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Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

VOL 41. ISSUE 36

80p

19th January to 25th January 2013

Lord Popat becomes the first Gujarati Frontbencher in the House of Lords

Anil Ambani compares Modi to Gandhi, Sardar Patel at Vibrant Gujarat Summit 2013

Life of Pi wins Golden Globe Award Lord Popat

Lord Popat of Harrow has been appointed as a Government Whip and Lord-in-Waiting in the House of Lords following the recent Government reshuffle in the Lords last week.

He will be a spokesperson for business and transport in the House of Lords. The appointment was confirmed by Number 10 on Wednesday 9th January by the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson after Her Majesty The Queen’s formal approval.

He will be replacing Viscount Younger of Leckie, who on the same day was appointed as the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills after the resignation of Lord Marland.

Lord Popat is the first Gujarati Minister to represent the Conservative Party on the Frontbenches in the House of Lords and his appointment has been very well received by the Gujarati community in Britain, East Africa and of course Gujarat.

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Continued on page 6

Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi with Indian and foreign delegates at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit - 2013 at Gandhinagar.

The sixth edition of the Vibrant Gujarat Global Summit concluded in the state capital Gandhinagar on Saturday evening with investment promises worth Rs 40,000 billion for the state. The biggest ever summit enrolls 17,719 business proposals, 105 countries, 50,000 Indian delegates, 1,800 foreign delegates and 1500,000 footfall.

Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi came in for fulsome praise from India Inc with RIL chairman Mukesh Ambani hailing him as a leader with "grand vision" and his younger brother Anil Ambani putting him in the league of Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel.

"In Narendrabhai, we have a leader with a grand vision...Gujarat has been a pioneer state in infrastructure giving it an innate advantage," Mukesh Ambani said at the Vibrant Gujarat Summit. The threeday grand event aimed at investment promotion and creating investor friendly

climate was attended by top Indian industrialists and representatives of foreign companies and a battery of envoys.

"We began from Gujarat and we come back here again and again to invest. We have committed investment of Rs 1,000 billion in Gujarat. We will expand our operations in Gujarat in Jamnagar and Hazira," Ambani said adding that the Reliance is proud to be called a "Gujarati company." He also committed further investment of Rs 5 billion in Pandit Dindayal Upadhayay Petroleum University.

His younger brother, Anil, described Modi as "a king among kings." "Let me attempt to paint another picture: October 2, 1869, Porbandar, Gujarat - the birth of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, the father of the nation; October 31, 1875, Nariyal, Gujarat - the birth of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, India's man of steel;

December 28, 1932, Chorwad, Gujarat - the birth of Dhirubhai Ambani, India's greatest entrepreneur; and September 17, 1950, Vadnagar, Gujarat the birth of Narendra Modi," he said.

Continued on page 26

Composer Mychael Danna with his wife Aparna Danna

For full story see page 13

India warns Pakistan against any border misadventure India demonstrated its renewed resolve to fight fire with fire along the volatile Line of Control, directing all its battalion commanders on the fiercely-contested boundary to retaliate with all their might if the Pakistani Army provokes them by violating the ceasefire or pushing militants into Jammu and Kashmir.

"I expect all my commanders on the LoC to be aggressive and offensive in face of provocation and fire...No passivity is expected from them. Their response has to be meas-

General Bikram Singh

ured and for effect," said a tough-talking General Bikram Singh, a day ahead of Army Day celebrations.

The fact that the Army chief issued an unequivo-

cal warning to Pakistan to cease and desist from misadventures along the border is a confirmation there is going to be no immediate de-escalation of tension, especially as a defiant Pakistan refused to own up to the beheading of an Indian soldier and mutilation of another's body by its elite SSG commandos on January 8.

Speaking around the same time that Pakistan brushed aside India's charges at the brigadierlevel flag meeting at the Continued on page 26

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UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Keith Vazwith MP

Keith Vaz MP

Jenny Kartupelis MBE

within those constraints, and this means taking up the challenge of creating partnerships for mutual benefit. This is also one of the major opportunities – good partnerships formed now will extend the project and allow for innovation.

Jenny Kartupelis is a communications professional by background, having founded and run public relations businesses over the last 30 years, handling clients from the commercial, private and academic sectors. In 2002 she helped to establish, and has since been Director of a multi-faith organisation, enabling understanding and partnerships between different faiths, and between the faith and public sectors. She has also been interim director of a number of charities, and her most recent appointment is as the Director of the India Overseas Trust, established to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of British Asians from Uganda.

Jenny was awarded an MBE in 2010 for ‘services to inter faith relations’.

Please tell us about your current position?

I have something of a ‘portfolio’ life at present: I own a small communications company, for the last ten I’ve been Director of a multi faith body, and now I’m very pleased become part-time Director of the India Overseas Trust, set up to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the expulsion of British Asians from Uganda. I am also working towards a Professional Doctorate. So my current portfolio keeps me on my toes!

What are your proudest achievements?

Probably the challenge that took me furthest out of my comfort zone was swimming the Hellespont (Turkey) to raise money for a water aid project; with matched funding from the EU, I raised enough to supply a village in Ethiopia with clean water. The first few

How do you see the long-term impact of the project?

The aspiration has always been to create lasting legacy, both in terms of information and educational tools for future generations, and also most importantly, to benefit the lives of people in Uganda. Some of this legacy is already being put in place, but the work in Africa will be designed in response to research into priority needs.

steps into the sea that day were some of the scariest seconds of my life, and I did feel proud of myself for carrying on! I was also thrilled to be awarded an MBE two years ago, and very proud to take my family to Buckingham Palace.

What has been the biggest obstacle in your career?

Someone once said that a career is a series of opportunities seen in retrospect, and that has been very true for me.

I have been very blessed in the chances I’ve been given, but they mean I have to keep learning new skills and making new contacts, which presents a series of obstacles rather than a single major one.

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

When tempted to give up, I remember the challenges my father had to overcome as a

captain in the merchant navy and indeed all his generation who experienced the war. He did so with fortitude and good humour, and his influence on me has been profound. I have also learnt a lot from Walter Herriot OBE, who has provided national leadership on business enterprise and innovation. I have known Walter for nearly 30 years, and been so impressed by his generosity with his time to people starting out in life, and his modest

approach when others would have grown arrogant.

What do you feel are the main opportunities or challenges of the role ahead?

In common with all charities, the India Overseas Trust must use its limited resources cleverly to achieve ambitious aims; it is also working mainly within the specific timeframe of the commemoration year. So, we have to ‘work smart’ to maximise impact

If you were Prime Minister, what one thing would you change?

I have no political affiliation, but would change the nature of policy-making so that it would be more strongly evidencebased, rather than ideologically driven. In other words, policy would be made on the basis of projecting its real-world effects, and their implications for the common good.

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

Lord Byron – he was a great outdoor swimmer, so we could train together to make our escape, and meanwhile I’d be entertained by his poetry readings.

The Asian Voice Political and Public Life Awards 2013 It is that time of year again…The Asian Voice Public and Political Life Awards nominations. The awards celebrate the achievements of those who have made a special contribution to our political or public life over the last 12 months in a variety of fields.

The Asian Voice Political and Public Life Awards represent Asian Voice’s modest effort to honour a number of outstanding individuals from different communities, walks of life and diverse political persuasions who serve society in their own special way, and who contribute significantly, in whatever they do, towards making a better world today and for the future.

It is the sixth year the awards have been presented and as in previous years, the event will be attended by 250 high profile politicians from all political parties, successful people from the world of business and community leaders.

The awards for achievements in 2012 will be handed out at a presti-

gious ceremony in the Members Dining Room of the House of Commons on 7th February 2013.

This year, as every year, we are seeking your

nominations for the awards.

Please send your nominations for Political and Public Life Awards to: ppla2013@hotmail.com

2012 Winners Cabinet Minister of the Year Shadow Cabinet Minister of the Year Liberal Democrat Minister of the Year Junior Minister of the Year Labour Backbencher of the Year Conservative Backbencher of the Year Parliamentary Journalist of the Year Diversity in the Public Services Award Journalist of the Year TV Personality of the Year Business Demonstrating Sustained Growth of the Year Young Entrepreneur of the Year Parliamentary Service Award Broadcaster of the Year Lifetime Achievement in Health Business Person of the Year Restaurant of the Year Asian Broadcaster of the Year School of the Year Business in the Community Local Government Award

Rt. Hon Andrew Mitchell MP Rt. Hon. Yvette Cooper MP Paul Burstow MP David Gauke MP Stella Creasy MP Gavin Barwell MP Anushka Asthana John Hannett Riz Lateef Jameela Jamil Mr Deepak Nangla Rajesh Agrawal Staff of message service Nick Ferrari Dr K. Anji Reddy Bharat Shah Chak 89 ATN BANGLA HABS Lycamobile UK Ltd Councillor Jagdish Sharma

2011 Winners Parliamentarian of the Year Conservative Minister of the Year Junior Minister of the Year Special Award for Achievement in Film Conservative Backbencher of the Year Liberal Democrat Backbencher of the Year Labour Backbencher of the Year Journalist of the Year Business in the Community Award Lifetime Achievement Award Local Government Award Charity of the Year Businessperson of the Year Contribution to Sport in the UK Columnist of the Year TV Personality of the Year Restaurant of the Year Asian Broadcaster of the Year Face of the Future Award International Entrepreneur of the Year Community Award Professional of the Year Creative and Entertainment Co of the Year

Rt Hon Ed Miliband MP Rt Hon Michael Gove MP Ed Davey MP Tariq Anwar (The Kings Speech) Nadhim Zahawi MP Julian Huppert MP Anas Sarwar MP Paul Lewis Kantesh Popat Nirmal Sethia Luftur Rahman & Dr Neeraj Patil (joint award) Path to Success – Anita Choudhrie Fukhera Khalid Leicester City Football Club Yasmine Alibhai Brown Rudolph Walker Curry Fever B4U Arjun Rajyagor Subaskaran Allirajah Ranjit Mathrani Professor Iqbal Singh Naz Choudhry

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Comment

Modi wave at Vibrant Gujarat conclave Vibrant Gujarat announced itself with pomp and circumstance and much good sense, since that is what one expects of business leaders at work and at play. Economic and social activity feed off each other to the advantage of both. Some of the most lucrative business deals have been incubated or sealed on the golf course. Those present at the opening of this year’s Vibrant Gujarat in the state capital, Gandhinagar, included the biggest names in India and significant personalities from abroad.

Take your pick from the galaxy of India’s good and great, from Ratan Tata, Cyrus Mistry, the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, Anand Mahendra, Chanda Kochchar, to Shashi Ruia, Adi Godrej, R.C.Bhargava and Gautam Adani. Senior diplomats from the US, the UK, Japan et al mingled with the guests, each looking to promote the commercial of their respective countries.

The US may still deny Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi a visa, but Uncle Sam is unburdened by moral compunctions when it comes to trade and investment. Britain wisely has aligned its business interests with its political interests, hence the UK High Commissioner Sir John Bevan

attended in the flesh, as did Ron Sommers, President of the IUS-India Business Council.

Indian speakers such as Ratan Tata spoke of the advantages of doing business in Gujarat.

Turfed out of West Bengal, thanks to Mamata Banerjee’s populist demagogy and mission creep hooliganism, the Tatas relocated its Nano plant from the environs of Kolkata to Sanand in welcoming Gujarat. Mr Tata said the papers for the transfer were cleared by the Modi government in twenty-four hours. Other voices waxed eloquent on the pleasures of doing business in Gujarat. But when Vice Governor of the Russian Federation’s Astrakhan province, Konstonten Markolov, whose government had recently signed a protocol for enhanced economic co-operation with Gujarat, said: “I would like to wish him [Narendra Modi] all success in India’s general election in 2014,” the audience rose to their feet in prolonged applause.

Was Mr Markolov the recipient of a vision? We shan’t know until the votes are counted, a process still a year and a half away. A week is a long time in politics, as Harold Wilson, Britain’s Labour prime minister long years ago, famously observed.

Jehadi terrorism and British policy Pakistan has been, and continues to be, the epicentre of Islamist terrorism, with Saudi Arabia its principal funder. Both are favoured Western clients. Mark Curtis’s book entitled “Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam” revealss disturbing details of a relationship that goes back to the high noon of empire in India, and covers its subsequent flowering in the Middle East, the Balkans and North Africa.

Frankenstein’s monster now stalks its creator. The karmic cycle has run its course. Even the Pakistani predator is not exempt from the consequences of its work. The messianic dream of the Universal Caliphate’s second coming appears to be dissolving into a hideous nightmare as sectarian conflict in the House of Islam between Sunnis and Shias, whose fault-lines cut across national frontiers, as do the area’s varied ethnicities involving Turks and Kurds, Kurds and Arabs, Baluchis and Punjabis, Mohajirs, Sindhis and Pathans etc.

These spreading internecine conflicts are wreaking havoc in the Middle East, and most notably in Pakistan itself, where paralytic state organs are incapable of controlling the forces they once encouraged. Everyday killings in Pakistan are rife, the latest horror of 100 deaths at a snooker club in the city of Quetta, frequented by Shias, being but the latest example. The export of terror abroad through myriad non-state actors, who did their work in Mumbai on November 26, 2008, and previously in the London Underground on 5 July 2005.

Set in historical mode, Mark Curtis, a former Research Fellow at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House)is an author with impeccable credentials, tells of the British alignment with Islamic conservatism and separatism in the Indian subcontinent firstly as a hedge against the anti-imperialist Indian National Congress, perceived as the party of the Hindu majority. By the end of the Second World War, the new Islamic Pakistan. with Britain as its midwife, was roped in as a client-ally in the evolving Cold War against the Soviet Union. This was after the Congress leadership had refused to play ball on British military bases in an independent India.

Pakistan’s Muslim League government, in con-

trast, welcomed this presence, which was duly retained and expanded in the country’s north west. Britain was complicit in the Pakistan-sponsored Pathan invasion of Kashmir, that followed Partition, in October 1947; the UK subsequently supported the Pakistani position on Kashmir at the United Nations and other internal fora.

Shining a light on the American role would amplify the Curtis narrative. The US was in lockstep with its British ally. Following Jawaharlal Nehru’s first visit to Washington as Indian prime minister, a State Department minute castigating him for his “inflexible attitude” on Kashmir,” suggested “national traits which in time, if not controlled,, could make India Japan’s successor in Asiatic imperialism. In such circumstances, a strong Muslim bloc under the leadership of Pakistan and friendly to the US might afford a desirable balance of power in South Asia.”

Pakistan was duly co-opted into US-sponsored alliances such as SEATO and CENTO to ringfence the Soviet Union primarily, but also to contain India. A cornucopia of arms supplies poured into Pakistan (and still does), enabling its military to initiate wars against India in 1965, 1971 and 1999. In the second of these conflicts, the US and Maoist China acted in concert against New Delhi.

The mainstream British and American media marched in step with their respective governments, as they did over the invasions of Iraq and Libya. First estate and fourth estate were comrades in arms.

The 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York and Washington resulted in a change of AngloAmerican policy, without this being a tectonic shift. Relations with India are friendlier now than they ever been, but given the international security architecture projected by the US and its Nato allies, the space for a closer alignment between India and the West does not at present exist. Mark Curtis’s brilliantly researched and constructed work is one not to be missed. No thinking person can afford to ignore it. Those who read it and absorb its message will be wiser and more enlightened for the effort. One can only quote Noam Chomsky: “Unearthing this largely hidden history is a contribution of the highest significance.”

Cameron’s damage limitation exercise in India Prime Minister David Cameron’s visit to India, the second since he came to power in the summer of 2010, will be something of a damage limitation exercise in the field of education. Thanks to the UK’s stringent visa rules, the numbers of Indian students looking for places in British universities and schools declined by 23.5 per cent overall in 2011-12 including a drop of 28 per cent at the postgraduate level, according to figures recently released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency in London. Around 30,000 students entered the in 2011-12 compare to 40,000 in the previous year.

Despite the fall in numbers, Indians are second to China’s 79,000 student entrants last year. Which is scant consolation for universities who have longed warned that they were losing India’s brightest and

best, and also the revenues they brought, to the United States, Canada and Australia.

According to Britain’s Financial Times, Mr Cameron will arrive in India early next month to assure his hosts that the UK’s visa regulations are mot designed to discourage bonafide students entering the the country, but to keep the bogus fraternity out. London’s Tory Mayor, Boris Johnson, described the Cameron government’s immigration policy as “crazy”, accusing it of driving “India’s top talent” to seek other countries more welcoming of their presence. What precisely did Mr Cameron mean when he spoke of an “enhanced relationship with India” on his first visit to New Delhi? It is akin to the riddle of the Sphinx. Few understood it then, fewer understand it now.

3

The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read or write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn - Alvin Toffler

Leave the EU and form an Economic Union with India This forthcoming week Barak Obama will make his second Inaugural speech as President. In his first such speech four years ago, he specifically mentioned Hindus – so important had they become to the future of US growth and capitalism. Indeed, it was the first time ever any American President had mentioned Hindus in their inaugural speech upon swearing the Oath of Office.

David Cameron announced this past week his plans to visit India next month. Writing on his blog before he took office (political blogs are far more revealing than political speeches – as many unguarded politicians have discovered to their cost) why he is visiting India when he wrote, ‘Our relationship with India goes deep.

But I think it can and should go deeper. Our special relationship with America is well known. But as the world’s centre of gravity moves from Europe and the Atlantic to the south and the east, I think it's time for Britain and India to forge a new special relationship for the twenty-first century.’

The problem is – actions speak louder than words.

Explain to me how you plan a special relationship with India when your Home Secretary is rabidly ‘off the reservation’ with visa policy such that the presumption is Indian marriages are sham until proven otherwise.

So how the heck do you expect Indians talent to come to the UK when you don’t want their spouses here?

You think they can’t fly to Frankfurt and New York instead?

How do you plan a special relationship when major Indian corporate investors here have to jump through crazy loopholes so you can meet your immigration targets because you have an open border policy with Romania? What’s the Romanian track record on adding to British GDP? And where the hell is Lakshmi Mittal and Ratan Tata’s voice in all this. Making money is not all life is about.

Countries have ‘most preferred status’ with each other. UK does with the US for instance. No visas needed. But deeds speak very loudly when it comes to India.

The next election is two years away if you want to capture the British Indian vote, and funds, here’s your strategy – and the Party to steal this idea first, wins the race for this ethnic vote: double your visa staff in India, remove the sponsorship bureaucracy for family members coming to the UK (you don’t think the threat of prison is a deterrent in a cold, wet, expensive country?), have a prejudice in favour of Indian wanting to settle in the UK – has the community not done you proud as you mention at every single patronising opportunity how wonderfully colourful, peaceful, law-abiding we are, with such tasty food you’ve adopted and love.

For God’s sake, we’re not children seeking a belly rub and a pat on the back. Some darn deeds to our fellow Indians wanting to settle here and help pull the country out of the hole it’s in may be in order. So leave the EU if you want David Cameron – form an economic union with India instead. Bet you’d win that referendum.

Let’s hope Britain recognises by deeds, not just words, the importance of Indians to Britain, the way President Obama, the most powerful man in the world did in the most significant speech of his life. We deserve deeds not words.

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 www: abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

4

Midlands Voice

www.abplgroup.com - asian Voice 19th January 2013

Missing student's father calls on ManU fans to help find son The desperate and helpless father of a missing student called on the Man United fans to help trace his son as he handed out leaflets outside the Old Trafford on Sunday.

Santanu Pal, who has flown from India to help search for son Souvik, braved the bitter cold with his appeal on Sir Matt Busby Way ahead of Sunday’s match between the Man U and Liverpool.

Souvik, from Bangalore, was last seen at a party at the nearby Warehouse Project on New Year’s Eve. The 19-year-old, a student at Manchester Metropolitan University, had trained for a part-time job serving refreshments at Old Trafford and had worked at United’s match against West Bromwich Albion just days before he disappeared.

Mr Pal’s leaflets featured a picture and description of his son, who has a scar on the right side of his forehead and was last seen wearing a pale denim longsleeved shirt with a collar, grey chino trousers and navy blue leather boots.

United officials displayed an appeal

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In Brief £500 reward to help stop graffiti vandals

Souvik's father Santanu Pal handing out pamphlets outside Old Trafford Appeal March to find Souvik Missing student Souvik Pal

on their pitch side digital advertising boards before the match – and stadium announcer Alan Keegan asked supporters in a crowd of 75,501 for their help.

Police believe Reds fans may be able to provide vital clues to Souvik’s whereabouts.

Det Chief Insp Colin Larkin told a local media: "The police and the family of Souvik Pal are grateful to Manchester United for their support for this appeal.

"Souvik was last seen near the

Warehouse Project, which is not far from Old Trafford.

"We hope that there could be someone among the crowd who may have some information that could help us."

Officers are trawling hours of CCTV footage but admit they have had little response to their appeals. Mr Pal has vowed to stay in Manchester ‘until I get my son back’.

Anyone with information on Souvik’s whereabouts should call police on 0161 856 4223 or Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.

Wife of Ponnuthurai Nimalaraja says she “forgives the boy who killed him” The wife of a man who died after being punched in the street says she forgives the 15-year-old boy who killed him. Mathanika Nimalaraja spoke out to pay tribute to her husband, Ponnuthurai, following the sentencing of the teenager who hit him.

Mr Nimalaraja, who was known as Nimal, fell backwards and hit his head after being punched by the youth at the junction of Gipsy Lane and Northfield Road, in Northfields, Leicester, in June last year. He died in hospital a week later.

Following a court hearing on Monday which saw the boy sentenced to a three-year detention order, Mrs Nimalaraja said: “I am not angry any more. Before, I was angry because I lost my

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Mathanika Nimalaraja, wife of victim Ponnuthurai Nimalaraja

husband, but I am not angry now.

“The boy is a child and he didn’t mean to kill Nimal – it was an accident.

“He was only 14 years old when this happened – the same age as my son now.

“Whatever sentence he

Ponnuthurai Nimalaraja

got – three years or four years or five years, it doesn’t matter – my husband is not coming back.”

The teenager, who cannot be named, had denied killing Mr Nimalaraja, 41, but a jury found him guilty of manslaughter following a five-day trial.

Mr Nimalaraja and his wife would have celebrated their 15th wedding anniversary on June 25. He died on June 16. Mrs Nimalaraja said the tragedy had devastated the family.

Hundreds of members of the Tamil community from around the world travelled to attend Mr Nimalaraja’s funeral.

His children led the tributes at the service, describing him as a “super-hero dad” who cared for everyone.

The teenager has already served six months of his sentence while on remand.

He will serve a minimum of a further 12 months in custody, but after that could be released on probation for the remainder of his sentence.

Council bosses are hunting prolific graffiti vandals who have daubed 2,500 tags across the city, costing thousands of pounds to clean up.

The authority has spent almost £30,000 scrubbing away the tags from its buildings in the past few months. It fears the bill could run to more than £200,000 by August. Businesses have also paid thousands of pounds to clean them up since the tags first started appearing last summer.

The council has now taken the unprecedented step of offering a reward of £500 to anyone who can help secure convictions.

London Road was hit in November.

Manoj Keshavji, chairman of London Road Business Association, described it as an "onslaught" to a local newspaper.

Anyone with information about the people responsible for either of the tags can contact Leicester City Council's city wardens team on 0116 252 6430.

Pedestrian critically ill after being punched

A pedestrian is critically ill in hospital after being punched and knocked out in Dudley by a driver he was urging to slow down.

The 40-year-old was knocked to the floor with a single punch after the driver of the vehicle pulled over and approached him.

He suffered a serious head injury and is currently in a critical condition at hospital.

The attacker was driving a white 4x4 car along Newland Grove, in Dudley, at around 3pm on Sunday 13 January when the assault happened.

The suspect was described as wearing grey jogging bottoms and a grey top.

A 25-year-old man was later arrested at an address in Netherton and is being questioned by officers in connection with the attack.

Jaguar Land Rover to create 800 new jobs in Solihull

Rochdale father to make court bid for his release

Gemma Wilkinson with Razwan Anjum

A dad who was jailed for abducting his daughter three years ago is expected to ask a high court judge for his release this week.

Razwan Ali Anjum from Queensway, Rochdale abducted his daughter Atiya Anjum-

Wilkinson in November 2009 after she went to stay with him on her third birthday.

The former insurance salesman said he was taking Atiya to Southport but instead he took her to Lahore and told mum

Gemma Wilkinson that she was ‘never going to see Atiya again’.

Gemma, from Ashtonunder-Lyne, spent three years in a living nightmare searching for her daughter.

Anjum was jailed for contempt of court after refusing to reveal Atiya's whereabouts.

The breakthrough in the hunt for Atiya came on December 24 when she was located by the Pakistani authorities who had been carrying out a surveillance operation on a house.

Atiya was found in a village near Sialkot in the Punjab.

Gemma was told about the discovery on Christmas Day when she was also sent up-to-date photographs of Atiya.

Atiya Wilkinson Anjum

Atiya returned to England on a Pakistan International Airlines flight from Islamabad which touched down at Manchester Airport on Friday December 28.

Luxury carmaker Jaguar Land Rover is to create another 800 jobs at its Solihull plant to cope with soaring sales figures, it has been revealed.

It is understood that the extra jobs are in response to the brand’s strong performance in China, USA and Russia and the UK success of its new Range Rover Evoque model.

More than 200 of the new posts will be supported by the Government’s Regional Growth Fund, while JLR is investing £370million at the plant.

The planned expansion at the Solihull works, which already employs 6,000 people, will include a new aluminium body shop for the new Range Rover, as well as upgrades to paint technologies.

The carmaker made a record £1.5billion profit in the year ending March 2012, despite the eurozone crisis which has hit many motor manufacturers.

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

5

Muslim fundamentalists Hindu school considers rouse support in London move to Harrow The reprimand in India of controversial Hyderabadi politician Akbaruddin Owaisi, of the All-India Council of the Brotherhood of Muslims (MIM), who had travelled to London for ‘medical treatment’ last week, has caused mixed feelings among Britain’s Muslims.

Adherents of the faith were spotted outside the Indian High Commission in London on Monday, handing out leaflets claiming: “Hindu-Muslim riots are ignited everyday by intentionally building temples near sacred Muslim sites. Is this why we asked for freedom from the Raj? Churchill was right in thinking Indians were not responsible enough yet for their freedom. Free Owaisi Now!” While Mr Owaisi has left Britain since these comments were made, it is known that he attended a function in the west London borough of Hounslow prior to going back. Also, it is still not clear which organisation has been responsible for

Akbaruddin Owaisi

leafleting Indians across the capital, but the inclusion of slurs against the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Kiren Kumar Reddy, a former associatecum-enemy of Mr Owaisi’s brother, Asaduddin Owaisi who leads the MIM party, has raised the spectre of Indian politics spilling over onto the streets of the UK. This propaganda on behalf of Mr Owaisi, who

elicited wide condemnation after his speech against Hindus, describing them as “impotent” and calling for the violent restoration of “Muslim rule in India”, has been contrasted by strong reaction from various Muslim institutions in the UK. The Chairman of the Council of Indian Muslims (UK), a London based advocacy group, Munaf Zeena, speaking before Owaisi flew back to India, told an Indian newspaper last week: “I am going to contact the authorities with a request to revoke his visa. We hope he soon goes back.

The speech made by Owaisi is not acceptable in any part of the world. I have listened to the alleged speech made by him and it is very shocking. We have consistently stood against the politics of hate that tries to incite violence.” Mr Zeena was not available for subsequent comment.

Oldham Taxi driver spared jail A taxi driver who allegedly duped a blind woman out of £270 has avoided jail.

Shafak Hussain, 36, took unsuspecting passenger Jill Holland, 52, to a cashpoint after he had picked her up from hospital. She wanted to take out £30 to pay for her fare.

But the driver callously withdrew £300 – pocketing £270 and handing her the £30. Father-of-two Hussain, who complained of racism after he was arrested, was rumbled when Miss Holland called her bank the following day.

He pleaded not guilty to theft but was convicted after a trial at Manchester magistrates court.

Hussain, pictured, of

Plymouth Street, Oldham, on Friday was given a suspended four-month prison sentence, meaning he was able to walk free.

The court heard that following the offence, on August 5, Hussain had been shunned and reviled by colleagues at Shawbased Motown cars who were disgusted by his actions.

He has since had his licence revoked and was also ordered to carry out 150 hours' unpaid work, and told he must repay the stolen money to Miss Holland.

The soon to be fatherof-three had claimed he had taken the £300 out of the account with Miss Holland’s full knowledge and given it to her.

Passing sentence, the judge said there was no criticism against Motown Taxis, remarking that until the incident they had given a good service to Miss Holland and took her to work on a daily basis.

After the case Hussain, who was ordered to pay £625 costs, said he had put his house up for sale to fund his appeal.

Keval Dhokia A prominent Hindu independent school, based in the London borough of Brent, is to consider relocating after the latest census data showed that neighbouring borough, Harrow, now houses the most Hindu residents in the country.

