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12 - 18 OCT 2019 - VOL 48 ISSUE 24

inside: Derby campaigns against diabetes

Summer Brexit extension?

Priyanka Mehta Prime Minister Boris Johnson has decided to close down Parliament once again for the period of prorogation after parliamentary business was wrapped up on Tuesday 8th October. This six-day closure follows Johnson’s previous attempt to prorogue Parliament, which was ruled unlawful by the Supreme Court. It forced the return of Parliament.

This suspension comes ahead of a Queen’s Speech next week scheduled on October 14, Monday.

This means there will be no debates, select committees

or other usual business that goes on within Westminster for six days when the Queen re-opens parliament.

The European Union is poised to extend Brexit talks into as late as next summer after the European council president, Donald Tusk, dismissed Boris Johnson’s strategy as a “stupid blame game”. Reports suggest that a “range of dates” will now be in play at the meeting of European leaders next week with natural cut-off date being sometime in June.

Johnson had repeatedly punctuated to take Britain out of the EU “do or die”, deal or no deal, on 31 October.

Continued on page 7

SEE PAGE 6

UK court rules in favour of India in the Hyderabad Fund case SEE PAGE 26

Gandhi at 150: The road to non-violence SEE PAGE 16-17

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onetoone WITH KEITH VAZ, MP

Subarna Banerjee Subarna Banerjee is a audit partner at UHY Hacker Young, a leading accounting firm in the City of London. He leads external audits which involves confirming whether the accounts published by companies are 'true and fair'. He is Head of Charities and Notfor-profit and is also a member of the firm's Executive Committee.

Some of his clients include the UK's largest grant giving foundations. He also audits a number of privately owned companies which are involved in property and publishing. Subarna has worked at the firm for 5 years having worked at Grant Thornton and Ernst and Young previously. He is married with four children, two of whom are now adults and making their own way in the world.

He enjoys travelling and playing tennis in his spare time.

1

Which place, or city or country do you most feel at home in?

I feel most at home in London. I was born here and have lived all of my life here. I'm proud to call myself a Londoner. My parents were born in Kolkata but moved to the

UK around 50 years ago. I have been a number of times to India and would dearly love to visit again.

I am proud that I have become a partner at a leading accounting firm as well as being a member of its Executive Committee (effectively the firm's Board). This role allows me to help take key decisions and shape the future of the firm.

3

What inspires you?

Seeing people help each other purely out of their own desire to help. There are loads of examples of these on social media and I love watching them!

4

What has been biggest obstacle in your career?

As an auditor, there are a lot of rules and regulations involved. Our files get inspected regularly by our regulators. It is important that these are all adhered to on every assignment. Although we comply completely, there is a lot to get through!

5

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

The biggest influencer on my career has been my wife, Olga. We have been married for over 20 years and without her, I would not have achieved everything I have done so professionally. Her support and advice at particular points in my personal life and career have made all the difference.

6

What is the best aspect about your current role?

I love coaching people and see them develop in their career. In addition to leading

external audits, I see this as a key part of my role.

7

And the worst?

I can't think of any bad aspects of my current role. I love my job!

8

What are your long term goals?

My long term goal is to help ensure that UHY Hacker Young continues to grow.

Our strapline is 'Helping you prosper' and we want to see both our clients and our staff do exactly that!

9

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

A particular aspect of my job is ensuring our clients include gender pay gap information correctly. I think we need to take this to the next stage and ensure that companies must disclose ethnicity pay gaps aswell. It is obvious there are differences in pay in this area and this is an issue that needs to be addressed and corrected.

10

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

I am truly inspired by Nelson Mandela. He achieved a huge amount despite numerous setbacks. His appetite for forgiveness was enormous. The world would be a lot better if our leaders could follow his example.

2 Search for thief who made off Harrow solicitor receives with £600 from JD Sports shop Lifetime Achievement award Police have launched an appeal to find an thief who made of with a wad of cash left in a West Bromwich shop.

It is believed a man spotted the envelope containing £600 while queueing for the till at the JD Sports shop in New Square shopping centre. The theft occurred at 7.15pm on September 10.

Caught on the store's CCTV cameras, the man made off with the cash instead of handing it in to staff. An image of a man the force would like to speak to in connection with the incident has been released.

A spokesman for West Midlands Police said: "Can you help us find this man

What are your proudest achievements?

Police want to speak to this man in connection with the theft of an envelope of £600 (Image: Wets Midlands Police)

who picked up an envelope containing £600 in cash? He spotted the package while waiting in line at JD Sports, New Square in West Bromwich at about 7.15pm on Tuesday, September 10.

But instead of handing it in to staff he left the store with

it."

Anyone with information can contact us via Live westat Chat midlands.police.uk between 8am and midnight, call 101 contact or anytime Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

Harrow celebrant and toastmaker recognised as Entrepreneur of the Year A female Asian celebrant and toastmaker has been named Entrepreneur of the Year. Sonal Dave, 51, (pictured) from Harrow has been named Women of the World’s ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ after starting her luxury toastmaker, celebrant and public speaking business just a year ago.

The business titled ‘Sonal Dave’, which caters for events, weddings, ceremonies, talks and public speaking events has seen success since launching, with events for clients such as The Old Bailey, Grosvenor House, Plaisterers Hall.

In the past, Ms Dave worked more than 20 years in the Civil Service, which included rising from an

est.

Admin Officer to a Deputy Director working in many different government departments.

While her career change to become an entrepreneur placed her life in the Civil Service behind, Ms Dave has worked as a Magistrate in north west London for the past 15 years and continues to do so. In response to being named Entrepreneur of the Year, Ms Dave said: “I’m still in shock about my latest award win to be hon-

“It’s such a privilege to be recognised in this way, especially as I’ve overcome so many health hurdles to get to where I am today; the UK’s only female Asian celebrant and toastmaker running my own business and helping others to feel confident about public speaking.”

The Women of the World Awards launched in 2017 by Nirmala Bhojani were set up to honour and recognise the valuable work that females do in so many ways to ‘be the change they want to see.’

The award is not the first for Ms Dave, as she was also recognised by BrideBook, a wedding planning app, as the 2019 Celebrant of the Year.

A Lifetime Achievement award has been given to a solicitor for their legal services.

Rithu Sethi, founder of the Sethi Partnership Solicitors, Ruislip, has received a Lifetime Achievement 2019 award by the Society of Asian Lawyers for Mrs Sethi’s legal services.

The award ceremony took place on September 28, 2019, at the Royal Lancaster Hotel in Bayswater, attended by over 600 judges, lawyers and their guests.

Her husband (left) and Rithu Sethi (right) at the lifetime acheivement award ceremony

Pakistan not supporting Khalistan movement, says government report A report published by British government-funded Commission for Countering Extremism (CCE) says that many Sikhs feel angered by claims made by India's government of growing British and Canadian Sikh terrorism and that “Khalistani” movement has the backing of Pakistan - without any evidence.

The report for the UK government’s independent adviser on extremism found that Sikhs were angry that campaigns to highlight human rights abuses were labelled “Khalistani terrorism” with accusations that they were Pakistani funded — without evidence ever presented publicly by the Indian government.

The report titled “The Changing Nature of Activism among Sikhs in the UK” has been written by Senior Lecturer in Sikh Studies Dr Jagbir Jhutti-

Johal at the Department of Theology and Religion, University of Birmingham and Sunny Hundal a journalist and a writer.

The report, based on research and interviews, found that tensions between Sikhs and Hindus in Britain were rising and were set to get worse with the Sikhs becoming more assertive about their faith identity while playing a bigger role in wider society.

The report analysed in detail why more Sikhs in the West were demanding an independent homeland for

Sikhs — called Khalistan — and why the Indian government saw it through the lens of terrorism and extremism.

The report further said the Indian govt overlooked the fact that a significant portion of Sikhs came to Britain and Canada in the 80s to escape the Indian government's persecution and were attracted to this idea of ethnonationalism.

Most participants of the survey agreed that Sikhs want a separate homeland because of the injustice they have faced and continue to face.

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12 - 18 Oct 2019

Significance of Gandhi’s life and work Mahatma Gandhi was a unique Indian and world figure.

His message of non-violence opened a new dimension in politics, because politics was his weapon of choice. There were other remarkable figures who preached love and tolerance from secluded meditative retreats. Gandhi had his ashram for reflection far from the madding crowd’s ignoble strife. But such moments led him to his inner voice. Having submitted to this life enhancing experience, Gandhi emerged with new vigour, milling with the multitudes, conversing with colleagues, big and small, consulting with political leaders of every stripe in his visionary endeavours to take society forward in new and novel directions. Gandhi served his early political, social and spiritual apprenticeship in racially divided South Africa, where Africans and other peoples of colour, such as Indians and those of mixed race, all reduced to hewers of wood and drawers of water by the country’s white supremacist establishment. Gandhi practised law there, transcending its limits through mass action against unjust laws and injustice in all its forms.

He returned to India on the eve of the First World, which broke out in the mid-summer of 1914. Indian politics at the time was principally led and driven by a middle class elite of lawyers and professionals adept in disputations of constitutional issues with the rulers of British India. Gandhi cast his net wide, drawing in the dumb masses, poor and mostly illiterate, for the most part, giving them a sense of their own worth – a critical struggle that encompassed debilitating caste divisions and loyalties, and caste oppression of the lowly sanctified by time and hallowed ancient tests.

India won its Independence in August 1947. The Partition was a traumatic experience with blood and gore spilled across the country. The Mahatma unflinchingly threw himself into the cauldron, travelling across India to the centres of violence, reproaching the guilty of every faith, appealing to soiled consciences to remember their better instincts and turn a new leaf to redemption.

Gandhi was cut down by an assassin nurtured in the culture of vengeance. His martyrdom brought rioting mobs to their senses. A free and sovereign India took the first halting steps to national construction under the rule of law, guaranteeing every citizen his/her rights of free expression and thought irrespective of faith, gender or ethnicity. The pains of labour were, are, self-evident.

Much has been achieved, but much more remains to be done to fulfil the dreams of each passing generation.

Gandhi, with his wonderful humour, would surely have smiled at the unending waves of tributes to his memory, the struggles and disappoints he had to endure, and not least, the manner of his tragic death. Such

emotional disgorging, alas, contains shoals of hypocrisy: demagogues, unscrupulous politicians, thieving men of business, not to speak of media moguls and their Gandhi supplements bulging with pious platitudes, clichés, empty moralizing and much else that is disreputable. Two national broadsheets included a full page from China’s People’s Daily, the content embarrassingly imbecilic, but, no doubt, paid for handsomely. From the same stable, another broadsheet brings out, from time to time, full page paid advertisements of the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi. Both publications are much given to virtuous sermons on democracy and human rights. Pictures of Gandhi with a quote as embellishment, is an anniversary sport.

An edit-page contributor in the Times of India (October 5) wrote this insightful comment: ‘Gandhi as a political radical did not believe in government and in the state, a troubling aspect for all parties and leaders in government.’ Nor did he believe in industrialisation, as was made abundantly clear in his newspaper, for he was too honest to indulge in the sly casuistry of denial. His preferred constitution, B.R. Ambedkar pointed out, was one best suited to a timeless pastoral.

No political, social, moral system can be ironclad.

Gandhi’s methods worked against Jan Smuts in South Africa, and with the British in India because both, by and large, were subject to moral compulsions over unfettered licence; both respected the Mahatma as a man and opponent. Britain’s Labour Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, said of Gandhi at his passing: ‘Throughout his long life he strove for peace and condemned the resort to violence. His loss will be borne by thousands in all walks of life in every country in the world. His moral and spiritual leadership have been an inspiring example in this distracted and troubled age. Britain will share in India’s great grief.’

It was India’s good fortune that Gandhi’s peaceful mass movements deepened and sharpened popular panIndian sentiment. Alternative violence might have reverted to competing regional despotisms, which, coinciding with the genesis of the Cold War, could have led to India’s fragmentation. It was Gandhi’s enduring service to his country and people that they remain bonded in common purpose.

A final reflection: Adolf Hitler told British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, that, in Britani’s place, he would have had Gandhi shot without remorse or hesitation. The Nazis dispatched six million non-resisting Jews, men, women and children, to gas chambers. It was the overwhelming might of Allied arms that reduced the monstrous Third Reich to ashes. Force has its uses too.

Dissecting America’s India policy India is caught in the maelstrom of America’s domestic politics. Democrats and Republicans have been at each other’s throats ever since Donald Trump, against all the odds, won the 2016 Presidential race to the White House.

The Democratic Party establishment cried foul and has sought relentlessly to unseat President Trump. If need be through impeachment proceedings. At first sight the Modi-Trump meeting at Houston appeared to be a roaring success. However, closer scrutiny reveals that it was anything but. Both mainstream parties are firmly wedded to the maintenance of US global hegemony, with India perceived by both as an uncongenial Bantustan obstacle.

America’s Manifest Destiny has long been at the heart of the official American narrative. Sanctions regimes, regime change and targeted assassinations of foes, torture chambers, continue to be the staple of American statecraft. That, clearly, is the rub, but such signals rarely register on the general run of partially sighted Indian correspondents, much given to salivating on the projected value-driven union of the world’s two largest democracies. Kashmir is where US coercive diplomacy will be given its first trial run. President Trump was never on board Indian perceptions of Pakistan, repeatedly

insisting his willingness to play mediator on Kashmir, pressing for Modi-Imran Khan talks, impervious to Pakistan’s export of Jihadi terrorism to India. Jihadi terrorists have been accommodated, whenever and wherever necessary, in pursuit of America’s geo-political strategies. Remember, also, the studious US neutrality during India’s face-off with China at Doklan in the summer of 2017.Now, bring the pieces together and make the connection: China and Pakistan are all-weather soul mates, Islamabad a common cog in the wheels of SinoAmerican diplomacy..

The US State Department set Kashmir ball rolling.

Senior Republican Senator Lindsey Graham (close to President Trump), on cue, issued a notably harsh statement on Indian transgressions in Kashmir. Fellow Republican Senator Chris Van Hollen made off for New Delhi at the head of a Congressional delegation to voice their concerns on alleged Indian human rights violations and democratic norms in Kashmir to elusive Prime Minister Narendra Modi. External Affairs Minister Jaishankar’s media blitz in Washington, it would appear, left his audiences stone cold. Boisterous twaddle on shared democratic values and much else is scripting drama for the theatre of the absurd.

Making the law an ass The rule of law can be redemptive; its misuse can reduce its status to that of an ass. Forty-nine celebrities who penned an open letter, way back in July to Prime Minister Modi, expressing disquiet at the abomination of mob lynching did so without naming, shaming or attacking any individual; for this innocuous act have been tarred with the brush of sedition. Sudhir Kumar Ojha, a Muzzarpur lawyer, has filed a petition in the Court of the

Chief Judicial Magistrate seeking action against the signatories on the grounds of sedition, public nuisance, and hurt to religious sensibilities. The Muzzarpur police formally registered the complaint – a black comedy of calibrated errors, no doubt, but even for crime-ridden , chaotic Bihar such flights of fancy leave one wondering whether Bihar is a province of China or a State within the Indian Union? Fact is often stranger than fiction.

When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive - to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.

- Marcus Aurelius

Alpesh Patel

Labour In Panicked Damage Control Within one hour of launching the letter of protest to the Labour Party’s Emergency Motion on Kashmir, this newspaper had signatures in support of the protest from over 65 British organisations. These spoke to, if not for, the vast majority of British Indians. That motion seeks to contravene British policy and interfere in India’s internal politics – in an effort to embarrass and demean an ally of ours, and an enemy of those passing the Motion.

Labour have totally under-estimated the backlash. Manoj Ladwa, former Chair of the Labour Friends of India resigned and publicly condemned the Labour Party. This paper, long-standing in its support of Labour has led the campaign against the Labour motion. The Manchester Labour Mayor is being cold-shouldered in India for his forthcoming trip. The London Labour Mayor is being rejected by participants from the community for Diwali in the square.

We want to get to over 100 signatures and are well on the way. To those who have not heard and so not signed – this is not about any one campaigner, or organisation. This is the opportunity you’ve called for and sought to show one unified front. This is what you’ve always said British Indians don’t do.

This is your time, your opportunity. Those not on board with the vast vast majority will rue that they were not part of the fraternity, the brotherhood and sisterhood. Their members will ask questions too.

We will name all signatory organisation next week as promised. If we do not stand up now, then when? For our values of a Britain of multi-cultural values, of religions living peaceably together, if we do not add our names to this letter to Jeremy Corbyn, that he cannot take for granted the votes of British Indians, he cannot allow his party to be hijacked by extremists, that we will not appease the support of terrorism in the guise of ‘freedom fighters’, that at best we will abstain in supporting his Party, at worst, we will rise up to actively oppose it, not just now, but for a generation.

This is a game-changer. The attacks on the elderly outside the Indian High Commission. The attack on the Indian flag, the High Commission – a symbol for the dignity of India and Indians in Britain.

We stand against the slander against our heritage. We stand against the claims we are not the guardians of human rights. We stand against the insult to our faith, that it is not open to all cultures and peoples of the world. We stand against deceit and terror and violence. We British Indians who proudly integrate stand by our Britishness and Indian values which are one and the same. And we stand against the forces of division who seek to divide us as a community among ourselves as Indians, and between us as Asians and a Britons.

Here, through this letter and campaign from this paper we make our stand, united. One for all.

Once and for all. Join us. To all my fellow British Indian organisations, I say this, lay down all pride, all division, all difference. Be one at this moment. Send the message – we are as united as the Union of India.

The lions of Ashoka can roar. To the adversaries of peace, multi-culturalism, multi-ethnicity unity, I say this, “I fear all you have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.”

If you’ve not signed up for your organisation, please email your name, position and organisation you represent to: aveditorial@abpgroup.com Editor: CB Patel Asian Voice is published by Asian Business Publications Ltd Karma Yoga House, 12 Hoxton Market, (Off Coronet Street) London N1 6HW. Tel: 020 7749 4080 • Fax: 020 7749 4081 Email: aveditorial@abplgroup.com Website: www.abplgroup.com © Asian Business Publications

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Shree Hindu Mandir in Leicester burgled; community members upset possible, cover a necklace with a scarf or other garment. If you are walking to a Navratri event put jewellery into a secure bag or pocket until you get there and put it on when you arrive. Do the same on the way home. Be aware of what is happening around you and trust your instincts. If you feel unsafe change your direction and go where you feel safer.

Photograph all items of jewellery individually and keep the photos safe. Wherever possible leave valuables in a bank of safe deposit box and take them out only when needed. Lock all windows and doors at night and every time you leave home.

Anyone with information about the break-in is urged to contact officers by calling 101.

The Shree Hindu Mandir, off Uppingham Road, Leicester, has been burgled and cash stolen from collection boxes. When the temple staff arrived on Saturday morning, they found a rear fire door had been smashed in and the donation boxes forced open with coins scattered across the floor.

Worshipper Rav Thakor said: “It’s not a nice way to start Navratri. A lot of damage has been caused. It looks like they have forced open the collection boxes, taken the notes and dumped the coins. We don’t know how much was taken because nobody knows how much was in the collection boxes.

It could be quite a bit because the mandir has been

busy recently with a lot or readings and recitals of holy texts. Everyone was looking forward to celebrating Navratri but this has not been a very happy start to the festival. It has upset the community. We hope somebody knows who is responsible and calls the police.”

Leicestershire Police are investigating the crime and are appealing for witnesses.

A police spokeswoman said the break-in took place sometime between 6.30 pm on Friday and 6.45 am on Saturday. Navratri began on Sunday and is a ten day festival leading up to Diwali.

The police have issued advice to worshippers to help them stay safe during Navratri. These are: Be discreet when wearing jewellery in public and, if

New India scholarship launched by University of Wolverhampton A new scholarship has been launched by the University of Wolverhampton to support Indian nationals wishing to study in the UK. The Vice-Chancellor’s India Scholarship is available for new applicants applying to all undergraduate and postgraduate taught programmes of study at the University.

Indian nationals who

wish to begin their studies at the University in January/February 2020 are eligible.

The award is for selffunding students who are nationals of India and is available for all students who meet the criteria.

Vice-Chancellor, Professor Geoff Layer, said: “Our international students play an important role in the

vibrant life of the University of Wolverhampton and we are delighted to be launching this scholarship for new Indian nationals joining us.

“The University is proud to have very strong links with India through our Chancellor the Rt Hon Lord Paul of Marylebone, PC. We look forward welcoming our new students to our campuses in the UK next year.”

Full details of the scholarship are available here: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/inter national/making-an-application/vice-chancellorsindia-scholarship-/ Information about being an International student at the University of Wolverhampton is available on their website: https://www.wlv.ac.uk/inter national/

A footballer was brought back to life after a heart attack by two doctors who were playing.

Dilraj Sagoo had been on the pitch with the two doctors at St Margaret’s Pastures in Abbey Park, Leicester, when he decided to take a break from the seven-a-side game and go for a sit down after feeling a tightness in his chest. He eventually got up to leave but fell straight down again.

Dr Ismail Daya and Dr Nadeem Ackbarally, who are both locum GPs, rushed to him from the pitch.

Nadeem rushed to help

Image: Andy Morton

Footballer brought back to life by two doctors playing on the pitch

Dilraj Sagoo, Ismail Daya, Nadeem Ackbarally

Ismail and the pair started chest compressions and shouted for someone to see if there was a defibrillator about. Luckily there was one at the site but even with it there was still only an outside chance they would be able to bring Dilraj back to

life without all the equipment and drugs that would be used in a hospital.

Nadeem, of Oadby, said: “Chest compressions alone very rarely start a heart going again and even if you have a defibrillator you need some electrical activity in the heart

for it to work so it’s not guaranteed to bring someone back to life. Luckily Dilraj could be saved because he had a shockable rhythm.”

While Nadeem had done CPR in the past, he had never done it on a friend before.

Dilraj spent three nights at Glenfield Hospital and had a stent – a small tube – inserted in the artery that had caused the heart attack to prevent it happening again.

Three days after his collapse at about 9.30pm on Thursday, September 25, he returned home to his family and is taking a month off his job in IT to recuperate.

Murdered US Sikh policeman honoured in UK Hundreds of people in Wolverhampton, UK, have paid tribute to a Sikh US police officer who was killed during a routine patrol in Texas last month.

The murder of Harris County Sheriff Deputy Sandeep Dhaliwal, 42 - who was hailed as a "trailblazer" for becoming the first officer in Texas to wear a traditional Sikh turban and beard - sent shockwaves through the US as well as in Sikh communities around the world. Sun Kaur, of United Sikhs, said that as the

group's homeland security director, Dhaliwal "lived everyday in service of others". She said he "proudly wore his turban" to symbolise his commitment to "equality for all".

Dhaliwal had been drawn to a life of community service, speaker after speaker recounted during the memorial on Saturday.

His father served in the Indian Navy and his uncle, too had served in the Indian military. Dhaliwal's sister, Spring Vale ward Labour councillor Rupinderjit Kaur, also paid tribute to her brother at the memorial service which she had helped organise.

Both siblings were born in India before moving away. Mr Dhaliwal first

worked as a truck driver in Texas before later joining the sheriff's department 10 years ago, she recalled.

During the eulogy, Ms Kaur remembered her brother saying: "Never compromise with your faith to fit in. Be an example. If we [Sikhs] don't tell the world about ourselves, then who will?"

Dhaliwal was shot in the back of the head by a convict who feared going back to prison, police say. His killing is not suspected of being a hate crime.

in brief MAN FIGHTING FOR LIFE IN HOSPITAL AFTER 'HIT AND RUN' IN NEWTON HEATH A man was critically injured after a hit and a run in Newton Heath. The 53 year-old was struck as he was walking down Briscoe Lane shortly after 10pm. The 2017 grey coloured Vauxhall Astra which collided with him failed to stop and carried on towards Alan Turing Way, close to the Etihad Stadium , police said. The alarm was raised and emergency services including police and paramedics raced to the scene.

A large chunk of the road from close to the junction with Carruthers Street was taped off by police as they dealt with the aftermath. The man was rushed to Salford Royal hospital with what GMP say are life threatening injuries and he remains in a critical condition Saturday they confirmed.

Officers could be seen taking photographs of the scene and placing down yellow evidence markers at points on the road as they attempted to piece together exactly what happened in the moments leading up to, and after the collision. The driver still hasn't been traced and police have appealed for anyone with information to come forward immediately.

FIRED BIRMINGHAM APPRENTICE STAR SHAHIN HASSAN SAYS CO-STARS THREW HIM UNDER THE BUS The Apprentice kicked off the new series last night and the opening episode saw Birmingham's own Shahin Hassan (pictured) fired by Lord Sugar. The 36-year-old chartered engineer was the first candidate to be sent home after filming to impress the entrepreneur. The boys team opted for a safari tour whilst the girls chose wine tasting. Neither team got a particularly impressive profit but the girls pipped the boys to the post and were treated to champagne back at their posh new digs. That left the boys team in the firing line and ultimately Shahin received the dreaded pointed finger in his direction. He told Mirror Online : "I'm surprised I left in the first week. I thought I was a strong contender so I wasn't expecting it. Insisting that selling "wasn't his strength" and that he would have been better suited to the tour operating sub-team, he said: "I think I was an easy scapegoat for them as well." He admitted that he did feel like he had been thrown under the bus. I did sell something on the second day, I wasn't the one who didn't sell anything." Next week the candidates will be tasked with making ice lollies. The Apprentice continues on BBC One on Wednesdays at 9pm.

REDBRIDGE COUNCIL LEADER SUSPENDED FROM LABOUR PARTY OVER 'SERIOUS ALLEGATION' The leader of Redbridge Council has been suspended from the Labour Party over "extremely serious allegations". Labour has reopened candidate applications for the Ilford South constituency after Jas Athwal (pictured) was suspended by the party hours before a selection decision was due to be made. Cllr Athwal said "untrue allegations" were made against him in August, but he was only advised that he had been suspended on Friday night.

