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March 25, 2011
India Post
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www.indiapost.com
Ela Bhatt to be conferred Radcliffe Award India Post News Service
NEW YORK: Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) will be awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal on Radcliffe Day, May 27, 2011. SEWA, founded in 1972, was conceived as a women's trade union that bills itself as an organization and a movement, and has grown into an NGO that offers micro-lending, health and life insurance, and child care - all overseen by more than a hundred women-run cooperatives. In January 2010, SEWA membership reached 1.2 million. Bhatt's long battle for social justice has recently brought her more recognition and visibility. In November last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honored Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence, gaining ac-
cess to opportunities they never dreamed possible. "Like the chance to start a business or send their daughters and their sons to school, open their own bank accounts, or simply be treated with
Bhatt's long battle for social justice has recently brought her more recognition and visibility. In November last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honored Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women to a position of dignity respect," Clinton said. In a 2009 feature article, the New York Times called Bhatt "a Gandhian pragmatist for the new
India." The Radcliffe Institute Fellowship Program was founded at Radcliffe College in 1960 as the Radcliffe Institute for Independent Study. In 1978 the Institute was renamed the Mary Ingraham Bunting Institute to honor Radcliffe College President Mary Bunting whose initiative it was to create a postgraduate study center for female scholars and artists. Concerned about the prevailing "climate of unexpectation" for women at that time, Bunting deliberately sought to reverse that negative attitude by establishing the essential gifts of an Institute fellowship: time, financial support, a room of one's own, membership in a vital community of women, and access to all Radcliffe and Harvard resources. "The Radcliffe Institute is proud to honor her this year, in which gender in the developing world is one of its dominant themes," the Institute said.
Obama gets report on improving life of AAPIs India Post News Service
WASHINGTON: Asian American and Pacific Islander leaders appointed by President Obama have presented a report to the White House with recommendations on how 23 federal agencies and offices can improve the everyday lives of AAPIs. The report addresses problems uniquely facing Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, such as linguistic isolation, health problems that disproportionally affect AAPIs and bullying and other civil rights issues. The report was submitted to the White House during a gathering of two groups created under the executive order establishing the White House Initiative on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders the President's Advisory Commission and the federal Interagency Working Group, which includes representatives from almost every federal agency. President Obama stopped by the gathering to thank the Commission and the Working Group for their work. U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke, who serves as the White House Initiative's co-chair noted that each federal agency worked hard to identify hurdles preventing the AAPI community from achieving their full potential. "We've made a lot of progress," said Secretary Locke. "A lot of innovative thought went into this
report to the President. The Census, for one, gave us a lot of insight into how we can make our federal government more responsive to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders." "This report shows how the federal government is taking ac-
‘The President is very appreciative of all the great work that has been done on the report," said Chris Lu. "And we challenge all of you - the Initiative, the Commission, and the agency representatives - to work quickly to implement these important recommendations’ tion to address unique AAPI needs," said Daphne Kwok, chairwoman of the President's Advisory Commission on AAPIs. "Hopefully, federal agencies will implement these recommendations as quickly as possible." Details outlined in the report were submitted by each agency to address priorities established by the White House Initiative -creating healthy communities and sustainable neighborhoods, ex-
panding educational opportunities, increasing economic growth and improving civil rights. Assistant to the President and Cabinet Secretary Christopher Lu joined President Obama to accept the report, urging Administration officials to move quickly to carryout the recommendations outlined in the plans. "The President is very appreciative of all the great work that has been done on the report," said Chris Lu. "And we challenge all of you - the Initiative, the Commission, and the agency representatives - to work quickly to implement these important recommendations." Recommendations in the report include: *Early identification of chronic Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) infection for Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander populations that don't know they have the virus. Hepatitis B chronically infects about 1.5 million people in the U.S., and AAPIs account for over half of all the cases. *Strengthening of Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander Serving Institutions programs to increase college graduation rates for AAPI students. While educational attainment among East Asian and South Asian groups is high, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders have lower high school graduation rates.
Satish Sharma denies WikiLeaks claims NEW DELHI: Two key players, including former Union Minister Satish Sharma, whose name figures in the Wikileaks cables in connection with allegations of bribing MPs to win the 2008 trust vote, has denied any role in the episode. Rejecting the allegations, Sharma said he did not have any aide by the name of Nachiketa Kapur and the allegations were baseless. "I have read the Hindu paper. It said I have an aide. I do not have any political aide. There was no aide of me by the name of Kapur as reported by the paper," Sharma said. US diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks claimed that an aide of Sharma allegedly showed a US Embassy employee "two chests containing cash" and said Rs 5060 crore is ready for use as "payoffs" to win the support of some MPs ahead of crucial vote of confidence in UPA government over the Indo-US nuke deal. Kapur, the other player named in the cable, also denied the allegations as "malicious". "I vehemently deny this malicious allegations," he said. Asked whether he met an official from the US Embassy, Kapur said he never met the US official. "No, I did not meet him." When asked about the allegations of him stashing Rs 50-60 crore, Kapur said, "There was no cash so pointing out does not arise." RLD chief Ajit Singh also denied the allegations of his party MPs taking bribe to vote in favor of the Government. "Our party was against the
nuclear deal and incidentally the recent event in Japan has vindicated us. We had extensive discussions with the TDP, TRS and Left and we decided to vote against the government and we did vote against the government," Singh said. The cable claimed that Kapur, Sharma's political aide, mentioned to an Embassy staff member in an aside on July 16, 2008 that Ajit
Satish Sharma
Singh's RLD had been paid Rs. 10 crore for each of their "four MPs" to support the government. Kapur reportedly mentioned that money was not an issue at all, but the crucial thing was to ensure that those who took the money would vote for the government, according to the cable sent from the US Embassy to the US State department dated July 17, 2008. Kapur showed the Embassy employee "two chests containing cash" and said that "around Rs. 50-60 crore (about 25 million USD ) was lying around the house for "use as pay-offs", the cable claimed. -PTI
Next Regional PBD to be held in Toronto India Post News Service
NEW YORK: The next Regional Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) convention will be held in Toronto, Canada June 9-10 this year. The Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Government of India, has been organizing the annual Pravasi Bharatiya Divas (PBD) Convention, the flagship event of MOIA, since 2003 in its endeavor to engage with the overseas Indians. MOIA has also been organizing Regional Conventions on the lines of PBD in different regions
of the world since 2007. Four such regional PBD Conventions have been held in New York (2007), Singapore (2008), The Hague (2009) and Durban, South Africa (2010). The Toronto PBD will focus on the Indian Diaspora in North America and the Caribbean. The event is being held in partnership with the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce and the Government of Canada. The event will be inaugurated on June 9 by Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs, Vayalar Ravi. Prime Minister of Canada is also expected to attend the event.