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MEGA SHOW ON YAMUNA TURNS TO MAJOR FURORE

12th March to 18th March 2016

Indian migrants to be affected by visa fee hike

Migrants from India will be affected majorly, with the British government increasing the visa application fees across-theboard from March 18. A large segment of entrants seeking to live and work in the UK come from India.

The increase in fees “linked most closely to economic growth” such as those offered to workers and students will increase by 2%, along with tourist visas.

Settlement, residence and nationality fees will be increased by 25%; while optional premium services offered by the Home Office such as the super premium service and priority visa services overseas will be increased by 33%.

From India, tourist visas to the UK will go up from £85 to £87 (six months); £324 to £330 (two years); £588 to £600 (five years); and £737 to £752 (10 years).

According to a report from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), of the top 10 nationalities who were granted entry clearance visas

Let noble thoughts come to us from every side

At a time when controversies are the flavour of the season, the most recent concerns 'Art of Living' guru Sri Sri Ravishankar.

Preparations for the World Culture Festival being organised by the foundation on the Yamuna floodplains, has created quite a furore. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has appointed a committee that has recommended fining Art of Living Foundation £12 million for damage to the Yamuna banks. Following the controversy, the President has opted out of the function.

Protesting against the event, Manoj Misra, an activist of Yamuna Jiye Abhiyaan, said, “For constructions required for the event, the entire flood plains have been cleared, the entire area has been devastated and the vegetation removed. Prior to the construction, it was all wonderful marshy area with grasslands, birds, reptiles and lot of biodiversity.

It has all been destroyed today. The site is a meeting point of

Barapullah drain and river Yamuna and it will get blocked.” He added, “It will take decades of restoration to bring Yamuna to its original state. There is no excuse as it was an illegal

activity and has to be stopped. Just imagine so many people congregating at the banks of Yamuna and what will be the condition of the river. All the previous rejuvenation activities will go in vain.” A part of the construction that began in December, will be “the world’s largest temporary stage that will be 1,200 feet long, 200 feet wide and 40 feet high.”

Continued on page 26

Sri Sri Ravishankar

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The case soon took dramatic turn after investigation into the encounter revealed that was a 'fake' case. The High Courtappointed Special Investigation Team and the CBI implicated the Gujarat police and the IB in the alleged murders.

Ishrat Jehan

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2

ONE ONE with Keith Vaz, MP

Asian Voice |12th March 2016

www.asian-voice.com

to

Dr Abbi Lulsegged

Dr Abbi Lulsegged graduated from Guys and St Thomas Hospitals in London with a degree in Medicine. He went on to complete his medical training at University College Hospital, London, the Royal Free and Guys St Thomas’ Hospitals. He is a Consultant Physician with specialist interest in Endocrinology and Diabetes. He works for Kings College Hospitals. He was appointed fellow of the Royal College of Physicians in recognition of his service to his field and medicine in general. He has also been awarded clinical excellent awards again for his contribution to the care of patients. He lectures both internationally and nationally on a wide range of subjects which reflects his broad interests. He has an interest in management of unexplained illnesses, obesity and reversing type 2 diabetes when conditions allow.

1) What is your current position?

I am a Doctor who has a broad range of interests but who also specialises in Endocrinology (disorders of hormones) and Diabetes. I work for Kings College Hospital at their Kent sites. I especially have an interest in treating obesity, reversing diabetes when the opportunity allows and treating (unex-

plained) fatigue.

2) What are your proudest achievements?

Becoming a Father and a Doctor (in that order).

3) What inspires you?

Challenges. Unanswered questions relevant to my field/sphere of influence.

4) What has been the biggest

obstacle in your career?

Lack of adequate resources.

There are so many questions you ask yourself mentally when seeing patients. You think of possible mechanisms to explain certain problems but then realise that at times there has been so little time or resources to test the theories you have and implement the changes you think might make a difference.

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

Mavericks (wise, balanced mavericks) who were not shy to identify problems with the perceived medical wisdom of the age and to challenge it publicly; often being the “lone voice”.

Society owes these individuals a debt of gratitude.

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

Without doubt the greatest reward is seeing someone whose life has been transformed – not just because they are better but also because they are now able to play with their children, enjoy life and think more clearly.

Secondly the variety of cases I

Appeal as 'most wanted' suspects believed to be in Netherlands Officers are looking for Shazad Ghafoor, 29, who allegedly stole a car from a Land Rover dealership in Manchester in August 2013 using a false name, sparking a high speed police chase with his wife and children in the car. He is amongst nine "most wanted" suspects believed to have fled to the Netherlands.

The pursuit ended with him rolling the car in Halifax, West Yorkshire, before police found up to £100,000 in cash in the vehicle. He is accused of a string of offences for the chase, and supplying cannabis.

Ahmed Omer

Shazad Ghafoor

Ahmed Dervish Omer, 45, from Nottingham, is also wanted after fleeing in the middle of his trial for drugs offences in November last year. He was found guilty in his absence and sentenced to

10 years.

Dave Allen, from the NCA, said: "Those who believe they can use the Netherlands to evade capture or continue illegal activities soon find out that it is not a safe haven."

Slough charity to train hairdressers to spot forced marriage imparting key knowledge to these professionals that they can put everything together to see whether or not there is a safeguarding issue for potentially a forced marriage."

There will be a series of 15 workshops across the country for beauticians and hairdressers and people in the wedding industry.

Rani Bilkhu, director of Jeena International

Hairdressers and beauticians are to be trained to spot the signs of forced marriage. Slough charity Jeena International is launching an initiative in the Houses of Parliament later. Founder Rani Bilku said people in the wedding industry would be trained to identify poten-

tial victims and know who to alert. Potential signs included a booking being made days ahead of the event or by someone other than the bride. Ms Bilku said: "If a professional thinks, something doesn't add up, we want to make sure they know where to go. We make sure we are

AsianVoiceNews

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lifestyle changes that result in dramatic improvements to health while at the same time reducing medical cost. I think this is achievable and I would like to be able to do this in a way that impacts as many people as possible.

see makes it very interesting particularly because the field I work in overlaps with many other disciplines.

7) And the worst?

Not knowing what is wrong with someone.

8) What are your long term goals?

I would like to see society positively impacted by the right health message – in particular the message of carbohydrate restriction and making healthy

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

I would start by implementing a tax on sugar and improving the labels on food to reflect in particular those components that can cause harm. Society on the whole eats far too much carbohydrates and arguably this fact alone might be responsible for a significant proportion of lifestyle induced problems crippling individuals and the health budget.

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

My Wife (and she definitely is not historical). Why? She is my best friend (not to mention the only who consistently finds my jokes funny).

Sadiq Khan's aide resigns One of London mayoral hopeful Sadiq Khan's aides has resigned following his suspension last Sunday.

Shueb Salar is alleged to have posted abusive language about women and homosexuals on Twitter, in 2012.

A spokesman for Mr Khan said: "Sadiq acted immediately to suspend Shueb Salar as soon as he was made aware of these serious issues over the weekend. Shueb Salar has now resigned from his role as a junior member of Sadiq's parliamentary staff." Mr Salar, who has not commented, started working for Mr Khan in 2014. It emerged he had also posted photos of himself at a firing range more recently on Instagram with

Sadiq Khan's aide Shueb Salar (left) has been suspended

a caption joking that he was a "hitman".

On Sunday, cabinet minister Chris Grayling questioned Mr Khan's judgement in employing Mr Salar. “These comments have absolutely no place in modern society.

The mayor of London

makes a large number of decisions about who to hire and how to spend public funds: his record shows Sadiq Khan can't make those decisions in a way that stands up for Londoners," the leader of the House of Commons said.

Lorry driver jailed over boy's death A lorry driver has been jailed for four years for crashing into a stationary car and killing a sevenyear-old boy who was inside. Mohammed Ali Ahmed was a passenger in a Toyota Rav4 when it was hit on the A4146 near Milton Keynes.

Christopher Mallett, 35, of Clyde Place in Bletchley, was found guilty of causing death by dangerous driving. He was

banned from driving for three-and-a-half years and ordered to take an extended driving test. The collision happened on the southbound section of the Stoke Hammond by-pass at about 14:20 GMT on 20 March and the boy died at the scene. Mallett had admitted the lesser offence of causing death by careless driving, but denied the dangerous driving charge.

An Aylesbury Crown

Mohammed Ali Ahmed was killed in the collision

Court jury found him guilty of the more serious offence after a trial at Amersham in February.

Last Gujarati Exam to be held in Summer 2018 The last exams for GCSE Gujarati will take place in the Summer of 2018 according to a private email sent by the Oxford, Cambridge & RSA Exam Board (OCR).

Gareth Thomas, MP for Harrow West (and Secretary of Labour Friends of India) is call-

ing on Nicky Morgan to step in and save the Gujarati exam and provide better government support to weekend and community schools who provide the majority of GCSE and ‘A’ Level Gujarati teaching. Last year, OCR proposed to axe GCSE Gujarati but

under pressure in the run up to the General Election the Government intervened and persuaded OCR to extend the GCSE exam for two years.

Gareth has launched an Open Letter to Nicky Morgan and is asking readers of Asian Voice to sign up to support

Gujarati and force the Government to intervene to persuade OCR to keep the exam going. He is also working with the Consortium of Gujarati Schools to try and persuade Ministers to offer funding for the professional development of Gujarati teachers.

C MMENTS

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Asian Voice |12th March 2016

Passing judgment has its perils ‘Judge not, that ye be not judged. For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged….’ These words of timeless Biblical wisdom are to be found in Book of Matthew. The eight US Senators and 26 members of the House of Representatives who, in a public letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed ‘grave concern about the increasing intolerance and violence experienced by members of religious minority communities,’ would have been better serves reading these lines from the good book, before addressing the Indian Prime Minister.. Applauding India’s commitment to pluralism and tolerance, they sought to remind Mr Modi of his promise to uphold religious freedom, urging him to ‘turn these words into action by condemning such violence. Of particular concern is the treatment of India’s Christian, Muslim and Sikh communities…Our strong support of this [Indo-US] partnership encourages us to relay our grave concerns.’ The US legislators were particularly concerned about the lack of recognition of Sikhism as a distinct faith. They also expressed concern about the activities of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Bajrang Dal, who share the RSS ideology, claiming that this could be a source of embarrassment for the Indian Premier. Message received and understood.

Let us for a start accept that that there has been a recrudescence of fanaticism from fringe elements of the Sangh Parivar. These have been deplored and roundly condemned by all streams of mainstream Indian opinion. The protection of the country’s civil liberties has long been a priority for India’s Supreme Court, the media in general and most sections of civil society. That said, it would be pertinent to remind these judgmental Americans, ever quick to spot the mote in the eye of others, blandly oblivious of the beam in their own eyes.

Would it not have been more honest to examine America’s own record in such matters? Have not passengers with Muslim names been taken off aircraft on the ground that their presence imperiled the safety of their fellow passengers and crew? The humiliation and injustice in such cases were made worse by the fact that the Muslims concerned werein possession of lawfully purchased tickets and law abiding citizens with no criminal record.

Have not Sikhs been the target of hate crimes and killed, simply because they had beards and wore turbans? One notable Sikh was taken off a plane bound for the United States from Mexico. The difficulties faced by Muslim visitors at American airports with valid documents wishing to unite with kith and kin may be likened surely to that of a camel seeking to pass through the eye of a needle.

Punjab is a Sikh-majority state with a a Sikh party, the Akali Dal, in power. Count the Sikh component of India’s armed forces and you’ll find their numbers greatly in excess to the proportion of their overall numbers in the country. Christians. are well represented in all branches of Indian life. Consider the plight of Christians in Pakistan and the Middle East in general and ask yourselves, Gentlemen, what the United States has done for their protection. Indeed, American policies across the region have worsened their terrible plight, have they not?

While it is true that the RSS and its affiliates have as some perceived an unfriendly attitude towards Christians and Muslims, they are in full exercise of their rights to think (but not do) as they please. Just as it is for the white supremacist Ku Klux Klan in the United States,with the difference that its crimes against America’s black community over a century and more have been horrendous.

Senator Joe McCarthy’s inquisition directed its at their left-leaning writers, filmmakers and academics, but said not a word against the Klan and its activities.

Today, one out four American in prison among the world’s most awful – is black; black unemployment is abnormally high. To these myriad shortcomings, one must not ignore America’s state of denial about the use of atom bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, its false excuses for the start of the Vietnam war and for the crimes of carpet bombing and the use of chemical defoliants in the country. Add Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria and Libya have to this black list. Also, is it to save Christians in , Pakistan from widespread abuse and persecution that Washington has gifted Islamabad with eight US F 16 war planes? No violations of human rights there or in Saudi Arabia, appear to move America’s great and good to take resolute action.. Enough said.

Antics of Rahul Gandhi Any credible leader of an opposition party hoping to form the next democratically elected government must surely convince the electorate that he or she is a credible figure waiting in the wings to take the reins of office when the call to do so arrived. A credible leader needs to be identified with alternative national policies that are factually-based, coherent and reasoned. The economy, people’s livelihood, education, industry, agriculture, foreign affairs, defence, science, technology: on none of these issues has Rahul Gandhi given voice as Congress Vice President. He keeps flitting, instead, place to place, issuing roadside fatwas against the government, indulging in petulant abuse of the prime minister, bringing parliament to a halt through orchestrated hooliganism and much else.

This is not a fit person to lead a serious country – which India hopefully is – nor even a banana republic.

Mr Modi won power through a a general election and

not a military coup. Mr Gandhi’s Congress Party was decimated. Mr Modi deserves the respect that his office warrants, political differences, notwithstanding.

Rahul Gandhi is unfit for serious purpose, operating as he does in an intellectual and moral void. Doting Mummy Sonia, the Congress President and her bovine cabal may think Master Rahul is India’s messiah to be.

But he isn’t. Not by a long chalk. So out of touch is he with ground realities that he is currently promoting an electoral alliance in West Bengal with the Communist Party of India (Marxist), both in an advanced stages of decomposition. Put this macabre alignment down to zombies dancing with death.

Shakespeare has fitting lines for every character and situation, hence the foolish Dogberry, a Rahul lookalike, in his play, Much Ado About Nothing, says: ‘Remember that I am an ass; though it not be written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.’

Indian designer wins game-changer prize ‘Someone asked if I expected this to happen,’ said Suket Dhir, an Indian fashion designer whose Suketdhir brand was awarded the International Woolmark Prize for men’s wear, not too long ago. ‘ I didn’t expect it, but I was hoping. My God, was I hoping,’ said the delighted winner. “This is the most beautiful and surreal moment for me, my family, and all my team back in New Delhi”.

One can understand his joy. The Woolmar award is worth $ 70,000 in the first place; more importantly, in an increasingly challenging retail environment for small labels and mega-brands alike, it creates sales opportunities through major department store outlets worldwide.

‘We were absolutely ready to go international,’ Dhir said. ‘We just didn’t have the means or the contacts. I feel ready to take the next step.’

The judging panel in Florence (Italy) said it was impressed by Dhir’s contemporary take on classic western tailoring with an Indian twist that blends sharp

lines with romantic subcontinental fluidity. The Parisbased designer Halder Ackermann, one of the panelists, said: ‘I love to be surprised by a collection , and with this one I was. There was a charming story shining out through the clothes that both impressed me, which is increasingly rare nowadays. Suket is a person with a dream to tell. And I thought that it was very beautiful.

Fashion at this time is about a dream, and the rest – the business – will follow.’

Another judge, Nick Sullivan, Fashion Director of the men’s magazine ‘Esquire’ was struck by the collection’s attention to detail as well as its innovative use of a new wool yarn to create a trans-national fabric with commercial growth potential. Dhir, who founded Suketdhir in 2009, is the second Indian designer to win a Woolmark prize. Rahul Mishra, a Mumbai and New Delhi-based designer won the 2001 women’s wear prize. There’s a good feel in being Indian these days.

3

If you want something said, ask a man; if you want something done, ask a woman.

- Margaret Thatcher

“Our London” Navin Shah

GLA Member for Brent and Harrow

Empowerment of Deaf People London Assembly unanimously passed a motion proposed by me, on 2nd March to empower deaf Londoners to help them to have access to information and services London-wide. Through the motion we urged the Mayor of London to promote British Sign Language (BSL) Charter in all Boroughs of London. Following is the text of my address at City Hall when I moved the motion which was seconded by Assembly Member Andrew Boff, “I am delighted to move this motion and warmly welcome deaf residents as well as the representatives of the British Deaf Association who are in the public gallery (of City Hall) to witness a positive outcome.

It takes leadership and assertiveness which is what Asif Iqbal MBE has provided in bringing forward deaf people’s cause.

Thank you Asif for your persistence and vision.

I am an Ambassador for the Harrow United Deaf Club and it was my pleasure to support the endorsement of the British Sign Language (BSL) Charter recently by Harrow Council in conjunction with Harrow United Deaf Club led by Asif Iqbal.

It is important deaf residents are fully involved with our community and that they have the right to equal access to all services and have their voice heard by all the community.

As the motion states deaf people face significant barriers when requiring to access to information or services.

There are cultural and social barriers and implications too.

This is why the British Deaf Association has established the following five key objectives to: l

Ensure better access to information and services; l Promote learning and teaching of British Sign Language; l Support Deaf children

and families; l Ensure staff can communicate effectively in BSL; and l Consult with local Deaf community regularly.

Currently only two Boroughs Harrow and Camden have signed up and made a commitment to implement the Charter.

This is a step in the rights direction but through this motion I wish to see eventually and as soon as possible all London Boroughs to endorse the charter and implement measures to remove barriers to information and services and improve the quality of life of deaf people. The charter is a worthy and powerful tool which requires much wider take up too by other bodies like stakeholder/voluntary groups and the private sector.

We also recognise the valuable work of the London Assembly’s Health Committee to improve access to health services for deaf people together with the recommendation to develop universal standard for BSL interpreting in GP surgeries and hospitals.

I’m also pleased that London Assembly’s Transport Committee is meeting on 9th March to address the issues faced

by Londoners with sensory impairment.

In conclusion, BSL Charter is about breaking down barriers and it’s about removing discrimination deaf people face and providing them equal opportunities. I commend the Mayor of London to sign up the Charter in behalf of the Greater London Authority. I also urge the Mayor to incorporate the principles of the charter in the London wide ‘Equalities Strategies’ for promotion and implementation pf BSL Charter across London’s Local Authorities and further afield. Let this be a momentous occasion.”

For full details of the motion please visit the GLA or contact my office.

4

UK

www.asian-voice.com

Two thugs brutally attacked photographer and stabbed him in back with broken bottle Two thugs have been jailed after carrying out a “ferocious” attack on a photographer in Birmingham city centre.

Stuart Williams was punched and kicked by a mob of seven and stabbed in the back with a broken bottle.

Norman Maqsood, 20, who was found guilty of assault following a trial at Birmingham Crown Court, was sentenced to 21 months.

Mohammed Aqeel, 20, who had admitted the same charge, was given a 18 month sentence.

Judge Philip Parker QC said: “This case is a serous example of utterly mindless violence on a person who was doing no more than walking through Birmingham city centre at night.

“In the course of 40 seconds to a minute he was subjected to a ferocious attack.

“He was kicked and punched. The attack was

relentless.

“It left the otherwise robust Mr Williams at times fearing for his life.”

Qasim Two others, Naveed, 23 and Shazeb Ali, 18, were acquitted of assault.

Mr Williams had been walking alone near the Mailbox on New Years Eve last year, along Navigation Street at about 10.45pm when he became aware of the group.

Aqeel then deliberately barged into him and he told them to “leave it” and walked away.

However he was then struck from behind and was brought to the ground.

Mr Williams: “I was vastly outnumbered. I had no other choice but to turn round and fight these people.

“I did not realise at the time I was being stabbed in the back with a bottle.

“It was like a pack of wolves, like wild animals on

Norman Maqsood

me. There was nothing I could do.”

The attack left him with broken ribs, a broken nose and a stab would to his back which required three stitches.

He told the Birmingham Mail he was unhappy with the sentences: “I am traumatised, disappointed and unsure if or how I can continue my livelihood as a photographer on Broad Street.

“I am scared, feel unprotected and disenfranchised by the Judicial System.

“This attack has jeopar-

Mohammed Aqeel

dised my work, life existence, and now it is apparent that no real justice will be served. I ask why is this the outcome?”

He said he had to have time off work and had been in constant pain until about mid April.

Elizabeth Power, for Maqsood, said he was a young man with health problems caused by a hole in the heart while Justin Jarmlin, for Aqeel said he would not have got involved if he had not been in drink.

Driver who tried to pin speeding offences on innocent man is jailed A motorist who tried to pin speeding offences on an innocent man has been jailed - after a speed camera image proved he was the driver.

Mattansar Mahmood, 32, pictured, blamed a Polish man for two offences after obtaining the foreign national’s lost driving licence. But he was arrested after being identified as the driver by a pin-sharp speed camera image.

Unemployed Mahmood

was jailed for 12 months at Wolverhampton Crown Court after he admitted perverting the course of justice.

The court heard he was clocked at 41mph in a 30zone in Sandwell Road, Handsworth, in November 2014 and again in Soho Way on last March when he activated a roadside camera at 48mph.

But when he received prosecution paperwork, Mahmood blamed the 52-

Brit-Asian model features in International fashion magazine with Miss England

year-old Dudley-based Polish man.

West Midlands Police’s Camera Enforcement Unit launched an investigation when the blameless driver denied being behind the wheel and stated he had lost his licence in October 2014.

Speed camera images revealed the driver to be a large Asian man and checks on DVLA systems showed a likeness to Mahmood’s driving licence photograph. He

was arrested last June and even though he eventually admitted being the driver, he denied falsely filling out the Notice of Intended Prosecution (NIP) forms.

Sutton Coldfield pregnant woman stabbing: Man in court

Babur Raja accused of murdering pregnant ex-partner

A Nottingham born supermodel who was raised in Wolverhampton made a star guest appearance at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham to launch a new clothing brand. The much talked about 24 year old Kiran Rai remained in the borough for four days to launch the new brand ‘Future Cut Cloths’.

Kiran was selected from 2000 models worldwide to make the appearance and was delighted to be visiting Solihull.

He has also just

appeared in the first edition of the magazine of Kings and Queens alongside 'Miss England 2016' Natasha Hemmings, who represented England for the Miss World competitions.

Kiran told Asian Voice, “I am very excited to do a shoot alongside Miss England. She represented my country and she has done us so proud.

"I am 24 years old, doing things that even people working more than 30 years don't get to do. I feel very lucky and humbled.”

In Brief

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Asian Voice |12th March 2016

A businessman accused of attempting to murder his pregnant ex partner in a stabbing attack in Sutton Coldfield has appeared before Birmingham magistrates.

Babur Raja, 41, is charged with attempting to murder 40year-old Natalie Quieroz in Trinity Hill. He is also accused of attempting to murder John Mitchell, assaulting Anthony Smith, possessing a knife and attempted child destruction by stabbing Miss Quieroz multiple times before the child had an existence independent of its mother. Raja, wearing a grey T shirt, sat with his head bowed

during a 10 minute hearing and only spoke to confirm his name, date of birth and address. He was remanded in custody to appear before the cty’s crown court on April 6.

Miss Quieroz was allegedly attacked in the car park of a church on Friday afternoon. She was airlifted to hospital where he daughter was delivered by caesarean section just hours after she was knifed.

Miss Queiroz, who works for a pharmaceutical company, is currently in a stable condition while the baby is doing well.

Others are said to have tried to intervene during the incident.

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Two charged over boy’s hit and run death

Two men have been charged following a fatal hit and run collision in Ashton that killed 11year-old Shah Zaib Hossain. Henry Brandon Barker (19) and Aaron James Ward (23) appeared at Tameside Magistrates Court last Wednesday, before being remanded in custody.

Barker has been charged with causing death by dangerous driving, causing death while driving uninsured, driving without insurance, failing to stop at the scene of an accident and failing to report an accident.

Hattersley has been charged with aiding and abetting an individual causing death while uninsured.

Arson death father fights for court order change

A father whose son was killed in a Liverpool fire started by the boy's mother met the Children's Minister at Westminster to discuss his campaign for Jai Joshi with his a change in the law on father Paresh Patel court orders.

Paresh Patel's son - four-year-old Jai Joshi - died in a blaze set deliberately by his mum at her flat in 2014. She'd failed to return Jai to his father despite a court order and him having full custody. He is calling for a change in the law to make all court orders enforceable by police and social workers.

Tipu Sultan shooting: Mobile phone 'tracked to scene'

The mobile phone of a man accused of the shotgun murder of a takeaway boss was "tracked" to the scene of the crime, a court has heard.

Tipu Sultan, 32, was gunned down at close range behind the Herbs & Spice Kitchen in Lake Avenue, South Shields, in April, Newcastle Crown Court heard.

Michael McDougall and Michael Mullen, both from South Shields, deny murder.

Gun blackmail and arson attack millionaire offers £40,000 for information

A tycoon forced to sell his home after his tyrefitting businesses was torched has increased a reward he is offering to £40,000 saying: “don’t be so cowardly man up and face me.”

Zahid Khan, 29, had offered a £25,000 for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person or people responsible for the arson attack at the Bulls and Horses Auto Centre in Stratford Road, Sparkhill.

It was not the first time he has been targeted - almost two years ago the businessman was ambushed by gun thugs as he sat in his £250,000 Rolls Royce. They demanded a £10,000 cash ransom from his relatives for his release.

Four men were later jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for a total of 41 years for blackmail and firearm offences.

Multi-millionaire Mr Khan has put his plush home up for sale at a cut price £700,000 to move to a safer location.

UK Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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5

Tory Cabinet clashes on Referendum; businesses skeptical Francois Hollande on Thursday told Britain that if it left EU, there will be consequences for Calais border arrangements. As the mudslinging has begun between party members, Michael Gove is being lined up to appear on the same tv programme as Mr Cameron for a debate on Britain's future in Europe, that is to be screened days before the referendum.

The Justice Secretary will accept the invitation, acording to media reports.

Mr Cameron and Mr Gove would take questions from an audience in a show hosted by David Dimbleby, though they will not appear on stage simultaneously. Mr Gove's decision to appear on this show, will definitely break the spirit of cabinet agreement, not to engage in 'blue on blue' warfare between cabinet members that could cause long-lasting divisions in the Tory party.

Priti Patel, daughter of a Ugandan shopkeeper has allegedly told her close friends and allies that she plans on playing a "leading role" in the campaign to take Britain out of the EU, The Telegraph has reported.

Ms Patel, PM's Champion of Indian diaspora has been described as the "last hope" of the Leave campaign after a succession of prominent Tory Eurosceptic privately made clear to Downing Street they would join the In campaign.