The Swaminarayan School, which celebrated its 20th anniversary a few months ago, has traditionally been located on grounds directly opposite the BAPS Swaminarayan temple, in Neasden, where students go to attend prayers.

The London borough of Harrow emerged as the local authority with the largest Hindu population in the country in the 2011

UK census, with 60,407 Hindus, displacing the once top borough of Brent, now with 55,449 adherents of the faith.

This shift in demographics has caused the school to postpone its consideration to become a free school, which could see it become a taxpayer funded establishment, but still allowing for religious education and the daily act of collective worship in accordance with the tenets Hinduism.

The school’s Principal Mahendra Savjani has made it clear that if the school decides to become a free school, it will probably move to a site in North Brent or Harrow.

He also told a local community blog in Brent that:

Every day some of the country’s brightest maths graduates go to work to do one thing. Teach.

This year over 70% of new trainee teachers had a first or a 2:1. If you join them you could get a tax-free bursary up to £20,000*, or a scholarship to train as a maths teacher. It all adds up.

Search ‘get into teaching’ or call 0800 389 2500.

1,000 Britons a day conned by Indian call centre and internet fraudsters Up to 60,000 Britons have been the victims of a multi-million-pound Indian call centre and internet fraud, the Mail has revealed recently.

Investigators believe the sheer number taken in by the loans scam makes it one of the biggest frauds ever carried out in the UK from overseas.

At its height, more than 1,000 people a day who had legitimately sought unsecured loans with banks and finance companies were being ‘cold called’ from call centres in the Indian capital New Delhi – with 100 of them daily being duped

into signing-up and paying a ‘processing fee’ to secure non-existent cash.

A special Delhi police cell, normally focused on anti-terrorist operations, is heading the investigations after a request from the British High Commission and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, the UK’s national police agency. Indian police say at a ‘conservative estimate’ they believe around £10million was cheated out of UK citizens seeking loans.

Most victims have been cheated out of small sums ranging from £90 to £250, but one man, they

say, lost more than £200,000 as he ‘chased’ his promised loan.

Detectives say they believe they have now smashed the gang, with three Indian men arrested on suspicion of a ‘deep-rooted conspiracy’ to commit fraud using electronic equipment.

However, others remain on the run in the UK and India.

Callers from Delhi with excellent English speaking over Skype or the web pretended they were in the UK and often referred the victim to the fictitious ‘references’ of satisfied clients already on the internet.

“While we have not found a site, we would wish to locate in the heart of the Hindu Community”, which means Harrow would now be the primary choice for the new site.

In a statement to the Asian Voice Mrs Chaudhuri, a staff member at the school, remarked: “The governors have decided that they will not be applying for free school status in the current round.

We received a variety of opinions last term from parents and staff of the school on this very important issue, and (the board of governors) have decided they would like to carry out a more detailed consultation during the course of 2013.”

Rewarding Challenging Teaching

LMS

Advancing Mathematics

London Mathematical Society

*Conditions apply. See education.gov.uk/teachconditions for full details.

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Do you have a nose for a great brand?

Spriha Srivastava

Matru ki Bijlee strikes The breathtaking backdrop of Haryana in North India is the setting for the new comedydrama Matru Ki Bijlee ka Mandola, that released last week. The rustic romance is set in a small, picturesque farming village, where three protagonists’ lives entwine with bittersweet and unexpected results.

Boasting an eclectic cast of veteran actors, Bollywood’s young gun rising stars and also the symbolic ‘Gulabi Bhains’ (pink buffalo), the film’s very own item girl, Matru Ki Bijlee ka Mandola is a comedy drama set in the rustic surroundings of a village in Haryana in India. The film tells the story of of Harry Mandola (Pankaj Kapur), a wealthy industrialist who loves his drink, his daughter ‘Bijlee’ (Anushka Sharma) and the unusual bond they both share with Harry’s Man Friday, ‘Matru’ (Imran Khan).

Much to her father's delight, Bijlee is all set to marry Baadal (Arya Babbar), the son of a powerful politician Chaudhari Devi (Shabana Azmi). This alliance which is far from just being a simple union of two young people becomes the seed for a story that brings twists and turns in the lives of

Matru, Bijlee and Mandola.

The film is directed by cutting-edge filmmaker Vishal Bhardwaj, whose list of esteemed directorial credits includes Maqbool and Omkara, which see Vishal give his own interpretation of two Shakespearean classics, Macbeth and Othello. The film’s crisp, well-observed script is also written by Vishal Bhardwaj together with Abhishek Chaubey, and produced by Vishal’s production company Vishal

ration.

Kapur and Azmi are delightful throughout, even when Kapur's Mandola hallucinates pink buffaloes instead of elephants. Sharma is effective as the high-spirited Bijlee, but Khan doesn't bring much energy to his part, and in fact seems to disappear from the film for long stretches.

Better songs and a stronger romance would have helped draw attention away from the film's unfocused screenplay.

Bhardwaj Pictures.

Bhardwaj, who directed two well-regarded Shakespeare adaptations, approaches the playwright's complexity in the film's climactic wedding sequence, which finds the five lead characters operating at crosspurposes with one another while discovering that their own motives aren't so sound. It's too bad the rest of the film couldn't match this level of inspi-

Matru Ki Bijlee Ka Mandola ends up a pleasant diversion that could have been much more.

The film has concluded the first weekend with a decent collection at the Indian Box Office. The Imran Khan and Anushka Sharma starrer has collected Rs 22.42 crores net at the domestic collection centres in the opening weekend of its release.

Mumbai cops this weekend Releasing this weekend is Tip Top Entertainment’s Mumbai Mirror, a copdrama with a unique screenplay that intelligently combines suspense and action.

Directed by Ankush Bhatt and produced by Raina Sachiin Joshi, the film stars Sachiin Joshi, Gihani Khan, Prakash Raj, Vimala Raman, Aditya Pancholi and Mahesh Manjrekar.

The lead protagonist of Mumbai Mirror is police officer, 'Abhijeet Patil', and the film charts his rise and fall. Being a police officer in the big, bad city that is Mumbai can be quite some task.

Mumbai works according to its own, unique philosophy. People here are the most ambitious and the risks taken for the fulfilment of those goals are the most dan-

gerous. Every man who comes here starts competing in an unknown race, and each one aspires to win, at any cost. Mumbai Mirror boldly captures this struggle for the survival of the fittest.

The film will revolve around Abhijeet Patil, who is one of the best cops in Mumbai.

Consigned to an important mission involving a drug-dealing cartel, he completes it with integrity and ease. But soon he begins to rile the wrong people on the wrong sides. He causes a raucous with the extremely powerful Shetty, a leading player in the drug mafia who runs innumerous illegal bars. Little does Patil know that trying to outwit him ends up being his most foolish mistake.

Now entangled in the

hardcore drug circuit, he comes to a head with his seniors who are also involved, and in turn loses his job.

After the termination of his role in the force, a spiralling series of destructive and humiliating episodes leaves Abhijeet broken. At this point, his loved ones step in to support his rehabilitation and impending fight back.

Individuals and their reach and influence can be unforseeable - another driving theme that gets exposed through the layers of the film as the screenplay progresses.

When Abhijeet starts investigating one of his colleague's murders, a entirely unknown racket surfaces. As Mumbai Mirror climax, Abhijeet learns to play his cards wisely and thus changes the game.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at aveditorial@abplgroup.com

Mo Luthra Branding Consultant www.moluthra.com When we normally talk and think about brands we often do so from a visual perspective; colours, images, adverts.

All of these are important for the communication of a brand, but really it just scratches the surface.

Distinctive brands play at a much higher level of interaction and involve more than a sense of sight. Brands which are memorable use the full palette of sensory experiences that we can understand. Taste, smell, touch, sound, as well as what we see.

By attaching a sensory experience above the visual to an advert, it delivers a greater impact.

That is why television adverts are preferred over print ones, and are invariably talked about more.

Companies generally take the easy way out when marketing their business. If they have the budget; they buy expen-

sive bits of advertising media, and then go about making very clichéd and generic statements.

Typically companies that have never communicated their brand will do so from a visual level first. The next notch up is they will create video content and add sound to the sensory experience.

However, the most powerful sense to play on and which creates the greatest level of connectivity is smell.

We are surprisingly oblivious as to the way our senses interact with our day-to-day experiences, none more so than smells. Chefs will tell you that we eat with our noses. The smell of a food adds more to taste than anything else. That’s because most of what we ‘taste’ is actually being sensed by our olfactory system (the network of the smell system in the human body).

Clever marketers are fully aware of this phenomenon and have put vital importance to the way brands smell. Take for example Nike. In two New York Nike Town stores, marketers sprayed an odour that was crafted to make people feel more active in one store, and left the other as per normal. They rotated this smell between the two stores. What they found was whenever the crafted smell was introduced into a store, sales went up.

Rolls Royce had a problem when they started introducing plastics into the design and build of their cars. Consumers quickly cottoned on that these cars were no longer built to the same laborious, traditional standards that was associated with this great brand and expressed their displeasure.

Rolls Royce countered by injecting smells into the fabric and dash that created the impression that nothing had changed. The smell was of the ‘old car’, of wood, grease and steel, thus reassuring consumers that the cars were built to the same imperious standards.

In a marketing test in America, a group of teenagers was asked to see if they could identify pairs of jeans once they had their brand labels removed. The test group struggled. However, the one brand that came out exceptionally well in this experiment was Abercrombie and Fitch.

The reason being, they inject a smell into their jeans which the teenagers recalled very easily.

Large or small, companies that can think creatively about how they communicate their brand by appealing to more than one sense at a time can garner the attention they crave, and leave the impression that they are looking for.

Royal baby to arrive in summer The Duchess of Cambridge ended weeks of speculation by announcing the royal baby will be born in July. It means the child — who will one day reign whether

Stephen Lawrence's brother sues Met for race discrimination Stephen Lawrence's brother has launched a race discrimination case against Britain’s biggest police force, claiming officers harassed him due to his skin colour.

Stuart Lawrence, 35, claimed that Metropolitan Police officers had stopped him at least 25 times over “recent years” because he was black.

Launching his legal battle, the teacher claimed he was the victim of a sustained campaign of harassment from Scotland Yard officers.

It was reported that a letter of complaint was sent last week to Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe, the Met Police commissioner, outlining the case and naming the officers involved.

it is a boy or a girl (due to a law change) may share its birth month with Princess Diana who was born on 1 July 1961.

It was also revealed that the condition of the Duchess who was suffering with acute morning sickness is now seen improving.

The duke and duchess are preparing for their move into the apartment at Kensington Palace formally occupied by Princess Margaret. They have advertised for a servant to attend to the royal household when the couple become parents this summer.

Lord Popat becomes the first Gujarati Frontbencher in the House of Lords Continued from page 1 Coincidentally, Lord Popat was attending the Vibrant Gujarat summit as part of the British delegation at the time of his appointment and had to cut short his trip to India, to return to the UK and take on his new role. Lord Popat’s press office confirmed to the Asian Voice that he met with Chief Minister Narendra Modi and discussed ways to strengthen ties between the UK and Gujarat, before leaving the gathering to come back to London.

Following his appointment in a statement to Asian Voice, Lord Popat wrote: “It is an absolute honour to have been appointed as government whip and to have the chance to serve in Her Majesty’s Government. I

never imagined when I arrived in Britain forty years ago that I would be so fortunate and I feel very humbled by this appointment and I am grateful for all the good wishes that people have sent in the past week. I’m looking forward to the new challenge.”

The peer, along with Conservative MP Shailesh Vara, last year brought to national recognition the contribution that Ugandan Asian immigrants have made to British society, since their expulsion from the East African country in the early 1970s by President Idi Amin. Lord Popat is also Secretary of the A n g l o - A s i a n Conservative Association and Chair of the Conservative Friends of India.

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Pressure increases for inquiry into Asian female abortions Keval Dhokia After a year of community efforts to raise awareness of Asian female foeticide, both on the subcontinent and in Britain, the government will now launch a full-scale inquiry into the issue. These concerns over illegal abortions based on gender, highly prevalent among Britain’s South Asian community, resurfaced in a House of Lords debate recently, when

Health minister Earl Howe claimed that the bias towards male births in: “a very small number of countries (of origin) are indications that birth ratios may differ from the UK as a whole, and potentially fall outside the range considered possible without intervention.”

This means that the government’s preliminary study, from sources including the 2011 UK census, showed that: “sex-

selective abortions have taken place on an industrial scale”, particularly in immigrant Indian subcontinental communities.

This has forced the UK’s Chief Medical Officer to issue a warning to all abortion clinics and hospitals, reminding them that it is illegal to authorise an abortion based on the gender of the foetus. While disclosure of the sex of a foetus has conventionally been left till after 12

Air Cadets to Tour with Military Wives Choir

Teenagers from 1846 (Southall) Air Cadet Squadron are about to start a major theatre tour with the famous Military Wives Choirs. Last year girls in the Squadron asked if they could form a Bhangra dance team, little expecting that it would lead them to some highly prestigious performances. After appearing at a military tattoo last June, the Squadron was approached to dance in two try-out concerts with the Military Wives of Wattisham Choir at Skegness and Kings Lynn. By then the youngsters, whose number now included two boys, had been training hard with a choreographer from Bollywood Dance London and wowed the audiences with their routine. This success led to the dancers performing at the Ministry of Defence Diwali reception at HMS President in October and

an invitation from top music promoter John Hessenthaler for the group to appear in a series of concerts with Military Wives Choirs across the UK in 2103.

“It all started after we won our wing drill competition” said Flying Officer Amen Manget, “and the girls asked if we could do some dance. I felt it would be good for team working and attention to detail so they spent weeks putting a routine together.”

Cadet Warrant Officer Priyanka Narain said: “We are all very excited to be part of these concerts which will help to raise money for service charities. The Military Wives are inspiring and it is such an honour to be

appearing in their show.

We have all enjoyed working hard for these concerts and getting some expert tuition from our choreographer has been amazing.”

An equally unexpected outcome from this project is how much the cadets have learned about themselves. “None of the staff really expected this, “said Amen, “but the quiet self discipline that dance requires has brought out qualities in some of the young people that we hadn’t previously seen in other cadet activities.

For example, there are two cadets who, through helping to develop the dance team, have demonstrated real leadership. These could well be among our cadet NCOs of the future.

We are all very pleased that this idea, which came from the cadets themselves, has taken off in this way, it will be such an experience for them”

You can see the Air Cadet Bhangra Dancers at the following venues as part of the Military Wives Choirs tour: Saturday January 26th The Central Halls Chatham Kent.

Saturday February 9th The Royal Theatre Harrogate.

Saturday February 16th Bradford St George’s Hall.

Sunday March 10th The Beck Theatre. Hayes. Middlesex.

Sunday March 17th The Alban Arena St Albans.

Saturday April 20th Shanklin Theatre Isle of Wight.

If you are between 13 and 19 and want to find out more about joining the Air Cadets visit raf.mod.uk/aircadets

weeks, many parents have gone abroad and on the internet to find the gender early and then request abortions on circumstantial non-medical reasons if found to be a girl.

The intervention in a House of Lords debate on abortion was brought by a series of peers including Baroness Knight who asked: “Is (Howe) aware that if Parliament had known that abortions would occur because the coming child was a girl when the mother wanted a boy, the Act would not have gone through?.”

Lord Alton of Liverpool asked Earl Howe: “Is the Minister familiar with a that recently report appeared in the Economist (magazine), which said that around 100m abortions have taken place throughout the world on the basis of gender, which it calls ‘gendercide?’.”

Serious alarm was also raised about the importation of male-centric values from the subcontinent, when a Daily Telegraph undercover investigation, last year, uncovered a number of British Asian doctors knowingly offering gender-selective abortions.

One consultant, Dr Prabha Sivaraman, was filmed telling a pregnant woman who said she wanted to abort a female foetus: "I don't ask questions. If you want a termination, you want a termination.” Another, Dr Raj Mohan, was filmed agreeing to a woman's request for an abortion even though she specifically told him the reason was that she did not want a baby girl. He told her: "I'll put too young for pregnancy, OK?" The Crown Prosecution Service and the Police are currently criminal considering charges against these doctors, among others.

An Economist article focussed on India’s severe gender imbalance in favour of boys, illustrating how more affluent urban Indians, in states like Maharashtra and Haryana, were bribing

doctors to illegally find the gender of their unborn child, and aborting if a girl, debunking the conventionally held myth that female ‘gendercide’ only occurred among the undeveloped rural poor. The reason is most likely the need for the new middle class to retain new wealth such as property and businesses within the family, by favouring male births that create heirs, rather than daughters, who leave the family on marriage and require steep dowries that may cause the loss of some of these assets.

In addition, an Oxford study found that, from 1995 to 2005, Indian women undoubtedly aborted more girls than boys. This has fed into the debate about the troubling shortage of women in Northern and Western India, causing critics to speculate whether the recent gang rapes in Delhi and Punjab are caused by the over-prevalence of men in those states, due to the over termination of female foetuses in those specific areas.

Both India and the UK conducted their latest censuses in 2011 and the results which have filtered out since then have shown a statistically significant abundance of male babies among mothers from India and China.

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Destiny - beyond our control?

Devika Srimal

Mythology has never ceased to intrigue and inspire me. It is probably stale to talk about how Lord Ganesha got his elephant face but recently when I got a chance to revisit this tale, it opened a whole new set of questions that shrouded my mind. My initial reaction was to question rather chastise Shiva for killing his own son, which in my view was a penalty too grave for the sin. How could the superior being himself tyrannise this way? Is this how he would want to exemplify feeling of forgiveness, compassion, non-violence to us

mere mortals?

The factual nitty-gritties of the story however change this perception.

Shiva had been cursed by a saint that he would slash his son's head off.

Ganesha on the other hand had to bear the brunt because his birth was from Parvati's sweat, so he had to have a rebirth in a purer form. The elephant that made the sacrifice had also been cursed and this was the moment when his spell could be broken. It is surely more than a coincidence for all these events to occur at the same time.

Even with one of the links missing, the story would not be the same and there would not have been Ganesha in the form we worship him today.

This made me wonder whether such an event

was beyond God's control as well. He had to pay his karmic dues and it must have been agonisingly painful for him to fire his trishul at his son. It seems that it was a culmination of multiple incidents pieced together.

The question that springs is: do events in our life today still happen this way? Do we manifest the factors or are we merely puppets in the hands of our destiny? Do we really have control?

While we might think that we have control over our lives and decisions we make, but in reality it may all just be happening the way it was supposed to happen. We often hear the success stories of great achievers sometimes just happen, almost incidental in a way. Not just success, any mishap or accident

also occurs when several factors come into play at the same time and we can’t point our finger to any one reason - whether it is the time one left the house, the moment one decides to take a different route than the usual one etc. There is only a tiny element of conscious decision-making but the inexplicable portion refers to something that is pre-determined - call it destiny, fate or luck.

I tried to put this hypothesis to practical sense. I recently quit my job and decided to move back to India. This is a life-altering decision; good or bad, I don’t know yet. However, it was not sudden and not an easy one. I had been thinking about quitting for over an year now but there were strong reasons holding me back. I was living in limbo until the week my brother visited. While catching up over a cosy family dinner at home, we stumbled on a discussion around my career. One thing led to another and by the time desert was

Saif chitchats with Press to promote Race 2

Reenu Punnoose

London's Bollywood calendar for 2013 kickstarted on Monday, 14 January with the promotional events for the first major release of the year, Race 2.

The film's creative producer, Jay Shewakramani and Saif Ali Khan, the lead actor of Race 2, was in the city to promote Saif's first release after his muchhyped wedding to Kareena Kapoor in October, 2012.

Saif Ali Khan

Race 2 is an action thriller directed by Abbas-Mustan and produced by UTV and Tips Music Films starring Saif Ali Khan, John Abraham, Anil Kapoor, Deepika Padukone, Jacqueline Fernandes and Ameesha Patel. It is the sequel to the 2008 hit film Race. The movie is scheduled to release on 25 January.

Following on from the Mayor of London Boris Johnson's visit to Mumbai last November to strengthen the links between the city and the Indian film industry, the first major Bollywood promotional event of the Saif Ali Khan with Adrien Wootto (extreme right), Jay Shewakramani year saw the pres(left) and the moderator for the Press conference ence of Adrien John Abraham, you know, working here. I like the Wootton, Chief Executive walking around without mindset of the people we of Film London and his shirt.” work with here and enjoy the British Film When asked what were interacting with the press, Commission, the capthe challenges involved in more than anywhere else... ital's film and media playing the same character I think there are many agency. “We are here for a second time onsides to London. You've to to encourage film proscreen, do your reconnaissance Saif told Asian duction to come into properly and you'll find it's Voice, “mentally, it's much London from all over an amazing city to shoot. easier because you've done the world and obviAnd multi-faceted in it before and you underously from our point terms of how it can be stand what it is. But physof view India is a very shot. I very much look forically it is a little demandimportant market, a ing because there's more ward to shooting my next very important thrivaction, and however many film here as well.” ing and fertile film times you do that, it doesRace 2 is Saif's fourth community”, said n't get any less tiring.” He film with Deepika Wootton, “we really added that the script writPadukone but he is confiwant to encourage a ers and the production dent that their pairing has new and fresh market faced the main challenge not become too repetitive, with the Indian film in trying to make Race 2 a “I am happy to be able to industry which is why better, “cooler” movie say that the films we are it's a great pleasure with more twists and turns doing and the directors we really to welcome Saif are working with are very than the first one. He and Jay here. Great different. I think it's an described the script as the to have them with this advantage because it's a main USP of Race 2- a fantastic new film in successful pairing and I script that has justified London. Great start to think people would still making a sequel to Race, 2013...come back and like to see it.” “that has shades and tones make some more movies Saif is of the original but at the also full of in London!” Saif also same time is something praise for co-actor John expressed his pleasure at new. I think they've done Abraham who he says having filmed in London it well. The first half is a “was a great influence” on over the years. He noted revenge kind of drama and the rest of the crew, particthat out of the four films the second half is a very ularly, with respect to his company 'Illuminati interesting kind of heist working out and staying Films' has produced so far, movie involving 'Christian fit. “ I thought we could two have been shot in relics' which I think is probably get away with London, “I feel London is cool.” training a little less and my second home and love then we come and see

served, I was preparing my resignation letter.

This naturally surprised my colleagues, friends and family. What surprised me was the sudden turn of events. I had had this desire deep down for so long but it just didn’t happen, so over time I had given up and not even thought about it.

Had my brother not visited, or if my parents were not in town, or if we had not discussed my career options - it would not have happened.

Ultimately, it made me realise that although the decision and action was mine, the timing of it was not quite in my hands.

An answer to this question perhaps lies within karma theory. What creates our destiny is also our own karma/actions.

The timing however can play a pesky role since our credits and debits are carried forward and can crystallise in the future. In Ganesha’s story, Shiva had been cursed by Rishi Kashyap for slaying his son in the past.

To conclude, we may

not have total control today on our life, starting from our birth in a particular family to choosing our life-partner to even little things such as deciding when to resign; but we had control of the past that has influenced our today. So a good proportion of today is pre-determined, but it was determined only by us at some point in the past. Now when we want to improve today, we may quite literally want to go back in time and change things but that too remains beyond our control! All we can do is design a better tomorrow by improving our karma today.

Devika Srimal is a member of the CHN. The CHN is a London-based organisation which is rooted in progressive Hindu philosophy and values, and encourages networking amongst its members, who are principally London-based professionals. You can sign up to be a member or find out more about the CHN at www.cityhindusnetwork.org.uk.

Social Enterprise support for Migrants in London A new programme was launched in London this month to support local social entrepreneurs who are from migrant communities or who benefit migrant communities. Funded by the Metropolitan Migration Foundation the CLIMB programme will give four social entrepreneurs the opportunity to pitch for a portion of £40,000 in funding available, as well as free support to help them grow their local business.

The event took place on Tuesday 15 January at Coin Street Neighbourhood Centre, Southbank, and was an opportunity to find out more about the programme, receive practical advice and network with other local entrepreneurs.

Now 15 applicants will be chosen for a four-week workshop which will take them through the necessary steps to make them investment ready. The final application stage will see up to 10 applicants go through to a Dragons Den style event with a chance to bid for a portion of the £40,000 available. They will also receive a year’s worth of support including free venue space, access to personal mentors and other support tailored to

their needs.

Paul Birtill, Director of Metropolitan Migration Foundation told Asian Voice in a statement, “Whilst the social enterprise sector is growing with a wealth of opportunity, we are concerned that there is limited involvement from migrant communities. We are supporting the Young Foundation to deliver this programme to create real opportunities for local social entrepreneurs. It is these individuals who create potentially important and community-focused enterprises benefiting the wider community”.

The Young Foundation’s Margaret Ogebule said “We are looking for Individuals or groups of people from migrant and refugee communities who are passionate about social change, and have the entrepreneurial air and drive to make their ideas happen.”

Those who missed the launch of these programmes can still apply online until January 23.

To find out how to register or for more information please visit: The Young Foundation: http://youngfoundation.org/projects/growing-migrant-socialentrepreneurship/

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Leading Lights

Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

Sunil Patel, A Better Kind of Business Leader Sunil is a Senior Partner who leads Health Industries Consulting within Pricewaterhouse Coopers in the UK. Health Industries focuses on clients in the health, pharmaceutical and life sciences sectors.

Prior to PwC, he worked for three years at Atos Consulting and for 18 years at Andersen Consulting/Accenture.

His career has been spent leading business and technology consulting projects in the healthcare, pharmaceutical, life sciences and government industries both in the UK and globally. He leads a team of 40 Partners/Directors and an extended team of ~200 staff.

Sunil spoke to Asian Voice at his stunning offices in More London, by the River Thames.

Sunil is also responsible for growing the PwC’s technology business within consulting; something

he is excited about and “One of the reasons” he “was recruited,” he feels; “was because of his business and technical background.”

Sunil and his team work with clients to help them address their business issues and improve their performance.

They may be in the public or private sector, national or international.

Noting that historically, PwC was seen as primarily a financial consulting firm, he feels that there is plenty of scope to also make it into a distinctive technology consulting business in the UK serving multiple industries.

“I apply technology in new and different ways to drive business forwards,”

Sunil Patel

he told us. “We have better technology in our personal lives than in most businesses. corporate How do you change peoples’ attitudes and how does the business derive

sions, along with thinking benefit?” he comments, He was in his first year of about some difficult quesgiving the example of a work, but now he had an tions that Peter Shaw leading hospital that added responsibility; he posed to him. wants to give iPads to had to care for his mother One of the salient nurses and consultants. too. He says that at that questions was, “What’s He is enjoying the chaltime he was thinking in holding you back?” Sunil lenge of helping patients terms of a set career path; says it was this question and citizens to engage in “I was slightly status that propelled him into new ways. “We’re helping driven.” changing his lifestyle. our clients to articulate the value of technology I apply technology With a father and a grandfather who had and for technology to in new and different died young of heart drive customer engagewhen Shaw ment and new business ways to drive business attacks, asked Sunil, “Why models.” don’t you enter a race?”

Sunil studied forwards it seemed obvious for C o m p u t e r Sunil to take up runat Science ning. He now gets his PA M a n c h e s t e r He carved a successto schedule two runs a University and was ful career and combined it week, and on those days inspired by a with his domestic responhe takes his fist meeting Professor and GP, sibilities. at 9.30am. It has made Dr Anthony Nolan, After 18 years with him sharper and more who showed the A n d e r s e n decisive, and “it has made young Sunil how Consulting/Accenture, me less risk averse!” he subjective decision Sunil had not really connotes. making, combined working for sidered He really cares about with data analysis, another company and his team and supports formed Dr Nolan’s was, by his own admismembers to develop. He decision making sion, quite “cautious.” He is actively looking for processes. As a GP, was secure, he had a someone to replace him Dr Nolan had to young family and wife, within 18 months. Since make key decisions and as his mother lived 2007, he has been a busithat affect peoples’ on her own, he had to ness mentor and volunlives and quality of care for her. teer for the Young life. This inspired But he got to a point Enterprise Scheme. Sunil Sunil to work at the where he was deciding says, “I had got into the cusp of technology what to do next and trycorporate plan but had and healthcare. ing to balance his family not correlated it with my He also credits responsibilities, his duty personal plan. Family, his Gujarati to his mother, and his mum, come first for me.” upbringing and career. Then he read a Sunil is also a reprebackground as playing a book called “The 4 Vs of sentative on the Diversity part in his life choices, Leadership” by Peter Council at PwC and says for he is happiest when Shaw. The four Vs are that he hopes that “we giving to others in socieVision, Values, Vitality start to see some meanty. and Value Added. These ingful and practical Sunils’ father died Vs became a structure for action to embrace diversiwhen he was 22 and his Sunil’s life and he used ty in large organisations.” life changed at that point. them to make his deci-

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Your Voice

10

The anti India feeling of NRIs The despicable events that took place in Delhi have rightly been condemned everywhere. The way the people of Delhi came together and put pressure on the politicians and the police to act shows that the vast majority of Indians want fundamental changes, so that never again such a dastardly act takes place. It is therefore unfortunate that certain sections of the media tried to demonise all Indians. It is also regrettable that Alpesh Patel in his column made reference to Hindu Gods. Alpesh claimed that Indian celebrities did not come out to condemn the atrocity including Amitah Bachhan.

