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Obama honors Indian-origin scientist Details on page 5

Cohen sees new energy, hope in India

VOL 20, No. 1054

November 28, 2014

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AMI BERA RE-ELECTED TO U.S. CONGRESS WASHINGTON: Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera has been re-elected to the US House of Representatives in one of the closet congressional races from California.

More than two weeks after the Congressional elections on November 4, Bera led his Republican rival Doug Ose by a close margin of 1,432 votes.

According to the election officials, Bera got 92,394 votes against Ose's 90,962.

Virtually all ballots have been counted.

On the election night on November 4, Bera was trailing

by more than 3,000 votes.

"It's been my honor serving this community as a doctor for the last 19 years. I am grateful I will have the opportunity to continue serving as the representative for California's 7th Congressional District in Congress," 49year-old Bera said in a statement.

Re-election of Bera, who was elected for the first time in 2012, has its own significance given that it was considered to be a Republican wave.

Details on page 5

Details on page 8

Obama to be Chief Guest at India R-Day Details on page 8

Obama provides legal status to 5m illegals Details on page 35

450,000 illegal immigrants in US are from India Details on page 37

Lawmakers celebrate Diwali at US Congress

Mangalyaan among best inventions

Details on page 6

Details on page 6

Modi among Time's 'Person of Year' contenders

CONTENTS Bollywood ---------------------- 28-29 Classifieds ------------------------- 48 Community Post -------------- 16-20

Details on page 5

Date Book -------------------------- 47 Edit Page --------------------------- 54

INDIA POST SURVEY

HealthScience Post --------- 30-34 Horoscope ------------------------- 44

survey@indiapost.com

Immigration Post ------------- 35-39

This week’s question

Life Style ----------------------- 50-52

Will Obama be able to override the immigration storm?

Perspective ------------------------ 49 Philosophy ------------------------- 53

Last week’s result

Modi has given boost to India’s image?

YES 86%

NO 14%

Publisher’s Diary ------------------ 4

BEARD SHAKE: Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama interacts with C. V. Vigneswaran (Sri Lanka) at the inauguration of World Hindu Congress 2014 in New Delhi on November 21

Certified by “CIRCULATION VERIFICATION COUNCIL Readership 117,765”

Real Estate -------------------- 22-23 TechBiz Post ------------------- 24-27 Travel & Hospitality Post ---- 40-43

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November 28, 2014

IndiaNewsweekly Post Mission Statement To empower the Indian Diaspora and make their voice strong and effective in countries of their adoption. RJ Media conglomerate offers a credible, professional and complete package of news, opinion, entertainment, networking and information.

Publisher’s Diary

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ast week, two important announcements came out of the White House one is of course the President's Executive Order on Immigration, and the second, the setting up of an Interagency Initiative on Hate Crimes.

While the steps announced as part of the immigration reform may benefit some among the community's undocumented members, a majority of the legal immigrants stuck in the endless backlog of employment based green card process, and those aspiring for an increased quota of H1B visas would still have to wait to be addressed.

Right now, I am more interested in the hate crimes initiative where the White House has launched a Bullying Prevention Task Force for Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community that directly addresses the plight of thousands of Sikh youth in our schools, who routinely get bullied for the way they look.

Kiran Ahuja, Executive Director of the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, writes on the White House blog that bullying of AAPI students is rampant. For these students, the classroom, which should be the safest place, can be a very dangerous environment, she says.

More than one-quarter of students between the ages of 12 and 18 reported being bullied at school during the 2010-11 school year, that is nearly 7 million students. Citing a study conducted this year, Ahuja points out that two-thirds of turbaned Sikh youth in Fresno, California reported experiencing bullying and harassment; and another recent study found that half of the 163 Asian American New York City public school students reported experiencing some kind of biasbased harassment, a significant increase from only 27% in 2009.

Ahuja says that with increasing concerns about the high rates of bullying among Sikh youth, the Task Force will help ensure that the community is aware of federal resources and remedies available to them.

While it must be said for the administration for all its initiatives to tackle the issue, if hate crimes have been exponentially increasing, there is an obvious lag between intention and implementation. But the question really is, how does one change perceptions and prejudices that are beyond the scope of any law?

Romesh K Japra rkjapra@indiapost.com

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HIGHLIGHTS Bollywood: Aamir the baddie?

The director of 'Robot', Shankar has approached Aamir Khan for playing the antagonist opposite Rajinikanth

Cover Story: Re-elected Ami Bera has been re-elected to US House of Representatives in one of the closet congressional races from California.

Community: Chinmaya Mission The Fundraising Banquet for Chinmaya Mission harmoniously blended inspirational thoughts and sumptuous food

Obama acts Obama unveiled expansive executive actions to spare nearly 5 million people in the U.S. illegally from deportation

Life style: Sister’s wedding Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's sister Arpita Khan tied the knot with businessman Aayush Sharma

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Smart city India-US seminar concludes a tech-enabled smart city must also incorporate foundational principles of sustainability

Porbandar Porbandar, along the Arabian Sea in Gujarat,western India, is famous as the birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi

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Ami Bera re-elected to US Congress WASHINGTON: Indian-American Congressman Ami Bera has been re-elected to the US House of Representatives in one of the closet congressional races from California.

More than two weeks after the Congressional elections on November 4, Bera led his Republican rival Doug Ose by a close margin

more than 3,000 votes.

"It's been my honor serving this community as a doctor for the last 19 years. I am grateful I will have the opportunity to continue serving as the representative for California's 7th Congressional District in Congress," 49-year-old Bera said in a statement.

Re-election of Bera, who was

Re-election of Bera, who was elected for the first time in 2012, has its own significance given that it was considered to be a Republican wave. Not only this, Republicans had pumped in quite a substantial amount of money against Bera of 1,432 votes.

According to the election officials, Bera got 92,394 votes against Ose's 90,962.

Virtually all ballots have been counted.

On the election night on November 4, Bera was trailing by

elected for the first time in 2012, has its own significance given that it was considered to be a Republican wave.

Not only this, Republicans had pumped in quite a substantial amount of money against Bera and that his challenger was a

three-term Congressman.

"I want to make one thing clear: real success in life is not something to be demonized or looked down upon. No amount of TV or radio will ever change that," Bera said.

"With a good education, hard work, investing in your own future, and chasing your dreams a person can achieve real success. I regret that one of the themes in this election appears to have been that successful people by the very nature of their success are unworthy of elective office.

"In fact, people who are successful in the private sector are exactly the people we want to step forward and run for public office," he said.

Former President Bill Clinton had campaigned for him and First Lady Michelle Obama had phone calls seeking votes in his favor.

Bera is only the third ever Indian-American to be elected to the House of Representatives. -PTI

Obama felicitates IndianAmerican scientist WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama has felicitated Indian-American scientist Thomas Kailath with the top presidential medal for transformative contribu-

Stanford, where he made critical contributions in information theory and statistics, and mentored more than 100 scholars along the way," Obama said.

Awarded annually, the medal recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to science and engineering.

Born in 1935 to a Malayalamspeaking Syrian Christian family who hailed from Kerala, Kailath has authored several books including well-known Linear Systems.

After graduating from the University of Pune in 1956, Kailath received his Master's degree and his doctorate degree in 1961, both from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

He was the first Indiaborn student to receive a doctorate in electrical engineering from MIT. Kailath joined Stanford University as Associate Professor of Electrical Engineering in 1963 and was proUS President Barack Obama presents Thomas Kailath of Stanford University with moted to Professor in 1968, the National Medal of Science in the East Room of the White House November 20 and was appointed the first holder of the Hitachi tions to the fields of science and Kailath received the award for America Professorship in 1988. technology. transformative contributions to He is also known for his conKailath, 79, received the Na- the fields of information and sys- tributions to the information and tional Medal of Science at a White tem science, distinctive and sus- system sciences.

House function here. tained mentoring of young scholHe was conferred with the "Thomas Kailath came to this ars and translation of scientific Padma Bhushan award in 2009 by country from India at the age of ideas into entrepreneurial ven- the Indian government for his 22, with a research assistantship tures that have had a significant contribution to science and engithat took him to MIT, and then impact on industry. neering. -PTI

Ami Bera

Modi among Time's 'Person of Year' contenders NEW YORK: Prime Minister after Russian President Vladimir Narendra Modi is among 50 glo- Putin, teenage Pakistani Nobel bal leaders, business chiefs and Peace Prize laureate Malala pop icons named as contenders Yousafzai and Ebola doctors and

by Time magazine for its annual nurses "who are risking their lives 'Person of the Year' honor. to treat and contain the outbreak The Time 'Person of the Year in the hot zone".

2014' will be announced next In a separate "Face-off" poll, month and the publication said Modi has been pitted against the title will be Indonesia's new "bestowed to president Joko those who have, Widodo. for good or for ill, The other canmost influenced didates in the fray the news and our for the 'Person of lives in the past the Year' title are year".

US President Describing Barack Obama, Modi as "once a Iran's Supreme controversial reLeader Ayatollah gional leader", Khamenei, Israeli Time said he bePrime Minister Narendra Modi came India's B e n j a m i n prime minister afNetanyahu, IS ter leading his Bharatiya Janata chief Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, ChiParty (BJP) to a "landslide elec- nese President Xi Jinping, US Sectoral victory on a platform of eco- retary of State John Kerry and nomic development". former US Secretary of State Time has asked its readers to Hillary Clinton. vote for the individual who they Among the business chiefs think should get the title of Per- and artists in the fray are Amazon son of the Year and the winner of CEO Jeff Bezos, Chinese e-comthe reader's choice poll will be merce site Alibaba founder Jack announced next month before Ma, auto major GM's first female Time's editors choose the indi- CEO Mary Barra, Apple CEO Tim vidual from the 50 candidates as Cook and singers Beyonce, Taythe honoree. lor Swift, reality star Kim Modi has so far got 3.8 per cent Kardashian and actress Jennifer of the votes, the fourth highest Lawrence. -PTI

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India's Mangalyaan among best inventions NEW YORK: Mangalyaan has been named among the best inventions of 2014 by Time magazine which described it as a technological feat that will allow India to flex its "interplanetary muscles."

"Nobody gets Mars right on the first try. The US didn't, Russia didn't, the Europeans didn't. But on September 24, India did. That's when the Mangalyaan ...went into

Time magazine that are "making the world better, smarter and - in some cases - a little more fun."

Developed by the Indian Space Research Organization, the Mars spacecraft cost India just USD 74 million, less than the budget for the multi-Academy Award winning science fiction thriller film Gravity. Time said at that price, the Mangalyaan is equipped with just five onboard instruments that al-

Former Google engineer Pramod Sharma developed 'Osmo', a tablet toy that gets physical. Sharma got the inspiration when he saw his daughter playing with the iPad, but did not want her to be glued to the tablet all day long orbit around the Red Planet, a technological feat no other Asian nation has yet achieved," Time said about Mangalyaan, calling it "The Supersmart Spacecraft."

Mangalyaan is among the 25 'Best Inventions of 2014' listed by

low it to do simple tasks like measure Martian methane and surface composition.

"More important, however, it allows India to flex its interplanetary muscles, which portends great things for the country's

space program and for science in general," Time said.

The list also includes inventions by two Indians for developing an exercise space for prisoners in solitary confinement and a tablet toy for kids.

Nalini Nadkarni, forest ecologist and college professor helped develop the 'Blue Room' with Snake River Correctional Institution in Oregon for inmates in solitary confinement, who for 23 hours a day see nothing but a tiny, whitewalled cell, an experience some research suggests heightens mental illness and makes prisoners prone to suicide attempts and violence.

Last year, officials began letting some of them spend their free hour in a first-of-its-kind Blue Room, an exercise space where a projector plays video of open deserts, streaming waterfalls and other outdoor scenes. Nadkarni says the imagery is designed to calm prisoners, "much in the way we walk through a park" to relax.

Former Google engineer Pramod Sharma developed

Lawmakers celebrate Diwali at US Congress WASHINGTON: Diwali was celebrated here at the US Congress for the second consecutive year with lawmakers, cutting across party lines, pledging to strengthen India-US relationship

For the Indian-Americans, it was a special Diwali too as the news of re-election of Ami Bera from the seventh Congressional District of California came while the festival of lights was being

Ami Bera lighting the lamp at Diwali celebration

and praising the role of IndianAmericans in enriching the sociocultural milieu of their adopted country.

"And it's our second year, and I believe this is going to continue as a tradition into perpetuity," Joe Crowley Democratic Congressman and Co-Chair of Congressional Caucus on India and Indian-Americans told a gathering at the Rayburn House in the US Capitol.

celebrated at the Hill.

Bera is the only serving Indian American in the current Congress. He was declared winner by a wafer-thin margin of a little over 1400 votes in one of the closest races in California.

Bera and Crowley were joined by several other lawmakers in lighting of lamp and Diwali celebrations at the Capitol Hill.

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, Senator Mark Warner

and Congressman Ed Royce Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also attended the function.

"It is an exciting time in the US-India relationship," Crowley said.

"India has become a global power, and the US is happy about that. I am personally happy about it. And, we want to see it continue," he said.

"The India Caucus is going to play a critical role in our relations going forward, whether it is forging ties between our Congress and their parliament, securing hate crimes protections for Hindus and Sikhs here at home, and much more," he added.

Crowley said it is time that India join the UN Security Council as a permanent member.

"With nearly one-fifth the world's population, India should be a member already. So let's find a way to make that happen," he said.

"Events like tonight help lay the groundwork for this type of action. Because tonight isn't about having a party - it's about learning about one another, respecting differences, and being proud of our unique traditions.

This is what we stand for as a country," Crowley said. -PTI

'Osmo', a tablet toy that gets physical. Sharma got the inspiration when he saw his daughter playing with the iPad, but did not want her to be glued to the tablet all day long.

The toy, which debuted in Oc-

actor developed by aerospace company Lockheed Martin that could realize nuclear fusion, Apple's smart watch that besides telling time, can send messages, give directions, track fitness and make wireless payments and

tober, has helped Osmo raise USD 14.5 million in capital and is now being sold in the Apple Store.

The other inventions are a re-

Microsoft's Surface Pro 3, a "hybrid" that bundles laptop into a 12-inch tablet and can run desktop apps. -PTI

US lawmaker seeks early visas for India docs WASHINGTON: In an effort to India and Pakistan are forced to meet the shortage of qualified phy- endure is unacceptable," said sicians in the US, a top American Meng. lawmaker has introduced legislaThe problem, primarily experition in the Congress to expedite enced by doctors who are set to visas for doctors from India and do their residencies in the US, has Pakistan. created major dilemmas for the Democratic Congresswoman physicians and the American hosfrom New York, Grace Meng, who pitals at which they're set to work. is also member of House Foreign In many instances, the long Affairs Committee, has introduced a legislation that would require the The bill seeks to counter the State Department to difficulty that international speed-up the visa approval process for In- physicians, especially dian and Pakistani phy- doctors from India and sicians who are scheduled to work at hospi- Pakistan have in securing J-1 visas tals in the US. The bill seeks to counter the difficulty that international physicians, es- delays in the issuance of visas pecially doctors from India and have resulted in hospitals being Pakistan have in securing J-1 vi- forced to withdraw offers to forsas from American Embassies in eign physicians, effectively pretheir countries. venting these doctors from enterEntitled the Grant Residency ing the US at all, Meng said in a for Additional Doctors (GRAD) statement.

Act of 2014, Meng's legislation "The long waits not only imalso requires that the expedited pact the plans and commitments review of J-1 visa applicants be that these physicians have made the sole responsibility of a desig- to US hospitals but also affect the nated officer or employee from millions of Americans who depend March to June, since most resi- on these facilities for critical medidency programs begin in July. cal treatment, particularly in com"The lengthy and excessive munities where there is a shortvisa delays that physicians from age of doctors," Meng said.-PTI

November 28, 2014

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Cohen sees new energy, optimism and hope in India India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: "In the last few days that I have been here, one sees a sense of energy, optimism and hope that I did not see a year ago. Just about a year back when I was here, I felt a sense of malaise in India," said William Cohen, President and CEO, the Cohen Group, delivering the keynote ad-

and was chosen as Defense Secretary by the then US President Bill Clinton, making him the firstever opposition leader to be made a minister.

Elaborating on the changes, Mr Cohen said: "Prime Minister Modi has tapped into this desperate need of hope. He has tapped into the hearts of people. At Madison he said that 'India is open for busi-

‘India has a strategic distrust of us.

It feels that the Congress may do this, it may do that… we have a distrust of India… we say that India has relations with Russia and Iran’ dress at the India-US Technology Summit, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in partnership with the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the United States as the Partner Country, at Greater Noida.

Mr Cohen, former US Senator and former Defense Secretary, has had the honor of being elected six times in a row to the US Congress,

ness'. I feel that the Indians in America wanted to hear something like that."

Praising the infectious optimism that he witnesses now in India, Mr Cohen also had words of advice for Indians. He said that if the country wants to achieve what the Indian Prime Minister has been talking about, India will have to remove roadblocks like ambiguity in laws. "Hope is so funda-

mental… you have to work towards the ideas that Prime Minister Modi has talked about," adding that India is witnessing such a demand for progress, for hope because, "you have a leader who wants that."

He drew parallels and paradoxes between the two countries.

He said: "We are natural partners.

We share the same ideas and threats. We want to see food security, energy security and cyber security… we want a clean environment and reduce carbon emissions. We had 9/11 and you had 26/11."

Highlighting the paradoxes, he said: "We have so much in common then why can't we do more together?" Answering his own question, he said: "Because we have a strategic distrust. India has a strategic distrust of us. It feels that the Congress may do this, it may do that… we have a distrust of India… we say that India has relations with Russia and Iran."

Moving on to global affairs, Mr Cohen said that we have to learn how to reconcile differences because differences will always be there. But the US cannot ignore what is happening around the

world-Ukraine, Syria and the situation in the Middle East. Responding to questions, he said that there are lessons to be learnt from Iraq for Afghanistan so that

the communist country, will, in the long run, bring about some sense in North Korea. He said that China is needed to avoid potentially dangerous situations that may arise in that region.

About Iran, he said that he is convinced that the Obama administration will try to arrive at some kind of a deal with Iran on the nuclear issue. "We want a cap on their nuclear enrichment while Iranians want a break from sanctions."

The two-day India-US Technology Summit saw wide participation from US companies and also the US government.

William Cohen, President and CEO, the It identified manufacCohen Group turing, IT, clean & rean American pull-out from Af- newable energy, life sciences, ghanistan does not result in a pharmaceuticals, biotechnology comeback of terror groups as has & healthcare, sustainable cities, happened in Iraq. natural resources & earth sciences On North Korea, Mr Cohen as the focus areas for discussions said that the US hopes that China, and collaboration between the which is the only possible ally of two countries.

US court seeks response over Modi's immunity NEW YORK: A US court has asked the State Department to respond by December 10 to the objections raised by a rights group over the immunity granted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in connection with a lawsuit filed against him for his alleged role in the 2002 Gujarat riots.

The American Justice Center (AJC) had filed a memorandum last week providing legal justification on why the case against Modi should move forward, and why Modi should not be granted

immunity for the alleged human rights abuses committed during his tenure as Chief Minister of Gujarat.

In response to AJC's brief, the US District Court for the South-

ern District of New York has directed the US State Department to respond to AJC's legal brief challenging the US position on Modi's immunity. The order requires the State Department to

The lawsuit against Modi has been filed by AJC along with two survivors of the post-Godhra violence under the Alien Tort Claims Act (ATCA) and Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA) respond by December 10 to AJC's "objection to the suggestion of immunity".

AJC President Joseph Whittington expressed confidence of the sound legal basis for the case against Modi and said he expects the court to allow the lawsuit to move forward.

"Survivors of the horrific Gujarat massacres expect the US to uphold its own laws as well as international norms of justice," he further added.

The group said Modi is being sued for acts committed as Chief Minister of Gujarat and not for any acts that he committed as India's Prime Minister.

"It is undisputed that foreign sovereign immunity extends only

to the 'head of the foreign government' for the actions committed during tenure as' head of foreign government'," AJC's Memorandum of Law said.

AJC said Modi is not immune under Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act (FSIA), as the US Supreme Court decided that the term "foreign state" does not include individual government officials. In the Tort case against Modi, it is the individual who is being sued and not the Republic of India, the group added.

The lawsuit against Modi has been filed by AJC along with two survivors of the post-Godhra violence under the Alien Tort Claims

Act (ATCA) and Torture Victims Protection Act (TVPA).

Last month, US Attorney Preet Bharara had told a federal court here that the Executive Branch of the US government "has determined that Prime Minister Narendra Modi, as the sitting head of a foreign government, enjoys head of state immunity from the jurisdiction of US courts" for his alleged role in 2002 communal riots in Gujarat when he was the state's chief minister.

As such "Modi is entitled to immunity from the jurisdiction of this Court over this suit," Bharara said in his submission before a US court. -PTI

Obama to be Chief Guest at India R-Day NEW DELHI: In a major diplomatic victory for the Narendra Modi led NDA government which can also boost the India-America relationship, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has invited US President Barack Obama to join as Chief Guest on Republic Day celebrations next year.

According to reports, the US

President has given his conformation and will be coming to India in January 2015.

On micro-blogging website Twitter PM Modi wrote - "This Republic Day, we hope to have a friend over…invited President Obama to be the 1st US President to grace the occasion as Chief Guest."

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Indian graduates' Black money can destabilize enrollment in US up 27% world peace: PM NEW DELHI: Warning that black money can destabilize world peace and harmony, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asserted that democratic nations have an

sue of black money was flagged at the G-20 Summit in Australia, Modi wrote a blog saying that "India placed the issue of existence and repatriation of black money

Prime Minister Narendra Modi

obligation of collectively fighting this evil as it does not affect any country selectively.

A day after his return from a foreign tour during which the is-

at the forefront of the world community."

The Prime Minister said he was glad that the world community took note of this "because this is

an issue that does not selectively affect one nation."

Warning that "the menace of black money has the potential to destabilize world peace and harmony," Modi said, "black money also brings with it terrorism, money laundering and narcotics trade."

Pitching for a united global fight against the menace, he said, "As democracies firmly committed to the rule of law, it becomes our obligation to collectively fight this evil and there was no better occasion than the G-20 to raise this." Referring to the outcome of the G-20 Summit, he said, "Our efforts paid off with the official communiquĂŠ reflecting this issue."

Modi, who attended five Summits and met 38 world leaders during his 10-day tour of Myanmar, Australia and Fiji, said, "I noticed one thing - that the world is looking at India with renewed respect and immense enthusiasm! I see a global community that is tremendously keen to engage with India." -PTI

WASHINGTON: The enrollment of first-time graduate students from India in the US universities has registered a 27 per cent growth this year even as China witnessed a decline in comparison to last year, a report has said.

"The first-time enrollment of students from India increased 27 per cent, marking the second year in a row of double-digit growth in firsttime enrollments of students from that country," the Council of Graduate Students has said in its report.

According to the report, in 2013 the increase was a whopping 40 per cent.

The increase in Indian enrollment offset a one per cent dip in first-time enrollments of students from China in 2014, the first decline measured since the survey was initiated in 2004.

The change in Chinese firsttime enrollment concerns a relatively large number of students, since Chinese students constitute 33 per cent of the total enrollment of international graduate students in the US, the report said.

According to the report, be-

tween 2013 and 2014, the first-time enrollment of international graduate students increased by eight per cent, while total graduate enrollment also increased by eight per cent.

The growth trends may also reflect the fact that US graduate institutions have become more strategic about recruiting international students to their campuses, President of Council for Graduate Students Suzanne Ortega said.

"Given the growing international competition for top students, US institutions have been developing new ways of communicating with prospective students and offering students who matriculate stronger support services after they arrive.

"Universities understand that they can't afford to lose the contributions of these talented students to research and innovation on their campuses," the report said.

According to the report, the first-time enrollment of students from Brazil increased 91 per cent in 2014, following a 17 per cent increase in 2013 and a 14 per cent increase in 2012. -PTI

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South Asian group welcomes action by Obama WASHINGTON: A leading South Asian organization has welcomed the executive action taken by US President Barack Obama to provide legal status to more than five million illegal immigrants, including those from India.

"The proposed Executive Order could provide relief for over four million undocumented aspiring Americans, including tens of thousands - if not more - South Asians," said South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) executive director Suman Raghunathan.

Coupled with proposals to expand available visas and address long wait times for

many immigrants, this relief is welcome news to South Asians nationwide as we continue to work toward a legislative solution, she said.

"In addition, we welcome the President's commitment to pivot away from the flawed and ineffective Secure Communities program and to reorient federal enforcement priorities to rebuild trust and keep all communities safe," the SAALT director said.

"We remain hopeful that this announcement will include the parents or immediate family members of those eligible for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA). Unfortunately, many aspiring

Americans will remain excluded from the Affordable Care Act health care exchanges," she said.

"We can and must ensure immigrant families that they can live in their communities with dignity and respect, and we must stop deportations that are tearing our communities apart," she said.

Congress must widen the circle of inclusion by passing comprehensive immigration reform that includes an affordable roadmap to citizenship, widens the visa pipeline while eliminating backlogs and wait times, and clearly prohibits discriminatory profiling, Raghunathan added.

Obama used his executive power to announce a series of administrative measures to provide legal status to over five million illegal immigrants in the country, including those from India.

The executive actions, said to be one of the largest measure by a US President on immigration, are expected to help a significant number of Indians in the technology field, especially those having H-1B visas. PTI

NRI donates 100,000 pounds for Gandhi statue LONDON: An Indian-origin entrepreneur and social activist has taken the lead by donating the biggest sum of money yet for the proposed statue of Mahatma Gandhi at the Parliament Square in London.

Rami Ranger, director of Sun Mark Limited, has contributed 100,000 pounds to the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust, which is coordinating the public fundraising process for the sculpture expected to be inaugurated here by early next year.

"The world owes Gandhiji a huge debt of gratitude for liberating one fifth of mankind through non-violence thereby creating a better world," said Ranger, whose business interests range from shipping to beverage manufacturing to property development.

The trust said other donors from around the world are also stepping forward to contribute towards the iconic statue, taking it closer to its aim of raising around 750,000 pounds.

"There are pledges of large amounts due to be realized in the next month while smaller donations continue to flow into the website with its online donation facilities," the trust said in a statement.

"This is more good news which adds to the steady flow of donations which have been coming in from all around the world through our website as awareness spreads," added Lord Meghnad Desai, the chair of the Gandhi Statue Memorial Trust.

"It is the combination of lots of small donations and a few large ones which is taking us swiftly to our final goal.

But, of course, we still welcome all those who would like to donate. As Gandhiji said: 'If the cause is right, the means will come,'" he added.

The bronze statue, created by sculptor Philip Jackson based on Gandhi's last visit to London in 1931, will be the last one to be placed on Parliament Square. Britain's wartime Prime Minister Winston Churchill and South African anti-apartheid campaigner Nelson Mandela is already placed on the square.

The statue depicts Gandhi without a stick, draped in a heavy shawl, but bare legged and contemplative.

It is being created on the lost wax process, which dates back to the Graeco-Roman times and follows the same procedure as that of the famous Renaissance sculpture of David created by Donatello. -PTI

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India needs to improve energy efficiency: UN NEW DELHI: Nearly one lakh premature deaths take place annually due to air pollution in India and some other countries which can be avoided by 2030 by improving energy efficiency measures in transport and industrial sectors, a UN report has said.