She has not publically revealed how she will vote

in the upcoming referendum, but has been a persistent critic of the "unaccountable" and "undemocratic" EU in recent years.

Senior Tories including Michael Gove, the Justice Boris Secretary, and Johnson are said to still be "on the fence" over whether to back David Cameron's final deal.

Allies of Mr Gove said that they expect him to be put under huge pressure to pull out of the debate, though no decision have been made, and Boris Johnson may instead represent the OUT campaign.

However Downing Street has said, according to The Times, that the Prime Minister is happy to look at any format. A spokesperson from No 10 has apparently said that the PM has definitely not ruled out paticipating in the debate against Mr Gove, though they are focussing a lot on the format of the crucial final encounter between two Tory MPs. On the other hand, the Director General of the British Chamber of Commerce and one of Britain's biggest business leader, has been suspended after he called for Brexit against the wishes of most of its members. John Longsworth who said on Thursday that he favoured leaving the EU was suspended on Friday.

Nigel Baxter who sells renault trucks to the British market, is enjoying the booming market, and has no worries at all about the UK leaving the EU.

Renault plans to open about 15 new franchises this year. Mr Baxter whose 80 employee company in North-East England racks up sales of £14m a years, sees no reason why the French group should change its mind because of uncertainty

over Britain's future in the EU. He is similarly sanguine about his other business, an 800-acre arable farm in Notinghamshire.

Such views are however rare.

Smaller UK businesses are split on life outside EU. Many executives

express confidence that leaving EU will relieve them of regulations they loathe and open up new opportunities for growth, whereas bigger companies are far more concerned about the impact on investment if the country votes leave in the referen-

dum scheduled on 23 June.

George Eustice, the agriculture minister has claimed that if farm animals had a vote in refrendum, they would opt to leave the EU, as British care more about animal welfare than EU citizens.

Priti Patel launches Women for Britain campaign On Tuesday, Employment Minister Priti Patel spoke to a group of leading female business and political figures at the launch of a new campaign group led by 40 women who believe that the power of their vote is undermined by Britain’s membership to the European Union. The group will be reaching out to female voters across the country and providing the positive case for a leave vote in the upcoming referendum, reacting to calls that women are underrepresented in the debate.

Polling released in December (British Future) found that, when asked about voting intentions in the EU referendum, women: are almost twice as likely (2025%) as men (10-15%) to answer ‘Don’t Know’ about which way they would vote; are less likely (29%) than men (43%) to say they are certain to vote in the referendum, regardless of ‘remain’ or ‘leave’ stance; and are quite possibly more Eurosceptic than men, yet more difficult to persuade to vote for Leave.

Women for Britain are determined to put the positive case forward for ‘leave’ so that women, often perceived

as more ‘risk-averse’ than men, identify a vote to leave as the safer choice.

Women for Britain will also be campaigning on the

along with other MPs, entrepreneurs, business owners, councillors and influential women from all over the country.

The Guardian reported, the great-granddaughter of Emmeline Pankhurst has criticised Minister Priti Patel for claiming the suffragettes were fighting for the same cause as those who want Britain to leave the EU. Helen Pankhurst said it was “unacceptable” to use her ancestor’s achievements to promote Brexit. issue of the tampon tax and sexist EU insurance regulations. The Minister of State for Employment was joined at the launch by Anne-Marie Trevelyan, Suzanne Evans, Emma Pullen, CEO of The British Hovercraft Company,

Priti Patel MP, Employment Minister said: “...we don’t need the European Union to protect the rights of women in the UK and it is wrong and misleading to suggest that leaving the EU would put women’s rights at risk.

“Since we won our right to vote, the UK has a proud history of listening to women.

The First Equal Pay Act, the Abortion Act and the Divorce Reform Act were passed and the contraceptive pill was made free on the NHS before we joined the EU. We also passed the Sex Discrimination Act, the Domestic Violence Act and the Employment Protection Act – all without any EU assistance at all...

“As a Suffragette, Pankhurst fought for the rights of women to have a vote, a voice and a say in how their society is governed and who governs it.

“In many ways, Women for Britain are fighting for the same cause. The suffragettes fought for our democratic freedom. Now we are the ones who must fight to protect it...

“Our campaign to take back control from the EU will enhance our democracy and empower women in this country.”

The Women for Britain board includes two women of Asian origin: Mimi Harker, Chairman, Chiltern District Council and Harsimrat Kaur, a mathematician.

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www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice |12th March 2016

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Cllr David Perry Leader of Harrow Council

Spriha Srivastava

£159 fairer grant campaign update

What's holding you back?

Oh, gender bias No matter how progressive we become as a society, some things will always hold us back. Gender bias is one of them. During my recent trip to India, I realised how these biases hit you, sometimes in very subtle ways but other times quite directly. It leaves you bewildered and you start questioning the very foundation on which our society exists.

These gender biases are sometimes not intentional, but it is just the way our society has been in existence for a number of years now. Some of us take it for granted and continue to carry the tradition, while a few of us are brave enough to try and take a different route.

The latter sometimes tend to face wrath from friends and family.

During a road trip in Varanasi, I happened to switch on the radio and was quite surprised to hear an advertisement about a personal saving scheme for your daughter's dowry. The entire advertisement focused on how you can now save and invest in a plan that offers higher returns especially for your daughter's dowry.

The tag line of the advertisement was - "Join now to secure your daughter's future." Is this how you secure your daughter's future?

Biases come in all forms - one of these is in the form of marriage customs that are still tied to the age-old belief that the woman after being dependent on her father for all this while will now be dependent on her husband. As the society progresses, we find more and more women financially independent, being able to support themselves as well as their families and be equal decision-makers, but still succumb to the traditional customs that a marriage ceremony expects of them.

The entire concept of

bidaai or the bride's sendoff after the wedding was very relevant in earlier times because after the wedding the girl would rarely come back home. In today's times when both the boy and the girl move out of their homes to pursue higher education and work, the concept of bidaai is not directly relevant. But still, the sentiment attached to it gives you jitters. There is this unsaid expectation for you to cry since you are leaving your parents behind and starting a new life. But did you not do that when

you left home to study?

In a country where increasing number of parents are now bringing up their children in an equal fashion, biases find a way to crawl through.

These biases sometimes come not from the parents directly but from the extended family, society and even the state. Sheryl Sandberg's book Lean In talks about a very interesting aspect of a women's work-life. It says "don't leave before you leave." A lot of women make career decisions while keeping in mind how they will manage a work-family life balance. Hence, they sometimes give up what they would have liked to do and opt for something easier.

And so they leave before they leave.

When people say they want their daughters to study and do well in life, I sometimes want to understand what they mean.

Would you leave her to pursue her career and not pressure her to get married if she is approaching 30? When she gets married, will you keep reminding her to have a

baby before it is too late?

And when she finally has a baby, will you ask her to leave her job or "take it easy" so that she can concentrate on her family?

Where does it all end?

If a woman got married at the "right age," had a baby and is living with in-laws, she is the perfect daughter or daughter-inlaw. You will see people constantly praising her.

But if you are one who has decided to pursue a career and in that has probably delayed her family duties then she will get tons of unsolicited advice on how to take care of your family.

As I complete four years of marriage with my husband, I have never felt the pressure to start a family from anyone. I have enjoyed my work life and continue to pursue my career with immense support and encouragement from my husband and both set of parents.

However, biases start to creep in when you hear questions from extended family like "what are you doing with your life?" "If you want a family, you will need to compromise on your career" and so on. I suddenly feel myself at the centre of every discussion, getting advice on how to sort my life. Really? I thought I had sorted my life pretty well with a well-paying job and a happy marriage.

But looks like that is not enough.

It is here that you realise that no matter how progressive you become, how wonderfully your parents bring you up, you will always have to face biases.

There are two ways these biases can affect you - by either bringing your morale down and disappointing you, Or making you stronger and wanting to achieve more. The latter has been working quite well in my case till now.

Touchwood!

Let us know what you think.

Email Spriha at aveditorial@abplgroup.com

In Harrow, every single one of our residents receives £159 less money from Central Government in Council funding than the London average.

That’s £40m each year.

That’s £40m of missing money that could go towards services from street cleaning and care for the elderly to support for our most vulnerable families and children, amongst many other services.

That is why at the end of last year we launched the £159 fairer grant Campaign to get Harrow back its missing millions.

Our ‘159’ fairer grant campaign to get Harrow back its missing millions has already claimed its first victory.

Harrow received £1.4m from the

Transition funding the Government recently announced for Local Authorities, following on from our meetings with Government, backed up by our pragmatic approach across London.

We would not have received this funding without this time and effort. This shows that our arguments have resonated with Government – the 159 fairer grant campaign is getting Harrow our missing millions.

The only problem with this is that on one hand the Government lightens the funding blow one day, and the very next day wipes this completely out with an even bigger cut to Public Health grant funding of £1.2m.

This is what we have come to expect from

Four men in court accused of kidnap in Oswestry Four men have appeared in court accused of kidnapping a woman and three children.

Zahoor Hussain, 38, Muserat Khan, 36, Mohammed Anser Khan, 31, and Ateek Khan, 27, all from West Bromwich in the West Midlands are each accused of four counts of kidnap.

The charges relate to an incident in Oswestry in Shropshire last Friday.

The men were remanded in custody by magistrates in Telford to appear at Shrewsbury Crown Court on 4 April.

Muserat Khan, of Greets Green Road, and

Mohammed Khan, of Whitehall Road, are also charged with assault.

The pair, along with Mr Hussain, of Whitehall Road, and Ateek Khan, of Oak Road, were charged on Sunday, police said.

Detective Inspector Jason Everett said: "I would like to thank the public for their help so far and I would like to reassure the community that this is an isolated incident.

"Enquiries are still ongoing but I would encourage anyone who may have witnessed the incident to please contact us on 101."

David Cameron and George Osborne, as Local Councils continue to be hardest hit.

Central Government has imposed £83m of cuts on Harrow Council and our residents from 2014 to 2018. This is well over 50% of our controllable spend on services from street cleaning and parks maintenance to care for older people, people with a disability and support for vulnerable families and children, to name just a few. Harrow and our communities deserve better.

With this tsunami of cuts we will continue to fight for a fairer grant and get Harrow its missing millions. Thank you to all residents that have supported the campaign to date.

Hospital consultant investigated over scarf row

A hospital consultant is under investigation over comments he made about a Muslim surgeon who wore a headscarf in an operating theatre.

Dr Vladislav Rogozov, a consultant anaesthetist at Sheffield's Royal Hallamshire Hospital, spoke about the incident in an online blog.

He said he had confronted the unnamed surgeon when he realised she intended to keep the scarf on during surgery.

Hospital chiefs would not confirm if Dr Rogozov had been suspended.

Patrick Sookhdeo charged with indecent assault Patrick Sookhdeo, the former international director of Barnabas Aid International, has been charged with carrying out an indecent assault on a woman in East London almost 40 years ago.

Sookdeo, 68, was arrested on suspicion of the assault at Heathrow Airport last November.

He will appear in court next month accused of one

count of indecent assault on a woman aged 16 or over in Plaistow in 1977.

The Metropolitan Police said Sookhdeo, of River Street, Pewsey, Wiltshire, was arrested following an investigation by detectives from Newham borough.

He was bailed to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court on April 4.

Patrick Sookhdeo

Leicester restaurant shut after rodent infestation found A curry house has been shut down after an infestation of rats and mice was found by health inspectors.

Rat droppings and a live mouse were found in the kitchen at Shimla Pinks, in Leicester. Officers shut the restaurant while people were dining, with

the business fined £1,000 during a hearing at the city's magistrates.

Owner Meena Patel said he felt "terrible" about the problem and vowed to rectify it.

Leicester City Council health inspectors confirmed the closure during

the hearing last Thursday.

The court was told droppings were found behind the freezer and there were holes in doors

and the skirting boards, allowing the rodents access to food preparation areas.

Bacterial infections such as Leptospirosis and

Ecoli can be spread by urine from mice and rats.

The council said in a statement the owners are not allowed to open until it was satisfied they have "addressed the problems".

However, Mr Patel told the Mercury he was going to "eradicate" the problem.

The premises, in London Road, will close for a week to allow walls to be rebuilt and kitchen equipment replaced.

Shimla Pinks has earned consistent positive reviews on Trip Advisor, earning it a "certificate of excellence" in 2015.

UK Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

www.asian-voice.com

7

More History in the making as the Commonwealth flies high AsianVoiceNews

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Rupanjana Dutta

More than 850 Commonwealth Flags will be raised in locations throughout the United Kingdom, Channel Islands, Isle of Man, UK Overseas Territories, and Commonwealth countries and on Monday 14 March – Commonwealth Day 2016.

Flags from the 53 Commonwealth countries plus the Commonwealth flag will be flown in Parliament Square in London for Commonwealth Day. As a collective public expression of commitment to the Commonwealth, this unique initiative enables participants to show appreciation for the values the Commonwealth upholds, and the opportunities offered for friendship and cooperation with fellow Commonwealth young and old citizens around the world.

At the Memorial Gates, Constitution Hills, a commemoration ceremony will be held like every year. The ceremony will be hosted by Baroness Shreela Flather along with Inderjeet Singh Nijhar, Chairman Memorial Gates Council. The focus of this commemoration will be the engagement at Gallipoli in 1915-16.

Commonwealth Flags will be flown at many locations of special significance including at six locations on the Island of the Republic of Malta; in Tristan Da Cunha, the most remote of the United Kingdom Overseas Territory; in St. David's in

Commonwealth Day celebration at the Memorial Gates in Constitutional Hills

Pembrokeshire, the westernmost city in Wales; in Carlisle in Cumbria, the northernmost city in England; in Lowestoft in Suffolk, the easternmost town in England; and in Unst in the Shetland Islands, the most northerly inhabited island in Scotland.

Scouts in The Bahamas, Belize, Grenada, Jamaica, Malaysia, Maldives, Republic of Malta, Mauritius, New Zealand, Samoa, Sri Lanka, and Trinidad and Tobago will also be raising the Commonwealth Flag at

10.00hrs local time on 9 March, joining thousands of other young people around the Commonwealth to celebrate and the launch of this year’s special theme – An Inclusive Commonwealth.

His Excellency Kamalesh Sharma, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth said: “Fly a Flag for the Commonwealth is a most imaginative way for people in local communities – wherever they live, learn or work – to join together with others throughout the Commonwealth in a spirit of

LSE Research claims Governments may have deliberately allowed migrants to permeate borders Border controls which allow migrants to bypass them may have been part of a deliberate policy to boost domestic economies and garner party-political support, according to new LSE research.

The research comes right after the news that tens of thousands of Syrian refugees will be taken directly from Turky to Europe in a one for one swap with those on the Greek islands. In an attempt to draw a line under Europe's worst migrant crisis since the Secomd World War. A study focusing on Greece, but with wider implications across European governments,

found that migrants have often been essential to domestic political and economic interests such as serving the needs of large informal labour markets that rely on cheap labour.

The study concludes that policies and practices of border control which purport to exclude all migrants can in fact be imperfect by design. Governments may adopt policies and promote practices that essentially relax border controls so as to enable the mass import of exploitable migrant labour. State policies restricting welfare and employment rights, combined with tolerance or even active support towards practices of violent

intimidation, serve to bolster migrants’ exploitability in the labour market.

The study adds that asylum and regularisation procedures have been notoriously arduous, protracted and, for the overwhelming majority of applicants, ineffectual.

Efforts to apprehend and deport irregular migrants have long been known to be of limited efficiency and effectiveness, voluntary repatriation schemes for undocumented migrants remain little used, and the legal maximum length of administrative detention of irregular migrants underwent repeated extensions before being rendered indefinite in April 2014.

Student journalists across UK invited to enter Amnesty Media Award Student journalists across UK get chance to win Amnesty Media Award and experience at The Observer.

Amnesty International invites all students in the UK to enter its Best Student Journalist Award, and win an opportunity to a fortnight’s work experience at The Observer and the prestige of attaining a coveted Amnesty International Media Award.

A m n e s t y International’s Best Student Journalist Award for human rights report-

ing – which is run in collaboration with National Union of Students and the Observer – is open to any student studying in a UK university, higher education college or further edu-

cation college or who was a student at a UK Further Education or Higher Education institution at the time that their article was published or broadcast.

Indian migrants to be affected by visa fee hike

Continued from page 1 (that excludes visitor and transit visas) to the UK in 2015, Indians were the second highest at 85,403 following China which had the largest number at 93,076.

The Home Office notification says the aim of the

increase is to achieve a “self-funding system, whilst continuing to provide a competitive level of service, and a fees structure that remains attractive to businesses, migrants and visitors”.

Full list can be found on Home Office website.

respect and understanding to celebrate the variety and unmatched diversity of our global family.”

Lord Howell, President of the Royal Commonwealth Society said: “The Royal Commonwealth Society is proud to be associated with Fly a Flag on Commonwealth Day and welcomes the flying of the Commonwealth flag over public buildings throughout the whole Commonwealth network. Flying the Flag brings us all together in a great family of nations.”

Halaevalu Mangisi Palu, Chief Commissioner of the Girl Guides Association of the Kingdom of Tonga (GGAKT) said: "In Tonga, where time begins, GGAKT are humbled to be granted the honour to be the first country in the world to raise the Commonwealth Flag at 10.00hrs on 9th March 2015, leading the youth of the Commonwealth in this unique, historic, global event that morning.”

Bruno Peek LVO OBE OPR – Originator and Commonwealth Pageantmaster, of 'Fly a Flag for the Commonwealth’, said: "I am amazed how quickly this event has caught the public imagination in so many Commonwealth countries and are delighted to be involving the Royal Commonwealth Society in the project this year. We are only in our third year, and the involvement of so many people of all ages and from all walks of life shows the enormous potential of this project and of the Commonwealth. It is a positive and uplifting way for people to link with fellow citizens of the Commonwealth in a family that spans across oceans and continents.

There is a real sense of promise, and hope for the future. We also celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s 90th Birthday on the 21st April this year, so marks a special occasion for the Commonwealth too, especially as The Queen is it’s Head.”

Zac Goldsmith visits Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, Southall On Sunday 6th March, Zac Goldsmith visited the Gurdwara Sri Guru Singh Sabha, in Southall. He attended prayers and addressed those gathered, and was presented with a Sikh scarf. Whilst at the Gurdwara, Goldsmith also met with local community leaders.

Paying tribute to London’s Sikh community, Zac said: “London’s 126,000 Sikhs make a huge contribution to our great capital city and I am honoured that you have invited me to join you at this magnificent gurdwara this morning.

“One of the reasons London is the greatest city on earth is because of its diversity, different groups within London get along with each other and I think that’s something precious, something the next Mayor of London needs to do everything they can to protect.

Your values of hard work, honesty, treating everyone equally and being generous to the less fortunate are values for all of London.”

He warned not to risk London’s future with a four year experiment with Sadiq Khan and Jeremy Corbyn and went on to pledge to deliver more homes for Londoners, protect transport investment and the number of police on London’s streets and to clean up the air for places like Southall.

Zac Goldsmith helping women in the Gurdwara kitchen

Zac Goldsmith with Lord Ranbir Suri, Kulveer Ranger and others

8

UK

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

As I See It

CB Patel

The Changing Pharmacy Landscape

This young star has come of age

Kirit Patel MBE CEO, Day Lewis Group

Actress Sheridan Smith’s decision to pull out of a performance in Funny Girl The Musical due to her father’s illness is music to ears of those believing in paying back to their parents, especially when they actually need you.

Smith’s father Colin is suffering from cancer and as a result, she dropped out of the production, much to the chagrin of the producers.

Smith is only 34 and conventionally it is no age to chuck one’s career. But the star doesn’t seem to have an iota of regret. Maybe she has learned to re-evaluate her priorities and find out what’s important in life.

It takes lot of guts, conviction and maturity to take such a decision.

The DH certainly dropped a bombshell just before Christmas when it released a letter addressed to Sue Sharpe the CEO of Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee.

This letter was given to her in an open meeting in the presence of other pharmacy representatives from organisations such as Pharmacy Voice, AIMp, CCA, NPA, Royal Pharmaceutical Society, General Pharmaceutical Council and surprisingly the Association of Pharmacy Technicians UK. In my forty years of pharmacy this was unprecedented. In the past all negotiations with the PSNC would have been behind closed doors. Let me share with you what I personally read in this letter. At first it appears that the DH intention is to divide and rule pharmacy.

But I believe it is more than that. The letter does call for a consultation on a series of proposals for implementation by October 1st this year.

I cast my mind back to October 2007 where after months of negotiation with the PSNC, the DH announced cuts of £480M from Category M and pharmacy had a notice period of less than a month to react.

This time at least we have a 9 months head-start before we feel the financial pinch.

The second thing that surprised me was that this letter was not signed by the head of pharmacy at the DH but by Keith Ridge, our Chief Pharmaceutical Officer, but more surprisingly co-signed by Will Cavendish, the Director General Innovations Growth & Technology at the Department of Health.

I have always believed that the future of pharmacy is clinical, digital and remote and so the content of the letter was not a surprise. However, the fact the DH proposes to do everything at the same time is of a big concern.

Clinical - the DH wishes pharmacy to make greater use of community pharmacy and pharmacists in prevention of ill health; support for healthy living, support for self care for minor ailments and long term conditions, medica-

Whether she provides the best possible care to her dad or nurses him back to health or for that matter spends quality time with him at the twilight of his life – the whole idea is not to regret for the way you live your life. Make sure you do everything you want to do, and that’s not just scaling the ladder of materialistic success.

I remember a quote from Mark Twain which aptly sums up the whole idea.

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did so. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.”

Age no bar for good health It always pays to have good health.

Recently I read a news item wherein it was mentioned that one Florence Calendar had become the oldest patient to undergo the knee replacement surgery successfully at the age of 100.

The pensioner from Stockton-onTees was operated at the University Hospital of North Tees.

She believes that her active work life helped to keep her in good shape to endure the operation. She learned to be agile at her mother’s knee. She worked on the farm most of her life as her mother was a farmer’s daughter. This active life kept her busy and in shape, and today her good health has stood her in

good stead as she went under the knife for her knee replacement at the ripe age of 100. She credits her robust health to farm life. But for her good health, she didn’t have to beg on bended knee for help at this age of her life.

Mahatma Gandhi used to say, “It is health which is real wealth, and not pieces of gold and silver.”

The point to drive home is health is the greatest wealth. It’s the highest blessing. It is the source of all happiness.

Money can’t buy happiness. Happiness is invaluable and not dependent upon the wealth of an individual. Even with limited income, a person with sound health can lead a happy and satisfactory life.

Two wrongs don’t make a right Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s heart is in the right place when it comes to reforms and economic growth. But he alone cannot run the show. In a democracy Parliament reigns supreme. His party (BJP) had a landslide in 2014 General Elections and as a result has a clear majority in the Lower House of the Parliament. But they lack majority in the Upper House. And this has been coming in the way of Modi’s new India plans. Major reform bills like labour and GST (Goods and Service Tax) are stuck in the Upper House, not because they are not well-intended but because of Congress’ ‘tit for tat’ politics. The opposition (Congress-led UPA), which continues to control the legislature’s upper chamber, deliberately stifles the bills because they were victims of similar logjam when UPA was in power. It is claimed that BJP had done the same thing when the UPA was in power. The UPA is now paying BJP back in the same coin. But this kind of politics does not augur well for India. The opposition

parties are not realising that this Parliament logjam is costing India dearly and India’s taxpayers are the biggest casualty in this stalemate. I strongly believe that every parliamentary democracy should have a strong opposition to keep a check on the ruling party, but opposing something just for the sake of opposing is not mature politics. Two wrongs don’t make a right. A statesman-like conduct from Indian parliamentarians, especially from the opposition, is the need of the hour to take the country forward.

Also, the media too should show some restraint while criticising Modi whose intentions are genuine. At present, his hands are tied because of lack of majority in Rajya Sabha. Media often believe that they are the custodians of values or standards which they know little about. They should now rather come down heavily on the opposition in India who are in the majority in the Upper House and are impeding the progress of India.

High Commissioner addresses MPs and Peers at the Parliament In an event organised jointly by the All Party Parliamentary Group on Commonwealth, the IndoBritish All Party Parliamentary Group and the Royal Commonwealth Society, High Commissioner Mr. Navtej Sarna addressed MPs and peers in the House of Commons today.

“India and the UK are a part of one big family which is the Commonwealth and it is the commonwealth values of democracy, rule of law and freedom of speech that binds us all together”, the High Commissioner

remarked in his address.

He also briefed the Lords and MPs on major developments in India-UK relations, including the outcomes of the successful visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the UK in November 2015.

The High Commissioner urged the parliamentarians to visit India to first hand see and

understand India in the larger context of the potential of the growing IndiaUK relations. He also encouraged the audience to get more associated with the Nehru Centre with a view to raising the level of intellectual activities of the Centre.

Mr. Virendra Sharma, Chair of Indo-British APPG and Sir Henry

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Bellingham, Chair of APPG on Commonwealth, presided over the address.

The High Commissioner’s address was followed by an interactive session on varied topics that included visa issues for students, Migration Advisory Committee’s recommendations on Tier-2 Inter Company Transfer, development challenges of India and India’s engagement with the Commonwealth.

Kirit Patel MBE tion review in Care Homes and as part of a more integrated local care model.

In a period when the DH is looking for a £22 billion saving in the NHS, this proposal of making better utilisation of pharmacy to help take pressure off the GPs and the hospital would have had every pharmacy owners’ full support.

In this letter the DH announced a 6% reduction in pharmacy remuneration in the year April 2016 to March 2017.

The intention being that the whole 6% totalling £170m would be taken out over 6 months from beginning October 2016.

The letter went on to say that this was the maximum they would take out in the year, implying there would be more to follow.

So let’s examine how much more is likely to be taken out. The NHS target of £22 billion saving announced by Simon Stevens in the NHS forward plan was in a 5-year plan and hence it’s safe to say that all the funds they intend to take out from pharmacy would be within 5 years.

The letter goes on to say that all establishment payment totalling £25,000 per pharmacy is to be phased out. With over 11,500 pharmacies this amount totals to £270 million. So there is every likelihood of at least another £80 million will be withdrawn from pharmacy over the next 5 years, bearing in mind £20 million is being put back for integration funds. On average that will work out at approximately£15,000 per pharmacy going up to £25,000.

The DH is questioning whether patients with long term stable chronic conditions such as blood pressure etc, need to have a prescription every month or can they be prescribed 3 months supply at a time.

They may well need to balance this with drug waste.

This would lead to freeing up doctors time.

The other recommendation for reducing pharmacy burden and reducing the cost of dispensing is to change the law by October 2016 so as to enable pharmacy to send their prescriptions electronically to a central dispensing hub,

possibly operated by full line wholesalers.