Party members were due to select their preferred candidate at a meeting on Saturday. A Labour source denied accusations of a "stitch-up", saying "extremely serious allegations" had been made against Cllr Athwal and the timing had nothing to do with the selection process. But Cllr Athwal said in a statement: "Untrue allegations were made against me on August 13. I responded in detail to the Labour Party on August 20, with supporting evidence including witness statements, proving the allegations were untrue. No reply was received from the Labour Party. Nothing was heard until late yesterday, my solicitor was emailed at 11pm, advising that I was suspended from the Labour Party. This is not a fair process. It is contrary to natural justice. All I seek is a fair hearing and due process. The Labour Party has had every opportunity to deal with this matter properly and fairly in the past seven weeks and chose only to act late yesterday by suspending me when I have no time to challenge that decision. This is why people are so upset."

Labour MP for Ilford North Wes Streeting thanked those who had raised objections to what he described as an "undemocratic stitch-up" in his neighbouring constituency.

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Stewart enters race to Sikh peer quits “prejudiced be the Mayor of London and intolerant” BBC An MP for Penrith and the Border has resigned from his constituency and has now thrown his hat in the race to becoming the next Mayor of London.

Former Conservative leadership candidate Rory Stewart has announced that he will run for the Mayor of London as an independent candidate The Eton and Oxford educated Scot served as deputy governor of two provinces in Iraq following the 2003 invasion, and is well known for walking across Afghanistan, documented in his best-selling book The Places in Between.

He previously also served as a minister for Defra with responsibility for flood response, a foreign office minister and prisons minister before being promoted to secretary of state for international development.

In an open letter to Londoners, published in the Evening Standard, Stewart wrote that he was running for mayor to try and eradicate “the suffocating embrace of our dying party politics”.

He said political leaders had “retreated to a madhouse of mutual insults in the Gothic shouting cham-

Sadiq Khan

Siobhan Benita

Rory Stewart

Shaun Bailey

ber of Westminster, pitting one group against another – rich against poor, London against the rest, Brexit against remain – and all the time getting further and further away from compromise, practical solutions, and the centre ground.

“And this is why I’ve decided to stand, not for a party, but as an independent.”

According to James Morris, the managing director of the consultancy

Edelman and a former pollster to Ed Miliband, Sadiq Khan continues to be an overwhelming favourite even today, but Rory's announcement “does shake” up the contest.

The elections for Mayor of London are scheduled in May 2020 and Stewart would contest for the position against Labour Party's Sadiq Khan, Tory candidate, Shaun Bailey, and the Liberal Democrats candidate, Siobhan Benita.

Over 300 Extinction Rebellion activists arrested, London on shutdown Police have cut Extinction Rebellion protesters out of their tents using scissors in an attempt to reopen roads in central London.

They have also imposed a Section 14 order on the demonstrators, requiring any assembly linked to XR's "Autumn Uprising" to be in Trafalgar Square, on the pedestrianised area around Nelson's Column.

About 200 protesters who camped out overnight were given notices telling them about the order, which is not

time-limited, Tuesday morning, October 8.

Those who do not comply will be arrested.

Earlier police had

arrested over 300 protesters as the 'shut down' of central London by the climate change group continued.

A House of Lords peer has quit Thought for the Day after 35 years in protest at the BBC claiming that some of his talks “might offend Muslims”.

Lord Indarjit Singh of Wimbledon has accused BBC of “prejudice and intolerance” after he was prevented from broadcasting an item. The inter-faith activist wanted to commemorate the story of an executed Sikh Guru who had opposed the forced conversion of Hindus to Islam under the Mughal emperors of India in the 17th century.

However, according to him, the BBC had tried to stop the script from being broadcasted last November fearing that “it might offend Muslims” and that the organisation was choosing to be “politically correct”.

Yet, he insists that it never contained any criticism of Islam. He said, “It was like saying to a Christian that he or she should not talk about Easter

Lord Indarjit Singh

for fear of giving offence to the Jews,” he said.

However, when he threatened to leave the slot empty rather than have his religion’s teachings “insulted in this way”, the corporation let Lord Singh go ahead. Lord Singh was not told of any listeners being offended.

Lord Singh then filed an official complaint against the BBC and a review ordered by James Purnell which was rejected. He said,

“The need for sensitivity in talking about religious, political or social issues has now been taken to absurd proportions with telephone insistence on trivial textual changes right up to going into the studio, making it difficult to say anything worthwhile.

“The aim of Thought for the Day has changed from giving an ethical input to social and political issues to the recital of religious platitudes and the avoidance of controversy, with success measured by the absence of complaints. I believe Guru Nanak [the founder of Sikhism] and Jesus Christ, who boldly raised social concerns while stressing tolerance and respect, would not be allowed near Thought for the Day today.”

Lord Hall of Birkenhead, the BBC director-general, said he had every confidence in the slot and that Lord Singh might seek a solution using “the BBC’s complaints process”.

Derby campaigns against diabetes A local campaign in Derby has been launched with the aim of creating awareness around diabetes. Awareness to Action’s aim is to encourage young people from South Asian communities Pakistani, Indian and Bangladeshi - living in Derby to know their risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by taking a quick online test using a free, dedicated online tool. Individuals from South Asian backgrounds are twice as more likely to develop Type 2 diabetes from a younger age than White Europeans.

Among those backing this campaign are Miss England 2019 Dr. Bhasha Mukherjee (who is also a contender for Miss World in December) and Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Head of Sports Medicine at Premiership side Crystal Palace FC. “As a junior doctor, and as someone whose family has been affected by the condition, I can’t stress enough how important it is to know your risk of developing Type 2 diabetes.

“I would advise everyone to check out Diabetes UK’s Know Your Risk tool online, learn more about their risk of Type 2 diabetes, and get support to reduce their risk if they need to. It couldn’t be easier to use - but it couldn’t be more important either,” said Dr. Bhasha Mukherjee.

In the meantime, the head of the NHS has urged Boris Johnson to be "led by the evidence" showing sugar taxes work, ahead of a report which is expected to call for their expansion.

Simon Stevens has warned

Dr. Zafar Iqbal with a sportsperson

that “poor diet is now a bigger health threat than smoking” as health chiefs demanded action to tackle obesity. This is ahead of the proposed extension of the current tax on sugary drinks.

In March 2016 budget, George Osborne announced a new £520m levy on sugarsweetened drinks to combat child obesity. However, taxation of fast food and sugary products is not enough to curb diabetes.

Other lifestyle measures like quitting smoking and alcohol intake can also help.

Know your risk online tool “Diabetes is an unpleasant disease as it can cause damage to almost every organ in the body but does it silently and it can be several years of someone having diabetes before they start developing

signs and symptoms by which time some irreversible damage may already have been done. Early signs of diabetes can include being thirsty, increased urine frequency, feeling tired or blurred vision.

“You can find out if you are at increased risk by answering question by the simple quick online tool by either searching ‘Know your risk Derby’ on Google or visit www.diabetes.org.uk/risk1 to find out your risk. The tool asks you to give details such as age, ethnicity, gender, weight, height, family incidence, high blood pressure and gives a relative risk factor. You are then provided information about how to reduce the risk of developing diabetes,” explains Dr. Zafar Iqbal, Head of Sports Medicine at Crystal Palace FC. He recommends reducing as little as 5% body weight can help prevent diabetes. The best way of reducing weight is by a combination of healthier food choices and increasing physical activity. All adults should be undertaking at least 30 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity 5 times a week. Increased physical activity has also been shown to increase insulin sensitivity so that blood glucose is even better controlled. He also advises for consumption of nonnutritive sweeteners which don’t contain calories and licensed for use in the UK such as aspartame, saccharin and sucralose.

Aspartame and sucralose can both be used in cooking.

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Summer Brexit extension? for a no-deal Brexit has been released in a 159-page document indicating that the But, the negotiations over a deal are said country might be ready for a no-deal Brexit. to be effectively dead in Brussels following a The government discloses it will operate phone call between the a “no new checks with German chancellor, limited exceptions” poliAngela Merkel, and the cy on the Irish border in UK prime minister. the event of no deal. It According to also says it will introduce unnamed sources, Merkel “necessary changes in had apparently assured legislation” before 31 Johnson that Northern October to apply the new Ireland had to stay in the approach, but it does not EU's customs union. give details on what the Whilst no official confirlimited exceptions could mation of these confidenbe. In the event of the tial reports have been UK crashing out without obtained, Donald Tusk any kind of a deal, dairy producers on the south took to Twitter with his of the border would be tweet directed towards banned by the EU from Johnson. accepting milk from “What’s at stake is not Boris Johnson cows on the other side of winning some stupid the border, putting many blame game. At stake is farms out of business. the future of Europe and The report does not the UK as well as the secuexplore this or similar rity and interests of our challenges. people. You don’t want a It also reconfirms its deal, you don’t want an commitment to the comextension, you don’t want mon travel area, allowing to revoke. Quo vadis?

British and Irish citizens [Where are you going?]”

Germany has been one to enjoy equal rights on of the most outspoken both islands “even in the advocates for allowing the event of leaving without UK as much flexibility as a deal”.

Amidst such heightpossible to avoid a no-deal ened drama the pound scenario on 31 October or has slumped to its lowest at a later date.

Angela Merkel level in more than a Johnson has repeatedmonth, with just weeks ly said that he will not left before the 31 October Brexit deadline. comply with the Benn act, which would Sterling came under selling pressure on the instruct him to request an extension by 19 foreign exchanges on Tuesday, sliding to its October if a deal is not secured with the EU. lowest point against both the euro and the A debate among EU27 states over the end dollar since early September owing to grim date for any extension is yet to take place.

In the meantime, the government’s prospects of striking any sort of a deal before “comprehensive” plan to prepare the country the Halloween deadline.

Continued from page 1

My Two Homes, inside the Royal Air Force On Tuesday, 1st October, the Royal Air Force (RAF) organised an event promoting inclusivity and diversity within the organisation with a preview of their latest documentary My Two Homes.

The project – My Two Homes – followed young RAF professionals working in a variety of fields and chronicled their lives at home and whilst on base.

This documentary features four young RAF personnel from diverse and ethnic backgrounds. It aims to dispel the general misconceptions that exist in the community with regards to serving at the Defence Forces and chronicles the training and global travel opportunities that the RAF can present to the next generation.

“Working for the RAF isn't like having just one job, you are constantly moving around doing different roles and it keeps things interesting. No two-days are the same,” said Tahir, an Engineer Officer at the RAF who is also featured in the documentary.

A native from Pakistan, Tahir joined the RAF in 2015 and spends much of his time on the hangar, managing his team of about 85 engineers.

His tasks include working on the base stripping, fixing and re-building the RAF's

fleet of helicopters. As a practising Muslim, Tahir speaks about the importance of working in an environment where individuals' religious and cultural values are accepted and celebrated.

From ensuring halal ration packs are available during training sessions to curating an atmosphere where one can pray and visit their local mosque, RAF is a home away from home especially for those close to their family. Perhaps, the friendly work culture and the brotherhood among the men in uniform is best reflected in this project.

Nina Manandhar, a British Nepalese photographer is one of the artists associated with the project.

She has previously curated Gurkha Sons where she

photographed the 'k-boyz' (Kaprukka) and shed light on the challenges and benefits of coming from a Gurkha family in the UK. Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston CBE was present at the event and congratulated team Livity UK alongside all the other forces engaged in the culmination of this documentary.

There are several roles within the RAF that do not necessarily mandate for individuals to serve at line of duty. From working as a physical training instructor to a medical support officer or even a photographer, the RAF offers countless opportunities to pick from. For further information visit: https://www.raf.mod.uk/rec ruitment/roles-in-the-raf

8 UK 12 - 18 Oct 2019

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As I See It

Parents of brain-damaged A Little Too Late And Way Too Less girl call for change in law CB Patel

Dear Readers,

The uproar from British-Indians as well as other citizens who believe in democracy, decency and harmony amongst communities following the Labour Party resolution of September 26, now removed from the party conference website, in a way illustrates the importance of raising our voice and demonstrating disagreement in a civilised society.

Alpesh Patel's article on the comment Page (3) has put it in a remarkably subtle tone. This week, we received hundreds of emails, calls, messages and letters. Our leaders and community have fought with the Labour leadership in their irresponsible connivance. The resolution is damaging, dividing, and dangerous. No wonder, within minutes of our issuance of the letter of protest to the leader of the Labour Party, Rt. Hon. Jeremy Corbyn, the nefarious resolution was removed.

However, Mr Corbyn, merely removing the resolution from the website is simply not sufficient. You have to immediately completely revoke it. Unless you do that, you are not doing justice to the position you hold as a prospective leader of the country and as the leader of the Shadow Government.

Dear readers, several issues similar to the recent faux pas, have risen in the past many years. Among subjects are: Why there is no person of Indian origin in the top posts, whether in the House of Commons or House of Lords from the labour benches? See what is happening with the Conservative Party of Great Britain, where three Indian-origin members enjoy respectful positions in the Cabinet.

One could take to learn from Canada.

See page 25 for Mitul Paniker's column.

One would believe that either suitable British-Indians keep away from Labour party or the party is unable to appreciate the quality and calibre of upcoming BritishIndian leadership.

Some readers feel the Labour Party is ignoring Indian community either because of their educational excellence or their entrepreneurial prowess. Some people think Labour Party is seeking vote banks thriving on division and intolerance. It is untrue, I have to say they don't really act like it.

Some have also pointed that the government and establishment only take notice of troublemakers or violence-propagators or those who have come forth with extreme ideologies.

I for one, need to be convinced of various such assumptions. We must not forget that the Labour Party was founded on fundamental values of equality for all and worldwide racial harmony. Yes, present Labour Party management has raised some important issues, but we should not assume the worst of the motives.

I honestly urge my Labour friends, who are so many over my five decade association, formerly as a member and off late as an admirer. Equally, I would not like to assume that the irresponsible, undemocratic, and unconstitutional resolution was purely build on religious bigotry.

I have several Pakistani friends right from my days at university here. My roommate was a Pakistani Muslim from Lahore.

I lived in a house in Streatham owned by a Pakistani Muslim who allowed my family to perform a weekly satsang (religious discourse) every week along with my friends, in 1967/1968.

From my experience in India, East Africa, and here, most Muslims are like their Hindu brethren and believe in religious harmony and progress. Yes, it is very sad and unbecoming of a member of Commons or Lords, if you encourage and

connive the violent behaviour of those in the last few weeks. Stones, eggs, bottles, paints were thrown at the walls of India House and more seriously, some peaceful Indians were injured as they tried to leave after celebrating Indian independence.

Such rubbish behaviour is not only unacceptable, but should not be tolerated.

But I urge not to paint all with the same brush.

Stop dividing and start uniting The Labour Party and other parties will take note that British-Indians with support from fellow citizens from other faith and traditions have taken a stand worth commending. Allow me to make one more observation. Our country “UK” is going through more serious crisis- the Brexit.

The governing party are in a way disunited.

The alternative party has so far failed to convince voters to choose them.

It is important to our vibrant country that we have a strong opposition that has a positive agenda and some common sense.

It is not allowed, and certainly not in a place to be divisive and vindictive.

Let me put it this way. Ever since I arrived in the publishing sector, way back in early '70s, Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar have considered it their duty to campaign for certain standards, and against certain injustices. Our first major campaign was against former prime minister Indira Gandhi's Emergency reign. In our June edition of 1976, we published a poem by Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore on our front page. The Indian government had prohibited the poem and I was even briefly banned from India House.

Then came the Immigration and Nationality Acts of British government. We extensively fought for eradication of racial discrimination and equal opportunities.

We also launched a campaign for Hong Kong Indians. One of our biggest campaigns was the Hare Krishna Temple Defence Movement. The Movement was for the temple to remain open for darshan despite adverse decisions from the highest courts of England and the European Union.

With strong support of our readers and community we have always been successful.

Thanks to the teachings of Shrila Prabhupad, the saint of the ISKCON movement, the leadership of HKTDM and, support of people of all faiths, over 35,000 people marched to the Houses of Parliament from Lincoln Inn fields.

Despite the sheer number of people, not a single account of violence, physical or verbal, was recorded.

All our campaigns have been based on Gandhian principles of peaceful and nonviolent protests. We are determined to maintain the same standards. (Gandhian Legacy is the India of today. See comment on P3.)

I personally expect Labour Party leaders, and members of the House of Commons and the House of Lords to walk together and urge Corbyn to revoke the resolution and instead, try to build bridges with the British-Indian community and any other communities who have been sidelined and mistreated.

The mother of a severely brain-damaged girl who won the right to take her daughter abroad for treatment has told Sky News the law needs to be changed to protect parental rights.

A High Court judge ruled on Thursday that five-yearold Tafida Raqeeb can be moved to the Gaslini children's hospital in Italy.

Specialists caring for Tafida at the Royal London Hospital said further treatment would be futile because the youngster has permanent brain damage and has no chance of recovery. But her parents Shelina Begum, 39, and Mohammed Raqeeb, 45, of Newham, east London, said doctors at Gaslini in Genoa would keep providing life support treatment until Tafida was diagnosed as brain dead.

At a celebratory meal at the Cinnamon Spice restaurant in north London, Ms Begum told Sky News: "Every single day I actually broke down. I was petrified.

What is it going to be? A life sentence or a death sentence?"

They said Tafida, who has a British-Bangladeshi background, is from a Muslim family and Islamic law allows only God to end life.

"The government needs to revisit the law so another family doesn't go through what we have, or what previous families have gone through. Parental rights should never be taken away,"

Ms Begum said.

The High Court heard how Tafida woke her parents in the early hours in February complaining of a headache.

She collapsed shortly afterwards and doctors discovered that blood vessels in her brain were tangled and had ruptured.

Mr Justice MacDonald, who analysed evidence at a recent trial in London, said he had decided "on a fine balance" that it was in Tafida's best interests for "life-sustaining treatment" to continue. He said there could be no justification for stopping her parents moving her to the Italian hospital if they wanted to. The hospital said it would not appeal against the decision.

Alistair Chesser, chief medical officer for Barts Health NHS Trust, which runs the Royal London Hospital, said: "We followed the guidance of the General Medical Council and referred this tragic case to the Family Division of the High Court to reach an independent view about Tafida's best interests.

"The High Court weighed up clinical and ethical considerations and decided, on the balance of evidence, that life-sustaining treatment should continue.

After careful consideration regarding the wider implications of the judgement, we have decided not to appeal.

"Our doctors and nurses will continue to provide Tafida with the best possible care as long as she continues to be our patient. We will also support the family as they make alternative arrangements for Tafida's care."

Tafida's parents have set up a GoFundMe page to raise £400,000 for her care.

On the website, it says they need "£20,000 to pay for Tafida to be airlifted to Italy and an estimated £100,000 to cover the costs of on-going life-sustaining treatment".

They have so far raised just over £37,000.

"Tafida will prove everyone who has come across her how wrong they were. She's already showing us, she just needs to be given time," Ms Begum said.

Wishing you Chag Sameach and Shana Tova Yom Kippur is the holiest day of the Jewish year. It comes 10 days after the community's new year, Rosh Hashanah. This period is known as the 10 Days of Repentance, in which Jewish people reflect on their sins of the past year. The name Yom Kippur is actually Hebrew, and it translates as ‘Day of Atonement’.

15,000 restaurant outlets found to be unhygienic One in 20 restaurants in the UK are failing to comply with hygiene standards including branches of Pizza Hut and a Marco Pierre White venue. An investigation by The Times has revealed that there are more than 15,000 restaurants and food outlets across the United Kingdom with inadequate hygiene standards.

In Britain a total of 566 restaurants scored zero, which could pose a “signifi-

cant risk to consumers” and needed “urgent improvements”.

An analysis of 250,000 food establishment found that thousands of restaurants have been revealed as scoring two, one or zero stars out of five, according to The Times.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) states that restaurants with less than three stars do not “comply with broad safety standards”

said the FSA. Businesses in Wales and Northern Ireland must legally display their ratings but this is not the case in England or Scotland.

Restaurants are marked across three categories and receive ratings based on the number of failings found and the risk posed to public health. Pizza Hut said they had since made the required improvements but had yet to be reinspected.

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PR Knowledge Book Your ultimate guide to handling gossip, negative press, and social media On 3rd October, Thursday, Sangeeta Waldron launched her first book The PR Knowledge Book, published by BEP Publishing at St. James Court, Taj. The 12 chapters of the book, are an ultimate guide to individuals across all quarters of society.

These individuals can be aspiring professionals or even home-preneurs who are trying to learn the magic formula of acing the fastpaced social media lifestyle and creating a brand name both for themselves as well as their organisation.

The author tries to discover how to get your brand out there so you can attract clients and new business, irrespective of the organisation's size, scale and outreach.

Speaking at the event, she disclosed“I had wanted to write a book ever since I was 10 years old. But I had never imagined it would be centred around my professional career.

“People would meet me at events or even approach me on Twitter asking for my advice on certain subjects and I would help them navigate through the issue at hand. And over time, I realised that some people don't realise the significance of networking and public relations. This is why I chose to write about understanding the principles of Public relations.”

Sangeeta Waldron

In her book, Waldron strikes a conversational tone and uses specific experiences from her own professional career in her attempts at de-mystify the controversial yet, a sensitive world of Public Relations. This book

covers everything within the world of PR from how to create a brand, how to use social media, how to be

newsworthy, how to contact the media, how to have a global mindset, the power of networking, and more. It is written in an easy style, packed with powerful tips, proven tools, and real-life case studies from around the world.

Today, there are CEOs across the world who are either laggards or relatively less active than others on their social media accounts.

There are also quite a few business consultants who are themselves not present on Facebook and Twitter but are advising companies listed on FTSE 500 about ways to navigate the world of negative press and fake news. Stressing on the importance of having an active social media presence, Sangeeta said“Not being present on social media but offering guidance along the subject to others is similar to living in a world where a blind is leading another blind.

Today, there is no such concept as negative PR. We only have to respond to any latest event or development within 24 hours of the incident and with a carefully planned response, everything works out well.”

The PR Knowledge Book is a comprehensive read for a student starting in this industry, self-employed, small business, start-up, charity, or any other type of organization wanting to embark on their PR journey or someone just plain curious about what it entails.

Process to hire new Bank of England governor has not been delayed, says Javid In a letter released on Tuesday, October 8th, Chancellor Sajid Javid has said that the process to appoint the next Bank of England governor remains on track, and parliament will have time to scrutinise the new appointment before Governor Mark Carney

steps down. Javid's predecessor, Philip Hammond, said the appointment would be made this autumn, but members of parliament's Treasury Committee wrote to Javid last month with concerns that the process had become delayed.

Canadian Carney is due to

end his posting in London at the end of January.

Among those rumoured to be in the race for the job are Baroness Shriti Vadera, chair of Santander UK and Indian Raghuram Rajan, who was previously the governor of the Reserve Bank of India.

Only a month to Asian Business Association's Global Dinner On Wednesday 6 November 2019, the London Chamber of Commerce will host Asian Business Association's (ABA) Global Dinner event at the Berkeley, Wilton Place.

About 200 distinguished guests from the captial's elite will be attending the event alongside gov-

ernment representatives and Asian entrepreneurs.

The annual black-tie event is a prime networking opportunity offering light entertainment and will be hosted by Peter Bishop, Chief Executive, LCCI and Tony Matharu, Chairman, Integrity International Group and Chairman, ABA. Individual tickets are

available, as well as tables of 10 and early bird prices start from £234.00 per person inc VAT. This event is open to members and non-members.

“We need coaches more than counselors,” says Arfeen Khan A life coach, an author or a world-renowned certified business mentor. Arfeen Khan is a man with many feathers on his hat as he coaches and helps over 500,000 people across 43 countries to overcome their emotional and professional struggles in life through his seminars.

He does not identify himself as someone who changes people instead he emphasises that he helps people by changing their “perspective towards life”.

“It is okay to lounge in bed for one whole day. We all have those days and yes, millennials dip into depressive phases more often than others. But that does not necessarily mean we are going through a mental breakdown.

It simply means we need some help.

“The first step in achieving that help is by going out and talking to people. Today, we need more coaches who can help us navigate what we want in life as opposed to counselors,” says Arfeen.

Arfeen believes there

are simple silver bullet solutions to solve all problems whether they are related to work or whilst dealing with complicated relationships. Identifying and understanding the end goal, staying focussed on achieving the said goal and ultimately taking ownership of ourselves can help resolve most of our everyday challenges. Today, most people in life, struggle with the management of their money and finances.

They keep looking for ways to become rich but inevitably fail. In his book The Secret Millionaire Blueprint, he divulges secret tips around thinking like a millionaire and shares common behavioural traits of millionaires.

“Announce that you are a different person; take an oath that you can overcome all of the negative thinking and can emerge as a person with your original thoughts.

“Another thing that one must bear in mind is the kind of people you have in your network. Positive

Arfeen Khan

forces shall always motivate and encourage you to achieving positive results.”

Over the last 20 years, Arfeen has worked with some of the most celebrated names across the world including Hrithik Roshan and Anthony Robbins among others. He published his first book You Can You Will It's Your Choice and Where Will You Be in Five Years.

Arfeen also hosts several seminars and workshops where he provides coaching around dealing with identity, boosting self-confidence and dealing with societal pressures and his upcoming book discusses the significance of coaching in further detail.

Women In

Conversation

in association with

Empowering Women excel in Business Date

22 October 2019 Time 5.30 to 8pm Venue EY 1 More London Place, London SE1 2AF

Programme for the evening 5.30 to 6 pm: Drinks, canapés and networking with aspiring and inspiring entrepreneurs 6 to 7 pm: Panel and Q&A 7 to 8pm: Networking Audience is limited to no more than 100 so please book your place early.

