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Friday, February 17 2012 | Vol. 31, No. 7
Indo American News
www.indoamerican-news.com Published weekly from Houston, TX
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Thaipoosam at Sri Meenakshi Temple
Celebration of Victory Over Evil
Vedic Victory Page 5 Devotees chanting Vetrivel Muruhanukku Arohara carry kaavadis and palkuddams in a procession around the Sri Meenakshi Temple in an auspicious celebration of Thaipoosam.
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February 17, 2012
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Hindus of Greater Houston Hosts Area Hindu Organizations in Meeting of Shared Interests
BY KALYANI GIRI HOUSTON: Local organization Hindus of Greater Houston (HGH) hosted a meeting of Hindu faith based organizations and social/ community upliftment groups at the Keshav Smriti on February 11. The event, geared to foster an ongoing dialogue between HGH and the other agencies about issues relevant to all Hindus, began auspiciously with a salutation to the Goddess Durga sung melodiously by the gifted Keerthana and Kruthi Bhat, daughters of well-known music guru, Rajarajeshwary Bhat. In his welcome address, Sharad Amin, President of HGH, introduced his committee to guests and told of HGH’s historical beginnings as the organization that started the annual grand celebration of Janmashtami 22 years ago. The festival that is today highly anticipated by Hindus and non-Indians alike, was originally envisioned as a means to bring the community together in unity and harmony, said Amin, and never in the history of the festival were revelers expected to pay an entrance fee for admittance into the George R. Brown Convention Center (GRBCC), the venue of the celebration, added Amin. However, a cause for grave concern was that this year, the Center’s administrators increased the rental rates by 19.8%. Amin advised the audience that HGH intends meeting with GRBCC management for a reduction of the fee. Amin requested the input of representatives from the various organizations.
Photo: Krishna Giri
Representatives of various organizations who shared their common interests at the HGH organized meeting at the Keshav Smriti.
Arya Samaj spokesman Dev Mahajan suggested that all organizations contribute toward defraying costs; he pledged that Arya Samaj would donate $1000. Bangar Reddy, President of the Jeeyar Education Trust (JET, USA), also suggested collecting funds from the community to continue the tradition of hosting Janmashtami at GRBCC. It was proposed that an email be sent out to all organizations seeking their support and get confirmation for the same. HGH will also in the meantime, look into other facilities for Janmashtami. Thara Narasimhan, Secretary of HGH commended the Hindu leaders for their invaluable service they have been doing for the Hindu community by serving the
temples and various Hindu organizations. She recommended that representatives meet at least once a year to foster good rapport within the Hindu community. Twenty four organizations were represented and each gave a little of their backgrounds. Vijay Pallod, executive member and public relations coordinator, talked about the integration of Hindu youth and their activities in the community; he also hoped to provide incentives to them. He has also established open lines of communication out of the local community through CNN and India Abroad. IT coordinator of HGH Dharminder Dargan talked about the HGH website in which a calendar of events of all the Hindu temples
in Houston will be incorporated along with many other features that will benefit all of the Houston Hindu community at large. Maitray Dixit will represent HGH in maintaining an email listing for sharing and communicating with other organizations. HGH harbors hopes for an effective database of all Hindus in Houston so that upcoming events could be communicated via email newsletters. Radha Dixit gave an overview of the Youth Awards 2011 and requested that the temples/organizations submit youth names for the 2012 Awards, an annual event of HGH. Ramya Ravi, of the Hindu Students Association, talked briefly about HSA activities and how to empower the young Hindu
adults through service, education, and networking amongst younger Hindus in America. The common consensus among gatherees was a pledge to meet at least once in every three months and to mark a special signature event unique to each organization and to invite the community to attend. For more information, visit http://hindusofhouston.com. Indo American News (ISSN 887-5936) is published weekly every Friday (for a subscription of $30 per year) by IndoAmerican News Inc., 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036, tel: 713-789-6397, fax:713-789-6399, email: indoamericannews@yahoo.com. Periodical postage paid at Houston, Texas. POSTMASTER: Please send address changes to Indo American News, 7457 Harwin Dr., Suite 262, Houston, TX 77036
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February 17, 2012
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COMMUNITY
February 17, 2012
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Kublai Khan Crazy Mongolian Stir-Fry Redefines Old Concepts
BY KALYANI GIRI HOUSTON: Push open the large wooden doors of the Kublai Khan Crazy Mongolian Stir-Fry, and a life-sized faux terracotta warrior stands inscrutably to one side, seemingly vigilant of those sweeping into the swank diner. Braided ropes entwined around sturdy pillars give the room an anchored-down edginess, while luxurious beige and black couches, chairs, barstools, and tables fit niftily into the discreetly lit restaurant. Youthful owner Kevin Khan comes forward to meet you with a congenial smile. Never mind that he’s answering a dozen other urgent pleas from his staff for his expert attention, and he’s also in the frenetic throes of setting up his newly licensed full-service bar, Khan is also a veteran at multitasking. The newly furbished 4500 square-foot premises at the Carillon Center in the thriving Westchase area of Westheimer is only four weeks old, and the fifth in Khan’s franchised chain of new age style of eateries, a not-so-new concept that encourages the client to grab a bowl and fill it from a vast array of meats, seafood, vegetables, fruit, spices, and sauces, which is then stir fried to perfection by in-house chefs and served with the client’s choice of starch. Customers also have the option to create their own soup bowl from the plethora of tasty components. Several of the 16 sauces offered are gluten-free and all locations offer Halal meats. While the idea itself isn’t uncommon in this city, Khan has redefined it to an art form. He’s given to flights of whimsy and introduced unusual couplings of ingredients
to spice and sauce blends that energize the tastebuds. He’s also adamant about maintaining the food bar with optimal cleanliness and is fussy about using and replenishing the counter with the freshest of produce. There are ten wait-staff and two chefs at the location who help Khan keep service at its best. Even though it’s newly established, the restaurant was doing brisk business during a recent lunchtime visit. “We’re a family-owned business and we welcome families as well as all clientele that enjoy this casual style of dining,” said Khan, who hails from China and has been owning and operating restaurants for the past 17 years. Other locations of the Kublai Khan Crazy Mongolian Stir-Fry are at Katy, Sugar Land, and at US 290. Khan would welcome interested parties keen on opening more franchises of his business. Kublai Khan’s appetizer menu is extensive and includes coconut shrimp, barbeque lamb, fried calamari, lettuce wraps, and spring rolls, to name a few. The dessert menu includes several palate-cleansing sorbets, fried ice-cream, and caramel turtle fudge. The full-service bar has a trained bartender who has plenty of experience in concocting the ordinary and the exotic. Prices are reasonable and Indo American News carries the restaurant advertisement along with two great money saving coupons. Kublai Khan Crazy Mongolian Stir-Fry is located at 10001 Westheimer Road, Ste 2520, Houston, TX 77042. For more information call 713-532-2927.
Thaipoosam Celebrations at Sri Meenakshi Temple BY NACHAL SETHURAMAN PEARLAND: Thaipoosam is dedicated to the Hindu God Murugan, the son of Shiva and Parvati. It is believed that on this day, Goddess Parvati presented a lance to Lord Murugan to vanquish the demon army of Tarakasura and combat their evil deeds. Thaipoosam is a celebration of the victory of good over evil occurring in the Tamil month Thai (January-February), the day of the star Pusam around Pournami (Full Moon). It is celebrated in a very grand manner at all Murugan temples, especially at the ‘Aaru Padai Veedu’ of Murugan (These are six temples in India especially dedicated to Lord Muruga). Thaipoosam was celebrated at the Meenakshi temple society, Pearland in a grand festive manner on Sunday, February 12. More than 400 people braved the bitter cold day to chant Vetrivel Muruhanukku Arohara and carry kaavadis and palkudams in a procession around the temple and participate in the auspicious celebration. This year 73 Kaavadis and 101 pal kudams were taken out in procession. Devotees gathered in the temple around 8.30 am to prepare Kaavadis and pal kudams. The simplest kaavadi is a semicircular decorated canopy supported by a wooden rod
that is carried on the shoulders by the devotee to the temple. Volunteers decorated the Kaavadis with ornate saffron colored cloth, peacock feathers, flowers ,turmeric and kumkum. Simultaneously pal kudams were made ready by filling brass pots with milk and covered with a coconut and tied by yellow cloth. The religious murugan bhajans kept up the tempo of everyone inside the Ganesh temple who were preparing the kaavadis and palkudams. The procession then entered the kalyana mandapam ,where the kaavadis and palkudams were offered to Lord Muruga. Milk from the paal kudam was offered as abhishekam. The abhishekam with milk, turmeric, sandalwood, panchamirtham and vibhuthi was a divine experience. Chanting of Kanda Shasti Kavacham and bhajans filled the air while the dieties were being decorated after abhishekam. Following the final aarthi, the urchava murthis of Lord Murugan and Valli, Deivanai were taken out in procession in the ratham (chariot) around the temple. The festival was co-ordinated by Meena Subramanian with help of many volunteers. Like always, the devotees were offered delicious lunch at the youth centre concluding yet another memorable Thaipoosam celebration.
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February 17, 2012
Photos: Krishna Giri
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Inclement Weather Fails to Quell Kolaveri Fever
BY KALYANI GIRI all quite hush-hush, according to SUGAR LAND: Braced with Shyam Pillai. great fortitude against bone-chill“Even though we kept what we ing weather, over 300 dance enthu- were planning under wraps, we siasts gathered to witness and en- were happy with the turnout that courage the first desi flash mob of braved the cold weather,” said Pilits kind in this city perform at the lai. “The core team did a great job City of Sugar Land Town Center securing permission to hold it at on February 12. About 100 danc- the city center and for us dancers, ers, selected on the basis of their that too for the monster hit Koskill levels, moved and grooved to laveri, it was an exhilarating exthe very popular “Tanglish” song perience! No more Kolaveri!” he Why This Kolaveri Di? Set against the austere backdrop of the Sugar Land City Hall building, the dancers brought vibrant contrasts with bursts of color and palpable energy to a fourminute-long presentation that was brilliantly choreographed by Houston-based Bollywood fusion dance guru Mahesh Mahbubani, and his able team of assistants in the ilk of Hasina Sadiwala, Star Gilani, and Shah- IamNews’ Manasi Gokhale (left) and Vanshika baz Rajabali. All in all, it Vipin braved the cold to strut their stuff. was a hugely successful endeavor enjoyed by dancers and added jokingly. Sugar Land Councilman Harish spectators alike. “This was a great opportunity for Jajoo stopped by with his wife, the community to come together, Shashi. Suitably bundled up to meet new people, rekindle old combat the chills, they said that friendships, through the creative they appreciated the diversity of medium of dance,” said Mahbuba- Sugar Land. “It was a true reflection of enorni. He lauded the efforts of Ajay Sarpeshkar, Sneha Desai, Archana mous community spirit when we Laxmisan, who coordinated the witnessed so many people gather flash mob event, worked out logis- on a cold Sunday afternoon to tics, and secured permission from perform a flash mob to an internathe city to use the quadrangle in tional hit song. It was an enjoyable the heart of Sugar Land. The song impromptu dance and social media Why This Kolaveri Di (mean- played a huge role in mobilizing so ing: Why This Murderous Rage many folks. We are truly blessed Girl?), was an obvious choice to live here in Sugar Land and I with its catchy, hummable tune am honored to serve on the City and nonsensical lyrics; the song Council of Sugar Land,” said Harwritten and sung by Indian actor ish Jajoo. Barani Krishnan, a young engiDhanush and composed by music director Anirudh Ravichander for neer locally, conceived the flash the soundtrack of the Tamil film, mob idea. Unfortunately, a project 3, has garnered a worldwide cult in Pittsburgh kept him from being a part of the event. following. “It all started with my asking For weeks preceding the event, dancers gathered at Rachna’s Ban- friends to try this…some volunquet Hall for practice sessions in teered, made a Facebook page and honing their craft. Aside from the invited their friends to participate. select group of participants, it was It just grew,” said Krishnan.
Dancer Farida Hasanali was delighted to be part of the event. “The flash mob was one of the few south Asian events that had no agenda,” said Hasanali. “There was no expectation from anyone to raise funds, political awareness, causes...nothing...just pure community fun,” she added. Co-organizer of the event Archana Laxmisan fittingly went to Facebook with her exultant comment. “No matter how far we’ve come, there’s a certain satisfaction in a task completed, however big or small. The validation of your peers and the felicitations on a job well done, only serves to fuel your enthusiasm. A few good things this week, amongst which is a flash mob well received,” she wrote. Popular DJ Samia Adil couldn’t wait for the big day. “What awesome energy, simple choreography, and so entertaining! So proud to be a part of HTown’s first desi flash mob,” Adil enthused. Sandhya Ayyar, also a participant, said it was an “amazing experience” to be part of the group. “Dancing to the most sensational Tamil song of 2011 was a cherished and fun experience that will always bring a smile to my face,” said Ayyar. Indo American News found representation in the flash mob through the publication’s Community Editor Manasi Gokhale and Administrative Manager Vanshika Vipin, who braved the cold to strut their stuff. “Thanks to Mahesh and his team for putting together such an amazing choreography. All of us had so much of fun learning dance from him. The practice sessions were focused on learning the choreography and they were well planned. Even though it was so cold, so many people came out there to support their friends and family,” Vipin said. “Being a passionate dancer, I decided to be a part of the flash mob. And it turned out to be a terrific experience,” said Gokhale.
IITAGH Investment Seminar Kicks off Packed Events for 2012
From left: Merrill Lynch Vice-President Ryan Rouse addressing the attendees at the IITAGH event with financial advisors Pradeep Gokhale and Asheet Yagnik.
