NRI Profile

Kalpana Chawla

Honoring the woman who shot for the stars and landed on the moon.

Kalpana Chawla was an Indian- American astronaut, an engineer and more importantly, the first woman of an Indian origin to go to space. In 1997, she flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia as a mission specialist and primary robotic arm. In 2003, she was one out of the seven crew members who died in the Space Shuttle Columbia disaster when the spacecraft disintegrated during its entry back into the Earth’s atmosphere. There are multiple streets, universities and institutions across the world named in her honor. She is considered a national hero in India and worldwide.

Early life:

Kalpana was born on 17 March 1962 in Haryana. But she changed her date of birth to 1 July 1961 in order to become eligible for her matriculation exam. Since a child, she was always fascinated by airplanes and flying. She would always watch planes with her father at clubs. She got her bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering. She moved to the United States in 1982 where she got her master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Teas in 1984.

Personal life:

Kalpana was married to Jean Pierre Harrison. She was Indian citizen till 1991. In 1991 she became an American citizen. She was 40 years old when she passed away. She was always very devoted to space and flying.

Career:

Her first space mission began on 19 November 1997. She was a part of a six-crew astronaut team that flew the Space Shuttle Columbia flight. She traveled 10.4 million miles in 252 orbits around the earth. She was in space for 15 days and 12 hours. She was responsible for deploying the Spartan Satellite which however malfunctioned. After this trip, she was assigned to technical positions in the astronaut office to work on the space station.

Her second space mission was in 2001 on the STS-107 mission. However, there were multiple casualties and faults on the spacecraft which forced them to return.

In 2003, after finally solving all conflicts and technical problems, on 16 January she flew on the Space Shuttle Columbia for her third mission. The crew performed 80 experiments in space. However, while returning back to earth, while entering the atmosphere, there was an internal wing damage which caused the space shuttle to explode killing Kalpana and 6 other crew members on the spacecraft.

She died on 1 February 2003. Her remains which were identified from the remaining shuttle that arrived to earth were cremated along with the 6 other crew members at the Zion National Park in Utah in accordance to her wishes.

Honors and recognition:

>> The fourteenth ISS mission was named S.S Kalpana Chawla in her honor.

>> On February 5th 2003, the prime minister of India Atal Bihari named one of the MetSat Satellites Kalpana

>> 74th Street in the little India, Queens New York, USA has been named Kalpana Chawla way

>> NASA has dedicated a supercomputer to Chawla

>> 7 Institutions in the Unites States’ dorms are called Kalpana and an INR 25,000 in Kalpana’s honor to the student who does the best in Aeronautical Engineering

>> Kalpana Chawla Government Medical College in Haryana is named after her.

>> IIT Kharagpur named the Kalpana Chawla Space technology cell in honor

These are only a few out of the numerous honors and establishments that have been built in her name. She is an inspiration to all astronauts both women and men across the globe. Her legacy will forever be remembered.

Here is how Joe Biden will make America a better place for NRI’s and Immigrants now, and in the future:

First, Biden will reverse most of Trump’s immigration legacy and push forward his own agenda. It might take months or maybe years to undo but it is still a positive step towards making a brighter future for immigrants and NRI’s.

Biden has declared that on the first day of his office, he will send an immigration bill to congress, in January 2021. This includes a pathway to citizenship for an estimated 11 million immigrants who are living in the country illegally. The bill addresses the so-called “DREAMERS” of the United States who have entered the country illegally for their children. Biden’s immigration reform bill will include a path to citizenship for around 40,000 people covered by the Temporary Protected Status Program.

Another important aspect that Biden will be removing is the travel ban. Trump has re-coned travel bans of 13 different countries where most of them are either majority Muslim or African Nations, banning seven majority Muslim nations from entering the United States. Biden had already applied for a repeal of these bans allowing visitors from these formerly banned countries to visit America freely. The bans can be easily undone if there are not any lawsuits from conservatives to delay the process.

Trump also implemented a series of sweeping restrictions during the COVID-19 pandemic, which did not allow some legal immigrants and travelers from other countries

to enter the United States, despite following the COVID-19 protocols strictly.

