in Yamanashi,
a district about 35 km west of
Tokyo, Efe news agency reported.
The same train had set the world
speed record on April 16, when it
clocked 590 kmph.
The train uses a magnetic levitation system, using linear motors
installed near the rails, by which
the magnetic field elevates the
train by up to 10 cm above the

rails, leaving air resistance as the
only source of friction.
Central Japan Railway plans to
have the maglev operational in
2027 connecting Shinagawa, south
of Tokyo, and Nagoya in central
Japan.
The maglev will take 40 minutes
to cover the 286-km distance
between the two points, a trip that
currently takes 88 minutes.
The train is expected to run at a
maximum speed of 500 kmph
when it functions commercially.
Central Japan Railway plans to
extend the service from Nagoya to
Osaka in western Japan by 2045.
22 April 25-May 1, 2015
BUSINESS
India to receive below normal monsoon

New Delhi: India is expected to
receive below normal monsoon
this year, according to the forecast
by the India Meteorological
Department.
Announcing the forecast, Union
minister of earth sciences Dr
Harsh Vardhan said the rains are
expected to be 93 percent of the
long-term average. The forecast is
subject to an error margin of plus
or minus 5 percent.
"There are very less chances of
above normal rainfall," Harsh
Vardhan said.
A normal monsoon means the
country receives rainfall between
96% and 104% of a 50-year average of 89 cm during the rainy season, according to India's weather
office classification. Last year,

monsoon rains were forecast at
95% of the long-term average.
The government has stockpiles
of staples such as rice, wheat and
sugar from bumper harvests in the
last few years but it has limited
means to control a jump in costs
of fruits and vegetables that have
the largest impact on food inflation in India. Also, lower output
of cereals would mean the government will have to spend on
costly imports to maintain the
grains buffer.
This will be the second straight
year of below average rains if the
forecast proves right, as the monsoon ended up with a double digit
deficit of 12% last year.
The date of onset of the monsoon will be officially announced

in May, but most agencies have
already predicted an early onset
by May 27.
The minister further said there
was nothing to panic or worry
about, as the government has
made all preparations to deal with
a deficient monsoon.
Harsh Vardhan said the below
normal monsoon has been forecast after factoring the weather
phenomenon called El Nino.
El Nino, meaning 'little boy' in
Spanish, is caused by unusual
warming in the Pacific Ocean,
which can cause atmospheric
changes and bring on a dry spell
in the region.
mark by rising 45.45 points, or

0.54 per cent, at 8,423.20.
Brokers said value-based buying in bluechips after recent
losses amid a firming trend in
other Asian markets, helped the
domestic trading sentiments.
Besides, recovery in the rupee
and data showing foreign funds
made heavy purchases on the
bourses in yesterday's trade,
triggered buying by investors,
they added.
Meanwhile, the rupee was
trading seven paise higher at
62.78 against the dollar in early
trade today.
Data from a 126-year period

since 1880 show less than half of
El Nino events have caused a poor
monsoon.
India's monsoon was hit by an
El Nino in 2009 when the fourmonth rainy season that starts in
June turned out to be the driest in

nearly four decades.
The country is already reeling
under the fallout of unseasonal
rains that have wrecked crops in
16% of total area sown this past
winter.
India well on path to economic

recovery : Arun Jaitley
Sensex, Nifty snap five-day losing streak

Mumbai: The benchmark BSE
Sensex rose over 151 points or
0.54 percent, in early trade
snapping a five-day losing
streak this week. The 30-share
index, which had lost 1,368.40
points in the previous five sessions, recovered by 151.62
points, or 0.54 per cent, at
27,827.66 as buying in stocks
of realty, banking, capital
goods, oil & gas, healthcare,
FMCG and auto sectors, positively impacted the trading sentiments.
The National Stock Exchange
index Nifty regained the 8,400-
The rains are expected to be 93 percent of the long-term average.
Arun jaitley at the

International Monetary and
Financial Committee meet.
Washington: The Indian economy

is on a recovery path with 7.4 percent growth in the first three quarters of the last fiscal with the new
NDA government committed to
maintaining overall macro-econom-
ic conditions, Finance Minister

Arun Jaitley said here.
"The Indian economy is now
clearly on a recovery path. We are
committed to maintain overall
macroeconomic conditions on a sustained basis so that the Indian economy is able to achieve and sustain
growth of 8 percent and above,"
Jaitley said in his address to the
International Monetary and
Financial Committee.
He said India's growth recovered
to 7.4 percent in the first three quar-
ters of 2014-15 as compared with

7.0 percent during the same period
of 2013-14.
Advance estimates have placed
the country's gross domestic product
growth for the full fiscal 2014-15 at
7.4 percent.
Inflation in the country has also
moderated significantly, he added.
Jaitley said the consumer price
indexed (CPI), or retail, inflation
declined to 5.2 percent in March
2015 from 11.2 percent in
November 2013.
Akhshay Tritiya marks brisk sales of gold, jewelery

New Delhi/Mumbai: To usher in
good fortune in their lives on
Akshaya Tritiya, buyers flocked
jewelery shops, as retailers witnessed brisk sales of gold and jewelery that may be around 25 percent higher than a normal day.
Akshaya Tritiya, an auspicious
day for Hindus and Jains, is
believed to bring good luck and
success in whatever endeavor one
undertakes on this day. It is considered auspicious to bring home gold
on this day."Kalyan Jewellers registered 30 percent growth in gold
jewelery sales this Akshaya Tritiya
compared with last year, as there is
a positive consumer sentiment due
to stable gold prices hovering
around the Rs.27,000 mark for 10
People shopping at a jewelery shop on Akshaya Tritiya in Chennai.
grams, supported by global fundamentals," Ramesh Kalyanaraman,
executive director, marketing &

operations, Kalyan Jewellers, said.
"Gold prices have declined by

nearly 10 percent from a year earlier. We have seen robust increase
in all our categories including
chains, bangles and rings," he
added.
"Sales have been good postafternoon as customers made a
beeline to our showroom and
bought ornaments off the shelf or
collected items they ordered earlier," Deepak Jain, a partner in
Dhanalakshmi Jewellers in
Bengaluru, told IANS.
He said the sales would certainly
go up 30 percent over Monday and
35 percent over April 15, when
purchase of the yellow and silver
metals began for Tritiya.
"The market is looking very pos-
itive. It is much better than previous year. There is a positive economic sentiment. The buyers have
confidence
on
price,"
Somasundaram P.R., managing
director, India, World Gold
Council, said.
Pankaj Parekh, vice-chairman of
Gems & Jewellery Export
Promotion Council, told IANS that
sales are expected to be higher
across the country as in March the
import of yellow metal was on the
higher side. According to reports,
India's gold imports more than
doubled to 125 tonnes in March
from 60 tonnes in the same period
a year ago. Apart from gold, jewelers also saw good demand for diamond jewelery.
SPORTS
23
Head injury to another young cricketer causes scare

