AV 19th December 2015

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RANVEER HAS A BETTER HOLD OF HIS CRAFT TODAY: DEEPIKA

GUJARATIS FLYING HIGH AS DREAM FLIGHT TAKES OFF

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Vol 44 | Issue 32

19th to 25th December 2015

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

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n Rupanjana Dutta n K K Joseph n Mitul Paniker

Finally, the dream of the Indian diaspora, especially Gujaratis, came true on Tuesday, after the direct Air India flight from London to Ahmedabad was officially reinstated. The first flight AI 131, a Boeing787 Dreamliner aircraft took off from Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International Airport, Ahmedabad, with 247 passengers, at 4:30 am, on December 15, and landed in Heathrow at 11:30 am.

The day coincidentally was Sardar Patel Nirvana Day, which only added to the joy.

Here in London, Heathrow Terminal 4, Zone E, entitled for Air India passengers was decorated with flags and balloons. It seemed like an enormous party, as ground staff, airport staff mingled with passengers, treating them with utmost care,

greeting them with a wide smile and tremendous enthusiasm.

Most passengers were meant to fly on AI 130 from London, were thrilled to be on the first direct flight to Ahmedabad, after years.The aircraft had 16 business class seats and 223 seats in the economyall full. Some passengers were aware of the cam-

paign that was launched by Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, that ran for years and collected thousands of petitions to reinstate the direct flight between London and Ahmedabad. They remembered how they jumped with joy when the Indian Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi during his Wembley address (to

L-R: CB Patel, Karan Shah, Captain Chanakya, Manoj Ladwa, Tara Naidu L-R (back): Pratik Majumdar and Armin Patel more than 60,000 people), announced this direct flight to Ahmedabad, start-

ing on 15 December. He specifically mentioned Asian Voice

Publisher/Editor CB Patel's contribution to reinstatement of this flight, and had introduced Mr Patel as his 'dear friend' CB, who had been the pioneer of the campaign to restart this direct flight along with Manoj Ladwa, a corporate lawyer, a political strategist and Modi's director of communications during India's general election were on this first flight, to gather first hand experience.

Speaking exclusively to Asian Voice, Manoj said, “We have fought for very long for this direct flight.

We had almost given up hopes. But the Indian Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi made it happen. I am really pleased about this. I sincerely hope we also start direct flight between London and Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata.

This will help to spread our Indian culture and increase businesses.

CONTINUED ON P16-17

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ONE ONE with Keith Vaz, MP

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

to

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NCA and the College of Policing.

The Rt Hon Theresa May MP

The Rt Hon Theresa May was born in Eastbourne, to Hubert Brasier, an Anglican vicar and Zaidee. She grew up in Oxfordshire and went on to study geography at St Hugh’s, Oxford, before going on to work for the Bank of England. Her political career began in 1986 when she was elected to Merton council. She became an MP in 1997 and is now the longest-serving Conservative home secretary since Henry Matthews in 1892. At the Home Office, she has implemented a programme of radical police reform and is leading the Government’s work to secure the borders, reduce immigration and protect the UK from terrorism. She has introduced a landmark Modern Slavery Act and established the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse. The first female chairman of the Conservative Party, she also co-founded Women2Win, the campaigning group which works to increase female representation in Parliament. Mrs May lives in the constituency with her husband, Philip, and is an active local campaigner.

1) What is your current position?

Home Secretary and Conservative Member of Parliament for Maidenhead.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

I don’t normally single out one area as our work at the Home Office covers so many important

3) What inspires you?

My constituents.

4) What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?

Well, the Home Affairs Select Committee draws forth a few challenges.

5) Who has been the biggest influence on your career to date?

I haven’t had a single role model but my parents were always very clear that whatever one is doing, it is important to strive and do your best.

issues but I am pleased with what we have done on Police reform including setting up the

6) What is the best aspect about your current role?

Being able to give a voice to those who, for too long, weren’t

Announcement for third runway delayed It seems like the decision of whether there will be a third runway at Heathrow airport will not be determined until next year. The Government has deferred any decisions until after the London Mayoral elections, which is to take place in May 2016.

The delay has not gone well with businesses in the UK. The overall plan of building a third runway has left many people furious.

The Tory London Mayoral

Taking Time: Decisions regarding the third runway at Heathrow airport has been delayed until May 2016

candidate, Zac Goldsmith, had even announced that he would resign as MP for Richmond Park if a third runway was to be made at Heathrow.

In 2012, Prime Minister David Cameron has assembled the Airports Commission, chaired by Sir Howard Davies. In 2014, the Davies Commission had recommended a third runway with “a compre-

hensive package of accompanying measures which would make the airport's expansion more acceptable to its local community”.

On the same day, the Transport Secretary, Patrick McLoughlin had said, “It's virtually important we get the decision right so that it will benefit generations to come. We will undertake more work on environmental impacts, including air quality, noise and carbon.”

The Director of Let Britain Fly, Gavin Hayes stated, “The Prime Minister has yet again decided to put short-term political interests before the long-term national interest and kicked the can down the road for another six months. This latest fudge is all about political expediency, not about doing what is right for our economy.”

Pregnant cow survives raging flood Storm Desmond has been detrimental for many homes and lives, not only for humans but for animals as well.

Nothing short of a “miracle” occurred, as a cow that was swept away during the flood has been found safe and sound.

The pregnant cow was found 18 miles away on a golf course, eating grass.

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listened to or who find it difficult to speak out such as victims and survivors of child sexual abuse, victims of modern slavery and those with mental health problems.

7) And the worst?

There is no worst aspect. Being Home Secretary is a great honour and privilege.

8) What are your long term goals?

To play my part in building a greater Britain.

9) If you were Prime Minister, what one aspect would you change?

You don’t really expect me to answer that do you Keith?

10) If you were marooned on a desert island, which historical figure would you like to spend your time with and why?

Edward Whymper, the first man to climb the Matterhorn. I’d like to ask him what really happened on the descent.

Woman raped in Westminster Police are appealing for witnesses or people with information to come forward after a woman was raped in Westminster by a group of men on December 14.

The incident took place in the small hours of Saturday when the woman, in her 50s, lost her way while returning from a night out. She approached three youths on Edgware Road in Westminster seeking help for direction to reach home. This was around 6am. The three,

described as teenagers of Asian or Arabic appearance, led her to Park West Place, where she was raped. The trio fled the scene. No arrests have been made so far.

Sexual Offences Exploitation and Child Abuse Command detectives are examining CCTV footage and forensic material as part of their probe.

Anyone with information is asked to call police on 101 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Fears that ISIS will target British MPs According to reports, MPs have been warned to increase security in their constituencies, as well as their homes, as there are fears that they could be attacked by Islamic State (ISIS).

It has been alleged that ISIS has a political assassination unit which targets government officials. The Syrian bombing campaign has now shifted their focus to the UK. Security chiefs have warned of a direct threat as it is said that an approximate 300 suspected Islamist terrorists will be coming back into the UK. A security expert stated, “MPs are legiti-

mate targets in the eyes of terrorists. Ministers who are in Metropolitan areas, where there are UK jihadists who have returned from Syria, are right to remain vigilant...

They are members of the establishment seen as being more responsible for the bombing of Islamic State targets in Iraq and Syria than RAF personnel. Those MPs who recently voted in favour of bombing Syria will also be more at risk.”

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Abe’s ground breaking India visit Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s much awaited visit to India – his third since 2007 - last weekend has been an outstanding success for both partners. Mr Abe’s emergence on the centre stage of Japanese politics injected a new dynamic into a relationship that had hitherto been lacklustre, to put it mildly. Paralyzed by China’s rise, Japanese leaders viewed China like rabbits caught in the headlights. There were reassuring words aplenty directed at India but these were cast in a void. Mr Abe has taken the India-India relationship forward, having committed himself and his country to a long view on the subject..

China’s rise is a key factor in placing the IndoJapanese relationship on a new growth trajectory. Both country’s have close commercial ties with China; indeed, Japanese trade and investment in China has been a major factor in China’s emergence as an economic superpower, but this, alas, has brought few political dividends to Tokyo.

Nor has India’s relationship with China borne the fruit much hoped in the early years of Indian independence. Beijing’s claim to Arunachal Pradesh and its on-off pressure along India’s border, its supply of nuclear weapon technology to its ‘all weather friend’ Pakistan and much else are part of an ongoing statement to India that its place should be strictly confined to the Subcontinent. To which Prime Minister Abe has thrown down the gauntlet - a challenging vision of the ‘Confluence of the two Seas,’ that is, bridging the Pacific and Indian Oceans though a gigantic, game changing partnership with India entailing a regional and a global architecture. The Indo-Japan relationship is one whose time has come. Like the UK, Japan is an island state off Asia, as Britain is off Europe. Tokyo needed a strategic Continental power with sufficient weight and numbers as a partner for Japanese political influence to count in a way not seen since the Second World War. While anchored to its security treaty with US, Mr Abe has been keen to come out of Washington’s shadow. The alignment with India affords him that space. The EU is mired in crisis, its future uncertain. The Obama Administration’s policies, like those of George W Bush, in the Middle East and Europe have been, and continue to be, unmitigated disasters. Allied to India, Japan’s voice and Japanese industrial might are set to make an impact that few in Japan or abroad thought likely anytime soon. It may even defrost Japan’s ties with Russia.

Prime Minister Abe has chosen his moment with exquisite timing. Prime Minister Modi, taking up the baton from Dr Manmohan Singh, has responded brilliantly.

Naval exercises, such as the hugely significant Operation Malabar, a few weeks ago, was for the first time a trilateral affair with Japan invited to join India and the US in the Bay of Bengal. It carried a message to the nations of South East Asia that India and Japan are in business and will do their bit to uphold maritime freedom and security in the South China Sea. Moving forward, India has accorded the $12 billion contract (over Chinese competition) for its first high speed bullet train, from Mumbai to Ahmedabad, to Japan which, in turn, has assured India of low interest credits. This marks the start of India’s quadrilateral bullet train corridors linking Mumbai-Delhi, DelhiKolkata, Delhi-Chennai, Chennai-Mumbai via Bangalore. Japan is certain to play a central role in this ambitious undertaking. Like India, it will have much to gain as these industrial corridors in creating new towns and cities will also be opening new markets for those able and willing to exploit the opportunities.

This is not all. India and Japan have signed up to close defence relationship, which includes sharing confidential exchanges on threat perceptions and countermeasures. Japanese defence technologies are to be exported to India, as is civilian nuclear reactor technology. Japan has arrived in India in a big way, and for the long haul.

The Japanese footprint is in India for all to see. Three decades ago, few in Japan and fewer still in the world beyond had heard of an automobile manufacturer named Suzuki. Today it has the largest market share in India, and with India a manufacturing hub, Suzuki is now a global brand, and, believe it or not, Japan will be importing Suzuki cars manufactured in India. Today, there are 1,200 Japanese companies in India, where a few decades ago there barely a baker’s dozen. They are adapting to Indian conditions, plotting the chart to a unfolding partnership that is surely the script of future of exponential significance.

Japanese finance and technology, allied to exemplary Indian management produced a state-of-the-art Metro. It has opened up new vistas of industrial and commercial activity. These are luminous examples of Japan’s transformative influence in India. The best is yet to come.

Indian economy looking up As Industry and much of the country’s public keep their fingers crossed, hoping the General Services Tax Bill makes the final lap of its passage through the Rajya Sabha into law. India’s GDP motors steadily forward – 7.5 per cent for the second quarter July-September, prompting a positive response from Moody’s rating agency, and a thumbs up from Indian industry. Tata has maintained top place for the third year in succession as India’s foremost brand, with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries second, followed by Mahindra ^ Mahindra etc . The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has kept faith with its earlier interest rate cut, underscoring its cautious optimism in the economic performance going forward.

So when Laurence Summers, the former US Secretary of the Treasury and one time President of

Harvard University came calling, India’s media saw the opportunity to start a conversation with the distinguished economist on his thoughts on India’s growth prospects. Back came his reply: ‘There’s a sense of the pregnancy of the moment. It’s a combination of… several things….the fact that the other emerging markets are having difficulty and India seems to have the potential to become the pride of BRICS….of rising anxiety economically and geopolitically with effect to China, which creates a sense that this is India’s moment.’ On how he assessed the stewardship of RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan, Mr Summers replied: ‘He is a formidable and impressive figure in the global financial community… when Raghu speaks, people listen….India is fortunate to have him in his position.’ Enough said.

Plus point of reading books India’s book market, currently worth Rs 260 billion, is making waves. It is the world’s sixth largest market, also the second largest in English language books, and is expected to touch Rs 738 billion by 2020, according to a survey by Nielsen India Book Market Report in conjunction with the Association of Publishers in India and the Federation of Indian Publishers. The purpose of the survey was to evaluate the opportunities and challenges facing the book trade going forward. Much has been achieved, but very much more needs to be done to spread the reading habit. Knowledge is power. It has been so down the ages.

Think of the world in the mid-15th century. Societies equipped with writing skills used quills to transmit knowledge. It was a time-consuming process. Hence, across Europe there were approximately 100,000 transcribed parchments, usually lodged in monasteries.

Then followed the invention of the font and Gutenberg press began printing books in the hundreds of thousand, soon surpassing a million copies and moving higher, as printing presses spread across the continent and books appeared in vaster numbers giving rising to private and

public libraries. The reading habit had clearly taken off, ensuring Europe’s global preeminence, and, eventually, its global supremacy in every worthy field of human endeavour. The Ottoman Empire rejected the printed word over the hand-written manuscript because printing was perceived as the invention of infidels.

The Englishman, William Carey, much revered in Bengal, set up the first printing press in India and Asia in the early years of the 19th century, in Bengali, at Serampore, a few miles upstream on the Ganga from Calcutta. Other Europeans did much the same across South India. The first Gujarati newspaper was published by two Parsi brothers. These became India’s window to the world and the world’s greater awareness of India. A pan-Indian consciousness emerged with a nascent and developing Indian middle class, climaxed eventually in the appearance of a sovereign Indian polity. The reflexive anti-colonial legend of careerists in search of quick, easy fixes can never compete effectively with the longer, more arduous and dignified narrative, where distilled knowledge is a force for self-awakening and enlightenment.

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The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched- they must be felt with the heart.”

- Helen Keller

PM Modi Reminded UK how Great Britain Is The UK is buzzing and it’s not just because the visit of PM Modi – although that is definitely one reason. Ever since the London Olympics put the global spotlight on the nation to allow at long last a British Prime Minister to claim credibly the UK ‘is the greatest country in the world’ – there has been a buzz.First, skilled labour. Britain’s hubs allowing companies using their talents to lead globally. From Northern Ireland’s Cybersecurity specialties to Scotland’s alternative energy hubs; from Midlands in automotive to Manchester in Nano.

As PM Modi explained to me over a decade ago – it is intellectual property that makes a nation wealthy, and Indians have it in abundance – from the number zero onwards. (He had a mischievous twinkle in his eye when he said that!).

Second, the networks. Again, not just Techcity (www.techcityuk.com) with the thousand plus companies all interacting, sharing costs, doing business, like the UK’s Silicon Valley. Or TechHub and its workspaces, Springboard in Cambridge, Oxygen in Birmingham and loads more all over the UK. I co-founded TIE-UK connecting Indian and British Indian entrepreneurs through mentoring knowing this would pull in investment from India to the UK because companies need ‘soft-landings’ to help them grow. And British Indian NRIs have exactly that – they can help pull in even more in their image and British organisations like this which help NRIs throughout the UK to help attract Indian companies to set up in the UK are vital to keeping Britain great.

Third is capital. Investment groups like the Indian Angel Network with whom then PM Brown launched with UKIBC in Delhi my initiative of the UK India Business Angel Network to invest in British companies of Indian origin is one of many sources of capital for Indian companies setting up their UK HQs. What are the types of entrepreneurial companies coming to the UK from India to be the next Tata and Reliance from a UK HQ? Advatech in medical services with its plan of investing $500m to create 500 jobs in the UK over the next 3-5 years is one. Stelae Technologies using AI for data mining is no less ambitious led by that rare breed – a woman in tech – Aruna Schwartz.

Then there is Desolenator – making drinkable water using portable solar energy packs.

So what is the role of British Indian NRIs in keeping Britain great and using their special relationship with India? It won’t be easy. They have to sacrifice, time, energy and personal goals for the greater national British good.

Don’t be put off by short-sighted people who ask NRIs to have nothing to do with India. As British NRIs we can make the relationship strong by promoting Britain – and that’s what the PM visit did!

Asian Voice is published by ASIAN BUSINESS PUBLICATIONS LTD Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW. Tel: 020 7749 4080 • Fax: 020 7749 4081 Email: aveditorial@abplgroup.com Website: www.abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

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Doctor allegedly says Indian doctors should "clean toilets"

Dr Ragheb Nouman allegedly passed racist comments on Indian doctors, also calling a colleague an "Indian b******"

In Brief AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

It has been alleged that a Syrian surgeon, Dr Ragheb Nouman (52), said that Indian doctors should “clean toilets, not practice medicine”, at the University Hospital of North Tees, Teesside. He allegedly called a colleague an “Indian b******”, and claimed that recruiting Indian doctors would be the “downfall of the NHS”. This has left him to be barred from all practice by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service.

Dr Nouman stated that he is not a racist and that stress due to the Syrian conflicts led to his outburst.

It is said that the General Medical Council had set up an inquiry to the comments he allegedly made. Speaking to an investigator over the phone, Dr Nouman allegedly mentioned, “Indians should be gardeners.” He also claimed that Indian doctors were complaining about him “because they are rude”.

The panel at the Manchester hearing banned him from all medical practice after disparaging his racist comments. Panel chair, Dr Harvey Marcovitch summarised

the decision. He said, “The nature and scope of your dishonesty, the absence of any demonstrable insight, and the absence of any evidence of remediation of your dishonest conduct concerned the Panel. You also repeatedly expressed racist views, namely derogatory and offensive words and phrases towards Indians. You have repeatedly and publicly accused those entrusted with assessing your performance of being dishonest.”

Dr Marcovitch further said, “The Panel is concerned that this is evidence of a deep-seated attitudinal problem. It has already noted in its determination on impairment that it considers the risk of you repeating similar behaviour is high.

It finds that the apologies provided in your submissions at this late stage lack sincerity. Whilst the panel understands that you may have been 'angry and nervous' due to the situation in Syria at that time which affected members of your family, it is of the view that this in no way excuses your behaviour. The Panel considered that your behaviour in this regard demonstrates a pattern which is unacceptable.”

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UK's first Tram Train unveiled in Sheffield

Passengers in South Yorkshire have become the first to benefit from the UK’s first ever Tram Train, unveiled by Transport Minister Andrew Jones on Thursday 10 December 2015. The vehicles from this government-funded project are designed to run on both the city’s tramlines and the rail network between Sheffield and Rotherham.

This will allow passengers to make a single journey between tram stops and conventional rail stations from early 2017, once the works are complete.

Mosque volunteers on aid mission to flood-ravaged Cumbria

Volunteers from Leicester have travelled to the north of England to help families affected by the devastating floods wrought by Storm Desmond. Worshippers at the Masjid Abu Hurairah Mosque, in North Evington, were horrified by what they saw on the news of the carnage left by the storm, earlier this month. It sparked a remarkable 48hour appeal, supported by mosques across the city, to collect supplies for the Cumbria 2015 Flood Appeal.

Perry Barr man jailed for more than seven years after raping student

A man has been jailed after befriending a student before sneaking into her back garden and raping her. Awais Khan targeted the young woman as she caught the last train home from Witton on July 2, where she had been for a late-night shopping trip at a nearby 24-hour supermarket. He offered to help carry her shopping bags at the railway station and, despite her hesitancy, accompanied the 20-year-old on the journey to Perry Barr before walking her all the way home.

Islamic group takes over Sajid Javid launches Midlands Engine in India school, angers parents

Highfield Humanities will be run by Tauheedul Education Trust (TET)

Parents have expressed their outrage over an islamic group taking over Highfield Humanities College, Blackpool, Lancashire, although the number of Muslim students at the secondary school totals to less than 2%.

Tauheedul Education Trust (TET) is to run the secondary and parents have protested against this; they started a petition to postpone this move. The petition is said to have attracted 1,000 signatures by parents.

TET has faced controversies in the past, which oversees the running of ten Muslim schools in the West Midlands, in the northwest, as well as in east London.

In the previous year, the school was graded as “inad-

equate”. It is alleged that parents are concerned that TET will turn Highfield into an Islamic school, while TET stresses that there will be no changes to the faith.

Simon Humphries, whose children are students at the secondary school said, “I chose for my kids to go to a non-religious school for a reason and I don't want that choice to be taken away from us now!”

TET stated, “TET is one of the most successful multi-academy trusts in the country... We have a long history of working with non-faith schools to support real, long-lasting improvements. We are committed to bringing this expertise and experience to Highfield.”

The Rt Hon Sajid Javid MP, the British Government’s Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills launched the Midlands Engine initiative in New Delhi last week with the director of FICCI, Dr A Didar Singh.

The Midlands Engine promotes UK’s Midlands region as hub for innovation and manufacturing, harnessing Indian and British technology and brainpower, and working together with business and Indian alumni from Midlands’ universities to fuel the engine of growth for both countries.

Mr. Sajid Javid said: “The Midlands’ natural strengths and assets make it a natural engine for growth.

The Midlands is the heartland of our thriving manufacturing sector and home to 25 British universities, some of whose esteemed India alumni have joined us today.

“We strongly endorse what Prime Minister Modi said at the JLR facility in the Midlands last month that economic synergy between India and the UK can achieve a lot.

“We want to build on existing education and business links with India and

further develop this great Collaboration between our countries by focusing on universities as the creators and drivers of the knowledge economy.”

Following the formal launch of the Midlands Engine in the UK last week, India hosted the first overseas launch of the concept.

The launch was marked an alumni event in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) whose director Dr A Didar Singh, is an alumnus of Birmingham University in the UK. Dr A Didar Singh said: “I am a direct beneficiary of the British Education system and FICCI is proud to partner an initiative that is encouraging academic links to fuel an engine of growth between our two great economies. FICCI has been persistently working

towards creating an ecosystem to promote engagement of higher education institutions with industry and business enterprises.

“This launch in India will open doors for further collaboration and academic research and business between British and Indian institutions and companies.

The people here today are testament to the value of a Midlands education and the important role alumni play in trade and investment relationship.”

The Midlands Engine is an ambitious plan to make the Midlands an engine of growth in the UK and was unveiled last week by the Secretary of State himself at a special event at Birmingham University.

The Midlands Engine prospectus - the first of its kind in the UK - is the result of 11 Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) coming together with their plan to boost productivity, attract inward investment, increase connectivity and build a regional tourism offer.

British Indian business leader and Chancellor of Birmingham University,

Lord Karan Billimoria as well as Vice Chancellors from the Universities of Birmingham, Leicester and Warwick also participated in discussions. They emphasised on the role of the Universities’ academic and applied research base can play together with the research translation centres and how they can drive innovation into the UK’s priority sectors.

Lord Bilimoria said: “Industry and universities are working together throughout the region to improve skills, productivity, R&D, and innovation, and to improve the infrastructure throughout the region, thus helping the Midlands Engine to power ahead as a regional economy that will export UK goods and services worldwide and also attract foreign direct investment; the Indian company Tata now makes more profit per year than it paid for Jaguar Land Rover in 2008; investments in the Midlands are investments that really count.”

Research and Development expenditure by businesses in the Midlands grew by 52% between 2010 and 2013.

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Donald Trump not to be barred from Britain Reshma Trilochun US presidential candidate, Donald Trump, has constantly been in the news for negative reasons, mostly due to his “hate speech” about Muslims. Many Britons have not taken his speech well, so much so that a petition consequently emerged to ban him from entering the UK. Donald Trump had stated that all Muslims should be banned from entering the US. After the massacre that took place in California by a Muslim couple, he said, “We need a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States while we figure out what the hell is going on. We are out of control.”

Trump's controversial speech about Muslims caused immense outrage, which led to almost 360,000 signatures within 24 hours to ban him from the UK. According to the Parliament's petitions website, the petition was garnering over 30,000 signatures per hour.

However, despite the major anger and nearly 400,000 people signing the petition, the Government has given the indication that the US presidential candidate will not be barred from entering Great Britain.

The Parliament's petitions website stated, “The signatories believe Donald J Trump should be banned from UK entry. The UK has banned entry to many individuals for hate speech. The same principles should apply to everyone who wishes to enter the UK. If the United Kingdom is to continue applying the 'unacceptable behaviour' criteria to those who wish to enter its borders, it must be fairly applied to the rich as well as poor, and the weak as well as powerful.”

The “hate speech” by Trump has received severe

Off The Hook: Despite a petition signed by 360,000 people, Donald Trump will not be barred from the UK

criticism by British politicians and the Met Police.

The London Metropolitan police said that Trump “could not be more wrong”.

Boris Johnson, the

Mayor of London said, “London has a proud history of tolerance and diversity and to suggest there are areas where police officers cannot go because of radicalisation is simply ridiculous.”

The Chancellor, George Osborne stated that Trump's ideologies is definitely not wanted in the UK. “The best way to defeat nonsense like this is to engage in robust and democratic debate, and to make it clear his views are not welcome.”

The Shadows Communities Secretary, Jon Trickett said that it was “entirely inappropriate to suggest every follower of one of the world's great religions has to be suspected of terrorism”. Trickett also

added that it was “wrong, divisive, dangerous and may speed up the radicalisation of individuals”.

In the past, there have been many renown people who were barred from entering the UK, due to their criminal convictions or other accusations.

Trump has received immense criticism from the UK for his views which led to a grand amount of people opposing him. Yet, it seems as though the petition has not been taken seriously or has been disregarded. No doubt, Trump's negative opinions about the Islamic faith can cause further divide in communities. And the revocation of the petition can further lead to major disagreements in the UK.

What people have to say...

Jason de Souza (South London): Trump is a disgusting, odious character and I can understand why people would clamour for him to be restricted from visiting the UK but the best way to deal with individuals such as him is to allow society to have as much access as they want in order that his vile opinions that be challenged, dismantled and discredited. Banning Trump actually works in his favour and makes him look like a victim of censorship and political repression, something that bolsters his kudos even further and undeservedly so.

Izabela Nair (North London): Although Donald Trump's comments on Muslims are outrageous, he shouldn't be banned from entering the UK. If we react to his comments and impose a ban on him, he will use that to his advantage in order to increase his popularity and spark more media frenzy.

I think it is better if we ignore Mr Trump and let him believe in what he wants.

Anonymous comment on Asian Voice website: I'm British and I voted to exclude Trump. His rabble rousing and hate propaganda is a clear threat to public order and national security.

Swati Bhatt (North Carolina, USA): Personally, I never liked Donald Trump. And most likely, I will not even vote for him for the next election after hearing his disastrous speech against Muslims. It was pathetic of him to make such a huge statement to " Ban all Muslims from entering the US".

