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Rajya Sabha passes Lokpal bill

*Subject to availability

The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday passed the Lokpal and Lokayukta Bill, which provides for creation of an anti-corruption ombudsman.

The most prominent of the group of anti-graft bills on the anvil, the Lokpal bill establishes a Lokpal at the central level and asks states to establish Lokayuktas in a year's time from the date of notification of the law. The format of the Lokayukta will be left to the state assemblies to decide.

The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha at the fag end of the winter session of 2011, but not by the Rajya Sabha, where it was debated Continued on page 26

Nirbhaya, One Year On

Rupanjana Dutta

A year after the Nirbhaya rape case, two major developments are likely to take place – Delhi high court is likely to confirm the death sentence to the four accused in January and victim’s family to set up a trust to help rape victims.

The high court has been hearing appeals of the four accused and arguments on the death sentence on a daily basis in the sensational case of the 23-year-old trainee physiotherapist who was brutally raped on December 16, 2012. Arguments of defence counsels are likely to be completed before Christmas vacation. Then they would give fact find-

India has emerged as the third most common destination for Britain-based parents involved in absconding after abducting their child. The Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) has launched a hard-hitting film, Caught in the middle, to highlight the issues and encourage parents to think of the consequences before doing something that could do lasting damage to the children and families involved.

In 2003/04 the FCO (UK) was involved in 272 new parental child abduction and international custody cases. In 2012/13 that figure rose

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Victim’s family to set up a trust to help rape victims Death sentence confirmation likely in Jan 2014

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to 580, the second highest figure ever recorded.

In 2013 Reunite – a charity that provides advice and support to parents involved in parental child abduction cases – has dealt with 447 new cases involving 616 children. It reported a particular spike in cases after Christmas 2012 and again in September this year following the summer holidays.

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Keith Vazwith MP

Prof. Wasim Hanif

Keith Vaz MP

Prof. Wasim Hanif is a Professor of Diabetes & Endocrinology & Consultant Physician, Clinical Director in diabetes at University Hospital Birmingham. He is an eminent authority on Diabetes, Obesity, and Ethnic health and works with several national bodies, and professional groups in the UK. Prof. Hanif received his specialist training in Birmingham and has worked at major teaching centres in the city. His research interest includes: diabetic kidney disease, diabetes prevention, management of diabetes in Ramadan, obesity, ethnicity and tackling health inequalities.

1) Please tell me about your current position?

I am a Professor of Diabetes & Endocrinology and Consultant Physician, Clinical Director in diabetes at University Hospital Birmingham.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

There are several, becoming a doctor was something very important and special. I come from a family of accountants and businessmen. Medical career was something different.

Having become a doctor treating patients and making them better is a very proud and personal achievement.

I have been involved in some major research projects and was instrumental in setting-up the United Kingdom Asian Diabetes Study which was the first major research of its kind addressing the issues of diabetes in South Asians. I, Chair the South Asian Health Foundation Diabetes Group which has done some amazing work over the years.

3) What inspires you?

“Can the reward of Good be anything but Good”. This is an important principle of my life that was inculcated to me by my parents. I have always believed that “if the job is worth doing, do it well”.

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

There have been many glass ceiling that had to be overcome in reaching where I have reached in my career. The good thing about this country is that it has changed for good. We have become a meritocratic society that could only be a good thing for the coming generations.

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

There have been several people, at a personal level it has been my parents and my siblings, for giving me the dreams, my wife for making my dreams possible and my children for making them worthwhile.

At a professional level, my mentor and guide Prof.

Tony Barnett for getting me interested in research, Prof Sudhesh Kumar who enabled me to do research and my friends and collaborators like Prof Kamlesh Khunti and Dr Kiran Patel.

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

The best aspect of my current role is my multi-faceted involvement. I am a doctor clinician treating patients, a researcher doing some interesting clinical trials, an expert advising national bodies like NICE, department of health,

India emerges as third most common destination for child abduction cases

Continued from page 1

Top 10 countries children have been abducted to (where Hague returns aren’t available) lists Pakistan on top, with 35 cases in 2012-13, followed by Thailand, 17 and India 16.

Interestingly, contrary to popular belief that fathers are most often to blame, mothers have been found to be responsible for 70% of these abductions, according to the report by UK's foreign and commonwealth office (FCO).

Though such abductions do not confine to believers of any particular faith or people from a particular country, such cases are quite common especially if the relationship between parents has broken down. What one must understand is that there is help available if you think that your partner may be considering

abducting your children.

Last year Reunite helped to prevent 412 cases involving 586 children which demonstrates something can be done to prevent it from happening to you.

Alison Shalaby, Chief Executive of Reunite, said, "Parental child abduction cases can take years to resolve, with significant impact on the child or children involved.

There is a very real possibility that the child may never be returned. Even when cases are resolved it can take up to 10 years, with a devastating impact on the child, parents and families involved.

It is also much harder to return a child from a country that has not signed the 1980 Hague Convention, an international agreement between certain countries which aims to ensure the return of a child who has been abducted by a parent.

As well as emotional distress, both parents may often face severe financial difficulties as they fight for custody of their child through foreign courts.

Legal costs overseas and in the UK may continue to mount up for parents, who must bear responsibility for the cost of any legal action taken, even after the child is returned to this country."

Mark Simmonds, Minister for Consular Affairs, said: "We are launching this awareness campaign in the lead up to Christmas to try to prevent parents from doing something that would cause significant distress to themselves, their family and most importantly to the child. We also encourage parents to look for warning signs that their partner may be considering this. Once children are taken overseas it can be extremely difficult to secure their return to

the UK. Many parents are not aware that by abducting their child, they may be committing a crime."

Where to go for help?

There are lots of free sources of advice and support to help parents through difficult periods, including if you think your child is at risk of being abducted or has already been taken. You can call the Reunite helpline on 01162 556 234. You can also call social services and speak to a specialist solicitor.

Counselling and support is available through Relate and the Samaritans.

Alternatively, you can contact the Foreign & Commonwealth Office on 020 7008 1500, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, visit our Child Abduction page for more information or read our advice leaflet. You can also email childabduction@fco.gov. uk

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Parliamentarians on policy matters and as a teacher/speaker educating student colleagues both nationally and internationally.

7) And the worst?

It is perhaps the paucity of time and sometime the frustrations especially with regards to the current climate in the NHS. 8) What are your long term goals?

I have achieved significantly more professionally than I set out for. My long-term goal is to give things back to society especially with regards to health inequalities and improve health outcomes in all communities.

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

Make the NHS independent of politicians. I feel the NHS is one of the best healthcare systems that has been invented by the humankind. The reason we are failing is due to short-sighted political intervention.

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

Perhaps Jamaluddin Rumi to understand his poetry like “You were born with wings, why prefer to crawl through life?”

Charities need to focus on giving rather than taking

With over 160,000 charitable ventures existing in Britain, ranging from small volunteer-run enterprises to top multinational giants with hundreds of millions of pounds of income, the issue of remuneration is perhaps a fragile subject.

Charities have become embedded and mixed within the public sector, resulting in staff receiving competitive salaries for their work, similar to the private sector, particularly banking. Where the main aim of most charities is to aid those in need, such huge remuneration packages perhaps distances them from their core cause.

The Financial Times has reported that 30 staff at 14 leading UK

foreign aid charities were paid £100,000 this summer. It is with great worry that Sir Stephen Bubb, head of the Association of Chief Executives of V o l u n t a r y Organisations (Acevo), has therefore enforced the need for charities to retain public respect and confidence.

For a business founded on giving and helping others, it seems shocking that staff are receiving such high salaries. The public, as givers to the taxpayer, should have the right to see how much of their money goes to the actual cause and how much goes to administration and salary. Thus we can ensure that we continue giving and stop the takers from taking.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

COMMENT

Supreme Court gets it wrong

Judges, even Supreme Court Judges, being human like the rest of us, can get things wrong from time to time. Applying the law, of course, requires a sound knowledge of its provisions, then examining context and circumstance, using common sense and compassion to reach the fairest possible ruling. The Supreme Court knew Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code only too well but paid less attention to context, common sense and humanity. The Code was written way back in the 19th Century and, as many documents of its kind, reflected the values of the age. Then, until the 1960s in the liberal democracies of the West, homosexuality was equated with criminality. It took a lot of science on human genes to enlighten to a forbidden subject. Today, gays and lesbians have had their sexuality recognized under law, and it is right that this is so. If laws are to be rigidly explained slavery and public flogging and hanging for minor acts of burglary and pick pocketing would still be the norm. The Supreme Court observed strict legality by judging that the said Article 377 is valid until Parliament explicitly introduced a new law as a substitute. This will inevitably be a long, time-consuming process, with the usual fraternity of righteous backwoodsmen opposing any change on the ground of arcane moral

principles. During this period the gay and lesbian will exist in a sort of legal and moral limbo.

The Delhi High Court was wiser, in this instance, than the Supreme Court. They ignored Article 377 and accepted that homosexual acts were lawful with acquiescence of India’s Attorney General. A dead law would have passed into irrelevance without fuss and bother, with closure applied. By pronouncing its regressive judgment the Supreme Court has put India out of sync with world’s major democracies and put it in line with countries like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan and those of a similar genre. The silver lining is that most India’s political parties, from Congress, Trinamool Congress, Odisha’s Biju Janata Dal, the two Communist parties et al. The BJP are strongly in favour of retaining Article 377 – which is scarcely surprising. The question, therefore, is finding parliamentary time for the new legislation. It will be the job of government managers to make the necessary adjustments to accommodate progressive opinion. Social activist Anjali Gopalan said “there’s hope – if there wasn’t, all of us would just give up and die. And we refuse to die We are going to make sure things will change.” So speak a courageous fighter for justice and against wooden headed obscurantism.

India’s living legends remain the most effective antidote to her enduringly foolish and primitive working politicians who constitute the country’s shame. Television networks do little beyond reporting their antics and then invite these self-same people to political table talk, which amounts mainly to mudslinging. NDTV’s decision to honour 25 of the nation’s legends in the splendor of Rashtrapati Bhavan held audiences across the country tied to their screens. President Pranab Mukherjee presented the awards to the men and women who had contributed nobly to the country’s social, scientific and cultural life. He said for India to take her rightful place in the comity of nations greater investment had to make in education as a national priority, to build a world –class system in which the sciences and arts could flourish. The recipients included Nobel Laureates Amartya Sen and V. Ramakrishnan, Bharat Ratna Professor C.N.R. Rao FRS, Professor M.S Swaminathan FRS, novelist Vikram Seth, orchestral conductor Zubin Mehta, industrialists Ratan Tata, Mukesh Ambani, Narayana Murthy, Indra Nooyi and Cipla Chairman Dr Yusuf Hamied, cricketers Bharat Ratna Sachin Tendulkar and Kapil Dev, tennis star Leander Paes, medical scientist Dr S.S. Badrinath, cinema’s Amitabh Bachchan, Rajnikanth, Shah Rukh Khan and Waheeda Rahman, sculptor Aneesh Kapoor, music composer Rahman, social activist Ela Bhat and legal luminary, Fali Narriman.

Their speeches were short and sweet, but for reasons of space, of which the following are wrothy

samples. Professor Swaminathan recalled the time when India was written off as a food deficient basket case. The Green Revolution, (in which he was a pioneer) and food security had changed that perception. “The future belongs to nations with grains not guns,” he said. Dr Badrinath dwelt on the necessity of affordable health care, in which India was seriously deficient, and advised the nation’s young people to recall the words of John F. Kennedy’s inaugural address as US President in 1961: “….ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country.” Professor Rao spoke of the transformational impact of science on society, and that in science lay India’s future, Sachin Tendulkar called on Indian youth to take to outdoor sports, “to dream because dreams come true if you work hard,” while Amitabh Bachchan recalled the advice of his poet father Harivansh Rai Bachchan to always stand on his own two legs, face adversity and acclaim with equanimity and “neither borrower nor a lender be.” Dr Ramakrishnan spoke of a period in his life when he applied for fifty job interviews and received not a single call, but he kept faith with his work in chemistry and refused to be discouraged. His advice? “Even as you pursue your dreams, keep your options open in case of setbacks, he said.

This was an occasion to savour. To be in the company, even if on the television screen, of India’s truly great and good was a privilege that warmed the hearts and opened the minds of millions who viewed the scene in corners of this vast and diverse land.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai came to India on a four-day state visit, during which he held wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Minister of External Affairs Salman Khurshid and other senior Indian ministers. Their discussions covered the entire gamut of India’s relations with Afghanistan in the context of America’s military withdrawal from the country and the possible strategic and economic void that might follow. How to ensure a durable peace in the country and ensure its economic developments are subjects fraught with tension and uncertainty. Indian rumour mills were in overdrive, with much media speculation on strained ties following India’s alleged reluctance to supply Afghanistan with advanced military hardware for its critical security needs. Mr Karzai scotched such uninformed with the statement, “India wants to help us.

India wants to have a region free of tension and that’s exactly what Afghanistan wants. I have satisfaction over the outcome of my talks with Prime Minister Singh,” he said. He told reporters in Delhi that “India is not shying away from providing assistance to Afghanistan and I can tell you that in terms of India’s support to Afghanistan in military equipment and training, the facts are lot better than what you hear in the press.” India building Afghan capabilities to defend the country “through its own resources and its own citizens.”

Overall, India and Afghanistan are of one mind in their determination to deepen defence and security cooperation, to increase Afghanistan’s operational

capabilities including the mobility of Afghan forces.

President Karzai described his exchanges with Manmohan Singh on these issues as “very productive.” India was wise to weigh the implications of this defence cooperation, he said. Both leaders had also agreed to work closely with Iran for the development of new trade routes in that country to facilitate landlocked Afghanistan’s commerce with countries beyond its immediate neighbourhood. In this context, India’s involvement in the the bulding of the southern Iranian port of Chabahar for a highway into western Afghanistan and as a transit route to Central Asia and beyond into the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan and Belarus, which are joined to Russia through a customs union.

Both India and Afghanistan favoured the presence of a residual American force in Afghanistan as an aid to the country’s security, the conditions for this presence is proving to be a sticking point between Kabul and Washington. There is a trust deficit between the parties. “The US doesn’t trust me, and I don’t trust the US,” declared the forthright Afghan President.

The indiscriminate bombing of Afghan villages and homes through repeated drone attacks, allegedly targeting Taliban insurgents, had become a sore point with Mr Karzai and the Afghan population. Repeated representations in Washington about the damage caused were (and are) ignored. Presumably because the US has its hands full with regime-change activities in Ukraine spearheaded by the boneless wonders of the European Union.

India honours its living legends

Cementing the Indo-Afghan relationship

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Do not educate your child to be rich.

Educate him to be happy, so that when he grows up he knows the value of things not the price - Unknown

The Politics of Time

As the year ends, and an Indian spacecraft hurtles to Mars whilst a Chinese one lands on the moon, and before we make our New Year Resolutions to make our lives renewed and purposeful, I am reminded of the words of cosmologist Carl Sagan, “Every one of us is, in the cosmic perspective, precious. If a human disagrees with you, let him live. In a hundred billion galaxies, you will not find another. The size and age of the Cosmos are beyond ordinary human understanding. Lost somewhere between immensity and eternity is our tiny planetary home. In a cosmic perspective, most human concerns seem insignificant, even petty. And yet our species is young and curious and brave and shows much promise. In the last few millennia we have made the most astonishing and unexpected discoveries about the Cosmos and our place within it, explorations that are exhilarating to consider. They remind us that humans have evolved to wonder, that understanding is a joy, that knowledge is prerequisite to survival.

I believe our future depends on how well we know this Cosmos in which we float like a mote of dust in the morning sky.”

Within our speck of dust in the vastness of our galaxy, you and I in our lifetimes will live 700,000 hours. That is all. What then in our great insignificance can we do of meaning?

As the British Home Secretary this past week announced new laws to free Briton’s from slavery, I am starting work on my 19th book –

‘Ending Slavery 2020’.

The least each of us can do is to be a political animal; to leverage every resource, every platform for good. If in those 700,000 hours, some are devoted to showing how we can free slaves, lessons learned from experiments tried in other countries, then the whole 700,000 hours will have been worthwhile.

A philosopher once said, I don’t know why we are on this planet, but I’m pretty sure it is not just to have fun. As you plan your Resolution for 2014, around the joys of Christmas, I know you will want to go beyond the fun of Christmas too.

Speaking of Carl Sagan, he also pointed out, ‘“The Hindu religion is the only one of the world’s great faiths dedicated to the idea that the Cosmos itself undergoes an immense, indeed an infinite, number of deaths and rebirths. It is the only religion in which the time scales correspond to those of modern scientific cosmology. Its cycles run from our ordinary day and night to a day and night of Brahma, 8.64 billion years long. Longer than the age of the Earth or the Sun and about half the time since the Big Bang.”

We shall use our religions for good – to leave the Cosmos better than we found it – for our faith also teaches us, we are all inter-connected; if one is slave or slain, we are all slave and slain. Or as the Jews put it, ‘if you save one life, you save the whole of mankind’. Now that’s worth a few hours out of my 700k!

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 © Asian Business Publications www.abplgroup.com AsianVoiceNewsweekly

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MIDLANDS VOICE

Holby City star Hari Dhillon helps light up tree in memory of Merlyn Vaz Smooth-talking Holby City consultant Michael Spence performed a different operation in the city on Friday.

Actor Hari Dhillon, who plays the role in the long-running BBC medical drama, switched on the lights on the Merlyn Christmas tree, lit every year in memory of Merlyn Vaz, Leicester's first female Asian councillor and mother of Leicester East MP Keith Vaz. The switch-on took place at the Methodist Church, in Uppingham Road, Leicester.

Mr Vaz said: "We have a long tradition of stars switching on the lights

Keith Vaz MP with Arya Dhillon, six, Hari Dhillon and Luke

and this year is no different. This occasion is one of my favourite events of the whole year. I would like to take this opportunity to wish the whole of

Leicester a very Merry Christmas!"

Mr Dhillon commented: "I know Merlyn was a very well-respected councillor."

'Neglect in aspects of care' led to death of Wsam Noorwal A 14-month old boy who died after swallowing a battery might have survived if medical staff had not neglected important aspects of his care, an inquest heard.

Wsam Noorwali died from internal bleeding on August 19 last year, nine hours after being taken to Leicester Royal Infirmary.

Coroner Catherine Mason said "omissions" and "neglect" in the toddler's care meant the problem was not identified until it was too late.

"Due to neglect in some important aspects of his care, Wsam was not resuscitated as quickly as he could and should have been," she said.

Recording a narrative verdict at the end of an inquest at Leicester Town Hall Monday, she criticised decisions "made on incomplete and out of date data" – and the absence of a senior paediatric surgeon at the hospital site as Wsam's condition deteriorated during the night.

The battery, described as the size of a two-pence piece, had corroded an artery wall, causing the fatal haemorrhage. But it

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Rev Jesse Jackson guest at East End Foods dinner in Birmingham Reverend Jesse Jackson’s visit to Birmingham’s East End Foods on 5th December took a dramatic and sombre turn as he announced and gave his first reaction to the death of Nelson Mandela.

Reverend Jackson Senior was the guest of honour at a dinner at the company’s headquarters in Aston to mark the 50th anniversary of the March For Freedom on Washington and to open the company’s £11 million distribution depot when the news of Mandela’s passing came through.

Reverend Jackson said: “We have lost a transformer but the good news is that we still have so much of him in our hearts.� He added that Mr Mandela had “taught us to build a more perfect society based upon hope and healing not hate. We must pick up the baton where he dropped it so the world

Keith Vaz MP, the Reverend Jesse Jackson senior and Tony Deep Wouhra, chairman of East End Foods

can be free of war, racism and poverty.�

The chairman of East End Foods Tony Deep Wouhra said: “The evening started with joy but was tinged with great sadness at the news of Mr Mandela’s death. We will never forget where we were on the night that honoured one icon and marked the passing of another. Reverend Jackson continues to inspire us in all that we do and his praise for our company was truly humbling.�

Earlier in the evening Mr Deep Wouhra had received an award from the Reverend Jackson to honour his lifetime achievement in helping to build the success of the city of Birmingham through his company which he started more than 40 years ago after arriving from India practically penniless. Working with his brothers, he has now built the company into the UK’s largest manufacturer and importer of ethnic food ingredients.

Indian-origin couple becomes UK's 'oldest married couple' Wsam with mum and dad Ammar and Fatima Noorwali

was not until a postmortem examination that the battery was found in the boy's stomach.

Parents Ammar Noorwali and Fatima Nasralla said they found Wsam vomiting blood at the family home in Hamilton, Leicester. In hospital, he was first assessed in accident and emergency at about 10.30pm, before being moved to the hospital's children's ward. His condition improved at first, but he suffered further bouts of vomiting blood at 2.05am and 4.30am. With his condition deteriorating, Wsam was transferred to the children's intensive care unit and had two blood transfusions. But by

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that point doctors said he was too weak for emergency surgery. Wsam suffered a heart attack and died an hour later, just after 7am. Following the second bout of vomiting blood at 2.05am, an urgent endoscopy should have been carried out to diagnose the underlying cause, the inquest heard.

This was the view expressed by paediatric registrar Sandip Ghosh to paediatric surgical registrar Jude Okoye.

Speaking after the verdict, Mr Noorwali said the family was "devastated" by their loss. "My wife Fatima and I miss Wsam terribly," he said.

"Our whole family is devastated."

Mr Noorwali described their son's treatment as "appalling".

"I still struggle to deal with the way in which Wsam was treated before he died, and it makes me angry and upset to think about it," he said.

As they celebrated their 88th wedding anniversary on Wednesday, 108 years old Karam Chand and 101 year old wife Katari (pictured) – an Indian origin husband and wife, became Britain’s oldest married couple. They were married in India when the country was still in British rule in 1925 and moved to Bradford in northern England in 1965.

The couple who count their long marriage as a “real blessing� have eight

children, 27 grandchildren and 23 great- grandchildren. When asked about the secret of their long and happy marriage, the husband told that “It’s important to have no secrets and

not to argue. We are so happy together, and it is a dream come true to celebrate another year of marriage. Being married for all these years is a real blessing. We are so proud of all of our family and we love celebrating with them all,� he added. The Punjabi couple live with their youngest son Satpal and his wife and two of their four children.

Nila’s glam night is a £20,000 hit An Oldham woman has raised more than £20,000 at a glamorous fundraising event in memory of her late father.

Nila Patel (33), from Coppice, organised the casino-style evening after her father, Hirji Mavji Nardani, died aged 76 in October 2012 and her nephew’s wife Rita (28) died from a rare cancer in April.

Nila - who owns a subpost office in Millbrook, near Stalybridge - decided to raise money for the

L to R: Prital Sachdev, Suresh Patel and wife Nila Patel, Sonal Patel and husband Sasi Patel, Nila’s nephew Anil Hirani and his sister Chetna Hirani

(Pic: Jiresh Photography)

Stroke Association and Cancer Research UK. Nila, and friends Prital Sachdev and Sasi Patel organised the dinner for

over 340 people. Nila raised ÂŁ10,000 in the four months leading up to the event and a further ÂŁ10,000 on the night.

Muslim students segregated during talk at Leicester Uni With women obliged to sit yards behind chairs reserved exclusively for men, the photograph shows the shocking reality of gender segregation at a British university. It was taken earlier this year at a training course at Leicester University organised by its Islamic Society. The course was entitled Call Of Duty and it featured a guest speaker from a hardline Islamic group.

Rupert Sutton of cam-

paign group Student Rights, which monitors campus extremism, said: ‘The obvious discrimination in this picture is what segregated seating can mean in practice – women pushed to the back of the hall, while men are given the best seats to see and hear the speaker.’ The disturbing image emerged at the end of a week in which Universities UK – the vicechancellors’ association – backed down from guide-

lines it had previously given that apparently allowed campus Islamic societies to impose segregated seating at meetings.

The guidelines have been withdrawn while

Universities UK consults with the Equality and Human Rights Commission about the appropriate position. It is expected to be forced to back down permanently.

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Kapil’s Spriha Srivastava

Nirbhaya – one year on

It’s been one full year since the unfortunate Delhi gang-rape happened last year. A year since her suffering and consequential death brought out the seething anger within each one of us. It brought in a delayed realisation that our women are not safe back home and it is high time we do something about it. But what can we do?

Rape is the fastest growing crime in India.

According to the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), the number of rape cases registered in India increased by a startling 873.3 %, from 2,487 in 1971 to 24,206 in 2011. In comparison, the murder cases increased by 250% over an even longer period, six decades, starting from 1953 to 2011. So clearly, something is going wrong somewhere.

The case brought together thousands and thousands of people demanding justice for the 23-year old and a safer country for women. The protests were limited not just to the Indian boundaries but concerned members of Indian origin settled abroad organised protests and candle light vigil to demand speedy justice and to pay homage to Nirbhaya.

Last year, despite the cold weather and rain, many Indians came to support the movement and expressed their anger and disappointment over the sad state of affairs back home. Those present at the gathering signed a petition demanding stricter punishments for rapists and introduction of fast-track courts for speedy justice. Protesters also touched upon the issue of rehabilitation of rape victims and the need

for educating young girls to be more alert and for boys to respect the dignity of a woman. One of the speakers also said that India should focus on its priorities inside the country first before going ahead with moon missions and other advanced science and technology projects.

Amit, an Indian settled in the UK had some really interesting thoughts on the Nirbhaya event: “Still not sure on why this particular rape has caught the attention of the public more so than the numerous rapes that occur in India every day.

Every case is as sad and terrifying as the other and yet most rape victims in India don’t even have access to very basic health care facilities let alone getting transported to Singapore for a state of the art organ transplant. Secondly, role of the media: whilst the media has done a commendable job of highlighting shortfalls in the Indian judicial and police system they are starting

to now distract us from the heart of the issue and turning into pure jingoistic entertainment. The attacks on the President’s son whilst being truly deserving might reflect some of that. The underlying issue with the media coverage is that it has infused us a society with mass attention deficit disorder (ADD) and in the longer term unclear if it will necessarily create a

sustainable and systemic change to the addressal of these problems. And finally, there is an additional underlying issue (in addition to many raised) with India that this case and other similar ones (Remember the lawyer murdered in her home in Mumbai by her watchman) highlight large parts of India’s society are economically marginalized and co-exist with islands of affluence, particularly in urban India. They have no education, no stake in the system and some of them have no value of human life and dignity (not having received any in the first instance). This strata will increasingly turn violent and resent/despise the increasing affluence of the rest of the country (which by the way might be the minority).”

The brutal question looming over our heads is when will the government wake up? The incident has kept India and her citizens awake for the past one year now but there still has been no strong response from the government. There have been a number of cases that have happened in the past year and it’s high time with sensitize our population, especially the young minds.

One can seriously hope that this incident is not forgotten like the many incidents in the past. I always feel that one rape incident in India brings out many opinions, comments, debates, blog posts, protests and promises from government but it all dies down until a next big crime is committed.

In this case, one can only hope that Nirbhaya’s sacrifice and the voice of thousands of protesters does not go in vain.

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at aveditorial@abplgroup.com

KHICHADI

Follow me on Twitter: @kdudakia

by Kapil Dudakia - email: kapil@abplgroup.com

Desecration of Hindu Deities

Last week I was alerted by the City Hindu Network (CHN) about a company that was using an image of Lord Ganesh on their product. It turns out that the company concerned was Imperial Tobacco and the product was their ‘Rizla’ paper. My first thoughts were, surely not. How can such a huge corporate giant with so many advisors actually think that it would be perfectly acceptable for them to use the image of Lord Ganesh on their tobacco paper? For me it was a case of how can a company use any religious imagery to sell a ‘tobacco’ linked product? Even a lay person would be able to tell you that the two are totally incompatible.

Unfortunately once I started my investigations it became apparent that there was substance to the allegations.

I asked Imperial Tobacco immediately and on twitter their initial response was, ‘We can assure you we don't print images of Ganesh on our Rizla packs – this sounds like counterfeit product’. A few hours later this was changed to read, ‘earlier Rizla Tweet we’re now aware a small number of these were made over a year ago. No more are being made; apologies for any offence’.

So we had confirmation directly from the company that the allegations were in fact correct. I took it upon myself to contact the company directly by writing to their CEO Alison Cooper. I did not get a response from Alison, but Simon Evans the Group Press Officer (Imperial Tobacco Group PLC) contacted me and we have had a number of email exchanges as well as telephone conversations. Simon has confirmed the following to me now: a. A limited number of these booklets were manufactured over a year ago for a small number of markets, not including the UK. b. This was authorised by a former brand manager who is no longer with the company and as far as we are able to ascertain our usual approval processes were not followed. c. No further manufacture of these booklets will take place. Our investigations continue and we will be working with wholesalers to remove booklets from the supply chain. d. We apologise for any offence caused and will be making a donation to an appropriate international organisation.”

Imperial Tobacco obviously has some

1 in 4 diabetic children risk being amputated and blind Following on from a recent report which revealed that as many as three million people in Britain have diabetes and a quarter of a million people were diagnosed with diabetes in the previous year alone, The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health have highlighted the risk that diabetes has on children.