Kolkata: Another young cricketer was hospitalized this week after sustaining a head
injury during a local league match, a day
after the shocking demise of former Bengal
Under-19 team captain Ankit Keshri.
An doctor attending Rahul Ghosh here
said the young cricketer was stable but had
suffered a haemorrhage, and a scan showed
a clot in the left side of his head.
Ghosh had to be rushed to the
Nightingale Hospital in central Kolkata and
admitted in the Intensive Critical Care Unit
after he was injured while fielding during
the second division league match between
his team Kolkata Police and Vijay Sports at
the Videocon Cricket Academy run by former India captain Sourav Ganguly.
Late in the evening, Ghosh was shifted to
a general ward.
Ghosh, who was fielding in the covers,
was injured when the ball hit him.
"He has an injury on the left side of the
head. He has had haemorrhage, but no
vomiting. CT scan has been done. It shows
a clot," Sabyasachi Sen, the attending doctor, said on Tuesday.
Ghosh, nearing 20, was now stable, but

will be kept under observation for seven to
eight days, the doctor said.
"Before that nothing conclusive can be
said," he added.
Sen said the young player had difficulty
in remembering the what happened just
after the incident.
"He picked up the injury behind the left
ear while fielding. He will be kept under
observation as these things can easily
evolve. There is no edema (abnormal accumulation of fluid) near the brain stem, and
his vital part has not been hurt," he said.
The cricket world was plunged into
mourning after former Bengal Under-19
captain Keshri, regarded as a bright
prospect, died from a head injury sustained
during a Cricket Association of Bengal
(CAB) senior knockout tournament game
last Friday. Twenty-year-old Keshri - turning out for his club East Bengal against
Bhowanipore - was injured and fell unconscious following an on-field collision with
fellow fielder Sourav Mondal while taking
a catch. He passed away in the same hospi-
Bangladesh humiliate
Pakistan, win ODI series 3-0
Former Bengal Under-19 team captain Ankit Keshri died from a head injury
sustained during a tournament game last Friday.
tal following a cardiac arrest. His bereaved

family has alleged "medical negligence".
Keshris tragic fate invoked the memories
of the unfortunate death of Australian
cricketer Phillip Hughes who was fatally

hit by a bouncer during a domestic match
on November 25 last year, and died from
the injuries two days later.
I'm better than Muhammad Ali: Mayweather Jr.
Las Vegas: Floyd Mayweather Jr.

has refused to back off earlier
comments declaring himself a better fighter than Muhammad Ali.
Mayweather said he respects
Ali's great career and the things he
did outside the ring. But he said
he believes he has done as much
in boxing as the legendary former
heavyweight champion ever did,
without the losses that Ali suffered in his career.
"He called himself The Greatest
and I call myself TBE (The Best
Ever)," Mayweather said. "I'm
pretty sure I'll get criticized for
what I said, but I could care less. I
could care less about the backlash."
Mayweather had earlier said
that he was better than both Ali
and Sugar Ray Robinson, pointing
to his 47-0 record as proof. He
also said he would never have lost
Floyd Mayweather Jr.
to a fighter like Leon Spinks, who

beat an aging Ali in 1978 after
having just seven pro fights.
"I just look at Ali's career when
he fought Leon Spinks and lost to
a fighter with seven fights,"
Mayweather said. "There were
some other fights he lost and he's
still known as The Greatest
because that's what he put out
there. It is what it is."
A little more than a week before

his megafight with Manny
Pacquiao, Mayweather seemed
relaxed on a conference call
where he talked about his career
and the man he will face in the
ring May 2. He refused to say
anything bad about Pacquiao, and
said he was treating the richest
fight ever as just another fight.
"I know it's the biggest fight in
boxing history but I can't
approach
it
like
that,"
Mayweather said. "I'm never
going to put any unnecessary
pressure on myself. I like to
approach the fight like he's a
fighter who's extremely talented.
But my thing is to just be Floyd
Mayweather."
"I'm blessed, I made some good
investments," Mayweather said.
"If I wanted to retire today I
could."
Sports ministry suspends Paralympic Committee of India

The hosts continued their dominance in the series.
Mirpur: A swashbuckling
maiden century by Soumya
Sarkar fired the Bangladesh
cricket team to an easy eightwicket victory over Pakistan
and helped them complete a 3-0
humiliation of the 1992 World
Champions in the third and
final One-Day International
(ODI) of the bilateral series
here. The hosts continued their
dominance in the series as they
chased down 251 with 63 balls
and eight wickets to spare at the
Sher-e-Bangla
National
Stadium,
reports
bdnews24.com. Bangladesh
bowlers fought back brilliantly
to skittle Pakistan out for 250 in

49 overs after they had threatened to break free to set a huge
target.
It capped a remarkable turnaround for the home team, who
waited more than 16 years for
their first win against Pakistan
in any format.
For the tourists, it got from
bad to worse as they went from
being invincible to whipping
boys in the space of a week.
Tamim Iqbal (64) and Man of
the Match Sarkar (127 not out)
gave Bangladesh a solid start
with a commanding 145-run
opening stand.
New Delhi: Taking a cue from the

International Paralympic Committee
(IPC), the government has suspended the Paralympic Committee of
India (PCI) for gross negligence and
poor management of the 15th
National
Para
Athletics
Championships in Ghaziabad last
month.
An official statement, issued here,
said the sports ministry also asked
the IPC to form an ad-hoc committee to work in place of PCI till a federation is granted recognition. The
IPC, on April 15, had suspended the
PCI on the same charges, following
which the sports ministry issued a
show-cause notice to PCI, asking
why should it not be unrecognized.
"In a communication sent to the
PCI, the ministry has said that the

decision has been taken in the wake
of numerous serious complaints
about poor management of the 15th
National
Para
Athletics
Championships held from March
20-22 in Ghaziabad in all aspects
viz., logistics, technical, administrative, etc.," said the statement.
The Sports Authority of India
(SAI) had conducted an inquiry into
the management of the competition
and submitted its report to the ministry, who then asked the PCI on
why should it not be suspended. The
inquiry found that the complaints
against it were largely well-founded. "The government of India is of
the view that PCI has violated the
terms and conditions of recognition
as well as provisions of its own constitution," said the statement.

"The government has further
noted that PCI has not been functioning in the best interest of para
sport for which it was granted
recognition as there has been largescale dissatisfaction among players
and other stakeholder, thus resulting
in adverse impact on both the development of the sport as well as future
opportunities and prospects of paraathletes in the country." The ministry has written a letter IPC Chief
Executive Officer (CEO) Xavier
Gonzalez requesting for an ad hoc
body, keeping in mind the smooth
functioning of the Paralympic
movement in India so that athletes
are not affected.
24
Look slimmer with

this new app
London: A
new smartphone
app
promises to
make
you
slimmer and
smarter and
that too without any interventions in
your workout
schedule!
Actually, the
n
e
w
"Visualize You" app is designed
to encourage weight loss by processing your portrait-style photograph and generating an image of
what you would look like minus
10 kg... or may be more.
The designers said the app uses
proprietary algorithms based on
"clinically verified weight
change dynamics" to generate
the image, reported Daily Mail.
As opposed to similar apps that
basically stretch and pinch photos, Visualize You creates images
determined by the precise
amount of weight you hope to

shed.
It is simple to use this app:
Take a portrait-style picture of
yourself, or grab one from your
photo library, and drop it into the
app along with your height,
weight and desired target weight.
The app crunches the numbers
and pops out an image of a slimmer you.
The app is not free though. It
costs two dollars and is available
for both iOS and Android platforms.
LIFESTYLE
Know why most professional

golfers live a lonely life
London: Are professional golfers, beneath the
fine screen of glamor,
lonely beings? Yes, says
a new study.
In the midst of intense
rivalries and on a meager
income, many professional golfers are leading
lonely isolated lives, the
study said.
John
Fry
from
Myerscough College
interviewed 20 professionals, including Ryder
Cup players and a former
world number one, to
reveal the "particular
stresses" behind the glamor of the
game.
Fry said that the number of
tournaments held abroad had
increased over recent years.
"Players spend long periods of
time away from home and many
experience intense feelings of
loneliness, isolation and perceptions of being cut off from the
'real world'," Fry said.
He said that although players
formed superficial friendships to