The fourth major point for consultation is better utilisation of digital technology. They intend to change the law to make it easy for patients to have their prescriptions electronically to online pharmacies directly from doctors surgery and hence bypass the bricks and mortar pharmacy situated next to doctors surgery.

The minister of pharmacy was quoted as saying that as many as 3,000 pharmacies may possibly close if these recommendations are all implemented.

The DH also recently announced that GP surgeries would get additional funding to employ pharmacists in GP surgeries.

The government has at the same time proposed in this letter that an investment fund of £20 million will be set up and this figure will go over the next 5 years.

I do believe that there is a business case for community pharmacy to provide pharmacy cover to GP surgeries to relieve pressure on GPs and also visiting nursing homes where a lot of the elderly patients, on a high amount of medication, may not be taking them correctly.

Pharmacy will have to carry out far more services such as flu vaccinations, diabetes screening, health checks, weight management, medication advice, domiciliary visits and other minor ailments and much more.

Digital: As consumer shopping habits change we will invest in technology that will enable more online interfacing with our patients.

Pharmacy is now like a pool full of crocodiles with a ladder with 11,500 pharmacies clinging on to them.

Those who do not innovate and change will remain at the bottom of the ladder.

So let’s turn to pharmacy as a career. It is not all doom and gloom for the non pharmacy owners.

With the shortage of other health care professionals pharmacists are in more demand. The role of pharmacists will be widened and not just on dispensing.

(Abridged; For the full article go to www.asian-voice.com)

UK Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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Leading Lights Rani Singh, Special Assignments Editor

Rajan Patel, Brave Hit Film Maker

“Feast of Varanasi” is the first film from ProducerDirector-Writer Rajan Patel but judging by this piece of commercial art, Patel has a fantastic future in movie making.

Film is a second career he has developed in addition to his first one.

Rajan’s successful day job is as a Town and Country Planning Consultant, but he’s turned his passion into reality with funding from his own resources and by putting some of the film word’s best people around him.

The movie Rajan has created is a tense thriller set in the northern Indian city of Varanasi on the banks of the Ganges. The city is as much a character as are main cast members.

At the start of the story, four young girls have been gruesomely burnt to death.

A CBI officer, Arjun Das, (Adil Hussain), is sent from New Delhi to investigate. As Holi approaches, the killer claims the greatest sacrifice of all to attain moksha.

Meanwhile, following

Rajan Patel

her mother’s suicide, Helen, (Holly Gilbert), a young English teacher arrives in Varanasi to deliver her mother’s final letter and a special pendant to her aunt Agatha (Judi Bowker, who was in Clash of the Titans). Helen discovers something shocking about her past and starts to bond with Nana (Ashwath Bhatt, who was in The

R e l u c t a n t Fundamentalist). He brilliantly plays a reclusive priest who lives in a forest.

Helen’s own life and safety are soon in jeopardy.

The film has a surprise ending, leaving the door open for a sequel. It’s due to open March 11th nationwide in 23 British Cineworlds, Manchester and Leicester Odeons. It’s

also premiering in India.

Drawing from Silence of the Lambs and Apocalypse Now, the film is an exciting, shock-inducing fast paced work that leaves you dazed and educated at the same time. All the performances are superb and each production role is brilliantly executed.

How did Rajan Patel pull off the near impossible task of producing, directing, writing and financing his opus, that, incidentally, he has written a book for too?

Not without the solid, loyal and consistent support of his wife Ketal, for a start.

Born in Uganda August 7th (the day Amin expelled the Asians) to a trading family, Rajan’s parents settled in a tough council estate in Kingston, London. It’s probably one of the reasons he’s so selfreliant.

“I had skinheads put a knife on me when I was seven years old telling me to go back to my own country. You grow up quite tough, I've got an older brother and a younger one; you just look after each other,” he said. The siblings have looked out for each other ever since.

While many others were setting up newsagents, unusually, Rajan’s parents used to take their children off for

9

Rajan enthused.

European holidays, so the Rajan had the idea for boys grew up well travelled. the film after watching a From an early age, the Hindu funeral in London middle son developed a and wondering if the priest healthy passion for film. It really was the holy man crystallized at university. that everyone thought he Though Rajan studied was. architecture and planning It wasn’t easy; nine at the Bartlett, UCL, he months of draft-writing was still in a creative envifollowed by an immersive ronment. visit to Varanasi came The film maker -probefore more years of drafts ducer wrote his first film and a one year break folscript in 2009. lowing the passing of his He also started, with own dear mother. his brothers, creating Rajan’s initial large black tie New budget was Year’s Eve events £100,000 but is at venues like scaled up to the Grosvenor It might take four times that House Hotel with an ballroom in one line on a Park Lane. page, but it can expansion in the quality of The sell out take you 10 the crew and parties cost hours to equipment. the brothers a “It might lot to put on shoot it! take one line on but they all a page, but it can made their take you 10 hours money back. That to shoot it! And then gave Rajan the you start listening to these knowledge of how to crepeople because they say, ate spectacles; so when he “Look, you're starting off turned to film making, he with a 165-page script and hunted down the right peoyou can do this differently. ple to team with like veterYou reconstruct your an producer/script superscript, get things out that visor Caroline O’Reilly and don't help the story, get director of photography, characters out that don't James Aspinall. drive the story forward.

“My editor, Sean And your script drops Barton spent 13 months down to 110 pages; you editing Georges Lucas' budget that.” film. When he agreed to do And this is only the my film in my budget and I start- Rajan has more spent three months with blockbusters in the him every day, I had my pipeline! own personal tuition,”

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READERS’ VOICE

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Gujarati GCSE and A Level exams

The bombardment has started

Thank you to Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar for highlighting our concerns about the decline in the number of candidates taking GCSE and A Level Gujarati courses. We at the Consortium of Gujarati Schools are committed to making every effort to help reverse this trend and getting the numbers to go up again. It is in this context that we seek the support and co-operation of all supplementary, complementary and mainstream schools teaching courses in Gujarati.

We have discussed these issues at length with Members of Parliament and the Department for Education. Our contention is that although the numbers of GCSE and A Level candidates are small at present, they are likely to rise in the near future as there are many more younger children studying Gujarati especially at week-ends. We need statistics to back up our claim.

We therefore would like to appeal to all supplementary, complementary and mainstream schools to give us this information from their schools’ database on a form which we have devised and is quick and easy to fill. In order to get this form and/or more information on this subject, please contact: - Jayantbhai Tanna, Chair, CGS email: jntanna@aol.com – Tel: 020 8421 5536, Mob: 07711 372853 or - Vijyaben Bhanderi, Secretary, CGS email: Vijya_bhanderi@yahoo.co.uk – Tel: 020 8958 8564 Jayantibhai Tanna By email

EU Referendum: In or Out

EU referendum, “In or Out” has become hot topic of discussion. Although many opinions have been expressed, yet most voters are confused, as there is more hype, propaganda and misinformation than truth.

Normally Kapil’s Khichadi provides guidance. He gave readers pros and cons of EU membership but finally lend his support to OUT group. I had long chat with Kapilbhai as I was not entirely convinced, I will act upon Kapil’s recommendation and vote to get “OUT”. But one should weigh pros and cons and vote accordingly.

Although PM Cameron negotiated new terms that would give us best of both worlds, most sceptics are not convinced. While scaremongers tell us it will be economical suicide to pull out when 2 million jobs depend on EU trade, that once we leave, we will lose free access and control of immigration, as Custom Posts will shift from European ports to Dover, the reality is somewhat different.

We have trade deficit of £86 billion with EU and every 3 jobs created here, 4 jobs in EU depend on our import. We are second biggest market for German cars.

If EU blocks our free trade, they will lose more than us.

After Germany, we contribute most to EU coffers.

Perhaps the devil you know may be better than leap in the dark! Choice is entirely yours, use it wisely.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

Referendum: will the Tories ever unite?

Priti Patel has made a wrong career move in opting to join the out campaign.

Prime Minister David Cameron gave her a ministerial position and with her abilities she would have become a very prominent and influential politician.

It is very likely the nation will vote to stay in with a big majority.

Let us hope that the Conservative party is able to unite after the referendum and forget the bitter divisions that we are seeing now.

Nitin Mehta Croydon

Clean for the Queen

Queen’s 90th birthday will be officially celebrated in June 2016, month long events for everyone to participate, from street parties, kids’ bouncing castles to dinner and dance at prestigious venues. “Clean for the Queen” is one of the worthiest initiatives to emerge so far.

Having visited some of the best kept cities in Europe, like Stockholm, Oslo, Berlin and Helsinki, our prestigious London lags far behind when it comes to cleanliness, tree lined streets, roads, lightings and open spaces to reduce population density. London is on building spree, every brown space is covered with high-rising buildings, as there is chronic housing shortage.

With rising popularity of fast-food, streets are littered as soon as they are cleaned by hard pressed Council who are pruning down such services due to extreme financial constrain imposed by the Government. So such self-help groups throughout the country is blessing and boom for the nation, as they do not only clean streets but woodlands, sandy beaches, rivers and waterways that are so often littered with plastics bottles and carrier bags, thus endangering wildlife, flora and fauna without discrimination.

Half-hearted efforts by Government to reduce use of plastic bags is a tiny step in right direction but government should declare all-out war on polluters with heavy fines for businesses and fly-tippers, revenue generated should be ploughed back to keep London clean.

Kumudini Valambia By email

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We are not talking about the bombardment on Syria or other such countries. It is the incessant ‘phone calls which have started pouring in at any odd time of the day. After a respite of few weeks (or shall we call it a cease fire of few weeks?), the ‘phones have started ringing again. This time round, we are being asked to take part in a survey about “today’s habits”. Even though, I tell the callers that I am not interested in today’s or any future habits, and not to ring me again, they do not want to take no for an answer.

These calls have the habit of taking you by surprise at inopportune moments while you are having dinner or are in company or watching your favorite TV programmes.

Having got fed up to the teeth, and having drawn a blank in my attempts to stop them, I simply do not answer the phone unless I was expecting a call from someone I knew.

Later on I dial 1471 to see who the call was from and then ring back that person. What is the proper and permanent solution to this as we do not want to be rude to the caller as the poor chap is only trying to earn a living? I have now invested a in a telephone with a “call blocker” and am trying to get to grips with how to filter unsolicited calls.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

What is holding India back?

A distinguished Parsi judge of the Gujarat High Court, Justice J B Pardiwala made the following remarks in his recent judgement in Hardik Patel case on Reservations.

"If I am asked by any one to name two things, which has destroyed this country or rather, has not allowed the country, to progress in the right direction, then the same is, (i) Reservation and (ii) Corruption. It is very shameful for any citizen of this country to ask for reservation after 65 years of independence. When our Constitution was framed, it was understood that the reservation would remain for a period of 10 years, but unfortunately, it has continued even after 65 years of independence. The biggest threats, today, for the country is corruption. The countrymen should rise and fight against corruption at all levels, rather than shedding blood and indulging in violence for the reservation. The reservation has only played the role of an amoeboid monster sowing seeds of discord amongst the people. The importance of merit, in any society, cannot be understated. The merit stands for a positive goal and when looked at instrumentally, stands for “rewarding those actions that are considered good”. Then, this instrumental nature of merit that should be given importance – emphasizing on and rewarding merit is a means towards achieving what is regarded as good in the society. The parody of the situation is that India must be the only country wherein some of the citizens crave to be called backward."

India needs a big shake up. The evil of corruption and caste category has taken its toll. This evil needs to be removed sooner than latter for India to progress swiftly.

Niranjan Vasant By email

Should Britain stay or go?

Dilemma whether Britain should remain with EU or leave it has received extensive coverage in your newspapers. Notably the repercussions will be felt not only in UK but also in Europe and worldwide. If Bankers of 20 nations, meeting in Shanghai are concerned about UK leaving EU, Brexit lobby must shudder at disastrous impact on Britain.

Prime Minister is dangling carrot of monetary benefits amounting to millions of pounds per day, market for UK export etc. Brexit lobby is seeing the stick of uncontrolled migrants, surrender to 64% EU laws and loss of sovereignty etc. People at all levels are divided vide politics, population, age, geography and education of voting lobby.

Undeniably, Britain will have economic wobble for at least two years. Recovery will take, from 5 to10 years before profits/ prosperity are restored. This will be a period to assure importing nations about quality of British services/ goods and dependability.

Britain may face severe austerity caused by devaluation of sterling pound.

Brexit must be defeated, to avoid jumping into dark abyss of uncertain speculation.

EU bird in hand is worth two in the bush waved by Brexit lobby. Anticipated problems can be tackled as and when they arise.

Ramesh Jhalla By email

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Teachers' dismay at delay in approving new exam courses Teachers have expressed dismay that fewer than half the specifications for new GCSEs and A-levels to be taught in England from September are ready.

Updated figures from exams regulator Ofqual show 66 out of 156 of the new courses have been officially approved.

Under major exam reforms, new, toughenedup GCSEs and A-levels are gradually being introduced, with the second wave of courses due to be brought in for first teaching this September. This includes key academic subjects such

as the three sciences, history and geography, all part of the government's English Baccalaureate measure.

Suzanne O'Farrell, curriculum and assessment specialist with the Association of School and College Leaders, said subject content was available online but teachers also needed full specification details from each exam board, including marking schemes and sample exam papers.

Schools also needed to make a curriculum plan, buy and read textbooks as

well as setting up training for teachers in each subject, she added.

Some subjects are completely ready - for example art and design, computer science and music GCSEs. However, no specifications are ready for chemistry, combined science, physics or biology.

The position at AS- and A-level is equally patchy, with most modern languages and religious studies specifications still awaiting sign-off and only one board having been signed off for geography AS- and A-level.

Couple fined £20,000 for unlicensed property A couple have been fined £20,000 for failure to licence a property in Brent and to maintain it to an acceptable standard.

Gharmesh and Gita Khatri did not meet the council’s legal requirement to licence a shared accommodation rental property and were prosecuted at Willesden Magistrates Court on 1 March 2016.

The conviction is part of the council’s ‘ramped up’ enforcement drive to ensure that all landlords

with unlicensed properties are held to account and are not renting out substandard, squalid and overcrowded accommodation that are blighting our local communities.

All private landlords who let out shared accommodation to 3 or more people with one of them not being related to the others needs to be licenced.

To apply, please go to www.brent.gov.uk/prslicensing or call 020 8937 2384/5.

If you suspect that someone is renting out an unlicensed property in Brent, please report them anonymously by emailing prslicensing@brent.gov.uk or by calling 020 8937 2384/5.

Other recent convictions for unlicensed properties in Brent include: - Ping Sheng who was ordered to pay £5,713 for a property in Wembley - Nilam Haria who was ordered to pay £9,485 for a property in Queensbury

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Let on a recent 10 year lease (no breaks) Rent £20,000 p.a.x.

LONDON SE23 3HF 6-8 London Road (South Circular Road), Forest Hill Two shops let to British Red Cross and Yum! III (UK) Ltd t/a Pizza Hut with development potential Rent £36,000 p.a.x.

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KETTERING NN16 8SU 33 High Street, Northamptonshire Let to Peacocks Store Limited Rent £80,000 p.a.x.

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27 Old Church Road, Chingford Let to Jennings Racing Ltd until 2033 with 1 bed flat to let Rent £40,000 p.a.x.

BP Petrol Filling Station and Spar, Ely Road( A10), Cambridgeshire Let to Malthurst Petroleum Ltd until 2025 (no breaks) Rent £83,205 p.a.x.

298 Battersea Park Road Let until 2023 with outstanding review Rent £11,600 p.a.x.

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213a High Road, 1 Stanthorpe Road and 3/11 Stanthorpe Road, London Retail let to Iceland Frozen Foods plc (sublet to SportsDirect.com Retail Ltd) until 2025 Rent £73,575 p.a.x.

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Let to Iceland Foods Ltd until 2030 (no breaks) with fixed uplifts Rent £108,759 p.a.x.

NORTHAMPTON NN1 2AN 7A & 9 Abington Street Let to Moss Bros Group Plc Rent £50,000 p.a.x.

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11

Imperial College to train executives at Edwardian Hotels Senior management team and departmental heads of the prestigious Edwardian Hotels London will undergo executive training by the Imperial College Business School.

In a 10 year programme, which commenced on 1 March 2016, the hospitality group will join the Imperial Partners Programme and benefit from Imperial's Executive Education offer. Topics covered in the programme include the future of technology and personal and organisational leadership.

Edwardian Hotels London which owns and operates 12 hotels including The Mayfair Hotel

Edwardian Hotels founder Jasminder Singh (left) and Professor G. Anandalingam, Dean of Imperial College Business School.

London and the Radisson Blu Edwardian Manchester is the first hospitality business to work with the school.

Paul Mansi, chief operating officer from Edwardian Hotels, said: '

This programme will not only help us to uphold the quality of service our guests have come to expect but also evolve our existing training and take day to day operational thinking to another level.'

Morgan tackles 'unfair' school funding Education Secretary Nicky Morgan is pushing ahead with a "national funding formula" for schools, to tackle uneven levels of funding across England.

Mrs Morgan has launched a consultation to replace a system she says is "outdated, inefficient and unfair".

The funding shake-up will also remove local authorities from the

process, with cash going directly to heads.

Labour has accused the government of "dodging

difficult questions" about who will lose funding in the changes.

Mrs Morgan says schools need funding that "genuinely matches their need".

She says the plans will ensure money goes "straight to the frontline", but it will mark a further reduction in the link between local authorities and schools.

12

MEDIA WATCH

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Finance Minister Arun Jitley presented his anticipated Budget to Parliament; he came; he saw; he conquered – but not immediately. It took a day for India’s financial gurus to mull over his speech, digest the large and small print, swallow the inevitable disappoints on things that might have been addressed but were not, having then viewed it as the sum of its parts, they applauded, as did the stock market, whose buoyancy recorded a 7 year high. The early chill of scepticism gave way to a flood of optimism. What had truly caught the discerning eyes of media pundits and the street was the Minister’s fiscal consolidation, to keep faith with the promised fiscal deficit to 3.9 per cent, and to reduce this to 3.5 per cent in the next fiscal.

Added rider

New taxpayers

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and MoS Jayant Sinha

Glowing with the wind

The Times of India (March 1) reacted with a front-page comment titled ‘Glowing in the Wind,’ which stated: ‘A cold draft of economic uncertainty is sweeping across the world. The BRICS nations, have caught the chill – all except India. With China losing it glow after nearly three decades of red-hot expansion, India burns brightest among the largest economies.

But with the dimming, banks slipping into an area of darkness, exports melting, and consumer demand flickering, the nation needs oxygen in the form of bold reforms and visionary policies to keep the flame alive. Does this Budget achieve the objective of spreading warmth and light? Or, is this candle also in danger of being snuffed out?’ Good first question, to which Street’s robust reply appeared to say, keep your chin up, brother; this is enough in the Budget that bodes well the future and gives us hope.

However, the Sensex plunged 152 points and ended the [first] day in negative territory. A Times of India opinion poll returned a 69 per cent approval rating with 31 per cent voting against.

Sensex rebound

‘Seventh heaven: Sensex up 777 in biggest gain in seven years,’ was the Times of India frontpage headlined report next day (March 2), stated, ‘Investors on Dalal Street realized the longterm potential of the Budget proposals….it also made investors richer by Rs 2.5 lakh crore.….

Investors were enthused by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley’s resolve to stick to the planned fiscal deficit to 3.5 per cent in the next fiscal (Business Line March 2)

Rural thrust

The core of the Budget has a rural thrust, the goal being to bring agriculture into the market, thus it is up to modernization and

thus become a stimulant for consumer demand. According to Jayant Sinha, Minister of State in the Finance Ministry, the Budget strategy had ‘led to a happy outcome,’ with the government’s increased expenditure on productive sectors. He explained: ‘The overall exercise was to ensure that we are cable to do justice to the informal rural economy, which is the Bharat side, along with the modern globalized 21st century economy which is the India side.’

Pro-poor, pro-market

He went on: ‘We are a pro- poor government, and a pro-market government. I think it [Budget] did achieve that balance,’ which is what every finance minister has sought to do in the last 25 years (Mint March 2).

FDI in food retail to help rural incomes

The government’s move to allow 100 per cent Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in multi-brand retail of food and food products produced and manufactured in India could attract global giants like Walmart, Tesco and Marks & Spencers to the Indian market.

This would be a push to the Make in India vision statement. And lead to a betterment in rural incomes. More investments are expected to flow in, especially for the downstream supply chain enabling foreign multi-brand retailers to set up food only stores (Business Line March 2)

EPF tax storm

Faced with deepening rage among the salaried class over the Budget proposal to levy a 60 per cent tax of employees provident fund corpus at the time of withdrawal, the government said, in a bid to mollify the agitation, that it would revisit the measure after consultations with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who would take the final call.

tite agreement with Israel and Russia. The AWACS are advanced radars mounted on Russian Li-76 aircraft. An earlier Indian acquisition in 2003, involved three of three AWACS at a cost of $1 billion. These radars are designed to detect incoming aircraft and missiles at long range.

Explaining his position, Finance Minister Jaitley averred that, ‘I have done this taxing interest on pension fund contributions in the interest of employees as they often do not have pensions. This is an effort to move to a pensioned society.’ (Times of India, Hindu March 2)

The Finance Ministry also made clear that the tax proposal would not apply to EPFO members who fall within the statutory income limit of Rs 15,000 per month.

This would mean that only three crore of the 3.7 crore members of the Employees Contributing Fund (EPFO) will not be covered by the new tax regime (Business Line March 2)

The man behind Finance Minister Jaitley’s tax proposals, Revenue Secretary Hasmukh Adhia, said that the government had added 4 million new tax payers without much ado. The tax base has been expanded,’ he said.

This has expanded unearthing Rs 20,000 crore undisclosed income in the last two years, giving the government confidence on its revenue projection (Business Line March 2)

Railway budget

The Railway budget. released by Minister Suresh Prabhu at the weekend prior to Arun Jaitley’s Union Budget, was a curtain raiser to the Indian economy going forward. Thr rail network, among the largest in the world, is India’s largest employer and most critical player in the national infrastructure. Much of its expansion in past decades has been governed by the constituency compulsions of its ministers, hence populist in orientation. Minister Prabhu, a management consultant of high standing was brought in to introduce the structural,

Unique relationship

These pictures of new Indian railway coaches will reshape the plans for your next trip!

tized, he said. ’ Its vast land holdings are a valued financial source; there will be a cut in freight costs to bring back lost customers, and the construction of three freight corridors north-south, east west, and the introduction of wi-fi at 100 stations, plus other measures for passenger comfort, especially on long-distance journeys and at stations; also quicker booking facilities, improved sanitations with bio-toilets etc Rail travel might become fun again. Air travel has escalated in the interim because rail travel had become testing experience best avoided, if possible (Hindu, Business Line, Times of India February 26)

Fast-track finances. new services

Minister has avoided hiking passenger fares; instead sought new sources of finance through public and private sector partnerships with an ambitious capital outlay of Rs 1.21 lakh crore for the 201617 fiscal, a 21 per cent over the current fiscal. ‘We will exploit new sources of renenue , so that every asset…gets optimally mone-

Speaking to an Indian reporter on condition of anonymity, a senior official stressed the uniqueness of the India-Israel relationship. While accepting India’s strategic need for friendly ties with Iran as part of the pragmatism that informs the foreign policy of any country, he went on to say:: ‘But the fact is that IndiaIsrael ties are unique. There are things that India alone can do for Israel and there are things that Israel alone can do for India.’

More power to the relationship.

(Hindu March 5)

US-India naval patrols

US Admiral Henry Harris, on a visit to New Delhi, where he addressed the Observer Foundation, expressed keenness for joint US-Indian patrols in the Indo-Pacific region. Stating that India’s advanced military capaAWACS from Israel bility across all domains, and the Indian Navy proud history on the high seas were known to all. Speaking to reporters, he said, ‘We should be exercising together and we should be turning those exercises into coordinated operations. On joint Phalcon AWACS (Airborne Warning And patrols, the US Control System),Indian AirForce Ambassador and I have advocated The Cabinet Committee on working together and we should Security has sanctioned the be turning those exercises into acquisition of two further coordinated operations.

Phalcon Airborne Early Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) for Rs 7,500 crore under a tripar-

Railway Budget 2016: Minister Suresh Prabhu along with MOS Manoj Sinha arrive at Parliament for presenting the Railway Budget 2016-17

administrative reforms and adaptation to new technologies to galvanize the system.

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Plain speaking

Foreign Secretary S. Jaishankar told is it should be, but wasn’t until now. Addressing the Observer Foundation think tank, he spoke plainly apropos of India’s relations with Pakistan. ‘ In the aftermath of the terror attack [on the Pathancot air base], if you ask me what is the priority, dealing with terror or diplomatic c dialogue then the answer is obvious.’ Terrorism, and its export, must cease forthwith before a reasoned dialogue can resume and go forward (Times of India March 3).

Freedom of the seas

Echoing Ambassador Richard Verma, Admiral Harris said: ‘In the not too distant future, American and Indian Navy vessels steaming together will become a common and welcoming sight throughout IndoPacific waters, as we Indian, US Navies exercise work together to maintain freedom of the seas for all nations.’ Indian Defence Minister Parrikar turned down joint patrols, but welcomed joint India-US joint naval exercises(Hindu, Times of India March 3, 5)

UK Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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Silicon Valley or London for Indian Entrepreneurs?

With the heads of Microsoft and Google being Indian, would you as an entrepreneur be better off in Silicon Valley?

12 years ago in the glare of the Financial Times, I topped their competition to predict the FTSE 100 over a 12 months period. I came within 0.5% of the final value. Others who participated in the competition, such a market commentator John Lee, went on to become Lord John Lee. Another still Neil Woodford, launched Woodford Funds, managing hundreds of millions of dollars – even though I trounced his performance.

It taught me some important lessons:

1. How you look matters more than performance – old and white helps. Hey, I am in California and the Oscars prove that point 2. A pissed off entrepreneur (me) usually beats the conventional same old, same old So would I have been better off in Silicon Valley? Speaking to an Indian friend of my wife who has lived there for 13 years – the answer is clearly no!

1. Fintech (financial technology) is at its global home in the UK 2. The Indians in the Valley are IT geeks, they usually don’t really care about anything other than working on their geek projects. Most entrepreneurs want geeks to work for them, not wanting to be a geek themselves 3. Life is pretty dull in the Valley. It’s a small cliquey cabal. Sure if you love small village feel, it’s great. But if you want the

big City life too – then nahhh thanks SV. 4. Racism – says my friend is alive and well in the Valley. He far preferred his time in London.