According to an audit taken of 25,000 diabetic children, they have extremely poor diabetes care, with only 17 per cent having good control of their condition. Only one in 15 children receive all the recommended dia-

quality assurance issues that they will no doubt investigate further and change for the better I hope. The message for the Hindu community is quite simple, far too often companies around the world see Hindu deities as a huge pull in helping to sell their products. There seems to be a disconnect with the huge disrespect that is shown by such actions, the distress to the Hindu community and the undermining of a faith that is followed by some one billion people around the world. In my view companies need to be sufficiently enlightened to know that should they pursue such avenues of cheap publicity for a quick buck – that there are severe ramifications that may well follow.

India is now becoming a global giant that has huge scope for the future. Can you imagine what could happen if the Government of India took offence with any company that showed such disregard to a faith community? They can literally put in place a series of measures that would make the operation of any such company in India, untenable. I don’t know who advises these large corporate entities, but one would have thought that they would have highly gifted individuals who would be able to say – stop, don’t do it – it’s wrong.

Leading Hindu organisations, both here in the UK as well as internationally could also offer companies advice on all such issues in a consulting role. Maybe this is an avenue worth exploring both for the community as well as the companies involved.

As far as Imperial Tobacco is concerned, I look forward to their follow up communication in which I trust they will confirm a decent size donation to a worthy humanitarian cause. In my view it would also have been strategic had their CEO, Alison Cooper, taken the time to write a letter of apology to the whole community.

That personal touch can so often work wonders; alas it seems we shall have to make do with a corporate apology which I have to say was made immediately.

betes care checks in England and Wales.

Diabetic patients have high blood sugar levels due to problems with how their body produces insulin, the hormone that regulates the amount of glucose in the blood.

The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence highlighted how important it is to check children's weight, cholesterol, eyesight and blood pressure, yet the college found that only 6.7 per cent of children got all the tests they require. This is said to be

much lower than the 60 per cent of adults who receive all the recommended checks.

The audit revealed that only 17.4 per cent of diabetic children had blood glucose at the recommended level, and 25.1 per cent had dangerously high levels that put them at risk of serious complications in later life such as blindness and even amputation.

Jonathan Valabhji, national clinical director for obesity and diabetes at NHS England, said that the NHS now had better financial incentives to improve care and managers would be held to account for reducing the unplanned hospitalisation of diabetic children.

India-UK relations

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Looking beyond economics

Rupanjana Dutta

Priti Patel MP has been appointed as the UK Diaspora Indian Champion for Britain by PM Cameron to strengthen links between the government and the Indian community in Britain. On 12th December, a Christmas dinner was organised by the Indian Journalists' Association at the Indali Lounge near Baker Street, to celebrate Priti's new role and discuss the importance of diversity in Britain's politics.

The dinner was attended by the who's who of the Asian community including Peers, MPs, businessmen, professionals, representatives of Foreign Missionaries in Britain and of course well known Journalists from Indian and British media.

The dinner started with a short introduction by the IJA President Amit Roy, followed by speeches from cross party MPs and Peers.

Lord Swaraj Paul who was the first one to speak said, "The great celebration of the Priti's new appointment is a proof of the contributions the Indian diaspora makes in Britain."

Shailesh Vara MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice told the gathered audience, “Can I add my congratulation to Priti on her well-deserved position. I think it is another recognition that people of Indian origin are being recognised and making their presence felt in all areas where it matters.

I remember coming to this country in 1964, I was just a 4 years old boy. Those were the days when you could walk through Birmingham and not see another non-white face.

How the community in Britain has changed and how well integrated it is, in all walks of life, media, arts, film industry and also professionals in business and slowly we're making our presence felt worldwide."

Virendra Sharma MP said, "We as Indians have established ourselves in Britain. Thats hard work, dedication, commitment

to the country. Next year we will mark 400 years, arrival of the first Indian in Britain and appointment of the first Indian MP. I am sure those 400 years of relation will be celebrated next year. It will give the message to look forward to the future and how we can improve."

Lord Dholakia, the Deputy Leader of Lib Dem party in the House of Lords, told the distinguished guests, "This is to

strate."

Lord Bilmoria said, "Virendra spoke about 400 years of relations between India and UK. In Parliament, there is a beautiful painting of Sir Thomas Row in 1614, presenting his credentials as Emperor. What I did was when I made my maiden speech, I took two photographs one was.. next to Dadabhai Naroji, the first Indian Member of Parliament 1892, and in

for India and I'm effectively growing and strengthening the UK-India relationship. There are so many ways we can do that. The PM has successfully led 3 trade delegations to India since he is been PM. Our trade with India is doubling, our trade in India is doubling, our relations, our footprints in India are improving, and we're doing business across various states and many projects are underway.

Chief Guest Priti Patel speaking to a room full of audience, including Lord and Lady Paul, Lord and Lady Dholakia, Lord Bilimoria, Shailesh Vara MP, Virendra Sharma MP and other distinguished guests

thank Priti Patel for the designation she has been given by the PM. Here's a message for you from me.

Go back to the day of the British Indian Company that came to India in the 17th Century. Everyone was sent to India, and said go along and build up the business. I want you to do the same thing. Get on with the business part of it. Remember if we control the economy of this country, we also control the destiny of this country. I wouldn't be surprised if any one in here, from the Indian community would become PM of this country.

Never ever, succumb to the temptation that our relationship should be built on a financial basis only. And I very much hope we are able to promote the cultural values too. We put the most amount of resources, eg. over £17 billion in British economy. We make the least demand on social security, least demand on prisons. That is an example of not only the community here, but others should follow the peaceful existence we demon-

the next one we put up a stepladder in St Stevens Hall, and I rolled up my maiden speech and presented it to the global emperor. And here we are celebrating 400 years.

I sit on the UK-India Round table which Lord Paul used to chair and we just had our meeting in India last weekend. The Indian electorate is so amazing, they will do what they believe at that time.

In Delhi, the Aam-aadmi party didn't even exist a year ago. Could you see this happening in one year? I think this is remarkable. That is India.

With all its problems, with all its challenges its going through, I have great faith that in the medium term it will be successful. As middle class grows, as prosperity grows, I can't see anything stop it."

Priti Patel, the Chief Guest for the evening, told the audience, "For my generation in Britain, I think we were the ones who broke the glass ceilings.

Thats incredibly important and a strong message for the future generations too.

I've been appointed as PM's diaspora champion

This is an exciting and challenging time, I think for us as Britain and certainly for myself as a British politician, to facilitate in strengthening and growing the relationship and actually showing and sharing the common ground we actually have, to grow not just the trade but growing our cultural values across our two countries. I think as my role as diaspora champion, that is really the area I want to work with you, actually we must work together to share our values, our common heritage, and help grow our relationship with india.

So in my capacity, I will be looking beyond economics and looking at culture, and how we can grow that network amongst our community.

It seems ironic, we're sitting here today in London, but the British-Indian community, isn't just based in London, it is successful across the whole of the UK. I'm committed to represent all aspects of the British-Indian community."

Photo courtesy: Raj Bakrania

Staff changes this December We’re delighted to announce that Mr Mehul Jamindar has joined ABPL as a Business Development Executive.

He will be taking over all responsibilities from Mr Nihir Shah who is no longer working for Gujarat Samachar or Asian Voice since 1st December 2013.

You can contact Mehul at mehul.jamindar@abplgroup.com and on office no 020 7749 4009 or Mobile no - 07718 122 339.

Doctor suspended for groping his female patient An Indian doctor, from Birmingham, has been suspended for groping his female patient and saying that that was the way he was taught at medical school in Madras, India.

Dr Gynaecologist A n g a m a t h u Arunkalaivanan, originally from Madras, tormented the 49-year-old woman for three years, which she described as “hell”, a court in Manchester heard.

The victim informed police only after she was told, the manner in which she had been examined, was inappropriate.

During the hearing, Dr Arunkalaivanan, who is married, insisted that touching and groping the

Charges against Hindu priest Rajesh Parmar, founder of the Siddhashram Shakti Centre, in Palmerston Road, Wealdstone, have been dropped at a hearing in Harrow Court last week, after the prosecution offered no evidence, the Harrow Times has reported.

The 42-year-old, of Headstone Drive, was accused one count of assault causing actual bodily harm, one of conspiring to commit sexual offences and one of perverting the cause of jus-

tice. A trial which was due to take place next year will now reportedly not go ahead.

UK visa waved off for Visitors from Oman, Qatar & UAE Visitors from Oman, Qatar, UAE will not require visas to enter UK from January 2014.

Britain and the UAE are traditionally strategic allies and have been deepening their relations in recent years. Britain backed Dubai’s bid to host the World Expo in 2020 which the UAE

unlimited call to India for just £15.99*/month *Fair Usage Policy and some terms and conditions

victim's breasts from behind was the way he was taught at medical school in India.

The court heard how on one occasion the doctor asked the woman to lift up her top and bra, cupping and before squeezing her breasts with both hands from behind. In addition, he did not offer the victim a chaperone or make a record of the breast check in the patient's notes.

The victim told the court that she still ‘beats herself up’ for allowing herself to be ‘sexually assaulted’ and that she was so disturbed she could not even bring herself to tell her husband.

Assault charges against Hindu priest dropped

simplecall.com

to register send free text “REG [your email]” to 66777

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sheikhdom won on November 27th.

The new rules will be applicable to those who want to stay in the UK for less than six months.

British Home Secretary, Theresa May announced “a new straightforward and free alternative to a visa for short-term visitors” from the three countries.

8

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

The Largest, if not the greatest election of all the time India elects its Lok Sabha (lower House of Parliament) by end of May 2014. 1.2 billion Indians are used to vote in large numbers and this is going to be 16th general election of the country. The country, with enormous diversity and economic and social contradictions is wedded to democratic norms of politics.

The state elections showed that the voters are participating in the process wholeheartedly. The average voting was near 70 per cent in the five state elections. All the Indian states and the territories under central administration will go to the polls.

Election Commission of India has already announced that the gigantic machinery is being readied for the greatest experiment in the democracy. With 543 parliamentary seats, 700 million voters, and the land mass of some 1.265 million square miles, the logistics are mind boggling. But elections are fair and free in India.

This election after 10 years rule of Congress led UPA government has generated huge interest within and beyond India. The responsible media both in India and abroad are taking note of the importance of this election and the personalities, top three individuals at least are being discussed and analysed.

In the British media, nobody now talks about whether the Parliamentary democracy in India will survive or not.

Those were the bad old days when some reporters and commentators made some strange if not outright unrealistic and some say stupid forecast about the future of the democratic process in India.

I would like to focus on three recent reports:On 14th December The Times of India and other publications as well as electronic media in India reported a very significant interaction with Mr. Narayan Murthy, one of India’s most respected business tycoon, well recognised software czar and first business leader to address the important issue pertaining to Mr. Narendra Modi, Chief Minister of Gujarat State and the BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate.

Let me quote a statement attributed to Mr. Murthy by The Times of India on 14th December: “Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi should be allowed to show a ‘sense of contrition’ and then move on as otherwise the debate on him in the context of the post- Godhra riots would be unending.”

When NDTV asked him that the riots represented an issue which should stand in the way of Modi from becoming Prime Minister in May, Murthy answered : “No” maintaining that “There is no human being (who is) perfect. There have been lots of riots in India so the important thing is for us to say we will correct what happened.”

Murthy, regarded as one of the business community’s statesmen for his reputation of moral probity, further said, “We will move forward in a positive way.” Other business leaders have voiced support for the 63-year-old BJP leader and a recent Nielsen poll of 100 corporate figures showed 74 percent wanted him to be premier of the world’s largest democracy but none has tackled the issue of the riots head-on. Most of the respected business tycoons say Modi should not be barred from the job because of deadly anti-Muslim riots under his watch.

Let’s look at The Economist; one of the most respectable British publications has devoted three full pages on ‘Narendra Modi’. Its very well informed article dated 14th December, 2013. The

As I See It

Narendra Modi

Economist also devoted a whole page, “Would Modi save India or wreck it?” in its leader’s pages.

I would like to quote some sentences from the last two paragraphs of the leader in The Economist –“The BJP is not the only party in India with a bloody history. Congress turned a blind eye in 1984 as thousands of Sikhs were massacred in rage at the murder of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards. Yet Congress does not pursue a policy against Sikhs or any other ethnic or religious group, while Mr. Modi has devoted much of his life to the pursuit of an extreme form of Hindu nationalism.”

Let me quote further from the leader of The Economist: “In the next five months Mr. Modi needs to show that his idea of a pure India is no longer a whol-

Rahul Gandhi

ly Hindu one. How he does that is his own affair, but an unambiguous public demonstration that he abhors violence and discrimination against Muslims is a bare minimum. Otherwise, this newspaper will not back him.”

One cannot be clearer. The Economist is a very influential publication. Its endorsement or denouncement will matter both to the voters as well as to us at Asian Voice too. But dear readers, if you feel that The Economist was perhaps too bombastic that may be your opinion. I believe that The Economist has a responsibility to take a stand. But ultimately it is the Indian electorate which will decide whether to support Narendra Modi or not.

Let me now refer to a publication The Other Side, a magazine published for the last 26 years. It is a journal of socialist thoughts and action. In their November 2013 issue, there is an eleven page long report, “The Godhra Riots: Shifting Fact from Fiction” by Nicole Elfi.

Nicole Elfi has been living in India since 1975. She worked on the publication of works related to Mother and Sri Aurobindo and researched aspects of Indian culture. Her article is an attempt to contribute balanced assessment of Gujarat Riots 2002.

Elfi wrote: “Fifty eight pilgrims were burned alive, including twenty-seven

women and ten children. The whole attack lasted 20-25 minutes. Strangely, instead of straightforwardly condemning the act, the Indian English language press tried to justify it.

“Pilgrims provoked by chanting pro-Hindu slogans” (They were not slogans but bhajans or devotional songs, ending with “Jai Sri Ram”- Victory to Sri Rama).

“It is because they were returning from Ayodhya, where they asked for the reconstruction of a temple at the traditional birth place of Rama, this offends the feelings of the Muslims.” In sum, the victins, roasted alive, were guilty.

Aftermath of Godhra was a Hindu reaction. The fatalities: 720 Muslims, 250 Hindus, according to official figures.

According to Elfi – “We read all over about a ‘Genocide of Muslims’. Do we remember a single report on the Hindus, who historically helped save Muslims in their neighborhood? Was even one family of Hindu victim interviewed? For a coach full of innocent people gone up in flames, she writes in her article adding, “Which newspaper article stated that the most violent event took place? More than the barbaric event itself, it is the insensitivity of the Indian ‘elite’ and of the media that infuriated the Gujaratis.”

“No English news writer thought it worthwhile to look deeper into the events at Godhra railway station,” she commented in the article giving more details on Godhra incident.

Her writings are based on inquiries with the Railway staff and passengers travelling in which the Sabarmati Express showed that no quarrel whatsoever took place on the platform between a tea vendor and pilgrims, and no girl was manhandled nor kidnapped.

“On February 27, the very day of the carnage, Chief Minister Narendra Modi, took steps to deploy the Rapid Action Force (RAF), State Reserve Police and local police at sensitive points.

Apprehending the seriousness of the situation, he requested for ten companies of central paramilitary forces to be provided immediately in addition to four companies of RAF. He also issued a statement expressing deep shock at the attack and appealed to the people to remain calm and exert self-control, assuring them that the crime would not go unpunished,” says the article.

The Gujarat Government requested from the chief secretaries of neighboring states of Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan, ten companies of armed police from each state to assist Gujarat government to handle reaction of Hindus on March 1. Elfi quoted Madhu Kishwar that three states then had Congress governments and all three turned down the request. “Why did no one report this fateful refusal?”

She further writes that National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) was silent on the Gujarat government’s urgent calls for assistance, as well as on what had led to such situation in the first place.

According to her one major event which received a great deal of attention from the media was the conflagration at the Gulbarg Society in Ahmedabad, home of a former Member of Parliament, Ehsan Jaffri. She also described that how Jaffri fired at the mob surrounded in front of his house, in which two were killed and 13 injured. That incensed the mob. His bungalow set ablaze by exploding a gas cylinder. Final toll: 42.

“Among the most morbid canards, the novelist Arudhati Roy’s vitriolic arti-

cle in Outlook Magazine, 6 May 2002.

She described the event which precedes Ehsan Jaffri’s death,” says Nicole in the article. In her article Roy claimed that after a mob surrounded the house of former Congress MP Ehsan Jaffri, his phone calls to the Gujarat DGP, Ahmedabad Police Commissioner, the chief secretary and the additional chief secretary were ignored.

In the last 50 years Great Britain has seen eight Prime Ministers – Harold Wilson, Edward Heath, James Callaghan, Margaret Thatcher, John Major, Tony Blair, Gordon Brown and now David Cameron. I have been a regular reader and subscriber of The Economist for several years.

The Economist, to its credit, has written about all Prime Ministers as a person, a personality, their performances, their priorities, their public perceptions and their ideologies. The

Arvind Kejariwal

Economist has opined some as better Prime Minister than others. Especially in view of their performances and long term impacts, but as far as I recollect none of these eight Prime Ministers were ever labeled as perfect. Each one has some strength and each has some weakness or limitation.

We all carry certain baggage of our past actions. Those in the public domain carry the assessment as per the view of the assessor. A brand of a politician is very important. Narendra Modi, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejariwal are being watched for their performances now and also for the past records. Each one, like all of us, had/has a brand which always is continuously evolving.

There are two important messages clearly coming out of The Economist coverage – one about corruption and another about Narendra Modi as a performer. Over the past 12 years both in terms of economic development and that of communal harmony Gujarat has a very good record. Perhaps Gujarat had the longest period of communal harmony since its formation in 1960.

The Economist is also fully aware that India needs a capable administration. Ten years ago the annual GDP growth was 8.4 per cent or more in the previous administration. Today the growth has come down to some 4.3 per cent. Ten million or more job seekers enter the Indian market every year. It requires development in agriculture, in industry as well as in services. Gujarat has a very negligible unemployment.

Millions of workers from different parts of India, with a substantial number of Muslims, have made a beeline to Gujarat for jobs and their own progress. One thing is very clear that none of the policies of Modi government has been preferential for any one community at the cost of the other.

- CB

UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Leading Lights

Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

The Flying Chef Patron for whom the Sky’s the Limit!

44-year old Chef-Patron Sabbir Karim has created two acclaimed Indian restaurants in London, Salaam Namaste and Namaaste Kitchen.

Sabbir is a consultant, humanitarian and activist.

Uniquely, he is also a Purser for British Airways’ cabin crew. A British Bengali, he features in the 2013 British Bengali Who’s Who. Sabbir Karim took a Business Studies diploma at Southgate College, As cabin crew, Sabbir experienced lots of different dining situations. Travelling to Delhi, Bombay, Karachi, Lahore, Bangladesh, Mauritius and the far east, he became fascinated with the cuisine and culture of each territory he worked.

Sabbir’s culinary arts are all self-taught though he did do a two-week crash course in cuisine with the chef at Delhi’s historic Imperial Hotel. In London, he worked at the Red Fort and Chutney Mary restaurants. “In

Sabbir Karim

those days,” he told me, he was “front of house and now I like to be much more face to face with customers.”

By 2005, Sabbir knew enough of the culinary

world to open his own restaurant, Salaam Namaste. He devised the menu and the recipes but employed chefs- one of whom I met the night he was presented with Asian

and Oriental Innovative Chef of the Year 2013 at the Asian Curry Awards.

In 2012, he was named Asian and Oriental Chef of the Year at the same event.

The success of this ‘new sensation in Indian dining’ gave Sabbir the confidence to open his second restaurant, Namaaste Kitchen, in 2010. Recently, the restaurant was named ‘Best Newcomer.’

The combination of Sabbir’s innovative stunning food, and the appointment of a team committed to top-notch customer service saw Namaaste Kitchen gain instant fame and recognition in the first year of opening. A raft of rave reviews appeared in ES Magazine, The Guardian, and Time Out. Legendary critics Matthew Norman and Fay Maschler loved it, with the latter claiming she was happy to pick up a personal tab!

The restaurant was acknowledged as the 'Critics Favourite - newly and critically acclaimed’ and, in 2011, was nominated as a finalist for the ‘Best Newcomer’ at the prestigious British Curry Awards. In 2012, Sabbir introduced a ‘regional food festival’, presenting the finest dishes from a different Indian state each month to diners at both

Namaaste Kitchen and Salaam Namaste. The media took great interest, with glowing reviews emerging regularly.

Sabbir’s restaurants really took off after they started receiving attention from critics. Food reviewers like the Guardian’s Matthew Norman gave a nine out ten rating. The paper called Sabbir ‘A maestro of modern and traditional Indian cooking’ “This motivated me,” said Sabbir, and so he

“A maestro of modern and traditional Indian cooking” (The Guardian)

started to focus more on the marination and cooking. Sabbir’s gorgeous wife, Aneela, has a Pakistani background and this adds richness to Sabbir’s culinary world. “I discuss a lot with Aneela,” he told me. “This opens up another dimension.”

But multi-skilled Sabbir is still flying with British Airways, and is the only flying chef patron I know. Every six weeks he takes two or three flights, but when the opportunity arises he likes to concentrate on his burgeoning restaurant group. London mayor Boris Johnson, councillors, and famous

9

faces are regularly to be seen at Sabbir’s establishments.

Sabbir has been interviewed for international television and radio on, for instance, the BBC. The recipe for Sabbir’s ‘Peshawari lamb chops’ appeared in the Sunday Telegraph alongside Prince William’s wedding menu in the exclusive collectors’ version of the publication.

Last year’s Olympics brought him lots of attention.

The chef is also involved with a number of charity projects. With BA, Sabbir was a UNICEF champion. He has worked with the Sreepur Project in Dhaka, and lends the support of both his restaurants to Action Against Hunger and Find your Feet’s ‘Curry for Change’ campaign. He explained to me that he would like to introduce apprenticeship into his industry, and open a free school or institute for disadvantaged youngsters in Bangladesh.

Passionate about customer service and cooking, he would love to use his expertise to be a consultant to airlines, advising on menus and cooking. He certainly has enough experience to have become an in demand expert by now and will likely continue to soar as far as his ambition will take him.

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YOUR VOICE

MPs’ Pay Bonanza

Our MPs are again in the limelight, not for doing something good for the benefit of the country, but even after the scandal of the expenses claims not too long ago, they are awarding themselves an 11 per cent pay rise, taking their salaries to £74,000 from 2015. This is despite objections from all three major party leaders. Danny Alexander, the Lib Dem chief secretary to the Treasury, said the increase would be “wholly inappropriate” coming at a time when many public sector workers have had their pay frozen.Yet despite the fury the announcement has sparked among the public, several MPs have spoken out in defence of their salaries being increased. While others in the Civil Service and elsewhere have to suffer from the imposition of pay freeze or very meagre rises, the powers that be will see their standard of living go up a notch or two.

This is when the same MPs have unilaterally made unfavourable changes to how Civil Service pensions are paid. The Government has already made a switch in the rate at which pension payments increase from the more favourable retail price index (RPI) to the less generous consumer price index (CPI). The government has also ended the age-related tax allowances for pensioners. It will phase out the higher income tax allowance enjoyed by around half the country’s pensioners. This is fundamentally unfair.The income tax allowance of the over 65s must also be raised in line with the rate of inflation.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Not in my name-by Lord Noon

I fully endorse Lord Noon’s views in column “Not In my name”-in Asian Voice and translated in Gujarat Samachar.

Besides police/government’s efforts to curb/understand radicalism in jehad, Muslim leaders must denounce evil effects of jehad. No global powers can exorcise malevolent effects of practice, unwanted in 21st century and incompatible in multi-religious/multi cultural humanity.

Jehad means effort. But it should not damage humanity and social fabric that guarantees the global safety and security.

Jehad must be practiced mercifully as follows: 1. Personal level to fight deviants like temper, lust, pride, miserliness, desire and greed.

2. On general and global levels, jehad must be declared to empower women, fight subjugation of underdogs, and eliminate poverty, illiteracy/ pestilence.

3. Jehad must compete with humane secular practices like yoga, ahimsa and technology.

4. Participate in schemes of national and global social welfare.

All jihadists must note that humanity has reached present levels of personal comfort, globalisation and security after and during periods of non violence. Non violent mega persons like Gandhiji, Martin Luther King and Mandela have defeated mighty and powerful evils like

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

PM Cameroon, cap in hand, in China

MPs deserve pay rise

CB’s article (as I see it, 7 Dec 2013, p8) rightly makes the point that Mr Cameron insisted on human rights redress in Sri Lanka, but ignored the issue in China despite the fact that there were human rights issues in China in general and Tibet in particular.

Money has become the new Christ in many human endeavours. So one is not surprised. India, they say is the most spiritual of all countries. However, while they are praying in their temples, etc., China is forging ahead at full speed.

60 years ago, five Indian industrialists went cap in hand to General Electric in USA. The result today is that India has become a world leader in IT and Communications. Now it is time to go to 100+ countries with a cap in hand and ask them to teach them how to manufacture electronic goods such as computers, mobile phones, cameras, TVs, DVDs, tablets, etc., how to package them with leaflets in 10+ languages etc. in the most professional and attractive manner; and start manufacturing those as well other simple goods, but packaged professionally.

Yesterday day I saw a high value Philips DVD in Tesco manufactured in Turkey and three BIC biro pens in a superb gift package licensed by BIC in France and manufactured in Estonia.

There has been a world wide technology transfer between North and South American continents, Far East, China, Europe, Russia and former USSR countries in electronic goods manufacturing over 50 year. The Indian subcontinent, Africa and Middle East have been left out. By hook or crook, the latter three groups will have to break that mould.

Nagindas Khajuia Via Email apartheid and British colonial rulers.

Great scientists have generated modern technology in such environments and have offered it to the whole world without confining to jihadist type of dogma.

Jehad has to be reinvented, with fullest reverence to teachings of Koran.

Then jehad can and will be as acceptable as peace experienced via yoga, offer security via ahinsa and accessories created by modern science and technology.

Ramesh Jhalla Via Email

Islam and Hindus

Lord Noon makes a good point in problems with extremists within Islam(AV 14th Dec13).

Hindus of “India” have had 1000 years of persecution by Muslims, only to be rescued by the British Imperial forces, and be submitted to a new repression, not as brutal but brutal none the less.

Recently we witnessed the great Nelson Mandela and how he fought the oppression of apartheid, on a population, on their own soil, which only in the last 20

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ASIAN VOICE

For a long tome, politics like cricket was dominated, reserved for nobility with personal fortunes to match. Cricket was divided between nobility Gentlemen and working class Players. Gentlemen played for no financial reward and always captained the side. Colin Cowdry was the first Player to captain England, a great player but not a Gentleman in cricketing term!

Politicians came from nobility with vast personal fortunes, who served the nation out of duty, loyalty and patriotism, without any financial benefits. This tradition, hold on politics by few elites was savagely laid to rest in 1947 general election so decisively won by Labour under the leadership of Clement Attlee, although Churchill was the war hero who won the war against all odds and saved the nation from the clutches of mad Hitler and their Nazis thugs. Although most MPs do not enter HOC to improve their financial standing, most MPs are young and have families to support, unlike our PM and Chancellor whose lifestyles are subsidised by family fortunes.

The cost of £4:6 million to give MPs 11 percent rise, even if not offset by savings elsewhere is a drop in the ocean compared to our over generous even fool hardy overseas aid budget of £12 billion that most voters would like to scrap, at least until we enjoy budget surplus and out debt is fully paid off.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi Via Email years, has been recognised by the West as wrong. The ideology of white skinned superiority has been laid to rest, though many after effects are still in place, economic, cultural and in India many still aspire to “English” values with blind faith and ignorance, a hangover of Empire. So to Islam this is a complete political, cultural ideology interwoven within a religion. 52 Islamic states base themselves around it.

The 3 main teachings of Islam (to submit), and Muslims (one who has submitted) are set down in the Quran, Hadith and Sira. The latter two refer to Muhammad’s biography and his sayings.

The problem is when 30% of these texts refer to the Kafir(yet to submit), or nonbeliever, on how to deal with or convert them. Some followers take these verses literally, and act on them, as we see in the many cases of terrorism. Hindus then to be treated on par with Islam or Christianity, as another “religion”, as many politician are bent on doing, do not understand Hindus.

Nowhere in the 7000+ years of the “religion” of the Hindus have they divided peoples as believers(faith) and nonbelievers, each is free to follow his own conscious, there as many deities, Buddhism and yoga it’s offshoots, make great example of this all inclusiveness. Hindus have been around since from when man began to think, have no one book set down at a fixed time and have no one founder, unlike other religions.

Jayesh A Patel West Wimbledon

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Lord Parekh and Genocide in Gujarat I am really concerned a learned person like Lord Parekh to equate Godhra killing between Hindus and Muslims where 800 Muslims and 200 Hindus were killed as Genocide.