help ease the boredom and loneliness of being away from their
families, "players would avoid
confiding in other players at all
costs."
One golfer told him: "One thing
is no one's going to care. The
majority of people that you tell
your woes, half of them will be
happy and the other half don't
care." This isolation was
increased by lack of contact with

their families.
One golfer who had won six of
the elite European tour events
told Fry: "I don't see my kids that
much. I miss my wife, my kids,
my parents. I don't see them
enough, and that's what is difficult." Fry also found that most
professional golfers outside of
the main European tour were
struggling financially.
Coffee shields you against breast cancer recurrence iPads in kindergarten can make
your toddler smarter
London: Drinking just two cups

of coffee a day can help inhibit the
growth of tumors and reduce the
risk of recurrence in women who
have been diagnosed with breast
cancer, a new research suggests.
The researchers combined information about the patients' lifestyle
and clinical data from 1,090 breast
cancer patients with studies on
breast cancer cells.
"The study shows that among
the over 500 women treated with
(the drug) tamoxifen, those who
had drunk at least two cups of coffee a day had only half the risk of
recurrence of those who drank less
coffee or none at all," explained
Ann Rosendahl, one of the
researchers from Lund University

in Sweden.
"The study also shows that those
who drank at least two cups of
coffee a day had smaller tumors
and a lower proportion of hormone-dependent tumors. We saw
that this was already the case at
the time of diagnosis," Rosendahl

noted. In the cell study, the
researchers looked more closely at
two substances found in coffee -caffeine and caffeic acid.
"The breast cancer cells reacted
to these substances, especially caffeine, with reduced cell division
and increased cell death, especially in combination with tamoxifen," Rosendahl noted.
"This shows that these substances have an effect on the
breast cancer cells and turn off
signalling pathways that the cancer cells require to grow,"
Rosendahl said.
The study appeared in the journal Clinical Cancer Research.
Divorced women more prone to heart attacks
New York: Even after remarrying, a woman who has been

through divorce is nearly twice as
likely to have a heart attack when
compared to her next door neighbor, who is into a stable relationship, says a research.
Divorce is a major stressor, and
researchers have long known that
people who are divorced suffer
more health consequences.
"But this is one of the first studies to look at the cumulative effect
of divorce over a long period. We
found that it can have a lasting
imprint on women's health," said
Matthew Dupre, associate profes-
sor of medicine at Duke

University and the study's lead
author. To reach this conclusion,
the team scanned the responses of
a nationally representative group
of 15,827 people ages from 45 to
80, who had been married at least
once. Participants were interviewed every two years from
1992 to 2010 about their marital
status and health. About one-third
of participants had been divorced
at least once during the 18-year
study. Although men are generally
at a higher risk for heart attack, it
appears that women fared worse
than men after divorce, although
the differences were not statistically significant.

Men who had been divorced
had about the same risk as those
who stayed married. It was only
after two or more divorces that the
risk for men went up, the study
found.
The study also found that men
who remarried also fared better
than women. These men experienced the same risk of heart attack
as men who had been married
continuously to one partner. The
study was published in the journal
Circulation: Cardiovascular
Quality and Outcomes.
Washington, DC: Making

a strong pitch for the use of
iPads in kindergarten
schools, a Northwestern
University researcher has
found children in classes
with shared iPads significantly outscored their peers
on achievement tests who
were in classes that had no
iPads or classes with iPads
for each student (1:1 ratio).
"Shared iPad students significantly outperformed both the 1:1
and non-iPad condition, suggesting it is the collaborative
learning around the technology
that made the difference," said
lead researcher Courtney
Blackwell.
Results showed that students
in shared iPad classrooms significantly outscored their peers
in 1:1 and non-iPad classrooms
on the spring achievement test,
even after controlling for baseline scores and student demographics.
Blackwell found that shared
iPad students scored approximately 30 points higher than 1:1
iPad students and non-iPad
users.
For the study, Blackwell
worked with 352 students at a
Midwestern suburban school
district that was phasing in 1:1

iPads into their kindergarten
classrooms.
"1:1 tablet computers may not
be the most effective way to use
technology for all grades and
from a policy standpoint, we
need to rethink what developmentally appropriate technology
use is for young children,"
Blackwell added.
There has been little quantitative research done measuring the
effects of young children's academic achievement.
"This is the first study to
examine the effect that sharing
iPads can have on young students," Blackwell pointed out.
She will present her findings
at the 65th annual conference of
the
International
Communication Association in
San Juan, Puerto Rico in May
this year.
SCI-TECH
25
40 years after Aryabhata: Nothing too far for India

Chennai: The year 2015 and the month April
are significant for the Indian space program.
It was in April 40 years ago that India's first
satellite Aryabhata weighing 358 kg was
launched successfully by a Russian rocket.
India followed up Aryabhata with 444 kg
Bhaskara-I satellite.
Interestingly, India has marched ahead in
satellite building capability to roll out communication spacecraft weighing three tonnes
and has also sent out satellites to orbit moon
and mars. It was again in April but in 2001
(April 18, 2001), that the first development
flight
of
India's
heavy
rocket
Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle
(GSLV) rocket was launched.
However, the development of the GSLV
rocket that can put into orbit heavier satellites
lagged. Two successive failures of GSLV
rockets had put the project behind by several
years.
"During those days infrastructure was not
available and we used what was available. In
Bangalore we even converted a toilet into a
data receiving centre for our first satellite
Aryabhata," U.R. Rao, former chairman of
Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)
told IANS from Bangalore.
"Starting from the scratch was the challenge
before us while we began the Aryabhata project. Majority of the team members were new
to this field. The time given was just two and
half years so that it could be flown in a
Russian rocket. Building a clean room, thermo vacuum room and other facilities were all
new," recalled Rao.
After Bhaskara-1 the Indian space agency
built the APPLE (Ariane Passenger Payload
Experiment) communication satellite, which
laid the ground for the INSAT series satellites
1975: Indias first satellite launched by

a Russian rocket
Dec 2014: First test launch of GSLV Mk

III, with an unmanned crew module.
India's first satellite Aryabhata was launched successfully by a Russian rocket in April 40
years ago, taking the country on an exciting space odyssey as far as the Moon and the Mars.
possessing multiple capabilities - telecom,
television, meteorological and imaging.
Success started smiling at ISRO from
INSAT-1B onwards, ushering in the communication revolution in India.
There was no looking back for the space
agency on the satellite side. From one tonne
satellites, the INSAT series started growing in
weight to become three tonne and ISRO later
started making satellites for others.
The space agency has also jointly built two
heavy satellites - 3,453 kg W2M and 2,541 kg
Hylas - for the French agency EADS
Astrium.
India's high point in its space odyssey was
its moon and mars missions.
While it is normal to compare ISRO's
achievement in satellite and rocket technologies, space scientists said both cannot be
Twitter makes it easier for

strangers to send direct messages
San Francisco: Twitter is expanding its popular direct message feature to allow users to
receive messages from other users regardless
if they follow each other. The move is part of
its ongoing effort to try to boost user growth
as pressure from Wall Street investors continues.
Twitter said Monday its direct message system, which allows users to communicate privately, used to require each user be "following" one another, effectively having made a
connection beforehand. Now, Twitter said, the
direct messages will operate for anyone who
chooses to opt in to the feature.
The feature could be particularly beneficial
for large companies and celebrities, who will
now be able to respond to people who send
them messages without having to establish a
connection beforehand.
Twitter had tested this feature in the past,
making it available to a portion of its users in
2013. Users can now turn on a setting that
enables them to receive direct messages from
anyone. And on mobile devices running
Apple's iOS or Google's Android operating
system, users will see a direct message button
on profiles.
Twitter also now allows users you follow to
direct message you, whether they follow you
or not.
These refinements, Twitter said, will make
Sept 2014: The Mars Orbiter Mission,