BY DR. HUZEFA SHAKIR HOUSTON: About 90 people gathered at Nirvana Restaurant on Wednesday, February 8, when the IIT Alumni of Greater Houston kicked off its 2012 season with its first event about “How Market Linked Investments can Impact a Portfolio’s Performance” sponsored by Merrill Lynch. The event started with a social hour over cocktails, followed by about an hour of presentations by Merrill Lynch’s team of professionals. Dinner and drinks were compliments of the sponsors. Following a welcome note and introduction by the newly elected president Witty Bindra, David Raj, a financial advisor with Merrill Lynch and an IITAGH trustee gave insights on managing wealth and caring for the family, preparing for retirement, estate planning, and discovering strategies for growing small businesses. Other financial advisors with Merrill Lynch, Pradeep Gokhale and Asheet Yagnik, then shared their experience in customized wealth and liability management, and adjustable rate mortgage. They told the audience that before any financial decisions are made, they consider their clients’ entire life, taking the time to fully understand who they are, and what matters to them most as individuals and as business professionals. With
this intimate knowledge, they are able to help people establish objectives, develop an appropriate strategy, and recommend solutions that draw upon the breadth and depth of their experience, to connect all the pieces of their financial lives. Finally, Merrill Lynch Vice President Ryan Rouse spoke about how market linked investments can impact a portfolio’s overall return. He also touched upon investing in overseas markets like Europe and India. The Merrill Lynch team then opened the floor for questions. In his note of thanks to the sponsors and the attendees, Bindra expressed that “the spirit of responsibility and affection imbibed among the attendees … made this event most endearing. Whether young or old, all participated in the discussion during the presentation and shared their respective life experiences over the dinner table.” He also emphasized the need for volunteer participation, “which really makes events such as this one a great success.” IITAGH has several events planned for the year, including a Professional Development Panel Discussion on March 31, a “Rock for Charity” concert on April 7, a Spiritual Talk on May 5, and a Children’s Play and the Annual Picnic in October. For more information, visit www.iitagh.org.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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COMMUNITY
February 17, 2012
FIS 2012 Board Announced
Foundation of Indian Studies (FIS) announced its board for the year 2012. From left: Krishna Vavilala (Founder - Chairman ), Dr. Nik Nikam (Director), Manisha Mehta (Director), Surender Talwar (Director), Ellen Goldberg (Director), Dr. Rajendar Aparasu (Director), Vikas Jhingran (Director) and Vatsa Kumar (Secretary). Not in the picture: Parul Fernandes (Vice Chair), Meera Kapur, Col. Dr.Raj Bhalla, Swapan Dhairyawan, Dr. Sujit sansgiry, Dr. Michele Verma and Bashist Sharma. Photo by J.R.Lakhani
ICC President Starts Term with Blessings at Mahatma Gandhi Statue
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HOUSTON: January 30th is celebrated in India as Shraddhanjali Divas. This year, though the day fell on Monday and many of the Houstonians were facing the Monday morning blues, the new ICC President Rajiv Bhavsar attended the Rose Garden homage ceremony in Hermann Memorial Park. The Consulate General Office was represented by Consul Anil Matta. As Consul General Sanjiv Arora had some prior commitments, Anil Matta garlanded the statue and briefly spoke about Gandhiji’s principles. After a round of Gandhiji’s bhajans, the ICC President Bhavsar gave glowing tributes of Gandhiji’s sacrifices. Thereafter, the Immediate Past President of ICC Col Raj Bhalla spoke, followed by Krishna Vavilala, who has been an ardent Gandhi follower. Past president of ICC Swapan Dhairyawan and BAPS Representative Director Ashvin Dave also paid tribute. The ceremony ended with the prasad from BAPS Swaminarayan Mandir. For more information visit www.icchouston.org
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February 17, 2012
Art of Living Foundation Hosts Vastu Expert Michael Mastro in Houston
Michael Mastro
al Construction. Michael has used vastu principles to design offices for corporate clients like Microsoft, Boeing, Oracle and Intel; he has also designed spiritual centers worldwide for Maharshi Mahesh Yogi. During a lecture presented at the Art of Living Center, Michael talked about principles of vastu and how they can be leveraged to support harmonious relationships, create financial stability, maintain good health, stimulate creativity and increase productivity and success. “Vastu is like yoga for your buildings. It is nothing but the alignment of the physical body and buildings with the two dominant forces of nature – the positive magnetic energy coming from the North and the positive solar energy
Indo-American News
HOUSTON: “Vastu Shastra” or the “science of architecture” is an ancient Indian doctrine that defines how the laws of nature affect buildings and in turn have an impact of the quality of human life. According to the vastu shastra, the world comprises of five basic elements, earth, water, air, fire and space. There is an invisible and constant relation between all the five elements. Thus a person can improve their conditions by understanding the effectiveness of these five natural forces and properly designing their living and working spaces. Vastu shastra combines all the five elements of nature and takes advantage of the benefits bestowed by these five elements to create a congenial living and working environment thereby facilitating spiritual well-being and paving the way for enhanced health, wealth, prosperity and happiness. Houston served as the host to Michael Mastro, one of the leading western experts on Vastu Shastra on January 20 at the Art of Living Center for Peace Yoga & Meditation. Michael has more than 30 years experience and is an award winning architect, practitioner, author, and president of Glob-
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coming from the East. Once these two forces of nature are in balance, you gain the support of nature,” said Michael during his talk. Michael has developed courses and training programs designed to educate people about the powerful influences of Vastu through the American Institute of Vastu. . Michael also presents classes in yogic breathing techniques through the international humanitarian organization, The Art of Living Foundation. The Art of Living Foundation is an international, non-governmental organization, which engages in a wide array of educational and humanitarian programs that uplift individuals, make a difference in local communities, and foster global change. The Foundation, which has a presence in over 140 countries, has brought trauma relief, conflict resolution and peace initiatives to more than 25 million people, many of them in inner cities, prisons and areas devastated by war and natural disasters. For more information, visit www.artoflivinghouston.org or call 877-333AOLH (2654). For more information on Michael Mastro and the principles of vastu, visit www.vastucreations.com
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10 February 17, 2012
Shangri-La Arts Gallery Opens in Galveston
From left: Sharis DeJaynes , Affaire d’Art; Joe Jaworski, Mayor of Galveston and Atul Vir, Shangri-La Contemporary Arts
Open 7 days a week
GALVESTON, TX: It was a cool, crisp evening and the faux gas-lamps in downtown Galveston were starting to flicker. There was excitement in the air at Shangri-La Contemporary Arts, the newest Art Gallery. Saturday, January 29 was the Grand Opening of the Gallery and the event was timed to coincide with the Galveston Art Walk the same evening. Visitors were milling around the gallery and appreciating the art on display, sipping wine and savoring the hors d’ouvres that were being served. The art, from around the world and the US, was a new contribution to the Galveston art scene. The gallery is located within the premises of Affaire d’Art, an International Fine Art Gallery. The décor, lighting and ambience certainly lent it that distinction. The Mayor of Galveston, Joe Jaworski took a tour of the gallery and appreciated the art that was on display. In his address to the hundreds of invitees and visitors, Mayor Jaworski congratulated Sharis DeJaynes of Affaire D’Art and Atul Vir of ShangriLa for opening the Gallery and bringing business to Galveston and creating opportunities for artists worldwide. After cutting the bright red ribbon in a ceremonial Grand Opening, the Mayor was presented with a Mardi Gras
painting. Shangri La Contemporary Arts specializes in paintings and sculpture from the Near East to Asia. The paintings on display for the opening exhibition include artists from award-winning artists from India, Bulgaria and Macedonia. Affaire D’Art presents work in fine art mediums, including paintings, drawings, photography, 2D mixed media, pottery and sculpture. The Gallery is located at 2227 Post office Street, Galveston. The building, in the historical district on the corner of Post office and 23rd in the Strand, is a storm survivor building. Gallery hours are from Thursday to Sunday from 11 am to 6 pm or by appointment. The next Galveston Art Walk is on March 10, from 6-10 pm and will have about 20 participating art galleries. The original Shangri-La Art Gallery, which was a contribution to the Indo-American cultural arts and social scene, was located on Beltway 8 and was closed in 2009 with the downturn of the economy. With the current air of revival in the economy, Vir felt it was the right time to get back in. Vir currently chairs the Arts Committee of the Spring Branch Management District, which is exploring turning the area into an Arts hub.
COMMUNITY
Dr. Ninan T. Mathew Receives Lifetime Achievement Award from Texas Neurological Society HOUSTON: Houston Neurologist, Dr. Ninan T. Mathew, received the 2012 Lifetime Achievement Award from the Texas Neurological Society on February 4 at its annual medical conference in Austin. The Texas Neurological Society is comprised of 600 board-certified neurologists throughout the State of Texas. Dr. Ninan T. Mathew is a familiar name in the field of headache worldwide. Dr. Mathew was born in the state of Kerala, in south India, and received his undergraduate degree at the University of Madras in Tamil Nadu and his medical degree at Trivandrum Medical College, Kerala. His interest in neurology started in medical school. Post-graduate training in neurology followed at Christian Medical College, Vellore, India. He completed additional fellowship training in cerebrovascular disease and stroke at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, where he subsequently served as a faculty member. His interest in headaches started through research, measuring cerebral blood flow in migraine patients while at Baylor. Early on, he realized that headache was totally ignored and poorly understood by physicians, even though it was a common malady. In the 1970s, etiology and treatment of headache was primitive and the patients suffered needlessly with overuse of pain medication. Comorbidities of migraine were not given appropriate importance. These factors led Dr. Mathew to establish the Houston Headache Clinic in 1976, with outpatient and inpatient facilities for comprehensive care, which was the first headache specialty center in Texas. In 1984, he started the Dallas Headache Clinic. Houston Headache Clinic remains a major referral and research center for treating headache patients from around the world. Dr. Mathew has served in various national and international organizations related to headache and is a past president of the International Headache Society and the American Headache Society. He
Dr. Ninan T. Mathew
is a former chairman of the Headache Section for the American Academy of Neurology, which he helped to form. He has also served as the chairman of the American Council for Headache Education. He is one of the founding members of the international research group on cluster headache and was chairman of the Fifth International Headache Congress held in Washington, D.C., in 1991. In 1999, he chaired the Ninth International Headache Congress in Barcelona, Spain. He significantly contributed to medical literature, with more than 200 scientific publications to his credit, in leading journals such as JAMA, Lancet Neurology, and Neurology. These include the first description of transformation of episodic migraine into chronic daily headache (transformed migraine or chronic migraine); clinical importance of medication overuse in determining the progression of chronic migraine; and the importance of detoxification. Dr. Mathew strongly believes that the majority of chronic headaches are migraine variants and that medication overuse and comorbidities are
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important factors that perpetuate the process. He has written book chapters for numerous leading textbooks and monographs dealing with headache. He has edited books on cluster headache and his Handbook of Headache, which he coauthored with Dr. Randy Evans, covers modern advances in headache. Dr. Mathew was guest editor for several Neurologic Clinics and has served as a member of the Editorial Board of Headache and Cephalalgia. Dr. Mathew is a fellow of the American Academy of Neurology and has been on the faculty of the courses offered at the annual meeting of the Academy. He is an invited lecturer on headache in medical meetings and universities in the United States and abroad. His lecture topics include chronic daily headache, drug-induced (analgesic rebound) headache, and cluster headache. Dr. Mathew has trained a number of physicians from various countries who have done fellowships at the Houston Headache Clinic. He has participated in clinical trials of new medications for headache therapy and has directed more than 100 such studies. He has been the recipient of several American Headache Society Awards, including the 1976 Harold G. Wolff Lecture Award and the 1994 John R. Graham Distinguished Clinician Award. In addition to his active career, Dr. Mathew is involved with various cultural institutions. He served as president of the India Cultural Center in Houston and is on the advisory board of the Asia Society Texas Center. He is a founding patron of the Hobby Center for the Performing Arts and the Asian Galleries of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Dr. Mathew has resided in Bunker Hill Village in Memorial for 34 years and is a member of Chapelwood United Methodist Church. He and his wife, Sushila Abraham Mathew, will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in May. Dr. Mathew has three children and five grandchildren.
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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February 17, 2012
Unique Spring Camp on Modern Contributions of Ancient Indian Civilization
MANVEL, TX: Traditional Treasures Spring Camp 2012, a unique 2-day program for children aged 10 to 16 years, focusing on the contributions of ancient (east) Indians to modern science, will be conducted by Global Organization for Divinity-Houston chapter, on March 12 and 13. The all-day camp goes from 9am to 5pm and will be held at Houston Namadwaar, at 3642 Bailey Ave, Manvel, TX 77578 (Pearland area). The camp will focus on three major areas that ancient Indians excelled in, and whose discoveries and tenets are being used by modern science today. The special workshops are titled ‘Ancient’ Modern Medicine & Secrets of Medicinal Plants, Pioneering Science & Technology, Past Life & Rebirth: Myth or Truth?, and will be presented in a fun and interesting manner, woven in with several
activities and games to pique the participants’ interest. The session on science will give a glimpse into India’s medical heritage and into the working and science behind Ayurveda, a form of holistic diagnosis and treatment that is gaining widespread popularity in the world today. The second session on science and technology will focus on the various modern mathematical, astronomical, scientific and related concepts that were in use in ancient India. The third and most intriguing session will be on the concept of rebirth and reincarnation as set forth in India’s age-old texts, and evolving western concepts in past life regression and study. There will also be a dedicated Q & A session with an expert at the end of the program. This is a wonderful opportunity for children of Indian origin to learn and appreciate the glory
of their heritage, and for children of non-Indian origin to learn about the greatness and value of ancient Indian civilization. The camp will also include other activities including yoga, meditation and other games and exercises. The cost for the 2-day camp is $75 per participant. Healthy snacks and beverages will be provided. Participants should bring their lunch. If required, after-camp care can be provided for up to 1 extra hour for free. To register, visit http://gkspring2012.eventbrite.com/. For more information, call Sriram Ramanujam at 832-515-1251 or email houston.god@godivinity. org. Global Organization for Divinity is a 501(c)(3), non-profit organization. All camp proceeds go to a non-profit cause and are tax deductible.
Dharma Gives Meaning to Life
BY PUJYA GURUDEVSHRI RAKESHBHAI Life is not a meaningless event, but an unprecedented opportunity. If you do not add meaning to it, it seems futile, and one who leads a futile life will inevitably start thinking in the direction of self-destruction. If you do not make life meaningful, it will
certainly end in misery. The process of adding meaning to life is dharma. The science of discovering the essence of life is dharma. The art of weaving meaning into life is dharma. The entire purpose of dharma is to carve a beautiful idol out of an unpolished stone. You have the walk and dharma transforms it into a dance.
You have the voice and dharma transforms it into a song. If your life is devoid of meaning, that implies it is devoid of dharma, and if you have no dharma, your life is bound to have no meaning. Thus, dharma is the meaning of life, and the absence of dharma makes life worthless.
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OBITUARY Yasmin Razvi, wife of Khalid Razvi, passed away on February 5 after a brief illness. She was a very loving and caring person to all who knew her. Yasmin was born in Hyderabad, India to Mohammed Abdul and Zohra Rahman. After earning a bachelor’s degree in Economics from Sree Ram College in New Delhi, she came to America for her higher education in the early 1970s. She also earned a bachelor’s in teaching from Marylhurst University in Portland, Oregon and a degree in computer science from the University of Houston. She is survived by her husband, Khalid Razvi, son Mansoor Razvi, sister, mother and other close relatives, who will miss her warm nature and legendary lukhmis.