Lord Parish may be pro-congress and anti-BJP and anti- Modi and this should not distort the facts to discredit Hindus for his personal motive.

The thing that happened in Godhra is a riot in the combination of killing innocent Hindu pilgrims coming from yatra in a country where majority are Hindus and the crime was committed by minority Muslims.

Genocide did not exist before 1944.

Before that it referred to violent crimes committed against groups with the intent to destroy the existence of the group.

Raphael Lemkin(1900-1959) based on Nazi policies of systematic murder including the destruction of European Jews, formed the word ’genocide’ by combining Geno- from the Greek word Race or tribe,; with –cide , derived from the Latin word killing.

Genocide is an international crime with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethical, racial or religious groups. No such thing happened in Gujarat. When 6000 Sikhs in Delhi and thousands of Bodos in Assam were killed, Lord Parekh considered it as riots. But when 800 Muslims were killed he considered it as genocide and wants to include in the international list along with TutsiTutu and Armenian massacre. Why? It happened only in Gujarat because of killing of Hindus. There was no attempt from Hindus to destroy Muslims or annihilating them. Muslims belong to the same race like Hindus and they differ only in religious beliefs.

Arun Vaidyanathan Via Email Continued on page 11

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

A sad story of a family at war UK

Father and son torn between tradition and love

Tanveer Mann

It is perhaps not unknown to our readers about the unique and sad dispute between a multi-millionaire hotel tycoon Jasminder Singh and his father Bal Mohinder Singh. Mr Singh Senior is suing his son for abandoning the Sikh tradition of sharing family wealth by excluding him from the family business. The dispute is over £50 million though Jasminder Singh's hotel empire is reportedly worth around £415 million.

After my colleague Rupanjana Dutta went to one of the hearings around two weeks ago, this time, I decided to go and see it for myself.

The previous hearing that Asian Voice attended, took place in a conference room at the Mayfair Hotel. A court room was set up in the hotel premises, due to ill health of Mr Singh Snr. The witness on that day was Jasminder's elderly mother Mrs Satwant Kaur Singh, who appeared in the court room in a traditional Punjabi suit.

Upon attending that hearing we felt emotionally drained to watch a family being split over something so material.

This time the hearing had moved back to the

Bal Mohinder Singh

Jasminder Singh

Chancery division, Rolls building, in the High Court. As we dashed through the beautiful Chancery Lane area, when we arrived at the court room, the witness Dr Mohan was being cross examined by the Queen's Counsel. Though we were unaware of the nitty gritty of the witness's involvement in the case, we gathered that the hearing was focussed on the very convoluted methods of Indian taxation and finances in a joint family.

Amidst a small courtroom full of legal representatives, we scuttled in to be seated behind the witness box, in full-view of Mr Jasminder Singh, his wife and a young gentleman, who was possibly

their son. A tiresome trio, impeccably dressed in formal attire, watched on attentively as Dr Mohan attempted to answer the questions.

In the extremely punctual five minutes adjournment, we were approached by Jasminder's wife Amrita, who sported a simple dark grey dress with a large luxury watch and oversized diamonds. It was actually surprising to have her asking very warmly, whether we were 'enjoying the case'- perhaps in a bid to find out who we actually were.

Even the legal representatives who were present asked our connection with the family or what brought us to the hearing.

December, which included a plan for a new 3,500m-long runway to the north-west of Heathrow's existing runways. Extending the existing northern runway by at least 6,000 metres to the west and allowing it to operate as two separate runways has also been shortlisted. The Davies Commission also announced that a new runway could be put in place by 2029, allowing 260,000 more flights.

Lobbyists for a Heathrow expansion have long argued that Britain needs a larger airport to compete with European

rivals like Amsterdam Schiphol and Paris Charles de Gaulle. Yet, the large amounts of backlash this has faced has stalled any plans until recently. With the release of the Davies Commission report, there has been a return of fierce opposition from all corners of society, which includes the PM, who promised before the 2010 election “No ifs, no buts, no third runway” yet allowed this report to go underway.

Indeed, the surrounding areas of Heathrow airport are densely Asianpopulated areas, with over 19% of residents

They did not seem very surprised that journalists were attending their hearings on and off.

After the break, the hearing continued with Dr Mohan being asked more and more penetrating questions, which he seemed not to answer quite directly. It was interesting to witness the difference in the approach on a subject between an Indian and British lawyer and of course the exasperation in the QC's tone!

The sitting Judge Sir William Blackburne, appeared extremely patient and he ensured that the hearing stayed on the topic in question. On the other side of the room friends and family, who were again impeccably and stylishly dressed, looked on disinterestedly.

Though such disputes are perhaps not uncommon anywhere in this world, we felt sympathetic towards the family who are experiencing such a challenging time. The unpleasantness of a fight between themselves was evident on the faces of those present. We strongly feel that perhaps such bitterness amongst loved ones could be avoided by finding a midway solution to attain a sensible compromise.

Heathrow Expansion Plan divides Cameron's Big Society

Many Asians, who reside in the perimeter of London's Heathrow Airport, are angered by Sir Howard Davies new report to expand the number of runways in the Airport and have shown their fierce opposition by vowing to protest against this in the near future.

The coalition government is also strongly divided on this issue, with their internal differences not helping the residents of surrounding London Borough of Hounslow's faith in their government.

Sir Howard Davies revealed his interim report on Tuesday 17th

The hearing continues.

being of Indian-origin.

John McDonnell, the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington, highlighted the anger of the people living in the area and warned of anti-Heathrow protests in the near future if plans go ahead.

He said, "I believe that the scale of anger at this betrayal will mean that over this coming year we are about to witness the biggest environmental direct action campaign this country has ever seen. When parliament and politicians fail them, people have no other option but to take to the streets."

University College Dublin launches a €300,000 scholarship to attract Indian students

Last week the University College Dublin has announced the launch of 2014 UCD scholarships worth €300,000 for Indian undergraduate and post graduate students.

There are four full scholarships in recognition of VV Giri, the fourth President of India, who studied law in UCD from 1913 to 1916.

The programmes under this offer include areas of mechanical engineering, computer science, biotechnology and public health, politics and International rela-

tions, languages, IP & IT law.

Currently UCD has a total strength of 26,000 students, among which 260 are from India.

Overall, international

students studying in the University sums up to 5500, who will receive the degree from Ireland’s Global University.

This launch of scholarship program is expected to double the current figure of foreign students coming from India, in all programs, especially those programs to which students do not apply in majority.

11

Community Fundraiser wins Harrow Heroes Award for 5th consecutive year Shivakuru Selvathurai, a Harrow resident for the last 11 years, along with his wife Mrs Meenadehyammah Selvathurai, has won the Harrow's Heroes Award for the 5th consecutive year.

tions. He also was one of 8000 London Ambassadors chosen for the Olympic Games.

Most recently, Shivakuru took part in the Lord Mayor's Show in London in November, where he was among 31

L-R: Miss Anutha Selvathurai, Mrs Meenadehiyamm Selvathurai, Mr Simon Ovens Borough Commander Metropolitan Police, Harrow, Mr Shivakuru Selvathurai & Councillor Manji Kara, Portfolio Holder for Community & Culture, Harrow Council

The devoted father and volunteering champion spends many hours volunteering for the community, caring for disabled people. He decided to dedicate his full time voluntary services to repay the local community as a way of saying thank you for the support his daughter, Ms Anutha, who has severe learning disabilities, has received from various agencies.

He 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 organisa-

older Londoners, who were on a float entered

by Age UK, which travelled the length of the 3 mile route over a period of two hours. He has also contributed to Diabetes UK care, Connect and Campaign the big collection weekend in October, where they managed to raise £370,687 in just a weekend and won the Mayor of London's Team London Award for exemplary contribution to volunteering.

Mr Shivakuru is also a 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.

YOUR VOICE

Is Sonia mother of all Indians?

Salman Khurshid member of Indian National Party and Cabinet Minister of External affairs of India is having great responsibilities on his shoulders for whole of India and Indian Sub Continent.

Therefore when he speaks or give any statement, it is in his interest that he should stick to his job responsibilities. He will then command respect and reflect that he is fit for his job. By giving the irresponsible statements on TV that Sonia Gandhi is a mother of all Indians, gives us the impression that he is not fit for the job but Sonia Gandhi favoured him with the appointment as a Cabinet Minster. Sonia Gandhi is a Political Leader and she has been very successful. Khurshid should know, Indians have recognised India as their Mother and we call it Mother India.

Dharam Sahdev Ilford

Media influence by Congress Party

I do not know the exact time but perhaps during time of Indira Gandhi, the congress party started to appoint certain members to high post, whose sole job is to make untrue statement or highlight trivial matters relating to opposition leaders or other people who raise voice against them. During last few years we have heard several obnoxious statements made by congress members like Digvijay Singh and Manish Tiwari against BJP and also leaders like Anna Hazare and Baba Ramdev. The congress party leaders ignore such out bursts by their party members knowing full well that media will pick this and broadcast. Currently Narendra Modi is their target. At the same time any comments made by opposition or other people against Nehru/Gandhi family, however true and important, is generally given low profile by media. Clearly a double standard by media in India.

Suresh P Shah Via Email

12

MEDIA WATCH

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

BJP swept the polls in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, scraped through by a solitary seat in Chattisgarh and led in Delhi without commanding the majority necessary to govern alone. Is this a BJP-Modi wave? It certainly is in that part of India where its footprint has been large. Sadanand Dhume, writing in The Wall Street Journal (December 12) acknowledged the scale of the BJP triumph, but cautioned that this being the party’s traditional stronghold it was none too surprising.

If, he argues, the State elections had been held in the south or east of the country, the outcomes would have read differently. “The party’s “strength in northern and western India is offset by weakness in the south and near invisibility in the east.

The BJP’s share of the national vote has declined in each of the last three [general] elections, and the party has withered in several states where it once showed promise. In 2004, while leading the national government, the BJP famously mistook a strong showing in state elections as a harbinger of the national mood and called early elections – only to be defeated

by Congress.” These words are a caution and not a prediction, but the points are well taken. The full Congress postmortem is yet to be announced, but the first straws in the wind indicate that factionalism and weak leadership will top the agenda at the next party conclave. National Congress Party (NCP) leader and Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar pointed to weak leadership, contrasting it with decisiveness of India Gandhi. The “jholawala” brigade was given far too much weight in Sonia Gandhi’s Advisory Council, and this needed to be rectified in keeping ground realities. As the NCP is a senior coalition partner in ruling Congress-led coalition at the centre, his words are sure to be heeded.

Kejriwal effect

Mr Pawar dismissed Am Admi leader Arvind Kejriwal as a “pseudo social activist,” and he may well turn out to be right judging by the stalled talks to form the next Delhi state government, BJP and Congress have rejected Mr Kejriwal’s 18 listed conditions for the other parties to sign up to, before they can expect Am Admi support for any coalition. Why stand in an election when you lack serious intent to govern? No government in Delhi will mean President’s Rule and fresh elections – a hugely expensive exercise that could recoil on Mr Kejriwal’s ambition to be a serious political leader in the national stakes. Political gimmickry has no future in nation with pressing problems to address.

states to shame. When the majority of Goa’s Catholic community voted for the BJP – which the state’s chief minister acknowledged – there was no talk of them taking their cue from their church. Kerala Christians usually vote for a variety of different parties, as is their right, with no questions asked. It should be no different

President Pranab Mukherjee presented NDTV’s 25 Greatest Global Living Indian Legends award at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

See comment page 3

which had supported the South African struggle from its inception barely rated a mention. The church service was accompanied by a vast meeting at a local stadium, where speakers paid their tributes to a giant of the age.

President Obama broadened the canvas by mentioning Mahatma Gandhi and the US civil rights leader, the Revered Martin Luther King, while President Pranab Mukherjee spoke warmly of South Africa’s close ties with India, which Mr Mandela had crafted and bequeathed to his successors (Hindu December 11,16)

Punjab economy

Lal Thanhawla

for Mizoram. Lal Thanhawla was sworn in as Chief Minister, together with eleven colleagues as ministers in the new government. Congress won a landslide victory, taking 25 of the 40 seats in the Atate Assembly (Hindu December 15)

Mandela funeral

South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela went to his final resting place at the weekend in the village where he was born. Earlier in the week a memorial service was held to commemorate his remarkable life of struggle and reconciliation at a church in Johannesburg, with the world’s good and great in close attendance. The leading international

The Punjab government unveiled its programme of economic and social development at a gala Investors Summit in Chandigarh, where business leaders from all parts of India assembled. The major points of the action plan were as follows: All villages in the State to be connected with 4G in the coming year; Infosys to set up a new IT campus at Mohali; a 1,000 acre bank to be set up for the needs of land industry; 117 industrial houses have signed up to Memorandums of Understang with the State government; massive investment of Rs 6500 crores by 117 companies have given fresh momentum to the State’s Industrial Revolution.

Punjab also plans to operationalise 200MW of solar power and 1000 biomass power in the next three years.

Implementation

Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal promised investors all the help they needed in the fulfill-

Mizoram

Mizoram voted Congress because the people willed it so.

Condescension is out of place.

Mizo literacy levels are noticeably higher than those in Rajasthan, and women in the State are more empowered than their sisters in the Hindi-speaking belt where the BJP rule the roots. Social discipline and civic sensibilities in Mizoram put many of the northern Indian

Nelson Mandela funeral

networks – largely British and American – concentrated almost exclusively on the British and American presence, on people who were late comers to the Mandela high table. Latin American and Asian nations

ment of their plans, and asked for new ideas and suggestions to take the Punjab economy forward. He promised the expeditious implementation of projects. Punjab is India’s bread bas-

Afghan President Hamid Karzai with Manmohan Singh. sSee comment page 3

ket and its living standards are top of India’s development league.

Taiwan as partner

Taiwan is all set to partner Punjab on its road to industrial development. Taiwan entrepreneurs are eyeing business opportunities in the State as part of their plans to double their investments in India. Punjab was looking to Taiwan for expertise in the agricultural sector, already the most advanced in India, and for joint ventures in food processing, Information Technology, electronics (where Taiwan is especially strong) infrastructure, light engineering and textiles (Business Standard December 14)

Bangalore airport

Bangalore international airport, which has undergone extensive refurbishment and expansion to handle up to 20 million passengers a year from the 13 million earlier, is planning further improvements in passenger use.

The Rs 1,500 crore investment committed by a GVK-led consortium is to be used to this end.

Bangalore International Airport Ltd (BIIAL), one of the few profitable Indian airports has reported a profit of Rs 104 crore on a revenue of Rs 628 crore.

Launching a new airport terminal, Union Aviation Minister Ajit Singh said that India had grown to become the ninthlargest aviation market in the world and was poised to reach third position – behind only the US and China. The Planning Commission , he said, had provided a blueprint for the expansion of the country’s airport network.

Airport upgrade

“We have identified 20 major airports to be upgraded under the public-private sector partnership (PPP) model, and six of these, including Kolkata, Chennai, Jaipur and Guwahati

have been handed over to private players Our aim is also to develop ,low-cost airports in the country,” he said. The move by the GKV consortium to expand Bangalore airport comes at a time of stress for the company to raise resources. GKV also handles the Mumbai international airport asit does the one in Bangalore. It is now looking to Singapore’s Changi Airport for a strategic partnership.

MiG-21 FL departs

West Bengal’s Kalaikunda air base was witness to a solemn ceremony to mark the end of a remarkable aircraft that had served the Indian Air Force for many decades. Flight Lieutenant Nagarjun, 27, the youngest pilot in the squadron handed over the document ending the life span of the MiG-21FL to “Charlie Browne” the call sign of Air Chief Marshal NAK Browne, 62, who retires on 31 December and once a fighter ace with this warplane. Wing Commander Manav Kumaria, of the IAF’s Operational Conversion Unit described “This [as] the pilot’s aircraft….Handling it was so easy due to the simple technology.” Air Chief Marshal Browne described the qualities of the aircraft in combat, particularly in the 1965 and 71 Pakistan wars.

The other MiG-21 aircraft known as Bison will continue in service until 2018(Times of India December 12)

Enter Tejas

India’s indigenously produced warplane Tejas is readying for takeoff with the IAF. Designed and developed by the Aeronautical Development Agency, under the aegis of the Defence Research & Development Organization (DRDFO), this tail-less aircraft, the lightest in the world, recently acquired its Initial Operational Clearance (IOC) and is expected Full Operational Clearance in December 201.

(Hindu December 12)

Prime Minister announces double funding research into dementia UK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

13

The BAME community, especially Asians welcome the positive development with open arms

Rupanjana Dutta

PM David Cameron at a special G8 summit announced that the government will double its funding research into dementia. This means there will be more financial support available for leading scientists, universities and other institutions in fighting dementia.

Alzheimer's The Society recently reported that it is estimated that in 2011 there were 25,000 people with dementia from black, asian and minority ethnic (BAME) groups in England and Wales. This number is expected to double to 50,000 by 2026 and rise to over 172,000 by 2051.

This is a nearly seven-fold increase in 40 years, compared to just over a twofold increase in the numbers of people with dementia across the whole UK population in the same time period.

The UK Government has now committed to spend £52 million in 2012/13 and up to £66m by 2015. The ambition will now be to double public, commercial and charitable R&D in dementia in the UK by 2025. The Medical Research Council will invest £150m for clinical research in the UK, with £50m to better understand how dementia affects the brain, improve early detection and improve treatments to delay progression of the disease.

The Innovative Medicines Initiative (public private partnership

between EU and European Pharmaceutical industry) will invest £44m in Alzheimer drug trials.

European The Commission will also invest £460m and issue a call for proposals into research on neurodegenerative diseases, including UK research institutions and universities.

Mr Cameron also emphasised that a newlyformed UK Dementia Platform will bring together researchers and scientists from the public and private sectors, which will allow different teams across the UK to share and benefit from each other’s data to increase the scale and scope of their own project.

The investment came on the week that the first ever NHS patient was due to receive a brain scan that would enable doctors to rule out a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease.

Globally, 36 million people have dementia and the World Health Organisation predicts that numbers will nearly double every two decades – meaning 66 million people will have dementia in 2030 and over 115 million in 2050. In simple terms, that means someone in the world is diagnosed with dementia every four seconds.

The cost to healthcare is huge, with dementia now one of the greatest pressures on healthcare systems around the world.

It costs an incredible estimated £370billion (US $604 billion) – about one per cent of the world’s

GDP. A full report on dementia by the Alzheimer's Society, LSE and King's College in the UK reported that by 2025, one million people in the UK will suffer from dementia.

It reported that the total of 11,392 people from black and minority ethnic groups with dementia represents 1.7% of all people with dementia in the UK. It is noteworthy that 6.1% of all people with dementia among BME groups are early onset, compared with only 2.2% for the UK population as a whole.

Cameron's PM announcement on the funding research into dementia has been welcomed with open arms by the Asian Community.

Subha Patel whose father suffers from dementia told Asian Voice, this is a very good news.

Further research and funding from the government means there will be a better and faster cure available for our loved ones. It will also encourage our family and friends to come out and discuss these issues, that are otherwise swept under the carpet as 'social taboos'.

Pramod Thakkar, who is the Director of the Meera Nursing Home, which has a Vegetarian Dementia unit with trained staff to cater for the Ethnic Minority needs over 23 years, told us, "There is a reluctance in the acceptance that the parents may be suffering from dementia, a word

PM David Cameron

which unfortunately is still “taboo” in Asian vocabulary. The Asian community are still having difficulty in coming to terms that dementia (form of memory loss which effects 1 in 5 over the age of 85) is a common condition that affects many elderly people and is highly prevalent in the Asian Community. As Dementia progresses, a person’s ability to look after themselves from day to day is effected and many may not be able to pay much attention to personal hygiene and forget to wash or change their clothes . They say “ignorance is a bliss” but the younger generation nowadays are realising the complexity of needs and importance of a good quality of life and this creates a dilemma for them.

Educating the Asian Community about dementia and to inform them that it is not a disease of “MAD” people as they generally believe but rather a condition that

develops through the ageing process as well as a condition which develops following Stroke or progression of Parkinson disease is important. This education can held in routine gatherings at temples or better still the youngsters in school. It should be tackled from every angle but obviously it must be prioritised and a third way would be to have a phone in program on the Asian Channel with some experts at the other end explaining this condition .

The Asian people welcome David Cameron's effort to raise the profile on this issue and to double the funding in researching into this. It would be helpful if some of the funding could be channeled towards the above education.

I think one could develop a big project on this issue by gathering a group of professionals at different levels from the expert doctors to experts nurses to the carers who

Do Muslim Protestors in Britain have the right to stop businesses from selling alcohol?

Tanveer Mann

Britain is a multicultural society, where one of the national dishes has successfully become a 'curry', Bollywood movies are played at a large number of UK cinemas and white British children interact with Asian children on a regular basis. It has successfully managed to coexist with the increasingly-dominating Asian culture over the last six decades, despite being a Christian country following the Church of England.

However a recent Muslim protest, held in the Brick Lane area of London, calling for all shops and restaurants to stop selling alcohol, can be then regarded as a step too far.

A large group of around 60 men and women in burkhas gathered in Brick Lane on Friday 13th December, to protest against shops and

restaurants selling “evil” alcohol and to warn them that they face 40 lashes if they continue to sell it. The protest was led by controversial extremist Anjem Choudary. the former leader of terrorist group Al-Muhajiroun who is very keen to enforce Sharia Law in pockets of Britain.

This law, which is derived from the Koran, typically informs every aspect of the life of a Muslim, such as banning alcohol and outlawing meat, which is not prepared in the

appropriate way.

Choudary told the crowd: ‘The shops are run by Muslims and they know they are selling alcohol and they know the sale and consumption of alcohol is completely prohibited. We cannot live among the non-Muslims and see this evil take place.’ While he claims to be 'teaching' Islamic law to fellow Muslims in the UK and seeking justice for Muslims who have been 'wronged' by the government, his opinions are seemingly hypocritical as he continues to claim £26,000 a year in benefits. In a country such as Britain that give the luxury of benefits to the disadvantaged, the abusers of the system can and should not

morally have the right to impose anything against the government.

Dr Usama Hasan, of the anti-extremist think-tank the Quilliam Foundation, reinforced this thinking and, reportedly, said: ‘In Islamic teaching you shouldn't drink alcohol, but you can't impose Islamic law on other people.

This is a democracy. To try and impose Sharia by force, which is their stated aim, is completely stupid and against Islamic teaching.’

An East London Mosque spokesman reportedly condemned the protest as a publicity stunt and politicians in the area described it as ‘provocative’. Whilst Labour group leader Sirajul Islam said before the protest: ‘Everyone has a right to peaceful protest but I urge the Shariah Project to think carefully about the impact their actions will have.’

have been involved in looking after their spouse who have been affected by this condition."

Prime Minister David Cameron said, “Building a competitive, more resilient economy with new industries and the jobs of the future is a key part of my long-term plan for Britain...

“In the past two years we’ve seen £2 billion invested in this country, that will not only mean more jobs and growth, but also more research and greater progress, and it’s a huge sign of confidence in our economy.

“But if we are to beat dementia, we must also work globally, with nations, business and scientists from all over the world working together as we did with cancer, and with HIV and AIDS. Today, we will get some of the most powerful nations around the table in London to agree how we must go forward together, working towards that next big breakthrough.”

Tests to become more challenging for migrants in UK Migrants will now be able to claim benefits if they manage to pass a series of tough new tests, the government announced on Friday 13th December. The announcement comes in a bid to detract potential 'benefit tourists', who now will have to prove fluency of English amongst other criteria. The law will take effect from Wednesday when foreign-born benefit claimants will face more questions in lengthier interviews. The rules will apply to all overseas nationals, regardless of whether or not they are from the European Union, and to Britons returning after living abroad.

JobCentre Plus staff, who will conduct the interviews, will have a secret list of 100 questions which they can be tailored to individual interviewees by an "intelligent IT system". They could be asked to provide details of family abroad and proof they have a permanent British address.

UK

MML and SV 150 hold VIVEK successfully

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Commemorating the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda this year, Maharashtra Mandal London and SV 150 have jointly organised the nationwide elocution competition “Vivek”.

Local rounds were held across different regions of the country including the North West (Manchester), Midlands (Birmingham), Wales (Cardiff), Croydon (South London) and different satellite centres of London including Hounslow, Reading, Slough, Harrow (Sai School) and MML premises in Dollis Hill.

Vivek is an excellent initiative of MML aiming to engage young audiences and bring out the public speaking skills in them. Participants were divided into three age

groups, 6-10 years in A, 11-15 years in B and 1619 years in C. The judging criteria included content, subject knowledge, body language, flow, presentation and impact on audience. 50 finalists from various regions converged at the national finals held on 16 November.

The Competition was flagged off by Deep Prajwalan by Ram Vaidya representing SV150, Sushil Rapatwar representing MML and the judges of the event. Peace prayer was chanted by Ragasudha Vinjamuri, who has also co-compered the event with Nikhil Shrotri. Three and half year old Payal Jain spoke about Vivekananda and won the hearts of all.

Judges Dr. Madhukar Ambekar, Anuja

Piplapure and Mayur V. Shah have evaluated the candidate performances.

Namitha Pasunuru (Wales) and Charan Peddu (South London) were the winner and runner-up respectively in Group A, Siddhi B u r h a n p u r k a r (Hounslow) and Maitrika Gupta (South London) in Group B, Prawar Petkar ( N O R W E M A Manchester) and Rutwik Kulkarni (MML) in Group C were winners and runners-up respectively. Janvi Kotecha (Sai School) from Group B and Mishti Sharma (Hounslow) from Group A received special appreciation. Mrs and Mr Thakur and Mrs and Mr Kale have given away certificates to all the participants.

KEEP YOUR HOME BURGLAR-FREE DURING THE FESTIVE SEASON

It’s that time of year when we stock our homes with presents of the latest gadgets, expensive jewellery, designer goods, and a time when we let our guard down.

With burglary one of the most common crimes, it's important to consider the security of your home during the festive season whether you are going away or not. Although contents insurance will pay compensation, nothing can pay for the stress it causes, or replace the personal items and gifts you may lose as a result of a burglary.

NHBC, one of the UK’s leading warranty providers and standard setting body for new build homes, offers the following security tips to help you keep your home and possessions safe and secure during the merry

season. l Check your window locking systems: Ground floor windows and any others that are easily reached by climbing are recommended to have an automatic lock at the press of a button that needs a key to open them. l Improve the security potential of your doors:

It is important to have robust locks on both the front and back doors, as well as a 180° door viewer to check on callers, a door opening limiter and hinge bolts on outward opening doors. l Do you have detection lighting? Crime can be prevented by external detection security lighting that switches on after dark when someone is nearby, illuminating the general area. l Benefits of an alarm system: A house alarm systems acts in two ways – to deter intruders, and detect the opening of a window or a door. Some systems can also be linked up to a mobile phone number letting the

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Resonating Bells showcases finer shades of Indian classical dance

The dance performance Resonating Bells hosted by the Nehru Centre recently brought out the finer shades of Kathak and Bharata Natyam in terms of rhythmic patterns and expressions.

Dancers Ashwini and Ragasudha showcased how the intricacies of these two distinct dance forms can be merged cross-style while retaining the individual traditional flavour.

Ashwini Kalsekar, holder of Master’s degree in Kathak, has performed in festivals like Pt.Kalka Bindadin Festival and Pt Gopikrishna Jayanti Mahotsav in India. Her projects ‘Metronome’

based on global warming and “Big Bed Dance” for patients in paediatric wards of London hospitals received accolades.

R a g a s u d h a Vinjamuri (Rapatwar) learnt dance from Guru Dr Uma Rama Rao in Hyderabad.

She is applauded for her choreographic work involving children in public context. She has performed during cultural festivals in Britain, and during the 150th birth anniversary of Swami Vivekananda at Lampton Convention Centre. She has been conferred Special Honorary Award for her contributions to Culture and Art in Britain.

Deputy Director of

Rwanda’s history from the lens of a former refugee Patricia Bamurangirwa is captured in her new book, Rwanda Yesterday. The book, which is divided into three parts, offers a fresh perspective on the country and its people.

The outbreak of the civil war in the 60s ended Patricia’s education, and her family fled from Rwanda, first as refugees to the Congo and Uganda and later to Tanzania and

Kenya. Deprived of an education and stable upbringing, Patricia became interested in the reason behind the wars and violence Rwanda and its people suffered. This prompted her to write this book to set the record straight regarding the common myths about the history of Rwanda and its people. Patricia’s book is priced at £9.99 each and can be ordered via www.troubador.co.uk

the Nehru Centre Mr Gowri Shankar welcomed the audience and distinguished guest his worshipful Mayor of Brent Cllr Bobby Thomas spoke on the vibrancy of Indian culture and art.

Between the beautiful invocation to Goddess Parvati in the beginning and tribute to the five Macro elements of Nature Pancha bhutas as conclusion, both dancers demonstrated spectacular expressions and movements of Kathak and Bharata Natyam, exhibiting a fine footwork and articulation.