5. Friends – he had none in 13 years. It was the nature of the place he said.

This is something of a relief of course.

I don’t need to uproot my London life.

Even on a short visit to the Valley it became clear it’s a dull place. I love my geeky obsession, don’t get me wrong. But I also think in Financial Technology the place to be is London.

Silicon Valley is just too often obsessed presently with crazily valued apps. I was always led to believe that I will have to work twice as hard to get ahead if I am to overcome the challenges of not being native white.

Well my performance in the Financial Times suggests I’ll have to be 10 times better. Fine. It’ll mean the results are 10 times better and the product will be too. It annoys the hell out of me that in a competition by the most respected financial paper in the world, and a competition held over 12 months, that people who underperform are rewarded.

Failing upwards is key to success apparently – you can see why bankers get paid millions for not delivering you a good return. It’s where I’ve been going wrong – charging too little for doing too much good. In future I should charge a fortune for being rubbish – people seem to buy that!

Hindu Priest Required

13

EU Referendum and Immigration This article was written by Sasha Lal, a Caseworker in the Duncan Lewis Immigration Law department.

The UK will vote on whether the country should remain part of the European Union.

David Sasha Lal Cameron, the Prime Minister, has liaised with the president of the European Council, Donald Tusk whom created a proposal to David Cameron in response to the UK concerns of the upcoming EU membership referendum, (‘Brexit’).

He addresses the four ‘baskets’ of concern raised by the UK: economic governance, competiveness, sovereignty and immigration (social benefits and free movement).

David Cameron hopes to change one policy in particular, reducing access to benefits, which will stem the flow of Europeans looking for work in the UK. It is difficult to tell at this moment in time which way the public will vote, however, if the public do vote to leave, there will be implications on all areas of UK law, including immigration.

It is important to examine the UK relationship with the EU in the context of three elements, economy and trade, the democratic deficit in Europe and Immigration. They all interlink, which emphasises the level of complexity that this debate on the EU holds.

Can free trade exist without free movement? Non EU members such as Norway and Switzerland, their access to free trade comes with the consent to free movement provisions. If Britain desire the free trade access, creating economic benefits, free movement may result in a halt to EU migration.

Further considerations in terms of immigration policy is what becomes of EU citizens already in the UK? Could it be assumed that those pre-Brexit would be permitted to stay and obtain British Citizenship? This has currently

been left unanswered.

More so, Immigration from outside the EU - As the Migration Advisory Committee’s (MAC) recent report on Tier 2 Skilled Migration highlighted, in the context of the Government’s objective to reduce overall net migration, limits on non-EU work migration alone would make only a marginal contribution to the figures. If a potential bar to EU workers results in a more generous permission to migration from outside the EU, what shape would that take and where would the balance lie?

After all, reports have shown that EU migrants made an overall positive contribution to the UK economy between 2001-11, with those migrants from outside the EU also contributing positively.

Culture Secretary, John Whittingdale has said public services are "creaking at the seams" because of the "influx" of migrants as he challenged the Prime Minister over the scale of immigration from the European Union. Mr Wittingdale wants David Cameron to explain the discrepancy between official figures which suggest that 257,000 EU migrants came to Britain last year, but that also show over the same period 630,000 NI numbers were issued to EU citizens.

Therefore, the above suggests only on a minute scale of how vast immigration policy will change and emphasises how immigration interlinks and will be affected by the four ‘baskets’.

Currently, there is a wave of discontent by voters of the existing UK relationship with the EU, but until the 23rd June, it will be interesting to see how the campaign will tackle the uncertainty of the public on any change to the current policy. In light of this brief article on the EU referendum, where do your thoughts lie?

Retirement party held for couple who served Post Office for 35 years

Brahmin Hindu Priest is required for a very busy Hindu Temple in Bradford which is a part of a large Hindu organisation in Bradford.

Hours: 20-39 hrs per week over 6 days a week.

Salary: Negotiable plus part of offering and a subsidised accommodation.

Priest must be well versed in Sanskrit and Hindi and adequate knowledge of English and must be able to perform Havan, Yagna, 16 Sanskara and all kind of Puja according to Hindu rites. Priest must have good knowledge of Ramayan and Gita and should be able deliver lectures on both.

Please send your application to: Mr S Tailor, 341 Leeds Road, Bradford BD3 9JY

A retirement party for Kiran and Shashi Vij was held at Holyport War Memorial Hall last Friday. The couple retired from Holyport Post Office in January after 35 years of service.

The event, organised

by Holyport WI, was to thank the couple for their

hard work and impact in the community. More than 150 friends and family came down to celebrate. The couple received two books written and signed by customers, a celebratory cake and a basket of flowers.

Shashi said: “We would like to say thank

you to everyone in the community, it was so nice of them. They didn’t have to do that, we weren’t expecting it.”

Kiran and Shashi also presented cheques to Thames Hospice and Alexander Devine Children’s Hospice Service.

14 COMMUNITY

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Art of Living London organises curtain raiser on World Culture Festival Art of Living London organised a grand curtain raiser- a special preview for media and different community organisations and their leaders to introduce them to the forthcoming World Culture Festival and the 35 year’s celebration of the Art of Living on Sunday, the 28th of February 2016 in London.

The Art of Living (AOL) London Region team with its sponsors Hemraj Goyal Foundation and The Mint Leaf restaurant organised a grand reception for citizens from different walks of life. The gathering included media persons, community leaders, prominent industrialists and politicians. The preview was hosted by Zee TV presenter Anila Dhami and guest artiste Parvati enthralled the audience with her Kathak performance. The event began with a ‘Silent Minute Prayer for peace’ facilitated by Andrea Carrani of the Silent Minute Prayer for Peace organisation.

The Mayor of Harrow Krishna Suresh presented a special certification to Ameet Aggarwal, Chairman, Art of Living – London, in recognition of his contribution to the charitable activities of the organisation.

Ameet Aggarwal said “I accept

this honour with gratitude to my Guru Sri Sri who taught me to serve communities with a smile. I am proud to host with my global family the 35 years of my organisation AOL’s celebration and it’s my privilege and pride to be to be associated with the WCF and Global Leadership Forum in particular which aims to build a stress and violence free society.”

Among those offering their congratulations to the Art of Living at the press preview were Ms Neena

Gill MEP, Mr. Neeraj Dhingra – CEO-Europe, Mr. Dinu Zee TV, Bhattessa – Chairman, Mint Leaf Group (Key Sponsor), Mr. Avnish Goyal – CEO, Hallmark Care Homes (Key Sponsor), Dr Rami Ranger CBE of Sunmark Ltd, Duncan McNair of the charity Save the Asian Elephant and Andrea Carrani of the Silent Minute Prayer for Peace Rajan, organisation, Minister of Coordination, Indian High Commission, Geoffrey Van Orden MBE, Member of the European Parliament, Navin Shah, London Assembly Member for Brent and Harrow, and Sheila Gewolb, Vice President of The Board of Deputies of British Jews, CB Patel, Publisher/Editor, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar among others.

The Curtain Raiser is a

precursor to the World Culture Festival. The World Culture Festival 2016 is a celebration of The Art of Living’s 35 years of service, humanity, spirituality and human values. It will take place on March 11-13, 2016 in New Delhi, India. The festival will celebrate the diversity in cultures from across the world while simultaneously highlighting our unity as a human family. Over 3.5 million people are expected to congregate at the festival which will provide a unique platform for reli-

India Connect AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

gious leaders, politicians, peacemakers and artists to spread the message of global peace and harmony.

True to its motto of a One World Family (Vasudhavia Kuttumbakam), a series of events are planned to bring together people of talent, eminence and repute at the festival.

Showcasing the rich cultural traditions of dance, music and the arts from around the world as well as yoga, the World Culture Festival hopes to foster a deeper understanding between people of different faiths, nationalities and backgrounds.

Global Leadership Forum The Global Leadership Forum, is a joint initiative of The World Forum For Ethics in Business (WFEB) & The World Culture Festival (WCF) and will feature leaders and entrepreneurial personalities from a diverse range of industries b r o u g h t together to discuss, analyse and reflect on the current paradigms of leadership. The forum seeks to explore how leadership strategies can be better adapted to meet the needs of our current globalizing and interconnected geopolitical and socio-economic landscape. On the agenda are also the discussions on megatrends of the next few decades and evaluate how leadership can ensure resilience, ownership and alignment of the teams to a shared vision to cope with the challenges ahead.

The Global Leadership Forum will bring together senior leaders from business, government, politics, science, NGOs, faith based organizations, sports, academia and media to reflect on the paradigms of leadership needed to manoeuvre the world of today.

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Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) Online registration and submission of OCI applications for Grant of OCI Cards, PIO to OCI Service and for OCI Miscellaneous Service.

Government of India, Ministry of Home affairs has introduced and implemented the online module for submission and processing of OCI applications.

With effect from 23rd November 2015, all applicants are required to upload the Photograph and requisite supporting documents after completing the online registration process and Printing of the application form. i.e Proof of Indian Origin Documents, Birth Certificate, Surrender Certificate of Indian Passport, Marriage Certificate or any other proof of Indian Origin documents (PDF ONLY) prior to the physical submission of the application at the Application Centres.

Accordingly, all applicants are hereby requested to strictly follow the procedure mentioned below for processing of applications for OCI Registration, PIO to OCI and for OCI Miscellaneous Services.

The applicant shall submit the application form online and upload the recent photograph as per the correct specification and upload the PDF copy of eligibility Documents at the OCI registration website-http://passport.gov.in/oci/ After the successful registration of OCI application and uploading the pdf copy of Eligibility documents, the applicants are required to submit the physical copy of duly signed application form with 2 photographs and the Original Documents with correct fee at the nearest Application Centre.

Applicants are required to provide/submit the same documents in original, which are uploaded on the online module after online registration.

Once the original documents have been verified by the High Commission of India, London and its respective consulates In Birmingham and Edinburgh, the original documents will be returned to the applicants.

If there is any deficiency in the application/uploaded documents/ photograph, found in the documents the Indian Mission/Post concerned will inform notify the applicants No applications will be accepted at any of the application centres, if the online registration is not completed and Supporting Documents / Photograph are not uploaded successfully as per the guidelines.

All applicants are requested to strictly comply with the above mentioned instructions.

The processing of OCI comes with three steps: Step-1: complete and uploading of the documents online.

Complete http://passport.gov.in/oci/ all information as per your foreign passport.

Upload documents.

Print and sign all parts of the application.

Book and appointment Take your signed application and all the original documents to VFS Global.

Step -2: Submission of fully completed application to VFS Global.

Processing of documents at VFS Global.

VFS will send the application for processing to the High commission of India/Consulate.

Dispatch of applications to New Delhi from The High commission of India/ Consulate.

Verification of OCI application at New Delhi.

Granting and printing of OCI cards at New Delhi.

Dispatch of OCI Cards from New Delhi to United Kingdom.

Step-3: Track your application Arrival of printed OCI cards to The High commission of India/ Consulate Applicant track and Printout of on-line status report.

Applicant submit in person Printout of on-line status report and foreign passport to VFS Global.

Foreign passport and Printout of on-line status report sent to The High commission of India/Consulate for match up of OCI. Match up of OCI Cards with foreign passport dispatch to you via DX trackable service.

OCI and Your foreign passport arrive to your requested address.

For more information please click below weblink: http://www.vfsglobal.com/India/U K/index.html

For more information please contact us on our helpline numbers: +44 203 793 8629 / +44 203 695 9849 Monday – Friday 8:30 – 17:30 (except for Consular Holiday)

Alternatively applicants can also call : 09057 570 045* * Please note calls to this number will be chargeable at the rate of 95p per minutes plus a connection charge from a BT landline. Calls from mobile phones may cost considerably higher.

For Email inquiry please email us: OCI: info.ociuk@vfshelpline.com Visa: info.inuk@vfshelpline.com Consular & Passports: Info.ppt-Consularuk@vfshelpline.com

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New campaign raises awareness of coercive control

Vanita Parti: Raising the Bar in Business

SP

TLIGHT

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

15

Sunetra Senior

David Jamieson, Maureen Connolly, Cllr Shafique Shah and Cath Hannon

Birmingham Community Safety Partnership has launched its Spring domestic violence & abuse awareness raising campaign. The ‘This is domestic abuse’ campaign seeks to inform victims, their families and friends that coercive control is a form of domestic abuse and to raise awareness of the help available for victims.

The campaign is aimed at raising awareness of coercive control and its definition and helping women understand that a pattern of controlling or coercive behaviour is a form of domestic abuse under the Serious Crime Act 2015. The new offence closes a gap in the law around patterns of controlling or coercive behaviour in an ongoing relationship between intimate partners or family members. The offence carries a maximum sentence of five years’ imprisonment, a fine or both. The Government’s definition also includes honour based violence, female genital mutilation and forced marriage.

The posters used in the campaign show behaviours and relationship characteristics that women may experience while being in a controlling relationship. It is hoped that this will help victims recognise what healthy relationships and love really look like, what is acceptable in relationships and seek help should they need to.

The campaign directs women to services who can provide support and assistance to victims themselves or their family and friends.

Although women are the most likely victims of domestic abuse, there are also specialist services for men experiencing domestic abuse and for lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans victims.

The campaign will use a variety of media to raise awareness including advertising on pharmacy bags across the city (125 pharmacies), inside buses and trains, at station platforms, at supermarkets and within station toilets. There will also be promotion via social media outlets using #thisisdomesticabuse

Councillor Shafique Shah, Cabinet Member for Inclusion and Community Safety commented: “As a City we are dedicated to protecting victims of domestic violence. Many women will not recognise coercive control in their own relationship as abuse and so it is vitally important that family and friends recognise their role in supporting victims. Working alongside the city’s support services we must work together at the victims pace to support her, be there for her and not judge her."

West Midlands Police and Crime Commissioner David Jamieson supporting the campaign said: “This is an excellent campaign. Anything that empowers victims and helps them break out of the cycle of abuse gets 100% of my support. Tackling domestic abuse – in any form – is one of my main priorities as Police and Crime Commissioner and we must do whatever it takes to bring this hidden crime out of the shadows and tackle it head on.

"I hope this campaign helps victims realise it is never their fault and there is a support network out there to help them.”

As family and friends, you don’t need to be specialists to spot that something isn’t right. You don’t need to have all the answers but you can tell your friend/ relative that they’re not alone: • 1 in 4 women experience domestic violence and abuse.

• She is never to blame, no matter what her abuser says.

• Without help and intervention domestic abuse usually gets worse.

• We can help her to make plans for protecting herself and her children.

• The earlier she gets advice and support, the more options will be available to her.

• Even if she isn’t usually entitled to any government financial support, we can advise her on how to be safe • National Domestic Violence Freephone Helpline: 0808 2000 247

Vanita is the founder of Blink Brow Bar, a revolutionary business which introduced the concept of a walk-in eyebrow service in shopping centres and high-streets across the UK. The franchise recently achieved an international landmark, with a store opening in the famous SAKS, New York, to the most glitzy and polished demographic. “Beauty is a very subjective concept,” Vanita told us “but the brows are an absolute staple: if you get those looking right, everything else falls into place. Indian women have been aware of this for years, and I’ve really enjoyed introducing the perspective to a western audience.” But this wasn’t always the breadth of the vision for the beauty expert: “I had to start small,” Vanita added. “You note the needs of the customer first, and it grows organically from there. Also, make sure to have fun! We actually ran a campaign earlier this year called ‘Proud Brow’, emphasising that women should be more embracing of this expressive, attention-focussing part of their face. People are sometimes ashamed, and that is baffling! I’m glad it is becoming a more widespread element in beauty and fashion: you have supermodels such as Cara Delevingne, known for their bold eyebrows.” Witty and warm, Vanita show us the corporate game is as much about being sincere as a person, as it is prudence and careful planning.

ing and thinking you’re a little mad – What inspired you to think of a but then I finally came across a sellers walk-in brow bar? in Bond Street, who appreciated this The motivation was two-fold: to introgreat concept, and gave me a protoduce a fast and clean service for the type chair in a London department. busy London woman and to make it Beauty editors began to write about it accessible; then I thought about how and it really created a buzz. People to make it chic and contempopassing were apprehensive rary. I had the idea of introbecause it was in public, but ducing loyalty cards, for The were ultimately enthralled example; all the modern eyebrows when they saw the results. on-the-go elements you might find in a coffee or are a staple Were you always interestnail bar. I wanted to help ed in business and beaumake it part of the staple feature ty? How did they come regime. together for you?

Business was always in the backI regularly use a brow bar in ground. My father was tailor, and he my local shopping centre; do you was very into fashion. I was surroundown the patent for all walk-in brow ed by different types of fabrics, and bars in England? there were many interesting, high-pro(Laughs) That would be great! But file people coming in and out of our because we are a service there is no house. I absorbed the retail world from official patent to speak of. But Blink a female perspective. I’ve always been Brow Bar did pioneer the idea; as a an eyebrow obsessive too, and when result we have the best spots in the there was a gap in the market, it all UK- most of the big department stores just naturally converged: I thought, across London. We are certainly the how can I get people a threading servmarket leaders. ice - that makes such a big difference to the face, in a way that is efficient Tell me a bit about Blink Brow and attractive?

Bar’s journey?

I came up with the idea while working You say the idea of a mobile brow for a little salon in Wembley. I shadbar ‘brought Indian tradition into owed the owner, and began to see the 21st Century’; I think part of how it could translate to a brow bar in this is the open plan which invites London. From there I took my plan to more westerners to the idea of stores to try and sell it – there was the eye-brow threading. When you usual obstacle of no one really listen-

Be confident that your product is needed have a boutique, it seems to keep the customer-base very Indian, but opening it out in public is inviting to more cultures. Would you agree?

Yes! I do think it has opened up it to everyone; absolutely everyone. All over the UK, from Newcastle to Tunbridge Wells; from teenagers to professionals.

What are some of your current projects?

We help quite a few charities in India.

For example, ‘Butterfly’ which helps shelter and feed street children in India. I currently have a workforce of about 200 therapists from the country, and I wanted to give something back.

What are some of your proudest accomplishments to date?

Watching the queues build up at the brow bars with such a variety of customers. I also received a MBE last year, for services in the beauty industry and charitable work, which I am very proud of.

Finally, what would be your advice for other young entrepreneurs?

Be confident that your product is needed, and that has a distinct point of difference. Many people will tell you it doesn't work- but keep going anyway! www.blinkbrowbar.com

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

A CELEBRATION OF ACHIEVEM

16

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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In a world where we are still fighting for gender equality, International Women's Day is particularly in the

spotlight, to showcase the social, economic and political achievements made by women. The World Economic Forum predicted that at the current pace, the world will not close the global gender gap for another 117 years. This year's theme is #PledgeforParity.

Rupanjana Dutta

M

any events are planned globally, to celebrate women’s achievements while calling for faster progress on equality. In Nigeria, people are taking to the streets of Lagos to walk against gender-based violence, while in India female sherpas will lead tours of their favourite parts of Mumbai.

London is hosting the Women of the World festival at Southbank Centre from 8-13 March 2016.

With still rampant women infanticide, sex grooming or forced marriages, woman's achievements are unfortunately measured by the number of years they have been married for, or the number of children they have had. But reality stays that a woman's achievement in a man's world starts, the day she is born, fighting all odds. The celebration on 8th March is merely a day chosen to salute those unsung heroes, of course gaining it's political definition over the

years.

Asian Voice this year spoke to two unique British Asian women- to illustrate their offbeat journeys, making us proud of the diversity that enriches Britain. Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, is a Manager at one of London's oldest bookshops in Muswell Hill, whereas Sonal Sher is a mumpreneur, who launched her own handmade chutneys in Woking recently.

We have also done a short run up on Britain's top 20 Asian

6. Bobbie CheemaGrubb: Dame Bobbie Cheema-Grubb DBE is a judge of the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court of Justice of England and Wales. She is the first Asian woman to serve as a high court judge in the UK. Cheema-Grubb's Sikh Punjabi parents came to the UK in the 1960s and she grew up in Leeds, attending the City of Leeds School before studying law at the King's College London.

7. Baroness Ruby McGregor-Smith: Baroness McGregor-Smith, is the CEO of Mitie Group PLC, a strategic outsourcing company headquartered in Bristol, UK.She was nominated for a life peerage in August 2015. She joined Mitie as Group Financial Director in 2002 and was promoted to CEO in 2007. She is the only Asian female chief executive of a FTSE 250 company.

8. Nicky Jayesinghe: Head of Corporate Development, British Medical Assocaition (BMA).

She is a senior leader with a legal background and over 15 years of experience within healthcare policy development and implementation.

9. Parmi Dheensa: Parmi Dheensa is Founder and Executive Director of Include Me TOO, a charity supporting Black Asian & Ethnic Minority (BAME) disabled children and families.

10. Baroness Shreela Flather: Baroness Shreela Flather was the first Asian woman to receive a peerage, and is known for her frank opinion and out-spoken nature. Flather was recently appointed the honorary life President of the Memorial Gates Council that holds an annual commemoration at the Gates on Constitution Hill for Commonwealth soldiers and develops educational services.

11. Shivvy Jervis: Voted one of 100 people 'making

digital Britain tick', Shivvy is the producer of video series' Digital Futures and The Trailblazers and head of digital content for Telefonica.

12. Bushra Nasir CBE: Bushra Nasir CBE was a secondary headteacher with 20 years’ experience at Plashet School in the London Borough of Newham before retiring in December 2012.

She was the first Muslim female headteacher of a secondary school in the UK. 13. Gurinder Chadha OBE: Gurinder Chadha is an English film director of Sikh Kenyan Indian origin. Most of her films explore the lives of Indians living in England.

This common theme among her work showcases the trials of Indian women living in England and how they must reconcile their converging traditional and modern cultures. Her famous film Bend it Like Beckham was turned into a successful musical for the West End. 14. Annie Zaidi: Annie is a youth engagement coach at Leicester City Football Club Community Trust. A rare female role model in the male-dominated world of football, Annie is a Muslim coach with Leicester City Football Club and the first ever South Asian woman to get a level two coaching certificate from the Football Association. She is passionate about training aspiring footballers and encouraging disadvantaged young people into the sport.

15. Shazia Mirza: Shazia Mirza is a British-Pakistani comedian from Birmingham. Before she became a comedian, she was a teacher in a school and in fact had taught Dizzie Rascal, now a rapper and song artist. She has also been a regular columnist with Guardian and a regular panelist on Channel 5.

16. Meera Syal: Meera is a British comedian, writer, playwright, singer, journalist, producer and actress.

She rose to prominence as

women (selected by our readers), who have over the years established themselves as ideals.

Top 20 British Asian women in the UK

1. Priti Patel MP: Priti Patel is the first British Asian woman to become an Employment Minister in the UK. She is also the Prime Minister's Indian Diaspora Champion, and today leading the OUT campaign on Brexit.

2. Malala Yousafzai: is a Pakistani activist for female education and the youngestever Nobel Prize laureate.

She is known mainly for human rights advocacy for education and for women in her native Swat Valley in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of northwest Pakistan, where the local Taliban had at times banned girls from attending school.

3.

Baroness Shriti Vadera: Shriti Vadera, Baroness Vadera, PC is a British investment banker and politician.

Until September 2009, she was a government minister jointly for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills and the Cabinet Office. She has been Chairwoman of Santander UK since March 2015.

4. Shami Chakrabarti CBE: Shami Chakrabarti CBE since September 2003, the director of Liberty, the British civil liberties advocacy organisation.

In September 2014, she took up the role as Chancellor of the University of Essex. She announced in the beginning of 2016, that she will be leaving Liberty, though she will continue to campaign for Human Rights.

5. Baroness Sayeeda Warsi: Baroness warsi is a British-Pakistani lawyer, politician and a C o n s e r v a t i v e Parliamentarian, who cochaired the Conservative Party. She served in David Cameron's Cabinet, first as the Minister without portfolio between 2010 till 2012, then as the Senior Minister of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office and as the Minister of State for Faith and Communities, until her resignation citing her disagreement with the Government's policy on the Israel– Gaza conflict in August 2014.

one of the team that created Goodness Gracious Me and became one of the UK's best-known Indian personalities portraying Sanjeev's grandmother, Ummi, in The Kumars at No. 42.

17. Isa Guha: Isa Tara Guha is an England cricketer of Kolkata Bengali descent who played in the 2005 Women's Cricket World Cup in South Africa. She won World Cup in 2009. Guha writes a column for the BBC Sport website and joined ITV Sport in April 2012 as a co-presenter of ITV4's coverage of the Indian Premier League.

18.

Preeya Kalidas: Preeya Kalidas is a British singer and actress. She previously played Amira Masood in the soap opera EastEnders. Preeya was born to Gujarati parents in Isleworth, and was raised in Twickenham, south-west London. She started ballet classes at the age of three, and tap at five. She then trained at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London. She also trained at Songtime Theatre Arts.

19. Meena Pathak OBE: British people are not strangers to the brand Patak's. Started by LG Pathak, the daughter-in-law, Meena left a promising Bollywood career in Mumbai in 1976 for her husband Kirit's pickle factory in Buckinghamshire, and developed and promoted the family brand with awe-inspiring energy. Soon they hit on the idea of sauces that made making a curry simple for people with little time to cook from scratch.

The business blossomed. And now it employs over 700 people worldwide.

20. Samera Ashraf: Battling against stereotypes, Samera is a renowned kickboxer. She has contributed to the martial arts community for almost ten years, winning regional, national and international titles.

Having qualified with a MSc (diploma) in sociology, she works with Shakti Women’s Aid, and combines her kickboxing training with radio work and stints as a stand-up comedian.

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY

MENTS AND A CALL TO ACTION

17

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

-voice.com

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Connecting minds with the power of words

Over 40 years old, the Children's Bookshop in Muswell Hill is a book lover's paradise. Packed with colourful books from floor to ceiling, there is vast variety for everyone- young as well as experienced readers. Oldest in London, this independent bookstore is quite well known in the wider children's world, as the best in the area.

Sanchita Basu De Sarkar, who is quite young herself, is the new owner and manager of the bookstore. The shop was run by the Agnew family for 25 years. It was bought by Lesley and John Agnew and was passed on to their daughter Kate Agnew.

However Sanchita took over the ownership of the bookstore in January 2015, and this cosy store has recently been listed as one of London's top 5 children's bookstores by Time Out. Daughter of Indian journalists Dipankar De Sarkar and Shrabani Basu, who is also

Sanchita Basu De Sarkar at her bookshop

renowned as an author, Sanchita studied English Literature at East Anglia. With the final aim to be in the Publishing industry, she started her journey with the Children's Bookshop, and eventually found it more and more difficult to

leave. And when the owner decided that it was time to pass it on, everything came together quite organically.