Amitabh has written a moving poem and many public figures have spoken out.

Jayesh Patel in the letters column condemned almost everything Indian and praised China. There is no freedom in China, millions of people were killed in the cultural revolution and a firm grip of the ruling elite means you will never hear anything negative about the country.

Uttambhai Mistry blames Hindus and their traditions. Here in the UK Jimmy Savile’s abuse has come to light. For six decades this man abused vulnerable people and no one stopped him. Tens of thousands of abuses take place in the UK every year. Will Alpesh and Uttambhai blame the Christian religion, will Alpesh condemn everything British? To claim that because we are Indians we are justified in criticising every Indian failure without any balance is absurd. So occupied have some of the NRIs become with everything negative about India that they fail to see similar failures in their adopted land. Snapping away at India while sitting here in the UK is not going to change anything. It would be far more useful for Alpesh and others to offer their expertise in how to stop future Jimmy Savile.

Nitin Mehta Via Email

Damini’s ordeal: Where have all the celebrities gone?

In his article ‘Rape and absence of leadership’ (AV 12 January 2013) Alpesh Patel questions, quite appropriately: “So where are you Sachin Tandulkar? Why haven’t you spoken up about the rape in Delhi? Where are you Amitabh Bachchan? Shah Rukh Khan?”

This disinterestedness on the part of the celebrities is all to do with the Indian class system. The upper classes will look down condescendingly on the lower classes and will not want to get involved in a social problem they see as theirs alone. But when it comes to lucrative commercials, which generally exploit lower classes, they will jump on to it at the first opportunity – because it brings them more money and status, never mind the social implications. It is always a oneway process which promises the ordinary Indian all the escapism and fantasy they want to see in the films. To the naïve ordinary Indian, therefore, they are heroes fighting evil and are to be worshipped.

But in reality these so-called celebrities

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

A Cap and a Claw-back

In the reign of the blind

The Government’s plans to increase benefits at 1%, less than the rate of inflation, will make seven million families – half of Britain’s working households – worse off by an average of £165 a year, according to an analysis by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS). Maternity pay, child benefit and low pay tax credits will also be subject to the cap. If prices increase by more than what is anticipated in coming years, people on benefits will be the hardest hit by this rancid benefits raid. It will be fair if the cap only applies to the money which is being dished out to scroungers who do not want to pull their weight and leech on those who brave the inclement weather and go out to work come rain or shine.

At the moment there are no plans to include pensions in this cap. However, it won’t be long before the Government will decide to apply the 1% cap on pensions as well. It has already taken unilateral action which imposed an unfair change in the rate at which pension payments increase annually. Previously the pensions increased in line with an increase in the more favourable retail price index (RPI). This was drastically changed so that the increases have now been linked with the less generous consumer price index (CPI). Why is it that in times of austerity, the first thing which comes to ministers’ minds is people’s pensions?

This is fundamentally unfair.

The saying, “In the reign of the blind one eyed Jack is the king” is so apt to this short sighted government bent upon destroying our already run down NHS with the plan closure of at least four “A & E” departments in North London which would put thousands of lives at risk, especially for the elderly, chronically sick and disable persons.

I am not surprised that N.W. London Hospital bosses have to tell GPs not to refer patients to already busting to the seam A & E at Northwick Park and Central Middlesex hospitals. Besides GP patients, even hospital patients who have undergone ENT and other such surgeries have to use A & E departments for emergencies, dressings and other such services that were once carried in the main wards by nurses and junior doctors or by the visiting nurses in their own homes.

This government would like to destroy all these excellence and expertise by penny pinching at home while playing Robin Hood overseas by spending billions in Asia and Africa for undeserving causes where the money goes straight into the Swiss bank accounts of corrupt to the core politicians.

I am glad that Harrow West MP Gareth Thomas is taking active interest but where are our Brent MPs? I would be more impressed if Ed Miliband gives us a solemn promise not to close these A & E departments and include it in their manifesto. After all Labour promised not to downgrade Edgware General Hospital in 1997 but the hospital was downgraded as soon as Labour took the reign. It is easier to be magnanimous when in opposition but the proof of the pudding is in the eating.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Water tip Drinking cold water from the tap in freezing weather stuns the mouth and threatens to give you an instant headache. Yet we need to drink enough water in winter to avoid dehydration in our heated environments.

To take the cold sting out of my glass of tap water, I add a dash of boiling water from the kettle, making the now tepid water a pleasure to drink. Do try it and you will be delighted.

Rudy Otter Via Email expose their timidity when it comes to taking a social stand. I am sure that if they were to give active leadership, their voices would be heard and it would make a tremendous difference in the mindset of the ordinary Indian. Sadly, however, they are just ‘actors’, by no standards Angelina Jolie’s or Joanna Lumley’s.

But what of those celebrities who are indeed in a position to lead but take no initiative – actors who have entered into Indian politics promising change? Surely, they are in a much better position to influence their fellow politicians and take a united common front? Oh no, no, we don’t want to get our clothes dirty! Sorry, Damini, you have an uphill task.

Uttambhai D Mistry Bolton

Bhupendra M Gandhi Via Email

Comment by RSS chief Post Delhi-rape comments by RSS chief, ‘‘wife a contractual servant’’ are anathema and anachronism. Asaram bapu’s comments that rape should have begged to rapists with sisterly sentiments are hideous; blaming victim when prostitution is rampant in Greater Kailash, south Delhi, is atrocious. Such remarks show that their intelligence does not match their status. Public is right to castigate both them. They should have focussed on assault, apathy, delayed rescue and slack follow up by legal machinery.

Hindu leaders have failed followers; have allowed press to direct hatred towards themselves. Hindu leaders are stumbling with open eyes in spite of anti Hindu national and global hostility. They are crippling dynamic Hindus via impracticable philosophies and ideals?

There has been no such opposition Indian press to seditious statements by Kashmir separatists, activists Arundhati Roy, Medha Patkar, A. Owaisi and Indian politicians who praise M. Jinnah. There is not enough hatred to recent cease fire violation by Pakistan.

Women today have successfully entered male domains of science, eco-

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Consultative Conference, (and a member of the politburo of Communist Party of China), Modi showcased Gujarat as a destination with a conducive environment to invest and work. He also explained Gujarat becoming a major tourist destination. He brought out the richness of Buddhist culture in Gujarat which solicited very keen interest among Chinese leadership. He also dwelled upon the ancient Indian and Chinese ethos, relationship, friendship, cultural and business ties.

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He highlights Gujarat’s special investment regions as areas where Chinese companies could invest. He called on China to invest in infrastructure and power projects in the state, wooing potential investors with a sales pitch that showcased Gujarat as a state with levels of “governance, transparency and stability” that they could not find elsewhere in India. He declared that “the two great countries will make Asia the centrestage of the global economy.” )(.#(/

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Special relationship with USA In both, first and second World Wars, USA had to intervene to bring about world peace.

Winston Churchill delivered a speech at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri on 5 March 1946. The U S President had travelled 1000 miles to listen to him. Parts of this speech follow.

“The United States stands at this time at the pinnacle of world power......Opportunity is here and now, clear and shining, for our both countries..........I have strong admiration and regard for valiant Russian people.............Nobody knows what Soviet Russia intends to do.......

An Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent. The capitals of Europe: Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia—all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I might call the Soviet sphere.

It is necessary that constancy of mind, persistency of purpose and the grand simplicity of decision shall rule and guide the conduct of the Englishspeaking peoples in peace as they did in war.”

The above circumstances no longer exist. USA now wants to have a special relationship with EU. Both are economic blocs of $16 trillion each. The entire rest of the world is just another $16 trillion GDP annually.

Mr Cameron will soon give his most important speech, probably on 22 January 2013, on our relationship with the EU and a referendum on the EU if 32 important areas could not be renegotiated. Neither renegotiation nor referendum is in the national interest.

It is time for Labour to have the above constancy, persistency and simplicity and decide in their 2015 Manifesto that if elected, they will recommend joining the Euro currency in the national interest: Real One Nation Labour.

Nagindas Khajuria Via Email nomics, politics and space walk yet maintaining contractual obligations.

In democracy, women are entitled to move anywhere fearlessly at any time of day or night and dress as they please. If ‘Laxman rekha’ is for women, then men should follow ‘Durga and Kali rekha’ where males, Mahisasur and Raktabeej were killed.

Vicious condemnation of remarks by Hindu leaders is not justified. These leaders stated ideals and principles which are beyond intelligence of public thus unfortunately can be misinterpreted by mischief mongers.

Comments should be sympathetic to victim and stress males to respect women as equals. Male dominated ethos must be pushed to past tense.

Ramesh Jhalla Via Email Continued on page 13

EducAtion/council Voice

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Number of Indian students falls by a quarter in the UK

National Hindu Students Forum (UK)

The number of students coming from India to study at British universities fell by almost a quarter last year after changes to student visa rules, new figures show.

The number of Indian students enrolled at British universities dropped by nearly a quarter last year following the introduction of more stringent rules on student visas, new figures have shown.

Fewer than 30,000 students from India were studying at UK higher education institutions in 2011/12, compared with just under 40,000 in the previous year. There was

By Chirag Patel, Vice President NHSF (UK)

Football: In Black & White During this year’s football season, we have seen some high profile racist incidents involving numerous teams and players. Over the last year, I have become increasingly frustrated with the treatment of footballers from ethnic minorities; by what is becoming a very large “minority”.

What is frustrating me is the way that these crimes are being dealt with - like a joke! I can almost guarantee that there is no other profession in the world where an employee can racially abuse someone and still work for them again.

Yet for example, Luis Suarez, who called Patrice Evra a “Negro” 5 times and said, “I don’t speak to blacks” during an argument, merely received an 8 match ban and £40,000 fine and still managed to retain his professional career. If the FA is serious about their ‘Kick it Out’ campaign then they must take the

necessary steps to actually ‘Kick it Out’. In my opinion, Suarez should have been sent to a civil court and be put on trial for this crime. Not only was the punishment from the FA pathetic, but also Liverpool FC even supported him, which is even more difficult to comprehend for anyone who has been subjected to racial abuse!

The fact is, even though this has been a pretty damning year for the image of football globally, this is not something that is new and publicity is something that will probably not solve anything. The only option I see now is for all players to walk off the pitch at the sight of any racial abuse. In fact, AC Milan’s Kevin-Prince Boateng walked off the pitch in a friendly match with his teammates behind him. In my opinion, this is a great example of what footballers should be doing to tackle this problem. How long

will it take for fans to treat this behaviour as completely unacceptable? Fans that not only pay for their ticket to watch a match but also for their transport, food and sometimes even their accommodation.

I think one of the major problems with dealing with this was nicely outlined by Piara Powar, Executive Director of Football Against Racism in Europe (FARE) who said, "What does Sepp Blatter (FIFA President) know about what it is to be abused or excluded because you are an ethnic minority, and what might be the right or wrong way to respond?”

The fact that FIFA, UEFA & the FA treat this as poorly as they do is because of the lack of representation from ethnic minorities at the highest level. The problem boils down to one thing - most white people will not know what it is like to be racially abused.

The research, by campaign group Student Rights, found a total of 214 university events featured known extremists last year.

The most frequent speaker was Hamza Tzortzis who was promoted at 48 events, Mr Tzortzis has called for an Islamic state, expressed his hostility towards Western values and stated that: "We as Muslims reject the idea of freedom of speech, and even of freedom."

Hizb ut-Tahrir was represented at six per cent of the events even thought the NUS has a policy not

Young Mayor of Newham elected A total of 13,422 young people from across Newham cast their vote and elected Rebekah Dike as the new Young Mayor of Newham. Rebekah Dike aged 14 attends Little Ilford School and received 984 votes. The turnout of 61% is the highest percentage turnout for any Young Mayor election in the UK. A total of 53 young people will form the Youth Council, who will support and advise the Young Mayor and her Deputy.

The Young Mayor will have a £25,000 budget to spend on local projects for young people. Among the

The Nobel Prize-winning scientist behind super-material graphene believes it could kick-start a high-tech boom in Manchester, a local newspaper has reported.

Prof Kostya Novoselov told Manchester Evening News that new superlab to research the acclaimed substance could turn the city into a global hub for new technology.

The £61m National Graphene Institute at Manchester University aims to build new devices and inventions using the atomthin material derived from ordinary graphite.

countries like India to rival colleges in the US and Australia.

Boris Johnson during his visit to India called on the Government to remove students from immigration target figures and allow them to stay longer to work after their courses end.

David Cameron is expected to address the issue on his visit to India next month.

Recent figures showed India was still the second most common country of origin for foreign students in the UK after China, which sent 79,000 students last year.

It will see scientists work alongside developers from the world’s top electronic companies to pioneer new discoveries.

P r o f Novoselov, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2010 with colleague Andre Geim, spoke to the M.E.N as a new artist’s impression of the institute was released.

The 7,600sq m building in Booth Street East will house state-of-the-art facilities, including two ‘clean-

rooms’ where scientists can experiment without contamination. The physicist said that more than 150 firms had been in talks about sending their staff to work with the Nobel Prizewinners and their team.

Harrow Council appeals for ideas

to give the organisation a platform.

The research also found eight events were moved off campuses following complaints while another ten were cancelled.

In other moves, 17 video or audio clips featuring the late terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, pictured, was shared online

Harrow Borough Council is asking people to contribute ideas for the regeneration of a site in Harrow on the Hill, a local newspaper has reported.

The council is planning a £1.28 million project to transform Lowlands Recreation Ground into a state-of-the-art town centre park.

The project will see the area being landscaped, a performance space created, children’s play areas made and new pathways built. It will also see access to Harrow-on-theHill station being improved.

However, before the work starts, the council wants local people to tell it how they want the space to be used.

Part Qualified Accountant achievement of previous Young Mayors have been delivering Newham's joint Olympic Stadium Bid to Downing Street, campaigning for young people to be involved in volunteering opportunities during Games time and delivering the Olympic Truce to the United Nations.

also a 13.4 per cent drop in the number of Pakistani students at British universities yearon-year, according to the statistics released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency.

However the overall number of non-EU students at British universities rose by around 5,000 to 302,680, driven by a sharp increase in students from countries including China, Singapore and Indonesia.

Universities have warned that recent changes to student visa rules mean they face losing bright students from

Centre at Manchester University to create 'Graphene City'

Extremists attended more than 200 university events Islamic extremists preached at more than 200 university events last year raising fresh fears over radicalisation on campus, as per a report in The Daily Telegraph.

A dozen events also featured speakers with links to the fanatical group Hizb ut Tahrir – a controversial organisation banned by the National Union of Students.

Extremists were invited to a host of events despite criticism from Theresa May, the Home Secretary, that universities were “complacent” in tackling the risk of radicalisation.

11

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The new park will be officially opened with a programme of live performances in August.

These will be run by Harrow Arts Centre.

The project is being funded through the Mayor of London’s Outer London Fund which aims to improve the fortunes of town centres in peripheral

parts of the capital.

A public drop in session will take place at the entrance to Harrow-onthe-Hill station on January 22 from 12pm until 6pm.

At this event the project team will be on hand to discuss ideas, answer questions and listen to ideas.

12

Media Watch

The cold snap may have northern India in its icy grip, but no fall or rise in temperature can stop loose tongues wagging in season and out on anything that catching their fancy. Godmen and plain men and odd men must have their say on matters great and small as the Constitution of the land guarantees all citizens the right to speak freely and think freely. RSS chief (and BJP mentor) Mohanrao Bhagwat told a reporter that the Delhi rape case was a demonstration that such things occurred in “India,” where urban life and “Western values” prevailed, while in the pastoral bliss that is “Bharat” crimes such as these were unknown. Phew!

According to godman Asaram Bapu the rape case victim should have implored her assailants to spare her and, while doing so, taken a second line of defence with a Saraswati chant. Shaken by the public uproar, both men claimed that they were misquoted, that their words taken out of context, then explained that marriage was a binding contract with wives as hewers of wood and drawers of water and mothers to children.

Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Dal leader Abu Azmi advised women to “dress properly,” and avoid the streets after sunset, while BJP Home Minister in Chattisgarh state, Nankiram attributed recent Kanwar, crimes against women to “planetary positions.” He wasn’t on the same page as Shakespeare’s Cassius, who warned: “The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/ But in ourselves….”

The last word on the subject belongs, surely, to President Pranab Mukherjee, who, addressing the Uttar Pradesh State Assembly, said: “A country which cannot respect its mothers, sisters and daughters cannot be called a civilized country.”

A country that is planning a Mars space mission in 2014 exists cheek by jowl with superstition and reaction of the deepest dye. Not pleasant to the eye or ear, perhaps, but a damning reality for sure.

ing Akali Dal prudently stayed away, it was a sorry sight. The business of any state, one would like to think, is to earn the citizen’s respect as the upholder of the law, not court popularity with the mob and the undeserving. (Times of India, Hindu January 9,7).

Not cricket, but war It wasn’t cricket, and it wasn’t the gentlemanly thing to do. A Pakistani army unit, taking advantage of heavy fog, crossed the Jammu and Kashmir border and attacked an Indian military outpost, killing two jawans, one

foster good will and understanding between the countries, a cliché at the best of times, but an insensitive pronouncement now.

Weren’t we told several months ago that restoring cricket ties with Pakistan would lead to the road of everlasting peace ? If cricket hadn’t stopped the IndoPakistan wars of 1965, 1971 and 1999, why should it do so now?

Such shibboleths have been doing the rounds for decades, even as the terror attacks on Mumbai in March 1993 and November 2008 were being incubated across the border.

Errors of policy Former BJP Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s journey for peace to Lahore in early 1999 was rewarded a few months later

by Islamabad’s military operations on the Kargil heights; this was followed by the fiasco of the August summit of 2000 with General Musharraf. The vapid peace-mongering of the present Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been no less disastrous. There is a lesson

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, Director General CERN, speaking at the Indian Science Congress

means. The Hindu (January 10) in an exercise of ritual breastbeating wailed that one unnamed “provocations” along the Line of Control in Kashmir threatened to derail the promise of an enduring peace.

Islamabad’s call for UN intervention was promptly (and sensibly) shot down by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram with stern words of warning. This was supplemented by Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne’s no-nonsense message that enough was enough, that other options were under consideration to force Pakistani compliance along the LoC in Kashmir.

Nobel laureate lauds FDI

Coffin of two Indian soldiers, killed by Pak soldiers and behead them in Mendhar along the the LoC

Drawing the red lines Where does freedom end and licence begin? You may well ask.

Britain has shown the way with legislation which makes ethnic or religious incitement a criminal offence. A few years ago, a Jamaican convert to Islam in London was put behind bars for appealing to the faithful to kill Jews and Hindus, served his jail sentence in the UK, promptly deported to Jamaica. Not so in India, Akbaruddin Owaisi, having made an inflammatory antiHindu speech in Hyderabad, was allowed to depart for the UK. Public outrage forced the Andhra Pradesh to bestir itself and arrest Mr Owaisi following his return to the city. Mr Owaisi, a member of the Islamist Majlise-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM), happens also to be a member of the State Legislative Assembly (MLA).

Meanwhile, in Amritsar, a function was held in the Sikh Golden Temple, in which the Jathedar of the Akal Takht, Giani Gurbachan Singh, honoured the relatives of Indira Gandhi’s assassins, The function was held on the 24th anniversary of Satwant Singh’s and Kewal Singh’s hanging. The top leadership of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbhandak Committee (SGPC) and the rul-

www.abplgroup.com - asian Voice 19th January 2013

of whom was decapitated, the severed head carried off as a trophy of war. The sheer brutality has sent shock waves across the country. The Times of India’s front-page report (January 10)

to be learned. Sports ventures do not and can not of themselves reduce the toxin of hate; otherwise the Berlin Olympiad of 1936 would not have been a stepping stone to 1939 and the Second World War. No Nazi Olympiad could have effected a reconciliation between Hitler’s Germany and countries opposed to its doctrine of racial supremacy. Likewise, the founding principle of the Pakistani state was hatred of India’s nonIslamic communities and its goal

Cambridge professor and Economics Nobel laureate, Jim Mirlees, addressing the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, said that allowing foreign direct investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail in India and opening the sector to multinational companies would boost the country’s economy. “It seems to me that Indian consumers are bound to benefit from it,” he said, adding that global retail giants would bring in value-addition once the sector was opened up. The title of Professor Mirlees ISI talk was “A Good Tax System” (Hindu January 9).

Railway price hike.

It is to be hoped that after the ten leans of no price rises that has driven the Indian Railways into the buffers, the price hike announced by Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal will herald the years of the fat kine. These graduated rises will impact most on long distance travel in the sleeper class and first class categories and least on commuters on short distance urban or country trains.

The much needed revenue of Rs 6,600 crores will go some in helping the modernization of India’s rail network. Be that as it may, for India’s opposition parties, the opportunity of playing to the gallery and demand a price rollback was simply too good to pass. Their marriage of convenience in parliament is par for the course.

Science projects Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne

suggested that India may be forced to “rethink the peace process” but its craven editorial bleated continued attempts to

ever since has been the destruction of India.

Cricket for Pakistani rulers has been a continuation of jehad by other

Rolf-Dieter Heuer, DirectorGeneral, CERN, (European Organization for Nuclear Research, Geneva) made a pitch for India’s associate member-

ship of the organization. CERN was instrumental in the discovery of the Higgs Boson – an elusive elementary particle long sought after as the holy grail by physicists. “This is the right time for India to be a member of CERN,” he opined. He was speaking on the sidelines of the Homi Bhabha session on “Mega Science and India” at the centenary celebrations of the Indian Science Congress in Kolkata.

Mr Dieter-Heuer argued that India’s associate membership of CERN (costing $10 million annually) would not only open mega science experiments to Indian scientists but also enable Indians to participate in training and education programmes at the CERN laboratory. India currently enjoys observer status at CERN. The proposal is awaiting Union Government approval. According to physicist Bikash Sinha associate membership of CERN would allow

Bikash Sinha

Indian industry to bid for CERN contracts in general and also in niche areas. (Business Line January 5) Kolkata is set to register another first with the Union Government funding the establishment of a Centre for Excellence in Space Sciences under the auspices of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research. The centre is expected to become operational by the middle of 2013. (Times of India January 7) Finally, work is set to start in Ladakh on the construction of the world’s largest solar telescope under the control of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics. Solar telescopes are special purpose telescopes to study the sun. This unique project involves other scientific institutions such as Indian Space Research Organization, Aryabhatta Research Institute of Observation Sciences and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research.(IANS agency, January 5,Hindu January 7)

uK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Life of Pi wins Golden Globe Award Composer Mychael Danna has won the Best Original Score for the Life of Pi at the 70th edition of the prestigious annual Golden Globes Award held in Los Angeles on January 13, 2013. The film which has also been nominated for 11 Oscars, has recently landed in controversy as the Oscar nominated singer Bombay Jayashri has been accused of copying Pi's lullaby from a Malayalam classic.

According to reports, a trust, named after 19th century Carnatic musician Ravi Varman Thampi aka Irayimman Thampi, alleged Pi’s lullaby is not an original composition, but a direct translation of Thampi’s classic Malayalam lullaby Omanathinkal kidavo.

This was, of course, denied by Jayashri.

Danna has beaten Alexandre Desplat (Argo), Dario Marianelli (Anna Karenina), Tom Tykwer,

13

India hikes visa fee for UK Passport holders Reenu Punnoose

and Travel, an India specialist, have strongly criticised the increase in visa fees and fears it will impact tourism. He said, "It's a case of one step forwards, two steps backwards. The changes to the re-entry rules were encouraging, but I'm sure this increase is going to have a serious impact." He added: "Visa applications are long and cumbersome, and most of the time the website is not working properly. It is a waste of time for travellers and for tour operators who offer to process applications on their behalf."

India is reportedly visited by six million tourists every year, including 800, 000 from Britain.

Tourist visas for more than two years and up to five years, the fee will rise to £507. Similarly, under the Research visa category, the new fee for the sixmonth visa will be £32, and fee for the one-year visa will be £52. All these fees exclude the additional £10.20 VFS Service Charge.

The visa hike comes in the wake of recent relaxations in visa rules for British travellers to India.

An earlier rule prevented British travellers from making individual trips in quick succession to India and was recently relaxed by the Indian authorities.

The Telegraph reports that tour operators like Rajeev Manral of Indus Tours

The High Commission of India has revised the visa fee for Tourist Visa and Research Visa for all UK nationals with effect from 17 January 2013. All applications sent by post or submitted in person from this date should include the revised fee.

Interestingly, the official notice on the fee hike was issued only on 11 January 2013 and it is unclear why the general public have been given less than a week's notice regarding the change in fee.

The new fee for the six-month Tourist visa will rise to £82.20 and the upto-two-year Tourist visa fee will rise to £277. For

Immigration causing division?

Life of Pi Director Ang Lee, with actors Tabu and Suraj Sharma

Bombay Jayashri

gala on Sunday night. He was joined by his wife Aparna British singer Adele with her award who (best song for the theme to the James Danna, looked ravishing Bond film Skyfall) in an Indian sari.

Directed by Ang Lee, Johnny Klimek, Reinhold the film Life of Pi is based Heil (Cloud Atlas) and on Canadian author Yann John Williams (Lincoln) to Martel’s Man Booker walk away with the prestiPrize-winning novel of the gious trophy at the glitzy

same name. The story revolves around the protagonist, Piscine Molitor "Pi" Patel, an Indian boy from Pondicherry (a former French colony), exploring issues of spirituality and practicality from an early age. He survives 227 days after a shipwreck while stranded on a boat in the Pacific Ocean with a Royal Bengal Tiger named Richard Parker. The novel is a work of fiction set in the summer of 1977 that draws on places and historical events in India.

Amongst other winners, British singer Adele has won best song for the theme to the James Bond film Skyfall.

British public views immigration as the biggest problem facing their society with one in three people believing that tension between immigrants and people born in the UK is a major cause of division, a new survey has found.

A report by the thinktank 'British Future', titled "State of the Nation: Where is Bittersweet Britain Heading?", found that one in three people believes tension between immigrants and people

born in the UK is the major cause of division, while well over half regard it as one of the top three causes.

It, however, also suggests people are, at heart, tolerant of those who

( &+*

Times of India (ToI) online, dated Saturday 12 January had an article headlined “Delhi gang rape accused lived on margins of India’s economic boom”. The article showed sympathy for these animals due to their poor background.

I think a sympathy is called upon for a number of Indian politicians residing in India’s current 552member lower house of Parliament who are facing criminal charges (including rape). I understand that this has risen by about a third since 2009, all the way to 162. You never know they may have carried out their crimes due to their poor upbringing.

No wonder that the current Parliamentary review on crime and punishment for such vile and heinous crimes, such as death by hanging or total surgical and painful castration is not an option for their consideration in the review. Just as the famous and now forgotten “HooHa”, regarding the Anna Hazare’s anti-corruption

(Jan Lokpal) Bill, I wouldn’t be surprised that this review too will eventually be buried deep in their cesspool/pit, to save their

skin. What a “great” Democracy! Mera Bharat Mahan.

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come into the country.

Sunder Katwala, director of 'British Future', told the PTI that the survey highlighted a national anxiety about immigration to which national politicians needed to respond.

MPs fear that as many as 300,000 migrants could enter the UK from Bulgaria and Romania when current restrictions on their movement are lifted next year.

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UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary attracts 2000 people in major cities across the UK Celebrations of Swami Vivekananda’s 150th birth anniversary commenced on 12th January 2013 in major cities: Manchester, Edinburgh, Belfast, Birmingham, Leicester, Cardiff, London, Reading and Woolwich.

Arise, Awake and stop not till the goal is reached! An inspirational weekend for the Hindus of the UK this week as their Hindutva was Awakened through the SV150 inaugural celebrations.

Encouraging the development of high thoughts the SV150 Committee UK released there their first book at the inauguration function: Life and Message of Swami Vivekananda.

It was very fortunate that at the London event in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, addressed by Swami Dayatmanand-ji (President of Ramkrishna Mission UK), Dr Nanda Kumar (Director of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan) and Swami Niliptananda (President of Sewashram) launched the book and presented it to the noble MP’s Barry Gardiner, Bob Blackman and London Assembly Member Mr Navin Shah. This book was distributed for free to everyone who had attended the event.

The programmes across the country were filled with: SV150 introductory video, plays, classical dances, songs, inspirational speeches. The programme in all cities was then concluded with an audio of the first speech of Swami Vivekananda in Chicago A keen interest was taken by the public to be apart of the regional and local initiatives of the touring exhibition called: Vivekananda Exhibition on Ancient Indian Civilisation which is being planned to showcase the important features of Indian civilisation and his message in 100 places in UK, starting in March 2013.