Yasmin Razvi June 20, 1951 - February 5, 2012
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Ashirwad’s Vedic Fair 2012: A Blessing for All
Hindus of Greater, who also acted as a judg at the event. “Ashirwad kids did an unbelievable job. The content of the program at each of the 65 booths was unique and amazing. The passion and commitment of the kids was very inspiring. We were truly overwhelmed by the whole experience. Congratulations to Geetha Ravula for her outstanding leadership and her entire team for a great collective effort” were words of encouragement from visitors Seema and Dr. Randeep Suneja. Isha Foundation held a free Isha KriAadhithya Sivakumar with Madurai Meenakshi ya session on “InAmman Temple Presentation. ner Engineering”, her presentation on Lord Vamana Houston Yoga and Thrivikrama; runner up Ananya Ayurvedic Wellness Center had Bhonsley for her presentation on a booth providing free Ayurvedic Puja and it’s Vidhanam. Above 10 tips for daily living. Vibha by years category winner was Ajith Kumar for his presentation on The Third Eye in Hinduism and the runner up was Ankith Lakshman for his presentation on Gokul – Birthplace of Krishna. The Vedic Fair Parents Choice Award went to Ananya Bhonsley. “Difficult job judging great work by the Ashirwad Divya Gollakota with Shubam Karothi presentation kids... May Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva Sheetal had a jewelry sale. Kids shower their ashirwads on Geetha had a blast with balloon twistand Sridhar Ravula…,” comment- ing, face painting and mehendhi. ed Thara Narasimhan, Secretary of Ashirwad Level 1 & 2 kids were dressed as various Indian heritage Aditya Sudhakar with Pranayam presentation characters. Ashirwad students wrapped up the Vedic Fair events with a Sloka recital consisting of Lakshmi Ashtotharam and Vishnu Sahasranamam - a serenely blissful and peaceful conclusion to Ashirwad Vedic Fair 2012. A sumptuous lunch was provided at the end of the program. Ashirwad’s Vedic Fair 2012, the brain child of Chief Teacher Geetha Ravula was an unique event, wellattended and well-received. HOUSTON: Much needed rain came pouring down with its blessings on a thirsty Greater Houston Metroplex even as hectic last-minute finishing touches were setting the stage on fire for an eventful Ashirwad A Blessing’s Vedic Fair 2012. Young presenters—65 of them ranging in ages 5 to 15 years —unfazed by the cold and upbeat with youthful exuberance revved up their engines to showcase their best at the first ever Vedic Fair held under the auspices of Ashirwad. Topics of presentation included Vedic concepts, Sloka explanations, Hinduism, Indian history, culture, customs, festivals, traditions, famous Indian landmarks, leaders, Gods and Goddesses. On the morning of Saturday, February 11, individual booths were set around the Commons of the Cinco Ranch High School in Katy for the participants to present their topics. The event commenced with a welcome address by Ashirwad’s chief teacher, Geetha Ravula, where she explained the rules and regulations of the competitions to the participants, parents and other guests. Attendees were provided with a ‘passport’ for visiting booths, ‘stamping’ their visit to the particular booth, and vote for their favorite presenter to be counted towards Vedic Fair Parents Choice Award. Presenters were grouped in two categories, ages 10 or below, and 10 and above. Three judges were tasked with selecting two winners from each of the above two categories. Contestants used laptops, iPads, tri-folds, display boards, elaborate diorama models and audio/visual aids to enhance their presentations. The presentations were highly creative and original. It was very evident that the children had researched their topics in great detail. Participants were felicitated on stage for their enthusiasm, insight, imagination, and creativity. Winners in each category were announced and were given trophies and prize monies. Winners included: Below 10 years category winner, Jwanlanthi Ranganathan for
For more information, visit www. AshirwasABlessing.org or email AshirwadABlessing@gmail.com
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14 February 17, 2012
COMMUNITY
California Gay Marriage Ban Ruled Unconstitutional
BY SUNITA SOHRABJI ‘(TOI) A large crowd of Indian Americans gathered in San Francisco, Calif., on the evening of Feb. 7 to celebrate a court ruling earlier in the day that declared a gay marriage ban in the state unconstitutional. On a 2 to 1 vote, the US Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that Proposition 8, passed by voters in 2008, violated the civil liberties of same-sex couples. “Prop. 8 serves no purpose and has no effect other than to lessen the status and human dignity of gays and lesbians in California and to officially reclassify their relationships and families as inferior to those of opposite-sex couples. The Constitution simply does not allow for laws of this sort,” said the court in its ruling. The ruling does not mean same-sex couples can immediately marry in California, said Harsha Mallojosyulla, advocacy director of Trikone. He noted that a stay on the Feb. 7 ruling would be in effect until the Supreme Court decides whether to take on the case. Mallojosyulla, who is single, said he likes having the option to marry. His father is supportive of his decision - “he wants me to be in a relationship and worries about me being alone,” said Mallojosyulla - and even took to the streets in 2008 to hand out flyers opposing Prop. 8. “He knows this will have a big impact on my life,” said Mallojosyulla. “Trikone commends the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in support of marriage equality. Today’s decision is a step in the right direction towards marriage equality,” said the organization in a press
ruling have been made against couples who were married in another state, so it is unclear whether their marriage will be recognized in California during the stay of order on the ruling. The couple adopted their two children when Queendaysha was five and Gabriel
was six. Massachusetts allows both people in a same-sex relationship to adopt a child and goes a step further by adding both names to the birth certificate. Swamy said he hopes the Supreme Court will take on the case, so that same-sex marriage becomes legal throughout the nation.
Thai Sukravara Deepa Pooja at MTS BY PARVATHI CHANDRASEKHAR
Guru Swamy (left) with his husband Ed and their children, Queendaysha, 10, and Gabriel, 12. (Photo courtesy of Guru Swamy)
release. Seven U.S. states allow same-sex couples to legally marry. They include Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington, D.C. Guru Swamy, who recently moved to Berkeley, Calif., with his husband Ed McDonough, and their two children Queendaysha, 10, and Gabriel, 12, told India-West that the Appeals Court ruling was “wonderful for our family.” Swamy and McDonough got married in Provincetown, Mass., last summer, before moving to California. No changes in the
PEARLAND: Every year Deepa Pooja by suvasinis is performed at the Sri Meenakshi temple in Pearland during the Thai and Aadi months. This year the Thai Sukravara Deepa Pooja was celebrated on Friday, February 3. It is an occasion where suvasinis worship Sri Meenakshi Devi in the form of a lamp which is considered a Shakti Roopam. The function started with the priest invoking the blessings of goddess Sri Meenakshi and lighting the lamps, followed by Kumkum archana for the lamps amidst the chanting of Lalitha Sahasranamavalli. The recitation of the Lalitha Sahasranamavalli by the priests accompanied by the devotees still reverberates in my mind. The function finished with the deeparadhanai to the main deity and all the lamps. Over 50 ladies in their finest attire participated in the pooja to get the blessings of the almighty goddess Meenakshi. . Devotees brought different types of prasadams and an abundant supply of flowers and fruits to offer to the deity Meenakshi. The pooja was conducted by the temple priests Sri Manicka Bhattar and Sri Kalyanasundaram, and coordinated by Roopa Balakrishnan, Karunakar and Parvathi Chandrasekar. The evening came to a grand finish with the distribution of kumkum and flowers. A potluck dinner was organized with sumptuous contribution from our ever willing and generous devotees and there was enough food for all the devotees and their families. The devotees enjoyed a grand evening with the blessings of Goddess Meenakshi.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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February 17, 2012
15
City Seeks Input of Needs and Community Leaders Oblige
BY JAWAHAR MALHOTRA HOUSTON: This past Saturday, at a meeting of a different type which solicited input, selected leaders of the Indian community met with Dr. Noelle Bezette of the University of Houston Downtown and her associate Sacha Lazzare to give their wishlist of services and amenities that the City of Houston could provide. About 20 people attended the early morning meeting held on February 11 at India House and facilitated by community activist Sam Merchant. As Bezette pointed out, the input from various communities will become part of a report to the City Of Houston’s Mayor’s Advisory Council for Immigrant and Refugee Services, which will provide guidance to other City departments on how to allocate their resources and budgets. “At the root of this is to understand how the immigrant populations would like to see integration with the City of Houston,” explained Bezette. There was a strong objection on the immigrant groups being lumped together with the refugees as the needs of each are different and Bezette said she would certainly escalate this concern to Terence O’Neill, Division Manager of the Office of International Communities at the City of Houston. Over the past two years, the City has been a destination for the resettlement
of 5,000 Burmese refugees, in addition to the 6,000 from Bhutan and numerous more from Iraq, Somalia, Mexico, Central and South America. Apart from these, the communities considered for inclusion in the report were chosen from the latest demographic data identifying the largest immigrant groups. After introductions, the group broke down into smaller groups of twos and asked each other questions from a list of guidelines. Answers were then discussed by the entire group and salient ones made it onto sheets that were pasted on the walls. After a light lunch catered by Udipi Café, the group continued with breakout sessions and general discussions. Bezette said she hoped that many of the ideas would move forward and become institutionalized within the framework of City policies and plans for neighborhoods.
Community leaders met with Dr. Noelle Bezette, of the University of Houston, Downtown and her associate Sacha Lazzare at India House last Saturday morning, February 11 to express their views and needs for the Indian community in the preparation of a report to the Mayor’s Advisory Council on Immigration and Refugee Affiars.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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16 February 17, 2012
Gateway 2012: Finding Dharma with Hindu Youth
BY AMBIKA KHANNA The Hindu Students Association (HSA) hosted their annual camp ‘Gateway’ in Bruceville, Texas from February 3 to 5. From all the HSA branches, there were a total of over 130 attendees. This year’s camp sought to provide a gateway for young Hindus in “finding your dharma, ” as the camp theme demonstrated. The weekend was filled with various activities such as icebreakers, games, cultural dancing, bhajan night and speeches by the keynote speakers. This year the keynote speaker was Jeffrey Armstrong, also known as Kavindra Rishiji. We were honored to have Brahmachari Girish Chaitanyaji (Chinmaya Mission, Austin) and Acharya Praveen Gultaiji (Arya Samaj of Greater Houston) as the other speakers. As a newcomer to HSA, this was my first time attending one of HSA’s events. Although I have attended other spiritual retreats, I thought the HSA experience was unique. Undaunted by the large number of attendees, the district and national officers continuously engaged the Hindu youth with breakout sessions that sought to challenge young minds to think critically in regards to their faith. Moreover, the attendees were provided ample opportunities to socialize, thus solidifying friendships amongst peers.
In addition to the long-lasting friendships made, the keynote speakers did an excellent job addressing issues that affect today’s youth. A perfect example is the way in which Girishji answered a question posed by one of the attendees: How do we train our minds? Girishji was able to discuss various aspects on how we can do so not only as students, but also as young professionals. He urged us to use the Bhagavad Gita as a source of inspiration as we seek the answers to our questions. Moreover, he advised that regular study groups is key in helping us overcome the tumultuous thoughts and desires in our minds and enjoy calmness and focus in our endeavours. Jeffrey Armstrong was our other guest speaker. His first lecture instructed today’s Hindu youth to “reframe the argument.” He represents a unique perspective having been raised as a Christian. Ac-
cordingly, he provided direction in how to effectively communicate our spirituality as Hindus to nonHindus. This aspect was greatly appreciated by several Hindus with non-Indian origins. Although it happens periodically throughout my work-life, I never think about how to re-frame a discussion so our beliefs can be explained in a positive manner to non-Hindus. This was further reinforced as we were sharing the Greene Family Camp with a Jewish spiritual group. Interacting with other spiritual non-Hindus at the campsite allowed us put our teachings and thoughts into action. He also conducted a workshop on chanting mantras. His workshop complemented the HSA mantra project, which presents Hindu mantras in a more appealing form to the Hindu youth. For me, this was the highlight of the weekend. Moreover, Armstrong spoke on
how the etymology of many western religious terms stem from Sanskrit roots. His talk was therefore not only mind-opening, but also thought provoking. I immediately felt a sense of gratitude for my faith and how deep its roots are. As Sean Glover, alumni from Texas State University remarked, “I felt like it was a well-organized event with a balanced social and spiritual atmosphere. The people were amazing, the activities were fun, the campground was beautiful, and I enjoyed our guest speakers. For many, Gateway is a chance to reconnect to their faith and devotion to God while also, as in my case, delving deeper into what it means to be Hindu and to follow the path of yoga.” Being an HSA event for the South District, the event was organized by the HSA South District Officers. All the attendees were impressed by the level of organization and professionalism of the
event. In addition to the organization of the district officers, the HSA national officers and the Board of Directors presented the four HSA projects, Mantra project, Hindu Animation project, Quickfire project, and Hinduism Awareness Week. The presentation, led by the HSA president Varun Mehta was innovative, engaging, and unique. With the vision and purpose of each project explained, we were broken up into our “families” (social groups) to work on new ideas for each project. Overall, the camp was a great success. Everyone had a good time and was inspired by the various planned activities. Whether it was Hindu Jeopardy or performing Suryanamaskar, every activity brought us closer together and helped to give us a better understanding of ourselves and our culture. Gateway 2012 has truly brought light to HSA’s motto- “Be You, Be Hindu!”.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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February 17, 2012
Mohammad Khan Charged in $116 Million Medicare Scam BY TERRI LANGFORD HOUSTON (Chronicle): An executive of Riverside General Hospital was arrested and charged this past Wednesday in a $116 million Medicare scheme involving kickbacks to patient recruiters and the owners of homes for the elderly and disabled in exchange for steering residents to Riverside’s mental health clinics. Mohammad Khan, 63, is identified in the indictment as an administrator “who managed and controlled the day-to-day operations of the hospital’s (clinics),” where he is accused of also plying supposed patients with cigarettes, food and coupons redeemable at the hospital’s “country stores” in order to entice them to therapy. Khan, who began working for Riverside General Hospital in Houston’s Third Ward, is known as “Dr. Khan” by his co-workers even though it appears he is not licensed to practice medicine in Texas. He’s charged with seven counts: conspiracy to commit health care fraud, conspiracy to pay health care kickbacks and five additional health care kickback charges. Riverside is not charged with any crime. Hospital spokeswoman Tasha Armstead confirmed that Khan was Riverside’s assistant administrator and said the hospital is cooperating with authorities. “He has been placed in custody. He has been arrested,” said Armstead, who declined to take more specific questions. According to the indictment, Khan is accused of submitting, along with unnamed co-conspirators, $116 million in mental health claims “purportedly provided by the hospital” that
were not medically necessary “and in some cases, never provided.” Federal prosecutors claim Khan paid one patient recruiter $5,000 twice in 2011 so the recruiter would refer Medicare An administrator at Riverside General Hospital is beneficiaries to charged in a scam involving kickbacks to patient Riverside Gen- recruiters. Photo: Johnny Hanson, Houston Chronicle eral’s six Houston-area clinics offering outpatient minding an $8 million Medicare fraud psychiatric care, and that he paid a scheme in which he used four private second recruiter $300 a head for each ambulance companies to ferry fake patients to mental clinics. patient referral. Bob Moos, a Dallas spokesman for The indictment further claims he paid the owner of a group home Medicare, declined to comment on the $3,900 in exchange for referring resi- ongoing investigation. Riverside, licensed as a general hosdents to the hospital. Of the approximately $50 mil- pital by the Texas Department of State lion in Medicare spent during 2010 Health Services, opened its doors in on outpatient psychiatric clinics in 1926 as the Houston Negro Hospital with Texas, more than 75 percent went to seed money from Josephn Cullinan, the founder of the Texas Company, which Harris County. Federal agents descended on the became Texaco. Cullinan helped build hospital at 3204 Ennis, leaving with the hospital as a memorial to his son, who boxes of records. They have re- had ledAfrican-American soldiers during quested records from at least one of World War I. In 1961, it was renamed Riverside Genthe hospital’s clinics, the Riverside General Devotions Care Solutions, a eral Hospital. In 2010, Congresswoman psychiatric clinic at 7655A Bellfort,. Sheila Jackson Lee helped secure a $1 Attempts to contact the operator of million Department of Defense grant the clinic — Earnest Gibson IV, son of for the treatment of active-duty troops Riverside’s administrator Earnest Gibson and veterans for post-traumatic stress III — were unsuccessful. There was no disorder. Last year, FEMA approved $19 million in funds for Hurricane Ike answer at the clinic on Wednesday. The younger Gibson is a former busi- repairs at the hospital’s Edith Irby Jones ness associate of Julian Vence Kimble, Facility, located next door to the Devowho pleaded guilty last year to master- tions clinic.