Having a four decade history, of course the question arises if the new ownership has brought in

Woking based mumpreneur launches handmade chutneys Sonal Sher, a Woking based mumturned-entrepreneur has launched a range of chutneys and relish: eINDIE, at an event in the Tante Marie Restaurant in Woking. Lord Dolar Popat, a Conservative member of House of Lords and a successful businessman was the Chief Guest.

The Mayor of Woking Cllr Derek McCrum, the Mayoress and Cllr Graham Cundy (St John's) joined as special guests.

Sonal was a stay at home mum for 8 years, before she started a home run business which delivered home made gourmet lunches to local businesses.

The chutneys were a product of that business idea.

Sonal was born and brought up in India and graduated from Institute of Hotel Management Ahmedabad, Gujarat. After working in the Hotel business for a short while, she switched to fashion after she moved to the UK and continued until she stopped to give birth to her son in 2007. The switch back reflected her interests and what she could do that would fit her role as a mum.

Speaking about her background, Sonal told Asian Voice, “After living in the UK for 17 years now, I consider this home. The idea for this product materialized when I made a few chutneys as part of a taster session. I had been experimenting with fusion food and incorporating Indian flavours in Western dishes or vice versa and the chutneys reflected that.

“As a lone parent, I intend working in my other role simultaneously until the business takes off. Currently I work 4 days a week for the local council.

“The word Chutney is of Indian origin but chutney as we know it here in the UK does not exist in India", “Eindie chutneys and relish reflect the variety of food I like where different flavours and tastes come

together. They are designed to make every day meals exciting, provide a boost of flavour to every day cooking and in can be used in most cuisines.

They reflect the best of British and Indian flavours brought together harmoniously.”

Her first customers were fellow mums at school who were her first tasters as well and encouraged her by giving positive feedback about the product.

While Sonal has established herself as an entrepreneur, she feels the challenge to reach out to wider audience remains vital, and wishes the government would provide some business support.

“As a new business getting funds even before I have made a penny is difficult and it would be helpful if loans were made available to mums who are restarting their career after a break. It would help get more and more mums back into work. I am passionate about what I do and am quite content to grow my business slowly.”

any noticeable changes. But Sanchita thinks such a beloved institution as it already is, it does not need to undergomany changes.

“It is very much about keeping it going with staff, some of who have been since 80s, even before I was born, including one Meena Jethwa, who I refer to often. So I am just continuing with something I have always done. But taking over the bookshop, there are new things, certain trends of book selling that I am equally interested to introduce, over the coming period. Things like children's literature festival, doing special book subscription, having more presence online, enabling people to buy books online.”

While children of this era have moved on from reading books to video games, Sanchita thinks some children are still readingjust the medium has changed. The bookshop's readership varies from toddlers to 13 year olds, who come

in with or without their parents.

The store is recommended by the schools around, to its students as well astheir parents.

With the occasional requests for Tintin, Amar Chitra Katha, Ramayana and Mahabharata by Asian parents, Sanchita's favourite book at the moment is Heartsong by Kevin CrossleyHolland, that she recommends to her young readers.

The bookhop organises bookclubs, and discussions with children, trying to engage and encourage them to constructive debates and critical analysis. They also take part in book fairs and around the World Book Day, the staff dress up as characters from popular novels, organise story times and give away goodie bags.

"The gift of literature is best given when they are young,” said Sanchita. “That way it stays with you the whole way through. It will be lovely to see more and more young people coming in.”

History made: Air India celebrates IWD with all women crew on longest flight

Air India is celebrating Women's Day this year in a very unique way. Their 6th March flight from New Delhi to San Francisco was manned by an all women crew, from cabin right upto the cockpit, creating a world record. It's the longest flight of its kind.

The 14,000 km journey took a flight time of approximately 17 hours depending on wind speed - the longest non-stop flight.

A team of four pilots and 10 cabin crew were on-board of the Boeing 777-LR that departed New Delhi at 2:35 am on Sunday. The flight left on March 6 and returned on March 8.

Speaking to NDTV, Captain Ramya Kirti Gupta, a First Officer said, "The flight is a symbol of women empowerment and it will encourage women to step out of their comfort zone and succeed in male dominated arenas too."

Captain Kirti, a commercial pilot since 2007, took her first gliding class at a young age of 13.

According to the airline’s Twitter page, the flight “took off with pride and glory,” calling it "a record."

On March 8, to celebrate IWD, Air India said it was planning to send 22 more flights into the sky with all women crews.

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BUSINESS

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Experts welcome Jaitley's budget proposals AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

The Budget 2016 saw Modi government lay stress on the farmers and the agriculture sector. The Modi government has also set audacious revenue targets for proceeds from the divestment of state-owned companies and telecom bandwidth sales. The budget has also set high targets for direct tax collection, based on a 12 per cent growth estimate for corporate earnings. A bilateral commitment to fiscal discipline and boost infrastructure investment, entrepreneurship, and domestic consumption.

A very positive budget with its focus on transformation, Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramaniam called Jaitley's balancing act between the dual priorities a “magic trick”.

Low commodity prices and a tamed CPI inflation of 5.4 per cent gives the Reserve Bank of India Governor Raghuram Rajan

greater fiscal space to cut interest rates in upcoming months. India's current account deficit is down to 1.4 per cent of its GDP and its foreign exchange reserves have climbed to US$ 350 billion. The budget also confirmed that India has achieved the highest coal production growth in over two decades, highest ever capacity addition in generation, and highest ever increase in transmission lines, as the burgeoning country leapfrogs towards transformative growth.

The Modi sarkar, with its budget, has shown a strong commitment to, develop the corporate bond market, increase retail access to government securities and, radically improve the ease of doing business in India. Also, by expanding the basket of eligible FDI instruments to include certain hybrid instruments, the budget confirms the gov-

ernment's evolving capacity to appreciate nuances within corporate securities utilised in global finance.

Talking about the budget, former director of IIM-A and the current director general of International Management Institute, Delhi, Bakul Dholakia said, “Priority on rural and agriculture sector is a well thought-out process. If what is mentioned in the budget actually happens then we might witness a second green revolution in next two years.

Now the ball is in the court of Reserve Bank of India. I expect RBI to announce reduction in interest rates.”

Former Gujarat minister and economist, Jay Narayan Vyas said, “If the Rs 86,500 crore for accelerated irrigation programmes is implemented honestly, 50 per cent of agriculture in the country will become rain-indepen-

dent, which will boost demand and bring overall prosperity.”

Managing partner of Economic Laws Practice, Rohan Shah said, “On the indirect tax front there are some clear positives for the corporate community. The thrust on measures to reduce tax litigation is welcome as it will help resolve pending disputes and also create certainty in the future. In view of the impending move to GST, certain measures have been taken, including the imposition of an additional cess of 0.5 per cent ad valorem.”

He added, “On direct taxes, the beneficial taxation regime for new manufacturing units, start-ups, asset reconstruction companies and global patent incomes are all positive and supportive steps. The introduction of a fresh scheme of amnesty in direct taxes with a more

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

According to the budget presented by Arun Jaitley, here is a glimpse of where the rupee will be spent and where it is generated from:

Rupee comes from

Non-debt Capital receipts: 3 Paise

Borrowings & Other Liabilities: 21 Paise

Non-debt Revenue: 13 Paise Service tax & other taxes: 12 Paise Corporation-Tax: 19 Paise Union Excise Duties: 12 Paise Cutoms: 9 Paise

Income-tax: 14 Paise

Rupee goes to States share of taxes & duties: 23 Paise

Non-Plan Assistance to State & Govts: 5 Paise Plan Assistance to State & UT: 9 Paise Central Plan: 12 Paise

Other Non-Plan Expenditure: 12 Paise

Interest Payments: 19 Paise

Subsidies: 10 Paise Defence: 10 Paise

Transfers to States & UTs: 37 Paise

benign interest and penalty, as also assurances against prosecution, may well elicit a far greater par-

ticipation. The adoption of the Easwar Committee Report on simplifications is also welcome.”

Highlights of Indian budget 2016-17 Following are the highlights of 2016-17 budget presented by India's finance minister Arun Jaitley in Parliament on February 29. Citing that the CPI inflation has come down to 5.4% from 9 plus, he said it was a huge relief for the public.

Tax: Excise duty raised from 10 to 15 per cent on tobacco products other than beedis. One per cent service charge on purchase of luxury cars of over Rs 1000,000 and in-cash purchase of goods and services over Rs 200,000. SUVs, Luxury cars to be more expensive; 4% high capacity tax for SUVs. Companies with revenue less than £5 million to be taxed at 29% plus surcharge. Limited tax compliance window from June 1 Sept 30 for declaring undisclosed income at 45%, including surcharge and penalties Excise duty of 1 per cent imposed on articles of jewellery, excluding silver. 0.5 per cent Krishi Kalyan Cess to be levied on all services.

Pollution cess of 1 per cent on small petrol, LPG and CNG cars; 2.5 per cent on diesel cars of certain specifications; 4 per cent on higher-end models.

Dividend in excess of Rs 1000,000 per annum to be taxed at additional 10 per cent.

Personal Finance: No changes have been made to existing income tax slabs.

Pound 100 million allocated for new EPF (Employees' Provident Fund) scheme. Govt will pay EPF contribution of 8.33% for all new employees for first three years.

Deduction for rent paid will be raised from Rs 20,000 to Rs 60,000 to benefit those living in rented houses. Additional exemption of

Rs 50,000 for housing loans up to Rs 3500,000, provided cost of house is not above Rs 5000,000.

Service tax exempted for housing construction of houses less than 60 sq. m.

15 per cent surcharge on income above £1 million Social: Pound 3.85 billion for Mahtma Gandhi MGNREGA for 2016-17.

Swacch Bharat Abhiyan allocated £1 m950 million.

Hub to support SC/ST e n t r e p r e n e u r s .

Government is launching a new initiative to provide cooking gas to BPL families with state support. LPG connections to be provided under the name of women members of family: £200 million allocated for 5 years for BPL families.

Pound 28.70 billion grants to gram panchayats and municipalities - a quantum jump of 228%. 300 urban clusters to be set up under Shyama Prasad Mukherji Rurban Mission. Four schemes for animal welfare.

Health: Basic dialysis equipment gets some relief.

A new health protection scheme for health cover up to Rs 100,000 per family.

National Dialysis Service Prog with funds through PPP mode to provide dialysis at all district hospitals.

Senior citizens will get additional healthcare cover of Rs 30,000 under the new scheme. PM Jan Aushadhi Yojana to be strengthened, 300 generic drug store to be opened Education: Scheme to get £50 million for promoting entrepreneurship among SC/ST. 10 public and 10 private educational institutions to be made world-class. Digital repository for all school leaving certificates and diplomas.

Pound 100 million for higher education financing.

£170 million for 1,500 multi-skill development centres. 62 new navodaya vidyalayas to provide quality education. Digital literacy scheme to be launched to cover 60 million additional rural households.

Entrepreneurship training to be provided across schools, colleges and massive online courses.

Objective to skill 100 million youth in the next 3 years under the PM Kaushal Vikas Yojna.

ways. 65 eligible habitats to be connected via 223,000 kms of road. Current construction pace is 100 kms/day. Shops to be given option to remain open all seven days in a week across markets. Pound 5.50 billion for roads and highways. Total allocation for road construction, including PMGSY, £9.70 billion.

India's highest-ever production of motor vehicles was recorded in 2015. Total outlay for infrastructure in

Govt withdraws EPF tax proposal

Faced with widespread criticism, India's Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday withdrew the controversial EPF taxation proposal. He, however, said that 40 per cent exemption given to National Pension Scheme (NPS) subscribers at the time of withdrawal will remain. He added that a comprehensive review of the EPF tax proposal will be taken by the government.

Jaitley in his Budget for 2016-17 had proposed to tax withdrawal of 60 per cent of accumulations in the employee provident fund after April 1, 2016, unless the amount was used to purchase annuities. "In view of representations received, the government would like to do a comprehensive review of this proposal and therefore I withdraw the proposal," Jaitley said in a suo motu statement in Lok Sabha.

"Employees should have the choice of where to invest. Theoretically such freedom is desirable, but it is important the government to achieve policy objective by instrumentality of taxation. In the present form, the policy objective is not to get more revenue but to encourage people to join the pension scheme," Jaitley said explaining the rationale for the taxation proposal.

National Skill Development Mission has imparted training to 7600,000 youth. 1,500 Multi-skill training institutes to be set up.

Energy: Pound 300 million earmarked for nuclear power generation. Govt drawing comprehensive plan to be implemented in next 15-20 years for exploiting nuclear energy.

Govt to provide incentive for deepwater gas exploration.

Investments and infrastructure: Pound 2.70 billion to be spent on road-

Budget 2016 now stands at £22.13 billion.

New greenfield ports to be developed on east and west coasts: Revival of under-served airports.

Centre to partner with States to revive small airports for regional connectivity. 100 per cent FDI in marketing of food products produced and marketed in India.

Dept. of Disinvestment to be renamed as Dept. of Investment and Public Asset Management. Govt will amend Motor Vehicle Act in passenger vehicle

segment to allow innovation. MAT will be applicable for startups that qualify for 100 per cent tax exemption.

Direct tax proposals result in revenue loss of £106 million, indirect tax proposals result in gain of £12.07 billion.

Agriculture: Total allocation for agriculture and farmer welfare at £3.60 billion. 28.5 lakh heactares of land will be brought under irrigation. 500,000 acres to be brought under organic farming over a three year period. £6 billion for recharging of ground water as there is urgent need to focus on drought hit areas cluster development for water conservation. Dedicated irrigation fund in NABARD of £2 billion. Nominal premium and highest ever compensation in case of crop loss under the PM Fasal Bima Yojna.

Banking: Banks get a big boost: Pound 2.5 billion towards recapitalisation of public sector banks. Jaitley says: Banking Board Bureau will be operationalised, we stand solidly behind public sector banks.

Target of disbursement under MUDRA increased to £18 billion. Process of transfer of government stake in IDBI Bank below 50% started. General Insurance companies will be listed in the stock exchange. Govt to increase ATMs, micro-ATMs in post offices in next three years Fiscal deficit: Fiscal deficit seen at 3.9 per cent of GDP in 2015/16. Fiscal deficit seen at 3.5 per cent of GDP in 2016/17.

Planned expenditure seen at 5.5 trillion rupees in 2016/17. Proposes to set up panel to review fiscal responsibility management

Growth: Nominal GDP growth seen at 11 per cent year-on-year in 2016/17 Monetary Policy: Government along with central bank to set retail inflation target every 5 years. Monetary Policy Committee to have 6 members, including 3 appointed by federal government.

Monetary Policy Committee to decide policy rates to achieve inflation target; decisions shall be binding on central bank.

RBI act is being amended for implementing monetary policy framework Policy reforms: Proposes to raise foreign portfolio investment limit in state-run companies except banks to 49 per cent from 24 per cent currently.

Bankruptcy code for financial firms to be introduced in parliament in 2016/17.

To list general insurances companies on stock exchanges. Companies Act 2013 to be amended to improve ease of doing business Market reforms: Investment basket of foreign portfolio investors in corporate bonds will also include unlisted debt securities, pass-through securities. Proposes raising investment limit for foreign entities in local stock exchanges to 15 per cent from 5 per cent.

Government proposes developing an electronic platform for repo in corporate bonds in 2016/17 Expenditure: Allocates £24.90 billion for defence sector in 2016/17 Subsidies: Total subsidy seen at £25 billion in 2016/17. Food subsidy seen at £13.5 billion. Petroleum subsidy estimated at 269.5 billion rupees. Fertilser subsidy seen at 700 billion rupees. act

RAsian EALESTATEVOICE Voice | 12th March 2016

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap A Property Investment Company

Land Not Property

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

19

We are currently preparing to launch a very lucrative deal in the outskirts of Cambridge. It’s a land deal, but land which has been allocated by the council for a residential led development scheme. It has been earmarked for this and there is talk of a station coming there, which will mean it will be a short journey into Cambridge.

The land is in a place called Soham, interestingly Soham also happens to be a Sanskrit word formed by two words: Sah (he) and Aham(I), these two words are combined to give Soham.

Soham means my Individual Self is the same nature as the Universal Self, which may reflect its original pagan/vedic past.

Back to our land deal - in truth our focus has always been London. This is not something we would normally even consider, however the more we looked at the scheme the more it became certain this was a lucrative opportunity not to be missed.

A simple but important distinction was revealed to me whilst delving into this deal. That is it’s not property which rises in value but the land it’s on. This simple point is forgotten when dealing with property in London, as it’s rare to get a piece of land here which becomes an impossibility the closer you get to the centre of London. Therefore, you don’t pause to consider this point.

It’s easy to lose sight of the land and only see the property as rising in value. It’s the land which is scarce, not the man made buildings which happen to be on top of it. Buildings have a shelf life, even if it’s a hundred or even a couple of hundred years. Land does not. There are records of land ownership going back to the 13th Century. People have been investing in London actively for at least the last 500 years, and prices have been rising since then.

The buildings may come and go, but the land carries on rising. It has been rising on the whole since then, of course there are peaks and troughs but on the whole the graph goes upwards. Even if we consider the last downturn in 2007, which was one of the worst in decades, property prices faired pretty well, they dropped to values which were prevalent a couple of years before the downturn and after a relatively short period carried on rising again.

Land is king, it’s what rises in value. If it wasn’t for this deal that we’re involved in, I perhaps would have forgotten to make this distinction.

This deal is a pure land deal, and consists of 3.6 hectares.

This is something I also don’t understand, as my family even though from a line of farmers, gave up farming in the last generation. So I had to convert this to square foot which is something I do understand, it comes to 387,501 sq. ft. which in short is a lot!

The site has been earmarked for a mixed scheme which will be residential led. The minimum number of houses you can get on this land is 90 which allows for a lot of green space. The price of this deal is £3.5m which equates to £39k per house, based on a minimum of 90 houses being granted. With an end value of £325k the numbers speak for themselves.

Real Deal The

Get in at the land stage!

Soham – Cambridge

The way to make the most money on a deal is to enter it in its infancy, in its gestation not when it is half or fully matured. Of course there are variables which are attached, however these can be neutralised by getting the right planning consultants and architects to look at this deal in order to get an informed opinion.

Which we have done.

Pensions are interesting, you can set a scheme up yourself, these have become popular and are known as SIPPs, SIPP stands for Self Invested Personal Pension. You can put money into this and whatever money you put in you can do so tax free, meaning you get to reclaim the tax back if you have paid it already. In short the money is allowed to cook tax free until you choose to retire at which point you can draw it down. At this point you can get a portion as a lump sum which is tax free and then a stream of payments which is taxable.

There are limits on the amounts you can invest. What’s interesting is this type of scheme gives you control of your investment, you choose where the funds are invested, again with restrictions. Residential property is a no no, but commercial properties are allowed and here’s the point… so is land. Loans to property companies who invest into residential is allowed but not a direct investment into residential on an equity basis.

I met one shrewd investor who was doing all of his dealings through his pension pot, with the aim of taking the whole pot overseas at the point of retirement, at which point he would be able to take his whole investment tax free.

There is a raft of information which surrounds these schemes, and regulation when it comes to actual execution, but it can be done and you have control over your investment. We are already talking to interested investors who have this type of set up already to come in on this deal.

This deal is ideally set up to take full advantage of this structure.

The deal is open to those who have a pension pot and those who do not. We expect the turnaround time will be 12 months as a maximum and we expect the price of the land to increase to £6.5m post planning on a conservative basis.

This is a live deal, call the office now if you want a part of it.

l Invest with as little as £50,000 l Price £3.5 million l Planning analysis signed off by architect and planning consultant l Minimum houses allowed 90 l Potentially to get 135 houses l Land price only £38,889 per home, based on 90 houses l Average new build price £300,000 l Capital growth closely correlated with London l Local prices up 20% since 2012.

0207 993 0103

We provide a turnkey solution. Contact us now:

Specialists in

Central London Property Sourcing

info@sowandreap.co.uk

www.sowandreap.co.uk

27 Gloucester Place, London W1U 8HU

Follow us online:

Sowandreapuk

SowandReapProperties

Tips of the Week

l Always focus on the capital growth of an investment property - never sacrifice this for yield as the bulk of your money will be made in the rise in property value, rental income is secondary. This is driven by location.

l Big will not beat small anymore. It will be the fast beating the slow. Don't be slow in your decisions regarding investments, else you will lose out on great opportunities. In our experience more money is lost in property by investors not making a decision than making the wrong decision.

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Consultant Editor Financial Voice Alpesh Patel

Dear Financial Voice Reader, I write to you from Menlo Park, Mountain View, Stanford University and Palo Alto – essentially the home of some of immense entrepreneurial wealth creation since the days of Edison. I write to you from here in the midst of looking for Venture Capital backing for my amazing Fintech, although I’ll do fine without it.

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Union budget reveals baggage rules 2016 AsianVoiceNews

Union Budget 2016-17 revealed the substitution of the existing Baggage Rules 1998 with Baggage Rules 2016; a new set of rules that aims to simplify and rationalise duty-free allowance.

The changes will be put to effect from April 1.

Presenting the changes in the Parliament, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said, “Customs baggage rules for international passengers are being simplified to increase free baggage allowance. The filing of baggage declaration will be required only for those passengers who carry dutiable goods.” The new rules dictate an increase of duty free baggage allowance carried by an international passenger when coming to India.

The initial and current allowance of Rs 45,000 has been given a Rs 5000 raise.

The change results in customs duty saving of approximately Rs 1800 for the international passengers.

Restrictions on age and the minimum period of stay abroad has been withdrawn. While free baggage allowances are same for all passengers irrespective of their age and period of stay,

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

been increased 15,000.

personal effects for infants shall be allowed duty free.

Minimum period of stay has not been mentioned.

Changing the limitations for people bringing back used personal household items, the new rules say that: Passengers who have stayed abroad for 3-6 months can bring used personal household items up to the value of Rs 50,000.

Those who stayed abroad for 6-12 months can bring used personal household items up to the value of Rs 100,000.

Those who stayed abroad for 1-2 years can bring used personal household items up to the value of Rs 200,000.

Those who stayed abroad for more than 2

years, can bring used personal household items up to the value of Rs 500,000.

(However, this is subject to conditions) International passengers need not fill Customs Declaration Form if they are not carrying dutiable goods as part of their baggage- a proposal that will enable hassle free entry for international passengers in India.

Duty-free allowance of cigarettes, cigars, and tobacco has been doubled. The approved limitations are now of 200 sticks of cigarettes, 50 cigars and 250 gm tobacco. Considered major security risk, drones are now a part of the prohibited list. Flyers entering the country will be required to declare them. Duty free allowance for foreigners has

to

Rs

Indian Airport Customs Duty on Gold Import, 2016 Indians buy gold from abroad due to the comparatively lower prices and, the superior quality. As per customs, Indian passengers who have been residing abroad for over one year are allowed to bring jewellery, free of duty in his/her bonafide baggage. A male passenger can bring 20 grams that is subject to maximum value of Rs 50,000. A female passenger can bring 40 grams, subject to maximum value of Rs 100,000. The allowance only sticks to gold jewellery, the metal, in any other form is subject to duty.

Discounted duty payable is 10.3 per cent for those who stayed abroad for 6 months. An Indian passport holder who has lived 6 months outside the country continuously, can bring in up to 1 kg of gold. All gold jewellery is exempt from duty if the passenger exiting the home country duly declares it and secures an export certificate at the airport customs desk.

High Commissioner of India organises discussion on Indian budget for UK businesses

Rupanjana Dutta Years ago, I had asked the UK’s largest seller of private investor software, if they would create a piece of software for me based on my investing criteria. They could market it licensing my name and call it the ‘Alpesh Patel Special Edition’ of their main software. I knew if I was to beat the biggest fund managers, with their dozens of analysts, I could not do so by simply trying to outspend them. I could not do so by replicating their strategy. I had to look for their perceived strengths and outsmart them, turning those strengths into weaknesses.

So how do I compete with that? How do I compete without the analysts, and doing something other than investing in the biggest and best British companies?

So I developed some formulas, based on years of experience and eons of analysis. Not for me evenings out and holidays. Even on rare vacations I would be perfecting the formulae I would eventually use. My magnificent obsession. My nickname among my closest friends became ‘Alpy the Obsessed’.

The result? In 2004, we launched the Alpesh Patel Special Edition of Sharescope. It has since then year on year beaten the biggest and best fund managers in the UK. It has trounced them in fact. Not every stock has been brilliant. But in aggregate, the portfolio as a whole won.

How does the story end? Well last year – 11 years after launching – we still trounce the performance of Warren Buffett and every single fund manager investing in UK companies. Trounce by a lot. In 2016, when we looked at 2015’s performance, the market was down over 6% we were up over 23%!

In the film ‘Moneyball’ the Brad Pitt character is offered a multi-million pound contract to play for one of the big teams. He turns it down. He wants to change the game of big money baseball management forever.

How does my story end?

You can buy my software from www.sharescope.co.uk/alpesh and www.alpeshpatel.com/go .

You can see on there my annual performance track record. I could have worked for Goldman Sachs. I prefer not to. I do not charge you 2% to manage your money. You have the software and the power in your own hands. Has the game of big money management changed forever? You decide.

I’ll let you know how it goes in Menlo Park, Mountain View and Palo Alto.

High Commissioner of India to the UK, Navtej Sarna met members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - India Business Forum (IBF) on March 2, 2016 at India House.

The High Commissioner emphasised the importance of IndiaUK business ties and emphasised ways and means as to how CII and the IBF could support the High Commission activities. Mr Prashant Jhawar, Chair, CII-IBF thanked the High Commission for its support and highlighted the collaboration of CII UK and IBF with the High Commission.

The same evening, the High Commission of India organised an event, “India Budget Analysis – A Briefing for the UK Business Community” at India House in collaboration with the CII. The event was well attended by more than 100 senior level representatives from the UK businesses, UK corporate houses operating in India, UK Government and media.

The High Commissioner briefly introduced the event in the context of PM Modi’s visit in November 2015, and the Finance Minister’s visit in January 2016.

The Panellists who analysed the budget were Mr Prashant Jhawar, Chairman, Usha Martin, Mr Philip Bouverat, Director, JCB,

Moderator Mr Ibukun Adebayo, Co-Head Emerging Markets, London Stock Exchange with panellists Mr Deepak Lalwani OBE, Chairman, Lalcap, Mr Philip Bouverat, Director, JCB, Mr John Copley, Senior Vice President, Rolls Royce, Mr Anuj Chande, Partner and Head South Asia Group, Grant Thornton and Mr Prashant Jhawar, Chairman, Usha Martin

High Commissioner of India to the UK, HE Navtej Sarna meets members of the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) - India Business Forum (IBF) at India House.