Chief Guest Swami Dayatmananda giving a speech

Mr Dhiraj Shah VCP of SV150 speaking to the audience

Book launch by Nanda Kumarji of Bhavan, Swami Dayatmananda and Swami Niliptananda

MP Bob Blackman addressing the audience

Neighbourhood champion wins Harrow Heroes Award for the fourth consecutive year

Shivakuru Selvathurai with his wife and daughter Anutha along with the Mayor of Harrow, Cllr Nizam Ismail

Shivakuru Selvathurai, a Harrow resident for the last 11 years has won the Harrow's Heroes Award for the fourth consecutive year. 66 years old Mr Selvathurai spends many hours volunteering for the community, caring for disabled people. He also regularly contributes his time to the Patient Participation Group, at Roxbourne Medical Centre, at Harrow Museum and Heritage Centre and on Harrow Agenda 21's environment forum along with many other community organisations. He also lent a helping hand to the London Olympics as the games Ambassador and at a street party to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and he received acknowledgement from the Mayor and PM for the for-

mer and Her Majesty the Queen for the latter.

Mr Selvathurai told Asian Voice, “I am getting older and may be in 5 years I won't be able to do all that I do now. While I have the stamina and the energy, there is no better feeling than going to bed having done some good in the world.”

“I came to Britain 11 years back and I wanted to repay the people of the UK and that of Harrow, so I decided to do whatever I could do to help out. I enjoy every minute of it.”

Mr Selvathurai is also an member of the Harrow British Legion, Friends of St Marks Hospital and Moorfields Eye Hospital, and has been a 'Neighbourhood Champion' in Wesley Close, South Harrow, since 2009.

Cricket legend Muttiah Muralitharan to represent Sun Mark Ltd Cricket legend Mr Muttiah Muralitharan has been appointed as the international brand ambassador by the Sun Mark Ltd. Sun Mark Ltd markets quality food and drink products in over 100 countries and its brands have become household names across the world.

Mr Muralitharan, better known as Murali, said that he was delighted to be associated with a company which believed in customer care and also markets

quality products at a price that is right.

It is being hailed as an ideal partnership with Murali being the world record holder for the most wickets taken in international cricket, a record which is expected never to be broken, and Sun Mark which holds the prestigious accolade of being the only company in Britain to have won the Queens Award for Enterprise in International Trade for four consecutive years, a record which also cannot be broken in a hurry.

Muttiah Muralitharan with Dr. Rami Ranger MBE, CEO Sun Mark Ltd

India League to observe 65th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi The India League will be observing the 65th death anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi on Wednesday 30 January 2013 at 11am, in Tavistock Square, London WC1 where Mahatma Gandhi's statue is situated. Like every year, the event will have representatives/dignitaries from the Indian High Commission and the Borough of Camden, and other community leaders who will gather to pay their floral tribute to India's 'father of the nation'.

It's a free event and members of the public are welcome to join.

UK

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15

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The Death Penalty is Not Enough

Upcoming

EvENTS

The National Wedding Show 2013 As the UK’s largest series of wedding exhibitions, the National Asian Wedding Show brings together hundreds of exhibitors to showcase their products and services. The event will take place on Sunday 20th January 2013 at the Hilton Bradford.

Did you know..?

There’s a naturally pink lake in Australia called Lake Hillier.

Word of the Week:

The Bhangra Showdown 2013 The Uk’s Biggest Bhangra Competition returns for its 6th show to Hammersmith Apollo on 9th February 2013.

To find out more, visit: www.thebhangrashowdown.co.uk

Clerisy: n. A distinct class of learned or literary people

The horrific death of a 23 year-old girl, who became a victim of gang rape in Delhi last month has awakened India’s politicians from a slumber, which has made them unconscious when it comes to one of India’s most common crimes against women up until now. The attack that occurred on 16 December 2012 sparked massive protests across the capital. A month on however, we ask, how much has the government done to stop similar cases from occurring in the future. There is a worry that this rape case will become a thing of the past like many previous cases, when it should be a wake up call to the politicians in government, urging them to take drastic measures to stop rape altogether.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau, in 2011 alone, there were 24,206 rape cases registered in India, not including the number of cases that were unreported. Evidently, this is an extremely important issue; ensuring the safety of Indian women is imperative, just as much as it is to punish the attackers. Simply giving the death penalty will not end future rapes; it merely placates protesters, gives the ‘impression’ of justice and may stop one extra attacker but that is it. Men in India need to be educated from an early age so that they are aware of the worth of women. Changes should be introduced in schools across India to increase social consciousness. Entertainment should be more severely age-restricted and a system should be introduced that provides support to survivors of sexual violence.

Of course, families of victims of rape desperately want to seek revenge on attackers and, in their eyes, the death penalty or execution is the best punishment. However, this does not stop future rape cases of women in the same area. People should firstly begin to talk about it openly, instead of regarding it as a taboo subject. That is the most important step that needs to be taken before any reforms, measures and changes are proposed. The social stigma attached to rape needs to be destroyed and the only way that can be done is through open discussion in society.

FASHION Last night saw some of Hollywood’s finest exquisitely decked out in a variety of beautiful outfits, for the 70th annual Golden Globes 2013 ceremony in Los Angeles. Of course, it was all about the awards and winners but the question of who was wearing what always seems to creep on to the most talked about highlights of the event. I’ve put together some of my favourite looks from last night. What do you think?

Hayden Panettiere in white Roberto Cavalli

Jennifer Lopez in Zuhair Murad

Heidi Klum in Julien Macdonald

Nicole Richie in Neem Acra

Jessica Alba in Oscar de la Renta

Taylor Swift in Donna Karen

Julianne Hough in Monique Lhullier

Megan Fox in Dolce & Gabbana

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

17

Tamannaah is my closest friend: Ileana

Vidya goes bold again

Vidya Balan ditched her trademark sari when she stepped out for Dabboo Ratnani's calendar launch. The actress was also seen with sindoor in her hair. Nayi dulhan after all!

In the calendar she is seen in a bold avatar.

When asked about it, she quipped, “I am an actress so I have different avtars.”

Ileana D’Cruz ended the year 2012 on a high note. Her debut Hindi film “Barfi” not only ended up as a commercially successful film but was also highly acclaimed by critics, with Ileana’s debut performance coming for skyhigh praise. She also managed to realize her long-time dream of debuting in Hindi films and to her credit, held her own in the film against an established hand like Priyanka Chopra.

Last spotted in Tamil films opposite Vijay in “Nanban” early last year, Ileana had moved lock, stock and barrel to Mumbai from Hyderabad apparently with an idea of furthering her career in Bollywood. Ileana actually debuted as an actress in films through the Tamil film Kedi which had Tamannaah play-

Salman goes on a strict diet!

Salman Khan, who is known for toned physique, goes for a vigorous diet to get back in shape. The actor is a regular gym freak, took little break due to his health problems, where he started to special food cooked by his mom.

Apparently, the actor has to take a low-carb diet and he would avoid taking food from home. Sallu Bhai will have only fruits for some weeks to get back his physique.

Manisha to write auto biography!

After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Manisha Koirala flew down to London for treatment and has also started her chemotherapy sessions. The actress is very active to her fans in Facebook, messaging her moments every now and then.

In which Manisha has expressed that she would write an auto biography, after returning to India. She also added that this phase of life has brought out the spirituality in her.

I have proved myself as an actress:

Isha Sharvani Dancer and Bollywood actress Isha Sharvani is debuting in Tamil through the film “David” which has Vikram and Jiiva in the cast. She who has settled in Kerala while speaking said, “I have donned a special role in David. Acting with Vikram was a new experience to me. Though I was living in Kerala for the last 15 years, I will be acting in a Malayalam film only now. The reason for this is that I did not like the stories I got earlier. I like to act in the roles in which others have not donned so far. That is the reason I select good roles and act in it. In one way I am happy because instead of being a dancer I have proved myself as an actress. In that way I am satisfied. I am interested to act in Tamil and Malayalam films but the roles should be good.”

ing a negative role (it was probably her only and last such role in films).

Ever since they starred together in Kedi, Ileana and Tamannaah, both slim and svelte beauties, have been close friends. Ileana admitted this fact while speaking to newsmen recently during her visit to Hyderabad. “Though I live in Mumbai, my heart lies in the South Indian states. I’m not a party animal and in fact, I avoid most of the parties to which I’m invited. Whenever I find some free time, I love to spend it leisurely in my home.”

Thanks to the success of Barfi, Ileana has reportedly landed up the lead in Phata Poster Nikla opposite Shahid Kappor, which would keep her away from Telugu or Tamil films for the time being!

‘Thuppaki’ reaches `1 bn mark Not many films released in Kollywood make a record; some don’t even make an impression.

But not “Thuppaki.” This very stylish film of Vijay, Kajal Agarwal and Vidyut Jamwal and directed by AR Murugadoss has gone beyond being a mega hit by reaching Rs 1 billion in collection!! Murugadoss is the first director to reach this mark in both Kollywood and Bollywood. Kudos to the genius! In Bollywood it was “Ghajini” and now its “Thuppaki” in Kollywood. “At the beginning of the film itself, we had decided it should be a flick that appeals to both mass and class and that it should be the highest grossing Vijay film. Luckily the festival sea-

I can never compete with Big B: Aamir Khan

Sidharth, Parineeti in KJo's next Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra have been roped in to star in Karan Johar's yet to be named production venture. The film will be co-produced by Dharma Productions and P h a n t o m Production.

This is Sidharth's second film with D h a r m a Productions after his debut movie "Student Of The Year." Sidharth is excited and tweeted: "Here it is guys, my second film! ...really excited to work with Parineeti Chopra, Phantom and Vinil."

Hrithik Roshan celebrated his 39th birthday recently. His wife Suzanne has planned a surprise birthday bash for him in a yatch, near the Gateway. Hrithik reveals that was indeed a surprise for him, as he got to know about the plan only through newspaper, like others.

On the day of his birthday, his wife suddenly took him to the place asking him to attend a friend’s party only to realize that it was indeed his own birthday party. He feels blessed to have all the friends who attended the party.

son also helped us. Since the audience’s expectations were fulfilled, the movie crossed 1 billion,” said the director.

The very satisfied producer, Kalaipuli S Dhanu said, “Thuppaki crossed 1 billion in the first two weeks of its worldwide release. Exhibitors called to tell me that they earned in just a few days what they would have earned in a year with this film. Now, Murugadoss is making a Hindi film with Akshay Kumar and when asked about this he said with a smile, “Ghajini and Thuppaki were the first to enter the 1 billion club in Bollywood and Kollywood respectively. Now my target is 2 billion with this Akshay Kumar film.”

Deepa Mehta’s secret casting director revealed!

Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta ranks high on the wish list of several actors. But when it comes to casting, the international filmmaker goes by her mother’s instinct.

A source reveals that actor Ronit Roy who will play the role of Ahmed Sinai in her upcoming film “Midnight’s Children” based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie was actually her mother’s choice, as she thought that he would suit the role perfectly. But this isn’t the first time that Deepa has gone ahead with her mother’s suggestion when it comes to casting. "Deepa’s mother is her secret casting director. Earlier too, Deepa agreed to her mother’s choice when it came to casting.

In fact, it was her mother, who had suggested John Abraham as the lead for her 2005 film Water."

Bollywood star Aamir Khan holds Amitabh Bachchan in high regard and says he neither sees himself on the same platform as the megastar nor can he ever compete with the senior actor. Both the actors were contenders on Big CBS Prime's show "India's Prime Icon". While Aamir is out of the race, Big B is among the top three icons along with politician Narendra Modi and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

"I don't even feel I am on the same platform as him (Amitabh), I am not even anywhere close,” Aamir said. The two actors share a mutual admiration for each other, haven't yet worked together in a film.

Ajay Devgn, who is all geared up for his next release, UTV Motion Pictures' “Himmatwala,” has put on his dancing shoes and this time it is to bring the most popular number ‘Tathaiya Tathaiya’ from the 80’s back !! Directed by Sajid Khan, the duo has done everything to recreate the aura of the original song and give their audiences a chance to relive the magic which was created by Superstar Jeetendra and Sridevi back in the 80’s.

Devgn who is now quite comfortable with dancing was seen enjoying the shooting and said, ‘It is one of the most popular numbers from the 80’s. Right from the sets to the costumes and the choreography, everything has been perfectly recreated.” When quizzed Sajid Khan about the comparison which people would make between the original & his version, he said, “I want people to make comparisons because I have

Sujoy Ghosh keen to cast Big B in ‘Kahaani 2’ Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, who worked with Amitabh Bachchan in “Aladin,” says he will definitely work with the megastar in “Kahaani 2,” a sequel to his successful 2012 thriller “Kahaani.” "Yes, I can assure you that Amitabh Bachchan will be part of ‘Kahaani 2’ in some way or the other. His blessings matter a lot to me. I can't see myself making any films without him," Ghosh had said. Big B had lent his voice for the song Ekla chalo re in Kahaani. The director says he will roll the camera as soon as the script is locked.

Talking about shooting, he said, "In a month's time... I am still scripting the film so I can't say exactly when I will start shooting.

The story will be a continuation from where we have left Kahaani." He assures this time Vidya, who played the protagonist in “Kahaani” to the hilt, will be seen in an action avatar. "Yes, I am planning to make her do some action sequence in Kahaani 2 but let's see how things shape up. It's going to be challenging for me to prove myself again, but I am not thinking about that at all. I am just hoping for the best," said Ghosh. Ghosh made Kahaani at a shoestring budget of Rs 8 million and thanks to the overwhelming response; it changed the director and the producer's fortune by grossing Rs 800 million at the box office. If Vidya Balan was lauded for her stupendous performance in Kahaani, she was aptly supported by the performances of Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddique.

done justice to the original. Of course, it will be unfair to compare Ajay to Jeetendra especially since Jeetendra’s image as a dancer was strong at that time.”

Choreographer, Farah Khan, says, “I was not sure whether Ajay would be able to match Jeetendra’s steps, but the entire unit broke into applause after he gave his first take. UTV Motion pictures has acquired the rights of the original song from Saregama and they are delighted with the association. In fact, Head of Music at Saregama India Ltd, Adarsh Gupta said that “Saregama is looking forward to the association with versatile Director Sajid Khan and Disney UTV for their upcoming block-busters. Together we will revive the very happening era of music from the 80s." It is set to hit the theatres on 29th March 2013.

She is just six-films-old, but Anushka Sharma has already worked with four top directors of her choice. She talks about why she is glad she didn't sign a Vishal Bhardwaj film earlier in her career and being cool treated like a regular guy by her male friends... She says, “I got a lot of offers after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and most of them were of small town girls, which was not different from my character Taani. They didn't excite me. I was very clear from day one. A lot of people came to me and advised me to sign lots of films.

Six months after Rab Ne... I was sitting at home and it was obviously not easy, especially after you are launched in a big film as mine. And then Badmash Company happened and it was completely different and I just went with my instincts.

“What I know is that I can act. My directors have shown faith in me and offered me roles that require great performance. And that is what I am greedy about.

“Well, I guess there is nothing else to talk about since I am not doing anything wrong or saying anything against anyone. I am not creating controversy so people think let's link her up! Shahid, Arjun and Ranbir are all my friends and I do not know the difference between my male and female friends.

“I am pretty broad-minded and I am like any normal 24-year-old. These guys too treat me like a guy. If I had to hide anything I would do it inside my house, why go out with anyone in public?”

16

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

17

Tamannaah is my closest friend: Ileana

Vidya goes bold again

Vidya Balan ditched her trademark sari when she stepped out for Dabboo Ratnani's calendar launch. The actress was also seen with sindoor in her hair. Nayi dulhan after all!

In the calendar she is seen in a bold avatar.

When asked about it, she quipped, “I am an actress so I have different avtars.”

Ileana D’Cruz ended the year 2012 on a high note. Her debut Hindi film “Barfi” not only ended up as a commercially successful film but was also highly acclaimed by critics, with Ileana’s debut performance coming for skyhigh praise. She also managed to realize her long-time dream of debuting in Hindi films and to her credit, held her own in the film against an established hand like Priyanka Chopra.

Last spotted in Tamil films opposite Vijay in “Nanban” early last year, Ileana had moved lock, stock and barrel to Mumbai from Hyderabad apparently with an idea of furthering her career in Bollywood. Ileana actually debuted as an actress in films through the Tamil film Kedi which had Tamannaah play-

Salman goes on a strict diet!

Salman Khan, who is known for toned physique, goes for a vigorous diet to get back in shape. The actor is a regular gym freak, took little break due to his health problems, where he started to special food cooked by his mom.

Apparently, the actor has to take a low-carb diet and he would avoid taking food from home. Sallu Bhai will have only fruits for some weeks to get back his physique.

Manisha to write auto biography!

After being diagnosed with ovarian cancer, Manisha Koirala flew down to London for treatment and has also started her chemotherapy sessions. The actress is very active to her fans in Facebook, messaging her moments every now and then.

In which Manisha has expressed that she would write an auto biography, after returning to India. She also added that this phase of life has brought out the spirituality in her.

I have proved myself as an actress:

Isha Sharvani Dancer and Bollywood actress Isha Sharvani is debuting in Tamil through the film “David” which has Vikram and Jiiva in the cast. She who has settled in Kerala while speaking said, “I have donned a special role in David. Acting with Vikram was a new experience to me. Though I was living in Kerala for the last 15 years, I will be acting in a Malayalam film only now. The reason for this is that I did not like the stories I got earlier. I like to act in the roles in which others have not donned so far. That is the reason I select good roles and act in it. In one way I am happy because instead of being a dancer I have proved myself as an actress. In that way I am satisfied. I am interested to act in Tamil and Malayalam films but the roles should be good.”

ing a negative role (it was probably her only and last such role in films).

Ever since they starred together in Kedi, Ileana and Tamannaah, both slim and svelte beauties, have been close friends. Ileana admitted this fact while speaking to newsmen recently during her visit to Hyderabad. “Though I live in Mumbai, my heart lies in the South Indian states. I’m not a party animal and in fact, I avoid most of the parties to which I’m invited. Whenever I find some free time, I love to spend it leisurely in my home.”

Thanks to the success of Barfi, Ileana has reportedly landed up the lead in Phata Poster Nikla opposite Shahid Kappor, which would keep her away from Telugu or Tamil films for the time being!

‘Thuppaki’ reaches `1 bn mark Not many films released in Kollywood make a record; some don’t even make an impression.

But not “Thuppaki.” This very stylish film of Vijay, Kajal Agarwal and Vidyut Jamwal and directed by AR Murugadoss has gone beyond being a mega hit by reaching Rs 1 billion in collection!! Murugadoss is the first director to reach this mark in both Kollywood and Bollywood. Kudos to the genius! In Bollywood it was “Ghajini” and now its “Thuppaki” in Kollywood. “At the beginning of the film itself, we had decided it should be a flick that appeals to both mass and class and that it should be the highest grossing Vijay film. Luckily the festival sea-

I can never compete with Big B: Aamir Khan

Sidharth, Parineeti in KJo's next Actors Sidharth Malhotra and Parineeti Chopra have been roped in to star in Karan Johar's yet to be named production venture. The film will be co-produced by Dharma Productions and P h a n t o m Production.

This is Sidharth's second film with D h a r m a Productions after his debut movie "Student Of The Year." Sidharth is excited and tweeted: "Here it is guys, my second film! ...really excited to work with Parineeti Chopra, Phantom and Vinil."

Hrithik Roshan celebrated his 39th birthday recently. His wife Suzanne has planned a surprise birthday bash for him in a yatch, near the Gateway. Hrithik reveals that was indeed a surprise for him, as he got to know about the plan only through newspaper, like others.

On the day of his birthday, his wife suddenly took him to the place asking him to attend a friend’s party only to realize that it was indeed his own birthday party. He feels blessed to have all the friends who attended the party.

son also helped us. Since the audience’s expectations were fulfilled, the movie crossed 1 billion,” said the director.

The very satisfied producer, Kalaipuli S Dhanu said, “Thuppaki crossed 1 billion in the first two weeks of its worldwide release. Exhibitors called to tell me that they earned in just a few days what they would have earned in a year with this film. Now, Murugadoss is making a Hindi film with Akshay Kumar and when asked about this he said with a smile, “Ghajini and Thuppaki were the first to enter the 1 billion club in Bollywood and Kollywood respectively. Now my target is 2 billion with this Akshay Kumar film.”

Deepa Mehta’s secret casting director revealed!

Oscar-nominated director Deepa Mehta ranks high on the wish list of several actors. But when it comes to casting, the international filmmaker goes by her mother’s instinct.

A source reveals that actor Ronit Roy who will play the role of Ahmed Sinai in her upcoming film “Midnight’s Children” based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Salman Rushdie was actually her mother’s choice, as she thought that he would suit the role perfectly. But this isn’t the first time that Deepa has gone ahead with her mother’s suggestion when it comes to casting. "Deepa’s mother is her secret casting director. Earlier too, Deepa agreed to her mother’s choice when it came to casting.

In fact, it was her mother, who had suggested John Abraham as the lead for her 2005 film Water."

Bollywood star Aamir Khan holds Amitabh Bachchan in high regard and says he neither sees himself on the same platform as the megastar nor can he ever compete with the senior actor. Both the actors were contenders on Big CBS Prime's show "India's Prime Icon". While Aamir is out of the race, Big B is among the top three icons along with politician Narendra Modi and master blaster Sachin Tendulkar.

"I don't even feel I am on the same platform as him (Amitabh), I am not even anywhere close,” Aamir said. The two actors share a mutual admiration for each other, haven't yet worked together in a film.

Ajay Devgn, who is all geared up for his next release, UTV Motion Pictures' “Himmatwala,” has put on his dancing shoes and this time it is to bring the most popular number ‘Tathaiya Tathaiya’ from the 80’s back !! Directed by Sajid Khan, the duo has done everything to recreate the aura of the original song and give their audiences a chance to relive the magic which was created by Superstar Jeetendra and Sridevi back in the 80’s.

Devgn who is now quite comfortable with dancing was seen enjoying the shooting and said, ‘It is one of the most popular numbers from the 80’s. Right from the sets to the costumes and the choreography, everything has been perfectly recreated.” When quizzed Sajid Khan about the comparison which people would make between the original & his version, he said, “I want people to make comparisons because I have

Sujoy Ghosh keen to cast Big B in ‘Kahaani 2’ Filmmaker Sujoy Ghosh, who worked with Amitabh Bachchan in “Aladin,” says he will definitely work with the megastar in “Kahaani 2,” a sequel to his successful 2012 thriller “Kahaani.” "Yes, I can assure you that Amitabh Bachchan will be part of ‘Kahaani 2’ in some way or the other. His blessings matter a lot to me. I can't see myself making any films without him," Ghosh had said. Big B had lent his voice for the song Ekla chalo re in Kahaani. The director says he will roll the camera as soon as the script is locked.

Talking about shooting, he said, "In a month's time... I am still scripting the film so I can't say exactly when I will start shooting.

The story will be a continuation from where we have left Kahaani." He assures this time Vidya, who played the protagonist in “Kahaani” to the hilt, will be seen in an action avatar. "Yes, I am planning to make her do some action sequence in Kahaani 2 but let's see how things shape up. It's going to be challenging for me to prove myself again, but I am not thinking about that at all. I am just hoping for the best," said Ghosh. Ghosh made Kahaani at a shoestring budget of Rs 8 million and thanks to the overwhelming response; it changed the director and the producer's fortune by grossing Rs 800 million at the box office. If Vidya Balan was lauded for her stupendous performance in Kahaani, she was aptly supported by the performances of Parambrata Chatterjee and Nawazuddin Siddique.

done justice to the original. Of course, it will be unfair to compare Ajay to Jeetendra especially since Jeetendra’s image as a dancer was strong at that time.”

Choreographer, Farah Khan, says, “I was not sure whether Ajay would be able to match Jeetendra’s steps, but the entire unit broke into applause after he gave his first take. UTV Motion pictures has acquired the rights of the original song from Saregama and they are delighted with the association. In fact, Head of Music at Saregama India Ltd, Adarsh Gupta said that “Saregama is looking forward to the association with versatile Director Sajid Khan and Disney UTV for their upcoming block-busters. Together we will revive the very happening era of music from the 80s." It is set to hit the theatres on 29th March 2013.

She is just six-films-old, but Anushka Sharma has already worked with four top directors of her choice. She talks about why she is glad she didn't sign a Vishal Bhardwaj film earlier in her career and being cool treated like a regular guy by her male friends... She says, “I got a lot of offers after Rab Ne Bana Di Jodi and most of them were of small town girls, which was not different from my character Taani. They didn't excite me. I was very clear from day one. A lot of people came to me and advised me to sign lots of films.

Six months after Rab Ne... I was sitting at home and it was obviously not easy, especially after you are launched in a big film as mine. And then Badmash Company happened and it was completely different and I just went with my instincts.

“What I know is that I can act. My directors have shown faith in me and offered me roles that require great performance. And that is what I am greedy about.

“Well, I guess there is nothing else to talk about since I am not doing anything wrong or saying anything against anyone. I am not creating controversy so people think let's link her up! Shahid, Arjun and Ranbir are all my friends and I do not know the difference between my male and female friends.

“I am pretty broad-minded and I am like any normal 24-year-old. These guys too treat me like a guy. If I had to hide anything I would do it inside my house, why go out with anyone in public?”

18

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Financial Voice Dear Financial Voice Reader,

The start of the financial year is a good time to recognise what winners and losers do differently in investments. I took the trading data of 400 private investors over a 4 year period and analysed it. Most happened to be of Indian origin. I wanted to know what winners had in common compared to the losers.

I went through every position (well the computer did) of every trader. Then picked out some winner and some losers and try to work out what they kept getting right and wrong. Or why winners turned to losers.

(Losers never become winners). As far as I am aware no one has ever done this.

Here are some of the findings.

Once a security risen 10% into profit, if it falls back into loss, you are less likely to make money: Traders who saw a stock rise 10%, rarely made money, if they then held onto it whilst it slipped into a loss. Winners did not let winning trades becoming losing trades.

Some make money that are right only 4 times out of 10: Some winning traders made money despite being right less than half the time. They did this because the amount they won when they were right was more than the amount they lost when they were wrong. Put another way, soon after their positions were in a loss, they exited and did not hang around for the trade to turn into a longer term profit. If they tended to hold winning trades for, say, 25 days, then they did not hold losing trades longer than the average period.

Forex traders were particularly successful – trend following and reverse trends: Those trading the foreign exchange markets were particularly likely to be profitable and successful of the batch I observed.

This is not to say those buying and holding stocks for the long term are not profitable, it’s just that the audience being observed was one of active traders. So out of those why should foreign exchange trading work well? It appears that one reason is that such markets often ‘trend’ ie move in one smooth direction and then reverse.

This is not a hard and fast rule – but relative to equities it has been noticed by many traders. This may help such traders make money. Of course it could be they are better – but it appeared from the trades I saw, they captured trends and those trends existed, rather than with those trading other securities. One exception was commodities. Those traders did well too, but also often due to wild swings, in losing periods, gave back gains.

Those who bet small amounts, but did more trades, were more profitable than those trading big size but infrequently: We found winners did not make big bets. But rather their risk was limited, it’s just that when they found that 1 or 2 trades in a hundred which kept on winning, they were able to hang on to them.

Alpesh Patel www.investingbetterblog.com

India’s exports fall for eighth month in a row, trade deficit nears $18 bn India's exports fell almost 2% to $24.9 billion in December, contracting for the eighth straight month, as demand in the US and Europe remained weak. But with imports rising 6.3% to $42.5 billion, the trade deficit widened to $17.7 billion, adding to the concerns over the current account deficit.

The government, however, saw a silver lining in the pace of contraction slowing down in December, raising hopes of a rebound during the last quarter of the current financial year.

Commerce secretary S R Rao said the fall in exports was slightly arrested and

"with a new set of incentives, which we came into force from January 1, we expect that in the current quarter (January-March 2013), there will be a further improvement in the export performance".

He said world trade had not performed well in 2012 and the year was the "worst" in terms of global trade. "If we look at the WTO forecast for 2012, initially they forecast that world trade will grow by 3.9% but that has been scaled down thrice and it ended with 2.5%. The 2012 rate of growth in the world trade has been less than half of past 20 year average," Rao said.

Mittal family act to restore company's reputation

Keval Dhokia Indian steel-tycoon and Britain's richest person Lakshmi Mittal, 62, and his family, have spent $600m in an effort to return their primary business, the world’s largest steelmaker ArcelorMittal, to profitability. The injection of funds caused the family to lose three per cent of their ownership, down to 38 per cent, despite spending $300m on new shares, because $1.7bn of equities issued were bought by new investors, diluting the dynasty’s holdings.

The firm’s share price hit rock-bottom in May 2012, lower than during the 2008 financial crisis, as last year saw anaemic demand from economically uncer-

tain European markets and stagnating growth in China, culminating in lower steel prices, growing inventories of unsold steel, and weaker revenues. By August the Big Three rating agencies, including Standard & Poor’s, had labelled the company’s credit rating at below investment grade or ‘junk’ status.