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Google Gets ED Notice on Foreign Exchange Violation NEW DELHI (TOI): The Enforcement Directorate has issued a foreign exchange violation notice to internet giant Google for alleged irregularities in transfer of funds to its foreign entities. The Directorate has asked the Indian arm of the company to explain to it all the permissions the company has obtained from RBI in this regard and its source of income in the country along with I-T returns filed earlier. “We have an obligation to our shareholders to set up a tax efficient structure and our present structure is compliant
with the tax rules in all the countries where we operate. We make a very substantial contribution to local and national taxation and provide employment for close to 2,000 people in India,” a Google spokesperson said when contacted for comments over the latest ED action. The ED, according to sources, is investigating if the internet search giant violated the norms laid down by the RBI with regard to transfer of funds abroad, including in Ireland and also receiving similar investments from foreign shores. The agency has obtained relevant data in this regard from the RBI and would
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take up any possible penal action under the Foreign Exchange Management Act (FEMA) after going through the documents. Google India, along with other social networking websites, is embroiled in a raging controversy over monitoring the content on Internet and of those websites depending on user generated contents, which arose after Union Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal had asked the social networking websites to “screen” the contents. The company also filed a compliance report in this regard in a Delhi court recently.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
18 February 17, 2012
Damn, We’re Happy!
Glad tidings came over the weekend as we learnt that we, Indians, are among the happiest people in the world. We did not manage to come out tops though, being pipped to the post by the inhabitants of Indonesia, whose cup of joy seems to be running over. Not that we are the kind of people who hold a grudge, or nurse injured emotions or generally affect any kind of despondency. We are the happy people, a permanent Cheshire cat-like grin pasted on our face, walking-talking real-life versions of those smiling emoticons that you thought were limited to screens of computers and mobile phones. That we are all in such high spirits, of course, owes to a survey carried out by Ipsos Global, which found that Indonesians, Indians and Mexicans were the most contended people on the planet. Happiness was relative, the survey found; while you might possess magnificent wealth and yet crib, someone else would find contentment with a ‘cooked meal’ or ‘a roof over one’s head’, which probably explains the moderate levels of happiness experienced by people living in the U.S., Canada or Britain. Family, too, was a source of solace and comfort. We are still trying to figure out the implications for a breadwinner saddled with a huge family who has suddenly lost his job, and whether his joyous family life would help overpower his worry about how to now feed them. This refusal to ever admit being beat up (since a survey is not a truth test but an aggregate of what people like to think about themselves) is likely to have ramifications for other fields as well. Necessity has always been the mother of invention. But if you are always content with whatever little life has thrown your way, improvising would soon be a lost art. Our guess is that the situation is nowhere near so dire, and that when the surveywallahs had popped in with the questions, the Indians just decided to put their best — and happiest — face forward. - Hindustan Times
EDITORIAL
Closing the Gulf BY VIKRAM SOOD Syria is not about democracy. It is about controlling Iran by weakening an obdurate ally. Iran is not so much about bombing the country before it gets the Bomb, but more to bring about a regime change that will be amenable. There is considerable war rhetoric on both sides of the fence. There are discussions on the respective strengths and weaknesses, attacks and counterattacks, strategies and tactics and their chances of success and failure. This makes it obvious that most of this is intended to be an elaborate ‘psywar’ campaign through the media and thinktanks. The only problem with such high-decibel war cry is that they develop a logic and momentum of their own. There is a periodic urge in the West to fix Iran. Syria and Iran had been listed on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list for decades even before September 11, 2001. In 2002, George Bush described Iran as a member of the ‘Axis of Evil’. Despite all this, there were talks of negotiations. Acertain section at the US State Department, which included the then secretary of State Colin Powell, wanted to work on a new policy on Iran, including negotiations on nuclear issues. The Iranian regime had offered to negotiate in 2003 but the group that favoured the belief that the Ayatollahs were out to destroy Israel won the argument. The neo-cons set about creating a ‘new reality’ in West Asia beginning with Iraq. Condoleezza Rice also did make some overtures in 2006 to Iran but by then the US was too deep into its war on terror with Iran as the second main target, to make any reasonable negotiation possible.
In a way, all the three participants in the game , the US, Israel and Iran are hyperventilating today the same way they did a few years ago. US defence secretary Leon Panetta is worried about a pre-emptive unilateral strike by Israel in the next few months. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Martin Dempsey has also told the Israelis that the US would not participate in a war started by Israel. James Clapper, director, National Intelligence, told a Senate hearing on February 1 that “we do not know if Iran will eventually decide to build nuclear weapons”. The US is apprehensive of being caught in the middle of a messy situation because an Israeli attack on Iran would definitely mean a full blown war. Instead, it is pursuing the sanctions route against Iran. However, the Israelis think and say otherwise. prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and defence minister Ehud Barak are convinced that Iran is on its way to making the Bomb but also add that no decision on a deadline has been taken yet. Former Mossad chief Mier Dagan and former chief of staff Gabi Ashkenazi believe that Iran is still some way away from the Bomb and a military strike could be catastrophic. However, Israelis are convinced that Iran has taken a strategic decision to wipe out Israel and no one else but Israelis can defend their country. Barak and other political leaders believe that the window for carrying out a surgical strike is closing fast. They feel Iran will move its facilities to safer areas and that will make it more difficult to target, despite the new munitions from the US. The assessment is that Israel has the ability to severely damage Iranian nuclear
sites, Israel will eventually have tacit US support and there is no other option left. Iran, on the other hand, has also done its bit of sabre-rattling. In an unusual speech recently, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that threats to Iran would be detrimental to the US and that the war itself would be 10 times more detrimental to the US. The Iranians live in a region that is predominantly Sunni and Arab and they are known to be hostile towards them. They also have the huge armada of the US Central Command forces staring down at them. The Iranians do feel surrounded but with the support they have extended to the Hamas and the Hezbollah all these years, they themselves are no angels. Despite all this talk about Iran, the present scene of action is Syria that harbours Hamas. Former Mossad chief Efraim Halevy recently wrote in the New York Times that Syria is becoming Iran’sAchilles’ heel. “Ensuring that Iran is evicted from its regional hub in Damascus would cut off Iran’s access to its proxies (Hezbollah in the Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza) ... This would be a safer and more rewarding option than the military one,” he wrote. It is difficult to say how India should react to the developing situation in Syria and Iran. American and Indian interests in the area are limited to Iran not acquiring nuclear weapons. Iran is our neighbour, and Israel and India have a developing partnership. We can and must push for a negotiated settlement because sanctions are not desirable as they are ineffective and sometimes counterproductive. Vikram Sood is former Secretary, Research & Analysis Wing. Hindustan Times
Nothing is more shocking than the violence of children. For any society, children are the embodiment of innocence, free from the wiles and lies of the corrupt, adult world they are yet to enter. Not surprisingly, the murder of a school teacher by a 15-year-old boy in Chennai who was angry at being reprimanded for his poor performance in class has thrown up deeply disquieting questions on parenting, teaching, and social and cultural mores. By all accounts, the teacher did nothing beyond the ordinary routine. After the boy fared badly in the subject she taught, Hindi, she made notes in his school diary to draw the attention of his parents. Clearly, the murder was an extraordinary fallout of an every-
day situation. What might otherwise have ended in a commonplace student prank against the teacher triggered a shocking, inexplicable act. Many factors are at play, some of them at larger societal levels that are not easily controllable. Blaming parenting is easy, but this is no more than a way of absolving the rest of society of all responsibility. There is nothing to suggest the boy was brought up in abnormal circumstances; all his siblings have done well for themselves. Of course, parents bear a greater share of the responsibility for the behaviour of their children, but bad parenting cannot explain all deviant behaviour. While several things are wrong with our educa-
tion system, including the processes of examination and evaluation, these cannot be understood as major contributors to the violence in schools. Films and other forms of popular culture also have an impact on young minds, but then again, it would be simplistic to relate them directly to real-life violence. At one level, then, the teacher’s murder is indicative of a collective failure of society — our schools cannot remain untouched when the world outside is not peaceful, fair and just. But we need also to pursue remedies at the school level itself, including counselling and other early warning systems that can help children cope with the stress and strain of learning. The Hindu
Murder in the Classroom
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EDITOR: PRAMOD KULKARNI BUSINESS MANAGER: JAWAHAR MALHOTRA MANAGING PARTNER: KRISHNA GIRI COMMUNITY REPORTER: KALYANI GIRI COMMUNITY EDITOR: MANASI GOKHALE ADMINISTRATIVE MANAGER: VANSHIKA VIPIN BUSINESS & RECREATION: JACOB DAVID GRAPHIC DESIGN: SAQIB RANA CORRESPONDENTS CHICAGO: NAND KAPOOR, UK: ASEEM KULKARNI NEW DELHI: RAJ KANWAR ®All rights reserved. No material herein or portions thereof may be published without the written consent of the publisher. The deadline for advertising and articles is 5 pm on Monday of each week. Please include self-addressed, stamped envelope for return of all unsolicited material. Published at 7457 Harwin Drive, Suite 262, Houston, Texas 77036. Tel: 713-789-NEWS or 6397 Fax: 713-789-6399, email: indoamericannews@yahoo.com, website: indoamerican-news.com
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
February 17, 2012
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Family Seeks Answers to NRI’s Death in U.S. Jail BY BELLA JAISINGHANI MUMBAI (TOI) : A month to the day after his daughter’s death in Greater Chicago’s Lake County Jail, the father of Goregaon resident Lyvita Gomes has not been informed of the tragedy. Not just her family, indeed the American authorities are finding it difficult to explain why an Indian national was arrested and mistreated simply for refusing jury duty-not mandatory for non-US citizens-and then allowed to waste away and die of hunger. The 52-year old Mumbai native, a former Pan Am stewardess and Delta Airlines trainer, had been on a hunger strike in jail for nearly three weeks following her December 10 incarceration arising from charges of resisting arrest in a routine jury summons case. On December 29, Lyvita was ordered to be taken to the Vista East Medical Center. She died on January 3, 2012 at the hospital. The funeral was conducted on February 1 and was attended by over 200 people, all asking the same question that’s haunting the Gomes family. The last rites were conducted Thursday in the presence of her sister and brotherin-law who life in UK as well as a large assembly of local community leaders. A Chicago daily reported that around 120 people, including 20 local pastors, have signed a “statement of concern” that will be presented to the
authorities. The family lives along Link Road in Goregaon west. Lyvita’s brother Oydsteven, who works in a television production house, has so far managed to keep the news of his sister’s death from their father. “He is 94 and is still recovering from a nasty bout of malaria,” said Steven. “I have requested several relatives and friends who wish to pay condolence not to visit. Of course, now that the funeral is over, I will have to break it to him.” The second of four siblings, Lyvita was a well-educated, qualified achiever filled with a sense of joie de vivre. She studied biochemistry at Sophia College, then went on to teach chemistry at St Joseph’s Convent during which time she wrote workbooks for junior school. Soon she tired of that and joined Pan Am airlines in the United States as a flight attendant and supervisor before moving to Delta Airlines where she graduated to flight trainer. Much of what happened since December 2011when the Chicago police arrested her remains a blur for the family. Questions linger over the exact circumstances of her arrest, her illness, indeed her mental condition and subsequent death. “We are still unaware of the full truth behind her hunger strike over jury duty,” said
Steven. “Those who are in the US are hardly wiser for being there. My sister Lyemia and her husband who live in London conducted the funeral on Thursday. They are seeking answers as are the 200-odd supporters and community leaders who attended Lyvita’s wake,” he added. Lyvita was single and did not have family in the US. “Is this how they punish foreign nationals who merely refuse jury duty? Stand by as they forgo food and drink, watch them become dehydrated and die?” he asked. “I cannot help think this is racism. Would this have happened to a white person?” Steven and his siblings are yet to receive an apology or explanation, though the Lake County sheriff’s office on Thursday released a timetable of events from Lyvita’s arrest up to her death in January 3. “If they (the US authorities) have indeed expressed regret over the incident as is being reported, then it means they are coming to accept that Lyvita died because of mistakes on their part.” Steven does not intend to seek legal redressal or pursue the matter in the US. “Will that bring my sister back to life?” A local Chicago paper quoted her brother-in-law as saying. “Was it because of her ethnic or immigration status or her mental status?”