RSVP: 17th October 2019 cecil.soans@abplgroup.com - Tel: 020 7749 4089

PANELISTS MAHA SARDAR BARRISTER, SOLICITOR AND SOCIAL CHANGE CHAMPION. AN ADVOCATE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS ALEX FREAN HEAD OF CORPORATE AFFAIRS, STARLING BANK, AWARDED THE BEST BRITISH BANK AND BEST CURRENT ACCOUNT 2019. OVER 30 YEAR’S EXPERIENCE IN NATIONAL AND INTERNATIONAL JOURNALISM AT THE TIMES, THE SUNDAY TIMES, INVESTORS CHRONICLE AND THE EUROPEAN. NIKI MULLIN HEAD OF BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT, LID BUSINESS MEDIA WITH EXPERTISE IN BUSINESS BOOK PUBLISHING. LID BUSINESS MEDIA IS THE FIFTH LARGEST PUBLISHING HOUSE IN EUROPE. MODERATOR: SANGEETA WALDRON AWARD WINNING PR, BRANDING, COMMUNICATIONS, MARKETING, MEDIA AND SOCIAL MEDIA CONSULTANT WORKING ACROSS THE UK, EUROPE AND ASIAN THROUGH HER FIRM SERENDIPITY PR & MEDIA. TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION G CHALLENGES WOMEN IN BUSINESS FACE: SOLUTIONS, FINANCING, TRUSTED TIPS THAT WORK G HOW TO GET YOUR BOOK PUBLISHED * THIS EVENT IS BY INVITATION ONLY. ELIGIBILITY TO ATTEND WILL DEPEND ON STRICT CRITERIA SET BY ABPL GROUP. * ABPL GROUP RESERVES THE RIGHT TO INVITE GUESTS AT THEIR DISCRETION. Initiated & Organised by

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Labour stance denounced We have received a large number of letters and messages strongly denouncing the labour party emergency resolution about the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir adopted on 26th September. The Labour Party’s offices and important leaders have also been inundated by enumerable protests.

By Monday 7th October that devisive and dangerous resolution was completely removed from the Labour Party Conference website. Removal from the website is welcomed but the honourable action from the Labour leader Rt Hon Jeremy Corbyn is to completely revoke that resolution from all the records of the Labour Party Conference.

We are unable to publish letters we have received due to limited space. Some of those letters are from: Dr Kalpna Patel, Anuj Davda, Sharad V Parikh, Jagdish Patel, Ravi Kakkar, Vinookumar Sachania, Mukund Patel, Naran Nathalal Pankhania, Vipin Bharadia, Yatin Dawada, Vibhaker Baxi, Amit Tiwari, Kadam Mehra, Pramod Prashar, Sunil Majithia, Shayam Sunder Teh, Surendra Patel, Drishti Mae, Velji Vekaria, Bhaskar Patel, Vishal Shah, Pankaj Patel, Nimesh Patel, Hasmukh Vasava, Jad Hirani, Ghanshyam Patel, Jyoti Vithlani, Parbat Kabariya, Bharat Sisodia, Prem Chudasama, Sanjay Kara Meera Hirani Narendra Bajia Nitin Mehta Narendra Thakrar Bhimji Bhudia Vinod Popat Bharat Chouhan Nitin Parshottam We regret that Asian Voice and Gujarat Samachar have not been able to give voice to all of the letter writers who happen to be from both Indian and non Indian backgrounds.

CB Patel Publisher/Editor Asian Voice/Gujarat Samachar

Do not ignore flu’ jabs Dreaded cold, wet and depressing winter months are nearly upon us, although it will only sink in when the clock goes back at the end of the month.

It is also time to take our annual flu jabs that protect us from the dreaded winter flu season when A & E and hospital beds are at a premium!

Some fifteen thousand people die every year during these winter months, as a direct result of flu epidemic. One cold comfort is that now we all can have flu jabs that can prevent or at least reduce the severity, saving us from hospital admission!

If you do not qualify for free jab that is now widely given to elderly, chronically sick at risk and children, others can take it at their local pharmacists with minimum cost everyone can afford.

School children and school classes are the super spreader of the disease. So they are now included in the group who get free jabs to prevent outbreak that would cost more in financial as well as human misery than the initial financial layout for flu vaccine.

Many elderly people prefer to spend winter months either in India or in East Africa, especially those who may have their children and other relatives residing in these tropical paradise!

But time will come when travelling long distance may become hindrance to health, as well as with reduce immunity, they could easily become victims of ongoing winter illnesses in India.

Kumudini Valambia By email

No force can stop China’s onward march

Teachers’ International Day

The above words were uttered by the Chinese President, Xi Jinping, on 1st Oct as he presided over the country’s largest parade, showcasing its military might and unity amongst top leaders to celebrate the Communist Party’s hold on power for 70 years. No one in their right mind can deny the economic progress made by China since Kissinger arranged the meeting between Nixon and Mao in 1972.

Since then China has steadily adopted tenants of capitalist economy under the one party autocratic rule. The Chinese economy mushroomed after enactment of reform in 1978 under Deng Xiaoping.

The Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), as envisaged is a largest project ever undertaken by any government in the world. It involves investment of trillions of dollars in 152 countries for infrastructure projects. The idea of BRI was declared in 2013 by Xi Jinping.

Artificial Island building in South-China Sea and militarisation of them has been a sore point with neighbours and international communities. China has made huge investments in the African countries to capture resources for its benefits.

It seems this grandiose projects, phenomenal growth of economy and other eye catching activities has increased influence of China in the international affairs which has irked the only super power the USA. The current trade war between them may be due to the above mention concerns. The world has to wait and see whether the current super power can stop the emerging super power's onward march.

Narsibhai Patel New Malden

Teachers’ International Day falls on 5th October every year.

It was introduced in 1994 by UNESCO to give teachers their duly deserved status, acknowledging their important contribution in shaping our society.

While we celebrate Father, Mother, Brother and Sister’s Day (Rakshabandhan) with enthusiasm and gusto, “Teachers’ Day” is somehow buried deep in International Calendar of worthwhile days we have put on world map, through UN, to cherish, appreciate and celebrate their contribution.

We also greatly appreciate and admire contribution made by other professionals, like doctors, nurses, actors and actresses, sports personalities who earn millions and enjoy a God like status, that include our favourite cricketers like Virat Kholi, Sachin Tendulkar, Ian Botham, footballers Cristiano Ronaldo, Messi, late Bobby Moor who captained World Cup winning English team in 1966 and many more.

I remember well how our teachers used to enjoy elevated status back in East Africa, just after the end of WW2, when teachers could do no wrong in the eyes of our parents, although we had couple of maniac teachers who used to enjoy corporal punishment delivered with gusto, so often on the tiniest excuse, although by far vast number of teachers were kind, caring and devoted to their profession, treating children with respect.

This year’s prestigious award was won by Kenyan science teacher that carries financial reward of one million dollar.

This is huge reward for someone residing in an African country where a dollar’s purchasing power is some ten times more than in Western world.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

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Write to our ‘Reader’s Voice’ section about what you think regarding the various ongoing issues all around the world. Please send your letters to aveditorial@abplgroup.com Make sure they are NOT more than 250 words. Any letter longer than the limit may not be published. Note that all your letters are subject to being edited by our team for valid reasons.

- Asian Voice

Not Aditya, but Uddhav Aditya Thackeray becoming the CM of Maharashtra is a laughing stock. He is not qualified for the post. What will he do once he sits on the CM's chair? Uddhav Thackeray is a better person and the right candidate for the post.

Jubel D'Cruz, Mumbai, India

UK NEWS

Keith Vaz condemns divisions caused

by Kashmir ‘Resolution’ Britain’s longest-serving Indian-origin Member of Parliament Keith Vaz has said that the Resolution passed at the Labour Party Conference last week has created unnecessary divisions within the Indian and Pakistani diaspora communities in the U.K. There are almost 1.5 million British Indians and close to 1.2 million British Pakistanis in the U.K, many of whom maintain close links to their respective countries of origin.

Mr. Vaz, who has served in the House of Commons for over 32 years, was the first Indian-origin MP since 1922. He has been re-elected in Leicester East eight times.

Keith Vaz said: “The emergency Resolution passed at the Labour Party Conference last week has been misguided and unhelpful. The motion was agreed without the approval of the National Executive Committee of the Labour Party, or the Leader of the Party, Jeremy Corbyn. It has created unnecessary distress and division within the Party and the country.

“People have stronglyheld views on Kashmir.

Although many have settled in the U.K., they have friends, family and emotional links to the region. It would be wrong to allow this matter to distract from the amazing relationships

they share in the towns and cities all over Britain.

“I have therefore written to the Chair of the N.E.C., Andi Fox, and to the Leader of the Party, Jeremy Corbyn, asking them to recall the motion and hold a proper debate at the N.E.C. to adopt a common Party position that does not divide our communities. I deplore the attacks that have been made on the staff, visitors, and building of the Indian High Commission in London. We live in a Parliamentary democracy and so there is freedom of expression, but this provides no excuse for damage to the sovereign territory of another country.

These attacks must cease.

“Issues of sovereignty are a matter for the Indian Government; border issues are matters for the Governments of India and Pakistan. This is a political and not a religious issue.

Third-party involvement from countries, especially a former colonial power that originally caused this problem, are unhelpful and unwise.”

Predatory paedophile who groomed two girls on social media jailed for twelve years A paedophile groomed two girls on social media before meeting them and sexually abusing them, a court heard.

Dewan Gazi, 22, met a 12-year-old girl in her own home before raping her, and he took a 15-year-old girl to his home and sexually abused her.

The abuse of the 12year-old came to light after her mother found her dancing half naked in her bedroom, with a mobile phone propped up to film herself.

When they discussed

their disparity in age, Gazi, from Blackley, told the girl that 'age is just a number'.

After meeting the 15year-old girl the first time, she told Gazi that she had searched on the internet and found that the age of consent was 16, and she was concerned she might get in trouble.

In statements read to the court, the 12-year-old girl said that she feels anxious going outside, and feels angry towards Gazi.

The 15-year-old said that

she has self harmed, and had suicidal feelings.

Gazi pleaded guilty to 13 offences. The offences were one count of sexual communication with a child, two counts of meeting a child following sexual grooming, one count of sexually assaulting of a child, one count of the rape of a child, four counts of sexual activity with a child, one count of assault by penetration, two counts of taking an indecent image of a child and one count of distributing an

Dewan Gazi

indecent image of a child.

Gazi was ordered to sign the sex offender's register for life.

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EDUCATION

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

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11

12 - 18 Oct 2019

Student housing failures 'deeply concerning' The universities minister says it is "deeply concerning" so many student housing blocks remain unfinished, leaving students in temporary accommodation.

Chris Skidmore is calling together providers of student accommodation, many of them private developers, to "ensure these failures don't happen again".

He was responding to a BBC News report into how 22 private student housing projects under construction have not been completed for the new term.

This represents almost a third of the current private student-housing developments, according to the Unipol student housing charity.

Mr Skidmore tweeted: "We cannot allow this inad-

equacy to continue."

Student housing has been seen as a lucrative option for investors - but this autumn has seen a rash of accommodation projects not delivered on time.

It has meant housing problems for students in places including Portsmouth, Bristol, Lincoln, Swansea and Liverpool. There have been concerns from student leaders about wellbeing and mental health when those leaving home for the first time might find themselves in temporary housing away from other students.

At the University of Portsmouth, about 250 students have had to be placed in alternative accommodation. Much of the growth in student housing has been

Parenting classes 'could help reduce social costs'

Chris Skidmore

fuelled by billions of pounds of public money - in the form of maintenance loans for their living costs.

But Prof Galbraith said there was "no real control" or strategic planning for private student housing.

He welcomed Mr Skidmore's intervention and is calling for greater scrutiny and regulation of the sector.

He also wants better consumer protection for students signing housing contracts, as some "arrangements are incredibly onesided".

Parenting classes should be made more available to help families deal with challenging behaviour, research says.

A King's College London study suggests young people displaying antisocial behaviour who do not feel cared about by their parents cost more socially than those who feel well supported.

The study says parenting classes could help families form stronger bonds.

It says early interventions can "improve child outcomes and reduce the financial burden on society".

The researchers assessed data from 174 young people, aged between nine and 17.

Of these, 85 had been rated by their schools as having moderate antisocial behavioural issues, while 89 had been referred by mental

health services as having high levels of antisocial behaviour.

The young people (73% of whom were male) were interviewed for about an hour, separately from their parents, and asked how they felt about their parental relationships.

If they trusted their parent to provide emotional support, they were designated as having a secure attachment - but if they dismissed their parent as not there for them, they were designated as having an insecure attachment.

Using statistical software, the researchers examined data about the level of health, educational and social care services the families had accessed, as a result of their child's behaviour, in the previous year.

They took into account

the parents' reports of how naughty the child was, as well as the child's own assessment of their behaviour and they also controlled for the child's level of antisocial behaviour recorded at the age of five or six. The results showed those with secure attachments cost less than those with insecure attachments, whether or not they were in the group displaying moderate antisocial behaviour or high levels.

The study found young people securely attached to their mother cost £6,743, whereas those insecurely attached cost £10,119 - a £3,456 difference.

Differences were more striking for fathers, with securely attached youths costing £1,353, while insecurely attached youths cost £12,625 more at £13,978.

Stressed students 'seeking help' amid fears for academic record 1,010 'outstanding' schools not More students are seeking independent counselling away from university over fears their academic record will be affected, a support charity has said.

Off The Record (OTR) in Bath said it saw "hundreds of students, year on year" from the city's two universities.

Director Phil Waters said some people were worried about a stigma if they sought help from their university. Bath University said that would never be the case and added any students with urgent needs would be seen immediately.

Mr Waters added: "[Students] feel there's perhaps some sort of agenda from the university support staff."

But Dr Cassie Wilson, vice-president for student experience at Bath University, said that would never be the case. Former GP at Bristol University, Dominique Thompson now a national advisor to many universities - agreed.

Ms Sims said she believed some students struggled because they felt "not worthy" of help.

Academic stress has become the number one source of anxiety for university students, according to Dr Thompson. It is something Ms Sims has experienced first-hand.

When Ms Sims needed help, she said Bath University's drop-in wellbeing hub helped her, as well as private counselling.

A recent survey by mental health campaigner and ex-health minister Sir Norman Lamb, who obtained information from 110 universities under the Freedom of Information Act, showed many universities were still "in the dark" about their students' health and wellbeing needs and struggled to predict the extent of likely demand for mental health support services.

Bristol University where 12 students have taken their own lives in the past three years - said it was spending more than £1m a year on well-being services, including counselling.

But the majority of universities have a budget of less than half that.

inspected for a decade

One in 20 children in England is in a school that has not been inspected for more than 10 years, the BBC has found.

Analysis of official data revealed 24 schools had gone without inspection for more than 13 years. There are 1,010 "outstanding" schools that have not had a visit from Ofsted in a decade - up from 296 in 2017.

The Department for Education (DfE) plans to lift an exemption on routine inspections for outstanding schools. It has been in place since 2012 but watchdog Ofsted called for it to end amid concerns about falling standards.

The National Association

of Head Teachers (NAHT) said inspecting all schools would ensure they were not "failing or at risk of decline" It said parents would find it harder to compare schools without recent reports available. Meanwhile, the Labour party has said it would scrap Ofsted if it won the next general election. There were 24 schools that had not had an inspection since September

2006, all of them graded "outstanding".

The latest data showed more than half of previously outstanding schools lost the top grade at their most recent inspection.

There were 56 schools that were previously graded outstanding that dropped to the lowest mark, "inadequate", in Ofsted reports over the past five years. Another 159 dropped to "requires improvement" while 1,203 went from outstanding to "good".

A spokeswoman for Ofsted said the watchdog had been calling for the exemption to be lifted and was pleased by the DfE's announcement.

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12 MEDIA WATCH

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12 - 18 Oct 2019

SCRUTATOR’S On October 2, Mahatma Gandhi would have celebrated his 150th, birthday. No matter, the torrent of tributes to his life and work from politicians of every hue claimed inspiration from his example of service for India’s downtrodden masses, and from the course he chartered for Indian independence through non-violent struggle. BJP and Opposition in a tug of war projected themselves as guardians of the sacred flame.

Mahatma Gandhi President Ram Nath Kovind, above the fray as head of state, referred appropriately to Mahatma Gandhi’s values of service to society, of his luminous commitment to non violence as a way of life, as a ‘global icon revered across continents.’

Partition in August 1947 was am immense disappointment, but nothing saddened Mahatma Gandhi more than the communal holocaust in the aftermath of what should have been an event of unalloyed joy. The corrosive political discords that are a feature of contemporary India would have been a troubling experience for him. The Mahatma has remained an icon for his people and for men, women and children approaching adulthood across the civilised world. Peace, love and reconciliation were his watchwords even in his darkest hours (Times of India, Hindu, Business Line, The Statesman October 2).

Message on virgin ground What might have given Gandhi great satisfaction is the translation and dissemination of his works into local languages and dialects of the tribal communities of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam.

These texts – beacons of light - are part of the school syllabi in these remote parts. (Hindu October 3).

Release of Jammu leaders Jammu leaders under house arrest have been released ahead of the Block Development elections across Jammu and Kashmir. This measure is expected to be followed soon in the Kashmir valley (Statesman October 3).

Kashmir Courts spurn jihadi threats The Jammu and Kashmir High Court informed the Supreme Court that it had dismissed threats of a suicide attack by jihadi groups both on itself and the lower courts in the State. High Court Chief Justice Geeta Mittal told the Supreme Court of the steps taken to keep the stat judiciary functioning (Times of India October 3).

Several years ago a young Norwegian tourist in Kashmir, Hans Christian Ostro, was

kidnapped and beheaded by jihadis. A few years later, a group of jihdi gunmen killed a number of local Sikhs in the State. The New York Times and the UK’s Guardian newspaper carried a front-page report, attributing the terrible deed to Indian security forces, who it was alleged, were keen to impressing the visiting US President Bill Clinton about the terrorist threat. The culprits were run down, but no retractions were made for the libellous accusation.

Foreign tourists in Kashmir Taking advantage of a drop in tourism and its hectic seasonal rush, small numbers of foreign tourists braved the risk of violence and made to the quit of the valley and the cheaper prices at hotels and the fabled Dal Lake. A young man from Scotland said ‘the locals and soldiers have been warm to us.’ Another chimed in to say there was no mad rush and the ‘drop in violence due to restrictions’ had helped.

Exaggeration The Scotsman explained: ‘I have been here three weeks. I came here after visiting Goa, Varanasi, and the Taj Mahal. I have met the shepherds, the gypsies, they feed you fresh food. I have no fear of soldiers either. They wave at you and shake hands. Unfortunately media reports abroad are telling us different stories. But the locals and soldiers here are both warm to us. I have met hundreds of foreign tourists here,’ he said (Times of India October 3).

bilateral trade deal, which he felt could happen soon as both sides well understood each other’s points of interest. He was speaking at the World Economic Forum in tandem with the Confederation of Indian Industry.

He said the US sought a number of trade concessions from India such as scrapping price caps on medical devices, reducing tariffs on agricultural goods, mobiles and motorbikes. India, for its part, wants the US to restore the Generalised System of Preferences for Indian exporters (Business Line October 4).

Sunil Mittal supports China’s Huawei Indian telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal has come out in support of US-banned Chinese company Huawei, arguing that its products were ‘leading edge’ and ‘superior’ to that of its rivals. Speaking at the World Economic Forum in New Delhi, Mr Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, backed Huawei. India has yet to take a call on whether to permit Huawei to participate in the 5G trials (Hindu October 4).

Indian firms bullish on new technologies Indian companies are more confident of their ability to adopt new technologies than their counterparts in Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Japan or Australia, according to a survey by international law firm Baker McKenzie. In addition, the highest percentage (31 per cent) of companies describing themselves as disruptors rather than disrupted in the Asia Pacific region, were Indian, according to a survey of 600C-Suite executives, including 100 from India.

Leading from the front Some 31 per cent of the 100 Indian business leaders surveyed said they were ‘highly adept’ at exploiting the benefits of new technologies, as compared to 14 per cent in in Hong Kong and 8 per cent in Malaysia. The findings formed Baker McKenzie’s ongoing Hypercomplexity research, which examines the the key trends in technology, business and regulation (Hindu October 4).

Manmohan Singh to join Sikh pilgrimage

Manmohan Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh

Former Indian prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi et al will embark on a pilgrimage to Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara in celebration of the 550th anniversary of the birth of Guru Nanak, founder of the Sikh faith. This was in response to the invitation the Pakistan government on whose territory the shrine lies. The pilgrims will make their way through Pakistan’s reserved Kartarpur Corridor (Hindu, Times of India, Statesman October 4). continuing endeavour to reverse the country economic slowdown.

The RBI’s previous growth forecast of 6 per cent for the current fiscal was raised to 6.1 per cent.

Rate cut hailed The captains of Indian industry hailed the decision. Director General of the Confederation of Indian Industry Chandrajit Banerjee welcomed that statement, saying that this coupled with government reform measures would have a positive impact on the Indian economy (Statesman, Business Line, Hindu, Times of India October 5).

discuss economic issues,’ she said in reply to question posed by a local reporter, during a reception at the Bangladesh High Commission.

Sheikh Hasina addressed the World Economic Forum, where she presented Bangladesh as an emergent economy and a profitable destination for investors. ‘It is time for global investors, particularly Indian entrepreneurs to invest in Bangladesh in areas like education, light engineering, electronics, automotive industry, artificial intelligence – beyond the conventional menu,’ she said (Hindu October 4).

Jacques Chirac: India’s friend

Vodka consumption falls 40 per cent under Putin A World Health Organisation report says that Russian vodka consumption has declined by 40 per cent under President Putin’s regime. The WHO ascribed the decline to a raft of measures introduced by the government, since President Putin came to power in 2000. These include restrictions on alcohol sales and the promotion of healthy lifestyles (Statesman October 2).

Jacques Chirac, once Mayor of Paris, subsequently President of France, died last week, aged 86. A committed Gaullist in word, deed and spirit, he was a robust defender of his country’s national interest, and hence was committed firmly to an independent French foreign policy. He was the by India after

Economy tops Hasina agenda

RBI rate cut

Kerala tops school education Kerala tops school education, with Uttar Pradesh of the Hindi belt bottom of the Niti Ayog School Education Quality Index. Tamil Nadu came top on access outcomes that assured rate of transition to higher education.

Karnataka excelled in learning outcomes in language and mathematics (Hindu October 1).

Late French President Jacques Chirac

Sheikh Hasina

US Commerce Secretary in India for trade talks

RBI Governor Das

US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross arrived in India for talks with the Indian government on a

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI), at the weekend cut the interest by 25 basic points to 5.1 per cent in a

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed said on her arrival in New Delhi the Bangladesh economy was topped her agenda in talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. ‘There are no problems in bilateral ties. I have come here to

the Pokhran nuclear tests, when his counterparts in Britain and the United States were busy applying sanctions against the nuclear newcomer. Heasina Hasina expressed vigorous opposition to America’s invasion of Iraq by the George W. Bush administration and was roundly abused by the US mainstream media. India mourned the passing of a good friend and well-wisher.

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12 - 18 Oct 2019

Saving children’s lives in Gujarat Healing Little Hearts charity embarks on their first camp to Surat, Gujarat Healing Little Hearts (HLH) is delighted to announce its first ever camp to Gujarat, state of India, located on the country’s western coast. The one week camp will take place at Mahavir Hospital, Surat between the 12th and 19th of October 2019. This camp has been sponsored by Shiv Kinner Group, Leicester.

On the same week there will be two concurrent camps, one to Vijayawada, India and the other to Karachi, Pakistan - HLH first ever camp to Pakistan.

HLH was founded 12 years ago by Consultant Paediatrician Dr Sanjiv Nichani. The charity sends expert medical teams to perform free, life-saving heart surgery on babies and children in developing countries. So far they have operated on 1795 children across 11 countries over 139 International Cardiac camps. The charity was established with a view to begin making a contribution to the lack of Cardiac care for children born with Congenital Heart Disease (CHD) in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC). There are at least 1 million children dying from untreated heart disease every year in these countries.

In the UK alone, 6,000 children are born with CHD; they all get diagnosed, treated and operated upon with a 98-99% success rate.

In addition to sending volunteer doctors and nurses to perform heart surgery on children for free, HLH also trains and empowers

Remi, six months and Muhamad, eight months, whose lives were saved

by Healing Little Hearts

local doctors and nurses in cardiac care for children.

The charity is run solely by volunteers and funded by our fundraisers and donations. The Lead Surgeon Dr Ramana Dhannapuneni, who last Friday received the Healthcare Hero Award

have access to open heart surgery. We will be able to save more children’s lives if donors come forward and sponsor a child or one of our camps.”

In the near future, HLH are expanding their international connections and plan

Dr Ram with his little patients at Healing Little Hearts camp to Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences in Karimnager, India, Oct 2018

from the British Heart Foundation, will be leading his team of nine medical volunteers to Gujarat.

Dr Ram said: “I am so excited in taking a medical team to Surat for HLH first ever camp in culturally vibrant and progressive Gujarat. It is an honour and privilege to be able to serve the children in Gujarat and train the local team. There are many poor children in Gujarat who sadly do not

to send teams to Uganda and Malawi.

Dr Sanjiv Nichani said: “I hope our fundraisers continue to support HLH so we can continue our missions and extend our global outreach – children are our future. HLH would like to thank our many supporters in the Gujarati community for their support over the years. Our aim is to reciprocate this support with regular camps to Gujarat”.

Man accused of murdering Hainault woman in 2009 appears in court nA man extradited from India to face 18 charges including the murder of a Hainault woman in Walthamstow a decade ago has appeared in court.

Aman Vyas, 35, is accused of raping and killing Michelle Samaraweera (pictured) in Queens Road, Walthamstow in 2009.

The body of 35-year-old Ms Samaraweera, who lived in Kielder Close, was discovered in a small park and play area in the early hours of May 30 that year.

Mr Vyas, an Indian national, was brought to the UK on Friday after a long extradition battle following his arrest in 2011. He contested his extradition but it was granted in December 2018.

Mr Vyas appeared at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court on Saturday, October 5 wearing a prison issue grey tracksuit, and spoke to confirm his name and nationality.