In response to this turbulence, chief financial officer and Mittal Senior’s elder child, Aditya Mittal, 36, has since implemented a de-leveraging plan involving asset sales, a dividend cut and this latest financing deal, to restore the reputation of his father’s business. The deal reached $4bn recently after the successful sale of equities and convertible bonds, exceeding an ini-

Lakshmi Mittal

tially expected uptake of $3.5bn.

Lakshmi Mittal said in a statement to investors: “We have consistently said that reducing net debt is a priority for the company.

This transaction, supplemented by proceeds from ongoing asset disposals, the announced reduction in dividends and continued cost-saving initiatives, will significantly lower our

Revenue dept keen to discuss tax case of Vodafone The revenue department last week sent a reply to the Vodafone's representation on Rs 112 billion tax issue and also expressed its willingness to discuss the matter with company officials.

"Finance ministry has replied to Vodafone on tax case.

The revenue department has written that both the secretary and the CBDT chairman are keen to talk to settle the issue," a senior finance ministry official said.

In its reply to the tax reminder notice sent by the revenue department last week, Vodafone had said it believes it is not liable to pay tax for its $11.2 billion acquisition of Indian telecom business of Hutchison Whampoa.

"Vodafone has replied

to this reminder, stating that it continues to believe that no tax is payable on the above transaction," the British firm had said in its reply to the revenue department's reminder notice.

The tax case relates to capital gains tax arising from the sale of telecom business by Hong Kongbased Hutchison Whampoa that involved Indian assets to Vodafone in 2007. The reminder did not include any deadline for payment of the tax.

The Income Tax depart-

ment on October 22, 2010 passed an order determining a tax liability (including interest) of Rs 112.18 billion on Vodafone for the deal which took place in Cayman Islands in 2007.

The Supreme Court, however, quashed the order in January 2012. After the apex court's ruling, the Income Tax Act was amended with retrospective effect to bring into the tax net such overseas merger and acquisition deals that involve Indian assets.

Section 119 of the finance Act, 2012, seeks to validate the October 2010 order of the Income Tax department. The department had also passed an order imposing a penalty of Rs 79 billion on Vodafone in April, 2011.

net debt.”

However, Reuters reported that rating agency Moody’s will be keeping a "negative outlook" until ArcelorMittal de-leverages its balance sheet further, and both the global economy and steel markets improve.

In a further turn of events, Aditya Mittal announced that the firm was considering the purchase of a steel plant in Alabama from German competitor ThyssenKrup AG. He said this would not affect the firm’s June debt-reduction target of $17bn, from $22bn, but Moody's said more needed to be done to support the company's ‘junk’ credit rating, before any asset purchases were to be considered.

Airlines slash domestic fares A sudden bonanza greeted travellers in India as competing airlines slashed oneway domestic airfares to most destinations to Rs 2,100. The unexpected reduction caused a mad rush to online travel portals, with people scampering to book tickets while the seats and the low fares lasted.

Airlines' officials clarified that the fares were lowered for a few seats on every flight between February and April. Also, reservations have to be made by January 13.

Nevertheless, the 40-50% cutback in ticket costs proved to be considerable and a major lure.

Round-trip fares from Mumbai to Delhi were trimmed from the usual Rs 7,000-9,000 to around Rs 4,000 from February 1 to April 30. Tickets to other popular sectors too were made available at similar rates.

AirAsia looks for a partner to launch an Indian airline AirAsia plans to launch an Indian airline in partnership with a local promoter as the desire to earn share in one of Asia's biggest aviation markets trumps fears of a hypercompetitive industry full of bureaucratic obstacles.

Two people close to the development said Asia's largest budget carrier is exploring options to set up a company that will be majority owned by an Indian promoter, preferably a well-known business group.

AirAsia will hold 49% in the venture that will apply for an aviation

licence. The Malaysian carrier has broached the issue with the Videocon Group and the talks are at a preliminary stage, one person said. Venugopal Dhoot, the chairman of the Videocon Group, confirmed that they had been approached by the airline.

"They had approached us. These were preliminary discussions. There's nothing I can say now," Dhoot said.

An AirAsia spokesperson in Malaysia declined to respond to comment on the issue.

Tony Fernandes, the promoter of AirAsia, is a flamboyant businessman

with a taste for Formula One racing and football.

He built AirAsia into Asia's largest budget carrier and stunned the aviation industry in 2011 by ordering 200 A320 NEOs, breaking the record set by Delhi-based IndiGo that had ordered 180 aircraft for $15.6 billion.

Though initially not very enthusiastic about the liberalisation of FDI in aviation in India, he is believed to have changed his mind recently. He tweeted after a visit to Mumbai that he is feeling good about India, which he says will be a big mar-

ket for AirAsia like China.

Fernandes is the owner of Queen's Park Rangers (QPR), which currently languishes at the bottom of the English Premier League and which he says is his biggest worry. "QPR keeps me awake at night, not the aviation business," he said recently.

Fernandes' interest in India adds an intriguing twist to the scrappy battle for market share in India between low-fare airlines IndiGo and SpiceJet, the state-owned Air India, and Jet Airways, which has full-service and low-fare options.

finAnciAl Voice

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

19

Cashing In Your Chips!

Suresh Vagjiani Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

Sometime in late 2011 we sourced a three bedroom property in Maida Vale in a purpose built block. The property was a duplex with a share of freehold. Strangely enough although the estate agents thought it was an ex council, further investigation revealed it not to be so.

When purchasing another property previously in the same block our solicitor dug deeper into the history at the request of the lender and discovered this block was made to house council tenants, but at the time there was an over supply hence it was used for private owners. This means strictly speaking it is not an ex council property. The significance of this is huge.

A block at the bottom of Gloucester Terrace W2 known as Gilray House was formally an ex-council property, the majority of the tenants got together and purchased the freehold from the council, as you are allowed to under the legal process called collective enfranchisement, which gives you to the right to club together with other leaseholders to buy the freehold for a fair market price.

T h e va lu e o f t he f lat s i n t he b lo c k d o u b le d o v e r n i g ht . T h re e b e d r o o m pr o pe r ti e s ha ve s o ld th e r e fo r £7 50, 000.

When you analyse this you will find nothing has changed regarding the property, the uplift comes simply from changing the label of a block.

The property construction and the occupants are all still the same.

There exists a stigma which makes ex council property less desirable, sometimes it comes down only to the label given to it. Often you cannot differentiate it from any other block. The reason for the stigma is that 'ex council' properties are perceived to be housed by the poorer section of society. This stigma is even institutionalised as lenders also discriminate on this basis, assuming these block are predominantly occupied by immigrants, one parent families etc, however this is no longer the case with Central London properties as the original inhabitants have long ago moved on, though they are still unfairly demonized and consequently achieve a far lower price than equivalent private properties, even though many are better maintained than private blocks.

From a yield point of view they produce a far greater income than private properties due to the low service charges and long lease whilst attracting a similar rental to private properties.

This property was originally sourced for £325,000, which we knew was very cheap for a three bed in this block. The property only required minor cosmetic work costing a couple of thousand pounds and it was promptly let for £450pw to a group of foreign students. Since then the property has always been re-let within a short space of time.

It is our practice to get a valuation done six months after purchase, for the benefit of our buyers. The property was valued at £450,000. To be frank this seemed a little over ambitious, so we valued it slightly lower at £425,000. The date of this valuation was 8th May 2012. Given the property was purchased on 20th January 2012 at 41 Burlington Close W9 this represents a huge uplift given the time. Some clients have stated that the examples given seem to good to be true. Well for the doubting Thomas a land registry search will confirm the purchase price and date, and the property will appear on the Find A Property web site with an asking price of £450,000 shortly after the date of this article.

The property was purchased using a mortgage which had a very short penalty term, for only 6 months. Generally products like this mean the arrangement fees are higher as the lender knows you're likely to redeem the mortgage early so they make sure they get their profits upfront.

As the buyers had come in cheaply the idea was to refinance and take the uplift out so they could replicate the purchase and buy another one. As the property was not producing too much income after the mortgage and service charges had been paid they thought it more fruitful to sell up completely and try to replicate their original success.

The property was bought in partnership between two brother in laws. One worked as a plumber and the other in a civil service job, both on modest salaries. They realised if they did not do anything the time will come when they will not be able to even send their kids to university. So they saw the benefit of investing in something.

B y d o i n g n o th i n g p e o ple th i n k th e y are sa fe , bu t th i s i s a n i llu s i o n . If yo u 'r e n o t m o vi n g f o rw ar d s yo u ' r e au to m at i c all y m o vi n g b ac k w ard s.

The cost of everything is moving upwards. Simultaneously you're being stripped of the services the country once used to supply freely such as education and health, so investing wisely and taking ownership of your finances is not an option, it’s a must, even if you wish to just maintain your existing standard of living.

Selling the above property for £420,000 will net them £70,000 after expenses, which gives them £35,000 each. They struggle to save even a fraction of this in a year and they have done next to nothing in terms of effort to earn this amount of money. The property was actually offered to another client first, he viewed it and then went on holiday without making a decision. It was then offered to the existing purchasers, these

clients have worked with us previously and have developed trust and confidence in our recommendation. Without looking at the property they purchased it blind on our say so.

The idea behind selling this is to try and replicate the same formula again. Although we have informed them deals like this don’t come in a hurry at levels between £300- £500k in Central London. The chances are they will be investing by grouping their funds with others to get stronger returns by buying properties worth around the £1m mark.

They feel the growth they have made on this property will not replicate itself the following year and so they wish to extract it and try to generate the same level of return through another deal for this coming year.

The property has been put on the market today with an aggressive agent. I'm sure it will start attracting offers this coming month and will achieve close to asking price. Had this property been purchased prior to the government's reduction on housing benefits it would have attracted rents of £820pw, this would have given the owners an income of £28,000 after all expenses. But this was a honeymoon period, and was never due to last forever. However even after a 2-year period of earning this kind of income you have already made your money, as typically you have got half your deposit back out of the property. Normally a £100,000 would be buried to purchase a property at this price, after two years you would have made £56,000 in net income.

The problem now is many landlords have had it too good and are having withdrawal symptoms. They believe their property should be getting more than the market will pay. The longer they choose to hold on to this outdated view the more money they will be losing. The current rental returns are still very good touching 8% yield which is a solid return.

Coincidentally over the weekend I meet another couple of brother in laws who wanted to invest and they have been looking in Kingsbury and the surrounding areas. They have been looking for six months, over this period they have seen twenty properties and offered on three, however they have been unsuccessful in securing a property.

One of them commented the rates of growth I was talking about sounded 'too rosy', these were his exact words. I agreed, the situation IS rosy this is why many people all around the world are investing in Central London.

He was complaining it is difficult to get hold of properties as all the good ones seem to ‘disappear’. The reason for the time taken to get a property was partly down to his indecision, and partly the demand from the brown pound in these areas, which seems to have been unaffected by the credit crunch. The property prices seem almost to be propped up by a combination of Indians and Sri Lankans. The English have long since left this patch.

So I reasoned if these two races are pushing the property prices up in these locations, imagine what’s going on in Central London where the demand comes from 63 different nationalities from all around the world. The price of anything is determined by simple demand and supply. And the supply is further constrained in these regions by the strict planning rules enforced in these boroughs.

The statistics speak for themselves, my suspicion is foreign money is being parked in London not for the growth rates, but for the security against the financial turmoil going on around the world. There are no restrictions to foreigners buying in the capital, the increase in property prices is a by-product not necessarily the aim.

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Tips of the Week l The more motivated the seller, the better the price! Anyone moving abroad, getting divorced or going bankrupt will need a quick sale, which is when you will get a good price. Always ask what the reason for the sale is. l The early bird gets the worm! More people lose money from not making a decision than making the wrong decision when it comes to property investment.ets’ eyes and not your own.

20

UK

Maria Fernandes

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

maria@abplgroup.com

Immigration Around the World In the US, President Obama has taken a major step towards immigration reform by changing immigration policy in order to allow undocumented immigrants with families to stay in the US, and on a path to citizenship despite opposition from the Republicans.

They will need to return to their countries to apply for residency.

Latino voters turned out in record numbers in Florida and Colorado and made it clear that they wanted changes that Obama had promised in 2008 and it appears that he is now fulfilling those pledges.

In the meantime, in Ecuador there has been an influx of pensioners to the city of Cuenca and is causing concerns amongst local residents.

Canada has opened their doors to skilled tradesman, for example electricians, welders, heavy-duty welders and pipe fitters to address serious labour shortages in some parts of the country.

Russia has announced a reduced quota of workers for 2013, down by 50,000 to 410,000. There are exemptions from this quota for certain professions, which include senior staff usually Directors and Engineers.

In Australia there is to be a new visa option for international students graduating in Australia to be allowed to work for between 2 and 4 years depending on their qualifications.

In the meantime in the UK, we are awaiting the report of the Migration Advisory Committee into shortages. This will be presented to the Government who will, inevitably, accept the recommendations.

Yet another report has concluded that the number 1 concern of the British public is immigration.

Interestingly, however, it found that the concern was greatest in areas where immigration was low, and lowest was in London where immigration forms the highest concentration.

There is to be (yet) another announcement of the need for integration by the improvement of English blah blah blah……

Maria Fernandes has been in practice exclusively in immigration for the past 25 years.

Fernandes Vaz is based at 87 Wembley Hill Road Wembley in Wembley and can be contacted by telephone on 02087330123, by email on info@fernandesvaz.com.

Essar to invest Rs140 billion in Gujarat's port sector, water projects Having already invested Rs 880 billion in Gujarat so far, Essar Group will make a fresh investment of Rs 140 billion in the state's port sector and water supply projects, the company's chairman Shashi Ruia said last week.

"I am pleased to announce that Essar will invest further Rs 140 billion in the port sector and water supply projects," Ruia said at the sixth edition of “Vibrant Gujarat” in Gandhinagar.

Of the proposed fresh outlay, he said, Rs 100 billion will be invested to develop ports in Hazira and Salaya in Jamnagar capable of handling dry bulk, liquid and container cargoes.

"Further, we propose to invest Rs 40 billion in bulk water supply projects in the state," Ruia added.

The fresh investments will have the potential to generate 15,000 jobs directly and indirectly as well as form a critical part of the state's maritime infrastructure.

Ruias-controlled Essar Group has a huge invest-

ment in Gujarat spreading across sectors such as oil refining, port, steel and power. In fact, majority of the company's investments are in Gujarat.

The group accounts for 20 per cent of Gujarat's refining capacity, about 20 per cent of its power generation capacity and 30 per cent of port capacity.

Essar's 10 million tonne per annum steel plant is also located in Gujarat.

Congratulating Modi for his recent electoral success, Ruia said Modi has "once again proved that good economics can co-exist with good politics.

Under Modiji's leadership, Gujarat will surely remain a torch bearer for the economic growth of the country. He is a man with a vision. He is a man with a mission. He is a man with a conviction," Ruia said.

A study commissioned by the government last year on quantifying black money generated in the country has estimated that the illicit wealth is likely to exceed 10% of GDP or anywhere above Rs 10,000 billion, given the size of the economy.

The 1,000-page report was submitted to the finance ministry by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy (NIPFP) in the last week of December. The finance ministry is taking a view on it before deciding to table it in Parliament, sources said.

The study was headed

by R Kavita Rao, head of NIPFP's tax policy and research, and included former director general of income tax investigation SS Khan. The report has given sectoral break-up of the scope of black money such as the real estate sector, telecom, mining etc.

The last such study carried out at the instance of the finance ministry was

by NIPFP in 1984 when the latter had estimated black money generated in the country to the tune of 19% to 21% of GDP or up to Rs 360 billion.

After major ruckus in Parliament and a civil soci-

NIPFP while officials in the finance ministry refused to disclose status of other two reports.

The NIPFP had earlier carried out studies in 1976 and 1981 when it had estimated black money gener-

ety movement, the government had in March 2011 selected three thinks tanks to estimate the quantum of black money - National Council for Applied Economic Research (NCEAR), NIPFP and National Institute of Financial Management (NIFM). The first report has been submitted by

ated in the country to be around 15% to 18% of GDP and 18% to 21% of GDP respectively.

In a white paper on black money tabled in Parliament last year, then finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had listed tax evasion through transfer pricing as one of the major areas of generation of

Kingfisher revival plan not enough to restart operations – official

Kingfisher Airlines' planned investment of Rs 6.5 billion as part of a plan to return the airline to the skies is not enough to restart operations at the troubled carrier, a senior aviation regulatory official said.

Kingfisher, which lost its operating licence at the end of 2012 and has not flown since the start of October, is estimated to owe $2.5 billion in debt to banks, staff, vendors and others and is scrabbling to find new investors.

The revival plan, which Kingfisher Chairman Vijay Mallya filed last month with the Directorate General of Civil Aviation

(DGCA), may not guarantee a reliable service, a senior official at the regulator with direct knowledge of the plan said in a briefing.

"There are a lot of issues regarding lenders, staff payment which we felt may not lead to reliable services. The plan has no provision for airport dues. There should be no inconvenience to passengers," said the source, who

declined to be named.

Mallya wrote in a letter to Kingfisher staff that the revival plan would be funded by the airlines' parent UB Group and would involve using seven planes for the start of the summer season.

Kingfisher, once India's second-largest airline, has tried unsuccessfully for over a year to bring in new investors. The airline held talks with Gulf carrier Etihad Airways in December, sources said, which did not lead to an investment. DGCA suspended the airline's licence to fly in October after months of cancelled flights and staff walkouts.

black money. He had said it was largely invisible to the public and difficult and expensive for tax officers to detect. The white paper had quoted a private study report saying "developing countries may be losing over $160 billion of tax revenues a year, primarily through transfer pricing strategies".

The white paper had said, "The illicit money transferred outside India may come back to India through various methods such as hawala, mispricing, foreign direct investment (FDI) through beneficial tax jurisdictions, raising of capital by Indian companies through global depository receipts (GDRs) and investment in Indian stock markets through participatory notes."

Tabled in May 2012, the white paper had said it was quite possible that a large amount of money transferred outside India might actually have returned through these means.

Infosys' Q3 results beat expectations Infosys raised eyebrows with a surprisingly strong show in the third quarter and confounded analysts' prognostications that India's second-largest software firm would deliver another quarter of disappointing performance and lower its revenue guidance for the fiscal.

Beating the low expectations - set by performance in the recent past and management commentary resulted in the Bangalore-based firm's stock vaulting by 17 per cent on Friday, its biggest single-day jump in nearly two decades. For all the excitement on the stock market, Infosys' revenue growth forecast was unchanged at 5 per cent.

Citigroup cuts India's rating from 'Neutral' to 'Underweight'

Stating that India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth and risk appetite may lag expectations, Citigroup Global cut India's rating from 'Neutral' to 'Underweight'.

Citigroup sees BSE Sensex rising by 7% more from current levels in 2013, with a target of 20,800. "Indian market will be led by earnings per share (EPS) growth in 2013, not PE expansion," the bank said. More government reform action, along with easing inflation and falling interest rates should support equities, added the bank.

The group favours cyclical stocks to defensives in the Indian market.

Earlier this week, Fitch had also said that India may face a credit ratings downgrade in the next 1224 months. The recent macroeconomic trends have been disappointing, a Fitch analyst had said.

Last month, global rating agency Fitch had warned that policy slippage, fiscal loosening in the run-up to 2014 general elections and weak growth could force a downgrade of India's credit rating. It

had pegged India's growth for the current financial year at 6%.

"Our affirmation of the 'BBB-' rating in June reflected India's diversified economy and high domestic savings... Policy slippage and/or mounting evidence of a structural decline in the trend growth rate, such as protracted relatively weak economic data, could cause the ratings to be downgraded," Fitch had said.

Standard & Poor's had also warned that India still faced one-in-three chance of downgrade in its sovereign rating to junk grade over the next 24 months citing high fiscal deficit and debt burden, but rival

Moody's said the country's growth prospects for 2013 have improved.

"A downgrade is likely if India's economic growth prospects dim, its external position deteriorates, its political climate worsens, or fiscal reforms slow," the S&P had said in a statement.

"High fiscal deficits and a heavy debt burden remain the most significant rating constraints" it said.

The ratings agency had in April cut the outlook on India's BBB- rating, lowest investment grade, to negative from stable, assigning one in three chance of a downgrade to below investment grade over the next two years.

finAnciAl voice

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

21

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

UK Economy remains in Focus whilst IMF chief Christine Lagarde sees Eurozone recovery in 2013!

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 15th January 2013 @ 2.30pm GBP - INR = 87.62

Concerns over the growth prospects of the UK economy caused sterling to flounder against many of its peers last week, with the most notable move against the euro, where we saw prices reach a nine month low.

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde told the BBC on Monday that growth should return to the Eurozone in 2013. Christine Lagardeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s comments follow ECB president Mario Draghi's declarations made last week that the toughest moments for the area have already been overcome.

Christine Lagarde reassured investors by expressing her confidence that the Eurozone will start to recover from the crisis this year. She pointed to the progress in building the banking union and the successful implementation of austerity measures by the Member States as the most important factors leading to the improvement in EU economy.

Output from Eurozone factories fell by 0.3% in November, according to the latest official figures from EU body Eurostat.

The drop marks the third succes-

Christine Lagarde

sive month of decline. The fall comes in spite of analysts' forecasts of a rise and means production is now 3.7% lower than a year ago. However, the pace of decline is slowing, and November's fall compares to a 1% drop in October. The Eurozone countries which saw the sharpest falls in November on a monthly basis were Portugal, where output fell 3.4%, and Spain, which saw a 2.5% drop. Despite the falls, which are an indicator of lower economic activity, analysts said there were signs that the worst was over.

Expiring this month, it is believed that Bernanke and his counterparts will prolong

Operation Twist, an initiative designed to lower long-term interest rates. Lower borrowing rates spur both investment and consumption, which would aid the timid recovery of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest economy. An extension of the scheme would increase the money therefore supply; with speculation the Fed will push its balance sheet to hold nearly $4tn assets, if correct investors are likely to sell their dollars before the currency devalues further.

Mario Draghiâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s hawkish comments last Thursday has been crediting for declining yields on respective governments bonds in the euro zone as well as easing market turmoil.

The next focus for European leaders will be the issue of reducing unemployment in Europe, which is currently at a record of 11.8%.

Spanish banks borrowed slightly less from the European Central Bank in December than in the previous month as Spain's

0 8 0 8

$ 0 4 5

access to funds improved along with an easing of euro zone funding pressures. Bank of Spain figures showed local banks borrowed 357 billion euros ($476 billion) from the ECB in December of 2012, a 2 percent fall from 365 billion euros in November. However, it was still more than twice the 132 billion euros taken by the lenders in December 2011.

Spanish banks accounted for 32.1 percent of euro zone banks' emergency borrowing from the ECB in December 2012, the data showed.

The US dollar saw some weakness during Asian trade following comments by Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago President Charles Evans, that the central bank should keep policy accommodative to support the economy and he expects interest rates to stay low until 2015. US dollar buyers are presented with an excellent opportunity to take advantage of current rates, considering the negative sentiment on the pound, as the safe haven US dollar continues to be sold off in the wake of increased risk appetite amongst investors.

USD - INR = 54.61 EUR - INR = 72.76 GBP - USD = 1.60 GBP - EUR = 1.20 EUR - USD = 1.33 GBP - AED = 5.89 GBP - CAD = 1.58 GBP - NZD = 1.91 GBP - AUD = 1.52 GBP - ZAR = 14.06 GBP - HUF = 354.30

www.rationalfx.com Information provided by RationalFX. None of the information on this page constitutes, nor should be construed as financial advice. The exchange rates used areâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;the commercial foreign exchange rates provided by RationalFX. For a live quote or to find out more about how RationalFXâ&#x20AC;&#x201A;can help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

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22

Pakistan-Bangladesh-sri lanka

In Focus US asks Pakistan to ensure protection of minorities

Washington: Strongly condemning a series of terror attacks this week targeting Pakistani Shia Muslims, a US Congressestablished body on religious freedom today asked the Obama Administration to impress upon Islamabad to ensure protection of minorities in the country. "The murder of innocent civilians because of their religious beliefs is outrageous and tragic, and we extend our condolences to their families," said Katrina Lantos Swett, chairman of the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

Pakistani truckers of NATO goods go on strike

Pshawar: Truckers who carry supplies to NATO troops in Afghanistan went on strike in northwest Pakistan to protest lower pay, inadequate security and corrupt officials who demand bribes from the truckers. The supply route is an important lifeline for international forces in landlocked Afghanistan. The coalition ships about a significant portion of its non lethal supplies through Pakistan into southern Afghanistan. The other land route through northern Afghanistan, Central Asia and Russia is longer and more expensive.

The strike began last week in response to the government's decision to require truckers to go through authorized companies to carry NATO supplies instead of making individual deals with the government-run National Logistics Cell, said Jehanzeb Khan, head of a transport workers union in northwest Pakistan. The companies pay the truckers less, said Khan.

Call to remove troops to save Siachen

Islamabad: The India-Pakistan dispute over Siachen, the world's highest battleground, is a "waste of resources" that could be put to much better use, a leading Pakistani daily said, renewing a call for all troops and infrastructure to be removed from the area. "Despite decades having passed, the two countries have been unable to come to a comprehensive agreement on this barren wasteland," the Dawn said in an editorial. The Siachen glacier has lost 5.9 km of its longitudinal length due to rising temperatures. The glacial ice mass has thinned by 17 per cent, the daily said.

It would be pertinent, then, to renew the call for all troops and infrastructure to be removed from the Siachen area.

Violence may spiral in election-bound Pak

Islamabad: Experts fear violence could escalate in the run up to the elections scheduled later this year and the proposed US troop withdrawal from Afghanistan the following year. The army's reluctance to launch anti-Taliban operation in terrorist stronghold of South Waziristan bordering Afghanistan has heightened these fears. The outfit, with links to the al-Qaida, has carried out dozens of attacks on the Hazara community over the past year, but the recent bombings were the most devastating.

Qadri long march: 3,000 security men arrive in Islamabad

Islamabad: Three thousand personnel from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Frontier Constabulary and Punjab police arrived in Islamabad as a part of the security arrangements for the Jan 14 long march to be led by the Tehrik-i-Minhajul Quran (TMQ) chief Tahirul Qadri. The army has also been issued directives to remain on standby in case of an emergency situation.

US drone attack kills 5 in Pak

Islamabad: A US drone targeted a compound in the lawless North Waziristan tribal region of Pakistan, killing five suspected militants. The attack occurred in Heso Khel village near Mir Ali, one of the main towns in North Waziristan Agency. The compound was destroyed. Reports said four missiles were fired at the compound. Nearly 40 militants have been killed in five drone strikes in the tribal belt bordering Afghanistan since the beginning of the year.

www.abplgroup.com - asian Voice 19th January 2013

Kashmir violence could turn 'ugly', Hafiz Saeed warns Islamabad: Lashkar-e-Taiba founder Hafiz Saeed, accused of masterminding the 2008 Mumbai massacre, said India was trying to destabilise Pakistan and predicted violence in Kashmir region could get "ugly".

"We do not want any force to be used or any military operation for this. But the Indians are opting for the other alternative," Saeed said in an interview.

Saeed founded Lashkar-eTaiba (LeT) in the 1990s, the militant group which India blames for the rampage in Mumbai, where terrorists killed 166 people over three days. He denies any wrong-

Hafiz Saeed

doing and links to militants.

He denied Indian press reports that he had been inciting action against the neighbouring country just before the recent outbreak of

the worst violence in Kashmir since both neighbours agreed a ceasefire nearly a decade ago.

In the third fatal attack in Kashmir this week, a Pakistani soldier was killed on Thursday by "unprovoked" Indian fire, a Pakistan army spokesman said.

He was shot while manning a post in the Battal sector of Kashmir, which is split between the two sides by a heavily fortified border known as the Line of Control (LoC), the spokesman said.

Saeed accused India of trying to disrupt the peace process with Pakistan and dragging its feet on the long-

standing issue of Kashmir.

"This is their usual practice. Betraying the international community and destabilising Pakistan," said Saeed.

"And that's what they are doing this time." India has repeatedly called on Pakistan to bring Saeed to justice, an issue that has stood in the way of rebuilding relations between the neighbours since the carnage in Mumbai.

India is furious that Pakistan has not detained Saeed since it handed over evidence against him to Islamabad. Washington has offered a reward of $10 million for information leading to Saeed's capture.

Pakistan GDP could gain by Sri Lankan parliament granting MFN status to India impeaches chief justice

Islamabad: Pakistan's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) could raise by 2% per annum if they grant India the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status, which could normalize trade relations between the two neighbouring nations, according to study by an independent organization.

Trade normalization with India can also add to national funds by over Rs 470 billion per annum in addition to benefits of Rs 70 billion to consumers in the shape of cheap imported goods, but this would require outsmarting smart Indian negotiators, the Express Tribune reports.