The saddest thing is many Americans also feel the same. I understand that we have to protect our country, but banning Muslims is not the solution at all. I believe the United States is a strong nation and we stand together. By banning Muslims, we become a weak nation when we allow racism to divide the country. We have a huge Muslim population in the USA and such statement by Trump is not going to help him win the election at all. I am not a Muslim, but I will surely make sure that I do not vote for him after such a statement. The USA needs to find a better solution to stop terrorism in this country. Not all Muslims are terrorists so why blame all? I believe the UK has done the right thing by putting the petition to ban him from entering the UK. At least it's going to open some people's eyes who are blindly supporting him. What he really deserves is withdrawal from the 2016 elections because he does not deserve to be a president as he is so intolerant and partial.

Doctor and ex-wife fined more than £90,000 for filthy eatery The owners of a central Croydon restaurant that had a catalogue of food hygiene and health and safety failures, have been hit with fines and costs totalling almost £93,000.

Dr Last Monday, Mardan Mahmood and his Hend now ex-wife, Hamude, returned to Camberwell Green Magistrates’ Court for sentencing on a total of 36 charges relating to Babylon Inn, formerly at the junction of North End and Tamworth Road.

Mahmood, the director of the company that owned Babylon Inn, was fined a

total of £35,000; Hamude, who had earlier denied being the food business operator, in charge of the day-to-day running of the restaurant, was fined £11,800; and the company, Babylon Inn Ltd, was fined £30,000.

In addition, the company and Mahmood were each ordered to pay £4,977 in costs, with Hamude ordered to pay £5,777.33; each defendant was also ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge. With a total of all financial penalties amounting to £92,887.33, the individual sums were: Babylon Inn –

•

£35,097.00 Dr Mahmood – £40,097.00 Hend Hamude – £17,693.33 A Hygiene Prohibition Order was made against Mahmood, banning him from participating in the management of any food business until such time as the order is rescinded by the courts.

The offences included breaches of food-hygiene regulations, the Health and Safety at Work Act, and the Public Health Act – the latter being the first prosecution for smoking in the

• •

workplace, after officers found cigarettes butts in the kitchen, and a chef smoking in the kitchen during a subsequent visit.

At earlier hearings, the court had been told that Babylon Inn had been subject to five food hygiene and safety visits in fewer than four years’ trading.

They followed reports of sightings of live cockroaches and mice, rodents’ droppings, unacceptable cleaning standards and poor structural conditions.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Police shoot man dead in ‘intelligence-led operation’ A man has been killed on Friday 11th December, at approximately 9am, in Wood Green, during “an intelligence led operation”.

It is said that the unidentified man was allegedly trying to set Erwin free either Amoyaw-Gyamfi or Erun Izzet, who are charged with carjacking and firearm offences; they were about to make an appearance at Wood Green Crown Court.

A Police statement was released, which read, “Officers from the Met Police Organised Crime Command and Specialist Firearms Operational Command Unit, have... arrested four men as a result of a pre-planned intelligence led operation.

Two of the men were Training Guns: An armed police officer in Wood Green arrested in the area of Bracknell Close, N22. that shooting are now They have been arrested on under investigation by the suspicion of conspiracy to Independent Police facilitate the escape of an Complaints Commission individual from lawful cusand as such it would be tody. There were two furinappropriate to comment ther related arrests... any further at this stage.”

During the operation in Furthermore, Police Bracknell Close a man was has confirmed that the shot, and has subsequently shooting was not related to died. The circumstances of terrorism.

Sikh couple celebrate 90th wedding anniversary

Taste Of Love: Centenarians Karam and Kartari Chand celebrated their 90th wedding anniversary together

Who says love doesn't last in today's day and age?

While many people have taken the plunge, had lavish weddings and even more expensive divorces, Karam Chand (110), and Kartari Chand (101), have just celebrated their 90th wedding anniversary together. That is one remarkable landmark to achieve in this contemporary world.

Mr and Mrs Chand, from Bradford, West Yorkshire, have been touted as the oldest married couple in the world. The couple married in India, at a Sikh ceremony, on 11th December 1925.

Karam Chand shared, “It is a blessing to have been married and to have lived this long. Life and marriage is all about happiness, it is what is most

important. We are happy to have been able to enjoy this day with our family.

Occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays see our family come together and that makes us very happy.”

They both moved to Bradford in 1965. The couple have eight children, 27 grandchildren and 23 great-grandchildren. Mr and Mrs chand currently live with their youngest son, Paul, his wife and two of their four children.

Paul said, “Marriage is all about compromise and I believe my parents have had such a long marriage because they have had a happy and stress-free one.

In all my years with them, I have never seen them argue and not once have I seen them become angry with each other. I believe that is their secret."

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Activists dismiss Netaji grandnephew’s Russia claim www.bosefiles.info - a website aimed at providing documentary evidence of the last days of Subhas Chandra Bose, the charismatic President of the Indian National Congress in 1938 and 1939 and thereafter Supreme Commander of the Indian National Army (INA) formed in South-East Asia, was launched in London on Friday.

The website, which is created by Bose's grandnephew and a veteran journalist Ashis Ray from Monday 14 December is providing a weekly installments of documentary evidence revealing what happened to Bose.

One of the latest releases with supporting documents said 'people misled to believe Bose escaped to Soviet Union. (If he did) British would have probably put him on trial'. It went on to say, “There is acceptable proof Bose wanted to seek refuge in the Soviet Union at the end of World War II in August 1945 and was even in the process of implementing a plan to do so. Indeed, he was on a flight, which was scheduled to stop at Dairen in Manchuria (near the Russian border) en route to Tokyo. It was not unlikely he would disembark there and then attempt to enter the Soviet Union.

“At the same time, the report emphasises there has never been any evidence to substantiate that he actually made it to the Soviet Union, thereby dismissing speculation on the subject that's been in vogue for 70 years.

“The report further exposes that the British would probably have put

Subhas Chandra Bose

Bose on trial and the Viceroy of India Lord Archibald Wavell had been given a "TOP SECRET" note by the Home Department in New Delhi in August 1945 to discuss the matter with the Secretary of State for India during a visit to London.”

In another, it was elaborately justified why people suspected Bose escaped to Soviet Union. “The persons most likely to have received confirmation about such passage, namely his brother and mentor Sarat Chandra Bose and his wife Emilie Schenkl (with whom he was in touch throughout his stay in East Asia between 1943 and 1945), never received any message from him directly or indirectly on the matter.

Neither did they during their respective lifetimes ever publicly say Bose had gone to or was in the Soviet Union. Thus, it is only logical to dismiss the 70 year speculation about Bose escaping to the Soviet Union.”

But activists in the UK and India have dismissed these documents published in the website. Members of London-based Netaji Subhas Foundation and Delhi-based Mission Netaji have released official records created in 1996, overturning the contention made by Ray on the basis of records of 1991 to 1995 vintage.

Anirban Mukhopadhyay of Netaji Subhas Foundation, UK told Asian Voice, “Copies of records available on Ray’s website show that requests for information on whether Subhas Bose went to the Soviet Union in or after 1945 were made by the Congress party government in India of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. “This is a partial disclosure which distorts the real story. Documents with us show the full chain of communication between the two countries and what comes out is quite different from what Mr Ray is claiming.

“All this was gone into great detail by us when Mission Netaji researcher Anuj Dhar was invited to deliver talks across the UK in June this year on our invitation.”

Dhar’s 2012 best-selling book India’s biggest cover-up, triggered the demand for declassification of files on Netaji’s death. His book ‘What happened to Netaji?’ was released in London in November Mukhopadhyay has also questioned timing of release of documents

by Ray, asking why did he not place them before the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (1999-2005).

“He should have cooperated with the commission as Dhar did,” he added.

Diplomat heads to Tunisia ‘Tortured’ Shaker Aamer tells Prashant Pise, the current jihadists to ‘get the hell out’ Head of Chancery and Press and Information Minister at the Indian High Commission is promoted to head of mission in Tunisia and will be leaving London on 23 December, to go to Delhi. After a short holiday in Nagpur, Maharashta with family, he will then head to his new posting, and is looking forward to it.

Pise came to London in early 2013 with his wife Radhika and two children (a boy and a girl) from Mauritius, where he was the Deputy High commissioner.

He has also been posted in Lybia, Egypt and Japan before that. At his farewell

by Indian Journalists' Association, Prashant, pictured, who is a veteran of many marathons (26 miles) and ultra-marathons (around 100 miles), raising money for charities. He was one of the only two Indians (the other from South Korea) among 2500 runners, selected by lottery from 15,000 applicants for a 105 mile race in the Alps this summer. The race began at Chamoix in France, passed through Italy and Switzerland around Mont Blanc and ended again at Chamoix. It involved running up as high as 10,000 metres, including at night, that led many runners hit

'the tunnel of darkness' returning to the starting point, aptly named 'dead buses'.

His family had accompanied him to cheer and provide support and often were the source of inspiration. He finished the run, as planned, demonstrating true grit and resoluteness.

Speaking about his new posting, Pise told Asian Voice, “Tunisia is the largest phosphate exporter to India. My role will involve developing a closer relationship with this important country and establish better ties. I am looking forward to my new role.”

Radhika who is now used to a change of home in every three years, said, “I don't mind going from one country to the other. But so far London has been my most favourite. I have made many friends here, who have grown very close to me, and I will miss them when I leave.”

In Brief

UK

Shaker Aamer, a British residence was held at Guantanamo Bay, and was finally released from detention after 14 years without charge on 30th October 2015.

Aamer was working as an Islamic charity in Afghanistan when abducted by the Northern Alliance in November 2001, and then passed to the Americans.

He allegedly claims that there were British officials who were present in the room when he was being tortured. He said, “They were accusing me of fighting with Bin Laden in the battle of Tora Bora, of being in charge of weapons stores; of being a terrorist recruiter, though I'd only been in Afghanistan for a few weeks. The SNP's foreign affairs spokesman, Alex Salmond had stated, “The not unreasonable allegation that Shaker Aamer makes is that both the prime minister, Tony Blair, and then home secretary, Jack Straw, must have known not just about his illegal abduction but also about his torture at the hands of the US authorities.”

Although he was

Shaker Aamer was the last British resident to be released from Guantanamo Bay

unfairly detained and allegedly tortured for several years, Shaker Aamer has not become cynical or negative. And in no way will he support and extremist. He said that if he ever came across a prospective jihadist, he would tell them to “get the hell out”. He said, “How can you give yourself the right to be living here in this country, and living with the people and acting like you are a normal person... and then you just walk in the street and try to kill people? Even if there is a war you cannot kill just anybody, you cannot kill kids, you cannot kill chaplains, you cannot just go in the street and get a knife and start stabbing people. If you are that angry about this country, you can get the hell out.”

7

Bank of England landlord loan warning

The Bank of England has warned that landlords could pose a threat to banks and wider financial stability, as buy-to-let mortgages has double the chances of turning bad as loans taken out by owneroccupiers.

Rented properties are thriving as house prices

increase, making it extremely difficult for potential first time buyers to purchase a property.

Banks have tighter standards on home loans for owner-occupiers, in comparison to buy-to-let borrowers. This makes it easier for landlords to get a mortgage.

MP for Wealden, Nusrat Ghani, who is the Conservatives' first female Muslim MP, has been receiving violent threats on social media sites, after she voted for air strikes against “ISIS” in Syria. The abusive threats and comments have now been passed to the police who are investigating evidences to see whether any potential offences have taken place.

Nusrat Ghani threatened on social media

MP gets threat over Syria strikes vote

Legal scholars say Sharia leads to ‘marital captivity’ According to legal scholars in the UK, Sharia councils are doing “nothing to help domestic violence victims” in Britain, which leads them into “marital captivity”.

Sharia law applies the legal and moral code of Islam from the Hadith and the Koran. The sharia law can be used as criminal, business and family law.

It is said that there are an estimated 30 sharia councils in the UK, where they give advice on religious aspects, as well as give Islamic divorce certificates.

However, they have received extreme criticism for how their treatment of Islamic women who come to them to seek religious divorces.

Women are their main clients. A Dutch researcher, Machteld Zee (31), was granted unprecedented access to sharia courts in London and Birmingham.

She believed that they conduct their work “in the shadow of the law”.

After conducting her research, Zee allegedly concluded that sharia law is not compatible to the European human rights legislation, and also believed it downgraded or humiliated women as men only need to state “I divorce you” three times in order to have a religious divorce; whereas for women, they need the sanction of clerics, or else they would allegedly be deemed as adulterers if they remarried.

During her access to the sharia court, she said, “The judges were very friendly.

We chatted between cases.

The problem is not that they were mean but the foundation of the judice acts in a system of sharia Islamic law, in which the principle focus is making women dependent on their husbands and clerics. One judge said, 'Under Islam, we should reconcile

Researcher: Machteld Zee

marriages even if there is violence'. They don't care. It was shocking: they would have you cling to a marriage.

She further stated, “There are also unfair custody statements. The woman has no idea this is a religious institution and she should go to a secular court [for her children's interests]- and once she finds out, a British judge won't switch parents after a few months. But in 2001, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that sharia law is incompatible with liberal democracy.”

Although she has criticised the sharia law, she made it clear that she does

It’s said that there are an estimated 30 sharia councils in the UK

not want it to be barred in Europe. “I don't say that you should ban sharia courts.

The 'market' for these councils, of women asking for a religious divorce, can be diverted to civil and criminal courts, where you can press charges, as happens in Holland.”

Zee's book, Choosing Sharia? Is based on the 15 hours of cases that she had witnessed in London and Birmingham.

8

UK

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VHP event on Indo-British ties evokes huge response AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

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Organised by FISI; Lively discussion on PM Modi's recent visit to the UK

Kamal Rao By public demand a discussion was organised by the Friends of India Society International – UK (FISI) at the Swami Vivekanand Hall, Vishva Hindu Parishad South London at Thornton Heath on Saturday (12th December, 2015).

In spite of the short notice, the hall was fully packed with no empty chairs. Surprisingly, the attendees were well in time despite the bad weather.

The proceedings began with a brief welcome by Mr Kamal Rao, News Editor, Gujarat Samachar.

Mr Anil Nene, formerly of University of Surrey, spoke about the event.

Mr Rameshbhai Desai, MBE, President of FISI, Mr A S Rajan, Minister (Coordination), High Commission of India, Mayuraben Patel, Chairperson, Croydon Mr Hindu Council, Jayantibhai Shingadia, Vice President, VHP, Mr Dhirubhai Vyas, Treasurer, VHP, and Mr CB Patel, Publisher/Editor of Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice, lit the traditional lamp to inaugurate the event.

Besides a short prayer, a one-minute silence was observed for the Paris and California terror attacks, Chennai floods and the sad demise of Shri Ashok

CB Patel was the chief guest at the event

laration of Emergency by Mrs Indira Gandhi on 25th June, 1975. FISI's main mission was to wage a campaign for the restoration of

Shri A S Rajan, Minister (Coordination), High Commission of India

democracy in India. FISI led its fight from the UK. Mr Desai told the audience that CB Patel was one of the founding members of FISI and he stuck with FISI through thick and thin. FISI has focussed on culture, economy, politics and social issues faced by

Modi's regime, there 5th December, 2015, was too much bureaupage number 8) cratic red tape and the spoke about the civil servants used to issues related to ecotake their own time to nomic development do things. But with the of India with special advent of Modi, things emphasis on several have changed for the strong indicators i.e. better. The policies GDP growth, milbecame more clear and lions of new bank as a result, the bureauaccounts, increasing crats never sat on files, Foreign Direct instead they became Investments and proactive and implesubstantial reducmented the policies with tion of fiscal deficit alacrity. And this is a of Indian exchequer. welcome sign and matHe also touched on ter of pride. various innovative People also said PM ideas like Swachh Bharat and the build- Kamal Rao, News Editor, Gujarat Samachar, Rameshbhai Desai, MBE, Modi is hard working and ing of toilets in FISI President, CB Patel, Anil Nene, formerly of University of Surrey, and there is no corruption Ashish Goyal, Trader Portfolio Manager, BlueCrest, London, lighting the and communal tension schools as well as traditional lamp to inaugurate the Vishva Hindu Parishad event under his regime. other matters related the audience expressed remarks explained that as There were other issues to hygiene. their views. The essence the clock is moving fast, he Mr Vinoo Sachania, raised like the need for an was – though the Britishwould be very brief about efficient and objective TV formerly Chairman of Indians are proud to reside the main theme of PM channel which can broadYouth Wing of BJP in in the UK and are totally Modi's visit to the UK and cast, like say BBC or any Jamnagar area of Gujarat, loyal to their adopted counits impact on Indo-British other British channel, news spoke about the role and try, they have an emotional relationship as it has been impartially without taking responsibilities of media in attachment to their ancesdwelt on almost adequately sides, unlike some Indian the development of society. tral land. They said the development and progress of India will enhance satisfaction and stature of British-Indians and hence any assistance to India is worthwhile. India is after all 80% Hindus and historically, it has never attacked any country. Moreover, Hindus have the highest sense of toler- Shri Jayesh Patel giving vote of Jayendra Shah of FISI Vinoo Sachania, ance and the essence of thanks at the event ex-Chairman of Youth Wing Hinduism is to respect He specially highlighted of BJP in Jamnagar, Gujarat all faiths and as a result of channels. that Gujarat Samachar and which, Jews, Christians, by the earlier speakers. In A questionnaire also Asian Voice have voluntarZoroastrians and Muslims his attempt to make the raised issues about the ily stopped taking fake and have always lived peacefulmeeting more interactive, forthcoming Mayoral elecmisleading adverts from ly in India.

Mr CB Patel posed followtion in London. There were the so-called faith healers, As to the strength and ing 3 questions. also questions about lack of black magicians, etc., who 1. Why British-Indians weaknesses of Modi participation from younger exploit the vulnerable secare so much loyal to India Government – PM Modi is members of the communitions of the society, while and Narendra Modi? not only launching many ty in such organisations. some other Gujarat publi2. What would be the constructive and realistic All such cations from London have reaction of Hindus if there projects for social developquestion/answers made seized on such misleading were “Hindu Jihadists”? ment but his continuous the meeting interactive. advertisements. He was

Attendees observe a one-minute silence for the victims of Paris and California terror attacks, Chennai floods and the sad demise of VHP founder and pillar Shri Ashok Singhal

Singhal who was the founder and pillar of Vishva Hindu Parishad.

Shri Jayendra Shah of FISI recalled an instance in the life of Swami Vivekananda.

When Swamiji was asked by a westerner in USA why he chose not to wear “proper” clothes, referring to his saffron robes – Swamiji replied, “In the West you judge a man by his tailor, but in the East we judge a man by his character.”

FISI President Rameshbhai Desai started with a short history of FISI which was founded in 1976 in the aftermath of the dec-

India and its people. FISI also played an important role during the recent visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UK. Mr A S Rajan, the Minister for Coordination, High Commission of India, who has arrived in the UK just recently spoke warmly about his assignment and the cooperation from all quarters in London. Mr Rajan also promised to do his utmost to engage in dialogue with the Indian community organisations and wherever possible assist in day-to-day dealings with the India House.

Mr Ashish Goyal (see his profile in Asian Voice,

The jam-packed audience listening with rapt attention at the Vishva Hindu Parishad event on December 12

proud that Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice were willingly sacrificing over £1,000 a week by rejecting such exploitative advertisements.

The Chief Guest, Mr CB Patel, in his opening

3. We have heard so much about the strength of PM Modi's various initiatives, but what are his limitations and weaknesses serving as the Prime Minister of India?

Several members from

and tireless work schedule is also inspiring every Indian, especially those in bureaucracy and other responsible employees. At one stage Mr CB Patel also made his own personal observation that prior to

Mr Jayesh Patel offered vote of thanks to all the speakers and guests and the function ended with a sumptuous vegetarian dinner.

(Based on details provided by Jayesh Patel)

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Leading Lights

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Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

Rishi Sunak MP, William Hague’s constituency successor He’s handsome, polite and capable, what more could you want in an MP? Meet 35-year old Rishi Sunak, MP for Richmond (Yorkshire).

A Hindu Punjabi of Indian heritage, born in Southampton, Rishi was educated at Winchester College and holds a first class degree in Philosophy Politics and Economics from Oxford University.

He was a Fulbright Scholar on an MBA at Stanford University.

Rishi’s path to success in politics was inspired by his GP father and his mother, who ran a chemist nearby.

“I grew up seeing them dedicate themselves to our community,” says Rishi.

“I’ll never forget- we’d be out shopping at the weekend at Asda, and people would come up to my mum and dad. Later on I worked at my mum’s shop. I delivered the medicines to elderly patients who couldn’t

better decisions as a result. come and pick them up for Having lived abroad, whatever reason. And they investing in companies, would always take the time making them grow in the to tell me what my mum UK, US, India and the rest and dad had done. Not just of the for them, but for generations of their family. It left a lasting impression on me, and I thought; one day I would love to have that same impactmake the same difference to a community that my mum and dad did. I’m hopeful I can do that to my constituents in North Yorkshire as their MP.” Rishi says, “My career up until politics has been business, finance, investing. It’s one of my passions. I also believe our system of politics works better if there are some people who can bring some outside experience into Westminster, contributing to the debate. It raises the quality of debate and hopefully we can make Rishi Sunak MP

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015 world, I found a sense of fulfilment, helping companies improve and employ more people. “ Politics was always at the back of his mind.

He was involved with the Conservative Party at Winchester School in 1997, where he delivered leaflets for the Tory candidate. “It was a humbling experience,” he says, recalling the Party’s drubbing in those days.

Outside work, Rishi spent- and still does- a large amount of time working with educational projects and charities. But a few years ago he “reengaged, and went out campaigning in marginal seats in London, Harrow and Hampstead. At the Policy Exchange, he looked at the way that ethnic minority voters felt, thought and voted. It helped him walk from business to politics.

But it wasn’t a cakewalk to get selected. Rishi went through tests, assessments, form filling and interviews to get on the candidate’s list. “It’s to make sure you’re a decent person, reasonably competent, and not going to embarrass anybody.

Once you’ve done all t h a t

you’re on an approved list of candidates who can apply for a seat when it becomes due.

William Hague, former Foreign Secretary and Leader of the Party announced his retirement last year. The local association opened that up, over 200 people applied.” Over the process of three months, yet more interviews and assessments, on the final day there were four finalists.

“You make a speech for a few minutes; you take questions for 30-40 minutes. There were around 300 local members in the room,” says Rishi. He won- his first crucial political victory.

We asked Rishi about the most difficult challenge he faced in his career so far.

“The decision to do it [enter full time politics] was difficult. I have two young kids, two little girls now three and four. The decision to enter public life has implications for your family. For my wife, my kids, for the amount of time I would be able to be with them and be at home.

It’s not just the person; it has demands on your family as well. My wife gives up a lot of her time, as do my kids. This weekend my kids are with me all the time, running around different events. I’m lucky in that my wife comes from a very public family in India, so she’s more experienced at this than I am.

She’s been under the spotlight pretty much all her adult life. Her father is Narayan Murthy, w h o founded Infosys.

H e r mother is S u d h a Murthy. My wife was able to understand what it is like and what it would mean.

Not just the sacrifices, but also what the positives are.

What you are able to do when you’re giving yourself to helping other people, and how fulfilling that is.

So she and my father in law were the ones, in the end, who said, you should go for this.”

Rishi was elected in 2015 and is a member of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Select Committee, reflecting his largely rural constituency.

“I thought; one day I would love to have that same impactmake the same difference to a community that my mum and dad did.”

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READERS’ VOICE

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Letters

RARE occasion I had the privilege to meet C B Patel at a program arranged by Friends of India Society International at VHP’s Hindu Centre-Croydon.

The program was meant to furnish feedback about PM of India Mananiya Modiji and his visit to UK during November 2015.

My hearing disability was not handicap due to the sanguine nature of C B Patel. He responded warmly to all those whom he knew. He went around the hall, meeting friends and acquaintances more times than formality would permit.

Mr Raghu Shetty, education and efficiency consultant, undertook to write the gist of points by various speakers in my diary. Thus I was able to follow the main points by various speakers and especially the trend pursued by C B Patel.

The striking feature about C B Patel was that his speech was very short. This allowed many questions from the audience, which were answered to the satisfaction of the member as was evident from the body language of member and C B Patel.

The whole exercise served to spread awareness about the good work done by PM Modiji, his efforts, achievements, national and international impact.

We must thank FISI for this magnificent gesture which was well planned and executed by C B Patel who deserved the honour bestowed upon him.

Ramesh Jhalla By email

Suit boot man Modi and his crazy policy - high speed train Recently Prime Minster Modi signed several trade agreements with foreign countries costing crores of rupees for the development of India. Most of the agreements are based on high technology such as nuclear reactors which are of no use to 700 million people living in villages.

At present, the BJP policy helps only the upper middle class spending money on the manufacture of luxury goods and cars and none for the poor and the starving people in India.

One such draft project is to spend on high speed train from Mumbai to Ahmedabad in his own state costing more than Rs 9,000 crore which is not a top priority while people in Mumbai suburban trains have to travel like monkeys hanging on the footboard and every day dozens of people die and nobody has done to build additional tracks or double the lines since the population in India has increased three times.

The shameful thing is that trains are overcrowded that people are travelling on top of the trains in North India and several of them are hit by overhead cables and die. Indian railways operate manual signals and this causes accidents due to human error...

They do not provide enough long distance trains since it operates single track only and it takes more than 15 hours for intercity trains to one city to another. It is also difficult to get tickets.

Suit Boot Man (SBM) Modi talks about bullet trains when the government cannot provide additional resources to improve the railway system and Gujarat is only part of India. Modi is obsessed with high technology. People should object to the scheme and instead the money Rs 9,000 crore should be used for several other projects to improve rail services instead of one project.

Arun Vaidyanathan By email

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I receive Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice newspapers and am a subscriber to both papers for a long time. I was indeed pleased to see the letters of people writing in Asian Voice paper.

Can you please tell me why the written papers the Asian Voice? I do hope the written papers should be in the next issue of Asian Voice.

Mr K T Pankhania By email

Politics

I read your newspaper every week with enthusiasm and wait to receive your paper every Friday. Below are my comments. Although I am giving you my full address, it’s only for you and not for public, I will be a regular writer in your columns.

There are winners and losers, be it a game or politics, but losers in India always cry foul and call it a political vendetta.

Why can’t the Royal family accept people’s mandate? Which Prime Minister of India or President / Prime Minister is loved so much globally like our Prime Minister Shree Narendrabhai Modi.

Even his speeches are not written like all other leaders of the world, he talks and speaks from his heart, not a stereotype leader speech written by AD men.

Look at the growth rate of India, 7.4 %, while in UK it’s only 2.5% .

Modiji is trying so hard to get jobs for the youth of India, but older, maybe wiser people, in the opposition are trying to deny the youth of a bright future and get out of poverty, maybe like the foreign rulers they want to keep them as slaves only.

It must be questioned, how many passports do the rulers of India have, it has come out in the open now, will they run away with their other Nationalities like Italy, etc.?

Ashok Kumar Haria By email

Reaching out I write with reference to the exceptional 'desh sewa'

by Ekal Abhiyan (page 6, AV 21 November 2015) where they reach out to the community and change the lives of the young girls thereby educating them.