Praajakta Pargaonkar has compered and packed the show with her eloquence.

New Book: Rwanda Yesterday

owner know the alarm has been triggered.

When you are visiting family and friends – try to make your home look occupied! l Leave the lights on in the evening (but not just hall or landing lights) or use an automatic time switch. l Remember to cancel papers, milk and other deliveries before going away l If you’re away for a length of time, arrange for a neighbour to generally keep an eye on your home while you are away. l Keep valuable and eas-

ily transportable items out of view. The temptation may prove too much for a passing burglar. l Hide small valuable items like jewellery.

Some tips from the police: l Photograph valuable items and use the new marking methods available, so that your goods can be traced if stolen.

Make a note of serial numbers l Whenever you leave your home – even to visit a neighbour for a short time – make sure all doors and windows are securely locked.

l If your front door can be locked by a key from the inside, make sure that you have a spare key in a convenient place near the front door so that you can get out quickly. l Do not leave ladders, steps etc. visible in the garden l Make your back garden private and secure. Lock rear entry gates. Plant prickly shrubs against wall and fences where access is possible. l Keep front hedges and fences no more than waist high, so that neighbours can see your front and side doors.

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www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

INDIA January

• Arjun Munda resigned as BJP Chief Minister in Jharkhand • Urjit Patel appointed as Vice Chairman of Reserve Bank of India • Controversy over killing of two Indian soldiers by Pakistani army • Gujarati origin Urvashi Dholakia became winner in reality show Big Boss-6 • Controversial statement of Home Miniser Sushil Kumar Shinde : ‘BJPRSS is spreading Hindu terrorism’ • Kumbh fair started in Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh

Nearly 7000,000 people took holy bath on the auspicious day of Maha Shivratri • One of the accused in Delhi gang rape case committed suicide in jail

• Irfan Khan conferred national award in best actor category • After two decades Gujarati film ‘The Good Road’ received national award • Supreme Court sent Sanjay Dutt in jail for his involvement in 1993 Mumbai Blast case

July

• 10 bomb blasts in Bihar’s Mahabodhi temple, no casualty • Third child arrived in Shah Rukh Khan’s house through surrogacy • Veteran Bollywood actor Pran Sikand (93) passed away • Statehood to Telangana • Former minister Arun Nehru (60) passed away • INSAT -3D successfully launched

August

• Five Indian soldiers died following Pakistan army’s attack

April

• President’s rule in Jharkhand • Rahul Gandhi became Vice President of Congress in general board meeting of Congress party in Jaipur • ‘Filmfair’ awards - ‘Barfi’ dominated,

Ranbir Kapoor and Vidya Balan best actors • Nitin Gadkari resigned as BJP president, Rajnath Singh new chief

February

• Controversial Lokpal Bill sanctioned by Government of India. Anna Hazare and BJP opposed • Afzal Guru, main accused and convicted in attack on Indian Parliament, hanged in Delhi on 9th February • In a cheque bounce case film producer Mehul Kumar sentenced for two years’ jail • British Prime Minister David Cameron on three day India visit • Two bomb blasts in Hyderabad, 16 died and more than 100 injured

• Narendra Modi got place in BJP’s parliamentary board after six years • Sharmila Tagore and late Rajesh Khanna given ‘Padmabhushan’, while Nana Patekar and Sridevi were given ‘Padmashree’ • After long time recession in bullion market, investors benefited • Dada Saheb Falke award to veteran actor Pran • Supreme Court’s nod for translocation of Asiatic Lions from Gir to Madhya Pradesh • Central government on receiving end in Coal Block affidavit issue • Playback singer of yesteryears Shamshad Begam (94) died in Mumbai

May

• Nephew of Railway Minister arrested in Rs 9000,000 bribe case • Mumbai based writer Gulabdas Broker’s son Vinod (83) murdered • BJP lost in Karnataka assembly election, Congress emerged as ruling party • Railway Minister Pavankumar Bansal and Coal Minister Ashwani Kumar resigned for allegedly taking bribe • Li Keqiang, premier of the State Council of the People’s Republic China on visit to India, reaffirmed co-operation between the two countries

June

• David Cameron termed Jallianwala Baug massacre a shame

March

• Finance Minister Chidambaram allocated more than Rs 2,000 billion for defense • Ruling parties emerged victorious in North-Eastern states’ elections including Meghalaya, Nagaland and Tripura • Former governor of West Bengal and native of Saurashtra Viren J. Shah (86) died in Jordan • Pakistani Prime Minister Raja Parvez Asharaf offered prayer at Khawaja Moinuddin Chisty’s Dargah in Ajmer • Kumbh Fair concluded in Allahabad:

• Bollywood actress Jia Khan committed suicide in Mumbai • Begali film producer Rituparno Ghosh passed away • Ram Jethamalani expelled from BJP • Narendra Modi made chairman of BJP’s campaign committee • Flood devastated Uttarakhand: Many people died in Badrinath, Kedarnath, Gangotri and Yamunotri • Dr. Manmohan Singh expanded cabinet included four cabinet and four junior ministers • Gujarat BJP leader Amit Shah became party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, while former MP from Gujarat Madhusudan Mistry became Congress party incharge in the same state • India’s first navigation satellite IRNSS1A successfully launched

ever female chairperson in the 207 year history of the State Bank of India • Rape charges against Asaram’s son Narayan Sai following complaints from Surat based sisters • Delhi’s IGI and Birmingham Airports became ‘Sister Airport’

• Demand for statehoods became loud from other states following the decision to make Telangana, separate state from Andhra Pradesh • Subramanium Swami’s Janata party merged into BJP • Rupee deteriorated: Rs. 100.35 against pound sterling • India’s most wanted criminal Abdul Karim Tunda nabbed from India-Nepal border • Historic Food Security Bill passed in Lok Sabha • Five arrested for gang rape on photo journalist

September

• Asaram arrested from Indore in sexual assault case, sent to Jodhpur jail • Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s statement – India’s economic condition serious • Controversial land acquisition act passed in Lok Sabha • Mastermind of Indian Mujahiddin, Yasin Bhatkal arrested • 31 died in communal riots in Muzzaffarnagar • Narendra Modi declared as BJP’s prime ministerial candidate • Juth Bole Kauva Kate… Song’s creator Vithal Patel (78) died in Madhya Pradesh • Puja started again almost after 86 days of devastating flood in Kedarnath • In the Delhi gang rape case, four accused sentenced to death • 45 including former Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav convicted in fodder scam • Congress MP Rasid Masood sent to jail for four years in medical admission scam • 12 died in terror attack in Jammu • Jodhpur High Court rejected bail plea of Asaram • Satyanarayan Goenka (89) died in Mumbai

October

• Election dates declared in five states including Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Chhattisgarh and Mizoram • Lalu sentenced for five years jail in fodder scam, disqualified as Member of Parliament • Arundhati Bhattacharya became first

• Fallin cyclone created havoc in Andhra Pradesh and Odisha • 115 devotees died due to falling of bridge at Durga Temple in Ratangadh in Datiya district of Madhya Pradesh • Vice President Hamid Ansari inaugurated Lord Bhikhu Parekh’s ‘Parekh Institute of Thought’ in New Delhi • Government started excavation at village in Uttar Pradesh following claims that gold worth nearly 10 billion buried there • Popular singer Manna Dey (94) died in Banglore • Six died in seven bomb blasts at a public rally of Narendra Modi in Patna

• AB Vajpayee’s niece Karuna Shukla resigned from BJP

November

• Prince Charles and his wife impressed with nine day India visit • Kitchen queen Tarala Dalal passed away • India’s most successful rocket PSLV launched • Noted scientist CNR Rao conferred upon ‘Bharat Ratna’ • Prince Charles celebrated his 65th Birthday in Kerala • Cameron’s statement in Delhi: ‘No restriction in number of Indian students in UK’

• Parents convicted in controversial Arushi murder case • Rape charges against ‘Tahelka’ editor, complaint lodged in Goa • Assembly election held in five states • Sachin Tendulkar chosen as first Brand Ambassador of ‘UNICEF’ for South Asia

December

• BJP emerged victorious in Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi assembly elections. Mizoram to be ruled by Congress • Anna Hazare started fasting at Ralegan Siddhi for Janlokpal bill

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WORLD January

• Hindu parliamentarian Tulsi Gabbard took oath keeping hand on Gita in America

• Pallavi and Kiran C. Patel donated huge sum for the establishment of a college in America • Film based on Indian story ‘Life of Pie’ nominated for Oscar • 81 including four Britons died in army actions in Algeria • Barack Obama took oath as the President at Washington on January 21 • American court sentenced 14 year imprisonment to Tawahhur Rana, one of the accused in Mumbai terror attack • Violence in Egypt : President put three cities under emergency

February

• Babubhai ‘Bob’ Patel sentenced for 17 years imprisonment in healthcare scam in America • Four Oscar awards to ‘Life of Pie’

March

• Uhuru Kenyatta elected as the President of Kenya • Sensational robbery of diamonds worth 32 million pound in just three minutes at Brussels Airport • Wharton India Economic Forum withdrawn invitation given to Narendra Modi • Argentina’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected as new Pop of Roman Catholics

April

• Three died and144 injured in two bombasts in Boston during a marathon run

May

• Attack on Indian prisoner Sarabjit in Lahore Jail, died during treatment • Giuilio Andreotti, former Prime Minister of Italy passed away • Leicester based Indian origin Nehal Bhogayata became ‘Miss India Worldwide’ • Majority to Muslim League (N) in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister • Miracle of Science: Seven dead become alive in Australia • Devastating Cyclone in Oklahoma city in America

June

• Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s health deteriorated • Founder of BJP in America, Mukul Modi passed away • 750 Gujarati attacked by locals in Seychelles island

• More than 75000 people became homeless in Canada due to flood • American President Barack Obama on Africa visit

July

• Former Railway Minister of China sentenced to death in corruption charges • 14th International Indian Film Academy award ceremony held in Macau: Vidya Balan and Shah Rukh Khan declared as best artists • Known audio systems and speaker manufacturing company Bose Audio’s owner Amar Bose died in America • One of the main accused in Boffors scam, Ottavio Quattrocchi died in Milan • Army abducted Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013 for killing soldiers • India origin Amili Shah crowned as Miss New Jersey- 2014

November

• Singer Reshma died in Lahore • A street in Canada named after Indian musician A.R. Raheman • ‘Fortune’ magazine declare India’s Chanda Kocher as the most powerful woman in the World • Four million people affected in Philippines due to cyclone • Venezuela’s Gabriella became Miss Universe • After long legal fight in Australia, Dr. Jayant Patel, hailing from Jamnagar freed from jail • Dr. Amita Patel did successful surgery on Hollywood actor’s heart

December

• Indian origin Sima and American Shane got married through Hindu rituals in Los Angeles • Fine worth $ 13.9 million to former director of Goldman Sachs, Rajat Gupta who was convicted for insider trading • People suffered in heat wave in New York, 42 degree temperature recorded • Nisha Desai Biswal, born in Dahod town of Gujarat got important posting in American administration • Agra born Mamnum Hussain became Pakistan’s new President

• Nelson Mandela (95), an icon of antiapartheid fight passed away • Severe cold in America due to snowfall • 24 Indians accused in sabotage and violence at Little India in Singapore

UK

January

• British Indians staged protest against the shameful incident of rape in Delhi in front of Indian High Commission • Adgeware based Popatlal Sojpar Shah and Nathu Shah conferred with MBE award • Celebration of 150 years of Tube rail in London

August

• Barack Obama took dinner at Indian Restaurant ‘Rasika’ situated near White House on his birthday • Dr. Bhavna Patel appointed as CEO of Cape Town’s well-known hospital Grut Swir • Vidya Balan and Anna Hazzare took part in India Day Parade in New York • Increase in Indian Green Card holders in America

September

• Terror Attack in Nairobi: 67 including nine Gujaratis killed in bomb blasts and firing • After 50 years, Pakistani film ‘Jinda Bhag’ nominated for Oscar, Bollywood star Nasiruddin Shah in main role, assistant director Minu Gauri • South India origin Nina Devuluri crowned as ‘Miss America - 2014’ •Salustiano Sanchez Blazuez (122 year), world’s oldest living man died at Grand Island • Millions migrated in Japan due to cyclone • American economy and government in worst crisis, announcement of shutdown

October

• 30 lakh people affected due to cyclone in China • Nobel Prize in various categories announced • Solution for America’s shutdown crisis • Iran gave death sentenced to 16 rebels

• First Gujarati Minister Lord Dolar Popat in House of Lords • Eleven died of snowfall in Britain • Shailesh Vara appointed in Crime and Court Bill Committee • Two died and 11 injured in Central London following Helicopter crash • Actress Sophia Haq (41) died in London • 2.9 rector scale tremor in East Midlands • First Sikh Lord Tarsem King (75) passed away • Britain would not intervene on Kashmir issue, Government’s opinion

February

• Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali included in six most spoken languages in UK • A painting of Pablo Picaso sold at 28.5 million • ABPL Group gave Asian Voice Political & Public Life Awards at House of Commons • Queen Elizabeth (II), most powerful woman in UK • 101- year- old runner Fauza Singh left Marathon Track

March

• Compromise between Laxmi Mital and Moni Sharma outside court in Nigeria for contract of oil • Racist attack on Gujarati father-daughter in Manchester • Prime Minister David Cameron said that all immigrants need to pay money

in order to come in Britain and give something to nation, and benefits is not fundamental right of migrants • Thousands of homes without electricity due to snow cyclone across the country

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013 August

• 30 members included in House of Lords • Pizza tycoon and donor Rumi Verji chosen as Lord • Conservative Party and Labour Party invited Narendra Modi to address in House of Commons • Britain’s population increased by 4,20,000

September

• Chancellor George Osborne presented budget suggesting slow growth rate and minimum relief

April

• First woman Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher passed away: Queen, Prince Philip and the Prime Minister David Cameron remained present in her last rites.

• Noted writer Ruth Prawar Jimbhwala passed away • ‘The Sunday Times’ published its 25th rich list, wealthy Asians like Laxmi Mital and Hiduja brothers got place in it • Extradition application of Hanif Tiger rejected by British High Court

May

• UK Independents Party’s impressive performance in the elections of 34 counties of UK • Controversy in British Politics, Lords and MPs Cash for Query scandal

June

• British businessman of Indian origin Sanjiv Kanoria purchased Austrian bank • Gujarati connection of Prince William and Harry: DNA test proves Indian Heritage • 29-year-old Indian origin Amol Rajan appointed as the Editor of ‘The Independent’ • Singapore based Indian businessman B.K. Modi said that he would establish a bank in UK

• Yoga Guru detained at Heathrow Airport and released • British Parliament rejected proposal for army attack on Syria • In the child sexual abuse case, six including two Gujaratis sentenced to jail • UK Government announced some relief in immigration rules, companies and Indians got relief

• William Hag, best politician of Britain, parliamentarian Keith Vaaz got third place • Activists of South Asian Human Rights movement protested against invitation to Narendra Modi to visit UK • Glorious ceremony of Asian Achievers Awards by ABPL Group in London • Former Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai appointed as new High Commissioner to Britain

October

• Sir Alan Davis guilty in context of improper accounts • Shailesh Vara and Sajid Javed got berth in Cameron government • 22 per cent hike in Queen Elizabeth II’s honorarium • Founder of Gujarati Lexicon Ratilal Chandaria passed away • Diwali celebration at Trafalgar Square

• In the memory of forced departure of Asians from Uganda, a message plat was put at Stansted Airport • Routine life disturbed, four killed and 14 injured in the most devastating cyclone in the past decade in UK

November

• Tushar Morzaria appointed as finance director in Barclays • Controversial 3,000 pound Visa Bond Scheme got nod of Home department • Arrival of Royal baby was given by Gujarati photographer Jesal Parashotam : The baby Christened as Prince George Alexander Luis • Indian origin Ajay Kakkar appointed as chairman of appointment committee of House of Lords • Shrien’s defeat in extradition war in Anny Devani murder case

SPORTS January

• India register win against Pakistan in One-day international cricket series • 127 year old record broken as New Zealand all out in 45 runs against South Africa • Former test player Rusi Surati passed away • India won one-day series against England • Novak Djokovic created history by winning Australian Open in third consecutive year

April

• Indian Premier League- 6 started in Kolkata • Andy Murray became Miami Masters champion • Chris Gayle slammed 100 runs in just 30 balls in IPL

May

• IPL match fixing scam: S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela, Ankit Chauhan and Vidu Dara Singh involved • David Backham announced retirement

• Finally government decided to put aside controversial 3,000 pound Visa bond scheme • To mark Diwali festivities, Cameron and his wife paid visit to Neasden BAPS temple • Dr Manmohan Singh is the most powerful Sikh in the world • All party parliamentary group formed

by UK MPs for Hindus • Asians ignored in local council elections • Three centuries old connection set to break, Scotland to become separate from Britain • Helicopter crash on Glasgow pub

• Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja in top ten of ICC ranking

February

• IPL Twenty-20 season six: Australia’s Macwell emerged as costliest player in auction with Rs. 53 million contract • International Olympic Committee excluded wrestling from the list of sports • ICC women’s world cup: Australia became champion by defeating West Indies • Vishwanathan Anand became Grenke Chess Classic champion • In the Indian cricket’s history of eight decades, first time ever, Indian team d e f e a t e d Australia 4-0 • Former South African cricket player Clive Rice claimed that Hensie Cronje and Bob Woolmer were killed • British Government gave approval to confer Sachin Tedulkar with ‘Sir’ title • English football player Michel Oven announced retirement from professional football

March

• Dhoni breaks Sachin’s record of highest score by Indian skipper • Ricky Ponting to lead Mumbai Indians in IPL 6 • Clinical England win ODI series against New Zealand • South Africa complete Pak series clean sweep • Fauja Singh hangs running boots at 101 • Hesh-Llodra duo win doubles title • Australia sack four players for indiscipline • Virender Sehwag dropped from Indian test team • Tine Baun becomes oldest winner at All England • India seal 4-0 series win against Australia

• Sachin Tendulkar completed 50,000 runs in all formats of cricket • England’s pace bowler Steven Harminson announced his retirement from Cricket • Life time ban on Indian badminton player Jwala Gatta • Novak Djokovic won China Open Tennis tournament by defeating Raffel Nadal • Rohan Bopanna became champion in Japan Open Tennis • Sachin Tendulker announced retirement • Virat Kohli slammed century in just 52 balls against Australia in Jaipur One day match and set record of scoring fastest century from India

June

• Mini Cricket World Cup Champions trophy started in England • Sri Lankan cricketer Maheela Jaywardane completed 11,000 runs • England won against India in ICC Champions Trophy

July

• 18 –year-old youth won jackpot worth 22 million pound • Decision taken to the sale 360 - year old Royal mail • Prince William – Ket Middleon become parents of a baby boy on July 22 • 760 people died due to heat wave in Britain

December

• Chinese migrants increased in UK • Life imprisonment to Derby based Harbinder Khatkar in rape case

17

July

• England’s A n d y M u r r a y b e c a m e Wi m b l e d o n Champion, became first Tennis player from UK to win the championship after 77 years • Archery World Cup: Dipika Kumari won gold medal • Match fixing case: former South African captain Hansie Cronje’s name included in charge sheet after 13 years

August

• Ravindra Jadeja became number one bowler in ICC one day cricket ranking • Ashes: England beat Australia 3-0 • 18 year old PV Sindhu won bronze medal in her first ever world badminton championship • Controversy created following Ashes victory celebration of English player after having liquor

September

• Wrestling to be part of 2014 and 2020 Olympic games: 2020 Olympic games to be held in Japan • Serena Williams won US Open for the fifth time • Spot fixing case: Lifetime ban on S. Sreesanth and Ankit Chauhan, one year ban on Gujarat’s pace bowler Siddharth Trivedi • England bowler Monty Panesar banned up to 2014 season because of bad behavior • Once again Srinivasan elected as president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

October

• Champions league T20: Mumbai Indians became champion by defeating Rajasthan Royals

• Indian Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel created history by registering third consecutive win

November

• Fitting tribute to ‘God of Cricket’: ‘Bharat Ratna’ for Sachin Tendulkar

• India crush West Indies in Sachin’s last test • India, England to host Hockey World Cups in 2018 • World Chess Championship: Norway’s Magnus Carlsen won against India’s Vishwanathan Anand • Sebastian Vettel equalized record of Michel Shoemaker of winning 13 titles in a year by winning last Grand Prix of the year in Brazil • Zahir Khan’s comeback in Indian test cricket team, selected for South Africa tour

December

• Dhoni in ICC test, ODI teams; Kohli misses out on ODI spot • Indian shuttler Sindhu wins Macau Grand Prix gold

• Zol to captain India U-19 in ACC Asia Cup • Dhawan powers India to series win over West Indies • Gaganjeet Bhullar wins Indonesia Open • Bangla unrest threaten Twenty20 World Cup • CA apologises to Monty Panesar • S Africa won one-day series against India • Indian Olympic Association to drop tainted officials • Australia won Ashes series against England

16

WORLD January

• Hindu parliamentarian Tulsi Gabbard took oath keeping hand on Gita in America

• Pallavi and Kiran C. Patel donated huge sum for the establishment of a college in America • Film based on Indian story ‘Life of Pie’ nominated for Oscar • 81 including four Britons died in army actions in Algeria • Barack Obama took oath as the President at Washington on January 21 • American court sentenced 14 year imprisonment to Tawahhur Rana, one of the accused in Mumbai terror attack • Violence in Egypt : President put three cities under emergency

February

• Babubhai ‘Bob’ Patel sentenced for 17 years imprisonment in healthcare scam in America • Four Oscar awards to ‘Life of Pie’

March

• Uhuru Kenyatta elected as the President of Kenya • Sensational robbery of diamonds worth 32 million pound in just three minutes at Brussels Airport • Wharton India Economic Forum withdrawn invitation given to Narendra Modi • Argentina’s Jorge Mario Bergoglio elected as new Pop of Roman Catholics

April

• Three died and144 injured in two bombasts in Boston during a marathon run

May

• Attack on Indian prisoner Sarabjit in Lahore Jail, died during treatment • Giuilio Andreotti, former Prime Minister of Italy passed away • Leicester based Indian origin Nehal Bhogayata became ‘Miss India Worldwide’ • Majority to Muslim League (N) in Pakistan, Nawaz Sharif became the Prime Minister • Miracle of Science: Seven dead become alive in Australia • Devastating Cyclone in Oklahoma city in America

June

• Former South African President Nelson Mandela’s health deteriorated • Founder of BJP in America, Mukul Modi passed away • 750 Gujarati attacked by locals in Seychelles island

• More than 75000 people became homeless in Canada due to flood • American President Barack Obama on Africa visit

July

• Former Railway Minister of China sentenced to death in corruption charges • 14th International Indian Film Academy award ceremony held in Macau: Vidya Balan and Shah Rukh Khan declared as best artists • Known audio systems and speaker manufacturing company Bose Audio’s owner Amar Bose died in America • One of the main accused in Boffors scam, Ottavio Quattrocchi died in Milan • Army abducted Egypt’s ousted President Mohamed Morsi

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013 for killing soldiers • India origin Amili Shah crowned as Miss New Jersey- 2014

November

• Singer Reshma died in Lahore • A street in Canada named after Indian musician A.R. Raheman • ‘Fortune’ magazine declare India’s Chanda Kocher as the most powerful woman in the World • Four million people affected in Philippines due to cyclone • Venezuela’s Gabriella became Miss Universe • After long legal fight in Australia, Dr. Jayant Patel, hailing from Jamnagar freed from jail • Dr. Amita Patel did successful surgery on Hollywood actor’s heart

December

• Indian origin Sima and American Shane got married through Hindu rituals in Los Angeles • Fine worth $ 13.9 million to former director of Goldman Sachs, Rajat Gupta who was convicted for insider trading • People suffered in heat wave in New York, 42 degree temperature recorded • Nisha Desai Biswal, born in Dahod town of Gujarat got important posting in American administration • Agra born Mamnum Hussain became Pakistan’s new President

• Nelson Mandela (95), an icon of antiapartheid fight passed away • Severe cold in America due to snowfall • 24 Indians accused in sabotage and violence at Little India in Singapore

UK

January

• British Indians staged protest against the shameful incident of rape in Delhi in front of Indian High Commission • Adgeware based Popatlal Sojpar Shah and Nathu Shah conferred with MBE award • Celebration of 150 years of Tube rail in London

August

• Barack Obama took dinner at Indian Restaurant ‘Rasika’ situated near White House on his birthday • Dr. Bhavna Patel appointed as CEO of Cape Town’s well-known hospital Grut Swir • Vidya Balan and Anna Hazzare took part in India Day Parade in New York • Increase in Indian Green Card holders in America

September

• Terror Attack in Nairobi: 67 including nine Gujaratis killed in bomb blasts and firing • After 50 years, Pakistani film ‘Jinda Bhag’ nominated for Oscar, Bollywood star Nasiruddin Shah in main role, assistant director Minu Gauri • South India origin Nina Devuluri crowned as ‘Miss America - 2014’ •Salustiano Sanchez Blazuez (122 year), world’s oldest living man died at Grand Island • Millions migrated in Japan due to cyclone • American economy and government in worst crisis, announcement of shutdown

October

• 30 lakh people affected due to cyclone in China • Nobel Prize in various categories announced • Solution for America’s shutdown crisis • Iran gave death sentenced to 16 rebels

• First Gujarati Minister Lord Dolar Popat in House of Lords • Eleven died of snowfall in Britain • Shailesh Vara appointed in Crime and Court Bill Committee • Two died and 11 injured in Central London following Helicopter crash • Actress Sophia Haq (41) died in London • 2.9 rector scale tremor in East Midlands • First Sikh Lord Tarsem King (75) passed away • Britain would not intervene on Kashmir issue, Government’s opinion

February

• Gujarati, Punjabi and Bengali included in six most spoken languages in UK • A painting of Pablo Picaso sold at 28.5 million • ABPL Group gave Asian Voice Political & Public Life Awards at House of Commons • Queen Elizabeth (II), most powerful woman in UK • 101- year- old runner Fauza Singh left Marathon Track

March

• Compromise between Laxmi Mital and Moni Sharma outside court in Nigeria for contract of oil • Racist attack on Gujarati father-daughter in Manchester • Prime Minister David Cameron said that all immigrants need to pay money

in order to come in Britain and give something to nation, and benefits is not fundamental right of migrants • Thousands of homes without electricity due to snow cyclone across the country

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013 August

• 30 members included in House of Lords • Pizza tycoon and donor Rumi Verji chosen as Lord • Conservative Party and Labour Party invited Narendra Modi to address in House of Commons • Britain’s population increased by 4,20,000

September

• Chancellor George Osborne presented budget suggesting slow growth rate and minimum relief

April

• First woman Prime Minister of Britain Margaret Thatcher passed away: Queen, Prince Philip and the Prime Minister David Cameron remained present in her last rites.