In addition to the charge of murder, he is also accused of 17 other offences against three women

between March 24 and May 30 2009.

He faces further charges of attempted murder, seven counts of rape, five counts of assault, possessing a knife or bladed article in a public place, possessing an offensive weapon and one count of sexual assault. Chair magistrate Dr Prabhjot Basra remanded Mr Vyas in custody to appear at the Old Bailey on Tuesday.

Drug addict guilty of Pinner shopkeeper murder A burglar has been found guilty of killing a shopkeeper in his own store during a "one-man crimewave".

Alex Gunn, 31, (pictured) was caught on CCTV fatally stabbing 54-year-old Ravi Katharkamar at Marsh Food and Wine in Pinner, early on March 24, shortly after the trader had opened up.

Gunn could be seen on camera holding a knife to Mr Katharkamar's throat and grappling with him before stabbing him in the chest.

A jogger discovered the victim collapsed and alerted emergency services, who pronounced him dead at the scene. The shopkeeper, who lived in Watford, had suffered two knife wounds, one of which fractured a rib and punctured his lung and heart.

The masked assailant made off with the till and drove away in a stolen black Vauxhall Astra.

The Old Bailey heard that Gunn had visited Marsh Food and Wine twice in the stolen car before the fatal robbery, including one visit a week earlier, almost to the minute.

He was driving the Astra

when he was arrested five days later, having changed the number plates to evade detection, jurors were told.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones QC said Gunn was "sufficiently savvy" to cover himself with a balaclava and gloves during the attack on Mr Katharkamar, but his build, movements and other CCTV footage gave him away.

Describing Gunn as a "one-man crimewave", he told jurors he was also responsible for a string of burglaries and thefts all to fund his drug habit.

Gunn, of Pinner Grove, Pinner, denied being responsible for the killing but the jury found him guilty of murder, robbery, four burglaries, three thefts, and two counts of possession of a bladed article.

He was remanded into custody to be sentenced at the Old Bailey on Friday.

Devi Kharran, senior crown prosecutor within the CPS London homicide team, said: "This was a pattern of offending that escalated in March 2019 which tragically resulted in the death of an innocent family man who was working hard in his newsagent in subur-

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"Gunn targeted Mr Katharkamar, who was alone and vulnerable inside his shop. The murder was caught on CCTV, and although Gunn used every effort to conceal his identity, the police were able to use reports of local burglaries and various parts of CCTV footage to piece together his movements in the stolen car and eventually trace and arrest him.

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12 - 18 Oct 2019

Dhaak, Dhunuchi Naach and Durgotsav LIVING BRIDGE Navratri season: Diverse communities different celebrations Rohit Vadhwana

Dhunuchi Naach at Swiss Cottage Library's Durga Puja celebrations.

Dhunuchi is a Bengali incense burner used for one of the stages during aarti, or ritualised dance worship. It is often used following the aarati with the pradip

Durga puja celebrations were held in different parts of the UK with different themes. The London Durgotsav Committee in north London hosted celebrations around a theme entitled "Your Durga, My Durga" based on a poem written by writer Subrata Paul.

Whereas, the cricket garden in Slough transformed into Kolkata's Maddox Square. In the meantime, the idols for the puja celebrations at Swiss Cottage Library in London are made by sculptor Pradyut Pal and shipped from Kumortuli in West Bengal. The fibre

glass idols are designed to retain all the traditional aesthetics of Durga idols in India.

The charity aims to support organisations such as the Ragpickers Association in Kolkata through all its events.

Yoga guru celebrates Europe’s largest Navratri

In his trip to London, world renowned yoga guru Baba Ramdev attended the first aarti of Navratri where he was welcomed by the members of the Shree Kutch Leva Patel Community (SKLPC) UK committee. Over 1500 members gathered that day at Europe’s largest Navratri that is celebrated in London.

At the event, Baba Ramdev took the opportunity to then spread awareness around the benefits of yoga and healthy diet. He was then welcomed on the stage by the General Secretary of the SKLPC - Suryakant Varsani and presented a garland by the President of SKLPC Velji Vekaria followed by Ms

Raksha Jina - the convenor of Navratri 2019. He was then presented with a special shawl and SKLPC 2019 magazine including India Garden Project Booklet by SKLP Samaj Bhuj President Gopalbhai Gorasia along with Shashibhai Vekaria (SKLPC UK Patron) and Kalyanbhai Vekaria.

Navratri, literally meaning nine nights, is an Indian festival and is celebrated in various ways by different communities. Some communities celebrate it by observing a fast, Bengalis have Durga Puja and Gujaratis have DandiaGarba during the Navratri season. Apart from its religious and mythological importance, Navratri is an important occasion for community gathering.

In Gujarat, and thanks to TV serials and Bollywood movies, now across India and all over the world among the Indian community, Garba-Dandia is very popular.

This is the longest dancing festival - nine nights when people gather at a place to worship nine goddesses through singing and dancing. It provides a reason to meet family members, relatives, friends and also to make new friends. Marriages result from the acquaintances made during the dance in Navratri.

I was happily surprised to attend two Navratri celebrations in London which reminded me of my childhood in the villages of Gujarat.

I attended Navratri Garba at SKLPC which had a gathering of over five thousand people, all dancing to the tunes of Garba in a big tent. Different groups playing in their own styles, unknown to each other but dancing on familiar tunes, was an impressive scene. Even British representatives were present at SKLPC. It is claimed to be the largest gathering of Navratri in Europe.

Another place was a small organization having Garba in their community hall. Mainly attended by people from their own community, SSPC-Southall had a gathering of fewer than five hundred people but almost everyone was familiar with each other. This Garba gathering was very traditional. Their dress code was Ghar-Chola - a typical Gujarati saree for ladies. Men were mostly in Kurtas. The selection of Garba-songs was also traditional and religious.

Some take-home points from the two Navratri celebrations that I attended with my wife and friends: 1. May it be any part of the world, some celebrations never go out of fashion. Garba-Navratri is one of them.

2. The Indian community, mainly Gujarati, can let go of anything, but Garba.

3. The strength of community, especially when living abroad, lies in connecting to their roots. No tree can grow stronger if its root is not deep.

4. The UK is one of the places where Indian culture has flourished and contributed to the host country as well.

5. Such functions help organizations and communities to become more adhesive.

6. Navratri is one of the few festivals which still attracts people of every age group, across generations, from children to old age. It should be used as a platform to reduce the generation gap.

(Expressed opinion is personal) Do you have a story or suggestion for this column?

Email at: livingbridgeasianvoice@gmail.com

Lord Loomba hosts dinner to celebrate Gandhi's legacy On Friday, 4th October, Lord Raj Loomba of the Loomba Foundation hosted a dinner ceremony at the House of Lords celebrating Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary. The event was attended by Lord Karan Bilimoria, Deputy High Commissioner of India to the UK, Charanjit Singh and GP Hinduja among others.

"Throughout his life, Gandhiji faced discrimination and violence, yet he always insisted on non-violent resistance. He was sent to jail 19 times throughout his life, and even at the age

of 75. But, he stood by his beliefs, despite all the pressures he was put under, and we must never forget the sacrifices that he made for the sake of our country.

"We at Loomba Foundation recognize many of Gandhiji's values. Over the past 22 years, since I set up the Loomba Foundation, we have raised awareness of the plight of women who, unfortunately, lose their husbands and suffer in silence to poverty, illiteracy, diseases such as HIV, Aids, , malaria, complex, and injustice," said Lord Loomba.

As the evening pro-

gressed, the guests lauded Lord Loomba for his work with the vulnerable women across the world. In the meantime, entrepreneur GP Hinduja spoke of Mahatma's principles that shaped his own business initiative. He said, “My late father was his disciple, I remember, whenever he used to have marches, he used to be there. And if you look at our group principles, they were all framed from Gandhi's principles. Gandhi was not a businessman, but Harvard recognised him as the best business management guy.''

Lord Loomba with distinguished guests

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Dr Amir Khan GPs Behind Closed Doors

Dr Amir Khan

Sunetra Senior t a time when the NHS is coming under increasing pressure, Dr Amir Khan brings his friendly, restorative vigour to the proverbial surgery table. The young GP recently starred on Channel 5’s hit television series, GPs Behind Closed Doors, alongside his colleagues at the local Ridge medical practice, based in Bradford.

A

“We learned so much from each other while on the show,” Amir told us. “It’s been great to see how well our practice works as well as highlighting the many common health issues and how they’re handled – I, personally, love to laugh along the way.” Indeed, Amir is one of the most popular GPs of the show, appearing on its sixth series, because of his signature playful approach. In one very memorable moment, the jovial GP has an intimate but entertaining conversation with elderly British patient, Marjorie, who is worried about her upcoming overnight stay at a hospital as part of the checkup process for potential bowel cancer. “She very seriously told me that she could not go back to that particular location because last time she’d been admitted, there was a drunk man in the bed to the right of her, and two women ‘making love’ in the bed to the left!” In the episode, Amir successfully comforts the disappointed local, offering her a back-up plan, and soon has her smiling about digestive movements too. “She went on to say passing stools were like having to give birth so I suggested she name them as they come out! Yes, there’s stress and difficulty, and challenging exchanges, but you’ve got to live in hope!”

patient is worried about e.g. you might personally think that a sore hand means they should be concerned about one thing while the patient might be anticipating quite another. You must be able to pick up on non-verbal cues, and ask the right questions e.g. one big one is at the end: ‘what were you hoping I could do for you today’? This could easily sound chastising, but not if you’ve asked the right way! Basically, GPs should understand that consultations are patient-led with them making the vast majority of the decisions. A good GP knows how to provide the appropriate information reassuringly, and work together as a team. Really, what’s best for one person does not necessarily help another.” Nor, indeed, is the solution what an individual GP might subjectively believe.

Ultimately then, it seems, what really matters is the patient feeling held by their local doctor. “It’s absolutely about trust between patient and physician,” Amir affirmed, “especially when it comes to diagnoses with long-term diagnoses e.g. chronic illnesses. That’s a special relationship where you’re seeing someone at their most vulnerable and trying to help them out. It’s why I really

enjoy the idea of a traditional family doctor– where you have the same physicians looking after entire households over time. Maintaining a rapport through the right, open attitude from how you look at a person who’s come in for an appointment to your tone and posture, benefits everyone involved – you come away feeling rewarded too. I love experiencing colourful dynamics, and have a vast love of humanity. Given that GPs do have such a brief time to get to understand someone, it’s of the *** utmost importance to have that active In fact, Amir believes that heartfelt listening skill from the onset which communication is fundamental to his secures a strong bond, allowing the profession. “It’s what makes a good GP,” patient to clearly articulate what’s on he told us, “and elevates a mediocre their mind too.” consultation to a quality one.

Amir’s concern for patient You must connect with your care poignantly extends to patients in addition to the concept of communi“Make sure being a competent clinty around him. On the you socialise. ician. This is importopic of healthcare tant in the medical which might yet need Make connections world generally, but he statand develop friend- improvement, especially as a general ed: “it’s no secret realpractitioner where ships; go outside ly, but social deprivayou see so many diftion plays a huge part and be in the ferent types of people in recurring health suffering a broad range world" problems across the of conditions. You have country, and especially in got to individualise your my area of Bradford. Lower relationships: they are not just a income households struggle with walking set of symptoms.” good nutrition and obesity with the Here, Amir went on to tell us of the local school by Ridge Medical Centre new exams introduced by the RCGP having one of the highest obesity rates (Royal College of General Practitioners), in Bradford. We need better public eduin which emotional intelligence is highcation on the subject, and social investly valued: “they’re geared towards talkment in these communities. These are ing about and exploring the patient’s forgotten Northern cities. The loneliideas and expectations and incorporatness impacts on mental health and agiing that into the consultation: you must tates physical ailments too. On house consider the particulars of what your

calls, I’ll sometimes see 8-10 people crammed into one 3-bedroom house.

People struggle to even get their children to school: that’s enough of a day job for some. Harsh protocol around benefits and limited access to community life, with areas bringing people together being shut down, exacerbate the problem. Additionally, certain cultural communities can be hard to reach in the area, regarding vital screenings.

This includes the South Asian and Eastern European population. I have actually been to supermarkets and Mosques to spread the informative word! Everyone deserves good health.

Our system is not being adapted to be inclusive, but it should as we serve the population.”

And so, fighting in the front line of primary care, Amir emerges the perfect spokesperson for modern public health.

Significantly, he demonstrates that emotional well-being is not just as important as physical health, an idea that’s become widely accepted, but further, central to it, in the developed world of 2019. “Acknowledgement is pivotal – chronic pain, for example febrile myalgia, often does not have a clear-cut chemical cure. It is all about cognitive behavioural management: reducing perceived stress as well as then cutting the instances of it down.” Allround prescribed positivity might very well be the worthy alternative to that new multivitamin supplement on the market, providing a boost to national health too. “My top three tips for good health are definitely mindful,” Amir roundly concluded: “make sure you socialise. Make connections and develop friendships; go outside and be in the natural world. There’s no such thing as the wrong weather, only the wrong clothes; finally, watch your diet. The right choices could change everything!” So, remember to schedule in salubrious hot drinks with friends and wrap-up warm for crisp walks, this Autumn – your life, without wanting to get too morbid before the 31st, might depend on it!

Would you say good consultations always end with the patient feeling comforted?

Yes, and I’m very tactile too. We had a diabetic patient on the show who was reluctant to use a mobility scooter. I asked him to let me have a go on it and was riding up and down the corridor!

What made you want to specialise as a GP? Actually, I initially applied to vet school, but couldn’t bear to see animals in pain. I then applied to study medicine in the hope of becoming a paediatrician, but I love talking to people and babies can’t hold a conversation! I love interactions which are rich in emotional history and experience.

Finally, what are some upcoming TV projects of yours?

The Science of Sleep: How to Sleep Better, which is currently showing. Do tune in for the benefits of a good night’s sleep – including digestion, improved memory and regulation of hormones.

Also upcoming is a show called How to Lose a Stone with Ruth Langford, and there’s a book release on the horizon – very excited for that.

T:@DrAmirKhanGP

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12 - 18 Oct 2019

OFFENDER REHABILITATION SYSTEM NEEDS TO BE REFORMED A House of Lords peer has called for reforms to the rehabilitation program for offenders.

Lord Navnit Dholakia has spoken of the "disastrous" shortcomings of the offender management strategy for the rehabilitation of offenders and called for optimum usage of resources from both large and small organisations. Whilst he acknowledged the aims of Lord Dholakia the changes introduced to the offender act in 2014-15, Lord Dholakia said, "The arrangements squeezed out most voluntary sector agencies as the tendering process, favoured large private sector companies that can take significant financial risks.

There was a heavy emphasis on paying organisations according to the volume of work which they received.

“This process meant organisations had to incur expenditure without knowing whether they would receive enough work to reimburse them properly. This ruled out most voluntary organisations who could not take the financial risk of becoming involved in these arrangements".

Voluntary institutes have expertise in areas such as housing, employment, training, mentoring, addiction and mental health that are key to rehabilitating offenders and reducing reoffending. He further highlighted that larger voluntary organisations such as Nacro, help provide "outstanding services and have strong local links".

Citing the House of Commons Justice Committee, he stated, "There is now less voluntary sector involvement in the provision of probation services than before the transforming rehabilitation arrangements began".

He further discussed a system which has split offender management between the National Probation Service for high-risk offenders and community rehabilitation companies for medium and low-risk offenders. Describing the split as "artificial", he said, "Many offenders who start out as low-level petty offenders move on, over time, to become high-risk offenders".

Lord Dholakia noted that whilst the National Probation Service has "largely done a good job", the same is not true of the community rehabilitation companies". Depicting a grim picture with inadequate performance, staff shortages, and "frequent transfers of offenders from one officer to another in the course of their supervision", Lord Dholakia concluded that, "There has been a sharp fall in the number of offenders taking part in accredited offending behaviour programmes.

The importance of this issue cannot be overstated as it is something that has been shown to reduce reoffending—by 56% between 2009 and 2017".

PATEL BRANDED “HYPOCRITE”

BY HER OWN CONSTITUENTS Home Secretary's own constituents in Witham, Essex say that she has failed them.

Priti Patel has been branded a hypocrite for vowing to crack down on violent crime after she allowed the blight to explode on their doorsteps by backing police cuts.

According to the Sunday People crime cases have surged by over 60% in the heart of Patel's constituency whilst under Tory rule.

Data received from the Office for National Statistics for the Priti Patel district show that in the year to March 2010 there were 598 cases of violence with injury, compared with 965 in the year up to March this year – an increase of over 60 per cent. Street robberies also surged from 35 to 70 over the same period.

In the meantime, police in Essex have also been cut by 15 per cent since 2010 – meaning 535 fewer officers. Witham’s police station closed three years ago as part of a £63million cashsaving scheme.

Recently she had disclosed her plans to combat street violence by ending soft sentences and giving police more protection.

Essex Police is receiving almost £300million in 2019/20, including council tax, a £23million increase on the previous financial year.

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18 FINANCE - UK

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12 - 18 October 2019

Consultant Editor Financial Voice Alpesh Patel Dear Financial Voice Reader, Most people go to court to sort financial claims, not usually international political issues. But as we’ve seen with Brexit, they do also end up in the British courts over those too.

And so it was this past week. A UK court in ruling over a financial case involving the Governments of India and Pakistan resulting from accession of Princely States and partition of Pakistan from India. I am not speaking of Kashmir, but the near identical case of Hyderabad. That Pakistan lost its claim is massively significant and overlooked in equal measure – given it made identical claims over Kashmir.

This is the Hyderabad Fund case adjudicated last week in the UK after over 40 years. The Nizam of Hyderabad had yet to decide whether to accede to India after partition. Just like the ruler of Kashmir.

After that point Pakistan’s claim over Hyderabad differs, is stronger than over Kashmir, and for it to have just lost the Hyderabad case in the UK courts, strongly suggests its Kashmir case has negligible legal force.

The ruler of Kashmir after partition was under duress from invading Pakistani forces, as recognized by UN Resolution 47 which requests Pakistan to withdraw those troops, which it conveniently forgets to mention when talking of UN Resolutions. So the Kashmir ruler acceded to India. These matters are undisputed.

Last week, in the Hyderabad Funds case, a British judge ruled the monies sent to the Government of Pakistan by the Nizam of independent Hyderabad (let’s call it ‘Azad Hyderabad’ to indulge and bolster the Pakistani case) belonged to the Nizam’s heirs in India. Not to Pakistan.

With Hyderabad, well, I’ll let Pakistan explain, as reported in their Tribune paper after the Hyderabad Fund case ruling last week: said Pakistan, "The ruling does not take into account the historical context of the transfer when India illegally annexed Hyderabad in violation of International Law and all civilised norms, leading the Nizam of Hyderabad to make desperate efforts to defend his people and the state from the Indian invasion,” “The Nizam also raised the matter with the UN Security Council where the issue remains on the agenda to date. The Nizam, as a sovereign, approached Pakistan for assistance which the Government of Pakistan provided.”

(The Nizam, or Prince, wired funds to Pakistan’s High Commissioner in London fearing the Indian invasion).

The argument Pakistan made at the time was that as Hyderabad was Muslim majority it should like Kashmir be independent or part of Pakistan. The matter remains as Pakistan notes something at the UN. Sardar Patel then India’s Deputy PM and Home Minister told the Prince he either accedes or the Indian tanks role in. Today Hyderabad is one of the premier global cities for technology entrepreneurship and one of the wealthiest in India with HQs of Microsoft there. No one, except Hyderabad, doubts it is a part of India. Practice becomes law. Pakistan is deciding whether to appeal – and if it does, well it could get embarrassing as more journalists and commentators make the connection, after all, the British adjudicated, just as Pakistan wanted.

Sanjeev Gupta faces questions over his funding model Entitled as Britain’s “saviour of steel,” Sanjeev Gupta was celebrating in Romania for the acquisition of seven steelworks in mainland Europe by his Liberty House group. The deal capped off a dazzling run of acquisitions that has transformed his family’s business empire GFG Alliance, from an obscure commodities trading outfit into an industrial powerhouse with $20bn in annual turnover in less than five years. Hailed as a rescuer of jobs and smokestack industries from Scotland to Australia, GFG is claimed to be the fifthlargest private landowner in the UK. But last week’s celebrations of the group’s biggest deal were overshadowed by its struggles in achieving another milestone - the first high-yield bond by one of its companies. In what turned out to be a disastrous debut

in the debt capital markets, Gupta was forced to invest $150m of his own pocket to save the deal for InfraBuild, an Australian steel manufacturer and re-cycler.

Even after InfraBuild scaled back the bond by one-third to $325m, sceptical investors still charged the company an eye-watering 12 per cent interest rate.

Gupta, 48, has long faced questions about the sustainability of GFG’s funding model. The Indianborn businessman was grilled live on air about the troubled bond sale and how Liberty had paid for the European steel plants.

“From our own equity and a little bit of debt,” Gupta replied, as GFG and Liberty flags flapped in the breeze behind him.

According to the Public filings, Liberty signed a new €2.2bn debt facility to fund the purchase of the steelworks from

ArcelorMittal, which together employ 14,000 people which made Liberty the continent’s third largest producer of the metal. The facility is backed by the businesses’ receivables amounts owed to them from customers - and is three times the €740m price Gupta paid for the assets.

GFG Alliance declined to publicly comment on whether the facility had been fully drawn. Filings show this debt could rackup a total interest bill of €660m.

The scale of the borrowing, which has not been previously reported, shows that despite efforts to raise more conventional forms of funding, Gupta’s business empire is still heavily reliant on opaque and unconventional financing linked to working capital and supply chains that can be expensive.

Despite some of these

Sanjeev Gupta

financing techniques do not have to be reported in a company’s debt figures, they still place a financial burden on the business involved.

Financial cracks have begun to emerge in some corners of GFG’s empire.

The group breached several terms of a $350m loan that financed its acquisition of Europe’s largest aluminium smelter last year, said people close with the matter. While the Dunkirk facility has not missed any scheduled payments, some of these breaches relate to issues like delayed filing of audited accounts for the smelter business.

Chinese firm eyes slice of Indian food delivery app Chinese investor, Ant Financial is in talks to finalise a fresh $600-million funding with online food delivery and restaurant discovery app Zomato. The deal, if signed, may now see its value zoom by over a billion dollars to over $3 billion.

Ant Financial, an affiliate company of the Chinese Alibaba Group, has been backing Zomato since it picked up a 14.7% stake in February last year. It followed that up by raising its stake to 23% in November last year, regulatory filings show. Industry observers say

while there are no questions about the market opportunity and increasing acceptance of food delivery services, it’s a high cash burn business. Hence, a large cheque is imperative to stay in the game. “Zomato is working very closely with Paytm because one of the best use cases for payments is food,” said one person with direct knowledge of the situation.

Revenues of Zomato up from $68 million in FY18 to $206 million in FY19, while its losses stood at about $294 million. The loss for FY18 was not disclosed. Its

expenses skyrocketed at a much faster pace as it spent $500 million during FY19, a six-fold jump from the $80 million it spent in the previous year. As of April 2019, Zomato’s food delivery business was operational in 500 cities in India. In FY20, Zomato completed around 214 million orders, compared to just 55 million orders in the same period last year. So far, Zomato has raised a total of $755.6 million in funding over 13 rounds (not including the $600 million, which is yet to be closed), according to Crunchbase estimates, and

posted revenue of $206 million in FY19.

The investment would be the latest sign that China's top tech companies are doubling down on the Indian market. Shenzhenbased company, Tencent is Alibaba’s main rival in China, and is also building up its Indian network. But Alibaba and Tencent have pursued different strategies, with Alibaba and Ant taking larger, focused bets and Tencent opting for a series of smaller partnerships in the wake of its rejected $8bn bid for the Indian ecommerce site Flipkart.

Thomas Cook paid millions to 30 advisers in its final days It has been claimed Thomas Cook forked out over £20 million to City accountants and advisers in its final days. The company was forced to pay fees worth tens of millions of pounds to more than 30 advisers as it struggled to secure a rescue deal, with the vast payouts adding to an already severe cash burn at the collapsed travel group. The firm collapsed last month after failing to get an additional £200 million, leading to the biggest repatriation of UK nationals during peacetime. Some 9,000 staff in the UK also lost their jobs. The doomed firm sought to put together a £900 million rescue deal by splitting its business between its largest

shareholder and its lenders and bondholders.

Dozens of City advisers - working on behalf of the company, bondholders, shareholders, industry insurance schemes such as Atol and the pension fund - were involved in talks to restructure the debtladen business in the run-up to its demise.

About 20 law firms, the Big Four accounting groups, and leading restructuring advisers were also brought in. Even the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) hired professional help turnround specialist Alvarez & Marsal - as it prepared for the biggest repatriation of UK nationals in peacetime. The company paid out fees to advisers during its restructuring

negotiations despite most working on behalf of other parties involved in the talks, said a person close to the negotiations. The bill would have been much higher if these groups had been paid in full for their work in September.

John McDonnell, the shadow chancellor, said: “The workers and customers of Thomas Cook will look on aghast at the feeding feast that has taken place at this company by accountants and advisers whilst they have lost their wages, jobs and holidays. We need a complete overhaul of the system for dealing with companies in trouble.”

Late in the negotiations, new investors

struggled to find a law firm to represent them that was not already in the room or had not worked on the restructuring, said one person close to the talks. Peter Fankhauser, Thomas Cook’s chief executive, said the company would have “run out of cash by 4 October 2019 and probably earlier”, according to insolvency documents from late September.

Thomas Cook’s mounting adviser bills reflected so-called “cost cover” agreements to bring all parties needed to save the group around the table as it struggled to thrash out terms of a deal. Such agreements are not unusual, but the extent of the list shows the multiple competing interests involved.

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Yesterday we exchanged on probably the smallest deal we have done. The property is an interesting one, it is based in a very beautiful coastal location called Burlington, about half an hour from Hull.

This deal was actually purchased by default.