Audience at the panel discussion

Mr John Copley, Senior Vice President, Rolls Royce, Mr Anuj Chande, Partner and Head South Asia Group, Grant Thornton and Mr Deepak Lalwani OBE, Chairman, Lalcap.

The Panel was moderated

by Mr Ibukun Adebayo, CoHead Emerging Markets, London Stock Exchange.

The panel presented its views on India Budget 2016-17 and analysed its repercussions on India-UK Business relations. The unanimous view was that it was a balanced budget with positives on fiscal discipline, infrastructure and rural development.

Speaking about the UK-India Relation in the light of the Indian budget, the panelists also agreed unanimously that for the last 5 years the trade relationship has been gaining momentum. The business relationships between the two countries have gone stronger, this budget is the continuation of the same, though there are rooms for improvement. For example: greater use of bilateral trade visits, Indian companies being considered as high quality on the supply chain etc, providing better induction to doing business in India, including introduction to the culture; to mention a few.

The ensuing Q&A session covered a range of issues such as tax holiday on start-ups, focus on rural sector, incentivising entrepreneurs and recapitalisation of banks.

CURRENCYVOICE

www.asian-voice.com AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Paresh Davdra is the Dealing Director of RationalFX, Currency Specialists.

Economy reliant on household spendings In the UK, British mortgage approvals hit a two-year high in January and consumer credit expanded at the fastest pace in a decade. Mortgage approvals for house purchases numbered 74,581 in January from 71,335 in December. These strong figures are likely to add a case for a tightening of lending requirements by the central bank to prevent the housing market from overheating further.

Consumer credit also grew by 9.1 percent year-on-year in January, picking up speed from December to hit its fastest pace since January 2006. Britain's economic recovery is still heavily reliant on spending by households many of which have been buoyed by strong growth in the value of their homes.

The UK manufacturing sector is getting closer to contraction: a score of 50.8 points the worst in three years reflects very slow growth, much worse than the expected slide from 52.9 to 52.2.

The survey showed demand at home slowed while export orders fell to their weakest since the turnaround began in 2013. Britain is not alone: slowdowns have been seen also in China, the US and the Eurozone. Sterling fell against the dollar and euro after the Services PMI index fell to its lowest in three years to 52.7 from 55.6 in February.

With UK services a dominant force

21

Foreign Exchange

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

in the UK economy there are concerns that overall GDP in the first quarter of 2016 could weaken to just 0.3 percent the lowest level since late 2012.

The pound is still struggling with the chances of an exit from the European Union. The “Brexit” is now seen as a threat not only to the UK but also to Europe and the whole world, according to the G20 Summit. Two research articles, published major global banks, both stated that they see enough downside potential in GBP for it to hit parity against the Euro should the UK exit the European Union. They found that GBP/EUR would either move close to the 1.40 level if the UK remained in the EU, or to parity, if Britain left. They added that if Britain voted to stay in, the market would once again start to anticipate a Bank of England rate rise soon after.

Eurozone inflation turned negative in February boosting expectations that the European Central Bank will unveil another stimulus package at its next policy meeting on March 10.

The decline was more than anticipated, the consensus in the markets was for a drop to zero. The decline is largely due to a big decrease in energy costs, which were 8 percent lower in the year to February against the previous

months 5.4 percent drop.

Unemployment in the Eurozone fell for a third consecutive month in January, dropping to its lowest rate since August 2011.

Eurostat said the jobless rate in the 19-country Eurozone declined to 10.3% in January from 10.4% in December. The number of people unemployed in the Eurozone fell by 105,000 to 16.65 million.

The US manufacturing sector contracted for a fifth consecutive month in February a score of 49.5 points in the ISM Manufacturing PMI was released yesterday, despite this being in negative territory, it was better than the expected 48.5 and previous 48.2.

New orders are holding steady at higher levels, in another dose of good news for the economy after growth slowed in the fourth quarter. Orders to U.S. factories increased in January by the most in seven months, Factory orders rose 1.6 percent in January after two months of declines.

ADP Non-Farm Employment change figures which came out at 214,000 which were significantly above expectations of 190,000. Of this, 76,000 jobs were created in small businesses and 18,000 within franchise employment. As employment has a direct correlation with consumer spending and economic activity, it was unusual to see that

no real gains were made for the Dollar after the release. The number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but the underlying trend continued to point to a strengthening labour market.

Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 6,000 to a seasonally adjusted 278,000 for the week ended Feb. Claims have now been below the 300,000 threshold, which is associated with healthy labour market conditions, for 52 straight weeks. That is the longest period since the early 1970s.

U.S. manufacturers' exports have been hurt this year by spreading economic weakness overseas and by a strong dollar, which has made their goods less competitive. And a sharp fall in oil prices has hurt investment. The somewhat positive jobs figure and strong factory orders was not enough to prevent a dollar sell off as the final Markit Services PMI figure posted its biggest contraction since October 2013 falling to 49.7. This shows that both services and manufacturing have fallen in the US this month indicating the US economy may be showing some sign of distress, if this is the case it will make Janet Yellen and the Fed less likely to raise interest rates this month and talk of four interest rate hikes this year could be off the table in 2016.

Weekly Currencies As of Tuesday 8th March 2016 @ 11am

GBP - INR = 95.86

USD - INR = 67.40

EUR - INR = 74.22 GBP - USD = 1.42 GBP - EUR = 1.29

EUR - USD = 1.10 GBP - AED = 5.23

GBP - CAD = 1.89

GBP - NZD = 2.10

GBP - AUD = 1.91

GBP - ZAR = 21.95

GBP - HUF = 401.50

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N Korea threatens nuclear Moi urges Kenyans to In Brief attack on US, S Korea soldier sues US defence control corruption Sikh dept for religious bias AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

SEOUL: North Korea has threatened to launch nuclear strikes at the United States and its military bases in Northeast Asia. The threat comes after the US and South Korea began one of their annual large-scale joint military exercises.

Thousands of American Marines and other troops arrived in South Korea in for the exercise. The troops include 17,000 American and 300,000 South Korean troops. The drill is to test the allies' capabilities to respond to North Korean attacks on the Korean Peninsula. This isn't the first time the Kim-ruled region has staged threats to the west. The country has always considered the exercises as rehearsals for invasion. However, things have taken a turn for the worse after North's recent nuclear tests. In its statement, North Korea threatened to launch “all-out offensive” and “pre-emptive” nuclear strikes against “US imperialist aggressor forces bases in the Asia-Pacific region and the US mainland,” the country's top governing agency, National Defense Commission said.

Last month, the South Korean Defence Ministry announced that this year's drills would be the largest ever.

Nuclear-powered aircraft carrier John C Stennis will join the exercises, both, America and

South Korea militaries said in a joint statement. “If we push the buttons to annihilate the enemies even right now, all bases of provocations will be reduced to seas in flames and ashes in a moment,” the statement read.

Responding, South Korea said, “North Korea must stop its rash and reckless behaviour. We will respond resolutely and mercilessly if the North ignores our warning and attempts a provocation,” Moon Sang-gyun, Defense Ministry spokesman said.

South officials and analysts said Kim Jong-un is using the threats of war to consolidate support around his leadership and extract concessions from the Norths' adversaries. North Korea conducted its fourth nuclear test in January and launched its long-range rocket a month later. The United Nations Security Council adopted a new round of tougher sanctions aimed at curbing the North's nuclear program, last week.

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LOS ANGELES: Californian attorney general, Kamala Harris may become the first Indian-American Senator in the US Congress, after she won the Democratic Party's endorsement for the seat. Harris and Loretta Sanchez were vying for their party's seat of approval to replace California Barbara Boxer, who is retiring.

Harris won 78 per cent of delegates' votes, surpassing the 60 per cent endorse-

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William Ruto over the leadership of the Rift.

Moi also said that the senior officials in the government should help in ensuring that corruption is removed at every level of the economy. “If you are senior government official, please help in stopping this bad thing that is giving the government a bad image,” Moi added. The retired president has been taking rest at his Kabarak home, taking his time off politics to develop his home and business. He never commented on the Kericho by-election saying the Sunday visit was meant for prayers.

Kamala Harris likely to become US senator

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NAIROBI: Former Kenyan president Deniel Arap Moi, who ruled the country in 1978-2002, has urged the people the help the government in controlling corruption which has of late been consuming most of the public resources. He said, “You know corruption is bad . . . I am appealing to all Christians to help the government eliminate this bad thing.” He decided to air his grievances at the church service that he had attended ahead of the by -election that was set to happen at Kericho. His son, Gideon Moi has been going head-on with the URP leader, Hon

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ment threshold.

Both Harris and Sanchez will compete in the June primary along with Republicans Duf Sundheim and Tom Del Beccaro. The top two vote-getters will then square off in November. There have been several IndianAmerican Congressmen in the House of Representatives, including Ami Bera and retired member Dalip Singh Saund.

US govt notifies F-16 sale to Pak WASHINGTON: Despite a massive opposition from India, and several top American lawmakers, the US administration published a federal notification for the sale of eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan. The notification read, “This proposed sale contributed to US foreign policy objectives and national security goals by helping to improve the security of a strategic partner in South Asia.” It also stated that the total cost of the F16s is estimated to be nearly $700 million.

Disagreeing with Washington's rationale, India has openly opposed the sale. Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul has asked colleagues to join in opposing the deal.

As per the notification, the proposed sale improves Pakistan's capability to meet current and future security threats.

Pak hands over 87 prisoners to India ISLAMABAD: Eighty-seven Indians arrested in Pakistan for allegedly violating its territorial waters were handed over to India at the Wagah Border after releasing them from prison. A Pakistan Rangers official said, “We have handed 87 Indians, mostly fishermen, to the Border Security Force.” He said the Indian nationals were handed over to the authorities after verifying their documents. Landhi Jail's deputy superintendent Shakir Shah said, “After releasing 87 Indians, we now have a total of 457 more in the prison, and most of them are fishermen arrested for territorial violation. Some 86 more Indians are likely to be released on March 20.”

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

NEW YORK: A Sikh combat soldier has sued the US defence department saying his beard and turban had subjected him to religious discrimination. He claimed the army was putting him through arduous helmet and gas mask tests that no other soldier goes through. Captain Simrat Pal Singh filed the complaint in a federal district court in Washington. He said that unlike other soldiers he had been ordered to undergo three days of performance tests that “target him solely because of his religious beliefs”.

The lawsuit asks for an injunction forcing the army to stop what the complaint called “extraordinary, targeted, repetitive testing.”

Harvard Law School agrees to replace Issac Royall's crest

HARVARD: The Harvard Law School has agreed to replace the crest following agitation by students because it includes the seal of Issac Royall, a brutal plantation and slaveowner who paved the way for the creation of the school in 1817. The school yielded to students' demands after five months of sit-ins by them. The demonstrators at Harvard were inspired by the “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign at Oxford University, which had failed to persuade Oriel College to take off a Cecil Rhodes’ statue from the campus. Just like “Rhodes Must Fall” campaign at Oxford, the student protesters at Harvard had styled themselves the “Royall Must Fall” group.

Pope accepts invitation to visit Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: The Pope has accepted Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's invitation to visit the country this year, as per a media report. In a message received from the Vatican, the invitation was extended by Ports and Shipping Minister Kamran Michael and Religious Affairs Minister Sardar Yusuf. Michael led a high-level delegation from Rome to meet Pope Francis at the Vatican City where the Catholic priest also offered special prayers for Pakistan and the Pakistanis who have fallen victim to terrorism. The last pope to visit the Asian country was Pope John Paul II in February 1981. There are around 2.8 million Christians in Pakistan.

Sikh assaulted in Oz for wearing turban

MELBOURNE: In a recent incident of racist bullying, a 13 year old Sikh boy in Australia, travelling in a bus, was assaulted, mocked and threatened and stabbed for wearing a turban. Harjeet Singh was riding the bus home when two males and a female ringleader mocked him. The boy's turban was pulled and the female demanded to know why he was wearing a “towel” on his head.

The ordeal lasted until Harjeet got off the bus early with school friends, at Eltham. The victim's mother Rajinder Kaur Gill said, “My son was so scared and he was crying. I'm just scared if it's safe for him on the bus. It's not just my son- we are worried it will be other people as well.” Victoria police spokesman Paul Turner said they were investigating into the assault and were on the lookout for the two males and the female.

Eight killed in Pakistan court bomb attack

ISLAMABAD: A suicide attack in the premises of a court in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Pakistan, killed at least eight people and injured 14. The attacker was intercepted by police stationed in the premises as he attempted to enter the court, district police officer Sohail Khalid said. The police fired at the attacker who detonated explosives, Khalid said. Security and emergency teams reached the site and cordoned off the area, the officer added. The injured were transferred to nearby hospital.

WORLD Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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Pakistan to act against all terror groups AsianVoiceNews

WASHINGTON: Pakistan has vouched to take effective action against all terrorist groups including Lashkar-e-Taiba and its affiliates, saying it will not let its territory be used to destabilise other countries.

The commitment to target all terrorists without discrimination was carried in a joint statement issued after ministerial-level USPakistan Strategic Dialogue headed by Secretary of State John Kerry and Pakistan's Advisor to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz. Both the countries also “agreed on the

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

US secretary of state John Kerry and Pakistan foreign affairs advisor Sartaj Aziz at the US-Pakistan Strategic Dialogue meeting in Washington

need for effective action against all violent extrem-

ists, specifically underscoring that no country's terri-

tory should be used to destabilise other coun-

Sri Srinivasan in race for US SC judge's post WASHINGTON: IndianAmerican Sri Srinivasan is among the three candidates vetted by US President Barack Obama as potential nominees for a rare vacancy at the Supreme Court. The death of Antonin Scalia, the first Italian American judge of the Supreme Court, made a rare vacancy in the country's apex court.

According to a report, “President Obama is vetting Merrick B Garland and Sri Srinivasan, federal appellate judges who have enjoyed substantial support from Republicans in the past, as potential nominees for a Supreme Court vacancy that has set off a brutal electionyear fight.” A source said both the Judges were undergoing background checks by the FBI. The White House, however, hasn't acknowledged the fact.

threats posed by extremism and terrorism. The US and Pakistan will also “work together to further bolster the capacity of Pakistan's judicial and law enforcement authorities to enforce the rule of law and combat terrorism, including the financing of terrorism.”

Both the sides have also agree to further enhance cooperation between their respective counter terrorism authorities and emphasised the importance of strengthening Pakistan's capabilities to more effectively counter the use of improvised explosive devices.

Nomination deadline

All entries and nominations must be received before midnight on 29 March 2016.

Finalists will be announced in May 2016.

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Sri Srinivasan

The report said the White House was also vetting Ketanji Brown Jackson, a federal trial judge.

Padmanabhan Srikanth Srinivasan, is currently the US Circuit Judge of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which many call as a stepping stone to the Supreme Court.

Indian nun among 16 killed in Yemen terror strike ADEN: Four nuns, including an Indian, were among 16 killed in Aden by terrorists who stormed an elderly care home run by Kolkatabased Missionaries of Charity. Indian officials said terrorists struck at the home in Sheikh Othman district.

“We have learned that the terrorists, numbering between two and four, asked the guards to open the gate on the pretext of visiting their mothers. On entering, they shot dead the guard and opened fire on the inmates. The assailants escaped soon after the attack,” an official said.

Indian ministry of external affairs spokesperson Vikas Swarup said, “We are trying to ascertain the details of the victims.”

A report said that two gunmen surrounded the elderly care home while four others entered the building.

The gunmen moved from room to room, handcuffing the victims before shooting them in the head. Besides the nuns, six Ethiopians, a Yemeni cook and guards

tries.” The statement read, “Both countries reaffirmed their commitment to countering terrorism including by targeting all terrorists without discrimination.”

Aziz said the statement was an affirmation of Pakistan's resolution to take effective action against UN-designated terrorist individuals and entities, including Al-Qaeda, the Haqqani Network, and Lashkar-e-Taeba and its affiliates.

US and Pakistan also committed to continue promoting peace, stability, and transparency in the region and eliminate the

were among those killed. A nun survived and was rescued by locals. She hid inside a fridge in a store room after she heard a guard shout “run run”. “The area has been cordoned off and police are investigating the incident,” an Indian official said.

An Indian Catholic priest has gone missing since the attack. External Affairs minister Sushma Swaraj announced that Father Tom Uzhunnalil had been abducted. “Our camp office in Djibouti is trying to ascertain the whereabouts of Father Tom so that we can secure his release,” Swaraj said in Twitter post.

Reports suggest the 56 year old priest was handcuffed before driven away to an undisclosed destination.

While no terrorist outfit has claimed the attack, Yemeni authorities have pointed their fingers at the IS. “We are aware that no group has claimed the attack... but information points to... Daesh,” said a security official.

The Awards ceremony will be held on Friday 20th May 2016 at the Sheraton Park Lane Hotel, London

Award Categories

For Charities and Not-for Profit Institutions

I Charity of the Year

This award recognises a UK-registered charity for their outstanding work and contribution to society, as well as demonstrated excellence service and achievement in its work over the last five years.

There is are no criteria on the annual income, but the charity must demonstrate consistently delivered outstanding service for their size and yearon-year-growth I Start-Up of the Year This award is similar to Charity of the Year, but specifically for charities that have been operational for three years or less.

I Outstanding Achievement

This award recognises an individual who has demonstrated dedication, professionalism and integrity throughout their career, and who has produced an identifiably profound effect on the sector in the UK or otherwise through their work and management over at least a 15-year period.

I Most Enterprising

This award recognises a social enterprise or the trading arm of a charity that has made a significant difference to beneficiaries through its ability to generate income to meet its social goals over the last two years.

I Fundraising Campaign This award awards an overall campaign that used a variety of innovative fundraising approaches to display real quantifiable results to achieve or exceed its targets in the last 12 months.

I Outstanding PR Team

This award recognises excellence in charity PR, either in-house at a charity, or an agency undertaking a PR campaign on behalf of a charity.

Benefits of the specific PR campaign must be proven to show extensive press and media coverage in the last 12 months.

For Charity/Corporate Partnerships:

I Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility

This award recognises the best corporate partnership and corporate responsibility programmes. It honours a company which goes beyond simply CSR projects to engage in partnerships in the last two years with either UK-registered or international charities, social enterprises or unincorporated charitable projects, to demonstrate quantifiably positive impact to the community.

The partnership should demonstrate significant positive outcomes and impact, as well as innovation in its approach

I Consultancy of the Year

This award recognises a consultancy firm that has demonstrated a real commitment to the sector and sector organisations in its work, showing a real worth

in sharing its expertise during the last 12 months.

The work could take a range of forms: such as on the overall strategic direction of a charities, advisory services for philanthropy, social impact assessments, M&A activity, change management, leadership and development, business planning for charities and social enterprises. It could also relate to work not for one organisation, but more widely, such as thought leadership that has driven positive change in the sector.

I Investment Management Award

This award recognises excellence in the professional services offered to the sector, showing evidence of real quantifiable investment returns, especially within the last 12 months, but also within a wider timeframe context, and show a real understanding of the investment needs of charities, with which they work.

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Rajiv case convicts: TN seeks Modi govt views In Brief AsianVoiceNews

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

CHENNAI: Jayalalithaa government has announced its decision to remit the sentence of life imprisonment of all the seven convicts in the Rajiv Gandhi's assassination, seeking for the Centre's views on the move.

In a letter written to Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Tamil Nadu Chief Secretary K Gnanadesikan said the state government has received petitions from the convicts, requesting to release them as they had spent more than 20 years in prison.

Convicts are V Sriharan alias

Rajiv Gandhi

Murugan, T Suthendraraja alias Santhan, A G Perarivalan alias Arivu, Jayakumar, Robert Payas, Ravichandran, and Nalini.

Karnataka CM hands over expensive watch to Speaker BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has handed over his Hublot wrist watch to Legislative Assembly Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa. The expensive wrist piece was gifted to him last July by his friend Girish Chandra Varma, who is based in Dubai.

In a letter written to the Speaker, the CM said, “I, being the Chief Minister of Karnataka, by following the precedents set by the predecessors in office, declare that the gifted watch Hublot Big Bang.301-M as a government asset and hand over this watch to the Speaker of Karnataka Legislative Assembly, to forward the same to the Chief Secretary, to place the same in the Cabinet Hall in Vidhana Soudha, on this March 2, 2016.”

The Opposition had attacked the chief minister

Siddaramaiah

over possessing such an expensive wrist watch. He said, “Dr Varma gifted me the watch in July last when he visited India. I am a close friend of his since 1983.” A huge ruckus was made in both Houses of the State Legislature on the issue.

While the Council was adjourned for the day soon after the Opposition members trooped into well of the house in the morning, the Assembly was adjourned after the Chief Minister handed over the watch to the Speaker.

No water to share with Haryana: Badal CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the state did not have a single drop of water to spare from its rivers and the Shiromani Akali Dal will ensure no compromises are made on the rights of the state under the Riparian principle. In a statement, the CM said, “Punjab's stand on the subject has been consistent, clear and categorical. And there can be no compromise on the rights of Punjab as a Riparian state.”

“The SAD is ready to make every sacrifice on this sacred path. No price is too high in order to safeguard every drop of Punjab's waters as it is the life's blood of the state, especially its farmers.”

Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar had said this week that his state was hoping the decision of the Supreme Court on the issue of Satluj-Yamuna Link Canal would be in favour of Haryana.

He said the apex court had accepted the petition filed by the Haryana government for early hearing on the issue of the SYL Canal, for which Presidential reference was pending. Both the states

Parkash Singh Badal

have been locked up in a bitter war of words over the sharing of river waters.

Canal to link two major rivers in Punjab and Haryana has been waiting for a presidential reference for the past nearly 12 years to decide its fate. Foundation stone of the SYL canal was laid in April 1982 by then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The Congress government in Punjab had, in 2004, scrapped the water sharing agreements with neighbouring states and had refused to give any water to other states, especially Haryana. The presidential reference was sought after the Punjab assembly unilaterally passed the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act 2004, categorically stating that it was nullifying all agreements on water sharing and that no more water would be given to Haryana.

“The Government of Tamil Nadu after taking into consideration the petitions of the seven convicts has decided to remit the sentences of life imprisonment and to release the seven persons since alls of them have already served imprisonment for 24 years,” he said.

Gnanadesikan recalled how the Centre had gone to Supreme Court after Tamil Nadu decided on February 19, 2014 to grant remission to them and also referred to the matter pending in the court now. “The then government

instead of expressing their views on the remission of life imprisonment hastened to file a writ plea in Supreme Court against Tamil Nadu's decision.

In view of the circumstances stated above, it has become necessary for us to request you to communicate your views under Section 435 CrPc on the decision of the Government of Tamil Nadu.”

He also added, that “Nalini has filed a writ plea in Madras High Court requesting the government of Tamil Nadu to release her.”

After salary, Telangana has little for its projects HYDERABAD: While the Telangana government struggled to earn £5 billion through tax and non-tax revenues, it paid £3.10 billion as staff salaries and pensions and is now left with a meagre £1.90 billion to allot to various sectors. In a bid to earn the image of an employee friendly government, the state gave a bigger salary hike than what the staff sought for and is now paying the price.

The 2015-16 Budget estimated that the government's revenue earnings at £10 billion. The finance department later revised it to £8.50 billion. The expenditure has been estimated at £9 billion.

The estimated tax revenues at £4.65 billion and non-tax revenues at £2.24 billion, totalling £6.89 billion. In reality, the government has been earning about £400 million a month on average, totalling £ 4.50 billion till

February. It is expected to earn £500 million in March, and end the financial year with total revenue of £5 billion.

On the other hand, the government is paying £260 million a month as salaries.

This year, the salary bill touched £3.12 billion. The pay bill got bigger because Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao announced a 43 per cent fitment in February 2015, applicable from June 2014.

For RTC staff, he announced the fitment at 44 per cent.

An official of finance department said, “Prior to the hike, the salary bill was £2.20 billion per year, which has increased to £3.10 billion.

The government was spending £60 million per month on salaries earlier against £260 million now.” The state has 300,000 staff and 180,000 pensioners.

Disquiet growing among Punjab AAP workers SANGRUR: Delhi Chief Minister and AAP convenor Arvind Kejriwal's five-day visit to Punjab was full of protests from both, rival parties and AAP workers. With new members joining the party, senior volunteers reportedly feel ignored. Lakhdeep Bawa, an AAP worker from Gandua village in Sangrur, said, “I worked hard for Bhagwant Mann’s election (as MP) and was appointed as coordinator of this village. But Mann and his aides never call us for any party activities. Even during Kejriwal’s visit in Sangrur, I came on my own. If this continues, I will stop working for the party.”

Party members Jagtar Singh and Gurjant Singh added, “Mann won by 238 votes from Gobindgarh Jejian and you imagine, he never visited this village even once since. Two years have passed by now and we have visited his party office a number of times to put in a request to visit the village just once.” Adding, “The party is inducting new leaders without thinking and even without checking their credentials, due to which senior and hard working workers are being ignored and this is

causing widespread resentment within the party.”

Another AAP worker, Chamkaur Singh Khokhar said, “It seems that even AAP leaders are working like those of other political parties and they are now visiting villages just to seek votes. Mann never did any development work in our village.”

Some workers raised a totally different issue. “There is no active women wing of AAP in this area. The party needs to work hard on setting up a women's wing as they are the ones who can interact with women voters.” Mann, however, said, “Some differences exist in a family at times. But overall, the party workers have a harmonious relationship with leaders. Volunteers need not panic.” AAP Punjab convenor Sucha Singh Chhotepur said, “I have not yet heard of any discontent among party workers. In case they are unhappy, they should come and speak to us directly.”

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Jayalalithaa sacks Minister Chinnayya

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa sacked Animal Husbandry Minister TKM Chinnayya from the post and Health Minister C Vijayabhaskar from his party posts. A Raj Bhavan release read, “Governor K Rosaiah accepted the recommendation of Chief Minister to drop Chinnayya from the Council of Ministers.”

Social Welfare Minister B Valarmathi has been allocated Animal Husbandry portfolio.

Vijayabaskar will be replaced by AIADMK farmers' wing secretary PK Vairamuthu.

Jaya tattoo ‘forced’ on girl, says complaint

CHENNAI: A Chennai-based rights organisation has written to the NHRC seeking action against AIADMK leaders who allegedly allowed a girl to be forced into getting a tattoo of Jayalalithaa during her birthday celebrations on February 23. The petition by 'Change India' alleged that the incident, perpetrated by AIADMK cadres, happened in the presence of several ministers, including O Panneerselvam. The petition also asked the government to draw up guidelines to prevent exploitation of children in the garb of political functions. A party spokesperson said the girl had later given a statement saying that nobody compelled her to get a tattoo, and that it was her choice. “However, the CM has removed MLA MK Ashok from party posts, suggesting that he should have been a little more careful in organising such events.”