• Noted writer Ruth Prawar Jimbhwala passed away • ‘The Sunday Times’ published its 25th rich list, wealthy Asians like Laxmi Mital and Hiduja brothers got place in it • Extradition application of Hanif Tiger rejected by British High Court

May

• UK Independents Party’s impressive performance in the elections of 34 counties of UK • Controversy in British Politics, Lords and MPs Cash for Query scandal

June

• British businessman of Indian origin Sanjiv Kanoria purchased Austrian bank • Gujarati connection of Prince William and Harry: DNA test proves Indian Heritage • 29-year-old Indian origin Amol Rajan appointed as the Editor of ‘The Independent’ • Singapore based Indian businessman B.K. Modi said that he would establish a bank in UK

• Yoga Guru detained at Heathrow Airport and released • British Parliament rejected proposal for army attack on Syria • In the child sexual abuse case, six including two Gujaratis sentenced to jail • UK Government announced some relief in immigration rules, companies and Indians got relief

• William Hag, best politician of Britain, parliamentarian Keith Vaaz got third place • Activists of South Asian Human Rights movement protested against invitation to Narendra Modi to visit UK • Glorious ceremony of Asian Achievers Awards by ABPL Group in London • Former Indian foreign secretary Ranjan Mathai appointed as new High Commissioner to Britain

October

• Sir Alan Davis guilty in context of improper accounts • Shailesh Vara and Sajid Javed got berth in Cameron government • 22 per cent hike in Queen Elizabeth II’s honorarium • Founder of Gujarati Lexicon Ratilal Chandaria passed away • Diwali celebration at Trafalgar Square

• In the memory of forced departure of Asians from Uganda, a message plat was put at Stansted Airport • Routine life disturbed, four killed and 14 injured in the most devastating cyclone in the past decade in UK

November

• Tushar Morzaria appointed as finance director in Barclays • Controversial 3,000 pound Visa Bond Scheme got nod of Home department • Arrival of Royal baby was given by Gujarati photographer Jesal Parashotam : The baby Christened as Prince George Alexander Luis • Indian origin Ajay Kakkar appointed as chairman of appointment committee of House of Lords • Shrien’s defeat in extradition war in Anny Devani murder case

SPORTS January

• India register win against Pakistan in One-day international cricket series • 127 year old record broken as New Zealand all out in 45 runs against South Africa • Former test player Rusi Surati passed away • India won one-day series against England • Novak Djokovic created history by winning Australian Open in third consecutive year

April

• Indian Premier League- 6 started in Kolkata • Andy Murray became Miami Masters champion • Chris Gayle slammed 100 runs in just 30 balls in IPL

May

• IPL match fixing scam: S. Sreesanth, Ajit Chandela, Ankit Chauhan and Vidu Dara Singh involved • David Backham announced retirement

• Finally government decided to put aside controversial 3,000 pound Visa bond scheme • To mark Diwali festivities, Cameron and his wife paid visit to Neasden BAPS temple • Dr Manmohan Singh is the most powerful Sikh in the world • All party parliamentary group formed

by UK MPs for Hindus • Asians ignored in local council elections • Three centuries old connection set to break, Scotland to become separate from Britain • Helicopter crash on Glasgow pub

• Suresh Raina and Ravindra Jadeja in top ten of ICC ranking

February

• IPL Twenty-20 season six: Australia’s Macwell emerged as costliest player in auction with Rs. 53 million contract • International Olympic Committee excluded wrestling from the list of sports • ICC women’s world cup: Australia became champion by defeating West Indies • Vishwanathan Anand became Grenke Chess Classic champion • In the Indian cricket’s history of eight decades, first time ever, Indian team d e f e a t e d Australia 4-0 • Former South African cricket player Clive Rice claimed that Hensie Cronje and Bob Woolmer were killed • British Government gave approval to confer Sachin Tedulkar with ‘Sir’ title • English football player Michel Oven announced retirement from professional football

March

• Dhoni breaks Sachin’s record of highest score by Indian skipper • Ricky Ponting to lead Mumbai Indians in IPL 6 • Clinical England win ODI series against New Zealand • South Africa complete Pak series clean sweep • Fauja Singh hangs running boots at 101 • Hesh-Llodra duo win doubles title • Australia sack four players for indiscipline • Virender Sehwag dropped from Indian test team • Tine Baun becomes oldest winner at All England • India seal 4-0 series win against Australia

• Sachin Tendulkar completed 50,000 runs in all formats of cricket • England’s pace bowler Steven Harminson announced his retirement from Cricket • Life time ban on Indian badminton player Jwala Gatta • Novak Djokovic won China Open Tennis tournament by defeating Raffel Nadal • Rohan Bopanna became champion in Japan Open Tennis • Sachin Tendulker announced retirement • Virat Kohli slammed century in just 52 balls against Australia in Jaipur One day match and set record of scoring fastest century from India

June

• Mini Cricket World Cup Champions trophy started in England • Sri Lankan cricketer Maheela Jaywardane completed 11,000 runs • England won against India in ICC Champions Trophy

July

• 18 –year-old youth won jackpot worth 22 million pound • Decision taken to the sale 360 - year old Royal mail • Prince William – Ket Middleon become parents of a baby boy on July 22 • 760 people died due to heat wave in Britain

December

• Chinese migrants increased in UK • Life imprisonment to Derby based Harbinder Khatkar in rape case

17

July

• England’s A n d y M u r r a y b e c a m e Wi m b l e d o n Champion, became first Tennis player from UK to win the championship after 77 years • Archery World Cup: Dipika Kumari won gold medal • Match fixing case: former South African captain Hansie Cronje’s name included in charge sheet after 13 years

August

• Ravindra Jadeja became number one bowler in ICC one day cricket ranking • Ashes: England beat Australia 3-0 • 18 year old PV Sindhu won bronze medal in her first ever world badminton championship • Controversy created following Ashes victory celebration of English player after having liquor

September

• Wrestling to be part of 2014 and 2020 Olympic games: 2020 Olympic games to be held in Japan • Serena Williams won US Open for the fifth time • Spot fixing case: Lifetime ban on S. Sreesanth and Ankit Chauhan, one year ban on Gujarat’s pace bowler Siddharth Trivedi • England bowler Monty Panesar banned up to 2014 season because of bad behavior • Once again Srinivasan elected as president of Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)

October

• Champions league T20: Mumbai Indians became champion by defeating Rajasthan Royals

• Indian Grand Prix: Sebastian Vettel created history by registering third consecutive win

November

• Fitting tribute to ‘God of Cricket’: ‘Bharat Ratna’ for Sachin Tendulkar

• India crush West Indies in Sachin’s last test • India, England to host Hockey World Cups in 2018 • World Chess Championship: Norway’s Magnus Carlsen won against India’s Vishwanathan Anand • Sebastian Vettel equalized record of Michel Shoemaker of winning 13 titles in a year by winning last Grand Prix of the year in Brazil • Zahir Khan’s comeback in Indian test cricket team, selected for South Africa tour

December

• Dhoni in ICC test, ODI teams; Kohli misses out on ODI spot • Indian shuttler Sindhu wins Macau Grand Prix gold

• Zol to captain India U-19 in ACC Asia Cup • Dhawan powers India to series win over West Indies • Gaganjeet Bhullar wins Indonesia Open • Bangla unrest threaten Twenty20 World Cup • CA apologises to Monty Panesar • S Africa won one-day series against India • Indian Olympic Association to drop tainted officials • Australia won Ashes series against England

18

FINANCIAL VOICE Financial Voice

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

What not for your investments? Time has come for the Fed to decide on tapering, will they make or break Christmas for the US economy?

Last week was a strong one for the US Dollar with the American currency strengthening against its peers as the Retail Sales figures came out strong supporting the chance for tapering this week. So the big question remains: will the Fed pull the trigger and start reducing their asset purchases program?

The data to support such a decision is there and we've discussed the various positive results from the US economy in our recent reports and the only thing for the Fed to decide is whether the timing is the appropriate one with Christmas only a few days away.

If they finally go ahead with cutting back stimulus then we expect a strong pro-Dollar rally across all currency pairs and a decline in stocks and commodities. The strength of the rally will ultimately come down to the amount of the reduced stimulus with a cutback of 5 to 10 billion dollars per month being a moderate choice.

Actually such a reduction would provide the Fed with a very interesting option: they could go ahead and cut 5-10 billions per month and signal to the markets that tapering is finally here but announce that they will go ahead with further reductions depending on how the data come out during the coming period. This offers Bernanke the option to see his QE program from start to finish but also allows the next head of the Fed, Janet Yellen, the choice of how quickly to unwind stimulus.

Turning our attention to the European continent, the Euro fell but its amazing resilience allowed it to stay above the 1.3700 figure. This week however is full of risk events for the European currency that will have to face several PMI releases, the German IFO report and the ZEW Confidence survey, apart from the FOMC meeting. Fundamentals from the European region do not support the current price levels for the Euro and maybe this week's reports could set the record straight and send the currency towards lower levels.

The British Pound will also be in the forefront as the quiet trading conditions of last week come to an end.

This week holds consumer prices, employment and retail sales figures scheduled for release and of course the minutes' release from the last MPC meeting.

Markets are expecting strong printings all around for the Pound and should that happen then the UK currency will once again climb higher.

India’s trade watchdog seeks explanation from Jet, Etihad

Having cleared Rs. 20.60 billion deal between Jet Airways and Etihad, fair trade watchdog CCI is seeking explanations from the two carriers to ascertain whether they failed to provide information on certain commercial pacts that could raise anti-competition concerns.

The deal, involving Abu Dhabi carrier Etihad’s purchase of 24 per cent stake in Naresh Goyal-led Jet Airways, was approved last month by the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Meanwhile, this clearance has been challenged in the Competition Appellate Tribunal (Compat) by national carrier Air India’s former Executive Director Jitendra Bhargava, while BJP leader Subramanian Swamy has written to capital market regulator SEBI asking Etihad to be considered a ‘person acting in concert’ with Jet’s current promoters for this deal.

While Bhargava’s appeal was yet to be listed for hearing by the Compat, CCI Chairman Ashok Chawla said that the two

carriers have been issued show-cause notices on a separate issue relating to their certain commercial agreements.

While clearing the deal with majority vote, CCI on November 12 said in its order that the clearance would have no bearing on proceedings for possible penal action for non-furnishing of information by the parties. “The majority has already approved the merger but on whether some things happened before they filed the application, which could be a possible area for penalty being imposed, that we have issued a show cause notice,” Chawla said.

The notice was issued few days back and one hearing has already taken place. “We have heard the parties... A decision will be taken by the Commission on whether those aspects on which there were commercial agreements before they came to the Commission whether those were integral parts of the proposal which should have come to the Commission or not.

India-UK trade can double by 2015: Vince Cable

Terming the current level of trade between India and the UK as too low, Vince Cable, the UK's secretary of state (minister) for Business, Innovation and Skills, said that bilateral trade volumes could double by 2015 compared to the business done in 2010.

"We are looking at 15%-20% (annual) growth (in bilateral trade)," he told mediapersons in Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, after an interaction with young entrepreneurs at the PSG College of Technology. While UK's exports to India have grown 18% this year, Indian exports to the UK increased by about 10%.

Bilateral trade between the two countries stood at Rs 12 billion in 2012.

"The potential is very good. We are interested in free trade in services but India has been reluctant,"

Cable said. The government is offering a scheme where startups can avail loans of up to 10,000 based on only the idea without any collateral, the minister, who is lead-

ing a delegation of British businesses to India, said.

"We are trying to make it easier to set up business in the UK," he said. The British Deputy High Commissioner, Chennai, Bharat Joshi, said they were looking to expand their presence to Coimbatore, Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.

The UK government is encouraging efforts to revive the textile industry in the country and Indian companies can also invest in textiles, Cable said.

"The textile industry had virtually died and there were hardly any mills that were operating in the UK. But that is changing now," he said.

catching "digital menu boards" at low rates; Local Secrets highlighted "coordinated online and offline marketing via the web, email, social media and more"; Kavis focused on its catering disposables, food packaging and cooking options; Synergy Grill demonstrated "high power with low energy consumption" Raj Narsapuram, cofounder of Viewpoint Solutions two years ago, told me his company han-

dles everything from "web design and development, and social media marketing, to enhancing search engines" at attractive rates.

Also there was the Federation of Bangladeshi Caterers, a non-profit making pressure group that "protects and promotes" the interests of Britain's curry industry; and Masala Magazine, a lively quarterly edited by Drew Pisavadia.

BodybiVi, a USA slimming company, claims 2 million customers. One was enthusiastic promoter John Bradley's wife, the svelte and smiling Linda, on hand to tell visitors she lost 46 pounds in just 90 days by drinking a "mealreplacement shake" containing 20 vitamins and minerals.

Others cite the opposition leader’s enthusiasm for infrastructure and capital spending, including Goldman Sachs, who argued in a recent note – none-too-subtly entitled “Modiflying Our View” – that a BJP victory would bolster business confidence.

It is undeniable that changes in political leadership can perk up investor sentiment – just look at the boost to India’s fortunes that followed the arrival of demonstrably competent figures such as finance minister

P a l a n i a p p a n Chidambaram last year, or Reserve Bank head Raghuram Rajan this September.

“There is a kind of administrative disarray that is hampering business and shaving maybe 1 per cent off growth,” says Pratap Bhanu Mehta of the Centre for Policy Research in New Delhi.

“This should be relatively easy for Modi to correct.”

Take all this together, and the sense is that Modi would arrive in New Delhi next year, primed to knock heads together. Cowed business titans suddenly would rediscover their animal spirits. An investment-led recovery would begin.

Takeaways go online to speed up business and win new customers

Rudy & Marlene Otter

Asians were among the thousands of fast food providers who attended Britain's first Takeaway Innovation Expo at London's Olympia on 28th and 29th November.

The show's aim was to demonstrate to takeaway owners, managers and franchisees the range of available computer products and services, as well as other new ideas, to help them improve and expand their operations.

Visitors also had the opportunity to attend talks by experts like Brad Burton, a motivational guru who told guests he would "change the way you approach your life, business and direction forever." Ajmal Mushtaq, a chef, journalist and commentator, explained how

takeaways could grow their businesses well beyond their expectations.

Trevor Harvey, Saatchi and Saatchi's marketing and planning chief, described how to "encourage loyalty from existing customers" in the face of ever-increasing competition. Three linked exhibitions at Olympia included The Business Show and among the participants were Signage Live which offered restaurants eye-

Modi mania grips Indian share market

Modi mania has been on full display in India last week as markets raced to record highs following a strong showing by Bharatiya Janata party in Assembly elections. In private, corporate bigwigs are just as upbeat. Few go quite as far as Reliance group billionaire Anil Ambani who, speaking earlier this year in Modi’s home state of Gujarat, praised his host as “the lord of men, a leader among leaders and the king among kings”.

Yet Modi-fuelled confidence is high even among those less prone to rhetorical flourishes. Put another way, India’s bullishness is returning. And it is precisely this fact that ought

Narendra Modi

to set warning lights flashing.

True, the optimists have a reasonable case, if one based largely on the government’s lamentable record. Surely anyone could do better, they say, especially a figure as businesslike and reform-minded as Modi.

FINANCIAL VOICE

Friday the 13th

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

19

This is supposed to be an unlucky day; there’s even a cult horror film named after this date made in 2009. This being an unlucky day is so embedded in the psyche there is even a phobia named for this day namely, paraskevidekatriaphobia.

The 13th of this month occurred last week Friday; this was by no means unlucky for us. In fact it was a day wherein three things occurred - all good, as far as I can see.

The first was the closure of our first fund. We closed just shy of raising £4m, at £3.99m. It had a minimum of £2m in order to close, so we were well above the minimum threshold. This is a miniscule amount for a property fund focusing on central London property, but this is our blueprint; a formula which will be replicated.

There were a few obstacles to raising the money, for example the Information Memorandum which consisted of 38 pages, and was a real eyesore. I read this document five times and to be frank didn't understand all the terms contained in it.

However we had got one of the best lawyers in London to prepare it and therefore trust that it has been constructed properly for all concerned. Of course the salient points were understood. I saw it similarly to when you purchase a property, you do not read all the documents concerned as this is the lawyer’s job.

To the averag e person , without kn owing us, coming in cold this is not easy read ing, some o f them t hrew it at t heir lawyer, where it stayed in a pile . Other investors for e xample accou ntants and lawyers read it and asked furt her q uestion s. Many simply went on t heir history with u s, having sign ed u p and gained confid ence from working with us before. Others tested t he water with u s investing only the minimum amo unt o f £25k.

All in all it was an experience which was important for us and our investors. This kind of money will be spent rapidly in property in London. It will not take long to invest this, as indeed we did.

The purpose of the fund is many fold, one to divorce the investor from the decision making of purchasing a property, this is done to allow us to move on deals quickly and more efficiently. Everyone seems to have an opinion on property and sometimes they offer it to us along with their money. With respect we are on the ground and have collective experience of 25 years on the same patch, therefore we’re best placed to make decisions and should be given the freedom to do so.

The second reason is to centralise the process so rather than having 5 deals with 10 investors each and having to report individually, the fund provides a centralised way where the reporting is undertaken by a third party firm in a predefined format.

Thirdly the fund provides security, the money can be held in only three places: one being in the fund administrator company’s client account, the second being in the solicitor's client account and the third being in a property.

Although the fund provides a lot of compliance to follow it is in many ways a necessary evil to protect the investor; and ensures what we do stays within certain pre defined boundaries.

The primary aim of the fund is to trade properties, meaning to buy and sell them prior to completion.

One concern I had in closing on this day is it is too close to Christmas. This is the slowest time of the year for property, and having collected funds I did not want them sitting in a fund administrator company’s client account where the only people benefiting from the funds is the bank, who seem to be the only industry in the world who can loan multiples of something out and make money from thin air.

Many pe ople are o f the o pinio n havin g mone y in t he bank k eeps it safe. I do not share t his sen time nt in t he curre nt e nviron ment, mone y in the ban k means it is st ale and d epreciating . The rate o f inte rest it att racts, compared to what's actu all y go ing on in the econ omy, e nsures it is d epreciating in re al terms stro ngly. Therefore it n eeds to work to simpl y keep pace with the environmen t.

Very simply money in the bank means it’s going down and money in property means it’s going up. Therefore the funds needed to be invested in property as soon as possible; having a fund is a pressurised situation.

However luckily we had agreed a contract to purchase a freehold block of 5 flats in Nervern Sq, Earls Court. The price we agreed this at was £1,046 per sq ft. Next door had been sold for £1,400 per sq ft.

The total price of the block we purchased was £4.877m.

Properties deals are lumpy and therefore it is not always easy to synchronize deals. We had to pull a lot of strings to get this deal agreed; and finally we had received the contract. The aim was to exchange on this property on Friday straight after we had closed on this fund.

We knew this was a deal and so did the under bidder. On the Thursday the unthinkable happened, the under bidder woke up again and offered £500,000 more than what we had.

This would scarper the deal. The agents as per the law were obliged to report the offer to the sellers which they duly did.

Hand on my heart if I was the seller and someone offered me £500k more I might have tried to get the first buyer to up his offer. However these vendors gave us a very small window to close at the agreed price, we only had until Friday the following day to exchange.

So the clock was ticking, luckily the fund closed without a hitch in the morning and the property was exchanged on the same afternoon.

This is a great deal to kick the fund off with. The fact the under bidder came in again at £500k more than what we were purchasing at is a strong testimony to this.

We now have plenty of time to trade this deal, having agreed a long completion date. Clearly someone is already ready to pay £500k more, but I think this is worth at least £1m more than what we have paid.

Again the art is to try to synchronise the subsequent deals so as soon as we are out of one the cash is recycled straight into another deal.

The Real Deal

Ealing, London, W5 Purchase Price: £975k l l l l

Th is is the aggressive way to make money with propert y; by co ntinu ally cashin g in and moving on. If you bu y well you can e xit wit h a go od return and move on to the n ext deal.

H owe ve r this requires con st an t work and requ ires o ne to k eep their fe et on the g rou nd, it is not an armchair way to in ve st in property. It makes a small amoun t of cash go a lo ng way.

A large semi detached four bedroom house Freehold Garden, internal garage and off street parking End value after works expected to be around £1.4m

Call us now to reserve!

So we had two good things happen on a supposedly unlucky day.

And to top it all off it was my birthday! So that’s three. A trinity.

Unless of course I am the devil’s spawn and this is devil’s luck at play!

0207 993 0103

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

Specialists in

Central London Property Sourcing

info@sowandreap.co.uk

www.sowandreap.co.uk

55 Bryanston Street, Marble Arch Tower, London, W1H 7AA

Follow us online:

Sowandreapuk

SowandReapProperties

Tips of the Week l While using mortgages for buy and flip deals, be careful with the arrangement fees, exit fees, and the interest rates. These may eat up the profits in the deal.

l The internet has its own limitations for researching properties. We have done deals where the statistics on the internet did not support our decision; but our local knowledge did and clients benefited from this.

20

FINANCIAL VOICE

India toughens insider trading rules

The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) unveiled new proposals, broadening the scope of who can be held liable for insider trading violations, as it steps up its fight against securities fraud.

India's financial market regulator plans to include company employees, directors and their immediate relatives and other stakeholders such as founders, handling market sensitive information under its purview.

Under current rules only senior executives are liable for trading violations.

SEBI has long sought greater powers to investigate securities fraud, which many analysts say is undermining confidence in the stock market, particularly among retail investors.

In May Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urged SEBI to root out the "disease of insider trading" from stock markets.

Officials with access to sensitive information will also be required to submit planned trades in company shares ahead of time to resolve any potential conflict of interest.

The new proposals also mandate that every listed company and market intermediary formulate a code of conduct to regulate, monitor and report trading in securities by its employees or connected persons.

Trades by stakeholders, employees, directors and their immediate rela-

tives would need to be disclosed internally to the company.

J.N. Gupta, a former SEBI executive director who now runs proxy advisory firm S t a k e h o l d e r s Empowerment Services, said the new proposals could be effective in curbing insider trading.

"There was always a problem in defining an 'insider', which was a loophole people used to exploit to go scot-free because they would not come into the narrow definition of insider," he said.

SEBI's previous attempts at tackling insider trading have often ended up in long-drawn litigation or have been settled for relatively small fines without yielding any criminal conviction.

Earlier this year India's government extended SEBI's powers, allowing it to monitor investors' records of phone calls, but not the calls themselves, and conduct searches at companies suspected of wrongdoing.

Last month SEBI said it would empower the country's exchanges to enforce rules on corporate disclosures at listed companies.

"As usual the challenge will remain in enforcing those regulations," said Gupta at S t a k e h o l d e r s Empowerment.

"In that regard SEBI's new powers to track telephone records will help up to a certain extent."

Tata-AirAsia gets nod to import planes

India’s aviation ministry has given the proposed Tata-AirAsia low-cost carrier (LCC) to import 10 aircraft, removing a big hurdle in this delayed project. Now the JV airline - which applied for permission this February - may start flying in a year as DGCA has indicated it may issue the licence next month.

"AirAsia India will begin operations after getting the schedule airline permit from DGCA and begin operations with three to four planes. Then over a year, the airline will take the number to 10. Fleet expansion thereafter will depend on air

travel growth and whether the five-year-20aircraft rule for Indian carriers flying abroad is relaxed," said sources.

The Tata-AirAsia proposal - the first startup after FDI by foreign airlines in desi carriers was allowed last September. The JV applied to FIPB last February. The aviation ministry first maintained that the relaxed FDI was for foreign airlines to invest in existing desi ones and not for startups.

Once they accepted this proposal, other clearances like security clearance for foreign directors kept delaying the project.

Reliance, Bharti Airtel sign telecoms deal

Reliance Industries Ltd and top mobile operator Bharti Airtel Ltd have agreed to share network infrastructure, as the old adversaries in India's crowded telecoms industry set aside differences to save costs.

The companies, headed by longtime rival billionaires, undercut each other during Reliance's last foray into telecoms nearly a decade ago. Now they will work together as they move into data-driven telecommunication services. Reliance's Mukesh Ambani and Bharti's Sunil Mittal will continue to be rivals in the fast-growing retail market. The agreement involves sharing inter- and intra-city optic fibre networks, submarine cable networks, communications towers and internet broadband services, and may extend to other

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

areas of telecommunications, the companies said in a joint statement.

"With two prominent rivals co-operating and with infrastructure being shared, there should be cost savings," said Ambit Capital telecoms analyst Ankur Rudra. "It will lead to a better industry structure." Mobile telephone network providers have been plagued by weak returns for years and face significant investment in fourth-generation services, which would have encouraged the pair to come

India, Pakistan hint at resuming trade talks

together, said Rudra.

Reliance has spent billions of dollars to offer low-priced wireless broadband after winning a licence three years ago to provide 4G services across India.

It is working toward launching commercial services by signing a number of deals this year, including deals to share network and infrastructure with rival Reliance Communications Ltd, controlled by Mukesh's onceestranged younger brother Anil Ambani. It has also

agreed to lease undersea cable capacity from Bharti.

Ten years ago, Mukesh Ambani transformed the telecoms industry by offering cheap calls and handsets, hurting rivals including Bharti. Mukesh moved out of telecoms in 2005 after a split in the family empire.

Mukesh's second entry into telecoms has fuelled concern of another price war which few players can afford, after a period of calm followed years of undercutting each other.

Entrenched but debtladen rivals such as Bharti, Vodafone Group PLC and Idea Cellular Ltd face a steep increase in the cost of radio spectrum as well as hundreds of millions of dollars in government fees due to regulatory upheaval, after a massive telecoms licensing scandal that came to light in 2010.

Costly vegetables, particularly potato and onion, pushed the November wholesale inflation to a 14-month high of 7.52 per cent, making it difficult for the Reserve Bank to ease key policy rate.

Vegetable prices shot up by 95.25 per cent in November as compared to

Potato prices shot up by 26.71 per cent in November as compared to a contraction in the previous month.

The onions too were costly, but the price rise was low as compared to October. Onion inflation was at 190.34 per cent in November.

India’s inflation rises to 7.52% in November

Pakistan raised fresh hopes of normalization of trade relations with India and indicated that it was willing to speed up the process of allowing more goods to be imported via the land border but refused to either provide a firm deadline or commit to grant most favoured nation (MFN), an issue that has been pending for 17 years.

But, sources present during commerce and industry minister Anand Sharma's meeting with Shahbaz Sharif, chief minister of Punjab province of Pakistan and Khurram Dastgir Khan, the junior minister for commerce from Pakistan, said there were "strong signals" from across the border that they would look to "speed up" the decisions.

Commerce secretaries from India and Pakistan had agreed over a year ago that Pakistan would grant MFN, allow trade through the Attari-Wagah border and remove the remaining 1,209 products from the negative list of imports from India. But, Islamabad has refused to honour its commitments, resulting in

Sharma again reminding Khan and Sharif about Pakistan's commitment. In fact, India has gone beyond the agreement to notify additional concessions. In terms of deliverables, the two sides agreed to work towards allowing goods trade 24x7 through the border in Punjab, although the details would be worked out only when the commerce secretaries meet. During the meeting, India also suggested that the flow of goods using containers at the AttariWagah border will decongest the post, which often sees trucks line for several kilometers.

There seemed to be some positive movement in two other areas - sale of electricity and gas by India - with the two sides agreeing to move ahead with the technical dialogue after months of standstill following the tension at the border.

78.38 per cent in the previous month, said the Wholesale Price Index (WPI) inflation data.

The overall inflation in the food segment comprising wheat, pulses, vegetables, milk, among others, was at 19.93 per cent, up from 18.19 per cent in October.

The rise in WPI comes after the retail or consumer price inflation jumped to 11.24 per cent.

The inflation was at 7 per cent in October and 7.05 per cent in the earlier month (revised upwards from 6.46 per cent).

The data further revealed that protein rich items were costlier by 15.19 per cent while milk was dearer by 6.25 per cent in November. The inflation in fuel and power segment was at 11.08 per cent in the month under review, up from 10.33 per cent in October.

The price rise in the manufactured products rose to 2.64 per cent from 2.50 per cent.

The WPI inflation for November 2013 is the highest since September 2012 when it was 8.1 per cent.

Ratan Tata has said he felt confused and humiliated during his first few weeks as a student at the elite Harvard University but those initial days turned out to be the "most important weeks" of his life.

Tata recalled his first weeks on the Harvard campus as he attended a dedication ceremony of Tata Hall at Harvard Business School (HBS) in Boston earlier last week.

Named in the honour of the iconic Indian industrialist, Tata Hall is a sevenstory, glass-and-limestone 163,000 square foot building, which will include residential and learning space for the HBS's executive education programme.

Tata was joined by HBS's India-born dean Nitin Nohria and Harvard University president Drew Faust for the dedication ceremony during which he

recounted that his first weeks on the Harvard campus were "confusing" and he felt "humiliated" by the impressive and overwhelming calibre of his fellow students, according to a report. "It was the only time in my life where I sat and crossed out day by day how many days were left before I could return to the normal world," Tata said.

"But what it did do for me, as I soon found out,

the confusion sort of disappeared, and you understood the magnitude of what you had learned in a manner that I believe is not possible to do in places other than at this business school," he said.

"As I look back, those 13 weeks were probably the most important 13 weeks of my life. They transformed me and my perspective," the former chairman of Tata Sons said.

Felt confused during early Harvard days: Tata

FINANCIAL VOICE

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

21

Foreign Exchange

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX,

Pound continues to fall Currency Specialists.

The pound fell for the second consecutive week against both the US dollar and the euro following mixed data from the UK in the week beginning 9th December 2013.

Firstly, there was the RICS house pricing index which improved from 57% in October to 58% in November. Secondly, we had trade balance figures where the trade deficit reduced from -£10.099bn to £9.732bn, which was led by an increase in exports.

Although this was a positive figure it came in below forecasts -£9.35bn.

Thirdly, we had industrial production figures out which came in above forecast at 0.4% growth month on month. And finally the National Institute of Economic and Social Research released their quarterly GDP target which showed an improvement from the previous quarter of 0.7% to 0.8%. However the pound seemed to drop off quite considerably after the

release of these figures indicating the market may have been anticipating stronger growth.

As the week came to an end the pound continued to fall following comments made by Bank of England Chief Economist Spencer Dale that interest rates will stay low in the UK for the foreseeable future.

As we have seen over the last four months, the pound has been supported by the expectation that the Bank o f

a sustained period of economic growth – which is what we saw again on Friday

by Dale.

The euro continued to be supported with the underlying theme of the prospect of further monetary easing continued to subside as an improving inflation outlook dampened the possibility of any further monetary policy being introduced by the ECB. Inflation in Spain rose to 0.2% in November, in Italy it r o s e

England may increase interest rates on the back of an improving economic outlook. However, we have seen a consistent rhetoric echoed by members of the BoE stating that a hike in interest rates will only occur if we see

beyond the expected 0.6% to 0.7% and in Germany inflation rose from -0.2% to 0.2%.

Markets ignored negative data out of the Eurozone as Eurostat revealed that employment fell by 0.8% in the third quarter and indus-

trial production for the Eurozone as a whole fell by 1.1% in October instead of rising by 0.3%.