also called Mangalyaan, is Indias
spacecraft orbiting Mars since Sept24,
2014 (artists concept)
direct messaging faster and easier because

people will be able to more simply communicate. The changes are rolling out worldwide.
"We continue to invest in our private channel to lay the foundation for a powerful and
engaging messaging experience," Twitter said
in a blog post Monday.
Of course, Twitter isn't the only company
that sees value in private messaging. The
entire social-networking industry appears to
be orienting itself around these types of services. Facebook recently made it possible for
developers to send images, videos and other
items through its Messenger communication
service, which counts 800 million users. The
social-networking giant also bought
WhatsApp, a text-messaging-like service that
has more than 700 million users, for $19 billion. Other companies including Snapchat,
Line and WeChat have been growing rapidly.
compared. "The challenges in both the segments vary widely," a senior official of ISRO
said. In the case of building the heavy rocket
to launch four tonne communication satellites
and save foreign exchange, ISRO is now in
the process of perfecting the technology.
"We are planning to launch GSLV-MkII
rocket in July or August this year. The rocket
will be powered by indigenous cryogenic
engine. The stacking of the rocket is expected
to happen in May," K. Sivan, director, Liquid
Propulsion Systems Centre (LPSC) said.
"We are targeting to fly the GSLV-Mk III in
Dec 2016 if all things go well," Sivan said.
While India started hitting success in building INSAT satellites, scientists at Vikram
Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) in
Thiruvananthapuram were toiling to get their
rocket right. The SLV and Augmented SLV
(ASLV) missions gave mixed results.

"The two ASLV failures were the real test
beds for perfecting the PSLV rocket. Issues
like rocket tumbling, monitoring of rocket's
main forces, detailed profiling of wind and
other issues were done," S.C. Gupta, former
director of VSSC, said.
The third ASLV with Stretched Rohini
Satellite Series (SROSS) turned out to be successful but the result of the first PSLV flight
in 1993 was negative owing to a software
error, which was later sorted out.
Since then there was no looking back for
ISRO for PSLV rocket, that is. The space
agency has now three PSLV variants.
"As technology was not available we developed our own navigational systems, propellant and all the elements of the launch vehicle
with help of Indian industry," Gupta recalled.
What is Net Neutrality?

New Delhi: The expression "network neutrality" was coined by American academic
Tim Wu in his paper Network Neutrality,
Broadband Discrimination that came out in
2003 and he then popularized the concept.
What does net neutrality stand for? Net
neutrality means that governments and internet service providers should treat all data on
the internet equally - therefore, not charging
users, content, platform, site, application or
mode of communication differentially.
Who benefits from net neutrality? The
end customers.
How the debate began in India? Telecom
service provider Bharti Airtel, towards the
end of 2014, decided to charge subscribers
extra for use of applications like Skype and
Viber (these are also known as over-the-top
services), which created a lot of uproar and
the telco finally stayed its decision.
In February 2015, Reliance
Communications, a part of the Anil Ambaniled group, was roped in by Facebook to offer
free access to data and websites to customers
through the social networking site's
Internet.org global digital inclusion initiative.
In April 2015, Bharti Airtel launched
Airtel Zero, an open marketing platform that
will allow customers to access mobile applications at zero data charges.
Communications and IT Minister Ravi
Shankar Prasad said on Monday that a panel
examining the issue will submit its report by
the second week of May to help the govern-
ment take a comprehensive decision on the

contentious issue.
In March 2015, telecom regulator
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India
released a paper inviting comments from
users and companies on how over-the-top
services should be regulated in the country,
seeking stakeholders' suggestions by April
24, 2015, and counter-arguments by May 8,
2015.
E-commerce giant Flipkart on April 14,
2015, walked away from Airtel Zero as it is
committed to "the larger cause of net neutrality".
Bharti Airtel clarified its position saying
there is a misconception about its Airtel Zero
service. It is not a tariff proposition but an
open-marketing platform that allows any
application or content provider to offer its
service on a toll-free basis to customers who
are on the Airtel network.
Batting for net neutrality, Facebook
chief Mark Zuckerberg said on April 15,
2015, that Internet.org can co-exist with the
stand. On April 17, 2015, he defended his
position and said some people have criticised the concept of zero-rating that allows
Internet.org to deliver free basic internet
services, adding that offering some services
for free goes against the spirit of net neutrality. "I strongly disagree with this."
On April 15, 2015, The Times Group
said it is committed to withdraw from
Internet.org and appealed to fellow publishers to follow suit and support net neutrality.
26
ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD
ollywood
actress
Katrina Kaif will grace
the red carpet at the
68th Cannes International Film
Festival as the ambassador of
cosmetic brand L'Oral Paris.
She says she can't wait to
join the other global ambassadors, which also include
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and
Sonam Kapoor.
L'Oral Paris will celebrate
18 years of its partnership as
the official makeup partner for
Festival De Cannes, and it
promises an exciting line-up of
its spokespeople ready to walk

the red carpet from May 13-24.
In the past, Aishwarya and
Sonam have made India proud
with their stunning beauty and
fashion statements, and now
Katrina -- who has worked
with top-notch stars and filmmakers in her over decade-long
acting career in Bollywood -is ready to sport a specially
created look for her debut at
Cannes.
Sonam is also happy to welcome Katrina to the film jamboree.
u m b a i
Sessions
Court will
pronounce the
verdict on May 6
in the 13-yearold case of an
accident involving Bollywood
actor Salman
Khan, in which
one person was
killed and four were
injured.
Salman has been facing
trial since nearly 13 years in the accident case in Bandra,
in the early hours of September 28, 2002, which left one
pavement dweller dead and four others injured.
Nurullah Mehboob Sharif succumbed to his injuries
and four others - Munna Malai Khan, Kalim Mohammed
Pathan, Abdullah Rauf Shaikh and Muslim Sheikh were
injured.
Salman was charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC)
Section 304 II (culpable homicide not amounting to
murder) which attracts upto 10 years in prison; Section
279 (rash and negligent driving) which stipulates six
months jail; Section 337 and 338 (causing hurt by act
endangering life & causing grievous hurt) with punishment upto two years; Section 427 (mischief causing
damage to property) with maximum punishment of upto
two years.
Also, Motor Vehicle Act, Section 34 (a), (b) read with
181 (driving vehicle in contravention of rules) and 185
(driving at great speed after consuming alcohol with
punishment of cancellation of driving license; and sections of the Bombay Prohibition Act dealing with diving
under influence of alcohol which attract maximum six
months in jail.
Salman Khan
case verdict
on May 6
"Katrina is a gorgeous girl

who has a unique individual
style that she embraces and
highlights with panache. I am
sure she will dazzle everyone
at the French Riviera and I
can't wait to meet her there. I
am glad to be representing
India with two amazing
L'Oral Paris ambassadors at
Cannes.
"Together we will embody
the glamour, diversity, beauty
and talent that define this country," said the "Khoobsurat"
actress.
Katrina Kaif
Anil Kapoor to dub

for 'Family Guy'
Salman Khan has been facing trial since
nearly 13 years in the accident case in Bandra.
We accomplish more than Hollywood can: Hashmi

fter having worked with
Academy Award-winning
director Danis Tanovic in
the film Tigers, Bollywood
actor Emraan Hashmi, who is
geared up for his latest Hindi scifi release "Mr. X", says that in a
given budget, Bollywood does
more than what Hollywood productions can achieve.
"Mr. X" touches upon the concept of an invisible man, but
Emraan, who along with his costar Amyra Dastur, was recently
on the sets of MTV's "Kaisi Yeh
Yaariyan" to promote his film,
doesn't want to "end up comparing it with 'Hollow Man'". "It
starts and ends with the invisibili-
Emraan
Hashmi
ty and that's the only common

factor between the two films. But
as far as budgets go, they
(Hollywood) obviously have
mega budgets for their films, they
have a world audience... We are
limited to a Hindi-speaking audience."
"But I think in what we have,
and the budget that we're given,
we do more than what they can
accomplish in that budget,"
Emraan told IANS in an interview over phone from Mumbai.
Produced by Vishesh Films and
directed by Vikram Bhatt, Mr.
X features Emraan as an invisible man, seeking revenge for all
the wrong done to him.
fter featuring in international movies "Slumdog