Our client underwrote this at auction at £70K, what this means is if someone else had purchased the property at the auction for above £70K our client would have received 45% of the difference. Somebody else didn’t, which meant our client ended up with the deal.

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap London Property Investment

The 1st floor flat was empty and left open. I went in there and came out in 30 seconds.

This was my physical involvement with the property.

It was kept to an absolute minimum due to health concerns.

We have made money for our clients using this principle previously.

On my visit there, although I spent a couple of days in the area, I didn’t and couldn’t stand in the property for more than 5 minutes.

The property was promptly put in the auction and the rest of the viewings immediately cancelled, to my relief.

The tenant in the top floor flat had about 4 animals that I could see; two dogs and two cats living with two humans. The animals would do their business in the hallway. The rent is £350pm. The place stank, and as soon as I

In the end, the property did not sell on the day of the auction. Instead, as an unsold lot it drew the attention of a buyer, and the property was promptly exchanged for £86K. The property was purchased for £70K on the 31st July. It was

AGONY AGENT IS HERE TO HELP! Q: Can I use my property as an HMO? A: An HMO is a house occupied by more than two people who are not members of the same family. The ideal property for an HMO would be a house or a large apartment with two plus bedrooms excluding the lounge. It would be ideal for the lounge to be enclosed, and not open plan with a kitchen, as this could be used as an extra bedroom.

More often than not, your property will fall into the category of HMO if it: has three habitable floors; has at least two/three unrelated tenants who are not members of the same household; has a number of tenants who have separate

agreements; is a bedsit or hostel-type of setup; is student accommodation; is a building which was converted into a number of self-contained flats but does not yet comply with the 1991 Building Regulations. Do not take this list as gospel, as this varies from council to council. It would be best to check with the local housing department in the area.

It is not easy to set up an HMO, so you need to ask yourself if you are prepared for some start-up costs, improvements and changes to comply with the regulations.

Becoming an HMO landlord is a whole different kettle of fish to an AST tenancy.

It will start with talking to your mortgage lender about a specialist mortgage – they

BUY TO LET OPPORTUNITY

12 - 18 Oct 2019

entered along with the agent, I told him he could finish up and I would meet him outside.

We had a stream of agents booked to come in on the day to look at the property and take local advice on the options available. Luckily, the first agent to walk in was an auctioneer. This was my preference, as this means a ‘guaranteed’ sale. Under auction contract as soon as the contract is signed and money transferred the deal has exchanged.

The numbers on the surface looked very good.

It is producing £10K per annum, and the comparables were showing the building to be worth £120K. Furthermore, the property was in the wrong auction.

19

sold ten weeks later for £86K. The expenses are assumed at about £9K, inclusive of legals and interest. The deposit our client put down to do the deal was only £24K. Therefore, there is approximate gain of 30% in 10 weeks.

Even if our client never sold this property, the alternative plan was for us to tidy it up and refinance it. Assuming the valuation came in at £120K the remortgage amount would have been around £84K. This means the initial funds would have come out. Although, one would need to wait 6 months before this was done.

What this article and example illustrates is property investment can be played with on many different price sectors.

may not allow you to purchase an HMO, or intended HMO, with a standard buy to let mortgage, so it is best to double check.

Even if your new investment property is already set up as an HMO, it will require a licence in your name. The licence entails inspections, fees and will need to be renewed every twelve months. Complying with the inspections will mean installing some of the basic requirements, for example, fire alarms must be installed in all bedrooms and shared areas, with heat detectors supplied in the kitchen; fire extinguishers; illumined means of escape must be provided; gas supply and fittings must be checked by a registered engineer annually; electricity safety checks must be

carried out every five years; the facilities supplied must be suitable for the number of tenants living in the property; and remember all communal areas must be maintained to a reasonable standard by you.

In terms of the benefits of an HMO, the biggest benefit to you would be the financial side, as you could potentially take a standard £500 per week property, rent it out to say four people and charge £250 per room per week, increasing your weekly income by 100%.

We can support you, whether you want to manage your own properties or take advantage of our fully-managed service.

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Wilbur Ross: US-India trade deal can happen quickly US Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross has said that with the Narendra Modi government back in power, a US-India bilateral trade deal can happen very quickly as the two countries know each other’s issues well.

“Pre-elections there were undoubtedly some constraints on India to deal with some matters. Now that the elections have come and gone, and PM Modi has a clear and strong position in Parliament, it should be a lot easier to take clear decisive action,” Ross said at the India Economic Forum organised by the World Economic Forum in partnership with CII. On the failure of US President Donald Trump and PM Modi to reach an agreement on trade during the Indian PM’s recent visit to the US, Ross said that neither government said there would be a trade deal in five minutes, and the talks of a trade deal being signed then were mere speculation.

Chances of an early conclusion of the India-US trade deal have increased with the two countries reducing their

Wilbur Ross

differences and agreeing to allow more goods to be shipped by both countries, besides cutting import duty on contentious items. While an assessment of the gains - in terms of duty benefits as well as trade volumes - is being undertaken, an announcement over the next few weeks looks likely. There have been discussions on the trade package being unveiled during the next meeting between PM Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump, with the possibility of an interaction in India also being looked at, sources said.

The US has been seeking certain trade concessions from India to bridge the existing trade

deficit between the countries. It wants India to take a number of facilitating steps such as remove price caps on medical devices, reduce tariffs on mobiles, motorbikes and some agriculture products, and allow dairy exports. India, on the other hand, wants the US to restore the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) scheme for Indian exporters, which was withdrawn earlier this year.

India also wants the US to rollback penal import duties imposed on its aluminium and steel, which were imposed last year on security grounds.

Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal said that relationship between the US and India were better than ever before.

“The leaders get along very well personally, and also understand each other. They understand what is good for the people of the country and the world as a whole,” he said. The US was India’s largest export destination accounting for 16 per cent of India’s exports in 2018-19. It was followed by

United Arab Emirates (UAE), China and Hong Kong.

India had clearly indicated to the US that it was willing to address several of its concerns, the emphatic mandate to Modi and detailed negotiations between Goyal and Lighthizer over the last three months helped the two countries recognise each other’s concerns and red lines better, sources said.

They said both governments are approaching the negotiations as part of their broader strategic partnership rather than through the sole prism of trade deficit.

“The US has been very helpful to us on a range of issues, like terrorism, J&K, membership to Nuclear Suppliers Group, and this has inevitably been a factor in our approach,” said a senior source on the condition of anonymity.

Despite the package, information technology and telecom goods, e-commerce and data privacy issues as well as some matters pertaining to intellectual property rights will be dealt with separately.

SBI not open for acquisitions: bank chairman The chairman of India's largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) said that the bank is not considering any acquisition, has not been sounded out for one, nor is it in a situation to take over another bank. The bank’s chairman Rajnish Kumar, responding to a question on whether SBI was likely to be a port of call for authorities looking to merge distressed lenders, said that there was no such move.

SBI recently merged five of its associate banks with itself.

Earlier in the past, the government has asked SBI to take over lenders like the Bharatiya Mahila Bank and Bank of Credit and Commerce

Rajnish Kumar

International. With the RBI moving to take control of Punjab & Maharashtra Cooperative Bank - one of the top five cooperative lenders in India - there is speculation that a merger of operations might be in the offing.

Kumar was speaking in an

Startup funding jumps 25% amid ‘bubble’ fear The latest data shows that the total money infused into Indian startups increased by 25 per cent to $10.9 billion in the first nine months of 2019 as compared to the same period in the previous year, even as the total number of deals fell by 26 per cent to 937 transactions. The data indicates that the boom in financing is being led by mid and late-stage rounds over $50 million, and is now trickling down to even early-stage transactions.

Capital flows to startups continued at an increased pace in the latest quarter as global investors carried funding for entrepreneurs building out the next big companies in areas from financial technology to software services, bucking the slowing growth in the economy. However, the rush of capital, which has led to valuation of some startups multiplying overnight without any significant change in business metrics, is also causing concern among investors of a ‘bubble’.

event while participating in SBI staff’s efforts to clean up Dadar beach in Mumbai. According to the SBI chairman, the bulk of the bad loan provisioning of nearly £10 billion took place in FY18 and has been declining since then. “We expect that fresh slippages will be contained at 2%,” he said. “The stress in the system will reduce once the recoveries start happening,” said Kumar. He added that of the 12 large default accounts, Alok Industries and Bhushan Power & Steel are close to resolution, and court hearings in respect of Essar Steel are expected to resume on October 15. “While we do sell non-performing assets, we are not looking to

offload any of the 12 large accounts referred to the NCLT,” he said.

SBI managing director Arjit Basu said that there have been positive developments in the economy that are not being recognised. “The monsoon has been favourable and we are seeing improvement in festival demand, which could lead to improvement in personal consumption demand,” he said.

“We are also seeing some of the companies looking to reduce their level of debt. This is a good thing as these are good companies with other sources of funds. This could have a temporary effect on credit demand,” said Basu.

RBI cuts repo rate to 9-year low, growth estimate to 7-year low India's central bank lowered its key policy rate yet again - the fifth successive time this year in a bid to spur slowing economic growth. The latest cut by Reserve Bank of India (RBI), by a quarter percentage point to 5.15%, brought the benchmark repo rate (the rate at which RBI lends to banks) to a nine-year low.

But the news was overshadowed by the RBI's announcement that it was sharply reducing India's growth forecast for the fiscal year to 6.1% from 6.9% projected earlier.

The six-member monetary policy committee (MPC) headed by Governor

Shaktikanta Das announced the decision after a three-day meeting.

Earlier on February 7, April 4, June 6 and Aug 7, the central bank had reduced the key lending rate to infuse liquidity and push economic growth. The decision of the RBI's monetary policy committee to cut the repo rate was unanimous with one member, Ravindra Dholakia, seeking a 40-bps cut. While RBI’s rate cut was modest considering its sharp downward revision of growth, Das promised to continue with an 'accommodative’ policy as long as is necessary to ensure growth momentum.

In a bimonthly review of the economy the central bank said the reduction was needed to revive growth from a six-year low. The cut in GDP growth estimate is the sharpest in recent memory and follows GDP growth slowing to an over 6-year low of 5% in AprilJune quarter, as consumer spending and corporate investment faltered.

Declining industrial output and automobile sales suggest the slowdown could deepen.

The bank said that abundant rains in August and September have brightened the prospects for agriculture and a revival of domestic demand.

in brief NIKE REDUCES NO OF STORES IN INDIA

The world’s largest sportswear maker has slashed the number of stores to around 150 and may further bring it down to around 100, sources said. Nike has withdrawn from most of its franchise agreements in India and has decided to go along with only one strategic partner New Delhi-based SSIPL (Sports Station). The US-headquartered company started consolidating its business in India in 2016 when it shuttered 35% of its stores to cut its losses. Subsequently, the company downsized its workforce in India. The move was part of a global-restructuring process that saw the company focusing on 12 key global cities including New York, Shanghai, London, Tokyo, Paris and Mexico City to achieve 80% of its projected growth by 2020. Not even one Indian city featured on that list.

FORD INKS JV WITH MAHINDRA & MAHINDRA Ford Motor has decided to park its struggling India business into a joint venture with Mahindra & Mahindra. Ford, which ventured in India in 1995, will cede control of its local operations as it believes “partnerships will become the norm in the industry”. The American company, which will transfer most of its India assets to the JV, will hold 49% in the new company valued at £192.5 million, while Mahindra will own the remaining 51%. The JV, which will house Ford’s two assembly plants in Chennai and Sanand, and employees, will be managed by Mahindra while the governance board will have equal representation by both the parties. While the Michigan-based automaker will continue to own the Ford brand, the JV will develop, market and distribute the Ford-badged cars in India as well as in emerging markets around the world.

SERVICES SECTOR CONTRACTS IN SEPT The month of September witnessed India’s dominant services sector slipping into contraction as new business orders fell for the first time since early 2018. The IHS Markit Services Purchasing Managers’ Index fell to a 19-month low of 48.7 in September from 52.4 in August. It also found business optimism at its lowest in 2-1/2 years. The survey adds to the deepening gloom around businesses and consumers, underlining the broadening cracks in the economy as growth slipped to six-year low in the April-June quarter. “The bad news of a cooling manufacturing sector was compounded by an outright services downturn in September,” Pollyanna De Lima, principal economist at IHS Markit, said in a release. It was the second month this year the index had fallen below the 50-mark separating growth from contraction - the last one being in June.

STAGE SET FOR BPCL SELLOFF Ahead of a proposed move to fully privatise state-owned fuel retailer Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL), the government had quietly repealed the legislation that had nationalised the company, doing away with the need to seek Parliament nod before selling it off to private and foreign firms.

The Repealing and Amending Act of 2016 had annulled “187 obsolete and redundant laws lying unnecessarily on the statue book”, including the Act of 1976 that had nationalised erstwhile Burmah Shell. “The Act has been repealed and there is no need for a Parliament approval for strategic sale of BPCL,” a senior official said. The privatisation of BPCL will not just shake up the fuel-retailing sector long dominated by PSUs, but also help meet at least a third of the government’s Rs 10.5 billion disinvestment target.

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in brief INDIAN EXPAT WINS $1 MN, ANOTHER GETS MERCEDES BENZ

An Indian expat turned millionaire while another became the owner of a Mercedes Benz after their ticket numbers were drawn in Dubai Duty Free raffle. Praveen Aranha, who works as a management accountant at Atlantis The Palm, won a staggering $1 million with ticket number 3969 in Dubai Duty Free Millennium Millionaire and Finest Surprise promotions held at Concourse A – Terminal 3 of Dubai International Airport.

Aranha is based in Dubai for the past 16 years and has been participating in the raffle for 15 years. Winning the raffle jointly with two of his colleagues who shared the ticket price equally with him, Aranha said he now wants to save a portion of the prize money for his daughter’s higher education. Aranha is the 151st Indian national to have won the prize since its inception in 1999. Forty-yearold Ronni Thomas, an Indian national from Sharjah, also won a Mercedes Benz S560 with ticket number 1262.

PAK FM LOSES COOL WHEN ASKED TO NAME COUNTRIES SUPPORTING IT Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi lost his cool on being asked to name the 58 countries that Prime Minister Imran Khan commended for backing Islamabad on its stance on the Kashmir issue at the UNHRC. During a talk show on Pakistan TV channel, Qureshi was asked the question as he had repeatedly endorsed Khan's statement that 58 countries had supported Islamabad on the Kashmir issue. "On whose agenda are you working?" Khan snapped at talk show host Javed Chaudhry. "Are you going to tell me or decide which countries have or have not supported Pakistan at the UN?... You may write whatever you want!" On being again pressed for endorsing Khan's comment on his own Twitter handle, Qureshi said, No! No! Show me the tweet I have written, not what Prime Minister Khan has written. You have said my tweet... show that to me. I want my tweet." Oddly still, after the minister was shown the tweet, Qureshi said he found nothing wrong in the tweet. "I stand by what I have said. What is so surprising in this....whose agenda are you following?”

NEPAL EX-SPEAKER HELD IN SEXUAL HARASSMENT CASE K B Mahara, a senior leader of the ruling Nepal Communist Party (NCP), who resigned recently as Speaker of Parliament, was arrested in connection with a sexual harassment case. Police arrested Mahara following allegations that he attempted to rape an employee of the parliamentary secretariat. The woman had formally lodged a complaint with the police. Mahara is a former deputy prime minister and one of the most influential politicians from the erstwhile Maoist Party. He has held important ministries in the past 13 years after the Maoists joined the democratic process in 2006. After the complainant gave a detailed interview to an online news portal alleging that Mahara had attempted to rape her at her residence, the ruling party decided he should resign as Speaker and as MP. Mahara, however, has not yet resigned as a member of Parliament. He has been lodged in the high-security Singha Durbar police station in Kathmandu, where he is being interrogated.

Afghan Taliban free three Indian hostages in exchange for 11 of its men ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI: The Afghan Taliban have released three Indian engineers, who were held hostage for over a year, in exchange for at least 11 members of their outfit. The swap took place on Sunday with their members released from a high-security US-controlled prison in Afghanistan’s Bagram and handed over to Taliban leaders in the northern Baghlan province, according to Taliban officials.

The freed Indians were part of a group of seven engineers kidnapped along with their driver by Taliban terrorist Mullah Yunus of Baghlan from northern Afghanistan in May last year. One of the hostages was released in March, but the fate of the rest of their colleagues remains unclear.

The three Indian engineers have not been named. Taliban had never formally claimed responsibility for the kidnappings. Their release,

File photo of Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, the Taliban group's top political leader and Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the Taliban's chief negotiator.

however, confirmed that they were held hostage by the outfit.

The freed Taliban members included Sheikh Abdul Rahim and Maulvi Rashid who were governors of Kunar and Nimroz provinces respectively during the outfit’s rule, and Aziz ur Rahman, also known as

Ehsanullah, the nephew of Taliban deputy chief Sirajuddin Haqqani.

Most abducted were from Jharkhand The Indian government refrained from commenting on the development. However, sources confirmed they had strong

indication of the engineers having been released. Sources said most of the seven who were abducted were from Jharkhand and worked with Mumbai-based company KEC International Limited. The Afghan Taliban had reportedly asked KEC to pay a massive ransom for release of its engineers. KEC, however, refused to pay, the sources said. A part of RPG Enterprises, KEC is involved in infrastructure and construction projects in many countries. The move came a week after a delegation of Taliban leaders met US special envoy for Afghan reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad in Islamabad.

It was the first meeting since talks between the two sides collapsed after President Donald Trump called off his plan to host a Taliban delegation in the US a month ago. The prisoner swap, according to Taliban sources, was one of the issues discussed in the recent meeting with Khalilzad.

Saudi Crown Prince ‘snubbed’ Imran, recalled his jet flying to Pak: Report ISLAMABAD: Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman was so upset by some actions of Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan in New York that he reportedly “snubbed” him by ordering his private jet to “disembowel” the Pakistani delegation. Prince Salman gave Imran his private jet to travel to the US on a weeklong visit and to attend the 74th session of the UN General Assembly in New York last month. Khan went to Riyadh and held talks with the crown prince first before leaving for the US. It was reported that the special jet developed a “technical glitch” as Khan was returning to Islamabad from New York on September 28, forcing the PM and his delegation to return to New York and then take a commercial flight back to Pakistan.

However, according to a report in weekly newspaper ‘The Friday Times’, the crown prince recalled the plane as he was unhappy with some of Khan’s actions.

“Inexplicably, the Saudi

crown prince was so alienated by some dimensions of the Pakistani prime minister’s diplomacy in New York - he couldn’t have been happy at the prospect of Imran Khan, Recip Tayyib Erdogan and Mahathir Mohammad planning to jointly represent the Islamic bloc, nor with Pakistan’s interlocution with Iran without his explicit approval - that he visibly snubbed Imran by ordering his private jet to disembowel the Pakistani delegation,” says the editorial written by veteran journalist Najam Sethi.

Pakistan, however, has categorically dismissed as “utter fabrication” the report published in the newspaper. “It is totally false and absolutely carries no truth whatsoever,” a government spokesman said in a statement.

The report also claimed that Khan’s trip also had “some unintended consequences”.

During their visit to New York, the leaders of Pakistan, Turkey and Malaysia had decided to launch a BBC-type English television channel to highlight the issues of Muslims and fight Islamophobia in the

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan

West. “We felt that many reports about Islam and Muslims were inaccurate, and do not portray what Islam preaches. They label Muslims as terrorists for example, and the world accepts it as the truth when Islam is not a violent religion. We feel there must be an effort to explain what Islam is so that there is no confusion and it won’t be accused of being a religion that promotes terrorism,” the Malaysian PM tweeted.

Khan said last month that US President Donald Trump had asked him to mediate with Iran to defuse tensions in the region.

He met Trump and Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on

the sidelines of UNGA session, before which he met the crown prince in Saudi Arabia, whom he said had made the same request.

Reacting to the write-up, the government official said the report carried “baseless selfcreated theory with respect to the premier’s meetings with the leaders of Turkey and Malaysia in New York.” The government spokesman clarified that Islamabad and Riyadh enjoyed “most cordial and brotherly relations”.

“Only people with vested interests would come up with such concocted and baseless assertions,” he was quoted as saying.

Pak, Taliban urge US to resume Afghan peace talks I S L A M A B AD / P E S H A W A R : Pakistan and Taliban militant group have urged US to resume Afghanistan peace talks at the earliest after President Donald Trump broke off negotiations last month seeking to end the United States' longest war.

Trump halted talks with the group, aimed at striking a deal for US and other foreign troops to withdraw in exchange for Taliban security guarantees, after it carried out a bomb attack

in Kabul that killed 12 people, including a US soldier.

"Both sides agreed on the need for the earliest resumption of the peace process," Pakistan's foreign office said in a statement after Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi met a Taliban delegation that is visiting Islamabad. The US embassy in the Pakistani capital did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The United States has long

considered Pakistan's cooperation crucial to efforts to end the war in Afghanistan. The meeting came as Zalmay Khalilzad, the top US envoy involved in the peace talks, also visited Islamabad for talks with the government, although it was not clear if he would have any contact with the Islamist militant Taliban.

The latest development follows a meeting last week between Trump and Pakistan's

Prime Minister Imran Khan on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. A pause in the bloodshed would help smooth the way to an agreement, Pakistan's foreign minister said.

"It was emphasised that reduction of violence by all parties to the conflict was necessary," the ministry said, adding that such a step would help to speed resumption of the peace effort.

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Lanka president Sirisena not to seek re-election COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena has decided not to seek reelection next month after failing to fulfill many of the promises of his first term. A record 35 candidates filed nominations for the Nov. 16 election, with former defense chief Gotabaya Rajapaksa considered the favorite.

Rajapaksa, who served as defense chief under his brother, former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, is popular for his part in ending the government's long civil war against ethnic minority Tamil rebels a decade ago. He has been accused of condoning rape, torture and the shadowy disappearances of critics, but is considered a hero among ethnic majority Sinhalese for his role in defeating the Tamil Tiger rebels.

Sirisena, who would have had difficulty beating Gotabaya Rajapaksa, did not pay a deposit by a Sunday deadline, making him ineligible to file a nomination.

Rajapaksa represents a party that broke

away from Sirisena's party and has the loyalty of a majority of its members. The end of Sirisena's presidency is marked by unfulfilled expectations of good governance, ethnic harmony and economic progress.

Sirisena pledged to abolish a powerful executive presidential system within 100 days of coming to power, change the constitution to allow power sharing with minority Tamils and investigate alleged abuses committed during the final stages of fighting between the government and Tamil rebels.

He also promised to take action against the Rajapaksa family, whom he accused of corruption and abuse of power.

Sirisena's election in 2015 elevated Sri Lanka's status in the international community, which had shunned the country during the Rajapaksa administration over its human rights record.

His alliance with current Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose party Sirisena had worked against

throughout his political career, was seen as a new kind of political culture and something that other countries could emulate. But Sirisena took over Maithripala Sirisena the leadership of suspects. His party delayed his previous party, the Sri Lanka presenting its views on a new Freedom Party, which constitution to share power Rajapaksa had led, against the with Tamils, and the process has wishes of his partners. As a now stagnated in Parliament. result, many former members of The administration also failed the Rajapaksa government to punish members of the accused of corruption who Rajapaksa family for alleged opposed the policies of the wrongdoing. In the meantime, Sirisena-Wickremesinghe Rajapaksa formed a breakaway alliance joined the Cabinet and party and with his popularity began to have a bigger say in the from ending the civil war won government. over a majority of Sirisena's Instead of abolishing the supporters, weakening the Sri presidential system, Sirisena Lanka Freedom Party. only diluted its powers. Under His relationship with pressure from the Rajapaksa Wickremesinghe also turned camp he announced that he sour with a tussle for power and would not allow any exploded last year when Sirisena government soldiers to be sacked Wickremesinghe and punished for alleged war abuses, appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa despite having promised the UN in his place, seemingly in the Human Rights Council to hope of securing his support for investigate and prosecute reelection.

Lanka court clears way for Gotabaya Rajpaksa to fight presidential poll COLOMBO: A Sri Lankan court dismissed a case seeking the cancellation of the citizenship of presidential hopeful Gotabaya Rajapaksa, clearing the way for him to register as a candidate.

Gotabaya, a brother of former strongman Mahinda Rajapaksa, is a front-runner in the Nov. 16 presidential poll. Nominations for the election were accepted on Monday.

Two anti-Rajapaksa activists had asked the Court of Appeal to withdraw Gotabaya's citizenship, saying he renounced it in 2003 to become a US citizen and regained it two years later in an irregular manner. The threejudge panel unanimously rejected the case, saying it had no merit.

Sri Lankan law doesn't permit dual citizens or noncitizens to hold office. Gotabaya, who says he renounced his dual US citizenship to contest the

election, could have faced statelessness had the court withdrawn his Sri Lankan citizenship. The court decision gave a boost to Gotabaya's election campaign. Supporters lit firecrackers and danced in the streets to celebrate the victory.

Gotabaya returned from the US in 2005 to help his brother's presidential campaign. He was appointed defense secretary after his brother's victory and played a key role in bringing a bloody end to the government's 25-year civil war against ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009.

He has been accused of condoning rape, torture and the shadowy disappearances of critics. But he is considered a hero among ethnic majority Sinhalese for his role in ending the war. He is facing two lawsuits in the US, one over the killing of a prominent newspaper editor and another involving the

torture of a youth under his watch. He has denied the allegations.

