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Vol 44 | Issue 49

23rd April to 29th April 2016

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Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

Her Majesty the Queen celebrates her 90th birthday on April 21st.

She will become the first occupant of the throne to reach this age, both George III and Queen Victoria died when they were 81.

100 years. While a lifetime of adroit silences, pursed lips and conversations shuffled sideways remains the price of Monarchial popularity, the Queen enjoyed thoroughly when the British film Director Danny Boyle was allowed to 'send' her parachuting into the Olympic Stadium in 2012, and more when she insisted on playing herself in a James Bond spoof alongside

Daniel Craig.

The Age of Elizabeth has been turbulent and full of challenges. She ascended the throne when she was just 25, and had to struggle with Winston Churchill's obstinate determination to stay in the office longer than he should, Anthony Eden's lethal deceit during the Suez crisis, which split the Royal household, sister Margaret's troubled and at times tragic love life, Irish, Australian and Canadian

Research from Ipsos Mori and King's College London have revealed that Queen's popularity has reached its peak now, and most of the country believes that she should continue as the Head of the state, with just one in five wanting her to abdicate. In the 1980s more than half of Britons believed that she should stand down. But now, after three decades of Royal marriages and births, coupled with the Diamond Jubilee, have propelled the monarchy firmly back into the nation's affections.

The Queen became the first British monarch to visit Ireland in

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republicanism, humiliating Ugandan, Rhodesian and South African crises and many more.

There have been struggles and arguments over money, her children's marriages blown apart, grandchildren dressed up Nazis, sensationalist books on Duke of Edinburgh - the reign has been far from being easy and popular.

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ONE ONE with Keith Vaz, MP

Asian Voice |23rd April 2016

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to

Ramesh Hirani

Ramesh Hirani left school at early at the age of 14 without any formal qualifications. His first job was as a delivery boy for Pizza Hut where he worked his way up through the ranks, eventually becoming the restaurant manager. He then moved to Texaco oil to work in their training department. At the age of 25 he left employment as he had a strong desire to become self-employed. Ramesh trained as a driving instructor and started his own driving school, which was so successful it enabled him to have enough time and finance to start a new business in property development. This business continued to grow and was ultimately expanded to Nairobi, Kenya. At the age of 31 Ramesh moved to Kenya and lived there for 7 years to build the property business. Ramesh moved back to UK in 2013 as his children were starting high school, but he continues to run the business in Kenya remotely and through frequent trips.

In 2013 Ramesh was diagnosed with diabetes, which he describes as a real knock. However instead of taking the normal route of medication he decided to tackle his diabetes head on. Ramesh is now completely fascinated by the power of whole plant based nutrition and spends a lot of his time in the UK organising and conducting talks and seminars on the benefits of this lifestyle.

1) What is your current position?

Here in the UK, since 2013, I have been running seminars and giving talks on behalf of SHARAN on Reversing Disease, in particular Diabetes, through nutrition and lifestyle after having reversed my diabetes.

I am the director and owner of various companies. I would say I'm an entrepreneur.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

I’m very proud of the first gated

community development we built in Nairobi. There is something very satisfying about building homes from scratch that people eventually live in and call their home.

I’m also very proud that this year we ran 2 full day seminars on reversing diabetes to over 450 participants and I have given talks to over 2000 people this year on reversing diabetes.

We have had many people report back to say they are getting better and coming off medication.

3) What inspires you?

In the arena of reversing Diabetes, I get inspired by all the brave individuals who really want to take their diseases head on and make the changes, take responsibility themselves and away from the doctors and NHS, and get well. My Mum and Dad are people who are so inspirational. My dad, a diabetic for nearly 30 years, who was on many tablets and over 40 units of insulin injections has taken it on and is so dedicated. He had dropped all his medication and reduced his insulin down to just 4 units a day. I feel certain that this will eventually go as well.

In the business world I get inspired by people with real vision that have global impact, for example Elon Musk at Tesla, he is driven by the environmental challenges we face today.

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

In the field of disease reversal, I want to reach a wider audience.

Although the reversal process via nutrition is medically proven through research, it doesn't always reach the doctors. Many doctors remain sceptical and instead stick to traditional medication which only addresses the effects of diabetes not the cause.

We need the doctors support to help reverse the trend and instill confidence in diabetics to make diet/lifestyle changes to make them well.

I see every obstacle as an opportunity to learn more and overcome.

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I have had some bad experience where some doctors have been extremely obstructive without having done the research.

8) What are your long term goals?

I would like to run seminars across the UK and reach as many people as possible.

Eventually getting NHS approval so all new diabetics are sent on a course with us via NHS.

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

In disease reversal, my biggest influence has been Dr Nandita Shah, founder of SHARAN India. I attended a 21-day disease reversal course that she runs every year. There I learnt how to reverse my own diabetes through nutrition.

In business, its Richard Brandson, he is a true entrepreneur. I have read a lot of books and draw a lot of inspiration from them. I hope to meet him someday.

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

Being able to impart this knowledge to others who are also eager to get off medication and get well. I enjoy giving talks as I can see in the participants when the penny drops and the get it. They understand why they got sick and how they can get themselves out of it.

7) And the worst?

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

I would task a team to overhaul the healthcare system to change the way we run it from the current system of managing symptoms to addressing the causes of illness.

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

Leonardo di Vinci. Why? He mastered way too many things during his lifetime from sculpture to painting, architecture to music, mathematics to anatomy, and engineering among others. He was without a doubt the most diversely talented men of his time and many historians believe that a mind and personality like his comes only once every thousand years.

Because of the multiple interests that spurred him to pursue various fields of knowledge, da Vinci is widely considered the archetype of the term genius and the greatest inventor who ever lived. Can you imagine what could be learnt from this man?

Police Smash UK Terror Cell A british terror cell linked to the Paris and Brussels attacks has been uncovered in Birmingham, raising fears of a plot to launch an Isil outrage in the UK. Four men, aged 26, 40 and 59, and a woman aged 29 were arrested last Thursday night and Friday morning by counter-terrorism police after a fivemonth investigation.

The operation is understood to be linked to the arrest of the so-called "man in the hat" bomber Mohamed Abrini, who was involved in the attacks in both France and Belgium, and is known to have visited the UK. Police last Friday confirmed that bomb disposal teams had found a "suspicious substance" at the home of one of the suspects, indicating a possible bomb plot.

Police said there was no

specific intelligence to suggest an imminent attack.

But senior Whitehall sources last night described the arrests as "significant", while politicians said they highlighted the dangers of free movement around Europe as the EU referendum approaches.

Abrini is known to have travelled from Syria into Europe during the migrant crisis and then moved freely across the continent.

He came to the UK last summer and visited Birmingham, Manchester and London before heading back to rejoin a wider terror network that carried out the attacks on Paris and Brussels.

Intelligence services believe the operation involved cells in the UK, but until now no arrests had been made. They come less than a week after the

seizure in Belgium of Abrini, who was last seen on CCTV fleeing the Brussels airport bombing last month. It raises the prospect that the swoop in Birmingham was a result of details gleaned after Abrini's arrest.

West Midlands Police were already investigating possible connections to the Paris cell after reports first emerged in December that one of them may have visited the city.

Police refused to say where the man had flown from. However, he is not believed to have been returning from Syria, raising the possibility he may have come from Belgium or France, home to the other plotters.

The five were held on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts ofterrorism, and addresses

Four of the arrests were made in Birmingham (right) and are believed to be linked to terror attacks in Brussels that killed 32 people

in the city were being searched last night.

Neighbours said that one of the suspects was a taxi driver with four children and had lived at the property for 20 years.

Police would not specify the alleged connection to the Paris and Brussels investigations but it could range from helping to plot attacks to fundraising.

The focus on Abrini's movements intensified after the Brussels attacks and it was feared his network may have also been plotting attacks on British soil.

The cell had "discussed launching attacks in Britain" as well as at the Euro 2016 football tournament in France, which begins in June.

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Investigators managed to extract new information from a laptop discarded in a rubbish bin by Ibrahim El-Bakraoui, one of the Brussels airport bombers.

The computer files showed the bomber discussed attacks in "other European countries" besides Belgium, starting with France. "Great Britain is also mentioned as a potential target," a European intelligence source said.

It was also reported that investigators obtained a taped conversation between Najim Laachraoui, the suspected bombmaker in the Paris and Brussels attacks, and a "foreign contact" in which Britain was also mentioned.

Any UK connections to Abrini will fuel concerns about the ease with which he was able to travel around Europe and the free movement given to EU citizens.

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Asian Voice |23rd April 2016

Unease in India over US military deal There has been something akin to an uproar at the military agreement India signed with the United States during US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter’s visit to New Delhi, where he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. The Congress Party was up in arms at what it perceived to be the Modi government’s sell-out of the country’s strategic autonomy for what was seen as India’s participation in an American-led alliance. It was a betrayal of India’s other strategic partnerships, notably with Russia and China, said Congress spokesman Anand Sharma. As Mr Sharma is one of a dwindling band of intelligent members 0f a near moribund organization, he must know that equating Russia with China is not merely false, but simply stupid. With China, an all weather friend to Pakistan, whose terrorist activities in India Beijing prefers to turn a blind eye, New Delhi is under no obligation to treat China with any consideration. Russia is quite another matter.

Let us start with detains o9f the agreement. First, India in-principle nod to a military logistics pact.

Second, two new pathfinder projects under Defence Technology and Trade Initiative digital mounted displays and joint biological tactical detection system.

Third, the conclusion of an information exchange annexure for cooperation on aircraft carrier technology. Fourth, the US shares two proposals to make fighter aircraft in Indi. Fifth, four government to government project agreements involving atmospheric sciences for high energy lasers, cognitive tools for target detection, small intelligence unmanned aerial systems and blast and blunt traumatic brain surgery. Messrs Parrikar and Ashton Carter issued a statement referring to freedom of navigation on the high seas and over-flights in the South China Sea where China is locked in disputes with five littoral nations, including Vietnam, with whom India has a close defence and strategic relationship.

Secretary Ashton Carter announced that the US and Indian navies will cooperate in exchange of information on submarine development and anti-submarine

warfare. In addition, the two sides have agreed to institute a regular ’Maritime Security Dialogue’. Minister Parrikar turned down a US suggestion of joint Indo-US maritime patrols. India has also rejected the US-built aircraft, F16 and F18 Super Hornets, which were offered to the Indian Air Force. Instead the IAF plans to augment its force levels with indigenous Tejas Mark II squadrons.

India is aware that the US shares sensitive intelligence only with the Anglosphere comprising America, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Ashton Carter’s three-day visit to India has done nothing to alter the basics of the India-US strategic partnership already in operation. Period.

Let us now turn to the Russian view. A recent report

by Viktor Litovkin in Russia India Report (March 24) sets the record straight. It quotes the Indian Defence Ministry statement that Russia remains in first position as a source of weapons systems for all three of its armed services. These come with the technologies and ‘Make in India’. Tanks, radars, frigates, nuclear submarines on long lease, particulary the latter symbolize the level of trust between the partners. The formidable Sukhoi MKI30 aircraft are the mainstay of the Indian Air Force; and BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles are operational with the Indian Army and Navy and are being fitted onto the Sukhoir 30MKI warplanes. These and much else have been, and continue to be, sourced from Russia. Arrangements are afoot to speed up the joint production of the Fifth Generation Fighter Aircraft. Russia accepts India’s right to look for appropriate weapons systems elsewhere as and when appropriate. Litovkin points to decades-old, trouble-free relationship between India and Soviet Union and the Russian Federation involving every Indian regime. Such trust cannot be bought, he writes.

India’s External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj is visiting Moscow this week and its outcome will be watched with interest.

India cautions UK on restrictive norms for skilled staff The lords of humankind are given to chiding India about its restrictive economic policies, on the need to open up its markets to the West. When it comes to the restrictive practices of, say, the European Union, the US or the UK, it is another story. What is source for the goose is clearly not source for the gander. By tightening norms for skilled Indian workers, the UK was interposing Intra Company Transfers with immigration. Overall, this could impact Indo-UK bilateral ties.

The new UK guidelines on ICTs discriminate against India and are inconsistent with World Trade Organization General Agreement on Trade in Services. This comes amid growing concerns of Indian tech companies that such rules would undermine their profit margins. The Indian IT/ITeSA sector will be affected by the stipulation that from April 2017 onwards an India-based company looking to bring a skilled worker into the UK for a short duration, specifically to carry out the work of another organization would be required to pay him/her a minimum annual salary of 41,000 pounds sterling. This threshold would represent a 67 per cent increase from the extant 24,000 pounds sterling.

Gagan Sabharwal, Director (Global Trade

Development) NASSCOM said: ‘The reforms proposed include significant salary rises, levies and restrictions that will distort the UK market, restrict access to the much-required services and increase costs for all. These negative impacts are not balanced with any upside: they will not achieve either the government’s aims of an increase in UK skilled workers but negatively impact overall UK productivity.’ Mr Sabharwal said some Indian companies would consider relocating to European countries that were more welcoming and easier for business.

‘Instead of penalizing firms through higher salary thresholds, the UK government should make them partners in skill development initiatives,’ he said. The reality is that the Indian IT workforce account for over 90 per cent of migrants in the ‘ICT category for third party contracts.’ Noting that skilled India workers have helped boost the UK economy and reduced company costs, but the official British take is that the new rules would safeguard jobs for Britons. The Indian trade body NASSCOM suggested a compromise: the minimum salary threshold to be increased in stages over five years. Will commonsense prevail? Time will tell.

Dharavi girls set their sights high Mumbai’s Dharavi has long been Asia’s largest slum – but it is a slum with a difference. Life is hard but not without hope, as its thousands of denizens struggle valiantly to better their lives, to enlarge their creative space. Dharvi has its small factories producing goods for the market and its entrepreneurs seeking to conquer adversity.

Film maker Navneet Ranjan, founder of the Dharavi Diary project, who moved to India from San Francisco in 2014, says they are trying to build a server for the apps developed by the members of the project, before they can live with several apps in the pipeline. In his office, a small room set in a maze of narrow lanes off the main road, children are hard at work in groups of three with laptops on the floor, each endeavouring to come up with unique solutions to their neighbourhood problems.

‘When we joined the Dharavi Diary programme we decided first to look at the problems our neighbourhood and community faced and then build apps to address

those problems. One of the largest issues was that girls my age and younger faced is that we felt unsafe going out at night and parents would feel nervous about it,’ said Ansuja about ‘Women Fight Back’ Take ‘Paani hai Jeevan’ [Water is Life] developed by 14 year-old Fauzia Aslam Ansari, built to organize water collection for each household by setting up an online queue that alerts people when it is their turn to fill up with water and avoid fights in waiting queues with some pushing their buckets to get ahead of others in the two hours from 7 am to 9am when water is available.

Other apps concern garbage dumped outside prescribed bins to warn the authorities of malpractice or the use of child labour or a cleanliness drive. Navneet Ranjan, who taught at an arts college in San Francisco made a film titled Dharavi Diary and got involved with its community. The girls he started working numbered 15, now they are 200 and growing with boys joining in.

Their parents are illiterate, but their offspring are tuning in to a life of hope and enriching experience.

3

When a finger points at the moon, the fool looks at the finger.

Chinese proverb

Important Day 23rd June, 2016 We are all now very aware of the significance of the 23rd June 2016, and I do not mean the Referendum; 23rd June is of course a global day of focus to raise awareness of the plight of widows around the world.

The Referendum, is of course a very important day in our history as it not only affects us but also our children and their children too in the future, and for many more decades to come.

Comparing the two events is not really possible but each is significant in its own way.

International Widows Day is now in its 11th year and has grown in the way it is recognised and acknowledged by many nations as well as the United Nations, who adopted the 23rd June as an official United Nations international day in 2010.

The Loomba Foundation launched the World Widows Report at the UN Commission on the Status of Women 60th Session, at the United Nations in New York, 17th March this year. The research shows that number of widows affected globally has increased by 9% since the previous report in 2010.

There are now 258 million widows and their 585 million children around the world. Many of them are suffering in extreme poverty, with 38 million widows not having their basic needs met.

The recognition of the problems facing widows and their children still has a long way to go with many of the social customs such as ‘cleansing’ still occurring in some communities across Africa. In addition, there are other problems which widows face such as social injustice, inheritance and human rights. In South Asia the most serious problems surround child marriage, child trafficking and domestic vio-

Lord Raj Loomba

lence which leads physical and psychological abuse as well as prostitution of these vulnerable women and girls. The solution is in our hands, to help poor widows and their children we need to educate and empower them socially and economically.

The 23rd June is a day when we can all do something to help by joining in with the focus on widows and their children and shining a light on a world of suffering and ostracisation that needs to change, and change now. A day of focus on widows and their children is a day when we can all stop and reflect on what can we do to help, what can we do to make a difference?

The more people that join in recognising the day and showing that the injustices meted out to widows must stop will make progress faster, quicker and more longlasting as governments around the world take note of the strength of feeling; and widows and their children realise that they are not alone in the plight.

Our government has promised to lead the world in helping to end violence against women and girls as the United Nations promotes the Leave No One Behind ethos of the Sustainable Development Goals.

With this promise and your support we can move to a brighter future for widows and their children.

www.theloombafoundation.org The Loomba Foundation Loomba House 622 Western Avenue London W3 0TF 020 8102 0351

4

UK

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Asian Voice |23rd April 2016

Newlywed couple who crashed £240k Ferrari The couple who rented out the doomed Ferrari Spider for their wedding day have been named as Usman Ali and new wife Sakina Parveen 24 hours before he drove the £240,000 supercar belonging to self styled Lord Aleem into a wall, it has been reported.

The 25-year-old, a tyre fitter for his father’s garage, is believed to have paid a £5,000 deposit to hire out the car for his wedding weekend, MailOnline said.

But it all went wrong when his foot got caught on the car mat and he pressed the accelerator instead of the breaking, crashing into the wall of his friends house and leaving the car looking seriously the worse for wear. Friends said justmarried Mr Ali could have

Lord Aleem

street in Burnley, Lancashire.

A friend of the groom told MailOnline he still lived with his father in their £55,000 family home, and rented Usman Ali and new wife Sakina Parveen out the car especially for the wedto pay out around £25,000 ding. ‘He’s a good lad and – from the deposit and a he works hard, but I don’t £20,000 insurance excess. think he had enough expeThankfully, he wasn’t rience driving this sort of injured in the crash which car,’ he said. happened on a residential

Symphony Hall marks 25th Milestone The first in a series of music concerts last Friday to mark Birmingham Symphony Hall’s 25th anniversary brought together people of all ages and backgrounds.

The audience included many who were present at the official opening in 1991.

Attendees were welcomed by the Chair of the Symphony Hall, Anita Bhalla OBE, pictured, who has had a varied career with the BBC

spanning 26 years. Anita also set up BBC Asian Network in the West Midlands. The concert, themed ‘The Next 25’ featured the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, alongside the following three people who each celebrated their 25th in 2016: Composer Ryan Latimer, educated at Birmingham’s renowned Conservatoire, conductor Jamie Philips and pianist

Lukas Geniusas. Pin-drop silence was observed from start to finish and the evening was indeed amazing.

The evening also featured a private VIP drinks reception.

Guests included the Lord Mayor of Birmingham, Cllr Ray Hassall and Lord Bill Morris of Handsworth.

Symphony Hall alone weighs around 32,000 tonnes and is founded on 120 concrete pillars.

Philanthropy Manager Flexible hours up to full time £41K (pro-rata) Harrow, London This is a great opportunity for an experienced Major Donor fundraiser to join the fundraising team at this well established Hospice as the Philanthropy Manager. Reporting to the Director of Fundraising and Community Relations, this new role will be responsible for developing and implementing a new Major Donor strategy and achieving ambitious but realistic income growth targets.

With our 30th anniversary approaching and a number of VIP events already planned, this is an exciting time to join St Luke’s. We are currently developing our services to care for more patients, including younger people, non cancer patients, and people at an earlier stage of their illness. Our new Woodgrange Day Care facility has made possible a number of new projects likely to appeal to prospective major donors.

St Luke’s has a strong and rapidly growing donor base and a good track record of raising funds, particularly through legacy, trusts and events fundraising. The hospice recently invested in a wealth screening exercise which yielded a larger number of prospects with the capacity and propensity to make major gifts. This new post will focus on developing and stewarding this portfolio of prospects, and identifying new prospects. Our CEO, trustees and Senior Management Team are committed to playing an active part in the development of this new income stream.

We are looking for a dynamic individual who enjoys meeting and cultivating High Net Worth Individuals, Making the Ask and supporting others to do the same, formulating an effective case for support, building relationships both internally and externally and working to ambitious targets.

For a full Information Pack and application details see http://actionplanning.co.uk/currentvacancies If you have any queries, please email Hayley McDonald at Hayley.mcdonald@actionplanning.co.uk Closing date: 9am on Monday, 16th May 2016 First round interviews: 20th May Final interviews: 1st June All interviews will be held at St Luke’s Hospice in Harrow.

Registered charity number 298555

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‘There’s more to being Miss England than being photographed in a bikini’ A documentary-maker from Leicester spent over a year in the company of 52 beauty queens to reveal unknown hidden truths about the much talked about Miss England pageant, which received over 22,000 entrants last year alone.

The documentary titled Miss England: A Serious Business, follows the journey of five winning hopefuls; Stephanie Hill of South Yorkshire, Krishna Solanki of Rosie Redbridge, Thomson of Birmingham, Jade McQueen of Surrey

and Holly Desai of Leicester as well as interviews with Pageant Director Angie Beasley and critics of the contest who believe the idea is backwards and sexist.

Producer Romail Gulzar said: “Around 15 to 20 years ago Miss England

was a huge deal – it was even televised, but suddenly it disappeared overnight. While there is both support and opposition to beauty contests like Miss England, it is our job as documentary makers to present the facts in a clear and non-biased manner, which is exactly what we have tried to do.

“I hope the audience not only enjoys watching the film, but is also better informed about the industry before making up their minds about the work carried out by Angie and her team.”

Sunil Thakur wins Chef of the Year at The Scottish Curry Awards 2016 Sunil Thakur, of the Green Chilli Café in the heart of Glasgow’s West End, has been named Chef of the Year at The Scottish Curry Awards 2016 – and Green Chilli Café was also shortlisted in the awards’ Best of Glasgow category.

Located at the junction of Sauchiehall Street and Argyle Street in the trendy Finnieston area of the city, renowned for its quality of dining establishments, Green Chilli Café, part of the Harlequin Group, was taken over by Sunil Thakur and his business partner Peter Janampally nearly two years ago.

Sunil Thakur said: “I am honoured to win this award and would like to thank all our customers

(LtoR) Sunil Thakur, Hans Raj Ram CEO of Goldstar Chefs and Peter Janampally

who nominated us – as well as the judging panel for deciding that we prepare the best curries available in Scotland.

This award stands as tes-

tament to the quality of our menu, which is comprised chiefly of authentic-style North Indian cuisine cooked in a traditional style.”

Delivery driver admits causing death of pensioner A Birmingham delivery driver has finally admitted being responsible for his refrigerated van rolling across a pub car park and onto the pavement, killing a passing pensioner.

Matheeb Iqbal had either not put the handbrake on or had failed to put it on properly while he was making a delivery at the Bowling Green Inn in Coventry Street, Southam.

Iqbal, 22, of Lime Grove, Lozells, Birmingham, originally pleaded not guilty at Warwick Crown Court to

Matheeb Iqbal

causing the death of mother-of-two Susan Collins by careless driving. But just days before he was due to stand trial, his barrister Andrew Baker asked for

the charge to be put again – and Iqbal changed his plea to guilty.

The charge follows an incident on 30 December 2014 after Iqbal parked the refrigerated Mercedes Sprinter van on the Bowling Green Inn car park as he made a delivery to the pub.

While he was away from the vehicle it rolled backwards across the car park, over a kerb and onto the pavement where it struck Mrs Collins, who lived in Southam, as she was walking past.

77-year-old suffering from dementia due to be deported A frail pensioner with dementia faces being deported to Pakistan thousands of miles away from his family.

Hakeem Muhammad Haleem, 77, pictured, is partially blind and deaf and also suffers from a heart condition.

When the M.E.N visited his home in Oldham, he was unable to sit up without help. But he faces being sent thousands of miles away from his loved ones after the Home Office ruled he must return to his

homeland.

Since 2010, the widower has lived with his son Muhammad Nadeem, 46, daughter-in-law Mehwish, 25, and granddaughter Manahal, four.

However, the Home Office have turned down the family’s application for a visa. Officials have now issued a deportation order and instructed he report to a detention centre later this month. Before 2012, settled UK residents could be joined by parents or grandparents over 65 if financial

and living support could be provided.

But a strict new law means that only stands if long-term care in their home country is either more expensive - or nonexistent.