Millionaire" and "Mission: Impossible - Ghost
Protocol" and American TV series "24", Indian actor
Anil Kapoor will be off to Los Angeles to dub for a character
in adult animation show "Family Guy" as a guest star.
While Anil is reluctant to reveal details of what character he
would be dubbing for, he admits that doing a voice for "Family
Guy" is something that has given him an elevated status in his
own family. My children are crazy about the show. They cant
believe I am doing a voice in 'Family Guy', he said. "My character will appear with the show's famous Griffin family. It is a
new experience for me. And you know how much I like going
into new experiences," he added.
Anil Kapoor
ULTIMATE BOLLYWOOD
'Ranbir not on any

social media platform'
eteran actor Rishi Kapoor took to social
media to put the record straight about
his son and Bollywood's heartthrob
Ranbir Kapoor staying aloof from all virtual
platforms.
The "Bobby" actor took to Twitter to warn his
fans to steer away from fake accounts in
Ranbir's name on the micro-blogging site.
Hello friends. This is Ranbir's dad. Just want
to state that he's not on any social platform
whatsoever so please don't get fooled by any
dupe, Rishi tweeted.
Social media went into a tizzy when the
Bar! actor hopped on to the virtual platform
wagon for a promotional activity earlier this
year. The cinema icon followed the post by
another stating: That message was important to
those fans of his who still believe that he is on
Twitter. I get requests and complaints regarding
him. Sorry!
The 62-year-old, who was seen in "Do Dooni
Chaar" and "Student of the Year", also walked
down the memory lane and shared some photographs of a sweater.
He reminisced: Sweaters. It was a passionate
collection, over a period of time, which I used in
lms without repeating. This info for fans
inquiring about it." A
27
'Mary Kom' honored in Stockholm

A scene from the film
'Mary Kom.'
mung Kumar's 2014 directorial

"Mary Kom", which was selected
for the Stockholm International
Film Festival Junior (SIFFJ), has won the
Best Film award and has been endowed
with the Bronze Horse Award, the festival's
top honor. The jury for the junior section of
the festival consisted of children from the
age of nine to 17.
Kumar, who directed the Priyanka
Chopra-starrer biopic of the legendary
Indian boxer M.C Mary Kom, was present
at the screening of his film after which children from various age groups asked him
questions in an interactive session.
Ranbir Kapoor
"The Indian Embassy took complete care

of me and the Indian Ambassador Banashri
Bose Harrison herself took me around to
show Sweden and its islands. She organized a screening of 'Mary Kom' for her
guests also, and had two dinners in my
honor.
"This award is a very big achievement for
us because now it will bridge the gap
between Sweden and India, and we will be
able to distribute our films over here,"
Kumar said in a statement. "Mary Kom"
will be showcased in Sweden again by the
Indian Embassy at the Indian Film Festival
next month.
Irrfan appears in action-filled 'Jurassic World' trailer

urassic Park fans have had a
glimpse of the long-awaited
fourth installment in the
dinosaur disaster franchise, with the
release of the film's new global trailer heralding a terrifying new predator.
Twenty-two years after the events
of Jurassic Park, the film is set at the
Jurassic World dinosaur theme park
on Nuba Isla as originally envisioned by the character John
Hammond.
It is now owned by Masrani Corp
and Irrfan plays Simon Masrani,

CEO of the company and the owner
of Jurassic World.
With visitor numbers on the
decline, a new attraction is created
to re-spark interest in the theme park
but it backfires greatly when the
gigantic genetically modified
"hybrid" dinosaur, larger than a TRex, wreaks havoc. We see the actor
in a tension-driven moment standing
with the rest of the cast.
US actor Chris Pratt plays Owen
Grady, a park staff member who
conducts behavioral research on

velociraptors but quickly gets caught
up in the chaos.
Bryce Dallas Howard, Judy Greer,
Jake Johnson and BD Wong also star
in the film directed by Hollywood
newcomer Colin Trevorrow. Steven
Spielberg who directed the original
Jurassic Park and The Lost World:
Jurassic Park is executive producer.
The film will be released on June 12.
Irrfan Khan in the poster
of 'Jurassic World.'
he
sounds
of
Bollywood tracks
"Humma humma",
"O humdum suniyo re" and
"Maahi ve" resonated as
models sashayed across the
PFDC Sunsilk Fashion
Week 2015 (PSFW) 2015
ramp in Lahore in creations
by
designer
Zara
Shahjahan. For an Indian
onlooker, it was a moment
of pride.
The designer impressed
many with her collection,
but
her
choice
of
Bollywood tracks hooked
the audience to her range
further.
The show started with the
"Humma humma" song
from the film "Bombay"
followed by "O humdum
suniyo re" from the film
"Saathiya" and "Maahi Ve"
from "Highway".
The irony here was that
Bollywood songs add power T

to Pak fashion show
Model in creations by designer Ittehad during the Pakistan Fashion Design

Council (PFDC) Sunsilk Fashion Week in Lahore.
while a Pakistani designer

opted to use Bollywood
tracks in her show, at Indian
fashion weeks western
tracks rule the roost.
Anyhow, Shahjahan's
return to the PSFW 2015
for the fourth time was
marked by her new collection of luxury pret titled
'New Vintage'.
"I took inspiration from
the intangible qualities and
emotions that possess and
define the modern woman,
qualities such as vivacity,
that encapsulates the desire
to experiment and live life
to the fullest, said the
designer.
The womenswear collection was based on a fresh
colour palette of blues,
maroons, salmon pinks and
pistachio greens on luxe
silks and karandi. There
were a lot of androgynous
silhouettes and separates

adorned with jewel embellishments, crystals and semiprecious stones.
Pakistan's first designer,
who has the expertise to
make her own motifs,
Shahjahans collection
was a celebration of individuality, femininity and
sophistication.
Undoubtedly, Pakistani
designers and the Pakistan
fashion week is unique in
many ways.
One of the high points of
the Pakistan fashion week is
that the audio-video of the
countrys national anthem is
played before the start of
every show and the entire
audience in the main show
area stands up to show
respect.
All in all, there are many
things to learn from this
booming industry.
28
HUMOR
Funny Side by Nury Vittachi
Everybody's wrong about technology except me

A
nosy co-worker reading my
screen over my shoulder was
shocked that I had 12,457 unread
emails. I told him: The intelligence
agencies read our emails these days. Why
duplicate the work?
He warned me that if I let other people
read my emails, someone would steal my
identity.
Let them.
They can take over the unending struggle to pay rent and school fees.
Ill go and do something easier, like
solving the Middle East crisis, fixing the
Greek economy, finding Waldo, etc.
***
People have such a defeatist attitude
these days.
The guys at the local rice lunchbox
shop were complaining that The
Universe was fundamentally unfair
because their phones had only 32 gigabytes of memory but their wives had
2,500 terabytes of the stuff.
Why not the other way round?
I told them to stop whining! Moores
Law about the exponential growth of
computing power will ensure that gadg-
ets will overtake wives by iPhone 8.