Young girls grow up to be young ladies and really are 'maa Shakti'. These ladies will definitely change their lives and the society. We wish them all well. On the same page, Sri Dudakia seems to be rather enraged with Mr J Corbyn (JC). He (JC that is) was reached out and invited but he did not turn up to meet a certain Mr M Modi.

Trouble is that his attitude will be double trouble for us Hindus. Now that is worrying and we need to take action.

Mr Editor, may I start a fight back by requesting that wording in your articles should be reflected correctly. The article (on page 13 of the same edition) titled "white school girl raped by 14 Asian men" I think should not read Asian men. I think specifics need to be mentioned here to name and shame.

When men who hide behind Sharia (not British) laws in their communities to control their hold over women, what will they do to the rest of us?

If we are not careful, this country will become Sharia/Halal driven and it will be difficult to breathe.

Making Tax easier

HMRC had issued this consultation paper in March 2015. The paper envisages that by early 2016 5 million small businesses and 10 million individuals will have access to a secure personalised digital tax account.

By 2020, more than 50 million individuals and small businesses will have a secure digital tax account, removing the need to complete a tax return. Presumably this would include the current 30 million welfare benefit claimants.

The digital tax account would enable small businesses to pay their PAYE, National Insurance, business tax and VAT in a combined real time secure digital tax account every quarter.

Another consultation is planned next year to receive views and comments from tax payers. There is only one way this system can be a win win situation. Divide the 50 million users by 4, and assign mandatory year end of March, June, September and December to each group of 12.5 million individuals and retain the annual tax due declaration that their digital tax account is true and correct to the best of their knowledge.

This way there is at least one specific day every year when the tax payer or claimant has to make a solemn declaration. Also the annual discipline is maintained while the administration costs and cash flow are spread over the entire year.

Nagindas Khajuria By email

One whole edition of AV

I have noticed that invariably there are eight or so letters published in the Readers’ Voice column of Asian Voice, therby completely filling up page 10 of any one edition of AV. There are normally 32 pages in one edition of Asian Voice, or in Gujarat Samachar for that matter. If we were to fill up all the 32 pages of either of the two publications only with readers’ letters, we would need 32 X 8 = 256 letters from contributors.

According to my records, to date, I have had the honour of 287 letters published in AV and a few in GS. Therefore I have fully filled up all the 32 pages of one whole edition of AV. A feat only equalled by a couple of other contributors! A few more and I would complete a triple century. I am now awaiting a certificate of merit from ABPL! At this point, I would also like to reiterate that letters from contributors should be interesting and informative and focus on issues that concern us here in this country. The 250 words limit also needs to be maintained.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Direct flights

Over the years I was silently observing your hard work towards the direct flights from London to Ahemdabad. On this particular subject there are no nominees, it's only one winner and that is Sir CB Patel.

I am most grateful to you on behalf of all the fellow passengers who will benefit from this. When you travel on 15th December, the Maharaja will really take care of you, and when you come back please share your good experience.

Once again congratulations for your hard work which has paid off now.

Rajesh Patel (RJ) Chief in charge UK and Europe Shankus naturopathy resort

Yogi Pandya By email

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Lib Dems call for Government to rethink unfair visa tests A government policy which condemns universities to tighter visa controls must be reviewed, the Liberal Democrat Creative Industries Spokesperson has said.

Currently universities and colleges can maintain their Highly Trusted Sponsor status as long as no more than 10% of the students they recruit are refused student visas by the Home Office, but there is concern this could be lowered. The threshold was

last reduced from 20% in November 2014 and the change has had a significant impact on smaller institutions, with lower student numbers meaning only a few visa refusals can push them above the 10% threshold, with little ability to address or mitigate this.

Lord Clement Jones, Liberal Democrat’s spokesperson for the Creative Industries said, “The Conservatives claim they have a long-term plan to secure a better future for

Britain, yet they remain blissfully unaware of the difficulties they are causing our universities. By blindly pandering to meet immigration targets, they are also putting at risk the £10 billion a year which overseas students contribute to the British economy. The policy has made it virtually impossible for universities to freely recruit and offer places to students from countries such as Nigeria and Pakistan, to name but two countries.”

Independent faith schools told to improve in Leicester An Ofsted report into independent faith schools has found that one in Leicester is not up to scratch and a further two "require improvement".

Inspectors from the education watchdog have visited 22 faith schools across the country in the last four months, including Leicester Islamic Academy, in London Road, Al-Aqsa School, in Wayne Way, and Jame'ah Girls Academy in Rolleston Street.

They found that Leicester Islamic Academy was "inadequate" overall, and the other two "required improvement".

Inspectors said standards that impacted on pupils' welfare, health and safety at Leicester Islamic Academy, were not met and procedures for child protection training were not rigorous enough.

Opportunities for pupils to learn about other faiths

were also said to be "limited" and the school improvement plan "not fit for purpose".

Inspectors said that governors and senior leaders did not have sufficient knowledge about Independent School Standards.

Worst children's services face takeover Moves to make it easier to take over council children's services failing vulnerable youngsters in England have been announced by the prime minister.

Departments judged inadequate by Ofsted will be given six months to improve and then be taken over by high-performing councils and charities if they fail.

A handful of councils

that were failing children are already run by trusts.

But the new measures will see the existing framework for takeovers speeded up and formalised.

Where departments fail to improve within six months of a poor Ofsted inspection, a new "commissioner" will be appointed and experts in child protection sent in.

In the past, where children's services have been

taken over, the process has been far more "ad hoc", says the government. It will now send experts in to three councils in a process that could see them run by independent trusts.

Sunderland children's services will become a voluntary trust and experts will be sent in to run the department, after inspectors from the care watchdog Ofsted found "serious and widespread" failings.

COUNCIL NEWS

Brent’s primary schools beat the national average in key subject tests Brent's primary school pupils are outperforming the national average for England at Key Stage 2 in the core subjects of reading, writing and maths, according to new figures.

The proportion of primary pupils attaining Level 4 at Key Stage 2 for reading, writing and maths - the expected level of attainment for an 11-year-old - is 83 per cent in Brent for 2015 compared with the national average of 80 per cent. The average across all London boroughs and the City of London was 84 per cent; however, Brent has narrowed the gap on the average across the capital in the last year with a rise of

three percentage points from 80 per cent in 2014 for Level 4 at Key Stage 2.

Brent pupils' progress in reaching the expected level of attainment from Key Stage 1 to Key Stage 2 was also higher than the national average but also slightly below the London average with 92 per cent achieving the level of progress in reading; 95 per cent in writing and 91 per cent in maths. The national average was 91 per cent, 94 per cent and 90 per cent respectively.

Cllr Ruth Moher, Brent Council's Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, said: "These are very good results by Brent's

family of schools and are testament to the hard work of pupils and teachers as well of the dedicated partnership work by Brent Council and the schools to help improve the quality of education in the borough and performance of schools. We are absolutely committed to providing every young person in Brent with a high-quality education and the best start in life possible regardless of their background. While it is good that these results show we are performing well, we still have much more work to do and will continue to do everything we can to drive up standards even further."

11

Ofsted reports improvement at 'Trojan Horse' school A school at the heart of the alleged Trojan Horse plot has been told it is heading in the right direction under new leadership.

Rockwood Academy, the former Park View Academy, was one of five Birmingham schools plunged into special measures by Ofsted in April last year.

It was rated “inadequate” following a snap inspection after allegations emerged of a plot by hardline Muslims to take over governing bodies,

oust teachers and Islamise the curriculum.

Park View’s former acting head Monzoor Hussain is among over a dozen teachers currently facing disciplinary hearings over allegations that they agreed to the inclusion of an undue amount of religion on pupils’ education.

In September, Park View was renamed Rockwood Academy and last month Ofsted inspectors carried out its fifth monitoring inspection of the school.

Fuzel Choudhury, principal of Rockwood Academy

For the first time since April last year Ofsted has deemed the school to be on the right track to pull itself out of special measures.

Preschools turn children on to learning Preschools help boost the academic careers of children who have fewer educational experiences at home, a study suggests.

The effect lasts into secondary school with preschoolers from all backgrounds twice as likely to do AS-levels, say the Oxford University researchers. The advantage was more than just an early grasp of numbers and letters.

"High quality early

education makes the child a more effective learner," said co-author Prof Kathy Sylva. Activities such as

singing songs and nursery rhymes, teaching and playing with numbers and letters, reading with their children and taking them to the library "turn the child on to learning", said Prof Sylva, professor of educational psychology at the university's department of education.

12

MEDIA WATCH

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Serious politics took a back seat to roadside dramatics.

Parliamentary business was hijacked by hooligans. Congress MPs brought dishonor to themselves and a party which once boasted some of the greatest political names in India’s modern history. The party’s present President, Sonia Gandhi, and her heir apparent, Vice President Rahul Gandhi were convulsed by a case brought before the Delhi High Court, accusing them of wrongdoing in matters pertaining to the party’s long defunct newspaper, The National Herald founded by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1937. It had a brief period of relative success, with Nehru himself making the occasional contribution – signed and unsigned. One devastating piece he penned and signed came in the wake of the American nuclear tests in the Bikini Atoll in April 1954, under the headline ‘The Death dealer.’ The paper’s then editor Chalapathi Rau, a hallowed name in Indian journalism, helped found the Press Council of India.

He died in 1983, a disillusioned man. Truth is that the Herald’s circulation at the best of times was no more than modest because it was poorly run, as Nehru himself admitted. Its circulation, if that is appropriate word, has been in freefall for decades and a sighting of the paper on newstands is even rarer than the Siberian crane.

The issue in contention is the interest free loan forwarded from the holding company’s assets to another company. The Gandhis have distinguished lawyers appearing on their behalf; and, as Rahul has said, he has full confidence in the integrity of the Indian judiciary, so why not let the law take its course. It surely did when a case questioning his Indian citizenship was thrown out by the Chief Justice of India with a fierce stricture on the appellant. Anguished cries of ‘conspiracy’ are familiar theatre, to which the public has now grown accustomed.

GST at stake

Media reports suggest that the critical General Services and Tax (GST) Bill is now at risk of further deferment in the Rajya Sabha, where the government lacking the numbers, depends on a responsible opposition to get the legislation through onto the statute book in the national interest. Any refusal by the Congress leadership and its ally of convenience, the Trinamool Congress of Chief Minister of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, would be a grievous error of judgment for which both parties more so the Congress - will pay dearly. Indian Industry waits anxiously for the passage of the bill, an essential economic reform that, along with others, promises to take India’s economic growth to a higher plane.

Sonia Gandhi’s piteous boast that she is Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law, is thus fearless is black comedy. Boo, to her. She can surely do better (Hindu, Times of India, Telegraph, Mint December 8, 9.10)

Suspension of disbelief

External Affairs Minister, Sushma Swaraj returned from a visit to Pakistan and claimed to have detected a ‘breakthrough’ in Indo-Pakistan ties, a sentiment

unhallowed by time, to be taken with the proverbial pinch of salt.

More realistically, India’s wiser silent majority appear more readily to follow the ascending graph of likely jihadi assaults in the country. The Times of India’s front-page lead story (December 6) tells of the Pakistani funded Lashar-e-Toiba attempt to assassinate Prime Minister Narendra Modi and leading Indian political figures in coordinated attacks in Delhi, the exercise neutered by Indian intelligence and anti-terrorist police units through a dragnet stretching from Kashmir to Delhi and extending to Darjeeling in West Bengal, and its metropolis, Kolkata, and Assam.

Ongoing struggle

A subsequent Times of India report (December 9) tells of tbe successful coordination between all branches of the intelligence community, from national to state level, and specialized police forces who have, together been, and are, neutralizing the network of individual jihadi operatives and sleeper cells.

Yashwant Sinha’s take

Empowerment Foundation, Chanderi’s products, earlier earning an annual Rs 70 crore, have more than doubled to Rs 150 crore. Computers have helped design work, while e-commerce has expanded the market exponentially. Migration to cities has ceased as orders come in thick and fast to thei doorstep of the weaver community ((Mint November 19)

ed to grow at 12.8 per cent to reach $5.3 billion in 2016. ‘The enterprise software marketplace is dynamic and ever-changing .

Its growth and structure are being shaped by factors and forces of decentralized purchasing consumerisation, mobility, influence of other emerging markets, cloud-based implementations, and new consumption models.’

Growth driver

Growth is being driven by trends such as increasing adoption of software as a service and open source software, changing purchasing behavior and purchasing style. Government’s seriousness about leveraging information technology for effective governance, and focus on ease of doing business in India has led to an economic surge across India (Hindu December 9)

Larsen&Toubro orders surge

The Construction arm of Mumbai-based engineering company Larsen&Toubro (L&T) has won orders worth Rs 1960 crore across its varied businesses. L&T Construction said its water and effluent treatment segment had secured orders worth Rs 1053 crore from the Water Resource Department of the Odisha government, for the engineering procurement and construction of 34 lift irrigation schemes in several districts of the State. L&T also won orders worth Rs 889 crore, which include a contract from Chennai Metro Rail Corporation for the construction of Chennai Metro line Package 3 Underground. The scope involves engineering procurement and the construction of associated tunnel works (Hindu December 9)

Agriculture progress

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Cyrus Mistry, CEO

rocket skyward to $350 billion, including through fresh acquisitions. In particular, the Group is to make significant investments in the digital space to meet its vision 2025 goals.

Transformation

Under the previous Chairman, Ratan Tata, the group took off from a largely India-oriented entity to a global player. ‘At the turn of the century, we had a relatively small market cap of of just under $8 billion . We have added a 100 billion dollars plus to that in the last 15 years. I am quite confident that this will continue to grow,’ said Mukund Rajan, Member, Group Executive Council and Brand Custodian, Tata Sons. (Hindu December 7)

Digital drive empowers villages

A few years ago, the weavers of Chanderi, Madhya radish, faced a bleak future .Their traditional skills attracted a limited market, and they were hobbled by middlemen. Not any longer. A government initiative involving the establishment of a commodity information centre, which in a matter of months, has brought the world closer to some 40,000 weavers working on 4,000 looms.

Thanks to the Digital

Kerala scientists create new paddy

Scientists at the Rice Research Station of Kerala Agricultural University at Vytilla have developed a new variety of paddy tolerant to saline intrusion, a major challenge for farmers in the lowlands. The landmark achievement was made possible by the introduction of genes tolerant to salinity and iron toxity to Kerala’s most popular rice strain (Hindu November 27)

India-Russia free trade

Indian and Russian experts are speeding up the final draft of a free trade agreement ready for signature by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin when they meet in Moscow for the annual IndoRussian summit later this month.

The FTA will cover the Eurasian Economic Union comprising (apart from Russia) Belarus, Armenia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with a combined population of 180 million valued at an estimated at $2.7 trillion.

India stands to gain substantially in exports of pharmaceuticals, agriculture products, fertilizers, leather ware etc. With India facing increasing uncertainty in its US and EU markets, it is imperative that alternative markets be tapped, said the Indian exporters body. (Business Line December 5).

Having experienced two-back-toback and the inevitable food price rises, rainfall shortages is nowhere near what occurred in 1965 when similar successive droughts resultred in severe food shortages and, in a few places, even famine condition, writes Swaminathan Aiyer in The Times of India (December 6).

Prophets of doom

Yashwnt Sinha

Former Indian External Affairs Minister (in the Vajpayee regime) took the present government to task for its Pakistan policy. Sinha’s red line was Pakistan ceasing to export terror groups to India. Without this, talks become meaningless. He made a critically important point, saying that not talking didn’t imply war. There is considerable space between the two positions, he averred (Hindu December 8)

Software growth

Research firm Gartner said India’s software market is expect-

Two American brothers William and Paul Paddock made the dire prediction of global famine in which only section of benighted humanity could be saved by the God’s grace and the grace of the United States. The book became a best seller in the West.

Improved food distribution systems, rising rural incomes, appropriate technologies have meant that those difficult times are barely remembered today.

Japanese Prime Minister Shiunxo Abe in Delhi with Narendra Modi. see comment page 3

Tata Group looks to stars

Over the last 15 years the Tata Group’s listed firms have added over $100 billion to market capitalization; in the next 10 years, by 2025, the figure is expected to

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (third from the left) with Narendra Modi during the Ganga arathi. see comment page 3

UK

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Man convicted of planning Lee Rigby-style knife attack A man from Southhall, London, has been convicted of plotting a Lee Rigbystyle attack on the streets of London in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday last year.

Twenty-two-year-old Nadir Syed was arrested on November 6 last year, hours after buying an 11inch kitchen knife, a court heard.

Jurors were told that Syed admired the killers of Fusilier Lee Rigby and that he was inspired by Islamic State. Also, he had tried but failed to get to Syria.

He showed no reaction as he was found guilty of preparation of terrorist acts following a trial at

Guilty: Nadir Syed (22)

Woolwich Crown Court.

The jury was unable to reach verdicts on coHaseeb defendents Hamayoon, 28, and Yousaf Syed, 20, and a

retrial has been ordered.

Prosecutors said Syed was obsessed with beheadings and had been inspired by a fatwa from an IS leader, which urged followers to attack Westerners and “rig the roads with explosives for them. Attack their bases.

Raid their homes. Cut off their heads.”

A British Army soldier, Fusilier Lee Rigby of the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers, was run down with a car and stabbed to death using knives and a cleaver by two British men of Nigerian descent on May 22, 2013. He was killed to avenge the killing of Muslims by British armed forces.

English jails an accident waiting to happen Piles of rubbish scattered all around, cockroaches, broken windows, graffiti covering the walls, bloodstains on sheets, no light, filth and squalor everywhere, overcrowding, inmates sharing a 12ft by 12ft cell with an unscreened toilet – this is nothing but the current state of jails in Britain. To top it all, overcrowding is adding to the woes.

Needless to say, the place is stinking.

The British prison population has been increasing rapidly in recent years and prisons are struggling to keep up with the rising demand. Prison overcrowding is one of the key contributing factors to poor jail conditions around the world. It is also arguably the biggest single problem facing prison systems which, if not contained, can lead to riot, rooftop protests, attacks on officers, malfunctioning of the prison system, increasing cost, and at worst life-threatening consequences.

According to Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, overcrowding is the cancer that destroys everything in a prison, and the system is bursting at the seams. The jail population has doubled in 20 years to about 85,000 and this country now has the highest imprisonment rate in western Europe. More than a quarter of prisoners live in overcrowded prisons, with many doubled up in cells made for one.

The number of staff employed in the public prison estate has fallen by 30% in 5 years – there are 13,730 fewer officers looking after nearly 1,200 more people. In 2000, there was one officer for every 2.9 prisoners; by the end of March 2014 this ratio had increased to one for every 5.3. Mark Icke, vice-presi-

dent of the Prison Governors's Association, says: “In a number of prisons, prisoners are now locked up for 50% more time than they used to be and that makes it harder for them to be rehabilitated.”

Another fallout of crowded prisons is rise in violence. There were 267 deaths in custody in the year to September, an increase of 14% on the previous year. Of these 95 were suicides and 7 were homicides.

Nigel Newcomen, the prisons and probation ombudsman, says: “The number of self-inflicted deaths has zoomed and there has been 60% increase since January.

There is a troubling degree of mental ill-health and suggestions that staff levels have had an impact.”

The pressure is becoming unbearable for some senior staff. A survey of members by the Prison Governors' Association found that 61% had suffered stress-related ill health and 42% would consider changing jobs if conditions don't improve.

Lord Woolf believes that the prison population could be halved without risk to public safety. “At the time of my report, it was 42,000 and falling. We have got to educate the public that longer and longer sentences don't achieve anything,” he said.

At Wormwood Scrubs, there is no light, everything is broken, prisoners are locked up for 23 hours a day.

The fundamental problem is overcrowding, says Nick Hardwick, the chief inspector of prisons.

“There are more people in prison than we can afford.

We should look at length of sentence and whether some people need to go to prison at all. It is important if people break the rules, that there is a penalty but I don't think our only option for punishment should be prison. We need to make the dividing lines less hard so you don't necessarily do your whole sentence in prison, you could do a community sentence or tagging, or you come back at weekends,” he says.

The jail population religion-wise:

l There were 33,655 Christian inmates in 1991 which increased to 42,449 in 2015.

Continued on page 30

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13

Prideview Group hosts property investors’ dinner The Prideview Group’s annual Property Investors’ Dinner was a huge success with over 100 private investors assembling at The Everest Abercorn restaurant in Stanmore to hear Allsop Auctions, the leading commercial property auctioneers, deliver a fascinating presentation on the basics of commercial property investment and the market today.

Senior Partner & Auctioneer George Walker talked about the importance of location and rent being at sustainable levels.

He analysed several sectors in depth, including the medical sector which was of great interest to the many medical professionals in the room and looked at yields over the last decade, emphasising that the yield

for good-quality assets has always traded within 4%6% and investors looking for quality property can bank on this. He concluded demand had now outstripped supply of investment property.

Nilesh from Prideview continued, explaining that in today’s market with

London prices rocketing, investors must look at the regions for investments and he emphasised that finding the right deal is harder than one might think. He talked about a number of convenience stores Prideview are marketing for sale with 15 year leases which are ideal for SIPP investors.

Tata Motors owned Jaguar brand has announced a return to the world of motor racing in 2016 with its team’s entry into the FIA Formula E Championship.

Formula E is the world’s first global singleseater championship for electric powered cars and Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) plans to use it as a test bed for future real world electric cars that will be rolled

out from the their factories.

JLR group engineering director Nick Rogers at a press launch in London said:“...It is my belief that over the next five years we will see more changes in the automotive world than in the last three decades.

The future is about being more connected and more sustainable; electrification and lightweight technologies are becoming more important than ever as

urbanisation continues to increase. Formula E has recognised and reacted to these trends and the championship's exciting and pioneering approach is the perfect fit for our brand.”.

The Formula E team will draw upon JLR’s over 8,000 engineers, who will be able to crucially use the experience to extract data and push the boundaries of electric technology in a performance environment.

Members of The Prideview Group & Allsop Auctions (left to right): Nilesh Patel, Vishal Patel, Raj Patel, George Walker, Shailesh Patel, Will Clough, Ange Balendra & Jesal Patel

Tata's Jaguar to return to motor racing

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

www.asian-voice.com Gifts for her

AsianVoiceNews

Christmas Special

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Indraja Gugle

Have fun with Christmas App

PNP- Portable North Pole 2015 (FREE): This app allows you to create personalised Santa calls and videos to your child. Upto 18 different items from photos, their most wanted gift, their best friend's names or hobbies can go into this personalised message from Santa.

Mystic Rose cosmetic case- £12 from Paperchase

Google Santa Tracker (FREE): It allows you to get a sneak peak into Santa's village where you can help prepare for D-day with the elves, check for weather conditions with Rudolph, learn about Christmas traditions and take a joyful skydive with the merry ol' Santa.

Personalised Lyrics Cushion Cover by Vintage Designs Reborn- £29.50 by www.notonthehighstre et.com

Elf Yourself (FREE): With this neat app, you can transform yourself into an elf and wish everybody a merry Christmas. Just upload five photos of yourself, your family and friends, select a dance theme. The app creates a video superimposing your photos onto dancing elves.

Christmas music (FREE): From peppy old ti,e favourite Jingle Bells to a modern Christmas lights, the app is here to cheer people with varied music tastes.

Almond Supple Skin Oil by L'Occitane: £34 from Marks and Spencer

Gifts for him

Splice Kilim Blanket Scarf- £25 from Accessorize

One Line A Day Five Year Memory Book- £13 from www.thegreatgiftcompa ny.co.uk

Santa games and Puzzles (FREE): Snow kingdom never looked so pretty. A fun game with some lovely holiday music to give you respite from work.

z i u Q s a m Christ

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Test your Christmas knowledge with this fun quiz

Hammond & Co. Grey tartan check scarf by Gilded Monogram Patrick Grant- £30 Glass- £14 from www.anthropologie.com from Debenhams

located?

1. Baby Jesus received the gift of gold from which one of the wise men?

8. It is 'always winter but never Christmas' in which author's novel?

2. Which potential leader banned Christmas in England between 1647-60?

9. The plant 'viscum' is also popularly known as?

3. Which ornament do elves have at the tip of their shoes?

10. Snowball is which animal from George Orwell's book Animal Farm?

4. When was the last White Christmas in Britain according to the UK Meteorological Office?

Answers

6. Marsh-whorts is he principal ingredient in which Christmas dish?

7. In which ocean is Christmas Island

Ingredients

1. Melchior, 2. Oliver Cromwell, 3.

Bells, 4. 2010, 5. Alabama, 6.

Cranberry sauce, 7. Indian Ocean, 8. T S Eliot, 9. Mistletoe, 10. Pig

5. Which was the first state in the US to recognise Christmas as an official holiday?

d n a k l Mi kies coo one? any

200 g/7 oz self raising flour 100 g/3 1/2 oz caster sugar 100 g/3 1/2 oz buter, plus extra greasing 1 large free-range egg, lightly beaten 1 tsp vanilla extract

For the decorations white and blue fondant icing white and black writing icing sprinkles 48 small chocolate balls

How to prepare

n Pre-heat oven 180C/350F/Gas 4 n Mix the flour and sugar in a bowl, rubbing in the butter with your fingertips to make the mixture resemble fine breadcrumbs n Make a soft dough by mixing the egg and vanilla essence with the mixture n Flour the work surface, then roll out the mixture and cut into rounds. Place these on well-greased baking sheets and bake for 10-12 mins or until golden brown. n Cool on a wire rack and start decorating only when completely dry n Roll out the white fondant icing, cut into circles as big as the biscuits, brush back of the circles with cooled boiled water and stick them to the biscuits. Smoothen the icing while sticking on it. n Now roll out the blue icing and cut into circles, halve them and similarly stick on top of the white icing using water to resemble hats. n Brush places on the hats with water for the sprinkle to stick, then sprinkle n Decorate the hat by piping with white writing icing. Pipe a small blob on the top and another for the nose, then stick on the chocolate balls. Also pipe black eyes and mouth. Leave to set.

3D Star Wars Episode Vii coasters, set of 8- £9.99 from www.gettingpersonal .co.uk

TS

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Christmas Celebrate with Hans Raj Hans accompanied by

New Years Eve At Panna’s Live Music & DJ Throughout The Night Playing the very best in R&B/Bhangra/Hip Hop & Bollywood * 3 Course Set Menu, Live Band, DJ playing the best in R&B, Bhangra, Hip-Hop and Bollywood, Belly Dancers, Live link to Big Ben For tickets call 020 89244000 or 0208 924 2225

What to do this Christmas

l Ice Skating at Natural History Museum l Winter Wonderland at Hyde Park l Carolling at Kensington palace l Stellar Christmas lights in London l Wintry walk to refresh you l Brighton's 'burning of the clocks' festival l Magical Dinner at the Great Hall l Mulled wine and more at Christmas Markets

Leather cashmere lined gloves£50 from John Lewis

Rocky and Krishna * Date: 24th December 2015, Venue: Millennium Suite, The City Pavilion, Start time: 7:00pm until Late For ticket info please call us on 0208 924 4000

Lions Club of London Kingsbury, Kenton, Golders Green, Swiss Cottage & Belmont Lions Club in Aid St Luke's Hospice & Sylvia Wright trust Proudly presents Music Night with Rajeev Sharma & Group Thursday 24th December 2015, Dhamecha Lohana Centre, Brember Road, South Harrow, HA2 28AX, Contact: Sanjay Mozaria 07932 623852

Be charitable but also be safe, says UK government Christmas is a time of giving. Witnessing human suffering due to natural disasters, diseases and years and years of war, who would not like Christmas to be a season of joy for all? The Charity Commission however warns about fraudsters who are likely to swindle money from goodhearted samaritans, especially the youth who tend not to make checks before donating. A survey found that 85% people donate directly at Christmas and only 39% of donors ask collectors for ID and question them about the charity.