UK Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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Karamjit re-appointed to top job at Leicester's hospitals The chairman of Leicester's hospitals trust has been re-appointed for a further three-year term.

Karamjit Singh, who lives in Coventry, took over the helm at University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust 18 months ago.

He said: "I am delighted to be re-appointed. This will allow me to continue leading the board of directors as it continues to focus on improving the experience and outcomes of our patients and engaging more with our partners and the community.

"I am looking forward to seeing the completion of our programme of reinvestment and development which will include the new £40 million emergency floor. This marks the first major investment as part of the £320 million strategic plan to develop our services over the next five years."

Mr Singh was chair-

Karamjit Singh

man of the Coventry and Warwickshire Partnership NHS Trust, from 2006 to 2009. He was a trustee of the British Lung Foundation from 2006 to 2009 and is voluntary trustee of a Commonwealth Studies Centre at Cambridge University focusing on emerging democracies and a Sikh temple in Coventry.

He financed free annual medical camps in the

Indian village from which his parents migrated for a decade.

Mr Singh has held a number of national roles, including appointing Queen's counsels and senior civil servants, investigating police complaints, developing training for judges, taking decisions about parole for prisoners, regulating financial services and the funding of political parties. He was awarded a CBE in 1999 for services to the administration of justice.

Mr Singh has worked for Leicester Community Relations Council and Leicestershire County Council.

John Adler, chief executive of the trust, said: "The board is delighted by Karamjit's re-appointment. He has used his wide experience to very good effect at Leicester's hospitals."

Shock after sudden death of doting Leeds father A doting father with no known health problems died suddenly while caring for his four-year-old son at their home in Leeds.

Manminder Singh Saundh, 35, collapsed in his bedroom as his son Harman played outside on the landing at the family’s home in Moor Allerton on Saturday night.

Mr Singh Saundh’s Amrik Singh father Saundh, 68, said he tried to wake Manminder, who died in his arms, adding: “He had his last four breaths in front of me, which I will never forget.

Harman stood next to me and said ‘Is daddy dead?’ I said to him ‘no, I’m going to call the doctor.’”

Paramedics were unable to revive Mr Saundh. A post mortem was due to be held today.

Mr Singh Saundh was a popular member of the

everyone laugh.”

Manminder wrote on his Facebook page the day before he died: “Regardless of what life throws at you, never forget to laugh. No-one will cry with you.”

His mother Manminder Singh Saundh with his Ravinder Kaur son Harman Saundh said: “we Sikh community in Leeds loved him and all the supand was a master player of port he gave us. He never the Punjabi ‘dhol’ drum. had any illness. He looked He worked for Capita at after his health. He used to the Arlington Business go the gym, he was a fit Centre at Churwell and man.” Manminder also had spent four years as a leaves a sister, Jagdeep volunteer DJ at Fever FM Kaur. Fever FM director on Roundhay Road at Jabbar Karim, said: “He Harehills was a very popular presenHis brother Manjeet ter who has been with us Singh Saundh, 42, of for the last four years and Morley, said: “He was a has become part of the loving father, he loved his family. He would brighten son so much. If somebody up the room with his was arguing he would turn remarks and sense of it around and make a joke humour.” out of a situation to make

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Derby County steward's heartfelt book about father's suicide

A Derby County steward and lifelong Rams fan has opened his heart to write a book about his father's suicide. Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa said he decided to pen the words "to come to terms with my father's

death and, in the process, kick off my quest for happiness". The 36-year-old, of Littleover, has spent more than three years reliving the ordeal writing what is essentially his autobiography, entitled My Father and the Lost Legend of Pear Tree. In it, he tells how he grew up in Pear Tree, went to school there, before going to university and then starting a career as a science teacher at John Port School, Etwall.

During that time, his father, Mohinder Singh Dhindsa. took his own life

at the age of 51. Kalwinder said it took until last year to finally understand why he did so. He said: "My Father and The Lost Legend of Pear Tree is essentially a story about my father's suicide. In a series of moments in my life, I reconnect with the Derby County legend Steve Bloomer, who then takes me on a journey of regeneration and discovery. This allowed me to eventually come to terms with my father's death and, in the process, kick off my quest for happiness."

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www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice |23rd April 2016

Indian student struck by train at London Underground station, dies Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi, a resident of Hyderabad, died Monday after a London Underground train hit him at Osterley station on April 12.

The British Transport Police (BTP) said the death of Rizvi, 33, was not being treated as suspicious.

Unconfirmed reports said he was in Britain since 2009 and was an MBA student at the time of the accident that occurred near Heathrow airport.

A BTP spokesperson said: “We were called to Osterley London Underground station at 7.45 pm on Tuesday, 12th April, following reports of a person being struck by a

Mir Baquer Ali Rizvi

train.

“Colleagues from Metropolitan Police Service, London Ambulance Service and London Fire Brigade also attended, and a 33-yearold man was pronounced dead at the scene.

“The man’s death is not being treated as suspi-

cious and his family have been made aware. A file will be prepared for the coroner.”

Osterley is served by the Piccadilly Line of London Underground that connects various terminals of Heathrow airport and other west London areas to central London.

Information about the incident was communicated to Indian authorities and Rizvi’s family in Hyderabad. Rizvi was from Miralam Mandi area of Hyderabad.

Harrow charity fraudster used dead people's details to make scam donations A Harrow accountant used deceased people's details to claim payments from beyond the grave in a £400,000 charity fraud.

Abu Talib Ghadiri, 34, of Preston Waye, has been found guilty of his involvement in a £400,000 Gift Aid and VAT fraud after an intensive investigation by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC). The investigation found that Ghadiri and his brother Mohsin Raza, 33, also of Preston Waye, were running a Gift Aid scam linked to two charities - the Fatimiyya Trust and The Light Charity.

Both charities falsely claimed to promote education, development of medical centres and help for victims of natural disasters in Pakistan.

In addition, Ghadiri made false VAT repayment claims for £47,000, which were linked to seven bogus companies.

Ghadiri claimed that the companies had been set up by his estranged ex-girlfriend and he was not involved despite his home serving as the registered address and his National Insurance number being connected to each of the company accounts. His former girlfriend set the record straight, telling the court that Ghadiri was in control of the companies and was simply using her details to avoid getting caught.

Martin Brown, assistant director, Fraud Investigation Service at HMRC, said: "Gift Aid is there to support and encourage charitable giving, not to enable greedy criminals to line their own pockets. This kind of fraud is illegal, offensive and wrong.

HMRC will come down on it hard."

Ghadiri made false Gift Aid repayments claims for the Fatimiyya Trust of

almost £82,250 - £58,524 of this was paid – and with co-trustee Mohsin Raza claimed £199,788 for The Light Charity of which £116,369.68 was repaid.

They listed donations from deceased taxpayers, sometimes months after their deaths, and used the details of ineligible taxpayers on the forms to claim the repayments.

In a separate fraud, which was uncovered during the HMRC investigation, Salih Ozbay, 38, of no fixed address, an associate of Ghadiri and company secretary of Smart Price Builders Ltd, made a false VAT repayment claim to HMRC for £69,442. The men were arrested in April 2014 and were found guilty on Tuesday, April 12, after a trial at Harrow Crown Court. They will be sentenced on April 29 at the same court. A fourth man was found not guilty.

Tory minister blames EU migration for school choice disappointment Many parents found out Monday whether their child has a place at their first choice primary school.

About 600,000 families will be left disappointed and some will have to travel further than they want to every day just to see their children take up a place at all.

She said: "The shortage of primary school places is yet another example of how uncontrolled migration is putting unsustainable pressures on our public services.

"Education is one of

the most important things the Government delivers, and it’s deeply regrettable that so many families with young children are set to be disappointed today.

Patel, whose parents migrated to the UK from Uganda, also claims that if Britain does not leave the EU it can only get worse "The truth is that,for long as we remain a member of the EU, we are competely unable to control the numbers of people coming to this country — and, with another five countries in the pipeline to join the EU, the problem is set to get even worse."

Official government figures, published last year, project that by 2023 there will be more than eight million (8,022,000) pupils in England’s schools — up from just over seven million (7,143,000) in the current academic year, a rise of almost 880,000 pupils. Last year, almost a fifth of pupils missed out on their first choice of primary schools as statistics show one in four schools are now oversubscribed.

The Local Government Association has warned an extra 336,000 primary school places will be needed by 2024.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Tower Hamlets council takes over Bangla Mela festival attracting 100,000 Town Hall officials have taken over running the troubled Bangladesh Mela festival which draws in 100,000 spectators to London’s East End after ending the contract with the organisers.

Tower Hamlets council has decided to run the event directly itself this year after a history of uncertainty. Concerns were raised when the contract was terminated with Boishakhi Mela Community Trust, but the festival is now on track to go ahead on schedule at the end of July.

The Mela has had a turbulent history over the years—including allegations by an MP of being used for “people trafficking”, fears for “public safety” and rival groups fighting to take it over.

But the local authority has stepped in directly this year to stage Europe’s biggest Bangladeshi New

Year festival at Bethnal Green’s Weavers Field, off Vallance Road, on Sunday, July 31, the Town Hall announced last Friday.

“Making sure this much-loved community event takes place is a priority for the council.” Mayor John Biggs said. “I’m committed to a Mela for the whole community despite austerity measures and cuts to the council’s budget.”

The authority is aiming

to keep it on schedule to the Trust’s original date, despite the short time left to organise it.

The annual Mela, first staged in the 1970s, has drawn much criticism in the past decade over its funding and allegations one year that it had been used to ferry in migrants under the cover of hiring authentic Bengali catering workers—who then vanished into the population when the festival ended.

Footballer Riyad Mahrez banned for six months after his Mercedes caught speeding on M1 High-flying Leicester City footballer Riyad Mahrez has been banned from driving for six months after his Mercedes was caught speeding on the M1.

The 25-year-old, tipped

to be named Premier League Player of the Year, pleaded guilty today to not giving his details to police after his car was clocked travelling at 77mph in a 50mph zone. The striker,

who reportedly earns around £55,000 a week, was also fined £900.

Mahrez was sentenced at Northampton Mag istrates' Court following the incident on May 11 last year.

Shree Jalaram Mandir

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Daily Mandir Programme Aarti : Monday to Sunday at 10.30am and 7.30pm. Yajman's for Aarti welcome (Thursdays) Normal Bhajan : Monday to Sunday from 6.30 to 8pm and till 10.00pm on Thursday - Prasad 7-30pm to 9pm Abishek Timings : Jal / Milk offering - Monday to Sunday - 8am to 1pm Hanumanji Edible Oil Offerings: Timings - 9am - 6.30pm SADAVART: Daily 7 days a week sadavart–(free hot lunch)–everyone welcome from 1pm to 2.30pm

MANDIR REGULAR ACTIVITIES Ladies Activity Centre: Monday and Wednesday : 11.30 am to 1pm - (Activities include Yoga, Bhajan / Kirtan, lectures presentations on issues relating to women, helping with mandir activities followed by a lunch) Gents Activity Centre: Tuesday : 11.30 am to 1 pm - (Yoga, Bhajan/Kirtan, presentation on health issues followed by a lunch) Free Bhajan Classes: Friday : from 8 to 9.30pm 21 Hanuman Chalisa: Saturday : Recital from 11am to 1.30pm followed by Prasad (Yajman’s for the above events are welcome) Sponsored Bhajans: Saturday/Sunday : - Afternoons from 2 to 6pm

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UK Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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Harrow's new Labour leader promises Slough cricketer jailed for raping to tackle inequality and cut red tape young race-goer in taxi Harrow's new Labour leader has promised to tackle inequality and cut red tape.

Cllr Sachin Shah was elected to lead the Harrow Labour Group at it’s annual general meeting on Monday, April 11.

Currently responsible for finance at Harrow Council, Cllr Shah said his top priority is tackling the widening inequalities that are eroding our communities.

He said: "I am honoured to be elected as the leader of the Labour Group. It’s a privilege to be able to serve the community I grew up in. I’m looking forward to working with

Cllr Sachin Shah

Harrow’s residents, businesses and charities over the coming weeks and years.

"As a local boy who has lived in Harrow all my life I have experienced first

hand the widening inequalities that are eroding our communities.

"As a council we need to be there to create opportunities for residents who are being left behind.

Despite the massive cuts the Tory government are imposing on the council we need to find ways to deliver the services our residents rely on, from flytipping and cleaning the streets to care for older people and our most vulnerable families and children."

Cllr Shah will be the Labour Group candidate for the role of new Leader of the Council when the vote takes place on May 19.

Japanese pensioner shoved stranger in front of Tube train A pensioner deliberately pushed a woman in front of an oncoming train at a busy underground staYoshiyuki tion.

Shinohara, 82, was captured on CCTV pushing an unsuspecting stranger in front of the Bakerloo line service at Piccadilly Circus.

The horrifying CCTV footage shows Shinohara dart over to Sheetal the victim,

A professional cricketer who has played for Slough has been jailed for a total of six and a half years for raping and sexually assaulting a young race-goer.

Perveiz Aziz, 40, from Slough, was operating as an unlicenced taxi driver when he took advantage of the 25-year-old woman at night. Married father-ofone Aziz, of Carlisle Road, Slough, attacked the victim after she had fallen asleep in the back of his car following a day drinking champagne at Ascot Ladies Day. The complainant told Guildford Crown Court she woke up to find Aziz raping her.

Aziz who denied rape and sexual assault by penetration was found guilty unanimously on both counts last Thursday. He was sent to prison for six years and six months for rape and three years for

sexual assault by penetration – both sentences to run concurrently.

Aziz was also placed on the Sex Offenders register.

Jailing him, Judge Robert Fraser said the offence was aggravated by the fact the crimes had been committed on a lone woman after dark.

He said: “It places the case in a very serious category. This was a callous rape. You knew she had been drinking and was tired.”

Judge Fraser said the defendant had been oper-

Kerai, 32, pushing her over the platform edge only seconds before a train arrived.

Ms Kerai is then seen to collide with the side of the train and lands back on to the platform.

Fortunately for Ms Kerai, she escaped the incident on November 10 last year with minor injuries.

The jury at Blackfriars Crown Court found Shinohara did the

Perveiz Aziz

ating as an unlicenced taxi driver and had clearly taken advantage of the circumstances.

In her evidence, the victim said the driver who had picked her up near a taxi rank in Ascot, had raped her and then told her: “I’ll make you a deal. You pay for the petrol and I’ll drive you back home.”

Aziz told detectives and jurors that he had sex with the woman at her instigation – and then she had threatened to call the police unless he agreed to drive her to her 55 miles to her home, free-of-charge.

The court heard that Aziz had carried out the attack after parking in a secluded spot in Charters Road, Sunningdale.

Aziz has played for British cricket clubs such as Slough, Finchampstead, Trowbridge and Portsmouth where he was head coach. act but the Japanese national was deemed unfit to answer a charge of attempted murder and a report into his medical health is currently being prepared. The trial will continue on May 27.

8

UK

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Year Book 2016 A Chronicle of the British Asians Over the last five decades, British Asians have continued to make the UK their home in increasing numbers.

From their initial arrival, with few economic resources but fortunately a strong educational ethos, they have established themselves firmly into the fabric of British society. With 85% or more British Indian resident in their own homes, and high levels of employment, it’s in the entrepreneurial spirit of self-employment where they have really excelled.

While acquiring their own homes, working hard at their jobs – often menial – or running their own businesses, they have given the utmost priority to the education of their children.

In 2000, the Rampton report on education in inner city boroughs confirmed this.

Briefly summarised the report found that, in the 12 inner city boroughs of London, shopkeepers and other reasonably successful families worked hard and spared no efforts in allocating resources for the education of their children. In those days because of the prevailing environment, most children received private education. Today, both in the UK and abroad, thousands of second and later generation UK born Asians

have become successful entrepreneurs or senior professionals in both Public and Private sector companies.

At the same time, other British Asians have dived into the Arts, writers, presenters, producers and familiar broadcasters on TV and Radio.

Though some niche groups have chronicled parts of this journey, ABPL has been approached by several readers to review our community’s amazing journey.

It’s an honour we’re privileged to undertake. The publication will be extremely thorough, and conducted with academic rigour.

We plan as follows: To assemble an editorial board of people with the requisite knowledge, expertise and skill.

These key – though not exhaustive - topics will be covered: An overview of communities including their arrival to British shores. Their settlement in various parts of the UK in a systematic manner. All major communities to have a profile of 1000 words, along the lines of the piece on the Lohana community written by Subhash Thakrar on 16th instant. This “know your neighbour” information will enhance intercommunity inclusiveness.

Economic activities analysed in separate categories, with breakdowns of professions with sizeable numbers of British Asians.

A review of all the faiths followed within the community, and associated organisations How Philanthropy has been accepted and embraced by modern British Asians There may be many more articles/ points to be included. Your suggestions are welcome. Suggestions are invited on various topics, especially 70 years of independent India and 45 years of Gujarat Samachar and Asian Voice.

There will be many essays of eminent personalities from leaders in the community and also a brief history of the independence movement in India.

The Annual will be approximately 250 pages in size, and any help, advice and guidance for this important historical initiative are welcome.

Please write to the Associate Editor Rupanjana Dutta on the following address Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street), London N1 6HW or email her at rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com

Seminar on ‘Solutions to Present Day Problems from the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita’ on May 20 A spiritual guidance seminar on “Solutions to Present Day Problems from the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita” will be organised in London on May 20. The discourse will be delivered by legendary Ayurvedic Doctor Shri Guru Balaji Tambe, founder of Atmasantulana Village (Karla, Maharashtra), largest health village in India since 1985.

The event, organised by inspiring young global leader Ashish Goyal in association with Akshaya Patra, will be held at St. James’ Court, A Taj Hotel, 54 Buckingham Gate, London, SW1E. The programme will begin at 5.30pm (approx 2 hours with Q&A). For tickets, go to http://is.gd/yEIQJq, Email – ashish goyal on ashishgoyalwg08@gmail.com The event will support the Akshaya Patra Foundation which is a not-for-profit organisation headquartered in Bengaluru, India. The organisation strives to fight issues like hunger and malnutrition in India.

Health guidance meet with Dr Tambe A Pulse Diagnosis and Health Guidance meet with Dr Tambe has been organised a day after the spiritual seminar, on May 21.

It’s a unique opportunity to meet Dr Tambe in person and learn more about one’s individual constitution and seek lifestyle, health and dietery guidance from him.

(Pulse Diagnosis is not done during a woman’s menstrual cycle).

Dr Tambe will meet individuals one on one for 10-15 minutes.

Details are as follows.

Date – May 21st, 2016.

Time – 2.30pm to 4.30pm and 5pm to

7pm (15 minute slots per person).

Fee – £50 payable in advance.

Email – ashish goyal on ashishgoyalwg08@gmail.com to secure booking.

Venue – will be disclosed on confirmation of booking, in the Wembley area.

Note – there could be waiting time of up to 30-60 minutes depending on previous appointments, so please plan accordingly.

About Shreeguru Balaji Tambe

Shreeguru Balaji Tambe has completely revamped the credibility of Ayurveda in India. His books have sold hundreds of thousands of copies and he has recorded a catalogue of healing music that is used by thousands for treatment. He is the Chief Mentor of a popular health newspaper supplement in Maharashtra with a circulation of 1.6 million copies every week. His TV shows, running for over 6 years, have covered philosophy in daily life discussing the Shrimad Bhagavad Gita and several important Indian traditions. He produces 450+ high quality health food and medicines in his world class pharmacy at affordable prices for the common man. Many of his exports are well-received in Europe. His development of healing music techniques has proved to be an extremely efficient and easy-to-use stress reduction tool. He has performed over 1,000 healing music concerts worldwide.

To know more about Ashish Goyal, visit https://www.asianvoice.com/Volumes/2015/5-December2015/Trailblazer-Ashish-brings-light-tothose-in-darkness

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Blair used ‘secret trust’ to manage fortune It seems “tax” is becoming a premier problem in the UK and certainly the times are not good (or to say taxing) for British prime ministers, cutting across political parties.

Last week Prime Minister David Cameron grabbed headlines for all the wrong reasons after his name appeared in the Panama Papers scandal.

This week it’s the turn of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

It was claimed that Blair consulted Britain’s top taxman over a secret trust he set up to manage his multi-million pound wealth.

Two of Blair’s advisers allege that Dave Hartnett, head of Revenue & Customs, was approached about the controversial trust by a consultant hired by the former Premier’s lawyers.

The revelation about the trust, which sits at the heart of the veteran Labour leader’s business empire, raises questions on whether the alleged access amounted to special treatment by tax officials.

According to an investigation by The Times, discussions with HMRC officials included how his advisers would treat the trust for tax purposes.

These discussions took place soon after Blair left office a decade ago.

They told undercover reporters that the former Prime Minister had used the interest-in-possession (IIP) trust to receive payments from his consultancy work, some of which was with controversial regimes.

IIP trusts are legal entities that can hold property, shares or other sources of income for a beneficiary, most commonly for their lifetime.

According to experts, such trusts can offer vital tax benefits, including the possibility of passing on wealth to children free of

The trusts do not have to file accounts. Blair’s lawyers said the trust had been set up due to a desire for privacy. However, they stressed he did not seek or obtain a tax advantage.

ordinary taxpayers.” Davis said he would write to the Commons public accounts committee calling for “an inquiry into special treatment of high-profile individuals by HMRC”.

Blair’s representatives, however, denied receiving any special privilege from tax authorities. They said Hartnett had not been consulted on his behalf and no special treatment had been sought or received.

Hartnett has previously come under fire for offering ‘sweetheart’ deals to companies, including Goldman Sachs and Vodafone, during his time as head of HMRC. There is no suggestion that he offered such a deal to Blair.

But the fact of its existence raised questions about whether Blair received special treatment due to his position and MPs demanded an investigation into it.

One leading tax QC said that ordinary taxpayers “wouldn’t have got anywhere near” Hartnett or his senior colleagues.

The Times was not able to verify independently that the HMRC chief was contacted in the way the two advisers separately claimed.

Tory MP David Davis, the former shadow home secretary, questioned what private discussions might have taken place.

He said: “These arrangements appear to have been put in place without any proper scrutiny, and are not available to

A sweetheart deal or sweetheart contract is an abnormally favorable contractual arrangement.

Hartnett, who left HMRC four years ago, said he had “no recollection” of the advisers’ claims. He added: “I don’t give advice to individuals at all.”

A spokesman for the former PM said: “Tony Blair did not set up this structure for reasons of tax advantage. He has paid full UK tax on all his earnings.

He specifically instructed the accountants who set up the structure that there was to be no tax advantage or avoidance through it.

Neither did he receive any special privilege from the tax authorities. So the entire premise of the story is mistaken as we have repeatedly told The Times for the last year.”

Tony Blair

tax.

IMA celebrates National Maritime Day at the High Commission of India The Chairman of the Indian Maritime Association (UK), Phillip D’Costa, addressed the audience attending the celebrations for National Maritime Day held at the High Commission of India in London on 5 April 2016.

This year the celebration was particularly pertinent as India will be launching the first infrastructure initiatives in its Sagar Mala Project to revolutionise and modernise the nation’s coastal shipping infrastructure in 2016.

The first Maritime India Summit also takes place in Mumbai from 14-

HE Navtej Sarna

16 April 2016 to give businesses and investors in the shipping sector the chance to explore the opportunities presented by India’s bold and ambitious plans for the development of its maritime industry. The

Philip D'Costa, Chairman of the Indian Maritime Association

Summit aims to bring in $16 billion worth of investment into maritime and infrastructure projects across the whole of India.

UK Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

don’t think you need to have a specific background in terms of education or career. I do think you need to have an affinity with words, great curiosity, an ability to tell a story and a desire to rollick with the opportunities in language.

And, crucially, I think you need to be a reader first, and then a writer.”

The biggest diffi cul ti es o f

Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

Mahesh Rao, Tata First Book Award for Fiction Winner Mahesh Rao was born and grew up in Nairobi, Kenya.

He studied politics and economics at the University of Bristol and law at the University of Cambridge and the London School of Economics. In the UK he has worked as a lawyer, academic researcher and bookseller. His short fiction has been shortlisted for various awards, including the Commonwealth Short Story Prize. His work has appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, The Baffler, Prairie Schooner and Elle. His debut novel, ‘The Smoke Is Rising’, won the Tata First Book Award for fiction and was shortlisted for the Shakti Bhatt First Book Prize and the Crossword Prize. ‘One Point Two Billion’, his collection of short stories, was published in October

2015.

Memories and Early influences Mahesh’s parents hail from Karnataka, India, but they worked in Kenya for many years. They brought Mahesh to the UK when he was in his late teens.

Mahesh remembered; “Probably unsurprisingly for a writer, I was a bookish child and spent a lot of my time wandering around the school library or the few bookshops that Nairobi had at the time.