***
You have to love technology for the

access it gives you.
But be careful not to overdo it.
For example, I have regularly pressed
like on Lady Gagas Instagram posts
for a while, but I will now leave it for a
week to make sure she doesnt get the
wrong idea.
***
With my luck, shed track me down

when I am in a parent-teacher school
meeting and her clothing choices would
cause discomfort and the summoning of
security guards.
***
Anyway, this reverie on technology
was triggered by a communication from
reader Mark Amburan, who announced
that the world of extremist tech-addicts
has a new king: Christopher Wallace,
aged 24, of the United States.
There have been many cases of fugitives on the run stopping to update their
Facebook or Twitter pages, enabling
police to catch them. But Mr Wallace

has just set a new standard, said Mark.
After several weeks on the run from
police, fugitive Wallace uploaded a photograph of himself on Snapchat, telling
the world that he had returned to his
home in Fairfield, Maine.
Police, who had been keeping an eye
on the account, promptly raced over to
search the house. Wallace slipped into his
hiding place: a man-sized gap at the back
of the kitchen cabinets, behind the pots
and pans.
He held his breath and listened with
delight as he heard cops stomp all over
the house, failing to find him, mwa ha ha
ha!
But you can guess what happened.
Yes, his twitchy fingers caused him to
send out just one teeny weeny little
Snapchat message to the effect of: The
police are at this very moment looking
for me but I am cunningly hidden in this

cabinet!
With this help, police found him immediately.
***
If Mr Wallace is reading this, dont feel
too bad. Mistakes are learning opportunities, right?
I had a trouble-prone friend who used
to say:
Mistakes are not necessarily bad.
Without them, some of us would have
never been born.
***
I have to stop writing now because
someones at the door.
It may be Lady Gaga wondering why I
havent liked any of her pix for the last
couple of days.
Okay, guys, what do I tell her?
Laughter is the Best Medicine
by Mahendra Shah
Mahendra Shah is an architect by education, entrepreneur by profession, artist and
humorist, cartoonist and writer by hobby. He has been recording the plight of the
immigrant Indians for the past many years in his cartoons. Hailing from Gujarat,
he lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
ASTROLOGY
29
Chandigarh, India: +91-172- 256 2832, 257 2874

Delhi, India: +91-11- 2644 9898, 2648 9899
psharma@premastrologer.com; www.premastrologer.com
By Dr Prem Kumar Sharma

ARIES: This is the time for you to
consolidate on the professional
front. You may get deeply involved
in ways to increase earning. Harmony will
not come on the domestic front without
efforts. A marriage proposal for the eligible will brighten the home front. Adopting
a healthy lifestyle will do some a whale of
a good. You heave a sigh of relief with a
big responsibility successfully out of the
way.
CANCER: Apprehensions about

someone will no longer trouble
your mind. It is important to get
back into the thick of things on the work
front. Those recovering from minor surgery will need to keep a check on their
diet. You get the opportunity to exploit the
present to achieve better prospects. Close
encounters with a person who admires
you secretly is possible. Acquiring some
major household item is possible.
LIBRA: Phase of good luck starts

and will find you in the best of
everything. An overseas partnership
will bear fruit even beyond your expectations. A promotion is on the cards for some
in government organisations. A memorable
experience is in store for those travelling
abroad. Family will be most supportive and
approve all your endeavours. Passion can be
at an all time low, unless you do something
about it.
CAPRICORN: Newlyweds can

expect the marital boat to sail smoothly. A friend will come to the rescue in
bailing you out of a financial situation. Those
in the creative fields will excel by thinking
out of the box. Help and assistance will be
forthcoming in a project assigned to you at
work. Those suffering from lifestyle diseases
may not find home remedies quite effective.
Meeting a like-minded person from the opposite camp is possible.
TAURUS: Good initiative will be

required to open new avenues of
earning. A professional move can
find you in a comfortable situation, but
you will need to play your cards really
well. A visit to relatives is on the cards
and will prove entertaining. You are about
to get a first hand experience on what you
had been wanting for long. A thoughtful
gift to lover will be in your favour.
LEO: A new employee will take

most of the workload off your
shoulders. An excellent time with
family and friends is indicated in a gettogether. Regular practice will pay rich
dividends for some in the sports arena.
Neglecting healthy eating can lay some on
the bed. A financial irregularity threatens
to rope you in, but you will come out
unscathed. Good advice will work wonders for a family member.
SCORPIO: Work routine can prove

boring this week. Those wanting
peace and quiet at home will have to
ensure the same. Loan repayment can pose
some problems, but you will be able to find
the resources. Newlyweds will achieve
understanding and make a place in each
others heart. Mental tensions plaguing the
mind will disappear, but may take some
time. Dont venture out on the road this
week, if it can be helped.
AQUARIUS : There is a pleasant

surprise in store for you on the work
front. Those thinking of tying the
knot will find the week favourable. A short
vacation is on the cards for some and will
prove most enjoyable. Those thinking of
putting money in a project or franchise need
to be more deliberate. Your helping hand to
someone in need will be greatly appreciated.
Remain regular in your workouts.
VIRGO: Your impulsiveness can

make you rush into things that you
may regret later. There is a risk of
the work schedule getting upset due to
unforeseen circumstances. Those in financial dire straits can face a trying time. Best
antidote for a tiff with lover is to kiss and
make up. An out of station duty can spoil
a family programme. Slow recovery from
an ailment is likely to frustrate some.
SAGITTARIUS: Homemakers are

likely to enjoy the week in the company of neighbours and friends. A
bonus or increment is on the cards for some.
Overnight stay with a relative will give you
an opportunity to travel down the memory
lane. A change of job is in the offing for
some and will prove favourable. Those in
two minds about developing a property will
need to make the correct decision.
GEMINI: The week can leave you

annoyed and frustrated. A change
you had been planning on will not
be approved by seniors.
Those living in a joint family are likely to
feel cornered due to lack of support from
their near and dear ones. Negative feelings dominating the mind will even colour
the positive aspects of life. An evening out
can add to your woes, if you are not
careful.
PISCES: You will prove a great

source of strength to someone close.
Tension brewing between you and
partner will disappear. Work front remains
uneventful, but this is no excuse of whiling
away time instead of completing pending
jobs. Care will need to be exercised in a
monetary transaction. Change of plans will
make the vacation even more enjoyable.
Your health can turn for the better, only if
you exercise some self-discipline.
Annual Predictions: For those born in this week