Some of the highlights include checking for the charity's name and registration number. Their record can be verified at www.gov.uk/charity-commission. If charity's fail checks, donors are requested to report action fraud 03001232040 and The Charity Commission.

SP

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

The 'empowering' Karma & Diamonds The Karma & Diamonds trilogy marks the debut of Smita Joshi as an author.

She has enjoyed a successful career as a corporate business executive, as a freelance TV presenter, and has been one of the pioneers in bringing India's Information Technology services into the heart of Britain and Europe.

The first book in the Karma & Diamonds trilogy is Moon Child, which is about a sevenyear-old Smita who is oblivious to the impending turn of events that will have a sudden and dramatic impact on her life.

In a roller coaster storyline packed with travel, action, humour, intense emotion and romance, Smita tells a universally relevant story which spans continents and lifetimes.

The trilogy, which has been touted as “'Eat Pray

Love' meets 'Da Vinci Code'”, has been receiving 5 star reviews on Amazon, where the book is currently available for purchase. Some of the reviews include, “Superbly written, deeply emotional and empowering”, as well as “An excellent and brave account of spiritual growth”.

As well as from Amazon, the book is available from the official website: www.Karmaand-Diamonds.com

Man forced to leave train as commuter found him 'suspicious' London has always prided itself as being a multi-ethnic city.

However, Islamaphobia has undoubtedly crept into the minds of some people who go out of their way to discriminate and have no qualms in showing their their hatred. An unfortunate act occurred on Tuesday 8th December, when a man was forced to get off a Tube as a commuter complained that he was using his iPad “suspiciously”.

Whilst near Finsbury Park Station on the Piccadilly Line train, the man, who does not want to reveal his real identity, was allegedly told to get off the train as he had switched off his iPad when the commuter had looked at it.

Other commuters rushed to his defence, but the man, who appeared shock, decided to get off at Wood Green station.

Many people on the train had called the abuser racist, but he remained least bothered.

A witness spoke about the abuser and the incident. “There was a guy stood up, dressed smartly with a man bag. He wasn't being overtly aggressive but he had clearly taken offence to something another passenger had done. I saw people reacting so I took my headphones off and realised he was asking someone who looked Arabic to get off the train amongst other things because he felt threatened by him.”

He continued, “A couple of women... immediate-

ly interjected; the Arabic man looked pretty shocked and clearly didn't know what to do. I think he wanted to fight his corner but, thankfully plenty of people stood in between and stopped anything esca-

lating. It made me pretty sad and angry to actually see an incident like that but also the reaction of the people coming together to vastly outnumber a bigot was pretty heart-warming.”

Fiyaz Mughal, director of Tell MAMA, the Islamaphobia watchdog said, “Sadly, fears around Muslims in general are heightened and such actions have an impact...

This cannot be allowed to happen and plays into the hands of extremists who want to divide us. A comment here, asking not to be in a carriage with a Muslim or asking for a Muslim passenger to fly on another plane, are gifts for IS and their desire to tear our communities apart.”

A spokesperson for British Transport Police (BTP) said, “Everyone has the right to travel safely, and nobody should feel threatened on the rail network.”

TLIGHT

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

15

Sunetra Senior

Ravi is managing director and coowner of DrinkSupermarket.com. A successful purveyor of a diverse range of alcoholic and soft drinks, as well as additional beverage accoutrements such as glassware and creative gift options, this particular businessman knows more than his quality Bourbons. “The key to having a good business” he told us, “is having a solid model. For me, that really means having an aptitude for problem-solving.”

Before he rose to an executive position, Ravi was a computer programmer who would put in long and disciplined hours in the city, working to make sense of hard numbers and data, and knows well what he is telling us about. And this is not the end. As he also pointed out, “I don’t think I ever needed formal training in commerce because that natural desire to adapt and learn has always been in my blood”. Indeed, taking the business to another level when he joined co-partners, Vik and Sanjay in 2011, Ravi helped call some incisively instinctive shots, steering what was budding- yet fragile- through the financial storm of the recession: “big-name supermarket brands were actually copying our campaigns” he went on to tell us, “that’s how we knew we were ahead of the game”. Ravi then not only demonstrates the innovation required for commercial success, but shows it as the product of his firm and fighting individuality. Staying true to his drive as a person, he has forged the foundation for an empire.

I encourage my team to explore and experiment

A Connoisseur of Corporate

Yes, I did move from being a software What are some of the ways engineer into a consultancy role. I you have developed your was able to create a more stable and online business? prolific platform. We changed the Well obviously we have our website, look and feel of the system by introand the strategy is all in there: it’s ducing new, customer-friendly feaabout driving consumers towards our tures, and that’s what it’s all aboutwebsite. That might be through social making it easier to connect to networks or the use of search them. It was a simple but engines. There’s also digitalstable system. However it marketing and offline adveris also about the martising, such as print and we riage of the two sectors radio. It’s really just intelliof technology and busigent marketing that don’t limit ness. When I was workemphasises our good ourselves ing in the city, it was for quality service. In that a smaller company, and I vein, we have garnered gained a lot of valuable launch partnerships with the managerial insight. Usually, likes of Amazon, PhotoBox, you are just given one job to do Moonpig and Very.co.uk. in the corporate world, but it is about gaining a variety of experience which What makes your service you only learn by understanding all particularly unique would the different departments of the comyou say? pany. I always encourage my team to Ironically, that we don’t specialise. explore and experiment. And whatevOur stock is actually very generer we do right we keep. You learn by alised; we have everything from gentaking a chance. eral beers to Coca-Cola, to different types of water. We also cater to more refined tastes as well as say catering to a younger customer-base. A lot of business strategists would push you to specialise but our strength has been expansion. It’s the fact that we don’t limit ourselves: for example we also sell cocktail mixers and syrups for coffees. By noticing and reacting to what customers want, we’ve stayed ahead of the competition. By now we have acquired between 200 and 300 types of vodka, and 700 types of whiskey. No other retailer can offer or even catch up to that range: it’s in the breadth and not the depth.

Tell me more about your specialist contribution from a technological background?

Have you always been interested in starting your own company?

Business is definitely in the bloodline.

My father owned a sort of mini supermarket and survived hardships in both the seventies and the nineties.

Before that, my family were part of the mass exodus from Uganda where they had just lost everything so he really showed me what it was to bounce back. I worked in the business too when I was a teenager. I’d get paid in sweets, and realised early on that doing a good job meant getting ample reward! I was scraping chewing gum off the ground and helping my mum in the butcher’s section. I then gained some more grassroots experience for problem-solving and learning what it was to make decisions from which you learn from, with my degree in engineering from City University.

Has there been an inspiration in your life?

My family, and business partners have given me so much support, but most of all I have to say my wife Nima. She is an accountant and is incredibly smart. If I have an issue with my figures, I can just run it past her!

Finally, as we are coming up to the holidays, do you have a particular drink recommend?

A good Bourbon is good for the colder nights. Also perhaps a nice red wine- mulled is always good for this time of year. Put in a dash of cinnamon and orange. But I have to say, make sure to drink responsibly. I’m a strong advocate of that.

W

www.drinksupermarket.com

16

FINALLY, THE DREAM COMES TRUE

DIRECT FLIGHT SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Water cannon salute in Ahmedabad for AI 131 CONTINUED FROM P1 “Today (Tuesday 15 Dec) is Sardar Patel's death anniversary. Sardar has put in immense hard work and bound the whole India together. It's great that the direct flight is restarting on this important date.

“I hope in flight today they serve rice, dal, dhokla, debra- all Gujarati food, that would please passengers. This direct flight is a boon for the elderly, women with young kids, who have suffered for very long now- disembarking and embarking the aircraft every time in Mumbai. This flight will ensure that they no longer face such issues.

“Also young BritIndians are enthusiastic to see Modi's new India.

Direct flight is a part of it.”

Ms Tara Naidu, Regional Manager-UK told Asian Voice, “I am so happy that the direct flight has been reinstated during my term in the UK. “Though the flight will go via Mumbai, direct flight means passengers flying to Ahmedabad do not have to disembark in Mumbai any longer. They will remain in the aircraft for 40 mins or so, and the flight will then go to Ahmedabad. This saves them the hassle of disembarking and embarking again.

“From January we are trying for a non-stop flight to Ahmedabad.

That

means the flight will go to Ahmedabad straight, and not via Mumbai. I know elderly people prefer Indian airlines. Therefore we are trying to put together the non-stop flight.

“This morning the flight that started from Ahmedabad (AI 131) was greeted with water cannon.

“The Gujarati community here is quite big.

Today the flight is full including Business Class.

I am happy and hope it remains this way.

Today while passengers get on to the flight, they will be given special Indian sweets to take, as a small gesture from us.”

Asian Voice also met with the Air India airport Manager in Heathrow, Pratik Majumdar, and the team that worked very hard to put everything together on Tuesday morning. It included Public relation, Officer- PR & Corporate Sales- Paula Chattaraj, Airport Assistant Manager Divakar Mani and Shakeela Lambe from Sales & Marketing.

Speaking exclusively to Asian Voice, Captain Chanakya, said: “I am very pleased that people's needs are fulfilled. It is a matter of pride.”

Karan Shah, First Officer said, “Most of the passengers are going to Ahmedabad. Even while travelling via Delhi and Mumbai, most passengers

usually go to Ahmedabad. I am proud that their request has been fulfilled.”

Cabin in-charge Armin Patel said, “Gujarat is home for me. My people today are flying to Ahmedabad directly. I am really happy. It is a

trouble for the wheelchair passengers in Delhi and Mumbai to get off and get on. They are happy to have a direct flight. It is a bless-

Saurabh Patel speaking at the inauguration of direct flight in Ahmedabad

ing from the God.” CB Patel, said: “We ran this petition for years and received thousands of support. It is a great achievement. I am really happy that the flights have been reinstated. And it has been reinstated by Air India.

Everybody should fly Air India. I am also very proud to travel on this first direct flight to Ahmedabad, after being reinstated. This proves not only Mr Modi is a dear friend, who cares for the diaspora across the world, especially Britain, but also he is also a man of his word. He has kept his promise to do this for us.”

AI-Ahmedabad sets wheels in motion:

Inaugurating the direct flight from Ahmedabad air-

port, Gujarat minister Saurabh Patel said that, “Gujaratis are world travellers and constantly travel across the globe. Which is why, this direct flight will prove useful in connecting London-based Gujaratis with their state.”

Pradipsinh Jadeja, another Gujarat minister said, “This flight which provides a direct connectivity to the British NRGs, will accelerate the tourism in the state. With the approval of the direct flight facility, Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi has not only given a special gift to Gujarat, but also joined it with the rest of the world.” Also present on the occasion were Ahmedabad Mayor Gautambhai Shah, Deputy Mayor Pramodaben Sutaria, Standing Committee Chairman Pravinbhai Patel, Secretary of Tourism S J Haider, and top AI officials.

Direct flight means a flight with one or more intermediate stops but no change of aircraft. A nonstop flight means a flight made without intermediate stops between source and destination.

With a 90 minute stop in Mumbai, it was confirmed that the passengers won't be changing their flight to London. “Today is an auspicious day. I would like to congratulate who are travelling for the first time from this flight and staff of Air India,” Saurabh Patel said. The plane is not only beneficial for leisure travellers, but does a big deal of goodness for corporates. “This flight has given great connectivity to corporate travellers and we wish all the best to Air India”, said Suresh B V, executive vice-president, Cadila Pharmaceuticals.

Sanjeev Chhajer, vicepresident, Cox and Kings, said “This is a great initiative by Air India. There will be tremendous growth in passenger traffic from this flight.”

For its return, AI 130 left London at 13:30 pm and will reach Mumbai at 04:00 am next day.

Welcoming the flight and its passengers will be the Indian office of Gujarat Samachar (UK) and Asian Voice, along with Pradipsinh Jadeja, Jayesh Radadiya, Minister of Tourism, S J Haider, Jasabhai Barad, Minister of Civil Aviation, and top officials of Air India.

A function has been planned in the evening of December 16, to felicitate several dignitaries and, members of the All Party Committee for Direct Flight, for their undeterred contribution.

Amongst those expected are ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, Nitinbhai

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Patel, Ramanlal Vohra, Vijay Rupani, Shankarbhai Chaudhari, Pradipsinh Jadeja, Jayanti Kavadiya, and Govindbhai Patel.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel wrote a letter congratulating CB Patel, for his pursuant efforts. She wrote, “With science and technology, the world of 21st century is becoming so small that it seems you can hold it in the palm of your hand.The age-old philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) has been the legacy of our cultural heritage.

The daily direct flight between AhmedabadLondon-Ahmedabad is taking off from December 15, thanks to the joint effort put in by people under the able and successful leadership of our popular Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi. It is a matter of pride and joy not only for the Gujaratis living in Britain but also for the entire Gujarati community in the world.

At a time when the dynamic Gujarat is making a mark in development across the globe, this direct flight is a reflection of it scaling new heights of success for our NRIs, NRGs and global investors.

I convey my sincere wishes to all the dignitaries who are to be honoured on December 16 by the All Party Committee For Direct Flight for their effort and support in starting the service.”

The long drawn campaign: Years of

petitions, beliefs and wellplanned consistency, bore fruits when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the direct flight during his visit to the UK in November. The campaigning for the flight started 14 years ago, after which, Air India started 2 flights every week in 2003 and Jet Airways, in 2004.

However, with the change of government in Delhi, there were some unbidden changes, putting an end to the direct flights without formal notice. After being approached by several

Manoj Ladwa and Paresh Rawal presenting petition to Modi

DIRECT FLIGHT SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

readers and, members of the Indian community, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar along with NCGO (UK), started a petition, asking the people to come forward and sign to restart flights between London and Ahmedabad.

In a short span of time, over 18,000 petitions were collected.

The people signing them were not only members of the diaspora, but also were prominent politicians, including British MPs, peers, councillors, and leaders of various organisations.

Late Ashok Bhatt, Speaker of Gujarat

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Assembly, Jaynarayan Vyas, former senior Minister of Gujarat government, Dinsha Patel, former minister of state in the Central government, Siddharth Patel, former President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, Shakti Singh Gohil, former leader of the opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, former ministers and senior MPs including Harin Pathak, President of Gujarat state NCP Jayant Patel (Boski), Pradipsinh Jadeja Minister of Non-resident Gujaratis Division, and many others, all signed the petition in support of this

Reaction: Passengers flying to Ahmedabad on AI 130:

Indiraben Kanubhai Patel and Kanubhai Ambalal Patel, from Wembley going to Baroda via Ahmedabad: “I had booked before the direct flight was announced.

When Modi announced the direct flight, we were happy, we started dancing in the Wembley. We are proud and happy to travel on the first direct flight.”

Vatsalaben Kiritbhai Patel and Kiritbhai Gordhanbhai Patel from Slough, going to Baroda via Ahmedabad: “We are very pleased that we don't have to struggle in Mumbai.”

Chandrikaben Sidhapura, Bristol travelling with 9 years

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

CB Patel meeting Narendra Modi in London in November campaign.

Unrelentingly working towards the cause, AV and

“We are very pleased. Well done on this initiative. Glad we don't have to disembark in Mumbai with our old mum.”

Hansaben Chavda, Hertfotshire. Her Son Nirav came to drop off and said: “My mum is from India and going back there. She came via Delhi and struggled a lot. But this is such a fantastic opportunity. W are very pleased.”

Leelaben Rambhai Patel, 80 years, Leicester: “First time

GS did not dishearten despite the initial failure of the campaign. In 2012,

Babulal Khambayata: “Happy to go to India on a direct flight.

Very pleased.”

Sarojben Patel, 65 years: “Thank you Modiji for doing this.”

Arvindbhai Gadhvi, 67 years; Anjali Gadhvi and Vinuben Gadhvi: “Very proud of Mr Modi, for doing this. He has won our heart.”

Mallika Natrajan, Delhi and fiancé Raj Lakhani, flew from Ahmedabad, and have lived in the UK for 10 years: “When we went earlier via Mumbai it

Reaction from passengers travelling on the first flight from Ahmedabad to London: Sachin Choksi, who travelled

going to Ahmedabad on the direct flight. Really pleased.”

Kusumben Indravadhan son old Yug and 20 months son Ans: This is the first time I am flying to Ahmedabad directly.

With children this is a very good idea.”

Ramilaben Bhadreshbhai Patel (right in pic), Tooting:

“When I booked, there was no direct flight. But they changed my ticket to the direct flight now.

I am very happy and excited.”

Akash Parekh and Ravi Parekh, Kingsbury, came to drop off relative: The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a remarkable job. It is such a good initiative for India.”

80 years old Indiraben Mafatlal Patel travelling with Manjuben daughters and Meenaben from Manchester:

Manoj Ladwa, along with actor and MP, Paresh Rawal, handed over several thousands of brand-new petition letters from British and Indian MPs, MLAs, and others, to Modi's office in Gujarat.

Publisher/ Editor of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, CB Patel spearheaded the campaign with his dexterity. He also held a dinner in Gandhinagar in 2013, where eminent personalities were present, and all discussed the direct flight issue at length. While he remained the driving force behind the cause, Bhupatrai Parekh took up charge of

Patel (left in pic), Tottenham: “Thank you Mr Modi for doing this for us.”

Maltiben Narendrabhai Patel: “We are proud of PM Modi. Thank you for doing this for us.”

Dhimant Jani: “Great work. I hope we have this direct flight

every day from now.”

Vimalbhai Patel, with son Neel (10 years) and Bansri (8 years) going to Ahmedabad: “Security is an issue in Mumbai.

Great that we are going directly to Ahmedabad.”

84 years old Vasantben

from Ahmedabad, “My experience was good. I did not have to disembark in Mumbai, which was great. It was Dreamliner carrier, so the facilities were great. The direct flight especially helped ladies with small children and elderly.”

Vishwa Punjabi and Jasvin Vig from Anand, “I read about

your petition to reinstate the direct flight. Thanks for your efforts. I must congratulate and thank NaMo for re-starting this flight. The opening ceremony was spectacular. Mr Dalal, dignitaries and passengers cut cake.

The Mayor of Ahmedabad was also present. Lot of people have taken selfie at the event, I have too.”

Vishwa was handed over his boarding pass by Saurabh Patel, Civil Aviation Minister, Gujarat State. He was first passenger to board the direct flight from Ahmedabad.

caused us a lot of stress.

Changing flight in Ahmedabad was a problem. Now we do immigration and security all in Ahmedabad.

“We really enjoyed this trip.

We did not have to disembark.

AI hospitality was class apart and they really took care of us.

There were many passengers to Mumbai from Ahmedabad. But from Mumbai to London only 50% stayed on board. So we could lie down, sleep and travel.”

Arvindbhai M Patel and wife Naina A Patel, Baroda, who live

in Croydon “For elderly people like us it has become very easy now. I have lived in Croydon for 30-40 years. I had no issues on this flight. We finished immigration in Ahmedabad. The food on flight was Indian vegetarian and it was good. Facility was good, we had a lot of fun. NaMo has done great by reinstating this direct flight. We had signed petition that Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar had circulated. Thanks to you for helping us with this direct flight. Also thanks to Mr Saurabh Patel to send us off.”

Nilesh Chandrakant Patel,

17

the mission in India.

After years of pressurising and prompting, the campaign has now ended successfully. During his visit to Britain, PM Narendra Modi announced the resumption of the direct flight. He has mentioned CB while making the announcement. “Whenever my friend Shri CB Patel used to visit Gujarat, even when I was in Delhi, he used to catch hold of my neck on this matter, and it is because of him, today I am announcing the resumption of the direct flight between London and Ahmedabad,” he ribbed.

who came on visitor visa, is a Videographer from Ahmedabad: “ This is my first time to the UK. I will see places and film. On the flight the food was good. I had a lot of luggage. Great that I did not have to bother about luggage in Mumbai, as we did not have to disembark. I happily slept on the flight.

“I have been to other countries and I knew that getting off at Mumbai is a bit confusing.

Thank god we did not have to do it this time.”

Ankush Jain (from

Banswada, Rajasthan) and Disha Jain (from Ahmedabad), live in Southall: “We went for Ankush's sister's wedding. We had a great time. Disha had flown direct flight in 2008.

When it stopped, we faced a lot of trouble. Great that it has been reinstated. When it was announced in Wembley, we were very happy. The dreamliner has an excellent leg space.

“It's great for elderly people who did not have to wait for long. And this saves time for all.

Natives from Britain are used to direct flights. This flight will help the state to develop tourism further.”

Prabhubhai Dave, 70 years travelling from Anand: travel-

ling for the first time to the UK “My wife and daughter live in St Albans. This flight was great for elderly people like me. I can't sit for very long. Total travel time has reduced remarkably on this flight. So I had no issues. Food was great. Thank you for NaMo and your initiatives.”

16

FINALLY, THE DRE

DIRECT FLIGHT SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com

AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Water cannon salute in Ahmedabad for AI 131 CONTINUED FROM P1 “Today (Tuesday 15 Dec) is Sardar Patel's death anniversary. Sardar has put in immense hard work and bound the whole India together. It's great that the direct flight is restarting on this important date.

“I hope in flight today they serve rice, dal, dhokla, debra- all Gujarati food, that would please passengers. This direct flight is a boon for the elderly, women with young kids, who have suffered for very long now- disembarking and embarking the aircraft every time in Mumbai. This flight will ensure that they no longer face such issues.

“Also young BritIndians are enthusiastic to see Modi's new India.

Direct flight is a part of it.”

Ms Tara Naidu, Regional Manager-UK told Asian Voice, “I am so happy that the direct flight has been reinstated during my term in the UK. “Though the flight will go via Mumbai, direct flight means passengers flying to Ahmedabad do not have to disembark in Mumbai any longer. They will remain in the aircraft for 40 mins or so, and the flight will then go to Ahmedabad. This saves them the hassle of disembarking and embarking again.

“From January we are trying for a non-stop flight to Ahmedabad.

That

means the flight will go to Ahmedabad straight, and not via Mumbai. I know elderly people prefer Indian airlines. Therefore we are trying to put together the non-stop flight.

“This morning the flight that started from Ahmedabad (AI 131) was greeted with water cannon.

“The Gujarati community here is quite big.

Today the flight is full including Business Class.

I am happy and hope it remains this way.

Today while passengers get on to the flight, they will be given special Indian sweets to take, as a small gesture from us.”

Asian Voice also met with the Air India airport Manager in Heathrow, Pratik Majumdar, and the team that worked very hard to put everything together on Tuesday morning. It included Public relation, Officer- PR & Corporate Sales- Paula Chattaraj, Airport Assistant Manager Divakar Mani and Shakeela Lambe from Sales & Marketing.

Speaking exclusively to Asian Voice, Captain Chanakya, said: “I am very pleased that people's needs are fulfilled. It is a matter of pride.”

Karan Shah, First Officer said, “Most of the passengers are going to Ahmedabad. Even while travelling via Delhi and Mumbai, most passengers

usually go to Ahmedabad. I am proud that their request has been fulfilled.”

Cabin in-charge Armin Patel said, “Gujarat is home for me. My people today are flying to Ahmedabad directly. I am really happy. It is a

trouble for the wheelchair passengers in Delhi and Mumbai to get off and get on. They are happy to have a direct flight. It is a bless-

Saurabh Patel speaking at the inauguration of direct flight in Ahmedabad

ing from the God.” CB Patel, said: “We ran this petition for years and received thousands of support. It is a great achievement. I am really happy that the flights have been reinstated. And it has been reinstated by Air India.

Everybody should fly Air India. I am also very proud to travel on this first direct flight to Ahmedabad, after being reinstated. This proves not only Mr Modi is a dear friend, who cares for the diaspora across the world, especially Britain, but also he is also a man of his word. He has kept his promise to do this for us.”

AI-Ahmedabad sets wheels in motion:

Inaugurating the direct flight from Ahmedabad air-

port, Gujarat minister Saurabh Patel said that, “Gujaratis are world travellers and constantly travel across the globe. Which is why, this direct flight will prove useful in connecting London-based Gujaratis with their state.”

Pradipsinh Jadeja, another Gujarat minister said, “This flight which provides a direct connectivity to the British NRGs, will accelerate the tourism in the state. With the approval of the direct flight facility, Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi has not only given a special gift to Gujarat, but also joined it with the rest of the world.” Also present on the occasion were Ahmedabad Mayor Gautambhai Shah, Deputy Mayor Pramodaben Sutaria, Standing Committee Chairman Pravinbhai Patel, Secretary of Tourism S J Haider, and top AI officials.

Direct flight means a flight with one or more intermediate stops but no change of aircraft. A nonstop flight means a flight made without intermediate stops between source and destination.

With a 90 minute stop in Mumbai, it was confirmed that the passengers won't be changing their flight to London. “Today is an auspicious day. I would like to congratulate who are travelling for the first time from this flight and staff of Air India,” Saurabh Patel said. The plane is not only beneficial for leisure travellers, but does a big deal of goodness for corporates. “This flight has given great connectivity to corporate travellers and we wish all the best to Air India”, said Suresh B V, executive vice-president, Cadila Pharmaceuticals.

Sanjeev Chhajer, vicepresident, Cox and Kings, said “This is a great initiative by Air India. There will be tremendous growth in passenger traffic from this flight.”

For its return, AI 130 left London at 13:30 pm and will reach Mumbai at 04:00 am next day.

Welcoming the flight and its passengers will be the Indian office of Gujarat Samachar (UK) and Asian Voice, along with Pradipsinh Jadeja, Jayesh Radadiya, Minister of Tourism, S J Haider, Jasabhai Barad, Minister of Civil Aviation, and top officials of Air India.

A function has been planned in the evening of December 16, to felicitate several dignitaries and, members of the All Party Committee for Direct Flight, for their undeterred contribution.

Amongst those expected are ministers Bhupendrasinh Chudasma, Nitinbhai

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Patel, Ramanlal Vohra, Vijay Rupani, Shankarbhai Chaudhari, Pradipsinh Jadeja, Jayanti Kavadiya, and Govindbhai Patel.

Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel wrote a letter congratulating CB Patel, for his pursuant efforts. She wrote, “With science and technology, the world of 21st century is becoming so small that it seems you can hold it in the palm of your hand.The age-old philosophy of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam (the world is one family) has been the legacy of our cultural heritage.