The fifth Emissions Gap Report 2014 by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) said that countries across the globe need to "shrink" greenhouse gas emissions to net zero between 2080 and 2100 in order to limit global temperature rise to two degree Celsius.

The report said that improving energy efficiency can be an excellent opportunity for linking sustainable development with climate mitigation.

Launching the report in India, report co-author and professor at TERI University Ritu Mathur said that given the frequencies observed of extreme events taking place in the world as well as developing countries like India,

there is a need to improve the preparedness level as countries like India have lesser coping capacities with such extreme events.

"Improving energy efficiency also has important positive social impacts. It reduces, for example,

‘...Nearly 100 000 premature deaths related to air pollution in six regions - Brazil, China, the EU, India, Mexico and the USA - could be avoided annually by 2030 through energy efficiency’ air pollution and its public health risks... "...Nearly 100 000 premature deaths related to air pollution in six regions - Brazil, China, the EU, India, Mexico and the USA - could

be avoided annually by 2030 through energy efficiency measures in the transport, buildings and industrial sectors," the report said.

In many cases these benefits have a higher priority for governments than climate change mitigation. Hence improving energy efficiency can be seen as an excellent opportunity for linking sustainable development with climate mitigation, it said.

The report, released ahead of UN Conference on Climate Change in Lima, Peru, said that in order to limit global temperature rise by two degree Celsius and head off the worst impacts of climate change, global carbon neutrality should be attained by mid to late century.

"Taking into account non-CO2 greenhouse gases, including methane, nitrous oxide and hydroflurocarbons, total greenhouse gas emissions need to shrink to net zero between 2080 and 2100," the report said. -PTI

Kerry urges Senate to confirm ambassadorial nominations WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry has urged members of the Senate to accelerate the process of confirming ambassadorial nominations, including to India, before the end of the year, State Department official has said.

"The Secretary has been in continued contact with his former colleagues on Capitol Hill about this. It's very important to him. He needs to have his team and he also

US Ambassador to India.

There are 55 State Department nominees waiting, 30 of whom are career Foreign Service officers, he said. "The vast majority of these remaining nominees could be confirmed quickly en bloc. We will look forward to continuing to working with the Senate to get this done.

"The Secretary has always said there are great public servants up there in the Senate, and he knows

Among the pending ambassadorial nominations is that of Richard Verma whom President Barack Obama has nominated for US Ambassador to India.There are 55 State Department nominees waiting feels it's important that these noncontroversial nominees be confirmed before Thanksgiving as well. It's the right thing to do for them, for their families, and for America's interests," the State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke said.

Among the pending ambassadorial nominations is that of Richard Verma whom President Barack Obama has nominated for

that none of them want to see this gridlock continues at the expense of career Foreign Service professionals," Rathke said.

"We are making some headway and we're grateful for that," he said adding that a day earlier the Senate confirmed five more ambassadors, all career diplomats, including Marcia Bernicat to Bangladesh, Leslie Bassett to Paraguay, James Zumwalt to

Senegal and Guinea-Bissau, Craig Allen to Brunei, and William Roebuck to Bahrain.

However, one of the most important positions for the State Department that is yet to be confirmed, he said.

"Ambassador Arnold Chacon is our nominee for director general of the Foreign Service and director of human resources," Rathke said.

Chacon would be responsible for strengthening our workforce and the Foreign Service through professional development and recruitment and increasing diversity, as well as for the welfare of our people here and those staffing some of the highest-risk posts across the world, he said.

"He is greatly qualified to do so, serving in the Foreign Service since 1983, over 30 years. And he's served in Western Hemisphere posts and here in Washington.

"He is a real star. He also happens to be the first Hispanic ever elevated to this position, which is important particularly for a Secretary who wants a State Department that reflects all of our country. This matters for many reasons.

Let's get Ambassador Chacon confirmed," Rathke said. -PTI

Modi had an extraordinarily successful visit: US official WASHINGTON: Terming Prime Minister Narendra Modi's US visit as "extraordinarily successful", a top official in the Obama administration has said US-India relationship has come "a remarkable distance".

"We've just had the extraordinarily successful visit of Prime Minister Modi here to the United States, and an agenda that is working across virtually every issue of importance to us with India that we're carrying forward," Anthony Blinken, nominee for US Deputy Secretary of State, told Senators during his confirmation hearing.

Blinken was responding to questions from Senators on IndiaUS relationship.

"I think we've seen the US-India relationship come a remark-

able distance," he said referring to the recent visit of Modi to the US. "It started with the end of the Clinton administration.

The Bush administration did a tremendous job in carrying the relationship forward," he said.

Republican Senator Tim Kaine said the US-India relationship is entering a new phase for a variety of reasons, where there's a huge upside opportunity on economic cooperation and trade, on military cooperation, on cooperation on cyber issues.

The United States is seeking to forge new global partnerships with India, said Senator Robert Menendez, Chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee. -PTI

India must be prepared to use might: Prez TEZPUR: Cautioning against various threats facing the subcontinent, President Pranab Mukherjee has said it was imperative for India to have an effective deterrence and strong defense to promote development and it must be prepared to use its "might" if the need arises.

"Today, our nation is on the path of growth in all fields. While the nation grows and develops in all realms, the subcontinent also faces varied threats especially from non-state actors.

"To preserve peace and harmony and promote all round development, it is imperative for us to have an effective deterrence and a strong defense," Mukherjee said at the Tezpur Air Force base.

The President, who is also the supreme commander of the armed forces, said though as a nation India was "firmly" committed to peace, "we must be prepared to use our might to safeguard the sovereignty of our nation, should the need ever arise."

"We are a nation which believes in equality in all realms. The men and women who stand before us today epitomize our grit and determination towards this underlying cause. I am immensely proud of our Armed Forces for leading the path in this respect," he said.

Saarang helicopters and Sukhoi fleet performed maneuvers at the function where Air Chief Arup Raha was also present. -PTI

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Legitimacy of unreformed UNSC at stake: India NEW YORK: Describing the composition of an unreformed UN Security Council as "anachronistic", India has said the legitimacy of the United Nations itself will be at stake if its most powerful body is not representative of the

of the United Nations. And, in fact, of the notion of global governance itself," Speaker of Lok Sabha Sumitra Mahajan said here.

She was speaking at the second meeting of the Preparatory Committee of the Fourth World

Sumitra Mahajan

international community.

"The Security Council is, undoubtedly, one of the most important institutions of global governance. If its legitimacy is in doubt, then so would be the legitimacy

Conference of Speakers of Parliaments.

Addressing a session on 'Key challenges to world peace and democracy', Mahajan said the UN Security Council owes its compo-

sition to the structure that was set up in 1945.

"Is that composition still representative of the international community? The United Nations then had 51 members. The figure now is 193," she said, adding, the United Nations of 1945 had three African members while today it has 54.

Mahajan further questioned how many permanent members of the Security Council were from Africa and what was being done to bring more legitimacy to the permanent membership of the Council.

"While improvement in working methods, or a code of conduct on use of the veto, are important, can they substitute for reform of the composition? Can improvement in working methods legitimize a structure that is not legitimate? To say that is anachronistic is only an understatement.

"We obviously do not want attention to be diverted away from the substance to what is peripheral," she said.

She recalled that world leaders had committed themselves to the early reform of the Security Council in 2010 on the occasion of the 65th Anniversary of the United Nations, questioning, "When

would early be?"

India would like UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to inform the international community of the contribution he intends to make for the 70th Anniversary Summit of the United Nations next year, she said.

"Will the Secretary General pronounce himself on the other two pillars of the United Nations also? Will he provide some basis for leaders to take stock of the challenges the world is facing in matters relating to peace, security and human rights and to consider ways of addressing them," she

be the theme.

She said the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament next year would provide an opportunity to galvanize political will for the new global agenda.

It will be appropriate for the conference to stress on linking democratic governance with sustainable development and to define the role of parliaments in helping to achieve the goals that may come into shape in the post-2015 Development Agenda.

Stressing the linkages between the two is in keeping with the avowed objectives of the Inter-

‘While improvement in working methods, or a code of conduct on use of the veto, are important, can they substitute for reform of the composition? Can improvement in working methods legitimize a structure that is not legitimate? said.

In a separate session on the theme for the Fourth World Conference of Speakers of Parliament to be held in 2015, Mahajan suggested that 'Democratic Governance and Sustainable Development: Role of Parliaments' could

Parliamentary Union (IPU).

"Closer cooperation between the UN and IPU, envisaged to be enhanced through a new cooperation agreement to be adopted, will also help mainstream the United Nations agenda through IPU and its member Parliaments," she said. -PTI

'Terrorism from outside main challenge for Afghans' NEW DELHI: Stressing that terrorism perpetrated and supported from "outside" is the main challenge for Afghanistan, its former President Hamid Karzai has criticized dualism in American policy towards Pakistan saying he had told Barack Obama that US should not run with the hare and hunt with the hound.

Karzai also asked New Delhi "to do more" in defense cooperation with Afghanistan and hoped that New Delhi will adopt a "more proactive" policy in the future.

He said India and China should join hands to fight extremism in the region.

The former Afghan President rued that he had made 20 trips to Pakistan but was unable to succeed completely in improving ties with that country, which he has often accused of promoting terror in Afghanistan.

When asked about his earlier comment on asking a house owner to catch a thief and leaving the door open for the thief while describing US policy on Pakistan, Karzai, who was speaking at HT Leadership Summit here, said it was a Persian proverb and there was a similar meaning English proverb of "running with the hare

and hunting with the hound".

"That is what I believed they did and that is what they should not be doing," he said.

Asked if he had conveyed the same to the US, Karzai said he had told American President Obama during a video conference and the response he got was "silence".

"We moved to other subjects," he quipped.

Karzai said US should have gone after the terror sanctuaries in Pakistan.

Thanking India for the continued support to his country, Karzai said, "We need India to do more as to engage in bringing stronger capacity to the Afghan forces, Afghan military".

He said India is well suited to train Afghan officers and civil services.

"India is also industrially, in terms of production of military equipment, well placed to fulfill Afghanistan's need and India now has the ability to do that," he said.

Stressing that it has been Afghanistan's desire, rather than demand, he had placed it before the Indian government repeatedly.

"They did come forward with some assistance but then India, like any other old civilization

would be, is quite a cautious country. I hope it will overtime give rise to a more proactive policy," he said.

Asked if Indian boots soldiers

He said that New Delhi responded very well by providing thousands of scholarships and this has been a very satisfactory relationship.

The former President of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai calling on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in New Delhi on November 20

should have been deployed in Afghanistan, Karzai said, "We don't need Indian boots on ground. As a matter of fact we don't need any boots".

The former Afghan President said India has been a "valid partner" in nation building. "I thank Prime Minister Modi for his commitment" to Afghanistan's future,

he said.

Karzai, who met with Modi, said the Afghan people count on India as a "true friend, strategic ally and a great anchor of stability and prosperity".

He underlined that it is extremely important for India and China to join hands in fighting extremism and terrorism as both are suffering from it as is the region.

"My great advocacy in this trip is that India and China (should) join hands to fight extremism and work towards peace and stability in the region," he said.

He said security and prosperity in Afghanistan depends primarily on the region becoming free from radicalism and terrorism.

"All our vision partners, specially India, China and Russia must work together to define and deal with the forces that drive radicalization and terrorism in this region and we must address the sources from which such forces terrorism draws their sustenance".

He said the region has already seen that the "use of terrorism as a foreign policy has boomeranged and caused severe consequences to security and for all of us". -PTI

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UN must demonstrate zero tolerance for terrorism: India UNITED NATIONS: India has said the fight against terrorism has to be "unrelenting" and the world community cannot afford selective approaches in dealing with terror groups and in dismantling their infrastructure, as it demanded that the UN must show zero tolerance for the menace.

India's Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Asoke Mukerji said at a Security Council open debate on 'International Cooperation on Combating Terrorism and Violent Extremism' here that the infrastructure of terrorism, including physical structures as well as financial and ideological wellsprings does not exist in a vacuum.

He said that "it is an inescapable conclusion" that member states have an obligation to act swiftly to prevent their sovereign territory from being used by terrorists.

"No member state can hope to be immune to the threat of such terrorism, and the infrastructure of terrorism therefore needs to be erased urgently if we are to avoid a doomsday scenario," he said.

He asserted that there can be no justification for terrorism, and that the UN must demonstrate zero tolerance for terrorism if the menace has to be successfully countered.

He said that ‘it is an inescapable conclusion" that member states have an obligation to act swiftly to prevent their sovereign territory from being used by terrorists’ "We would reiterate that the fight against terrorism has to be unrelenting and fought across all fronts. The immediate lesson all of us must draw... is that the international community cannot afford selective approaches in dealing with terrorist groups or in dismantling the infrastructure of terror-

Will consult Kashmiris before talks with India: Sharif ISLAMABAD: Ignoring India's opposition, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has said Pakistan will hold dialogue with Kashmiri separatists to take them into confidence before engaging in peace talks with India.

Nawaz Sharif

"It is our fundamental belief that the Kashmir issue should be resolved through dialogue. My government started dialogue with India but it cancelled the scheduled talks between the foreign secretaries," he said addressing the Kashmir Council in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan- occupied Kashmir.

He said "before starting dialogue with India, I have decided to consult the Kashmiri leaders".

Sharif asked the international

community to play its role to press India for starting talks for the resolution of Kashmir issue.

He said Pakistan army gave a befitting response to Indian troops' recent unprovoked firing across the Line of Control (LoC).

He said Indian firing harmed the confidence building measures.

Sharif said his government was pro-actively highlighting the issue of Kashmir at every forum, including at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September.

He expressed concern over the silence of the UN and international community on the issue and urged them to take initiative for resolution of the dispute according to UN Security Council's resolutions and the aspiration of Kashmiri people.

He said India has always exhibited its traditional stubbornness regarding the Kashmir issue.

He said declaring the struggle of Kashmiris as terrorism is wrong approach of India, which is a struggle for right to self-determination.

Sharif said Pakistan is rendering great sacrifices in the fight against terrorism.-PTI

ism. There can never be any justification of terrorism," he said.

He said the phenomenon of the Foreign Terrorist Fighters is not a recent one adding that the UNSC needs to act robustly using the instruments of law, information available to it to counter terrorism and maintain international peace and security.

He urged the Council to add its collective voice to the early conclusion of the Comprehensive Convention on International Terrorism, so that member states are legally to either prosecute or extradite terrorists.

With thousands of foreign fighters traveling to conflict hit countries, and groups such as the ISIS garnering hefty revenues from new illegal sources, the UNSC urged states to target the root causes of terrorism as they redoubled efforts to eradicate that scourge in all its forms and manifestations.

The Council reiterated its grave concern about ISIS, Al-Nusra Front and other terrorist entities associated with Al-Qaeda, and the negative impact of their presence

US House passes Malala Yousafzai scholarship act WASHINGTON: The US House of Representatives has passed a legislation named after Pakistani Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai which expands the number of scholarships to girls from her country.

Authored by Republican Congresswoman from Florida, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, the Malala Yousafzai Scholarship Act expands the number of scholarships available to Pakistani women under USAID's Merit and NeedsBased Scholarship Program by requiring that at least half of the scholarships that are made available go to women.

"For years, I've expressed concern about the appalling state of education in places like Afghanistan and Pakistan, and the subsequent rise of madrasas that prey upon the disenfranchised and breed radicalism," said Congressman Ed Royce, Chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

"The situation for women in areas where access to education is actively suppressed is particularly grim. It's fitting that today's legislation was named for Malala Yousafzai, who at the age of fifteen dared to defy the Taliban, survived a brutal assassination attempt, and ultimately inspired a generation of women and girls to demand their fundamental right to be educated," he said.-PTI

on the stability of Iraq, Syria and that region.

It expressed concern that more than 15,000 foreign terrorist fighters from more than 80 countries had traveled to join such groups

Recalling the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Mukerji said increasingly sophisticated use of technology and communications is being undertaken to commit ever more barbaric acts of terror in Syria, Iraq, Somalia, and Yemen, as well as countries in the Maghreb and Sahel regions.

Recalling the 2008 Mumbai attacks, Mukerji said increasingly sophisticated use of technology and communications is being undertaken to commit ever more barbaric acts of terror.

He said the Mumbai attacks were carried out by foreign terrorists in the "full glare of the international media".

"We believe that if we are serious about countering this challenge in an effective manner, we must agree on necessary adjustments to be made in the way the global internet infrastructure is currently managed in order to counter the exploitation of the internet by terrorists," he said.

India also expressed concern over the threat posed by terrorists to UN peacekeepers, specifically in the Golan Heights and in Mali, saying that unless effectively deterred, such threats will only increase in number and scope.

"We call on the Security Council to take urgent and visible steps to use its authority to investigate, prosecute and penalize the perpetrators of such terrorist acts. A clear obligation for all member states to act against foreign terrorist fighters who attack UN peacekeepers should become an integral part of the peacekeeping mandates approved by the Council," he said. -PTI

United States welcomes establishment of TAPI WASHINGTON: The US has ment of the gas supply and serve welcomed the decision of estab- as commercial champion for the lishing the ambitious TAPI gas project," the official said. pipeline project, a joint venture "The United States continues company for the transportation of to support TAPI, which we see as gas through four countries in- an important component of our cluding India and Pakistan.

New Silk Road initiative that seeks "The United States govern- to link South and Central Asia," ment welcomes the establishment the official added. of TAPI Ltd. and the ongoing When completed, TAPI gas commitment all four pipeline project will supply 15 bilTurkmenistan- Afghanistan-Paki- lion cubic meter of gas to India stan-India (TAPI) countries have from Turkmenistan through Afmade to the project," a State Department offiWhen completed, TAPI gas cial said.

The project, if real- pipeline project will supply ized, would further di- 15 billion cubic meter of gas versify Turkmenistan's energy market options, to India from Turkmenistan provide revenue and through Afghanistan and jobs for Afghanistan at Pakistan a crucial time in its economic development, and bring clean fuel to the grow- ghanistan and Pakistan. ing economies of Pakistan and It will export up to 33 billion cuIndia, the official said. bic meters of natural gas a year The US also stressed on the from Turkmenistan to Afghanistan, need for the four countries to en- Pakistan and India over 30 years. gage an international energy comThe total length of the pipeline pany in the successful completion will reach 1,735 kilometers. Some of the project.

200 kilometers of which will run "It will be important for the par- through Turkmenistan, 735 kiloties to engage an international en- meters through Afghanistan, 800 ergy company in the project, kilometers through Pakistan to the which can work in cooperation settlement of Fazilka, located on with Turkmengaz in the develop- the border with India.-PTI

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Spiritual leaders discuss service as Pathway to Peace RAJINDER MAGO

PALATINE: Sikh Religious Society Palatine Illinois hosted an Interfaith Peace Conference, along with an Open House at their Gurdwara Sahib facilities in Palatine on Saturday, November 15, touching upon the topic of "Service: A Pathway to Peace".

About 250 neighbors, friends and spiritual leaders of other faiths gathered at the Gurdwara for the event which was free and open to public.

The conference featured eleven speakers from Baha'i, Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, Jain, Jewish, Pagan, Sikh and Zoroastrian faiths representing a kaleidoscope of religious and spiritual perspectives.

The open house, fellowship and refreshments began at 2 pm in the Langar Hall. Several exhibition tables with displays of rare books and historical photos including Bhagat Puran Singh were set up in the main lobby for the visitors to browse around.

The Interfaith Conference started with Sikh prayers led by Bhai Gurjant Singh for the well being of humanity. The traditional "Hukam" (order for the day) from Siri Guru Granth Sahib was recited in Punjabi and translated in English by Ms. Jasvir Kaur. Gurbani shabad "Ek Pita Ekas Ke Ham Baarak" (we are children of the same Father) was recited by the S.R.S. Gurmat School children.

Prof. Mohanbir Singh Sawhney, McCormick professor of Kellogg School of Business Northwestern University took over as the master of ceremonies for the conference.

The conference began with a

Participants at Interfaith Conference at Gurudwara in Palatine

ing perspectives from his grandfather Mahatma Gandhi. He reminded us that wasting resources was a form of violence against nature and discriminating against fellow humans was a form of pas-

‘It was striking how much resonance the major faiths of the world have among them on the concept of service, despite the differences in the beliefs and traditions they represent. The conference inspired us to be of service to all humanity, living beings as well as Mother Earth,’ sive violence against humanity.

We must practice non-violence in our thoughts as well as our actions.

President Sikh Religious Society Dr Jasbir Kaur

welcome address by Dr. Jasbir Kaur Saluja, President of the Sikh Religious Society. She welcomed the participants and talked about the importance and uniqueness of having a gathering of such diverse and distinguished religious and spiritual leaders. Arun Gandhi kicked off the conference by shar-

Reverend Dirk Ficca shared the insight from Jesus' teachings on service - we need to serve the least among us, not the most powerful.

He also reminded us that service is worship in the Christian faith.

Anil Deshpande shared the perspective from the Hindu tradition that the entire universe is a family and it is therefore our duty to

Arun Gandhi

Ms. Shayda Safapour talked of the Baha'i tradition and urged us to spread service as a river of love.

Ms. Asayo Horibe, representing the Buddhist faith, told us to be a strong link in the chain of love. If we are all strong links, the chain of love will be strong and peace shall prevail.

serve all humanity. He also shared the work that his organization Seva International is doing.

Iman Kareem Irfan shared Prophet Mohammed's teachings that we need to serve the Creator and we need to serve the Creation.

Molly Horan, the Communications Manager for the Council for

a Parliament of the World's Religions, recounted the great ties that she has shared with the Sikh community and invited everyone present to the 2015 Parliament of the World's Religions to take place from October 15 - 19 in Salt Lake City.

Dr. Hema Pukharna from the Jain faith expanded the notion of service beyond humanity to all living creatures. Non-violence and service to all living beings is a fundamental tenet of Jainism. Dr. Drake Spaeth, representing the Pagan tradition, expanded the idea of service even further to include service to Mother Earth and respect for our environment, because Earth sustains us all.

Rabbi Lisa Bellows from the Jewish faith exhorted us to put together the shattered pieces of

Kareem Irfan

glass that represent fragmented humanity into one vessel of light.

Mr. Rohinton Rivetna from the Zoroastrian faith talked about the most ancient of religions and its message of choosing good over evil and right from wrong.

Pastor Herbert Martin spoke with great emotion about the beat-

ings he endured as part of the Civil Rights movement and how he learned to forgive those who had hated and beaten him. He shared the profound insight that service begins with us, and that service begins with forgiveness.

Gaurav Singh, representing the Sikh religion, reminded that service requires us to serve without expectation of any return. He also shared the importance of service in the Sikh religion as a fundamental tenet of Sikh life.

"It was striking how much resonance the major faiths of the world have among them on the concept of service, despite the differences in the beliefs and traditions they represent. The conference inspired us to be of service to all humanity, living beings as well as Mother Earth," commented Dr. Mohanbir Singh Sawhney of Northwestern University, the master of ceremonies.

Dr. Balwant Singh Hansra concluded the conference by sharing a moving story of the "langar" (community meal) provided by Sikh volunteers at the 2004 Parliament of World Religions conference in Barcelona.

The event ended with the final prayer of thanking the Lord. The attendees, many for the first ever time, experienced sitting on the carpeted floor with head covered, shoes removed, observing Sikh worship service, and partook "langar" a vegetarian community meal served with dignity & respect to all.

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Kids appeal to PM: 'Please give back our park'

India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: About 150 children from various colonies near Asiad Village participated in a demonstration in front of Asiad Tower Restaurant against the illegal possession of the district park and green area.

The children belonged to

South Delhi colonies Shahpur Jat, Gulmohar Park, Asiad Village, Hauz Khas, Panchsheel Park, Niti Bagh and Anand Lok. Carrying placards saying, among others, "Modi Ji, give us back our park" the children shouted slogans demanding early action.

Speaking on behalf of the children, 14-year old Suraj, a student

of Sarvodaya School, Shahpur Jat, said, "Our open space and public green area had been illegally handed over by DDA to a private banquet owner for wedding functions and parties in connivance with certain political parties around Asiad Tower. It was sealed for over three years by the Supreme Court, but recently Jhankar

Banquets has been trying to again open the place.

"We are not even allowed to enter the park which is meant for public and children. We the children of neighbourhood colonies request the Lt Governor of Delhi and Prime Minister Modi to help us, so that we can play in the open space. There is hardly any open space left in our area for us to play."

Appealing directly to Prime Minister Modi, he said, "We have full faith in you and we think that God has sent you to help us get our park back."

Giving his own experience, Suraj said, "I was pushed away when I tried to enter the Park once.

We children are very scared to go near this place. I hope our new Prime Minister can help. I think he likes children."

Eight year old Siya of Asiad Village, student of class 4 at DPS Vasant Kunj, said, "I would like to come here and play in this park, as there are very few places to play." Yashvi (7) of Uday Park and class 2 student at G D Goenka School said she wanted to come and play here with her parents as there are not many areas in Uday

Park to play.

Sanjana (9), student of class 4 at MCD School in Shahpur Jat, said "The guards posted at the Asiad Tower scare the children away whenever we want to play here. They don't allow us to enter the premises."

Anya Mehra, 3-1/2 yrs old student of Step by Step in Hauz Khas, said she liked to come and play here with her friends, but the guards don't allow Sriya (10) of Asiad Village, student of Convent of Jesus and Mary, said, "Why can't we enter our park when it is meant for public use. I will write to Prime Minister Modi for help."

Desi News Kadva Patidar Samaj celebrates Diwali SURESH SHAH

CHICAGO: Kadva Patidar Samaj (KPS) organized a Gala Diwali Celebration Dinner and Bollywood Music Night on November 8 at Ashyana Banquets in Downers Grove, a southwest suburb of Chicago Over five hundred KPS members, families, friends, community leaders and well wishers from across Chicago gathered to celebrate this Gala Diwali Dinner Night. The live music was provided by Bhupinder Singh and his team.

The evening started with social hour. The Emcee was Raj Patel supported by Harmil Patel and Narendra Patel, and they welcomed all to celebrate Diwali. KPS president Vijay Patel and his executive committee and Board of directors, trustees, and advisory committee had worked very hard to bring the best Diwali program.

Cont’d on page 18

PCS celebrates anniversary with Diwali mela RAJINDER MAGO

FORT WAYNE, IN: The Punjabi Cultural Society of Fort Wayne, Indiana celebrated its tenth anniversary by organizing "Diwali Mela 2014" on November 15 at Community Hall, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

More than 300 guests attended the sold out event. In addition to the Punjabi and Indian community members many local American friends also came and enjoyed the festival, food, culture and entertainment.

COMMUNITY ACROSS AMERICA

16 India Post

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November 28, 2014

Asian Media USA

CHICAGO: Living up to its theme, "Living in Harmony", the Annual Fundraising Banquet for Chinmaya Mission Chicago harmoniously blended inspirational thoughts, spirited fundraising, sumptuous food, and artistic performances during a fundraising event at Waterford Banquet in Elmhurst on November 9.