What I remember is that for quite a long period in Nairobi, even in second hand bookshops, once you had moved on from children’s books, you could largely only get hold of heavyweight classics or endless rows of novels by writers like Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon. So my interior life appeared to move from trying to puzzle out the motivations of

Mahesh Rao

Heathcliff and Miss Havisham - to trying to work out what on earth those ladies on the covers of all the James Hadley Chase novels were trying to accomplish.”

Challenges Growing Up Mahesh felt he was in quite a hurry to become an adult. “I certainly spent a lot of time in the company of people much older than me- or I was on the other side of a sofa, eavesdropping on a lot of their conversations. So the challenge, I suppose, was that the ‘growing up’ wasn't taking place fast enough.”

Genesis of the Writing Like many people, Mahesh held several dif-

ferent jobs before he combeing a writer and of getmitted himself to full time ting your work published writing. He explained his Mahesh spoke frankly take on what it takes to be about the biggest an author. headache- it is common “I've been a to most writers on lawyer, academic the planet. In the researcher and a internet age bookseller, In amongst when social and in all of m e d i a all the talk of those jobs seduces our rewards and success, I've had to attention at grapple with it's actually very every given words.

I important to talk opportunity, think, howhard is about failure and ithow ever, there is sit in front a moment how to keep of your screen when you and tell your going realise that story? How do there is a bigger you conquer your story that you need fears and stop being to tell and this didn't hapscared of failure? pen to me until I was 35. I “I think the hardest

thing is the discipline of committing to your project every day and sitting down to get the words on the page. My first book was rejected by numerous agents, and then, publishers. One of the most important lessons for any writer is to learn how to cope with rejection. The truth is that you never stop failing in one way or another even after your first book is published — and in amongst all the talk of rewards and success, it's actually very important to talk about failure and how to keep going.”

The second hardest thing for an author is to structure the writing process to fit into the rest of his or her life, or fit the rest of his or her life around the writing, we guess. What is the secret to Mahesh’s success?

“You just have to treat it like any other job. I tell myself I have to start by a certain time and get a certain number of words down each day. And probably the most important thing is to turn off the Internet.”

Mahesh Rao is involved in two events at the forthcoming Asia House Bagri Foundation Literature Festival; Asia’s Forgotten Lives, May 17, 2016, and the Closing Night Special, A Passage Across India, May 18th.

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Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

What will happen on June 23rd?

Some will vote with their mind; some with their heart; and others with their mind and heart. Immigration has been a boiling issue. The result is likely to be 60% in favour of leaving.

UK Government “will apply to withdraw from the Union” under para 1 of Clause 4 of Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty.

The Union “will negotiate and conclude an agreement with UK, setting out the arrangements for its withdrawal, taking account of the framework for its future relationship” under para 2 and Article 218(3) of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.

“The EU Treaties shall cease to apply to UK from the date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that, within two years after the notification under para 1” under para 3.

“The withdrawing member shall not participate in the discussions of the European Council, or European Parliament, or in decisions concerning it. A qualified majority, excluding the withdrawing State will decide the future terms” as defined under para 4 of Clause 4 and Article 238(3) (b) of TFEU. This tectonic event will force UK to learn to stand on its own feet without further immigration.

Nagindas Khajuria By email

Remember, Recollect, Recharge

Dear Readers, Asian Voice is inviting their paid subscribers to send their photographs, if possible, when they first arrived in the UK as well as the most recent photograph of their family with relevant details.

This service will begin as soon as possible.

ABPL aims to compile a large number of family history within (upto) 600 words with at least 2 pictures. There is no charge for the subscribers of Asian Voice or Gujarat Samachar.

It is assumed that many readers will welcome this initiative and grab the opportunity, which will perhaps pave the way for the younger generation to understand better how their family story began.

Rebel without a cause

Normally I welcome letters from different contributors, as they bring variety, style, quality and broaden appeal of “Readers’ Voice” but not patriarch Jubel’s threadbare contribution, repeatedly playing old broken record, throwing mud in the hope that some will stick. His one track mind, lack of loyalty and biting hand that feeds him must be great burden on his prophetic conscious?

While hundreds of Christians, mainly women and children were mercilessly massacred in Pakistan, many expressed desire to move to India, meretricious Jubel dwells upon minor incidents of harassment and vandalism in a country of £1:2 billion!

I wish India was Ram Rajya, Modi reincarnation of Lord Rama where everyone lived happily ever-after.

But we live in real not fantasy world. Jubel cannot remain “Milky Bar Kid” for ever, time to grow-up with some respect and appreciation, as we show impregnable faith and loyalty to our adopted motherland, beautiful, peaceful, democratic Great Britain!

In N. E. Indian States where Christianity prevails, children are thrown out of hospitals, needing urgent medical treatment, unless entire family embrace Christianity, same applies to university places. Sword, along with bribe and moral blackmail has always played significant part in spreading Christianity to four corners of the world. Yet feeble-minded fiduciary Jubel lives happily in bliss of ignorance. Grow up before your fertile imagination becomes reality.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

Warm Regards, CB Patel Publisher/Editor

Better off with or without EU Voting to stay in or out is a crucial decision to make for the country’s prosperity, safety, security and wellbeing for an ordinary person for one and only opportunity of a life time for their future.

In my humble opinion, it’s better to trust the experts.

David Cameron has pulled us out of a deep recession and turned the economy around. He strongly believes that we are better off with EU on our terms. Jermy Corbyn, the powerful labour leader is also of the same opinion irrespective of any terms. Bottom-line is they both in favour of staying with EU. Why not trust two great leaders of the nation!?

Niranjan Vasant By email

Letter Writers' Meet

Letter writers have been an important part of Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar right from the beginning.

On Monday (27th June, 2016) between 5pm and 7.30pm, letter writers will be able to meet each other at the Houses of Parliament. Please make a note of the date and time.

Send at the earliest (latest by 30 April) information about yourself, your preferred subjects in your letters, etc. to the Editor, so as to help us prepare adequately. This information should be supplied latest by 20th May, 2016.

Subscribe Today Asian Voice in UK for only £29 for one year

A welcome book of record

'The making of India' by Dr Kartar Lalvani is the most welcome initiative to put on record what was gained by both Britain and India since the East India company reached Indian shores in 1607. We must all try to recollect or learn what India was going through at the end of the 16th century.

Economically it is beyond doubt that the wealth as well as the educational and cultural achievements of India was the prime attraction for all European powers beginning with Portuguese, Dutch, French etc. But so was the case historically for the marauding hordes from Central Asia forthe centuries.

Politically foreigners long dominated India. The brutal rule of a few over many was the fact of life. Hundreds of kingdoms were fighting among themselves, thousands of temples, monuments of our heritage weredestroyed and even the spirit of the people was crushed to the level of submission by an average Indian. India to be fair was not a single political entity as it was earlier.

The book illustrates also how the British united India, built all round infrastructure, helped the Indian renaissance of culture, language, art and history. The British administration of the East India company earlier and then the British Crown was successful in suppressing several social degradations, like Sati, Pindaras, and to me the British rule indirectly helped Indians to regain pride in their own past. After all the British were able to give a rule of law, which was absent for several centuries.

Ramesh Patel Wembley

Don’t let political dogma ruin our NHS Every government before assuming the reign promises not only to maintain but improve our NHS to be the best in the world, fit for 21st Century. It is short lived promise, confined to dust-bin as soon as it takes power.

It is regrettable that government is unwilling to overcome political dogma that NHS should only be funded out of public taxation, although it is misguided conception, even outright lie, as we pay heavily for prescription and dental treatment which is supposed to be part of NHS. Most people would willingly contribute for hospital treatment if we can attain the standard established in France and Germany where there is no waiting time, treatment available on demand, within 48 hours in most cases.

While government believe in public private partnership in most enterprises, such as railways, road infrastructure, somehow NHS is taboo, untouchable except by ever decreasing public funding per patient. GP, A & E and hospital admission is struggle beyond endurance, especially for elderly people. No wonder exacerbated OAPs who are financially affluent prefer to go private rather than suffer in silence.

Britain, supposedly fifth richest country, has lowest number of hospital beds per capita in EU, disgrace which should shame us all. Unfortunately our fiduciary flamboyant, intelligentsia lacking politicians have thick skin to affect them morally, personally or politically.

Kumudini Valambia By email

Christians in India

Mr. D’Cruz is unfair to generalize India/Hindu majority as against Catholic Christian community, on basis of attacks by narrow minded villagers and or hired goons; when spin doctors polarize two communities. He is unfair to blame BJP/Mody government for dramatic increase in number of attacks. All incumbent governments, UPA, Congress, NDA, etc have attacked Hindus: eg Hindu sadhu (Baba Ramdev) was attacked at midnight, another Hindu sadhu (Sri Sri Ravishankar) was forced to pay hefty penalty, Congress turned blind eye to ethnic cleansing of Hindu Pandits in Jammu and Kashmir, allowed massacre of 4000 Sikhs. So why blame BJP/ Modi government?

Kindly consider protection of minority religions enshrined in India’s Constitution.

But religion of majority is marginalized under policy of secularism. Hindu places of worship are controlled by ruling governments, but churches are free of any governmental meddelings. Funds from Hindu temples are snatched by government but not from churches. Minority religions should be grateful and continue to generate Indo-centric patriotism/ identity along with pious/missionary zeal. Catholic Christians are contributing 100 % towards building strong India a la Parsis, Bahai and Jews. Please have faith in constructive majoritarianism of India. Eight great faiths coexist in India, Christianity is welcome too.

Ramesh Jhalla By email

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EDUCATION

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Harsh marks 'put pupils off languages' Harsh and inconsistent marking is putting pupils in England off studying languages beyond age 14, a report says.

The dawn of more rigorous GCSEs will further reduce interest in languages, research by the British Council and Education Development Trust suggests.

It says a focus on maths and sciences, as well as a perception languages are a hard option, is also demotivating pupils and teachers.

Exams watchdog Ofqual said last year's languages results were "very stable".

From September 2016,

new GCSE and A-level modern language syllabuses will be taught in England, and new exams will be taken in the summer of 2018.

The Language Trends Survey, in its 14th year of charting the state of language learning in England's schools, suggests these changes - particularly at A-level - will deter pupils from studying languages.

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Conference to explore race and higher education An event which will explore racial inequality in higher education is set to be held at Leeds Beckett University.

The half-day panel discussion event, which will take place on Tuesday 10 May at Leeds Beckett’s Rose Bowl building, will bring together researchers from across the UK to consider the scope for developing more inclusive structures regarding the participation of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) individuals within higher education (HE).

The discussion will examine how research can continue to be generated and used to dismantle racism in higher education and wider society.

The event, Race and Higher Education: Dismantling Racial Inequality in Higher Education-Panel Discussion, will also address racial inequality within HE and other racialised contexts within education.

Academics on the panel will provide short 10 minute talking points on an issue of race within education or society, to encourage audience engagement and discussion.

The event is being hosted in conjunction with the Race, Equality and Diversity Forum, the Centre for Sport Coaching and Physical Education, the Centre for Diversity,

Equity and Inclusion, and the Centre for Learning and Teaching at Leeds Beckett.

The panel will be made up of leading academics on racial discourse in education and society and will be chaired by Dr Aarti Ratna and Dr Arday from Leeds Beckett.

Panellists will include: Adam Elliott-Cooper, University of Oxford; Azeezat Johnson, University of Sheffield; Emma Newman, St Mary's Nadena University; Doharty, Keele University; Professor Ann Phoenix and Professor Gus John from the Institute of Education, UCL; Professor David Gillborn, University of

Birmingham; Professor Kalwant Bhopal, University of Southampton; Professor Kevin Hylton, Leeds Beckett University; Uvanney Professor Maylor, University of Bedfordshire and Remi Joseph-Salisbury, University of Leeds.

Dr Arday is a Trustee of the Runnymede Trust and Co-Chair of the Runnymede Academic Forum. His work is primarily focused around Race, Education and Social Justice.

For more information about the event visit http:// www.l eedsb eckett.ac.uk/events/facultyevents/race-and-highereducation/

Council News

Landlord hit with £16k penalty A landlord who rented his hazardous property to a family for years was successfully prosecuted by Harrow Council and ordered to pay fines and costs totalling more than £16,000.

Following a complaint by the tenant, Harrow Council’s environmental protection officers inspected Mr Kanagaratnam Kesavan’s property in Rayners Lane, and found the house in a poor and dangerous state.

Officers found category 1 (serious) hazards relating to excess cold, electrical hazards, personal hygiene sanitation and drainage, fire and food safety.

The long list of risks to the tenants included broken windows, broken electric sockets, exposed wiring, broken cooker, damaged and missing doors to kitchen units, missing tiles and a constantly running tap.

Mr Kesavan was served with two Improvement Notices under the Housing Act 2004 requiring remedial works to be carried out to address the category one hazards.

A further two notices were then served under the Environmental Protection Act for a defective boiler, and for water penetration from the toilet into the kitchen below. He never appealed these nor contacted the council to discuss the notices or works required.

During a formal interview he admitted the offences of not complying with the Notices but blamed the tenant’s lifestyle for the damage with no proof to his claims.

Evidence was presented at Willesden Magistrates Court on 15 March to which he pleaded guilty and was fined and ordered to pay costs in the total sum of £16,120.

Reader’s Voice

Date set in stone

I am glad that the editor of AV and GS and others have come round to my view that contributors of long standing to this “Readers’ Voice” column should be awarded a certificate of merit. The date and vene for the award ceremony have now been set in stone as 27 June at the Houses of Parliamnet in the Palace of Westeminster. I am sure I would not be jumping the gun if I ask whether we would receive a personal invitation together with the necessary passes to enter the Palace of Westminster!

Would spouses be invited to join their letter writer husbands or wives? Not too long ago, I used to accompany Education Ministers to the HOC when it would be our Department’s turn to answer parliamentary questions.

This visit to the HOC will revive past memories for me.

To date I have written 302 letters in the Readers’ Voice column of Asian Voice and hence, along with a few others, I am a prime condidate to receive a certificate of merit. Although I write about current topics which concern us here in this country, my main interest is to write about Jainism and spread the message of peace as propounded by Lord Mahavir Swami some 2600 years ago. I also gvie short talks about Jainism at local gatherings and write and sing Jain Stavans.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

11

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MEDIA WATCH

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Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

A temple fireworks display in Kerala went awry leaving over 110 people dead and hundreds more injured. Disaster struck the the precincts of the Puttingal Devi Temple at Pravur south of Kollam when an entire dump of fire crackers to mark the Meena-Bharam festival exploded. Eyewitnesses said that a cracker designed to explode in mid-air fell to the ground sending sparks in all directions, some reaching the exposed storehouse igniting the fireworks inside in a massive explosion, bringing down a building in the vicinity.

The Kerala High Court in a scathing judgment deemed the event as much a crime as a tragedy, and took the local police severely to task for not preventing the hazardous fireworks display, when the local district authorities had issued a ban because of the risk it carried.

Buildings nearby were torn apart, flying masonry landed in every direction killing and maiming creatures great and small. Kerala was in shook, as was the rest of India at the scale of the tragedy.

Pankajakshi, an old woman in the neighbourhood, had lodged a complaint with the local police way back in 2012, warning of a possible disaster. Local toughs, however, forced her to withdraw the complaint.

Modi’s prompt response

Prime Minister Narendra Modi responded to the disaster with exemplary promptness, rushing to the disaster site with promises of help to Congress State Chief Minister Ooman Chandy (Hindu, Times of India, Telegraph April 11).

Such tragedies will continue to recur as long as public safety takes second place to the needs of populism by short-sighted politicians greedy for power whatever it takes.

Congress withers

The Hindu (April 12) published an insightful edit-page article on the parlous state of the opposition Congress party. It was bereft of ideas, ideology or anything resembling a national and international vision. It had ceded space to a plethora of squabbling parties and had ceased to be a normal political party. Its only benchmark was loyalty the mother-son duo of Sonia Gandhi and her vacuous heir apparent Rahul.

The pair say what they please, do as they please and are answerable to nobody but themselves. They are a blot on Indian democracy and lack the slightest credibility.

Their one service to the party and nation is to depart: Sooner, the better.

Gujarat BJP shock rural poll defeat

Although there is still a year and a half to go before the Gujarat Assembly polls, the BJP State unit is taking no chances following the party’s recent defeat in a rural poll. The new chief of the State BJP unit, Vijay Rupani has benn given the task of reinvigorating the party. Chief Minister Anandiben Patel has announced a raft of measures to woo rural voters, the latest being implementation of the National Food Security Act. The previous

Assembly elections were held in 2012, when Narendra Modi was chief minister, and the next elections are scheduled for 2017 (Business Line April 11)

Ultra modern Metro for Nagpur

Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis announced that the Nagpur Metro Rail will be completed on a fast track basis, and that the ‘ultra modern rail network would change the face of the city.’ The German Finance agency KFW has sanctioned Rs 3, 750 crore for the project.

The ‘PPProject Agreement’ was signed in Nagpur in the presence of Union Transport Minister Nitin Gadkari. The Metro Managing Director, Brajesh Dixit, as well as KFW Director Peter Hilliges signed the ‘Project Agreement’, while a formal comprehensive agreement was signed in New Delhi in the presence of the German Ambassador to India Martin Ney and Urban Development Ministry officials (Business Line April 11)

Colombo port project no threat to India

The Colombo Port City project which Sri Lanka and China plan to develop into a financial hub would not constitute a security threat to India, explained Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe during a visit to Beijing. ‘We have discussed it with India and we are prepared to discuss it with India further.

As you know, this is not going to be a China-Sri Lanka venture. It is going to be open to everyone and already many Indian businessmen have told me that they are prepared to come to the port city, said the Sri Lankan Prime Minister.

Andhra Pradesh cooperation

He pointed out that the Sri Lankan government was in talks with Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu about greater cooperation between Sri Lankan ports and Visakhapatnam once an economic and technological agreement with India is materialized. ‘What we are doing in Sri Lanka is an economic and technology agreement with India, a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China, FTA with Singapore and GSP plus with the EU.’

Sino-Pakistan air exercises

Meanwhile, Sino-Pakistan joint training air exercises commenced as both countries sought to build on the ‘all weather friendship’ with closer military ties clearly targeting India. ‘China’s Air Force hopes to widen the scope of

cooperation and dialogue with all countries and regions,’ said a Chinese Defence Ministry statement on its website. (Hindu April 10)

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Duke, Duchess continue Royal tour

Warning to India

The Pakistan Army Chief General Raheel Sharif issued a belligerent warning to India to stop sabotaging the Sino-Pakistan economic corridor, linking China’s western region to the Pakistan port of Gwador in Baluchistan on the Persian Gulf (Hindu April 14)

Critical phase of reforms

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has said that India was in the most critical phase of its economic reforms agenda since 1991.The Minister listed the Goods and Services Tax (GST) legislation, the Bankruptcy Code and amendments to the Security and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest Act and prevention of corruption law in the coming session of Parliament . These were government’s priorities, said Minister Jaitley. His comments come in the wake of the Reserve Bank of India’s most robust move to infuse liquidity into the cashstrapped economy and a month after a well received national Budget.

RBI’s revolutionary plan

The Reserve Bank of India has said that India was on the cusp of an economic revolution. The term was used for the second time, when RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said that Indian banking was in the midst of a banking revolution. He was inaugurating the unified payments interface that will make monetary paymentthrough mobile phones as easy as texting a message. The new interface, plus the rise of specialist banks, could alter retail transactions. The National Payments Corporation of India deserved praise for putting all this together (Mint April 12)

West Bengal Elections

W e s t Bengal chaotic politics is c o m pounded by the incendiary rhetoric of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for whom silence and restraint have long been alien territory. In throwing down the gauntlet to the Election Commission, in such reckless fashion, she is taking a risk too many – something she may come to regret one day. Meanwhile, the Election Commission, undeterred by the Chief Minister’s pyrotechnics, has brought in addition numbers of Central paramilitary battalions to maintain law and in West Bengal in the face of deepening disorder (Telegraph, Times of India April 15)

North Kashmir ablaze

Northern Kashmir was seething as firing by security forces on vio-

Prince William and Kate at Taj Mahal

Having conquered hearts and minds of cricketers old and young on Mumbai’s famed Shivaji Park, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, William and Kate, continued their hugely successful tour to New Delhi, where they lunched with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Hyderabad House, thence to Kaziranga game reserve in Assam, where they saw its rhinos, before moving onto Bhutan, where Kate took part in an archery contest.

Prince William and Kate, feeding rhino calves at the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation near Kaziranga

Prince William and Princess Kate meet the King and Queen of Bhutan

lent separatists demonstrators resulted in four fatalities.

Disturbances continued with stone-throwing youths clashing with police and paramilitary forces. A curfew was declared to quell the violence (Hindu, Times of India April 14,15)

Good Monsoon forecast

The Indian Meteorological Department and private sector weather forecasters are united in their predication of an unusually good monsoon this year. The IMD said the rainfall this year is likely to be ‘above normal’ and may also be 106 per cent of the average 89 centimetres. Rainfall within 96 per cent and 104 per cent of this average are considered ‘normal. ‘The monsoon will be fairly well distributed but south-east India will get slightly less rain,’ said IMD Director General Laxman Rathore.

(Hindu April 13) The market has given a positive response to these reports.

Russia eases cheese import norms After more than a year of talks, Russia has agreed to do away with its precondition requiring Indian dairy companies to own captive cattle farms to export cheese, making it easier for small companies and cooperatives such as Amul to qualify as exporters (BBusiness Line April 12)

India top pick for global investors

Indian markets are the preferred choice of global institutional investors in the Asia Pacific region, according to a Credit Suisse report. ‘Within the AsiaPacific, survey participants chose three countries as their most overweight country picks: India, Australia and China – cumulatively accounting for around 50 per cent of the total votes. India and China were in the top four overweight countries last year too’ opined the Credit Suisee report (Business Line April 12)

UK Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

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13

A Guide to the Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) Visa Route

A Royal Visit for Closer UK India Relations

As Senior Dealmaker for the British Government’s Global Entrepreneur Programme I am responsible for India and China and I was about to have the best day of my 10 years in the role.

Showing the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge in India around some of the most innovative companies, I broke the world record on the quickest funding for a company – 60seconds.

Here’s the story. The Royals arrived at a social entrepreneur centre in Mumbai. I had two jobs. Show them around the Venture Capitalists from the UK who were on the delegation, led by the Head of the British Government’s Venture Capital Unit, Aekta Patel (aka by coincidence, my wife). “These British investors put money into British companies which solve some of the world’s and therefore India’s biggest problems in climate change, education, energy.� I explained to the Duke and Duchess as I introduced them to my wife.

Then it was time for my next role – go on stage and introduce four Indian companies and do a quick fire Q&A with Anand Mahindra and Mohandas Pai – a bit like Dragons Den. This was all part of the UK Government’s Tech Rocketships Campaign which the Duke launched moments earlier.

My role for the British Government is to find the most innovative companies through competitions like this and help them go Global from the UK through my networks. The company I managed to get the funding for in record time was Project Mudra – teaching the world’s blind to learn braille through a machine made in India.

Anand Mahindra agreed to fund then the other angels followed. This one company was an ideal example of UK – India collaboration. Made in India, but going global from Britain. Why did they choose the UK? The founder explained it that although 50 US Venture Capital funds

were going to meet them a week later, only the British Government through UKTI and the British Deputy High Commissions in Bangalore and Mumbai were so totally engaged and committed.

Job done – thanks all to my colleagues in UKTI and the Foreign Office! What people don’t realise about the Royals is this: As for the Royal couple, it is striking how much in love they are - from the glances they give each other, to how much the Duke cares for the Duchess through small touches. As natural introverts they are definitely in their element undertaking purposeful work solving society's major problems rather than glitz and glam parties - and we made sure they knew the companies our venture capitalists were funding were British companies looking to solve some of India's and the world's biggest problems in environment, energy, healthcare.

They kindly hosted at Kensington Palace an event before they left for India for among others, some of the companies I've brought from India to the UK such as Desolanator turning sunshine into clean water - they wanted a small discrete event; which says so much about them.

And for me – there is no greater work than work representing your country and helping in your small way solve societies biggest problems. What a week.

In this article Shyam Dhir discusses options available to non-EEA skilled migrants to either enter or remain in the UK, who may be recognised as ‘exceptional’ in the field of: Shyam Dhir Science; Engineering; Humanities; Medicine; Digital technology and the Arts.

The category of Tier 1 (Exceptional Talent) under the Points Based System allows migrants to either enter or remain in the United Kingdom (UK) for a period of up to 5 years.

This route is open to certain applicants making an in-country application and overseas migrants who are thinking of applying to enter the UK to work and further their respective field of work.

The category recognises individuals with: l World leading talent; or l Exceptional promise to be world leading in their field of work.