The daily direct flight between AhmedabadLondon-Ahmedabad is taking off from December 15, thanks to the joint effort put in by people under the able and successful leadership of our popular Prime Minister Narendrabhai Modi. It is a matter of pride and joy not only for the Gujaratis living in Britain but also for the entire Gujarati community in the world.

At a time when the dynamic Gujarat is making a mark in development across the globe, this direct flight is a reflection of it scaling new heights of success for our NRIs, NRGs and global investors.

I convey my sincere wishes to all the dignitaries who are to be honoured on December 16 by the All Party Committee For Direct Flight for their effort and support in starting the service.”

The long drawn campaign: Years of

petitions, beliefs and wellplanned consistency, bore fruits when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the direct flight during his visit to the UK in November. The campaigning for the flight started 14 years ago, after which, Air India started 2 flights every week in 2003 and Jet Airways, in 2004.

However, with the change of government in Delhi, there were some unbidden changes, putting an end to the direct flights without formal notice. After being approached by several

Manoj Ladwa and Paresh Rawal presenting petition to Modi

EAM COMES TRUE

DIRECT FLIGHT SPECIAL

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

readers and, members of the Indian community, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar along with NCGO (UK), started a petition, asking the people to come forward and sign to restart flights between London and Ahmedabad.

In a short span of time, over 18,000 petitions were collected.

The people signing them were not only members of the diaspora, but also were prominent politicians, including British MPs, peers, councillors, and leaders of various organisations.

Late Ashok Bhatt, Speaker of Gujarat

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Assembly, Jaynarayan Vyas, former senior Minister of Gujarat government, Dinsha Patel, former minister of state in the Central government, Siddharth Patel, former President of Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee, Shakti Singh Gohil, former leader of the opposition in the Gujarat Assembly, former ministers and senior MPs including Harin Pathak, President of Gujarat state NCP Jayant Patel (Boski), Pradipsinh Jadeja Minister of Non-resident Gujaratis Division, and many others, all signed the petition in support of this

Reaction: Passengers flying to Ahmedabad on AI 130:

Indiraben Kanubhai Patel and Kanubhai Ambalal Patel, from Wembley going to Baroda via Ahmedabad: “I had booked before the direct flight was announced.

When Modi announced the direct flight, we were happy, we started dancing in the Wembley. We are proud and happy to travel on the first direct flight.”

Vatsalaben Kiritbhai Patel and Kiritbhai Gordhanbhai Patel from Slough, going to Baroda via Ahmedabad: “We are very pleased that we don't have to struggle in Mumbai.”

Chandrikaben Sidhapura, Bristol travelling with 9 years

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

CB Patel meeting Narendra Modi in London in November campaign.

Unrelentingly working towards the cause, AV and

“We are very pleased. Well done on this initiative. Glad we don't have to disembark in Mumbai with our old mum.”

Hansaben Chavda, Hertfotshire. Her Son Nirav came to drop off and said: “My mum is from India and going back there. She came via Delhi and struggled a lot. But this is such a fantastic opportunity. W are very pleased.”

Leelaben Rambhai Patel, 80 years, Leicester: “First time

GS did not dishearten despite the initial failure of the campaign. In 2012,

Babulal Khambayata: “Happy to go to India on a direct flight.

Very pleased.”

Sarojben Patel, 65 years: “Thank you Modiji for doing this.”

Arvindbhai Gadhvi, 67 years; Anjali Gadhvi and Vinuben Gadhvi: “Very proud of Mr Modi, for doing this. He has won our heart.”

Mallika Natrajan, Delhi and fiancé Raj Lakhani, flew from Ahmedabad, and have lived in the UK for 10 years: “When we went earlier via Mumbai it

Reaction from passengers travelling on the first flight from Ahmedabad to London: Sachin Choksi, who travelled

going to Ahmedabad on the direct flight. Really pleased.”

Kusumben Indravadhan son old Yug and 20 months son Ans: This is the first time I am flying to Ahmedabad directly.

With children this is a very good idea.”

Ramilaben Bhadreshbhai Patel (right in pic), Tooting:

“When I booked, there was no direct flight. But they changed my ticket to the direct flight now.

I am very happy and excited.”

Akash Parekh and Ravi Parekh, Kingsbury, came to drop off relative: The Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has done a remarkable job. It is such a good initiative for India.”

80 years old Indiraben Mafatlal Patel travelling with Manjuben daughters and Meenaben from Manchester:

Manoj Ladwa, along with actor and MP, Paresh Rawal, handed over several thousands of brand-new petition letters from British and Indian MPs, MLAs, and others, to Modi's office in Gujarat.

Publisher/ Editor of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar, CB Patel spearheaded the campaign with his dexterity. He also held a dinner in Gandhinagar in 2013, where eminent personalities were present, and all discussed the direct flight issue at length. While he remained the driving force behind the cause, Bhupatrai Parekh took up charge of

Patel (left in pic), Tottenham: “Thank you Mr Modi for doing this for us.”

Maltiben Narendrabhai Patel: “We are proud of PM Modi. Thank you for doing this for us.”

Dhimant Jani: “Great work. I hope we have this direct flight

every day from now.”

Vimalbhai Patel, with son Neel (10 years) and Bansri (8 years) going to Ahmedabad: “Security is an issue in Mumbai.

Great that we are going directly to Ahmedabad.”

84 years old Vasantben

from Ahmedabad, “My experience was good. I did not have to disembark in Mumbai, which was great. It was Dreamliner carrier, so the facilities were great. The direct flight especially helped ladies with small children and elderly.”

Vishwa Punjabi and Jasvin Vig from Anand, “I read about

your petition to reinstate the direct flight. Thanks for your efforts. I must congratulate and thank NaMo for re-starting this flight. The opening ceremony was spectacular. Mr Dalal, dignitaries and passengers cut cake.

The Mayor of Ahmedabad was also present. Lot of people have taken selfie at the event, I have too.”

Vishwa was handed over his boarding pass by Saurabh Patel, Civil Aviation Minister, Gujarat State. He was first passenger to board the direct flight from Ahmedabad.

caused us a lot of stress.

Changing flight in Ahmedabad was a problem. Now we do immigration and security all in Ahmedabad.

“We really enjoyed this trip.

We did not have to disembark.

AI hospitality was class apart and they really took care of us.

There were many passengers to Mumbai from Ahmedabad. But from Mumbai to London only 50% stayed on board. So we could lie down, sleep and travel.”

Arvindbhai M Patel and wife Naina A Patel, Baroda, who live

in Croydon “For elderly people like us it has become very easy now. I have lived in Croydon for 30-40 years. I had no issues on this flight. We finished immigration in Ahmedabad. The food on flight was Indian vegetarian and it was good. Facility was good, we had a lot of fun. NaMo has done great by reinstating this direct flight. We had signed petition that Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar had circulated. Thanks to you for helping us with this direct flight. Also thanks to Mr Saurabh Patel to send us off.”

Nilesh Chandrakant Patel,

17

the mission in India.

After years of pressurising and prompting, the campaign has now ended successfully. During his visit to Britain, PM Narendra Modi announced the resumption of the direct flight. He has mentioned CB while making the announcement. “Whenever my friend Shri CB Patel used to visit Gujarat, even when I was in Delhi, he used to catch hold of my neck on this matter, and it is because of him, today I am announcing the resumption of the direct flight between London and Ahmedabad,” he ribbed.

who came on visitor visa, is a Videographer from Ahmedabad: “ This is my first time to the UK. I will see places and film. On the flight the food was good. I had a lot of luggage. Great that I did not have to bother about luggage in Mumbai, as we did not have to disembark. I happily slept on the flight.

“I have been to other countries and I knew that getting off at Mumbai is a bit confusing.

Thank god we did not have to do it this time.”

Ankush Jain (from

Banswada, Rajasthan) and Disha Jain (from Ahmedabad), live in Southall: “We went for Ankush's sister's wedding. We had a great time. Disha had flown direct flight in 2008.

When it stopped, we faced a lot of trouble. Great that it has been reinstated. When it was announced in Wembley, we were very happy. The dreamliner has an excellent leg space.

“It's great for elderly people who did not have to wait for long. And this saves time for all.

Natives from Britain are used to direct flights. This flight will help the state to develop tourism further.”

Prabhubhai Dave, 70 years travelling from Anand: travel-

ling for the first time to the UK “My wife and daughter live in St Albans. This flight was great for elderly people like me. I can't sit for very long. Total travel time has reduced remarkably on this flight. So I had no issues. Food was great. Thank you for NaMo and your initiatives.”

18

ASIANBUSINESS

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Consultant Editor Financial Voice

Alpesh Patel

Dear Financial Voice Reader, Need money for an invention? Or for your business growth?

My readers want me to cover more entrepreneurship and business issues in my column, than finance alone.

I get a lot of emails from business persons looking for finance for their business. Bank loans most people are familiar with. No one wants to fill out grant forms. And venture capital firms invest in hardly 1% of all businesses.

But have you thought about crowdfunding?

That’s where online you place details about your business or innovation and look for investors. The system is online, simple, quick and you don’t have to have meetings or negotiate. You explain what stage your business is at, and what you want the money for.

Investors get a stake in your business or depending on the online platform make a loan to you. Of course if an investor thinks your business will not grow or sell out, then they are not going to lend you money.

Equally if they think you cannot repay the loan, they won’t either. But this platform opens up the opportunities for small businesses. And companies like Crowdcube and Kickstarter are leading platforms.

So many British Indians are in business. But here is the exciting thing, you may be a professional, a doctor, or management consultant. And you may need funding for an invention. Well these platforms are good for that too.

Because they force you to think commercially about presenting the invention, and the figures behind it, you are being forced to think if it is viable to begin with and if the market wants it.

But guess what – that also market tests it. If you can’t get the funding, then clearly the market is not interested. Imagine if Steve Jobs put the iPod on a crowdfunding site. Obviously every investor would have thought that it is great, he would have got the money.

The key reasons for failure will be your idea is not good enough commercially to produce a return. Isn’t it great you get a load of experienced investors to vet it at no cost.

Of course a few delusional arrogant business people will think they know best, and go ahead anyway, like Donald Trump, and end up bankrupt like Donald Trump too.

These platforms prevent your ego throwing good money away, because if the idea is good money goes to it.

Of course you could turn investor and invest via these sites in the next big thing. But of course not everything on the sites is going to be big. Maybe only 10% will make a return. So be careful.

Sebi attaches PACL's assets of over £6 billion India's market regulator Sebi said it has attached the assets of PACL, its promoters and directors for failing to refund about £6 billion that the company had been raising illegally from five crore investors since 1997. PACL's illegal fund mop-up is the biggest collective investment scheme (CIS) in the country that has come under the Sebi scanner.

The regulator has attached bank and demat accounts, mutual fund investments and other assets of the company and its promoters.

Sebi said it has started recovery proceedings against Chandigarh-based PACL and its promoters and directors who include Nirmal Singh Bhangoo,

Tarlochan Singh, Sukhdev Singh, Gurmeet Singh, Subrata Bhattacharya, Tyger Joginder, Gurnam Singh, Anand Gurwant Singh and Uppal Devinder Kumar, after they failed to comply with its order. On August 22, Sebi had directed the company and its promoters and directors to wind up their schemes and refund money to the investors within three months from the date of the order. The order was challenged at Securities Appellate Tribunal (SAT) which upheld the regulator's decision against PACL. According to Sebi, PACL had raised about £4.91 billion till Sebi ordered it to stop collecting money.

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JLR to build aluminium vehicles at Slovakia plant AsianVoiceNews

Jaguar Land Rover, the UK-based carmaker, confirmed plans to set up a £1bn factory at Nitra in Slovakia – a facility that will become its third overseas assembly plant. The plant will employ 2,800 workers and build a range of all-new aluminium vehicles. JLR opened its first overseas factory outside Shanghai in October last year and has begun building a plant in Brazil. The Slovak plant will start construction next year and have an initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles.

The central European country has rapidly expanded as an automotive export hub and its factories made 179 vehicles per 1,000 citizens in 2014.

That compares with 73 in Germany, 37 in the US and 28 in France. In recent years Slovakia has staged a rapid shift towards upmarket cars. AeroMobil, which is based in Nitra, is developing what could be the

first commercial flying car.

Slovakia beat stiff competition from rival countries such as the United States, Mexico and Poland.

Ralf Speth, JLR’s chief executive, said Slovakia has an established premium automotive sector, which represents 43 per cent of the country’s overall industry. It has more than 300 suppliers in close proximity and an excellent logistics infrastructure.

The announcement fol-

lows the signing of an agreement by Speth and Robert Fico, Slovak prime minister. JLR’s expansion has made it one of the UK’s largest exporters and its workforce has doubled since 2010. But the new plant in low-cost central Europe has sparked fears in some quarters that the company’s commitment to its British base could be waning.

Dispelling rumours, Speth said, “the heart of our company

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would always be in the UK, where our design, technology and manufacturing capabilities were based. It is our creativity and innovation which makes Jaguar Land Rover the leading boutique automotive brand, offering exceptional products for our customers. After five years of stellar growth, JLR has suffered the worst effects of the slowdown in China.

Sales in the country – a hugely important market for JLR and once its biggest sales region – fell by almost 32 per cent in the July-September period.”

But successive announcements – including expansion at its new Wolverhampton engine plant and a possible entry into the Formula E race series – have put the focus back on the company’s rapid expansion as it tries to catch up with its German premium rivals: Audi, BMW and MercedesBenz.

StanChart axes senior bankers in energy M&A team Standard Chartered bank has axed at least half a dozen oil and gas advisory banking roles in recent weeks, ending an eightyear attempt to build a global energy M&A team as new CEO Bill Winters moves to rein in costs, people familiar with the matter said.

Standard Chartered expanded its energy M&A advisory team just before the global financial crisis by acquiring Harrison Lovegrove, a well regarded boutique advisory firm for oil and gas. At that time, more than two dozen bankers came over to Standard Chartered from Harrison Lovegrove.

But Winters, who is cutting 15,000 jobs globally to restore profitability, is getting rid of expensive specialised bankers and taking a step to reduce the bank's global

ambitions in the M&A space.

The senior managing directors to leave the bank include the London-based head of the energy M&A team, three people aware of the situation said. The sources declined to be identified.

Four Singapore-based managing directors in the team were also let go, the sources added, including one, who was an expert on energy and power financing, in July. Some less senior bankers were also axed.

The downsized team is now led by Alok Sinha and most of its members are based in Singapore, the sources said. The bank wants to move away from depending on advisory fees, and rely more on revenues generated by selling forex hedging products used in M&A transactions, the sources said.

"The model of pure advice doesn't fit with Standard Chartered's new scheme of things. It's an expensive proposition," one person familiar with the development said.

Plunging oil prices: The sharp fall in oil prices has resulted in less M&A opportunities in the energy sector, in particular from national oil companies who were key drivers of deal-making, resulting in less work for bankers.

The changing landscape has resulted in some other investment banks, including Nomura Holdings trimming their oil and gas M&A teams in recent months although the scale of the reductions was smaller, separate sources said.

Winters is seeking to bring down Standard Chartered's bloated cost.

Under previous CEO

Peter Sands, employee expenses had jumped to $6.7 billion in 2014, pushing up the widely tracked cost-to-income ratio to 60 per cent. In contrast, DBS Group Holdings Ltd, a bank with a higher market value than Standard Chartered, spent just $1.6 billion on employee expenses in 2014, achieving a cost to income ratio of 45 per cent.

Following the Harrison Lovegrove acquisition, Standard Chartered's Asia-Pacific M&A league table ranking improved to 13th in 2013 from 35th in 2008, according to Thomson Reuters data. But as the bank's overall performance dropped due to higher regulatory problems, its energy M&A business also suffered and Standard Chartered's ranking slipped to 44th this year.

India's Nov retail inflation hits 14-month high India's retail inflation accelerated to a 14-month high in November, driven up by higher food prices, underscoring the challenge the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) faces in meeting its medium-term inflation target.

The consumer price index (CPI), which the central bank closely tracks for setting lending rates, rose an annual 5.41 per cent last month. Retail prices were up 5 per cent on-year in October.

The RBI aims to keep retail inflation to around 5 per cent by March 2017.

But steep government pay

hikes and irregular rainfall pose risks to that target.

"The broader theme really has been a considerable pick-up in food inflation and unwinding of the favourable base of last year, as well as stickiness in services inflation," said Madhavi Arora, economist at Kotak Mahindra Bank in Mumbai. In her view, the RBI will hold rates at least until March.

After easing monetary policy aggressively this year , the RBI earlier this month held the key repo rate at 6.75 per cent. While a crash in global commodity prices has tamped

down prices in India, the central bank remains worried about elevated household inflationary expectations. Retail food price jumped an annual 6.07 per cent last month, faster than October's 5.25 per cent rise.

Monday's data came hours after the government reported a pickup in wholesale food prices.

While overall wholesale prices declined an annual 1.99 per cent in November, their 13th straight fall, wholesale food prices gained 5.20 per cent on year compared with October's provisional 2.44

per cent rise.

Clouding the inflation outlook is the recommendation of a government panel for an average 24 per cent pay hike for millions of its employees, which would lift demand-driven price pressures. The RBI is also expected to contend with a potentially weakening rupee should outflows from emerging markets gather pace if, as widely anticipated, the Federal Reserve hikes US interest rates this week.

According to a Reuters poll earlier this month, the Indian rupee will weaken through next year.

REALESTATEVOICE

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Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

19

Don't bite more than you can chew

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

It is always better to take small bites and chew well, rather than a big one which you cannot chew well. The same principle applies in property, especially if you don't have a big mouth, or maybe you could have a big mouth but not chew too well!

From the smaller stock of properties we have sourced over the years in Central London, none have gone down in price, only upwards; some more than others. The majority of these have been ex local properties, as once upon a time they could be bought really cheap, with awesome rental yields. Here’s an example: a two bedroom property in 2009 could be bought for £275k in Westbourne Grove W2. It came with a long lease and a low service charge, the rental would be around £550 pw thanks to social housing. This gave an annual rental of £28,600. In short you would put £75k in the deal, and you would get £20k income after all expenses. This is a brilliant return, given the location is also superb, however this deal was not as easy to sell as it should have been. People were still hesitant for no reason, except for the reason that most people are hesitant most of the time; and funnily for the wrong reason they foolishly rush in. With property in a good location and at that kind of entry level you can afford to be a bit bullish. Looking back from the environment we are in at the moment yields like this were a God send. These rentals were short lived, you would have had two to three years to make some money on the rentals, then the government introduced a cap on the amount of rent it was prepared to pay. However the actual money was not made on the rent but the capital growth of the property. The rental yields were just a bonus.

I remember one client came in from Sussex to look at a property in Westbourne Grove. He came to see the property and his feedback to me was that the property was ugly, hence he did not want to purchase it. My reply was that he did not want to live in the property so it didn’t need to look pretty. The idea was it should be a pure investment. The numbers looked pretty and this was where the focus should be on, as well as the location, as this would be the driving factor for future growth.

Even really low priced, dingy properties go up due to one factor which is the location. remove once you have a HMO status. The reason is HMOs offer affordable living spaces in expensive areas. Councils like these to be in their borough as it means the low paid can afford to live there, otherwise they can be priced out of the market.

On a couple of projects we are about to start work on we have gone back to the drawing board. One property is in St John’s Wood which we were originally looking to convert to a family home, we have now gone back to the drawing board to see how we can carve it up into smaller units as we have a window of time before we commence works.

Despite the fact that a house is in keeping with the area and the street, smaller units are better for rental and sales. The environment has changed and will change in the coming months. The appetite for property in the UK will not be satiated, but the palette will evolve according to the environment.

We are even exploring the options for a HMO. Most avoid converting to a HMO, as it devalues the property, and it is difficult to

However we would be looking at this from only two points of view, one is the income it will produce and the other is how we can refinance to get the funds out of the deal and move on.

The focus now will be on smaller rather than larger lumps. Or larger lumps which can be chopped up into smaller ones.

My opinion is smaller lots will rise faster in price and liquidity starting from the New Year. When purchasing smaller properties it may be prudent to purchase in a vehicle of a Ltd company in preparation for the coming tax changes. This is especially the case if you are looking to buy and hold. These changes will start to creep in from 2017 in a graduated way, so there will not be too much opposition. This is however an unintuitive tax, akin to paying tax on the turnover of a company rather than the profits.

The Real Deal

West Kensington, London, W14 Purchase Price: £450k

Purchasing within the vehicle of a company will rid the investor of this coming tax. A company is easy to set up and cheap to run. On the resale too it will benefit the incoming purchaser, as they will be purchasing a company rather than a property.

l A large two bedroom ground floor flat situated within walking distance of Holland Park l Share of freehold l 24 hours Porterage l Properties in this location are being sold for around £800 per sq. ft. and above while this is coming in at around £650 per sq. ft. l Close to all the amenities of Kensington High Street l Very good buy and hold opportunity

We have secured a couple of low cost properties with a view to exchanging prior to Christmas. Both ex locals, with low service charges and yields of over 5% which is a good yield in this market.

Rentals yields have dropped as prices have increased. They start from £450k which requires a deposit of £112k. If you’re a first time buyer, or you know a first time buyer, you may qualify for the government grant which will help to fund the deposit, thereby reducing the amount you have to invest in the deal. Both properties come with a long lease and are available now!

Call our office if you are interested in these deals.

Call us now to reserve!

0207 993 0103

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

Specialists in

Central London Property Sourcing

info@sowandreap.co.uk

www.sowandreap.co.uk

27 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HU

Follow us online:

Sowandreapuk

SowandReapProperties

Tips of the Week

l Even when market conditions go bad, by investing in property that is constantly in demand you are lowering risk and should be able to manage through the tough times. And when market conditions are good, your property investment should see the growth that will give you excellent returns. l It’s not good to have a quick sale as your only option; in today’s market, you should always have an alternative strategy should things not go to plan.

20

BUSINESS

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Tax sops, loans for cos to boost intellectual property rights The Modi government has prepared India's first intellectual property rights policy that suggests a series of tax sops and other incentives to promote research and development and patents, besides providing support to small and medium enterprises and startups. In a host of measures, it is looking at a loan guarantee scheme that would treat a patent as a mortgageable asset that can be used to raise funds. The policy is expected to encourage start ups and others to cover the risk of failure during commercialisation of a patent.

At the same time, the cabinet note moved by the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP), has said the government would use the legislative space and flexibility available under international treaties such as TRIPs to protect its interests.

Activists had feared that the government could dilute some of the provisions of the existing law, which allowed the patent office to reject frivolous applications or invoke special provisions to waive patent rights in case of an emergency or for providing access to medicines. “The idea is to have a legal framework that promotes strong and effective IPR laws and yet balances the interests of the right holders with larger public interest,” said a source.

The policy was in the pipeline for the past few months and the notion is to lessen the number of pend-

ing applications to global levels and expedite processing of applications. Sources said the government is boosting the manpower capability at the patent office by hiring 500 examiners and outsourcing work to 300 people, including at IITs. While a mega awareness programme has been chalked out, the policy has suggested tax benefits to promote R&D with indirect tax sops to expand coverage to include spending on creating, developing, protecting and commercialising IPRs. DIPP has also proposed that there may be tax incentives for a limited period on the sales and exports of products using IPRs that are generated from pubicfunded research. Further, companies that pump in money into public R&D units could treat it as a corporate social responsibility (CSR) spending. Move is also afoot to support SMEs, start ups and grassroot innovators through tax concessions.

Sources said that apart from strengthening the patent, trademarks and copyright offices, the government is also looking at a host of measures to strengthen action in case of infringement and has proposed amendments to the Cinematography Act to provide for penal provisions for illegal duplication of films.

In addition, the entire, IPR activity, which is spread across ministries, is proposed to be handled by DIPP .

Tata Motors global sales rise 8 per cent Tata Motors Group has reported a rise of eight per cent in its global sales for last month. The automobile giant said its global sales, including those of Jaguar Land Rover, stood at 90,695 units. In a statement, it said, “Global sales of all Tata Motors' commercial vehicles and Tata Daewoo range in November 2015 were 29,066 nos., lower by 4 per cent, compared to November 2014.”

They also revealed that the group's sales of all passen-

India's industrial growth at 5-year high of 9.8% AsianVoiceNews

While the industrial growth in India hit a fiveyear high of 9.8 per cent in October, owing to the festive season, economists have warned that too much should not be read into a month's data.

The sharp rise in the index of industrial production was propelled by manufacturing which registered 10.6 per cent growth during October, latest data showed. While mining activity saw a marginal pick-up, there was strong growth in electricity too.

Industrial activity had contracted by 2.7 per cent during October 2014 and was estimated to have grown by 3.8 per cent in September,

2015. Although economists said the higher-thanexpected showing was on account of a low base, the data is in line with trends from the second quarter GDP data, which had estimated that the manufacturing sector grew by 9.3 per cent. Strong industrial growth beat analyst esti-

Cola warns factory shutdown over GST plan Coca Cola India has announced that it has no other option but to shut down some of its factories if a sin tax of 40 per cent is imposed on aerated drinks within the proposed Goods and Services Tax. “An acceptance of the Arvind Subramaniam committee recommendations with regard to GST rate of 40 per cent on aerated beverages, will have a negative ripple effect on the entire beverage ecosystem,” Coca Cola said in a statement.

Chief Economic Adviser (CEA) Subramanian-headed committee on GST recommended a sin tax of 40 per cent on aerated drinks, tobacco and luxury cars while the suggested standard GST rate is 17 to 18 per cent.

“This is not in line with the 'Make in India' programme launched by the government of India, which recognizes 'Food

Processing' as an important sector within the programme and specifically mentions our industry under the line item category of 'Consumer food: packaged food, aerated soft drinks, packaged drinking water' and also 'Beverages: fruit-based and cerealbased'.” Reiterating its commitment to India, it said it plans to invest $5 billion by the end of 2020, having already invested $2.5 billion and running 57 factories supporting 7,000 distributors, 3000,000 retailers and creating direct and indirect employment to more than 200,000 people.

mates, and augurs well for the economy and job creation.

Consumer durables, evident from auto sales data that were released last month, emerged as a star, clocking 42.2% growth, compared to 35% contraction in October 2014.

There was also a strong

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

performance from consumer goods (18.4%) and capital goods (16.1%). In recent months, there has been a revival in the capital goods segment which indicates that the overall industrial activity may be more robust as machinery and equipment will be used for further production in factories and plants.

Chief economic advisor Arvind Subramanian said, “The latest October IIP is very good. It's a high number, good number and encouraging number. But one has to be a little bit careful in interpreting this number... especially this month as there is a Diwali effect.”

GST will unify the nation: RBI chief RBI governor Raghuram Rajan feels the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax will be good for the economy. Speaking at the Presidency University in Kolkata, he said, “Broadly speaking, there are two major advantages that GST will bring. Firstly GST could increase the tax base because it will bring more people under the tax net.

Secondly, GST will reduce the barriers between states.

It will make the country a common market.

Commenting on the non-performing asset level in the banking system, Rajan added that banks have devised a mechanism to avoid over-borrowings by large borrowers, mentioning that the RBI maintains a database shared among banks. He said Indian banks have the right kind of leveraging, adding that “those who said that the banks have no capital require-

Raghuram Rajan ments are not sensible.”