The goal was to raise funds to support activities of the two Chinmaya Mission centers in the Chicagoland-Badri Center in Willowbrook and Yamunotri Center in Grayslake. With over seven

Lamp Lightigng by Swamis before the portrait of Swami Chinmayandanda invoking his blessings

hundred people in attendance and more than two hundred thousand dollars raised, the event was deemed a huge success Swamis and guests Swami Prakashananda, Swami Sharanananda, Acharya Jetindra Nayar, Acharya Swapna Nayar, Acharya Shanker Pillai and Shri Dhiren Khatri (serving Chinmaya Mission Chicago after completing the two-year Vedanta Course in Mumbai) were received with the

Chinmaya Missión youth and kids

SURENDRA ULLAL

BLOOMINGTON, IN: The Indiana University and Bloomington communities will come together at 3 p.m. December 2 in the Indiana Memorial Union for "What Did the Great War Mean to Indians?," a lecture on the significance of World War I for the Indian Army and in particular for its role in the battles at the Somme and Verdun.

The talk is free and open to the public and will take place in State Room East of the Indiana Memorial Union, followed by a reception in State Room West.

Details on page 20

Details on page 17

Chinmaya Mission holds fundraising gala for Chicago centers

Cont’d on page 19

Abhyankar lecture on Indian Army's role in World War I

'Echoes' celebrates with mesmerizing Kuchipudi

Dance Performance by Bal Vihar artists

traditional purna-kumbha welcome ceremony. This was followed by lighting of the lamp in front of Swami Chinmayananda's portrait, invoking his blessings.

Swami Sharanananda gave the inaugural welcome with his usual humor and charm. He mentioned that the highest form of charity,

which is much above providing food or donating money, is the gift of knowledge. He said that Chinmaya Mission helps individuals understand their true nature. Once a person realizes his/ her divine nature, actions follow accordingly.

Swami Prakashananda brought out the importance of harmony in this world by emphasizing that even though evil cannot be removed from the world, humanity can neutralize its effect by teaching people the values that can counter it. It is organizations like Chinmaya Mission that enable humanity to reverse its decline by imparting the right values.

Acharya Shanker Pillai outlined the goals, activities, expansion plans, and the need for funds to continue meeting the growing needs of the community. He elaborated on the proposed idea of building well-planned retirement homes adjacent to the Badri Center, to support the physical and spiritual needs of senior citizens.

The entertainment for the evening was an enchanting mix of dances and music presented by children from the Bala Vihar that is an integral part of Chinmaya Mission started by Swami Chinmayananda to instill good values right from childhood. In his own words, "Children are not vessels to be filled, but lamps to be lit."

Chinmaya Yuva Kendra (College students and young professionals) members-popularly referred to as CHYKs-captured the audience with their energetic presentation on the various avenues available to college students and young professionals to serve and grow spiritually.

The event ended with the chanting of Bhagavad Gita Chapter XV, followed by a delicious meal. A complementary souvenir book with inspiring articles, information about classes offered at Chinmaya Mission Chicago, class pictures, and advertisements from local supporting companies was given to each family as a token of appreciation for attending the banquet.

Cont’d on page 19

November 28, 2014

Community Across America

India Post 17

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'Echoes' celebrates with mesmerizing Kuchipudi

Group of artists India Post News Service

DALLAS, TX: It was a celebration of the fifth anniversary of Echoes of India, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the service of rural India, in collaboration with the Natynajali School of Dance in Dallas, at Granville Arts Center, Garland, TX, on November 15.

Krishna Raas Leela

The celebration was memorable, enchanting, and mesmerizing. It consisted of a Kuchipudi dance ballet, Sri Krishna Saranam Mama, a story of Lord Krishna, and performed by well over ninety student artists of Natyanjali School of Dance trained under the admirable tutelage of Srilatha Suri, the Artistic Director of the school. About 600 plus art lovers attended the event along with many community leaders The participants ranged from a very tender age of 4 or 5 to almost adult age to fit the various roles of the play, from baby boy

Yashoda upbraiding Krishna

Krishna to Vasudeva, Gopkas, and Kamsa etc. Parts of the dance drama were adopted from Guru Padmasri Sobha Naidu's original choreography Srikrishna Sharanam Mama.

The event started with a traditional Kuchipudi prayer and followed up with Shuklam Baradaram Vishnum and Jathis by the juniormost students of Natyanjali.

As the event is the celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Echoes of India, a short presentation about the services by Echoes of India was done before the main dance. It was a short movie depicting - 1) a successful installation of 11 reverse osmosis (RO) water plants benefiting almost 60,000 villagers in Nalgonda district, 2) establishment of Kuchipudi rural clinic serving daily 20-30 villagers and 3) Three medical camps treating 110 diabetic patients and conducting health checks. The presentation also included a list of donors and sponsors who have helped thus far.

The dance drama took the audience from garland Texas to Gokulam and Brindavan from birth to the romantic and playful acts of Krishna with Gopikas and Gopa balas and the Rasa Kreedas with his wives, with Sreeragini as Narada playing the impressive kalaha priya role. Pallavi Shah and Dr Rajesh Adusimili played the roles of Devaki and Vasudeva very well.

Gopikas and Gopa Balas excelled in their reverberating performance of childhood plays with young naughty Krishna played

by Manasvik. Srilatha Suri as Yashoda won the hearts of many with her ease in abhinaya. Kaliya

by Priyanka mesmerized the audience while Vatsalya as Tandava Krishna danced with grace Spruha and Samhita as Krishna in rasakreeda played Krishna role with dignity and Pranhuti Suri as Radha Satyabhama stole playing two different roles but fitting the character perfectly showcasing her experience and talent . The special effects of moon light jiff, waterfalls jiff made it very natural and realistic.

The unique feature of the play

was the display of all the five stages of Lord Krishna, each Krishna along with each of his wives. Suman Vadlamani, Sobitha, Trilokta, Apporva, Annanya, Pallvi made the rasakreeda colorful and energetic. Special mention has to be made to the portrayal of Kamsa by Silptha Pochiraju.

The ballet concluded with a traditional mangalam. This was specially choreographed and directed by Smt Srilatha Suri for this occasion.

The assiduous and extreme care exercised

by Smt. Srilatha Suri in meticulously designing each scene, and paying attention to the minutest details added much to the glory of

the presentation and is highly commendable.

The thematic special effects designed by her, the backdrops befitting the theme of each scene to represent reality are especially noteworthy. It was a task of immense proportions, effort, and patience to train almost 90 disciples to perfection, and speaks eloquently of her dedication to the Kuchipudi dance form. Their performance with very lively and pleasant facial expressions and fine footwork and coordination endeared them to the audience.

Echoes of India thanked all donors and media sponsors.

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Community Across America

November 28, 2014

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Kadva Patidar Samaj celebrates Diwali SURESH SHAH

CHICAGO: Kadva Patidar Samaj (KPS) organized a Gala Diwali Celebration Dinner and Bollywood Music Night on November 8 at Ashyana Banquets in Downers Grove, a southwest suburb of Chicago Over five hundred KPS members, families, friends, community leaders and well wishers from across Chicago gathered to celebrate this Gala Diwali Dinner

Night. The live music was provided by Bhupinder Singh and his team.

The evening started with social hour. The Emcee was Raj Patel supported by Harmil Patel and Narendra Patel, and they welcomed all to celebrate Diwali. KPS president Vijay Patel and his executive committee and Board of directors, trustees, and advisory committee had worked very hard At the lamp lighting ceremony, new President for KPS Rajesh Desai, Community leader Chhotubhai Patel and his wife Harshaben, Jayanti Oza, Babu Patel, Dr Hemant Patel, Dr Heena Patel, outgoing President Vijay Patel and others

to bring the best Diwali program.

The KPS President invited Sponsors on stage and recognized them. Thanking the response given by the sponsor Shree Chhotalal Patel for this event they

building a temple in future.

Narendra Patel and Dipak Desai recognized and thanked Jayantibhai Oza as media friend for always covering KPS programs.

Jain of Ashyana Banquets was

Local artists presenting a dance; Chicago singer Bhupinder Singh and his team rendering Bollywood songs

were called on stage and lighted Diwas while in the background Stuti was done. Also invited on the stage were some community leaders and well wishers.

Addressing the gathering, current President Vijay Patel said, "We are glad to be serving the Chicago Metropolitan area for many years.

Our goals are to encourage people to explore and learn about rich Gujarati culture. Together let us keep this light lit for life and joy for many years to come."

Chhotalal Patel also shared his thoughts and KPS visions to all invited guests. He announced that the Samaj will be working with other organizations to bring Shree Umiya Mata Rath from India for

honored with a plaque for his support. Narendra Patel and President Vijay Patel recognized the contributions of KPS pioneer Dr VK Patel back in 1990s; saying that KPS lost him this year and "we pray for him and his family."

Narendra Patel then introduced the 2015-16 KPS team to be led by Rajesh Desai. He also appreciated great work done by current president Vijay Patel, Vice President Bharat Patel and KPS team.

Kadva Patidar Samaj of Chicago, formed in 1988, is one of the largest communities of Chicago. It provides an excellent platform for socializing among all age groups as well as personal and professional networking.

KPS members having Diwali bash

Community Across America

November 28, 2014

India Post 19

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PCS celebrates anniversary with Diwali mela RAJINDER MAGO

Dance presentations by local artists

FORT WAYNE, IN: The Punjabi Cultural Society of Fort Wayne, Indiana celebrated its tenth anniversary by organizing "Diwali Mela 2014" on November 15 at Community Hall, Fort Wayne, Indiana.

More than 300 guests at-

tended the sold out event. In addition to the Punjabi and Indian community members many local American friends also came and enjoyed the festival, food, culture and entertainment.

About a dozen variety talent show cultural items were pre-

Chinmaya Mission holds fundraising gala for Chicago centers

Chinmaya Missión youth and kids Cont’d from page 16

Chinmaya Mission was founded in the 1950s by the devotees of a great Vedantic scholar, Swami Chinmayananda. It has over 400 centers worldwide. Its purpose as stated in the words of Swami Chinmayananda is, "To provide to individuals from any

background the wisdom of Vedanta and the practical means for spiritual growth and happiness, enabling them to become positive contributors to society." The current worldwide head of Chinmaya Mission is Swami Tejomayananda.

For over 37 years, Chinmaya Mission has been serving Chicagoland.

sented by the youth and adults of the local Punjabi community.

The items included Bhangra, Giddha, skits, songs and music.

The stage was managed by Parvinder Singh Nanua and Krishan Singh.

The youth took turns to be the masters of ceremonies making an-

nouncements speaking in Punjabi. Aman Banwait, Jaslin Nanua, Sandeep Kaur, Rajbir Badwal, Jaspreet Badwal, Soni Garcha, Amandeep Kaur, Anureet Sekhon, Ravdeep Gill, Amrit Garcha, Jaspreet Kaur, Riya Khatana, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Poonam Chaudhary, Pawandeep

Bola and Simeren Girn took turns to be the youth announcers for the stage activities.

"I am relishing the colorful dance performances and music, without understanding a word of what they are saying.

Cont’d on page 20

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November 28, 2014

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Abhyankar lecture on Indian Army's role in World War I SURENDRA ULLAL

BLOOMINGTON, IN: The Indiana University and Bloomington communities will come together at 3 p.m. December 2 in the Indiana Memorial Union for "What Did the Great War Mean to Indians?," a lecture on the significance of World War I for the Indian Army and in particular for its role in the battles at the Somme and Verdun.

The talk is free and open to the public and will take place in State Room East of the Indiana Memorial Union, followed by a reception in State Room West.

The lecture will be presented

by Rajendra M. Abhyankar, professor of practice in the IU School of Public and Environmental Affairs.

Before coming to IU, Abhyankar was the Indian secretary of external affairs and served as Indian ambassador to the European Union, Belgium and Lux-

embourg, Azerbaijan, Turkey, Syria and Cyprus. He was also the consul general of India in San Francisco.

"On the occasion of the centennial, we are exploring many different aspects of the war, not just its historical causes," said Andrea Ciccarelli, coordinator of "World War I: 100 Years," IU Bloomington's 2014-15 academic year exploration of the Great War. "Our intention is to examine the war's effects and its legacy for all the countries involved. Many of these countries, at the time were under the rule of European colonial powers. Ambassador Abhyankar's lecture focuses on one of the major events related to this historical legacy, as more than 1 million Indian soldiers fought in the war," she added.

Indian Army at 1st World war

PCS celebrates anniversary with Diwali mela Cont’d from page 19

But let me tell you, don't worry about me, keep on doing this, this is a great thing you are doing to keep your culture and language alive in your next generation," said David Herdrick, a German American of Herdrick Petroleum Corp, who was one of the sponsors of the event.

"Mehak Punjab Di", "Shakeen

and celebrated Diwali festival to their heart's content.

The outgoing committee members Balbir Singh Banwait, Kulwinder Singh Nagra, Satish K. Khatana, Ranbir Singh Sekhon and Amarjit Singh Dhaliwal were honored with plaques for their excellent services provided to the community.

The original committee members Resham Singh, Mukhtiar

Group of youth participants with PCS officials

Gabru", "Imperial Bhangra" and "Shaan Mutiaran Di" Giddha dance, and a hilarious skit by Mukhtiar and Rajdeep Gill won the hearts and earned thunderous applause from the audience.

The Diwali Mela started with the spectacular cultural performances followed by delicious dinner. The third part of the party was dancing to the DJ music till midnight where everyone participated

Singh Gill, Parvinder Singh Nanua, Mohinder Singh Chera, Karnail Singh, Dalbir Singh Lidder and Bachitar Singh Virk were also honored with plaques for their vision to create such a community organization to keep the local families and children in touch with Punjabi culture.

The next event by the PCS Fort Wayne will be a community picnic during the 2015 summer.

November 28, 2014

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India Post 21

Realty Tidbits

Indiabulls debt rises 67% to Rs 5,083 cr NEW DELHI: Indiabulls Real Estate's net debt has increased by 67 per cent to Rs 5,083 crore at the end of the second quarter of the current fiscal mainly due to acquisition of prime property in Central London.

Mumbai-based developer entered the London market with acquisition of 22, Hanover Square in Mayfair, Central London, a 87,444 sq ft commercial property, for Rs 1,630 crore.

According to an analyst presentation, Indiabulls Real Estate's net debt increased to Rs 5,083 crore as on September 30, 2014 from Rs 3,051 crore at the end of June quarter.

"Change in debt profile, primarily on account of the London acquisition (22 Hanover Square) for a total cash outflow of Rs 1,810 crore (including cash bank guarantee of Rs 180 crore)," the company said.

"Completed the acquisition of 22 Hanover Square, London for Rs 1,630 crore, excluding additional cash bank guarantee of Rs 180 crore submitted for financing," it added.

The company had announced the acquisition on June 20. The property was purchased from Scottish Widows Investment Partnership (now part of Aberdeen Asset Management). -PTI

Kolte-Patil joins hands with NOW Realty MUMBAI: Kolte-Patil Developers says it has entered into a development management agreement with NOW Realty to develop a residential project in Pune.

"Kolte-Patil has been appointed as a development manager

by NOW Realty to collaborate and develop its residential project Sereno at Baner in Pune," a release issued here said.

The project, on which construction has already commenced, will offer 6 lakh sqft of saleable development area.

As per the agreement, KoltePatil will lend its brand '24K' to the project and jointly collaborate with NOW Realty to oversee all aspects of the project lifecycle including project conceptualization and execution, product design, sales, marketing, project infrastructure and residential development and handover, the release said.

In return, the company will receive a development management fee and all costs would be borne by the project.-PTI

Real Estate 22 India Post

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US homebuilder sentiment rallies in November WASHINGTON: US homebuilders' confidence rebounded in November as both sales expectations and buyer traffic improved.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index rose to 58 this month, up from 54 in October.

That puts the index just short of September's reading of 59, which was the highest level since November 2005, shortly before the housing bubble burst.

November 28, 2014

Details on Page 23

Low mortgage rates fail to perk California home sales India Post News Service

LOS ANGELES: The lowest mortgage rates in 18 months failed to spark the California housing market in October as sales stayed flat and home prices increased at the slowest pace since early 2012, the California Association Of Realtors (C.A.R.) has said.

Closed escrow sales of existing, single-family detached homes in California totaled a seasonally adjusted annualized rate of 396,220 units in October, according to information collected by C.A.R. from more than 90 local Realtor® associations and MLSs statewide.

Sales in October were unchanged from a revised 396,400 in September but were down 1.9 percent from a revised 404,000 in October 2013.

October marked a full year that sales were below the 400,000 level.

The statewide sales figure represents what would be the total number of homes sold during 2014 if sales maintained the October pace throughout the year. It is adjusted to account for seasonal factors that typically influence home sales.

"As we move into the off-peak home buying season, prospective buyers who may have delayed their purchase earlier in the year should take advantage of the current favorable market conditions and resume their home search," said 2015 C.A.R. President Chris Kutzkey. "With home prices stabilizing and interest rates dropping

benefit buyers."

The median price of an existing, single-family detached California home decreased 2.3 percent from September's median price of $461,370 to $450,620 in October but was up 5.4 percent from the revised $427,540 recorded in October 2013. The statewide median home price has been higher on a

"As we move into the off-peak home buying season, prospective buyers who may have delayed their purchase earlier in the year should take advantage of the current favorable market conditions” back down to levels not seen since mid-last year, housing affordability should improve to

year-over-year basis for more than two years. The median sales price is the point at which half of homes

sold for more and half sold for less; it is influenced by the types of homes selling as well as a general change in values.

"While home sales essentially were unchanged statewide, there were pockets of strong sales growth, especially in coastal regions. The Bay Area, for example, continued to exhibit strong price gains, decent sales growth, and extremely low housing inventory," said C.A.R. Vice President and Chief Economist Leslie Appleton-Young.

"If current price and rate conditions persist, overall home sales should improve for the rest of the year."

Other key facts from C.A.R.'s October 2014 resale housing report include: • Housing inventory slipped in October, with the available supply of existing, single-family detached homes for sale dropping from 4.2 months in September to 3.8 months in October. The index was a revised 3.3 months in October 2013. The index indicates the number of months needed to sell the supply of homes on the market at the current sales rate.

Cont’d on page 23

Heritage buildings to be tax-free in north Delhi NEW DELHI: With the aim to help Delhi win the World Heritage City tag, the North Corporation has exempted all heritage buildings and land in its area from property tax.

The announcement was made by Municipal Commissioner of North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) Praveen Gupta in the Budget speech, a news that is likely to bring cheers to history aficionados in the national capital.

The day incidentally also coincided with the first day of the World Heritage Week, celebrated from November 19-25.

"With an aim to get Delhi the tag of a Heritage City, the corporation under the Section 115 (1) (IV) of the DMC Act in September made heritage buildings and

lands, exempt from property tax.

"This decision will greatly benefit old buildings falling in

northern part of the city, especially the Civil Lines area," Gupta said.

A UNESCO team had visited the capital last month to examine

the city's bid to earn the World Heritage City tag.

A sum of Rs 2.06 crore has also been allotted for restoration and maintenance of heritage buildings in the historic Hindu Rao Hospital premises, with the help of a consultant, Gupta said.

The Heritage Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, which still oversees the work for all three civic bodies even after the MCD's trifurcation in 2012 had earlier this year had initiated the process of making

such properties exempt from property taxes.

"We have initiated the process of upgrading our list of heritage buildings, so that we can identify and assess the status of such structures and work on their preservation plans as soon as possible," member Heritage Committee, Municipal Corporation of Delhi, Vartika Sharma had said earlier.

While the MCD has been trifurcated into three municipal corporations -- NDMC, SDMC (South Delhi Municipal Corporation) and EDMC (East Delhi Municipal Corporation), the Heritage Committee, constituted during the unified MCD period is still overseeing the heritagerelated work taken up by the three civic bodies. -PTI

Real Estate Post

November 28, 2014

India Post 23

www.indiapost.com

US homebuilder sentiment rallies in November WASHINGTON: US homebuilders' confidence rebounded in November as both sales expectations and buyer traffic improved.

The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo index rose to 58 this month, up from 54 in October. That puts the index just short of September's reading of 59, which was the highest level since November 2005, shortly before the housing bubble burst.

Readings above 50 indicate more builders view sales conditions as good rather than poor.

The index found sentiment had improved in the Northeast, Midwest, South and West. Builders expect sales to increase through the next six months.

Still, other indicators show that rising builder optimism has not necessarily been paired with a significant improvement in sales. Pur-

chases of new homes were nearly flat in September, the Commerce Department reported. The pace of sales for newly built homes has improved a mere 1.7 percent so far

growth.

When the builder index was at a similar level in early 2006, the number of single-family housing starts was about 60 percent higher,

Builders work on the roof of a new home under construction in Upper Makefield, Pa. The National Association of Home Builders/Wells Fargo releases its monthly index of builder sentiment

this year compared to 2013, putting it below overall economic

noted Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at the forecasting firm

How to reply to lowball offer on your home

MFR. ``There remains a big disconnect between what homebuilders are saying and what they are actually doing,'' Shapiro said.

Most economists expect that the National Association of Realtors will report that sales of existing homes fell slightly in October.

A survey by the data firm FactSet projects sales at an annual rate of 5.15 million for the month, down from 5.17 million in September.

Despite improved buying activity in recent months, sales in 2014 are still projected to lag last year's total of 5.1 million. Sales of about 5.5 million homes are generally associated with a healthy real estate market.

Rising prices in 2013 have cut into affordability for would-be buyers, limiting sales growth for new homes and cutting into sales for existing homes. On average last year, home prices rose at

Low mortgage rates fail to perk California home sales Cont’d from page 23

STEVE MCLINDEN

Dear Real Estate Adviser, In general, is it better for me to counteroffer or just simply turn down lowball offers when selling my home? If I counter, I feel I'm revealing that I may be desperate or am not serious about my price. But if I just turn them down, I may signal lack of interest.

- Skeleton Dear Skeleton, Veteran agents will tell you that any offer can jump-start an ultimately successful negotiation. But don't be afraid to play hardball with these lowballs. Unless you're really time-pressured to sell due to financial or relocation circumstances, etc., you wield the clout.

What constitutes a lowball offer? Some agents say it's 25 percent or more below list while others have revised that to 20 percent in this current limited-inventory environment. All things being unequal, the lowball definition varies from market to market and even submarket to submarket, but certainly from price range to price range. To wit, an offer of $80,000 on a $100,000 home is more likely to be quickly dismissed than $1.6 million offer on a $2 million home.

Focus on the goal: To sell Don't worry about how your willingness to counter is being perceived. What matters is the result. Remain gracious to all comers. Some sellers get so wrapped up in righteous indignation follow-

ing an "insulting" offer that they tell their agents to refuse all further communication from the offender. The only winner there is ego gratification, which has a monetized value of precisely zero.

A sage agent will tell you that "lowbies" who are truly enamored with a home are often willing to raise their offers by hefty -- and eventually acceptable -- increments. In other words, never let a deal die on your end unless it's plainly ridiculous. Make sure to tell your agent you want to hear all

When assessing an offer, be sure to consider all of the buying party's terms -- such as when they're willing to close, what repair credits they request and their financial wherewithal offers. When you do counter, give a little ground but not much, which should scare off the bottom fishers and quick-buck flippers.

Always return the ball to the buyer's court If you don't feel comfortable countering a seemingly absurd offer, you can convey to the

lowballer that while you appreciate the offer, you'll have to pass on it. That shifts the ball to the buyer's court to come back with a better offer. If pressed, your agent can always tell the buyers that you're confused by their far-under-list offer and would be more than willing to entertain a figure befitting the market. Your agent might even ask for a logical reason behind that initial low offer, assuming there is one. You may also learn something about your property this way.

Listen and be realistic When assessing an offer, be sure to consider all of the buying party's terms -- such as when they're willing to close, what repair credits they request and their financial wherewithal to perform.

You may not be as far apart as you think. Of course, homes are selling fast, making lowballers a little less relevant at his point in the cycle.

Realize you may need to ratchet down expectations somewhat if your house has lingered on the block well past the local time-onthe-market average. Pricing a home reasonably accurately from the get-go is still an industry best practice.

Here's hoping you get top dollar for your place and that you don't let those lowballers make you see red, Skeleton. Good luck!

-Courtesy Bankrate.com

roughly six times the pace of wages, which limited the benefits of historically low mortgage rates.

Even as home price growth has moderated in recent months, the prices continue to rise at more than double the annual increase in wages. Average hourly pay for non-supervisory workers has risen a meager 2.2 percent over the past year to $20.70, the Labor Department reported earlier this month.

Just 59 percent of homes sold across the United States are affordable on a middle class income, compared to 62 percent last year, the real estate data firm Trulia said. ``Affordability is likely to worsen,'' said Jed Kolko, chief economist at Trulia. ``Unless incomes increase substantially, homeownership will slip further beyond the reach of many households.''

A six- to seven-month supply is considered typical in a normal market.

• The median number of days it took to sell a single-family home edged up in October, up from a revised 40 days in September to 41.9 days in October and from 33.4 days in October 2013.

• According to C.A.R.'s newest housing market indicator measuring sales-to-list price ratio*, multiple bid offers for properties has waned, and properties are again generally selling below the list price. The statewide measure suggests that homes are selling at 97.5 percent of the list price. This is down from a 99.1% ratio at the same time last year. The Bay Area is the only region where homes are selling above list prices and are generally selling about 1.3 percent more than asking price.

• The median price per square

foot** for an existing single-family California home was $216 in October 2014, an increase of 0.2 percent from the previous month and a 6.4 percent increase from October 2013. Price per square foot at the state level has been showing an upward trend since early 2012. In fact, it has been rising on a year-over-year basis for 33 consecutive months. San Mateo County had the highest price per square foot in October with $659/sq. ft., followed by Santa Clara ($521/sq. ft.), and Santa Cruz ($399/sq. ft.). The top three counties with the lowest price per square foot in October were Siskiyou ($104/sq. ft.), Glenn ($110/ sq. ft.), and Madera ($111/sq. ft.).

• Mortgage rates fell in October, with the 30-year, fixed-mortgage interest rate averaging 4.04 percent, down from 4.16 percent in September and down from 4.19 percent in October 2013, according to Freddie Mac.

Tech News AirAsia India adds Pune to its network MUMBAI: Low-cost carrier AirAsia India has announced addition of Pune to its network and offered an all-inclusive promotional one-way fare starting from Rs 1,499.

The daily direct flights from Bangalore to Pune, Pune to Jaipur and vice versa would commence on December 17, the company said in a release.

"With the surge in business and leisure travel, we truly believe Pune has tremendous potential.

We have done a complete analysis of this sector and it is a part our growth strategy to provide convenient, comfortable and enjoyable flying experience via direct flights to first time and frequent flyers," AirAsia India CEO Mittu Chandilya said.

Booking for these routes is open until November 26, for the travel period from December 17, 2014 to January 17, 2016.

The carrier has offered a oneway promotional fare of Rs 1,499 from Bengaluru to Pune as well as Rs 2,999 from Pune to Jaipur and vice versa. -PTI

Alibaba facing its most dangerous moment: Jack Ma BEIJING: After its record IPO, e-commerce giant Alibaba is facing its "most dangerous moment," founder Jack Ma has said, even as the firm was working out plans to help small businesses in China and across the world.

"Even two months before the IPO, people didn't think we would make money," Jack Ma said at the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen City.

"Now the problem is people think we are too good - we can do anything. This is the most dangerous moment," 50-year-old Ma, also China's richest man, said.