The criteria is specific for each designated endorsing body, a common trend amongst all the bodies is that they require documentary evidence by way of reference letters from third parties.

These references must highlight the applicants' skills and confirm that they are someone with either world leading talent or someone with exceptional promise to be world leading in their field. In our experience such letters are provided by professors, senior managers, etc.

This route can be broken down and summarised in two stages:

Stage 1:

Firstly, an application must be submitted to the Home Office for 'Endorsement' with the relevant designated body. The application must be supported with a comprehensive list of supporting documents which each relevant body sets out.

Applications are then sent by the Home Office to the designated body for consideration for endorsement. Once a decision is made, the Home Office is informed of whether the relevant requirements for endorsement have

been met. If successful, the applicant is then issued a letter confirming a grant of an endorsement.

Stage 2:

Once the applicant obtains the endorsement, a further application must be submitted to the Home Office for the applicant’s visa application.

The Home Office authorises 1000 endorsements per year which is divided almost equally between the designated bodies. This category isn’t widely used by applicants and may be due to a lack of awareness. Tech City UK which is the Home Office approved designated body for engineers only received 38 applications from April 2015 – January 2016 out of an allocated limit of 200[1]. This is less than 25% of the spaces being used. Any remaining spaces are not carried on to the following year and are therefore simply discarded.

An application for Endorsement with a Designated body (Stage 1 above) is not an Immigration application and form part of an applicant’s immigration history. Even, if such an application is refused, it should not go against the applicant’s immigration history when submitting any applications to enter or remain in the UK in the future.

The Home Office fee for an endorsement application is currently ÂŁ287. A decision is usually made within 3 weeks.

It is worth noting that after 5 years in that this category, an application may be submitted for Indefinite Leave to Remain in the UK subject to meeting the relevant requirements.

Our advice to those individuals who may be eligible to apply under this category is to seek advice as to merits and all being well, to submit an application.

Duncan Lewis is currently assisting a number of clients who are submitting applications under this route. We have had a number of successful applications for individuals in the past in areas such as Technology, Sciences and Arts.

Shyam has a track record of representing clients under this route. He can be contacted on 0203 114 1271 or by email at shyamd@duncanlewis.com where he is happy to have an initial discussion with potential applicants.

Figures reveal huge rise in homelessness amongst ethnic minorities New analysis of government data has revealed a huge rise in homelessness amongst ethnic minorities. While the Department for Work and Pensions claim that 670,000 more black and minority ethnic (BME) workers are in employment in Great Britain than in 2010 – an increase of around 24%, study reveals the number of BAME people accepted as homeless by local authorities in England has increased by 63% since 2010 – almost twice as much as the

33% increase in homelessness across all ethnic groups. The government has claimed that 62% of the ethnic minority population aged 16-24 were in full-time education or work in 2015, compared to 43.4% of all 16-24 year olds. But studies reveal that Government spending cuts and failures to address the cost of housing crisis have had a disproportionate impact on minority communities. 19,260 BAME people were declared homeless in 2015 – up from 11,790

in 2010. The number of Black or Black British people made homeless has increased by 52% since 2010, while the number of homeless Asians and British Asians has doubled – up 99% in the last five years. It is seldom one with a job will be homeless.

There has been a 57% rise in homelessness amongst people of mixed ethnicity, while the number of homeless people classed as ‘Chinese or Other Ethnic Group’ has increased by 53 per cent.

Ethnic minorities make up 14% of the population, but account for over a third (34%) of homeless people. The rise in homelessness is in part due to decisions taken by Government Ministers over the last five years, including ÂŁ5 billion of cuts to housing benefit since 2010, a 45% reduction in funding for homelessness services, the loss of 100,000 council homes and

a failure to tackle soaring private rents.

John Healey MP, Labour’s Shadow Secretary of State for Housing and Planning, said: “These shocking figures expose how ethnic minorities have been disproportionately affected by spiralling homelessness under Tory Ministers. “This is yet another example of how Conservative cuts

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Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Cousins gear up for gruelling cross Channel cycle to fight diabetes Two cousins are gearing up for a gruelling cross Channel cycle challenge to fight diabetes.

Anish Patel, from Edgware, and his cousin Paresh Patel, from Wembley, will be cycling nearly 300 miles from London to Paris to raise money for Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation.

The pair, who will be taking on the Global Adventure Challenge from July 20 to July 24, will finish the ride in the French capital just before the finale of the Tour de France.

Anish, who has type 2 diabetes, is aiming to fundraise £1470 to fund the ride and raise £735 for the charity. So far he has raised over £700.

He said: "I am so proud to take on this challenge and support Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation. Diabetes is something I have read a lot about because I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes in 2014. I’ve made some

Cousins gear up for gruelling cross Channel cycle to fight diabetes

pretty big life changes and was given the all clear after six months.

"However diabetes is quite common throughout our wider family, unfortunately we’ve had many family member suffer from diabetes and also lost their lives because of it. We know type 2 diabetes is more prevalent amongst the Asian community so we are both keen to continue to improve our fitness and take on a wonderful chal-

lenge. If we can raise as much money as possible to help a very worthy cause the challenge will be very worthwhile."

The cousins will set off from London on the 295mile, four-day bike ride, organised by Global Adventure Challenges, which will take them through the Kent countryside to Dover, before crossing the Channel to Dunkirk.

The route then uses

quiet French country lanes, through traditional market towns with views of the rolling, green fields of northern France, passing the war memorials and cemeteries of the Somme.

Finaly the cousins will cycle up the Champs Elysées to the Arc de Triomphe, following in the tyre tracks of the cycling greats, before watching them cycle the same route the next day in the finale of the Tour de France.

Diabetes Research & Wellness Foundation chief executive officer, Sarah Bone, said: "We are delighted Anish and his cousin Paresh have chosen us as their charity for this amazing challenge. We look forward to seeing their photos under the Arc de Triomphe. Cycling is an excellent form of exercise, especially for people with type 2 diabetes. It can be started at any pace and with perseverance will improve their overall health and their diabetes control."

‘Colours of India’ show enthrals audience Maharashtra Mandal London hosted a unique program recently showcasing three different classical dance forms of IndiaKathak, Mohiniattam and Bharatanatyam together on one stage.

Ashwini Kalsekar presented Kathak, Ranjitha Chowalloor presented Mohiniattam, while Ragasudha Vinjamuri presented Bharatanatyam, all three being noted artistes in their own disciplines.

The invocation included rendition to Ganesha in Bharatanatyam style, to Parvati in Mohiniattam style and to Shiva in Kathak style. This depicted family values and bonding

which is the very essence in Indian culture. The next session presented compare and contrast of all styles in pure dance in terms of Tarana and Tillana, and had the artistes dancing on each other’s traditional music.

Audiences were treated

to the nuances of the three styles during this session.

All three have then danced on UK based Arun Saraf’s composition Ja Re Kanha Ja during which they have presented three aspects of love towards Lord Krishna from the perspectives of Meera, Radha and

Satyabhama, bringing out beautiful expressive element.

The climax was a tribute to world peace and included dancing with lights followed by presentation on Marathi Pasayadan sung live by Prachi Ranade. Mrs India Sakshi Vishwesh and writer Manu Khajuria have compered the show interspersed with their interesting anecdotes. President of Maharashtra Mandal Sushil Rapatwar rendered the welcome address while team Colours of India have closed the show with a Vote of Thanks. The event was supported by SKVP and State Bank of India.

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Southall hosted its first Pungrathon, a Bhangra dance fitness event promoting fitness and well-being

On Sunday, to mark the start of Vaisakhi, London based Pungra held their first 2 hour Pungrathon in Greenford High School, Southall. With a turnout of more than 50 people, of all ages, fitness ability and ethnicity. The event was also attended by many local Councillors and a Member of Virendra Parliament, Sharma. The event was an overwhelming success.

The event was led by Pungra, a non-profit voluntary organisation committed to improving lives through movement. The team of instructors used Bhangra music to create a moderately intensive work-out providing a cardio and workout of major muscle groups. The session was perfect for beginners or for anyone who hasn't been involved in exercise like this for quite some time.

Pungra, a voluntary organisation, believes that bringing a fun new exercise to the community is vital to get people on

their feet, and moving.

Lead Instructor, Ravi Sandhu told us, “Heart conditions and type 2 diabetes are a major problem, especially for South Asian ethnic groups, and I firmly believe that Pungra is a great method for encouraging the community to exercise”.

Pungra was inspired by promoting the authentic pronunciation of 'Bhangra' and using Bhangra music to promote dance-fitness both in fitness centres and online. Their workouts are great for all levels, from beginners to the mega fit, as the exercises build-up and there is lots of opportunity for high intensity movement.

“Move, and encourage others to move too” is Pungra's motto and they want to contribute to the range of exercise opportunities available across the world; by illustrating the excitement and appeal of bhangra music in the fitness-dance studio and via online video content.

OMPEG launched in London Enthusiastic entrepreneurs of Marathi origin from the United Kingdom came together to form a network of professionals and entrepreneurs network.

OMPEG (Overseas Maharashtrian Professionals and Entrepreneurs Group) was officially launched on 10th April at Sudbury Golf Club by famous industrialist Pratak Shirke, Owner of ASP Ship Management Group, and Dhananjay Mungale, Financial Advisor and Executive Director of international companies.

Mayor of Brent Cllr. Lesley Jones, MP from Southall Virendra Sharma, Greater London Assembly Member Dr. Onkar Sahota, Chairman of NABA & Brand Ambassador of Birmingham Airport Uday Dholakia were special guests at

the event. OMPEG’s website www.ompeg.org.uk was inaugurated and an interactive panel discussion on “Maharashtrian Entrepreneurship” was also held.

Along with special guests the local entrepreneurs IVF specialist Dr Mahadeo Bhide and award winning chef and restauranteur Manoj Vasaikar were also an active part. The panel discussion was enlivened by interesting anecdotes presented by various speakers. Pratap Shirke reminisced about his Shri Shantanurao mentor Kirloskar, Uday Dholakia highlighted grand financial and strategic acumen of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj, Manoj Vasaikar admitted his predicaments while opening his very first restaurant, Dr Mahadeo

Bhide elucidated interesting relevant examples on Maharashtrian entrepreneurship.

Audience thoroughly enjoyed the lively exchange of ideas and examples.

Attendees from various regions of the UK greatly applauded the concept and provided invaluable suggestions and feedback. Milton Keynes based IT company Mercurius IT sponsored the mementos given to chartered members of OMPEG. OMPEG’s goal is to bring Maharashtrian professionals and entrepreneurs together and provide a platform to help, support and nurture the entrepreneurial spirit amongst them. A roadmap of how the organisation can promote this spirit amongst the next generation

Maharashtrians was also presented on this occasion.

OMPEG’s core members Dilip Amdekar, Himanshu Dasare, Ravindra Gadgil, Manjiri Gokhale Joshi,

Aniruddha Kaprekar, Sushil Rapatwar and Jay Tahasildar managed the successful launch event of this organisation, while ex-cricketer and financial advisor Madhu Gupte extended help.

SP

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As the countdown to the referendum begins its final phase, there is a growing majority preference among UK voters, to vote for Britain to remain the EU. However Employment Minister Priti Patel MP delivered a rousing speech

focusing on the West Midlands being the UK’s industrial heartland to delegates attending the Vote Leave Rally on Saturday 16th April 2016.

In a speech to around 200 campaigners and activists at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, Priti Patel MP stated the case for Britain leaving the EU, saying: “The West Midlands stands at the heart of our industrial revolution. The EU costs the West Midlands £1.2 billion a year - enough to buy a new hospital every six months. Nationally, we send £350 million each week to the EU. We should spend this money on our priorities, like the NHS, not EU bureaucrats.”

The Asian woman cabinet said it is not 'racist' to be concerned about the impact of mass immigration. She blamed other politicians for making it impossible to raise concerns about the impact of the arrival of hundreds of thousands of migranst without being labelled as bigot.

The Employment Minister went on to say: “I am passionate about our country leaving the EU because I know we are strong enough to stand tall as a free independent sovereign nation, where we can spend our money on our pri-

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Khan to unleash 'Khanage' with new mobile game Superstar boxer Amir Khan, Britain’s most exciting fighter will dish out the punches in 3D later this month when he releases his official sport arcade game Khanage for mobile phones and tablets.

Inspired by the colossal ambition of the fighter himself, the game follows “King” Khan on his quest to be crowned the greatest fighter on the planet. But just as in his own career, where he was ducked by the likes of Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao, the top fighters in Khanage will do anything to avoid him –

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

even if it means sending out robots to stop him in his tracks. How this story ends though is down to the fast hands of the players. The game lets you take up the fight as Amir Khan and finger tap your way through legions of killer robots etc.

Amir Khan Khanage will be free to download on iOS and Android.

15

England’s own Karate Kid Sunetra Senior

orities, make our own laws and make the most of the potential and talent that our great country and this region has to offer.”

Later in the week, President Obama during his visit is expected to urge EU

members to vote remain.

Some people On Leave side are criticising Obama for intervening in an internal British matter, but this issue has wifder ramifications. Given America's historic sacrifice in blood and treasure to help settle European conflict, he is entitled to express a view.

However, this is about proportion. Would a British exit really bring about the dislocation that the Government alleges?

George Osborne's attempt to conquer the economic battlefield on Brexit with dire treasury predictions of the damage leaving the EU would inflict on the country has brought the deep split on Europe within the Conservative party into the heart of the government.

The Treasury's crystal ball gazers raised GDP concerns, stating effects of an exit would be worse than under models by the CBI and Oxford Economics. Labour party has warned that Britain could lose £4 billion of business, investment, housing, universities and utilities if it leaves the EU. Seema Malhotra, Labour's chief secretary to the Treasury, has argued setting out the case for remaining in the EU, that losing funding could damage the UK.

TLIGHT

Harleen Kaur

Britons in dilemma as EU referendum countdown begins AsianVoiceNews

People often think earning your black belt is the end of the journey, but it is really only the beginning How did you first get into Karate: what was the journey?

It was about 10 years ago, now. My best friend bought me karate lessons as a special gift, and our meeting up after school together and hanging out kept me going at the start. I began to train in a combined programme of karate, kick-boxing and Jiu Jitsu, and after earning my foundational belts I eventually qualified for the First Dan Black Belt. I’ve been successfully competing in several tournaments, from inter-club to internationals. Martial Arts is a semicontact, lighter sport and there is a lot of sportsmanship so that has been the chief attraction for me.

Having said that, in the last world championship I was actually tornadokicked in the head! It was alright though. I pushed on and was proud to have walked away with the silver.

I feel more defined as an individual

You want more women to be involved in the sport. Please tell us a bit more?

Yes, well more women need to be involved in sports in general: especially Asian girls. I think there are social expectations that discourage them. Traditional education is always the priority, and the physical aspect of it is frowned upon: you might get told ‘if you get a bent nose, no one’s going to marry you.’ There are different ways to success though.

For example, I am planning to study Sports Science at university, and the Asian community are not as open to that as say, Pharmacy or Medicine. We need to stop so heavy-handedly telling the youth

Talking to 17 year-old karate and martial arts dynamo, Harleen Kaur, you can tell immediately that the sport is interconnected with the spirit. Only emanating enthusiasm for taking the World Title this year in the WMKF world championships - taking place on the 1st May - it seems lightness and buoyancy has grown inside for every accolade Harleen has claimed: she is the UK All Stars champion, winner of the silver in the former WMKF’s world championship, has been shortlisted for the Asian Woman of Achievements Awards 2016, and recently qualified as a Second Dan Black Belt, to *modestly* name but a few. As Harleen explained, “it is not necessarily the professional pride of the sport that attracts, but the personal development it allows.

You get an incredible sense of self discipline and determination, and that helps you feel more defined as an individual.” This is why Harleen is such a passionate advocate for more women sparring: “it really builds up your confidence from day to day to day, as well as making you a fitter person,” she continued. “In a post-modern age where gender roles are equal, it’s strange you don’t see more women making more of this social opportunity.” Harleen currently trains with the Jason Murray’s Martial Arts School in Bradford, and hopes one day to open her own academy so she can lead more women, including those from the Asian community, to enjoy the benefits of the striking sport: “when I qualified to represent England” she told us, “it was confirmed that I was actually the first Asian female to do so. It would be great to have more diversity: I hope having an institute of my own will help more people to get healthy in a way that is amazing and fun!” As committed to the cause and raising the profile of her physical art as she is to the actual karate, Harleen not only emerges a promising fighter, but a rising star in her sports profession. what is right and wrong.

What is your favourite aspect of Martial Arts?

That you never stop learning!

Whenever our Sensei (a coach and motivational leader) gives us talks, or shows us how to improve our technique, there is always something new. People often think earning your black belt is the end of the journey but, as anyone in the sport knows, it is only the beginning. Martial Arts also creates a mind space that drives you to accomplish your personal best; to unlock your potential. I used to be a very shy person but since taking up the sport I’ve found myself so much more outgoing. It really is a valuable life skill: you get out of the

sport exactly what you put in. If you give it 110%, that’s how much you’ll get back. It’s when you don’t take it seriously that it won’t work for you.

Do you have a favourite move?

A basic one is the round-house kick: I always seem to fall naturally into them!

Can you please identify an aspect of Martial Arts that often gets misconstrued?

That it is dangerous and violent. I actually find it very spiritual. There is a practice where you shout as loudly as you can when you kick, to keep you going, and that is freeing. In fact that’s why I love the movie ‘Enter the Dragon’ with Bruce Lee, because as far accurate representations of the sport go, it’s a good one: it emphasises the emotional content of martial arts. If you have a problem with someone, it shows that there is a correct way to go about sorting it out.

Anger is not the solution; the answer comes from a more meditated place.

Also, I think people flinch at the thought of getting hurt, but a semicontact sport is not that bad. I suggest trying it out to see how you react and what it does for you.

Who are some of your inspirations?

My coach Jason Murray, professional fighter Ronda Rousey, who is really breaking the gender walls as a lauded female role model in the sport, Bruce Lee and Mohammed Ali. Finally, do you have a particular motto that keeps you going?

Believe and achieve: what you believe to be true will happen.

twitter.com/harleenpkaur

16

UK

Happy Birthday Ma’am

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Continued from page 1

Yet she brought comfort in times of tragedywhether it's the Dunblane Massacre, the Aberfan mining disaster or the Bradford city fire. She toured the world offering a new kind of leadership to the multicultural Commonwealth.

The Queen has listened to 276 speeches, gave 102 of then and heard 508 renditions of the national anthem. She has adviced Prime Ministers, permitted cameras to her home and went on walkabouts- providing a personality suiting the challenges of her era.

Critiques say that because we don't really know her, she has managed to stay so popular. Her popularity is now blandly accepted but that wasn't the case in 1992- her 'annus horribilis' when the Sunday Times serialised Andrew Morton's searing biography of Diana, Princess of Wales.

It also did not seem that way in 1997, when after Lady Diana's death, this monarchial country seemed mutinous. In fact the Queen's reign has been much more difficult than it seems today.

However by some grace, the times have changed in recent past. The Duchess of Cambridge has brought in an air of glamour into the monarchy. The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge's visit to India and Bhutan now reflects the rise of a new generation that will build on the Queen's legacy- proving that the modern royalty is so popular and approachable- thanks to Her Majesty's most important job and greatest role as a successful mother, grand mother and great grandmother.

William and Kate create 'new memories'

Prince William's visit to the Taj Mahal was bound to be nostalgic and tinged with memories after this monument of love provided the stunning backdrop to one of the most iconic pictures of his late mother, Lady Diana. While we can remember a forlorn figure of Princess Diana sitting on the same marble bench- a mournful image of Diana's failed marriage to Prince Charles 24 years ago, Kate and William's picture with knees touching emphasises that their marriage is full of love and intimacy. They provided what aides called ‘new memories’ to replace the sad image of a princess sitting alone as her marriage was collapsing.

Some of the national press have speculated that visiting the heritage monument on Saturday and posing on the same marble bench as his mother appeared to have left the Duke feeling emotional. He

Princess Diana at the Taj Mahal, 24 years back

was allegedly spotted seen wiping the corner of his right eye as he and the Duchess left the landmark which is believed to be a symbol of eternal love.

As they came out William was asked: 'What has today's visit meant to you?' to which he replied 'It's a beautiful place, stunning designs in there.'

Kate added: 'It's been really incredible to learn about the romance of the building and really beautiful architecture.'

Kate described the Taj Mahal as the 'perfect' place to come just before her fifth wedding anniversary (April 29th).

The Duchess is also reported to have become 'emotional' during the visit after hearing stories of the landmark's past.

Their tour guide, Rizwan Mohammed, said that the story behind the Taj Mahal had touched the royal.

He said: '[She got] quite emotional when she came to know that the queen died at a very young age.

'She said, "She really deserves this kind of building as they were madly in love with each other," The prince was laughing.'

The Duchess who have as usual marveled people with her impeccable dressing sense and more importantly spirit- wore a white and blue dress by Indian designer Naeem Khan and a Rs 500 (£5) earring she bought from a craft stall in Bhutan. She had also flaunted a dress by another Indian designer Anita Dongre to play cricket in India.

The Duke and Duchess have created history by hiking up steep mountains for 3 hours to reach a Buddhist Monastry in Bhutan called the Tiger's Nest. While the Duke went red faced, puffing with exhaustion, the

Duchess looked fresh as a daisy, as if she had done nothing more taxing than a stroll in a garden, while her aides were struggling up drenched with sweat.

It has been reported that the Prince of Wales, who visited the same spot, had only made to the halfway point, therefore, Prince William seem chuffed at his own achievement and said 'My father did not make it to the top.

So that's something I'll be reminding him of when I see him...”

They admitted that they were missing the children George and Charlotte, and were looking forward to meeting them. The Duke and Duchess returned home on Sunday 17th.

Celebrations on Queen's birthday

There will be celebrations around both her actual birthday and her official birthday on June 11. The souvenir industry has not missed the opportunity to mar the milestone. The Royal Mint has a coin with a face value of £5 that costs £7500 in gold or £20 in silver. The Royal Collection Trust has produced a jug, tankard, tin of mints, tea towel and music box that plays God save the Queen.

Royal Crown Derby is producing trays, plates, cups and trinket box. Potter Emma Bridgewater has produced mugs and M&S a tin of shortbread.

Her Majesty will have 3 days of low-key events in Windsor ahead of more elaborate festivities in London in May and on her official birthday in June.

US President Barack Obama and wife Michelle will be travelling to the UK to dine with the Queen on this Friday. Britain being proudly diverse- the Great British Bake Off's Nadiya

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Khan and Goldsmith battle rages on London Mayoral candidates clashed at a stormy BBC debate on Monday night. In just fortnight's time London voters will choose a new Mayor to succeed Boris Johnson. It will be an important decision of relevance well beyond the capital.

During the significant debate, the Labour frontrunner Sadiq Khan and the Conservatives’ Zac Goldsmith clashed again over claims the Tooting MP had “given platforms and oxygen” to extremists.

Khan said he had “never hidden” the fact that, as a former chairman of Liberty and a human rights lawyer, he had acted for “some pretty unsavoury characters”.

And when asked if he regretted sharing a platform with extremists, he said: “I regret giving the impression I subscribed to their views and I’ve been quite clear I find their views abhorrent.”

However, it emerged that he allegedly complained to MPs, about the demonisation of a hardline cleric. Khan allegedly objected to the treatment of Yusuf-al-Qaradawi, who had called for destruction of Jews and death penalty for homosexuals.

Goldsmith, a MP for Richmond Park and North Kingston, also hit back at questions he or his campaign team had labelled his Labour rival an “extremist” himself. He reportedly said: “My campaign has been overwhelmingly positive. I have made it very, very clear that I have never suggested that Sadiq Khan was an extremist in any way at all. The point I have made, and Londoners have made and the newspapers have made on a regular basis is that Sadiq Khan has given platforms and oxygen and even cover to people who are extremist and I think that is dangerous.” He added the claims made against Khan himself had been down to “only a few nut jobs on Twitter”.

Hussain will be baking an Orange drizzle cake with orange curd and orange butter cream for Queen's birthday lunch on Thursday at Windsor's Guildhall. The following day the Queen will unveil a plaque marking the start of a four mile Queen's Walkway at the foot of the Castle Hill in Windsor, then the Duke of Edinburgh and the Queen will go on a walkabout.

In London Prime Minister David Cameron

Rt Hon Keith Vaz, MP with Sadiq Khan campaigning for the London Mayoral election in Harrow on last Saturday

Sadiq who seems to be ahead of Goldsmith by a few points, as the Sunday Times pointed out, had a few important questions to answer. Sadiq has a good story to tell. He is a local- South Londoner, a former human rights lawyer, a councillor by 24 and MP by 35, a Minister soon enough. If Khan wins, he will be seen by Corbyn's supporters as an endorsement of their leader. Yet having nominated Corbyn, Sadiq spent last few months distancing himself from his nominee so as to deter moderate voters.