One more YSR Congress MLA joins TDP

VIJAYAWADA: YSR Congress MLA KV Ramana Murthy from Patapatnam in Srikakulam district has joined the ruling Telugu Desam Party. He visited Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu's residence with Youth Affairs Minister K Atchannaidu and formally joined the party. It was homecoming for Murthy, as he had been a TDP leader before joining the YSRC ahead of the 2014 elections. So far, eight MLAs and one MLC of the YSRC has shifted to TDP since February 22.

Chandigarh airport to be named after Bhagat Singh

CHANDIGARH: Punjab and Haryana governments have finally agreed to name the new international airport at Chandigarh after Shaheed Bhagat Singh. BJP's Punjab unit president Kamal Sharma, who mediated between the two states, urged Mahesh Sharma, union minister of state for civil aviation, to name the airport before March 23, the martyrdom day of the freedom fighter.

The civil air terminal at Chandigarh airport was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 11 last year. Both states had earlier agreed to name it after Bhagat Singh, but later the BJP government led by Khattar, which assumed office in October 2014, wrote to the civil aviation ministry to name the airport after Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh leader Mangal Sein.

Punjab admits to £180 million bill burden

CHANDIGARH: Punjab government has finally admitted before the Punjab and Haryana High Court that at least £180 million bills of five key departments remain pending for clearance. After the state submitted details of amount due, at a hearing, the HC initiated suo motu proceedings seeking details of the budgetary provisions and source of funding of the Mukh Mantri Tirath Darshan Yatra scheme, “considering the fact that the state is failing to make even routine payments.” Chief Secretary Sarvesh Kaushal submitted a 14-page affidavit saying £143.4 million liability pertained to the bills of five departments; school and higher education, local bodies, public works, sales tax and irrigation.

INDIA Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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THE SPIRIT OF MAHATMA

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Dr Rizwan Kadri

Dr Rizwan Kadri is a young historian known for his research on Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel. Dr Kadri is currently working as an Associate Professor in Shree Swaminarayan Arts College, Ahmedabad. He is also a Ph.D. (History) guide in Gujarat University and Raksha Shakti University. During his academic career Dr Kadri has won many awards such as the ‘Gujarat University Gold Medal’, ‘Sanskar Award’, Jawaharlal Memorial Fund, New Delhi, Meritorious Prize. He is also known for his inspiring lectures, particularly on the Indian Freedom Struggle and Sardar Patel which made him very popular among the scholars as well as common people. In his English translation “The Spirit of Mahatma” Dr Kadri has added a new perspective to the relationship between Mahatma Gandhi and his personal secretary Mahadev Desai, who was like a son to him. Dr Kadri chanced upon this very valuable source of information while going through the file preserved in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi.

Asian Voice has been publishing Dr Kadri's translation in a series.

T

hus the corporeal relation that had begun in the year 1916 (1917) came to an end in 1942 that is for 26 (25) years. However, spiritual relations do not end with corporeal relations coming to an end. That relation has continued and will always be there, I am firm in this belief. No relation is accidental, and though we may not know the reasons behind all, why worry? It is futile to have that kind of curiosity anyway. (6-11-

1943) After having said this much about the sudden death, let me resume my memories sequentially. The first memory is of the tour of Champaran.

Before Mahadev joined me, I had not formed the habit of travelling with others. I was not at all handicapped. I was able to carry my own luggage. I did not worry about my food at all. If needed, I could cook for myself. But even if I found peanuts and dates that

solved my problem of meals. But when Mahadev began to accompany me, he took charge of me. It was his work to look after my luggage and pack it. The burden of writing for me fell on him naturally. He would write many letters that I dictated, or many on his own in keeping with what I had told him. His handwriting was like real pearls.

He soon grasped my language and its style, thus my confidence on the capability & speed of work of Mahadev kept on increas-

Part - IV

ing. (7-11-1943). His willingness and capability of doing all the work were equal. That is why Mahadev became a good writer. He was also a good cook and a good barber. All those who

ICICI Bank to let women work from home for a year ICICI Bank has launched an initiative that allows women employees to work from home for up to a year.

Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Chanda Kochhar said the iWork@home could be extended for more than a year based on the requirements of the employee.

The initiative allows women employees to access their required operating systems in a safe and secure manner, creating a seamless office-like environment.

The bank has developed the technology platform for this programme in-house, along with students from IIT, Delhi. Facial recognition technology will ensure data security and privacy.

Kochhar said the initiative aimed to give a stronger support system to manage the challenge faced by young mothers, expectant mothers, women suffering from medical conditions, etc. The bank has also launched an initiative which allows young women managers, while on official trip, to take their young ones up to three years and their caregivers along with them.

“Women who would have otherwise quit due to maternity, childcare or other reasons are now requesting for this option so that they can continue to work with the bank from home and are also progressing at the same pace in their

career as other colleagues,” Kochhar said. Launched only a few weeks back, employees, under this programme, carry out multiple tasks which include checking documents for loan disbursement, image-based verification of cheques for clearance and processing of export-import documents for payments, etc.

The bank also introduced new benefits under its “Advantage Woman Savings Account”. These include unlimited free ATM usage at all banks, cash back subject to a maximum of Rs 750 per month on usage of debit card at departmental stores; it also provides 30 per cent discount on firstyear locker rentals.

Money laundering case against Mallya Not so good times for the king, the Enforcement Directorate has registered a case under the Prevention of Money Laundering Act, against Vijay Mallya and top executives of nowdefunct Kingfisher Airlines in a bank fraud case.

Naming 7 people, including Mallya, the ED case is based on a CBI case registered against Mallya and others in a bank fraud case.

Just recently, the State Bank of India had approached the Debt Recovery Tribunal seeking

arrest of Mallya in a bid to recover loans to Kingfisher Airlines which was promoted by the liquor baron.

Mallya said he was making efforts to reach a “one-time settlement” with banks through additional payments to the lenders.

Rejecting all allegations that he is an “absconder”, he said he would continue to cooperate with investigative agencies related to the loans provided by banks to Kingfisher Airlines. Mallya also insisted that he was not a “borrower of a judgement

defaulter” and he has challenged the “willful defaulter” tag by some banks, which he alleged didn't go after borrowers who “owe much more than the amount allegedly owed by Kingfisher Airlines.”

He also alleged that SBI, which has dragged him to Debt Recovery Tribunal seeking his arrest and seizure of his passport to claim his £51.50 million deal to exit United Spirits, was aware of the financial stress Kingfisher Airlines was under, for a long time.

stayed with me became the same. The special characteristic of Mahadev was that he would get immersed in every work, would take deep interest in it and even accomplished it with equal aplomb. He had a lot of magnetic charm. His nature was loving, social and helpful. He would charm everyone he met with his knowledge. He also had a great ability to take up new tasks.

The tasks that he was given were mostly new and he had to use his abilities in new ways too to accomplish them. I understand that Mahadev had not joined me with any political aim. At the time when he joined me, India had no idea about my political strength. I was still an enigma. Mahadev and Narhari were attracted to me due to religious inclination. They believed firmly that there was some miraculous element in Satyagraha. Narhari or Mahadev did not see any place for themselves in the current political scene.

What’s more, neither had the yearning for wealth, nor a hankering for personal fame. They had plenty of sense of service to others, and they both felt that this would be best used when they worked with me.

Mahadev was at once burdened with work when we reached Champaran. He

quickly came in contact with eminent persons of Bihar, such as Brij Kishore Babu, Rajendra Babu, Kripalani, Dharani Babu, Ramanavmi Prasad, Janak Prasad etc. He mixed easily with them. My main task was to meet big crowds, listen about their troubles and write their stories. It was the responsibility of Mahadev to look after the letters and papers for this project. I used to go to sleep at 11 or 12 pm while Mahadev may have to keep working even later for some time. And everyone had to get up at 4 am for the prayers anyway.

It was not an easy task to contain the crowds that came to meet me; no one should ever insult them, but talk to them politely and reason with them to wait for their turn. This could not be done single-handedly.

Many had to join in.

14 / 4 / 1948 Dear Manibhai, When Shri Jivanji approached me for writing the biography of Mahadevbhai, I was quite surprised. There are already two persons who can write his authentic biography: one is Narharibhai and the other is Pyarelal. Either separately or together only these two gentlemen can write it to give it full justice.

25

However, Narharibhai is now a little handicapped, and he already has the burden of writing Vallabhbhai’s biography, while Pyarelalaji is to write Bapu’s biography when he can spare some time from the work at Noakhali. Besides, I know that Pyarelal will not have any less attraction for Delhi.

That is the reason why I gave my consent to this proposition.

Although I have given my consent, I am sure that I would not be able to complete this work without help of others, and it is you who has the responsibility to collect the material.

When I came to know that after Mahadevbhai passed away, Bapuji had decided to write his biography, Shri Vinobaji and myself supplicated him that he should not bother about going to the trouble of writing his entire and detailed biography, for that can be done by anybody else. We told him that he should write whatever were his impressions about Mahadevbhai in 50 or 70 pages and that itself will be an immortal biography of Mahadevbhai. The details around it can be added later on. Bapuji could not write anything as promised and even before he could fulfil our own limited request he passed away.

26

INDIA

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

AP CM on UK visit to boost investments

Continued from page1 unveiled during Naidu's visit. London APNRT Corporation along with UK-India Business Council will host a major event which expects nearly 150 British companies to

Continued from page1 again brought back the incident into the light of day.

The case dictates that Amjad Ali Rana, Zeeshan Johar, Javed Sheikh (Pranesh Pillai) and Ishrat Jahan were tasked with a terror mission for which they came to Ahmedabad where their car was intercepted by the police, following which they started firing at the police and got killed in retaliatory firing.

Former home secretary claims affidavit was changed suo motu by Chidambaram

In latest updates, then Home Secretary G K Pillai has claimed that former Home Minister P Chidambaram himself dictated the Centre's revised affidavit in the Ishrat Jahan case in 2009, in which, references to her

participate, including CRODA International PLC, oil and gas major BG Group, Rolls Royce, FBS Contracts Ltd and GSK LTD. The Chief Minister, along with his delegation,

will attend a seminar on March 12, at the St James Hotel in Buckingham Gate London.

Some Dubai and Kuwait based companies are expected to be in London during Naidu's

visit and likely to take part in the event. On the second day of his visit, Naidu is scheduled to meet investors willing to participate in the smart village and smart ward programme of AP.

alleged Lashkar-e-Taiba links were removed. He also alleged that he had been tortured by an officer who was part of the HCappointed SIT. Pillai said there was never any discussion among officials in the Home Ministry about altering the Centre's earlier affidavit. “It was done by the minister himself. You will have to ask the minister why he changed it, because none of us changed it. It was done suo motu by the minister.” He elaborated, “My understanding is that the minister himself called the junior officers from the IB and so on, and in his office he dictated the revised affidavit. He gave it to them and told them to get it issued. To be on the safe side, the officers placed it on file and put it up. When the revised affidavit came to me, I remember asking

the joint secretary where did this come from? He said this came from the minister himself. Once dictated by the minister himself, nobody looks into it because he's the boss. Then everybody just signed.”

In response to the home secretary's claims, Chidambaram replied, “The affidavit speaks for itself. And the UPA government has not disowned the affidavit.” While the affidavit from September 2009 said IB inputs were not conclusive proof that those killed in the encounter had terror links, the fresh affidavit read, “The Central Government in the said affidavit did not address any issue relating to the merits or otherwise of the police action. It was essentially concerned with the dealing of allegations relating to the intelligence inputs which were avail-

able in the Central Government and which are shared on a regular basis by the State Governments.”

While the Bharatiya Janta Party has jumped into the centre of the issue, asking for a probe into the UPA's 'flip-flop', the Congress expressed their disappointments to “see bureaucrats like Pillai changing their view depending on the government”.

“Problem with people like Pillai and thousands of government officials of India is while they are in service, they do exactly what the government says and perhaps what is right and once they retire, they change their view depending upon the government.

It shows that how spineless and characterless the bureaucracy has become,” Congress leader Sandeep Dikshit said.

Ishrat Jehan case takes a new twist

Mega show on Yamuna turns to major furore

Continued from page1 Meanwhile, there was severe criticism from different quarters for the use of the Indian Army to build a floating bridge for the event. The Army built a pontoon bridge on the river, and in all probabilities will build one more to ease the movement of 3.5 million people who are expected to attend. Taking their stand, officials said, “The minister (defence) was of the view that since permission has been granted, it is the responsibility of the government to ensure everything was fine. The Army, which has the expertise, was asked to step in keeping the larger good of people in mind.” They also said that the Army has been used even before during the Kumbh Mela and the Commonwealth Games.

Refuting all the allegations, Sri Sri addressed the media, saying, “We are asserting that we will turn the place into a beautiful bio-diversity park once we are finished with it. Since 2010, our volunteers have been working hard to clean the river and around 512 tonnes of dirt and garbage has been fished out. We want to save the Yamuna.

We have not cut a single tree and have maintained ecological stability. We want to see Yamuna transformed into a beauty again.” He said the river won't be polluted during the mega event, saying that he has been working on the technology of enzymes, which will play a key role in the process. “We are using the technology of enzymes

here and have been preparing for three months for this. The enzymes reduce the methane emission. This is a proven technology, but the people here are not even aware of enzymes,” he added.

The NGT's hearing is underway on the pleas seeking cancellation of the mega event.

Delhi Government and the foundation on another plea seek stoppage of ongoing construction work on the flood plains. The worst affected by the preparations of the event are the farmers who own or till the land at the site. Many of them have been displaced from their land, their standing crops have been bulldozed and three of them have been arrested and sent to jail on “trumped up charges”, for resisting forcible eviction from their properties. One of the affected farmers, Mohammad Ibram narrated the incident saying the police arrived with a team of the organisers on February 23, asking him and his family to vacate the land. “My brother Salman opposed the move along

with his friend, Yameen and Shiv Kumar, who lives near Hanuman Mandir in Chilla Khadar itself. This was not liked by the Mayur Vihar police personnel who booked all three of them on non-bailable charges and arrested them. The three were subsequently sent to judicial custody and are lodged in Tihar Jail.”

“There were standing crops of cauliflower, radish, onion, mustard and spinach over two bighas and of wheat on another two bighas, which was destroyed by them,” he said. Another farmer said, “I had invested nearly Rs 20,000 on seeds, manure and water for the crops and it is all gone,” said Salman, who also pays an annual rent of 6,000 per bigha to his landlord, a resident of Chilla village.

Experts warn how this event can have a catastrophic impact on the flood plains at the Yamuna.

A petition against the event has already gathered over 2,800 signatures and NGOs are urging the event be moved out from the ecosensitive area. Initially gar-

nered to mark his presence, the Rashtrapati Bhawan issued a statement stating the President's decision to pull out of the event. “The President cannot attend the function due to unavoidable circumstances.” an official from the Rashtrapati Bhavan said. The World Culture Festival expects over 3.5 million people, including, Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena, Vice-President of European Parliament Ryszard Czarnecki, VicePresident of Suriname Michael A Adhin, former Prime Minister of France Dominique de Villepin, and former Prime Minister of Pakistan Syed Yousaf Raza Gilani. PM Modi invited to open the event may or may not be attending, said a source.

Amidst all the ho-ha and the chaos of a cultural extravaganza that has disturbed the lives and families of mostly the proletariat, the question worth asking is, do we really need the festival to celebrate life, at the cost of others?

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Tributes to Harish I.K. Patel Harish I.K. Patel passed away on Thursday 3rd March 2016 in London after enduring a three year struggle with Multiple Myeloma.

Harish was born on 2nd April 1955 in Mwanza, Tanzania and is survived by his beloved mother Vimlaben, his wife Gita, his son Pujan, his daughter Janki and three sisters, Ranjan, Indira & Yamini.

Harish came to the UK in 1973 with his father, Ishverbhai Patel, who was a Bank Manager and like his father he became an accomplished and highly respected member of the community. Harish was a great role model, both as a business man and a family man. He was actively involved with a multitude of charitable organisations including the BAPS Temple in Neasden, Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan and the Oxford Center For Hindu Studies to name but a few.

When his late father passed away, he started up a charity called the IK Foundation to honour the memory of this remarkable man and through his work he raised considerable funds with a focus on funding educational endeavours.

Harish was also a trustee for 27 Gam Samaj in Wembley, where he dedicated many years raising funds and seeing through the construction of the Community Center to completion. Typically modest Harish refused any recognition of the immense part he played in ensuring the project was brought to fruition.

Despite the huge challenges Harish faced during his ill health, he remained true to his wonderful spirit and proved to be an inspiration to us all. He was such a caring, incredible, decent, hardworking, family and business man.

He leaves behind a legacy of love and respect to his beloved family and everyone who knew him. I really cannot imagine life without Harish, a good man and a gentle soul, who truly touched the lives of thousands. Life without Harish IK will never be the same again.

Jasminder Singh Founder, Edwardian Group of Hotels

Harish Patel’s untimely death at the age of sixty has left a deep sense of void among those who knew them. He was a fine human being, charming, warm hearted and ever ready to help. Until his father’s equally untimely death he was in his shadow and kept a low supportive profile. After his death he emerged into his own, taking over his father’s social role and redefining it in his own unique way. He brought people together, helped resolve their differences and sought to create a genuine community among Indians. There was hardly a member of that community, especially the East African Indians, whom he did not know and who did not cherish their friendship with him. His house was open to all as I can say from personal experience, and his hotel too extended its hospitality to all who needed it.

Harish Patel is gone but he has left behind lasting memories among many of us. And so long as these memories last he cannot die.

Lord Prof Bhikhu Parekh Harish Patel was a colossus of the British Asian community. It is true he did not win a gold medal for Britain in athletics, nor Wimbledon or did he score the winning goal at Wembley in a Cup Final. But by any measure of the worth of a man he was a real giant. His untimely death robs us all of the most decent, honourable and kind human people it is possible to know. There is a line in Kipling which describes those who can " walk with Kings, not lose the common touch." That phrase written 100 years ago was written about Harish Patel. His smiling face, the generosity of his spirit, the love of his wife Gita, the adoration of his children Pujan and Janki marks him out in our lives as someone special.

Extraordinary and exemplary. In this life and the next we will never see his like again."

Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP Chairman, Home Affairs Committee

FINANCE Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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27

SUNDAY TRADING LAWS MAY DAMAGE HIGH STREETS AsianVoiceNews

Anand Pillai

It appears that the Government's plans to relax Sunday trading laws for large retail stores may not materialise as many Tory MPs have threatened to vote down the measure.

Scottish MPs too have joined the bandwagon.

Ministers, some of their aides and dozens of backbenchers are ready to block the plans unless they are altered before a Commons vote this week. Around 30 SNP MPs are believed to be pushing for the party to oppose the measures, although longer opening hours are already in force in Scotland.

David Burrowes, the MP who is coordinating the rebellion, said he believed that ministers were considering resigning to oppose the government. However, concessions to ensure that the new rules applied only in certain areas could pacify them, he added.

“There are 23 Conservatives who have signed up to stop the government's plan to deregulate Sunday trading for large shops and more lined up to oppose or abstain, including ministers and (parliamentary private secretaries). The government should recognise the strength of opposition for a plan that was not in our manifesto and should at least agree a compromise which restricts deregulation to tourist zones,” Mr Burrowes was quoted in a report in The Times.

Above all, the Sunday trading devolution and deregulation plan was not in the Conservative Party’s manifesto. It appears to have come out of lobbying by a group of London West End businesses, before finding its way into Chancellor George Osborne's Budget speech.

However, much debate has risen on the social implications of such a move and whether it is a good thing or not. However, the question of its effect on the

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high street has remained mostly untouched.

Some say the relaxed Sunday trading laws will help to contain online sales, with more availability on the high street. The argument does not hold water in today's time when much of the customer motive surrounding online sales is based around convenience.

Tech firms are coming out with applications that make it easier for shoppers to purchase online without leaving the comfort of their home. Longer opening hours do not directly combat this lifestyle choice.

Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) chief executive James Lowman says: “Extending Sunday trading hours will not affect high street competitiveness with online shopping. A poll of 2,000 people conducted by Populus in January 2016 showed that of those who prefer to shop online instead of on the high street, not a single one cited Sunday trading legislation as their reason for doing so.

The reasons given ranged from online shopping being more convenient, cheaper and easier than shopping on the high street but opening hours were not a factor.”

Subhash Patel, who owns a supermarket (V K S

ed. Many of them will have to wind up or work with reduced staff. There will certainly be attrition in such shops. And many of them will be reduced to a oneman shop, which will affect the family life of the shopkeeper for spending long hours in the shop.

“All this while shoplifters targeted small shops, but in a scenario where small shops have to wind up because of lack of business, delinquents will zero in on big supermarkets like Sainsbury's and Morrisons, thus creating an atmosphere of fear and insecurity.

This attrition, lack of employment, rise in minimum wage (£7.20 with effect from April 2016), increase in insurance cover and electricity bills for

A high street in the UK wears a deserted look.

Food and Wine) in Richmond, says: “If the new Sunday trading law comes into effect, it will certainly have a negative impact on small corner shops and convenience stores. Their business will be severely affect-

working long hours will have a telling effect on the economy. Besides, family life will go haywire as workers will have to work late on Sundays.

“I doubt the proposal

will ever become a reality, but it all depends on the local council which has the last word on this. The Association of Convenience Stores and National Federation of Retail Newsagents are completely against this proposal and will fight tooth and nail to thwart it.”

ACS chief executive added: “Changing Sunday trading regulations will not help the high street; it would actually damage small high street stores as trade would get diverted to large out of town supermarkets. While ministers talk of increasing high street sales, the reality is that the public won’t have more money to spend just because the shops are open longer.

People will simply spend the same amount of money over a longer period of time, increasing the cost base for many larger stores.”

Also, much of the debate comes back to the social issue of longer opening hours on a Sunday. Sunday has always been recognised as the day of rest. Sundays are best spent with family and friends, or simply to switch off from the working week. The same view is echoed by the Church as well. The concept of relaxed laws goes against this perception.

Chancellor George Osborne believes that changing the rules will provide a boost to retailers. He argues that with 11 per cent of retail sales online, shops need to open longer to com-

pete.

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills is positive about the proposal.

A Government s p o k e s p e r s o n said:“Extending Sunday trading hours has the potential to help businesses and high streets better compete with the rise in online shopping and better reflect our changing shopping habits. The Government received a wide range of evidence during the Sunday trading consultation process, including evidence on the economic costs and benefits, which has all been carefully and conscientiously taken into account in developing our proposals.”

A Sainsbury’s spokesperson from Holborn says, “We do not believe devolving powers over Sunday trading hours to local areas is the right way to boost town centres and high streets. It’s the wrong priority at the wrong time and it’s not something our customers or colleagues are asking for. Reforming business rates, which affect bricks and mortar retailers disproportionately, would be a more effective way for the Government to make a real and positive difference to the high street.”

National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN) chief executive Paul Baxter says: “Statistics show that devolving Sunday trading powers to local authorities and Metro mayors pose a real and serious threat to independent retailers at a time when there is no great desire from the public to do so.

“Indeed, 90 per cent of shop workers oppose extending current Sunday trading hours and 67 per cent of the British public are supportive of the current laws, while only one in eight people believe there is not enough time to shop currently on the sabbath.

More frighteningly, Oxford Economics have said that 8,800 jobs and £870 million sales will be

lost from the convenience sector because trade will be dispersed from small businesses to larger shops.

“At the same time more than half (52 per cent) of local authority chief executives have said they will use the devolution to help outof-town retailers, drawing further trade away from both high streets and smaller shops.”

The loss of small shops drains a locality's economic and social capital. Money spent in independent retail outlets tends to stay in the community, providing work for local lawyers and accountants, plumbers and decorators, window cleaners and builders.

According to a report in the Guardian, a US research finds that every $100 spent at a local store generates 60% more local economic activity than $100 spent in a chain store down the road.

Jane Jacobs argued in The Death and Life of Great American Cities (1960), communities are created by myriad small daily encounters: getting cooking tips from the greengrocer, hearing about a job from the butcher, recommending a good plumber at the bakery, exchanging opinions in the pub. “The sum of such casual, public contact at the local level,” wrote Jacobs, “…is a feeling for the public identity of people, a web of public respect and trust.”

Supermarkets minimise human contact in the interests of efficiency and convenience. They cut the threads that hold an engaged community together.

The monopoly of supermarkets could make the high streets less lively, more and more off licence and FMCG shops would be shunned or remain empty or vandalised, and this in turn will damage the economy of the country. A thriving small, independent businesses are a must to boost the property value, economic viability and the social fabric of the locality.

(Guided by CB Patel)

Assembly polls in five states from April 4 to May 16 Assembly elections will be held in West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Assam, along with Puducherry, from April 4 to May 16. As the Congress, BJP and the Left compete for power, results of the spread out polls will be out on May 19, and decide the fates of the ruling state governments.

The elections will see the NOTA symbol for the first time. Nearly 170 million voters will cast their votes in over 118,000 polling stations. The results will decide the fates of political stalwarts like Tamil Nadu CM J

Jayalalithaa, DMK boss M Karunanidhi and his successor M K Stalin, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi and Kerala CM Oomen Chandy.

For veterans like Gogoi and Karunanidhi, a loss would virtually mean the end of their political careers. A lot is at stake for CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury too, as this is the first electoral challenge for the party under his charge. The party's performance in West Bengal will also be a verdict on the tie-up with Congress against Mamata.

Stakes are high for

Nasim Zaidi

national leaders too. After some succour in Bihar, Congress and its top leaders Sonia and Rahul Gandhi face a real test in Assam and Kerala where the party is in office and cannot count on powerful regional allies to bail it out. The contest in Assam will be fierce. Chief minister Gogoi has a strong electoral record but faces an emergent BJP that has tied up useful alliances with AGP and Bodo People's Front, projected a tribal as CM and roped in Congress rebel Himanta Biswa Sarma. Success for the Congress in Assam, a key state with a large

minority population, will be a big boost as it will be a hard fought win and vindicate the efficacy of the party's state organisation.

BJP, on the other hand, was powered by a Modi wave to seven Lok Sabha seats in 2014 but does not have as good an organisational presence.

With the NaMO factor having waned, the party is hoping that its alliance with AGP and BPF will help it score its maiden victory in Assam: a feat which can also help it regain the political momentum after embarrassing losses in Delhi and Bihar.