Gotabaya is considered a frontrunner in the presidential election, with his popularity increasing following Easter Sunday Gotabaya Rajpaksa Cabinet was appointed. But suicide attacks on churches and lawyers for the Rajapaksa hotels that killed more than 260 brothers argued that the people. "The basis on which the president could sign papers until case has been filed was that when ministers were appointed. "This Mahinda Rajapaksa, the then shows the political bankruptcy of president, issued the dual the people who resorted to this," citizenship certificate to said Gamini Lakshman Peiris, a Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he did not pro-Gotabaya lawmaker. have the power to do so because "His popularity is a fact. he was not the (home) minister," These people are well aware that said Gotabaya's attorney, Ali they cannot defeat him Sabry. politically, therefore their The petitioners said Mahinda attempt is to drive him away Rajapaksa gave his brother from the political field, to raise citizenship within days of being legal issues." elected president and before a

Police block thousands marching in PoK JASKOOL (PAKISTAN): Police blocked a march by thousands of protesters in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir who wanted to move toward the highly militarized Line of Control that divides the territory between Pakistan and India. The marchers are protesting the lockdown in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Police placed shipping containers on the road and deployed a large contingent of officers near Jaskool, 8 km from the frontier to stop the supporters of the Jammu-Kashmir Liberation

Front, which announced it intended to cross the frontier to help Kashmiris under Indian oppression.

India imposed a strict curfew on Aug. 5 after stripping Indiancontrolled Kashmir of its statehood. JKLF wants Kashmir to be independent from from both India and Pakistan. The group has a history of attempts to cross the de facto frontier in the last three decades, including once in 1992 that ended in violence.

Abdul Hameed Butt, a leader of the JKLF, said the protesters

would stage a sit-in until the blockade was removed. The JKLF march, termed the "Freedom March" began on Friday and reached the blockade after two overnight stops. Police officer Arshad Naqvi said protesters won't be allowed to continue because of the threat of "unprovoked enemy fire" from the Indian side.

"We want to go and (the Pakistani administration) should let us go to help our people," said Tahir Hussain, a college student.

Also on Sunday, the main

religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, held a protest march in the eastern city of Lahore with thousands protesting against the situation in Indian-controlled Kashmir.

Meanwhile, US Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Maggie Hassan, along with Ambassador Paul Jones, charge d' affairs at the US Embassy in Islamabad, visited Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. A Foreign Ministry statement said the purpose of the visit was to see the ground situation.

in brief HK PROTESTERS DEFY MASK BAN Furiously yelling “Wearing a mask is not a crime,” tens of thousands of masked protesters hit Hong Kong’s rain-drenched streets in defiance of a new ban on facial coverings. Riot police later swept in with volleys of tear gas and muscular arrests as peaceful rallies again degenerated into widespread violence and chaos in the semiautonomous Chinese territory. Instead of deterring rioting and calming anti-government demonstrations that have gripped the international trading hub for four months, the ban that criminalised the wearing of face masks at rallies only redoubled the determination of both peaceful marchers and more radical blackclad youths. The hard-liners again lobbed gasoline bombs and trashed subway stations and China-linked banks in the city.

US COP GUILTY OF KILLING BLACK NEIGHBOUR The jury that convicted a white Dallas police officer in the fatal shooting of her black neighbour returns to court to consider her sentence - a penalty that could be anywhere from five years to life in prison. Amber Guyger, who said she mistook the man’s apartment for her own, which was directly below, was convicted of murder in a verdict that drew tears of relief from his family and chants of “black lives matter” from a crowd outside the courtroom. Guyger sat alone, weeping, at the defence table. Her defence attorneys can argue that she deserves a light sentence because she acted out of confusion and fear that she had found an intruder in her home.

Prosecutors have given no indication in court of the sentence they will seek. Attorneys are under a gag order.

ASTRONAUTS SAFELY RETURN AFTER SPACE MISSION An American, a Russian and the first person from the United Arab Emirates to fly into space landed safely after a six-hour flight from the International Space Station. The capsule carrying Nick Hague, Alexey Ovchinin and Hazzaa alMansoori touched down on the steppe in Kazakhstan in Central Asia, the impact sending a cloud of dust into the sky. Al-Mansoori, the first of two men chosen by the United Arab Emirates to fly to the space station, returned after an eight-day mission while space veteran Ovchinin and Hague, who was on his maiden flight, are back after spending six months at the station.

The three men were extracted from the capsule and put on fold-out chairs so that they could rest and undergo preliminary medical checks.

BISON ATTACKS GIRL AT SAME PARK HER DATE HAD BEEN GORED A US man who was gored by a bison at a park in June thought it safe to take his date back to the scene of the crime - only for her to also be attacked. Kayleigh Davis, 22, from Utah was hiking on a trail in Antelope Island State Park while on an outing with her new beau when she came face-to-face with the angry bovine. As she attempted to steer clear of the bison, it charged, flipping her up in the air and leaving her with a broken ankle and badly cut calf. Kayleigh said the animal may have been spooked by four bikers coming down the trail. Kayleigh’s date Kyler Bourgeous had shared with her his encounter with a bison at the same park in June. That episode left him with a fractured rib and collapsed lung. Kyler said he thought it was unlikely that a similar incident might occur when he asked Kayleigh out on a date to watch the sunset.

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in brief OZ TEEN ‘DELIBERATELY’ KILLED 20 KANGAROOS An Australian teenager has been charged over the deaths of 20 kangaroos, which he allegedly mowed down with his truck in a killing spree.

The dead kangaroos, including two joeys, were found. Police said the boy, 19, had been arrested and charged with animal cruelty offences. The boy allegedly hit and killed the marsupials with his utility vehicle.

FRENCH POLICE DETAIN MAN OVER STOLEN PANTHER French authorities have detained for questioning a man suspected of keeping a wild panther in an apartment from where it was rescued, only to be stolen from a zoo, legal sources said. The animal, thought to be six months old and weighing 25-30kg, was spotted on a rooftop after escaping from a flat in the town of Armentieres on September 18.

The ink-black feline was tranquilised with a dart and taken to a zoo in Maubeuge, awaiting a transfer to a centre that rehabilitates domesticated wild animals. Instead, the cat was stolen a week later, with Maubeuge mayor Arnaud Decagny saying that “considerable efforts” were made to force locks and evade zoo security systems.

US PARATROOPERS HURT IN BOTCHED NIGHT JUMP Several US paratroopers were injured in a botched night parachute exercise in Mississippi. The troops from the 4th Infantry Brigade of the 25th Infantry Division were conducting an evening parachute jump above Camp Shelby when they were blown off target into trees. At least four soldiers were taken to nearby hospital after they missed their landing target, but as many as 13 paratroopers were still stuck in trees. There were 84 soldiers in the exercise, but camp officials have only accounted for 75 so far, said a spokesman for the base. “Once all soldiers have been accounted for, our goal is ultimately to continue training,” the 4th Brigade said in a Facebook post.

KISS TO PLAY UNDERWATER FOR SHARKS IN OZ GIG Having played nearly every corner of the Earth in a nearly 50-year career, the rock band Kiss is taking its show to a new place - under the sea, where they will perform for great white sharks and eight fans separated from them by a small submarine. As part of a promotion by Airbnb, the fans and Kiss will travel on November 18 in separate boats off the coast of southern Australia. While Kiss stays above board on one vessel, the fans will be lowered beneath the surface of the water from a second boat into the viewing sub in an area known for shark activity.

WOMEN WHO KISS DUTERTE SAY HE SMELLS REFRESHING Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s spokesman defended him against critics who described him as looking unkempt when he met with Russia’s PM, saying he is “very hygienic” and that “his body emits a refreshing scent”. Salvador Panelo, who is travelling with Duterte in Russia, challenged “kibitzers” to try to be close to the president to find out how he smells. “That’s what ladies tell me when they kiss PRRD, that he smells good”, Panelo said, referring to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, who is in Russia for a working visit.

Indian-origin US tech CEO kidnapped, body found in car WASHINGTON: Indianorigin tech millionaire Tushar Atre who was kidnapped from his home in California's Santa Cruz earlier this week has been found dead inside his BMW car. Tushar Atre, 50 owner of digital marketing company AtreNet Inc which caters to Silicon Valley corporate businesses - was kidnapped from his house last week, the Santa Tushar Atre Cruz county sheriff's office said, adding that he was Deputies located the car in the last seen getting into his white Santa Cruz Mountains and BMW. found a body in the same Sheriff's deputies said they location. responded to Atre's home in the Later it was confirmed that 3000 block of Pleasure Point Rd. the body found was identified as after receiving a call from Tushar Atre. "We have reason to someone inside the residence believe the motive was robbery," that day who reported a home the statement added. The police invasion and kidnapping. were looking for two people in

relation to the case, KTVU station reported.

"We are looking into all aspects of his life," said Sgt. Brian Cleveland, a spokesman for the Sheriff's Office.

"All doors are open." According to report, Atre was inside his home with several other people when multiple suspects broke into his house and kidnapped him in his girlfriend's white BMW. Someone in the house called authorities to report the kidnapping.

In addition to owning a marketing company for high tech business, Atre was also in

the cannabis business. He was the owner of Interstitial Systems a licensed cannabis manufacturer that operates out of a location on Fern street. "A year or so ago, he started a marijuana or cannabis manufacturing company," said Atre's friend, Robert Blumberg.

Grant Palmer, CEO of CannaCruz - a well-established dispensary - said: "He's definitely new to the industry.

Basically, unfamiliar with the etiquette about how to do business. Unfamiliar with how, you know there are some illegal black market elements in the cannabis industry and if you don't pay them, bad stuff happens." Atre also had a website design company where some say he may have made enemies as a result of business dealings.

Nepal issues coins to mark Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary KATHMANDU: Nepal has issued three commemorative coins in the denomination of 100, 1000 and 2500 Nepali rupees, to mark the 550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. The coins were jointly released by the Governor of Nepal Central Bank Chiranjibi Nepal and the Indian ambassador in Kathmandu, Manjeev Singh Puri.

The symbol 'Ek Oankar' (God is one) is inscribed on one side of all three coins, with Nepali words meaning '550th birth anniversary of Guru Nanak' embossed on the edges.

Nepal is one of the very few countries to have issued legal tender with a direct Sikh connection.

Previously in the year 2004 as well, the Nepal Rastra Bank had released a coin worth NPR 250 to commemorate the 400th

NPR 250 coin commemorating 400 years of Sri Guru Granth Sahib issued in 2004

anniversary of the Guru Granth Sahib. That coin had featured a 'Khanda' as well as an image of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib, the holy Sikh scriptures. On the same day as the coin release last month, a book titled Sikh Heritage of Nepal was also launched.

Indian ambassador Puri says in the foreward, "Guru Nanak Dev ji travelled through Nepal as part of his Udasis (long journeys

The three coins released by Nepal Central Bank to mark Guru Nanak's 550th birth anniversary

took him to various countries in all four directions starting from India, and he completed them on foot).

Nanak Math in the Balaju area of Kathmandu has a peepal tree under which he is said to have meditated. Guru Nanak Dev Ji’s travels in Nepal are said to also cover western Nepal, the Terai, Janakpur, areas around the Kosi River and even

Tengbuche Monastery in the Everest region," he adds.

The book gives a historical perspective of Sikhism in Nepal, traversing the connection through to modern times. Apart from Guru Nanak's visit to Nepal around 500 years ago, the book also gives details of various Sikh shrines in the country, the connection with Maharani Jindan, and more.

Students stage protests and block roads in Bangladesh DHAKA: Students in Bangladesh staged protests and blocked major roads after an undergraduate was beaten to death, allegedly by ruling party activists, for criticising the government over a watersharing deal with India. Protests broke out at several universities in Dhaka and the northern city of Rajshahi following the killing of Abrar Fahad of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology.

Students chanted slogans demanding "justice" and blocked major roads in the two cities.

Teachers joined some of the protests. Dhaka deputy police commissioner Munstasirul Islam said that Fahad was beaten to death and that ruling party activists were in custody for questioning.

Bangladesh students stage protest and blocked roads in Dhaka

His body was found in his university dormitory and media quoted other residents as saying that members of the student wing of the ruling Awami

League had interrogated and beaten him. Ashikul Islam Bitu, a vice-president of Bangladesh Chhatra League (BCL), said that Fahad had been questioned over

alleged links to an Islamist party's youth group.

Hours earlier, Fahad put up a post on Facebook that went viral. In it, he criticised the government for signing an accord that allowed India to take water from a river that lies on the boundary the two countries share. The BCL has earned notoriety following accusations that its members used killings, violence and extortion to end major anti-government student protests last year.

Those protests were sparked by anger over road safety after a student was killed by a speeding bus. Last month the BCL president and general secretary were sacked over allegations they tried to extort money from the head of a state-run university.

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SOUTH INDIA

Karnataka proposes to introduce NRC BENGALURU: The BJP government in Karnataka has proposed introducing the controversial National Register of Citizens (NRC), thus becoming the first state in south India to consider the controversial move to weed out illegal immigrants. After Assam released its NRC list in August, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand, Haryana and Uttarakhand have also pitched for the NRC. “We (the state government) have already started the preliminary exercise to prepare the grounds to introduce NRC in Karnataka by collecting all necessary information. After this, we’ll discuss it (NRC) with Union home minister Amit Shah and take a final call within a week or two,” home minister Basavaraj Bommai told

reporters.

After a couple of rounds of meeting over the past few weeks, Bommai said he has asked police to prepare a database of illegal immigrants in the state.

State home department sources said police have already on the job. The minister said Karnataka is one of the states in which a lot of people from across the border are infiltrating and settling down. According to police sources, the illegal immigrants are largely concentrated in Bengaluru and Malnad districts of Kodagu and Chikkamagaluru, where they mostly work in coffee estates.

In July, Bengaluru South BJP MP Tejasvi Surya had asked the Centre and the home minister in the Lok Sabha to extend the

NRC to Karnataka in order to weed out illegal Bangladeshi settlers, alleging “they posed a serious security threat”. Surya had also claimed that then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had himself admitted that there are more than 40,000 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in Bengaluru alone. “They have taken up jobs illegally, procured Aadhaar cards and voter identity cards with the help of state government authorities. They are now posing a very important security threat to the state,”

Surya had said.

As a long-term measure, sources said the government has also proposed setting up a detention centre to house illegal immigrants. “As a rule, police cannot arrest alleged immigrants but they need to be deported. But no country will be ready to accept them and therefore they need to be kept at a detention centre,” said Ganesh Karnik, former vice-president, Karnataka Non-Resident Indians Cell and senior BJP leader.

PUNJAB

Manmohan to attend Kartarpur corridor opening ceremony NEW DELHI: Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Pakistan for the inauguration ceremony of the Kartarpur Sahib corridor next month as he accepted an invitation by Punjab chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Ram Nath Kovind have also accepted the Punjab government’s invitation to be a part of the celebrations to be held in the state.

Amarinder called on Manmohan Singh at his residence and asked him to attend the first all-party 'jatha' (a march organised by armed Sikhs) to Kartarpur Sahib for the inauguration of the cross-border corridor on November 9. The Punjab CM’s media advisor tweeted that the former PM has accepted the invitation. This

would first require clearance from the central government.

The media advisor said Singh would also attend the “main event at Sultanpur Lodhi to mark Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji's 550th Prakash Purab”.

During his meeting with Manmohan Singh, Amarinder also urged for his personal intervention to facilitate the political clearance for allowing the special all-party "jatha" to visit Nankana Sahib in Pakistan, the birth place of the first Sikh guru, on the historic occasion.

He requested that a group of 21 persons may be allowed to visit Nankana Sahib to organise a "path" (reading of religious scriptures) on the occasion of the 550th Prakash Purb from October 30 to November 3 and bring a "Nagar Kirtan" to Sultanpur Lodhi via Amritsar

Manmohan Singh meeting Capt Amrinder Singh

(Wagah) later in the day.

The "Nagar Kirtan" will arrive at Sultanpur Lodhi in Punjab's Kapurthala district on November 4. The chief minister has also written to External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, seeking a formal clearance for the Nankana Sahib delegation visit and the "Nagar Kirtan" to be brought from Pakistan to Punjab, according to an official spokesperson.

Giving details of the key events planned by the state government from November 5 to 15 during the celebration, the chief minister said the flag-off ceremony will be preceded by a brief public meeting of devotees at Dera Baba Nanak. Further, in line with past practice, the Punjab government proposed to organise an all-party meeting on November 1 at Sultanpur Lodhi, he added.

WEST BENGAL

CBI moves SC to challenge Rajeev Kumar’s anticipatory bail KOLKATA: The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) approached the Supreme Court challenging the anticipatory bail granted to senior West Bengal cadre IPS officer Rajeev Kumar in connection with the Saradha chit fund scam. The probe agency has filed an appeal in the apex court against the order of the high court which had granted him the relief saying it was not an appropriate case for custodial interrogation.

The Saradha group of companies allegedly duped millions of people to the tune of £250 million, promising higher rates of return on their investments. Kumar was part of the Special Investigation Team (SIT) set up by the West Bengal government for probing the scam before the Supreme Court

Rajeev Kumar

handed over the case to the CBI in 2014, along with other chit fund cases. The scam was unearthed in 2013 during Kumar's tenure as the Bidhannagar Police commissioner.

The high court order had said if Kumar was arrested by the CBI in connection with the case, he would have to be released immediately on bail by an

appropriate court on two sureties of Rs 50,000 each. Observing that Kumar had cooperated with the CBI in the probe, the high court had said it was not an appropriate case for his custodial interrogation.

It had directed Kumar, who is currently the Additional Director General of the West Bengal Criminal Investigation Department (CID), to cooperate with investigating officers. It had also directed him to make himself available before the investigating officers in the case for questioning on a 48-hour prior notice by the CBI. On 21 September, a pre-arrest bail plea of the IPS officer was rejected by the Alipore District and Sessions Court. The CBI has issued multiple notices to Kumar since May 27, asking him to appear

before it for questioning as a witness in the chit fund scam. In January, the Centre and the West Bengal government were locked in an unprecedented standoff after a CBI team had reached Kumar's official residence for questioning him but had to retreat as the local police detained its officers.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had came out in Kumar’s defence and started a sit-in protest against the Centre’s move. The Supreme Court had, on 5 February, prevented the CBI from taking any coercive action against Kumar and directed him to cooperate with the agency for questioning at a "neutral place".

He was then quizzed by the agency for nearly 40 hours over five days at its office in Shillong in February.

in brief KARNATAKA CM TO SEEK MORE FLOOD RELIEF FUND A day after the Centre sanctioned £120 million as initial relief for floodhit Karnataka, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa BS Yediyurappa said he would meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and seek more funds.

"About £3.5 billion is our rough estimate. We are yet to know the actual amount. Our state has suffered more losses than any other state due to floods this time. I will meet the Prime Minister and seek more funds from the centre. As immediate measure in the first stage £120 has been released by the central government," Yediyurappa said.

Speaking to reporters, Yediyurappa expressed hope that more funds would be released at the earliest. The Chief Minister said there was largescale crop damage and added that he would seek the central government's cooperation as to what extent they could provide assistance.

TN GOVT ALLOWED TO ERECT BANNERS TO WELCOME MODI, XI The Madras High Court has allowed the Tamil Nadu government to erect flex banners welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping to the state. The two leaders are slated to meet on October 11 and 12 in the coastal town of Mamallapuram. A division bench, however, made it clear that the state has to follow all existing rules in connection with installation of such banners. The bench also said no political parties will be allowed to install such banners. The HC had earlier banned the erection of hoardings on roadsides in 2017 and recently pulled up the government for not effectively implementing its order in the wake of the death of a 22-year-old woman.

GRANDMOTHER HELD FOR DUMPING NEWBORNS IN CANAL Police arrested a woman and her son for allegedly dumping a pair of newborn twin girls of her daughter in the Bathinda branch of Sirhind Canal.

Amandeep Kaur, wife of Gurpreet Singh and a mother of two girls, gave birth to twin girls at a private hospital. Acting on the complaint, police arrested Amandeep Kaur’s mother Malkit Kaur and brother Baljinder Singh for causing disappearance of the newborns. The complainant said that paediatrician had asked the woman’s family to get the newborns admitted to some other hospital as they were premature and needed medical help, but the family refused to do so. Later the mother and the brother took the newborns away. When the hospital staff asked about the twins, the mother son duo said that the newborns died and their bodies were disposed of in the canal. The hospital staff informed the police and the mother and son duo were arrested.

50 VEHICLES DESTROYED IN KOLKATA FIRE At least 50 vehicles were destroyed when a fire broke out at the basement of a shopping mall in Salt Lake area in Kolkata. No casualty has been reported. There are reports of smoke coming out of the mall, with officials suspecting that there must be ‘pocket fire’ in several places. As many as six fire engines were rushed to AMP mall, located in Sector 2 of Bidhannagar area in Baishakhi, after the fire broke out. The mall was immediately evacuated after plumes of black smoke billowed from various corners. "We were having a meeting on the fourth floor when we heard a siren and rushed towards the exit. No one from the authority alerted us about the incident. The situation appears to be under control," an eyewitness said.

The cause of the fire is yet to be known. According to a police source, several vehicles are parked inside the basement when the fire broke out.

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Mahatma Gandhi on Jammu-Kashmir

Diary of a new Canadian Immigrant

Mitul Paniker • From June 1946 till December 1947, Patel was involved in Kashmir affairs • For Gandhiji, not just the Maharaja but the will of Kashmiris Canada's whole new twist

was supreme ight from June 1946, Sardar Patel, the Home Member of undivided India’s interim goverment established in September 1946, had been receiving telegrams from proMaharaja organizations like Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Hindu Sabha and All State Kashmiri Pandit Conference resisting the efforts of Sheikh Abdullah and Pandit Nehru to woo the majority population to agitate against the Maharaja Hari Singh of Jammu and Kashmir. He was aspiring to have his Princely State with Muslim majority remain independent after the British were to leave India. Patel would write to some of them saying, “I understand that Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru is himself coming there as a messenger of peace to bring about honourable settlement of this vexed question. After all, he is also a Hindu and that a Kashmiri Hindu, and he is one of our foremost patriots and one of the greatest leaders of modern India. He is, as all human beings are, liable to err. But all his actions are governed by considerations of highest patriotism.” While calling Nehru “a democrat” and “his sympathies are always with the underdog” Patel did mention: “Sheikh Abdullah is supposed to be a very popular and his association with Pandit Nehru has been regarded as a sufficient guarantee of his being against any separatist movement.”

R

Key-players in Kashmir affairs: Sheikh Abdullah, Viceroy Mountbatten, Maharaja Hari Singh and Pandit Nehru

The Maharaja and his Prime Minister Justice of India. The Maharaja was in a Ram Chandra Kak resisted Pandit Nehru or dilemma despite a firm assurance from even Mahatma Gandhi visiting his State for Patel through the Viceroy Mountbatten a year or so. Jammu-based journalist and during his visit to Kashmir and meeting social activist Balraj Puri writes with the Maharaja that ‘if he Next Column: in his book ‘Kashmir: acceded to Pakistan, India Thomas Macaulay: would not take its amiss.’

Insurgency and After’: “The A Hero or A Villain Hari Singh was keen to have Maharaja was in no mood to join the Indian dominion even when his independent “Switzerland”. The Viceroy partition became inevitable. He was , in fact, was pushing him towards Pakistan. supported by loyal Hindu leaders in Jammu Since the Maharaja was not likely to come who vociferously argued that a Hindu to any conclusion about the accession, the State, as Jammu and Kashmir claimed to be, Mahatma Gandhi appeared on the scene should not merge its identity with a secular with the consent of the Viceroy which India. The working committee of the All changed the scenario.

Jammu and Kashmir Rajya Hindu Sabha Though Gandhiji was not on a political (the earliest incarnation of the present mission, his visit to Jammu and Kashmir Bharatiya Janata Party in the state) adopted between 1 and 4 August 1947 made it a resolution in May 1947, reiterating its difficult for Maharaja Hari Singh to resist faith in the Maharaja and extended its going with India. Even if on 22 October ‘support to whatever he was doing or might 1947 the raiders from Pakistan would not do on the issue of accession.’ In a press have attacked his kingdom, the subjects of release issued in May 1947, the acting the Maharaja led by Sheikh Abdullah were President of All Jammu and Kashmir to force him to accede to India.

Muslim Conference, Chowdhary Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Hamidullah Khan, also urged ‘His Accession on 26 October 1947. Gandhi’s Highness’ to declare Kashmir independent moral medicine gave power to the masses. immediately and establish a separate He said: “The will of the Kashmiris should constituent assembly to frame the decide the fate of Jammu and Kashmir.” constitution of the State.’

Giving the summary of the Mahatma’s visit Even on 3 July 1947, the Sardar wrote to to Srinagar, Jammu and Rawalpindi, the the Maharaja and his PM Kak:“…as a ‘Harijan’ reported in the 24 August 1947 sincere friend and well-wisher of the State, issue: ‘He (Gandhiji) hoped that the I wish to assure you that the interest of question would be decided between the two Kashmir lies in joining the Indian Union Dominions, the Maharaja Saheb and the and its Constituent Assembly without any Kashmiris. If the four could come to a joint delay.” And on 18 July 1947, Patel wrote a decision, much trouble could be avoided. letter to RC Kak “about the release of After all Kashmir was a big State; it had the Sheikh Abdullah and other workers of the greatest strategic value, perhaps in all India.

National Conference.” Meanwhile, the So much for Kashmir.” Even today, Sardar had arranged to get proM a h a t m a Independence or pro-Pak PM Kak replaced Gandhi’s message Dr. Hari Desai

by Justice Mehrchand Mahajan of Punjab r e m a i n s (The writer is a SocioHigh Court who later became the Chief relevant. political Historian.

E-mail: haridesai@gmail.com)

to 'Secularism' Dear Readers, The cold has officially begun in Canada and I am bracing myself for the Winters. The country is currently preparing for the federal elections due on October 21.

Main party candidates are campaigning in full force, and as we all NDP leader Jagmeet Singh is asked to "cut off your turban" by a man in know, we have a Sikh Montreal so he could "look more like a Canadian" leader running minority to lead a federal party has often primarily in the race. National Democratic used such incidents as a teaching moment Party leader Jagmeet Singh shot to and says he hopes his public image will help international fame in 2017, when a woman people learn and be more sensitive to other interrupted him in a campaign event and religions. yelled at him.