The problems lies in the contradiction in Khan's statements as a MP and as a Mayoral candidate. As a transport minister Khan had emphasised on having a third runway at Heathrow, moment he became a Mayoral candidate, he was quickly against it and started favouring a third airport runway at Gatwick. Again before last election he was in favour of the mansion tax, and now with his eyes on City Hall, he sees it differently- no Mansion tax.

Politicians often swap sides to get elected- say whatever may bring them closer to victory and Khan is not beyond such suspicion. More serious however are his past associa-

tions. Goldsmith has focussed on them- though he has come out 'divisive' in the process.

Khan reportedly said he was “not reassured” that the capital’s emergency services were prepared to respond to a Mumbai-style terrorist attack. He added he intended to review the police, fire service and security services if he was voted into office next month. “I want reassurance that we are ready. If you’ve closed down 10 fire stations, there are 30 more fire engines being lost from London, half of London’s firefighters live outside London - I worry about London’s security.”

Though he promises to fight extremism, Atma Singh, a former Asian affair adviser to Ken Livingstone has apparently said that Khan was allegedly “way to willing to turn a blind eye to extremism.”

However Khan's political camp has dismissed the whole claim, though critics feel his campaign so far has changed views when it has appeared inconvenient.

Frankly whatever be their personal views, on extremism Londoners have lost a lot and they deseve a better response from its candidates.

will lead MPs in paying a day of tribute, presenting a 'humble address' in the Commons ahead of a special debate. A 41 gun salute will take place in Hyde Park and a 62 gun salute at the Tower of London. In the evening the Queen along with the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles and Duchess of Cornwall will light the first in a chain of 1000 beacons across the country, and worldwide that will celebrate Her Majesty's 90th

birthday.

In May from 12-15, the Queen's 90th birthday celebration will take place at Home Park, Windsor, featuring 900 horses, Katherine Jenkins, Ant and Dec. In June, on 10th there will be services of Thanksgiving at St Paul's Cathedral, followed by Queen's official birthday celebrations on June 11thTrooping the Colour. On 12th, there will be Street party in the Mall.

UK Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

17

Ramanujan and Janaki had perfect equation

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Well, so much has been and is being written about the great mathematician Srinivasa Ramanujan. And why not? A genius deserves to be acknowledged and get his due for his geniousity.

They say behind every successful man, there’s a lot of unsuccessful years.

Ramanujan too had his share of trials and tribulations before achieving unimaginable heights of success in mathematics.

But to make the story complete and do full justice, is it also not important to acknowledge the woman behind this successful man?

Though not much is known about her contribution to his success, but it can be imagined, and rightly so, that without her sacrifice, this mathematical genius would not have been able to

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Srinivasa Ramanujan

Janaki, Ramanujan’ wife

visit to Rajendram saw Janaki who was only 9 at that time and asked for her hand in marriage to her 21year-old son Ramanujam.

Ramanujan and Janaki tied the knot on July 14, 1909.

The son of a sari store clerk and a homemaker,

the details of how he had acquired the results. “I had never seen anything like them before. A single look at them was enough to show that they could be written by a mathematician of the highest class. They must be true because, if they were not true, no one would have the imagination to invent them,” Hardy wrote back.

Professor Bruce C Berndt spent 22 years trying to prove the 3,254 theorems in Ramanujan's three notebooks and the “lost notebook” – a set of pages Janaki gathered together from their Indian home after his death. He has said that “some of Ramanujan's maths is simply startling. If he had not discovered them, nobody ever would have.”

Hardy invited Ramanujan to come to Cambridge for further study. Hardy and his colleague, J E Littlewood, went out of the way to admit Ramanujan to Cambridge University, despite his lack of a degree in mathematics.

There was also opposition to Ramanujan’s going abroad given his strict religious background. Some say his mother had a dream in which the Goddess Namagiri ordered her not to come in the way of her son’s goals.

Ramanujan arrived at Cambridge in 1914. He published many new results on topics such as the number theory, infinite series and indefinite integrals. One of the most spectacular results in mathematics is the Hardy-Ramanujan formula derived in 1917 for the number of partitions of an integer.

Ramanujam was awarded a degree from Cambridge in 1916 and was made a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1919.

Ramanujan was alone in England for almost five years (April 14, 1914, to February 27, 1919). In between he fell ill and was treated for tuberculosis (TB) in 1917.

Hardy visited Ramanujan at the nursing home where he was recuperating from TB and said, “I thought the number of my taxicab was 1729, it seemed to me a rather dull number.”

Ramanujan replied: “No Hardy! It is a very interesting number. It is the small-

Dev Patel and Devika Bhise portraying the role of Srinivasa Ramanujan and Janaki, respectively, in the film "The Man Who Knew Infinity"

fully focus on his theorems or immerse himself in his equations and come out with flying colours, especially during his stint in Cambridge (1914-1919).

When Ramanujan was to leave for Cambridge, Janaki expresses her desire to come along with him to England. But her wish was rejected outright and she had to stay back in India all alone during the World War I days. In a way it helped Ramanujan to focus fully on maths in England and realise his dream. This slightly reminds one of the great Urmila – Lakshmana’s wife in Ramayana – whose sacrifice not to go to exile along with her husband so that Lakshmana can serve his elder brother Lord Rama wholeheartedly in the wild without any distractions.

Janaki (Janakiammal) was born on March 21, 1899. She was the daughter of Rangaswamy Iyengar and Ranganayaki Ammal who altogether had six children (five daughters and a son).

Janaki was the fourth daughter of the couple, who belonged to Rajendram, a village close to Marudur Railway Station (Karur district).

Ranganayaki Ammal was a friend of Ramanujam’s mother, Komalathammal, who on a

Ramanujan was born in 1887 in Erode (Tamil Nadu). He was raised in Kumbhakonam, which was his mother Komalathammal’s native place. He attended college hoping to pass the exam required to enter the University of Madras. But he was so absorbed in maths that he ignored other subjects and flunked the exam.

He never earned a bachelor’s degree.

The mathematicians in Madras (now Chennai) persuaded Ramanujan to contact experts in England to evaluate his work, but because of his lack of formal education, he was not taken seriously.

Janaki joined her husband after coming of age in 1912. In the meantime, Ramanujan got a clerical job in the Madras Port Trust. The chief accountant of the port trust, S Narayana Rao, was a mathematician.

Both he and Sir Francis Spring, the chairman of the port trust, took a keen interest in Ramanujan’s mathematical talents.

The turning point came in 1913 when Ramanujan sent a letter to G H Hardy, a renowned mathematics professor at Trinity College, Cambridge.

In the letter, he submitted about 120 mathematical theorems without showing

est number expressible as the sum of two cubes in two different ways.”

World War I prevented Janaki from joining Ramanujan to take care of him. After the war Ramanujan returned to India in April 1919 making a mark for himself, although he was weak from prolonged confinement in hospitals. Janaki joined him in Madras and nursed him till his untimely death on April 26, 1920.

Janaki kept all his loose notes in order, and on his death dutifully delivered them to the University of Madras.

Ramanujan once told Janaki that his name would be known in 100 years' time – and in the last decades of her life she began to see this prediction coming true.

Thanks to her, the notes she had kept turned up in Cambridge 60 years after Ramanujan's passing away.

In 1987, the then Indian PM, Rajiv Gandhi, presented her with her own a copy of the “lost notebook”.

A postage stamp commemorating his 75th birth anniversary was issued in 1962.

After Ramanujan’s death, Janaki was happy to state: “I considered it my good fortune to give him rice, lemon juice, butter

milk, etc., at regular intervals and to give fomentation to his legs and chest when he reported pain. The two vessels used then for preparing hot water are alone still with me; these remind me often of those days.”

In 1950, one of her friends, Soundaravalli, died suddenly entrusting her with her 7-year-old son, W Narayanan. Janaki brought him up and became a foster mother to him. Narayanan took voluntary retirement from State Bank of India in 1988, about 6 years before Janaki passed away, to take care of her health. Janaki breathed her last on the morning of April 13, 1994, at her residence in Triplicane, Chennai, at the age of 94.

Janaki also supported financially the education of several children and many youngsters.

Well, a woman can be behind a man’s success, have impact on him: motivate him, support him, sacrifice for him so he could do whatever he wants. Very difficult to gauge what was (and how much was) Janaki’s contribution in shaping this mathematical genius from India but yes, she was undeniably the woman behind this successful man.

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A person’s success depends only on him/her; on how hard he/she works in order to achieve whatever he’s/she’s aiming for.

Ramanujan was truly a genius. Ramanujan used to say that his insights came from Goddess Lakshmi who, he claimed, visited him in dreams and wrote equations on his tongue.

This is nothing but sheer modesty, because genius is, they say, 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration. He may have got inspiration from his family Goddess Lakshmi but his mathematical achievement was all hard work.

Robert Kanigel, Ramanujan’s biographer, says: “Forget all the talk of his religious inspiration.

The truth is he just worked hard.”

Robert Kanigel book on Ramanujan is called “The Man Who Knew Infinity”, which has now been made into a film. Dev Patel portrays the role of Srinivasa Ramanujan, while Devika Bhise plays the role of Janaki.

(Source: http://www.imsc.res.in http://indiatoday.intoday.in The Times)

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Gujarat dry law okay, but enforcement faulty: Experts AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Mitul Paniker, Khushali Dave

Gujarat imposed liquor ban on May 1, 1960, in a law dedicated to the Mahatma. However, it is also a valid example of how badly a state government can fail in implementing a law it believes in. The 2009 Gujarat hooch tragedy where over 100 died after drinking countrymade liquor was an eye-opener of the mere outward show of the prohibition. Over the years, while illegal liquor still manages to find its way into the region, the administration has been giving its best to curb the issue. After Bihar's ban on liquor and its impending success, experts in Gujarat spoke on the ban and the state they know best.

Kamla Gurjar, Former Gujarat State Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment, President, 'Adarsh Mahila Samaj'

“Gujarat has been a dry state for years, however, people resort to illegal consumption of alcohol. This is the result of a lack of proper action. For example, the state calls consumption of tobacco and other similar products illegal, but, it also allows promotion of certain products in the media. We don't just need a law, we need a strict implementation of the same.”

Sudarshan Iyengar, Gandhian “While people in Gujarat, despite the ban, have access to alcohol, can we get into a bar openly to get drunk? No. At least with the ban, people who want to drink, go through a little trouble to illegally get their

cling to illegal ways of consuming and selling alcohol.

The only usefulness of the law is that persons who savour the habit of drinking, cannot do so out in the open. Which, positively affects women and children.” hands on booze. They make 500 calls, take a drive to Abu Road. If we open up liquor selling facilities like tea shops, every kid will go there. We need to think about the youth. We are now striving to help people quit tobacco and cigarettes.

So if we can do that, we need to also say no to liquor.”

Rupa Vaghela, 'Spandan'

Trustee,

“Gujarat has imposed a ban on the product since the formation of the state and it has by and large, kept people out of the dangerous habit. However, it has also prompted people to

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

What do I do? There’s not a single drop of drinkable water at home.

Dr Neeta Goswami, Parkinson's Specialist

Ela Bhatt, Founder, Sewa

“I have seen that the kids who grow up in regions that sell alcohol, are adversely affected. At least with the ban in Gujarat, people don't get their hands on liquor easily.

Western countries consume alcohol differently.

They use it as medicine.

But in India, even if we consider the issue geographically, there are no harsh weather conditions that would prompt consumption of alcohol.

People should ask themselves if it is absolutely necessary.”

“Medically speaking, intoxicating substances aggravate Parkinson's symptoms. Cases for the disease are comparatively lesser in Gujarat, and the credit goes to the ban. Our women and children are safer as compared to those in other states. Yes, alcohol is available illegally, but at least you don't encounter drunk people out in the open streets.”

Gaurang Jani, Sociologist

“Gujarat has been following Gandhiji's principles of

completely barring the consumption of alcohol.

The decision has proven useful as families have maintained and enjoyed financial stability in the region. Other states should take a leaf out of Gujarat's book to retain capital and peace in their societies.”

Hansal Bhachech, Psychiatrist “The benefit of the liqour ban in Gujarat is that the state is more stable and peaceful as compared to other states. As open consumption is not allowed, people do not behave unbe-

comingly which in turn stops several crimes including rape and kidnapping. A ban on alcohol is one of the best decisions made by Gujarat, and should be followed by others.”

Rags to riches story of Savita Parmar Dandi March spirit recreated at Bhimrad Khushali Dave Chairman of an industrial empire that is based on coal trading, 79 year old Savita Parmar is a force to reckon when it comes to women entrepreneurs.

With a past drowned in extreme poverty, it took a lot of calculated risk-taking for her to introduce her family to the luxury they know now.

With six children, three boys and three girls, Savita and her husband Devji, who was an AMTS bus conductor found it difficult to make ends meet.

However, nagged by her own thoughts on how to contribute more for the welfare of her family, Savita soon began to sell unwanted coal disposed off from mills. Her customers gradually rose and she began to sell to hotels and lodges. A little bit of luck, and a favourable hand from an old businessman, things soon began to clear up for her. Savita set up a tile unit in 1991, called Sterling Ceramic; a small step to the many

smaller enterprises she planted over the years. The company now bears an annual turnover of £20 million and boasts of over 200 employees.

Even today, she unfailingly visits her factory every day in the morning and takes up all important business-related decisions of the empire she started on her own. “The only thing that nagged me when my family faced extreme poverty was, to do something. I always wanted to do something. To be something. This is the

thought that helped push me forward in life. Now that I am financially stable, and have a stout business sense, I wish to expand my business,” she said.

Savita was awarded the Bhimratna Award by Gujarat Congress Samiti last February. “An honour always makes one feel special. But it is the flourishing of my business that makes me truly happy. I also want my workers to enjoy their work, and my sons to work hard and take my legacy forward.”

A 'reverse' Dandi March was organised at Bhimrad, 12 km from Surat, 86 years after a similar meeting was addressed by Mahatma Gandhi during the Salt Satyagraha. The march which was organized from Dandi on April 6, was received at Bhimrad village in the evening by the villagers. Mahatma Gandhi lookalike Jitendra Gadhyali walked around Dandi villages at Khajod. The event was attended by Gandhi's granddaughter Usha Gokani, great granddaughter Nilam Parikh, OBC

leader Alpesh Thakor and Gandhian Dhirubhai Patel, amongst others.

In a tribute to the Salt Satyagraha organised by Gandhi, Gadhyali dressed up as the freedom fighter and MHS Shaikh as Maulana Azad, were welcomed with flowers by the residents of Khajod village.

The march was organised with the purpose of developing Bhimrad as a historic site. Jitendra said, “People from the entire Choriyasi Taluka have converged upon here with the sole intention to develop

Bhimrad as a historic site in the memory of Mahatma Gandhi. Exactly 86 years ago, Mahatma Gandhi was at Bhimrad and he addressed a public meeting on April 9. We want to develop this village into a historic spot for the future generation.”

Nilam Parikh said Bhimrad is the spot which is well mentioned in the history of Dandi March and Salt Satyagraha. During the event, Jitendra took a pinch of salt with a vow to fight to develop Bhimrad into a historic site.

Coffee with a Jew

REAL ESTATEVOICE Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

19

Last week I spent about 20 minutes with a veteran property developer, he has been in the game for over 25 years, and is a prolific developer and investor. He never seems to do things in a plain vanilla way, his deals tend to have a flair to them and are exotic in their set up.

I love spending time with these types of people, an accountant or a lawyer does not have the on the field experience. Neither do they possess the commercial perspective required to make deals actually happen. There is a reason why they are professionals and not property people.

Property dealers and investors are a rare breed, property veterans with the stars and scars of battle, they have no qualifications.

It takes a multitude of skills and experience to be proficient.

To do things in the same way as everybody else will give you a return and perhaps a good one as this is the nature of property, but it will not give you the edge on the market.

I am still learning, and even with the experience I have gained there are some things I know, there are even some things I think I know, then there are things I know I don't know and things I do not even know, I do not know!

The 20 mins I spent with this veteran showed me the latter, what I didn't know, I didn't even know, therefore the time was extremely valuable.

What I got in the meeting was a condensation of 25 years of experience into a small time frame.

This developer owns and develops many properties in London.

One of them happened to be a commercial property where the tenant had a long term lease. With commercial property the valuation of the investment comes from how much the tenant is paying, the strength of the company and how long the length of their lease is.

The valuation of a commercial property is often largely based on a percentage of the rental it generates, therefore when it becomes vacant, the property often declines in value.

If there is a good tenant in the property locked in for a long period of time it has more value than an empty one.

His tenant wanted to break the lease, in return for paying a premium. The premium amounted to around £1m so it was a sizeable chunk.

The money would have attracted a large amount of tax, naturally, probably around half of the million would have gone into tax.

However, he discovered something at this point, he had a valuation done with the property occupied by the tenant and a valuation without the tenant in the property. The valuation dropped by an amount broadly equivalent to the premium payable by the tenant when it was empty.

This gave him the insight to accept not a premium from his tenant but a ‘compensation’ for the loss in valuation on his property. The difference in label means you pay no tax on compensation. Thereby saving half of the premium in tax.

Real Deal The

Hyde Park, London, W2 Purchase Price: £680,000

I jokingly commentated it pays well to have a coffee with a Jew, which he found exceedingly funny.

The property industry is dominated with people from the Jewish background, from lawyers to dealers to bridgers. Property and the loaning of money has been in their blood probably for thousands of years. The same can be said for the Indians though in my experience they tend to be focused more on the property aspect than the lending side. This is why many of the old Abrahamic scriptures refer to laws on how the charging of interest should be conducted. There are specific biblical Hebrew terms for how the interest is charged, whether upfront or rolled up. A distinction is further made depending on whether the money is loaned to a fellow Jew or a non Jew. Interest is allowable to be charged to the non Jew but not to the Jew. Interestingly the charging of interest is classed in the Book of Ezekiel as being among the worst sins, and is forbidden according to Jewish law. The Talmud dwells particularly on Ezekiel's condemnation of interest, where Ezekiel denounces it as an abomination, and metaphorically portrays usurers as people who have shed blood.

Islamic finance is also based on labelling. There are two methods, one is to charge ‘rent’ instead of interest; and the other is for the Islamic bank to purchase the property, roll up the interest and add it on to the property price and then sell it on to the ultimate purchaser.

The Bhagavad Gita speaks of a system of transference of knowledge known as Parampara-Praptam; which means knowledge received through disciplic succession. This is true for all fields of activity, this transmission of knowledge is important as it can save a lot of pain and mistakes, if you have the guidance available from day one.

l A bright one bedroom apartment in the heart of Hyde Park Estate with tremendous views of London skyline l Long lease l Excellent buy and hold opportunity l Properties are being sold for around £1,300 to £1,500 per sq. ft. in this location and we are getting this property for £1,050 per sq. ft. l Massive capital growth potential in the future l Close to the beautiful open spaces of Hyde Park and shopping amenities Call us now to reserve!!

This becomes more powerful when the person you’re hearing from has realized, digested and practiced this knowledge, as opposed to just having a theoretical understanding. You benefit more from the person’s pain of failure more than the sweetness of success.

Doing property successfully requires experience and on the ground knowledge, in an environment where it seems everyone is investing in property, the market is saturated with buyers looking for deals. In this frenzy it pays to have both experience, expertise and local knowledge on your side.

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Tips of the Week

l In the current environment take care of your wealth and your health, the state will not do this for you!

l The internet is of limited use when researching property. We have done deals where the statistics on the internet did not support our decision; but our local knowledge did and our clients made money from them.

20

ASIANVOICE

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Consultant Editor Financial Voice Alpesh Patel

Dear Financial Voice Reader, So how do you raise money for your company and break the world record for the fastest financing – and get Anand Mahindra to be one of those investors?

Here are the rules, but first the background.

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge launched the UK Government’s Tech Rocketships initiative to find

Alpesh Patel with Head of the UK Government’s Venture Capital Unit, his Wife Aekta Patel and with The Duke of Cambridge and His wife, the Duchess of Cambridge.

the innovative Indian companies to go global from India. My role after showing Their Royal Highnesses around some of these companies was to host the launch with four initial companies pitching.

Here is how one of them – Project Mudra – teaching the world’s blind braille got funding from Anand Mahindra in 60 seconds from my inviting them on stage: Solve a major problem: This company solves a huge global problem, not just and Indian one. And it’s a social problem – not some fashion blog. This is important. Smart money likes important.

Have paying customers: They had one from Goa where they launched – that helps prove a lot Be likeable – the founder Sanskriti is a mere 21, and comes across as keen and genuine and not pushy.

Angel investors like working with people they like. I know many entrepreneurs who are a pain to work with, and you simply would not cross the road for them.

Have some link to the investor: Anand Mahindra’s foundation can use these machines – makes sense for him to invest.

Have a working prototype: This company thanks to the founder’s college has a 3-d printer on which they made the circuitary – if an investor can see it – then that’s half the job done. Even better the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge saw it too.

Simple rules for getting funded.

US jury slaps $940 mn fine on Tata group Tata Consultancy Services and Tata America International Corp have been slapped with a $940 million fine by a US grand jury, in a trade secret lawsuit filed against them.

Epic Systems accused TCS and TAIC, in a lawsuit filed in October 2014, in US District Court in Madison which was amended in January and December 2015, of “brazenly stealing the trade secrets, confidential information, documents and data” belonging to Epic.

In the lawsuit, the company said that TCS took that data while consulting for its customer. It said it “recently learned from an informant” that TCS employees have been “fraudulently accessing” Epics' software beyond what the consulting con-

tract required, also using Epic's software to improve their own competing product. A TCS employee's account, used in India and several US locations, downloaded 6,477 documents, according to Epic.

“Rather than compete lawfully with Epic, TCS has engaged in an apparently elaborate campaign of deception to steal documents, confidential information, trade secrets, and other information and data from Epic, for the purpose of realising technical expertise developed

by Epic over years of hard work and investment,” the lawsuit said.

In response, TCS had denied the allegations saying it has not misused or taken any benefit from documents downloaded from Epic System's user web portal.

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IMF retains India's growth projection at 7.5%

AsianVoiceNews

International Monetary Fund has retained its growth forecasts for India at 7.5 per cent in FY 17 and 18, however, it further altered projections for global economic growth for 2016 and the year after that citing loss of growth momentum in the advanced economies and continuing headwinds for emerging countries.

The IMF had estimated India's GDP growth in FY 16 at 7.3 per cent, before moving it to 7.5 per cent in the coming two fiscal. In its latest World Economic Outlook, it said sustaining strong growth over the medium term would require labour market reforms and dismantling of infrastructure bottlenecks, especially in the power sector. “In India, monetary conditions remain consistent with achieving the

inflation target of 5 per cent in the first half of 2017, although an unfavourable monsoon and an expected public sector wage increase pose upside risks,” it noted.

IMF has also forecast global growth at 3.2 per cent in 2016 and 3.5 per cent in 2017, a downward revision of 0.2 percentage point and 0.1 percentage point, respectively.

Cumulatively, since October 2015, IMF has lowered world GDP growth

projection by 0.4 and 0.3 percentage point in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

Growth in China was slightly stronger than previously forecast even as the IMF cut US growth by 0.2 percentage point for 2016 and by 0.1 percentage point in 2017.

In a statistical analysis, the fund also warned that the British exit from the European Union could inflict severe damage to the world economy by disrupting international trade. It listed the June 23 referendum on membership as one-of-seven downside risks for the world economy.

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

India world’s largest remittance recipient

The World Bank called India the worlds' largest remittance recipient in 2015 despite experiencing a $1 billion drop from the previous year. Even after attracting about $ 69 billion in 2015, after $ 70 billion in 2014, India managed to keep its top spot, as per the World Bank's annual 'Migration and Development Brief' report.

Other large remittance recipients in 2015 were China, with $64 billion, the Philippines ($28 billion), Mexico ($25 billion), and Nigeria ($21 billion).

“Remittances to India, the (South Asian) region's largest economy and the world's largest remittance recipient, decreased by 2.1 per cent in 2015, to $68.9 billion. This marks the first decline in remittances since 2009,” the report said.

Nita Ambani is Asia's most powerful businesswoman Director of Reliance Industries, Nita Ambani has found the top slot in Forbes’ Asia 50 Power Businesswoman 2016 list, followed by State Bank of India chairman Arundhati Bhattacharya. The list acknowledges women who are making their own place in the business world, despite gender inequalities. Along with the Ambani and Bhattacharya, eight other Indian women have made it in the list, representing diverse business fields banking, bio-tech, data analysis, textiles, pharma and wellness and beauty.