The warning reminds of previous remarks from the tycoon about the challenges facing the company, from employees turning complacent and stopping innovation to failing to embrace opportunities in the mobile age.

He is leading Alibaba into new businesses of digital entertainment and healthcare as it adjusts to post-Initial Public Offer (IPO) euphoria as the 10th-largest company by market value, surpassing Coca-Cola Company and Facebook Inc. Referring to the innovations in the pipeline, he said: "Traditionally, all we think about is how to sell products to others and how to get money out of the pockets of consumers." -PTI

TechBiz 24 India Post

www.indiapost.com

November 28, 2014

(L to R) Dipak Gupta, Joint Managing Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, C Jayaram, Executive Director, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Uday Kotak, Executive Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Kotak, Uday Sareen, CEO Designate of ING Vysya Shailendra Bhandari and Vaughn Richtor, CEO of ING direct during a press conference announcing the merger between Kotak Mahindra Bank and ING Vysya Bank in Mumbai on November 20

US Companies to play leading role in smart city development India Post News Service

NEW DELHI: In a discussion on boosting India-US partnership in manufacturing, trade and investments in sustainable cities, natural resources and earth sciences sectors, an expert panel comprising US government officials and Indian industry representatives concluded that a tech-enabled smart city must also incorporate foundational principles of sustainability in early stages of development.

The discussion was part of the India - US Technology Summit being organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India and the US Department of state here.

Jamie Merriman, Country Manager- South Asia, US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) explained that efficient use of resources, lifecycle costing and long term prospects are among the critical factors that USTDA takes into consideration during its project planning process.

While technology would be a significant piece of smart city development, an executable model that integrates environmental, developmental and aspirational consider-

ations would be the key to driving such an initiative. Venkatesh Valluri, Chairman - CII National Committee on Technology and Chairman and President, Ingersoll Rand (India) said "What technologies can we bring in that are relevant and affordable?

The US is a technology-exporting country and India is a technology-

transplanted in India and that reengineering and reverse innovation would be necessary for it to fit the Indian context.

David Miller, NASA Chief Technologist presented a "perspective from space" through three lenses: science, business and education.

He explained that US-India col-

L-R: Ajay S Sriram, President, CII; Eric L Hirschhorn, Undersecretary of Commerce for Bureau of Industry and Security, United States of America and Sujatha Singh, Foreign Secretary, Government of India at the 9th Meeting of India-US High Technology Cooperation Group held on 20 November at New Delhi

absorbing country. We need to find financial models that make a winwin situation for both the countries."

However, he cautioned that US technology could not just be

laboration in science such as Earth remote sensing data could be strengthened; the emphasis on the use of smaller space craft and satellite constellations is creating new

business opportunities around the world; there is a strong passion for space exploration among the student community and if they are taught to embrace disruptive technologies, they would no longer see it as risky, rather it would be business as usual.

Dan Beardsley, Project Manager - International Activities, National Weather Service, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, US Department of Commerce, brought to attention another area of US-India collaboration in earth science technologies.

The US National Weather Service has just launched "Weather Ready Nation" initiative, in which they not only focus on investing in weather forecasting and accuracy, but also on improving the understanding of impact and enhancing the resilience and preparedness of societies by localizing the knowledge.

Since the US and India have both suffered from extreme weather events, a collaboration in this area will stimulate action on disaster management by planning resources, communicating responses and reacting better in case of weather-related emergencies.

Cont’d on page 27

India scraps defense deal with S Korean firm NEW DELHI: The Defense Ministry has scrapped the Rs 2,700-crore deal for acquiring two minesweeper vehicles from a South Korean firm after it was found that there were violations of tender conditions as agents were in the play.

The Ministry has terminated the tender for the Mine Countermeasure Vessels (MCMVs) and has written a letter to South Korean firm Kangnam Shipyard.

Official sources said Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar has signed the recommendation for terminating the tender. The recommendation had been made

during the tenure of Arun Jaitley who was in charge of Defense

long because of allegations of involvement of middlemen and the new government had sought an opinion from Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi.

The Attorney General in his opinion last month said tender conditions have been vioDefense Minister Manohar Parrikar lated, the sources said. portfolio till early this month.

India's defense procurement The deal had been stuck for procedure does not allow agents

in deals and the government has already encashed Rs 3 crore bank guarantee furnished

by Kangnam.

Vendors have to sign a precontract integrity pact stating that there will be no middlemen involved.

As per the deal, the South Korean firm was to build two ships while the remaining six were to be manufactured by Goa Shipyard Limited (GSL) under the transfer of technology pact.

The deal with Kangnam was for about Rs 2700 crore while the entire project would have cost over Rs 7,000 crore.-PTI

TechBiz Post

November 28, 2014

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India inks euro 13 million deal with Airbus NEW DELHI: India has signed a euro 13 million deal with Airbus Defense and Space for the delivery of a dedicated facility in the country for the maintenance and repair of its submarine fleet peri-

done locally, the operators can speed up this process and enhance the operational readiness of the Indian fleet," said Harald Hansen, Director Business Development Sea at Airbus Defense and

‘When a product is serviced, a lot of time is lost during the transport between different facilities. Once maintenance work can be done locally, the operators can speed up this process and enhance the operational readiness of the Indian fleet’ scopes.

The project is due to be completed in September 2016.

"When a product is serviced, a lot of time is lost during the transport between different facilities.

Once maintenance work can be

Space's Optronics business unit.

The maintenance facility contract demonstrates the firm's commitment to not only supply systems and technologies to customers, but also to equip them with the necessary operational mainte-

nance capability, a statement by the company said.

The establishment of the periscope maintenance facility and the training of technicians from the Indian Navy in Germany and India can be seen as a first step in establishing an in-country service capability for future naval operations, it said.

For the implementation of the facility, Airbus Defense and Space is partnering with Tata Consultancy Services and H&H Precision Private Limited.

The company has previously established periscope maintenance facility in Germany, South Korea, Italy and Greece. The optronic products are used for land, air, sea and space missions on a variety of platforms. These include submarines and armored vehicles as well as aircraft, satellites and UAVs. -PTI

Yahoo replaces Google as Firefox's default search SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo will supplant Google's search engine on Firefox's Web browser in the U.S., signaling Yahoo's resolve to regain some of the ground that it has lost in the most lucrative part of the Internet's ad market.

The five-year alliance will end a decade-old partnership in the U.S. between Google Inc. and the Mozilla Foundation, which over-

Yahoo is hoping to impress Firefox users as the Sunnyvale, California, company sets out to prove that it's still adept at Internet search after leaning on Microsoft's technology for most of the results on Yahoo's own website for the past four years.

Financial details of Yahoo's Firefox contract weren't disclosed.

In a blog post, Mozilla CEO Chris

sees the Firefox browser. The tensions between Google and Mozilla had been rising since Google's introduction of the Chrome browser in 2008 began to undercut Firefox.

Google's current contract with Mozilla expires at the end of this month, opening an opportunity for Yahoo to pounce.

Even though Chrome is now more widely used, Firefox still has a loyal audience that makes more than 100 billion worldwide search requests annually.

Beard said the new deal offers ``strong, improved economic terms'' while allowing Mozilla ``to innovate and advance our mission in ways that best serve our users and the Web.'' Google accounted for 90 percent, or about $274 million, of Mozilla's royalty revenue in 2012.

Mozilla hasn't released its annual report for last year.

Besides dropping Google in the U.S., Mozilla is also shifting Firefox to Baidu's search engine in China

and Yandex in Russia. Firefox users still have the option to pull down a tab to pick Google and other search engines as their preferred way for looking up information online.

Yahoo Inc. CEO Marissa Mayer, a former Google executive, hailed the Firefox agreement as Yahoo's most significant partnership since forging the Microsoft deal in 2009. ``We believe deeply in search it's an area of investment and opportunity for us,'' Mayer wrote in a blog post.

Yahoo plans to unveil a ``clean and modern'' search engine on Firefox next month and then roll out the new model on its own website early next year, Mayer wrote.

The redesign will primarily affect how Yahoo's search engine's results are displayed, and not the way that requests are processed.

The search technology will continue to be provided by Microsoft Corp. as part of a 10-year deal Yahoo signed in 2009, according to Mel Guymon, Yahoo's vice president of search.

In various public remarks since becoming Yahoo's CEO two years ago, Mayer has expressed disappointment with Microsoft's search technology. That has spurred speculation that she might renegotiate or end the Microsoft search partnership next year when Yahoo has an option to re-evaluate the deal. -AP

Jaitley tells PSU banks to act without fear or favor NEW DELHI: Concerned over rising bad loans, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley has asked the chiefs of PSU banks to deal sternly with the issue of rising non-performing assets without any fear or favor.

He also said the government has already taken various steps to streamline the appointment of PSU bank chiefs, which will help in making PSBs professional organizations.

The minister was addressing the heads of Public Sector Banks (PSBs) and financial institutions here.

B a n k e r s should "work in a professional manner without any fear or favor", Jaitley said, adding that the government has taken steps to streamline the process of appointment of Chief Executive Officers and Executive Directors of the PSBs to introduce objectivity in the process.

The decision making process must be influenced by professional reasons and not collateral ones, he said, adding that any external influence would be considered as a disqualification.

He further asked the bankers to

take necessary corrective measures in order to bring down their Non-Performing Assets.

Later, talking to reporters, Jaitley said: "Over the last 2-3 years, on account of slowdown, one area of concern is that the NPA has risen. Therefore, the proactive steps to be taken to ensure that NPAs come down have been

Arun Jaitley

discussed."

He also asked the bankers to take steps to increase the credit flow to various sectors of the economy and exuded optimism that credit growth would pick up in the second quarter as large number of projects are queuing up for credit.

On the condition of the economy, Jaitley said that global growth is quite patchy.-PTI

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November 28, 2014

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WhatsApp messages get end-to-end encryption SAN FRANCISCO: An online privacy tool endorsed by Edward Snowden is being used to protect WhatsApp messages from snooping by encrypting them as they travel the Internet.

Open Whisper Systems has announced a partnership with Facebook-owned WhatsApp to useTextSecure protocol to essentially scramble messages in transit, hiding whatever is inside from prying eyes.

"WhatsApp deserves enormous praise for devoting considerable time and effort to this project," Open Whisper Systems said in a blog post.

"Even though we're still at the beginning of the rollout, we be-

lieve this already represents the largest deployment of end-to-end encrypted communication in history."

WhatsApp confirmed the announcement to AFP but declined to comment further.

TextSecure encryption enabled automatically as a default setting is already built into most recent version of WhatsApp for mobile devices powered by Googlebacked Android software, with billions of messages being exchanged daily, according to Open Whisper. "(WhatsApp co-founder) Brian Acton and the WhatsApp engineering team has been amazing to work with," Open Whisper said.

"Their devotion to the project as well as their thoroughness in getting this done are inspiring in a world where so many other companies are focused on surveillance instead of privacy."

Cyber attacks to fall, but will be more sophisticated NEW DELHI: The volume of cyber attacks are expected to decline in 2015, but will become more sophisticated with such intrusions targeting specific sectors like healthcare, says the cyber security solutions firm Websense.

According to Websense's cybersecurity predictions for 2015, as mobile apps are using auto-login capability these devices will face more attacks from cyber criminals for more credential-stealing or authentication attacks that can be used at a later date.

"The nature of cyber attacks is changing with criminals going for personally identifiable information (PII), which can be used at a later date. Such attacks are expected to escalate as we go ahead," Websense Manager Sales Ajay Dubey told PTI. PII is an information that can be used to uniquely identify, contact or locate a single person.

Cyber criminals are using PII to get answers to security questions that are used to verify a user's identity. Also they keep this information with them and use it at a later date or also try to use the victim's profile to get personal information of their contacts, family or friends, he added.

The report states that healthcare sector will see a rise in data stealing attack campaigns as the records hold a treasure trove of PII that can be used in a multitude of attacks and various types of fraud.

"In an environment still transitioning millions of patient records from paper to digital form,

many organizations are playing catch-up when it comes to the security challenge of protecting personal data. As a result, cyber-attacks against this industry will increase." it added.

The report further said with auto-login capability of mobile

countries with a high rate of forecasted economic growth, it added.

"In addition, because the barrier of entry for cyber activities is minimal compared to traditional espionage and war costs, we believe we will see an increase in loosely affiliated cells that conduct

apps, mobile devices will increasingly be targeted for broader credential-stealing or authentication attacks to be used at a later date.

These attacks will use the phone as an access point to the increasing Cloud-based enterprise applications and data resources that the devices can freely access, it added.

Another serious development is that there will be new (or newly revealed) players on the global cyber espionage/cyber war battlefield, which will also include countries with higher projected economic growth, the report said.

Techniques and tactics of nation-state cyber espionage and cyber warfare activities have primarily been successful. As a result, additional countries will look to develop their own cyber-espionage programs, particularly in

cyber-terrorist or cyber warfare initiatives independent from, but in support of, nation-state causes," the report said. -PTI

Open Whisper is an opensource project supported by donations and grants.

While taking part in a South By Southwest conference earlier this year, former National Security

Agency contractor Snowden praised encryption tools offered

by Open Whisper.

Snowden connected to the gathering remotely from Russia, where he took refuge after leaking information about wide-scale online surveillance by the NSA. Facebook in October completed its buy of mobile messaging application WhatsApp, with the mostly stock deal tallying nearly USD 22 billion.

Facebook, the world's biggest social network, announced the buyout of the WhatsApp messenger service, used by 600 million people, in February and US authorities approved the deal in April. -AFP

India's steel output growth highest in Oct NEW DELHI: India's steel production grew at the fastest pace among the top producing nations in October at 8.5 per cent even as world's average growth remained stagnant.

India produced 7.080 million tonnes (MT) steel last month compared to 6.523 MT in the year ago period, data prepared by World Steel Association (WSA) said.

On the other hand, production of steel declined during the month in major producing nations such as China, Japan and the US, barring Russia which posted a 1.6 per cent growth in October output compared to the same month last year.

China, the world's largest producer of steel, reported a 0.3 per cent fall in production. Output fell by 1.7 per cent in Japan and by 0.7 per cent in the US. China, Japan, the US and India are world's top four steel producing nations. The order has remained unchanged for quite some years now.

These four countries contrib-

uted over 91 million tonnes (MT) to the world's total production of 136.7 MT steel during October, which remained flat during the month.

China produced 67.5 MT steel, Japan 9.4 MT and South Korea 6.2 MT, up by 4.5 per cent. The US produced 7.3 MT of crude steel in October.

Among the European Union nations, Germany produced 3.5 MT of crude steel in October, a decline of 5.9 per cent compared to the same month last year. Italy produced 2.1 MT, France 1.5 MT and Spain 1.3 MT. Turkey's crude steel production for October 2014 was 2.7 MT, down by 11 per cent over the same month last year. Brazil produced 3.1 MT, up by 2.7 per cent.

"The crude steel capacity utilization ratio in October, 2014 was 74.7 per cent," WSA said.

During the first 10 months of the current year, world's steel production was up by two per cent to 1,367.50 MT. -PTI

India Post eyes $9 bn e-com biz; live tracking NEW DELHI: Eyeing USD 9 billion business opportunity in booming e-commerce business, India Post, which has the biggest network and serves the last mile, is boosting its infrastructure for real-time tracking of parcels through satellites using a new technology.

The Postal Department will also soon start an SMS facility to inform customers about delivery status of their parcels.

India Post, which is already in tie-ups with e-commerce majors Amazon and Snapdeal, will also

have security gadgets like CCTV and access control systems to ensure safety of articles.

Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad in a meeting with officials in the Department of Posts has directed them to focus on opportunities in e-commerce and tune infrastructure to facilitate growth of the sector which has huge potential to bring investments and generate new jobs.

"The Minister has asked India Post to leverage is reach to provide special facilities to local

weavers, craftsmen/women, painters and artists so that they also benefit from e-commerce," a ministry official told PTI. The Minister wanted their products to be picked up from their doorsteps and delivered to end-customers, the official added.

The official said that "postal department has started working on development of road transport network for parcel movement on majority routes with GPS facility.

It is augmenting facility of secure area for parcels with access control and CCTV around it".-PTI

November 28, 2014

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Indian eCommerce market to hit $15 bn: Google NEW DELHI: Increasing Internet penetration and growing preference for shopping online will drive the eCommerce market in India to USD 15 billion by 2016 with a whopping 100 million people going online to shop, tech giant Google has said.

Compared to 8 million in 2012, about 35 million people are now buying everything from apparel to electronics to cosmetics and furniture from online stores.

This number is expected to grow almost three times to 100 million in the next two years. India is estimated to have 302 million Internet users by December 2014, overtaking the US as the world's second largest online user base.

"The online shopper base will grow 3X by 2016 and over 50 million new buyers will come from tier I and II cities. The confidence to shop online is on the rise as 71 per cent non-buyers (respondents) from tier I and II cities said they plan to shop online in the next 12 months," Google India Managing Director Rajan Anandan told reporters here.

India's etailing market is at an inflection point and will see rapid growth to become a USD 15 billion market by 2016, he added.

According to analysts, the eCommerce market in India is currently estimated to be worth about USD three billion.

Of the 100 million online shoppers, about 40 million are expected to be women. Already, women buyers in tier I cities are driving growth, outspending men by 2X. They are shopping across categories like

US Companies to play leading role in smart city development Cont’d from page 24

Picking up on the case of business collaboration, John McCaslin, Minister Counselor for Commercial Affairs, US Foreign Commercial Service highlighted the bilateral India trade and investment initiatives underway. "US companies would be playing a leading role in supporting sustainable infrastructure development," he said.

He specified that Ajmer, Allahabad and Vizag were the three identified urban areas for smart cities development through a formalized agreement, in which US companies would provide expertise and support in managing traffic, water, energy etc.

He also mentioned that several bilateral initiatives were underway that focus on enhancing digital infrastructure, creating smart villages, supporting India's renewable energy mix through a recently signed agreement between the US EXIM bank and the Ministry of New and Renewable Energy, as well as capacity building by sharing expertise in professionally training urban planners and developers.

Representatives from Indian industry, CH2MHill and United Technologies Corporation further supported the business case for sustainable cities by introducing an element of competition among states to improve the social fabric and people's lives as well as taking into account the translatability of technologies to the Indian context.

apparel, beauty and skincare, home furnishing, baby products and jewellery.

Also, over two-thirds respondents highlighted that they preferred shopping online for convenience and variety along with discounts.

The research was conducted by Forrester Consulting across 6,859 respondents. Over 60 per cent respondents said buying online was directly correlated with social status. Mobile phone also emerged as an important access device for online shoppers with one in three online buyers transacting online on their mobile phones

in tier I and II cities.

In tier III, one in two respondents said they use mobile phones to purchase online.

This is also reflected in Google search trends where mobile queries have grown 3X in the last three years. Over 50 per cent of shopping queries are now coming from mobile phones, compared to 24 per cent two years back. "Consumer confidence to shop online has grown significantly in last one and a half years and our objective was to understand the factors that are driving this growth and arrive at indicators that will propel the industry forward," Google India In-

dustry Director for eCommerce, Local and Classifieds Nitin Bawankule said.

The eCommerce industry needs to act now to cater to this strong user growth trend, he added.

"Improved customer experience across all touch points, easy to use mobile apps can create a strong pull for non-buyers to shop online in tier I and II cities," he said.

In terms of challenges, 62 per cent buyers said they were not satisfied with their online shopping experience, while 67 per cent said the current return process was too complicated and expensive.PTI

TOP TEN HINDI FILM SONGS

1 Manwa Laage : Happy New Year 2 Lovely : Happy New Year 3 Meherbaani : The Shaukeens 4 Meherbaan: Bang Bang 28 India Post

November 28, 2014

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S

uperstar Aamir Khan is known for his ability to choose interesting projects and to make the most out of them. All of his last few films have been very different from one another. His film 'PK' is about to release in the next month and already there is huge interest about his next project.

It looks like Aamir may have landed another plum project in the form of the sequel of 'Robot' (Enthiran).

Few months back rumors began circulating that the director of 'Robot', Shankar has approached Aamir Khan for playing the antagonist opposite Rajinikanth. As per latest reports, Aamir has given his nod to the project.

However, some sources claim that the film is not a sequel of 'Robot' but a completely different story. As per reports, Shankar and Aamir Khan have been in touch recently and have decided on a story. There

D S

he is someone who enjoys star status in Bollywood but the criticallyacclaimed actress Priyanka Chopra wishes to become a zombie for their inability to feel.

The actress took to social networking site Twitter to express her peculiar wish.

"I too want to be a zombie... Easy life must be when u don't feel... Or at least it seems so while u r in zombie land!" she tweeted.

Priyanka, who has shown her acting calibre in films including "Barfi!" and "Mary Kom", has now started shooting for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's "Bajirao Mastani", which also stars Ranveer Singh.

eepika Padukone was recently in Kolkata to shoot for the Shoojit Sircar film 'Piku'. The film also stars Amitabh Bachchan and Irrfan Khan. However there is another Bollywood star who paid a surprise visit to the sets. It was Deepika's alleged boyfriend Ranveer Singh.

Both Deepika and Ranveer have been very busy with their respective commitments. While Deepika was shooting for 'Piku', Ranveer was busy promoting his film 'Kill Dil'. Ranveer got some free time and flew to Kolkata to spend some time with Deepika.

A source from the sets informs, "Ranveer reached Piku's set around 9 am. He went straight to her vanity van and even between shots or during set breaks the couple tried spending quality time with each other." They lunched together and also went out for sometime in the evening.

5 India Waale : Happy New Year 6 Kill Dill : Kill Dil 7 Jaise Mera Tu : Happy Ending 8 Sajde : Kill Dil 9 Tu Meri : Bang Bang 10 Tere Hoke Rahenge: Raja Natwarlal

are no words on Rajini's involvement in the project and nothing has been officially confirmed. However, if indeed Aamir and Rajinikanth come together, it will be a great moment in Indian film history.

Bollywood

November 28, 2014

India Post 29

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A

ditya Roy Kapur who celebrated his birth day this year in Kashmir shooting for his next was in for a big surprise.

While he was away, Aditya learnt from his team that a huge fan of his had sent him an unusual letter at home. It came from a girl who expressed her wish to marry the heartthrob and used her own blood to write the letter.

A source close to the actor revealed that the girl hails from Aligarh.

When contacted, Aditya Roy Kapur shared, "I did not know how to react when I got to know about this. It was surprising and at the same time overwhelming.

I owe everything to my fans. I'm extremely grateful for all the love but to this extent is worrisome."

S

iblings Huma Qureshi and Saqib Saleem will star in a horror flick, and yes, they will play siblings in the film.

The brother-sister duo who have earned critical acclaim for their performances in films like Gangs Of Wasseypur and Hawa Hawaai respectively, are now teaming up for a film.

Director Prawaal Raman, who has made horror films like Darna Mana Hai, Jungle and Gaayab, and is currently working on the Randeep Hoodastarrer Main Aur Charles, will be helming it.

A source revealed that the story is about two siblings who get caught in a creepy, unsettling environment. "How they navigate their way out of the paranormal situiger Shroff, who made his debut earlier this year ation is what the story is all about," with Heropanti, has been making headlines for various adds the source. reasons since then. Now we hear that Tiger is all set to Huma has already acted in a horror play a superhero in choreographer turned director Remo D'Souza's next. film, Ek Thi Daayan. This time both Though Bollywood is relatively new to the concept of superhero films with Krrish Saqib and she had a joint narration being the sole original Indian super hero, we guess Tiger will add on by becoming the and they were impressed by the youngest Bollywood actor to play superhero. script.

"Also they were excited at the Simultaneously though, refraining from revealing much about the film, Remo prospect of acting together," says adds, "Yes Tiger and I will be doing the film but it is still too early to discuss the source. details of the same."

T

„ Health

Line

New approaches for health care enrollment LINCOLN: With enrollment now open for the federally run health insurance marketplace, Nebraska community groups are taking a new approach to reach out to those who lack coverage.

Community groups have handed out flyers at farm and craft shows, staffed booths at Nebraska county fairs and distributed bookmarks at libraries and coffee shops.

A Community Action group in Lincoln is once again participating in a televised ``phone-a-thon'' to catch the public's attention.

Insurers are using online videos and mailings to remind customers.

The renewed publicity is part of a push to attract people who missed the first nationwide enrollment period and are still uninsured. Amber Hansen, executive director of Community Action of Nebraska, says the groups expect a smoother process than the first enrollment period, which initially faced technical problems. -AP

„ Insurance premiums political lightning rod MIAMI: As the second enrollment period for health insurance under the federal health law got underway, critics and supporters are seizing on premium prices.

Premiums are politically controversial and both sides have used data to bolster their argument. Critics say premium increases signal the Affordable Care Act isn't working, but health insurance rates have risen as much as 20 or 30 percent in recent years.

State officials have said consumers could expect an average premium increase of 13 percent in 2015. But the feds pointed out that a 40-year old Floridian making $30,000 per year who bought the second-lowest silver plan in 2014 and does the same in 2015 will pay slightly less after tax credits in 2015. The majority of Floridians purchased silver plans.

The second-lowest cost silver plan is especially popular because it's the benchmark plan to calculate subsidies.

An Associated Press analysis found that average monthly premiums for mid-range health insurance plans increased as much as 20 percent in Florida with the biggest increases seen in rural areas. But South Florida saw only meager increases and premiums decreased ever so slightly in Miami-Dade County. -AP

Health Science

A look at Arizona health insurance open enrollment

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Details on Page 34

Plasma study will test survivors' blood to treat Ebola

A

coalition of companies Organization on specific proce- which has killed more than 5,000 and aid groups has an dures and locations. people this year in West Africa, nounced plans to test exBesides helping Ebola pa- most of them in Guinea, Liberia perimental drugs and collect tients now, plasma ``could be a and Sierra Leone. Doctors Withblood plasma from Ebola survi- tool for a future epidemic as well'' out Borders last week also said it vors to treat new victims of the from different viruses, Microsoft would host studies of experimendisease in West Africa. co-founder Bill Gates said in an tal treatments and plasma at three Plasma from survivors con- interview with The Associated of its West Africa treatment centains antibodies, substances the immune system makes to fight the virus. Several Ebola patients have received survivor plasma and recovered, but doctors say there is no way to know whether it really helps without a study like the one The inside a mobile donation unit at the Raleigh-Durham Dr. Ada Igonoh during a medical they are about to International Airport in Raleigh, N.C. The unit was headed conference in New Orleans. start within a to Africa for use in a study of blood plasma treatment for Igonoh was a doctor in Nigeria month.

Ebola patients. who caught Ebola when she The Bill & treated a man who flew to that country from Liberia in July. Igonoh Melinda Gates Foundation is giv- Press. recovered and hopes to recruit ing $5.7 million to scale up pro``You might not have drugs fellow survivors to donate blood duction of the treatments for the and vaccines for some new plasma to treat people newly project in Guinea and other Ebola- thing'' and it would be good to infected with the Ebola virus. affected countries in Africa. have capabilities in place to colMore than a dozen companies, lect and give plasma to fill the gap ters. universities and others are con- until those other tools can be The drugs to be tested by tributing supplies, staff and developed, he said. both groups include cash, and are working with the There are no drugs or vac- brincidofovir, an antiviral medicountries and the World Health cines approved now for Ebola, cine that has been tried in a few

Ebola cases so far. Its maker, North Carolina-based Chimerix Inc., developed it to treat other types of viruses and lab tests suggest it might help fight Ebola. ``We said to them, `well, if money was no constraint, how much could you make?' and they gave us a number,'' Gates said. ``So we said, `OK, we'll take the risk that maybe nobody will ever buy this from you. So we'll help you scale up the manufacturing.'''