25th April, 2015
Ruled planet: 7 Ruled by no: Neptune
Traits in you: As your governing planet is Neptune,
you are simple, dignified, unique, charismatic, reliable, trustworthy and confident. You have a great leadership skill and you are very creative. You should not
be pessimistic and show your stubbornness.
Health this year: Though you would not face any major health related issues, you should take extra care of
your health. Do not take unwanted risk of putting your
health in stake. Go for regular medical checkups.
Finance this year: Though you will be able to improve your financial status, you may end up spending
a lot of money in buying luxury and comfort for yourself and your family. You may put your money in real
estate for better returns.
Career this year: Professionally, you are a very smart
and efficient worker. So you may need to clarify
doubts and help you peers and juniors in their work.
People in your professional circuit will seek your help
at every crucial situation. You may get promoted as a
result of your spectacular performance throughout the
year. You may be assigned a new responsibility this
year. You may go for a job change as well as there will
be plenty of opportunities available.
Romance this year: This is a quite good year for
women when romance is concerned. You will enjoy a
very strong relationship with your spouse. You may
decide to get married towards the end of the year.
Lucky month: June, October and January
26th April, 2015
Ruled planet: Saturn Ruled by no: 8
Traits in you: Your governing planet Saturn makes
you confident, unique, creative, dynamic, and intelligent. You are determined enough to perform any task
assigned to you. So you always remain a step ahead
from others. Along all your good characteristics, you
have few negative characters as well. You need to
work on your unreliability, insensitiveness, and selfishness.
Health this year: You should take your prescribed
medication in spite of a better health. The health of
your parents may make you a worried person. You will
remain fit and fine throughout this year. However, the
health issues of your family members may put you in
immense pressure. You need to secure the health of
your family member by investing some money every
year.
Finance this year: Your financial condition will be
pretty good as the movements of your stars are favorable for making money this year. You may go for any
investment on real estate or gold. Do not trust anyone
when partnerships are concerned. You should not lend
or borrow money as it will create disputes.
Career this year: You will be establishing yourself as
a very efficient and important resource in your organization this year. Your performance will influence
your peers, seniors and higher management. It is the
best time to look out for a new job as it will help you
grow both professionally and financially.
Romance this year: You may go through minor personal disturbances and these could be solved by talking more to your partner. Do not let the distance grow.
Get some time to talk to your spouse. You may plan a
long trip with your partner to strengthen your relationship.
Lucky month: July, September and December
27th April, 2015
Ruled planet: Mars Ruled by no: 9
Traits in you: Your ruling planet Mars makes you
strong, determined, courageous, enthusiastic, intelligent, ambitious, and motivated. You have a strong dislike towards fake people and fake emotions. You are a
huge fan of truth and cleanliness. You need to work on
your nature of showing dictatorship and being rude
and stubborn at times.
Health this year: Your health would remain very
good this year. However, you need to go for regular
yoga exercises. You should not ignore your healthy
diet plan to remain in shape. Go for regular medical
checkups to avoid any hiccups further.
Finance this year: You may go for a property transaction this year and this will bring you a lot of money.
You need to be decisive to invest on real estate or gold
as there are risks involved. Do not trust any of your
new partners as they may cheat you. You may spend
enough money on buying a vehicle or renovating your
property.
Career this year: With an enhanced confidence and
brushed up skills, you will become very successful
professionally. You will do justice to the role assigned
to you. You may get promotion or a hike in your current salary. If you are in creativity field, this year will
bring you much more success and recognition.
Romance this year: Your relationship with your partner or beloved will be strengthened as day passes. You
may decide to get married this year if you are in a long
term relationship.
Lucky month: May, October and April
28th April, 2015
Ruled planet: Sun Ruled by no: 1
Traits in you: Due to the positive effects of your ruling planet Sun, you will have the characteristics of a
good human being. By nature, you are accountable,
unique, courageous, committed, competitive, coordinated and intelligent. You should work on your negative personality traits such as selfishness, dependency
and pessimism.
Health this year: You will enjoy a good health
throughout this year but provided you go for regular

medical checkups and take proper medication prescribed by the doctor.
Finance this year: Your financial conditions will be
very good this year as you will be working hard to
reach your goal. Your past property dispute will get
solved and it will earn you a lot of money. If you are
into business, you may go for new ventures as those
seem to be very profitable this year.
Career this year: You will enjoy a good professional
atmosphere this year. You will be appreciated by your
seniors and higher management. This may bring you
promotions and salary hike. You need to concentrate
more on your work to get a better position in your profession. You may go for a job change this year. However, you should not decide anything hastily.
Romance this year: You will share a good relationship with your spouse. You may decide to turn your relationship into marriage if you are not married yet.
However, you need to understand your beloved and
provide the required emotional support for the betterment of your relationship.
Lucky month: June, November and February
29th April, 2015
Ruled planet: 2 Ruled by no: Moon
Traits in you: As you are under the influence of the
Moon, you are generous, courteous, caring, cooperative, decisive, and determined. Being a very friendly
person, you make friends easily and you believe in
loyalty for friends. You should not behave stubborn
and dishonest at times for the betterment of your personality.
Health this year: You will enjoy a pretty good health
this year though you may go through few minor diseases. Go for regular medical checkups to retain your
good health. Take care of the health of your family
members. Do not ignore any health related issue as it
may lead to further disturbances.
Finance this year: You will be fortunate enough this
year to be among financial gains. All you need to do
is to grab opportunities to earn money. You will find
plenty of earning opportunities around you. However,
you have to work hard to gain that money. Overall,
this year will give you financial stability and security.
Career this year: You will gain a lot of professional
knowledge this year. You may think for a job change
this year. You may not get the job satisfaction in the
organization you currently work for. You may not get
the expected appraisal, which would urge you to
switch to another company.
Romance this year: You may get some good news
from your spouse or partner later this week. This will
make your relationship grow stronger. You may have
to travel to distant places to spend time youre your
partner and maintain a good relationship.
Lucky month: August, November and January

30th April, 2015
Ruled planet: Jupiter Ruled by no: 3
Traits in you: As your governing planet is Jupiter, you
are intelligent, dignified, dynamic, simple, ambitious,
and optimistic. You are very whimsical towards your
work. However, you need to eradicate few negative
characteristics such as jealousy, rude, irresponsibility.
Health this year: You may go through few minor
health issues, which will create unwanted tensions for
you throughout the year. To avoid falling sick frequently, you need to get your medical checkup done
periodically.
Finance this year: You will get financial benefits if
you have invested in past. For future financial gains,
you may invest on real estate and stock market. You
should study the market well before investing on anything. Do not be in a hurry to invest as it may go in
loss.
Career this year: You will be successful in every project you take up this year. You may be adjudged the best
employee by your higher management because of your
efficiency, hard work, and timely delivery. You may
need to negotiate with different types of customer and
learn a lot about handling a project independently.
Romance this year: As far as your relationships are
concerned, you will enjoy a good time this year. You
will find your spouse or partner supportive enough in
your difficult time. You will be able to solve any problem that comes in your way to achieve something. If
you are unmarried, there is a healthy chance for you
getting married this year.
Lucky month: July, November, January & February
1st May, 2015
Ruled planet: Sun Ruled by no: 1
Traits in you: Being ruled by the Sun and number 1,
you are original, authoritative, dignified, and determined. As you are sensitive for your relationships,
your friends and family may consider you to be an asset in their lives. However, you need to take care of
your nature of spending unnecessarily and your dominating character.
Health this year: You will remain healthy throughout
the year provided you go for regular medical checkups.
Finance this year: If you are a professional, you will
be among financial benefits.
Career this year: You may get excellent returns from
your investments in business and it may improve your
standard of living by making you spend a more luxurious life.
Romance this year: You will find yourself in romantic peak this year and marriage may happen for few.
Lucky month: September, December, April
30
SPIRITUAL AWARENESS
Meditation: Positive changes