Forbes even ran a separate story on Ambani. “In a country where billionaire

Nita Ambani

wives tend to remain in the shadow of their husbands, Nita’s rising profile in the Reliance empire is unusual and earns her a debut spot on our Power Businesswomen ranking this year. As Reliance’s non-executive director, Nita has no formal operational role in the conglomerate that her husband runs as chairman and managing director. But there is no secret she is near the throne,” Forbes said.

An accidental entry into sports made her the face of her group after Reliance spent $112 million for a cricket team that included icons like Sachin Tendulkar. Forbes said the

Ambanis have been criticised for not having personally been givers, commensurate with Mukesh Ambani’s $22 billion wealth, and for moving into Antilla, a 27 storey sky palace in south Mumbai, called the world’s most expensive home for its $1 billion price tag.

Others in the list are Ambiga Dhiraj, chief executive, Mu Sigma; Dipali Goenka, chief executive, Welspun India; Vinita Gupta, chief executive, Lupin; Chanda Kochhar, managing director, ICICI Bank; Vandana Luthra, vice chair, VLCC Health Care and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, chair, Biocon.

Samsonite CEO Tainwala upbeat over Tumi acquisition Ramesh Tainwala is over the moon. And why won’t he be. The chief executive of luggage maker Samsonite has bought another prominent maker of suitcases, Tumi Holdings Inc., to complete a strategy to diversify.

For Tainwala, the Tumi acquisition is the most important event in his working life. “We have been flirting with Tumi for almost 15 years and it has taken a lot of patience and perseverance and for Tumi to be coming home, as we call it, it is like a dream come true,” Tainwala was quoted as saying in The Times.

Tainwala said the $1.8 billion acquisition of highend luggage maker Tumi will allow Samsonite to expand in the premium

Ramesh Tainwala

business travel bags segment, and will help South Plainfield, N.J.-based Tumi become more global.

The report in The Times said for Tainwala there is the added satisfaction that the Tumi deal cements a strategy that he first trialled while running Samsonite’s Indian divi-

sion and then later its AsiaPacific region.

The executive, who is one of five children born in Ranchi, says that he realised pretty quickly in the early 2000s that while “we were always very proud of what we were doing, we had almost maxed out the opportunity with Samsonite”.

Tainwala is in this business not for money but for the love and passion for his job.

“If money motivated me I would not be doing this job at Samsonite. If I had continued to run my own business in India I would have made tonnes more money, but I love this job and I am very passionate about it.”

Tainwala believes that the expansion strategy will

help Samsonite to reach its target of doubling sales to $5 billion and reaching $1 billion of profits by 2020.

Some still question if Samsonite can sustain the $1.8 billion of debt it is raising to fund the Tumi acquisition. Tainwala, a management graduate from the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani, says this is a false concern.

“The debt raised (before the recession) created no assets for the company; that was just money that went to the previous lot of shareholders. With Tumi we are creating earnings and an asset,” he was quoted as saying in the report.

Ramesh Tainwala is one of the few in the elite club of Indian-origin CEO with global positions.

CURRENCYVOICE

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX,

IMF cuts UK growth forecast Currency Specialists.

The ‘Brexit’ issue dominated the headlines again this week. The IMF (The International Monetary Fund) warned that the UK exiting the EU would cause “severe regional and global damage” .They said the referendum had already created uncertainty for investors and a vote to exit would only heighten this. It also believes a UK exit from the EU would "disrupt and reduce mutual trade and financial flows" and restrict benefits from economic co-operation and integration, such as those resulting from economies of scale.

The IMF also cut its UK growth forecast. It now expects 1.9% growth in the UK this year, compared with its January estimate of 2.2%. For next year, it expects 2.2% growth, unchanged from its earlier forecast.

Tuesday saw the Consumer Price Index figures released showed inflation hit 15-month high in March. Headline CPI showed an annual rise of 0.5% percent, above the expected 0.4% The Office for National Statistics said that rises in air fares and clothing prices were the main contributors to the inflation increase between February and

21

Foreign Exchange

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

March, and were partially offset by a fall in food prices and a smaller rise in petrol prices than a year ago. The rate remains relatively low in the historical context.

Despite these figures The Bank of England decided to hold rates at 0.5 percent once again, a record low for seven years. All nine members of the BoE's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) voted to hold rates amid concerns over global growth and uncertainty ahead of the Brexit vote.

The bank has been in no hurry to raise rates, and, with uncertainty over the referendum on the U.K.'s membership of the European Union in June, many anticipate it will wait and watch for any impact from the decision on the UK economy.

However, the delay in raising rates has been a concern for those who warn that the UK economy may get used to a low-rate environment.

In the U.S. retail sales figures (MoM) unexpectedly fell in March as households cut back on purchases of automobiles and other items showing a stump in growth in the first quarter. Other data on Wednesday showed a

surprise drop in producer prices last month as rising energy prices were offset by a decline in the cost of services.

The two reports suggested the Federal Reserve will probably not raise interest rates until later this year. The Commerce Department said retail sales declined 0.3 percent last month, confounding economists' expectations for a 0.1 percent gain.

They were unchanged in February.

Economic growth estimates for the first quarter are currently as low as a 0.2 percent annualized rate The Labour Department said on Thursday its Consumer Price Index gained 0.1 percent last month as a rebound in gasoline prices was partly offset by a drop in the cost of food, medical care and housing costs.

Yellen said she believed that "transitory" factors were behind the recent run-up in prices. The combination of benign inflation and weak economic growth in the first quarter suggest the Fed will not hike rates again before September, even as the labour market strengthens.

The disappointing inflation figure was offset by the jobless claims which unexpectedly fell to

match lowest since 1973. The job rate is near an eight year low and persistent additions to headcounts indicate companies are looking beyond the recent softness in the economy.

The dollar ended Friday on the back foot as it broadly fell as a slide in oil prices and soft US consumer sentiment report which came out weaker than previous at 89.7 against a previous of 91.0.

The dollar index which tracks the greenbacks value against six currencies posted losses after two days of gains which has widely been attributed to anticipation of the oil producers meeting in Doha. The meeting which was led by top oil exports Saudi Arabia and Russia to discuss oil production and how to solve the oil price crisis has widely reported to be a failure; with Iran making a last minute decision not to attend and Saudi Arabia vowing not to halt or freeze production, unless other major producers did the same.

The crisis has left the world with excess oil supply and thus dropping oil prices. All eyes are now on June’s meeting of the OPEC counties where the oil producers hand may be forced if crude prices begin another downward spiral.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 19th April 2016 @ 1pm

GBP - INR = 95.01

USD - INR = 66.05 EUR - INR = 75.01 GBP - USD = 1.43 GBP - EUR = 1.26

EUR - USD = 1.13 GBP - AED = 5.28

GBP - CAD = 1.83

GBP - NZD = 2.04

GBP - AUD = 1.84

GBP - ZAR = 20.53

GBP - HUF = 392.93

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.

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Quakes kill 350 in Ecuador, 41 in Japan In Brief AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

‘Useless’ Pak PM put up for sale on eBay

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forces and officials to react faster.

President Rafael Correa cut his official trip to the Vatican short, visiting the disaster zone. He said the latest toll of 350 dead “will certainly rise and probably in a considerable way”.

41 killed in Japan: Army troops and other rescuers rushed to save scores of trapped residents after a pair of strong earthquakes in southwestern Japan killed at least 41 people, injured about 1,500 and left hundreds of thousands without electricity or water. Rainfall was forecast to start pounding the area soon, threatening to further complicate the relief operation and set off more mudslides in isolated rural towns, where people were waiting to be rescued from collapsed homes.

Japanese media reported that nearly 200,000 homes were without electricity, and

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Indian-origin youth killed in US shooting

PORTOVIEJO: An earthquake of 7.8 magnitude shook Ecuador, killing more than 350 people while more than 41 people were killed when a series of quakes hit Japan.

The disaster shook the small South American nation, bringing down buildings and reducing the region to nothing but a cluster of rubble and cement. More than 2,000 people were injured as homes and hotels tumbled during the quake, and its dozens of aftershocks.

While capital Quito, was spared with nothing much but a few cracked walls and power outages, devastation along the coast prompted rescue operations from neighbouring Colombia, Mexico, and El Salvador. A prison was knocked down in the temblor, opening walls for nearly 100 inmates to escape. While some have been recaptured, several are still on the hunt.

The air in hardest hit Portoviejo, stank of decaying bodies as rescuers raced against time to find survivors.

“We have already recovered three dead and we believe there are 10 to 11 people still trapped,” said a worker digging through the debris of a six-story hotel El Gato.

Officials declared a state of emergency in the worst-hit provinces, and a national state of “exception”, both of which suspend certain civil rights and liberties to allow security

ISLAMABAD: An anonymous user vented his frustration over Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif by putting him up for sale on eBay with bids going higher than $90,000. The post read, “Useless Pakistani Pm Nawaz Sharif for Sale”, describing him as “new with defects”. “No longer needed. Needs a bit of TLC. Not in working condition.

It never worked. It was faulty and corrupt by birth.

The whole range of the product and its family is Genetically defected and corrupt... Take it away and rid us of this disease.” It also promised to throw in Sharif's brother Shahbaz, current governor of Punjab province, for free. The retaliation comes after the Panama Papers leak that linked the PM's family to a series of offshore companies. The viral post suggested Sharif, who is in London, was visiting for advice from former president Asif Ali Zardari.

“Currently in London consulting an ex corrupt president of Pakistan on how to save his corrupt assets.”

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that drinking water systems had also failed in the area. TV video showed people huddled in blankets, sitting or lying down shoulder-to-shoulder on the floors of evacuation centers.

An estimated 400,000 households were without running water.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said that 1,500 people had been injured in the quakes. Tajima said that 184 people were injured seriously, and that more than 91,000 people had been evacuated from their homes. More than 200 homes and other buildings were either destroyed or damaged, she said.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe expressed concern about secondary disasters as forecasters predicted rain and strong winds later in the day.

With the soil already loosened by the quakes, rainfall can set off mudslides.

Indian-origin kids show their prowess CALIFORNIA: The Science Fair at the White House, hosted by US President Barack Obama saw a major involvement by kids of Indian-origin in an example of how much the ethnic group has grown to dominate schoollevel STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) competitions, including events hosted by companies like Intel, Google, and Westinghouse.

Not all students take the challenge more seriously than the IndianAmericans, most of whom are children of parents themselves steeped in STEM. This year's finalist include Yashaswini Makaram, 17, of Massachusetts, who has created a new cellphone security tool that records the distinctive arm and hand motions people use to lift a mobile from a table to uniquely identify its owner; and Sanjana Rane, 18, from Kentucky has helped discover how a particular protein could be used to detect and treat renal fibrosis. At least two projects demoed at the White House were from student experiences in India.

New Hampshire's Deepila Kurup worked on a solar-powered technology to rapidly remove bacteria from water, making her a finalist in the 2015 Google Science Fair and a winner of the National Geographic Explorer Award.

Some of the projects also involve frugal engineering. Astounded at the price of diagnostic spirometersdevices used to analyse lung health by having patients blow into them, San Jose, California high schooler Maya Varma developed a 3D printed version that costs a mere $35.

NEW YORK: A 21 year old student of Indianorigin was killed and his room-mate seriously injured, in a shooting incident at their apartment near the school campus. Shani Patel, a junior economics major at Rutgers University was shot and killed, in a shooting that was not random as per the Rutgers police department. It also said the campus that holds around 12,000 students, was not under threat. Essex county prosecutor's office and Newark public safety director issued a statement saying no suspects were identified so far, and no arrests have been made. The room-mate, whose identity remains under the wraps, has been gravely injured.

China court rejects first gay marriage

CHANGSHA: A ruling against a gay couple in China's first same-sex marriage case has attracted hundreds of supporters to the courthouse. A court in Changsha dismissed the suit brought against civil affairs bureau, for refusing to issue Sun Wenlin and Hu Mingliang, a marriage certificate. “It goes against the spirit of the laws of the People's Republic of China,” said Shi Fulong, the couples' lawyer. Though homosexuality is legal in China, it doesn't legally recognise same-sex marriage and officials saying they do not see the law changing soon. “I hope I can pave the way as far and wide as possible so that people who want to do the same will see how much we have tried and what possibilities can be there,” said Sun.

Obama appoints MasterCard CEO to key post

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama appointed Indian-American MasterCard CEO Ajay Banga to a key administration post as a member of the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity. He is one of the nine members appointed by the president, as per a White House announcement. “I have charged the Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity with the critically-important task of identifying the steps that our nation must take to ensure our cybersecurity in an increasingly digital world. These dedicated individuals bring a wealth of experience and talent to this important role, and I look forward to receiving the Commission's recommendations.” Before joining MasterCard, Banga held important position in Citigroup.

Bangladesh police arrest elderly editor for sedition

DHAKA: Bangladesh police arrested a wellknown magazine editor for sedition, part of a series of detentions for pro-opposition journalists. Three plain-clothes officers entered 81-year old Shafik Rehman's home claiming to be from a private television station, and took him away as said by his wife Taleya Rehman. It was only later that the police announced Rehman was arrested for sedition. They also said they had found evidence linking the editor to a conspiracy to murder Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Rehman is the third proopposition editor to have been arrested by the government of Hasina, triggering repeated calls by rights groups for their release. Two other top journalists, who edit the country's leading Bengali and English newspapers, were also charged in criminal lawsuits including dozens of defamation and sedition cases.

Pak comedian describes minority Hindus as 'dogs'!

ISLAMABAD: In one of the most unfortunate moments in Pakistan's television industry, a performer crossed all limits and used offensive and derogatory remarks against a specific religious group in the country. According to a newspaper, a comedian used terms like 'Hindu kutta' in a show that aired on television in Pakistan. What was even more derogatory was the way the audience laughed and clapped for him. Also surprising was the fact that the show was allowed on air despite the large Hindu population who have called the country home.

INDIA Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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Statue of Unity – a tribute to the Iron Man of India AsianVoiceNews

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was one of the tallest leaders of our freedom struggle.

He was instrumental in unifying India as one country by integrating nearly 550 princely states. So the 182 meter tall Statue of Unity is a tribute to the Iron Man of India which is being built at the SadhuBet Island, approximately 3.5 km south of Sardar Sarovar Dam at Kevadia in the Narmada district of Gujarat. (The total height of the statue will be 240 meter consisting base level of 58 meters and the statue of 182 meters).

This inspiring memorial site has a number of educational and entertainment components. The total project cost is estimated to be £298.90 million and will be completed in four years.

The statue will be constructed with steel framing, reinforced cement concrete and bronze coating. The statue will need 75,000 cubic meters of concrete, 5,700 metric tonne of steel structure, 18,500 tonne of reinforced steel rods and 22,500 tonne of bronze sheets.

The statue is being designed as a true representation of Sardar Patel,

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times of Sardar Patel. A hotel is also being built with 3-star facility. A laser light and sound show on the Sardar's efforts on the unification of India will be one of the highlights. A research centre dedicated to the subjects close to Sardar Patel’s heart like good governance and agriculture development will also be there.

CM Anandiben Patel inaugurates the concrete work of the Statue of Unity in Narmada to mark Sardar Patel’s death anniversary

wearing characteristic garments, in a walking stance.

Rich bronze cladding on the statue that will give it a

The total project cost is estimated to be £298.90 million and will be completed in four years.

fine, aesthetically pleasing look. The three-level base of the Statue - exhibition floor, mezzanine and roof will contain a Memorial Garden and a large continuous museum/exhibition hall, comprising exhibits

that focus on the life and contributions of Sardar Patel. The observation deck, situated at a height of around 500 ft from river bed, will accommodate up to 200 people at a time. It will provide visitors a panoramic view, enabling them to see the beautiful Satpura and Vindhyachal mountain ranges. The statue and surrounding area will be accessed by special boats to avoid vehicular traffic and pollution.

Museum and audio-visual department: The project will also include a museum and audio-visual department depicting the life and

Ex-MLA's son booked in drug seizure case Son of a former BJP MLA has been booked in connection with the seizure of 1,300 kg of ephedrine at Kanbha, Ahmedabad, last week. Kishoresinh Rathod, 43, son of Bhavsinh Rathod, who defected to the Congress in 2012, who is believed to be the kingpin of an international drug cartel, has been slapped with sections of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act. Crime Branch officials seized ephedrine worth £27 million from Ria Industries, also arresting one Narendra Kacha while Kishoresinh and four others have been declared absconding.

Ephedrine is a 'controlled' chemical used to make the 'party drug' methamphetamine. JCP J K Bhatt said, “The ephedrine consignment was collected by Kishoresinh and Jay Mukhi from a factory in Solapur (Maharashtra), owned by a trader named Punit who hails from Vadodara. It was offloaded at Ria Industries last week.” The ongoing

investigation includes names of Zahid, an NRG based in Morocco, former Chhota Rajan aide Ravi Pujari, and Vicky Goswami who is a member of an international drug mafia. It is said Kishoresinh met Zahid and other drug lords from Poland in London and Dubai.

Bhatt has also pointed out at a terror angle in the whole drug racket. “The party drug was to be shipped out of the country as medicine shortly,” he said. The drug network is believed to be spread across Poland, Dubai, and Goa. In other developments, as investigators dig deeper into the racket, ATS officials said it was not just Dubai and London where the drug lords met often, but also Kenya. “Arrested accused Narendra Kacha has confessed before us that in December 2015, he, along with Kishoresinh, a bootlegger from Shahpur, and one other person had visited Kenya. There they met

three drug lords from Poland,” an ATS official said.

They said they have now written to the immigration authorities to verify whether Kishoresinh has already fled the country.

“We have also issued a lookout notice to track Kishoresinh,” added an officer. “We are tracking the role of Morocco-based NRG Zahid. The drug consignment was to be sent through him to drug lords in Poland.”

Subsequently, the Thane crime branch seized 20 tonnes of ephedrine worth over £150 million from a factory in Solapur, Maharashtra. The sources said it was the same factory from where the chemical was transported to Ahmedabad. “We had provided information to Thane crime branch officials.

Punit, an accused in the Ahmedabad case is working as a manager in the Solapur factory,” an Ahmedabad crime branch source said.

Larsen & Toubro bags the contract: Indian infrastructure company Larsen & Toubro bagged the contract for its lowest bid of £298.90 million for the design, construction and maintenance. They commenced construction on 31 October 2014 and is expected to be completed by 2018. In the first phase of £298.90 million project, £134.70 million is for main statue, £23.50 million for exhibition hall and convention centre, £8.30 million

for the bridge connecting the memorial to the mainland and £65.70 million for the maintenance of the structure for 15 years after its completion.

The monument has been designed by by Ram V Sutar and will be double the height of Statue of Liberty in the US and five times taller than the Statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

PM Modi's call to countrymen: In October 2010 Narendra Modi unveiled the plan to build the statue on his completion of 10 years in office as the Chief Minister of Gujarat. He has invited all countrymen to become a part of the movement to build the Statue.

Modi urged every village to contribute a piece (tool) of iron for this project. The project is built on a PPP model with most of the money raised by private

contribution. The government of Gujarat has allocated £10 million in the 2012-13 budget and £50 million in the 2014-15 budget. In the union budget $30 million have been allocated. Prime Minister Modi has appealed to Indians in India as well as those settled abroad to contribute generously to the mega project.

Work in progress: Much of the foundation work has been completed while construction of a bund wall around Sadhu Bet is in progress. A Bailey bridge is being constructed to facilitate movement of men, material and equipment for the construction during the rainy season. A team of engineers is visiting bronze casting and design factories to study the latest technology, so that the same can be applied during the construction of the statue.

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Panama Papers Bengaluru connection In Brief AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

BENGALURU: The multimillion dollar network of offshore companies exposed in Panama papers apparently has a Bengaluru connection.

Thirty one families were believed to have invested in various companies in the tax haven. Residents of the city have made offshore investments and the companies that they invested in, have been mentioned in the ICIJ global database.

Surprisingly, not a single politician from Bengaluru features on it. After naming Vijay Mallya, the database has now named Ayani Kurussi Ravindranath Nedungadi, Atikukke Harish

Bhat and Pathai Ananthasubramanian Murali, all from the UB Group. According to the leaked documents, Nedungadi had become a shareholder in a BVI-based company called Modesto Group Ltd, which was incorporated on April 8, 2005.

HC allows fireworks for Thrissur Pooram despite ban THRISSUR: Despite the Kerala High Court ordered complete ban on fireworks after the tragic Kollam Puttingal temple incident that claimed 113 lives, it has allowed a lowdecibel fireworks display in the ongoing Thrissur Pooram festival. A division bench comprising of Justices Thottathil B Radhakrishnan and Justice Anu Sivaraman said no unauthorised chemicals should be used in the fireworks and the sound level should not exceed 125 decibel.

The ruling was made in observance with the fact that celebrations were a part of the social and cultural ethos of Thrissur. The bench was hearing a plea by the private Paramekkavu and Thirvambadi Devaswoms, that fund the annual Pooram

festival in the premises of the famous Vadakkunnath Temple in Thrissur, for permission to hold fireworks display. Thrissur Pooram is an major event conducted every year.

It comprises of caparisoned elephants, numerous temples and colourful fireworks.

Chief Minister Oommen Chandy had recently said his government was against the complete ban on fireworks.

“We cannot completely ban fireworks in state. Chemicals used in fireworks need to be checked, disastrous material shouldn't be allowed.”

Gurgaon to be renamed as 'Gurugram'

CHANDIGARH: In an official announcement, a spokesperson of the Haryana government revealed its decision of changing the name of Gurgaon to Gurugram, and its neighbouring district Mewat to Nuh. The official said Haryana was a historic land mentioned in the Bhagwat Gita and Gurgaon had been a great centre of learning, where Guru Dronacharya used to provide education to the Pandavas and Kauravas.

The 'Guru' in the name is from Guru Dronacharya, as the village was given as “gurudakshina” to him by the Pandavas. Regarding Mewat, it was said it was a geographical and cultural unit and not a town, spread beyond

Haryana in the adjoining states of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. People of the area along with their representatives had been demanding the name change. While Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar has approved the proposal to change the names, the proposal is now forwarded to the Government of India for its approval. The change will only come into force after a Gazette Notification.

The changes prompted mixed reactions with some supporting the action, while others rubbishing the change, calling them unnecessary.

Deputy Commissioner T.L. Satyaprakash said the name change would not hamper the administrative work.

Nedungadi had recently come under the radar of the Enforcement Directorate in connection with the probe into a money laundering case against Mallya.

Though the leaks did not specify Nedungadi's investments in BVI, enforcement agencies maintain that he will have to explain the offshore leaks.

Harish Bhat and his partner Brinda Bhat had invested in a BVI-based company named Blazing Horizon Ltd, which was incorporated on April 15, 2008. Their nominee shareholder in the company is Sharecorp Ltd. Similarly, PA Murali and his

partner Rukmini Murali had invested in a BVI company named Diamond Dust Inc, incorporated on March 17, 2008. Their nominee shareholder also was Sharecorp Ltd. In others, two Bellarybased mining families, with their Bengaluru address as 58, Cunningham Road Cross, invested in four BVI companies- Butterworth Holding Properties Inc, Yielding Returns Ltd, Gold Meadow Holdings Ltd and Cap9Biz Ltd. They were made when the demand for iron ore from the state had peaked, around the same time the mining scam broke out.

Now, Tamil Brahmins demand quota CHENNAI: Catching the quota fever, a group of Brahmins in Tamil Nadu are now pushing for reservation in government jobs and educational institutes, on the onset of the state Assembly elections. Leaders of BJP and Anthanar Munnetra Kazhagam say they have enlisted 15,000 people across the state, contradicting the caste dynamics in the country where the lower caste communities have suffered at the hands of the bourgeois for years. S Ve Shekhar, former MLA from Mylapore said, “It is a curse being born a Brahmin in Tamil Nadu.

Brahmins constitute less than 4 per cent of the state's population, which is why they are neglected. Only a few of them are able to acquire education and migrate to other parts of India to lead a prosperous life.” He said his community members will continue to suf-

fer unless an individual’s economic status was made the only yardstick for reservation.

The AMK at its convention in Chennai, demanded 3 per cent reservation for Brahmins. “We also demand protection from harassment and ridicule that Brahmins are often subjected to, especially in Tamil movies,” AMK president S Jayaprakash Iyer said. The party has also asked for a minimum salary of Rs 1,000 per month for all the priests and sivarchakas working in temples and the creation of a temple welfare board.

Punjab seeks new water sharing agreements NEW DELHI: Punjab government has urged the Supreme Court to refuse answering the Presidential reference on the validity of the P u n j a b Termination of Agreement Act, 2004, saying it was not obligated to go into it. The state addressed the constitutional bench headed by Justice Anil R Dave saying that the only way out of the current impasse was setting up a fresh tribunal to consider different dimensions of the matter, including decline in the flow of the water and the rights of the riparian states.