Citing the instance of Indian economy, he said foreign share in government debt is 3%-3.2%, which is reasonable. “It is easy to be tempted by easy money from outside and then get into problems later. There is a need for the golden mean,” he said.

Showing the need for debt in society, Rajan said it was also responsible for creating antipathy among entities. He also added that cutting interest rates to rock bottom levels was not a good idea. “Better to have growth in real activity rather than a financial market boom due to distortion in prices.”

India is No 1 choice for global tech R&D ger vehicles during the month under review rose by 15 per cent at 61,629 units.

However, the global sales of Tata Motors' passenger vehicles in November 2015 declined by one per cent at 10,608 units.

RBS admits to keeping 4,500 customers in dark The Royal Bank of Scotland has admitted that it had kept 4,500 customers in the dark when they sought information about the cash that was lying in their dormant accounts. Now RBS is facing an investigation by the City watchdog after the revelation. The depositors

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were told that their savings were not held at the bank when in fact they were.

RBS, which is still 73%owned by the British taxpayer, admitted that it had set up the wrong filters on computer software designed to seek out the owners of inactive accounts.

India accounts for $12.3 billion, or 40 per cent of the total of $31 billion of globalised engineering and R&D in 2015, as per a study conducted by consulting firm Zinnov.

Compared to last year, the revenues of the captives in India grew by 8.3 per cent, as against the growth of 7.6 per cent for all captives. China comes second with revenues of $9.7 billion.

Zinnov, which has been focused on this space since it was founded over a decade ago, finds that 69 per cent of all new offshore technology centres this year was set up in India.

The past two years have seen a spate of new centres being set up and the older ones expanding, including those of Exxon Mobil, Lowe's, Visa, Victoria's

Secret, JC Penny, CME Group, Wells Fargo, and British Telecom. Software & internet accounts for 35 per cent of the work being done in the captives, telecom & networking follows with 14 per cent and semiconductors 12 per cent.

Consumer electronics, automotive, computer peripherals, medical devices, industrial, and aerospace & defence are other areas of work.

Zinnov finds another interesting trend: engineering and R&D outsourcing to third parties is beginning to outpace growth of captives in India. India is the second biggest outsourcing destination, after Western Europe, where companies like Altran, Alten, Akka Technologies, Assystem and Harman Connected

Services are strong.

Independent software vendors, and telecom outsourcers dominated the outsourced pie. But the fastest growth came in the automotive, software and medical segments, the first thanks to the trend towards connected cars and change in labour laws in Germany. TCS, Wipro and HCL Technologies have traditionally been the leading players in this space. “However, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, L&T and Aricent are giving good competition to the top 3.

Even European players like Altran and Alten are setting up centres in India,” Sidhant Rastogi, partner in Zinnov, said.

Total R&D spending by the top 500 R&D spenders in the world grew by 2% to reach $614 bil-

lion this year. That means, globalized and outsourced R&D together ($67 billion) accounts for 11% of total R&D. Rastogi said the outsourced R&D space was seeing a huge acquisition trend. Aricent acquired SmartPlay to get embedded and semiconductor competency, Altran acquired Nspyr and Sicontech to grow in the US market, Quest Global acquired Nest to diversify in embedded software services, Capgemini and Harman entered the product engineering services market through acquisition of mid-sized engineering firms. “No one has grown more than 13% without acquisitions. So Indian players will have to acquire to grow faster,” Rastogi said.

CURRENCYVOICE

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

Inflation not exceed 1% untill second half of next year

UK manufacturing disappointed markets with a reported -0.4% decrease in November from a forecasted -0.1%. Industrial output rose 0.1% as expected but y/y it rose 1.7% which was above expectations. The UK was expected to report no change in month on month industrial output and manufacturing production. The manufacturing sector is not the strongest in the UK, as seen by consistently low PMIs. The better than expected PMI for the services sector allowed the pound to recover after being hit by the other figures.

The British Chamber of Commerce downgraded the British growth forecasts for the next three years on the back of weaker trade and manufacturing, which has been dragged down by a slowdown in the global economy.

Britain's economy is now expected to grow 2.4 percent in 2015, down from a previous estimate of 2.6 percent. According to the BCC, the UK economy will then expand 2.5 percent in 2016 and 2017, down from its previous forecast of 2.7 percent for each of those years.

Slowing growth in the third quarter contributed to its downgrade, the BCC said, which also cut its outlook for the dominant services

21

Foreign Exchange

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

sector this year. Forecast for growth in the services sector, which makes up the bulk of Britain's private sector economy, has been cut to 2.7 percent this year from 2.8 percent previously.

It left the 2016 and 2017 growth outlook steady at 2.9 percent. The manufacturing sector looks set to contract 0.2 percent in 2015 and then grow in 2016 and 2017.

The Bank of England voted eight to one to hold interest rates as they expect oil prices to weigh further on inflation in the coming months. The Bank maintained its view from last month that inflation would not exceed one per cent until the second half of next year.

Over summer it said inflation would exceed one per cent early in 2016, but moved the prediction to spring a few months later. While the Bank warned oil prices could hinder the return of inflation to more normal levels over the next few months, it also said the market reaction to the US Federal Reserve lifting interest rates for the first time in nine years would be difficult to predict. It also warned: “The downside risks to growth in emerging market economies remained, however, with the risk of an acceleration of capital outflows in reaction to any increase in

US interest rates.”

Ian McCafferty was the sole dissenter. He said the risks to domestic cost growth to the upside, and was sufficient to justify an immediate increase in Bank rate. The MPCs voting pattern has not changed since the summer.

Sterling hit a three-week high against a broadly weaker dollar on Friday, recovering from a fall the previous day on Bank of England minutes that were more dovish than some had expected. Investors sold the pound on Thursday after the Bank warned of more barriers to growth next year, bolstering the view that UK interest rates would be kept at their record lows until at least the end of 2016.

The Euro had a quiet start to the week, in stark contrast to the rally it had last week after Draghi's announcement about his soft extension to QE, which saw one of the largest Euro advances against the USD in 5 years. The macroeconomic calendar was light, with Germany releasing its Industrial Production data for October, up by 0.2% compared to a month before, but flat on the year. Germany also released disappointing trade data which suggests Europe’s largest economy is suffering from weakening demand at home, and

abroad. German exports fell by 1.2 % month-on-month to €99bn in October (on a seasonally adjusted basis), according to the Federal Statistics Office. Imports took a sharper hit - contracting by 3.4% during the month to €78.3bn. The data also suggests that the slowdown in emerging markets has been hurting Germany this year.

Over the year, German exports outside the EU have shrunk by 0.9% while sales to other EU countries are up by 6.4%.

The German economy is continuing to expand thanks to private consumption, with refugees providing a limited additional boost, the economy ministry said in its monthly report. Europe's largest economy was facing a slight headwind from the tough global economic environment but rising employment and wages along with the low oil price and the weak euro were helping. It said construction, especially of homes, would probably increase in the coming months while the industrial sector was beginning to overcome the weak patch it went through in the third quarter. "Overall Germany's economic output has probably grown in the fourth quarter," the ministry said. The economy expanded by 0.3 percent in the third quarter.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 15th December 2015 @ 2.20pm GBP - INR = 101.62 USD - INR = 67.05

EUR - INR = 73.63 GBP - USD = 1.52 GBP - EUR = 1.38

EUR - USD = 1.10 GBP - AED = 5.57

GBP - CAD = 2.08

GBP - NZD = 2.23

GBP - AUD = 2.10

GBP - ZAR = 22.93

GBP - HUF = 436.12

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In Brief

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

LeJ attack in Pak leaves 24 dead

PARACHINAR (PAKISTAN): A blast killed 24 people and injured 70 in the northwerstern Pakistani city of Parachinar, which houses a large Shi'ite population. The responsibility of the attack has been claimed by a banned Sunni Islamist group. Spokesman of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, Ali bin Sufyan said, “This is revenge for the killing of Muslims by the Syrian president and Iran.”

Saudi Arabia to have its first cinema theatre

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia's committee has announced the construction of the first ever cinema theatre in the conservative Islamic kingdom. The panel signed an initial agreement to build the theatre hall in the capital of Riyadh, a report said, adding that the activities in the cinema theatre will be committed to the Islamic and traditional values of Saudi Arabia. The country has no cinema halls for religious reasons, and there were many youth campaigns calling for such facility. The announcement came as the people voted 17 women into public office in municipal, a state-aligned news site reported.

ISIS finance chief Abu Saleh confirmed killed in air strike: US

WASHINGTON: US officials have confirmed the death of the Islamic State group's finance chief in a coalition air strike last month. Colonel Steve Warren, in a video-conference from Baghdad, said Abu Saleh was killed in late November, calling him “one of the most senior and experienced members” of the group's financial network. Saleh's real name is Muwaffaq Mustafa Muhammad al-Karmush, as described in a State Department terrorist blacklist.

“Killing him and his predecessors exhausts the knowledge and talent needed to coordinate funding within the organisation,” Warren said. The military spokesmen said two other figures in IS fundraising networks also were killed in coalition air strikes in late November.

Kim says N Korea has hydrogen bomb, but world sceptical

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong un has claimed the country has developed a hydrogen bomb, however, experts remain sceptical. He made the comments as he toured the Phyongchon Revolutionary Site, which marks the feats of his father and, grandfather, state founder and eternal president, Kim Il sung, official KCNA news agency said. The work of Kim Il sung “turned the DPRK into a powerful nuclear weapons state ready to detonate a selfreliant A-bomb and H-bomb to reliably defend its sovereignty and the dignity of the nation,” KCNA quoted Kim Jong un as saying. A hydrogen bomb is also known as a thermonuclear bomb, and uses more advanced technology to produce a significantly more powerful blast than an atomic bomb.

www.asian-voice.com

Row over Donald Trump's 'ban Muslims from US' remark AsianVoiceNews

NEW YORK: US Presidential candidate Donald Trump appears to have threaten to leave the Republican Party after sparking an international outrage over his call to temporarily ban all Muslims from entering the US. He shared a poll that claimed to show almost 70 per cent of his supporters would still vote for him if he ran as an independent candidate. “A new poll indicates that 68% of my supporters would vote for me if I departed the GOP,” the 69 year old wrote on Facebook. Trump sought to defend himself from a series of criticism after releasing a statement proposing a “complete shutdown of Muslims entering

Donald Trump the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on” regarding alleged support for Islamist terrorism.

Zeid Raad al-Hussein, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Prince of Jordan, called the suggestion “grossly irresponsible”, warning that it plays into the hands of extremist groups at the expense of ordinary Muslims who are also “eligible targets” of the

46 killed in Taliban siege at Afghan airport

KANDAHAR: At least 46 people were killed when Taliban insurgents wearing military uniforms stormed Kandahar airport, triggering pitched gun battles in a lengthy siege as President Ashraf Ghani sought to revive peace talks at a regional conference. The raid on the sprawling complex, which also houses a joint NATOAfghan base, is seen as the most serious attack on the largest military installation in southern Afghanistan in 14 years of war. With final mopping up operations, 24 hours after Taliban insurgents attacked its airport, 46 people were killed, including members of Afghan security forces and nine Taliban men. One security official said the assailants held some civilians as “human shields”, which had complicated their operation.

blow up our buildings, our cities. We have to figure out what's going on.” His call to block all Muslims, including international heads of state from entering America, came after a mass shooting in California by a couple who reportedly supported Isis.

British politician Boris Johnson dismissed Trump's “ill-informed” comments as “nonsense”, while the Muslim Council of Britain invited him to lunch, “should he be allowed to enter the UK”.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Trump's comments disqualify him from being President and said other Republican candidates should disavow him “right now.”

20 women elected in historic Saudi poll RIYADH: At least 20 women have won seats in Saudi Arabia’s municipal polls as part of the country’s first-ever elections open to female voters and candidates. The female candidates were elected to 10 different councils all over the country, from small cities to large ones.

The country’s capital and largest city Riyadh saw the most women elected with four. Saudi Arabia’s second largest and most cosmopolitan city, Jiddah, also elected two women, as did one of the most conservative regions, Qassim.

Saudi Arabia is the last

country in the world to open its ballots to women.

The country announced earlier this year it would do so. Officials say that 130,000 women registered to vote last week's election, although this still pales in comparison to the 1.35 million men in the country who registered to vote.

It is also the first time female candidates were able to stand for election, with 978 women alongside 5,938 men vying for 284 seats. This represents two thirds of the kingdom’s councils.

Lama AlSulaiman, a candidate in Jeddah, said that Saudi

US gurudwara defaced with anti-IS graffiti

Mom helps identify 3rd Paris attacker PARIS: The third gunman who opened fire at Paris' Bataclan concert hall before being killed last month in the attack, has been identified as a Frenchman who left for Syria in 2013. The information came after his mother received a message announcing his death, and gave a DNA sample to the police. The information further confirmed that the Paris attacks were carried out largely, if not entirely, by Europeans trained by the IS. Foued Mohamed-Aggad left Strasbourg for Syria in late 2013, a French judicial official said, at a time when about a dozen young men from the eastern French city headed to the war zone. His mother received a text message announcing her son's death “as a martyr”. She then gave the a DNA sample to the police which showed that one of her sons was killed inside the Bataclan, his brother's lawyer Francoise Cotta said.

extremists. Ban Ki-moon's spokesperson said the UN Secretary-General strongly opposed Trump's statement, while British prime minister David Cameron, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls and the Canadian government also condemned the real-estate mogul's comments.

An unfazed Trump said his ideas were no worse than those of former President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who oversaw the internment of more than 110,000 people in US government camps after Japanese forces bombed Pearl Harbour in 1941. “We have no choice but to do this,” he told ABC's Good Morning America. “We have people that want to

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

LOS ANGELES: In wrongful retribution to the recent California massacre by a radicalised Muslim couple, a gurdwara in Los Angeles' Buena Park has been vandalised with anti-IS graffiti.

The Gurdwara Singh Sabha's board and community members said the incident occurred in the early hours of December 6. “This is a hate crime and is a direct result of a possible backlash from the San Bernardino killings,” said Inderjot Singh, president of the gurdwara. “The graffiti included the phrase F*** ISIS and the words Islam and other reference of gangs,” said Washingtonbased Sikh Council on Religion and Education said. The White House has forwarded the incident to the Department of

Homeland Security to investigate.

Dr Rajwant Singh of the Sikh Council on Religion and Education said, “The Sikh community across the nation is in a heightened state of alert and is deeply troubled by this latest incident.” He also expressed concern over the recent anti-Muslim rhetoric made by contenders of American presidency.

“This will result in elevated level of violence against minority religions in America and particularly the Sikhs.This kind of hate speech against Muslims will engulf Sikhs and Muslim community across the nation,” Singh said. “The gurdwara was vandalised because it is a Sikh house of worship,” attorney Gurjot Kaur said.

women were excited to be participating in the landmark election.

“For 10 years, I’ve worked on women’s issues and employment, so when this opportunity came along and I had the experience, I thought, why not?” she said. “Women here are doctors and engineers – it’s not like women aren’t there.”

Al-Sulaiman called for more women to participate, but said she respected those with ultra-conservative views. “If we win, I hope they work with us.

I’ve worked with such people before in the chamber

of commerce and it’s been enlightening to have dialogue with them. That’s when fears are reduced, the fighting and aggression declines.”

Saudi academic Hatoon al-Fassi was the first woman to register to vote in Saudi Arabia. “This is a historical moment. I thank God I am living it,” she said. “Change is a big word but the election is the way to make sure we are really represented.” This is only the third time Saudi Arabia has gone to the polls in its history, with no elections taking place between 1965 and 2005.

Los Angeles students ordered to stay home LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles Unifed School District has asked hundreds of thousands of school children and thousands of teachers to stay at home on Tuesday after a ‘credible terror threat’.

All 1,200 schools in the district were being searched as a result. It was the first closure of the full district in at least a decade, officials said.

The message was received by a school board member and has been described as an ‘electronic threat’. It referred to ‘not one, but many schools’ within the district.

Superintendent Ramon Cortines said the schools commonly get threats but called this one rare.

Officials wouldn’t elaborate.

He said: ‘It was not to one school, two schools or three schools. It was many schools, not specifically identified. But there were many schools. That’s the reason I took the action that I did … It was to stu-

dents at schools.’

Many children were on their way to school already and their buses were ordered to turn around and take them home. Others who had already arrived were with school staff until parents could be contacted.

‘We need cooperation of the whole of Los Angeles today,’ said school board President Steve Zimmer.

‘We need families and neighbours to work together with our schools and with our employees to make sure our schools are safe throughout today.’

On its website, LAUSD said: ‘Special notice: All LAUSD schools are closed today to ensure safety of students. Parents should retrieve students at reunion gates with proper ID.’

WORLD

www.asian-voice.com

23

Justice Scalia creates a stir with In Brief comments on black students India can't prove my role in 26/11 Mumbai attacks: Hafiz Saeed AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

White girl sues Texas University to overthrow affirmative action

Anand Pillai US Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has stirred up a hornet’s nest with his comments that black students may perform better at a “slower-track school”.

He further set the cat among the pigeons by suggesting that universities are adversely affected when minority students are admitted to unsuitable elite institutions.

His comments came during a hearing in the Fisher v. University of Texas case on December 9, 2015. It is a case brought

by Abigail Fisher – a white student – who claims that she was denied admission at the University of Texas because of her race. She also claimed that less qualified students of colour were given admission due to racial preference.

University of TexasAustin denied Fisher admission in 2008 following which she filed a discrimination suit claiming she was rejected due to affirmative action.

Subsequently, her case went to the US Supreme Court as well as a lower appeals court when she lost, and now it is back to the Supreme Court.

Affirmative action is the policy of favouring members of a disadvantaged group who suffer from discrimination within a culture. It is also known as employment equity in Canada, reservation in India and Nepal and positive action in the UK. At issue is a particular admissions policy at the University of Texas which allows for race to be considered for a portion of its applicants. During a ses-

sion of oral arguments, Scalia interjected that such policies in higher education are not helping African-American students.

“There are those who contend that it does not benefit African Americans to get them into the University of Texas, where they do not do well, as opposed to having them go to a less-advanced school, a slower-track school where they do well,” he said.

“One of the briefs pointed out that most of the black scientists in this country don’t come from schools like the University of Texas. They come from lesser schools where they do not feel that they’re being pushed ahead in classes that are too fast for them,” Scalia said on December 9.

Scalia, a conservative justice who’s served on the Supreme Court since 1986, has been a long-time critic of affirmative action.

Scalia did not say that he personally believed that black students are better off at less-rigorous schools; he introduced the suggestions by saying “There are those who contend that…,” and was reportedly referencing an amicus brief written by a UCLA law professor.

The University of Texas uses a hybrid admissions policy; 75% of students are accepted on the basis that they ranked in the top 10% of their respective high schools, and the remaining 25% are accepted based on a holistic application process that includes race as one of many categories considered.

The holistic review process, as described by

the University of Texas in court filings, is “intended to identify and reward students whose merit as applicants was not adequately reflected by their class rank and test scores”.

The University reviews a candidate’s race and gender along with leadership, extracurricular activities, languages spoken at home, socio-economic status, and other factors.

As Fisher finished outside the upper decile of students at her high school, her application would have been among the latter 25% considered.

She was rejected.

Fisher, who applied to the University of Texas in 2008, didn't qualify under the top 10 percent plan, nor was she admitted under holistic review.

Fisher's academic qualifications were just average, and the university claimed that she wouldn't have been admitted even if she did get an extra boost for being a member of a minority group.

Taking a closer look, Fisher’s application may not have been good enough to get admission that year.

The University of Texas did accept approximately 47 students who had slightly lower grades and whose applications differed from hers in other criteria – of those 47 students, 42 were white.

Because Fisher could not prove that she would have been accepted otherwise, her lawyers would argue the injury occurred when the University considered her race. Due to equal protection laws, goes the argument, affirmative action practices that aim to increase diversity hurt

white applicants.

As the Supreme Court put it in Grutter v.

Bollinger, a well-known 2003 decision on affirmative action in higher education, “Whenever the government treats any person unequally because of his or her race, that person has suffered an injury that falls squarely within the language and spirit of the Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection.”

The Fisher case is not about whether she deserved to be admitted to the University of Texas, but about her constitutional right to a non-discriminatory admissions process.

It is not about how strong her application was, but about whether the University was justified in judging it by different standards than those used to evaluate black and Hispanic applicants.

The case has the potential to derail affirmative action across the US. If the Supreme Court wants to overturn affirmative action, it needs to address its own precedents.

In Bakke v.

California in 1978, the Court ruled that colleges can't use a quota system to ensure they have enough diversity, but that affirmative action was constitutional in some circumstances.

The last major decision about affirmative action was 2003’s Grutter v.

Bollinger, a case about the University of Michigan's affirmative action policies.

In that 5-4 decision, the Court ruled that colleges could take race into account as one factor in a holistic review when admitting applicants.

Indian-origin is SA's new finance minister JOHANNESBURG: Indian-origin politician Pravin Gordhan has been appointed as South Africa's new finance minister by President Jacob Zuma, who fired two of his predecessors within a week, amid a raging economic turmoil in Africa's second-largest economy.

Gordhan's appointment comes after a huge controversy amid mounting pressure on Zuma to quit after he dismissed Nhlanhla Nene as finance minister, without giving reasons, drawing widespread criticism even from within the ranks of his own African National Congress. He replaced Nene with the little known David van Rooyen. The country's currency, the Rand, plummeted to new

Pravin Gordhan lows as the news broke.

Credit agency Fitch downgraded South Africa on December 4, leaving the continent's most sophisticated economy just one notch above junk status.

Later, Zuma tried to bring about some calm by saying that Nene had been removed because he was in line for a top position at the new Brics Bank. Gordhan's

appointment sent the Rand up almost 5% by Monday night, but failed to quell a tide of criticism of the president. Gordhan was widely respected when he served as South Africa's finance minister from 2009 until 2014.

Zuma assigned Gordhan with several tasks

to address the country's failing economy. “Gordhan will lead government again in the interest of stimulating more inclusive growth and accelerated job creation while continuing the work of ensuring that our debt is stabilised over the medium term,” Zuma said in a statement.

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NEW DELHI: Just days after India's external affairs minister Sushma Swaraj visited Pakistan, Jamaat-udDawah chief Hafiz Saeed has dared India to prove his involvement in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks. In a video posted on his Twitter account, Saeed is seen saying, “Our government remained silent, but let me respond to Sushma. It's been seven years but they could not probe who was behind the Mumbai attacks and Insha Allah they will never be able to prove it until eternity.” “India has failed to provide any evidence of Mumbai attacks, while on the other hand Modi has confessed for worst terrorism of #1971”, he said in a tweet. He also slammed Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for holding a meeting with his Indian counterpart in Paris.

US Army allows Sikh to keep beard, turban

WASHINGTON: The US army has allowed a Sikh captain to keep his beard and turban in a temporary relaxation of service rules - the first time in decades the military has granted a religious accommodation to an active combat soldier. “It is wonderful. I was living a double life, wearing a turban only at home,” Capt Simratpal Singh, who led engineers to clear roadside bombs in Afghanistan and was awarded a Bronze Star, said. “My two worlds have finally come together.” The army is to decide by the year-end whether to do away with the “nobeard” policy even as political temperatures over minority loyalty to America is heating up, thanks to incendiary rhetoric from the likes of Donald Trump. For Sikhs in America, the US military's move to allow Capt. Simratpal Singh to keep his beard and turban is somewhat of an emollient in these trying times

Hajj stampede tragedy was the deadliest ever

RIYADH: A new count has shown three times the number of deaths acknowledged by Saudi Arabia in the Hajj stampede in September that claimed the lives of at least 2,411 pilgrims. The latest figures establish the crush on Sept 24 as the deadliest in the history of the annual pilgrimage. The official Saudi death toll of 769 people has not changed since Sept 26, and officials have yet to address the discrepancy. While an investigation was ordered almost immediately, few details have been made public since, and hundreds of pilgrims still remain missing.

Pakistan tests N-capable Shaheen-III missile ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has successfully test-fired their medium-range Shaheen-III surface-to-surface ballistic missile which can carry nuclear warheads up to 2,750 km, bringing many Indian cities within its range. The test flight of the missile was aimed at validating various design and technical parameters of the weapon system, as per a statement release from the military's InterServices Public Relations. Director general, Strategic Plans Division, Lieutenant General Mazhar Jamil said the country had achieved a “significant milestone” in complementing the deterrence capability. He said Pakistan desires peaceful co-existence in the region for which nuclear deterrence would further strengthen strategic stability in South Asia. Pakistan had testfired the Shaheen-I and Shaheen-II missiles last year.

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Jaya asks Centre to declare TN floods as national calamity Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

CHENNAI: As the state was sunk in four rounds of recent floods that resulted in catastrophic destruction, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa has asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declare the event as a national calamity. In a letter to the PM, Jayalalithaa suggested a special set of measures for the Centre to consider and implement at the earliest as many families, mostly in the low and middle income groups have lost their life savings.

The flood-hit families have lost all valuable per-

Jayalalithaa sonal belongings and household durable assets, which could not be adequately compensated through the existing structure of relief payments, she said. As many of these households would have

insured their homes, personal effects, domestic durable assets and personal vehicles, the insurance companies could be directed to take up the survey and settlement of the claims on a campaign mode, following a summary procedure. Liberal application of the norms has to be followed so that such households could receive insurance payments within a week or ten days which would enable them to restart their normal lives.

As many of these households would have financed their homes, vehicles and

other household effects by availing of bank loans, she suggested that the banks could be directed to provide a limited moratorium on repayment, as well as a rescheduling of the loans which would lower the EMI payments.

For the families that have lost their personal vehicles and household assets such as refrigerators, washing machines and others, she suggested the Centre to get banks to extend soft loans for new purchases, education loans and personal loans up to Rs 500,000.

Central govt's suggestion YSR Cong chief seeks to end water dispute total prohibition in AP NEW DELHI: The Centre has told the Supreme Court that the limited aspect of sharing the water from Krishna, between the newly created state of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, can be referred to the Water Dispute Tribunal instead of dragging other stakeholders like Karnataka and Maharashtra into it. After Telangana was separated from Andhra Pradesh on June 2, 2014, it sought to be considered as an entity separate from the parent state in distribution of Krishna water among stakeholder states.

Additional Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Centre,

told a bench of Justices Dipak Misra and Prafulla C Pant that there was no need for a fresh adjudication of the entire issue. The tribunal may be asked to decide the share of Telangana out of the water already allocated to Andhra Pradesh. The bench, meanwhile, asked the Centre to file an affidavit in the matter and fixed a batch of petitions for hearing.

He also said that a fresh reference was required to be sent to the Krishna Water Dispute Tribunal II for fresh allocation of water in view of passage of the Reorganisation of the State of Andhra Pradesh Act.

VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress Party president Jaganmohan Reddy has called for total prohibition of alcohol in Andhra Pradesh, a day after five people died after drinking spurious liquor. “Gujarat government has been successfully implementing total prohibition in the state. Recently, Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar is contemplating prohibition in his state... Why cannot Chandrababu Naidu initiate such action?” he asked.