Making plasma available is a complex task. Plasma is the clear part of blood, and the part that contains antibodies. In Africa, donors' blood will be filtered through a machine to remove small amounts of plasma and return the rest of the blood to the donor - a process that allows someone to donate as often as every two weeks.

One of the first patients successfully treated for Ebola in the US - aid worker Dr. Kent Brantly received plasma from a 14-yearold boy he treated in Africa, where he was infected. Brantly has donated plasma several times to Ebola patients in the U.S. A plasma recipient must have a compatible blood type with the donor.

Cont'd on Page 32

Wikipedia could predict disease outbreaks WASHINGTON: Wikipedia page views can predict disease outbreaks, including dengue fever and influenza, around the globe nearly a month before official health advice, according to new research.

Analyzing such online trends could help scientists stay one step ahead of outbreaks around the globe, researchers said.

Researchers from Los Alamos National Laboratory successfully monitored influenza outbreaks in the US, Poland, Japan and Thailand, dengue fever in Brazil and Thailand, and tuberculosis in China and Thai-

land.

The team was also able to forecast all but one of these outbreaks (tuberculosis in China) at least 28 days in advance.

T h e results suggest t h a t people s t a r t searching for disease-related information on Wikipedia before they seek medical attention.

The research shows the potential to transfer models across different regions; that is, one can "train" a computer model using public health data in one location and implement the model in another region.

For example, researchers could create models using data from Ja-

pan to track and forecast disease in Thailand. This is particularly important for countries that do not offer reliable disease data, researchers said.

"A global disease-forecasting system will change the way we respond to epidemics. In the same way we check the weather each morning, individuals and public health officials can monitor disease incidence and plan for the future based on today's forecast," said Dr Sara Del Valle, who carried out the study.

The study was published in the journal PLOS Computational Biology. -PTI

November 28, 2014

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Tamil Nadu agreement with MIT for schemes CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu government has entered into an agreement with Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA, for implementing various schemes in sectors like education, healthcare and poverty alleviation.

"The MoU with the Abdul Latif Jameel-Poverty Action Lab (JPAL) of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA and the Institute of Financial Management and Research (IFMR), Chennai, will enable the involvement of economists and social scientists in the formulation and evaluation of various schemes in sectors like school education, health, poverty alleviation and skill development," an official release said.

The signing of MoU comes in the backdrop of the then Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa's announcement in the assembly early this year that the government will lay emphasis on proper monitoring and evaluation of ongoing schemes.

IFMR, Chennai, is the local host institute for J-PAL in India and also a 44-year-old not-for-

profit organization engaged in research, training and education.

The MoU is a step towards realizing the VISION 2023 document of becoming India's most prosperous and progressive state and having fully eradicated poverty, it said.

The draft MoU would identify top policy priorities and come up with solutions that can be "fieldtested", identify policy innovations practiced globally and could be replicated in Tamil Nadu.

J-PAL will assist the state government to carry out monitoring and evaluation of ongoing or new schemes, provide training and assist Government in adopting outcome based initiatives.

Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Principal Secretary, S Krishnan exchanged documents with J-PAL South Asia Executive Director, Shobini Mukherji in the presence of Chief Minister O Panneerselvam, the release said. -PTI

MINNEAPOLIS: As a nurse, Doris Parker says she is used to being exposed to AIDS, tuberculosis and other infectious diseases, so she's not afraid to return to Liberia to help her native country fight a deadly Ebola outbreak. ``I have a strong conviction this is what I need to do,'' said Parker, a Minnesota medical surgical nurse who left with a group of medical responders bound for

still has relatives. She is motivated to treat her fellow Liberians and to help stop the virus from spreading. Ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in West Africa, mostly in Liberia, Guinea and Sierra Leone. ``If it's not contained at the source, there's a strong possibility it could be a major, global crisis,'' Parker said while sitting in the offices of the Minneapolis-based nonprofit American

Nurse Doris Parker of Brooklyn Park, Minn., in the offices of the Minneapolisbased American Refugee Committee. Parker is among a group of health-care workers the ARC is sending to Liberia to treat Ebola patients and help stop the spread of the deadly virus.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

Scientists find new way to make drugs MELBOURNE: In a breakthrough, researchers have developed a revolutionary new way to manufacture natural chemicals and used it to assemble a scarce anti-inflammatory drug with potential to treat cancer and malaria.

The advance could lead to new and cheaper ways to produce rare drugs in large quantities.

"We took small molecules and clipped them together like Lego," said lead researcher Professor Michael Sherburn, from the Australian National University (ANU).

"The building blocks are carefully designed in such a way that the first reaction generates a product perfectly primed for the second. It's quite magical. This means you can efficiently build large and complex molecules," said Sherburn.

Medicines of this type have tradition-

Minnesota health care workers to join Ebola fight

ally been made in a cumbersome way. Chemists take a related molecule and renovate it. This is a lengthy process, with unwanted structural features being ripped out and replaced.

"This leads to a lot of waste," Sherburn said.

The group trialed their innovative new method by making pseudopterosin, a powerful antiinflammatory and analgesic drug, which is currently only available in tiny quantities extracted from fan coral found in the Bahamas.

The work began as blue-sky research, with the researchers trying to work out a way to make supposedly impossible molecules of cross-conjugated hydrocarbons.

Before trying the experiments the team ran simulations on the Raijin supercomputer, which indicated that their method had potential.

"Ours is an empowering and enabling technique, allowing a smarter and faster way to make important substances," said Dr Chris Newton, who did the research in the laboratory as a PhD student.

"The pseudopterosin synthesis is the tip of the iceberg.

We are well on the way to efficient syntheses of other important drugs.

"There is a potential for industrial-scale manufacture, too, which will take the pressure off species which are being harvested for drugs," Newton said.

The research was published in the journal Nature Chemistry.

-PTI

the West African nation. ``As a nurse, we're trained to help, to take care of the sick.''

After living in the U.S. for 28 years, Parker, a resident of a Minneapolis suburb, is making her first trip home to Liberia, where she was born, grew up and attended high school and

Refugee Committee, which is organizing the mission.

The initial group of 11 being deployed includes four LiberianAmericans, said Daniel Wordsworth, the humanitarian organization's president and CEO.

Cont'd on Page 32

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'Huqqa' not safer than 'bidi' smoking: Study JAIPUR: On the occasion of World Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Day, the Indian Asthma Care Society debunked the myth that smoking a 'huqqa' is safer than a 'beedi', saying that ten times more carbon monoxide is inhaled in a single huqqa puff.

"Single puff by 'huqqa' smoking is not safer than 'beedi' (Indian cigarettes) at any cost as both are injurious to lungs causing severe asthma leading to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease," addressing a patientdoctor interaction meet, Dr Virendra Singh, President of IACS and Editor of international journal 'Lung India' said.

Singh, who conducted a research here recently, debunked the longheld belief that huqqa smoking is safer than beedi smoking as the tobacco is inhaled after being filtered through water by a long pipe attached to it.

Singh, quoting the study, said about 10 per cent more carbon monoxide was inhaled in a single puff by huqqa smokers and said it settles more deeply in lungs than by smoking a beedi.

Twenty per cent of villagers in Rajasthan were addicted to beedi or huqqa which was proved to cause severe COPD in addicts aged 40 to 50 years, he said.

Twelve per cent people in rural areas die of COPD, followed by 8 per cent deaths

which were caused by heart attacks, Singh said, quoting national data.

In India, approximately 30 million people are estimated to be suffering from COPD and half a million die every year from it, Singh said.

COPD which is the fourth leading cause of death worldwide after heart diseases, stroke (paralysis), diabetes, would rank

third in the 21st century, Singh added.

COPD is a non-communicable lung disease caused due to smoking, from smoke of 'chullah' in villages, vehicles' smoke, and dust in mines and factories, he said, adding the disease progressively robs sufferers of the ability to breath.

However, recent studies indicate that 25 to 50 per cent of smoking addicts do no even know they have it, because its diagnoses often goes unrecognized, he said.

Advising patients Singh said, a painless five-minute test 'spirometry' could address the problem of under-diagnosis of this serious lung disease. -PTI

Plasma study will test survivors' blood to treat Ebola Cont'd from Page 30

Survivors who give plasma also must be tested to make sure they are cured of Ebola and don't have other diseases such as hepatitis, syphilis or HIV. The Africa study will take an added step - use of an experimental system by Cerus Corp. for inactivating viruses in blood.

Dr. Ada Igonoh, a doctor in Nigeria who got Ebola from a patient and recovered, expects to donate plasma and recruit others for the study. ``Survivors will be willing if they understand the goal,'' she said.

She and Brantly met with Gates to discuss the project earlier this month at an American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene conference in New Orleans.

Dr. Luciana Borio, who is leading the Food and Drug Administration's Ebola response, spoke at the conference about plasma. Even though it seemed to help in

some cases, ``The bottom line is that we don't really know if it helps and to what degree it might help,'' she said. ``We would love to not be in the same situation in the future,'' and a study is the only way to know for sure, she said.

Clinical Research Management Inc., a Northeast Ohio company that contracts with sponsors to run clinical trials, will lead the plasma study in Africa. Plasma will be collected through three bloodmobiles donated by another Microsoft co-founder, Paul G. Allen, and the Greenbaum Foundation. The bloodmobiles have been flown to Africa.

The U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) will provide Ebola testing for the study.

Several universities will help, as will the Blood Centers of America and the Safe Blood for Africa Foundation. About a dozen companies donated equipment and supplies.-AP

Minnesota health care workers to join Ebola fight Cont'd from Page 31

Another 25 people from across the U.S. might be deployed over the next six months, he said.

The initial goal is to establish an Ebola treatment center or ``mini-hospital'' in a remote area of far eastern Liberia, near the border with the Ivory Coast, Wordsworth said. By locating the center in the rural community of Fish Town, Wordsworth said, they hope to prevent the disease from spreading eastward into the Ivory Coast. The ultimate goal is to set up a treatment center in every county, or state, in Liberia, which will help get people infected with Ebola away from families and communities and into a quarantined space, he said. ``If we can do that, we can contain the disease and stop it from spreading,'' Wordsworth told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

Group members will attend specialized Ebola training and learn rigorous safety procedures. Then, they'll serve a threemonth rotation where they will be caring for patients and helping prevent the spread of the virus.

Parker already has completed training

by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Anniston, Alabama, and will undergo more training when she arrives in Liberia. When she returns to the U.S., she will be quarantined at home for 21 days, the incubation period for Ebola.

As part of the tight-knit community of Liberians living in the Twin Cities, Parker said she knew Patrick Sawyer of Coon Rapids, the first American to die of Ebola.

Sawyer died on July 25 in Nigeria, days after he traveled from his native Liberia.

He left behind a wife and three young daughters in Minnesota. ``We all are interconnected in the community,'' Parker said. ``It was just too close to home, very close to home when that happened.''

Wordsworth said his organization wants to bring ``a depth of cultural competence and an understanding of the country and the society'' to treating Ebola in Liberia. ``The fact that you can have a Liberian face treating you'' in a hospital might comfort patients, he said. ``It's already an alien environment and the more you can see what's common to you and real to you, the better. You're frightened enough already.'' AP

Ebola death toll rises to 5,420: WHO GENEVA: The World Health Organiza- declared Ebola free. tion has said that 5,420 people had so far Nigeria had eight deaths and 20 cases, died of Ebola across eight countries, out of while Senegal had one case and no deaths. a total 15,145 cases of infection, since late There has been one case of infection in December 2013.

Spain, where an infected nurse has recovThe UN health agency had reported ered.

5,177 deaths and 14,413 cases.

In the United States, four Ebola cases The WHO believes that the number of have been recorded and one person - a deaths is likely far higher, given that the Liberian - had died from the virus. fatality rate in the current outbreak is known Ebola, one of the deadliest viruses to be around 70 per cent. known to man, is spread only through diThe deadliest Ebola outbreak ever con- rect contact with the bodily fluids of an tinues to affect Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone the most.

But the fresh toll came as the spread appeared to be slowing in the capital of Liberia, allowing the hardesthit country to lift its state of emergency.

In its latest toll, WHO said that through November 16, 2,964 people had died in Liberia, out of 7,069 cases.

In Sierra Leone, 1,250 people had died as of NovemRed Cross volunteers receive training in Paris, France, on ber 16 out of 6,073 cases, how to handle the deadly Ebola disease.

WHO said.

Guinea, where the outbreak began late infected person showing symptoms such last year, counted 1,192 deaths and 1,971 as fever or vomiting. cases.

People caring for the sick or handling Data from Mali, the latest country to be the bodies of people infected Ebola are hit by Ebola, showed six cases of the deadly therefore especially exposed. virus and five deaths.

WHO says that a total of 568 healthcare Data from Nigeria and Senegal remained workers were known to have contracted the unchanged, and both countries have been virus, and 329 of them had died. -AFP

November 28, 2014

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Ten second kiss can transfer 80 million bacteria LONDON: Couples, take note! As many as 80 million bacteria are transferred during 10 seconds of kissing, according to a new study that found partners who kiss at least nine times a day share similar communities of oral bacteria.

With the mouth playing host to more

After an intimate kiss, the researchers found that the quantity of probiotic bacteria in the receiver's saliva rose threefold - 80 million in 10 secondes than 700 varieties of bacteria, the oral microbiota also appear to be influenced by those closest to us.

Researchers from Micropia museum and the Netherlands Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) in the Netherlands studied 21 couples, asking them to fill out questionnaires on their kissing behavior including their average intimate kiss frequency.

They then took swab samples to investigate the composition of their oral microbiota on the tongue and in their saliva.

The results showed that when couples intimately kiss at relatively high frequencies their salivary microbiota become similar.

On average it was found that at least nine intimate kisses per day led to couples having significantly shared salivary microbiota.

"Intimate kissing involving full tongue contact and saliva exchange appears to be a courtship behavior unique to humans and is common in over 90 per cent of known cultures," lead author Remco Kort, from TNO's Microbiology and Systems Biology department, said.

In a controlled kissing experiment to quantify the transfer of bacteria, a member of each of the couples had a probiotic drink containing specific varieties of bacteria including Lactobacillus and Bifidobacteria.

After an intimate kiss, the researchers found that the quantity of probiotic bacteria in the receiver's saliva rose threefold, and calculated that in total 80 million bacteria would have been transferred during a 10 second kiss.

The study also suggests an important role for other mechanisms that select oral microbiota, resulting from a shared lifestyle, dietary and personal care habits, and this is especially the case for microbiota on the tongue.

The researchers found that while tongue microbiota were more similar among partners than unrelated individuals, their similarity did not change with more frequent kissing, in contrast to the findings on the saliva microbiota.

The research was published in the journal Microbiome. -PTI

Group asks Baker to act on mental health BOSTON: Governor-elect Charlie Baker should move quickly after taking office to address issues surrounding mental health treatment, including disparities between insurance payment rates for behavioral health and other medical services, an advocacy group said.

The Massachusetts chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness unveiled several recommendations for the first 100 days of Baker's administration. His inauguration is Jan. 8.

The advocates cited federal statistics that show mental illness affects more than one in five adults in the U.S. and said a survey it conducted of Massachusetts voters in July revealed dissatisfaction with what state government was doing to help those suffering from mental health or addiction issues. ``It's clear from the survey that voters want action on the issue,'' Laurie Martinelli, executive director of the Massachusetts chapter, said in a statement. ``Our hope is the next administration deeply commits to dramatic improvement in the area of mental health.''

The group recommended that Baker, a Republican who formerly headed Harvard Pilgrim Health Care, should work with other state officials to bridge gaps in what private and public insurers reimburse for men-

tal health treatment as opposed to other types of medical treatments.

Baker's first state budget proposal should outline priorities for mental health and addiction services and provide adequate funding to achieve those goals, the

Governor Charlie Baker

group said, adding the incoming governor must also take steps to end what it called the ``over-incarceration'' of people with mental illness.

Baker served as the state secretary of Health and Human Services in the 1990s, helping lead a drive to close some of the state's antiquated mental health institutions and move many patients into communitybased programs. -AP

Hawaii to use federal funds for migrants' health HONOLULU: Hawaii will save about $21.5 million by tapping into federal funding to pay for health care for people living in the state under the Compact of Free Association, a newspaper reported.

Roughly 7,500 adult migrants from the Federated States of Micronesia, Palau and the Marshall Islands will be able to sign up for medical coverage under the Affordable Care Act, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported.

Under the compact, Pacific Island citizens freely live and work in the U.S. with no time constraints in exchange for allowing the U.S. military to control strategic land and water areas in the region.

The federal government used to pay for health care for the migrant group, which qualified for benefits such as Medicaid. But the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 stopped that eligibility. Hawaii filled the funding gap for more than a decade.

In 2009, Gov. Linda Lingle's administration sought to slash benefits with a program to deny coverage for chemotherapy and dialysis treatments, and limit doctor visits and prescriptions.

Implementation of the plan was blocked

by a federal court injunction that was later overturned. However, state officials indicated they did not want to proceed with the plan.

Officials say medical expenses for Hawaii's Compact of Free Association resi-

The federal government used to pay for health care for the migrant group, which qualified for benefits such as Medicaid. But the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 stopped that eligibility. dents will be now be subsidized on a sliding scale based on income levels.

Children and pregnant women who are part of the migrant group will remain covered by Medicaid, using state and federal funds.

To avoid a gap in coverage, residents living in Hawaii under the compact must enroll by Feb. 15 by signing up with the Hawaii Health Connector. -AP

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A look at Arizona health insurance open enrollment PHOENIX: Open enrollment for the second phase of President Barack Obama's health care law opened over the weekend with less fanfare than the original rollout that was plagued by computer glitches. But this enrollment period will bring about many changes for Arizona residents, including the prospect of lower prices but shifting insurance providers.

gained insurance in the past year, 302,000 through an expanded state Medicaid program and 120,000 through the federal health insurance marketplace created by Obama's health care overhaul law.

Arizona chose to let the federal government run its insurance marketplace. Residents purchase policies through the federal website, www.healthcare.gov.

Three new insurance companies are entering the individual market in Arizona on Jan. 1, including the nation's largest health insurer, United Healthcare. That brings to 13 the number of insurers in the market.

Here is a look at some of the key facts, changes and issues: FEWER UNINSURED Arizona began its second open enrollment under the Affordable Care Act with an estimated 780,000 uninsured residents out of 6.5 million people in the state, based on estimates done by the Kaiser Family Foundation and the number who gained insurance this year.

About 422,000 Arizonans

FALLING PREMIUMS, MORE CHOICES Three new insurance companies are entering the individual market in Arizona on Jan. 1, including the nation's largest health insurer, United Healthcare. That brings to 13 the number of insurers in the market.

Premiums for a mid-range plan in Phoenix, called a silver-level plan, dropped 10 percent this year, making Arizona one of the least

expensive states for individual health insurance.

Prices in rural areas may be higher, but a 40-year-old nonsmoker can get a plan in Phoenix for $170 a month _ before a subsidy that people earning less than 400 percent of the poverty line can receive. There are seven network pricing zones in the state.

DIFFICULT, BUT HELP'S AVAILABLE With more than 100 plans in Phoenix alone, picking an insurance plan can be incredibly complicated.

Besides premium price, people need to consider maximum out-ofpocket costs, whether their doctor or hospital is a preferred provider, and what kind of prescription coverage is included.

But don't worry: Help is available.

Two large community groups have received grants to provide ``navigator'' services, essentially education and handholding to help people figure out how to apply and what plan to choose.

And it's easier to find help than in the last enrollment period. A group called Covered Arizona has upgraded its website to link navigators with those who need help.

If you don't have access to a computer, dial 211 and they'll do it for you.

ALREADY INSURED? If you signed up for health insurance for 2014 during the first open enrollment period, that doesn't mean you should ignore this enrollment period.

A large number of the 120,000 Arizonans who bought insurance

don't qualify to buy a plan through the healthcare exchanges and don't qualify for Medicaid.

• Expect to hear about this more as the federal government, Covered Arizona, and nonprofit groups conduct ad campaigns and outreach on social media. The Hispanic community in particular can expect a bigger effort, since enrollment among Latinos fell short last year, and that is a key

A large number of the 120,000 Arizonans who bought insurance this year get subsidies based on their income, so it is important that they update their information at www.healthcare.gov this year get subsidies based on their income, so it is important that they update their information at www.healthcare.gov . That will update people's subsidy amount, avoiding a potential repayment.

Also, because so many plans are changing next year and premiums have changed, now's the time to shop around.

ODDS AND ENDS • Those in the country illegally

market for insurers.

• The last day to pick a new plan for it to take effect on Jan. 1 is Dec. 15. Open enrollment ends Feb. 15, locking most people out of the market for another year.

• Penalties for those without insurance in 2015 go to $325 per person or 2 percent of income, whichever is higher. In 2014, it is 1 percent or $95. The penalty must be paid when you file your taxes.

-AP

Anthem, Blue Shield criticized for doctor networks SACRAMENTO: Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California, two of California's largest health insurers, misled customers about the number of doctors in their networks under plans sold through the state's insurance marketplace, according to a state report.

The California Department of Managed Health Care began investigating in May after patients complained they were told that certain medical providers were included when they chose a health plan, only to find out after their appointment that their doctor was not part of their network. Seeing an out-of-network doctor increases costs significantly for patients.

About 200 complaints were filed against the companies earlier this year based on plans sold through Covered California, the entity created to carry out the provisions of the federal Affordable Care Act. The department cited the insurers for various deficiencies in how they publicized their physician networks. It found the insurers' online provider directories listed physicians that were outside their networks and that they failed to

correct inaccuracies. They issued statements ``that were either untrue or misleading and which were disseminated, at least in part, for the purpose of inducting persons to enroll in the plan.''

Anthem and Blue Shield say the state's survey is flawed and noted that doctors were not obligated to participate in the survey.

The insurers said there is often confusion within doctors' offices about which health plans they accept.

The state ``relied on an unsound methodology to obtain its raw data, and then made misleading and inappropriate conclusions based on inaccurate data,'' Anthem wrote in its response to the state's findings.

Both insurers have acknowledged they made mistakes but say they have tried to fix them and have added thousands of new providers. Anthem spokesman Darrel Ng said the health plan followed up with the doctors who said they didn't accept the plan and found that 99 percent had contracts with the insurer. ``We're not saying that everything is perfect,'' he said. ``We've taken great steps to try to remedy that situation.''

There are 10 private health plans selling on the exchange.

Together, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California accounted for nearly 58 percent of

In the case of Anthem, 12.5 percent of doctors were not at the address listed for them, while 12.8 percent were not willing to accept the plans purchased on the exchange. those who signed up the first year.

The state said that while it understands the insurers' concerns, ``they do not change the fact that the significant inaccuracies contained in the plan's online provider directory resulted in a highly unacceptable customer experience, nor do they change the fact that California consumers could not reach or did not have access to providers who were repre-

sented as being part of the plan's network.''

Its investigation found that 18.2 percent of doctors listed in Blue Shield's directory were not at the location listed for them, and nearly 9 percent of doctors were not willing to accept the Covered California plans. Despite followup calls by its investigators, the state found that just 57 percent of the 1,360 plan providers were available to Covered California enrollees.

In the case of Anthem, 12.5 percent of doctors were not at the address listed for them, while 12.8 percent were not willing to accept the plans purchased on the exchange. The survey also found that only about 60 percent of the 3,272 plan providers were available to Covered California enrollees.

The state will conduct a followup survey in six months, and the department's enforcement arm can take corrective action if needed.

Both Anthem and Blue Shield have resubmitted updated provider lists.

One consumer advocate called for fines and tough enforcement against the insurers. ``The results of the investiga-

tion of these insurers are deeply troubling,'' said Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a health care advocacy group. ``If significant numbers of doctors listed aren't where the insurers say they are, that's a big violation of trust to premium-paying patients.''

Open enrollment began Nov. 15 and runs through Feb. 15. The state's exchange has set a target of enrolling 1.7 million people for private health coverage next year, which would include re-enrolling the 1.1 million people who signed up during the first season.

Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California, said the exchange will continue to work with the two health plans, network doctors and physician support staff to stay informed about individual plans. ``We're really confident as we go into the second round of open enrollment that they are not changing networks, where we've got some stability,'' Lee said. ``We're going to actually be much better off in terms of consumers having a clear understanding about who's in, and being able to make the informed choices we want consumers to make.'' -AP

In Brief Illegal immigration rising in NJ, Pennsylvania WASHINGTON: Immigrants entering illegally into the U.S. are increasingly making states along the East Coast their home rather than states closer to the Mexican border.

A new report by the Pew Research Center finds that New Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania were among seven states to register gains in unauthorized immigrants from 2009 to 2012. That came even as the total number of immigrants in the U.S. unlawfully was unchanged at 11.2 million.

New Jersey had the biggest gain, jumping 75,000 to 525,000. Many of them were from India and Ecuador.

It was followed by Florida and Pennsylvania.

The Keystone State saw increases from several regions including Honduras, India and the Dominican Republic.

Other states with increases in illegal immigration were Maryland, Virginia, Idaho and Nebraska. -AP

„ Florida sees big rise of residents in US illegally MIAMI: The total number of immigrants living in the United States illegally hasn't changed much since 2009, but where they are choosing to settle, according to a new report from the nonprofit Pew Research Center.

The report shows Florida with among the biggest increases in residents without legal immigration status. Between 2009 and 2012, some 55,000 new immigrants in the country illegally came to Florida. That brings the state's total to an estimated 925,000. The increase highlights a broader shift from the West and Southwest.

Only New Jersey saw a larger increase, with about 75,000 people.

Some East Coast states like New York and Alabama saw declines, but Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia also had sharp increases. California, Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico saw the biggest drops in new arrivals, although their overall populations remain among the largest. California has more than 2.5 million people without legal status. Texas remains in second place with 1.6 million. Florida comes in third.

Florida's agriculture, construction and hospitality industries tend to draw those in the country illegally. So, too, does Florida's thriving legal immigrant population, especially in South Florida where Spanish is frequently spoken and has traditionally been sympathetic to new arrivals regardless of their status. -AP

Immigration

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Defying GOP, Obama announces expansive immigration orders WASHINGTON: Spurning fu- a bill," Obama said, flexing his presi- the public. On Friday, Obama will rious Republicans, President dential powers just two weeks af- speak at a campaign-style rally in Barack Obama unveiled expansive ter his political standing was chal- Las Vegas. executive actions on immigration lenged in the midterm elections.

Despite Obama's challenge to Thursday night to spare nearly 5 As Obama spoke from the Republicans to pass a broader immillion people in the U.S. illegally from deportation and refocus enforcement efforts on "felons, not families."

The moves, affecting mostly parents and young people, marked the most sweeping changes to the nation's fractured immigration laws in nearly three decades and set off a fierce fight with Republicans over the limits of presidential powers.