Although Biden criticized this policy, he is not immediately reversing this particular policy as the COVID-19 situation in the United States is in serious danger and the President wishes to bring everything under control before allowing new citizens to enter.

How skilled are foreign workers?

Very. Around 30 percent of America’s IT tech are Indians which is a huge number. America takes the help of India’s labor, skills, and computer-related and IT knowledge. India also has very skilled engineers who work not only in the USA but throughout the world. When Trump was president, he curbed many USA companies for hiring immigrants and using skilled workers, stating that America has a lot of skilled workers themselves, especially in the tech industry. These regulations increased the minimum wages companies had to pay workers significantly, whoever was enrolled in the program. The rules also narrowed the aspect of specialty occupations who are actually eligible for visas. This meant that there was discrimination among those who worked, between communities.

Biden has already worked to reform the H-1B visa program, ensuring that the visas were aligned with the labor market and not used to undermine wages instead. After implementing this, the president will then support expanding the number of high skilled visas.

Biden has also stated that he would be raising the annual ceiling for refugee admissions to 1,25,000. However, it is still not determined as to how quickly that will happen.

When Trump was President, he sharply curbed refugee admissions. In September, his administration announced that they will not allow more than 15,000 refugees in 2021. However, Biden increased that number drastically by not only allowing more immigrants into the country to work in any field they prefer but also providing them with comforts, safety laws, job security, and personal security along with healthcare, education, and multiple solemnities.

Biden’s main aim is to make America one great nation and everyone must support everyone regardless of the color of their skin, the language they speak, what they work as, or where they come from.

Biden had also stated that in late October, he will grant immediate humanitarian protection to all the immigrants who are working in the USA, allowing them to remain in the country and obtain work permits.

controversial policy that took place during Trump’s presidency which shocked the world, The Mexico Wall. Biden had vowed to end Trump’s restrictive asylum policy. He has started a program called ‘remain in Mexico’ which has Migration Protection protocols forcing non-Mexican immigrants who initially were forced to wait in Mexico for their US immigration dates which sometimes would not come at all.

Biden has criticized the program saying it left immigrants feeling helpless and powerless and created a rift between the United States and Mexico. Biden’s new immigration plan will end the diversion of Pentagon funds to build a wall on Mexico, USA border and will instead invest this same fund to building ports of entry instead. He also stated that he will not tear down the walls built by Trump but will halt the construction and redesign the entry.

Biden has also created more comfortable opportunities for students to study their graduate, post-graduate, and even do a Ph.D. He will create more comfortable living, staying, and a better education structure for immigrants which will encourage more foreign students to join Universities in the United States. During Trump’s presidency, he had stated that once Immigrants complete a Ph.D. in the United States, the USA becomes the owner of their intellectual property. However, not only is Biden allowing them the complete freedom of their choice but also to share their knowledge and skills with whomever and however, they want to.

Overall, Trump had done some serious damage to the United States in terms of living, working, visiting, and studying conditions for immigrants. There was prevailing racism, no freedom, chaos, and violence. The reign of Joe Biden is the dawn of a new America, where it is a better place for immigrants and where diversity, freedom, culture, and acceptance will be celebrated joyously.

Dubai Develops Arab Gulf’s First

Coal-Based Power Plant

50 The first Arab Gulf country to generate electricity from coal is

UAE. On the other hand, it might be last, as the Government turns towards cleaner fuels and the price of renewable energy falls.

As of now, Dubai is starting the $3.4 billion Hassyan coal plant. It has the capacity of increasing from 600 megawatts to 2,400 by 2023.

Under a long-term agreement, Japan’s Jera Co was willing to supply coal with Acwa Power of Saudi Arabia which is developing the plant.

For power generation, coal is typically the dirtiest fuel. That being said, Hassyan’s standards for pollution would be based on guidelines for natural-gas plants. If these standards are correctly met, Hassyan would emit less carbon when compared to the European Union and the World Bank’s International Finance Corp. for coal plants.

Coal power is abandoned in other regions of the country. In 2018, a tender for a coal project at Duqm was launched and later it was laid aside.