“India’s Air is the World’s Unhealthiest”: Study When it comes to overall envi- also cite India’s reliance coal and polBY HEATHER TIMMONS & ronment, India ranked among the luting industries like brick-making MALAVIKA VYAWAHARE (NYT) India has the worst air pollu- world’s “Worst Performers,” at No. that are located close to denselytion in the entire world, beating China, 125 out of the 132 nations, beating populated areas. Emission standards are nearly “10 Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh, ac- only Kuwait, Yemen, South Africa, cording to a study released during Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmeni- years behind European standards,” this year’s World Economic Forum stan and Iraq. Neighboring Pakistan, Ms. Roychowdhury said, and these in contrast, ranked 120th and Bangla- standards are not legally enforceable, in Davos. Of 132 countries whose environ- desh was listed as No. 115 on overall unlike in countries like the United States which has the Clean Air Act. ments were surveyed, India ranks environment. It is not just India’s big cities which India has an Air (Prevention and dead last in the ‘Air (effects on huControl of Pollution) Act, 1981 man health)’ ranking. The which is supposed to be enforced annual study, the Environby the Central Pollution Control mental Performance Index, Board. This act lacks teeth, Ms. is conducted and written Roychowdhury said. “We need to by environmental research take big steps or the problem will centers at Yale and Cooverwhelm us,” she said. lumbia universities with D. Saha, a scientist in the “Air assistance from dozens Lab” at India’s Central Pollution of outside scientists. The Control Board said the study’s findstudy uses satellite data to ings were not a matter of huge measure air pollution conconcern. centrations. “We should not compare our India’s high levels of fine country with others,” Dr. Saha said. particulate matter (a subject we’ve been looking at New Delhi memorial India Gate, glimpsed “India has a different terrain.” He on India Ink, albeit just in through the haze in a December, 2011 photo- cited seasonal rainfall, deserts and graph. photo: Saurabh Das dusty conditions as being responDelhi) are one of the major sible for the particulate matter. “Can factors contributing to the country’s abysmal air quality. Levels are grappling with air pollution, said we put water sprinklers across the of so-called PM 2.5, for the 2.5 mi- Anumita Roychowdhury, executive country?,” he asked. Particulate matter comes from boilcron size of the particulates, are nearly director of India’s Centre for Science five times the threshold where they and Environment, a non-profit orga- ers, thermal power plants and cars, nization which was not involved in as well, he said, but India would not become unsafe for human beings. Particulate matter is one of the the study. Air pollution also is wors- have development if these activities were curbed, he said. “The diseases leading causes of acute lower respira- ening in smaller cities, she said. The main culprit, Ms. Roychowd- mentioned in the report are caused tory infections and cancer. The World Health Organization found that Acute hury said, is the growing number of by many factors not just particulate Respiratory Infections were one of vehicles in India. While the country matter, we are raising undue alarm,” the most common causes of deaths still has far fewer vehicles per capita Mr. Saha said. His advice? “It is a non-issue, we in children under 5 in India, and con- than developed nations, India’s cars tributed to 13% of in-patient deaths in are more polluting, Ms. Roychowd- have other pressing problems like hury said. Other air pollution experts poverty, focus on them.” paediatric wards in India.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
ENTERTAINMENT
February 17, 2012
CAA Signs Its First Bollywood Star
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BY NYAN BHUSHAN NEW DELHI: A former Miss World and one of Bollywood’s leading actresses, Priyanka Chopra has been signed to CAA. Chopra, 29, is the first mainstream Bollywood star to be signed by the agency, whose Indian talent roster also includes Golden Globe-nominated director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth). The actress, who starred in the 2012 hit Agneepath, is an aspiring singer as well. She was recently signed to Universal Music Group and Desi Hits! Inc. (an entertainment entity connecting international and Indian artists), where her manager is Troy Carter (also Lady Gaga’s manager), CEO of Atom Music. Co-founded by L.A.-based Anjula Acharia-Bath, Desi Hits! played an instrumental role in Chopra’s CAA signing. “I have had a long-standing relationship with David Taghioff at CAA because he has been working on India-USA cross-border deals for many years and we have been connected through this for some time,” Acharia-Bath tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I approached David and CAAwith Priyanka’s manager, Troy Carter, and my partner on this, signing [Interscope Records chairman] Jimmy Iovine to assemble an ‘A team’ that would both understand the enormity of the industry she is coming from and how best to navigate her through the immense opportunities that lie ahead.” “This is a great follow-up [after the Universal Music Group/ Desi Hits! signing], and there should be some fun stuff coming up. Basically, I am an actor so it did make sense to have representation in terms of movies or entertainment
in any way,” Chopra tells THR. “Everybody on my team thought that it made sense to be covered on the movie front as well. CAA was excited to come on board so we went with them.” After an early modeling career and winning the 2000 Miss World title, Chopra debuted in Bollywood with 2003’s The Hero: Love Story of a Spy. The actress followed that in 2004 with her breakout role in suspense drama Aitraaz for which she received the Filmfare best villain award. In 2008, Chopra’s turn as a troubled model in Fashion won her the Indian government’s National Award for best actress. Last year, success she found a critwith
ically acclaimed performance in 7 Khoon Maaf (Susanna’s Seven Husbands), playing a femme fatale, from youth to old age. The project was co-written by Hollywood screenwriter Matthew Robbins (The Sugarland Express). Alhough there are wider international opportunities for Chopra to explore, obvious challenges also remain, as Acharia-Bath explains. “It is no secret that business is handled differently in India and there is often a disconnect given talent in India handles much of their own business and rely less on agents and management to navigate opportunities for them,” she says. “This is in stark contrast to how things are handled in the USA. Also, stylistically, Bollywood is a very different form of cinema so finding talent that can cross over is challenging as there are cultural sensibilities that are very different.” But Chopra’s background could give her a different positioning since “she began her career on an international platform [as Miss World] and moved into Bollywood almost as an outsider but managed to rise to the top,” adds Acharia-Bath. “She is unique because as much as she is Indian, she has an incredibly international focus and understands the protocols and approach to the entertainment business globally.” The profile of Indian actors gradually is increasing internationally, with talent agencies such as ICM repping Anil Kapoor (Mission: Impossible — Ghost Protocol) and Brillstein Entertainment Partners repping Irrfan Khan (this summer’s The Amazing Spider-Man). - Hollywoodreporter.com
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Movie Review Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu (TOI) Rahul Kapoor ( Imran Khan) is a 25-year-old boy. He brushes his teeth three times and irons his socks and underwear - everything that his parents want him to do. He is like a puppet living out their dreams and desires. So when he meets Riana Braganza ( Kareena Kapoor) who has dumped six Mr Rights and is everything he is not, sparks obviously fly. Trite, trite, right? Wrong. With only the faintest trace of the Hollywood hit, What Happens in Vegas (2008), Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu shows what first-rate direction and a cute but
brave script can do to the doneto-death story of opposites getting attracted to each other. EMAET has heart, charm and an enviable lightness of being. And it certainly helps that the lead players are in fine form. Like quality wine, Kareena seems to improve with every passing year though you find shades of Geet (Jab We Met) in her part. And Imran brings just that right amount of balance to the difficult part of an uptight, gawky individual who evolves with every passing day. The movie is essentially his journey from boy to man. With its neon lights and flash, Las Vegas
too is an important character adding to the film’s mood and melody. The songs are the movie’s best friend. They walk hand in hand with the script and become the nuanced voice of its lead players. Few words would have better expressed what Rahul is going through than the line, Jaisa din waisi raat sab dheela lagta hai, aasman bhi kam neela lagta hai. Composer Amit Trivedi and lyricist Amitabh Bhattacharya are among the finest musical team in Bollywood. In EMAET, they are again at their best. The seductive Auntyji (singer: Ash
King) and the racy title track have a delightful breeziness. And the more evocative tracks such as Gubbare Gubbare and Aahatein stay with you long after the lights come on. EMAET is the sweetest heartbreak that Bollywood has conjured in a long, long time. It works both as a college buddy movie and a date movie; for the young and the not-so-young. You can even watch it alone. And if a gorgeous girl asks you for a drink, go ahead, take a chance. As Rahul will tell you, it will be worth every second of your life.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
RELIGION
22 February 17, 2012
M
ahasivaratri is the most important festival dedicated to Lord Siva. This holy day is observed by millions of Hindus all over the world. It is one of Hinduism’s most esoteric holy days, when yoga practices, mantras and meditation take the devotee closer to God’s essence within the core of himself. Hindus typically fast, maintain silence and stay up all night to perform spiritual practices, such as worshiping, chanting and singing. In some regions, devotees visit as many Siva temples as they can on this night.
Who is Siva? For hundreds of millions of Hindus Siva is the Supreme Being, the absolute One God who both transcends creation and pervades it—thus existing as our own innermost essence. Siva is the powerful Deity whose energetic dance creates, sustains and dissolves the universe in endless cycles. He is the master yogi delving into unfathomable mysteries, the supreme ascetic, the prime mystic, the Light behind all light, the Life within all life. Siva is often called Mahadeva, “Great Being of Light,” for He created other, lesser Gods such as Ganesha and Karttikeya. Although Siva is usually depicted as male, in reality God and the Gods are
What is the special off ering to Siva? Hindus believe that offering bilva leaves (Aegle marmelos) on Mahasivaratri is most auspicious. Legend tells of a hunter who was chased by a tiger. Scrambling up a thorny tree, he plucked and dropped its leaves to stay alert. The tree was a bilva, The leaves happened to fall on a Sivalinga, and it was the night of Sivaratri. That all-night worship of God, though inadvertent, earned the hunter liberation from rebirth. Siva accepts devotees irrespective of their faults and foibles, forgiving man’s cognizant and innocent mistakes.
beyond gender and form, as depicted by His half-male, half-female form, Ardhanarishvara. Parvati, regarded as Siva’s consort in village Hinduism, is mystically understood as His manifest energy, inseparable from Him. The ancient Tirumantiram scripture says of Siva, “Himself creates. Himself preserves. Himself destroys. Himself conceals. Himself all of this He does and then
What is the Sivalinga? Linga means “mark, token or sign.” A Siva linga, representing Siva, is found in virtually all of His temples. The Sivalinga is the simplest and most ancient symbol of the Divine. It is especially evocative of Parasiva, God beyond all forms and qualities, the unmanifested Absolute. Sivalingas are commonly made of stone, but may also be of metal, precious gems, crystal, wood, earth or even transitory materials like sand or ice. Ardent devotees make special Sivalingas to worship during Mahasivaratri. Is there a special mantra for Siva? Namah
grants liberation—Himself the allpervading Lord.” What happens on Mahasivaratri? Many Hindus perform an all-night vigil, plunging Siva, the supreme yogi, who is both the guide and the goal of the search. Staying awake through the night is a sacrifi ce and a break from life’s normal routine, a time out of time to be with God within, to reach for the realization of our true, immortal Self. Siva is known
Sivaya is among the foremost Vedic mantras. It means “adoration to Siva” and is called the Panchakshara, or “fi ve-letters.” The fi ve elements, too, are embodied in this ancient formula for invocation. Na is earth, Ma is water, Si is fi re, Va is air, and Ya is ether, or space. What is holy ash? Holy ash is a sacrament that is dear to devotees of Siva. Taken from sacred fi res, it purifi es and blesses those who wear it. This fi ne, white powder is worn on the forehead as a reminder of the temporary nature of the physical body and the urgency to strive for spiritual attainment and closeness to God
as Abhisheka Priya, “He who loves sacred ablutions,” and thus many temples and home shrines have water always dripping on the Sivalinga. On this special night, Sivalingas are bathed with special substances, sometimes several times. Mahasivaratri occurs on the night before the new moon in February/March. What is the Kumbha Mela? The Kumbha Mela is a grand festival held every few years in rotation at four places where sacred rivers converge: Haridwar, Prayag, Nasik and Ujjain. The largest melas, at Haridwar and Prayag, fall in January to April and often include Mahasivaratri. Devotees come from near and far to immerse themselves in the holy waters, with prayers for purifi cation and spiritual liberation on their lips. In 2001, the Kumbha Mela at Prayag, held on the river bank, was attended by more than 60 million people.It was the biggest human gathering held on Earth, seven times the population of New York City.
Fasting & Silence While virtually every Hindu festival comes with a sumptuous list of foods to feast on, during Mahasivaratri most Hindus fast. A spiritual practice found in almost all of the world’s religions, fasting calms the physical, mental and emotional energies, helping the devotee draw nearer to the ineffable Self within. While the most strict fast on nothing but water; others permit themselves fruits, milk or rice. Many observe silence on this night, thinking of nothing but God. Silence, known in Sanskrit as mauna, quiets the demands of the mind and body, bringing forth spiritual clarity. In Hinduism, God is not separate from creation. A virtuous life and certain techniques, such as yoga and ascetic practices, allow a person to remove the veil that makes us think of ourselves as separate from Him.
Fact & Fiction
FACT: Hindus undergo numerous traditional rites of passage at critical junctures throughout life. These ceremonies invoke divine blessings for the individual and help bind him with his community as he advances on the path of virtue. Name-giving, fi rst feeding, commencement of learning, coming of age, marriage and cremation are primary examples. FICTION: It is commonly believed that rituals are mandatory. In fact, there are no absolute requirements within Hinduism. Each devotee is free to practice his faith according to his family tradition and personal preferences.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
OPINION
February 17, 2012
23
The Other Side of Life: Can Anyone Really Live on Rs. 26 (50¢) a Day?
BY HARSH MANDER ( The Hindu) Late last year, two young men decided to live a month of their lives on the income of an average poor Indian. One of them, Tushar, the son of a police officer in Haryana, studied at the University of Pennsylvania and worked for three years as an investment banker in the US and Singapore. The other, Matt, migrated as a teenager to the States with his parents, and studied in MIT. Both decided at different points to return to India, joined the UID Project in Bengaluru, came to share a flat, and became close friends. The idea suddenly struck them one day. Both had returned to India in the vague hope that they could be of use to their country. But they knew the people of this land so little. Tushar suggested one evening — “Let us try to understand an ‘average Indian’, by living on an ‘average income’.” His friend Matt was immediately captured by the idea. They began a journey which would change them forever. To begin with, what was the average income of an Indian? They calculated that India’s Mean National Income was Rs. 4,500 a month, or Rs. 150 a day. Globally people spend about a third of their incomes on rent. Excluding rent, they decided to spend Rs. 100 each a day. They realised that this did not make them poor, only average. Seventy-five per cent Indians live on less than this average. The young men moved into the
expensive and therefore used sparingly, meat was out of bounds, as were processed food like bread. No ghee or butter, only a little refined oil. Both are passionate cooks with healthy appetites. They found soy nuggets a wonder food — affordable and high on proteins, and worked on many recipes. Parle G biscuits again were cheap: 25 paise for 27 calories! They innovated a dessert of fried banana on biscuits. It was their treat each day. Living on Rs.100 made the circle of their life much smaller. They found that they could not afford to travel by bus more than five km in a day. If they needed to go further, they could only walk. They could afford electricity only five or six hours a day, therefore sparingly used lights and fans. They needed also to charge their mobiles and computMatt (left) and Tushar. Photo courtesy: ers. One Lifebuoy soap cut RS100ADAY.COM into two. They passed by shops, gazing at things they could tiny apartment of their domestic not buy. They could not afford the help, much to her bemusement. What movies, and hoped they would not changed for them was that they spent fall ill. a large part of their day planning and However, the bigger challenge reorganising their food. Eating out was mained. Could they live on Rs. 32, out of the question; even dhabas were the official poverty line, which had too expensive. Milk and yoghurt were become controversial after India’s
Planning Commission informed the Supreme Court that this was the poverty line for cities (for villages it was even lower, at Rs. 26 per person per day)? For this, they decided to go to Matt’s ancestral village Karucachal in Kerala, and live on Rs. 26. They ate parboiled rice, a tuber and banana and drank black tea: a balanced diet was impossible on the Rs. 18 a day which their briefly adopted ‘poverty’ permitted. They found themselves thinking of food the whole day. They walked long distances, and saved money even on soap to wash their clothes. They could not afford communication, by mobile and internet. It would have been a disaster if they fell ill. For the two 26-year-olds, the experience of ‘official poverty’ was harrowing. Yet, when their experiment ended with Deepavali, they wrote to their friends: “Wish we could tell you that we are happy to have our ‘normal’ lives back. Wish we could say that our sumptuous celebratory feast two nights ago was as satisfying as we had been hoping for throughout our experiment. It probably was one of the best meals we’ve ever had, packed with massive amounts of love from our hosts. However, each bite was a sad reminder of the harsh reality that there are 400 million people in our country for whom such a meal will remain a dream for quite some time. That we can move on to our comfortable life, but they remain in
the battlefield of survival — a life of tough choices and tall constraints. A life where freedom means little and hunger is plenty... It disturbs us to spend money on most of the things that we now consider excesses. Do we really need that hair product or that branded cologne? Is dining out at expensive restaurants necessary for a happy weekend? At a larger level, do we deserve all the riches we have around us? Is it just plain luck that we were born into circumstances that allowed us to build a life of comfort? What makes the other half any less deserving of many of these material possessions, (which many of us consider essential) or, more importantly, tools for self-development (education) or selfpreservation (healthcare)? We don’t know the answers to these questions. But we do know the feeling of guilt that is with us now. Guilt that is compounded by the love and generosity we got from people who live on the other side, despite their tough lives. We may have treated them as strangers all our lives, but they surely didn’t treat us as that way...” So what did these two friends learn from their brief encounter with poverty? That hunger can make you angry. That a food law which guarantees adequate nutrition to all is essential. That poverty does not allow you to realise even modest dreams. And above all — in Matt’s words — that empathy is essential for democracy.