Senior counsel Ram Jethmalani who appeared for the state, said the plea for setting up a fresh tribunal was not a new one but was raised way back in 2003 well before the state assembly had passed 2004 act during the tenure of the then Congress government led by Capt Amarinder Singh. He said Punjab had sought the fresh tribunal to

review the Longowal agreement of 1981 on sharing the river water in view of the falling flow of the water and other factors, and that Punjab had moved the apex court again in 2015 which was still pending hearing.

The state has also contested Rajasthan's submission that its assembly had no right to terminate the river water sharing agreement affecting the rights of other states as Jethmalani argued that the Punjab assembly had every right to legislate a law, though it would not be binding on other states. He said that even otherwise, under the InterState Water Disputes Act, every agreement had to be reviewed after a gap taking into account falling flow of the river water and other circumstances.

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Elephant attacks man who tried to take a selfie with it

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: In yet another case of glamorous selfie, a man who tried to take picture with an elephant, was attacked by the animal. Sreelal, 37, tried offering a banana to a pachyderm resting after a tiring temple procession in Kilimanur, at 1 am. Taking advantage of the sleeping mahouts, the man tried taking a selfie, only to annoy the animal who first hit him with its trunk and then its tusk on his thigh. Locals and members of the temple management rushed to the man's rescue on hearing his cries, taking him to the Medical College hospital. This isn't the first case of an elephant attacking a human. Newspapers and television media routinely report similar incidents.

Jayalalithaa government ‘most corrupt’: Amit Shah

CHENNAI: In a scathing attack, BJP President Amit Shah accused Tamil Nadu government of being the “most corrupt” in the country, prompting people to oust it in the May 16 Assembly elections. Addressing a press conference, Shah accused the state government with non-cooperation over implementation of central schemes including UDAY, aimed at helping debt-ridden state power discoms. Promoting the NDA as an alternative to AIADMK and DMK, Shah said, “The Narendra Modi government is committed to the welfare of villages, the poor and labour class. I am confident that people of Tamil Nadu will give priority to the NDA in the polls. People should change this most corrupt government in India and give NDA a chance.”

SC slams Kerala stand on women's entry to temple

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court judges have said that denying women the right to worship at the temple could amount to a violation of their constitutional right to equality. The court observed that “In the Hindu religion there is no denomination of a Hindu male or female. A Hindu is a Hindu.” The statements come in the wake of the centuries-old ban on women of reproductive age in the famous Sabarimala temple. The trust that handles the temple, and the state government has vouched in favour of the ban.

Eatery fined for overcharging

CHANDIGARH: District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum has asked a leading restaurant to pay a compensation of Rs 12,000, including Rs 5,000 as cost of litigation to a complainant on account of deficiency in services. It also asked the restaurant owners to deposit Rs 15,000 in the consumer legal aid account.

Jagvir Singh Kang was charged Rs 312 for two sealed water bottles. It has been alleged that the maximum retail price of each sealed water bottle was Rs 60 (inclusive of all taxes) which was sold by the opposite party for Rs 156. When confronted, Kang was informed that it included Rs 16.50 as VAT, Rs 12 as service charge and Rs 7.39 as service tax. He left the place only to file a case in the consumer court. The restaurant responded saying the water was consumed in the premises and hence the taxes applied.

School prevents students from writing exam

JALANDHAR: Three Dalit students were allegedly not allowed to sit in the final examinations by a private school citing unpaid school fees. The children's father, Balwinder Singh said he had requested the St Soldier School authorities to give him time till March 20 to pay the pending fees but they only agreed to wait till March 10. However, school principal Pratibha denied the allegation saying, “The students were not barred from appearing in the exam. They had appeared in the examinations conducted before March 10 but later they stopped coming to school on their own.” District Magistrate KK Yadav has inquired into the incident, saying preventing students from appearing in tests is wrong.

INDIA Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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Patidar stir rocks Mehsana AsianVoiceNews

The Patel community once again resorted to violence and agitation as their demand for reservation continues in Gujarat.

However, the Gujarat bandh call made by the protesters, fell on deaf ears as they failed to evoke much response in the region, except for Mehsana that saw a riot-like situation.

The lukewarm response from the people saw life continue as was across the state except Mehsana where the Patidars clashed with the police on Sunday. An unoccupied house that belonged to Minister of State for Home Rajnikant Patel was set on fire by unidentified people. The same house was attacked last August when the agitation took place, and again in November.

“Unidentified men stormed into the empty house and set ablaze the furniture and other belongings. The mob also hurled stones on fire tenders trying to reach there.

This is the same house which was set on fire in August last year during agitation related violence,” said an official of control room.

Mehsana was a small reminder of the agitation that took place last year

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Nitish Kumar seeks 'Sangh-Mukt Bharat'

Police crack down on protesters in Mehsana

with at least 15 persons, including six policemen, SPG president Lalji Patel and some media persons injured with mobs resorting to heavy stone pelting near Modhera circle, forcing police to use water cannons, tear gas shells and rubber bullets. Mehsana District Collector Lochan Sehra said people resorted to large-scale vandalism by damaging at least seven government vehicles, including a number of state transport buses in Mehsana. An ATM booth was torched and Mamlatdar Vipul Thakkar suffered injuries when his car windows were broken.

Modhera police chowky was also set ablaze by the riots.

Curfew was imposed in the town and was lifted the following morning as the bandh call went off peacefully for the most part. The government banned all

mobile internet services in towns in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot and Mehsana, till midnight.

Sehra said, “We had lifted curfew at 6 am as the situation was under control.

No reports of untoward incident came during the bandh call.”

In-charge DGP P P Pandey said, “We have mobilised additional forces in Mehsana, Surat, Morbi, Rajkot and Ahmedabad in view of the Gujarat bandh. Rioters will be dealt with strongly.” Union home minister Rajnath Singh tweeted he had spoken to CM Anandiben Patel who apprised him of the situation. A state committee of ministers, formed to negotiate with the quota agitators, held a “fruitful and positive” meeting in Gandhinagar.

Another round of talks will soon ensue.

Nitish Kumar

At a time when many states find itself enveloped with the election fever, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has appealed for a 'Sangh-Mukt' country to “save democracy.”

Calling upon to all nonBJP parties, he asked them to come together and make a Sangh free India.

Kumar, who is known to promote the “largest possible unity” among secular parties, spoke at the Advantage Conclave in Patna, saying, “Uniting against BJP and its divisive ideology is the only way to save democracy.” The Janta Dal leader said he was not against any party or individual, but against “divisive” ideology of the Sangh, the ideological parent of BJP. “The three stalwarts of the BJP - Atal

Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani, and Murli Manohar Joshi, have been sidelined within the party and power has gone to people who have no faith in secularism and communal harmony,” he said.

He had vouched to forge the “largest possible unity” against BJP by roping in the Left and regional parties, all on one platform, before the 2019 general elections. He also took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying, “Management is more important than event management. Event management could benefit for sometime. But, there is a need to go into the depth of the issue. Sincere work done for the welfare of people itself reaches the masses.”

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Heatwave kills 130 in India Hit with the ongoing heatwave, India suffered with at least 130 deaths as temperature reached record breaking heights in several places. Central and peninsular India faces the hottest April in recent years, with the weather predicted to rise by one to two degrees, particularly in west India, Telangana and Rayalseema.

Over 100 people died in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and sunstroke claimed 30 lives in Odisha.

Telangana remains the worst hit with the temperature touching 44° Celsius in three districts, a day after Hyderabad broke a 43-year record with the mercury rising to 43°C. The Met department said temperature could reach an all-time high figure of 45°C in April. Cuttack, Khuda, Balasore, and Jagatsinghpur are the worst sufferers in Odisha with mercury touching 42° for more than a week. In consequences of the harsh weather conditions, water levels in major reservoirs of the country are alarmingly low as cited by weekly data released by Central Water commission.

Ahmedabad was the hottest city in Gujarat, with a recorded temperature of 41.2°C.

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William and Kate take back a bit of India AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

In a sight that was similar, yet starkly different, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge put an end to their India and Bhutan trip with a photograph in front of the iconic Taj Mahal in Agra. Sitting on a bench with the 'symbol of love' in the background, the royal couple took us back to 1992 when Princess Diana sat by herself as her marriage to Prince Charles was under strain.

The couple returned from their short trip to the Himalayan democracy of Bhutan.

The Land of the Thunder Dragon welcomed William and Kate in capital Thimphu. The visit was eventful as the royals were first escorted on foot into the Tashicco Dzong, a fortress; both monastery and seat of government, along with a colourful procession of musicians, dancers, stan-

dard-bearers and monks.

They later met with Bhutanese royals King Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck and Queen Jetsun Pema. The Duke and Duchess presented a new variety of rose to the Queen of Bhutan, called the “Queen of Bhutan Rose”, which was devel-

William and Catherine pose next to a prayer wheel

The Duchess of Cambridge feeds a baby elephant

PM Modi leaves quite an impression on the Duke of Cambridge

Non-bailable warrant issued against Mallya The Indian law shows no plans of getting off liquor baron Vijay Mallya's back as a special court in Mumbai issued a non-bailable warrant against him in the £90 million money laundering case. The court took into account the Enforcement Directorate's contention that Mallya had been served three summons and with his failure to appear before the agency, was avoiding the process of law.

The ED told the court that it suspects Mallya of having used the loan to invest in properties abroad, adding that by continuing to stay in the UK, he may destroy all evidence by alienating them. Special judge PR Bhavake, after presiding over matters under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, accepted ED counsel Hiten Venegaonkar's plea saying the arrest warrant be “open

Vijay Mallya

dated”- meaning it would place no deadline on his arrest by the Interpol.

During ED's probe the Kingfisher Airline's former CFO A Raghunathan had mentioned that the company had about 68 aircraft on lease. When asked if he knew about properties held in Mallya's name, he gave the ED a “list of assets and liability statement of Mallya”. He added, “I am not aware of any other properties.”

The warrant is an attempt to secure the baron's presence in the trial court even as his counsel Amit Desai and Pranav Badheka denied of misuse of any loan amount for personal gains or buy properties abroad. “To expect the chief financial officer Raghunathan to remember every entry made in 200910, the period relevant to the probe, is expecting too much. It does not constitute non-cooperation.

Everyone doesn't have a photographic memory,” Desai said.

With the court issuing an NBW to get Mallya deported from the UK, Interpol can issue a red corner alert against him. If he travels to any airport in the world, he can be immediately arrested to secure his presence in the Mumbai court.

Nothing is left to chance as the Ministry of External Affairs had suspended his passport last week. Officials said the ED had written to the MEA to take action under the Passport Act, 1967, and asked the Regional Passport Office to revoke the diplomatic passport of the Rajya Sabha MP. They said Mallya has turned out to be “un-cooperative” with its investigators probing the criminal case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act.

India looks to corner China on Jaish chief Azhar Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj cornered Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Moscow, at the 14th RIC meet, with the issue of Beijing blocking India's attempt to place Pakistanbased militant Maulana Masood Azhar on a UN sanctions list for terrorists.

Swaraj raised the issue at a bilateral meeting on the sidelines of talks between the foreign ministers of Russia, India and China.

She “emphasised that as common victims of terrorism, China and India should cooperate in combating this challenge. It was agreed that the two sides would remain in touch on this matter,” said spokesperson Vikas Swarup. Azhar is chief of militant group Jaish-e-Mohammed, and

oped as a special gesture to King Jigme and Queen Jetsun.

They had founded the Royal Bhutan Flower Show last year and have created an English garden.

The rose variety has been grown in the UK, funded by a private donation, and seventy-five dormant

Sushma Swaraj with her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in a meeting in Moscow

the mind behind the 2 January terror attack on the Air Force base in Pathankot. He is believed to have close ties with Pakistani military establishment. The Chinese had vetoed India's stand at the UN last month.

Swarup said, “Both the ministers reviewed the state of bilateral ties and assessed the implementation of decisions taken during Prime

Minister Modi's visit to China in May. The ministers appreciated the expanding trade and investment ties between India and China.” Terrorism was the topic of the hour and Swaraj spoke on the subject in her opening remarks at the meet. “India believes the foremost challenge to international security continues to be posed by international terrorism.” She warned the RIC countries saying they “must lead the way in getting the international community together to counter terrorism through joint action, including at the UN. If we continue to adopt double standards in dealing with terrorism, it will have serious consequences not just for our own countries, but the international com-

munity as a whole.”

In a similar line, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar who was in Beijing on Monday, stressed on the Chinese military leadership on border transgressions stressing the need to resume the process of clarifying the Line of Actual Control. In a meeting with Chinese counterpart Chang Wanquan at the PLA headquarters, he also expressed India's displeasure at China blocking the listing of Azhar at the UN Security Council sanctions committee. He said that “what happened in the UN was not the right direction that they have taken on terrorism because having a common line is in the interest of India and China both.”

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plants have been transported to Bhutan, where they are now being cultivated.

The British royals were later taken into a temple to receive a blessing and light butter lamps. They went to a display of archery, Bhutan's national sport where they even tried their hand with a severe lack of success. The two also indulged in a sixhour round trip hiking all the way to the Tiger's Nest Monastery near Paro.

The royals had a busy and amusing week as they were exposed to warm Indian hospitality, acquainting themselves with the locals, spending time with slum kids and, lunched with the Prime Minister. As Kate and William's tour ended and they left for England, there is no doubt they took a little bit of India with them.

Kohinoor gifted to Britain, not stolen: govt tells SC The Indian Government put an immediate stop on the 'bring Kohinoor back' movement as it categorically told the Supreme Court that the famous diamond could not be viewed as a “stolen” item. It cited the $ 200 million diamond as “neither stolen nor forcibly taken away”.

Solicitor General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the government said this was the stand of the Culture Ministry, also stating that the 105 karat diamond was handed over to the East India Company by Maharaja Duleep Singh. In response to a PIL filed by NGO All India Human Rights and Social Justice Front, that sought a direction to the Centre to bring back Kohinoor and other precious artefacts taken by the British during colonial rule, Kumar narrated a brief history of the diamond. “It changed hands several times till Shah Shuja of Afghanistan gave it to Maharaja Ranjit Singh in 1813. After Ranjit Singh's death, his successor Duleep Singh gave the diamond to the British as compensation for the Anglo-Sikh war. The East India Company gifted it to Queen Victoria in 1894 and since then it has been in possession of the British royalty. India's first PM Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956 had written a letter to the British government. A number of times, the matter was raised in the Lok Sabha. But Kohinoor cannot be categorised as an item stolen and taken out of the country,” he said.

“If we claim return of treasures taken away from India during various peri-

ods of history, then other countries too will ask India to return several items exhibited in museums,” he said. He however, failed to impress the bench as they responded saying, “India was colonised and ruled by several foreign powers. Has India ever colonised any foreign country? Is there a case where India has looted other countries and brought back treasures from there?” It said the famous sword of Tipu Sultan was brought back to India. To which Kumar replied, “It was purchased by the same gentleman (Vijay Mallya) who has gone out of the country now and the apex court is hearing a petition relating to him at present.” The bench asked, “Are you sure the sword is in India at present?”

Meanwhile, British Parliament's longest serving MP of Asian origin, Keith Vaz welcomed the centre's stand saying, “The Indian Government has made its decision and we should respect and support it. This draws a line under this particular campaign.

There may of course be other issues that need to be pursued. I am sure Her Majesty The Queen will be pleased as she celebrates her 90th Birthday.”

AsianVoiceNews

HEALTH&WELLNESS

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Eating fresh fruit reduces risk of heart attack, stroke FOOD

new study has found that eating fruits can keep you healthy and keep heart diseases at bay, adding that people who eat fresh fruit regularly are less prone to a heart attack or stroke than people who rarely eat fresh fruit.

Fruit is a rich source of potassium, dietary fibre, antioxidants and various other potentially active compounds, and contains little sodium or fat and relatively few calories. The results of the international study indicated that a 100g portion of fruit per day reduced about one-third of death by heart related diseases in both men and women.

The findings is the result of a seven-year study of half a million adults in China, where fresh fruit consumption is much lower than in countries like the Britain or US. "The association between fruit con-

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LIFESTYLE

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| Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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E-cigarettes can harm asthmatic young smokers

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sumption and cardiovascular risk seems to be stronger in China, where many still eat little fruit, than in highincome countries where daily consumption of fruit is more common," said lead author Huaidong Du from University of Oxford in Britain. Fruit consumption, mainly apples or oranges was also associated with many other factors, such as education, lower blood

pressure, lower blood glucose, and non-smoking, the researchers noted.

"Widespread consumption of fresh fruit in China could prevent about half a million cardiovascular deaths a year, including 200,000 before age 70, and even larger numbers of non-fatal strokes and heart attacks," said one of the researchers Zhengming Chen, professor at

"Both physical and emotional stress can prompt an increase in these hormones which result in an increase in blood sugar", said a senior doctor in Delhi.

Shared stress can also lead to similar de-regulation of hormones in children. If they are under constant stress in the home environment, children may have a similarly dysmetabolic state.

"According to recent findings, stress hormones cause an epigenetic change in sperm. So when a father is stressed out, his hormones pack the potential to raise his offspring's blood sugar levels. With higher blood glucose levels comes a higher diabetes risk, especially Type 2 diabetes," noted a senior endocrinologist. The primary function of these hormones is to raise blood sugar to help boost energy when it's needed the most. Think of the fight-orflight response. One possibly can't fight danger when their blood sugar is low, so it rises to help meet the challenge. Both physical and

emotional stress can prompt an increase in these hormones, which results in an increase in blood sugar levels.

Making a few simple lifestyle changes can help combat and cope up with stress which reduces the risk of being diabetic or help to keep diabetes in control.

"One should do more of physical activities, like yoga, dancing etc. Aerobics and Pilates are great stress busters too. Make a few food changes like having plenty of fibre and choosing whole grains. Avoid packaged foods and junk foods.

Most importantly, take a break from your regular routine and plan some family outings," suggests another doctor.

Diabetes is a lifestyle disorder and becoming increasingly common these days. Intermittent stress relief in small time frames several times of daymay be acquired with chores that you enjoy the most like music or playing your favourite sports. Mediation helps a lot .

Constant stress can lead to diabetes

ealth experts have warned that taking unnecessary stress can not only give you headache or neck pain but, if left unattended for long, can also trigger elevation in blood sugar levels leading to Type 2 diabetes.

Owing to changes in lifestyle and daily routine, stress is now seen as a reason behind several health hazards, including the rise in diabetes in India.

Marked stress causes release of several stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol which, in turn, increase levels of sugar in blood apart from spiking blood pressure and pulse rate.

If stress is consistently high, previously transient sugar elevation becomes persistently high, resulting in diabetes. Similarly, blood pressure elevation becomes elevated constantly. Stress also causes change in eating pattern, resulting in 'binge eating', thus increasing weight which may also add to elevation of blood sugar.

Stress can affect diabetes control, both directly and indirectly. It is widely recognised that people with diabetes are regularly stressed and are more likely to have poor blood glucose control.

University of Oxford.

The team conducted a large, nationwide study of 500,000 adults from 10 urban and rural localities across China, tracking health through death records and electronic hospital records of illness.

The participants did not have a history of heart diseases or anti-hypertensive treatments when they first joined the study.

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...

Andreas Lappas from the Hellenic Cancer Society in Athens, Greece.

In a study of 54 young cigarette and e-cigarettes smokers aged 18-31, 27 had mild controlled asthma and the other 27 were healthy.

The results suggest that measurements of airway obstruction and inflammation were worse after e-cigarette sessions and these findings were more severe in asthmatics.

"It adds to the growing body of research pointing to the dangers of e-cigarettes. Especially for asthma, further research is needed in order to assess the risks of long-term e-cigarette use," Lappas added.

average the participants used social media a total of 61 minutes per day and visited various social media accounts 30 times per week.

More than a quarter of the participants were classified as having "high" indicators of depression, researchers said. There were significant and linear associations between social media use and depression whether social media use was measured in terms of total time spent or frequency of visits, they said.

For example, compared with those who checked least frequently, participants who reported most frequently checking social media throughout the week had 2.7 times the likelihood of depression. Similarly, compared to peers who spent less time on social media, participants who spent the most total time on social media throughout the day had 1.7 times the risk of depression.

Researchers controlled

for other factors that may contribute to depression, including age, sex, race, ethnicity, relationship status, living situation, household income and education level.

According to Lui yi Lin from University of Pittsburgh, exposure to highly idealised representations of peers on social media elicits feelings of envy and the distorted belief that others lead happier, more successful lives.

Engaging in activities of little meaning on social media may give a feeling of "time wasted" that negatively influences mood and social media use could be fuelling "internet addiction," a proposed psychiatric condition closely associated with depression, she added. Spending more time on social media may increase the risk of exposure to cyber-bullying or other similar negative interactions, which can cause feelings of depression, she said.

Social media can cause you depression

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To Our Readers

esearchers have found that smoking e-cigarettes can harm the lungs of smokers, especially those of young smokers who have mild asthmatic conditions, even though it has been promoted as a safer alternative to cigarette smoking.

The findings showed that e-cigarette smoking caused acute pulmonary function impairment, lasting for less than 30 minutes after smoking. â&#x20AC;&#x153;The results show that as it happens with cigarette smoking, e-cigarette smoking has more deleterious short-term effects on asthmatics compared with healthy smokers," said

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new study has found that the more time you spend on social media, you are more likely to be depressed. "Because social media has become such an integrated component of human interaction, it is important for clinicians interacting with young adults to recognise the balance to be struck in encouraging potential positive use, while redirecting from problematic use," said Brian A Primack from University of Pittsburgh in the US. In 2014, researchers sampled 1,787 US adults aged 19 to 32, using questionnaires to determine social media use and an established depression assessment tool. The questionnaires asked about the 11 most popular social media platforms at the time - Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Google Plus, Instagram, Snapchat, Reddit, Tumblr, Pinterest, Vine and LinkedIn. On

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Arvind Swami plays a sage in ‘Bogan’

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rvind Swami will reportedly play a sage in upcoming Tamil period fantasy drama 'Bogan'. A source from the film's unit said, “Arvind plays an ancient sage called Bogan in the film. Scenes between him and Ravi will be shot in the exotic Andaman Islands.” The movie that features actor Jayam Ravi in the lead is directed by Lakshman, and also stars Hansika Motwani and Akshara Gowda.

Amy Jackson is ready for a tough fight

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retty and petite, Amy Jackson has undergone tough training for some heavy-duty action scenes in '2.o'. In an interview, Amy said, “When you have Khiladi Kumar on one side and

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Chocolate statue for Rajinikanth AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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fan of superstar Rajinikanth took his love for the actor on whole different level with a life-sized rendition made purely of chocolate. Standing at the entrance of Zuka in Mylapore sporting dapper shades, salt-andpepper hair, and white beard, thalaivar welcomes you in all his chocolate glory. “It took us 168 hours and 600 kg of chocolate to

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make it,” said managing director Srinath Balachandran. The statue has already grabbed a lot of attention all across Tamil Nadu. Srinath said he was surprised to receive calls from fan associations from as far as Madurai and Tiruchi, all inquiring about the chocolate Rajini. When asked what would he like to do with the statue, he said, “Ideally, I would like to gift it to thalaivar.”

Thalaiva on the other, you have to know your stuff well. I have done heavy-duty stunts even in my last film. But this time around, it is more demanding. The director included more action scenes after seeing my kicks and punches in my last one. It could be draining but am all prepped up!”

'Sadma' remake will have a Hollywood version too

a m a l HaasanSridevi starrer 'Sadma' will soon get a Hollywood version, said ad-filmmaker Lloyd Baptista who is already in the works for the film's Hindi remake. “Yes, I will first shoot the Sadma remake in Hindi and then next year I will shoot it in English.

We are simultaneously locking the star

'Laal Rang'

cast for both the films and both the films will have a different star cast,” Baptista said.

“For the Hollywood version we will have an Indian actress and a Hollywood actor. The Indian actress will be someone who works in Hollywood, but I can't give out the names right now. Its' one of the actresses who is working abroad.” The 1983 movie was itself a remake of Tamil film 'Moondram Pirai”.

A thriller featuring Randeep Hooda, Akshay Oberoi and Piaa Bajpai.

'Santa Banta Pvt Ltd'

A comedy drama film directed by Akashdeep Sabir, with Boman Irani and Vir Das in the lead.

'Nil Battey Sannata'

An inspiring and endearing story of a poor single mother who comes up with an ingenious plan to convince her rebellious daughter to study.

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Priyanka's special moment

AsianVoiceNews

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AsianVoiceNewsweekly

hile many would agree that receiving India's fourth highest civilian honour would be exciting enough, it was something, or rather someone else who got our beloved Priyanka Chopra going.