Dr Hafiz Pasha, former finance minister and vice chairman of the Institute of Public Policy said their organization's research shows that trade normalizations, commonly known as granting the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) status to India, will also help trim down inflation on the back of availability of comparatively cheap Indian goods.

Pasha added that over a period of three years the country would achieve 700 million dollars in annual

gains besides creating 200,000 new jobs. However, in comparison with Pakistan, India will only gain 0.5% of its gross domestic product (GDP). Pasha said the Pakistan government should go ahead with MFN status for India, but should get meaningful concessions while negotiating further reductions in sensitive list maintained by India under South Asia Free Trade Agreement.

In February last year, Pakistan had abolished positive list containing only 1,956 items or 27% of the allowed tariff lines with 1,209 nonimportable negative list, only 18% of tariff lines. The government has not met its commitment of abolishing the negative list by the end of December 2012, citing concerns over the grant of MFN.

Colombo: The Sri Lankan parliament voted by a majority to impeach the country's Chief Justice Shirani Bandaranayake, beginning the process to remove her from office. The impeachment motion was passed by a twothird majority with 155 members voting for and 49 against it. It is now up to Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to take a decision if he will remove the country's first woman chief justice. The government accuses her of corruption, an allegation the chief justice denies. Recent court rulings said the process was unconstitutional, and she may refuse to leave.

Critics of the government say that the top judge is being victimised and the independence of the judiciary is being challenged. The government denies this, the report added.

Parliament had decided to hold a two-day debate on the report of a Parliament Select Committee (PSC), appointed to probe allegations levelled against Bandaranayke.

The PSC had run into controversy over its conduct with members being accused

Shirani Bandaranayake

of blatant bias. Key among the criticism levelled against the committee was the refusal to grant Bandaranayake enough time to present arguments on the charges against her and cross-examine witnesses.On Dec 6, Bandaranayake had stormed out of the PSC hearings saying she was not being given a fair trial. There were also allegations that she was insulted and called a "mad woman" by government PSC members.Citing bias, the four opposition members of the PSC resigned after seven hearings. But the government pushed through with the hearings, eventually finding the chief justice guilty of three of the five charges that were looked into by the PSC.

Pak PM sacks Baloch govt after Quetta killings Islamabad/Karachi: Yielding to protests over the killing of nearly 140 Shias in Quetta, Pakistan PM Raja Pervez Ashraf sacked Balochistan government and imposed governor's rule in the troubled province.

Following a major terror attack on their neighbourhood on Thursday, thousands of Shia Muslims had refused to bury their dead until the Balochistan government was dismissed and the army given control of Quetta. Accepting their demand, the Pakistan government on Monday dismissed the PPP-led coalition government for failing to protect the minority community.

President Asif Ali Zardari issued a formal proclamation late on Monday which said that a report from the governor had made it clear that the government of Balochistan

"cannot be carried on in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution".

Following the order, the protesting Shias who had picketed on the streets of the Balochistan capital with bodies of the victims, ended their four-day sit in protest and started burying those who had died in the bomb attacks.

The order said governor's rule would remain in force for two months. PM Ashraf announced the government's decision during a meeting with Shia leaders.

However, the government did not concede to a demand from the ethnic Hazara Shias for the army to be given control of Quetta to improve security and to carry out operations against Lashkar-eJhangvi. When Shia leaders repeated the demand for the army to be given control,

Raja Pervez Ashraf

Ashraf said governor Magsi and the civil administration will have the authority to call in the military if needed.

The death toll from a wave of terror attacks by homegrown Sunni groups and a Baloch separatist outfit in Pakistan's restive northwest rose to 140. Refusing to bury the dead, Shiite Muslim leader Maulana Amin

Shaheedi challenged army chief Gen Ashfaq Kayani , saying he had failed to protect the minority sect. The city of Quetta witnessed the worst violence, with three blasts targeting Shias, who have in the past few years borne the brunt of the violence unleashed by the Pakistan Taliban and Sunni extremist groups in Balochistan, Swat and Peshawar . Two suicide bombers blew themselves up, one inside a snooker club and the other outside in a car, within a 10-minute gap in a Shia-Hazara communitydominated neighbourhood, killing 105 people and wounding 169. "They will not be buried until the army comes into Quetta." The dead included three journalists and nine police officers, police and eyewitnesses said.

world

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

In Focus 19 children among 46 dead in China landslide

Beijing: A desperate search for three people missing in a landslide in southwestern China ended on Saturday when their bodies were pulled from the mud, taking the final death toll to 46 - many of them children. Authorities in Yunnan province said that the last three bodies were recovered on Saturday morning after a night of frantic efforts by more than 1,000 rescue workers to locate the final missing residents of the remote village of Gaopo. Those buried included 27 adults and 19 children. Two other people were hospitalised after the landslide struck engulfing 16 homes, bringing a thunderous crash and throwing up thick clouds of dust.

Singapore’s 1st woman speaker is a PIO

Singapore: Indian-origin politician Halimah Yacob is set to become the first woman speaker of Singapore’s parliament next week replacing Michael Palmer, who was forced to resign over his extra-marital affair.

Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said he would nominate Halimah as the next speaker when the House holds session on January 14, 2014. Fifty-eight-year-old Halimah, an Indian-origin Muslim, would be resigning as minister of state (MOS). She is mother of five and a former labour lawyer, is a member of parliament from the ruling People’s Action Party (PAP).

9 dead as Mideast battered by hail, snow, rain

Ramallah: Abnormal storms which for four days have blasted the Middle East with rain, snow and hail have left at least nine people dead and brought misery to Syrian refugees huddled in camps. Two women were found dead in the West Bank after their car was swept away in floods, while a 30-year-old man froze to death in Taalabaya. Snow carpeted Syria's war-torn cities but sparked no let-up in the fighting, instead heaping fresh misery on a civilian population already enduring a chronic shortage of heating fuel and daily power cuts. The Palestinian infrastructure is deeply flawed and unable to handle weather like this.

Japan plans extra $2.1 bn in military spending

Tokyo: Japan plans to spend an extra $2.1 billion on missiles, fighter jets and helicopters, as it tries to strengthen defence capabilities with concerns growing over a rising China.

The cash injection over the next few months comes on top of regular military spending for 2012-13. It is separate from a request for a rise in the military budget for the next fiscal year which policymakers called for.

30 die in Nepal bus accident

Kathmandu (Nepal): A police official says a bus veered off a mountain road in west Nepal leaving at least 30 people dead and several more injured. The bus drove off the gravel road in a remote mountainous area near Chatiwan village. It was dark and the area was covered in thick fog. The bus rolled about 300 meters (300 yards) from the road. Rescuers and local villagers helped the pull the dead and injured from the wreckage. Among the dead were 22 men, seven women and a child.

One in 25 US teens has attempted suicide: Study

New York: About one in 25 US teens has attempted suicide, and one in eight has thought about it, according to a national study based on interviews with thousands of teens. Researchers, whose findings appeared in the journal JAMA Psychiatry, said those numbers are similar to the prevalence of lifetime suicidal thinking and attempts reported by adults, suggesting that the teenage years are an especially vulnerable time. The results are based on in-person interviews of close to 6,500 teens in the United States and questionnaires filled out by their parents. Just over 12 percent of the youth had thought about suicide

23

US to speed up Afghan troop transition, says Barack Obama Washington: President Barack Obama has promised to speed up a transfer of lead security responsibility from Nato to Afghan forces this spring, in a sign the pace of US troop withdrawals could quicken.

After meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai, Obama said Nato forces would have a "very limited" role in the country after 2014 and insisted that Washington had achieved its prime goal of "decapitating" al-Qaida.

The leaders met at a crucial moment in the final chapter of a long, bloody war, and as Obama balances the future security of Afghanistan with US combat fatigue and a desire to spend America's dwindling resources at home.

"Starting this spring, our troops will have a different mission -- training, advising, assisting Afghan forces. It will be a historic moment and another step toward full Afghan sovereignty," Obama told a joint news conference.

Nato plans previously

Hamid Karzai with Barack Obama

called for foreign forces to transfer the lead in fighting the Taliban by the middle of this year. Obama was careful to stress, however, that US troops will still fight alongside Afghans.

Karzai added that from the spring, "the Afghan forces will be fully responsible for providing security and protection to the Afghan people."

"International forces, the American forces, will be no longer present in the villages... it will be the task of

Beijing claims disputed islands as its own on map

the Afghan forces to provide for the Afghan people in security and protection."

Obama, planning the withdrawal of most of the 66,000 US troops left in Afghanistan, said that after 2014, American forces would have a "very limited" mission in training Afghan forces and preventing a return of alQaida.

But he warned that Karzai, with whom he has had a somewhat testy relationship, would have to

accept a security agreement, still under discussion, granting legal immunity to US troops who remain behind.

"It will not be possible for us to have any kind of US troop presence post-2014 without assurances that our men and women who are operating there are (not) in some way subject to the jurisdiction of another country."

Karzai announced progress on another sticking point between the sides, saying the leaders had agreed to a complete return of detention centers and terror suspects to Afghan control, starting soon after he returns home.

But he would not be drawn on the size of the foreign troop garrison he believes is necessary to support Afghan forces.

The White House has ordered the Pentagon to come up with plans for a smaller future Afghan presence than generals had expected, perhaps numbering 3,000, 6,000 or 9,000 US troops.

Ganesha being inked in body tattoos in China

Beijing: In the midst of maritime tensions with several neighbours, China for the first time has published maps of over 130 islands of South China Sea as well as the disputed islands with Japan linking them with the Chinese mainland on an equal scale.

The new vertical-format maps of China, published by Sinomaps Press, include more than 130 islands and islets in the South China Sea, most of which have not been featured on previous maps of China, the National Administration of Surveying, Mapping and Geoinformation (NASMG) said. Vietnam, Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Taiwan strongly contest China’s claims on the South China Sea islands.

Publication of Map with Chinese claims in e-passports have already drawn strong reactions from Vietnam and

Philippines. The old maps, which were in horizontal format, only featured bigger islands such as the Xisha, Zhongsha and Nansha islands called by Vietnam as Paracel islands.

The new vertical maps have marked clearly the major South China Sea islands and demonstrated their geographic relations with surrounding island countries as well as surrounding islands and islets, Xu Gencai, chief editor of Sinomaps Press said.

In the bottom-left corner, there is also a zoomed illustration of the Diaoyu Islands called Senkaku islands by Japan, displaying their positional relations and those of their affiliated islets with the Chinese mainland and Taiwan. The new maps will not be available to the public until the end of January, the Xinhua report said.

Beijing: The booming trade has spawned several popular tattooing subjects like pictures of celestial beauties, dragons and snakes, tiger face and faces of lovers of tattoo wearers.

China's tattoo artists are inscribing pictures of Hindu god Ganesha as the fashion for tattooing the entire body is spreading fast in the country. Reflecting this trend, Beijing-based Global Times daily carried a picture of Ganesha inked on the back of a tattoo enthusiast.

The booming trade has spawned several popular tattooing subjects like pictures of celestial beauties, dragons and snakes, tiger face and faces of lovers of tattoo wearers. But the use of Ganesha in the atheist country suggests increasing interests in Hinduism among youth, observers said.

There are nearly 300,000 tattoo shops in China with

over 2,000 of them being in Beijing alone, according to Fu Hailin, director-general of the China Association of Tattoo Artists. "But I can say that 90% or more are not qualified," the paper quoted Fu as saying.

Tattooing, which had been banned over the past decades, is now being allowed with the ministry of human resources and social security and the China Hairdressing & Beauty Association issuing work permits to the artists since last month. Candidates need to pass an examination to test their knowledge concerning health and sterilization to obtain a permit.

Washington: The rise of China and India as major world powers and how they view their relationship with the West promises to test the established global order, according to a US think tank.

In the coming decades, "as the two powers grow, they are bound to change the current international system with profound implications for themselves, the US, and the world," says a new publication of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

"And whether they agree on the changes to be made, especially when it comes to their relationship with the West, will influence the system's future character," says

the publication, "Crux of Asia: China, India, and the Emerging Global Order".

A close examination of Chinese and Indian perspectives on the fundamentals of the emerging international order reveals that IndiaChina differences on many issues of both bilateral and global significance are stark, it says.

"China and India's sustained economic growth fuels their increasing geopolitical and military influence," says the publication edited by Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate, and Sean Mirski, a junior fellow respectively in the Carnegie South Asia Programme.

Despite their develop-

mental similarities, China and India's bilateral strategic rivalry means that they have competing priorities on most major global issues, the publication says.

Sino-Indian differences are considerable on issues relating to the nonproliferation system, Asian security, regional stability in Southern Asia, and security in the maritime commons, space, and cyberspace, it says.

But the two rising powers broadly agree on matters relating to the international economic system, energy security, and the environment.

"Because of its ongoing shift to the Asia-Pacific and status as the only global

superpower, the US must manage a complex set of relationships with China and India, which are at times working at cross-purposes," the publication says.

Both China and India want a stable Asia-Pacific that will allow them to sustain their economic prosperity, but they perceive threats very differently and have divergent priorities.

"Importantly, India seeks a resolute American presence in the region to hedge against possible Chinese excesses, while China sees the US as significantly complicating its pursuit of its regional goals and worries about American containment attempts," the publication says.

Rise of India, China will shake global order: US think tank

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In Focus Delhi doctors help transplant livers in Pakistan

When Pakistani raiders were fighting Indian soldiers, a group of Indian doctors was helping their Pakistani counterparts to do complex liver transplants in Lahore. The doctors from Delhi's Apollo Hospital spent long hours in the surgery room of Sheikh Zayed Hospital during a four-day trip that began on January 6. Since many Pakistani patients are unable to travel to India for various reasons.

Malaria kills 20 times more than what govt says

India will soon revise its malaria mortality figures, with the new estimates expected to be at least 20 times more than what the health ministry portrays at present. A 16member committee of the Indian Council of Medical Research has found that the actual number of malaria deaths in India on an average would be around 40,297 — around 40 times higher than present estimates. On an average, 40,297 Indians die of the mosquito-borne disease every year. Overall, the number of malaria cases is 9.75 million.

ASI in police custody for rape

An assistant sub-inspector of police who was arrested for allegedly raping a woman in Beniapukur area of the metropolis was sent to police custody till January 16. A medical examination on the woman has been conducted. The woman has given a statement that the ASI had raped her on earlier occasions also. Asked whether the woman was mentally challenged, Shamim said, "Whether the victim is mentally retarded or not will be decided by the doctors. We can't decide it."

Passenger rail fares to be raised from January 21

The government announced an increase in railway fares for passengers, the first upward revision in nine years, which will help generate 66 billion rupees for the cash-strapped railways. The fare hike will be effective from January 21.Last year in March, the government was forced to roll back the first fare hike in eight years, which was aimed at shoring up the finances of a rail network whose dysfunction has become a major drag on the economy.

Urvashi wins Bigg Boss 6, Imam wins Best Entertainer

The grand finale of Bigg Boss 6 that has been running for the past few months on Colors channel finally happened today and Urvashi Dholakia was announced as the winner.

Urvashi along with Sana, Imam and Niketan were amongst the final four on the show today. From all of them, Niketan was the first to be eliminated. Further Sana was declared as the second runner up. While Imam happens to be the first runner up, he also won an additional prize of Rs 10 lakhs for being the Best Entertainer in the Bigg Boss house.

Militants kill another sarpanch in J&K

Unidentified terrorists killed a 'sarpanch' (democratically elected village head) in Sopore district of the valley. In a critical condition, Mir was shifted to sub-district hospital Sopore where he succumbed to his injuries.

The body of the deceased was handed over to his relatives for last rites. Terror outfits like Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammad had been issuing death threats to the panchayat officials, asking them to resign from their posts for over a year.

25 killed in Bihar

Twenty-five villagers from Jharkhand, among them women and children, were killed and nine others injured in Bihar's Aurangabad district when the truck they were travelling in overturned. More than 40 people, comprising of labourers and their families, were travelling on the truck when it overturned into a roadside in village of Aurangabad, they were returning home after harvesting crops in Bihar's Kaimur district." Taking a serious note of casualties of labourers in this accident, the chief minister has ordered ban on ferrying labourers on trucks in the state.

Assembly elections in Tripura will be held on February 14 and in Meghalaya and Nagaland on February 23 and their results will be out on February 28, the Election Commission announced.

The EC also announced byelections to nine assembly constituencies in Mizoram, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Punjab on February 23 and in Assam, Bihar and Maharashtra on February 24, but their results will be out together on February 28.

Chief Election

Commissioner V S Sampath said with the announcement of schedule for the two-phase poll in the north- eastern states and bypolls in various states, the Model Code of Conduct will be in operation with immediate effect and EC will keep a strict vigil on any violation of the code.

He said electronic voting machines will be used in elections to the three north-eastern states as well as in byeelections in the seven states.

"The Commission will deploy general observers in

adequate number to ensure smooth conduct of elections and appoint adequate number of expenditure observers and assistant expenditure observers to exclusively monitor election expenditure of contesting candidates," the CEC said.

The notification for Tripura elections will be issued on January 21 and for Meghalaya and Nagaland on January 30. All the three state assemblies have 60 seats each. While 10 are reserved for SCs and 20 for

STs in Tripura, 55 assembly seats are reserved for STs in Meghalaya and 59 in Nagaland.

According to the poll schedule, the last date for filing of nominations in Tripura is January 28 and after scrutiny the next day, the last date for withdrawal of candidatures is January 31.

For Meghalaya and Nagaland, the last date for filing of nominations is February 6 and after scrutiny the next day, the last date for withdrawal is February 9.

India denies visa to British journalist Yvonne Ridley

India, Bangla to sign liberalized visa pact

India has denied award-winning British journalist Yvonne Ridley a visa. She was scheduled to address the Spring of Islam conference being held in Hyderabad by the Jamaat-e-Islami Hind.

The London-based journalist, who was captured by the Taliban on an undercover assignment in Afghanistan in 2001 and converted to Islam after her release in 2003, was to address various sessions at the three-day conference, which began on Friday.

"The Indian government is refusing to give me a conference visa to address 50,000 women in Hyderabad about women's rights ... I would have thought after the catastrophic handling of the Dehli rape case, politicians would be more sensitive, but it seems not. We women continue to be sidelined and treated as second class citizens," she said in her post on Facebook.

Ridley, through video conference, addressed three sessions of girls, women and journalists.

"The Indian government knows how powerful words are. That is why I am sitting in the UK today talking to you instead of being with you to deliver this speech in person," she said, addressing the

session of journalists Saturday.

Khalid Mubashir-ulZafar, president of Jamaat-eIslami's Hyderabad unit, said Ridely was given all necessary clearances by the external affairs ministry, but was denied visa in the last minute because of the tense situation in Hyderabad.

There was tension in the city Friday after a group of people staged protests in the old city over the arrest of Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (MIM) leader and legislator Akbaruddin Owaisi for his alleged hate speech.

Ridley was also denied a visa when she planned a trip to Kerala in 2010 to address a Muslim women's conference organised by the Jamaat.

India and Bangladesh may sign a liberalized visa agreement and extradition treaty later this month when home minister Sushilkumar Shinde visits Dhaka for threeday home minister-level talks between the two countries, beginning on January 28.

The new visa agreement, called revised travel arrangements, will remove some restrictions on visit of each other’s businesspersons, senior citizens above 65 years of age and children below 12 -on the lines of the new visa regime between India and Pakistan. “Drafts of both revised travel arrangements and extradition treaty have been finalized. These are most likely to be signed by Shinde and his Bangladeshi counterpart M K Alamgir during the January 28-30 talks,” a senior official said.

Introducing time-frame for issuing non-diplomatic visa, simplification of multipleentry visa for businessperson, ‘visaon-arrival’ for senior citizens and children, allowing additional entries for medical visa, issuing group visa to tourists and extending the duration of transit visa are some of areas which may see changes in the new agreement.

Though both countries have been working on signing the extradition treaty for

long, the proposal of the new visa agreement got a push during the home secretarylevel talks in Dhaka in October last year. That move, incidentally, came over a month after India signed a liberalized visa agreement with Pakistan.

The extradition treaty, if signed, will pave the way for deportation of ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia and many other northeast insurgents who have been hiding in Bangladesh. Similarly, it will also help Dhaka in getting back its criminals who are currently lodged in Indian jails.

India has been pressing for Chetia’s deportation for long. The ULFA militant has been in a Dhaka jail following his arrest in 1997 on the charge of entering Bangladesh without valid documents. He had, however, moved court seeking asylum in Bangladesh on security reason, making it ‘legally’ difficult for Dhaka to execute New Delhi’s demand.

Gujarat has topped the list of 20 large states in terms of economic freedom, governance and inclusive growth.

“The top state in India in (terms of) economic freedom in 2011 was Gujarat. It displaced Tamil Nadu which had been at the top in 2009,” said the report of ‘Economic Freedom of the States of India 2012’ which was released by former RBI governor and present Rajya Sabha member Bimal Jalan.

According to the report prepared by noted economists Bibek Debroy, Laveesh Bhandari, Ashok Gulati and Swaminathan Aiyar, Gujarat is followed by Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.

The economic freedom index, which is based on the methodology developed by Canada-based Fraser Institute, is an indicator of economic governance, state level reforms and inclusive economic growth.

Gujarat freedom index, the report said, has been rising fast and estimated at 0.64 points, much ahead of Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh at 0.56 points. Haryana and Himachal Pradesh have been placed at fourth and fifth positions respectively.

According to the report, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Bihar figured in the bottom three in terms of economic freedom index for 2011.

The median score for economic freedom of all states, which had declined from 0.38 in 2005 to 0.36 in 2009, has improved substantially to 0.41 in 2011.

The biggest improvement has been registered by Madhya Pradesh with freedom index score rose from 0.42 in 2009 to 0.56 in 2011 enabling it to move up from sixth to third position.

The economic freedom report said that the biggest decline in index was recorded

by Jharkhand which slumped from 8th position to 19th spot.

As many as eight states registered decline in their ranks. These include some of the most industrialised states

like Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, it said.

In over long-time horizon, it added, Punjab has fallen in economic freedom ranking from 6th position in 2009 to 12th place in 2011.

The report, which has a special reference to labour issues, said that lack of labour sector reforms was hampering economic freedom and growth.

The states with best labour regulation was Maharashtra followed by Karnataka and Punjab, while the states with worst track record of labour reforms were West Bengal, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh and Assam.

Yvonne Ridley

Sushilkumar Shinde

Gujarat tops economic freedom index, displaces Tamil Nadu

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In Focus 16 more die due to cold wave in UP

Biting cold wave conditions snuffed out 16 more lives in Uttar Pradesh during the last 24 hours as death toll due to the harsh weather touched 249 this winter.

Five people died in Gorakhpur which was the coldest place in the state yesterday, followed by four each in Farrukhabad and Barabanki, two in Sant Kabirnagar and one in Bijnore. Maximum temperatures were below normal by 5 to 12 degrees Celsius over some parts of the state. Weather would be mainly dry over the state in the next 24 hours and fog/shallow fog would prevail over one or two places in the state.

Man dies after being hit by cop's baton in Hyderabad

A 77-year-old retired government official died fter he was accidentally hit by a lathi (baton) thrown by police officer at a speeding motorist.Pratap Reddy, a retired official of the forest department, succumbed to his injuries at a private hospital a day after he was injured in the incident that took place at Vanasthalipuram in the limits of Cyberabad police commissionerate.

Muslim panchayat bans cellphone use by girls

After the khaps in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, a Muslim community panchayat in Rajasthan banned girls from using cellphones and also from dancing and singing at weddings, ostensibly in an effort to prevent incidents like Delhi gang-rape. Boys and girls have also been prohibited from marrying someone against the wishes of their families or someone from a different community, panchayat members said. The restrictions have been imposed on the Muslim community members at Salumbar town in Udaipur district, some 400 km from Jaipur, by the Anjuman Muslim Panchayat, a minority community council. Fine of Rs.51,000 has also been decided for those who marry someone from a different community," said the secretary.

Woman gang-raped in Gurdaspur, five arrested

In a case similar to the gang-rape of a paramedic student in New Delhi, a 29-yearold woman was allegedly gang-raped by seven persons. The victim, a resident of a Ghukla village under Kahnuwan police station, was on way to her village in a bus when the driver and conductor kidnapped her and took her an undisclosed location where they and their five accomplices gang-raped her. The next morning, the driver dumped the woman in a near her village. The SSP said five of the seven accused had been arrested while two unidentified persons were still absconding.

The next morning, the driver dumped the woman in a near her village.

Akhilesh visits Nirbhaya’s family

Nearly two weeks after the death of 23year-old victim of Delhi gang-rape, Nirbhaya, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav finally found time to visit her grieving family members in their ancestral village in Ballia. The CM reached the modest home of the family with a bank draft of Rs 20 lakh, just a day before the ‘terahavi’ (13th day ritual after death).

Akhilesh’s visit occurred amid tight security, with police personnel deployed from other districts as well.

No safety for women on Delhi roads: Supreme Court

Holding that there was no safety for women on Delhi's roads, the Supreme Court Court said ‘We are failing to treat women with dignity, equality and respect."

The observation came as the court issued notice to the central government, the National Commission for Women and the Delhi government's State Transport Authority on a public suit questioning the validity of the two finger test conducted on rape victims. The court was told that the invasive two finger test was against the dignity of women.

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Modi suggests global forum for sharing higher education Narendra Modi suggests global forum for sharing higher education and developing partnerships between universities across the world.

Inaugurating an International Conference of Academic Institutions (ICAI) in Gandhinagar, Modi said, "By organizing this conference, Gujarat has created an opportunity for exchange of knowledge."

Terming the world as a global village of knowledge and technological development, Modi exuded faith that such international conferences will provide a platform to the experts of academics and will

Narendra Modi

create a bank of knowledge capital for sharing of knowledge. "This conference will be instrumental in preparing a

road map to turn this dream into a reality," he said.

Judith Wolfson of the University of Toronto said that such events create forums for discussion and best practices.

Leading industrialist Sanjay Lalbhai said this conference is the first of its kind in the country.

The conference is being held at Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University campus as a part of Vibrant Gujarat Global Investors' Summit2013. Academicians from 260 top universities and academic institutions are taking part in the event to deliberate on various aspects of knowledge

sharing and mutually beneficial tie-ups.

Higher education institutes of Gujarat, state government run and international universities signed Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) for knowledge sharing on the occasion.

Meanwhile, at another seminar on export held at National Law University, Modi released 'VISION-2020' - a document on export competitiveness of Gujarat. He stressed on chalking out futuristic export strategy that caters to demands of the future generation.

Indian Army’s human Jairam Ramesh commends Gujarat govt work rights record is the best in India’s rural development the world: Army Chief minister Jairam Ramesh com-

Army Chief General Bikram Singh on Tuesday said Indian Army’s record is the best in the world as far as human rights is concerned. Noting that the Indian Army personnel work in tough terrains like Siachen, Gen. Singh said they discharge their duties in those areas while “following the principles of war and human rights”.

Addressing the 65th Army Day parade in New Delhi, the Army chief also asserted that the Indian Army is prepared to face all challenges to national security and foil the designs of the enemy against the backdrop of nation-wide anger over the beheading of a soldier by Pakistani troops on the LoC. Gen. Singh said the Indian Army has kept its operational preparedness at the highest level in view of various challenges.

“I want to assure the nation that Indian Army is prepared to face all challenges to national security....Every

solider of the Indian Army is ready to face any challenge and we are ready to make any sacrifice for the security of the nation… …Indian Army is always prepared for securing boundaries of the nation and foil the designs of the enemy...It deals with all challenges in a professional manner,” the Army chief said in his speech in which he also touched upon issues like modernisation of forces and their parity with civil administration.

While talking about the modernisation plan of the Army including the induction of attack helicopters and other equipment in the force, Gen. Singh said at the parade, “We understand the importance of human mind working behind the machine”.

The Army chief expressed confidence that the Army, the Air Force, the Navy, central paramilitary forces and the police will together provide a strong safety shield to the country.

mended the Narendra Modi government for its implementation of a component of the Centre’s rural housing scheme.

“The beneficiaries of Indira Awaas Yojana can avail Rs 20,000 loan for construction of their houses at differential rate of four per cent interest. Only about 44,000 such beneficiaries across the country availed this benefit last year. Over 33,000 of them were from Gujarat,” Ramesh told reporters, acknowledging the Modi government’s initiative.

In fact, nearly 78 per cent beneficiaries of the scheme, according to statistics with the ministry, came from Gujarat. None of the states ruled by the Congress figure among the top three performers.

Gujarat was followed by Tamil Nadu, where about 2,700 poor availed cheap loans to build houses, and Jharkhand, where 2,200 people availed it. “Gujarat and

Jairam Ramesh

Tamil Nadu are the two states where IAY beneficiaries availed cheap bank loan facility,” Ramesh said.