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Sunday, February 19, 2012 as per American Central Standard Time, Mahapuja at 6:15 PM. AArati at 7:30 PM. Four Prahar Puja will continue till next day 6:00 AM. List Your Name For Pooja with the Priest. According to USA, Maha Shivratri falls on Sunday, February 19, 2012.
Thandai and Farali Prasad will be served after Abhishek & Aarti. Mrutyunjaya japa Yagna will continue for the whole day. For Maha Puja, Donation of $101.00 is Appreciated. Abhishek During the Day Time. Donation of $21.00 is Appreciated. Milk for Abhishek & Prasad is welcome. Jay Somnath-Temple Committee INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17 , 2012 • ONLINE EDITION: WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
24 February 17, 2012 INDIA Indian Women Breaking Glass Ceiling in Banks BY RAJ KANWAR IAN INDIA CORRESPONDENT Women in India are increasingly breaking the corporate glass ceiling particularly in the fast growing banking industry. Women of exceptional ability today occupy the top slot in four of the largest private banks after outpacing their male colleagues. The most famous among them is Chanda Kochhar who has been at the helm for quite some time now of ICICI, country’s largest private bank. Shikha Sharma is another woman banker who has the unique distinction of heading Axis Bank, ranked as the third largest private bank. Another woman Naina Lal Kidwai occupies the hot seat at the multinational Hong Kong Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC). Another woman Renu Sud Karnad is the lady boss at HDFC. If private banks did not provide big enough space, the talented Indian women have also shown their dynamism by breaching the barriers in multinational financial institutions; Kalpana Morparia now occupies the top slot at JP Morgan Chase. Not to be left behind by their ‘sisters’ in the private banking sector, some woman bankers have taken giant strides in several of the government-owned banks. Already, three women are in the running to occupy the highest posts in some of the nationalized banks. A short list prepared by the India’s finance ministry includes Archana Bhargava, Vijayalakshmi R. Iyer and Shubhalakshmi Panse. While Iyer is being considered for the top job at the Bank of India, Panse and Bhargava are the favorites for heading Allahabad Bank and United Bank of India respectively. Interestingly, even at the Reserve Bank of
study shows that there is a woman on the boards of directors of at least nine of the top 11 listed banks. This is further backed by another study of 240 top listed Indian companies which concludes that more than 50% of women chief executives serve in banking and financial services sectors. Alok Khare of All India Bank Officers Association says that women constitute nearly 16% of the workforce in banks while their percentage goes up to 30% in metropolitan and
other cities. An interesting feature of woman CEOs in banks is that they all traditionally dress in sarees and shun business suits. In the course of their careers, these woman bosses not only learn to balance their accounts but also are adept at striking a fine balance between their jobs at the banks and in looking after the needs of their own families.
Proposal to Allow NRIs to Adopt Children
Chanda Kochhar
India until recently two of the four deputy governors were women. They are Usha Thorat (now retired) and Shyamala Gopinath. There seem to be special reasons for the unusual heights that women have scaled in banks and financial companies. For one, the women enjoy equal opportunities, and two they have a special affinity with money, numbers and finance. Just remember how many wives make substantial savings called ‘pin money’ from the monthly allowance that their husbands give. Another reason is that a job in banking and financial industries do not need the type of networking that a marketing and sales job would involve. The emergence of women in top banking positions is no fluke or happenstance. A recent
BANGALORE (SI): Many of the Indian childless couples settled abroad seek information on adopting children from the Shishu Griha in Jaipur. But the organization is not recognized by the Central Adoption Regulatory Authority (CARA) to permit adoption of child by NRI couples. Recently, a proposal has been forwarded by the Ministry of social justice department which will allow childless NRI couples to adopt child from Shishu Griha. The department has also made recommendations to the CARA to make Shishu Griha an International Adoption Agency. ShishuGrihawouldbe the only children’s home in the state of Rajasthan offering child adoption to NRI parents, if the proposal gets approved by CARA. An executive in the department of social justice said that they are waiting for CARA’s approval. “While there are states like Gujarat and Karnataka which have many international adoption agencies, Rajasthan does not have any as of now,’’ he said. Reena Sharma, the superintendent of Shishu Griha said that many NRI’s call up the organization frequently asking for details regarding adoption of child. . “There are five to six calls by NRIs every year. Relatives of NRIs living in Rajasthan also call us regarding adoption of a child, but we tell them to contact CARA,” Sharma said. Santosh Aggarwal, a member of the Child Welfare Committee (CWC) at Jaipur described the step as a positive approach. “Children will find good homes abroad. Why should we depend on domestic adoption only? If well-to-do people living abroad want to adopt children from their own country it is a welcome move,” she said.
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(Sun Sign)
www.GaneshaSpeaks.com Visit us Online www.indoamerican-news.com ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20: You work dedicattime and limited resources. edly, accomplishing your desires. So, this week, Besides work/business, you you fulfill home and family will look after matters relatresponsibilities. Meeting the ed to home, land, property, demands of your beloved renovation, construction etc. will give you deep satisfacYou tend to focus on material tion. Apart from family, you gains, and providing a comfortable life to your are likely to focus on finance, family. Planning an exotic vacation with your funds and capital investments. You may enjoy loved ones will help you relax. Some of you profitable deals during this time, your plan- may go through a rough patch in life, and there etary positions support buying and selling, be is a chance of break-up or divorce. Be calm and it shares, property or assets. Handle situations handle the matter tactfully. calmly and with finesse. SCORPIO Oct 24 - Nov 22: This is likely TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 You may be to be an emotional phase for you. You may get hurt. So, avoid showing your highly sensitive and vulnerable now. You may vulnerability to the world. get caught in a whirlpool of Soon you will have a renewed emotions. You may commit to zest for life and optimistic apsomeone or something, which proach for life. Bonding and you will regret later. Although socialising with family and you may be leading a blissful friends may come to the fore. conjugal life, there are chances of you getting involved in an extra-marital You will focus on improving your self-image affair. Refrain from activities that will harm and persona. You work on your public image your relationship. Spiritual or religious activi- as well. After a series of busy weeks, you make time for yourself. Introspection will help you ties help attain peace of mind. This is a crucial find answers to questions that have been trouphase of your life, so be careful. bling you for a long time now. Good Luck! GEMINI May 22 - Jun 21: You will have SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 22: For you, success at work and harmony at home. You life is incomplete without family and friends. may be awarded for your outSo, this week, you will put standing performance at work. in great efforts to make your Travel for work related purhome a place for bonding. poses is possible. You make Inviting your near and dear new contacts and form new ones and hosting parties will associations as a part of your give you utmost pleasure. You business expansion plans. This is the right time to appear for switching to new jobs. Married will enjoy sharing your past experiences and people shall enjoy happiness with their spouse cherishing old memories with pals. All this may while the singles may advance their relation- make you feel nostalgic. You will want to spend ship. You will be kind and considerate with the more time with your parents, and thank them for downtrodden, and support them financially. all the lovely things in life they have given you. CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 23: By now you This attitude of gratitude will help you relax may have realized that it’s futile worrying about from the pressures of daily life. worldly matters and situations CAPRICORN Dec 23 - Jan 20: During the that are not under your control. past few weeks, you have accomplished your Hence, you shall now try to engoals and earned rewards, joy small pleasures of life, and planned bonding activities look for happiness within. You with your family, and spent may indulge in hobbies/activiquality time with your beties that you have always loved, loved. This week, you will but unable to take up due to time constraints. want to help the needy and Activities like reading books, gardening, muthe less privileged. You will sic, dance or working out in the gym may give do that by either providing them clothes or food you pleasure. These activities give you a break items or by donating money. Your family will from the emotional turmoil that you have been be highly supportive of you, and they will feel experiencing for the past few weeks. inspired by your deeds, especially your children. LEO July 24 - Aug 23: Warm and affection- You will symbolize warmth, care and affection ate, you will shower your loved ones with all the in true sense! attention and love. This shall AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19: This week bear a very positive effect on you will do all that you can to give a boost to your your bonds. You interact with career. You may even consider your kith and kin, and lend taking up a new job. You may them a helping hand if there’s find yourself unsure about the a need. At the same time, you sudden developments and manage to pursue your career goals as well. You changes happening in your make significant progress in your job, and will life. The best strategy shall be be applauded by your peers. Financially too, the to trust your intuitions, and week seems sound. You consider renovating keep moving ahead with optimism. You may your home and decorating it with objet d’art. show interest in subjects like astrology, science However, watch your temper, and avoid taking or occult. Besides, matters related to buying, hasty decisions. selling, loans and investments may take up your VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23: You will be highly time. Monetary matters shall come to the fore, sensitive during this phase, and are likely to get so be alert and vigilant. hurt easily. Work pressures may PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20: Your lucky stars mount, and you find it difficult are shining brightly! This phase will make to concentrate on your work. you believe that miracles do Personal responsibilities weigh happen. You prosper tremenyou down. An ailing family dously, personally and profesmember, a kid with exam blues sionally. At the work front, or a financial break-down demands your attennew associations and deals tion. Obstacles in practical and official matters are advantageous. By taking are also likely, and this makes you feel stressed. calculated risks, you shall achieve success. At Take small breaks whenever possible, and wait for the tide to turn in your favour. Meditation, home, you will enjoy a harmonious environYoga, exercising and spending time with loved ment; your loved ones will shower you with affection and love. Life’s good at the moment, ones shall make you feel better. LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23: You will be and you seem to be enjoying the good luck. Just caught in a flurry of activities. You have limited don’t forget to secure it all up for an equally enticing future.
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STOCKS • FINANCE • SOUTH ASIAN MARKETS • TECHNOLOGY
China, Emerging Super Power in Science and Tech: Anand Kumar BEIJING (IE): India needs to work on “war-footing” to improve its education system if it wants to compete at the international level where China is emerging as the new super power in science and technology, mathematician Anand Kumar believes. “Chinese scored a phenomenal record winning Maths Olympiad 13 times in the last 20 years. I have no doubt that China will be new emerging super power in science and technology,” Kumar, who was here for a brief visit to interact with the Chinese media said in an interview. Kumar shot into fame with h i s S u p e r- 3 0 p r o g r a m f o r underprivileged students to get selected for IIT exams. Time magazine listed him as one of the best 20 teachers of the
world as several times all 30 of his students got selected. “Every thing in my institute is free,” he said adding that the money is raised by him and fellow teachers through tuitions. “Till now Chinese may not have won any Nobel Prize so far. But I won’t be surprised if they dominate the world of invention winning many Nobel Prizes in the coming decades,” he said. Kumar said India is not able to make a mark at the Maths Olympiad because of lack of concerted efforts. “Though India had a great footing in Mathematics from Vedic times, we have not won the prize even once. Not only that we were left way behind. Even a boy from Vietnam won it recently,” he said referring to the Maths Olympiad.
Currently the National Board for Higher Mathematics selects the students and sends them for competition with one month training. “There is no chance to win with this system,” he said. He suggested that the Ministry of Human Resources and Development should come with a new selection and training programme and offered to assist it. “I would like to be adviser as well as a teacher,” he said. “India should prepare on war footing to improve education. Prepare teachers bank. There should be teachers training institutions backed by special teachers training program for teacher training,” he said adding that best teachers should best salaries. www.indoamerican-news.com
Coal India’s Q3 Profit Rises by 54% NEW DELHI (IE): State-run Coal India (CIL) today posted a 54 per cent rise in consolidated net profit at Rs 4,037.7 crore for the
quarter ended December 31, on the back of improved sales. The company had reported a consolidated net profit of Rs ,621.5
Coal India Limited is happy with its performance of rising profits for the third quarter by 54%, it is also one of India’s largest employers. This photo shows Indian coal miners at work in a mine at Godavarikhani, some 250km east of Hyderabad, India.
crore in the October-December quarter of 2010-11. The consolidated total income rose to Rs 17,205.1 crore rom Rs 13,937.4 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2010. “We are very happy with the CIL performance and will make very effort to take the PSU to further heights. Our efforts will be on meeting production target and further enhancing it,” Chairman and Managing Director of Coal India Zohra Chatterji said The stand-alone net profit of CIL saw a massive 957 per cent increase to Rs 1,219.33 crore for the quarter against Rs 15.3 crore for the same period last fiscal. The company’s standalone total income also rose to Rs ,566 crore against Rs 400.5 crore for the same period in a year-ago period, CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
Mathematician Anand Kumar from Bihar, India started the Super 30 program to help underprivileged students to study for the IIT exams. He believes the Chinese are brilliant in Science and technology. Times Magazine has listed him one of the best 20 teachers in the world.