Electricity stations in Dubai and the Middle East run on gas. Hassyan was expected to provide 205 of Dubai’s power when it completely operational, according to the International Energy Agency.

Four years ago, the stateowned Dubai Electricity and Water Authority got into an agreement with Acwa to buy electricity from Hassyan for less than 5 cents per kilowatt-hour.

Later, the price reduced than the power from solar farms in the emirates. However, with technological advances, things changed and Dewa decided to buy electricity for only 1.69 cents per kWh from Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Tsirkon Hypersonic Missile In The Arctic Was Tested - Fired By Russia

In the arctic, Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile was successfully testfired by Russia. Hitting a naval target 450 km away in the Barents Sea at a speed of 8, the frigate Admiral Gorshkov in the White Sea fired a Tsirkon hypersonic cruise missile.

For the first time, in early January, the same frigate test-fired a Tsirkon missile. It hot a ground target over 500 km away.

The warship deployed in the white sea destructed a naval target in the Barents Sea with a Tsirkon missile last month.

The Defense Ministry launched a 20-second video of Tsirkon’s night-time launch from the Northern Fleet’s Admiral Gorshkov frigate in the White Sea.

For Tsirkon’s earlier test, on October 7, the Defense Ministry disclosed the same flight parameters earlier test.

Initially, this Tsirkon program began in 2011, and in 2015, it entered the active testing stage. As a part of new generation weapons in 2018, Putin disclosed Tsirkon.

Putin says that Tsirkon’s ground- and the sea-based hypersonic rocket has the ability to fly at nine times the speed of sound and hit underwater and ground targets more than 1,000 kilometers away. Russia would be forced to deploy hypersonic nuclear missiles on submarines near U.S. waters due to arms-control tensions.

This was a warning given by Putin, however, Washington waved off Putin’s warnings as dishonest propaganda.

10 changes impacting India from Jan 2021 Onwards

The pandemic has bought in a lot of changes in every aspect of our daily lives, personal and professional. Since the new rules will impact and affect your everyday lives, it is important to know what these changes are and how they will impact us. Here are the new changes of India for the year 2021 and onwards:

1. Cheque Payments

To reduce the amount of banking fraud that is taking place in the country, The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to introduce the new positive pay system which reconfirms key details that are needed for payments beyond 50,000 rupees. This payment had come into effect from January 2021 onwards. It is mandatory that banks consider this rule while availing the discretion of the account holder if they are writing cheques for above lakh and above.

2. No contact card transactions limit

Another rule given by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) was that there will be a limit on how much one can withdraw from card transactions and e-mandates. E-mandates for recurring transactions through the use of UPI enhancing the amount from 2000 rupees to 5000 rupees. RBI had stated that this move is aimed to expand the adoption of digital payment, making it more safe and secure for users. It also makes transactions more secure, especially during a pandemic.

3. WhatsApp will stop working on selected phones

WhatsApp will be introducing a new privacy protection system, collecting information and data from users. Most WhatsApp users have been leaving the app as they do not want to comply with the policy, stating that it is tampering with their privacy. WhatsApp will also only be working on selected phone software including the new iOS and Andriod programs and a few newer versions of KaiOS, JioPhone, and JioPhone 2. WhatsApp will, however, instill the privacy protection plan in all phones using Whatsapp from the beginning of the month of February onwards.

4. Landline to mobile phone calls

If callers are making a call from landlines to mobile phones within the country, it is now mandatory that they add a 0 prefix on the number before making the call. The Telecom department has made necessary arrangements, making this rule mandatory from January 2021 onwards. This move will actually create sufficient numbering space for telecom services in India.

5. Car Prices and new cars.

Car companies based in India, such as Maruti Suzuki India and Mahindra will be increasing the prices of their vehicles from January 1st, 2021 onwards. This is to create an offset to adverse the impact of the rising input costs caused by the pandemic. India will also witness new car models including the electric car Tesla, and new models of Skoda and Ford.

6. All four-wheel vehicles will have the FASTag

The Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways in India has issued a notification to make the FASTag mandatory for all four-wheel vehicles in the country from January 1st onwards. FASTag is a passive tag that is used for making toll payments directly from the customer or