In this fiscal too, Gujarat leads implementation of this IAY component - of the 30,849 people who have availed it across India, 24,852 are from Gujarat.

Jharkhand and Madhya Pradesh - both ruled by the BJP - rounded up the top three performers list, though by a huge margin.

Delhi gang rape accused to plead not guilty, seek trial

The Delhi Police tendered an unconditional apology to Delhi high court for not naming in its report the cops patrolling the area in which a girl was gang-raped in a moving bus. The Delhi Police have now filed a fresh report containing the names of the policemen who were present at the time when the 23-yearold victim and her friend sought help. The court also asked the ministry of home affairs to consider raising the number of PCR vans to ensure better safety of women in the capital.

"Why only ACP, why not DCP, why not the Commissioner have been put to task?" a bench headed by Chief Justice D Murugesan said while expressing its anguish over the non-disclosure of the names of policemen who were patrolling the areas where the girl was raped in a moving bus on December 16. "We had directed you to give the names of

the officials posted on relevant PCR vans and the areas concerned. We are not convinced because the names of the officials have not been, Justice V K Jain, said.

Three of the men accused of raping and murdering a 23-year-old woman in a case that has provoked widespread anger with the government and police will plead not guilty, their lawyer said, citing lapses in the police investigation.

The Delhi-based physiotherapy student died two weeks after being beaten and gang-raped on a moving bus in New Delhi, then thrown bleeding onto the street.

Protests followed, along with a fierce public debate over the failure of authorities to stem violence against women.

Five men are facing vari-

ous charges including murder, rape and abduction. A sixth suspect is being investigated separately to determine if he is below the age of 18, as he says he is.

Lawyer Manohar Lal Sharma, who is representing the bus driver, who is the main accused, his brother and another man, said he was keen for the case to go to trial so that the evidence police had presented could be tested in court.

"We are only hearing what the police are saying. This is manipulated evidence. It's all on the basis of hearsay and presumption." It is not known if the other two of the five accused men have a lawyer.

Charges against the sixth member of the group have not been brought while police complete an inquiry to con-

firm his age. If he is found to be below 18 he will be tried in a juvenile court and if convicted will go to a correctional home, not a prison, to serve a maximum term of three years.

Sharma said the police had rushed through the investigation against the five men even when they were not ready with the key detail of the age of the sixth member of the group, who lured the woman and a male friend into the bus and, according to leaked accounts, was the most brutal in the attack.

Fast-track trial: Legal experts had said a lack of representation for the suspects could give grounds for appeal if they were found guilty.

Convictions in similar cases have often been overturned years later.The trial will be conducted in a special fasttrack process. One of the suspects, Akshay Thakur, was due to appear in court when police are likely to seek his remand in custody.

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Metro rail likely in Surat, Vadodara A study conducted in Surat and Vadodara has revealed that both the cities have a potential for a metro rail project.

Experts opined that work on the Ahmedabad metro rail project, which is shaping up fast, is expected to commence in 2013.

N Sivasailam managing director of Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation said that Delhi metro will be the world largest metro with a network of 450 km by 2018.

He further said what is needed is the easy excess to these metro rains.

“These metro stations should be well connected with pedestrian’s lanes so that people can excess these stations with easy.

But having such lanes in the busy cities is a major problem.”

Sanjay Gupta, director and executive chairman of the Metro Express for Gangovernment has formulated a policy which will complement the development in the area from where the metro rail would pass. Gupta said that the metro will be interlinked with Bus Rapid Transit and there would be several stations where the stations would overlap.

www.abplgroup.com - asian Voice 19th January 2013

Nitin Gadkari to stay BJP president BJP chief Nitin Gadkari is all set to get his second three-year term as the party president, with the BJP leadership and RSS brass settling on his name after a long futile search to find a successor.

The party is expected to complete the formalities and make an announcement by endJanuary, in a decision which guarantees RSS upper hand in the saffron party's matters. However, many feel it could even hasten the ascendancy of Gujarat CM Narendra Modi in organizational affairs.

There were many party seniors — from Yashwant Sinha to L K Advani among a good number of others — who had campaigned against a fresh term for Gadkari in light of disclosures of financial irregularities about the Purti Group that he copromoted. However, lack of consensus within BJP on who should succeed him tilted the scales in favour of Gadkari in the final lap.

Considering that a second term for Gadkari had looked virtually impossi-

ble after disclosures of irregularities in his companies linked to him hit the headlines last year, the prospect of a second term may appear to be almost a political miracle. In fact, his mentors in the RSS had also looked resigned to his ouster but held out fearing that that his removal in the face of charges will be interpreted as confirmation of wrongdoing on the part of their favourite swaymsevak from Nagpur. Gadkari partisans have refuted charges of irregularities, arguing that these are mostly of technical nature and considering that the BJP chief severed his links with the Purti Group, should be pinned on him.

Sources in the party said that his colleagues have already acquiesced to the decision, although quite a few of them fear that persisting with Gadkari may leave the party vulnerable to attacks from its rivals, particularly Congress.

The lead UPA player swiftly seized upon the charges against Gadkari to accuse BJP of hypocrisy over corruption.

India warns Pakistan against any border misadventure Continued from page 1 Chakkan-Da-Bagh crossing point in Poonch district, Gen Singh accused Islamabad of resorting to "outright lies".

Pakistani Army's crossborder raid on January 8 was a "premeditated and pre-planned" operation that would have needed at least 10 days of preparation and reconnaissance, he said. The Indian jawan's beheading was a "gruesome, most unpardonable act" that went against the "basic ethics" of soldering and tenets of the Geneva Convention, he added.

Although Gen Singh emphasized the current tension would not escalate into a conflagration, holding that several stages have to be crossed before the two countries go to a full-scale war, he did admit the first stage of the spiral had been reached.

The blunt acknowledgment coincided with hardening of the anti-Pakistan mood which would test those in the government who want tension to be defused for the sake of the peace process. The tough-

ening of the popular sentiment found reflection in Congress's endorsement of Shiv Sena's opposition to the participation of Pakistani players in the India Hockey League as well as BJP's bellicose exhortation that Indian troops decapitate 10 Pakistani soldiers for each Indian one.

India has reasons to be furious. This is not the first time Indian soldiers have been beheaded by the Pakistani Army-jihadi combine, with their heads being taken back as "trophies" across the LoC, admitted Gen Singh.

Infamous Pakistani terrorist and al-Qaida member Ilyas Kashmiri was part of the raid on an Indian post in the Nowshera sector in 2000, for instance, during which one Indian soldier of the 17 Maratha Light Infantry was beheaded and six others killed.

More recently, two jawans were decapitated during the turnover between the 19 Rajput and 20 Kumaon Regiments in the Keran sector in July, 2011. "We have to put pressure on Pakistan,

nationally and internationally, to make its Army accountable," said Gen Singh.

"Though the beheading has angered us at the strategic level, it was a tactical operation and we will respond at the tactical level now...We do not plan to up the ante. We will uphold the ceasefire as long as the adversary respects it but will retaliate if provoked," he added.

The Army chief admitted the January 8 crossborder raid had exposed "some tactical lapses" on the Indian side but said this was not the time for an inquiry to be conducted since it would affect the morale of the forces. For now, even as corrective measures are underway, "we won't remain passive when attacked", he said.

On the Siachen Glacier-Saltoro Ridge imbroglio, the Army has told the government it should not let go of the "strategic gains" achieved after shedding a lot of blood - over 850 Indian soldiers have died in the glacial heights since 1984 till the "trust deficit" with Pakistan is bridged.

State gets `40,000 billion worth investment promises Continued from page 1 He further added: "Narendrabhai has the Arjuna-like clarity of vision and purpose." He said Modi's skills have "acted as a huge magnet for investors and entrepreneurs from India and across the world in the past decade." He said, "Narendrabhai Modi dreams with his eyes open, and has an open heart and mind."

Having brought the Tata Group to Gujarat nearly five years ago through the Nano car passenger project, Ratan Tata said that the group has already invested or committed Rs 340 billion in the state.

He also said that Gujarat stands out better than other states in India and the credit for that goes to Modi. He said the state has become vibrant, attractive and new investment destination. Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra group said, "Today people are talking about China model of development in Gujarat but day is not far when people will talk about Gujarat model of growth in China."

UK India Business Council (UKIBC) chair Patricia Hewitt, whose country ended decadelong boycott of the state imposed in the aftermath of 2002 communal riots in October last year, lauded Gujarat for having maintained a near double digit

growth rate in the last ten years which was more than that of China. Ron Sommers, representing US India Business Council (USIBC) called Gujarat's progress "stunning."

Human capital the new target for Vibrant Gujarat If Gujarat faces problems of skilled labour despite a business friendly environment, this years Vibrant Gujarat summit has planned to overcome this hurdles.

The Directorate of Employment and Training (DET) has signed 243 MoUs with institutions and corporates to address the surging demand for skilled labor in various industry sectors in the state.

The MoUs were signed during the course of a special seminar, 'Youth development Industry Responsive Skill Development'. The MoUs were signed under categories like environment, automobile, electrical and electronics, garments, engineering, hospitality and IT soft skills.

Among the prominent MoUs that were signed during the seminar were those between Gujarat State Road Transport Corporation (GSRTC) and DET to establish driver training institutes to train more than 4,000 drivers, conductors and mechanics of GSRTC. The second major MoU was signed between Green Enviro Services Co-operative Society Limited,

Gujarat Pollution Control Board (GPCB) and the DET for environmental courses. Maruti Suzuki Ltd signed an MoU with DET for adopting five ITIs in the state, which include Becharaji, Kadi, Viramgam, Detroj and Mandal.

Most successful summit, says CM Chief minister Modi claimed that Vibrant Gujarat summit was the most successful summit event. Claiming that the 2013 summit has four times the number of foreign participants as compared to its first edition in 2003, Modi claimed that the focus on small- and medium-scale industries during the summit has changed the way these industries think. Modi claimed he wants SMEs in Gujarat to compete with countries like China that dump their goods in India.

He said both Canada and UK want to upgrade their offices in the state and bring them at par with their office in Mumbai.

“Gujaratis are big tourists.

The Thai ambassador has promised to start a weekly flight between Thailand and Ahmedabad. I can assure you that within three months he will be obliged to start three flights a week.”

Besides imbibing new skills in SMEs and enhancing export capabilities the summit will also take care of cotton farmers. “Of the number of delegates, the biggest were

textile industries. An MoU has been signed by an industry from Gujarat to set up potash manufacturing facility in Canada.

The potash will be exported to Gujarat to help farmers here,” Modi claimed. He said that he intends to set up facilities where the cotton of the farmers is used to make ready-made garments by making value additions.

Will revive India with power of youth: Modi Modi promised the creation of three million additional jobs through the state’s development initiatives, while claiming that Gujarat accounted for 72 per cent of the jobs created in India and had the lowest unemployment rate.

“This century is India’s and we will revive the country with the power of the youth,” he said adding Gujarat has been less impacted by global problems “The last few years have not been very encouraging for the global economy. This has had its impact on the livelihoods and social lives of the people across the globe. Even the fastest growing economies of the world have experienced a slowdown.

“This situation has impacted India also and the growth of our economy has slowed down recently. It will be a great service to the global community if this forum and platform can display the commitment for betterment of economy and bet-

terment of the lives affected,” he said.

Thanking people for giving him the opportunity to serve them again, he reiterated that he wants to benchmark the state's infrastructure and processes with the ‘best’ in the world.

“This platform also provides the scope to debate and evolve mechanisms which make our economies sustainable and dependable. All of us want a solution to this.

But none of us are individually competent to find it.

Collectively, we can and we must,” he added.

“Gujarat will now benchmark with best in world. Phase 1 of development is over. We will begin phase 2 now,” he said.

Boasting of the state’s infrastructure, Modi said he would be setting up world-class investment regions. “We want smart cities, world class infrastructure and world class technology,” he said.

Modi also promised to improve the income of farmers through scientific agricultural techniques.

Talking about growth of SME sector in his state, he said: “A central government official told me India's SME growth rate was 18 per cent, compared to growth rate of 85 per cent in Gujarat.”

Modi for PM Contrary to earlier summits when at least two industrialists said Modi was fit for PM’s post, this time only Gautam Adani

wished Modi, armed with his “able leadership,” should go “up north.”

Interestingly, the only other person who expressed a similar wish was Konstantin Makarelov, vice-governor of the tiny Astrakhan province of the Russian Federation, saying he hoped Modi will win the “next general elections.”

UK treads cautiously British high commissioner James Bevan, who met Modi in October after the British felt the need to “engage Modi,” was cautious at summit. Bevan avoided any direct or indirect reference to Modi, even as speaking about “natural” and “traditional” partnership between Gujarat and Britain over centuries. He hoped for a “thriving and stronger relationship” with Gujarat.

Pak stays indoors Amid escalating tension along the Indo-Pak border, Modi thought it fit to provide a low profile for a business team from Pakistan, which was asked to stay put in a Ahmedabad hotel. “We were told that there are some visa issues and they can’t come to Gandhinagar,” said Gujarat DGP Chittaranjan Singh.

Officials said the presence of Pakistanis at the Modi show would have caused embarrassment to BJP’s national leadership who had taken a strong position on the issue.

indiA

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

27

Subhash Chandra Bose A prominent leader of freedom struggle

The Symbolism in Markandeya’s Story L

S

ubhash Chandra Bose, popularly known as Netaji, was born to Janakinath Bose and Prabhavati Devi on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Orissa as the ninth child among 14 siblings. The birthday is celebrated on January 23.

Life and Activities: Subhash Chnadra Bose was a brilliant student. He topped the matriculation examination of Calcutta province in 1911 and did his Bachelors in Philosophy from the University of Calcutta. He continued his studies in Fitzwilliam Hall of the University of Cambridge with a high score in civil service exams.

He joined Indian politics after the Amritsar massacre and started the newspaper Swaraj. He worked under C.R. Das, then mayor of Bengal. He encountered many ups and downs in his political life.

Several times, he was sent to jail for participating in the freedom struggle. He became general secretary of the Congress party in mid 1930s and worked with Gandhiji and Jawaharlal Nehru. He took part in civil disobedience movement but was soon cut off from the mainstream of Indian politics due to ideological conflicts with Gandhiji.

Nataji was influenced by the teachings of Swami Vivekananda and but believed in violence for the justified reason. His slogan was “Give me blood and I will give you the independence.”

It is believed that Netaji died in a mysterious plane crash while flying to Tokyo on 18th August 1945.

Netaji is remembered for his valuable contribution to Indian Independence. His birthday is observed with great reverence throughout India, especially in Orissa and West Bengal. Schools and colleges observe this day by conducting seminars and activities. Young boys and girls are dressed in military uniform and are taken in the procession around the school. Songs composed for independence are sung.

Netaji was one of the most prominent leaders of Indian freedom struggle.

Though Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru have garnered much of the credit for successful culmination of Indian freedom struggle, the contribution of Subash Chandra Bose is no less.

He has been denied his rightful place in the annals of Indian history. He founded Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) to overthrow British Empire

from India and came to acquire legendary status among Indian masses.

To fulfill his parents wishes he went to England in 1919 to compete for Indian Civil Services. In England he appeared for the Indian Civil Service competitive examination in 1920, and came out fourth in order of merit. However, he was deeply disturbed by the Jallianwalla Bagh massacre, and left his Civil Services apprenticeship midway to return to India in 1921.

After returning to India, Netaji came under the influence of Mahatma Gandhi and joined the Indian National Congress.

On Gandhiji's instructions, he started working under Deshbandhu Chittaranjan Das, whom he later acknowledged as his political guru. Soon he showed his leadership qualities and gained his way up in the Congress' hierarchy. In 1928 the Motilal Nehru Committee appointed by the Congress declared in favour of Domination Status, but Subhas Chandra Bose along with Jawaharlal Nehru opposed it, and both asserted that they would be satisfied with nothing short of complete independence for India.

Netaji also announced the formation of the Independence League. He was jailed during Civil Disobedience movement in 1930. He was released in 1931 after Gandhi-Irwin pact was signed. He protested against the Gandhi-Irwin pact and opposed the suspension of Civil Disobedience movement, especially after Bhagat Singh and his associates were hanged.

Netaji was soon arrested under the infamous Bengal Regulation. After a year he was released on medical grounds and was banished from India to Europe. He took steps to establish centres in different European capitals with a view to promoting politico-cultural contacts between India and Europe.

Defying the ban on his entry to India, he returned to India and was again arrested and jailed for a year. After the general elections of 1937, Congress came to power in seven states and Subash Chandra Bose was released. Shortly afterwards he was elected President of the Haripura Congress Session in 1938.

During his term as Congress President, he talked of planning in concrete terms, and set up a National planning

Committee in October that year. At the end of his first term, the presidential election to the Tripuri Congress session took place early 1939. Subhas Chandra Bose was re-elected, defeating Dr Pattabhi Sitaramayya who had been backed by Mahatma Gandhi and the Congress Working Committee.

Clouds of World War II were on the horizon and he brought a resolution to give the British six months to hand India over to the Indians, failing which there would be a revolt. There was much opposition to his rigid stand, and he resigned from the post of president and formed a progressive group known as the Forward Block.

Subhas Chandra Bose now started a mass movement against utilizing Indian resources and men for the great war. There was a tremendous response to his call and he was put under house arrest in Calcutta. In January 1941, Subhas Chandra Bose disappeared from his home in Calcutta and reached Germany via Afghanistan.

Working on the maxim that "an enemy's enemy is a friend," he sought cooperation of Germany and Japan against British Empire. In January 1942, he began his regular broadcasts from Radio Berlin, which aroused tremendous enthusiasm in India. In July 1943, he arrived in Singapore from Germany.

In Singapore he took over the reins of the Indian Independence Movement in East Asia from Rash Behari Bose and organised the Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army) comprising mainly of Indian prisoners of war. He was hailed as Netaji by the Army as well as by the Indian civilian population in East Asia.

Azad Hind Fauj proceeded towards India to liberate it from British rule. En route it liberated Andeman and Nicobar Islands. The I.N.A. Head quarters was shifted to Rangoon in January 1944. Azad Hind Fauj crossed the Burma Border, and stood on Indian soil on March 18, 1944.

However, defeat of Japan and Germany in the Second World War forced INA to retreat and it could not achieve its objective.

Subhas Chandra Bose was reportedly killed in an air crash over Taipeh, Taiwan (Formosa) on August 18, 1945. Though it is widely believed that he is still alive after the air crash not much information could be found about him.

et us see the psychological symbolism in the story told by Markandeya.

King Parikshit, in reality, had married a frog princess who had cheated many kings in the past.

The king was of the Ikshvaku lineage. The word ‘Ikshvaku’ comes from ‘ichcha’ or ‘desire’ and sugarcane, meaning ‘a sweet or pleasant desire’ i.e. the desire to search within or for freedom.

The princess’ father had put a curse on her that her children would have problems with Brahmins.

Here the Brahmin stands for the Intellectual Centre within us. King Parikshit was a Kshatriya which means he was centred in the Emotional Centre. His son’s names were Shala and Bala.

Once Shala was made king, Parikshit retired into the forest. Shala went on a ‘mrigaya’ which literally means a hunt in the forest.

The deeper meaning of this is a quest or a deep intellectual pursuit within our own minds. Shala went deep into the forest i.e. he meditated deeply and perhaps came across an inner truth. Now to express that truth, he needed the use of the Intellectual Centre and more importantly, that

part of the brain which we call the left brain. It is the left brain which expresses and puts thoughts into language. So Shala went to the rishi Vamadeva. ‘Vama’ means left. Shala asks the Lord of the left brain for his ‘vami’ or left-handed horses. In other words, Shala needed to use his left brain to express the truth he had seen, which he could not because of the curse on his mother.

The rishi agreed but asked for his horses to be returned after the king had hunted down his kill. King Shala agreed but later, after his work was done, refused to keep his word which angered the rishi.

Because of the curse on his mother, King Shala was not

able to achieve harmony with his Intellectual Centre.

The meaning of Shala is a spear or one whose language pierces and hurts. He does not have the calming intelligence of the Intellectual, only the reflex behaviour of the Emotional. The angry rishi invokes four demons to kill the king. The four demons are lust, avarice, greed and anger. King Shala is killed by his own negativity.

King Shala’s brother Bala, who stands for will and strength, now becomes king. He invokes a poisonous arrow to kill the rishi but the arrow ends up killing his own son. King Bala’s second arrow then turns on him, setting him on fire. King Bala asks the rishi to forgive him. Will is formed within the Emotional Centre. It is the use of will that brings a pause to reactions and negativity of emotions. Will also comes through deep pain and suffering, symbolised by the death of King Bala’s son. It is through this suffering that the king’s inner vision flowers and he surrenders to the rishi.

All past articles on the Mahabharata can be accessed from http://epaper.asianvoice.com or from http://www.3stepbreath.com/mahabharata.html

International kite festival:

Festive spirit soars high on Ahmedabad riverfront The international kite festival was held in at Sabarmati Riverfront, Ahmedabad saw participation from a large number of domestic and foreign kite enthusiasts. A total of 120 kite flyers from eight states and 74 foreign kite flyers will take part in the event.

The event was wellplanned. Around 300 kitists from 40 countries and 10 Indian states gathered at Sabarmati riverfront for the International Kite Festival in the city.

The weather gods played spoilsport ruining the best laid plans of Gujarat tourism department.

All the participants greeted the local visitors during their parade.

Gujarat has used it to promote tourism.

“We have now taken to promoting the ‘patang utsav’ even in small cities,” said Modi.

Meanwhile, thousands continue to throng the kite festival with people crowding the food court area.

Bioduni Olugbami of the Kuramo Kite Association of Nigeria said that this was his first visit as an individual but representatives from his country had been coming

to the festival for last five years.

Bigger and better- that is what the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited (TCGL) had promised for the International Kite Festival 2013! Visitors had look forward to splurge on food, shop from craft bazaars and enjoy watching kites of different size and shape flying along the banks of Sabarmati during the next month’s fest. The event was planned on the 1.5 km stretch of Sabarmati riverfront project between Gandhi bridge to Nehru bridge.

The festival took place from January 9 th. It has invited 150 kite fliers from across the world for this year’s festival. This year, the International Kite

Festival included other activities apart from kite flying. There was a light and sound show, workshops and training on kite making among others, It also planed to hold a separate pavilion to showcase history and significance of kites to introduce people to the subject. “We had also call some of the kite makers so that people can know how kites are made,” said the official.

It also planned to showcase the traditional Gujarati way of celebrating the kite festival to those visiting the city.

“The best way to do this is to take foreign kite fliers to Pol and let them watch for themselves how Ahmedabad enjoys kite flying on January 14,” the official said.

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travel & women

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The Gurdwara at Bharuch one of the most important shrines of Sikhs

Trekking in the Himalayas Trekking in the Himalayas remains the closest that one can get to a nomadic existence in the great outdoors, where the journey and destination each have their own merit. The journey is really about you and the destination a reward to that you who have made this effort to get to where you want to go. Needless to say that along the way you will find many sights that will be relived and enjoyed by you for a lifetime. The Indian Himalayas have some of the most revered trails for the avid trekker â&#x20AC;&#x201C; be it the professional or the first time enthusiast. There are treks that range from the easy going trails (day hikes, weekend treks, etc.) to the harder 5-10 day formats where one gets to go deeper into the Himalayas and enjoy the same for what they are well known for.

With this format, one gets to enjoy the sport but at the same time has a warm and cosy place to come back to at the end of the day. While every effort is made to give you your night stay in one of the camps/lodges, in some cases we also have comfortable alpine camping that is done in some of the treks at remote places that fall along the route which is required for completion of the trek. Even on these alpine camping stays, we use some of the best equipment available including 3/4 season Mountain Hardwear or Lafuma tents, warm sleeping bags, experienced mountain guides, kitchen team, etc. In addition to the comfort factor on this kind of a trip, there is a sizeable saving in terms of the cost due to reduction in porterage costs, logistical costs, etc. the benefit of which is passed on to you. This format also ensures that trekking as a sport is viable commercially for small groups and it is not always that you need to form a large group to get the benefits of a large group pricing.

Trek to Har ki-Dun: You have seen the Lord of the Rings and appreciated the landscape; you need not go all the way to New Zealand!! The trek to Harki-Dun will provide you with all the sights that you are looking for. Lush greenery, scraggy mountains, towering snow capped peaks, glaciers and gushing streams that seem to spring from nowhere. Har-ki-Dun is situated in the Western Garhwal Himalayas, at the base of Fateh Parvat.

Trek to Valley of Flowers: The world famous Valley of Flowers is situated in the upper expansions of Bhyundar Ganga in the far interior of Garhwal Himalayas. Spread over an area of 87.5 sq. km., the valley is at an altitude of is 3250 m to 6750 m above mean sea level.

Many a legend are associated with this vibrant and eye catching Valley, and are often in the epics of the Ramayana and Mahabharat.

The Valley of Flowers National Park starts from Ghangharia but the main valley starts after crossing the gorge.

Trek to the source of the Ganges: You begin the trek at Gangotri, which is bustling with sages and sadhus (holymen) who have journeyed here to pay homage at the source of the Ganges, the most revered river in India. The spiritual intensity of Gangotri, one of India's most sacred pilgrimage sites, is palpable as you witness the daily puja at the temple, and the Hindu devotees bathing at the water's edge.

Kuari Pass (Curzon's Trail): This trek is also known as Curzon's Trail (named after the Indian Viceroy, Lord Curzon, who undertook this trek during his stay in India). The main attraction of this trek is the majestic views of the peaks of Nanda Devi, Hathi-Ghodi, Kamet, Dronagiri, etc. During the trek one would pass through pristine forests of Oak, Rhododendron and Deodar. The beauty of the region is best described by the famous explorer, Eric Shipton, who said, "A vision of such beauty is worth a world of striving."

Trek to Nagtibba: This is undoubtedly the best short trip for any family looking at an outdoor holiday. Unique thing about the trek is the easy accessibility of the start & finish point. Even though the trek is easily accessible it does not compromise on the quality of outdoors at any point. This is a total wilderness trip with sparse habitation and rich flora all around.

By AV Correspondent he Sikhs who spread not only in India but T across the globe are one of

the most prosperous communities across the world.

Primarily land owners, they are known for their enterprising and hardworking nature and are ardent followers of Sikhism, their religion. The Gurdwara, their place of worship, has been constructed in various parts of the country and the world and many of them are architectural marvels. But the one situated in Bharuch in Gujarat has its own historical importance. And followers, not only from Sikhism but other religious believers, too visit here to seek the blessings of the Guru Nanak. History has it that the Gurdwara Pehli Patshahi in Bharuch city is a shrine made in memory of Guru Nanak Devâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s visit during his missionary journey. From here Guru Nanak continued his journey to North India. The Gurdwara situated on the bank of river Narmada and The traditional Makar Sankranti recipe is Indian dry fruit chikki I n g r e d i a n t s : Badam(almonds) 1 cup (chopped), Pista 1 cup (chopped) Cashew(kaju) 1 cup (chopped), Jaggery (gur) 1/4 cup (grated), Kesar (saffron) few soaked in milk, hee 2 big spoons Method: Take a pan and put ghee and heat it.

When it melts add grated jaggery. Let it blend.

When it becomes thick add kesar and the dry fruits and mix well. When it is done it will start leaving pan sides.

Grease a plate and pour into it.

Cool and cut into pieces.

Til gajak Ingrediants: 1 cup sesame (til); 3/4 cup sticky jaggery, 1/2 tsp cardamom powder, 2 tbsp ghee

located about 70 km from Vadodara apart from the religious significance has its architectural beauty as well. The shrine is counted as one of the most important shrines of Sikhs.

According to Sikh mythology dating centuries back, it is at this place that the Guru Nanak was able to win over people through his simplicity.

Guru Nanak reached at the bank of the river and wanted to cross it, but the local king denied a boat to Guru Sahib and asked him to fend for himself. The king did not realise the importance and power of the Sikh Guru. Wanting to show the king his arrogance, the guru asked his disciple not to react to the kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s ignorance. Then the Guru Sahib asked one of his accomplices, Bhai Mardana to lay Chadar on the water. Bhai Mardana obeyed the order of the Guru and laid the chadar.

To the surprise of the king the chadar served like a bridge to the guru and his disciples and the king saw that they crossed the river

on the chadar.

So Gurdwara Sahib has been named as Chadar Sahib after this incident.

Sikhs have been demanding for a road along the bank straight to the Gurdwara Sahib as due to encroachment the path has narrowed and it has become difficult to reach the place in vehicle. A big Langar Hall has been constructed which will be used for parking if the demand for road is met.

The Gurdwara is also known for its architectural beauty and the people of the community at any given chance visit the shrine to seek blessings and salute his Supreme Power. They say that a blessing from the shrine gives them confidence in taking up the most difficult task and achieving the impossible. The Sikhs believe that just as the Guru was able to destroy the arrogance of the king and restore faith in the Supreme Power his followers too come here humbly and seek the blessings and to achieve their goal.