Urban Households Expect Inflation at 13+% MUMBAI (IE): Urban households expect inflation to remain high till the second half of next financial year, a survey by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has found. In December, 2012, household inflation is expected to be 13.3 per cent, higher than the 12.9 per cent perceived for September, 2012, and daily-wage workers and housewives expected higher inflation rates to continue, the survey said. As per the ‘Inflation Expectations Survey of Households: December 2011 (Round 26)’ conducted by the apex bank, the rise is anticipated to be mainly on account of movement in food prices. Only 36 per cent of the respondents believed the Reserve Bank is taking the necessary action to control inflation. While the housewives surveyed expect inflation to stand at 13.7 per
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INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
Urban folk living in Mumbai have been hit by inflation and is affecting the poorest living in the city like this old lady at the market place in South Mumbai CONTINUED ON PAGE 28
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INDIA
February 17, 2012
PIL Protests Hindu Control of Famed Bodh Gaya Buddhist Temple
NEW DELHI (IE): The Supreme Court today agreed to examine a question of Constitutional law as to whether a Hindu can be the chairman of the famed Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar, and if the managing committee can be dominated by Hindus instead of Buddhists. A bench of justices Altamas Kabir and S S Nijjar asked Attorney General G E Vahanvati to assist the court in the matter and posted it for further hearing on Friday. The apex court’s direction came on a public interest litigation (PIL) by advocate Vineet Dhanda challenging the validity of Section 3 of the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, under which the government appoints a 9-member panel with a Hindu as its chairman and the majority of its members being Hindus rather than Buddhists.
Dhanda submitted the constitution of the committee of the Maha Bodhi Temple, which is the holiest place of Buddhists, violated Articles 26 and 25 of the Constitution. WhileArticle 25 of the Constitution gives liberty or freedom to profess, practise, propagate any religion, the Article 26 gives fundamental right to an individual and community to manage their religious affairs and matters on their own and administer their own religious places or institutions, he said. The advocate pointed out that the Bodh Gaya Temple Act, 1949, however, mandates that the committee regulating the affairs of Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya would have Hindus in majority as the law mandates its panel chairman and four members to be Hindus, leaving only four remaining seats
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27
The company which recently entered into a wage pact with its workers said that the additional outgo on account of the hike in wages will be considered in the fourth quarter of the current fiscal. T h e N a t i o n a l C o a l Wa g e Agreement, NCWA IX, covering wage settlement of non-executive employees has been finalised on January 31, 2012. Like in the second quarter provision for such wage increase has also been considered in third
for Buddhists members. Maha Bodhi Temple is one of the most revered shrines of Buddhists as Lord Buddha had attained enlightenment here under a Maha Bodhi Tree.
Coal India’s Q3 Profit Rises by 54%
it said. While the production of the PSU for the quarter ended December 31, marginally went up by 0.7 per cent to 114.62 million tonnes (MT), against 113.77 MT for the same period in the last fiscal, the company said. However, the offtake of CIL for the October-December period remained almost flat at 110.2 MT, against 110.4 MT for the same period in the year-ago period.
quarter accounts, and final impact in any, on the basis on above agreement shall be considered in fourth quarter/Annual Accounts 2011-12,” the statement said. CIL had inked a pact with its trade unions to increase wages by 25 per cent, putting an additional burden of Rs 6,500 crore on the public sector unit. The hike has benefited over 3.7 lakh workers of the world’s largest coal producer.
Namaskaar Entertainment in association with
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Can a Hindu become the Chairman of the famous Maha Bodhi Temple in Bodh Gaya, Bihar and can the managing committee be dominated by Hindus instead of Buddhists? are the questions being examined by the Supreme Court in India by bench justices Altamas Kabir and SS Nijjar who have sought the help of Attorney General Vahanvati to assist the court in this matter so it can resolve this issue
Belgium Court Rules Tintin Does Not Break Racism Law
BRUSSELS (IE): Good News for Tintin Fans world over. A Belgian court has rejected an application to ban a colonialera book about the Congolese adventures of cartoon character Tintin for breaching racism laws. Brussels’ court of first instance said it did not believe the 1946 edition of Tintin in the Congo was intended to incite racial hatred. The Adventures of Tintin, a series of comic books created by Belgian artist Georges Remi,
who wrote under the pen name Herge, has gained renewed, global popularity in the past year after Hollywood director Stephen Spielberg made an animated film about the intrepid boy journalist and his little white dog Snowy.
Urban Households Expect Inflation At 13+%
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 27
cent in December, 2012, daily wage workers said it would be 13.8 per cent. On the other hand, both financial sector employees and the self-employed project inflation to be 12.8 per cent by the year-end. “The general price expectations are observed to be more aligned with food price expectations as compared with other product groups. Around 90 per cent of the respondents appeared to have been driven by expected changes in food prices for arriving at general
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price expectations,” the survey said. The survey found that households expect inflation to rise further by 140 basis points during the next 12 months from the perceived current rate of 11.9 per cent in the OctoberDecember quarter of the current fiscal. Headline inflation, as measured by Wholesale Price Index (WPI), fell to a twoyear low of 7.47 per cent in December, 2011. Before that, it was hovering near double digits for most of the last two years.
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Israeli Embassy Attack: India Assures Israel of Full Probe
NEW DELHI (IE/Hindu): India on Monday assured Israel of a complete investigation into the explosion of the Israeli embassy car, close to the mission in Delhi, suspected to be a terror attack in which three people have been injured, saying it strongly condemns any incidents of violence. Hours within the blast, which came a day after the fourth anniversary of the killing of Hezbollah’s deputy leader Imad Mughniyah, External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna spoke to his Israeli counterpart Avigdor Lieberman, assuring him that the law of the land will take its course. “I just came to know about the unfortunate incident a little while earlier in which a staff member’s family woman of the Israeli embassy establishment was injured. She has been rushed into the hospital. We are awaiting further information about the well being of the woman,” Krishna told reporters on the sidelines of a function. “I just spoke to the Israeli Foreign Minister and reassured that the law of the land will take its course. We will continue with the investigations and keep him posted about the progress of the investigation,” he said. An Israeli diplomat was in the embassy car when a suspected terror blast took place in it. According to initial investigations, two motorcycle-borne youths tailed the Israeli Embassy vehicle on Aurangzeb Road in the high security zone, not far from Prime Minister’s residence, and allegedly placed “something” in the rear of the car when it stopped at a traffic signal. Minutes later, there was an explosion and the Toyota Innova bearing number 109-CD-35 went into flames. Asserting that the country very strongly condemns such incidents, Krishna said it will be
fully investigated and culprits will be brought to justice. Security beefed up for diplomatic missions In the wake of a suspected terror attack targeting an Israeli embassy car here, the Centre today ordered tightening of security in diplomatic missions, especially of Israel, the United States and other western countries, located across the country. Security establishments in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore have been alerted by the Centre and directed to beef up arrangements in diplomatic mission premises located in these cities to foil any attempt to target them, official sources said. Police forces of these cities have been asked to deploy additional personnel around the missions and review their security. They also have been told to strictly check every vehicle and person visiting the missions as part of the security drill. Police have begun putting up check posts at different sensitive locations in the vicinity of the missions to regulate traffic and check suspicious movement, the sources said. Within hours of the explosion in the Israeli embassy car, which left a diplomat injured, it was clear that this was unlike any other terrorist attack that had taken place in India. As Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unhesitatingly blamed Iran, Indian investigators began to probe the possibility of the involvement of foreign intelligence agencies in the attack. It seems the target of the attack was not India but Israel, even though the act was carried out on Indian soil. This is the first time that India has become victim of an internationally coordinated terrorist act. The explosion in the car in New Delhi was timed to coincide with
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Two youth on a motorbike tailed the Israeli Embassy vehicle on Aurangazeb Road in Delhi, a high security zone area, and placed an explosive in the rear of the car as it came to a stop at a traffic signal. Just a few minutes later there was an explosion and the Toyota Innova burst into flames. An Israeli diplomat was injured. External Affairs Minister, SM Krishna has strongly condemned the incident as an act of terror.
an attack on the Israeli embassy in Tblisi in Georgia, but that bomb was defused in time. “In all those cases, the elements behind these attacks were Iran and its protege Hezbollah,” Netanyahu told his Likud party members in Jerusalem, referring to the two planned attacks today and similar but foiled attempts to attack the Israeli interests in Thailand and
Azerbaijan last month. “This is a terror attack against Israel and its diplomats. At this point we are not discussing how it happened but you have already seen the statement made by Netanyahu. Israel’s proxy Hezbollah has been carrying out attacks against Israeli interests,” said David Goldferb, a spokesperson at the Israeli embassy in New Delhi.
Maldives: India Prods Parties to Hold Talks
MALE (IE): After playing a backroom role during the Maldivian crisis last week to ensure a “smooth transition” of power, India is now working behind the scenes to encourage political reconciliation in the young democracy. New president Mohamed Waheed expanded his cabinet today including members from different parties, in an attempt to cobble together a majority government. While ousted president Mohamed Nasheed continues to refuse to hold talks and has said that his Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) will not joint the government, efforts are on to ensure a meeting between the two sides. Nasheed’s decision to put off a tour to Addu, where his supporters have been clashing with the police, is also seen as a sign that the reconciliation process is underway. India is pushing talks to ensure that the parliament functions
New President Mohamed Waheed is happy of India’s support toward the young Maldivian democracy.
and the legitimacy of the current government is established. While India believes elections are not required at the moment, Nasheed wants snap polls. The huge cost of elections at a time when the economy is not doing well is another deterrent. The seven cabinet members
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If the Israeli claim is established to be true, this would be the first time that Hezbollah, an anti-Israel Shia militant group operating mainly out of Lebanon, has got directly or indirectly involved in any terrorist attack on Indian soil. Investigators said it was too early to ascertain the level of Hezbollah’s involvement, if at all. www.indoamerican-news.com
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sworn in by Waheed today belong to various parties, including some close to former dictator Maumoon A bd ul G ayo om. S ome key ministries have been kept vacant and there is speculation this has been done to rope members of the MDP into the government. Subscribe to us: 713-789-6397
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Doctors without Frontiers—Collaboration in Medical Treatment
ISLAMABAD (The Hindu): Highlighting the unexploited potential for collaboration in medical treatment, Indian doctors on Friday provided a helping hand to their Pakistani counterparts in conducting what is being billed as the first-ever Living Donor Liver Transplantation (LDLT) in Pakistan. Four doctors from New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital assisted their counterparts from Lahore’s Shaikh Zaid Hospital in transplanting livers from live donors to two persons suffering from complete liver failure, in a complicated procedure that puts at risk both the donor and the recipient. According to Dawn newspaper, the Indian doctors’ help was sought after some British doctors were refused permission to travel to Pakistan by the British government on security considerations. Usually, Pakistanis travel to India for liver transplants, but the costs and procedures involved are phenomenal, especially given the
tight visa regime. This joint surgery was conducted just a day ahead of the first-ever India Show in Lahore, which opened on Saturday. This is the first time in the collective institutional memory of both governments that India has been able to mount a country-specific exhibition in Pakistan. At least 200 Indian companies are participating in the three-day show that will close in the presence of Union Commerce Minister Anand Sharma, who will begin his fourday visit to Pakistan on Monday. Cross-border traffic has seen an incremental increase in recent months, with contacts taking place at various levels and between different categories of people. Last week’s Lahore Book Fair had a couple of Indian publishers who evinced interest in publishing some Pakistani authors. And this weekend, there is a significant Indian presence at the Karachi Literature Festival.
Indian and Pakistani doctors have conducted the first ever living donor liver transplant in Pakistan. Doctors from Apollo Hospital and Lahore’s Shaikh Zaid Hospital came together to help transplant livers from live donors to two people suffering from total liver failure. Usually such procedures are complicated, putting at risk both the donor and the recipient. Pakistan’s doctors sought the help of Indian doctors after a refusal by the British government to send Britian’s doctors to Pakistan due to security reasons. This has been the first major collaboration between India and Pakistan. It has garnered rave reviews and people are sincerely wishing that these two nations would collaborate on tourism in Kashmir as well
Indian Minister Anand Sharma for Trade Talks
ISLAMABAD (Dawn): In what appears to be a step towards enhancement of trade with India, three agreements will be signed during Indian Commerce Minister Anand Sharma’s three-day visit to Pakistan beginning on Monday. A customs cooperation agreement will be signed to avoid arbitrary stoppage of goods at each other’s ports, another for acceptance of certificates of internationally accredited laboratories and the third one for removal of grievances in case of any disagreement. A senior commerce ministry official told Dawn on Sunday that the agreements would be signed on Wednesday. Sharma’s visit will mark the first visit by an Indian commerce minister to Pakistan. Top Indian businessmen and over 150 entrepreneurs and exhibitors will accompany the minister, who during his stay will also call on President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. On Tuesday, Sharma will meet the business community in Karachi and visit an ‘India Show’ in Lahore. A one-time import of Indian goods, which are not on the positive list, has been allowed for the threeday show ending on Feb 13.The issue of multiple entry visa for businesspeople of both countries will come under discussion during the Indian minister’s visit. Pakistan has already decided to increase the number of importable items from India and will allow only a limited number of products on the negative list. Currently, only 2,000 items on the positive list are allowed for trade with India. A source in the commerce ministry said the new negative list was expected to be approved by the cabinet on Tuesday. According to a diplomatic source,
the Indian government hopes that a trade regime explaining the negative list will be announced during Sharma’s visit. The commerce ministry official said the new regime would help
“We hope to double this figure in a three-year period. Once direct trade through (the) land route is facilitated, there will be a manifold increase,” he said. Deepening economic engagement
Sharma said Pakistan had shown the willingness to move “towards a regime which deepens and diversifies our trade”
enhance economic engagement between the two countries. Pakistan wants unhindered export of its products, mainly cotton yarn, fabrics, towels, leather items, surgical and sports goods, fruit, vegetables and pulses. India seeks market access to its products in the field of Information Technology, engineering goods, pharmaceutical products, entertainment-related items, auto parts, steel goods and cosmetics. AFP adds: Addressing a press conference in New Delhi, Sharma said India was committed to removing barriers that restricted trade with Pakistan. “We want to build bridges of confidence and trust which is imperative to promote two-way trade between the two countries,” he said. An array of legal and regulatory barriers has restricted official exchanges to $2.7 billion but Sharma said he was hopeful the sum would jump in the coming years.
between the two countries is seen as crucial to establishing lasting peace in the troubled region. In 1996, India granted Pakistan ‘most preferred nation’ status which is intended to remove discriminatory higher pricing and duty tariffs.Pakistan agreed in principle to grant a similar status to India last year, paving the way for a radical re-organisation of trade. At present, Pakistan maintains a list of 1,945 items allowed to run from India to Pakistan – but only 108 can be transported directly by road through Wagah. Major items of export from India to Pakistan are sugar, cotton, manmade filaments and chemicals, while its top imports from Pakistan include fruit, mineral fuels, and organic chemicals. Sharma said Pakistan had shown the willingness to move “towards a regime which deepens and diversifies our trade”, and India, on its part, was working towards visa reforms.