Protests held across Quebec over Bill 21 It was Singh's utmost cool and calm Meanwhile, Quebec's Bill 21 has become demeanour that caught the public's eye. No a prominent issue in this year's elections stranger to bigotry, Singh was in Montreal here. Over 130 Montrealers came together at last week for a national debate. Walking the Place Émilie-Gamelin for the second time, streets with his wife, he came across a man on Sunday, to protest Bill 21- the secularism who asked him to “cut off the turban” so he law that forbids religious symbols in the could “look more like a Canadian”. Singh's public service. The law adopted in June by response was of a person who is no amateur the National Assembly came with a to dealing with unaware people. He was grandfather clause protecting teachers hired respectful and commendably poised when before March 28, 2019. he told the man, “Oh, I think Canadians look Protesters said the law is discriminatory like all sorts of people. That's the beauty of and worry it is creating a climate of hate.

Canada.”

Muslims and Sikhs are especially tensed with Canadian history is witness to the the law as it prevents them from wearing a hardships of the Sikhs who first arrived in hijab or a turban in public. In Quebec and this country generations ago. Three hundred the rest of the country, a majority of people and thirty seven Sikhs, 27 Muslims, and 12 surveyed said public employees should be Hindus tried to emigrate to Canada in 1914 allowed to wear a crucifix while on the job. on the now infamous Japanese ship But support significantly drops when the Komagata Maru. Most of them were denied symbols in question relates to the Islamic entry and had to return to now Kolkata. faith.

What followed were unfair immigration Canada's main federal party leaders, policies from the predominantly white Liberal Justin Trudeau, Conservative government of Canada. The Sikh Andrew Scheer, New Democrat Jagmeet community were one of the first immigrants Singh and the Green party's Elizabeth May, from India to have landed in the northare frontrunners in the race. Recent poll American country, only to face stringent and suggests that support for Trudeau is the dishonorable treatment. While the country highest, with 35 per cent, followed by Scheer has come a long way in accepting with 34 per cent. The poll found that the immigrants since then, it saddens my heart Singh would receive 15 per cent of the to see such behaviour rampant even today. popular vote. All four major leaders have Respect for other people's culture is part of denounced the secularism law. acceptance. Education seems paramount.

However, is that enough?

Singh, the first member of a visible

Hindu couple perform puja at Sharda Peeth in PoK Amidst heightened tensions between India and Pakistan, a couple from Hong Kong visited PoK and performed Puja near Sharda Peeth on the banks of Kishenganga. P. Venkataraman and Sujhata reached Muzaffarabad on a valid visa to visit Sharda Peeth on 30th September.

The couple was received in Muzaffarabad by the members of a Civil society in PoK headed by Mohammad Rayees and Tanveer Ahmad.

Earlier at the Pakistani immigration the couple was not granted NOC to visit Sharda Peeth. The civil society requested PM of PoK

to intervene and were later allowed to the nearest bank of Kishenganga river, where they performed the puja.

The civil society members accompanied the pilgrim couple to the spot of Puja at Balseri in Tehsil Pateeka despite of heavy shelling on the same night. Notably, P. Venkataraman and Sujatha perform this year on 24th June, the Puja near Sharda Peeth in POK on Kishenganga river Save Sharda committee the first time in 72 years. coordinated in the first ever “We will continue in our Hindu visit to Sharda Peeth efforts of reopening Sharda

by Pakistani Hindus.

Peeth particularly in the Save Sharda committee wake of Kartarpur opening hailed the efforts of Civil and may launch an agitation society of PoK for too, if needed” said Ravinder coordinating & facilitating Pandita. puja near Sharda Peeth for

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India celebrates 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi This year marked the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, the Father of the Nation. India celebrated the non-violence leader's birth anniversary by organising cleanliness drives, film shows and making a giant spinning wheel made out of plastic waste. The government has launched several programmes to commemorate the occasion.

One of the most pivotal steps taken on Gandhi Jayanti is the launch of the Swachh Bharat Mission in 2014. The reach and effect of this cleanliness drive are significant and continue to grow every year. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has often invoked Gandhi in his speeches, saying his ideas and philosophies are as relevant today as they were during his lifetime.

PM Modi paid tribute to Mahatma Gandhi at his memorial in New Delhi in the morning. Political leaders, school children and the public also assembled at the memorial to pay their respects. President Ram

Nath Kovind and Vice President Venkaiah Naidu visited the Rajghat, the resting place of the Father of Nation, to pay floral tributes to the great leader.

Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi also paid floral tributes visiting Rajghat.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah gave a clarion call to shun single-use plastic while urging citizens to take an initiative to make this a mass movement. After flagging off the party's 'Sankalp Yatra' to mark Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary, Shah and Delhi BJP leaders undertook a 'padyatra' for 500 metres amid tight security in Delhi.

Rural India declared open defecation free PM Modi visited Sabarmati Ashram, the seat from where Gandhi launched most of his freedom movements, to pay tributes to the Father of the Nation. During his 20minute visit, Modi paid floral tributes, visited a museum on the premises,

interacted with students and also visited Gandhi's house, 'Hriday Kunj', inside the Ashram.

Modi also launched limited-edition Rs 150 coin to commemorate Gandhi’s 150th birth anniversary.

Pointing that the world was celebrating Gandhi’s birth anniversary this year, PM Modi said: “The whole world is celebrating Bapu’s birth anniversary. A few days ago, United Nations released a postal stamp to make this occasion memorable, now commemorative stamps and coins have also been released here.”

Showering praise on Swachhta warriors for their continuous hardwork, Modi declared India Open Defecation Free country.

Addressing a large gathering at the Sabarmati Riverfront, PM Modi said it is a great satisfaction that Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of a ‘Swachh Bharat’ (Clean India) is being fulfilled today. “Today rural India and its villages have declared themselves ‘open

Prime Minister Narendra Modi releasing the Silver Coin based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Gujarat Governor Acharya Dev Vrat and Chief Minister Vijay Rupani are also seen.

defecation free’. The whole world is appreciating and awarding us. Providing toilets to more than 600 million people in 60 months, building more than 110 million toilets, whole world is amazed by this,” PM Modi said speaking at the Swachh Bharat Diwas event in Ahmedabad. PM

Modi also underlined that the government would achieve its target of singleuse plastic-free India by 2022.

India's largest 'Charka' inaugurated On the outskirts of New Delhi, government officials erected a 1,650 kg spinning wheel, an important symbol

associated with Gandhi, made entirely out of plastic waste. Gandhi used a spinning wheel to spin his own cloth in a gesture of independence and Indian self sufficiency.

The 'charkha', which symbolises Gandhi's dream of Swadeshi, was inaugurated by Union Minister Smriti Irani and other dignitaries.

It measures 14 ft × 20 ft × 8ft and is made of 1,250 kg of used plastic, according to officials.

Irani said, "The gigantic spinning wheel is not the only representative of construction and beautification but also represents our commitment towards the plastic-free campaign." The charkha has been recognised as the largest made of used plastic waste in the country by India Book of Records, Noida Authority CEO Ritu Maheshwari said. Officials said the wheel was symbolic of the Modi regime's commitment to move away from the use of single-use plastic.

UK court rules in favour of India in the Hyderabad Fund case The High Court of England and Wales ruled in favour of India and the two descendants of the late 7th Nizam of Hyderabad in the famous Hyderabad Fund case against Pakistan. The 70 years old fund worth £35 is currently held by the NatWest Bank since 1948.

According to the judgment the fund will be shared between the Indian government and the heirs of Mir Osman Ali Khan, the last Nizam of the princely state of Hyderabad.

However, the proportion or the terms of the settlement between the Indian government and the heirs is flagged under a confidential agreement.

“We are looking at all the options in terms of asking for compensation from Pakistan's end but we will only proceed with any kind of certainty after the

the claim and we have won it,” said India's counsel Harish Salve.

Pakistan can seek to appeal the decision but otherwise, the fund would be transferred to the Indian government and the grandsons and distributed between themselves accordingly. The Fund had been held in the account of the High Commissioner of Pakistan to the UK Habib Ibrahim Rahimtoola since Mir Osman Ali Khan was once the world's September 1948. richest man The 7th Nizam had court allocates further dates transferred the £1 million, of hearing. From India's now estimated at least £35 perspective we got million, to the then Pakistan something and the Nizam's ambassador in London heirs got something. We got Rahimtoola for safe-

keeping, who agreed “to keep the amount mentioned by you in my name in trust.” Earlier, Pakistan had claimed that the money was a payment for arms supplied to the Hyderabad state during India’s annexation in 1948.

In 2013, Pakistan commenced fresh proceedings, thereby waiving state immunity. A subsequent attempt by Pakistan to discontinue the proceedings was rejected as an abuse of process by the UK court. The 140 page judgment ruled out by Justice Marcus Smith sets out the history of the dispute, from India’s ‘Operation Polo’ to annex Hyderabad, and later developments that include the Nizam in 1965 ‘assigning’ the President of India the claim to the money in London. In the

judgment, the UK High Court has rejected Pakistan's claim that the fund had been intended as payment for arms shipments or as an outright gift. The court has held that beneficial ownership in the fund as at 1948 lay with the 7th Nizam, and that it had been held on trust to his benefit and that of his successors in title since then. The judge said: “Although the Government of Hyderabad was involved in the purchase of weapons in order to resist what Nizam VII saw as attempts

by India forcibly to annex Hyderabad, and although the Second Account was used to pay for some of these weapons, I do not consider that the transfer had anything to do with the purchase of weapons or the compensation of Pakistan (in any way) for the

purchase of weapons.” “(It) is appropriate to record that the Nizam’s successor in title can be noone other than the Princes or India…I have seen no hint of the possibility of any further claimant to the fund, beyond the Princes and India.

“In these circumstances, Nizam VII was beneficially entitled to the fund and those claiming in right of Nizam VII - the Princes and India – are entitled to have the sum paid out to their order. I will leave it to the parties to frame an appropriate form of order for my approval”.

"We welcome the judgment," Najaf Ali Khan, one of the Nizam's grandsons said. "The High Court has rightly rejected Pakistan's claim. The family has long awaited this judgment."

India gets first formal delivery of Rafale fighter jet India got the formal delivery of the first of the 36 longawaited Rafale fighter jets bought from the Dassault Aviation in France. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, who is on a three-day visit to France, accepted the handover at a facility of Rafale manufacturer Dassault Aviation in Bordeaux. The ribboncutting ceremony was

preceded by Shastra Puja the traditional worship of weapons during Dussehra.

The minister also went for a sortie in the aircraft - a process that was also meant to test the India-specific adaptations made. Earlier, Singh met French President Emmanuel Macron and discussed stronger strategic ties with France.

"It is a historic day and

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh with his french counterpart Florence Parly at the Dassault Aviation plant in Merignac.

shows deepening ties between India and France," Rajnath Singh said at the handover ceremony for the Rafale aircraft. "Rafale will add to the strength of IAF. Our focus is to enhance the capability of IAF. We are sure that all timelines would be adhered to, be it jets or weapon systems," Singh

said. "This aircraft marks a massive enhancement in the Indian Air Force combat capability but that enhancement is not for attack purposes but as a deterrent for self defence.

And, the credit for this milestone goes to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, whose decisiveness has made this crucial air enhancement possible today," he said.

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Sixteen million reasons for W1’s first nutrition and brain-health clinic Nutritious Minds Consulting, W1’s first nutrition, and brain-health clinic, was launched with an event at Chandos House.

Speakers include bestselling author and “godfather of the sugar tax” Professor Robert Lustig. The event took place on Wednesday 2nd October 2019.

Nutritious Minds Consulting is a unique, W1based consultancy taking food as its starting point to assess insufficiencies in brain-selective nutrients as well as food allergies and intolerances. It adopts a personalised, evidence-based, integrative approach to psychological and psychiatric health. The consultancy is jointly founded by Neuropsychologist and Nutritionist, Dr Rachel V. Gow and Award-winning London based Psychiatrist, Dr Balu Pitchiah.

1 in 4 people in the UK – that’s 16 million of us – experience a mental health problem each year. The field of Nutritional Psychiatry has long recognised the link between mental health symptoms and factors such as dietary inflammation, nutritional insufficiencies, food intolerances/allergies and gut-health – all of which are modifiable.

Dr Rachel V. Gow is a National Institutes of Health (NIH) trained neuroscientist who ran the world’s first randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind clinical trial of omega-3 fatty acids in adults with ADHD. She is a

Dr Rachel Gow with Dr Balu Pitchah at the launch

Neurodevelopmental specialist and a Registered Nutritionist, and has 18 years’ experience in psychological research. Dr. Gow is also the founder of the notfor-profit, Nutritious Minds Trust, which advocates for all types of learning and behavior differences and empowers young people to reach their highest potential.

Dr Balu Pitchah was given the "Doctor of the Year" award by Asian Voice in 2018. In his role as an NHS Psychiatrist, he works closely within a multidisciplinary team managing common mental disorders including anxiety, depression, OCD, PTSD and Bipolar affective disorder. He frequently works with high achievers, helping them achieve their full potential while minimising the impact of their emotional problems on their work and family life.

“From my own experience as the mother of a child with ADHD and Dyslexia, I know how hard it can be to find expert advice and sup-

port”, says Dr Gow. “Our brain-health clinic addresses that knowledge gap in a practical, proactive and personalised way.

“Brain health affects every person on the planet.

We all eat, and we are all responsible for keeping our brains healthy and functioning optimally. We encourage all our clients to be empowered agents of change and nutrition is both brainboosting, plays a role in preventative health and acts as a neuromodulator, in other words, a game-changer for overall health and wellness.

Our target audience is therefore everyone!”

The consultancy, based in Weymouth and Harley Street, offers more than just consultations and advice. Its approaches range from personalised nutrition plans based on a full nutritional profile evaluation, fitness coaching, mentoring, empowerment, educational support and professional liaison with schools.

Nutritious Minds

Consulting have carefully selected Bare Biology to be one of the first supplement brands to be recommended at the clinic. Bare Biology is considered the UK’s leading premium omega-3 brand and will also be available at the event to sample where Liz de Clercq, Bare Biology Retail Associate, will be on hand to answer any questions.

Founder of Bare Biology, Melanie Lawson comments: “We’re really delighted to be working with Nutritious Minds Consulting. It's great news there will be a dedicated clinic focusing on brain health and nutrition. I’ve always believed there's a direct connection between food and mental health, based on my own personal experience and research.

However, I’m not a doctor or scientist, so it’s wonderful that people who really know what they’re doing are giving this the attention it needs.

I’ve no doubt it will be a huge success and will help many people”.

“It's time to move beyond the prescription pad”, says Dr Gow. “The future of medicine is holistic and personalised. We need to feed our brains with the fuel it is comprised of – not limiting it simply to pharmacological interventions, but with the essential nutrients which our mental-health depends on.”

For more information and contact details, visit www.nutritiousmindsconsulting.co.uk, or email rachel@nutritiousminds.co .uk

Inflammation may be Insulin pill that could main driver of autism replace daily injections Inflammation may be main driver behind autism, a new study suggests.

Researchers compared the brains of eight children with the developmental disorder and eight children without it.

They found the parts of the autistic children's brains that are crucial to working memory and attention areas that are impaired in people who have autism had unusually high levels of a molecule known to trigger inflammation.

The team, led by Tufts University School of Medicine in Boston, Massachusetts, says the findings suggests that drugs

that target anti-inflammatory proteins could one day be an effective treatment for autism. Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder in which sufferers have a hard time communicating and with behavior.

It encompasses several conditions including autism, Asperger's syndrome and childhood disintegrative disorder - and symptoms can range from mild to severe.

Children are usually diagnosed by age two after they exhibit signs such as reduced eye contact, not responding to their name and performing repetitive movements.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about one in 59 children has ASD. Boys are much more likely - up to four times - to have the condition than girls.

Millions of patients living with diabetes could finally be spared from having to inject themselves with insulin.

For Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have now created a capsule strong enough to survive stomach acid.

Attempts to give patients insulin in pill form have all failed because they crumble in the acid and release the hormone too early.

But scientists have created a 1.18-inch (30mm) capsule tough enough to cope with the harsh environment, according to trials on pigs.

Charities have today praised the research, calling it 'exciting' and saying it could 'be a real benefit for millions'.

The capsule escapes unscathed through the digestive gastrointestinal

tract, which comprises the oesophagus, stomach and liver. It only releases the insulin when it reaches the small intestine, which is the ideal point for drug absorption because of the organ's massive 250m surface area and lack of pain receptors.

Roughly eight percent of

the UK's 4million diabetes patients suffer from Type 1.

While Type 2 diabetes is caused by an unhealthy lifestyle, it is still unclear what triggers Type 1 as 85 per cent of people diagnosed have no family history of the condition.

in brief GOVERNMENT WATCHDOG FACES PROBE AFTER ACCREDITING HOMEOPATH BODY A Government watchdog faces investigation after accrediting a homeopathic body, which includes members offering a 'cure' for autism. The Professional Standards Authority (PSA) regulate practitioners so the public can choose healthcare workers they can 'trust'. It accredited The Society of Homeopaths for a fifth year running, despite some of its members practising the bogus Cease therapy. Cease relies on the false notion that autism is caused by vaccines, and supposedly involves the removal of 'toxic imprints' in a child through vitamin C and zinc supplements, among other unproven fixes. Experts stress autism is not a 'disease' that is caused by environment substances, medicine or vaccines, and that Cease has no scientific credibility. The High Court has given permission for a judicial review of PSAs decision, which has been accused of 'failing' vulnerable children with autism. It comes amid growing fears among public health experts about the ever-growing spread of misinformation from anti-vaxxers.

SWAPPING ONE SUGARY DRINK FOR A CUP OF TEA, COFFEE OR WATER CUTS RISK OF TYPE 2 DIABETES BY UP TO 10% Drinking one fewer sugary drink a day can cut the risk of diabetes by up to 10 percent, according to a new study.

Researchers found that people who increase their consumption of soft drinks, as well as 100 percent fruit juices, were at greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes. But swapping for diet sodas or artificially sweetened drinks did not lessen the risk, according to the findings published online by the journal Diabetes Care. The study is the first to look at whether long-term changes in drinking soft drinks are linked with type 2 diabetes risk. It's an often cited - and repeated study finding, that drinking soda increases the risk of an early death. Yet as recently as 2012, nearly half of Americans drank the sweet beverages on a daily basis. High sugar intake is bad for the body in a number of ways, fueling the development of obesity and, therefore, heart disease, as well as contributing substantially to the development of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. An estimated 30.3 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, and many more are at risk of developing the disease, which shortens life expectancy and may lead to additional chronic health problems later in life.

PATIENT CARE 'IS BEING PUT AT RISK' AS A QUARTER OF GP SURGERIES TAKE MORE THAN TWO YEARS TO START PRESCRIBING NEW DRUGS, RESEARCHERS WARN Patients' care is being put at risk because many GP surgeries around the country are playing catch up with prescriptions, experts warn. British researchers found a quarter of practices took around two-and-a-half years to switch to new treatments. A small number of surgeries (10 per cent) took 32 months to start prescribing the new drugs. Experts say the variation is an avoidable waste of NHS money that exposes patients to 'sub-optimal' care. The research team from the University of Oxford looked at more than 8,000 GP surgeries in England. Using the database OpenPrescribing.net, they analysed how the quickly practices responded to two treatment switches over a five-year period.

The first was a shift to the generic female contraceptive pill desogestrel, previously sold under the brand name Cerazette, in 2012. The second was to change the first line antibiotic for treating uncomplicated urinary tract infection (UTI) from trimethoprim to nitrofurantoin in 2014. Considerable variation was found between practices in both the timing and how rapidly change was implemented once it had begun.

While the majority of practices began to shift away by Cerazette by early 2013, a quarter did not show substantial change for 14 months. A small amount (10 per cent) of practices took at least a further six more months. The move to desogestrel was projected to save the NHS £10million. But because some practices were so slow to implement the change, the health service was exposed to avoidable costs, the researchers note. For antibiotics, a quarter of practices did not make their largest change until 29 months after the guidance was released.

To Our Readers

We are publishing these items in good faith, kindly consult your Doctor before you try to implement any advice. We do not hold any responsibility for its efficacy...

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Priyanka feels audience have triggered a change in Bollywood 'The Sky Is Pink' is ready to hit the screens this month. Its actress Priyanka Chopra Jonas found the film very special and saw a connection between her real-life parents and her character in the movie.

Director Shonali Bose's film is about a couple that lose their daughter to pulmonary fibrosis, a serious immunity disease. The film has Priyanka and Farhan Akhtar acting as parents of that girl.

The global icon feels that expectations and demands of the audience have triggered a change in Bollywood. "I think the audience has changed. Their demands and expectations have changed. Bollywood just caters to what people expect to watch," she said. The National Award winner, who made her screen debut with

Tamil cinema 'Thamizhan' in 2000, has been a part of both critically and commercially acclaimed films.

"Now with streaming coming in, people are exposed to cinema from all over the world. Now I can watch a movie from Iran and I think that has expanded the audience.

They don't want to leave their brains behind and watch a movie," the 37-year old added.

With several content-driven films coming up these days, Priyanka is of the view that the "audience want to watch cinema which is content-heavy and you can see that with the kind of movies which are successful now."

"Look at the movies which have eventually done well now. Are they the potboiler masala movies where you don't think or they're the ones, which are content heavy? That's the kind of cinema Bollywood is making," explained the former Miss World. When asked about struggles and difficulties in opting for roles which are age

centric, where female actors get to play aged characters in the film, the 'Fashion' actor, who is playing the role of Aditi Chaudhary, a mother of two, in her upcoming feature, spoke about "stereotype" thinking of the people. "It's a tragic question which shows stereotype of what is expected out of female actors which I think has changed. I played a mother's role when I was 24 years old in 'Pyaar Impossible,' and 'Mary Kom'. I think it's really sad that girls are ashamed of playing mothers and are not considered good enough," she expressed.

Shedding light on her career graph, Priyanka asserted that she has never been "defined by anything" but by "filmmakers, roles she took and the kind of films." "I chose this movie, I chose to produce it, I chose to be a mother of a 21-year-old because I as an actor also age from 24 to 55," she concluded. Even more, the global sensation feels "privileged" and honoured to play a "25-year span of a woman's life."

Historic opening for Hrithik -Tiger starrer 'War' Hrithik Roshan and Tiger Shroff starrer 'War' has taken box office by storm as its historic opening has raked in around ÂŁ5 million on its first day at the ticket windows. The film has set massive benchmarks creating many new milestones with its biggest opening in the history of Hindi cinema. Hrithik and Tiger have also left behind the blockbuster records of Aamir Khan, Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan.

Produced by YRF, 'War' is released in over 4,000 screens.

The film has received unanimous love and appreciation from critics and audiences alike for delivering a never-seen-before action spectacle and a storyline with twists and turns that keep audiences at the edge of their seats, till the end. The film also features Vaani Kapoor and Ashutosh Rana in key roles.

Director Siddharth Anand, elated

with the response, thanked audiences for the film's record-smashing opening.

"It is truly overwhelming and gratifying to get this kind of love from audiences for our hard work in making War a truly big screen spectacle. Having two of the biggest action superstars of Indian cinema, we had the immense responsibility to give audiences a never seen before visual experience and I feel hugely validated that people across the

country have loved our action entertainer that has pushed the envelop of action genre in India."

"I congratulate Hrithik and Tiger on this huge success and thank them for their faith in the vision. I also share this moment with Vaani, all the actors and the entire team that has worked tirelessly on this film to make War a huge winner at the box office," added the director.

Rakesh Roshan raring to Roger Federer has work on 'Krissh4' Bollywood cravings?

Filmmaker Rakesh Roshan who underwent surgery for cancer is hale and hearty and has started working on his popular 'Krrish' franchise. However, due to his medical condition, he has decided to postpone the Christmas 2020 release of 'Krrish4'.

During a media interaction recently, son Hrithik Roshan mentioned that his father Rakesh was getting better. As per the latest buzz, he is working to ensure that he will have a large team of creative people overseeing the script and is planning to mount the floors by early next year. He also wants to add a fresh new set of eyes to help him re-model the superhero to b e s t suit

the changing times of the comic book characters on the big screen. Reports claim that Roshan Sr. is taking the help of his grandsons Hrehaan (10) and Hridhaan (8) to brainstorm a storyline for the film and is trying to incorporate their versions into his story. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gudduji (Rakesh) is very keen that he makes the fourth part of the franchise, which will be way bigger than the first three parts - 'Koi Mil Gaya,' 'Krrish 2' and 'Krrish 3.'

So the number of characters will need to increase, the number of enemies that Krrish has to fight will also increase so that the film looks larger and bigger. Also, with films like '2.0' and 'Avengers' already in the minds of the audiences the quality of the VFX will need to be way more higher than the earlier parts. Though it is a Bollywood film, one has to understand how this needs to be a bigger and possibly the best film Hrithik also has done,â&#x20AC;? says a source close to the development.

The netizens went berserk after Swiss Tennis star Roger Federer asked fans for a Bollywood classic suggestion. The legend took to his Twitter handle to ask for movie suggestions, preferably Bollywood. Numerous suggestions poured in for Federer's Hindi movie craving, from 'Sholay' to 'Dangal.'

"A Bollywood classic maybe?" 38-year- old Federer tweeted with fans flooding him with suggestions almost immediately. While some advised the 20-time Grand Slam winner to watch blockbuster 'Baahubali,' there were many with names of other all-time hits like 'Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge,' 'Sholay,' 'Deewar,' 'Hera Pheri,' 'Lagaan' and '3 Idiots.'

Another user suggested that Roger watch the Hollywood/Bollywood classic, 'Slumdog Millionaire.' Surprisingly, Roger hasn't watched the movie yet, as he admitted, "Can't believe that I haven't seen it yet! Is it time?" (sic). There were many who shared his famous battles on the court with arch-rival Rafael Nadal as their favourite moment which was no less than a movie. One Tennis super-fan wrote, "Roger. Watch Jane Bhi do Yaaron.

But for me any Federer vs Djokovic and Federer vs Nadal is nothing less than a Bollywood Classic!" (sic)

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Alia supports kids with heart diseases Bollywood star Alia Bhatt celebrated Gandhi Jayanti by supporting an initiative to raise funds for children suffering from heart diseases through a painting exhibition. Donned in a bright yellow dress, the actress expressed her joy on being able to support the cause as she addressed the paparazzi at the venue.