Priyanka received the Padma Shri along with a bunch of her Bollywood colleagues all distinguished for their contribution to the arts. Amongst those who received the award was Rajinikanth, who received the Padma Vibhushan at the same ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhawan. “I was very excited to get my Padma Shri with Rajinikanth sir. He was getting the Padma Vibhushan but we were in the same room and that was really exciting for me as I am his huge fan,” the actress told the media. “He is such a big legend in the field of cinema. To watch him right in front of me being honoured by the President, that was exciting for me.”

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‘Samuel Street’ explores Mumbai middle class holds on to her traditional values in the everchanging world, and a female prison officer living in the UK. The lead roles are played by newcomers Saif Thakur and Anne Adams.

“It's a film that is a warm, comical and nostalgic journey also dashed with

amuel Street', a film made by Londoner Aliakbar Campwala, will be screened at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival 2016. An ode to one of the world's greatest cities, Mumbai, the movie revolves around a bunch of characters; a young man who returns to India to find a country changed beyond imagination, a mother who

'Fan' becomes highest opening weekend grosser

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ash Raj Films’ action thriller 'Fan,' starring Shah Rukh Khan in a double role, opened to exciting figures on its first day.

Here Shah Rukh acts in a double role as superstar and fan, balancing two character roles to perfection. The actor’s look as a twentysomething fan for the film was created by Hollywood special effects makeup artist, Greg Cannom who won three Oscars for the looks he created in 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button,' 'Mrs. Doubtfire' and 'Dracula.' For 'Fan', 3D scanning was implemented as part of the process to create Shah Rukh’s young man look in the film.

Freida, Anupam Kher in sex-trafficking movie

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rieda Pinto and Anupam Kher will come together in 'Slumdog Millionaire' producer Tabrez Noorani's directorial debut 'Love Sonia'.

The movie is a real-life inspired drama about a young Indian village girl who finds herself trapped in the ugly world of sex trade. Kher confirmed the news with a tweet that read, “Happy and proud to be part of this amazing international film 'Love Sonia' dir by Tabrez Noorani.”

Newcomer Mrunal Thakur will reportedly play the lead in the film that will also feature American actor Paul Dano, Manoj Bajpai, Richa Chaddha, Adil Hussain, Rajkummar Rao and Sai Tamhankar.

Influence of Shakespeare on Indian cinema

Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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surrealism and realism. I wanted to focus on the city dweller and the challenges they face, in particular the elders of Middle Class India,” Campwala said.

“Making a film in Mumbai has been one of the toughest aspects of filmmaking in my career as you have to go through a lot of social stereotypes and barriers to create something completely different from normal that can also appeal to communities worldwide.”

irector Vishal Bhardwaj is one of the chosen ones for the Shakespeares on Screen festival that celebrates the British icon's influence on the world film industry. The festival that runs in London from 27 to 30 April, will see Bhardwaj and his scriptwriting team participate in a panel discussion at Asia House and, hold a Q and A session alongside each film screening at the BFI. The directors received huge acclaim for writing and directing adaptations of three Shakespearean classics; 'Maqbool' (Macbeth), 'Omkara' (Othello), and Haider (Hamlet). Dr Preti Taneja,

'The Jungle Book' climbs to the top

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on Favreau's 'The Jungle Book' is taking the world by storm as he brings Rudyard Kipling's Mowgli to life with a little inspiration from Disney. Debuting at number one at the UK box office with an estimated £9.5 million opening weekend, the film has become the third biggest opening this year following 'Batman vs Superman' and 'Deadpool'. Not only in the UK, the movie has also taken over the entire lifetime of 'Titanic' and 'Life of Pi' within just one week, in India, making it the third-biggest Hollywood release ever. The film currently stands at $240 million, globally.

Co-organiser and Shakespeare scholar said, “I was surprised when Bhardwaj's Haider, a brilliant interpretation of Hamlet set in Kashmir, was screened in just a handful of cinemas in the UK. Its' an incredibly powerful film about British colonialism and its aftereffects on the Indian occupation of Kashmir. It's critical of human rights abuses by the Indian army in the 1990s, in ways we rarely are allowed to see on screen.”

The event will unfold at London's Asia house and the British Film Institute during the week of Shakespeare's quarter centenary celebrations.

Rajkummar Rao's non-stop shooting

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ajkummar Rao, who has delivered quite a few contemporary hits, and last seen in Hansal Mehta's 'Aligarh', has been shooting for 200 days non-stop due to work commitments. “It was only when my team pointed it out to me, I realised that I have been working for all these days, shifting from one film to another. Over 200 days is a humongous number and I was taken by surprise,” the actor said.

Rao just wrapped up Vikramaditya's 'Newton', a black comedy where he plays a man who ventures into a Naxal-infested jungle.

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Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Coming Events

l Asian Voice regrettably announces that the annual Asian Voice Youth Conference (due on 27 April) will be now be deferred due to unavoidable circumstances. New dates and venue will be announced shortly. We apologise for any inconvenience. For further details please contact Rupanjana at rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com. l Below are the dates and places for SRMD UK London Organ Donor Drives: l2.00pm Sun 24 Apr: Mahavir Foundation Event, Kingsbury High School, Bacon Lane, London NW9 9AT l7.30pm Thu 5 May: Navnat Vanik Association of UK Event, Printing House Lane, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1AR l9.30am Sat 7 May: Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur UK Event, JFS School, The Mall, Harrow, Kenton, HA3 9TE Contact: Manthan Taswala | 07920 105 093 | uk@srloveandcare.org All events are free admission* l Hanuman Chalisa & Ram Navmi Bhajans, 23 April 2016, 10:30am onwards, SPA Community Centre, 249 Warwick Road, B11 2QX, Contact: 07968776304 l Nagrecha Charitable Trust presents Suron Ki Sargam, Saturday 30 April, at Hariben Bachubhai Nagrecha hall, 198-202 Leyton Road, E15 1DT, 6:30pm onwards. Contact: 020 8555 0318 l Early Modern Hindu Theology Seminars: Convenor: Dr Rembert Lutjeharms Making the Implicit Explicit: Emplotment as Saṃsāra and Soteriological Method in Advaita Vedānta: Dr James Madaio Monday 2 May, 2–3pm, OCHS Library, 13 - 15 Magdalen Street. Oxford, OXF OX1 3AE l Rukmini Vijaykumar is a distinguished Bharatnatyam dancer and actress with a wealth of experience of dance extending from Jazz, Tap, Ballet,African & contemporary that she can share with dance students & dance enthusiasts alike.

Ahead of her debut performance in North West England on 23rd April(Capstone Theatre)-she will speak at the Sannidhi Dialogue a Series and offer a real insight into what challenges, motivates and inspires dance artists in their journey to become successful performing artists. All Dance students, performers and enthusiasts are welcome.

Venue: The Cornerstone Building, Creative Campus, Liverpool Hope University: April 22nd, 2016. 2.30 PM. (Admission Free) Dance Performance: 7.30 PM-April 23rd, 2016 The Capstone Theatre. Creative Campus, Liverpool Hope University, Liverpool L6 1HP.

Editor: CB Patel Associate Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Tel: 020 7749 4098 - Email: rupanjana.dutta@abplgroup.com Deputy Editor: Anand Pillai Tel: 020 7749 4002 - Email: anand.pillai@abplgroup.com Senior News Editor: Dhiren Katwa Chief Operating Officer: Liji George Tel: 020 7749 4013 Email: george@abplgroup.com Advertising Managers: Kishor Parmar Tel: 020 7749 4095 - Mobile: 07875 229 088 Email: kishor.parmar@abplgroup.com Senior Business Development Manager: Rovin J George - Email: rovin.george@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 219 Head - New Projects & Business Development: Cecil Soans - Email: cecil.soans@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4097 - Mobile: 07875 229 111 Advertising Sales Executive: Rintu Alex - Email: Rintu.alex@abplgroup.com Tel: 020 7749 4003 - Mobile: 07816 213 610 Business Development Manager: Urja Patel - Email: urja.patel@abplgroup.com Graphic Designers: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Tel: 020 7749 4086 Email: graphics@abplgroup.com Customer Service: Ragini Nayak Tel: 020 7749 4080 - Email: support@abplgroup.com Leicester Distributors: Shabde Magazine, Shobhan Mehta Mob: 07846480220 (BPO) AB Publication (India) Pvt. Ltd. 207 Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad.

Tel. +91 79 2646 5960

British High Commissioner seeks to improve trade links between UK and Pakistan The new British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Thomas Drew CMG, met members of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industries (ICCI) at his residence last week.

During the meeting, the British High Commissioner discussed ways to improve the existing trade links between the UK and Pakistan. The delegation was headed by ICCI President Mr Atif Ikram Sheikh and included other high profile figures from the Islamabad business community.

Speaking after the meeting, the British High Commissioner to Pakistan, Thomas Drew CMG said: “Strengthening the trade and investment ties between the UK and Pakistan is one of my top priorities. During my short time in Pakistan, I have already seen good examples from Karachi to Islamabad of British investment in a variety of

sectors.

“The business relationship between the UK and Pakistan is important to the prosperity of both our countries. I want it to continue to grow. There are already a large number of British companies operating in Pakistan today, with many more working here through Pakistani agents and distributors. Part of my role is to stimulate more business in both directions. The newly launched British Business Centre will be a great asset in doing so.

“These are exciting times for Pakistan and for our trade relationship.

Increased levels of security, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor projects and growing UKPakistan business links are all laying the foundations for a transformation within Pakistan’s business sector.

This will be the cornerstone for economic growth across the country.”

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 The Sun continues to transit

your solar second house.

This is the most "financial" period of the year for you. You have an increased interest in your own possessions, during this period. You are more attracted to objects and possessions that give you a sense of comfort, status, or luxury now. Careful with your extravagant spending habits.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 The Sun continues to move through your solar first house. You experience a renewal of energy and vitality now, and it's a strong time for increased personal confidence. The emphasis is on selfexpression. You are more decisive and forward-looking now, and you put more faith in your own abilities.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 The Sun continues to transit

your solar twelfth house.

This is the time to listen to your intuition, to take a break from the hectic pace of your life, and to reflect. You might naturally retreat a little and take more private time for yourself now. Time to take stock of your projects now and not start anything new for a while.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 The Sun continues to put a spotlight on your solar eleventh house. You will benefit from networking in this period and you might find some great ideas through others now. Working in a team will also benefit you. You are more attracted to that which is progressive or unconventional during this cycle.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 The Sun continues to put a spotlight on your solar tenth house. Satisfaction and fulfilment during this cycle comes from being professionally responsible and contributing to the world in practical ways.

You will get a lot of support from authority figures during this transit. Avoid the pitfalls by being confident and positive.

The Sun continues to transit your solar ninth house now.

In this period you seek to expand your experiences and awareness, whether through philosophical thinking, travel, or simply activities that take you away from your mundane routines. It's an excellent period for looking at your life from a different perspective.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

A guest list of celebrity fans and influencers attended a VIP Screening of Yash Raj Films’ latest release, Fan, on Thursday 14th April at the newest addition to London’s portfolio of luxury hotels, Courthouse Hotel Shoreditch.

The destination venue opened its doors for the very first time to host the VIP Screening against its grandiose backdrop, welcoming personalities such as actors Preeya Kalidas and Ameet Chana;music artists Arjun and Tasha Tah; and Desi Rascals TV stars, Rita Siddiqui and Yasmin Karimi to name a few. Guests also enjoyed a photo opportunity with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan’s wax figure from world famous attraction, Madame Tussauds London.

Bureau Chief: Nilesh Parmar (M) +91 94266 36912 Email: nilesh.parmar@abplgroup.com Consulting Editor: Bhupatbhai Parekh, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Tel: +91 79 2630 4142 Urvashi Jagadeesan (India) Mumbai: Kanti Bhatt, Hemraj Shah (Jumbo Advertiser) Horizon Advertising & Marketing: 2012, Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad. Tel +91 79 2646 5960 Email: horizon.marketing@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Hardik Shah (M) +91 99250 42936 Email: hardik.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Neeta Patel (Vadodara) M: +91 98255 11702 Email: neeta_abplgroup@yahoo.co.in Business Co-ordinator: Shrijit Rajan M: +91 98798 82312 Email: shrijit.rajan@abplgroup.com International Advertisement Representative: Jain International Tel: +91 44 42041122/3/4 Fax: +91 44 25362973 Mumbai: +91 022 2471 4122 Email: jain@jaingroup.net Delhi Office: Tel: +91 9311581597

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LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 The Sun continues to transit your solar eighth house. Personal transformations and intimate matters fulfill you most during this period. There may be a strong focus on other's money, such as the resources of a partner, inheritance, banking and loans, or taxes. You are more in touch with the deeper and even primal elements of your own personality.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

The Sun continues to transit your solar seventh house-your partnership sector. This can be a time of much learning in your close relationships. It's not the time to push your personal plans forward; rather, it's a cycle in which you give back to a special someone, and compromise in order to find some balance in your life.

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21 The Sun puts a spotlight on your solar sixth house. This is a period that finds you tending to many different details of your daily existence-your work, daily routines, and health matters. You may be in the position to take charge in your work, or to take charge of your health and diet. Do not be hypercritical of yourself.

The Sun continues to put a spotlight on your solar fifth house. This is a time when pleasure-seeking and creative activities come into focus and grab much of your attention. You are particularly personally charming and ready to perform and to express yourself creatively. It is also a good time for romance and connecting with children.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

The Sun continues to transit your solar fourth house. This is a period for getting in touch with your innermost feelings and spending more time and energy on home and family.

Use this energy to find ways to improve your family relations and your home environment. A good time to explore your inner needs so that you can nurture yourself and others.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

You are exploring and searching now, making connections, and paying attention to your immediate environment.

Socially you are very popular and your communications strengthen your connections. You will be busy with errands, paperwork, phone calls, and light socializing.

Siblings, neighbours, close relatives, friends, and co-workers may play a more important role than usual in your life during this period.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

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IPL matches shifted out of Maharashtra AsianVoiceNews

The Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) has shifted out the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL) matches out of Maharashtra following a direction from the Bombay High Court. The HC has asked the BCCI to shift the matches out of Mumbai, Pune and Nagpur from drought-hit Maharashtra after April 30. This means that 13 matches, including the final on May 29, cannot be held in Maharashtra.

As Maharashtra

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Final shifted to Bengaluru

The IPL final, which was earlier scheduled to be held in Mumbai, will now be played in Bengaluru. In a meeting held between the IPL authorities and Pune Supergiants and Mumbai Indians, it was also decided that IPL's first qualifier will be held in Bengaluru while the second qualifier and the Eliminator will be played at Kolkata's Eden Gardens.

While, Mumbai Indians have opted for Jaipur's Sawai Man Singh Stadium as their home ground while Pune Supergiants have chosen Visakhapatnam for the matches. "We had given Mumbai Indians three options - Jaipur, Kanpur and Raipur. Mumbai Indians told us that they would like to play their home matches at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium in Jaipur.

Accordingly, officials will be going

to Rajasthan in order to speak to the state government," IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla said.

While Jaipur used to be the home ground of the now-suspended Rajasthan Royals, the state cricket association has been under suspension but Shukla had earlier mentioned that suspension of the state association does not mean suspension of the venue. In fact, Rajasthan state team played their home matches of the Ranji Trophy under the aegis of the BCCI at the Sawai Man Singh Stadium.

It has been learnt that logistical considerations and creation of an easy fan base are the primary reasons that prompted Mumbai Indians to zero in on Jaipur, which has had the experience of hosting IPL matches during the first eight seasons of IPL.

continues to suffer from severe drought, particularly in the Marathwada region, the BCCI told the court that shifting matches out of the state was not feasible because of concerns over financial investments and the brand values of the defending IPL champions Mumbai Indians and new entrant Rising Pune Supergiants taking a hit. However, the HC has ruled that the matches cannot be held beyond the end of April while Maharashtra is facing severe water crisis.

Ravindra Jadeja begins new inning Indian cricketer Ravindra Jadeja tied the knot with Rivaba Solanki in Rajkot on Sunday morning. He was engaged to Rivaba in February last. The wedding was attended by family members and close friends of the couple. Rivaba, who hails from Junagadh, is a mechanical engineer and is the only child of Hardevsinh and Prafullaba Solanki. She is currently based in Delhi, busy preparing for UPSC exams.

According to a source close to the cricketer, “The rituals had started on Saturday and Ravindra reserved his best for the sangeet ceremony. There, he showcased his sword skills

Ravindra Jadeja with his wife Rivaba Solanki

match against Team Mumbai at the Wankhede stadium on Saturday evening, his teammates couldn't make it to the wedding on Sunday morning either. However, Sitanshu Kotak, the assistant coach of Team Gujarat, said, “The entire team has been invited for the wedding reception on Sunday evening and all of us will be going.” On Monday, the couple headed to Hadatoda in Jamnagar, Jadeja's native village.

There are a few more rituals lined up and after that, some massive celebrations have been planned there with the villagers, which includes a mega cultural event.”

SPORT Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

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Australia beat India to lift Azlan Shah Cup

World champions Australia beat India 4-0 to clinch the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup. The Kookaburras kicked off the final against seventh-ranked India with fast attacks and strong defence to the delight of the spectators in Malayia's Ipoh. Both teams rallied for an early goal but failed to earn a shot at the back of the net. However, as the game progressed, there was no doubt the Kookaburras were the dominant squad as India failed to defend against the skills and speed of the Australians.

The Australians put pressure on the Indian defence and secured an inaccessible 3-0 lead by the end of the thirdquarter break. Just before half-time, 20-year-old Thomas Craig put Australia ahead, by taking a crack at the left side of the Indian net leaving goalie Akash Chitke helpless. Craig was in action again in the 35th minute when he slid on his stomach to hit the ball past Akash. Matt Ghodes scored the other two goals including one on the reverse stick which saw the ball sail past the leg of the Indian goalkeeper. India cruised into the final after defeating Malaysia 6-1 earlier in the week and edging out New Zealand. Australia ended the tournament with the maximum 18 points from six matches, while India earned 12 points and New Zealand finished with 11. Australia have won the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup a record nine times. Meanwhile, defending champions New Zealand defeated hosts Malaysia for the bronze medal in a 5-4 penalty shootout. In the day's other action, Pakistan outclassed Canada for fifth place with a 3-1 victory.

Jammu boy wins US table tennis tournament

Gujarat cricketer is Oman's captain

Ajay Lalcheta, the 32-yearold native of Porbandar, has been named the captain of Oman's national cricket team. Lalcheta, a slow leftarm orthodox bowler, had earned praise when underdogs Oman stunned Ireland in ICC World T20 qualifiers in Dharamsala last month.

After playing in under14 to under-19 teams of Saurashtra Cricket Association (SCA), Lalcheta immigrated to Oman in 2006 in search of better opportunities and job. He joined Al-Turki enterprise and grabbed the attention of national team selectors by leading the company's team successfully. “The announcement came as a bit of a surprise for me. My aim will be to reach the qualifying round of ICC's ODI World Cup scheduled for 2019. We have two years to prepare and we will now focus on intensive training to make a mark in the 50over format," Lalcheta said.

Lalcheta's younger brother Ajay , who works for a bank in Porbandar, said, "Ajay's elevation as captain is a matter of pride for all of us here. Leading a

in front of the guests and it left everyone impressed.”

Since Gujarat Lions (Jadeja's IPL team) had a

Ajay Lalcheta

national team is something that a cricketer always dream of."

Lalcheta's immediate challenge would be the upcoming World Cricket League to be held in Jersey, the UK. Lalcheta's immediate challenge would be the upcoming World Cricket League to be held in Jersey , the UK, from May 21 to 28 where six teams - Oman, Jersey , Tanzania, Nigeria, Guernsey and Vanuatu will participate. Two finalists of the ICC WCL Division 5 will earn a promotion to Division 4.

"In the next two years, we will have to win various stages of ICC tournaments to improve our ranks to enter the qualifying round for the next ODI World Cup. I am thankful to selectors for putting faith in me and I will try my best to lead the team from the front,'' Lalcheta said.

Lalcheta along with another Oman player Rajeshkumar Ranpura, who hails from Palanpur, got their initial coaching in Duleep School of Cricket, one of the oldest residential cricket school in Gujarat.

Jammu boy Aryan Mahajan has won the 2016 Millcreek Giant round-robin table tennis tournament at Erie, Pennsylvania in US. This $3,000 prize money tournament is sanctioned by USA Table Tennis. Fourteenyear-old Mahajan earlier won an under-16 tournament in Ohio in January. On Sunday, Mahajan scored a stunning come-from-behind 3-2 win over Asawari Khadode.

This two-star tournament, sponsored by table tennis equipment maker Butterfly, sees players taking part on the basis of their ratings (between 2,250-1,000).

Matches are best of five games to 11 points. Mahajan was down 2-0 and then reeled off three games in-a-row to win. Mentored by Samson Dubina, Mahajan finished runner-up in the under-16 category. He is among a number of Indian juniors who are trying to make it big in table tennis in USA.

IPL 2016 points table

Team Gujarat Lions Knight Riders Daredevils Royal Challengers Rising Pune Supergiants Sunrisers Indians Kings XI

M 3 3 3 2 3 3 4 3

W 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1

L 0 1 1 1 2 2 3 2

NRR 0.714 0.995 0.249 0.901 0.338 -0.672 -0.88 -1.101

Pts 6 4 4 2 2 2 2 2

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Asian Voice | 23rd April 2016

Gujarat Lions win their 3rd straight match

Gujarat Lions recorded their third straight win when Mumbai Indians batting line-up failed to fire at the Wankhede stadium in successive games.

At their IPL-9 match against Gujarat Lions, the hosts struggled to reach 143-8, a score that was clearly not sufficient for them to avert their second straight defeat at home this season.

The Lions scampered to victory by three wickets on the last ball of the 20th over, and the new entrants to the Indian Premier League sit pretty at the top of the eight-team table with six points in three games. On the other hand, MI have recorded two losses and a win in their three matches. Australian opener Aaron Finch, who has already hit a couple of blistering half centuries in the first two games, was in splendid form once again, contributing an unbeaten 67 off 54 balls. His knock included seven boundaries and a six. He put on 53 runs for the second wicket with skipper Suresh Raina, who added 27 runs before his mistimed pull off paceman Mitchell McClenaghan was held by

Aaron Finch and Dhawal Kulkarni

wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel.

The other opener, Brendon McCullum, who has played many a destructive knock in the IPL fell cheaply for six when he hit a low full toss to the point region and was caught brilliantly by Hardik Pandya off paceman Jasprit Bumrah.

After Raina's fall, Mumbai fought back with a couple of quick wickets

with Dinesh Karthik (9 runs) and Dwayne Bravo (2 runs) falling in a space of three runs, and the Lions getting reduced to 83-4, but MI's modest total ensured that the visitors never really lost grip on the match.

Debutant all-rounder Krunal Pandya, coming in for Jagadeesha Suchith, got rid of Karthik and conceded 20 runs in his four overs spell.

Earlier, MI, who have relied heavily on their skipper Rohit Sharma over the past few seasons, found themselves on the back foot straight away when he fell for seven in the second over to paceman Dhawal Kulkarni.

Having struck a boundary on the first ball, Rohit succumbed while trying to flick off his pads to a delivery that swung in marginally. He was caught at short square leg by Shadab Jakati.

MI's problems were compounded in the fourth over when Hardik was caught at short square leg

by Jakati for two, to give Kulkarni his second wicket of the match. This was the flamboyant Pandya's third successive failure in as many matches, and the think-tank now have a major issue to resolve, as the batsman has managed only 20 runs at this crucial position.

Kulkarni, the Mumbai domestic team's warhorse, who replaced allrounder Ravindra Jadeja for the game, was aptly rewarded for his discipline and returned with figures of 219 in his allotted four overs.

Tripura gymnast makes India proud Dipa Karmakar became the first Indian woman gymnast to qualify for Olympics after putting up a strong show at the final qualifying round of Rio Games test event. Dipa, who is an Asian bronze medallist, qualified in the artistic gymnastics event at Rio after collecting 52.698 points in the test event, according to the world gymnastics governing body, FIG's website. The 22-yearold from Agartala in Tripura has been listed as the 79th gymnast among individual qualifiers in the list of women's artistic gymnast who have qualified for the quadrennial Games.

Besides being the first Indian woman, she will also be an Indian gymnast qualifying for the quadrennial extravaganza after 52 long years. The last participation by India in gymnastics at Olympics was way back in 1964, but during that time there was no qualification system in place. Six men competed

Dipa Karmakar

at Tokyo 1964 in the artistic individual all-around category.

Till date, 11 Indian men gymnasts have competed in the Olympics two in 1952, three in 1956 and six in 1964. Dipa will also get a chance in the vault, the event in which she picked up two bronze medals in the 2015 Asian Championships and 2014 Commonwealth Games.

She also had finished creditable fifth in the World Championships.