INDO AMERICAN NEWS • FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2012 • WWW.INDOAMERICAN-NEWS.COM
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OPINION BUSINESS
February 17, 2012
India’s Global Pharmacy Role Threatened by EU Pact
NEW DELHI (NYT): Efforts by India and the European Union to strengthen trade are threatening India’s ability to deliver lifesaving medicines to the world’s poorest, analysts say as the two sides push through protracted negotiations on a free-trade pact. India’s prime minister and top EU officials are hoping their summit Friday in New Delhi helps move beyond disagreements over issues like European labor market limits and Indian duties on cars. But health industry workers and activists worry that India may bow to EU demands for strict intellectual property protections and investor guarantees, which could close down the world’s generic drug supply. India’s $26 billion drug industry has become an immense profit engine, growing at 15-25 percent a year — but also a lifeline for millions of patients in poor countries, many in Africa, unable to pay sky-high Western prices to treat illnesses that include HIV, malaria, asthma and cancer. For HIV alone, India makes more than 80 percent of the world’s medicines. The EU says it has suggested a clause in the free-trade pact “to ensure that nothing in the proposed agreement would limit India’s freedom to produce and export lifesaving medicines.” Despite the EU assurance, Indian drug makers and health workers say two broad provisions in the agreement — one on intellectual property rights, and the other on investor lawsuits — would make it much easier for international pharmaceutical giants to sue the Indian government, drug manufacturers and distributors. That, they argue, would dramatically curtail Indian production of many lifesaving drugs, or cause prices to rise to levels many cannot afford.
“The EU has changed strategy and has now focused on enforcement,” trying to create an intellectual property rights regime “that will intimidate even legitimate generic manufacturers and thereby impact access and availability,” said Dilip G. Shah, a former Pfizer executive who now heads both the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance and the industry’s Vision Consulting Group. Activists have unleashed a global campaign to call the EU out on the policies. Analysts and drug makers say they have a point. While India’s pharmaceutical companies would likely survive under a regime limiting generics, millions of the world’s neediest patients, including within India, may not. “The industry will be OK. They can produce anything” including drugs for Western multinationals, pharmaceutical analyst Bino Pathiparampil of IIFL Capital said. They may also gain from easier access to European markets. “But there would be a serious impact on society, as many of the poor would be cut off from treatments,” he said. Since the talks began in 2007, Indian negotiators have refused to hamper the country’s generic drug industry by undermining the low-cost production, high-quality professionalism or permissive licensing regime that has helped the industry grow. But India and the EU both face different pressures today than when they started five years ago. Following a year of economic turmoil, Europe is eager to reach India’s young and upwardly mobile market of 1.2 billion people, while India wants to prove its place among the world’s economic powerhouses. Now would also be an ideal time for India’s government to show progress on a pact that can distract from a year of embarrassing corruption
scandals. The EU is India’s biggest trading partner, accounting last year for $92 billion in bilateral sales. The trade pact, they say, would lift that to an annual $237 billion by 2015. With the talks held behind closed
health care crisis and many impoverished patients are left to pay for care themselves. The European Union has suggested it could drop two demands that would have affected the generics industry, specifically on patent extensions and
Pharmaceuticals represent India’s second largest industry.
doors and without participation by health ministers, analysts say there are few voices to prevent the final draft from giving multinational pharmaceuticals enough power to shut generics down. On Friday, hundreds of people living with HIV protested in New Delhi to press Indian officials to reject any rules that might limit world supplies of anti-retroviral treatments. “Whether we get to live or die should not be up to trade negotiators,” Mundrika Gahlot of the Delhi Network of Positive People said in a statement. Half of the generics India produces are used domestically, as India grapples with its own
on allowing companies to keep scientific data and clinical studies under wraps. But experts say there are even more worrying provisions in the draft, which has been leaked during the talks and discussed by Indian negotiators with health care workers. Measures to strengthen intellectual property rights, for example, would require courts to impose injunctions on drug production whenever a complaint is filed, whereas courts today
The Lighter Side of India
Courtesy: The Hindu
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often allow production of lifesaving drugs to continue while cases are pending. There are also measures for widening lawsuits so patent holders can sue not just pharmaceuticals producing generics, but also those who supply materials as mundane as plastic bottles, nonprofit groups and foreign governments who purchase the drugs, and hypothetically even those who use them — the patients. Another measure would let investors sue the Indian government if they feel their investment is being undermined, for example, by a license that allows a generic to be produced. “Who do these measures serve? Not the European people, not the Indian people, not even the governments,” said Indian lawyer Anand Grover, who since 2006 has served as a U.N. Special Rapporteur on human rights to health. “In fact, this is for a very small, profit-taking group of people.”
Wasim Akram
SPORTS
February 17, 2012
33
Sachin Tendulkar Cannot be Rested: Akram ADELAIDE (TOI): Baffled with the rotation policy, former Pakistan skipper Wasim Akram said it does not work in the sub-continent and the Indian team management should not have rested a player of Sachin Tendulkar’s stature. “Don’t experiment with Sachin Tendulkar,” warned Akram. “Rotation policy does not work in our part of the world. A player like Tendulkar cannot be rested. I mean, India did win without Tendulkar in Adelaide, but his presence always
plays on the mind of the rival team. That’s why he is a Tendulkar. His stature is just too big to ignore,” he added. The former speedster wondered if there were any fitness issues but said Tendulkar must play all matches. “When you have doubts about Tendulkar’s ability and preparedness, then there is something wrong with the team management. “If you have a Tendulkar in the squad, you cannot afford to have him on the bench. He must play all
games,” Akram told a website. The selectors might have given rest to the iconic batsman to ensure that Tendulkar is better prepared to score his 100th international century, but Akram felt the only way to make Tendulkar get to the landmark is to play him. “If that’s the objective then let Tendulkar achieve the milestone...If he gets a century, the whole team profits. And in any case, the rotation policy should be applicable for all 11 positions,” he insisted.
Calm Dhoni Delivers Nerve-shredding Tie The best death-overs bowler in the game went up against the best finisher in the business with four to defend off the last ball. It was only fair that neither Lasith Malinga nor MS Dhoni ended up on the losing side of that contest. Malinga’s wide full-length ball would have hoodwinked most batsmen who would have been setting themselves up for the swing to the leg side. Not the fleet-footed Dhoni, though, who calmly stretched across and carved high over the covers even as he teetered on one foot. The ball didn’t have the strength to beat Sachithra Senanayake on the boundary, but Dhoni and last-man Umesh Yadav bounded through for three runs to tie a nerve-wracking classic at the Adelaide Oval. The beauty of the ODI format shone throughout the duration of the chase, with the best minds in the game feeling the pressure of a close finish. India were coasting on the back of another polished effort from Gautam Gambhir, whose faultless 91 showed he has moved on well from his Test-match woes. Dhoni had added 60 runs with Gambhir off 12.5 overs, leaving India needing 59 off 58. At that stage, Dhoni made the first decisive error, when he sold Gambhir dear after calling him for a single. Gambhir was caught short by a direct hit from Nuwan Kulasekara, and his fall gave Sri Lanka an opening; Dhoni would later say it cost India victory. The wicket was followed by a 28-ball phase that yielded only 13 runs for the loss of Ravindra Jadeja’s wicket. Sri Lanka’s seamers bowled out of their skins, backed by enterprising field placements from Mahela Jayawardene that cut off the singles. With two overs of Malinga left, Dhoni went after Thisara Perera in the 46th, dumping him for a huge six down the ground, before R Ashwin skimmed another four over the covers. Malinga returned after a quiet over from Kulasekara, with India needing 28 off 18. Mistakes began to sprout from every corner now.
Malinga got Ashwin to sky a slower ball, and Kumar Sangakkara called for, and clanged the chance as he ran towards point. Ashwin continued blundering against the slower ball, heaving and missing one, before chipping straight to cover. With 24 needed off 12, Jayawardene turned to Angelo Mathews who trotted in from round the stumps to cut Dhoni’s swinging angle. Mathews lost the plot against Irfan Pathan, though, delivering a high noball that Irfan deposited over square leg for six. Irfan was run out next ball, sacrificing his wicket after failing to get a slower ball away. India needed a boundary, and Mathews obliged with another full toss that Dhoni swiped through midwicket to reach 50. Nine was needed off the last over, from Malinga. Smart stats In 131 ODIs between India and Sri Lanka, this was the first tie. In all, this was the 26th tie in ODIs, the sixth for India, the fourth for Sri Lanka, and the first at the Adelaide Oval. It was the fourth tie in triseries in Australia, and the first one in almost 20 years - the previous one was in December 1992. MS Dhoni averages 83.41 in run-chases against Sri Lanka: in 20 innings he has scored 1001 runs, at a strike rate of 90.01.
Dhoni has played 108 balls from Lasith Malinga in ODIs, and scored 112 runs for one dismissal. Gautam Gambhir averages 48.50 when batting second in ODIs, with five centuries and 19 fifties in 67 innings; when batting first, he averages 33.14. In run-chases against Sri Lanka, he averages 64.27. In the previous game, Dhoni chose to take the game to the very end. This time, he was forced to do so by Malinga’s unhittable lengths. While he bowled impeccably, Malinga’s fielding was ordinary, and he missed a couple of returns that would have yielded run outs in the last over. A couple off the first ball was followed by three singles before Vinay sacrificed his wicket to give Dhoni strike for the final ball. One could argue that Malinga should have gone full and straight, but the counter-argument would be that even a fractional error in length would have allowed Dhoni a free swing over the short square boundary. As it transpired, Malinga went wide, Dhoni went high and there was poetic justice in the denouement. Sri Lanka were left ruing a collapse in their batting Powerplay, that left them at least 20 runs short. They stumbled from a heady 168 for 3 in 35 overs, losing 18 for 3 in the Powerplay, including the two set batsmen - Dinesh Chandimal and Jayawardene - who had added 94 runs without a fuss. The complexion of the game
changed so drastically in that block, that Ashwin bowled with two slips in the 40th over. Until then, Chandimal ran the show with admirable poise, imposing himself with a series of pulls and whips through the leg side, imparted with a flourish that was once the trademark of Marvan Atapattu. In his company, Jayawardene shrugged away the poor form that had dogged him since the South Africa tour, as Sri Lanka recovered from their sluggish start. India made three crucial early strikes, which meant they were only one wicket away from the lower order even during the Chandimal-Jayawardene association. Vinay Kumar preyed on Upul Tharanga’s unending troubles outside the off stump, before Irfan celebrated his return to the venue where he made his international debut in 2003 with pleasing swing, and the wicket of Tillakaratne Dilshan. Ashwin then worked over Sangakkara with spin and variety to peg Sri Lanka back. Chandimal and Jayawardene fought hard to revive the innings, but India were the happier side after 50 overs. Gambhir took charge of the chase with assurance, and it will be interesting if India will continue their rotation policy and bench him for the next game. Sachin Tendulkar’s rustiness, too, suggested the break from Sunday’s game didn’t do him much good. Tendulkar, Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma all perished after scoring 15 runs apiece, as Sri Lanka made timely dents. Suresh Raina’s failure meant India were wobbling at 122 for 4 in the 28th over. But they had just the right man coming in at that stage. It wasn’t just the players that erred on the tense night. Umpire Nigel Llong’s miscounting meant Malinga only bowled five balls in the 30th over. India will believe they would have got the winning run off the ball that was missed. Sri Lanka will believe they could have got the tenth Indian wicket off it. How perfect then, that we will never know how it could have ended. Cricinfo
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GLOBAL BUSINESS
February 17, 2012
Etihad Airlines Looks to China and India for Growth—Possible Tie-up with KingFisher
BY NICOLA CLARK PARIS (NYT): Etihad Airways remains on the lookout for new strategic airline partners, particularly in Asia, as it seeks to maintain the momentum of an expansion that lifted the carrier, based in Abu Dhabi, to its first annual profit ever last year. “The Asian markets are going to be strategically very important over the next 10 to 15 years,” Etihad’s chief executive, James Hogan, said Thursday. “India and China — these are the markets that people are going to travel from.” Etihad, which was founded five years ago by the Abu Dhabi government, has expanded aggressively in recent months in a bid to keep pace with its larger Gulf rival, Emirates. Late last year, it snapped up a 29 percent stake in Air Berlin, the second-largest German airline, in a partnership that Etihad expects will give it access to 35 million new passengers and contribute up to $50 million in revenue in 2012. In January, it acquired a 40 percent stake in Air Seychelles, giving it access to the African island country’s leisure market, which has grown increasingly popular with Chinese travelers. Hogan said Etihad was eager to identify “one or two” more strategic investments in other airlines over the coming years that could drive new passenger and cargo traffic to
its ever-widening network of 82 destinations. “Those could be in Asia,” he said, though there are no advanced talks under way. Etihad reported Thursday net
percent cap on foreign ownership of domestic airlines. Several of India’s financially strapped carriers have signaled their eagerness to tie up with a foreign airline, including
some said. “The Chinese want their own carriers to do what the Gulf carriers have been doing, driving traffic through their own hubs, so that would be difficult to overcome,” said Saj Ahmad, chief analyst at StrategicAero Research in London. In India, he said, nationalist sentiment still runs high. “If the goal of the government is to get some of these carriers into the black, then I would think that would come at the expense of foreign competitors,” he said. “I can’t really see them allowing the Emiratis to steal a march on them.” Etihad’s passenger traffic jumped 17 percent last year, to 8.3 million, compared with a global average of 5.9 percent growth. The airline said it was targeting a further 20 percent increase in traffic this year and a comparable increase in revenue. Hogan said the airline would publish more detailed financial information in the future, but he said the rapid pace of Etihad’s expansion, including the purchase of dozens of aircraft, made loss figures for previous years “not meaningful.” Etihad currently owns a fleet of 65 Airbus and Boeing jets, including seven new planes added last year. The carrier has placed firm orders for a further 100 new planes for delivery over the next decade. Subscribe to us: 713-789-6397
constraints, he said, that made investing there difficult despite the clear potential for growth. “India will have 70 airports in 10 years,” he said. “But there are a
With airlines suffering the world over, strategic partnerships are now being charted out as survival measures. Etihad Airways is serious when considering Indian and Chinese markets which present the largest consumer base from where people travel globally. India is set to have 70 airports in 10 years and Kingfisher one of the top performing airlines now having suffered some setbacks is looking toward foreign investment and partner tieups with companies like Etihad Airways
profit of $14 million for 2011, slightly better than the break-even target it had set for the year. The airline, which is not publicly traded, did not provide a comparable figure for 2010. Revenue was $4.1 billion, up 36 percent from a year earlier. Hogan said that he was encouraged by recent proposals by the Indian government to raise a 26
Kingfisher, which is owned and run by the flamboyant liquor baron Vijay Mallya. “Any market that liberalizes their aviation environment is good news,” Hogan said. But he cautioned that none of the proposed changes had been ratified. India was still burdened with high fuel taxes and other costly regulatory
lot of domestic issues with Indian aviation, and that is what has impacted the airlines” there. Analysts noted that until now, China and India have largely sought to keep foreign airlines at arm’s length, wary of foreign encroachment on their lucrative markets. That reticence could make a tie-up with Etihad a tough sell,
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