Dry fruit Chikki

Mehtod: Roast the sesame in a pan stirring it continuously. Allow it to cool. Make thick syrup using jaggery and water.

Add the sesame to it and mix well. Grease a plate with ghee and spread the mixture into a thin sheet.

After it cools, cut and store.

Health benefits: Jaggery has been been an integral part of Indian Meals, Dry fruit chikki, jaggery replaces sugar in this dry fruit chikki loaded with vitamin e, iron and zinc. forming part of

Curries & Sweets. It contains many nutrients including magnesium that strengthens the nervous system & potassium that is vital conserve the acid balance in cell and combats acids & acetone

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more likely to suffer from mental illness Being spiritual may give life deeper meaning, but it can also make you more susceptible to mental illness, new research suggests.

A study found that people professing to be spiritual, but not conventionally religious, were more likely to suffer from a host of mental challenges.

They suffered problems including abnormal eating conditions, drug abuse, anxiety disorder, phobias and neurosis.

They were also more likely than others to be taking medication for mental health problems.

Professor Michael King, from University College London, and his fellow researchers wrote in the British Journal of Psychiatry: 'Our main finding is that people who had a spiritual understanding of life had worse mental health than those with an understanding that was neither religious nor spiritual.'

The study was based on a survey of 7,403 randomly selected men and women in England who were questioned about their spiritual and religious beliefs, and mental state.

Of the participants, 35 per cent described themselves as 'religious', meaning they attended a church, mosque, synagogue or temple.

The vast majority of this group were Christian.

A further 19 per cent claimed to have spiritual beliefs or experiences without following a specific religion, while 46 per cent were neither religious nor spiritual.

More...

Man who did one new thing every day of 2012 to raise money for pregnancy charity hits his fundraising target - and announces his wife is expecting again Smoking doesn't relieve stress... quitting does! Study proves benefits of nicotine are a myth Just one in 11 of us will stick to our New Year's resolutions for six months (and 40% give up after two weeks) More than nine out of

Researchers, including one of Indian origin, have claimed that a small molecule called TFP5 rescues plaques and tangles by blocking an overactive brain signal, thereby restoring memory in mice with Alzheimer’s disease (AD).

A new study by NIH researchers shows that when a molecule called TFP5 is injected into mice with a disease that is the equivalent of human Alzheimer's, symptoms are reversed and memory is restored, without obvious toxic side effects.

“We hope that clinical trial studies in AD patients should yield an extended and a better quality of life as observed

in mice upon TFP5 treatment,” Harish C Pant from National Institute of Neurological Disorders at Stroke said.

“Therefore, we suggest that TFP5 should be an effective therapeutic compound,” he said.

To make this discovery, Pant and colleagues used mice with a disease considered the equivalent of Alzheimer's.

One set of these mice were injected with the small molecule TFP5, while the other was injected with saline as placebo.

The mice, after a series of intraperitoneal injections of TFP5, displayed a substantial reduction in the various

disease symptoms, along with restoration of memory loss.

In addition, the mice receiving TFP5 injections experienced no weight loss, neurological stress (anxiety) or signs of toxicity.

The disease in the placebo mice, however, progressed normally as expected.

TFP5 was derived from the regulator of a key brain enzyme, called Cdk5.

The over activation of Cdk5 is implicated in the formation of plaques and tangles, the major hallmark of Alzheimer’s disease.

The study has been published in the FASEB Journal.

New compound reverses Alzheimer’s symptoms

29

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Of the different groups, spiritual people were 50 per cent more likely to have a generalised anxiety disorder and 72 per cent more likely to suffer from a phobia.

Spirituality was also associated with a 40 per cent greater likelihood of receiving treatment with psychotropic drugs Spirituality was also associated with a 40 per cent greater likelihood of receiving treatment with psychotropic drugs They also had a 77 per cent higher chance of being dependent on drugs and were 37 per cent more at risk of neurotic disorder.

Spirituality was also associated with a 40 per cent greater likelihood of receiving treatment with psychotropic drugs.

Individuals of religious faith and those with none experienced equal levels of mental problems, the study found.

But there were fewer problems with drugs or alcohol among the faithful.

Unlike some American studies, the new research found no clear relationship between religious belief and happiness.

One recent large internet study in the US reported that non-religious people with spiritual beliefs were emotionally less stable than other groups.

However, they made up only 2 per cent of the study sample.

The researchers wrote: 'We conclude that there is increasing evidence that people who profess spiritual beliefs in the absence of a religious framework are more vulnerable to mental disorder.

'The nature of this association needs greater examination in qualitative and in prospective quantitative research.'

esearchers found those with a spiritual R understanding of life were

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How to be true to yourself in 2013 T

his weeks article is about how you can stop living in fear and how you can start living. I read a lovely quote by Richard Branson, it was ‘life is a lot more fun when you say yes’. I hope this article inspires you to step bravely out of your comfort zone and start embracing the beautiful experiences that life presents. Stop doubting and start living.

Firstly, accept that you cannot minimise all risk, learn to feel comfortable with not all the pieces in place and start to warm yourself to the feelings of ambiguity.

Lets yourself go and flow through what may feel uncertain and turn it around into excitement.

Stop forming negative pictures in your mind about the future and believe them to be reality. You do

not do yourself any favours here. What you do is stay well and truly put into your comfort zone. Yes, everyone gets a little worried and afraid at times. But don’t set yourself up to fail.

If you see things to be hard and difficult, they will be. Start to think about things in a more positive way and think about what you can learn if you embrace the experience.

Be mindful that uncertainty does not paralyze you. Often when we are doubtful and fearful we stop, start shaking, crying or doing something similar and what we don’t do is act. Start taking action and stop riding on this wave of fear. Stop talking over and over again about what is wrong and what you don’t know and start creating exciting and motivating

plans to push ahead. Take the first step and tell yourself to be brave, trust yourself and go forward.

Learn your lessons about certain people and move on. If someone drains you and irritates you they are not good for your life. You should never be made to feel disrespected and you should never have to convince someone to love and accept you. If you are unhappy with your friendships and the company you keep start to detach yourself and you will fund that new and better people come into your life, because you made the space for them.

Don’t forget to follow us on twitter, like us on facebook and email us if you have any questions.

Light and love – Mamta @thinkspalondon.com.

that usually comes at the end of a sentence and while watching a film, we're most likely to blink when an actor leaves the scene or when the camera shifts.

Most of us take between 15 and 20 such moments of downtime per minute.

The new research, published this week in the journal Proceedings of the National Academies of Science, studied 20 healthy young subjects in a brain scanner as they watched snippets from the British comedy Mr. Bean.

When subjects blinked, the researchers detected a momentary stand-down within the brain's visual

cortex and somatosensory cortex -- both involved with processing visual stimuli - and in areas that govern attention.

Separate studies on blinking have shown that while telling a lie, people have been found to blink less. In the seconds after telling a lie, however, the liar will blink far more frequently than a truth-teller.

e spend around 10 per cent of our wakW ing hours with our eyes

shut.

And while it's commonly thought that we blink to keep our eyes lubricated, it seems a lot of the time it's because our brains need a little nap.

New research suggests that the human brain uses that tiny moment of shuteye to power down.

Scientists find that blinking is a chance for our brains to power down Researchers from Japan's Osaka University found that the mental break can last anywhere from a split second to a few seconds before attention is fully restored.

Scans that track the ebb and flow of blood within the brain revealed that regions associated with paying close attention momentarily go offline.

The brain then goes into a 'default mode network', or idle setting.

The same setting is engaged when our attention is not required by a cognitive task such as reading or speaking and our thoughts wander freely.

Mini nap: blinking allows the brain to go into idle mode Blinking allows the brain to go into idle mode During this mode we tend to contemplate our feelings; we wonder what a friend meant by a recent comment; we consider something we did last week, or imagine what we'll do tomorrow.

While listening to another person or reading,

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UK Asian Voice Youth Conference Shaping Young Lives

Asian Voice is organising a Youth Conference on Saturday 23 March 2013 for 15-25 year olds. The conference will begin at 11am and will continue into the afternoon. It will feature leading professionals from different walks of life who will share their personal experiences and offer practical advice on how young people can fulfil their aspirations and get ahead in the world of work. The conference will also include interactive sessions and mentoring opportunities.

This year we are hoping to attract a wide range of people and all youth within the age bracket are welcome. There will be various competitions to win prizes and opportunities to talk to successful and inspiring people in the field of your choice. We will also bring out a Youth pullout for the participants and young readers. If you wish to participate in this youth conference, please email aveditorial@abplgroup.com, with your full name, age, email address and phone number by 3 March 2013.

Coming Events l Celebration of Jain Community Centre’s 10th Anniversary“The President’s Launch”, Saturday 26th of January 2013, 4.30pm till late, Jain Community Centre, Dress Code: Smart, 4:30-10:30pm l Gujarat Hindu Society organises Youth Sports Festival, Sunday 24 February, 2013, 10am-4pm.

Juniors-8-11 years, Youth 12-14 yearsm Senior 1518 years. Entrance £1/per sport, sports include: Badminton, Table Yennis, Carom, Chess, Kho Kho, darts, Dodge Ball. Contact: 01772 253 901 l Gandhi Martyr's Day celebration, Tavistock Square, London 30th Jan, 11am.

Contact asoke.gupta@gmail.com l Sunday 20th Jan 2013 - 3.00pm -5.30pm – Bhajans by Shree Budhdev and Shree Manubhai Kotak and various visiting Artists and finishing with ARTI. Maha Prasad sponsored by Shree Manishaben.

Adhya Shakti Mataji Temple, Cowley, UB8 2DX. Tel: 07882 253 540 l POhWER Harrow to help you know more about their services in Harrow, what they do locally and how you can become involved. They would value your local ideas and involvement so that together they can extend their services and support to others in Harrow and so that they can make their voices heard locally. 21st January 2013, between 10am and 12pm at: Wealdstone Library, Wealdstone, HA3 7AE

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Healthcare assistant appears in Court A hospital healthcare assistant appeared in court on Jan 14 charged with a sex attack on a woman patient. Sajin Kunjappu Panikkassery, 29, of Langton Road, Chichester, West Sussex, was remanded in custody

by Worthing magistrates.

He is accused of four counts of sexual assault and one of rape of a patient, at St Richard's Hospital in Chichester on last Thursday. He is due to appear before Chichester Crown Court on 5 April.

Pension revolution to shake up Britain The majority of Britons will lose out in the longterm from a pensions revolution which could see the retirement age hit 77, it emerged on Monday night.

Under the shake-up, all Britons will get a ‘flatrate’ pension worth £144 a week if they have at least 35 years’ of National Insurance contributions.

Millions will benefit

when the changes are introduced – particularly the self-employed and stay-at-home mothers – as ministers create a long-term system that the country can afford.

But many will also lose out – including many of those born after 1970 – because of the way the new payment is calculated. The long-awaited shake-up comes into effect in April 2017.

Solicitors accused of facilitating 'sham marriages' Last Thursday a court heard that solicitors from a London law firm have been accused of facilitating sham marriages between foreign couples, to convince UKBA that these marriages were actually real, as reported by the Daily Mail.

Solicitor Tevfick Souleiman and three immigration advisers working for him allegedly made 'substantial' sums by forging documents to hoodwink the UK Border Agency during the eight year scam, it was alleged.

Brides were apparently

flown into Britain from eastern European EU countries to marry nonEU citizens, giving the grooms rights to live and work in the UK, the Old Bailey was told. In some cases the couples only met each other at the solicitor's office on one occasion before their wedding day. The accused deny conspiracy to breach immigration law between 2004 and last year and also deny receiving proceeds of crime. Kosimov, from Wembley, who is being tried in his absence, denies money laundering.

The fiery planet Mars, continues to occupy your Solar 11th house for some time to come. Its influence will help you to maintain a high energy level and achieve positive results in anything that requires drive and initiative. If you are involved in a fairly competitive field of activity, you will be the one who comes out on top.

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 It is essential that you adopt a very open attitude now for this is a time of lucky opportunity and a chance to greatly enrich your working life and at home. New windows on the world are about to open and this will have a maturing effect on you. There is a rather secretive aura surrounding new romance.

A tremendous amount of planetary activity in your chart signals a time of mixed emotions as well as personal issues to be dealt with.

Although the very practical affairs of life continue to be highlighted, this does not mean that there will be all work and no play. Your pioneering personality always shows through.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

You will probably have little cause to complain this week. Expect everything to run smoothly and luck to attend your efforts. However, underneath this positive surface you may be plagued by a feeling of restlessness. Try to srike a balance between material and emotional affairs !

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

You should enjoy a very popular phase in your life where everyone wants to invite you to parties. This will give you a chance to meet people and pursue any romantic liaisons that might present themselves. Your communications are extremely high making it easy to close those lucrative deals.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

It's a time of slow and steady progress that can set the stage for a long time to come. Of course, there are still challenging issues on both a personal and practical level. To get here you may have overcome obstacles by making important decision and choices. You will achieve a lot more, by motivating your own desires.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

You will feel energetic and confident as the week begins. New beginnings are favoured around now. Your thinking is inspired, so listen to your thoughts. This may be a time of expansion and it would be unwise to let yourself become complacent. Affairs of the heart are likely to flourish.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 There seems to be some pressure on financial affairs and maybe a problem to contend with in regard to a joint venture.

If you feel that something has been hanging in the balance, whatever happens you will get a clearer picture of the situation eventually. Allow matters to ride as impatience will not give you the whole picture.

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SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 Give top priority to important written work, official matters and vital communications. If you can manage to get away from usual routines, this will not only prove to be highly enjoyable but it will have a decidedly beneficial effect on your physical and psychological wellbeing. Loved ones will be looking after you.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

All close ties of love and affection will benefit from the gentle influence of Venus. If you are married or have a wellfounded relationship, it seems that the pattern of events will somehow draw you closer together emotionally. Those who are not yet totally decided, this is a fine time to do some serious thinking.

You will be pleased to see that your social life livens up during this week. It is as if a lucky twist of events and something unexpected that will provide you with a key to your heart's desire. There is a definite expansive trend where money is concerned, so do not be surprised if this turns out be a time of lucky breaks.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

You may find yourself hard at work behind the scenes, although that may not be apparent to others. You may find yourself caught up in a whirlwind of activity, with opportunities to advance on both the inner and outer level. There’s a sparkle to your social life and much enjoyment from being in touch with other people.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

Sport World

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

31

Little-known Chinese stuns Saina Nehwal in last 8

Former India skipper Rahul Dravid believes MS Dhoni, while still the best man to lead India in Tests, needs to change the way he captains if he is to turn around India's fortunes. Acknowledging the team's poor run and the fact that the captain is under "enormous pressure", Dravid said, "What it (a turnaround) will require from him (Dhoni) is a change in the way he captains, a recognition that he can't do everything all the time, and the willingness to ask for and accept help."

Dravid believes there are no alternatives to Dhoni as Test captain, so he must give up the captaincy in T20s and pick and choose ODI assignments. "There's a lot of talk of split captaincy these days.

It won't be a bad model for India to adopt, if only to keep Dhoni fresh as Test captain," Dravid said.

"Dhoni has got to recognize that he can't continue to captain and play all the time, because it is making him stale. The pressure of international cricket is huge - it lends itself to a lot of fatigue - and Dhoni has been in the job a long time now.

"To start with, Dhoni could easily give up the India T20 and Chennai Super Kings captaincies. He should certainly play ODIs and T20s for India, because he is invaluable to the side. Giving up a couple of captaincy roles might give him more time in the main India job and the freshness to keep doing it. "It would also give India an opportunity to perhaps give someone like (Virat) Kohli a chance to be T20 captain, break him into the job and see how he goes. There is another option for Dhoni as well, which he has resorted to in the past: to miss the odd ODI series and prepare himself for the big competitions."

Dravid also says Dhoni must change his captaincy style to suit the changing requirements of the team.

"He must also recognize that he needs to change a very successful leadership style almost change direction because the team is changing." Dravid suggests that unlike in the past, when he had experienced batsmen and bowlers to aid his "instinct" and "gut feel", Dhoni must adopt a more hands-on

approach to the Test captaincy.

"He led on instinct and gut feel, and it worked brilliantly for him. Now Dhoni is captaining a team with young guys, who need more communication and guidance. One of the criticisms directed at Dhoni has been that there is very little communication about plans and roles either.

"He is not one for bowling plans and bowlers' meetings. When you have senior bowlers like Zaheer, Kumble and Harbhajan, the captain need not worry about all that because the bowlers know what to do. The younger bowlers coming in now, like Ashwin and Ojha, need to know what the plan is...they

need to discuss strategy and planning well before they go on to the field."

Given the series of overseas tours in the coming years, Dravid says, "I don't think anybody expects him (Dhoni) to have great success in the immediate future.

People recognize that this is a period of transition and that there are going to be tough days. What they need to know, though, is that the way forward has been clearly mapped. If Dhoni wants to lead India, the job is going to demand a lot more energy and involvement. He is the man for it at the moment, if he can find that second wind."

On why there are no alternatives for Dhoni as Test skipper, Dravid says, "At one point we felt Gautam Gambhir could take over the job...yet what goes against him today is the fact that he has not scored too many Test runs in the last three years, and he averages under 32. Virat Kohli is the only other alternative leader, and he ticks the box of being an automatic selection in all three formats. Yet I believe it's a little early for him."

Five days before Han Li celebrates her 25th birthday she received an unexpected gift in the form of prized scalp of Saina Nehwal at the Korea Open Super Series Premier in Seoul on Friday.

The little-known Chinese shuttler stunned the Indian ace in the quarterfinals 21-14, 15-21, 21-12. Ranked 26 in the world and having never won against Saina, not much was expected from Han. However, the former Chinese national champion had in fact registered a rather easy victory against the Indian. Though she lost the second game Han had it easy over Saina in the other two.

After losing the first game at 14-21, Saina was off to a brisk start in the second. Playing half-smashes with ease, Saina raced ahead to 4-0 and by the break the Indian was comfortably placed at 11-6. As Han widened the gap to 8-3 the Indian was confined to play the catch up. Though Saina tried hard after the mandatory change of courts, Han maintained a comfortable lead. Thereafter, Han surged ahead to 1711 forcing the Indian to give up.

Australia beat Sri Lanka by 107 runs in first ODI

Misbah to remain Pakistan's Test, ODI captain The Pakistan Cricket Board has decided to retain senior batsman Misbah-ul-Haq as captain for the Test and one-day series in the forthcoming tour of South Africa.

The 38-year-old has drawn flak for his below-par performances in one-day cricket including the recent tour of India. The PCB had removed him as captain of the Twenty20 squad last year for being a slow scorer.

But sources in the PCB said that the national selectors were told by the Board that Misbah will continue as captain for both formats while Mohammad Hafeez has been retained as captain of the T20 squad.

Pakistan leaves on January 20 for South Africa to play three Tests, five one-dayers and two T20 matches.

"Board chairman Zaka Ashraf is happy with the performance of Misbah and the way he led the team to the oneday series win in India recently," one source said.

"The positive report about Misbah is that despite his age, he is fit and brings about lot of confidence and discipline to

the team with his presence and leadership qualities," the source said.

He said the board had decided to continue with Misbah for the South

African tour while Hafeez would be groomed to take over from him after the Champions Trophy in England this year.

Akmal brothers axed: Meanwhile, the selectors have axed wicketkeeper Kamran Akmal and his brothers Adnan and Umar from the Pakistan squad for the three-test tour of South Africa.

The selectors opted to pick Sarfaraz Ahmed as wicketkeeper for the series.

Chief selector Iqbal Qasim said the squad for the five ODI's and two T20 matches would be announced later.

"That is why we have picked only one wicketkeeper in the touring squad, he said. The selectors named only four pace bowlers for the tour including the experienced Umar Gul, Junaid Khan and uncapped test bowlers Mohammad Irfan and Ehsan Adil.

Pakistan squad: Misbah-ul-Haq (captain), Mohammad Hafeez, Nasir Jamshed, Younus Khan, Asad Shafiq, Azhar Ali, Faisal Iqbal, Haris Sohail, Sarfaraz Ahmed, Umar Gul, Muhammad Irfan, Junaid Khan, Ehsan Adil, Taufiq Umar, Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman.

Opener Phil Hughes scored a debut century as Australia amassed 305 for five and dismissed Sri Lanka cheaply for a 107-run victory in the opening match of the five-game one-day international series at Melbourne on Friday. Hughes became the first Australian to score a century on his ODI debut as the hosts posted a big score after winning the toss against Sri Lanka.

The diminutive left-hander cracked 112 off 129 balls to help set the Sri Lankans a competitive run chase under lights at 6.12 runs an over. But the Sri Lankans, despite being well in the match at 111 for two, self-destructed with three run outs and Clint McKay (4-33) helped bowl the tourists out for 198 with 10 overs to spare.

Hughes was the highlight of a free-scoring Australian innings with skipper George Bailey scoring 89 off 79 balls and David Hussey chipping in with a late unbeaten 60 off 34 balls.

Hussey, the younger brother of veteran Mike Hussey, finished with a flourish, plundering 21 runs off the last over from off-spinner Ajantha Mendis, including a six over long-off to bring up his half-century.

Paes to lead second-string Davis Cup team after players' revolt Leander Paes will spearhead a second-string Indian team in the home Davis Cup tie against South Korea next month following a revolt by the country's frontline players.

Eight top players, excluding 13-times grand slam doubles champion Paes, had submitted a list of demands to the All India Tennis Association (AITA) with a threat to snub the regional first round tie in New Delhi from February 1-3.

The AITA agreed to most of the demands but it was not enough to convince the disgruntled players including multiple doubles grand slam champion Mahesh Bhupathi, Somdev Devvarman and Rohan Bopanna who made themselves unavail-

able for the tie.

AITA chief executive Hironmoy Chatterjee said the federation had extended the deadline but the players did not commit to playing in the team event.

"We gave them the opportunity to reconsider their stand.

We tried everything, what more

could we do?" Chatterjee said.

"We did out best."

The AITA had agreed to the demands for a new coach, a higher share of prize money and the players' involvement in the choice of venues for ties but rejected a request to change the captain and decided to retain S P

Misra to lead the team against South Korea.

"We agreed to give them business class air fare, we also agreed to give them a team of six. What more? We tried everything," Chatterjee said of the last-minute efforts to convince the players.

"We also agreed to name the team physiotherapist in consultation with the players."

VM Ranjeet, Vijayant Malik and Purav Raja, who are all ranked outside the top 500 in singles, will now partner doubles specialist Paes against South Korea while Ashwin Vijayaraghavan and Arjun Kadhe were named as the reserve players.

"It was made clear to the players that as far as captain and coach is concerned this responsi-

bility vests with the association and it will be the association which will name the captain as well as the coach," the AITA said in a statement.

In a joint statement, the players criticised the AITA's team selection and said they would continue to sit out. "We are disappointed to note that instead of engaging in discussion with us, the AITA has selected an inexperienced team to represent the country in this crucial Davis Cup fixture," the players said.

"The AITA's position reiterates and reaffirms our stand, and we are constrained to state that, unfortunately, we will be unavailable to represent the country until such time that the AITA engages with us in good faith."

32

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th January 2013

Kevin Pietersen given full England contract

Indian batsmen and bowlers failed in unison as they suffered yet another defeat, this time against England, in the first of the five ODIs in Rajkot on Friday. First the bowlers leaked 325 runs, with Ishant Sharma going for none for 86 in his 10 overs, then the batsmen couldn't keep up with the required rate as England closed the contest with a nine-run victory, their first on Indian soil in an ODI since 2006.

As it happens so often in big chases that pendulum swings from one side to the other with the team defending the total holding the edge, England had their nose in front for the most part of the Indian innings. Although India got off to a breezy start, with Ajinkya Rahane and Gautam Gambhir sharing 96 runs for the opening wicket, England came back strongly with three quick wickets.

Rahane was the first to go when he chipped Tredwell to Jade Dernback at long-off.

Gambhir didn't last long too as he got out, flicking straight to Ian Bell at short midwicket off Tredwell, after completing his fifty. Virat Kohli's woeful form continued as he once again departed cheaply, giving a simple catch to Craig Kieswetter behind the wickets off Tim Bresnan.

Yuvraj Singh (61) and Suresh Raina (50), in their stand of 60 for the fourth wicket, tried to take the game away from England but Tredwell

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Alastair Cook and Ian Bell both in the runs again.

once again came to the visitors' rescue, getting the prized wicket of Yuvraj, who played some impeccable pull shots during his knock.

Raina took the charge after the fall of Yuvraj as the left-hander smacked a few audacious strokes to keep the pressure off skipper MS Dhoni. But his wicket, which was once again taken by Tredwell, forced Dhoni to take more risk. The Indian skipper did hit four sixes during his 32-run knock, his wicket, taken by Dernbach with a slower delivery, almost sealed the match for England.

Ravindra Jadeja, playing on his home ground, too fell in the same over, edging one to the stumps for just nine runs.

Tredwell was the most successful of the English

bowlers, picking up 4 for 44, while Dernbach and Tim Bresnan shared two wickets apiece and Steven Finn got one.

It was as good a wicket a batsman could have hoped to bat on and the England batsmen did not miss a chance to make the most of it, setting a mammoth 325 for 4 for India to chase in the first of the five one-day internationals. Ian Bell was the top scorer for England with his 96-ball 85, while Alastair Cook (75), Kevin Pieteren (44) and Eoin Morgan (41) too played crucial knocks to take the score past 300.

The Indian bowlers tried their best to restrain the England scoring but all of them went for plenty as the wicket at the newly-constructed Saurashtra Cricket Association offered nothing to help their cause.

Apart from Ishant, who

'78

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had dreadful day, other Indian bowlers too were taken to the cleaners.

Bell and Cook gave England the perfect start, stringing 158 after the visitors won the toss and decided to bat. The duo treated the Indian bowlers with utter disdain, punishing anything that could have fetched runs. Bell, in particular, was in fluent touch, cutting and pulling the pacers while sweeping and lofting the spinners for big shots. The positive mindset of Bell rubbed off on Cook as the England captain took full toll of anything that was pitched full to him.

Bell got to his halfcentury when he reverseswept Jadeja for a boundary, while Cook got the landmark with a single off a conventional sweep.

Both departed in quick succession, with Bell getting run out to a direct throw by Rahane, while Cook too found Rahane at short fine when he tried to sweep Raina.

But Pietersen and Morgan got in the groove quickly as the duo accumulated 44 runs in the batting power play. But when it looked the two would propel England to a mammoth total, Ashok Dinda struck twice. He caught Morgan in his follow-through, while got Pietersen caught at longoff where Virat Kohli leaped forward to take a good diving catch.

Samit Patel (44) and wicketkeeper batsman Craig Kieswetter (24) played useful cameos to take England to 325. Both added 70 in just 37 deliveries, including 64 in the last five overs.

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Kevin Pietersen rubberstamped his return to the England set-up by signing a full central contract with the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB).

Pietersen was frozen out of the international picture in August last year when he was dropped for the final Test against South Africa over claims he sent text messages to rival players criticising thenEngland captain Andrew Strauss. The South Africaborn batsman subsequently returned to the squad towards the end of 2012, but was only tied to a short-term contract that was due to expire at the end of the month. However, limited-overs coach Ashley Giles confirmed that the 32-year-old has now signed a full central contract with the ECB that puts him on a par with the rest of his England teammates. The current set of central contracts is due to expire at the end of September.

Sachin Tendulkar's son makes it to Mumbai U-14 squad

Sachin Tendulkar's son Arjun has been named in the Mumbai under14 squad for the West Zone league games in Ahmedabad from Jan 20 to Feb 1. This comes after Arjun's selection in the U-14 probables list last June. The 12-year-old slammed the first hundred of his emerging career in May 2012. Arjun is a left-hander and bowls left-arm pace. Mumbai U-14 squad: Akash Savla, Darshan Padare, Vaishnav Narvekar, Tanush Kotian, Arjun Tendulkar, Azim Shaikh, Omkar Rahate, Abhishek Shetty, Agni Chopra, Druv Vedak, Hashir Dafedar, Manas Raikar, Jay Dave, Jahangir Ansari and Yash Joshi.

Mamata Banerjee gets gift from Pakistan Cricket Board

Amid simmering tension at the LoC, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday got a pleasant surprise from across the border with the Pakistan Cricket Board sending a silver-coated Quran. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Overwhelmedâ&#x20AC;? by the hospitality at the Eden Gardens during IndiaPakistan second ODI, the PCB sent the gift to the Cricket Association of Bengal who handed it over to the CM during a function at the Netaji Indoor here on Friday. "The PCB who included Chairman Zaka Ashraf were bowled over by the hospitality received here. As a gesture, they have sent the gift for Mamata," a CAB official said. Meanwhile, Mamata announced the formation of a task force to oversee the development of sports under a five-year scheme. She also gave away Rs 200,000 each to 1,750 clubs in Bengal to improve the standard of sports. The CM also announced 'Bongo Khel Ratna' award, the state's highest honour for achievement in sport which will be given from next year.