In a televised address to the nation, Obama defended the legality of his actions and challenged GOP lawmakers to focus their President Barack Obama announces executive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address from the White House in Washington energy not on blocking his measures but on approving White House, immigration sup- migration bill, his actions and the long-stalled legislation to take their porters with American flags angry GOP response could largely place. draped over their shoulders stamp out those prospects for the "To those members of Con- marched on Pennsylvania Avenue remainder of his presidency, engress who question my authority outside carrying signs that read, suring that the contentious debate to make our immigration system "Gracias, Presidente Obama." will carry on into the 2016 elections. work better, or question the wisThe address marked the first Republicans, emboldened by dom of me acting where Congress step in the White House effort to their sweeping victories in the midhas failed, I have one answer: Pass promote the executive actions to terms, are weighing responses to

the president's actions that include lawsuits, a government shutdown, and in rare instances, even impeachment.

"The president will come to regret the chapter history writes if he does move forward," Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Kentucky Republican who is soon to become the Senate majority leader, said before Obama's address.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, who has refused to have his members vote on broad immigration legislation passed by the Senate last year, said Obama's decision to go it alone "cemented his legacy of lawlessness and squandered what little credibility he had left."

While Obama's measures are sweeping in scope, they still leave more than half of the 11 million people living in the U.S. illegally in limbo.

The president announced new deportation priorities that would compel law enforcement to focus its efforts on tracking down serious criminals and people who have recently crossed the border, while specifically placing a low priority on those who have been in the U.S. for more than 10 years.

Cont'd on Page 36

Full text of Obama's immigration speech

M

y fellow Americans, to night, I'd like to talk with you about immigration.

For more than 200 years, our tradition of welcoming immigrants from around the world has given us a tremendous advantage over other nations. It's kept us youthful, dynamic, and entrepreneurial. It has shaped our character as a people with limitless possibilities - people not trapped by our past, but able to remake ourselves as we choose.

But today, our immigration system is broken, and everybody knows it.

Families who enter our country the right way and play by the rules watch others flout the rules.

Business owners who offer their

workers good wages and benefits see the competition exploit undocumented immigrants by paying them far less. All of us take

offense to anyone who reaps the rewards of living in America without taking on the responsibilities of living in America. And undocumented immigrants who desperately want to embrace those responsibilities see little option but to remain in the shadows, or risk their families being torn apart.

It's been this way for decades. And for decades, we haven't done much about it.

When I took office, I committed to fixing this broken immigration system. And I began by doing what I could to secure our borders.

Cont'd on Page 46

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Defying GOP, Obama announces expansive immigration orders Cont'd from Page 35

The president spent months trying to gain a House vote on the Senate bill, frustrating immigration advocates and some Democrats who wanted him to instead take action on his own. While Obama had long insisted that his powers

chances of keeping control of the Senate, though the White House's delay ultimately did little to stem their defeats.

Obama insisted that his actions did not amount to amnesty.

"Amnesty is the immigration system we have today - millions of people who live here without

People chant during a demonstration in front of the White House in Washington, Thursday, Nov. 20, as President Barack Obama announced executive actions on immigration during a nationally televised address.

to halt deportations were limited, the White House began seriously exploring options for unilateral action.

Still, that process has been beset by delays, especially Obama's decision to hold off on announcing the executive orders until after the midterms. Some Democrats had feared that thrusting the immigration debate to the forefront of the campaign would hurt their

paying their taxes or playing by the rules, while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time," he said.

The main beneficiaries of the president's actions are immigrants who have been in the U.S. illegally for more than five years but whose children are citizens or lawful permanent residents. After passing background checks and paying fees, those individuals will soon

be able to seek relief from deportation and get work permits. The administration expects about 4.1 million people to qualify.

Obama is also broadening his 2012 directive that deferred deportation for some young immigrants who entered the country illegally.

Obama will expand eligibility to people who arrived in the U.S. as minors before 2010, instead of the current cutoff of 2007, and will lift the requirement that applicants be under 31. The expansion is expected to affect about 300,000 people.

Applications for the new deportation deferrals will begin in the spring. Those who qualify would be granted deferrals for three years at a time.

Immigration-rights activists gathered at watch parties around the country to listen to the president announce actions they have sought for years.

"This is a great day for farm workers. It's been worth the pain and sacrifice," said Jesus Zuniga, a 40-year-old who picks tomatoes in California's Central Valley and watched the speech at a union gathering in Fresno.

In New York City, however, a couple of protesters held "no amnesty" signs outside a New York union office where advocates of the president's plan were gathering to watch him and celebrate.

"We have a lot of unemployed Americans right now, and I don't understand why unemployed Americans can't be hired to do the jobs these illegals are doing," said

John Wilson, who works in contract management.

The White House insists Obama has the legal authority to halt deportations for parents and for people who came to the U.S. as children, primarily on humanitarian grounds. Officials also cited precedents set by previous immi-

doesn't have to be an adult.

GOP lawmakers disagree with Obama's claims of legal authority, calling his actions an unconstitutional power grab.

Republicans are weighing a range of responses, including filing legal challenges and using must-pass spending legislation

Senator Charles Schumer, D-N.Y. listens at left as Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. speaks during a news conference on immigration reform, Thursday,Nov. 20, on Capitol Hill in Washington.

gration executive actions by Democratic and Republican presidents dating back to Dwight Eisenhower.

A senior administration official said the decision to protect parents of citizens or lawful permanent residents is in line with an existing law that allows adult citizens to sponsor their parents for immigration.

Obama's plan goes a step further because the sponsoring citizen

this fall to try to stop Obama's effort. One lawmaker - Republican Rep. Mo Brooks of Alabama - has raised the specter of impeachment.

GOP leaders have warned against such talk and are seeking to avoid spending-bill tactics that could lead to a government shutdown. They say such moves could backfire, angering many voters and alienating Hispanics for the next presidential election.-AP

Number of immigrants illegally in Arizona drops TUCSON: The population of immigrants in Arizona who lack legal status has dropped during the last few years while remaining steady nationwide.

New figures by the Pew Research Center show that the places where immigrants in the country illegally live has shifted but that the overall population has leveled off.

In Arizona, once a battleground for the debate about illegal immigration, the number has dropped from about 350,000 in 2009 to about 300,000 in 2012. Nationally, there remain about 11.2 million immigrants who lack legal status living in the U.S. - the same figure as 2009.

Arizona is among 14 states

where populations of immigrants lacking legal status have shrunk.

The other states are Alabama, California, Colorado, Georgia, Il-

had the steepest drops.

The population has grown in seven states, particularly in New Jersey and Florida.

Republicans have threatened action if the president moves forward with the plan. Immigrant advocates have been pushing the president and say the midterm election gains made by Republicans was in part because of Obama's and the Democrat Party's inaction on immigration linois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Oregon. California and New York

But Arizona still ranks high on the list of states where students have at least one parent who lacks legal status. Accord-

ing to the report, 11 percent of Arizona K-12 students have a parent who resides in the country illegally, placing the state fourth after Nevada, California and Texas. Nationwide, only 6.9 percent of students have a parent who lacks legal status. Most of those students are U.S.-born, the study shows.

The report was released as President Barack Obama is expected to announce executive action that will provide relief from deportation and work permits to as many as 5 million people. Many believe the directive will protect parents of U.S.born children. The program could be similar to one issued to students who were brought

to the states illegally as children and who meet certain qualifications. That program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, launched in 2012, protects students from deportation and allocates them a Social Security number for two years. In Arizona, 66,000 students qualify, according to the Migration Policy Institute.

Republicans have threatened action if the president moves forward with the plan. Immigrant advocates have been pushing the president and say the midterm election gains made

by Republicans was in part because of Obama's and the Democrat Party's inaction on immigration. -PTI

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www.indiapost.com

450,000 illegal immigrants in US are from India WASHINGTON: Indians constitute four per cent of the total illegal immigrants living in the US, a country where the overall unauthorized immigrant population has remained unchanged since 2009, a latest report has said.

According to a report by Pew Research, more than 450,000 unauthorized Indian immigrants live in the US, constituting four per cent of the total illegal immigrants in the country.

The estimated figures are of the year 2012, the report said.

There was considerable decline in the number of illegal immigrants

from Mexico between 2009 and 2012, but the overall number of 11.2 million unauthorized immi-

Indians are the largest unauthorized immigrants in New Hampshire.

There was considerable decline in the number of illegal immigrants from Mexico between 2009 and 2012, but the overall number of 11.2 million unauthorized immigrants living in the US in 2012, remained unchanged from 2009. grants living in the US in 2012, remained unchanged from 2009.

While the Indian illegal immigrants comprise second largest

Obama warned against bypassing Congress WASHINGTON: Top Republican leadership has cautioned US President Barack Obama against bypassing the Congress on immigration reform that would allow 11 million illegal immigrants, including 2.4 lakh Indians, to stay in the country.

"The President has already made a number of unilateral changes in US immigration policy with disastrous results. We have seen literally thousands of convicted criminals released from US

custody, including those with violent records, and, of course, it wasn't that long ago we saw what had been called a genuine humanitarian crisis unfold along the southern border in my state," alleged top Republican Senator, John Cornyn.

Questioning the plans on immigration reform, Cornyn, who is co-chair of the Senate India caucus, asked, "What about the people who have been waiting patiently in line complying with immigration laws to have these millions of other people jump right ahead of them and be given some form of legal status?"

"It's just not fair to them, and it certainly doesn't encourage people's compliance with the rules or the law," he said.

After a poll drubbing at the hands of Republicans who snatched control of the Senate, Obama struck a defiant tone saying he is ready to work with Republicans but could bypass Congress on issues like immigration reforms.

The President said he would take executive action this year,

without waiting to see whether the new Congress makes progress toward a comprehensive bipartisan immigration reform bill.

Opposing the move, Cornyn said criminal organizations would be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the President's executive order.

"And yet again, President Obama just doesn't seem to care.

He also doesn't seem to care that his executive action would harm our opportunity to reform our broken legal immigration system," he said.

Cornyn said Republicans and Democrats alike have ideas for

how to reform the immigration system, and many of them have bipartisan support.

"So in the President's desperate attempt to placate some very vocal activist groups and to make up for years of hollow promises, he has decided to flout the rule of law and end up making real immigration reform that much harder to pass," he said.

The Democratic leadership, however, argued the possible executive actions by Obama saying several presidents in the past have also done so.

"Instead of looking for common ground and working to compromise, a few extreme Republicans are more interested in threats and ultimatums.

And why? Because these radical Republicans object to President Obama using his constitutionally-established authority to do what Presidents Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush did before him - fix as much of the system as he can to protect families suffering under our broken immigration system," Senator Harry Reid said.

Meanwhile, several Democratic Senators in a letter supported the President on his executive actions on immigration reform.

"Because House Republicans have not acted, we fully support your decision to use your wellestablished executive authority to improve as much of the immigration system as you can," the Senators said. -PTI

population in Indiana with four per cent, the percentages in other states were Michigan (14 per cent), Minnesota (nine per cent), New Jersey (11 per cent), Ohio (11 per cent), Pennsylvania (11 per cent) and Washington (five per cent), the report said.

Indians were the third largest unauthorized immigrants in Alaska (four per cent), Arizona (two per cent), Delaware (seven per cent), Illinois (five per cent), Kansas (five per cent), Massachusetts (ten per cent), Missouri (nine per cent) and Oregon (two per cent).

Although the US population of unauthorized immigrants was stable from 2009 to 2012, the number of Mexicans in this population fell by about half a million people during those years.

Unauthorized immigrant popu-

lations from South America and from a grouping of Europe and Canada held steady between 2009 and 2012, whereas it grew slightly from Asia, the Caribbean, Central America and the rest of the world for the same period.

Rounding out the top 10 in 2012 are China (300,000), the Philippines (200,000), South Korea (180,000), the Dominican Republic (170,000) and Colombia (150,000).

Five East Coast states were among those where the number of unauthorized immigrants grew were Florida, Maryland, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

Numbers also rose in Idaho and Nebraska.

Six Western states where the unauthorized immigrant populations declined were Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon. -PTI

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Full text of Obama's immigration speech Cont'd from Page 35

Today, we have more agents and technology deployed to secure our southern border than at any time in our history. And over the past six years, illegal border crossings have been cut by more than half. Although this summer, there was a brief spike in unaccompanied children being apprehended at our border, the number of such children is now actually lower than it's been in nearly two years. Overall, the number of people trying to cross our border illegally is at its lowest level since the 1970s. Those are the facts.

Meanwhile, I worked with Congress on a comprehensive fix, and last year, 68 Democrats, Republicans, and Independents came together to pass a bipartisan bill in the Senate. It wasn't perfect. It was a compromise, but it reflected common sense. It would have doubled the number of border patrol agents, while giving undocumented immigrants a pathway to citizenship if they paid a fine, started paying their taxes, and went to the back of the line. And independent experts said that it would help grow our economy and shrink our deficits.

Had the House of Representatives allowed that kind of a bill a simple yes-or-no vote, it would have passed with support from both parties, and today it would be the law. But for a year and a half now, Republican leaders in the House have refused to allow that simple vote.

Now, I continue to believe that the best way to solve this problem is by working together to pass that kind of common sense law. But until that happens, there are actions I have the legal authority to take as President - the same kinds of actions taken by Democratic and Republican Presidents before me - that will help make our immigration system more fair and more just.

Tonight, I am announcing those actions.

First, we'll build on our progress at the border with additional resources for our law enforcement personnel so that they can stem the flow of illegal crossings, and speed the return of those who do cross over.

Second, I will make it easier and faster for high-skilled immigrants, graduates, and entrepreneurs to stay and contribute to our economy, as so many business

leaders have proposed.

Third, we'll take steps to deal responsibly with the millions of undocumented immigrants who already live in our country.

I want to say more about this third issue, because it generates the most passion and controversy. Even as we are a nation of

you've been in America for more than five years; if you have children who are American citizens or legal residents; if you register, pass a criminal background check, and you're willing to pay your fair share of taxes - you'll be able to apply to stay in this country temporarily, without fear of deporta-

immigrants, we are also a nation of laws. Undocumented workers broke our immigration laws, and I believe that they must be held accountable - especially those who may be dangerous. That's why, over the past six years, deportations of criminals are up 80 percent. And that's why we're going to keep focusing enforcement resources on actual threats to our security. Felons, not families.

Criminals, not children. Gang members, not a mother who's working hard to provide for her kids. We'll prioritize, just like law enforcement does every day.

But even as we focus on deporting criminals, the fact is, millions of immigrants - in every state, of every race and nationality - will still live here illegally. And let's be honest - tracking down, rounding up, and deporting millions of people isn't realistic. Anyone who suggests otherwise isn't being straight with you. It's also not who we are as Americans. After all, most of these immigrants have been here a long time. They work hard, often in tough, low-paying jobs. They support their families.

They worship at our churches.

Many of their kids are Americanborn or spent most of their lives here, and their hopes, dreams, and patriotism are just like ours.

As my predecessor, President Bush, once put it: "They are a part of American life."

Now here's the thing: we expect people who live in this country to play by the rules. We expect that those who cut the line will not be unfairly rewarded. So we're going to offer the following deal: If

tion. You can come out of the shadows and get right with the law.

That's what this deal is. Now let's be clear about what it isn't.

This deal does not apply to anyone who has come to this country recently. It does not apply to anyone who might come to America illegally in the future. It does not grant citizenship, or the right to stay here permanently, or offer the same benefits that citizens receive - only Congress can do that. All we're saying is we're not going to deport you.

I know some of the critics of this action call it amnesty. Well, it's not. Amnesty is the immigration system we have today - millions of people who live here without paying their taxes or playing by the rules, while politicians use the issue to scare people and whip up votes at election time.

That's the real amnesty - leaving this broken system the way it is. Mass amnesty would be unfair.

Mass deportation would be both impossible and contrary to our character. What I'm describing is accountability - a commonsense, middle ground approach: If you meet the criteria, you can come out of the shadows and get right with the law. If you're a criminal, you'll be deported. If you plan to enter the U.S. illegally, your chances of getting caught and sent back just went up.

The actions I'm taking are not only lawful, they're the kinds of actions taken by every single Republican President and every single Democratic President for the past half century. And to those Members of Congress who ques-

tion my authority to make our immigration system work better, or question the wisdom of me acting where Congress has failed, I have one answer: Pass a bill. I want to work with both parties to pass a more permanent legislative solution. And the day I sign that bill into law, the actions I take will no longer be necessary.

Meanwhile, don't let a disagreement over a single issue be a deal breaker on every issue.

That's not how our democracy works, and Congress certainly shouldn't shut down our government again just because we disagree on this. Americans are tired of gridlock. What our country needs from us right now is a common purpose - a higher purpose.

Most Americans support the types of reforms I've talked about tonight.

But I understand the disagreements held by many of you at home. Millions of us, myself included, go back generations in this country, with ancestors who put in the painstaking work to become citizens. So we don't like the notion that anyone might get a free pass to American citizenship. I know that some worry immigration will change the very fabric of who we are, or take our jobs, or stick it

remember that this debate is about something bigger. It's about who we are as a country, and who we want to be for future generations.

Are we a nation that tolerates the hypocrisy of a system where workers who pick our fruit and make our beds never have a chance to get right with the law? Or are we a nation that gives them a chance to make amends, take responsibility, and give their kids a better future?

Are we a nation that accepts the cruelty of ripping children from their parents' arms? Or are we a nation that values families, and works to keep them together?

Are we a nation that educates the world's best and brightest in our universities, only to send them home to create businesses in countries that compete against us? Or are we a nation that encourages them to stay and create jobs, businesses, and industries right here in America?

That's what this debate is all about. We need more than politics as usual when it comes to immigration; we need reasoned, thoughtful, compassionate debate that focuses on our hopes, not our fears.

I know the politics of this issue are tough. But let me tell you why I have come to feel so strongly about it. Over the past few years, I have seen the determination of immigrant fathers who worked two or three jobs, without taking a dime from the government, and at

to middle-class families at a time when they already feel like they've gotten the raw end of the deal for over a decade. I hear these concerns. But that's not what these steps would do. Our history and the facts show that immigrants are a net plus for our economy and our society. And I believe it's important that all of us have this debate without impugning each other's character.

Because for all the back-andforth of Washington, we have to

risk at any moment of losing it all, just to build a better life for their kids. I've seen the heartbreak and anxiety of children whose mothers might be taken away from them just because they didn't have the right papers. I've seen the courage of students who, except for the circumstances of their birth, are as American as Malia or Sasha; students who bravely come out as undocumented in hopes they could make a difference in a country they love. Cont'd on Page 39

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East Coast popular for immigrants in US illegally WASHINGTON: Immigrants In the early to mid-2000s, mi- ibbean, are contributing to the mix. entering the U.S. illegally are in- grants primarily from Mexico The report comes as President creasingly making states along the drove much of the nation's illegal Barack Obama seeks to move forEast Coast their home rather than immigration into Western states. ward with executive actions that states closer to the Mexican bor- Now, 14 states including Arizona, potentially could shield from deder.

California, Colorado, Nevada, New portation about 5 million immiNew Jersey, Florida and Pennsylvania were among seven states to register gains in unauthorized immigrants from 2009 to 2012, even as the total number of immigrants here in the U.S. unlawfully was unchanged at 11.2 million, according to a report by the nonpartisan Pew Research Center.

New Jersey had the biggest gain, jumping 75,000 to 525,000 as many immigrants from India and Ecuador crossed illegally into the state.

It was followed by Florida, increasing 50,000 to 925,000. Pennsylvania was third, rising 30,000 to A crowd of Measure 88 supporters wave signs during a rally in Portland, Ore. 170,000. It saw increases from several regions including Mexico and Oregon are seeing grants here illegally. CongresHonduras, India and the Domini- declines. sional Republicans are in an upcan Republic, many of whom Mexicans still make up the bulk roar over the plans and are debatmoved into the rapidly diversify- of immigrants here illegally - ing how to thwart the president. ing southeastern part of the state. roughly 52 percent, down from 56 Pew said it was too soon to say Other states with increases percent in 2009 - but increasingly whether the shifting pattern of ilwere Maryland, Virginia, Idaho and other countries, particularly from legal immigration indicated a Nebraska.

Central America, Asia and the Car- longer-term trend.

Fewer immigrants live illegally in Kansas WICHITA: While the overall number of immigrants living in the United States illegally has been relatively stable since 2009, far fewer of them are choosing to live in Kansas, according to a report by the Pew Research Center.

The report by the nonprofit group shows Kansas is among 14 states with sharp declines in the number of residents living without legal immigration status.

Seven other states had increases.

Between 2009 and 2012, some 20,000 immigrants without legal status left Kansas. That lowers the state's total to an estimated 75,000.

The report attributes the population decreases among those in the country illegally to a decline in the number of Mexican-born immigrants. People from Mexico account for 75 percent of those living in Kansas without lawful immigration status.

Immigration activist Sulma Arias, executive director of Kansas People's Action, also pointed

to increased deportations and lack of employment opportunities in Kansas. ``Families leave due to opportunities for jobs in other states, and other states are sometimes more welcoming as well,'' Arias said.

The report attributes the population decreases among those in the country illegally to a decline in the number of Mexican-born immigrants. People from Mexico account for 75 percent illegals But Ed Hayes, who runs the website Victims of Illegal Alien Crime Memorial from his Olathe home, said the immigrant population loss means more jobs for U.S.

citizens. ``It is good - that is jobs that Americans can work or get back,'' Hayes said.

The Pew Research Center also estimated in its report that immigrants without legal status account for 3.5 percent of the Kansas labor force while comprising 2.6 percent of the state's population. About 7 percent of elementary and secondary schoolchildren in Kansas have a parent who is unlawfully in the United States.

Other Midwest states where the report indicated declines were Indiana and Illinois. Six Western states - Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and Oregon - also saw decreases. The Northeastern states of Massachusetts and New York also had a decline.

States drawing the biggest increases in immigrants without lawful immigration status are Florida, Idaho, Maryland, Nebraska, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. -AP

Illegal immigration peaked in 2007 at 12.2 million before the U.S. recession hit. Since then, fewer Mexicans have crossed into the U.S. while many here have chosen to return, due to a combination of factors including an improving Mexican economy, heightened U.S. attention on border enforcement and an aging Mexican workforce. ``We've seen a continued decline in the number of unauthorized immigrants from Mexico, which shows up in two key indicators: The number of new arrivals from Mexico has slowed, and

at the same time, the number of Mexicans apprehended has reached a 40-year low,'' said Jeffrey Passel, senior demographer at Pew. The Pew analysis is based on census data. Because the Census Bureau does not ask people about their immigration status, the estimate on immigrants living in the U.S. illegally is derived largely by subtracting the estimated legal immigrant population from the total foreign-born population. It is a method that has been used by the government and Pew for many years and is generally accepted. -AP

Full text of Obama's immigration speech Cont'd from Page 38

These people - our neighbors, our classmates, our friends - they did not come here in search of a free ride or an easy life. They came to work, and study, and serve in our military, and above all, contribute to America's success.

Tomorrow, I'll travel to Las Vegas and meet with some of these students, including a young woman named Astrid Silva.

Astrid was brought to America when she was four years old. Her only possessions were a cross, her doll, and the frilly dress she had on. When she started school, she didn't speak any En-

herself and others like her, and today, Astrid Silva is a college student working on her third degree.

Are we a nation that kicks out a striving, hopeful immigrant like Astrid - or are we a nation that finds a way to welcome her in?

Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger - we were strangers once, too.

My fellow Americans, we are and always will be a nation of immigrants. We were strangers once, too. And whether our forebears were strangers who crossed the Atlantic, or the Pacific, or the Rio Grande, we are

Are we a nation that kicks out a striving, hopeful immigrant like Astrid - or are we a nation that finds a way to welcome her in?

Scripture tells us that we shall not oppress a stranger, for we know the heart of a stranger we were strangers once, too. glish. She caught up to the other kids by reading newspapers and watching PBS, and became a good student. Her father worked in landscaping. Her mother cleaned other people's homes.

They wouldn't let Astrid apply to a technology magnet school for fear the paperwork would out her as an undocumented immigrant - so she applied behind their back and got in. Still, she mostly lived in the shadows until her grandmother, who visited every year from Mexico, passed away, and she couldn't travel to the funeral without risk of being found out and deported.

It was around that time she decided to begin advocating for

here only because this country welcomed them in, and taught them that to be an American is about something more than what we look like, or what our last names are, or how we worship.

What makes us Americans is our shared commitment to an ideal that all of us are created equal, and all of us have the chance to make of our lives what we will.

That's the country our parents and grandparents and generations before them built for us.

That's the tradition we must uphold. That's the legacy we must leave for those who are yet to come.

Thank you, God bless you, and God bless this country we love.

40 India Post

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November 28, 2014

Mahatma Gandhi’s birth place

P

orbandar is situated along the Arabian Sea in the western Indian state of Gujarat. Famous as the birth place of Mahatma Gandhi, the city is well connected to the other parts of the country by rail, road, and air.

Best time to visit: The climate of Porbandar is generally pleasant. The summer season continues from March to June with the daytime temperature crossing 42ºC. The monsoons enter this region in July and remain there till September.

Winter comes in from October and stays till February. Due to the cyclonic storms or depressions in the Arabian Sea in the post monsoon months, and to a lesser extent in May and June, the city faces strong winds, heavy rain, and occa-

sional thunderstorms. The summer temperature ranges between 24ºC and 42ºC and the winter temperature range from 10ºC to 24ºC. History: Porbandar was a historic port of the Jetwa Rajputs, a dynasty that ruled vast areas of the Kathiawad peninsula for approximately 2000 years. After facing defeat at the hands of the Jadeja Rajputs in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, the Jetwas came back to power in the 1630s.

They shifted their capital from Ranpur to Chaya during that time and by the 18th century, the Jetwas finally settled in Porbandar, which occupied a unique position as a port city. It was strategically situated south of the ports of Nawanagar and the Kutch state, and north of Veraval in Junagadh state.

The Walker Treaty in the early 19th century brought peace

in Saurashtra and this was the time of development for Porbandar. The period saw the construction of a fresh water reservoir, separate schools for boys and girls, a post office. The old fort walls were pulled down to enlarge the city and a town hall, railway station, light house and Jubilee Bridge were constructed.

The Gandhi family were the hereditary Diwans of Porbandar. On October 2, 1869, Karamchand Gandhi had a son, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi or Mahatma Gandhi as he later came to be known the world over. But Mahatma Gandhi was not the only mahatma associated with Porbandar. Swami Vivekanand had done much of his research in Porbandar, and Rabindranath Tagore visited the city for a considerable period in 1923.

Cont’d on page 42

November 28, 2014

Travel & Hospitality Post

India Post

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Delhi-Lahore bus service fare raised by 60% NEW DELHI: Traveling to Pakistan by road has now got costlier with the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC), which operates the Delhi-Lahore bus service, increasing the fare by a steep 60 per cent after a gap of almost seven years.

Now, one has to shell out Rs 2400 for a one way ticket from Delhi to Lahore as per the revised fare which came into effect from November 1.

The last time the fare was increased was in February 2008 when the ticket cost was set at Rs 1500.

Corporation's spokesperson R

S Minhas has confirmed the hike.

This is the steepest increase in the fare of DTC's Lahore bus service since March 16, 1999, when its fare was just Rs 800.

According to a DTC official, the fare of Delhi-Lahore bus service was increased from Rs 800 to 1250 on February 17, 2004.

The service was launched by the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in March 1999.