to our brain and our lives
As a neuroscientist, the author found the scientific approach to meditation
on the inner Light and Sound as taught by Sant Rajinder Singh Ji Maharaj
provides a firsthand direct inner spiritual experience.
Sant Rajinder Singh
Ji Maharaj
By Louis A. Ritz
editation and spirituality
are being increasingly
embraced around the
world, including the West, as our
lives are becoming more complex.
Individuals are turning within
themselves, instead of the outside
world, to find solutions to lifes
challenges. Spirituality is gaining
popularity for a variety of reasons,
e.g., a search for deeper meaning
in life, dealing with unbridled
emotions or an unruly mind, a fear
of death, a fear of life, a loss of a
loved one, or a health challenge.
At a deeper level, there is a common source of our suffering. As
each of us becomes more entangled in the impermanence of the
outer world, our level of dissatisfaction and disappointment with
everyday life inevitably rises.
Instead of identifying with our
inner Self, as the great Teachers
from all wisdom traditions have
implored us, our attention has
remained aligned with the illusory
self and the transitory outside
world. Meditation is considered
humanitys panacea in that it
allows us to reconnect with the
Divine that is within each of us.
Over the past 40 years, the scientific interest in meditation has
exploded. The research has gone
through several phases. Early on,
scientists documented the physiological impact of meditation on the
body. Meditation, by reducing the
fight or flight response mediated
by the autonomic nervous system,
produces a profound relaxation
and a significant stress reduction.
More recently, utilizing modern
imaging techniques, medical
research has revealed that certain
regions of the brain are activated
during meditation while other
areas are inactivated. Our scientific investigations are now beginning to evaluate the potential role
of meditation as a therapeutic
intervention, for conditions such as
chronic pain, depression, and
addiction.
Central to the influence of meditation on our bodies and our lives
is that brain circuits are flexible.
That is, the brain is dynamic and
can change in response to external
stimulation or to our mental pat-
Over the past 40 years, the scientific interest in meditation

has exploded. Early on, scientists documented the physiological impact of meditation on the body. Meditation, by
reducing the fight or flight response mediated by the
autonomic nervous system, produces a profound relaxation
and a significant stress reduction. More recently, utilizing
modern imaging techniques, medical research has revealed
that certain regions of the brain are activated during
meditation while other areas are inactivated. Our scientific
investigations are now beginning to evaluate the potential
role of meditation as a therapeutic intervention, for
conditions such as chronic pain, depression, and addiction.
terns. Neuroplasticity means that
the brain can be shaped, or sculpted, by our experiences or by our
thoughts. Until recent times, neuroscientists had assumed that the
mature brain is hard-wired. That is,
once neural circuits are established, there is no reorganization
regardless of injury, disease, or
aging. Yet over the past 20 years or
so, a new set of rules has emerged
for central nervous system organization and reorganization.
It is clear that experiences of the
outer world can change the circuits
of the brain. For example,
improvements in motor skills are
accompanied by an increase in size
of the brain regions related to the
motor skill. Less well appreciated
is how inner, spiritual, experiences
can alter the brain. One hint of
how our inner landscape can affect

our brain has been demonstrated in
several studies demonstrating
structural changes in the brain of
meditators. These investigators
compared the brains of agematched groups, one group being
meditators and the other being
non-meditators. Using brain-imaging techniques to measure the
thickness of cortical areas of the
brain, regions related to sensory,
memory, and emotional processing
are larger in meditators compared
to non-meditators.
By embracing spirituality and
meditation, we can change our
thought patterns and our brain circuits. In turn, these changes will
lead to improvements in our
behaviors and our lives.
Spiritual questions, like medical
or other scientific questions, can

be investigated with rigorous, systematic techniques using the timehonored scientific method.
Whether an individual is using the
scientific method to investigate the
objective outer world or the subjective inner realms, the technique
is equally valid and valuable. Use
of the scientific method as a guideline for spiritual exploration has
been developed and promoted by
the great spiritual scientists of
modern times. The spiritual
explorers have long considered
basic spiritual questions to be
answerable through personal spiritual inquiry; however, unlike
objective research questions, they
require us to conduct spiritual
experiments for ourselves, within
ourselves.
The scientific approach to meditation requires the following steps.

1) Our spiritual quest typically
begins with a question, e.g., who
are we? Why are we here? Where
are we going when we leave here
and what is our relationship to the
Divine? 2) Essential to the process,
we need the guidance of a competent mentor.
A mentor teaches us the proper
techniques, provides us with the
best shortcuts for achieving our
goals, alerts us to pitfalls we may
encounter, and helps us monitor
our progress. 3) Science is conducted in a laboratory. The human
body is the laboratory for our spiritual experiment. 4) To collect our
data, in order to evaluate our spiritual hypothesis, we use the delicate
instruments of the inner eye and
ear for the experiment in the spiritual laboratory. 5) Medical
research requires that the experiments be repeated daily until the
techniques are perfected. In a spiritual experiment, there also must be
repetition, such as meditating
daily. 6) The final step of the scientific process is to communicate
our results, which includes service
to humankind.
As a neuroscientist, I have found
the scientific approach to meditation on the inner Light and Sound
as taught by H.H. Sant Rajinder
Singh Ji Maharaj (www.sos.org)
provides a firsthand direct inner
spiritual experience. Trained and
experienced as an engineer-scientist, Sant Rajinder Singh appreciates the scientific method of dealing with challenges of the outside
world. Trained and experienced as
a spiritual scientist, he embodies
the scientific process to meditation
and the exploration of our true
nature.
A scientific model of meditation
provides a rigorous, reproducible
approach to the practice of meditation. The steps involved in meditation allow anyone to prove to
themselves the positive benefits of
meditation to for changing their
brain. It allows anyone to enjoy
the physical and psychological
benefits of meditation as well as
the spiritual benefits of entering a
state of bliss, conscious awareness,
happiness, and joy within.
(Louis A. Ritz, Ph.D. is an
Elizabeth Wood Dunlevie Honors
Term Professor at the Department
of Neuroscience, University of
Florida College of Medicine
Gainesville, Florida, USA)

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The South Asian Times

Vol.7 No. 51 April 25-May 1, 2015 60 Cents

Bobby Jindal strongly

Detailed story on page 7.

New York Edition

Gov. Bobby Jindal with his wife

mined to woo ahead of a likely

Dr Vivek Murthy sworn in

n yet another milestone

AMB. MULAY INTERVIEW 15

More pictures and story on page 16-17.

Comedy King Raju Srivastava

Detailed story on page 3.

April 25-May 1, 2015

April 25-May 1, 2015

Ravi Patel raised $540,000 in the first

George Washington University about to ban Hindu Svastika

direction as the Indian svastika is

Techie from TN shares Pulitzer

its mammoth investigative project, "Medicare Unmasked." The

Software engineer from Tamil

lyze government payments made

quarter, collected about $66,000. A full

Raju Srivastava commends

Plainsboro, NJ: I take part in

In US and Canada to perform

April 25-May 1, 2015

Shocked by hundreds of drowned migrants, Europe restores rescue mission

2,000 migrants crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe

after the deadly sinking of a crowded vessel on Sunday pierced many

Coal block auction likely to fetch

Minister Piyush Goyal told

big step forward for Europe".

craft and boats to Operation Triton,

November 27, 2014 to 44 countries

New Delhi Bureau

Managing Editor: Parveen Chopra

Strategy and Marketing

Bobby Jindal strongly opposes ...

Cartoonist: Mahendra Shah

Indian-origin scientist develops

Kanwal Singh named dean

Yonkers, New York: Dr. Kanwal

Education and Human Resources.

April 25-May 1, 2015

Candidate with Good Credit &

NRI TV Film Club launched

CG Mulay and the virtual film club founder Tirlok Malik

films, TV Sitcom, Web Series.

There are more than 25 million

April 25-May 1, 2015

Jatin Pandit named brand

each member of the community

Global Punjab TV has launched road show Hello Global

NRI Federation launched with a grand gala

Group photo of honorees

dians living across the globe, with

SAPACs annual breakfast to honor young leaders

their impact on the society. At the

elected officials. We will also be

Ashok Saxena named Provost

company. Im condent that she

Dr Vivek Murthy sworn in as America's

GM appoints two Indian American women to key finance posts