Five persons died and 15 others were hospitalised after they consumed spurious liquor from an outlet in Vijayawada.

Reddy addressed reporters after visiting a government hos-

Jaganmohan Reddy pital where the victims of the incident were undergoing treatment. “The policy of the current government to set target in sale of liquor causes corruption and gives rise to sale of spurious liquor. In a bid to meet the sales target, wine shops are allowed to stay open round-the-clock and they in turn allow unauthorised shops to function,” the opposition leader said.

Punjab goes bust, looking SC upholds Haryana at ways to raise funds law on education CHANDIGARH: Trying to overcome its severe financial crisis, the Punjab government has sought to raise funds from widow homes and jails. The Gandhi Vanita Ashram for widows in Jalandhar and the state jails at Bathinda, Amritsar and Goindwal are just some of the dozen official real estate that the state government has mortgaged to raise a massive £210 million loan. The widow's home holds heritage value as Mahatma Gandhi once stayed there during his visits to the state.

A national paper acquired all mortgage deeds signed between Punjab Urban Development Authority (PUDA) that has chief minister Parkash Singh Badal as chairman and five nationalised banks. From lands meant for multiplexes to old district courts, jails and residential complexes each in Amritsar, Bathinda and Muktsar, there is nearly every type of establishment that has

been mortgaged.

According to a deed signed on December 31, 2013, the ashram's offices, entire 80feet wide road and pavement and parking area have been mortgaged for £25 million. “The old building is already in a dilapidated condition,” said an inmate who works as a tailor and feels very uncertain about her future.

The documents also show that 3.73 acres reserved for a multiplex by Amritsar Improvement Trust has been mortgaged for a £10 million loan from Andhra Bank at an interest rate of 10.25% annually.

The money is to be repaid before March 2018.

Another £40 million have been raised against 11.28 acres on which Amritsar's old mental hospital stands. While the 350-bed hospital has already been shifted to a new site, the doctors insist that the government should have simply extended the building instead of raising loans against the unused land.

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court has upheld the Haryana government's law mandating minimum educational qualifications as a prerequisite for contesting in panchayat polls.

A bench of Justices J Chelameswar and Abhay Manohar Sapre said education is an essential tool and elected representative must have some educational background to enable them to effectively carry out their duties. This order also validates the law passed by Rajasthan government also.

The court dismissed a bunch of petitions filed by some women contestants challenging the validity of the law mandating educational qualifications - Class 10 pass for men, Class 8 pass for women and Class 5 pass for Dalits -for contesting panchayat polls in the state. The law also disqualifies those who are not having toilets at home and had not repaid agricultural loans or defaulted on electricity bills and other arrears to government

authorities. The court upheld the law despite noting that a major chunk of people would be disqualified from contesting the elections at the grassroots level. More than 83% of rural women above 20 years of age and almost 67% of women in urban areas are likely to be disqualified under the new law while 68% of the scheduled caste women and 41% of SC men would be ineligible to contest.

In a big boost to the NDA government's sanitation drive, the court also ruled that the Haryana government's decision to bar candidates who are not having toilets at their homes from contesting panchayat polls is a “good decision.”

In Brief AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

'Beef festival' row at Osmania University

HYDERABAD: Eight organisers of the controversial 'beef festival' on Osmania University campus have been detained while BJP MLA T Raja Singh who was opposing the event, was arrested. A curfew-like situation dominated the campus among high tensions and a heavy police security deployed to prevent any untoward incident. A police official said, “We detained eight key members of the group which announced the beef festival. As per court order, we will not allow any festivals of the Osmania University campus.” Assistant commissioner of police K Ram Bhupal Rao said that they arrested BJP MLA from Goshamahal, T Raja Singh, as a preventive measure to maintain law and order.

Held slippers for Rahul out of courtesy: former minister

CHENNAI: After videos and images of former union minister V Narayanasamy holding Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's slippers went viral on the internet, he explained that he held them out of courtesy to help Gandhi wade through a flooded street in Puducherry. He said, “It was not Rahul Gandhi's slippers, it was mine and I was holding it for him to wear out of courtesy so that he could walk through a flooded neighbourhood. Rahulji was wearing shoes and he had to remove it as the street was flooded. As he got ready to walk barefoot, I offered mine as the flooded street had thorns and rough stones.” Rahul Gandhi toured flood-hit regions of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, accompanied by regional Congress leaders, including Narayanasamy.

Abducted Bengal trader rescued in Jalandhar

JALANDHAR: Jalandhar police have rescued a West Bengal-based potato trader from kidnappers who were demanding a ransom of Rs 400,000 for his release, and had sent a video showing him being assaulted, to his wife.

Superintendent of police H P S Khakh said Dulal Ghosh from Siliguri had come to Jalandhar to purchase potato seeds, when he was abducted from outside a cold store near Kartarpur and taken to a cold store near Ballan village on December 4. His abductors chained him, made a video clip and asked him to tell his wife back home to pay a ransom of Rs 400,000 to save him. Khakh said that while he was talking to his wife in Bengali, he also asked her to inform the police. An operation to find Ghosh was launched by the special branch in-charge inspector Inderjit Singh and subinspector Shiv Kumar, who rescued the trader and nabbed the three accused.

Cong names Dalit MLA as its legislative party leader

CHANDIGARH: Charanjit Singh Channi, a dalit MLA, has been named as the Congress Legislative Party leader in Punjab - in an indication of a generation shift in the party’s state unit as well as its attempt at social engineering. The party also named two first-time MLAs - Punjab Congress chief Capt Amarinder Singh baiter Bharat Bhushan Ashu (43) from Ludhiana and Navtej Singh Cheema (41) from Sultanpur Lodhi, as Deputy CLP leader and Chief Whip in the Assembly, respectively. While Ashu is a Hindu, Cheema is a Jat Sikh. The appointments also reflect AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi’s influence on appointments. It is after a long time that the CLP leader has a Deputy and the Chief Whip has been appointed four years after the election of the government.

Patiala cyclist pedals to glory

PATIALA: A cyclist from Patiala has bagged the first position in the 500m individual time trial event on the first day of the Punjab State Cycling Championship. The championship is being held under the aegis of the Cycling Association of Punjab at the Raja Bhalindra Singh Sports Complex, Punjabi University. In the individual time trial event, Amandeep Kambhoj and Narayan Kumar Rathore bagged the second and third positions, respectively. All districts of Punjab are participating in the championship.

Will welcome Sidhu if he wants to join AAP: Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has said that he would welcome former cricketer and BJP member Navjot Singh Sidhu if he wanted join the Aam Aadmi Party. “We will welcome Navjot Singh Sidhu if he wants to join AAP,” Kejriwal said at a summit. “First of all, I am confident that we'll sweep Punjab elections looking the current surveys that were conducted. I won't be surprised of the Delhi assembly results are repeated in Punjab. As far as face of the party is concerned, it will emerge at the right time.”

INDIA

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Mumbai court pardons Headley A Mumbai court has granted pardon to David Coleman Headley, one of the main accused in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks case, accepting him as a prosecution witness.

The court agreed to Headley's plea to turn an approver in return to pardon while imposing certain certain conditions on him. It has asked him to disclose all information that he had earlier revealed to the US court.

Headley's offer to turn an approver was conveyed to the court by special public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam, who sought time to consult with investigating officers on this point. He appeared before the sessions court through a video link from an undisclosed location in the US. “I have received the charging document filed against me in this court. It charges me with same conduct for which I was charged in the US. I had pleaded guilty to the charges in the US and I admitted that I was participant in these charges,” Headley told the court. “I accepted responsibility for my role in those offences in my plea agreement (in US).

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley apprehended a “washout” of the winter session, quoting former PM Jawaharlal Nehru's speech in the House to argue that the main opposition was not being mindful of the legacy of its own leaders.

Referring to Congress's disruption of Parliament after an adverse high court ruling in the National Herald case, the minister wrote in a post on a social networking site, “The last session of Parliament did not function. The current session of Parliament is also threatened with a washout. The reasons for the washout of the current session keep changing by the hour.” He quoted a speech on the importance of the parliamentary system delivered by Nehru on March 28, 1957, the last day of the first Lok Sabha which he said was “a must read for all of us” adding, “Those who claim the legacy of Panditji must ask themselves the question, what kind of history are they making.”

“Here, we have sat in this Parliament, the sovereign authority of India, responsible for the governance of India. Surely,

Mystery of gruesome double murder grips India Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Jaitley quotes Nehru to bring Cong on GST board

Arun Jaitley there can be no higher responsibility or greater privilege than to be a member of this sovereign body which is responsible for the fate of the vast number of human beings who live in this country. All of us, if not always, at any rate from time to time, must have felt this high sense of responsibility and destiny to which we had been called. Whether we were worthy of it or not is another matter. We have functioned, therefore, during these five years not only on the edge of history but sometimes plunging into the processes of making history.”

Jaitley, who met Congress leader Anand Sharma over lunch to discuss GST, wrote that the country is waiting for Parliament to “discuss public issues, to legislate and approve a historic Constitution Amendment enabling the GST.”

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An alarming double murder of a prominent artist and her lawyer who were found dead in a Mumbai sewer has triggered a manhunt across India. Bodies of Hema Upadhyay, 43, and Harish Bhambhani, 65, were discovered in a cardboard box on the 13th of December.

Four suspects have been arrested in Mumbai after a huge police operation was launched. Two men were also seized almost 1,000 miles away Varanasi, with personal items belonging to the victims on them. One of them was found with 20 debit cards. “Some of them belong to Hema and Harish. He will now be handed over to the Mumbai police,” Sujay Pandey, an Uttar Pradesh police officer said. Bodies of the victims were discovered when a street cleaner saw a leg protruding from a cardboard box in the drain.

They were stripped to their underwear and their bodies were wrapped in plastic.

Bhambhani's eyes were covered with tape and his face appeared to be severely beaten. In a joint operation, the UP special task force (STF) and the

Hema Upadhyay Mumbai police picked up Shivkumar `Sadhu' Rajbhar (25) from Varanasi. This is the fourth detention, though the prime accused, Vidyadhar Rajbhar, who owns a warehouse in Laljipada in Kandivli (West), is yet to be nabbed.

“Sadhu said Vidyadhar claimed that Hema was not clearing his dues for months and he met her a couple of times to demand Rs 5 lakh, in vain,” an STF official said.

India's arts community has reacted with horror to the killings. Upadhyay's work, which explored Indian attitudes towards women and the city, including a recreation of a Mumbai slum, have been widely appreciated.

Archana Hande, a fellow artist and a friend of

Upadhyay since art school said, “She was a wonderful artist and friend. She was cheerful and enthusiastic.

This kind of brutality, I have no words for it.” The Vadehra Art Gallery in Mumbai, which represents the deceased, issued a statement lamenting the loss of “one of the most talented Indian artists, and a dear and loving friend.”

Police have also questioned the artist's estranged husband, Chintan Upadhyay, a fellow artist who flew from Delhi to Mumbai after learning of her death. He was released without charge after questioning. The two have been stuck in a bitter divorce battle since 2010. She had taken legal action for harassment in 2013, after claiming that her husband had painted graphic images of women on the ceilings of their home, losing the lawsuit. Local reports suggest that the investigation is now focused on the owner of a warehouse where Upadhyay stored her work and a possible dispute about money. The artist was reported missing by her domestic servant, Lalit Mandal, after she failed to return home.

INDIA - WORLD

26

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India-Japan sign pacts on bullet train AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

India and Japan inked a number of pacts in key areas of defence and nuclear energy as well as building of the first bullet train network between Mumbai and Ahmedabad at a cost of about £9.8 billion. The deals were signed after the summit meet between Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Japanese counterpart Shinzo Abe. They also discussed international and regional issues of mutual importance, including UN security reforms.

Addressing a joint press meet with Abe, Modi said, “No friend will matter more in realising India's economic dreams than Japan,” and described Abe as “a personal friend and a great champion of India-Japan partnership.” In reference to the pacts, he continued, “No less historic is the decision to introduce high speed rail on MumbaiAhmedabad sector through Shinkansen known for speed, reliability, safety,” noting that the Japanese PM's extraordinary package of approximately USD 12 billion and technical assistance, on very easy terms, were really appreciated.

“The memorandum we signed on civil nuclear

Narendra Modi and Shinzo Abe steps in our security coopenergy cooperation is more eration,” Modi said they than just an agreement for would deepen the defence commerce and clean enerrelations and promote gy. It is a shining symbol of defence manufacturing in a new level of mutual confiIndia. “This builds on our dence and strategic partdecision to expand staff nership in the cause of a talks to all three wings of peaceful and secure world.” the Armed Forces and The bullet train network make Japan a partner in will link India's financial Malabar naval exercises.” hub with Ahmedabad, cutThe two leaders also issued ting travel time on the 505 a joint statement on 'India kilometre route from eight and Japan Vision 2025: hours to around three.

Special Strategic and Both the sides also Global Partnership inked agreements concernWorking Together for ing the transfer of defence Peace and Prosperity of the equipment and technology Indo-Pacific Region and and another related to the World'. security measures for proThe statement said tection of classified military both the leaders welcomed information. Calling the the agreement reached defence pacts “decisive

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between the two governments for cooperation in peaceful uses of nuclear energy and confirmed that this agreement will be signed after the technical details are finalised including those relating to necessary internal procedures.

Abe said, “We have taken relationship to new level and buds have turned into blossoms.” Modi said the two countries will work together in East Asia Summit to promote an inclusive, balanced and open regional architecture and maritime security in the region. “We stand strongly for ensuring freedom of navigation and over-flight, and unimpeded maritime commerce. We believe that disputes must be resolved peacefully and that all countries must abide by international law and norms on maritime issues.” He also thanked Abe for his support for India's membership of the APEC, and said that India will also strive for “our rightful place in a reformed

UN Security Council”.

According to the joint statement, the two Prime Ministers underlined the need for closer coordination and effective communication, bilaterally and with partners, to address existing and emerging challenges in spheres of security, stability and sustainable development. “India and Japan will work to strengthen regional economic and security forums and coordinate their actions to tackle global challenges including the reform of the United Nations, climate change as well as terrorism,” it said.

In international issues, they discussed North Korea's contentious nuclear programme and expressed concern over that country's continued development of its nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programmes, including its uranium enrichment activities. “They urged North Korea to fully comply with its international obligations, including

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

under relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and to take actions towards the denuclearising of the Korean Peninsula. They also urged North Korea to address at the earliest the abductions issue,” the statement said.

Japan also created another $12 billion fund for Japanese companies to manufacture in India, as envisaged by Modi's 'Make in India' initiative. It has also pledged $5 billion as part of its Overseas Development Assistance to India. India, in turn, announced visa-on-arrival for Japanese citizens. Modi announced for the first time that Japan will import Maruti cars manufactured in India. “Maruti (Suzuki) will manufacture here...

The Japanese company will manufacture here and export it to Japan,” he said, adding that both India and Japan “should move ahead together”, not just in the sphere of high-speed trains, but also for “high-speed growth”.

India, Pak to hold comprehensive dialogue India and Pakistan have decided to resume the composite dialogue process in what marked a significant change of Modi government's stance facilitated by what sources described as assurances from Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to expedite the Mumbai attacks trial.

India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj attending the fifth 'Heart of Asia' conference hosted by Pakistan in Islamabad was the centre of all media attention. Swaraj called on Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the conference and both the leaders discussed bilateral issues amongst others. Extending India's hand of friendship with neighbour Pakistan, Swaraj in her address at the conference said, “It is time that we display the maturity and self-confidence to do business with each other and strengthen regional trade and cooperation. For its part, India is prepared to move our cooperation at a pace which Pakistan is comfortable with.”

In the first ministerial visit from India to Pakistan, since former external affairs minister S.M. Krishna visited the South Asian neighbour in 2012, Swaraj exerted positive tones and was warmly welcomed by Sharif. She also met with Pak National Advisor Sartaj Aziz.

External Affairs Ministry spokesman Vikas Swarup tweeted pictures of the leaders with a caption reading, “Building a cooperative r e l a t i o n s h i p .

EAM@SushmaSwaraj meets Foreign Affairs

Sushma Swaraj with Nawaz Sharif Pakistan PM Sharif and, Adviser Mr Sartaj Aziz”.

Sartaj Aziz, Swaraj said the India has so far put is official dialogue process out foot down on Pakistan's on hold after the Mumbai insistence for the resumpattacks, and renamed tion of the composite diaResumed Dialogue in 2010, logue process, as it doubted would be resumed under a Pakistan's sincerity in new name - Comprehensive addressing its concerns Bilateral Dialogue. In a relating the 26/11 trial. joint address, she said the However, since the recent new dialogue will have all dialogue between NSA A K the pillars of the composite Doval and his Pak counterdialogue process with the part Nasir Janjua in possibility of adding more.

Bangkok, it seems as if She also said the foreign Pakistan has finally comsecretaries would take it mitted itself “sincerely” to forward with a meeting address the issue of terrorwhich will decide the ism. A source said, “schedules and modalities” “Pakistan has realised and of this new dialogue committed to us that it too process. The joint statehas a responsibility of dealment read, “Both sides, ing with terror.” In a joint accordingly, agreed to a statement issued after the Comprehensive Bilateral Swaraj-Aziz meeting, it Dialogue and directed the said that both the leaders Foreign Secretaries to work condemned terrorism and and the modalities and resolved to eliminate it. schedule of the meetings “They noted the successful under the Dialogue includtalks on terrorism and ing Peace and Security, security related issues in CBMs, Jammu & Kashmir, Bangkok by the two NSAs Siachen, Sir Creek, Wullar and decided that the NSAs Barrage/Tulbul Navigation will continue to address all Project, Economic and issues connected to terrorCommercial Cooperation, ism. The Indian side was Counter-terrorism, assured of the steps being Narcotics Control and taken to expedite the early Humanitarian Issues, conclusion of the Mumbai People to People exchanges trial.” After her two “very and Religious Tourism.” good meetings” with

AsianVoiceNews

HEALTH&WELLNESS

AsianVoiceNewsweekly | Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

Frequent green tea consumption may hamper fertility FOOD

esearchers have warned that frequent green tea consumption may adversely affect your fertility and development. In experiments over fruit flies, the team from University of California-Irvine discovered that excessive consumption adversely affected development and reproduction in fruit fly populations.

According to them, one should avoid high dose of green tea or any natural product as nutraceuticals such as green tea, while growing in popularity, are largely unregulated.

"While green tea could have health benefits at low doses, our study and others have shown that at high doses, it may have adverse effects," said Mahtab Jafari, associate professor of pharmaceutical sciences.

"Further work is needed to make any definite recommendations but we suggest

R

FITNESS

that green tea should be consumed in moderation," she added.

For the study, Jafari and colleagues investigated the effects of green tea toxicity on the development and reproduction in fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Embryos and larvae were subjected to various doses of green tea polyphenols. Larvae exposed to 10 milligrams of green tea were slower to develop, were born smaller and exhibited a dramatic decline in the number of emerged offspring.

Ten milligrams of green tea made the flies more susceptible to starvation and heat stress but protected

LIFESTYLE

them against dehydration.

Female offspring showed decreased reproductive output and a 17 per cent reduction in lifespan while males were unaffected, the study found. Ten milligrams of green tea caused morphological abnormalities in reproductive organs such as testicular and ovarian atrophy.

Jafari believes that high doses of green tea may cause "too much" apoptosis or cell death.

Derived from the plant Camellia sinensis, green tea is popu-

A

I

To Our Readers

We are publishing these items in good faith, kindly consult your Doctor before you try to implement it. We do not hold any responsibility for its efficacy...

with established heart disease was unknown. The current study investigated levels of sedentary behaviour and the effect on health in 278 patients with coronary artery disease.

The patients had been through a cardiac rehabilitation programme which taught them how to improve their levels of exercise in the long term.

Patients wore an activity monitor during their waking hours for nine days. The monitors allowed the researchers to measure how long patients spent being sedentary, or doing light, moderate or vigorous levels of physical activity. The researchers also assessed various markers of health, including body mass index (BMI) and cardio-respiratory fitness. Next they looked at whether the amount of time a person spent being sedentary (which was mainly sitting) was related to these markers of health.

The results showed that patients who sat more had a higher BMI. They also had lower cardio-respiratory fitness.

Your toothbrush may transmit diseases

lar worldwide for its purported brain and heart health and anti-cancer properties.

Jafari noted that in other tests with mice and dogs, green tea compounds in large amounts dramatically reduced body weight and, in mice, negatively affected embryo development. "We are planning to measure total consumption and identify and quantify the metabolites of natural products in flies," Jafari pointed out, adding that these experiments will enable us to have a better understanding of toxic doses in humans.

Heart patients should cut Castor oil helped prevent down sitting time knee surgery

f you are suffering from ailments related to the heart, make it a point to get up and move every half an hour as researchers have found that patients with heart disease who sit a lot have worse health even if they exercise. "Limiting the amount of time we spend sitting may be as important as the amount we exercise," said study lead author Stephanie Prince from University of Ottawa in Canada.

"Sitting, watching TV, working at a computer and driving in a car are all sedentary behaviours and we need to take breaks from them," Prince explained.

Previous research has shown that being sedentary increases the risk of cardiovascular disease but until now its effect on patients

www.asian-voice.com

I

few years ago, my h u s b a n d hurt/twisted his knee while getting in and out of a truck. The pain only increased as time went by, so we consulted a doctor. After x-rays, etc., my husband was told that it really required surgery to repair and fix his knee, which was not in our budget at the time. What to do?

We had heard about using castor oil on joints from a couple of doctors, with knowledge in natural remedies, also. According to instructions, I massaged castor oil into his whole knee area; then I wrapped the whole area with an old cloth and with saran-typewrap, because castor oil is both oily and staining –it will not wash out. After that, we put a heating pad on the area for an hour. We kept the wrappings on his knee overnight.

I had to beg my husband to let me apply the castor oil and wrappings on the first night. The second night, he reminded me to fix up his knee again.

27

Night number three, he did it himself, on his own.

He woke up the next morning, with his knee feeling great.

If/when he or I ever hurt any joint, both of us know to rub with the castor oil, wrap with a cloth, cover for a while, and get relief. Heat does not have to be applied, but it helps.

There is nothing like castor oil for knees and joints. It’s messy, but who cares, if it helps prevent or stop the need for surgery and if it stops pain? Castor oil can also be used to prevent hematomas and bruising.

It works like a charm.

- Joe Graedon

f you are using a 'shared' bathroom, be careful about where and how you store your toothbrush.

Researchers have found that toothbrushes can serve as a vector for transmission of potentially pathogenic organisms.

The researchers found evidence of transmission of fecal coliform bacteria in communal bathrooms.

"The main concern is not with the presence of your own fecal matter on your toothbrush, but rather when a toothbrush is contaminated with fecal matter from someone else, which contains bacteria, viruses or parasites that are not part of your normal flora," said Lauren Aber from Quinnipiac University in the US. For the study, all toothbrushes were collected from participants using communal bathrooms, with an average of 9.4 occupants per bathroom in Quinnipiac University.

At least 60 per cent of the toothbrushes were found to be contaminated

with fecal coliforms.

"Using a toothbrush cover does not protect a toothbrush from bacterial growth, but actually creates an environment where bacteria are better suited to grow by keeping the bristles moist and not allowing the head of the toothbrush to dry out between uses," Aber said.

"Better hygiene practices are recommended for students, who share bathrooms both in the storage of their toothbrush but also in personal hygiene," Aber added.

Toothbrushes are a known source of contamination. Scientists have suspected since the 1920s that the re-use of toothbrushes could be a possible source of infection in the oral cavity.

There are several potential sources of contamination of one's toothbrush - toothbrushes stored open in the bathroom are especially vulnerable to contamination with material from the toilet or contamination from other occupants.

Neeta’s Herbal Clinic for Hair & Skin Care

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While lustrous, healthy hair is a source of pride for men and women alike, many are forced to battle with hair problems.

There are many reasons why a person can start losing their hair.

Research has shown that stress plays a vital factor in determining hair condition. Poor hair care, environment, lifestyle and diet too has its effect on hair growth.

It is very important to ascertain what kind of hair you have and then look after it accordingly.

Hair loss falls into two categories, where it is distributed over the whole scalp and where hair loss is limited to localised areas. Hair loss is often more than a beauty problem. In some cases of alopecia, the condition is caused by bacteria or other infection or may even indicate a severe systemic disease. In the case of Hair loss, the hair follicles loose the capacity to initiate new growth.

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28

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Dhanush's heroine fights with Jackie Chan AsianVoiceNews

Here to entertain, don’t need to experiment: Ravi Teja Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

'M

ass Maharaja' Ravi Teja feels he doesn't need to experiment as the audience accepts him in his mass avatars. In a recently conducted interview, the actor said, “Its' not that I haven't experimented. But whenever I did, the result has not been satisfying. Hence, I like to concentrate on doing films that entertain people who are responsible for my successful career. When I'm loved for what I'm doing, I don' see the need to experiment.”

The 47-year old star, who produces out-andout commercial entertainers, promises that his latest 'Bengal Tiger' will appeal to everybody.

“Although we have a predictable story, but the way it has been treated will make all the difference. We’ve made an entertaining film and I guarantee that it won’t disappoint,” he said, adding that he had first heard a line of the story four years ago. “Even before Sampath made Racha, he narrated the line and I really liked it.

However, I asked him to work on it. Meanwhile, both of us got busy with our respective projects and finally decided to join hands now,” he added.

A

myra Dastur of 'Anegan' fame will now act in multilingual movie 'Kung Fu Yoga', directed

by Stanley Tong, with superstar Jackie Chan in the lead. Also in the cast are Bollywood actors Sonu Sood and Ileana D Cruz. Amyra will perform an action-packed role in the Indo-

Nayanthara's gift to distressed Chennai sisters

W

ith help coming from all sides and in all forms, the Chennai flood relief work has somehow

overlooked the sad plight of female victims who have no spare garments to change.

Working for the specific problem, Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi has come up with an initiative called 'Sahodarikku Sasneham'.

Joining hands with the paper, actress Nayanthara will donate 1,000 relief kits consisting of clothes and other feminine essentials.

Other than this, she has apparently also donated close to Rs 2 0 0 0 , 0 0 0 towards immediate relief funds raised for Chennai floods and, sent a truck load of supplies along with her co-stars.

'Bajirao 'Dilwale' Mastani' A romantic ProducerDirector Sanjay Leela Bhansali's magnum opus, ' B a j i r a o Mastani' is a historical romance story b e t w e e n Maratha warrior Bajirao Peshwa and his second wife Mastani. While Ranveer Singh and Deepika Padukone play lead, Priyanka Chopra plays the role of Bajirao's first wife, Kashibai.

action comedy film, 'Dilwale' b r i n g s Bollywood's favourite pair Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, together.

Produced by Gauri Khan and directed by Rohit Shetty, the movie r e v o l v e s around a couple in love who try to overcome the animosity between their families. It also stars Varun Dhawan and Kriti Sanon.