As part of its inaugural run on February 19, 1999, Vajpayee went to attend a summit in Lahore in DTC's Delhi-Lahore bus service where he was received by Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at

Nepal, China agree to develop mountain tourism KATHMANDU: Nepal and China have signed an agreement to promote bilateral cooperation in the areas of mountaineering and tourism.

President of Nepal Mountaineering Association (NMA) Ang Tshering Sherpa and Leader of Delegation and General Secretary of China Tibet Mountaineering Association (CTMA), Zhang Min

the countries.

In a bid to make mountaineering a safe profession, training and rescue techniques would also be exchanged between the nations, a joint statement released by NMA and CTMA said.

Common issues and agendas affecting mountain tourism would also be explored, the statement said.

Sien, signed the protocol agreement in presence of Tourism Secretary Suresh Man Shrestha.

The agreement aims to exchange projects by sharing information on mountain climbing and other techniques.

Information related to mountain environment and its effects on climate would also be shared.

The agreement would also promote exploration of ideas and approaches to boost tourism in both

In order to develop creative mountain climbing activities, it is very important that CTMA and NMA deepen their friendship by forging mutual understanding, it said.

"The friendly relationship between the two organizations will help in providing livelihood to the people residing in the mountain region of both the countries," said Ang Tshering Sherpa, President of NMA. -PTI

Wagah.

"Delhi-Lahore bus leaves for Pakistan at 6 AM every Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Ambedkar Stadium Bus Terminal while PTDC (Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation) bus leaves for Pakistan at 6 AM every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday from the same bus terminal," official also said.

The DTC official said that Delhi-Lahore bus service was not halted even after the Kargil War, but it had to be halted in the aftermath of the 2001 Indian Parliament attack, which led to a serious confrontation between the two neighbors.

The bus service was resumed in July, 2003 when bilateral relations between India and Pakistan improved. -PTI

42

Travel & Hospitality Post

India Post

November 28, 2014

www.indiapost.com

PORBANDAR BADAMI

Famous as birthplace of Mahatma Gandhi Cont’d from page 40

TOURISTATTRACTIONS The Huzoor Palace is a massive structure like a European mansion, sprawling, with a large garden at the edge of the sea. The palace has various wings in a zigzag formation, which created space for numerous forecourts and rear courtyards, which were used for gar-

the palace from different sides.

A short walk from the Huzoor Palace leads to Daria Rajmahal, Probandar's sea facing city palace, built in a style that blends Arabic, Indian, Gothic, and Renaissance architecture. The entrance is through a Gothic style archway, crowned by a tall tower that offers a marvelous view of the palace courtyards, the beach beyond,

shrine. Next to the Haveli is the Kirti Mandir, built in 1950 by Nanaji Bhai Kalidas as a memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. This monument has paintings of the Mahatma and his wife Kasturba. There is a moving photographic and pictorial display of the life of the Mahatma and his part in the struggle for India's freedom, a library of books related to the Mahatma's life and philoso-

Kirti Mandir

of this period is the Grishmabhuvan, a pleasure pavilion with impressive domes, exquisite pillars and delicate arches, set

marshes.

There are a number of lakes around Porbandar. Two of them, Jolingkong and Anchherital are

Hari Mandir

dens and fountains. The structure is of a very modern style, crowned by trussed timber roofs and balustraded terraces offering a fabulous view of the beach and the sea. Semi-circular porticoes on neo-classical pillars offer entry to

and the sea. Nothing remains of the Darbar hall now, and the palace has been turned into a college.

The mid 19th century Haveli of the Gandhi family has three stories around a courtyard with a kitchen, 17 rooms and a wooden

phy.

Walking down from Kirti Mandir one comes to Darbargadh Palace, built in 1784 by Maharana Sartanji in the typical wood and stone carved style of Gujarat. A greater example of the architecture

Sudama Temple

in a pleasant garden. This pavilion, called Sartanji Choro because of its four part representing different seasons, was Sartanji's refuge from the crowds of Porbandar.

Porbandar is a paradise for bird watchers. Great flocks of flamingoes, both greater and lesser, can be seen at a remarkably close range around the coastal

situated at a height of 4,634 meters and 3,658 meters, respectively.

Some beautiful old temples are also scattered around the district. A visit to the shrine at Purnagiri, 20 kilometers from Tanakpur, is believed to lead to fulfillment of one's wishes.

Cont’d on page 43

November 28, 2014

Travel & Hospitality Post

India Post

43

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Travelers find loos at railway stations 'dirtiest' NEW DELHI: Almost 90 per cent of travelers in the country find toilets at railway stations to be dirtiest apart from being smelly and unhygienic, according to a survey.

As many as 88.31 per cent travelers found toilets at railway stations to be dirty, while 74 per cent people in Kolkata said the loos in the city were "dirtiest", and 72 per cent Mumbaikars and 47 per cent Delhiites noted that the lavatories in their cities were also smelly.

The survey was conducted by HolidayIQ.com, a travel website, to understand the current scenario and importance of clean restrooms, while traveling.

We covered six top cities taking views of about 10,000 people over the last week and released the report today on the occasion of World Toilet Day, said Nihal Shaikh of HolidayIQ.com.

The United Nations has dedicated November 19 as 'World Toilet Day' to focus attention on a critical health need for 2.5 billion people in developing countries, including India, for sanitary toilet conditions.

Of the 1 billion people in the world who have no toilets, India accounts for nearly 600 million.

According to the survey, people found dirty stinking loos

Qatar Airways launches 2-for-1 ticket offer MUMBAI: Gulf carrier Qatar Airways has rolled out a 2-for-1 ticket offer for Indian customers, under which travelers booking one business class ticket will receive a second business class ticket for free on select global destinations.

In the five-day promotional scheme, the journey can be undertaken up to March 31 next year, Qatar Airways said in a release.

"We received an overwhelming response from the Qatar Airways Privilege Club members and social media fans in India on the 'Double the Luxury' promotion.

"We consistently strive to offer the most exceptional and enticing promotion for our travelers and given the popularity of this promotion and so decided to re-introduce it for the benefit of our passengers," Qatar Airways Vice

President for Indian Sub continent Ihab Sorial said.

Qatar Airways is confident that its business class travelers will take advantage of this great twofor-one opportunity, he said.

The airways offers flights from

Barcelona, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, London, Miami, New York, Paris, Philadelphia, Rome, Washington DC besides other destinations.

The Doha-based airline operates across 145 business and leisure destinations spanning over the Middle East, Asia Pacific, Africa,

12 cities in India via its hub in Doha to global destinations such as

North America and South America with a fleet of 139 aircraft. -PTI

Snowfall gives hope to Southwest ski resorts ALBUQUERQUE: Spirits were high at New Mexico's ski resorts after a weekend storm brought more than two feet of snow to some spots, and crews were taking advantage of freezing temperatures as they cranked up their snow-making machines.

Following a string of lackluster years and negative perceptions spurred by a persistent drought, ski resorts in the Southwest are looking to make a comeback. ``With over two and a half feet of pre-season snowfall to date, we're

anticipating some of the best opening conditions in years,'' said Ed Cohen, chief marketing officer at Angel Fire Resort in northern New Mexico.

At the resort's summit, more than 29 inches of snow fell as the first widespread storm of the season moved across the state last weekend. A wave of cold air from the north combined with moisture over the higher elevations to make for wet, heavy snow.

At least a foot of snow fell in Taos during a 10-hour period, and several inches fell near Red River Ski Area.

Parts of northern Arizona received a dusting, while 6 inches fell over the weekend at Sunrise Park Resort. There was no snowfall at Snowbowl near Flagstaff, but resort officials said the cold temperatures provided a green light necessary to start making snow.-AP

at heritage and tourist places also, and choose or have changed their travel plans based on the restroom experience they can ex-

pect.

At least 49 per cent of travelers said they have changed their travel plans, for example from train to flight/bus, because of unhygienic toilets.

"Those who have traveled the country will understand the fuss about toilets in India too well," Shaikh said, adding "Even at some of the world's most frequented sightseeing sites in India, travelers often complain about standing in long lines outside stinking toilets and rank it amongst the worst tourist experiences in the world."

Chennai accounts for 71 per cent in dirtiness quotient while Pune clocks 50 per cent followed

by Hyderabad 31 per cent, the survey observed.-PTI

PORBANDAR Cont’d from page 42

There is also a Sikh shrine near Lohaghat called Ritha Sahib, associated with the visit of Guru Nanak. It is believed that the bitter ritha turned sweet after the touch of the Guru.

The white Manu temple is also an oft visited site. In it is enshrined a powerful goddess known to bring rain to these mountains if properly invoked. There is also a large swing erected on the field at the base of a flight of steps leading to the

Gope, 50 km northeast of Porbandar has a 6th century temple with a sanctuary on a platform and the usual pyramidal shikhara roof. The temple is in a terribly dilapidated condition but is important, as it is one of the first to have a roof of this design.

A 30-minute drive from Porbandar takes one to Barda Hills covered with forests where one can find the Khambala Dam with its intricate, decorated kiosks.

Fairs & festivals: Along the coast at Madhavpur near

Porbandar Airport

temple. Here the goddess and her sister from a distant temple swing playfully when the other goddess comes visiting. No one can see them, but the swing moves!

Places around Kuchdi is a 20-minute drive away from the city center. The place has a bird sanctuary and is quite popular with bird lovers and photographers.

Ghumli was the capital of the Jetwas long before they moved to Porbandar. The place is famous for its Naulakha temple, considered to be the oldest sun temple in India built around the 8th century, and the 12th century Vikia Vav (step well), with numerous flights of steps and string coursed carvings.

Porbandar, the Madhavrai Fair is held in the month of Chaitra (March/April) to celebrate Lord Krishna's elopement with Rukmini.

HOW TO REACH Air - Gujarat Air connects Porbandar with Ahmedabad. From Ahmedabad, one can take flights to other important cities of India such as Delhi and Mumbai.

Rail - Porbandar is a railway station and is connected to many places in Gujarat and western India. The Saurashtra Express links Porbandar with Mumbai.

Road - Luxury bus services to Rajkot, Jamnagar, Ahmedabad, Junagadh etc. from Porbandar can be arranged.

Horoscope

44 India Post

November 28, 2014

www.indiapost.com

Your Weekly Future

by Pandit Parashar

November 28th - December 4th, 2014 (March 21 to April 20)

G

ood deeds and blessings of a holy person will come to your rescue and suddenly like may take a complete turn for better.

All problems and stress of the past may just evaporate and the new opportunity should not be less than a financial jackpot. Avoid taking any hasty decision about a property as better deals are also in the air.

(April 21 to May 20)

O

bstacle will be severe but if you stay calm, solution will be quick and better than anybody of think of. Brokers will have a fruitful week. Value of your assets will grow fast and you may purchase another vehicle at a great price. Bachelors may find a right match, most probably connected with health or finance industry this week.

(May 21 to June 20)

T

he decision in ongoing case will come in your favor and you may quickly start the procedure for recovery.

An old health issue may flare up again making you very uncomfortable to function. Bank balance will grow but you will be writing couple of checks to government in shape of taxes this week. You may also attend a big social event with family.

(June 21 to July 22)

G

o ahead and take your chances, planets will help you achieve your goals without any problem.

Midas touch should continue especially for another two weeks. family will start preparing for an upcoming long distance trip. News you had been waiting for, will finally come causing extra excitement in life. Bank balance will shoot up suddenly.

(July 23 to August 22)

(November 23 to December 22)

M

ajor victory in ongoing legal matters is indicated. Planets will help those seeking for a possible change in career. Freedom from all ailments of the past also possible. You may be donating for a noble cause. Some money will go to government also. It will be better to listen to your own instincts rather than what other close family member say.

(August 23 to September 22)

I

n spite of everything going your way, mind will be slightly restless maybe because so many things happening at the same time. You will continue to take bold actions as the positive outcome will keep boosting your self confidence. You may also call an old confidant to seek his opinion on an important issue. Bank balance will grow suddenly.

(September 23 to October 22)

M

oney you need for your project will become available as promised.

You may make minor changes in the contract and send for approval. The person you have been looking for outside,already exists in your very close circle. Meeting with boss will go very well and the application will be approved without any change big or small.

(October 23 to November 22)

A

n exalted Mars in third will suddenly motivate you to take necessary actions to get out of rat race. Advise from an old confidant or an older person will help you make better choices. Just stay away from a well known female trouble maker. Value of your stocks will continue to appreciate and will be a good idea to hold on to them.

PANDIT PARASHAR, CEO & COO Astro Scan USA is also available for individual consultations.

He can be reached at: parashar@parashar.com

I

t will be another easy week with no remarkable activities.

You may visit a close relative to attend a dinner. Money will mostly go on buying gifts for others. Physical activities will get you back in shape and you will feel more energetic. Boss may decide not to add more pressure of work on you. You may slowly work on a small family trip.

(December 22 to January 19)

I

f you take rational decision you may avert a tricky situation in career to your advantage. Seek outside help and opinion if possible to be more confident about your choices. Financially you will continue to very well and may make final payment on an old debt. Visitors may confirm about the date of their arrival upcoming holidays.

(January 20 to February 18)

T

ime spent on phone or writing mail will get the desired results. Business trip willbe fruitful. You will get full help from people holding important position. A middle age person but going bald will be very helpful. Try to cut down on caffeine if possible. Some of you may also make appointment with your doctor for annual check up this week.

(February 19 to March 20)

Y

ou will continue to enjoy the Midas touch provided by the favorable planets.

Any change in career at this point will be favorable and financially beneficial in long term. You may invite an old friend for dinner this week. An older family member may need to see a doctor for some complications. You may also dispose off some money making stocks.

510-886-4370 www.parashar.com

India Post 45

November 28, 2014

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November 28, 2014

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Datebook

November 28, 2014

NEW JERSEY Upcoming Sat, Dec 6 • IFMP Annual Cultural Show 2014 Venue: West Windsor Plainsboro High School North, 90 Grovers Mill Road, Plainsboro, NJ 08536 Time: 3:00 pm

Sat, Dec 13 • NAMAM Excellence Award Night

NEW YORK Upcoming Fri, Dec 5 • December Madness Venue: Mixx Lounge, 160 Adams Ave, Hauppauge, NY 11788 Time: 10:00 pm Contact: 516-336-9042

Fri, Dec 5 • Basement Bhangra meets QUE BAJO?!

Venue: Deewan Banquet Hall, 560 Stelton Rd, Piscataway Township, NJ 08854 Time: 5:00 pm

Venue: Baby's Alright, 146 Broadway, NY 11211 Time : 7:00 pm Contact: 718-207-0058

Sat, Dec 13

Wed, Dec 31

• Adi Sakthi Venue: East Brunswick High School Auditorium, 380 Cranbury Rd, East Brunswick, NJ 08816 Time : 04:00 pm Contact: 732-801-4814

• Harry Malhotras New Year Eve Masquerade Ball 2015 Venue: Antuns by Minar, 244 W Old Country Rd, Hicksville, NY 11801 Time : 08:00 pm Contact: 917-325-4903

India Post 47

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NORTHERN CALIFORNIA

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

Upcoming

Upcoming

Nov 9, 16, 23, 30 • Vivekananda Vedanta Society Chicago

Sun, Dec 7 • Carnatic Vocal Concert By Smt Hema Sista

Swami Ishatmananda: Why We Should Meditate: Yoga Aphorisms Tuesdays: Swami Ishatmananda Fridays: Swami Varadananda Venue: 14630 Lemont Road Homer Glen, IL 60491 Time: 7:30 pm Shivanama Sankirtan Time: 06:30pm Contact : chicagovedanta.org

Sat, Nov 29 • Dashavatar - The Ten Incarnations of Vishnu

Venue: Bellflower Civic Center, 16600 Civic Center Dr, Bellflower, CA 90706 Timet: 4:00 pm Contact: 562-746-1945

Sat, Nov 29 • Raaga Rang - Fusion Music Concert by Pandith Praveen Godkhindi Venue: Cabrillo High School Auditorium, 2001 Santa Fe Avenue, Long Beach, CA 90810 Time: 04:30 pm Contact: (510) 402-4633

Wed, Dec 13 • Hollywood Bhangra - Xmas

Bhangra Theme Party - Last One of 2014

Venue: Metropolitan, 652 N La Peer Dr, West Hollywood, CA 90069 Timet: 10:00 pm

Wed, Dec 31 • PREETYSHA & SAMEER - New Years Bash 2015

Venue: Anaheim Plaza Hotel & Suites, 1700 S.Harbor Blvd, Anaheim, CA 92802 Time :07:00 pm Contact: 714-397-7224

Venue: Rancho Rinconada Parks and Recreation, 18000 Chelmsford Dr, Cupertino, CA 95014 Time: 4:15 pm.

Contact: 408-569-0860

Wec, Dec 31 • BATA Membership Venue: Bay Area Telugu Association,

ILLINOIS Upcoming • J K Yog Satsang and Bal Mukund Hindi Classes are held every 2nd and 4rth Sunday of Month Chicago Satsang Information: J K Yog, Chicago - Swami Mukundananda Venue: Clarion Inn/Waterford Banquets, Board Room, 933 South Riverside Drive, Elmhurst, IL 60126 Time: 3:30pm-5:30pm Contact: Ajay & Arti Chandhok @ 630-561-4807 Website: www.jkyog.org

39120 Argonaut Way, Fremont, CA 94538 Time: 11:50 pm Contact: 408-242-5111

ATLANTA Upcoming Wed, Dec 31 • Welcome 2015 New year Bash Venue: Adora Hall, 12200 N Mopac Expy, Austin, TX 78758 Time: 07:00 pm Contact: 512-351-3108

Fri, Dec 5 • 11 th Annual Boston Bhangra Competition Venue: Orpheum Theatre, 1 Hamilton Pl, Boston, MA 02108 Time: 6:00 pm Contact: 617-448-25088

Sat, Dec 6 • Maadhurya - A Grand Evening of Dance and Music Venue: Ashland High School, 65 East Union Street, Ashland, MA 01721 Time: 3:30 am Contact: 978-206-1486

1st and 3rd Sunday of Month • Chicago Children's Bal Mukund Character Building Program and Hindi Literacy Classes Venue: Vogelei Center, 650 W. Higgins Road, Hoffmann Estates, IL 60192 (Next to Nissan Dealership) Contact: Ajay & Arti Chandhok @ 630-561-4807

Mondays and Fridays • Free ESL - English as Second Language Classes Metropolitan Asian Family Services Venue: 9015 N Milwaukee Ave, Niles, IL, Time: 10:30am to 12:30pm Contact: 773-465-3105

Mondays and Fridays • Free ESL - English as Second Language Classes Where: Metropolitan Asian Family Services Venue: 9015 N Milwaukee Ave, Niles, IL, Time: 10:30am to 12:30pm Contact: 773-465-3105

48

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Perspective

November 28, 2014

India Post 49

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Rising anarchy & Islamist extremism in Pak ideal ground for IS

O

n November 12, 2014, Security Force (SF) personnel reportedly confiscated a few flags, bearing the Islamic State (IS, formerly Islamic State of Iraq and al Sham, ISIS) monogram, near the main entrance to the Pakistan Ordnance Factory (POF), based in a closely-guarded part of the historic city of Taxila, near Islamabad.

Some more flags were recovered from nearby electricity poles.

On the same day, Fahad Marwat, a 'spokesman' for Jundullah, an al Qaeda affiliated anti-Shia terrorist group, claimed that a 'delegation' from the IS had visited the organization's leaders in Quetta, the capital of Balochistan Province, in the preceding week.

He added that the purpose of the visit was to see how IS could work to unite various Pakistani militant Islamist groups. Significantly, the Balochistan Government had submitted a 'secret' report, dated October 31, 2014, in which it had noted, "It has been reliably learnt that DAISH (al Dawlah al Islamiyah fi al Iraq wal Sh창m, ISIS) has offered some elements of Lashkar-eJhangvi (LeJ) and Ahl-e-Sunnat wal Jamat (ASWJ) to join hands in Pakistan. DAISH has also formed a ten-member Strategic Planning Wing and now seek to inflict casualties on Pakistan Army outfits who are taking part in operation Zarb-e-Azb." Meanwhile, on November 13, 2014, wall-chalkings welcoming IS appeared on City Road, Cantonment Road, Dera Ismail Khan Road and Miran Shah Road in the Bannu District of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. There were similar reports from other parts of the country, including Karachi and Peshawar, regarding emerging support for IS. Again, on October 14, 2014, six top 'commanders' of the Tehreeki-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), including its 'spokesman' Shahidullah Shahid, announced their allegiance to Abu Bakar Al-Baghdadi aka Khalifa Ibrahim, the chief of the IS. The TTP leaders included the group's chiefs for the Orakzai Agency, Saeed Khan; Kurram Agency, Daulat Khan; Khyber Agency, Fateh Gul Zaman; Peshawar, Mufti Hassan; and Hangu, Khalid Mansoor.

Shahidullah pledged "allegiance to Amirul Momineen Abu Bakar AlBaghdadi" and declared that he

AJIT KUMAR SINGH

would "abide by all his (al Baghdadi's) decisions ... whatever the circumstances I shall be loyal to him and obey his directives".

The TTP later sacked all these leaders, reiterating support for Afghan Taliban leader Mullah Omar.

Significantly, in June 2014, while announcing the formation of the

are already known to be fighting along with IS Forces in Iraq and Syria.

Meanwhile, al Qaeda terrorist offshoot, Jamaat Qaiadat al Jihad fi Shibhi al Qarrat al Hindiya (Organization of the Base of Jihad in the Indian Subcontinent or Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent,

Islamic State, the group had released a map purportedly showing the areas IS planned to bring under its control within five years.

These areas included all of Pakistan within the projected 'Islamic Caliphate'. In a decisive step towards the goal, in September 2014, IS appointed Abdul Raheem Muslim Dost chief of its 'Khurasan' region.

Soon after his appointment, Dost started extending IS outreach into Pakistan and Afghanistan, distributing IS propaganda booklets in the Afghan-Pakistan tribal belt and in some Afghan refugee camps in Peshawar. Several reports emerging since suggest that IS has succeeded in extending its influence in pockets across Pakistan.

Unsurprisingly, the Balochistan Government's report clearly states that IS has claimed to have "gathered 10-12 thousand followers from the Hangu and Kurram Agency".

Referring to the widespread influence of the IS, Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) chief, Altaf Hussain, on October 31, 2014, stated, "IS flags were visible from the south of Pakistan's Punjab all the way to the Federal capital of Islamabad." Another commentator noted, "If the Pakistan security apparatus fails to check their footprints, it could be a setback for them in future. It appears that the IS wants to focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan, particularly at the time when US Forces begin to withdraw from Afghanistan. If not checked, IS will pose a major threat to South Asia and the Persian Gulf."

At least 330 Pakistani terrorists

AQIS) has made deep inroads into Pakistan. On September 6, 2014, attackers planned to hijack Navy frigate PNS Zulfiqar from the Karachi West Wharf Dockyard.

Naval Commandos from PNS Iqbal rushed to the incidents site and a gun battle ensued. One Navy trooper was killed and another seven were injured. Three attackers were killed.

On September 11, AQIS claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that the dead attackers included Pakistan Navy officers.

Subsequently, Defense Minister Khawaja Asif told Parliament, on September 10: "We cannot rule out inside help in this attack because without it the miscreants could not breach security. The operation near Karachi shore was an attack by al Qaeda in the subcontinent."

Significantly, on September 3, 2014, al Qaeda leader Ayman alZawahiri, in a 55-minute video posted on the Internet, announced the launch of AQIS to spread Islamic rule and "raise the flag of jihad" across the Indian subcontinent, including Pakistan.

Maulana Asim Umar, chief of al Qaeda's Sharia Committee in Pakistan, was named leader of AQIS. IS, which has captured large swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria and is striving to establish a global 'Caliphate', is a breakaway faction of al Qaeda, and is deeply aware of the fact that Pakistan provides it an alternate sanctuary in any 'adverse situation'.

Moreover, the rising anarchy and Islamist extremism across Pakistan offer ample opportunity to recruit more fighters, as well as to

establish a base in the region, which accounts for over 31 per cent of the world Muslim population. Conscious of these 'advantages', IS and AQIS are vying with one another to fill the vacuum created by the failure of governance in Pakistan.

It is useful to note that there are a total of 60 banned organizations in Pakistan, according to the Government's National Internal Security Policy (NISP) 2014-18 document. The document notes, "Pakistan's economy has suffered a loss of more than US$ 78 billion in last 10 years only. More than 50,000 Pakistanis, including civilian, Armed Forces and LawEnforcement Agencies (LEAs) personnel, were affected or sacrificed their lives... Pakistan is facing serious traditional and nontraditional threats of violent extremism, sectarianism, terrorism and militancy... Subversive activities and a pattern of targeting the national security apparatus and key installations by the terrorists and non state armed groups have compounded the challenge."

Further, a report prepared by the US Congressional Research Service for distribution to multiple congressional offices in February 2013 noted, "Islamist militant groups operating on and from Pakistani territory are of five broad types: Globally-oriented militants, Afghanistan-oriented militants, India- and Kashmir-oriented militants, Sectarian militants, and Domestically-oriented militants."

The South Asia Terrorism Portal has listed 37 terrorist outfits as 'Trans-national Organizations' (which carry out operations in neighboring countries); 12 groups as 'Domestic Terrorist Organizations' (which engage in violence

Nevertheless, as the NISP document notes, even in this regard, "Traditionally, the entire internal security apparatus acts in a reactive rather than proactive manner".

Pakistan's orientation to the externally directed terrorist formations, however, remains malefic, as state agencies, prominently including the Army and its Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) directorate, continue to provide covert and overt support to terrorist formations that serve their purported 'strategic objectives'.

In its latest (October 2014) sixmonthly report on the current situation in Afghanistan, the Pentagon observed, "Afghan-and Indianfocused militants continue to operate from Pakistan territory to the detriment of Afghan and regional stability. Pakistan uses these proxy forces to hedge against the loss of influence in Afghanistan and to counter India's superior military."

Despite the enormous domestic costs of terrorism, the Pakistani state and its agencies continue to create an environment that allows a range of Islamist terrorist formations to operate from and flourish on its soil, even as the state continues to promote radical Islamist ideologies through its various institutions and polices.

It is this environment - and substantial direct support to a range of terrorist formations, including al Qaeda - that has made the country extraordinarily vulnerable to the consolidation of global jihadist organizations such as AQIS and IS. Since state agencies are yet to abandon Islamist terrorism as an instrument of domestic political management and strategic extension, it is unlikely that a focused state action will effectively block the expansion of AQIS and IS

Despite the enormous domestic costs of terrorism, the Pakistani state and its agencies continue to create an environment that allows a range of Islamist terrorist formations to operate from and flourish on its soil within Pakistan), and another four as 'Extremist Groups' (engaged in the propagation or imposition of Islamist extremist doctrines and codes).

Islamabad has been forced to take some actions against domestically-oriented terrorist organizations, as the internal security environment deteriorated, creating an existential threat to the state.

across the country.

Indeed, current orientations suggest that the Government is inclined to deny, rather than confront and solve the problem, with Federal Minister of the Interior, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan, on November 11, 2014, dismissing evidence of the presence of IS in the country, declaring, "No organization of this name exists in Paki-

50 India Post

HYDERABAD: Bollywood superstar Salman Khan's sister Arpita Khan tied the knot with businessman Aayush Sharma on a star-studded evening at the Taj Falaknuma hotel here on Nov 18.