"I have been told that kids are more positive than adults because they don't know how bad the situation is and they don't have a negative frame of mind. I feel that's the reason they get cured faster," Alia was quoted as saying at the event. She went on to speak of the hospital facilities and also the initiative of raising funds which will be used in carrying out heart surgeries of kids.

Sharing her thoughts

Sara, Ibrahim share first-ever magazine cover Saif Ali Khan's kids never fail to amuse the internet.

Be it Taimur's fun playdates, Sara Ali Khan's movies or Ibrahim's Instagram posts, social media makes sure to keeps a track of the Khan kids.

Recently, pictures of Ibrahim with sister and actor Sara were doing rounds on the internet as the two siblings shared the frame on the cover of a popular magazine. In fact, Ibrahim sent the audience into frenzy with his uncanny resemblance with Saif.

Sara shared two pictures from their magazine photoshoot on Instagram with the caption, “Yo Bro.” Actor Priyanka Chopra was one of the first ones to react to the picture and wrote, “Damn dem genes!!!!” The post got more than 600,000 likes within an hour and was praised by several of her fans.

Speaking about his physical resemblance to his dad, Ibrahim said, “There are scenarios where people – whether it’s an old relative, my mother or a family friend – tell me, ‘Oh my god, you’re just like him (Saif) and he does that too!’ I guess maybe we are similar but I wouldn’t know that... But regardless, he

is special to me. He is also my guide when it comes to man-to-man conversations.”

Ibrahim, also spoke about his bond with his sister Sara saying that their relationship is “just perfect” and that they are “very close and love each other a lot”. Meanwhile, their mother, actress Amrita Singh, said, “Ibrahim is the ‘old soul’ in our home. He’s kind and gentle and has the most sorted mind. He’s gifted with the ability to face the harshest truth with a brave smile and a strong will to overcome any shortcomings. But, the one problem I have with them is that they are both extremely messy and untidy!”

after inaugurating the exhibition named 'Art for the Heart' at Bai Jerbai Wadia Hospital for Children in Mumbai, Alia said, "I visited Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of this hospital, which is Asia's largest unit, and it's a really good and proud thing for all of us. It's the first year of Art for the Heart initiative, where they are raising funds through this painting exhibition, so that they can carry out heart surgery of kids."

Accompanying Alia was Sumitra Venkatesh, a paediatric cardiologist at the hospital.

"I feel Sumitra ma'am along with the other doctors and staff of Wadia Hospital is doing a fantastic job by helping people at reduced rates and sometimes free of cost. I feel we should support and encourage them so that people can understand things

like these also require funds," said Alia. Alia is currently busy shooting for ‘Sadak 2’ that is being helmed by her father, Mahesh Bhatt. She will also be seen in the highly anticipated film ‘Brahmastra’, directed by Ayan Mukerji and co-starring Ranbir Kapoor.

I am an obsessive lover: Kangana The Queen of Bollywood Kangana Ranaut recently got all candid and opened up about her first crush to her first kiss and even her first boyfriend. The voracious actress said that her first kiss was not “magical at all” and was rather messy.

Speaking about her first love, Kangana said, "Your first love is always with a teacher.

I was in 9th standard when I had a crush on my teacher." Obviously, she never made a move there. Spilling beans about her first relationship, Kangana said, “I had my first relationship at 17-18. I was in Chandigarh.

My friend was on a date, and I ended up with her date’s friend. He was a cute Punjabi guy.

He was 28 and I was 16-17. He looked at me and he was like, ‘you’re a kid’. He figured that I was too new in the game. I was heartbroken,” she said.

When asked what kind of a lover she is, she was quick to add, "I am an obsessive lover! I asked him to give me a chance. I didn't even know how to kiss, I used to practice kissing on my palm. My first kiss wasn’t magical at all, it was messy. My mouth froze and I couldn’t move. But he probably thought this kiddo is after him," concluded Kangana.

Last seen in Prakash Kovelamudi’s 'Judgementall Hai Kya,' in which she featured opposite Rajkummar Rao. After

completing Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari’s 'Panga,' she is currently working on a biopic on late actor and politician Jayalalithaa.

It's another adaptation for Sonam Kapoor Last seen in Abhishek Sharma's 'The Zoya Factor' along with Dulquer Salman, Sonam Kapoor has signed another film that's set to be an adaptation. This time, it's not a novel but an international film.

According to a report, the actress is slated to be part of Sujoy Ghosh’s next production venture which happens to be a remake of a south Korean film. The film in contention is 'Blind' and Sonam will play the central character. It will be

directed by Ghosh's associate director, Shome Majhika, and co-produced by Viacom 18.

A source close to the project said, "Yes, Sujoy has acquired the rights to the Korean film Blind and has roped in Sonam Kapoor for the lead role. The film will be produced by Sujoy under his banner and Viacom 18. As for direction, Sujoy's associate director Shome Majhika will helm the venture." The source further added, "Right now it is still too early. Sujoy and the rest are still planning the film. Once done, only then will the venture go on floors." Sonam's 'The Zoya

Factor' may not have turned out to be a winner at the boxoffice, but that hasn't stopped the offers coming her way, and akin to Taapsee Pannu in 'Badla,' she has all the opportunity to get a meaty part. Apart from this untitled film, the actress hasn't signed any other film as of now. Coming to Ghosh, he last helmed

the thriller, 'Typewriter,' for Netflix.

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Hansika puts an end to rumours Hansika Motwani in a short span of time became the hottest heroine of Tamil and Telugu cinema pairing up with all the big stars including Vijay, Suriya, Dhanush, Simbu, Sivakarthikeyan, Jayam Ravi, Jiiva and Arya. She is currently working on her 50th film titled 'Maha' which is directed by Jameel who has worked as an assistant director of Lakshman of 'Romeo Juliet' and 'Bogan' fame.

Meanwhile, news started spreading that Hansika has been roped in to play as the female lead opposite the Legend Saravana Stores owner, Saravanan Arul’s debut movie in which he plays an alien from outer space who save the earth in a crisis. However, now the actress has denied all these baseless rumours and issued a clarification.

In her statement, she wrote, “Firstly, I would like to share the greetings of Gandhi Jayanthi, a festival of love, peace and humanity that is an integral part of everyone here in this country. I would like to thank all press-media friends and fans, who I believe are the pillars of my journey as an artiste from the very beginning till now. It is with their earnest encouragements and right criticisms; I am able to discover my potentials and be a part of unique movies.

“This morning, I came across news being published on my next film, which is completely a baseless rumour.

Henceforth, I request press and media friends to clarify anything involving my project with me before getting it published. Hereby, I would like to affirm that anything involving my new projects would be officially announced by the respective production houses and my spokespersons.” Probably, the rumours would have spread on the fact that Hansika acted with Saravanan Arul in his debut ad film for his brand which became a huge hit.

The Royal Reunion: 'Baahubali' stars unite again Ace filmmaker, SS Rajamouli’s 'Baahubali' franchise remains one of the biggest blockbuster that made its mark

in the international circuit and has etched deeply into the hearts of several audiences and critics alike. The epic war drama featured Prabhas, Anushka Shetty, Tamannaah, Rana Daggubati, Sathyaraj, Ramya Krishnan, Naseer amongst others in the lead roles.

The stars are coming together for the premiere of 'Baahubali: The Beginning in London' at the prestigious Royal Albert Theatre on October 19 along with live rendition of MM Keeravaani’s score for the film by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

According to Prabhas' latest Instagram post, he will be gracing the event and will be interacting with the fans. He wrote, “Super excited to join my #Baahubali team in London on October 19th to catch a LIVE rendition of MM Keeravaani’s score for the film by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra! Would love all of you to join us”.

This is not the first time for ‘Baahubali’ got international attention as the movie was earlier screened at various global film festivals. The movie which was released in the year 2015 stood out to be the highest grosser of Indian cinema.

Later in the year 2017, the sequel ‘Baahubali: The Conclusion’ was released which also shattered records. The Baahubali franchise has garnered immense love and appreciation from all the quarters. Owing to the success of the Baahubali franchise, Prabhas has now become a pan-India phenomenon.

Yogi Babu to feature in 11 different roles Top Kollywood comedian Yogi Babu is keeping busy with a couple of very interesting projects. He was last seen on screen in a cameo role in Sivakarthikeyan’s 'Namma Veettu Pillai' which had hit the big screens recently. For the very first time, the actor will be seen in 11 different roles in an upcoming film titled as 'Kaavi Aavi Naduvula Devi.' Directed by Pugazhmani and written by V. C. Guhanathan, the film features debutant Ramsundar and Priyanka. Apart from Yogi Babu, Thambi Ramaiah, Motta Rajendran, Imman Annachi will be seen adding more flavours to this film.

Bankrolled by Aaruraan under Manon's Cine Combine, the film’s cinematography is handled by Ganeshan and editing department is handled

by Raj Keerthi. The film is expected to be released in theatres soon.

Meanwhile, he is currently gearing up for the release of his upcoming films, Dhanush and Manju Warrier starrer 'Asuran' which hit the screens on October 4, Tamannaah’s 'Petromax' which is releasing on October 11 and Thalapathy Vijay’s highly-anticipated film, 'Bigil' which is also supposed to release this Diwali.

Chiranjeevi bags remake rights of Malyalam blockbuster 'Lucifer'

Actor Chiranjeevi's dream project 'Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy,' which hit the theatres on October 2, is ruling the box office currently. It is reported that Chiranjeevi's megabudget flick has managed to gross more than £8.5 million worldwide in just two days.

After a mega success of his latest magnum opus, Chiranjeevi will star in Telugu remake of recent Malayalam blockbuster 'Lucifer,' which marked the directorial debut of actor Prithviraj Sukumaran. Speaking at the pre-release event of 'Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy' in Kerala, actor-filmmaker Prithviraj revealed that Chiranjeevi has acquired the Telugu rights of his film 'Lucifer.'

“With #Chiranjeevi sir at the Kerala launch of #SyeraNarasimhaReddy What an absolute gem of a man!

Humility and grace personified. I’m thrilled that you bought the rights to #Lucifer and will forever be sorry that I couldn’t take up your offer to be part of #SNR sir!(sic),” Prithviraj posted on his Twitter page.

Released earlier this year, 'Lucifer' became the biggest ever earner of Malayalam cinema globally. It grossed a whopping £20 million worldwide. Set in the backdrop of a family crisis during a volatile political situation in Kerala, the film, starring Mohanlal in the lead, was written by Murali Gopy. Buoyed by the success of the film, the filmmakers have announced two more films in the franchise. The sequel has been titled 'Empuraan.'

TV Listing 18:30: 19:00: 19:30: 20:00: 20:30: 21:00:

DIL KA RISHTA JAHAANARA BEPANNAH TERE NAAL ISHQ MOHE RANNG DO LAAL BALIKA VADHU - LAMHE PYAAR KE 22:00: RED ALERT

* Schedule is subject to change

MON 14TH - FRI 18TH OCT 2019 13:00: SWARAGINI 13:30: BHARADWAJ BAHUEIN 15:30: SIRF 30 MINUTES 16:00: THE GREAT INDIAN GLOBAL KITCHEN 2 16:30: RASOI SHOW 17:30: CHHUTA CHHEDA 18:00: TUM KAUN PIYA

* Schedule is subject to change

MON 14TH - FRI 18TH OCT 2019 16:00: BIGG BOSS - SEASON 13 18:00: MERE HUMRAHI 18:30: VIDYA 19:00: RAM SIYA KE LUV KUSH 19:30: CHOTI SARDAARNI 20:00: SHAKTI ASTITVA KE EHSAAS KI 20:30: KITCHEN CHAMPION 21:30: BIGG BOSS - SEASON 13 22:30: BAHU BEGUM 23:00: BEPANAH PYAARR 23:00: CHOTI SARDAARNI

SAT 19TH OCT 2019 17:30: DIVINE DESTINATION 18:00: DESI BEAT - SEASON 3 18:30: RISING STAR (SEASON 3) 20:30: RED ALERT 21:30: JAGTE RAHO

SUN 20TH OCT 2019 17:30: DIVINE DESTINATION 18:00: DESI BEAT - SEASON 3 18:30: RISING STAR (SEASON 3) 20:30: GOLMAAL RETURNS

0:00: GATHBANDHAN SAT 19TH OCT 2019 16:00: BIGG BOSS - SEASON 13 18:00: DESI BEAT RESET 18:30: IIFA CURTAIN RAISER 19:30: DESI BEAT RESET 20:00: CHOTI SARDAARNI 20:30: KHATRA KHATRA KHATRA 21:30: BIGG BOSS (SEASON 13) WEEKEND KA VAAR 23:00: KAWACH MAHASHIVRATRI SUN 20TH OCT 2019 14:30: IIFA CURTAIN RAISER 15:30: IIFA ROCKS 17:30: BIGG BOSS (SEASON 13) WEEKEND KA VAAR 19:00: IIFA GREEN CARPET 19:30: IIFA MAIN EVENT 23:30: GOLDEN MOMENTS

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Mahant Swami returns to India

Mahant Swami returned to India from Nairobi on October 7.

He visited South Africa, Uganda and Kenya. 'Sant Shibir' was held in Nairobi from September 30 to October 2. Mahant Swami provided guidance to the saints participating in this camp. The BAPS temple in Nairobi completed 20 years on October 3. On that occasion, consecration of new idols was done by Mahant Swami. It is mentioned in the scriptures that if a new temple is built, the universe would survive for another ten thousand years. On 3rd evening, the main assembly was held with the central idea of 'Sapna Thaya Saakar'. An hourand-a-half-long drama, performed by 175 artists, was presented depicting the successful journey of Satsang in Africa since its inception. On 4th, Mahant Swami, consecrated three idols in all in Nairobi's South zone. On 5th, 'Sameep Darshan' was conducted. On 6th, 'Saathe Rehjo Din' was celebrated.

Coming Events

l Exhibition - Odyssey Journey at the Bhavan Date: October 13, 14, Time: 11 am on wards In conversation with Tara Rajkumar OAM (Mohiniyattam Artist), Date: October 17, Time: 7 pm Venue: The Bhavan - Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan 4A, Castlestown Road, West Kensington, London W14 9HE Contact. 020 7381 3086 l Jaya Prabha Menon organises The Mohiniyattam Lasya Date: 14 Octobe, Time: 6:30 pm Venue: Nehru Center UK 8S, Audley Street, Mayfair London W1K 1HF. Contact. 020 7491 3567 l Sharad Poonam Raas Garba on 13 October, Sunday The Milan Group Wallington Milton Road, Wallington SM6 9RP – From 3:00 pm to 7:00 pm Contact: Hasumatiben Patel 020 8647 6176 Radha Krishna Temple Shyama Ashram, 33 Ballam High Road, London SW12 9AL – From 1:00 pm to 4 pm – Contact: 020 8675 3831, Cardiff Sanatan Temple – Sea view Building, Lewis Road, Cardiff CF24 5EB - Contact: 02920 455 564 l Free Inheritance Tax Planning Seminar Date: 17 October, Thursday, Time: 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm Venue: Central London location To register email ashish@ashlynwood.com

l Vijyadashmi Garba & Dandia Night Date: Saturday 12th October Time: 5pm till 10pm Venue: South Reading Leisure, Northumberland Avenue, Whitley, Reading, RG2 8DF Tickets (www.eventbrite.com): Adults: £3 Under 5s: Free l Dusshera Dandyia celebrations in Reading Date: 12th October Time: 5pm till 10pm Price: Tickets available on the door £10 (Adults), £7 (2-8 yrs) Venue: Rivermead Leisure Complex and Gym, Richfield Avenue, Reading, RG1 8EQ

EVENTS

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31

12 - 18 Oct 2019

Poet Junaid Khan and Film Director Suhail Patel win national film festival Two creatives from Seven Kings won first place at a national film festival.

Poet Junaid Khan and film director Suhail Patel joined forces to make a short film exploring addiction and recovery for the Recovery Street Film Festival.

Junaid has struggled with addiction his whole adult life having been a regular crack and heroin user.

He said that the experiences of his past have had a profound impact on his mental health, and he spent years in and out of prison while battling his addiction.

But with the help of professional services such as R3, based in Ilford, and charity HumanKind, where he now volunteers as a peer mentor, Junaid has been able to overcome his past demons by using writing and poetry to process past trauma.

"It's truly been a privilege to have participated on this platform, knowing that my experiences are helping people in addiction and inspiring people not just in recovery but the services that work in the field of drugs and alcohol," he said.

"It helps people like me to become better versions of ourselves. I wouldn't be here without their help."

The poet hopes that the film will raise awareness about addiction and encourage more people from the Asian community to talk about the issue as "not enough" do.

Suhail added: "It has

been an honour and privilege to work with Junaid on this project which has truly been a labour of love.

"Knowing each other from childhood, this was an emotional experience for all of us. I am very pleased we have won and want to thank the services which have helped Junaid turn his life around."

The film, The Beast Inside is scheduled to be shown around the country to raise awareness about the stigma associated with addiction and those in recovery.

A spokesman for the Recovery Street Festival said: "The aim is to empower people affected by addiction by giving them a voice, providing a platform for them to tell their own stories of the 'ups and downs' and how they reached recovery.

"We want the films to highlight the problems that are confronted when someone is attempting to regain their place in society: to gain new friends, to revive links with family, secure a home and get a job.

"We want the films to show a different side to the story of addiction: one that shows a true picture of the determination, commitment and courage that is required to start life afresh.

It can be an uphill struggle and one that is not without its pitfalls and disappointments and we want the films to explore all the challenges that people face."

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What’s on

l Diwali in Harrow Date: 13th October Time: 12pm till 4.30pm Price: Free Venue: Queensbury Park, Honeypot Lane, Harrow, HA7 1QL l Diwali Festival at Blackheath Halls Date: 16th-20th October Price: Varies depending on activity Venue: Blackheath Halls, 23 Lee Road, London, SE3 9RQ l Bolton Hindu Forum Sharad Purnima Date: Saturday 19th October Time: 7pm till 11.30pm Venue: Market Place, 1st Floor, Knowsley Street, Bolton, BL1 2AL Tickets: £5 Email: pm@boltonhinduforum.org.uk

A Moments Indulgence - Poem by Rabindranath Tagore I ask for a moment's indulgence to sit by thy side.

The works that I have in hand I will finish afterwards.

Away from the sight of thy face my heart knows no rest nor respite, and my work becomes an endless toil in a shoreless sea of toil.

Today the summer has come at my window with its sighs and murmurs; and the bees are plying their minstrelsy at the court of the flowering grove.

Now it is time to sit quite, face to face with thee, and to sing dedication of life in this silent and overflowing leisure.

AJIT NINAN FOR TOI

Editor: CB Patel Chief Executive Officer: Liji George Managing Editor: Rupanjana Dutta Deputy Editor: Urja Patel Journalist: Priyanka Mehta Advertising Managers: Kishor Parmar Head - New Projects & Business Development: Cecil Soans Graphic Designers: Harish Dahya & Ajay Kumar Customer Service: Ragini Nayak Tel: 020 7749 4080 Email: support@abplgroup.com Leicester Distributors: Shabde Magazine, Shobhan Mehta Mob: 07846 480 220

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l Diwali in Wembley Date: 20th October Time: 12pm till 7pm Price: Free Venue: Ealing Road, Wembley, HA0 l Diwali in Slough Date: 26th October Time: 7pm till 11.30pm Price: £11.37-£27.54 Venue: Copthorne Hotel SloughWindsor, Cippenham Lane, Slough, SL1 2YE l Diwali Dinner and Dance Date: 26th October Time: 7pm till 11.30pm Price: £15-£30 Venue: Haveli COnference and Banquet, 277 High Street, Slough, SL1 1BN

32

Sport

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12 - 18 October 2019

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India beat South Africa by 203 runs in first test Mohammed Shami took 5 wickets for 35 runs as India beat South Africa by 203 runs in the first test at Visakhapatnam on Sunday.

Chasing 395, South Africa were bowled out for 191 (63.5 overs) as Shami and Ravindra Jadeja (4-87) took nine wickets between them.

The duo had put on a six-wicket burst before lunch, which saw the Proteas collapse to 70-8. A record 90-run ninth-wicket partnership between Dane Piedt (56) and Senuran Muthusamy (49 not out) saved the touring side's blushes.

Post lunch, Piedt reached his half-century off 86 balls. India made some odd bowling but to no avail.

Shami finally provided the breakthrough. He ended Piedt's resistance in the 60th over and then four overs later wrapped up the Proteas' innings. India have

now won their last three tests, dating back to the tour of West Indies, and have accrued the maximum possible 160 points in the world test championship.

Ravichandran Ashwin finished with 1-44, taking his 350th wicket in 66 tests and equalling Sri Lankan legend Muttiah Muralitharan as the jointquickest to reach this mark.

He took 7-145 in the first innings. His dismissal of Theunis de Bruyn (10) in the second over of the day started the South African slide in the morning. Shami then got into the act and bowled Temba Bavuma for a two-ball duck.

Aiden Markram (39) and Faf du Plessis (13) provided some resistance and pushed the score past 50, after which the Proteas completely lost their way.

First, du Plessis was bowled off Shami in the 22nd over

and two overs later, Shami cleaned up the first inning's centurion Quinton de Kock for a two-ball duck.

Jadeja then broke the back of South Africa's

batting with three wickets in the 27th over. He sent back Markram with an excellent one-handed return catch and then trapped Vernon Philander

(0) lbw for a three-ball duck.

Two balls later, Keshav Maharaj (0) met the same fate.

South Africa lost five wickets in the space of 30

deliveries. In all, they lost seven wickets for 51 runs in the morning session. Over the five days, 36 sixes were hit in four innings, the most for any test ever. The previous best was 35 in New Zealand versus Pakistan at Sharjah in 2014.

India had set an improbable target after declaring their second innings at 323-4 with Rohit Sharma scoring 127. He had earlier scored 176 runs in the first innings, becoming the only Indian test to score twin hundreds in his maiden test as opener.

The hosts had scored 502-7 in the first innings with Sharma putting on a record 317 runs for the first wicket with Mayank Agarwal (215).

Dean Elgar and Quinton de Kock had scored counter-attacking centuries to propel South Africa's first innings' reply to 431.

Leicester condemn online abuse of Hamza Choudhury

Hamza Choudhury

Leicester said they were “appalled” at racist comments directed towards midfielder Hamza Choudhury on social media following a tackle that injured Liverpool forward Mohamed Salah during the Foxes’ 2-1 defeat at Anfield. A Leicester spokesman said they complained to the police and social media about the racist comments.

“Discriminatory behaviour has no place in football or in society and we will seek the strongest possible course of action to be taken against those responsible.”

Choudhury is the latest Premier League player to be racially abused online this season, with the likes of Marcus Rashford,

Liverpool’s Mohamed Salah receives treatment after a tackle from Hamza Choudhury

London court tells Mallya to pay Force India broker A London court has ordered Vijay Mallya’s Force India in liquidation - to pay £150,000 to a broker which helped it get its multimillion ‘Pink Panther’ BWT sponsorship deal.

The commercial court of the High Court ruled that AMP Advisory and Management Partners (AMP) in Liechtenstein, “made a contribution” to the title sponsorship deal with Austrian water technology company BWT which led to the cars being painted pink and would have been worth €74 million had it gone through to the full term. In the end Force India only

Vijay Mallya

received €29 million as it went into administration in July 2018.

AMP claims it introduced BWT to Force India and provided other assistance to clinch the deal.

It maintains Force India agreed to pay a commission

of 15% of the sponsorship fee up to €12.5 million and 12% thereafter. The sponsorship agreement was signed on March 13, 2017 but AMP was never paid. Force India’s assets and business were sold in Aug 2018 to Racing Point and BWT currently sponsors Racing Point. Mallya, who still owns a 42.5% stake in Force India and was its team principal, gave evidence at the trial, saying AMP had not performed any services that warranted commission and it was Toto Wolff, team principal of Mercedes-AMG F1 racing team, who had recommended Force India to BWT, not AMP.

Paul Pogba and Tammy Abraham having also been targeted. The abuse came in the wake of legitimate criticism of his tackle on Salah, with the incident following another made by Choudhury in August that saw him injure Newcastle’s Matt Ritchie. After the game Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said: “It’s a challenge I really don’t understand. It’s dangerous as hell.

I don’t want to cause the boy any problems but he has to calm down. This is not the first situation like this.”

Salah hobbled out of Anfield after the match with the club still awaiting news on the extent of his ankle injury.

Lanka rout top-ranked Pakistan by 35 runs in 2nd T20 Sri Lanka's inexperienced team earned another emphatic 35-run victory over top-ranked Pakistan in the second Twenty20 on Monday at Lahore for an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Bhanuka Rajapaksa, playing in only his second Twenty20, smashed 77 off 48 balls in Sri Lanka's total of 182-6 after captain Dasun Shanaka won the toss and opted to bat.

Leg-spinner Wanindu Hasaranga (3-38) then took three wickets in four balls and Isuru Udana provided the perfect finish by grabbing 4-25 as Pakistan was bowled out for 147 in 19

overs.

Ten of Sri Lanka's top players pulled out of the tour due to security concerns, including Twenty20 captain Lasith Malinga, but Sri Lanka's second string surprised cricket pundits by outplaying the No 1-ranked team in front of its home fans.

Imad Wasim top scored with 47 off 29 balls but his partnership of 75 with Asif Ali (29) was not enough to stop Sri Lanka from registering another convincing win.

The recalled Umar Akmal fell for golden duck for the second successive match while

Ahmed Shehzad could score only 13 before both fell to Hasaranga's brilliance inside the first 10 overs.

Earlier, the left-handed Rajapaksa hit six sixes and four boundaries and dominated a 94-run fourthwicket stand with Shehan Jayasuriya, who made 34.

Shanaka propelled Sri Lanka's total beyond Pakistan's reach by smashing 31 off 15 balls.