Data from the US showed that retail sales rose to 0.7% month on month, compared with a forecast of 0.6%, showing consumer spending is continuing to increase in America. Continuing jobless claims showed an increase from 2.75m to 2.791m.

However investors brushed off the job data, focusing on the figure from the retail sector, buying the US dollar causing it to strengthen against the pound by approximately 0.5%.

Also in the US, the Republicans passed a twoyear budget plan extending government spending into 2015 removing the threat of another shutdown before next year’s elections. It does appear that another hurdle has been passed to enable the Fed to taper its quantitative easing program with the next monetary policy meeting scheduled for 18th December 2013.

Weekly Currencies

As of Tuesday 17th December 2013 @ 3.45pm GBP - INR = 100.35 USD - INR = 61.84 EUR - INR = 84.89 GBP - USD = 1.62 GBP - EUR = 1.18

EUR - USD = 1.37 GBP - AED = 5.96

GBP - CAD = 1.72

GBP - NZD = 1.97

GBP - AUD = 1.83

GBP - ZAR = 16.80

GBP - HUF = 353.11

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 are the commercial foreign exchange rates provided by RationalFX. For a live quote or to find out more about how RationalFX can help you, call us on 0207 220 8181.

22

WORLD

In Focus

13-year-old Pak boy gets 50 years in jail for murder

Lahore: A Pakistani court has handed down 50 years imprisonment to a 13-yearold boy for killing an undertrial prisoner in court premises earlier this year. AntiTerrorism Court (Gujranwala district) judge Chaudhry Imtiaz Ali sentenced the accused Gohar Nawaz for allegedly killing one Hafiz Ghias, accused of attempted murder, on the court premises. He was also fined Rs 200.000. Nawaz in June this year had shot dead Ghias on the court premises in Gujranwala, some 80 km from Lahore, when he was to be produced before a judge in a case of attempted murder. Ghias had attacked and injured Nawaz's father. Nawaz told police that he wanted to take revenge from the victim for attacking his father and critically injuring him.

Bomb kills 3 explosive experts in Pakistan

Peshawar: Police say a roadside bomb has killed three members of a Pakistani bomb disposal team who were on their way to defuse another bomb elsewhere in the city of Peshawar. Police officer Shahid Khan says the attack took place early Monday in the Shaikh Mohammadi suburb. The three victims were identified as bomb disposal expert Abdul Haq and his two aides. Khan says that after the incident, police found another bomb nearby, which was later defused. The suburbs of Peshawar, which lies close to tribal regions, have seen scores of bomb attacks in recent years.

Tassaduq Hussain Jillani takes oath as chief justice of Pakistan

Islamabad: Pakistan's new chief justice took his oath of office after his outspoken predecessor retired, ending an eight-year turbulent and at times controversial era.

Pakistani President Mamnoon Hussain administered swore in Justice Tassaduq Hussain Jillani after Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry stepped down a day earlier. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Chaudhry and other top government officials including ministers attended the ceremony. Chaudhry, originally appointed in 2005 during the military rule of Pervez Musharraf and who came to be one of the architects of the former general's downfall, has divided opinion. Some have praised him for fearlessly taking on politicians and security agencies, while others have criticised him for exceeding the proper authority of the chief justice and interfering in political matters. In June last year he chaired a Supreme Court bench that sacked the then-prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani after convicting him of contempt of court.

Pak pilot's sandwich demand delays flights

Lahore: A foodie pilot delayed a New Yorkbound Pakistan International Airlines' flight by two and a half hours because he wanted to take sandwiches, which weren't in approved menu, aboard the plane. PIA flight Pk-711, scheduled for New York via Manchester, was ready for departure on Saturday from Allama Iqbal International Airport in Lahore at 6.45 am (local time).

The catering department served the approved menu, including lunch, peanuts, chips and biscuits but flight captain Noushad asked them to serve him sandwiches. The catering staff expressed their inability to serve anything beyond the approved menu and also informed him of the sensitivity of the flight's departure time.

The staff told him that sandwiches could only be arranged by placing an order to a five-star hotel in the city, which would take more than two hours. The captain remained adamant and said no matter what he needed his sandwiches, it said. The catering department then contacted the PIA head office in Karachi and brought the matter to their notice. Surprisingly, the management then directed the catering department to meet the pilot's demand.

Pak cable operators defy HC ban on Indian content

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Islamabad: Thousands of cable television operators across Pakistan are continuing to show Bollywood films and Indian TV content despite the Lahore high court ban. The operators are citing their high popularity and demand in the country, with the unstated reason being that these are money-spinners.

The Lahore high court had issued an interim order to stop screening imported film unless these had proper documentation and sponsorship of a Pakistani national.

The cable operators defiance would easily invite contempt of court notice, except that it would be virtually impossible for tens of thousands of cable operators to be simultaneously hauled up for the "offence".

While the Pakistani film industry has been struggling, Indian films are big hits at the box office ever since former military ruler Pervez Musharraf eased restrictions

words such as 'namaste', 'maharani' and 'chinta' have entered into standard usage in Pakistan. The Urdu spoken in Pakistan is so rich that it can contribute in the same manner in India," he added.

Some Pakistani producers and actors are happy with the court's order but till still many believe that only competition and open markets will raise standards of Pakistani film industry.

"Multiplexes have helped in making niche Pakistani films viable and contributed

to a few Pakistani films turning commercial success. The most recent example is 'Waar' which is continuing to create box office records," said Arshad Khan, a Pakistani film actor and producer.

Other actors are on record making a case for Pakistani entertainment.

Recently, actor Laila Zubari told a Pakistani newspaper that telecasting foreign dramas should not be allowed as "foreign actors are not paying any taxes to our national exchequer".

The HC ban came on a petition filed by Mubashar Luqman, a controversial TV anchor, who claimed that many movies shot in India must be banned in Pakistan because they use fake documents besides covering the identity of their Indian sponsors. He said that under Pakistani rules, Indian movies that are shot completely in India and are sponsored by an Indian cannot be screened in Pakistan.

war of independence. The government says Pakistani soldiers, aided by local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped 200,000 women during the nine-month war.

25 killed in clashes Twenty-five people are now known to have died and dozens more have been injured in the clashes between outraged Jamaat activists and

police and between the activists and supporters of the ruling Awami League.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina warned of strong action against the rioters, saying "We have shown enough patience. We will not tolerate any more."

"People of the country know how to reply to these atrocities (the latest violence),

we (government) also know how to respond to, control you (the rioters)," she told a rally late on Saturday to commemorate those killed in the 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.

Molla was convicted of rape, murder and mass murder, including the killing of more than 350 unarmed civilians. Prosecutors called him the "Butcher of Mirpur", a Dhaka suburb where he committed most of the atrocities.

The sentences have triggered riots and plunged the country into its worst violence since independence. Some 255 people have been killed in street protests since January, when the first verdicts were handed down.

of Jesus and above it the great Roman Church of the Nativity has been built.

When the Roman Empire became Christian, early in the fourth century, the first Christian Emperor, Constantine, built a great church there, and that church still stands.

When Jesus was born in Bethlehem there came three wise men, called Magi, from the East, to pay him homage.

The Magi were originally a Medes tribe. These men were skilled in philosophy, medicine and natural science.

They were good and holy men, who sought for truth.

In those ancient days all men believed in astrology. They believed that they could foretell the future from the stars, and they believed that the star under which he was born settled a man’s destiny. In these years, on the first day of the Egyptian month, Mesori, Sirius, the Dog Star, rose heliacally, that is at sunrise, and shone with extraordinary brilliance. Now the name Mesori means the birth of a prince, and to those ancient astrologers such a star would undoubtedly mean the birth of some great king. It was Magi's profession to watch the heavens, and some heavenly brilliance spoke to them of the entry of a king into the world.

So the wise men found their way to Bethlehem.

These wise men brought special gifts to baby Jesus.

Melchior, one of the three, was an old man who brought

the gift of gold, a gift fit for a king of men. So then Jesus was "the Man born to be King." But He was to reign, not by force, but by love; and He was to rule over men's heart, not from a throne, but from a Cross. Casper the second Magi was young. And it was he who brought the gift of frankincense. It was in the Temple worship and at the Temple sacrifices that the sweet perfume of frankincense was used. The function of a priest is to open the way to God for men. The gift of frankincense was a gift to priest fitting to Jesus, and the high priest for the mankind.

And the third Magi, Balthasar. It was he who brought the gift of myrrh.

Myrrh is the gift for one who is to die. Myrrh was used to embalm the bodies of the dead. Jesus came into the world to live for men, and, in the end, to die for men.

- Christopher Benjamin, The Presbyterian Church Wembley

on their import in 2006. But while owners of TV channels have made big bucks broadcasting Indian content, a few in mainstream channels believe India, too, should allow broadcast of Pakistani entertainment channels in India.

"It should be reciprocal.

Indian TV shows and movies have deep impact on the language in Pakistan," said Jawad Hamid Raja, chief operating officer of AVT channels, a strong media group in Pakistan. "Hindi

Bangladesh executes Islamist leader for war crimes

Dhaka: Bangladesh has executed an opposition leader convicted of war crimes hours after the Supreme Court rejected his last-minute appeal. Mollah's Jamaat-eIslami party said the death sentence was politically motivated, and warned of "dire consequences."

Abdul Quader Mollah, 65, was convicted of war crimes committed during the nation's war of independence against Pakistan in 1971.

The case involves Bangladesh's independence war against Pakistan in 1971.

Mollah is the first person executed in special trials begun

by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in 2010 of people suspected of crimes during the

Christmas - the celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ

Who was Jesus? Who is He? When was He born? Can anybody born that long ago be anything more than history? Can we say with certainty that there ever was or wasn't Jesus?

Bethlehem had a long history linked with the Old Testament's prophets, kings and judges and leaders.. But above all Bethlehem was the home and city of David, the greatest king of Israel. It was from the line of David that God was to send the great deliverer of His people. It was in Bethlehem, that the Jews expected great David's greater son to be born; it was there that they expected God's Anointed One to come into the world, and it was so.

Justin Martyr, one of the greatest of the early Church fathers, who lived about AD150, and who came from the district near Bethlehem, tells that Jesus was born in a cave near the village of Bethlehem. To this day such a cave is shown in Bethlehem as the birthplace

WORLD

Unpaid migrant workers left to go hungry in Qatar: Amnesty

Doha: More than 80 migrant construction workers in Qatar who worked for nearly a year without pay on a prestigious tower block in Doha’s financial district are facing serious food shortages and need urgent government assistance, Amnesty International said.

In mid-November, Amnesty’s Secretary General Salil Shetty visited the workers’ camp in the al-Sailiya industrial area. Conditions there are grim, with some workers sleeping on hard wooden boards without mattresses, and some of the temporary accommodation buildings dangerously unstable - the floors and ceilings in one bedroom are close to collapse. At the time Shetty asked the Qatari ministries of Labour and Interior to address the situation at the company as a matter of priority.

These fresh revelations of worker abuse in Qatar come after a 166page Amnesty report last month - The Dark Side of Migration: Spotlight on Qatar’s construction sector ahead of the World Cup - which found multiple examples of abuses being committed against migrant construction workers in Qatar. The report strongly criticised the Qatari government for failing to safeguard workers’ rights.

Salil Shetty said: “It is shameful to think that in one of the richest countries in the world, migrant workers are being left to go hungry.

“This case illustrates perfectly the massive obstacles migrant workers face to getting justice in Qatar. It is now one month since we visited these men and found them living in desperate conditions. But their ordeal has not ended.

“The Qatari government must step in now and end this crisis. The men have told us they simply want to collect the unpaid wages they are owed and leave the country. The ministries of Labour and Interior must deliver that as soon as possible. Doing so will signal that the government really means what it says about protecting workers’ rights.”

Unpaid wages: The group, which includes around 60 Nepalese workers as well as migrants from Sri Lanka, the Philippines, Nigeria, China and Bangladesh, are owed up to a year’s

worth of salaries. They have been fitting out two floors - 38 and 39 - in Doha’s Al Bidda Tower, which has been dubbed “Qatar’s Home of Football” because a number of football-related organisations have offices there.

Amnesty has seen documentation suggesting that in total Lee Trading and Contracting owes the workers around 1.5 million riyals (approximately £250,000). The exact reasons the company did not pay the men remain unclear. The project was completed in October, and since then the workers have been stranded in their camp, without pay and facing severe shortages of food.

One Nepalese labourer told researchers: “‘Do the work and we’ll pay you tomorrow’, they said …

We kept doing the work and they kept changing the date and we never got paid.” The same man said that his sister had committed suicide in Nepal earlier this year because of the financial problems his family were facing. He had not been able to send them any money for many months and was unable to return home for her funeral.

The workers have all filed cases against Lee Trading and Contracting at Doha’s Labour Court to try to reclaim their salaries, but the court has asked them each to pay a fee of 600 riyals (£100) for an expert report on their case.

Unless this is paid, the cases cannot progress.

The workers told Amnesty that the court rejected their request for the fees to be waived because of their financial situation. Under Qatar’s Labour Law, workers are supposed to be exempt from paying judicial fees.

Allegations of forced labour: Some of the men have alleged that when they stopped work in August in protest at the lack of salaries, a representative of Lee Trading and Contracting threatened them with jail. The men said that they returned to work as a result. The company representative in question has strongly denied this allegation to Amnesty.

Under the International Labour Organisation’s Forced Labour Convention, forcing the men to work under threat of imprisonment would constitute forced labour.

23

South Africa buries ‘Greatest Son’ Mandela

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Qunu (South Africa): Nelson Mandela, South Africa’s first black president, was laid to rest on Sunday after a state funeral filled with tearful eulogies and strident vows to pursue his ideals of equality and justice.

Mandela’s casket was buried at a family plot in his rural boyhood home of Qunu, watched by his widow Graca Machel, exwife Winnie MadikizelaMandela, other family members and around 450 selected guests.

As the coffin was lowered into the wreathringed grave, three army helicopters flew over bearing the South African flag on weighted cables, a poignant echo of the antiapartheid leader’s inauguration as the nation’s first black president nearly two decades ago.

A battery fired a 21gun salute, the booms

Singapore: Singapore plans to deport 53 people and issue warnings to about 200 more for their involvement in the citystate's worst riot in more than 40 years this month, which shocked a nation that prides itself on its safety and orderliness.

The riots sparked intense discussion over Singapore's policy on foreign labour, which now makes up a fifth of a population of nearly 5.4 million. Many citizens are increasingly irked by the growing numbers of foreign workers.

The 53 people, all Indian but for one

reverberating around the rolling hills of the Eastern Cape, before five fighter jets flying low in formation roared over the valley.

His flag-draped casket was placed on cowskins, surrounded by 95 candles one for each year of his extraordinary life.

“The person who lies here is South Africa’s greatest son,” said ANC deputy president Cyril Ramaphosa.

The frail and aging leaders of South Africa’s antiapartheid struggle also attended: George Bizos,

Desmond Tutu and A h m e d Ka t h r a d a , w h o s e voice broke as he delivered a eulogy for his old friend.

“I first met him 67 years ago,” said Indianorigin Kathrada, who along with Mandela was sentenced to life in prison in 1963. He recalled his fellow inmate as a powerful amateur boxer who could cope far better than others with the physical challenge of hard labour.

“What I saw in hospital was a man helpless and reduced to a shadow of himself,” he said, struggling not to break down.

Kathrada’s words left many in tears among the invited guests, whose ranks included foreign dig-

nitaries and celebrities ranging from Britain’s Prince Charles to US talk show queen Oprah Winfrey.

The funeral closed the final chapter in the life of a towering public figure whose courage and moral fortitude turned him into a symbol of freedom and hope.

During 10 days of mourning, hundreds and thousands of South Africans had turned out across the country to bid farewell to the founding father of their ‘Rainbow Nation’.

They braved a rainsodden memorial in Soweto and for three days queued to see his remains lying in state at Pretoria’s Union Buildings.

For 50 million compatriots, Mandela was not just a president, but a moral guide who led them away from internecine racial conflict.

Bangladeshi, are in prison and will be barred from returning to Singapore after being sent home soon, the police said.

Charges against seven people would be dropped, taking to 28 the total number of foreign workers charged with rioting.

These 28, all Indians, could face up to 7 years in prison and caning.

An additional 200 people will be issued an advisory by the police and allowed to stay in Singapore, the police added.

Police do not expect to make many more arrests or repatriations as they

wind up their probe, barely 10 days after the riot.

On December 8, a crowd of around 400 set vehicles ablaze and clashed with police after an Indian worker died in a traffic accident in the Little India precinct, where thousands of workers from the sub-continent gather on Sundays to shop and socialize.

The government banned the sale of alcohol in the area last weekend, and suspended shuttle bus services that bring in foreign workers from dormitories, often located in far-flung parts of the island.

New York: A US federal court has given Congress President Sonia Gandhi till Jan 2 to respond to a Sikh body's charges of protecting and shielding party leaders allegedly involved in the November 1984 anti-Sikh violence. Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) had filed an amended class action complaint against Gandhi on Dec 4 citing what it called "specific instances of impunity, promotions and party tickets" to Congress leaders and police officials involved in 1984 violence.

The SFJ complaint against Sonia Gandhi invokes the federal court jurisdiction over the case.

peaked at £42.2m, making him the third richest person in history.

The family hired a helicopter to hover over the city and take photographs throughout the event and chefs were reportedly flown in from India and Thailand to serve the 500 guests.

Dom Perignon champagne flowed and the sixtier wedding cake is said to have weighed 60 kg.

Reports in Spain said

some guests spent more than £20,000 on shopping sprees while they stayed at two of Bacrelona's top hotels. The ceremony, which ran from December 5 to 7 began with a combination of Hindu and western-style ceremonies.

On the second day, the guests visited the Magic Fountain in the city's Montjuic district where they were watched a display of water jets and lights set to the Chariots of Fire theme.

During the final day, the National Museum of Catalan Art, which was hosting the ceremony, was closed to the puiblic to accommodate the wedding party.

Critics have attacked the Barcelona city council for facilitating the event, branding the extravagant party as a 'homage to excess'.

Jordi Marto, a leader of the Socialist Party in Barcelona, said that the city's officials were fascinated with the 'smell by the smell of money' and said it was unacceptable that the city's public spaces were being put at the service of private interests. But Barcelona's mayor Xavier Trias, who was at the wedding, said the event was crucial because it boosted the city's profile and was crucial to attract 'economic activity'.

It is not the first time the Mittal family have invested heavily in a wedding ceremony.

When Lakshmi's daughter Vanisha got married in 2004, Kylie Minogue performed at an ostentatious ceremony in Paris, which is said to have set them back around £40m. Aditya Mittal, Lakshmi's son and heir, got married in Calcutta in 1998 where Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan was paid £300,000 to entertain guests.

Singapore to deport 52 Indians after Little India riot

1984 riot case: US court asks Sonia to respond

Lakshmi Mittal’s niece gets married in lavish ceremony

Barcelona: They are one of the richest families in the world, so when it comes to a wedding, it is not going to be a small family gathering. The niece of billionaire Lakshmi Mittal tied the knot earlier this month during a three-day, £50m party in Barcelona.

Bride Shristi Mittal, 26, was surrounded by musical fountains, 200 butlers, had national museums closed to the public and was served food from a Michelinstarred chef during the extravaganza.

Her groom, investment banker Gulraj Behl, 36 was taken to the ceremony on horseback.

Shristi, is the daughter of the magnate's younger brother, Pramod, who is also in the steel business.

Lakshmi, who is based in London, is the chairman and CEO of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaking company, and holds a 34 per cent stake in Queens Park Rangers football club.

In 2008, his net worth

24

INDIA

South

New Tamil Nadu minister takes oath

AIADMK MLA R B Udhayakumar was sworn in as minister in the Jayalalithaa-led cabinet.

Governor K Rosaiah administered the oath of office and secrecy to Udhayakumar in the presence of chief minister Jayalalithaa and her cabinet colleagues at a brief function held at Raj Bhavan. Udhayakumar, who was dropped from the ministry in 2011, stages a comeback following his reinduction into the cabinet. Udhayakumar, MLA from the Sattur segment, has been given the portfolio of Youth Welfare and Sports Development, hitherto held by K V Ramalingam, who was dropped by Jayalalitha in the wake of some land grabbing allegation against him.

DMDK leader Panruti Ramachandran quits politics

Veteran Tamil Nadu politician, Panruti K Ramachandran, who teamed up with actor Vijayakanth after the launch of the Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK) in 2005 and helped steer it through several landmark events, announced his retirement from politics. Taking political circles by surprise, the former M G Ramachandran acolyte and former minister arrived at the state secretariat to meet the assembly secretary and hand over his resignation from the MLA post. Ramachandran (76) said he had taken the decision to retire from politics as his health condition was "not good".

30 Tamil Nadu fishermen arrested by Sri Lankan navy

Thirty fishermen of Pudukottai district in Tamil Nadu were arrested by Sri Lankan navy when they were fishing at Kodiyankarai, a senior fisheries department official said. They were arrested for allegedly fishing in Lankan waters and eight boats were also seized, N Thirunageswaran, assistant director, fisheries department, Jagathapattinam, said.

Punjab

Cong leader joins AAP

Ahead of its electoral foray into Haryana, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) got a shot in the arm on Sunday, with Mewat zila parishad vice-president and Congress leader Noorudin Noor joining the party at a meeting at Nuh. Accompanied by his supporters, Noor, a lawyer, took a pledge to adhere to the party's principles. Accompanied by Haryana coordinator Ashawant, AAP's national leader Yogendera Yadav assured the workers of the party's success in coming elections. Yadav also held a meeting at Ganeshi Lal Dharamshala in Rewari where he asked party workers to bring in more and more families in the campaign against corruption.

HC vacates stay on selection of school teachers in Haryana

Paving the way for the selection of around 20,000 teachers in Haryana, the Punjab and Haryana high court dismissed a petition challenging the selection procedure carried out by the Haryana School Teachers Recruitment Board (HSTRB). HC also vacated the stay on the appointment of selected candidates and declaration of final merit list of selected candidates prepared by the board. Earlier on April 11 this year the HC had stayed the entire selection process. While dismissing the petition, the division bench also imposed a fine of Rs 25,000 on the petitioner. The bench has held that the petitioner has no locus-standi to file the petition.

Postage stamp on former Punjab CM Beant Singh released

Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh released a postage stamp in honour of former Punjab Chief Minister Sardar Beant Singh. After releasing the stamp here, Singh said, it is a small token of gratitude to a great leader who was best remembered for providing strong and determined leadership to Punjab in very troubled times.

No alliance with Cong for Lok Sabha polls: DMK

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

A week after one of its biggest electoral drubbings, and just when it desperately needs to retain its allies, the Congress found itself deserted by one of its biggest and oldest associates, the DMK. The party chief M Karunanidhi on Sunday ruled out any alliance with the grand old party for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections during a general council meeting of his party.

Karunanidhi’s decision opens up the possibility of the DMK aligning with the BJP, in the hope of bucking anti-incumbency accruing to it through continued

Kanimozhi, the DMK chief said he was aware of how the CBI functioned and dealt with the case, and that he could never forget what they had to undergo in the aftermath of the 2G scam.

Party members cheered as Karunanidhi’s tone grew emotional, recalling the party’s anguish and the manner in which it was “treated” by the Congress.

The DMK chief ended his speech by stressing that the “Congress had done nothing for the cause of Tamils.” .

He said he did not want to continue this alliance “by sacrificing our self-respect”.

association with the Congress. The DMK also hopes to build on what it perceives as growing accept-

ance of the BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. The decision marks a tectonic shift in Tamil Nadu’s politics after the DMK and Congress fought two general elections as friends. But BJP has ruled out any alliance with DMK in the Lok Sabha polls.

“We suffered a lot in the Congress alliance. It created a bad name for us,” Karunanidhi was quoted as saying by partymen in the closed door meeting.

Referring to the arrests of former telecom minister A Raja and his daughter

prevent them but failed.

Legislators from the Telangana region cutting across party lines condemned the action of Seemandhra lawmakers.

Congress leader and government chief whip G. Venkatramna Reddy said the actions of protesting legislators were highly objectionable.

Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) leader E. Rajender said the action of Seemandhra leaders was an insult to people of Telangana and demanded their immediate apology.

The mortal remains of the scion of the Mysore royal family Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar, was consigned to flames last week and multitude of people lined up along the procession route to pay their respects during his last journey from the palace to the cremation grounds.

His body was placed in a gold-plated palanquin and taken in a procession accompanied by royal elephant and royal horse. Vedic hymns were chanted in the backdrop of the cymbals and percussion instruments were played out throughout the procession.

Srikantadatta Wadiyar who died in Bangalore, was accorded a state funeral complete with gun salute and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda, former Chief Ministers H. D. Kumaraswamy, B. S.

Yeddyurappa, and a large number of elected representatives, members of the Ursu royal family were present at the family’s ancestral cremation ground of Madhuvana on the Mysore-Ooty Road.

After the presentation of the gun salute sounding of the last bugle, the priests took over for completion of the funeral rituals. The pyre was lit by Chaduranga Kantharaja Urs, son of Wadiyar’s elder sister Gayatri Devi bringing the curtains down on the history of a dynasty that spanned more than 500 years.

Jagdish Kaur, a 1984 anti-Sikh riots victim and witness against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, has handed over a memorandum to MPs of three parties in Canadian parliament urging them to bring a motion in the Canadian House for debate on whether the riots were genocide as defined in Article 2 of the UN Convention.

On International Human Rights Day, Jagdish Kaur, who lost her husband, a son and three brothers in the massacre, met the MPs and narrated her harrowing tale of witnessing the mass killings and emphasized that these were not "riots" but government-spon-

sored mass killings. She alleged that Congress leader Sajjan Kumar, against whom she had testified for killing of her family, was being shielded by the Congress president and the government. Sources said by ensuring interaction of Jagdish Kaur with Canadian MPs, the rights groups led by Sikhs For Justice also aim to apprise the member countries of UN Human Rights Council about the issue. SFJ legal adviser Gurpatwant Singh Pannun said members of National Democratic Party caucus Paul Dewar, Lysane Blanchette-Lamothe and Jinny Simms met Jagdish Kaur and assured her of their support.

The Ludhiana Police have decided to shift the 22-yearold bride, who suffered acid attack injuries and was undergoing treatment at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), to National Burns Centre in Mumbai for advanced treatment at their own cost. The decision to shift the victim to Mumbai for specialized treatment was taken

after the visit of Ludhiana Police commissioner Nirmal Singh Dhillon to DMCH. The Ludhiana Police commissioner has also decided to spend any amount of money to save the victim. Deputy commissioner of police Harsh Bansal confirmed that the victim is being shifted to Mumbai in a private plane from Chandigarh.

M Karunanidhi

Seemandhra lawmakers tear, Mysore's last royal cremated burn copies of Telangana bill with State honours

Tension prevailed in the Andhra Pradesh assembly premises when legislators from coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions tore off and set fire to copies of the bill for formation of a separate Telangana state.

Soon after Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill, 2013, was tabled in the house, legislators from Seemandhra opposing the state's bifurcation came out of the house and tore the copies of the bill at the media point.

Telugu Desam Party (TDP) leader D Uma Maheswara Rao was the first to tear the papers while finding fault with the speaker's action in tabling the bill amid pandemonium.

The YSR Congress party's Seemandhra lawmakers after tearing the copies of the bill set them on fire, adding to tension at the media point. Police tried to

Karachi Hindus to hold bhajan night on New Year

A night full of bhajans, sufi songs and qawwalis is what the Karachi-based Hindu NGO Pakistan Hindu Seva Welfare Trust (PHSWT) has planned for the New Year eve while carrying forward the message of peace, promoting interfaith harmony and dialogue for a peaceful coexistence.

"Today we held a meeting in the office of Arts Council and began the process of enrolling singers and qawwals with PHSWT who would be performing during bhajan and qawwali night on December 31," said PHSWT chief Sanjesh Dhanja. Such functions in Pakistan would help create awareness about Hindu community, their traditions and beliefs and would help bring down the incidents of discrimination against them, he added.

PHSWT administrator Zahid Hussain Channa said that during the meeting they had decided to extend invitation to famous sufi singer and qawwal Abida Parveen and a Karachi based kathak dancer Sheema Kirmani. He said a lot of Hindu instrument players perform with Abida.

While stressing on the

need of interfaith dialogue to dispel myths and misunderstandings between different communities, Channa said Hindu and Muslim singers attached with PHSWT had already begun rehearsals for the proposed programme.

"There can't be a better way than this to celebrate arrival of a new year," Channa said.

Another activist of PHSWT Aman Chanal said they had been organizing several events in Karachi and other parts of Pakistan on different occasions which had helped bridge difference with Muslim community and that was the reason that many of them were active member and partners of PHSWT. Such events provided cooperative, constructive and positive interaction between different communities, he said.

"That's what we aim through our bhajan and qawwali night on New Year,'' he added.