Don’t celebrate my birthday, help in relief work: Rajini to fans

Chinese collaboration film, and has been trained in the martial art of Kung Fu from a professional, to perform the stunt sequence in the film. She also underwent a rigorous practice session for 8 hours in the first day and 4 hours in the next three days. The actress will sport brown hair for her character.

S

uperstar Rajinikanth, whose birthday falls this week, has requested his fans not to celebrate it, instead work and help in the relief and rehabilitation work of flood-hit Chennai and its neighbouring districts. A source close to the actor said, “As Tamil Nadu is limping back to normal after being struck by the worst rains in over a century, Rajinikanth has requested his fans to join hands and help the rain savaged people in relief work.” The source said that the 63year old star feels extending help to the people of the state is more important than celebrating his birthday. In other news, the official announcement regarding 'Enthiran 2', which was planned to be announced on his birthday, has been indefinitely postponed.

Bobby Deol to make a comeback

R

eliable sources say that Bobby Deol is all set to make a comeback in a film specially directed for him by elder brother Sunny. A source close to the family said, “Dharamji is very worried about Bobby's career. He was doing well, and all of a sudden he was in oblivion.

Dharamji and Sunny Paaji are now planning a film especially for Bobby.

This will start immediately after Sunny's 'Ghayal Once Again' is released.” Bobby's last 'Yamla Pagla Deewana 2' fared badly, which apparently left the actor shattered.

29

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

What differences do you see in Ranveer after doing Ram-Leela together?

EXCLUSIVE

Ranveer has a better hold of his craft today: Deepika The much-awaited historical love saga, Bajirao Mastani, is set to release on 18 December 2015. Deepika Padukone and Ranveer Singh speak about the intense preparation, their experience of working with Sanjay Leela Bhansali (SLB) and their takeaways from the film.

Indraja Gugle Q

The film is based on an important chapter of Indian history.

What was the kind of preparation you had to undergo?

R: I went into semiisolation for the first three weeks. I worked all morning on the physique, all afternoon on the accent and all evening on the research material.

I worked on a new voice, a new posture, a way of walking and talking for this distinctive character. I did not want people to see Ranveer the actor on screen but Peshwa Bajirao.

D: My preparation was not as difficult. I was juggling Piku and Tamasha at

O

the same time and most of my preparation was mental in order to cope up with all three. I thought Mastani was a very layered and inspirational character. I talk to myself a lot in my mind on how I want to play the character. I prefer not to prep too much and rely on being spontaneous.

After Ram-Leela, Q this is the second time you are both working with SLB who has been waiting for 12 years to make this film. Tell us about your experience with him.

D: There is tremendous creative satisfaction when working with SLB. He pushes you till you discover new things about yourself. It is the perfect acting workshop. He has

complete faith in you and makes you feel invincible.

Rani-Aditya have their first baby

n 9 December Bollywood actress Rani Mukherji and filmmaker husband Aditya Chopra have welcomed their first child, a baby girl, who they have named Adira.

Aditya's brother and actor Uday Chopra took to twitter to announce that he has become an uncle to a beautiful baby girl (@udaychopra !!! Rani and Adi had a baby girl!!)

After Uday Chopra broke the news on social networking site about Rani’s daughter, Karan Johar, who has been best friends with Rani also wrote, “Am an uncle to a beautiful baby girl today!!!!!

Many actors and actresses have taken twitter to congratulate the

couple, including Ritesh Deshmukh, Rishi Kapoor, Parineeti Chopra, Preity Zinta and others. She chose a south Mumbai hospital for delivery.

The very religious actor reportedly conducted a hawan in the Yash Raj Office, preparing for the

baby's birth. She said to have a traditional BengaliPunjabi baby shower, Rani married Chopra, her long time boyfriend on March 20, 2014 in Southern Italy. The 42 year old Chopra has always been very discreet about his personal life.

He never over directs and gives you freedom to interpret and play your character.

R: Mr. Bhansali is a true cinematic genius. He is so vivacious, exhilarated and energised. The passion in the man was palpable and infectious. The entire crew was so charged up about the shoot that we put all our blood, sweat and tears into it. You could see just how happy he was that the film was finally being made. were both playQ You ing real-life historical characters. How easy or difficult was it?

D: For me, it was very difficult. We have just one pictorial reference of Mastani and there is not

much written about her as much as Bajirao. It’s really tricky because you’re going by a book or a historian’s work and in the process also making a commercial entertainer. So a lot of her look is what Sanjay Sir and I felt was correct for the character on the basis of the material we had and what we felt was right on that particular day for that particular scene.

R: Bajirao Mastani is an interpretation of the book ‘Peshwe Gharanyacha Itihaas’ by Pramod Oak. My role relied on the information in our research material and I stuck to the film script. We have to read between the lines and some of it is imagination.

But one has to establish the fact that it is a fictional interpretation of this book.

What differences do Q you see in Ranveer after doing Ram-Leela together?

D: I think Ranveer has mellowed down now, he is much calmer. He has a better hold of his craft today than two years ago when we worked together.

Salman's selfie with father and brothers

V

eteran Salim Khan, who turned 80 recently, was wished by son Arbaaz Khan on Instagram. Sharing a selfie of the three brothers with father, Salim, Arbaaz wrote, “My dad turns 80 today. Wish him good health and happiness always. My dad means everything to me and my family, we all love him and respect him immensely.

He's been the pillar of strength and inspiration to us all. May allah give him a long life.

Love you dad.” Papa Khan has always stood strong for all his three sons and has spoken up for them when needed.

Q

Anecdotes from the time you shot the action scenes?

R: We had hundreds of horses on the set. I had one of the best ones called Aryan and had a very beautiful relationship with him. I used to feed him Parle-G biscuits. We got very close and when I broke my shoulder, he had the presence of mind to avoid his hooves hitting my head. I was out of action for two and a half months but made a speedy recovery. There are a lot of high octane action sequences very methodically worked out on the technical level. I am looking forward to the audience’s reactions.

How do you identify Q with the characters?

D: There are a lot of qualities in Mastani that I find in most women today who are faced with different kinds of challenges. I think women are born to multi task. Mastani fought a battle as easily as she cooked in the kitchen. She is identifiable for me because she was very strong - mentally, physically and emotionally.

Though she fought as well as the men, she was also vulnerable, a romantic, a lover, a nurturer, a mother.

All these things make her extremely inspiring.

R: It was a very emotionally intense experience. I often had to tap into my emotional memory, some places where I usually don’t go, in order to bring the emotion out on the screen. Doing that was a very cathartic experience. I was also in an emotional funk when I broke my shoulder and was out of action for two and a half months. I took that and pumped it all into the performance.

Hopefully the audience likes it.

Shahid Kapoor-Katrina Kaif in 'Aankhen 2'?

W

hile there are lot of speculations regarding the cast of 'Aankhen 2' doing the rounds, a new development suggests the second part of the Amitabh-starrer will witness the fresh pairing of none other than Shahid Kapoor and Katrina Kaif in the lead, and will be joined by the versatile Nawazuddin Siddiqui. The report also suggests that Amitabh Bachchan will be carried forward from the first film. Director Aneez Bazmee said the second part cannot be made without Amitabh, and also said they would make an official announcement in 15-20 days.

30

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

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Winter Ball raises £26,000 for St Luke’s Hospice Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar were proud to be the official media partners for the glamorous St Luke’s Hospice Winter Ball in November. Over 120 guests enjoyed the dazzling evening held at The Drum, overlooking Wembley Stadium. Guests enjoyed live music and took part in an auction with great prizes on offer.

A magnificent £26,000 was raised for the hospice, which provides free care for patients in Harrow and Brent who have illnesses which are no longer curable, enabling them to live well, to know that their family and carers are supported and to die with dignity in the place of their choice.

Hari Aum Travel were the main sponsors of the event and Prestige Valuations Limited sponsored a diamond raffle, with one lucky winner winning a certified diamond valued at £1700 and three jewellery valuations.

Karen Tighe, trustee of St Luke's Hospice

place of love and laughter, warmth and fun. Where the atmosphere is exactly what the patient wishes for and there is time to think and talk: Time to spend with family and friends. And I want the final days of my life to be in that environment."

CB Patel, Publisher/ Editor of Asian Voice/Gujarat Samachar said, "On Saturday the 28th November, I attended the winter ball of St Luke's Hospice in the beautiful premises of the

Two distinguished individuals really impressed me. Mr Simon Verjee, on behalf of Lord Verjee conveyed their regrets for their inability to attend the event due to a prior engagement. Most surprising and encouraging along with a short note, a cheque of £5,000 was also enclosed for St Luke's. Similarly, Dr Kartar Lalvani, generous they are for all such human service activities, also sent £1,000. There were some other support-

Karen Tighe, a hospice patient and trustee of St Luke’s talked about why she wishes to be cared for

by St Luke’s.

"The reason why I wish for St Luke’s is that I know the type of care I will receive, but most importantly it is how the place will feel for my family and the support that they will receive.

I know that it is a Having A Ball: Esteemed guests enjoying the Winter Ball in Brent ers too."

Brent Civic Centre.

St Luke’s is tremenAmongst approximately English jails an accident waiting to happen dously grateful to Asian 130-150 guests, I was 2005 which increased to Continued from page 13 Voice, the sponsors, and happy to meet several 7,007 in 2015. l There were 1,959 all those who attended to Asians, predominantly l There were 862 Chinese Muslim inmates in 1991 show their support. St Indians from entrepreor other inmates in 2005 which rose to 12,622 in Luke’s Hospice relies on neur and professional which increased to 982 in 2015. the generosity of the combackground. As a token of 2015. l There were 151 Hindu munity for 75% of the our own solidarity with St The jail population – inmates in 1991 which rose funds to provide free hosLuke's, I happen to write British and Foreign to 448 in 2015. pice care. earlier inviting some eminationals: l There were 307 Sikh Find out more at nent and well heeled indil The number of British inmates in 1991 which shot www.stlukes-hospice.org viduals. inmates in 2001 was up to 751 in 2015.

58,732 which rose to The jail population gender75,010 in 2015. wise: l The number of Foreign l Till September 2015, national inmates was there were 81,998 male 6,926 in 2001 which inmates and 3,888 female increased to 10,442 in inmates.

2015.

The jail population ethnic The jail population group-wise: offence-wise: l There were 56,825 l The number of inmates White inmates in 2005 imprisoned for sexual which rose to 63,252 in offences was 3,109 in 1991 2015. which rose to 5,064 in l There were 4,564 Asian 2001 and 11,738 in 2015. or Asian British inmates in Editor: CB Patel Associate Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Tel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com Editorial Executive: Reshma Trilochun Tel: 020 7749 4010 - Email: reshma.trilochun@abplgroup.com Senior News Editor: Dhiren Katwa Chief Operating Officer: Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 Email: george@abplgroup.com Account Executive: Arjun Chokshi Tel: 020 7749 4087 Email: arjun.chokshi@abplgroup.

Advertising Manager: Kishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088 Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.com Business Development Managers: Rovin J George - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219 Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.com Graphic Designers: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086 Email: graphics@abplgroup.com Customer Service: Ragini Nayak Tel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com Leicester Distributors: Shabde Magazine, Shobhan Mehta Mob: 07846480220 (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad.

Tel. +91 79 2646 5960 Bureau Chief: Nilesh Parmar (M) +91 94266 36912 Email: nilesh.parmar@abplgroup.com Consulting Editor: Bhupatbhai Parekh, Ahmedabad,

Gujarat Tel: +91 79 2630 4142 Urvashi Jagadeesan (India) Mumbai: Kanti Bhatt, Hemraj Shah (Jumbo Advertiser) Horizon Advertising & Marketing: 2012, Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad. Tel +91 79 2646 5960 Email: horizon.marketing@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Hardik Shah (M) +91 99250 42936 Email: hardik.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Neeta Patel (Vadodara) M: +91 98255 11702 Email: neeta_abplgroup@yahoo.co.in Business Co-ordinator: Shrijit Rajan M: +91 98798 82312 Email: shrijit.rajan@abplgroup.com International Advertisement Representative: Jain International Tel: +91 44 42041122/3/4 Fax: +91 44 25362973 Mumbai: +91 022 2471 4122 Email: jain@jaingroup.net Delhi Office: Tel: +91 9311581597

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Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW. Tel: 020 7749 4080, Fax: 020 7749 4081 www.abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 The pattern of significant rela-

tionships in your life will continue to favour you. It seems that a great deal of mutual benefit will accrue because of various interactions. The underlying trend indicates that deep creative energies are stirring within you and that seemingly insignificant events will play a vital role in the future enrichment of life.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 Venus the planet of love is the moving force in regard to amorous experience, giving more than just a hint that links between lovers will be rather intense and passionate. Legal or official matters are likely to occupy your time. Saturn, the planet of structure and discipline is transiting your solar 8th house.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 Although all kinds of opportu-

nities are coming your way, there are many obstacles between you and the fulfillment of any of these. As you clear your path you will get closer to achieving your dreams. Relationships and romance are both under scrutiny by the presence of Saturn in your 7th house this will teach you to be patient and re-assess your position.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

The opening up of a more diverse social life is a pointer in favour of romantic attachments, if this is what you most desire. The domestic scene may prove to be active and harmonious as long as you use tact and diplomacy. This is also a time when you will develop fresh insights into other people and a better understanding of your own unconscious motives.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

You are exploring and searching now, making connections, and paying attention to your immediate environment. Socially you are very popular and your communications strengthen your connections. You will be busy with errands, paperwork, phone calls, and light socializing. Siblings, close relatives and friends may play an important role in your life during this period.

This week should see you at the peak of your creative powers and at the height of a romance. It’s an exciting, expansive time, when you should find it easier to be who you are and do what you want : you may be surprised by just how far you can go. This is a good time to embrace changes you might not even consider at other times.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

The prevailing astrological trend indicates increasing vigour and stamina. At an ordinary everyday level you can expect this to be a pleasant time, indulging in the good things of life. At a deeper level, there does appear to be a new energy stirring within you. This will urge you towards creating greater independence in your lifestyle.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 The accent’s very much on relationships. The opening up of a more diverse social life is a point in favour of romantic attachments, if this is what you want. You will achieve a lot more, especially when you're motivated by your own desires. The general pattern of things continues on a progressive and buoyant theme.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 Saturn continues its journey through your sign, lending its support for you to redefine your sense of self, in a way that will give you a greater understanding of yourself. You’re likely to find yourself doing a lot of thinking about both new and existing partnerships, and maybe toing and froing in one relationship in particular.

You could work with someone on a project that calls for clear communication and a high degree of cooperation. You may also find yourself thinking deeply about what it is you really want to do, and who you really want to be with.

The decisions you make now will be important for the path you take.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 It’s an exciting, expansive time, when you should find it easier to be who you are and do what you want : you may be surprised by just how far you can go. This is a time in which you can embrace changes you might not even consider at other times. You’re likely to find yourself weighing practical considerations with long–term goals.

You will feel confident as the week begins. The cosmic energies are decidedly invigorating at the moment. If you are taking a holiday, so much the better ! Not only do you have Venus putting a favourable emphasis on travel but, with Mars you can be sure of deriving the utmost pleasure from adventures and excursions.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

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England bowler banned for abusing Pak-born player

AsianVoiceNews

The England and Wales Cricket Board has banned Craig Overton, a young Somerset bowler, after telling Ashar Zaidi, Pakistani-born player, to “go back to your own f***ing country” during a county championship with Sussex at Hove in September. Overton was found guilty of a level-one breach, the lowest of four ECB directives, for comments he was heard making to Sussex spinner Zaidi.

Both umpire Alex Wharf and Sussex's nonstriking batsman Michael Yardy said they heard Overton's abuse of the 34year-old. It was reported that Wharf included this in his report, with Yardy giving a written statement in support. Zaidi, who was

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Craig Overton playing for Sussex on his British passport before being released by the club at the end of the season, told the match officials he had not heard anything beyond the “usual” comments that did not upset him.

Overton denied saying

the words, but chairperson of several charitable organisations Lord Herman Ouseley believes the punishment by the Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC), an independent arm of the ECB, does not fit the offence. “My view would be that it seems quite outrageous; that the punishment does not fit the offence. It's not only serious abuse and misconduct, it is racially offensive,” he said. “I would expect that if it was in football, that person would be getting a very heavy sanction. If cricket wants to maintain a reputation of credibility it should nip something like this in the bud and make it clear that it is not going to tolerate it.

If a decision seems quite

outrageously wrong, then the ECB could appeal and that goes to another panel.

In appealing, and voicing its displeasure at the verdict, it can send the message that there should be zero tolerance of such conduct.”

An ECB spokesman earlier insisted that it remains content with the CDC's handling of the case, and Overton was subsequently selected for this winter's England Performance Programme.

“Craig Overton's selection for the EPP squad would have played no part whatsoever in the CDC's ruling in this matter. The ECB refutes any suggestion of interference or bias in the proper disciplinary process.”

Federer, Nadal entertain Delhi crowd The highlight of the Indian leg of this year's Indian Premier Tennis League (IPTL) was the encounter between Roger Federer playing for UAE Royals and Rafael Nadal representing Indian Aces.

Though Federer manages to take Nadal to the limit in singles; Nadal manages to win the match for Indian Aces. Almost 10,000 people turned up for the blockbuster encounter and brought the house down the second year in a row when Federer's name was announced. Rafa's fan base is not small by any stretch of the imagination as he got the second loudest cheer.

Federer teamed up with 2014 US Open champion Marin Cilic, also making his first appearance for the UAE team this season, for the men's doubles clash

Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer against Nadal and India's Rohan Bopanna. It was Bopanna though who rose head and shoulders above the three other stars in action in the doubles clash - instrumental in getting the crucial break on the

Federer serve in the eighth game of the set.

Federer, playing his first match in the league this year, looked rusty as he took time to get used to the court. “Rafa has played a few matches on this court

right?“ Federer asked the UAE team captain midway through his singles match as Rafa went up with an early break. Nadal, who has beaten Federer in 23 matches out of the 34 between the two, ruled the day as well.

Nadal broke Federer not once but twice in the set to make it the Aces' night all the way. The Swiss maestro had another ace in his bag, breaking Nadal just as he was serving for the set - a backhand down the line to bring up two break points was his shot of the match. The Spaniard didn't make any mistake in the shoot-out closing it out 7-4.

The Indian team though continued their table-topping run, easing to a 30-19 win over UAE making it three out of three in their home leg.

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Asian Voice | 19th December 2015

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2 Gujaratis in Oman WC T20 team

Two Gujarati players - Ajay Lalcheta from Porbandar and Rajeshkumar Ranpura from Palanpur- will be playing along with Oman's T20 team when it makes its World Cup debut in March. Both are all-rounders, who migrated from their home towns few years ago to shape up their cricketing careers. Lalcheta first immigrated to Uganda to play cricket in 2004 and stayed there for a year. However, he returned in 2006 after which he migrated to Muscat and started playing cricket there. He joined the Al Turk shipping firm and played for its team, handling its logistics department. “He was picked up for the national team after he helped his firm win a trophy in a tournament. We all are proud of his achievements,” Vijay Lalcheta, Ajay's younger brother, who works as deputy manager at a private bank in Porbandar, said. Both Lalcheta and Ranpura got their initial coaching in Duleep School of Cricket, one of the oldest residential cricket schools in Gujarat. “They have represented Saurashtra in many under-14 and under-19 tournaments. Both are excellent fielders too.

Their careers got a boost after migrating to Oman,” said Rambhai Odedara, who was the coach at Duleep School.

Ranpura was brought up in Palanpur, where his father Jagdishchandra worked at a government agricultural university. His father helped him realize his dream. “Ranpura was living in a hostel in Porbandar and his dedication for the game was commendable,” Odedara said. A post-graduate in computer application, Ranpura has represented various teams, including Porbandar, Bhavnagar and Saurashtra at various levels. Rajeshsinh Jadeja, executive vice president at Porbandar District Cricket Association, said, “We are happy for both the players from Gujarat for being part of Oman's national side.” Jadeja was a senior player at Duleep School when Lalcheta and Ranpura were playing school cricket. Oman qualified for the ICC World Twenty20, 2016 tournament after convincingly beating the Netherlands, Afghanistan and Namibia. The team will arrive in Rajkot to play practice matches with Saurashtra team ahead of the mega tournament.

Dhawan reported for suspect bowling action

India's Shikhar Dhawan has been reported with a suspect bowling action during the fourth Test against South Africa, which the hosts won in New Delhi, the International Cricket Council (ICC) said.

"The match officials' report, which was handed over to the India team management, cited concerns about the legality of the 30-year-old's off-spin deliveries," said an ICC release. Dhawan bowled three overs in the Test and gave away nine runs. Dhawan's bowling action will now be scrutinised further under the ICC process relating to suspected illegal bowling actions reported in Tests, One-Day Internationals (ODIs) and T20Is. He will have to undergo testing within 14 days, and, during this period, right-arm tweaker is permitted to continue bowling in international cricket until the results of the testing are known.

Cricket's anti-corruption unit seeking tie-ups with crime agencies

Sir Ronnie Flanagan, the chairman of cricket's anticorruption unit (ACU) and a former senior police officer of Britain, has defended his unit following the fall out from the recent Chris Cairns trial and revealed the steps being taken by his unit to strengthen its effectiveness. He said that ACU has gone through 450 intelligence reports so far this year.

Flanagan revealed that ACU is close to agreeing a MoU with the National Crime Agency that will enable intelligence to be shared between police forces in the United Kingdom. Similar MoUs are also close to being signed with police agencies in South Africa and India as the ICC recognises its

Sir Ronnie Flanagan corruption unit lacks the investigatory powers necessary to bring to justice complex fixing rings. .

“We want MOUs with investigative bodies wherever world cricket is played. We have it already in New Zealand and Australia and we are in the final stages in drawing them up to be signed with-

in the next month or so with South Africa, India and the National Crime Agency in the UK. Our job is primarily about prevention. We as a unit must be seen as the players’ friend and exist to prevent the players from falling in the clutches of the predators.”

The ACU is the process of expanding with three

new appointments. A head of prevention to improve its education programme, a director and co-ordinator of investigations and a senior analyst. The latter two appointments have been made to improve the gathering and analysis of information between the ACU in Dubai and the individual anti-corruption units set up by some Test playing nations as well as police forces around the world.

Flanagan declined to comment on the findings of the jury in the Chris Cairns case, which ended recently with the former New Zealand all-rounder acquitted of perjury and attempting to pervert the course of justice.

Some of the major cricket corruption cases in recent times:

• August 2010: Three Pakistan players were revealed by the News of the World to have agreed to be paid to bowl no-balls during the Lord’s Test.

Salman Butt, Mohammad Asif and Mohammad Amir were all later jailed.

•January 2012: Essex cricketer Mervyn Westfield admitted accepting £6,000 to underperform in a county match. He was given a four-month prison sentence. Pakistan cricketer Danish Kaneria was banned for life for corrupting Westfield.

• February 2013: Mohammad Ashraful was banned for eight years for spot-fixing in the Bangladesh Premier League.

The AntiCorruption Unit was criti-

cised for allowing a game it knew to be corrupt to go ahead.

• March 2013: Delhi police arrested Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Anklet Chavan after an undercover operation. The son-inlaw of N Srinivasan, the chairman of the ICC, was also arrested. The case badly damaged Srinivasan, who is no longer involved in cricket politics.

• March 2013- May 2014: New Zealand batsman Lou Vincent was reported for approaching fellow players to fix. He was banned for life by ECB. His evidence was the basis of a Met Police prosecution of Chris Cairns for perjury. He was cleared after an eight-week trial in London

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India to meet Pak on March 19 during World T20

The Indian cricket team will open its campaign in the 2016 ICC World Twenty20 against New Zealand in Nagpur on March 15 next year, followed by a marquee clash against Pakistan in Dharamsala four days later.

The ICC announced the groups and itinerary for the sixth instalment of the tournament to be held across eight venues in India from March 8 to April 3, confirming that the final will be played at Eden Gardens in Kolkata.

In all, the 2016 World Twenty20 will comprise 58 matches - 35 for the men's teams, 23 for women's over 27 days across Bangalore, Chennai, Dharamsala, Kolkata, Mohali, Mumbai, Nagpur and New Delhi. The semifinals will be played in New Delhi and Mumbai on March 30 and 31 respectively, with Kolkata hosting the summit clash. The women's semi-finals and final will be followed by the men's knock-out matches.

The men's event will see eight teams divided into two groups of four for the first

Don't boycott World T20 in India, Akram tells Pak

round of matches, from this the group winners will progress to the Super 10 stage starting March 16; this is two groups of five teams. From the second round, the top two teams from both groups will make it to the semi-finals. In the women's event, 10 teams will be divided into two groups and the top two from each group will progress to the semis.

The men's tournament will start on March 8 in Nagpur, with Bangladesh, Netherlands, Ireland, man (Group A) and Zimbabwe,

Scotland, Hong Kong and Afghanistan (Group B) competing until March 13.

The first day will see Zimbabwe play Hong Kong followed by Scotland versus Afghanistan. The group winners will join Australia, England, New Zealand, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and India.

India, losing finalists in the 2014 edition, have been pooled with Pakistan, Australia, New Zealand and the Group A winner. After the Nagpur and Dharamsala fixtures, India

Notwithstanding India's delay in giving a go ahead for the proposed Indo-Pak bilateral series this month, former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram has advised the PCB against thinking about a boycott of the World T20 in India in March next year. “I realise that the Indians Wasim Akram have taken too much time over deciding on the bilateral series with Pakistan, but even if it does not happen now it will happen soon,” Akram said at a function in Karachi. Akram however said the PCB should not even think about boycotting the World T20 for any reason. “The World T20 is an ICC event and we should participate in it at all costs. If we don't it will harm us in the long run,” Akram said. will meet the Group A winner in Bangalore on March 23 and Australia in Mohali on March 27. Defending champions Sri Lanka are alongside South Africa, West Indies, England and the Group B winner.

"India is a country where cricket is a religion and not many places can match the passion for the game like India. I am fully confident that the Board of Control for Cricket in India will deliver an outstanding world cricket event, just like

the ICC Cricket World Cups in 1987, 1996 and 2011," said ICC chairman Shashank Manohar in Mumbai during the launch of the tournament. "The ICC and BCCI are fully committed and will work together to make this a memorable event. I invite fans from across the world to witness fast-paced cricketing action on the field and enjoy the hospitality and culture of India, off it."

Added ICC Chief Executive David

Richardson: "The ICC World Twenty20 is an event which puts the world's best cricketers in the shortest format of the game against each other in a nation versus nation contest. The Twenty20 format provides the perfect vehicle by which the ICC can further globalise the game, providing international exposure and opportunity to our top Associate and Affiliate members. The ICC World Twenty20 event structure is designed to provide highly competitive matches throughout, with eight evenly-matched sides fighting it out in the first round and the best two then getting in the mix with the top eight ranked teams in the Super 10 stage where the intensity and competition will be of the very highest level."

The teams will be vying for a prize money of $5.6million, an increase of 86% from last year's event in Bangladesh, the ICC announced. The total prize money for the women's event is $400,000, up 122% from 2014