The celebrations, which kicked off with the 'baraat' at 4.30 p.m., continued till late in the night at the heritage hotel located in the old city area.

The 'baraat' included horses and two bands, one from Delhi and one from Hyderabad.

It was followed by the 'jaimala' and 'phere'. The wedding rituals were performed as per Punjabi Hindu traditions.

Salman's father Salim Khan, mother Salma, brothers Arbaaz, Sohail and other family members received the baraat and blessed the couple, who exchanged garlands.

The entire Bollywood gathered to wish the couple a happy married life. According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, Arpita was

www.indiapost.com

Hundreds of Salman fans, including young girls, gathered outside the hotel to catch a glimpse of the stars.

The fans, including some from Mumbai, mobbed the vehicles entering the hotel.

The menu for the party included Deccani cuisine, especially Biryani and Haleem and double ka meetha.

Falaknuma is one of the most beautiful palaces of the Nizam, the ruler of erstwhile Hyderabad State.

The palace, which the Taj Group converted into a luxury hotel and opened four years ago, has 60 lavish rooms, decorated halls and a 101-seat dining hall, said to be the biggest in the world. dressed in a lehenga by Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla and entered the Durbar Hall, which once hosted the likes of King George V and Czar Nicholas II, around 5 pm. The couple was wed as per Hindu traditions with the rituals of a Punjabi wedding.

The rituals were followed by a party, where Salman, his step-mother Helen, sister-in-law Malaika Arora Khan performed to some popular numbers. Punjabi singers Mika and Yo Yo Honey Singh livened up the party.

Aamir Khan, Katrina Kaif and Karan Johar were among top stars from Bollywood who attended the marriage. Stars from Tollywood and businessmen were among the 250 guests invited for the wedding.

Seven folk artists from Rajasthan and many more from Mumbai were specially flown in for the party.

New girlfriend After Sangeeta Bijlani, Somy Ali, Aishwarya Rai and Katrina Kaif, Salman Khan once again introduced a lady as his "girlfriend" at his sister Arpita Khan's

November 28, 2014

wedding, reports Mumbai M i r r o r.

No one was left in doubt about the fact that Salman Khan and L u l i a Vantur are a couple. The tabloid quoted a source present at the wedding, "Salman and Lulia were always together. There have been rumors linking him to Jacqueline Fernandez and Daisy Shah, but the fact is that Salman is in love with Lulia. She is very comfortable with his family too." Back in Mumbai, Lulia is staying in a 5-star hotel in Bandra, which is at a distance of a stone's throw from Salman's apartment. "And Salman is paying the bills," added the source, says Mirror. He met Lulia in 2011 when he was shooting for Ek Tha Tiger in Dublin.

Blessing Arpita According to a report in Mumbai Mirror, the bride-to-be had arrived on Monday with her famous family and checked into Falaknuma, which has reportedly been booked at the cost Cont'd on Page 52 of Rs 1 crore per day.

India Post 51

November 28, 2014 www.indiapost.com

W

Actresses flourishing without Hindi

hen Hema Malini and Sridevi came from the South to Bollywood, clueless about the stree-ling and pul-ling of the Hindi language, they worked on their Hindi to become no.1. Katrina Kaif got there without making an effort to master the language. That's a bit like batting for India without knowing how to hold the bat...Or doing an item song without knowing how to wriggle and pout. But Katrina has managed it. She isn't alone.

Here's looking at other shuddhangrezi memsahibs of Bollywood.

1. Lisa Haydon: On Kapil Sharma's show Lisa Haydon spent all her time nudging Anupam Kher asking him what everyone was saying. Next time, try learning

some Hindi before you come on the show. You are a Hindi film actress, right Lisa? In her turnaround film Queen, she played a desi girl settled in Paris and got away with her tuti-phuti boli. Again in The Shaukeens she plays a girl of Indian origin and therefore allowed to speak broken Hindi. But how long will she get roles that camouflage her conversational handicap? Get a Hindi tutor. Fast.

2. Ileana DCruz: At least this lissom lass is trying. Ileana admits her Hindi is ....umm... theek nahin.

Having a firang boyfriend doesn't help the cause of the rashtra-

Ileana needs to THINK in Hindi.

That's not happening in the nearfuture. But again to her credit, Ileana dubs her own lines.

3. Nargis Fakhri: When it comes to speaking the language of Bollywood cinema, the very beautiful Nargis Fakhri throws in the towel. Not that she isn't trying! Nargis has hired staffs who

Chinese or any other language she didn't know anything about.

4. Giselli Monteiro: Nargis has company. She isn't the only beauty Imtiaz Ali imported arbitrarily into Bollywood. Before Nargis, the Bra-

Katrina Kaif

Giselli Monteiro

Nargis Fakhri

Ileana DCruz

Lisa Haydon

bhasha at all. But poor girl, she's trying. To be full-on ekdumjhakaas Hindi phillum heroine,

are purely desi. But woe of woes, even her maid insists on speaking to her in angrezi! Nargis admits her complete unfamiliarity with Hindi largely ruined her performance in Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar. Candidly, Nargis admitted those lengthy lines of dialogues were to her like

Zeenat Aman wants to marry again

A

s she turned 63, veteran actress Zeenat Aman has expressed her wish to settle down again with someone after her sons settle down.

"Of course I want to settle down with someone once again. Why wouldn't I? You see, all these years I've single-mindedly focused on my sons Azaan and Zahaan. Their well-being and happiness are all that mattered to me while they were growing up.

"Now that they have matured

and have a life of their own, I can begin to think about my own life once again," says Zeenat with a sweet smile.

Zeenat worked round the clock before she settled down with Mazhar Khan in 1985. "You must understand I worked relentlessly for 15 years. When I got married I had reached a sort of saturation point. I wanted to focus on my marriage, husband and then the two boys. Now my sons are grown up and have a life of their own. They

are both multi-talented."

"The older one has graduated.

The younger one is qualified in the culinary arts, and in music and acting. Let's see which way they go. At the moment their future is fluid," she said.

Zeenat admits there is room for love and marriage.

"I hold no grudges against anyone. I believe there are good people out there. And I believe there is always room for love and companionship," says Zeenat.

zilian Giselli was seen playing a Punjabi kudi in Imtiaz's Love Aaj Kal. Giselle couldn't speak or follow a single word of the language that she was supposed to be acting in. Can we imagine an actress in French or Chinese cinema who can't speak the language? We are a liberal nation.

5. Katrina Kaif: Arguably today's no.1 actress with only Deepika Padukone as competition Katrina Kaif mugs up her lines and doesn't know what most of those mean. For a very long time, her dialogues were dubbed by a professional dubbing artiste. Now she speaks her lines. Maybe one day she will be able to tell her children

her ajab prem ki ghazab kahaani in Hindi.

Contrary to the way the firangi actresses are allowed to take linguistic liberties, a Freido Pinto had to master the American accent to get mainstream roles in Hollywood.

Writer Javed Akhtar explains why we don't mind Bollywood leading ladies who can't speak Hindi. "Hum British hukumaat ke sachche ghulam hai. A French, Japanese or German man speaks English in his own way. But an Indian man cannot mispronounce one English word, as he will be ridiculed. But it is perfectly fine to mispronounce Hindi or Urdu words. It's okay if a foreigner can't speak Hindi. But if an Indian can't speak English he's considered down-market," says Akhtar.

-Courtesy bollywoodhungama

52 India Post

November 28, 2014 www.indiapost.com

Rajinikanth impressed by Sonakshi dance moves

W

hen it comes to bring ing terrific attitude while dancing, one name that has been most notable in the film industry is Rajinikanth.

The 63 year old actor continues to have the kind of agility and fluidity in dance movies that could well put a 30 year old established actor to shame. Now imagine being required to match steps with a legendary actor like him! Well, Sonakshi Sinha pretty much knew what she was getting into when she signed Lingaa as she had to dance to the beats while matching pace with Rajinikanth; something that was clearly a Herculean task in itself.

On her part, Sonakshi made sure that she didn't give Rajinikanth any reason to complain, more so since the time was at premium as the makers had a deadline of six months to finish and release the film. As it happened, she managed it right in some quick takes and did enough to make sure that the actor himself stepped in and showered

ample praises.

"After seeing the rushes of the song that they were shooting, Rajinikanth reached out to choreographers Chinni and Rekha

Sonakshi Sinha

A sister's wedding Cont'd from Page 50

After dropping his sister and mother, Salman made another trip to the airport to pick up his soonto-be brother-in-law. The groom, who had arrived in a horse-drawn carriage flanked by musicians and relatives, was waiting for her. And so, with the saat pheras and sindoor, Arpita wed Aayush in what has become the most talkedabout wedding this year.

'Kalira' ceremony Among all the glitz and glamour, the biggest highlight of the wedding rituals was Arpita's 'Kalira' ceremony. The 'Kalira' ceremony is one of the rituals of a Punjabi wedding during which the would-be bride shakes her hands (which has 'Kalira' tied to the bangles) over the heads of unmarried girls. If a leaf or a part of the 'Kalira' falls on the head of any girl, it is believed she will be the next to get married. According to a report on pinkvilla.com, during Arpita's wedding, the leaf from the 'Kalira' fell on Katrina Kaif's head!

With the news about Kat-Ranbir's housewarming parties floating in the media, Katrina's marriage certainly looks next on the cards.

Pagdi friends Salman and Aamir Khan are known for their friendship in Bollywood. Both the actors have

won many hearts with their camaraderie. Even though Aamir missed the lavish sangeet and haldi ceremony, he made sure to be a part of the grand wedding. Aamir like a perfect ladki waala was seen tying a pagdi on his head. Not only Aamir, Salman was also seen patiently getting his pagdi done.

Both the actors looked dashing in an off white pagdi.

Emotional speech The most touching moment of the wedding was Arpita's letter for her family. Salman's little sister got so emotional and choked with emotions that she requested Priyanka Chopra to read the letter.

As per a report in Bombay Times the letter read, "I am the luckiest girl to be brought up in a family like mine," Arpita wrote in her speech, adding that her brothers are her pillars of strength. "Sohail bhai and I shared the same room

Prakash and told them that he didn't want to stand in the same frame as Sonakshi as she was hogging away all the attention.

Of course he was being humble but then compliments like these need to have some basis behind them," an assistant choreographer informs, "No wonder, Sonakshi was flattered."

For Sonakshi, it was pretty much a trial by fire experience. Though she has danced since the days of Dabangg, her moves have started getting aggressive only now. Last year she danced away to glory in songs like 'Saree Ke Fall Sa' and 'Gandi Baat', all thanks to Prabhu Dheva's R... Rajkumar. The effort has started paying off now as it was just some homework before she found herself facing none other than Rajinikanth for Lingaa. until he got married - he's like a friend to me. Arbaaz bhai is like my guide, he always told me what's good and what's bad. Salman bhai, though, has the biggest heart. For him, I can do no wrong. Everything I did, he was there to support me."

Son's performance Before Arpita and Aayush Sharma's wedding took place, there were reports in the media that Arpita's brothers will be giving a special performance for the sister.

All the three brothers along with S a j i d Nadiadwala performed a special towel dance on Salman's famous song 'Jawani phir na aaye.'

However, according a report in Bombay Times, the main attraction of the wedding night was the performance of Arbaaz Khan and his son Arhaan. Arbaaz, who is a good singer in real-life gave company to Mika Singh on stage. Further to the Bombay Times report, Arbaaz's son Arhaan made a smashing entry on the stage stripping off his jacket and hurling on the ladies sitting beside the stage. The crowd cheered for the junior Khan as he performed some fantastic moves. A guest was heard saying, "He will soon give Shahid and Hrithik a run for their money."

Quiz Sonakshi about this and she is visibly embarrassed.

"Come on, can you really imagine him saying that in all serious-

Rajinikanth

ness? I am sure he was being just nice. In fact I literally fell off my chair when I heard that. I said to

him that by no means he could mean that; after all people look at just him when he is there on screen."

On the other hand feedback for her dance moves in 'Keeda' for Prabhu Dheva's Action Jackson have already brought in comparisons with none other than Karisma Kapoor and Raveena Tandon, who in their heydays were known for such 'masala' movies for the masses.

"Well, this is one compliment that I am going to cherish; after all Karisma and Raveena have enticed us with their dance moves for so long," she smiles, "When even your contemporaries come and compliment you that you are dancing so freely that it reminds of these actresses, it is something to feel good about."

With some dancing numbers waiting to be unveiled for Tevar as well, one waits to see what Sonakshi's contemporaries have to say for that.

Cultural historian traces history of baby food NEW YORK: Where did baby food come from and where has it been?

Cultural historian Amy Bentley, mom of three teenagers and an associate professor in the Department of Nutrition, Food Studies and Public Health at New York University, answers that question and more in a sweeping new book tracing how Americans feed their infants.

Her ``Inventing Baby Food: Taste, Health and the Industrialization of the American Diet,'' was published in September by the University of California Press.

A conversation with Amy Bentley: AP: What did families do before commercial baby food came along?

Bentley: Before the 20th century, the age at which one fed an infant solid food was much later - somewhere between nine and 12 months. The age today is between four and six months. In the 1950s and `60s, it was four to six weeks after birth, so it's changed dramatically between the 18th century, mid-20th century and today.

It was thought that you shouldn't feed infants fruits and vegetables until after the age of 2.

There was a lot of distrust over

fruits and vegetables. It harkens back to medieval and earlier theories of the body.

A lot of them were wet and watery, which were negative qualities. Plus some vegetables have laxative effects and there was such a worry about dysentery, cholera, other types of intestinal infections

that really raised infant mortality rates, especially in the summer.

People didn't really know what was causing it. Was it something inside the fruits and vegetables?

Germs weren't understood.

It was also thought that fruits and vegetables didn't really have food value. It was only with the discovery of vitamins in the early 20th century that it was really understood they had value.

Philosophy

November 28, 2014

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T

he artist and poet William Blake said, "If the doors of perception were cleansed, every thing would appear to man as it is, Infinite. For man has closed himself up, till he sees all things through narrow chinks of his cavern."

What did he mean by this? How can a finite object, such as a tree, table, chair, person, or house be infinite?

Let us understand to begin with that the word 'perception' includes all five senses: seeing, hearing, touching, tasting and smelling.

Conventional thinking tells us that the experience of perception is divided into two essential ingredients: one, a subject that perceives and two, an object that is perceived. This understanding is enshrined in the structure of language with phrases such as, "I see the tree," "I hear the wind," "I touch the person," "I taste the apple" and "I smell the flower."

In each case, a subject - 'I,' the self - is joined to an object - the tree, wind, person, apple or flower - through an act of perceiving, that is, through an act of seeing, hearing, touching, tasting or smelling.

Now, in order to understand the nature of perception, we need to explore both sides of this equation - 'I', the subject, and the object or world.

Traditionally, mystics have explored SWAMI NIKHILANANDA SARASWATI

R

eality has certain innate, inherent powers, which can be broadly termed as shakti. It has the power to project, sustain and withdraw the world.

The Upanishads explain this with the example of the spider's web.

The spider has the ability to project or create its own web out of itself, stay in it or sustain it and in the end take it back into itself or swallow it. The Sanskrit word srishti is normally understood as creation.

But strictly speaking the world is not created it is projected, like the dance of the dancer. The dance though not separate from the dancer remains with her in an unmanifest form, when she is not dancing.

She has the ability to project the dance at will, very much like the spider weaves its web. Similarly the world is created through Shiva's dance of creation.

Shiva or the Supreme Reality has the power to project, sustain and withdraw the dance of creation. We say dance because dance conveys movement, fluidity and change. Like the dance, the world is constantly changing.

The dancer goes through various

the nature of 'I', the self, and artists and scientists have explored the nature of the object or world.

In other words, mystics have tended to face inwards, directing their attention to the heart of their being or essential nature, and scientists and artists have tended to face outwards towards the objects of nature and the world.

At first glance it may seem that these two set out in opposite di-

to which he referred is the coming together of these two perspectives - the convergence of the mystic's, artist's and scientist's deepest understanding - and the implications this has for all aspects of our lives.

The Nature of the Self Conventional thinking tells us that it is 'I,' the body/mind, that is aware of objects and the world.

However, one simple, clear look at

'I' refers to whatever it is that is aware of the objects of the body, mind and world. This 'I' cannot be found as any kind of object, that is, as a thought, feeling, sensation or perception. And yet 'I' am undeniably present and aware.

Hence, to be present and aware is inherent in 'I,' which for this reason is sometimes referred to as 'Awareness,' which simply means the presence of that which is

The body/mind is not the subject of experience Mystics have tended to face inwards, directing their attention to the heart of their being or essential nature, and scientists and artists Rupert Spira

have tended to face outwards

rections. However, if each party explores deeply enough, they inevitably come to the same conclusion. Indeed, it is only because in most cases, each party doesn't explore deeply enough, that the conclusions of mystics on the one hand, and artists and scientists on the other, tend to differ so radically.

The painter Paul CĂŠzanne said, "A time is coming when a single carrot, freshly observed, will trigger a revolution." The revolution

experience indicates that we are aware of the body and mind in just the same way that we are aware of objects and the world.

In other words, the body/mind is not the subject of experience.

The body/mind is an object of experience, that appears and disappears like all other objects. Now what is the perceiving subject that we call 'I,' that knows or is aware of all these perceived objects, that is, that body, mind and world?

aware. This Awareness that is our essential nature is like an aware, empty openness in which all experience takes place, but is not itself an experience.

Awareness is not located in time and is thus eternal or ever-present; it cannot be found in space and is thus infinite, that is, it has no finite or observable qualities.

Rupert Spira, born in 1960, is a British potter and non-duality teacher

movements, while she herself remains unchanged. So too, the Lord remains unchanged through the whole process of creation.

The Lord or the Supreme Reality has two other major powers. It has the power to delude itself and also the power to remove the delusion. Despite perfect vision the

personality. Like the sun or light it is self-luminous, conscious by itself and not dependent on anything for support. It is surrounded by a layer of ignorance or vasanas which can be termed as unconsciousness. It is a state in which we are not conscious of anything.

Sleep is a part of this layer.

sadness rests at the level of the subconscious and not the conscious mind. Unless we are able to reach the sub conscious level of our mind the desired result will elude us and the negative emotions will remain unaltered.

The subconscious level can be reached through faith; deep

Reality has power to project, sustain & withdraw creation Logically if you tell a sad person to give up sadness it will not have the required result because sadness rests at the level of the subconscious and not the conscious mind. blindfolded person is not able to see when the scarf is round his eyes. In a similar fashion the Reality deludes itself or plays with itself, by projecting itself as the little beings of the world.

We have all the powers of God because we are cast in His mould.

Through the process of sadhana we shower grace on ourselves and come out of this self inflicted delusion. The Supreme Consciousness is the very core of our

This layer is surrounded by the layer of sub-consciousness in which all our thoughts and emotions exist. This is the layer that projects the dream world and holds as it were all our ideas, philosophies and visions about ourselves as well as the world. The conscious mind exists in the outermost layer of our personality.

Logically if you tell a sad person to give up sadness it will not have the required result because

Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati

convictions can transform the negativities stored at this level.

But even faith cannot reach the unconscious level. Only grace can touch this layer - God's grace or the grace of the Guru.

A spiritual master of the Chinmaya lineage, Swami Nikhilananda Saraswati is the Regional Head of Chinmaya Mission in New Delhi and its centers in Noida, Gurgaon and Faridabad.

If patience is worth anything, it must endure to the end of time. And a living faith will last in the midst of the blackest storm.

- Mahatma Gandhi Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase.

- Martin Luther King, Jr. Be faithful in small things because it is in them that your strength lies.

- Mother Teresa Faith consists in believing when it is beyond the power of reason to believe.

-Voltaire To have faith is to trust yourself to the water.

When you swim you don't grab hold of the water, because if you do you will sink and drown. Instead you relax, and float.

- Alan Watts God, our Creator, has stored within our minds and personalities, great potential strength and ability. Prayer helps us tap and develop these powers.

- A. P. J. Abdul Kalam To one who has faith, no explanation is necessary.

To one without faith, no explanation is possible.

- Thomas Aquinas

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A defense management agenda for Parrikar

India Post

PR CHARI

B

eing a Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) mukhya pracharak (chief preacher) endeared Manohar Parikkar to Modi and earned him the Defense portfolio. Parikkar is a modern man.

He graduated in Metallurgical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Mumbai, and has proven his administrative capabilities as a two-term Chief Minister of Goa. Parikkar's shift to New Delhi resembles that of YB Chavan, the highly regarded Chief Minister of Maharashtra, who was brought to New Delhi by Jawaharlal Nehru

between the estranged segments of the higher defense apparatus and persuade them to work together harmoniously.

Civil-military relations have again reached a new low in New Delhi following the date of birth controversy raised by the former Chief of Army Staff, General VK Singh. His approaching the Supreme Court and later, prosecution for criminal defamation, are unprecedented.

Charges and counter-charges of malfeasance made against the highest officials in the military hierarchy have also been unprecedented, taking a huge toll on the armed forces' morale. The Modi

Defense Minister Manohar Parikkar with PM Modi

following India's traumatic defeat in the Sino-Indian border conflict in 1962.

Parikkar would need to display the same acumen as YB Chavan did when he joined the Union Cabinet. India's defeat in the border conflict had left the prestige of the defense apparatus in tatters.

What was the situation obtaining?

I have noticed elsewhere that "A blame game started with the political, civilian and military establishments accusing each other of incompetence, naïveté and worse.

Civil-military relations had, in fact, crumbled…"

Chavan sought initially to assuage the bruised egos in South Block, adjudicate between mutual accusations, and restore a semblance of normality in the higher echelons of the defense apparatus.

The very first change effected was to start the institution of Morning Meetings that provided an informal setting for interactions between the Ministers in the MoD, Chiefs of the three Services, Secretaries in the Ministry of Defense, and the Financial Adviser.

The unstated purpose of these meetings was to develop a rapport

Government, in its wisdom, gave a ticket to General VK Singh, got him elected, and inducted him into the Council of Ministers.

How will these actions heal the wounds inflicted on Army morale and civil-military relations? This problem needs to be faced head on by the new Defense Minister.

Parikkar would have been well advised to make soundings and develop cogent views on the defense apparatus before indulging in policy declarations. But, he has opined that user trials and commercial negotiations must be completed quickly to expedite procurement decisions.

Thereby, equipment would be delivered quickly, greater transparency would be ensured, and costs reduced, since suppliers do inflate costs to allow for delays.

Coming to maintenance of advanced weapon systems, Parikkar felt that "the best solution is to ask the company to manufacture in India," which raises several awkward negative issues like the general state of the economy, technical education standards and skill sets available in the country.

However, there are three other

supervening and conceptual issues that he should address in the interests of higher defense management.

• First, a realistic effort is needed to recognize the variegated threats to national security that require countering by the Services. In future, internal security challenges would multiply beyond the capacity of the paramilitary forces to handle them.

This is already occurring with Left Wing Extremism in Central India. The Army and Air Force have steadily expanded their roles here, despite their reservations. A clear policy in this matter will enable appropriate decisions being taken on future armed forces' training, equipment and force structures.

• Second, personnel management requires urgent attention for two major reasons. Parikkar should get details of the litigation that has rocked the Ministry of Defense and Services Headquarters over the years, analyze their content, and take pre-emptive steps to mitigate the underlying grievances.

Apart from the time and energy involved in dealing with a huge volume of litigation, their numbers is a sad reflection of the dissatisfaction in the armed forces. Another aspect of personnel management relates to retention of officers, especially at the cutting edge level of Captains/Majors in the Army and the two other Services, which has become a serious issue.

• Third, the ubiquitous subject of economy in defense expenditure cannot be ignored. Governments are notoriously remiss in controlling their own expenses and Defense establishments lead this insouciance. A serious exercise to address waste could provide some surprises. For instance, it would be found that different units using the same equipment, e.g. MiG21 aircraft, have different manning patterns.

More serious thought is also required on whether units like radar stations or electrical and mechanical workshops could be managed by civilian personnel. Currently, they are manned by uniformed pe rsonnel who cost some three times as their civilian counterparts, without any commensurate improvement in efficiency or reliability.

These issues and examples could be multiplied, highlighting the value of bringing a fresh mind to bear on old issues.

The writer is Visiting Professor, IPCS

Modi abroad

E

ven after a hectic 10-day three-nation tour where he attended the East Asia and ASEAN-India Summits in Myanmar, the Brisbane G20 Summit and held bilateral meetings with his Australian and Fijian counterparts, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had the energy left to spring a surprise on returning home. In a coup of sorts he announced on Twitter that US President Barack Obama has accepted his invitation to be the Chief Guest at India's Republic Day celebrations on 26 January in New Delhi.

It is a comment on the state of media that leaders of the two countries, India and USA, chose to make important announcements on the social media and left the print and visual media wringing their hands. Obama made his announcement on legalizing 5 million illegal immigrants on Facebook while Modi took to Twitter to throw the surprise about Obama as Chief Guest on Republic Day. Modi also seems to be one step ahead of his detractors, which are many. While the Congress continues to be in reactive mode, here for the first time is a leader of India who is pro-active.

After the dull movie of Manmohan Singh and UPA, Modi's is high action drama with never a dull moment. From an isolationist foreign policy played by India so far, Modi seems to be playing for high stakes in the international arena. He hugged Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott as if long lost friends have met again. Australian newspaper The Age commenting on the hug said, "The stand out shake so far has been India's Prime Minister Modi, who gave Abbott a hug. An 'awww' could be heard across the media center."

What was the signal success of his foreign tour? An important point about dangers of black money made by Modi was accepted by the G-20 and it was incorporated in the joint statement. Writing in his own blog on his return, Modi said, "India placed the issue of existence and repatriation of black money at the forefront of the world community." And the world community took note of this "because this is an issue that does not selectively affect one nation."

He also said, "black money brings with it terrorism, money laundering and narcotics trade."

Expressing satisfaction, he said," Our efforts paid off with the official communiqué reflecting this issue."

After attending five Summits and meeting 38 world leaders, Modi returned with new confidence about India's place in the world. About the tour he said in his blog, "I noticed one thing - that the world is looking at India with renewed respect and immense enthusiasm! I see a global community that is tremendously keen to engage with India."

Truly, in just six months Modi has transformed himself into a world figure with even the Time magazine listing him as one of the contenders for Man of the Year title for 2014.

During his four-city tour in Australia, Modi and his counterpart Tony Abbott agreed on a landmark framework for security cooperation across the spectrum in defense, cyber and maritime security and combating terrorism, including the threats posed by foreign fighters joining extremists groups.

The two countries also decided to conclude a long-pending Free Trade pact and an "early closure" of the civilian nuclear deal that will facilitate uranium imports to India.

At the East Asia summit in Myanmar, Modi asserted that the world community must reject any linkage between religion and terrorism while formulating a "genuinely international" partnership in the fight against all forms of terror acts.

He promised "major improvement" in India's trade policy and environment and proposed a special facility for speedy implementation of connectivity projects with the 10-nation ASEAN bloc.

Strengthening trade and commerce was never far from his thoughts and drawing industry to India was a central part of his discussions. This is only the beginning of Modi era. At his pace we can foresee lot of good developments for India.

November 28, 2014

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