Srikantadatta Narasimharaja Wadiyar

1984 riots victim hands over memo to Canadian MPs

Police to shift acid attack victim to Mumbai

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

The Dubai Shopping Festival 2014 Extravaganza

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offering the best of malls, souks and retail brands.

The Dubai Shopping Festival is one such event that has gained international acclaim for its magnificent arrangement and is inarguably one of the best shopping experiences in the world. DFS, as they call it locally, surpasses the highest shopping parameters with its never-ending wonder trails. This one month long vivacious extravaganza kicks off in

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The city offers 30 days of pure shopping, entertainment and family fun, where shoppers get a diverse range of ready-made garments, accessories, furniture, toys, cosmetics, shoes and other

INDIA - TRAVEL

25

Modi’s ‘Run for Unity’ a grand success

Undeterred by accusations from various quarters for trying to polarize nation on religious ground in view of upcoming general elections in 2014, BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi emphasized on people’s participation and said that on the strong pillars of unity and good governance India would emerge as a super power in the world.

Speaking at jam packed Navlakhi Ground in Vadodara before flagging off ‘Run for Unity’ to mark 63rd death anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, Gujarat Chief Minister also send message to his detractors that ‘Mini Marathon’ across the country is a drive towards patriotism and that it should not be seen as political agenda.

“We should not look diversity of the nation as weakness, but it is the strong unique identity and tremendous strength of more than 1.2 billion people. This is not mere run, but a mass movement to spread the message of unity and integrity which would put India into the elite category of one of the most powerful nations in the world,” said Modi, while addressing nearly 250,000 people.

His speech was also telecast across the nation at nearly 1,100 locations, where similar ‘Mini Marathon’ – ‘Run for Unity’ was held simultaneously. Of nearly five million participants across the country, majority were youngsters. He struck the

chord by entering in sports wear (black tracksuit) early in the morning and said that it was the responsibility of youth and future

Congress did injustice to Sardar: Advani

While flagging off the run from Sabarmati River Front in Ahmedabad, former deputy Prime Minister L K Advani blamed Congress for not giving proper importance to Sardar Patel. Advani said that Congress forget remembering Patel on his death anniversaries, but hardly celebrated his birth anniversaries. His tremendous contribution to unite the country by merging 565 erstwhile princely states is unforgettable, he said.

Lauding Narendra Modi for building the tallest statue of Sadar Patel, Advani said that he was taking Sardar task ahead to unite the country. Nearly 150,000 people gathered at the River Front to participate in the run.

generations to strengthen unique Indian identity – ‘Unity in Diversity’.

Explaining the importance of ‘Statue of Unity’ project – the tallest statue in the world to be constructed on Sardar Sarovar dam site on River Narmada, he said that the project would a fitting tribute to Sardar Patel, who did commendable work to unite the country.

“With a view to inspire our youth for unity in order to make progress and emerge as powerful nation in the world, the project of world’s tallest statue was envisaged,” he added.

Following the path of Sardar Patel’s message of unity, Gujarat has emerged as a model of development for the last one decade, he said adding that just like Gujarat, India could also be a super power by joining people with the strength of unity.

With a view to spreading the message of unity, an essay competition in the schools across the country would be conducted and awards worth Rs 25 million would be given to the winners of at least 5,500 schools.

Gujarat finally gets Lokayukta after almost a decade

AV Correspondent

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After almost a decade, retired Judge D P Buch was sworn in as Gujarat Lokayukta by Governor Kamla Beniwal in Gandhinagar last week. The post was lying vacant since 2003. The last incumbent retired High Court Judge SM Soni was appointed during Keshubhai Patel’s tenure as Chief Minister in 1998.

The swearing-in ceremony of Justice Buch was attended by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues.

Congress leader and leader of opposition in the state assembly Shankersinh Vaghela did not attend the function. Explaining his absence, Vaghela said that he received invitation from state General Administration Department (protocol) only a day before the swearing-in ceremony, that too in the evening. “As an important meeting in Delhi was already fixed I couldn’t remain present,” he said adding that though

he had requested protocol officials to allow other leaders of Congress party in the function but it was rejected.

Vaghela, however, congratulated the new Lokayukta over phone. In fact, Vaghela gave his consent after Chief Justice of Gujarat High Court recommended Buch’s name as Lokayukta.

Subsequently in the last month, the Modi government had approved the name of Buch and recommended his name to the Governor.

The issue of vacant Lokayukta post in Gujarat had become political as well as legal as appointment of retired Justice RA Mehta by Gujarat Governor was challenged by Modi government

up to Supreme Court. Though, the apex court had upheld the appointment of Justice Mehta, but he declined to assume office in August this year.

Opposition Congress party as well as Keshubhai Patel’s Gujarat Parivartan Party (GPP) made the issue political and blamed Modi government for keeping the post vacant.

Even retired Justice Mehta’s letter which was leaked in Media added fuel to the controversy. Citing 23 reasons for declining to accept offer, Justice Mehta said in the letter that current controversy over his appointment by the governor and chief minister Modi dubbing him as “biased” and “anti-government” had “denigrated the office of the post and it had lost all the grace and dignity.” He said in the prevailing circumstances, “I could not persuade myself to accept the office of Lokayukta.”

26

INDIA

Supreme Court makes gay sex illegal again

The Supreme Court in India last week dealt a cruel blow to millions of homosexuals, many of whom had started living together after the Delhi high court decriminalized same-sex relationships four years ago, by making it a crime again, even if it is consensual and done between adults in private.

The 'crime' will attract a maximum punishment of life imprisonment.

The bench of Justices Singhvi and S J Mukhopadhaya reversed the Delhi HC's 2009 verdict and held that the 150-year-old Section 377, criminalizing gay sex, "does not suffer from the vice of unconstitutionality". The judgment would turn the clock back, and was being viewed in India and globally as a retrograde step. The possibility of police harassment of homosexuals could no longer be ruled out.

The bench said: "In the light of plain meaning and legislative history of the section, we hold that Section 377 IPC would apply irrespective of age

Dr Jayshree Mehta elected 1st woman president of Medical Council of India

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

and consent." It added that the section does not discriminate any group with a particular sexual preference, a stand that was diametrically opposite to that by the Delhi HC. Chidambaram, Sonia condemn SC judgment Union Home Minister P Chidambaram and Sonia Gandhi vehemently criticized the Supreme Court judgment on gay sex. Reacting to the verdict, Chidambaram said that he was “extremely disappointed” and added that the Supreme Court had reinstated a “colonial era law”. Sonia Gandhi said "I am disappointed that the Supreme Court reversed the previous Delhi High Court ruling on the issue of gay rights."

"I hope the parliament will address this issue and uphold constitutional guarantee of life and liberty to all citizens including those directly affected by this judgment,” she said.

Meanwhile, BJP chief Rajnath Singh supported the Supreme Court judgement.

Dr Jayshree Mehta, former vice-chancellor of Vadodara's Sumandeep Vidyapeeth, was elected unopposed president of the Medical Council of India (MCI) at the general body meeting of the apex body in New Delhi.

Dr Mehta is the first woman president of MCI in 80 years of its existence.

While in government service, she was professor and head of the department of surgery at SSG Hospital.

Considered a loyal associate of former MCI president Dr Ketan Desai, Dr Mehta is known for her image as a strict disciplinarian, according to sources close to her.

Mehta was nominated by the Gujarat government to the MCI. She will head the body for two years. Ketan Desai, head of Ahmedabad-based BJ Medical College's urology department, had held the MCI president post from 1996 to 2010. MCI has 82 members of which 80 were present for the election.

"My endeavor would be to bring about changes

Continued from page 1 death sentence to four of the rapists - Mukesh, 26, Akshay Thakur, 28, Pawan Gupta, 19, and Vinay Sharma, 20 - on 11 counts, including gang rape, murder, dacoity, unnatural offences and destruction of evidence.

The court later sent the case to the high court for confirmation of the death sentence.

The young woman was brutally gang-raped by six people, including a minor, in a moving bus in December last year. The men also robbed the victim and her male friend and then threw them out in the night to die. While

the minor has been sent to a reform home for three years, one of the main accused committed suicide in prison. A division bench of Justice Reva Khetrapal and Justice Pratibha Rani started hearing the case on November 1.

Meanwhile, the mother of the victim recently announced that her family will set up a trust to help rape victims.

Announcement was made in a prayer meeting organised in New Delhi to mark one year of the horrific incident. The meeting was attended by several politicians and other dignitaries.

Angry over the 'despicable' and 'barbaric' treatment meted out to its diplomat, India Tuesday asked US diplomats to turn in their IDs even as Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi and union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde declined to meet a visiting US Congressional delegation.

Rahul Gandhi and Shinde refused to meet the US Congressional delegation, comprising Republican and Democrat members, to highlight India's strong disapproval of the arrest, handcuffing and strip search of diplomat Devyani Khobragade in New York last week.

US diplomats in consulates have been asked to surrender their IDs, a

Continued from page 1 but the house was adjourned before voting on it.

A select committee of the Rajya Sabha suggested changes in the bill which were incorporated and approved by the union cabinet. Now the bill will again have to be sent again to the Lok Sabha for approval of the changes.

Concluding the debate on the bill, Law Minister Kapil Sibal called it a historic moment, but stressed that corruption could not be removed by the Lokpal alone.

"Law alone will not lead to elimination of corruption. Law will help deal with those who are corrupt, but it will not deal

with the impetus to be corrupt. It will just be a deterrent," he said.

He also said government would also deal with the "supply side" of corruption, as pointed out by Communist Party of IndiaMarxist (CPI-M), saying a bill amending Prevention of Corruption Act, pending with Lok Sabha, provides to deal with the source of bribe.

Now the bill will have to be sent to the Lok Sabha for approval of the changes.

The Lower House will debate the bill in Parliament on Wednesday.

The Gandhian crusader Anna Hazare, cheering the move, thanked the MPs for passing the bill

adding that he will break his fast after the Lokpal Bill gets passed in the Lok Sabha.

The Lokpal Bill has been taken up for consideration in Rajya Sabha after it was introduced by law minister Kapil Sibal.

Urging cooperation from all parties, Kapil Sibal said it was not the time for politics as there was need to evolve consensus on the issue.

Leader of opposition in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley while supporting the bill, asked for a rethink over the jurisdiction of Lokpal.

Jaitley took a dig at the government reminding it of its earlier strong opposition to the bill.

Nirbhaya case: death confirmation likely in Jan

in the medical education of India," Mehta said.

Mehta was professor and head of surgery at Baroda Medical College of M S University and also part of its highest bodies - senate and syndicate - before she joined Sumandeep Vidyapeeth.

In her long career, she not only kept herself away from controversies but is also perceived as an honest professional,” said one of the doctors in Ahmedabad. Terming her as versatile, he said: “She likes writing and has also authored a book on Gandhi. Among her colleagues, she is perceived as a kind-hearted person,” he said.

Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh and Lord Gulam Noon congratulated Dr Mehta on her election.

Professor Lord Bhikhu Parekh in his message said, “I have worked closely with Jayshree Mehta for over 30 years, including three when I was ViceChancellor of the M S University of Baroda and she a member of its senate and syndicate and part of my personal team. She is a person of immense integrity and good sense, utterly loyal to her colleagues and staff, deeply committed to the health of the medical profession, and totally incorruptible. With her as President, our medical education and ethics are in perfectly safe and capable hands.”

Lord Gulam Noon in his message said, “I was delighted to hear the news that my respected friend Dr Jayshree Mehta has been elected as the first woman President of the Medical Council of India.

Dr Mehta has spent a great part of her career studying breast cancer and

is currently doing research on its incidence among rural and urban women in Gujarat. She is perceived as an honest and hardworking professional by her colleagues and students and I am very proud that she has been elected to this very distinguished position.

Last, I met Dr Mehta two years ago in Baroda where she lives. I had gone for some advice, with my brother- in- law Moiz in respect of the newly opened Noon Hospital in Bhawani Mandi, Rajasthan. She not only guided me to recruit Doctors but she visited our hospital in Rajasthan and low and behold our medical superintendent Dr Altaf Choudry was pleasantly surprised to see her as she was the examiner who had given him ‘distinctive marks’ in his exam of surgery in his final MBBS. Since then she has been following up the progress of our hospital. I wish her all the success in her new assignment.”

deputy consul general in New York, as "barbaric" and "despicable", a source said. Khobragade was strip searched, confined to a cell with drug addicts and also subjected to DNA swabbing, sources said.

Speaker Meira Kumar, herself a former Indian career diplomat, declined to meet the US delegation "as a sign of displeasure" over the treatment meted out Khobragade.

BJP's prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi too declined to meet the US team. He tweeted: "Refused to meet the visiting USA delegation in solidarity with our nation, protesting ill-treatment meted to our lady diplomat in USA." Khobragade, one of

India's senior diplomats in New York, was charged last week with visa fraud and making false statements.

She was accused by Manhattan's Indian American US Attorney Preet Bharara of visa fraud and exploiting her babysitter and housekeeper. She was handcuffed in public by law enforcement authorities in New York while she was dropping her daughter at school.

India has termed the treatment meted out to the envoy as "absolutely unacceptable". US Ambassador Nancy Powell was summoned to South Block by Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh on Dec 13 and a strong protest was lodged over the treatment.

(of people) that we will give an effective Lokpal," Jaitley said.

He also urged the government to get the Whistleblowers' Protection Bill and Citizens Grievance Redress Bill passed by Parliament in its winter session.

Jaitley said no law was ideal and there was always scope of improving it based on experience.

CPM leader Sitaram Yechury welcomed the fresh impetus to the bill.

SP walks out against Lokpal bill The Samajwadi Party walked out of the Rajya Sabha protesting the Lokpal bill, saying the legislation is not in "public

interest". Opposing the bill in the upper house, Samajwadi Party leader Ramgopal Yadav said it will take the country towards a state of indecision as all would be afraid of the Lokpal.

"This bill is not in public interest. In this bill, any person can put in a complaint and we will have to go to police officers investigating the matter to give our statement. The lawmakers in that case will hesitate to take any decisions," Ramgopal Yadav said. "This bill will lead to no work. Officers will hesitate in taking up work...Do you want to take the nation towards a state of indecision?" Yadav said.

Indian envoy’s arrest sparks diplomatic row with US

Devyani Khobragade

source said.

On Monday, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar and National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon cancelled their meetings separately with the visiting US delegation.

The NSA is known to have described the treatment meted out to Khobragade, India's

Rajya Sabha passes Lokpal bill Participating in the debate, Jaitley suggested some changes in the legislation tabled by the government and said his party will fully back the bill.

He said it should be made clear in the bill that investigative machinery under Lokpal has powers of search and seizure without notice.

Jaitley said his party was against religion-based appointments in Lokpal as it was against the spirit of the Constitution.

The Bharatiya Janata Party leader said the Lokpal Bill will help in improving accountability mechanisms in governance.

"There is expectation

4 packaged foods that are killing you

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December 2013

Packaged foods help in time-management, but experts say they are killing you slowly.

Mornings are a rushed affair and to make life easy, you pour a glass of milk over the cereal that you picked from the supermarket. So you think you've had a wholesome meal, right? Not really.

Medical experts say that packaged food - even the cereal that you have been assured is healthy - the quick fix for the on-the-go generation is full of chemicals and, more often than not, 'completely devoid of nutrients'.

While you may argue that you look for the reassuring words on packets no-trans-fat, no preservatives, no monosodium glutamate (MSG), experts say that these boxes are full of other hidden ingredients that can pose serious health problems if consumed in the longterm.

Biscuits Ingredients: Refined wheat flour, sugar, edible vegetable oil, milk solids, invert syrup, raising agents, salts, emulsifiers, vitamins and dough conditioner.

What's hiding?

We already know the toxic effects of refined flour. However, what's scarier are the high levels of edible vegetable oil in these baked cookies, says macrobiotic nutritionist Shonali Sabherwal.

"Edible vegetable oil is nothing but fat as its nutrients have been stripped.

This loads up the liver, which reacts to fat that cannot be processed in the body, resulting in a fatty liver and slowing down your body," she explains.

Besides, invert syrup, a mix of both glucose and fructose creates a sense of being full, and this sugar also make you crave more

sugar - so while most products scream no sugar (they mean white sugar), they still add glucose, fructose, or for diabetics, chemical sweeteners, which actually have longterm effects. "Milk solids have also been linked to schizophrenia, autism, depression and multiple sclerosis (MS)," she adds.

Muesli Ingredients: Invert syrup, strawberry crush (sugar, water, strawberry pulp, thickener), strawberry syrup, pineapple crush, mango crush, apple juice, concentrate, liquid glucose, soy lecithin What's hiding?

The label says there's no added sugar, but the sugar rush you get from the various syrups added to make this a scrumptious breakfast, is perhaps why you probably have been hyperactive. If your blood sugar levels are going awry, blame it on your breakfast cereals.

And the extreme sugar rush is not the only cause of worry. Most packaged muesli contains soy lecithin, a by-product of the soybean oil production. Studies suggest some of the common side effects of soy lecithin - used to bind the various ingredients together - are change in weight (loss and gain), loss of appetite, occasional nausea, dizziness, vomiting and confusion.

"Besides, if you have been

advised by your doctor not to eat soya, you may just be consuming it unknowingly even in breads," shares eco-nutritionist Kavita Mukhi.

Ready-to-eat-meals I n g r e d i e n t s : Dehydrated vegetables, water, edible vegetable oil, cashewnut, salt, sugar, butter, ginger paste What's hiding?

Physician and cardiometabolic specialist Dr Hemant Thacker says that ready-to-eat meals are full of dehydrated vegetables which are nutrient-empty.

They are only fibre and calories.

Worse, the process of reheating the vegetable kills whatever micronutrients are left in the food. He adds that it is impossible to preserve food for 12 months if they haven't added any additives or chemicals. "Those additives may be permissible for that much quantity of food, but if you keep eating it day in and day out, you are posing great danger to your kidney and liver," he says.

Packaged soups Ingredients: Corn flour, edible vegetable oil, thickener, softening agent, sugar, salt, dehydrated vegetables, dried glucose syrup, edible vegetable fat, yeast extract powder, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, acidity regulator, flavour enhancer What's hiding?

Prepare tomato soup

using fresh tomatoes. Do this for a couple of days.

Does the colour turn out the same every day? No. How then do the various soup manufacturers manage to keep the colour of packet soup uniform? It is thanks to the colouring agents which are sometimes disguised as 'flavour enhancers'. Dr Thacker says, "Colouring agents are toxic. They put the liver and kidney into overdrive, since these organs have to work extra hard to wash away chemicals from the system and make them safe for the body.

This means that the overworked liver is unable to do its regular job - it handles the nutrients that have been absorbed by the gut from food, removes toxins from the blood, makes proteins like albumin and clotting factors, and secretes bile which helps digest fatty foods in particular - as efficiently." That apart, Sabherwal points out, hydrolyzed vegetable protein contains up to 30 per cent MSG, which is known to trigger headaches, rapid heart rate, chest pain and cause nausea. "Moreover, yeast extract powder only increases the bad bacteria (yeast) in the body. This causes problems with the pH levels and creates acidic blood condition, therefore decreasing immunity," she says.

water during your meal.

"Most Indians have water along with their meals.

The usual theory is washing down the food while eating. People have no idea how wrong this practice is and how difficult this can be for their digestion. For those suffering with digestion problems, the ramifications are manifold. Our stomachs have a knack of knowing when you will eat and starts releasing digestive juices immediately. If you start drinking water at the same time, what you are actually doing is diluting the digestive juices being released to digest your food, thereby hindering them from breaking down food."

Research shows that sipping a little water during meals isn't a cause for concern but drinking a glass or two may interfere with digestion. It is best

to drink fluids before and two hours after meals as this helps in absorption of nutrients, researchers have found.

Elaborating on what exactly happens inside you when you gulp water during meals, Sabherwal says that it gets absorbed by the intestinal walls of the stomach.

"This absorption continues till it becomes concentrated enough for the digestive juices to begin digesting your food. However, due to it getting mixed with water, this concentrated substance is now thicker than the food contents present in your stomach.

So less gastric juice will be secreted to digest your food. The result is, undigested food leaks into your system as it gets absorbed through the stomach walls. This will also lead to acid reflux and heart burn." Drinking

water with meals can also cause a surge in your insulin levels, almost like the way high glycemic food would affect you, Sabherwal cautions. "The more insulin is released in to your blood stream, the higher the chances of you storing fat in your body."

To avoid watering down your meals, Sabherwal suggests a few don'ts. "Make sure your food is not too salty as that would aggravate your thirst and trigger your need to down more water.

Besides, eating in a hurry will cause you to gulp your food down. Most likely, you would feel the need to wash it down with water while you are at it. Instead, chew, chew and then chew some more. We secrete a lot of digestive juices (enzymes) while chewing, which makes our stomach's job easier."

Say no to water between meals

Gulping water during meals severely hampers your stomach's digestive powers and causes insulin levels to fluctuate significantly, warns Microboitic counsellor Shonali Sabherwal.

To know if you're drinking enough water, it is often said, just check if you are feeling thirsty. If you aren't, your fluid intake is likely to be just about right. But downing glasses of water along with your meals may not be the best time to quench your thirst.

Sabherwal explains why you should not drink

To Our Readers

We are publishing these items in good faith, kindly consult your Doctor before you try to implement it. We do not hold any responsibility for its efficacy...

HEALTH WATCH

27

Benefits of climbing the stairs

A latest research suggests that climbing stairs is considered to be one of the best ways to burn up calories and strengthen your heart. According to a British survey, climbing stairs is directly associated with reduced risk of heart diseases.

It is said that an overweight person can lose up to 12 pounds by climbing two flights of stairs a day for a year. Only strenuous activities like dragging logs and sprinting seem to burn up more energy per minute than climbing stairs. Regular stair climbing is also a beneficial augmentative exercise in a vigorous cardiovascular workout.

Burns more calories: Stair climbing engages your body's largest muscle groups to repeatedly lift your body weight up, step after step. Thus using your muscles to carry your own weight is far higher to running as compared.

Maximises your cardio

efforts: It also raises your heart rate immediately thus maximizing your cardio benefits. Increases core muscle strength: Climbing stairs is a great way to amp your core muscle strength.

Tones and sculpts your body: It also engages every major muscle in your lower body - glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps and calves to exercise and thus tones your body better.

Low impact workout: You don't have to ideally sweat it out while climbing stairs. Just a few stairs every day will give you a good workout.

Lung cancer, like other cancers, arises when there is an unrestrained growth of lung cells due to mutations caused by various factors. It is the most common cancer in the world and is responsible for approximately 1.4 million deaths annually.

Here are some facts relating to this deadly disease: Types: There are two major types of lung cancer; small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) – it accounts for 15% of the disease and is usually caused by smoking and typically begins in the large airways of the lungs from where it can spread to the brain. The other is non-small-cell lung carcinoma (NSCLC) which comprises 80% of the cases. It has three main types - adenocarcinoma, squamous cell carcinoma and large cell carcinoma.

NSCLC arises from the epithelial cells lining the larger and smaller airways.

Causes: The main causes of lung cancers include smoking (active and passive), radon gas, asbestos, familial predisposition, air pollution and lung diseases.

Symptoms: A persistent cough or worsening of an existing chronic cough,

Prolonged chest or shoulder pain, Unexplained weight loss and/or fatigue, Coughing up blood, Repeated chest infections Breathing problems Diagnosis: A chest xray is the first diagnostic step taken to detect cancer, if a person shows symptoms of infection. CT imaging and bronchoscopy are used to gather more information about the extent or location of a tumour.

Stages: NSCLC is divided into four stages depending on the severity of a case.

Stage 1 - it is confined to the lung Stage II&III - it has spread locally but is confined to the chest. (Stage III denotes extent and invasiveness of the tumours) Stage IV - it has spread from the chest to other parts of the body SCLC is classified depending on whether the cancer is limited or extensive.

Treatment: Methods of treatment include surgery, chemotherapy, and/or radiation therapy depending upon the stage and type of lung cancer and also the patient’s overall heath condition.

Don't ignore persistent coughs

28

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Poonam Pandey stripped while Dimple ditched

here was a lot of buzz surrounding the promotional event for T Dimple Kapadia's film “What The

Fish” as news of Bollywood starlets Poonam Pandey and Rakhi Sawant attending the same were doing the rounds. While Poonam and Rakhi were grabbing all the attention, Dimple decided to give the event a miss! According to a report Dimple decided to skip the event at the last moment after she learnt about Poonam Pandey's striptease act.

Hrithik Roshan, Sussanne split up

ollywood heartthrob Hrithik Roshan B announced that he and his

wife Sussanne have parted ways after the latter decided to annul their marriage.

"Sussanne has decided to separate from me and end our 17-year relationship. This is a very trying time for the entire family and I request the media and the people to grant us our privacy at this time," said the 39-year-old in a statement. The news has come just a few days before their 13th marriage anniversary.

The duo tied the knot Dec 20, 2000 post the success of Hrithik's debut film Kaho Naa... Pyaar Hai. They have two sons - Hrehaan and Hridhaan.

Nithya Menon joins Lawrence’s ‘Muni 3’

Raghava Laurence’s third from the Muni franchise is progressing at a steady pace. The team had to pause the shooting for a few days following Lawrence’s injury. Now that they have resumed the production and we hear that around 70% of the movie has been canned already. Now to the exciting part... It has been said that another beautiful lady has joined the cast of

“Muni 3.” Actress Nithya Menon, who is expecting her next Tamil release, “Malini 22 Palayamkottai,” will play an important part in the movie. She is said to feature in an intriguing flash back sequence in the movie. The shoot is presently happening in and around Chennai.

Meanwhile, “Muni 3” stars Lawrence, Taapsee, Kovai Sarala and Devadarshini in central roles..

Rajinikanth turns 63

Sayali Bhagat ties the knot ormer Miss India and actress Sayali Bhagat F tied knots with a Delhi

based businessman Navneet Pratap Singh on December 10, 2013.

“The Train” girl Sayali, was shining in a Tarun Tahiliani wedding dress.

Sayali said she was glad that she opted for an arranged marriage and that Navneet was simply perfect for her. Sayali has worked in several Bollywood films like 'The Train', 'Good Luck', 'Halla Bol'.

Salman offers role to Bruna in his film

runa Abdullah must be humming B 'Tu Mera Hero' these

days to Salman Khan and why not? The actress whose screen presence has usually been limited to cameos and item numbers has been offered a role in Salman Khan's 'Jai Ho'. According to a report, the beautiful Bruna has caught Salman bhai's attention and like all his real life interests, this one has also made the transition to the big screen.

Although, Bruna must be grinning from ear to ear with this opportunity, she isn't the only girl to have bagged a role in 'Jai Ho' after catching Salman's fancy.

T

amil superstar Rajinikanth turned 63 and is said to be celebrating his birthday in native town Bangalore. Sources close to the actor said he had earlier left for the city, keeping with his usual practice of staying away from Chennai on his birthday every year.

However, he had met his fans last year. Die-hard fans of the veteran actor have organised special prayers and welfare activities to celebrate their idol's birthday.

Rajinikanth's is a typical rags-toriches story as he has transformed his mundane life as a bus conductor in Bangalore to that of a most sought after actor, with a frenzied fan base hailing him as their 'Thalaivar' (The Leader).

From what started as a small role in his mentor K Balachander's

'Aboorva Ragangal' in 1975, soon Rajinikanth charted his path as a preferred villain before opting for more positive roles. Whether it be portraying struggles of a low-class printing unit employee or portraying the divinity of Sage Ragavendra, the actor has proved he was second to none when it came to challenging roles.

He broke many stereotypes of a hero, including holding a cigarette with much style while mouthing dialogues in his own inimitable way that made many a young fan go crazy.

Previously, Tamil film heroes avoided scenes of smoking or drinking.

Win a dinner date with Pooja H

ere’s an exciting opportunity for you, the cinema buff, to score a dinner date with the absolutely charming and uber talented Pooja. Take part in the Behindwoods Vidiyum Munn Contest by sending your review of the film “Vidiyum Munn” in English or Tamil. Send in your observations of the

film to columns@behindwoods.com with the subject ‘Vidyum Munn Contest’ on or before 22nd December 2013. Five lucky winners will win a chance to dine with Pooja at the swanky Crimson Chakra restaurant and share their opinions and views about films and much more in person with the star.

29

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December 2013

Priyanka Chopra turns cabaret dancer D

uring Calcutta's most unsettled times, the inseparable Bikram and Bala, grew from being small time, inconsequential wagon breakers and coal thieves, to becoming the biggest and most powerful black marketing mafiamen. As the infamy of these two renegades spread far and wide... the people of this sprawling city started calling these two happy-go-lucky rebels... Gunday.

While recreating the authenticity of Calcutta of the 70's, director and writer

of “Gunday,” Ali Abbas Zafar, also introduces us to the then prevalent world of cabaret dancing.

Priyanka Chopra, who plays the role of Nandita the gorgeous cabaret dancer in the film, does it to perfection.

Directed by Zafar and Produced by Aditya Chopra, the film stars Ranveer Singh & Arjun Kapoor, as Bikram and Bala, along with Priyanka Chopra and Irrfan Khan, in lead roles.

