www.abplgroup.com - Asian Voice 19th April 2014
Indo-British relationship in need of innovative partnerships
Rupanjana Dutta
On a crispy sunny Wednesday morning, journalists were invited to a seminar discussing “The UK and India – A New at the Relationship� Courthouse Hotel, near Oxford Circus. It was attended by opinion formers, journalists, organisation representatives, medical doctors and members of the business community. The event was an opportunity to share thoughts on how we can strengthen Indo-British trade relations, and explore what Britain can also learn from India, over a cup of coffee and breakfast. The seminar started with a speech by Seema Malhotra MP on her experience during her recent official visit to India, where she met businesses, women entrepreneurs and the head of the new Women’s Bank the Bharatiya Mahila Bank, Usha Anantha Seema Subramanian. called for a new relationship between Britain and India that recognises the future depends on innovative partnerships and on increased cultural connectivity, not just with India but with new emerging economies. Seema explained the importance of nurturing the Indian diaspora in Britain, to improve relationship with the country, change mindsets about India and also praised India's progress with modern technology, and especially increasing number women in enterprises. She also spoke about the need to improve Whitehall's quality of service. The
event marked the first in a series of discussions Indo-British exploring trade relations as part of a review launched by Seema Malhotra MP and Jonathan Ashworth MP last month. Present also were Shadow Minister for Trade and Investment Ian Murray MP, and Mr Sundip Roy from the Confederation of Indian Industry. Speaking to Asian Voice exclusively, Seema said: “There is a perception to many observers that Britain is closing its doors to outsiders. It is a perception shared by students and businesses alike and one that three visits to India by the Prime Minister has done very little to diminish. Labour recognises this, and the need for an outward facing agenda for Britain. There is a wider context in which both India and the United Kingdom today face the future – a time of fundamental shifts in the balance of global wealth and influence. A profound re-ordering of world power of a kind that occurs only once every century or more. This is not just perceiving that India has much to learn from Britain, but that Britain now has much it can learn
from India. Trade relations between Britain and India have not grown as fast as the historical relationships between the two nations would suggest is possible. But if we think about some of India’s big challenges, it is also clear that addressing them plays to Britain’s strengths in terms of our core capabilities, experience and traditions.� The audience that included mostly people with Indian roots, shared their experience in doing business and taking delegations to India and also raised questions about visas, and failures of the UK bodies and banks to encourage and help Indians to set up businesses here especially the SMEs. Such challenges were spoken about by Sundip Roy and some possible solutions were also discussed by Ian Murray MP. The audience included important guests like Subhash Thakrar, Deputy President, London Chamber of Commerce, Vijay Goel, Chairman of the Asian Business Association, Journalists Parvathi Menon and Vidya Ram from The Hindu, Gunveena Chadha, Director and Head, CII UK, Cllr Mimi Harker OBE and many others.
He told the panel that she had been unhappy with the appearance and suffered discomfort.
The tribunal later ruled that no warning was necessary for Dr Pandya.
Doctor is cleared for mistaken operation
A “designer v a g i n a � operation, which went horribly wrong, has been regarded as a serious clinical failure but did not amount to female genital mutilation, a tribunal ruled on Friday 11 April. Dr Sureshkumar Pandya, pictured, reduced the size of a woman’s labia because “it was ugly�, but the patient, 33, was left “distraught� by the results, the Manchester tribunal had been told. A fitness to practise panel ruled that although the anatomical result of the procedure could be said “to be equivalent to FGM,� Dr Pandya should be cleared because he did not intend to perform such an operation. Dr Pandya performed the labiaplasty on the Muslim woman at the Regency Clinic in London in March 2012.
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11
No. 10 investigates Council's links to Islamic extremists
A London Council, which is already undergoing an investigation of fraud, is now being probed over its links to Muslim extremists, a report has revealed. Tower Hamlets council made headlines after mayor Lutfur Rahman allegedly doubled recomfunding to mended Bengali-run charities in an apparent attempt to buy favour. But a recent leaked government report has now suggested the mayor and his finance minister, Alibor Choudhury, have links to Islamic extremist groups, including one seeking to set up a Sharia state in Europe. A document, which was given to The Sunday Telegraph, reportedly says
Lutfur Rahman
that three community centres owned by the council were used for meetings of radical groups including al-Muhajiroun, the banned Islamist terrorist organisation founded by Omar Bakri Mohammed
and Anjem Choudary The council also gave ÂŁ2million of funding to the East London Mosque, which previously held a telephone Q&A with al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki, and the Osmani Trust, a Muslim-only youth group. Mr Rahman has also been accused by Panorama of increasing public funding to Bangladeshi and Somali groups from ÂŁ1.5 million to ÂŁ3.6 million in the face of officer recommendations. The mayor has denied the claims and has said that they are motivated by racism and Islamophobia.
60% of students' loans will never be fully repaid Almost two-thirds of students will never repay their taxpayer-funded tuition fee loans, according to new government figures. To cover the cost of student fees, billions of pounds in government loans are given to students. This tripled to ÂŁ9,000 a year under coalition reforms introduced in 2012. Students are not required to repay their debts until they are earn-
ing more than ÂŁ21,000 a year and any unpaid debts are written off after 30 years. Ministers have argued that the system is intended ensure that to students from working class backgrounds are not put off applying to university as a result of higher tuition fees. However, new figures published by David Willetts, the Universities Minister, stated that 60 per cent of stu-
dents are expected never to repay the full value of their loans. Liam Byrne, the shadow universities minister, said the estimate exposed damage “the this Government has done to higher education funding. They’ve tripled tuition fees, saddling our children and grandchildren with a mountain of debt and yet their system is haemorrhaging taxpayers’ money,� he said.