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28

Popular Tamil actress goes to Hollywood

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

H

earing and speech impaired actress, Abhinaya, who made her debut in super hit film 'Nadodigal' has wrapped up her Hollywood project. The actress plays the protagonist in director Rupam Sarmah's 'One Little Finger'. The film deals with ability in disability, and stars 56 physically challenged artists. Abhinaya plays an NGO worker who struggles to eradicate the drug menace. Back home, she now looks forward to the release of her Tamil comedy 'Adida Melam'. Despite of her 'disability', Abhinaya has effectively portrayed normal roles for quite some time.

I will play an interesting role in '2.0': Amy Jackson AsianVoiceNews

A

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

my Jackson who will soon be seen in Shankar's megabudget sci-fi '2.0' has revealed that she won't play a robot in the film.

Ever since reports of Amy being a part of the project was known, there were

several speculations of the actress playing a robot.

However, in an interview, she cleared all rumours.

Refusing to indulge details of the role she would play, as it would mean revealing the entire plot of the film, she maintained that it

would be an interesting character but not a robot.

While the first schedule of the shoot has been completed, the second will begin this month.

Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar plays the antagonist in the movie.

C

technological achievement, as his work towards a collaborative tool for 8 years in Sony Imageworks was recognised. Leon received his award in the Oscar Academy's Annual

Scientific and Technical Awards ceremony held on February 13. He spoke in Tamil after receiving the award. He is the second Tamilian to receive an Oscar after A R Rahman.

Another Tamilan gets Oscar

‘Baahubali 2’ to release in April 2017

R

elease dates for the much-awaited 'Baahubali: The Conclusion' have been locked for April 14, next year. A source from SS Rajamouli's magnum opus, said, “The principal shooting will be wrapped up by this year-end. The

'Teraa Surroor'

A sequel to 2007 film 'Aap Kaa Surroor,' the film stars Himesh Reshammiya and Farah Karimi in lead.

The star cast also includes Naseeruddin Shah, Kabir Bedi and Shekhar Kapur.

remaining months before the release will be used extensively for post-production and computer graphics work.” Second part of the franchise, 'The Conclusion' is tipped to be made with a bigger budget than the previous one.

Balki to team up with Amitabh again

D

irector R Balki w i l l soon team up with his favourite actor, A m i t a b h Bachchan, for yet another project. From his directorial debut 'Cheeni Kum' to 'Shamitabh', Balki has portrayed Bachchan in quirky and unusual, yet relatable roles. Even his recent 'Ki and Ka', has Big B in a special appearance along with wife Jaya Bachchan. Balki said it was not difficult for him to think of novel ideas for the 72 year old. “It comes naturally to me... I don't have to struggle hard for it. Something is coming next... We will do. I can't share anything as it is too early.” The director said he wanted to do a light-hearted film so that the atmosphere on the sets is relaxed. “I would write a slapstick comedy for him as he is fantastic at comedy.

So that he can laugh. I will write comedy and serious roles for him.”

ottalango Leon, a Tamil native technician from the US, has booked himself the prestigious Oscar. The 44year old technician was chosen for scientific and

Emraan Hashmi to unveil cover of his book on cancer

A

ctor Emraan Hashmi will soon launch his book - 'The Kiss of Life: How A Superhero and My Son Defeated Cancer' in Mumbai on March 20. The book written by Imran tells the struggle around his son Ayan's cancer treatment. The cover page will be chosen by fans in a vote online. Sharing a video on Facebook, the actor said, “I am happy to announce that there is a special event on March 20 in Delhi. It's for the launch of cover of the book. But before that... I am a bit confused. We have some really good images that we have shortlisted... Some six to seven images shot by Rohan Shrestha.

They are really nice candid images of me and Ayan, and we don't know which one we should carry, so, I'll leave it to you all.” The book is co-authored by Bilal Siddiqi, and will be published by Penguin Books India, in English, Hindi, and Marathi.

Irrfan Khan to star in English-Bengali bilingual

C

ontemporary actor Irrfan Khan has signed an international project, a bilingual to be released in Bengali and English, titled 'No Bed of Roses'. He will also co-produce the film.

Directed by Bangladeshi filmmaker Mostofa Sarwar Farooki, the movie also features Farooki's wife Nusrat Imroz Tisha in a pivotal role. Himanshu Dhanuka who is also co-producing the film with a Bangladeshi banner, said, “Farooki was keen on casting Irrfan because he is one of the finest performers in India. When we approached him, we were told that he is busy for the next two years but when we met him in January for a narration, he was so impressed that he immediately agreed to do the film.” Adding that the Indian actor plays a Bengali family man in the movie, Dhanuka said, “The story revolves around two families who find deeper meanings of love in the wake of a tragedy.”

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Yami Gautam feels nervous to romance Hrithik

Y

ami Gautam went numb and speechless when offered Hrithik Roshan starrer 'Kaabil'. The actress who just released 'Sanam Re' opposite Pulkit Samrat, said, “I am

excited. It means a lot to work with him. I was numb, speechless when the offer came to me. It is going to be a special film, special journey. I am looking forward to start the project.”

The movie is about a blind guy who takes revenge of his lover's brutal rape and murder. “I am nervous to dance and romance (Hrithik). He is a brilliant actor, best dancer, his style and attitude is amazing,” the actress gushed. “We are deciding the l o o k and all.

We will start with workshop.

We will start shooting soon.”

Talking about the response to her latest 'Sanam Re', she said, “We were hoping for a good response as people had loved the trailer and music. On the day of the release I was surprised with the love and attention for our film.”

Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong'o, Scarlett Johansson, Giancarlo Esposito and Christopher Walken. Priyanka will voice Kaa, the python, who is originally voiced by Johansson. Irrfan will lend his voice to Baloo, the bear, and Shefali will dub for Raksha, the wolf. Om Puri voice Bagheera, the panther. Nana had dubbed for Shere Khan in the early 90s, in the animated series 'Jungle Book: The Adventures of Mowgli', that

had aired on Doordarshan. He will again play the same voice. “The Jungle Book is so very special to India, and we want our audience enjoy Disney’s all-new liveaction adaptation.

We wanted nothing but the best for the Hindi version of the film. We are so excited to have such veterans and A list actors come together to voice and bring alive these beloved characters making it like a hi scale Hindi film,” said Amrita Pandey, VicePresident, Studios, Disney India.

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

I don’t want to be a dinosaur: Sonam Sonam Kapoor, who gave a stunning performance in Ram Madhvani's biopic 'Neerja' feels her fashion sense is mostly for the public.

“According to Ram, the fashion stuff and the way I dress up are my armour. But all the roles that I have played in my films including 'Saawariya', 'Delhi 6', 'Raanjhanaa', and 'Dolly Ki Doli', have been grounded in reality, except for 'Aisha'. I am fine with sporting different hats and I love wearing clothes. It enjoy looking great.”

Stating the importance of evolving, the actress said, “I am a feminist at heart and that hasn't changed since as long as I can remember. I also strongly believe that you either become wiser or grow senile with experience. I learn from my mistakes and believe that that's the only way to evolve. I don't want to be a dinosaur.” The 31year-old contemplates film writing. “Not only writing, I plan to direct as well. I like to keep my options open. And it won't be only for my sister's production house or AKFPL. I am always completely involved in a film's creative process. At the end of the day, it's my face on a poster.”

Irrfan, Priyanka, Nana lend voices to The Jungle Book

I

rrfan Khan, Nana Patekar, Om Puri, Priyanka Chopra and, Shefali Shah will lend their voices to the Hindi version of Disney's upcoming American release 'The Jungle Book'. A re-imagination of Walt Disney's 1967 animated movie of the same name, it stars Indian-American Neel Sethi as Mowgli.

The English version features the voice of Bill Murray, Ben Kingsley,

Manoj Kumar gets Dadasaheb Phalke Award

M

a n o j Kumar, veteran actor known for his patriotic films, was chosen for the prestigious Dadasa heb Phalke award.

The 78-year-old actor became the 47th recipient of the award, which consists of a golden lotus, a cash prize of Rs 1000,000 and a shawl. Best known for his films “Hariyali Aur Raasta,” “Woh Kaun Thi?”, “Himalaya Ki God Mein,” “Do Badan,” “Upkar,” “Patthar Ke Sanam,” “Purab Aur Paschim,” “Shaheed,” etc became popular as Bharat Kumar thanks to his patriotic dramas.

Kumar was born as Harikrishna Giri Goswami in Abbottabad, which was then a part of pre-independent India. At the age of 10, his family shifted to Delhi. He graduated from Hindu College and decided to make a career in showbiz.

Milkha Singh watches his idol Jesse Owens' film

'F

lying Sikh' Milkha Singh attended a special screening of Stephen Hopkins-directed 'Race', a biopic on his idol, late American Olympian Jesse Owens. Makers of the film had reached out to Singh to watch the movie, a request he readily agreed. “My conversations with him mostly revolved around the sport. I remember when we met at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich he narrated his journey to me. It was really inspiring. Both of us are self-made men. I am looking forward to watching the film,” Milkha Singh before watching the movie. The former Indian sprinter said that the movie should be dubbed in Hindi too and he would request the makers to do so.

Priyanka quashes rivalry rumours with Deepika

W

ith Bollywood actresses Priyanka Chopra and Deepika Padukone, both making their mark in the west, media reports of a possible rivalry between the leading ladies began to do the rounds. However, our beloved PC's recent tweet shut down all haters. Deepika's 'xXx' co-star Ruby Rose complemented Priyanka in a tweet saying, “I thought the Quantico ad was a Pantene ad. But then I thought it was weird with the guns and all.” To which the 'Jai Gangaajal' actress replied, “Awww thank you Ruby Rose. Great hair comes naturally to Indian girls. Sure Deepika will concur. Good luck with 'xXx'” Deepika signed her first Hollywood project 'xXx: The Return of Xander Cage' with Vin Diesel, while Priyanka bagged her first international movie, 'Baywatch', where she plays the antagonist.

Shah Rukh to remain silent

S

hah Rukh Khan has decided to stay away from any kind of political controversies. The actor's last movie 'Dilwale' was affected after he made comments on the issue of intolerance in the country. At the trailer launch of his upcoming 'Fan', when asked whether he wanted to make an appeal, the actor, in his natural wit, replied, “The only appeal I will make is when my team KKR takes a Mumbai Indians wicket I will scream out. I am not getting into anything else. Freedom of speech also means the right to keep silent. So, I am very silent about this.” The actor also said in an event that he would refrain from commenting on political issues.

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

Hundreds of people poured onto the streets of London holding placards on Saturday (5th March), demanding the extradition of an Indian man wanted in Britain for over five years on charges of rape, murder and other sexual assault cases.

Thirty-one-year-old Delhi-based Aman Vyas, the son of a wealthy Indian businessmen, is suspected

by Metropolitan police of a string of late-night attacks in north-east London when he was in Britain on a student visa five years ago.

Vyas has been on bail since 2011.

Labour MP Stella Creasy, who led the march as part of International Women’s Day in Walthamstow, has also

written to Indian High Commissioner to the UK Navtej Sarna seeking Vyas’ extradition to face the British court.

Creasy told The Times she was astounded it had taken so long to extradite a suspect in such serious cases.

“It’s worrying about whether they (the Indian authorities) are serious about dealing with this issue,” Creasy told The Times.

The UK’s Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) has authorised charges over the alleged murder and rape of Michelle Samaraweera, who was attacked and strangled in 2009 after she went out to buy milk while staying with her boyfriend in

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Inspired by Tagore Inspired by Gandhi Journeys Inspires by My Museum

Also there will be dance to spoken words by Anusha Subramanyam and Atreyee Bhattacharya.

Special guests will include CB Patel, Publisher/Editor Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar and Ranjit Sondhi CBE

Copyright Lee Sorrell Media

London march calls to extradite Indian suspected of rape and murder

Walthamstow. She was 35 at the time.

The CPS has also authorised charges against Vyas over three allegations of rapes in the two months before Samaraweera’s murder and the Metropolitan police are investigating whether he is responsible for five other sex attacks.

An application by lawyers for Vyas to dismiss the case against him was rejected by an Indian judge in 2012 but delays have meant that the British authorities have been

unable so far to extradite him, according to The Times.

Vyas was arrested in July 2011 boarding a plane at Delhi airport that was bound for Auckland.

The family of Samaraweera said it was “disgusting” that they had had to wait so long for justice.

Forty-four-year-old Ann Chandradasa, one of the victim’s three sisters, said: “We just want to see justice done. I just want him back.”

Vyas is also alleged to have raped two women aged 59 and 46, and attacked another woman in her thirties.

The extradition is reported to have been delayed for several reasons, including counsel misplacing documents.

Vyas is living with his family in Delhi and has bail until next month.

Man charged with kidnap Thames and Chiltern Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised officers from Thames Valley Police to charge a man with the kidnap of a woman in Slough.

Neeraj Sharma, aged 34, was charged last Tuesday, 01 March 2016, with kidnap.

The charge is in connection with an incident, which occurred in Burnham Lane, Slough at about 9.30am Monday, 29 February 2016, where a 20-yearold woman was allegedly accosted, grabbed and pushed down an alleyway towards the park.

l Sat 12 March, 7:30pm SAMYO: National Youth Orchestra for Indian Music, Beck Theatre, Middlesex UB3 2UE. Contact: 020 8561 8371

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away from usual routines and seek a retreat for a few days. All the better if you are interested in such things as meditation, yoga and therapies that help you to get in closer touch with your inner self. This will have a beneficial effect on your physical and psychological well-being.

TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 It would be unwise to take any risks, particularly in regard to joint interests and investments. Expenses and outgoings are likely to become heavy. So be extra careful if you need to deal with complex legal matters and necessary red tape. Plan your spending and set sensible budgets to reach your financial goals. Associate with people that you are comfortable with.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 Keep your assertive inclina-

tion under control as conflict and disagreement could be sparked off by your shortsightedness. Think carefully about the implications of your actions. However, this is not likely to be an easy-going week because demands on time and energy are going to be heavy. The art of making haste slowly should therefore be cultivated.

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22 At work sometimes a little upheaval and chaos is exactly what you need to set things right again. There’s no need to be indecisive: the time is now. you’ll have no qualms about deciding what you want and going after it with total devotion. Unpredictable energies continue to influence your health sector, bringing erratic highs and lows. The key for you as always is balance.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23 You will continue to be in a restless mood for some time to come. This makes you impatient with restrictions and even more determined to cut your own path. Do not get over-anxious if everything seems to be in slow motion - it is time to pull a few strings.

You are likely to experience some tension in close relationships.

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

You know you have no choice but to streamline and re-assess your priorities before haphazardly saying yes to everything that smells like a potential opportunity. Try to create a balance between expansion and conservation. Jupiter in your sign makes you feel invincible, base your decisions on facts.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23 The focus is on finances this week, but that doesn’t mean you should worry yourself sick. Rather, it is about finding new and improved ways to boost your earnings potential. It’s fine to consider several options but don’t get caught up in indecision.

Schedule networking opportunities later this week. Every day routine and health issues need to be re-assessed.

l Om Shakti Day Centre celebrates International Women’s Day Wednesday 30 March, 10am-3pm Harrow Leisure Centre, Byron Hall. harrow HA5 5BD

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ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 It is a good time to get

Bureau Chief: Nilesh Parmar (M) +91 94266 36912 Email: nilesh.parmar@abplgroup.com Consulting Editor: Bhupatbhai Parekh, Ahmedabad, Gujarat Tel: +91 79 2630 4142 Urvashi Jagadeesan (India) Mumbai: Kanti Bhatt, Hemraj Shah (Jumbo Advertiser) Horizon Advertising & Marketing: 2012, Shalibhadra Complex, Opp. Jain Derasar, Nr. Nehru Nagar Circle, Ambawadi, Ahmedabad. Tel +91 79 2646 5960 Email: horizon.marketing@abplgroup.com Business Manager: Hardik Shah (M) +91 99250 42936 Email: hardik.shah@abplgroup.com Advertising Manager: Neeta Patel (Vadodara) M: +91 98255 11702 Email: neeta_abplgroup@yahoo.co.in Business Co-ordinator: Shrijit Rajan M: +91 98798 82312 Email: shrijit.rajan@abplgroup.com International Advertisement Representative: Jain International Tel: +91 44 42041122/3/4 Fax: +91 44 25362973 Mumbai: +91 022 2471 4122 Email: jain@jaingroup.net Delhi Office: Tel: +91 9311581597

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SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22 You will probably have little cause to complain this week. Expect everything to run smoothly and luck to attend your efforts. However, underneath this positive surface you may be plagued by a feeling of restlessness. Try to strike a balance between material and emotional affairs !

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

It seems that the winds of change begin to gather momentum and put a strong focus on domestic and family matters. Besides spending more time tending to domestic affairs, the focus can be on cultivating and nourishing your inner foundations, so to speak. Extra energy and drive will serve you well in getting things accomplished, but try not to come on too strong when you deal with others.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20

Whether you’re single or attached you’ll have to go through a lot, as deep psychological transformations are taking place in all types of relationships. Don’t be afraid to experiment, trust your hunches, go with your gut feeling. Solutions to minor problems should be considered very carefully.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19

Start the week by inviting comments and criticism of what you have in mind financially, but do not lose your temper when you get others' views. Instead, use them to advantage. A friendly relationship or marriage of people you know could be wavering or on the point of break-up. Try to understand things.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20 Responsibility is your key word, especially at work. Set your own goals, rather than trying to meet those set by someone else. You will achieve a lot more, especially when you're motivated by your own desires. Your ability to manage what you have on your plate earns respect from others around you. You will benefit in every way if you learn to self-discipline and pace yourself wisely.

SPORT

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Stalemate continues over Indo-Pak match in Dharamshala AsianVoiceNews

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There is still no clarity on whether the India vs Pakistan World T20 match will be played at Dharamshala on Marach 19. Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh continued to oppose the match after meeting BCCI secretary and BJP's Hamirpur MP, Anurag Thakur.

The chief minister told Thakur that the opposition was from families of Indian soldiers and ex-servicemen and he was not ready to use force against them. “Our ex-servicemen are respectable people. It would be fair for BCCI to talk to the ex-servicemen,” he said.

Thakur, who is also president of Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association (HPCA), met Virbhadra at the state assembly and said the match should not be opposed as it was fixed long ago. Immediately after the meeting, state president of the body of exservicemen and former Congress minister, Major Vijay Singh Mankotia, and transport minister G S Bali, who are opposing the match, also met Virbhadra.

An upset Thakur said if the Congress government in Assam could host 750 Pakistani players during the South Asian Games recently, so could the Congress government in Himachal Pradesh.

“Providing security is the responsibility of the state government. Are we not able to provide security to 15 Pakistani players?” he asked. “Fans have invested in air and rail tickets, taxis and hotels. Cancelling the match would create trouble for them.”

He warned that cancellation would result in ICC banning international matches in the state for a long time. Dharamshala is the only international venue in Himachal Pradesh. “Those opposing the match were at the forefront of receiving the Pakistan team in 2005, a few years after the Kargil war,” he added. “Politicians opposing the match should know that in 67 years this is the first time that such a big event is being hosted in the state.”

Virbhadra told reporters that the government had provided security for the matches in the past

but this time it would be difficult for them.“We are not stopping the match, but the state government cannot use guns and lathis against the families of martyrs and ex-servicemen,” he said. “We cannot push them and use tear gas on them.”

Two-member Pak team in Dharamsala Meanwhile, a twomember team from Pakistan arrived on Monday to review the security situation in Dharamsala, eventhough no final decision has been taken about the match.

The team, comprising Federal Investigation Agency Lahore Director Dr Usman Anwar and Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Security Officer Col (R) Azam Khan, arrived via the Wagah border and left for Dharamsala. They will meet senior Indian security officials and assess the lodging and boarding arrangements for the players. Besides, it will assess whether the security situation is suitable for the visit by the cricket team.

Pakistan will take a final decision on the match after the report of its team.

Charity launches wheel chair basketball challenge Charity 'Path to Success' has invited companies to participate in a unique wheelchair basketball game alongside Team GB Paralympians. Corporate teams will compete with each other at the Copper Box Arena in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on April 26.

The aim of the event is to raise money for the London Titans, one of the United Kingdom's leading wheelchair basketball teams. Path to Success looks forward to see eight teams of eight to take part. All the participating

teams will receive expert coaching from five-time Team GB Paralympian Ann Wild OBE. The money raised by the event will go towards buying sports wheelchairs, court hire, match fees, transport, and coaching for the London Titans, which has produced more than 50 Team GB players, and yet, receives no central sports funding. Each team has to donate a minimum sum of £5,000. Two courts will be run side by side and the event will take place from 9 am to 5 pm. Media personality and former Team

GB Paralympian Ade Adepitan MBE, a London Titans coach, will also be in tow.

Path to Success founder Anita Choudhrie said: “Our goal for the day is to create an open and positive environment within which colleagues can experience the competitive nature of wheelchair basketball for the first time. “We are offering a unique experience to get away from the office and create lasting memories, while also raising money for an exceptional cause.”

Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

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Date

Match

Time

City

9th March, Wednesday

Bangladesh vs Netherlands Ireland vs Oman

3 pm 7.30 pm

Dharamsala

10th March, Thursday

Scotland vs Zimbabwe Hong Kong vs Afghanistan

3 pm 7.30 pm

Nagpur

11th March, Friday

Netherlands vs Oman Bangladesh vs Ireland

3 pm 7.30 pm

Dharamsala

12th March, Saturday

Zimbabwe vs Afghanistan Scotland vs Hong Kong

3 pm 7.30 pm

Nagpur

13th March, Sunday

Netherlands vs Ireland Bangladesh vs Oman

3 pm 7.30 pm

Dharmsala

15th March, Tuesday

New Zeland vs India

7.30 pm

Nagpur

16th March, Wednesday

Pakistan vs TBD (A1) West Indies vs England

3 pm 7 30 pm

Kolkata Mumbai

17th March, Thursday

Sri lanka vs TBD (B1)

7.30 pm

Kolkata

18th March, Friday

Australia vs New Zealand South Africa vs England

3 pm 7.30 pm

Dharamsala Mumbai

19th March, Saturday

India vs Pakistan

7.30 pm

Dharamsala

20th March, Sunday

South Africa vs TBD (B1) Sri Lanka vs West Indies

3 pm 7.30

Mumbai Bengaluru

21st March, Monday

Australia vs TBD (A1)

7.30 pm

Bengaluru

22nd March, Tuesday

New Zealand vs Pakistan

7.30 pm

Mohali

23rd March, Wednesday

England vs TBD (B1) India vs TBD (A1)

3 pm 7.30 pm

Delhi Bengaluru

25th March, Friday

Pakistan vs Australia South Africa vs West Indies

3 pm 7.30 pm

Mohali Nagpur

26th March, Saturday

TBD (A1) vs New Zealand Sri lanka vs England

3 pm 7.30 pm

Kolkata Delhi

27th March, Sunday

TBD (B1) vs West Indies India vs Australia

3 pm 7.30

Nagpur Mohali

28th March, Monday

South Africa vs Sri lanka

7.30 pm

Delhi

30th March, Wednesday

TBD vs TBD

7.30 pm

Delhi

31st March, Thursday

TBD vs TBD

7.30 pm

Mumbai

3rd April, Sunday

TBD vs TBD final

7.30 pm

Kolkata

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Asian Voice | 12th March 2016

India beat Bangladesh; win Asia Cup

India won the Asia Cup with an eight-wicket triumph over hosts Bangladesh on Sunday as opener Shikhar Dhawan returned to form with a half-century in a 94-run stand with Virat Kohli in a rain-hit final. The bad weather saw the Twenty20 match starting two hours late and being reduced to 15 overs a side after India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni won the toss and put Bangladesh in to bat.

Bangladesh, who lost to India in the group stages, got off to a slow start and only a late flurry of runs from Mahmudullah took Bangladesh to a competitive total of 120-5. India, world's top-ranked side in the shortest format of the game, lost opener Rohit Sharma early but calmly chased down the Bangaldesh total with seven balls to spare.

India came into the final having won all of their group matches and could not have hoped for a better preparation for this month's World Twenty20 tournament on home soil having also won their previous two series against

Australia and Sri Lanka.

Left-handed Dhawan (60), who had scored two, one and 16 not out in his last three outings in the tournament, and Kohli (41 not out) took the attack to the Bangladesh bowlers after Rohit's dismissal in the second over.

Dhawan fell to a diving catch by Soumya Sarkar off paceman Taskin Ahmed, prompting Dhoni to walk out and underline his worth as a finisher for India by smashing two sixes and a boundary in his innings of 20 off six balls.

Paceman Jasprit Bumrah and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin were the pick of the Indian bowlers, giving up 13 and

14 runs respectively in their quota of three overs apiece while picking up a wicket each.

Bangladesh were 75-5 in the 12th over and looked to be headed for a mediocre total but Mahmudullah's 33 not out from 13 balls ensured their bowlers had a fighting total to defend.

Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman (32 not out), judged to be the player of the tournament, added 45 for the sixth wicket in just over three overs. For Bangladesh the lack of firepower apart from the top three pacers proved decisive. Normally, the weight is borne by Shakib but the left-arm

spinner was ordinary in his first two overs, going for 26 runs. There was no one else that Mortaza could fall back on.

But the start that Bangladesh had with the ball also ensured that they were always in the game if a wicket fell. So when the 94-run stand between Dhawan and Kohli ended, India still needed 22 off 14 balls. MS Dhoni walked in as the designated finisher in the team. Off just the third ball he faced, Dhoni smashed a huge six over mid wicket to ease the tension first, and then in the same over there were two more sweet hits to wrap it up. A victory as clinical as it can be in a final.

Sharapova says she failed drug test Former tennis world No.1 Maria Sharapova said that she failed a drug test at the Australian Open due to a substance she has been taking for the last 10 years for health issues. The 28-yearold Russian tested positive for meldonium, which is used to treat diabetes and low magnesium, and was banned by the World AntiDoping Agency as of January 1, 2016.

"I received a letter from the ITF (International Tennis Federation) saying that I had failed a drug test at the Australian Open ... and I take full responsibility for it," Sharapova told a news conference. "For the past 10 years, I have been given a medicine called mildronate by my family doctor. It is very important for you to understand that for 10 years this medicine was not on WADA's banned list and I had been legally taking the medicine. But on January the first, the rules have changed and meldonium became a prohibited substance." Meldonium is used to treat chest pain and heart attacks, but some researchers have linked it to

Maria Sharapova

increased athletic performance and endurance. It is not approved in the United States but is available in Russia, Latvia and other countries in that region. The stunning news came a day after Sharapova's management team said she was going to make a "major announcement.." "I made a huge mistake. I let my fans down and I let the sport down. I have been playing since the age of four a sport that I love so deeply," said Sharapova. "I know that with this I face consequences and I don't want to end my career this way. I really hope that I will be given another chance to play this game." Sharapova, who has struggled with a series of injuries in recent years, has not competed since she lost to Serena Williams in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in January.