Akshay Kumar promotes road safety rally in Mumbai B

ollywood’s action hero Akshay Kumar attended a specially convened road safety rally in Mumbai. He devoted his free time to convey the important message to motorcyclists of road awareness and riding safely in Mumbai’s busy roads.

The ‘Ride for Safety’ rally flagged off from Bandra-Kurla Complex (BKC) and was organised by Mumbai police. More than 2,000 two-wheelers took part in the event, which covered a route from Bandra-Kurla Complex to the Hajji Ali Mosque, some 20 km in about 50 minutes.

Akshay Kumar was the star attraction as he himself took to the road on a stylish motorcycle complete with helmet and protective clothing. Deputy Commissioner of Police, (traffic suburbs), Pratap Dighavkar, said: “This year, 49 bikers were killed in accidents till August while the figure was 77 in 2012, 72 in 2011 and 67 in 2010. If we see the record of the total accidents across the country around 150,000 people die in road accidents on an average and out of these, 49 per cent are bike riders.”

Akshay Kumar’s message was simple and succinct: “If you value your life and your family, wear helmets and ride safely.”

Reliance Entertainment brings 2014 with ‘Total Siyapaa’

R

eliance Entertainment is set to have audiences in splits with the release of “Total Siyapaa” (Total Chaos), worldwide on 31st January 2014.

Billed as an ‘urbanist romcom’ with the feel of a Brit-Asian cross-over film, “Total Siyapaa,” produced by Reliance Entertainment, Friday Filmworks and AKA films, is a rollercoaster ride of hilarious mishaps which ensues when Pakistani rockstar Aman (played

by Ali Zafar) meets his BritishSikh love interest Asha (played

by Yami Gautam) battle-axe Punjabi mother (Kiron Kher).

The film is directed by E Niwas and the script is penned by Neeraj Pandey.

Set in London, this wacky,

warp-speed tale is a melting pot of cultures. The film gains pace when Aman travels to London to meet Asha’s parents who are conservative Indians and completely unwilling to go against their rigid beliefs. Aman’s life descends into ‘Total Siyapaa’ when he attempts, albeit unsuccessfully at first, to impress his future in-laws with hilarious and at times completely cringe-inducing consequences! The film uncannily captures the differences between India and Pakistan and hopes to foster a deeper understanding and togetherness between the two countries. Total Siyapaa also sees real life couple Anupam Kher and Kiron Kher come together on-screen for the very first time.

Sonam Kapoor in Arbaaz’s ‘Dolly Ki Doli’

iding high on the success of R 'Raanjhanaa', Sonam

Kapoor has bagged back to back projects with some of the talented filmmakers and artists. And now adding to the list is the film 'Dolly Ki Doli' which is produced

by Arbaaz Khan.

While this is the first time Sonam will be working with this Khan of Bollywood, Arbaaz has decided to let go off his brother Salman from the film. Also, 'Dolly Ki Doli' is a woman centric quirky drama where Sonam plays a bindaas North Indian girl Dolly and will be accompanied by three other male co-stars who are yet to be finalized.

Wharton University honours ‘Chennai Express’! arlier this year, Shah Rukh Khan's E “Chennai Express”

broke records at the box office with its collections. And now, the film has earned a special recognition from the famed Wharton University in the US. It has won an award for its social media campaign. The team was presented with an award at a ceremony held on December 10 at Pennsylvania in the US. Shailja Gupta, digital strategist for “Chennai Express,” received the award on behalf of the team. Producer and actor Shah Rukh, of course, is excited about bagging the award.

Yes, I have started smoking: Aamir Khan

amir Khan these days is A very stressed about

his upcoming film 'Dhoom 3'. He says that he has noticed that his stress levels have increased since the shooting of the movie is competed. He says his tension will only ease once the film hits the theatres. In one of his interviews, Aamir said that whenever his film was about to release he got nervous and that a cigarette could ease the pressure.

President to honour Big B

ollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan will be receiving B yet another honour from the

President of India at an event organized by a leading news channel to commemorate its 25 years of broadcasting. While the channel chooses to honour 25 individuals from India, who has been globally respected, Bachchan is one among them. Big B got on to the social networking site to express his excitement and posted, "NDTV honours 25 individuals that have been globally respected from India, on its 25 years of broadcasting .. the honours to be done by the President of India .. humbly yours truly has been invited as one of the 25 ... an honour and a huge privilege !!"

UK

CALENDAR 2014

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This week paid readers of Asian Voice will receive a copy of the 2014 calendar with their newspaper. This year the calendar has been sponsored by Lycamobile.

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CAPRICORN DEC 22 - JAN 20

Coming Events

l Wednesday 25th December 2013 – Jalaram Bavni from 2.30pm – 5pm at Shree Jalaram Jyot Mandir, WASP, Repton Avenue, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx HA0 3DW. Contact: 0208 902 8885. l Thursday 26th December 2013 – Bapa Ni Katha from 2.30pm – 6pm followed by Bhajans from 7pm – 9.30pm at Shree Jalaram Jyot Mandir, WASP, Repton Avenue, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx HA0 3DW. Contact: 0208 902 8885. l Sunday 29th December 2013 – Celebration of Shree Gusainji's Birthday from 2pm – 6pm at Brent Indian Association, 116 Ealing Road, Wembley, Middlesex, London, HA0 4TH. Contact: 020 8903 3019. l Tuesday 31st December 2013 – New Years Eve Dinner and Dance from 7.30pm till late at CLub Jasmins, 202 Upper Tooting Road, London SW17 7EW. l Tuesday 31st December 2013 – New Years Eve Bhajan & Maha Aarti from 8pm followed by Maha Aarti at Midnight at Shree Jalaram Mandir, 39-45 Oldfield Lane South, Middlesex, UB6 9LB. Contact: 0208 578 8088. l Wednesday 1st January 2014 – Shanti Path Havan from 11am – 1pm followed by Prasad at Shree Jalaram Jyot Mandir, WASP, Repton Avenue, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx HA0 3DW. Contact: 0208 902 8885. l Wednesday 1st January 2014 – Bhajana from 2.30pm – 5pm at Shree Jalaram Jyot Mandir, WASP, Repton Avenue, Sudbury, Wembley, Middx HA0 3DW. Contact: 0208 902 8885. l Wednesday 1st January 2014 – 108 Hanuman Chalisa from 11am to 6pm followed by Maha Prashad at Shree Jalaram Mandir, 39-45 Oldfield Lane South, Middlesex, UB6 9LB. Contact: 0208 578 8088. l Sat & Sun 4th/5th 2014 – Exhibition on Vivekananda & Indian Civilisation from 10am-6pm at The Archbishop Lanfranc School, Mitcham Road, Croyden, Surrey CR9 3AS. Contact: 07961 943 862.

Editor: CB Patel Associate Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Tel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com Editorial Executive: Tanveer Mann Tel: 020 7749 4010 - Email: tanveer.mann@abplgroup.com Senior News Editor: Dhiren Katwa Freelance Correspondent: Rudy Otter Chief Operating Officer: Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 Email: george@abplgroup.com Chief Financial Officer: Surendra Patel Tel: 020 7749 4093 Mobile: 07875 229 220 Email: surendra.patel@abplgroup.com Chief Accountant: Akshay Desai Tel: 020 7749 4087 Email:accounts@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Alka Shah Tel: 020 7749 4002 - Mobile: 07944 151 893 Email: alka.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Kishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088 Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.com Business Development Managers: Rovin J George - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219 Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.com Graphic Designers: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086 Email: graphics@abplgroup.com Customer Service: Ragini Nayak Tel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad.

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With sellout Tour in 2013 and due to huge public demand, Rock On Music brings back the mesmerizing Shreya Ghoshal in May for her UK Tour 2014. The songstress will be performing once again at the De Montfort Hall in Leicester on 24th May, the prestigious Royal Albert Hall in London on 25th of May and at the NIA in Birmingham on 26th May 2014.

Winner of multiple awards for her work in music, the talented artiste wants to keep

exploring the diverse forms of music. Shreya is one of the most prolific singers today, music writers have hailed her as the “Queen Bee of Playback” as well as the bridge between Lata Mangeshkar and the future generation. Her endless list of Bollywood hits keeps getting longer with songs like, 'Nagada Sang Dhol' from the movie 'Ramleela', 'Chikni Chameli', 'Balma' 'Ooh La La Ooh La La', 'Teri Meri', 'Saans', 'Sunn Raha Hai' amongst many more.

STOP PRESS Jay Sean and wife Thara Natalie become proud parents to baby daughter Ayva World-renowned Britishborn singer Jay Sean has become a father for the first time after his wife Thara Natalie gave birth to a baby girl on the 13th December 2013. The couple have named their daughter Ayva Loveen Kaur Jhooti. Jay Sean, whose real name is Kamaljit Singh Jhooti, announced that his wife was expecting in September on the photo-sharing network Instagram, by uploading a picture of their scan. In a similar fashion, Jay Sean announced the news on Monday 16th December with a collage of images of the new-born.

The 32-year-old revealed his wife gave birth as his song Luckiest Man was playing in the background.

The flow of good energy this week makes you want to be responsible which can benefit you socially and personally. Financially, you have everything going for you. Be prudent and do not fritter away your good fortune. You should avoid using credit, simply because your spending habits may be excessive and impulsive.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21

The Sun energizes your sector of change, transformation and regeneration. On a more practical level, you may be dealing with joint finances and shared resources now more than usual. You should also make sure that your tax affairs are in order. You are more willing than usual to explore and delve deeper into life's secrets and arrive at meaningful conclusions.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22

A blast of personal energy comes your way, and showing your leadership skills works for you now. Romance and pleasure are highlighted this week. The flowing, expressive, and spontaneous energy surrounding you attracts like-minded people.

Be sure to take time to enjoy yourself, preferably around others!

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 The domestic scene may prove to be active and harmonious as long as you use tact and diplomacy. Intense focus is what is needed now so do not let yourself be distracted by non-essentials. The gentle influence of Venus ensures that most things run smoothly and that your cash-flow remains viable.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 Don't be afraid to act forcefully if your instinct tells you it's time for change. This week the focus is your house of family and home. Besides spending more time tending to domestic affairs, the focus can be on cultivating and nourishing your inner foundations, so to speak.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

More than any other time of the year, your focus is drawn to your career and standing in the society. This is the time when you are more interested in, and focused on, accomplishing something important. Contact with authority figures is more likely during this period. Recognition will come your way whether you ask for it or not, and the responsibility that goes with it.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 The fiery planet Mars, continues to occupy your sign 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.

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SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 Mercury and Sun transit your solar second house. During this cycle, you are likely to see and enjoy benefits to your earning power and this will boost your own sense of security and wealth. Money problems from the past may clear up, if you manage your resources properly.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

This is a good time to cut back on extravagant spending and consolidate your finances. Your social calendar is likely to keep you very busy and you will have lots of opportunities to promote yourself. For some of you this is also a good time to meet like-minded people which could lead to romantic liaisons.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

There may be a certain amount of unfinished business to be dealt with. Therefore you will need to adopt a fairly flexible policy in order to accommodate the odd twists and turns of everyday life. There are planetary energies firing you up preventing you from sleeping properly. Give yourself plenty of physical outlets to calm you down mentally.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 The focus is on finances this week, but that doesn’t mean you should worry yourself sick. Rather, it is about finding new and improved ways to boost your earnings potential. Don’t let nebulous tendencies interfere with your plans. It’s fine to consider several options but don’t get caught up in indecision. Schedule networking opportunities later this week.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

You have everything to gain by following your creative inclinations. If you have new ideas, now is the time to put them into practice. Whatever your present interests you are likely to find that new doors open and the way ahead offers increased scope for expressing your real self. A great time to meet and interact with people.

SPORT WORLD

South Africa win ODI series against India

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

The third and final cricket one-dayer between India and South Africa was abandoned after rains intervened at the innings break to leave the home side with a 2-0 series win.

Rains came after South Africa elected to bat and posted an imposing 301 for eight in their allotted 50 overs at Super Sport Park.

The Indians did not get to face a single delivery.

The umpires waited before calling off the match, leaving the Indians disappointed ahead of the twomatch Test series beginning December 18. India had suffered embarrassing defeats in the earlier two ODIs of the series, losing by 141 and 134 runs in Johannesburg and Durban respectively.

The 0-2 loss in the threematch contest meant that India have failed to win an ODI series in South Africa in four attempts. India lost their earlier three ODI tours in South Africa - 2-5 in 1992/93, 0-4 in 2006/07 and 2-3 in 2010/11.

Earlier in the day, Quinton de Kock notched up his third successive hundred while captain A B de Villiers also struck a century as South Africa wriggled out of a tight spot to post an imposing 301 for 8 after electing to bat.

Opening batsman de

Kock smashed nine fours and two sixes for his 101 off 120 balls to become the third South African and fifth overall batsman to hit a century in three successive innings as he helped revive the home side innings after being reduced to 28 for three in the eighth over.

De Kock became the first batsman to score all three hundreds in the same series. With 341 runs from three matches, de Kock is also only the third batsman ever to score 300-plus runs in a three-match ODI series.

De Kock shared a crucial 171 runs for the fourth wicket with his skipper de Villiers, who hit his 16th ODI century, to repair the South African innings from 28 for three. De Villiers

struck six fours and five sixes in his 101-ball innings.

For India, pacer Ishant Sharma finished with 4/40 from his 10 overs, picking up his 100th ODI wicket in doing so. Fellow pacer Mohammed Shami chipped in with 3/69 while the third of the pace trio Umesh Yadav took one wicket.

On a pitch that seemed to be the flattest of the three ODIs on display so far, de Villiers had no qualms about batting first after winning the toss. Since they had already stitched up the series, the hosts rested Jacques Kallis, Dale Steyn and Morne Morkel, bringing in Henry Davids, Wayne Parnell and Imran Tahir.

India made the lone change, with the fit-again

Yuvraj Singh taking Ajinkya Rahane's spot.

The Proteas' in-form openers Hashim Amla and de Kock began in the same fashion as they did in the previous two matches, with the opening overs of Ishant and Umesh Yadav resulting in a string of boundaries.

However, there was a difference this time. India would strike early, and not just once.

First up, Mohammad Shami was successful in breaking the opening stand cheaply. The first wicket yielded only 22 runs,as Amla was out pulling, caught by Yuvraj. He followed up his century in Durban with only 13 runs.

Ishant then got a double break-through for his team, dismissing both Davids (1) and JP Duminy (1) in the eighth over. For the first time in three matches, the hosts were feeling the heat after being reduced to 28 for three.

South Africa, however, did not worry too much.

After all, de Kock was still batting when he was joined by de Villiers. And together, the in-form batsmen set the Indian bowlers on a leather hunt. Their progress was slow as they set about rebuilding the innings.

South Africa's fifty came only in the 13th over.

semis. It turned out to be a disappointing second game for Anand from the white side of a queen pawn opening. Kramnik opted for the age-old Tarrasch defense and Anand avoided routine theory that allowed the Russian to equalise without batting an eye.

Anand made a positional error on the 15th turn that gave Kramnik the initiative to look for more and the latter came up with some sterling manoeuvres to seize the advantage.

Despite leading 3-1 till the 58th minute, India blew away their chances of qualifying for the quarterfinals after being forced to a 3-3 draw by South Korea in a dramatic finish in the last Pool C match of the Hockey Junior World Cup at the Major Dhyan Chand National Stadium.

After going 0-1 down in the 16th minute in their must-win tie, India struck back with three consecutive goals, almost securing their last eight berth. But penalty corner specialist Seungju You destroyed India's dreams by scoring twice again and levelling the match in the last 12 minutes of the thrilling encounter.

With the end of the league phase, the Netherlands, who beat Canada 7-0 earlier in the

day, topped Pool C with nine points from three wins.

Korea and India both have four points but the former go into the quarterfinals with a better goal difference. Canada, however, finished fourth on zero points. India took off aggressively, earning a penalty corner early in the second minute but Amit Rohidas' drag flick was wayward and India missed the chance to go ahead.

The visitors responded by earning their first penalty corner (fifth minute) but luck was on India's side as You's stroke hit the top bar and the ball kept out to the delight of the fans.

India maintained majority of the possession and created several chances which the forward line was unable to convert.

Quinton de Kock and A B de Villiers

Anand bows out of London Chess Classic

Former world champion Viswanathan Anand bowed out of the London Chess Classic after losing the quarterfinals against Vladimir Kramnik of Russia 0.5-1.5 in London at the Olympia.

Anand, who had shown fine form coming in to the quarters, ran out of steam in the second game with white pieces and found himself in a lost position in almost no time in the 1,50,000 Euros prize money tournament.

Michael Adams of England kept the local hopes alive by defeating Russian Peter Svidler in the tiebreaker while Boris Gelfand of Israel stole the limelight ousting Fabiano Caruana of Italy.

In the other quarterfinal, Hikaru Nakamura of United States defeated Nigel Short to cement his place in the

India exit junior hockey World Cup

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Murray wins BBC Sports Personality of the Year

Wimbledon champion Andy Murray, the first British winner of the men's title for 77 years, was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year. The 26-year-old Scot, who was not at the awards ceremony in Leeds because he is training in Florida following a back injury, edged out Wales and British & Irish Lions rugby union fullback Leigh Halfpenny and jockey A.P. McCoy to win the award. Murray was presented with the trophy by nine-times Wimbledon champion Martina Navratilova. "Thanks to Martina Navratilova for giving this to me," Murray said. "She's possibly the greatest tennis player of all time. "I've got a few people to thank - my family first. A lot are there in the crowd. They've supported me since I was a kid, making a lot of sacrifices for me. I couldn't have done it without you." Murray beat Serbian Novak Djokovic in straight sets in the Wimbledon final in July to become the first home winner of the men's singles at the grasscourt grand slam tournament since Fred Perry in 1936.

The British & Irish Lions rugby union side were named team of the year following their victory in Australia, the Lions' first series win since 1997.

Formula One world champion Sebastian Vettel of Germany claimed the overseas personality of the year prize.

No cheerleaders in IPL from next year

The spot-fixing scandal which rocked IPL this year, has forced the administrators to make some hardhitting changes in the tournament. BCCI has now decided to remove cheerleaders from the upcoming edition of the Indian Premier League, which is scheduled to be held in April-May period next year.

BCCI vice-president Ravi Savant has confirmed the development. “There will be no cheer girls in the IPL matches,” he said. Savant, who also holds the position of vice-president of Mumbai Cricket Association, said that a total of 10 changes have been suggested by the panel which BCCI appointed to look into the spot-fixing scandal. “All the recommendations of the committee have been accepted and will be implemented from IPL 7 onwards,” Savant said. Cheerleaders have been present in all editions of IPL so far, and have courted various controversies over the years.

Aussie teenager runs faster than Usain Bolt

Fourteen-year-old Australia schoolboy James Gallaugher has entered record books by upstaging Usain Bolt's 200-metre record when the Jamaican was 14. Gallaugher, who originally hails from the NSW southcoast, ran 200m in 21.73 seconds, which not only is a record for his age group but is also about 0.08 sec faster than Bolt's record as a 14-year-old. The Aussie teenager broke the record in Townsville, News.com.au has reported.

Gallaugher is among the Australians pressing claim for selection in the Australian squad for the 2016 Rio Olympics.

IOC clears Indian athletes to compete in Winter Games

Indian athletes have been cleared to compete in the Winter Games in Sochi after India complied with the IOC's ethics rules and avoided becoming the first country expelled from the Olympics in more than 40 years.

Still to be determined is whether the few Indian athletes who have qualified for Sochi compete for their country or under the Olympic flag.

The International Olympic Committee gave a

reprieve to India's suspended national Olympic body after a long impasse that had threatened to lead to the expulsion of the world's second most populous nation.

The move came two days after the Indian Olympic Association amended its constitution to bar any officials charged with a crime from running for election, as demanded by the IOC. "We think that is a major step in the right

direction," IOC President Thomas Bach said. "We are now looking forward to the implementation of the new rules by transparent and open and democratic elections in the Indian Olympic Association."'

Had India not fallen into line, it risked becoming the first country kicked out of the Olympic movement since South Africa was expelled in 1970 for its apartheid policies.

The Indian body was suspended by the IOC last

December following the election of Lalit Bhanot, who spent 10 months in jail, as secretary general of Indian Olympic Association.

Bach said the IOA remains suspended pending the holding of elections under the new constitution.

Although the new elections will not take place until Feb. 9, two days after the start of the Sochi Olympics, Bach said the IOC has "taken precau-

tions for the athletes and made sure the athletes will not suffer from this procedure."

In that case, Bach said, Indians would compete as "independent athletes" under the Olympic flag, with no Indian flag or symbols allowed at the venues or opening ceremony.

If the elections can take place before the Sochi Olympics and satisfy the IOC demands, the suspension would be lifted and the athletes could compete

with their national flag and anthem. India is likely to send a three-member team to Sochi, led by luger Shiva Keshavan, who will be participating in his fifth Winter Olympics.

Keshavan, who set a continental record at the Asia Cup in Nagano, Japan, last December, is hoping to become the first Indian to win a medal at a Winter Games.

India can also send one male and one female Alpine skier to the games.

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SPORT

www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 21st December2013

Australia reclaim the Ashes

Australia reclaimed the Ashes by dismissing England's last five batsmen after lunch on Tuesday for a 150-run victory in the third test to take an unassailable 30 lead in the five-match series in Perth.

Just three months after England wrapped up a third successive Ashes series triumph by a similarly dominant 3-0 margin back home, Australia wrested back the tiny urn they last held in August 2009.

Ben Stokes made the Australians sweat through the first session on the fifth and final day of the match with his maiden test hundred - England's first of the series as the tourists chased their improbable victory target of 504.

Once the 22-year-old lefthander was dismissed for 120 in the third over after lunch to reduce the tourists to 336 for seven, Australia quickly ran through the England tail.

Mitchell Johnson, whose fiery spells of pace bowling had turned the first two tests, finished with four for 78 after dismissing James Anderson to end England's innings for 353, sparking wild celebrations from his team mates.

"I feel pretty good," said Australia skipper Michael

Clarke.

"What an amazing performance not just throughout this test match but over the course of three test matches.

I think we put a lot of work in over a long period of time and we got the Ashes back, so it's a fantastic feeling."

Lefthander Stokes, who made his debut in the second test in Adelaide, showed great concentration and no little courage to help England to their biggest innings score of the series.

England had resumed on 251 for five requiring another 253 runs for an extraordinary victory or more likely

needing to bat through the final day to save the test.

The yawning cracks that had opened up on the sun baked wicket added an extra danger factor for the batsmen, with one Ryan Harris delivery to Stokes jagging off into the slips.

It was Johnson who made the breakthrough when Matt Prior took a swipe at widish delivery and got a nick on it to be caught behind for 26.

Two overs later Stokes, who had edged his way nervously through the 90s, pulled Johnson to the long-leg for four to reach his hundred, pumping his fist in celebra-

tion of an impressive knock.

England made it through to lunch at 332-6 but their task always looked too tough and when Stokes was caught behind off spinner Nathan Lyon the end was in sight.

Graeme Swann (four) and Tim Bresnan (12) went in consecutive overs and there was just one more over of England's innings before Johnson delivered the coup de grace with his 23rd wicket of the series.

"It was pretty hard bowling. The emotions were flying and just trying to keep them in check. It's an unbelievable feeling," said Johnson.

"I came back from injury and I had a lot of doubters I knew I did all the hard work and I had the opportunity and I took it with both hands. This team we have got here has moulded well as a unit. Everyone has done so well and we all deserve it.

"It means a lot to finally win the Ashes after being part of a couple we lost, so it was very special."

Australia won the first test in Brisbane by 381 runs and the second in Adelaide by 218 runs and will now be targeting a 5-0 sweep in the final two tests in Melbourne and Sydney.

De Villiers dethrones Kohli from top ODI rankings

India’s star batsman Virat Kohli lost his top position to AB de Villiers while most of his teammates, barring skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also slipped in the latest ICC one-day rankings issued after the 0-2 series loss to South Africa.

India, in fact, dropped two ratings points but held on to the top spot with 120 ratings points despite the 0-2 loss in the three-match series, while South Africa continued to be in fifth place with 110 ratings points, with a gain of three points.

Dhoni remained static at sixth but Shikhar Dhawan was down a rung to 10th, while Rohit Sharma found himself 18th after losing three spots. Suresh Raina, who was 19th in the previous list, is now out of top 20 and is currently placed at 23rd.

In the bowling charts, Ravindra Jadeja was pushed to the 7th spot, a loss of four positions, while Ravichandran Ashwin ended up 17th after slipping three rungs. For South Africa, leading the way is de Villiers, who had started the series in second spot behind India's Virat Kohli, trailing by 17 ratings points on the rankings for ODI batsmen.

But now de Villiers at 872 has not only regained the number-one rank, he has also opened up a 13 ratings points

De Villiers

lead over Kohli.

De Villiers, who scored 189 runs in three completed innings during the series, was the second highest run-getter on either side with a top score of 109 in the final match. De Villiers, who was named in both the ICC Test and ODI Teams of the Year in 2013, now heads both the Test and ODI batting tables.

De Villiers had also been shortlisted for the LG People's Choice Award this year. De Villiers is the third batsman from South Africa after Jacques Kallis and Hashim Amla to head the Test and ODI batting tables at the same time, and the ninth player overall. Amla achieved the distinction in February this year when he topped the charts after the Johannesburg Test against

Pakistan. Amla, on the other hand, has moved up a place to third in the batting list.

Meanwhile, South Africa's Quinton de Kock has made the biggest gain in the latest rankings following his three successive hundreds in the series, jumping 61 places to a career-best 14th with a best-ever 672 ratings points.

De Kock became only the fifth batsman in history to score three successive ODI hundreds, to thereby end as the highest run-getter in the series with 342 runs.

Outside the top 20, the batsmen to move up include JP Duminy in 24th (up by three), David Miller in 45th (up by 12) and Ravindra Jadeja in 71st (up by one).

Meanwhile, South Africa fast bowler Dale Steyn has continued his upward move

Virat Kohli

in the Reliance ICC Player Rankings for ODI bowlers.

Steyn has moved up three positions to second after claiming six wickets in the two ODIs that he played.

Pakistan spinner Saeed Ajmal continues to be number-one ranked on the rankings for ODI bowlers.

The other two South Africa bowlers inside the top 10 are Lonwabo Tsotsobe in eighth (up by two) and Morne Morkel in ninth.

Meanwhile, Ryan McLaren has entered the top 20 of the bowling ranking for the first time, as he moved up two places to sit in 20th.

Outside the top 20, the bowlers to advance up the rankings include Mohammed Shami in 43rd (up by seven) and Ishant Sharma in 51st (up by 16).

Kabbadi world cup: India retain title beating Pakistan

India, on Saturday, beat arch rival and neighbour- Pakistan 48-39 in Kabbadi world cup finals, to retain their world title!

India and Pakistan clashed in the men’s final of the fourth Kabbadi World cup at the Guru Nanak Stadium on Saturday. The triumph was another feather in Pakistan’s cap in the ongoing campaign; they were the only team besides the hosts to remain unbeaten in the competition so far. The national team won all five matches in their Group B that had Canada, England, Sierra Leone, Scotland and Denmark. In fact, India has won the last three editions of the Kabaddi World Cup (2010, 2011 and 2013) beating Pakistan twice and Canada once.

Prior to the match, Pakistan Punjab chief minister Shahbaz Sharif had said that if India win, it means Pakistan’s neighbour has won and they would congratulate India.

In the semi-finals, hosts India crushed England 63-32 while Pakistan beat USA 5133. Earlier, the Indian women’s side beat debutants New Zealand 49-21 to lift the trophy.

Lakshmi Mittal eyeing IPL franchise?

London-based steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is in talks to buy an Indian Premier League franchise, according to reports.

“The Indian Express” said that Mittal has his eyes on the Delhi Daredevils franchise, a team which has underperformed on the field and whose financials aren't in the best of shapes. If confirmed, Mittal will join the likes of liquor baron Vijay Mallya and Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan in owning a team in the lucrative Twenty20 cricket league. The deal is being negotiated by Mittal's son-in-law Amit Bhatia, the former investment banker-turned-wheeler dealer who helms Mittal's sports charity - Mittal Champions Trust. Bhatia was also instrumental in orchestrating Mittal's purchase of a stake in the Premier League football club Queen Park Rangers.

OZ batsman Bailey equals Lara’s record

Australian batsman George Bailey equalled Brian Lara's Test record for most runs off an over against England in Perth on Monday.

Bailey matched the feat when he took the same tally off paceman James Anderson in the final over of Australia's second innings on the fourth day of the third Test. Bailey's 4,6,2,4,6,6 matched West Indies great Brian Lara's record of most runs off one over in Test cricket, which he achieved by hitting South African Robin Peterson for 4,6,6,4,4,4 in the Johannesburg Test in the 2003-04 season. The Tasmanian, in only his third Test, hit three sixes and two fours in the over.