AV 22nd December 2018

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22 - 28 DECEMBER 2018 - VOL 47 ISSUE 33

JUSTICE AT LAST

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There will be no paper on 29th December.

We wish you a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year.

inside:

Sajjan goes to prison

Mistry jailed for faking cancer and fleecing £250,000 from family SEE PAGE 4 It was a bittersweet moment for victims of the 1984 Sikh carnage as well as British Sikhs, when former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar was convicted by the Delhi High Court, for criminal conspiracy to murder five people of the minor-

ity community. The 73 year old who is given a life sentence, has been ordered to surrender by December 31, failing which he would be taken into custody.

Reversing Kumar's acquittal by Delhi's Karkardooma Courts in

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onetoone WITH KEITH VAZ, MP

Dhruv Jogia Dhruv Jogia, 28, is a specialist podiatrist. He completed his Bachelor of Science honours degree in podiatric medicine in London and has since held posts. During his degree he secured a junior role at Guys and Thomas’s Trust in London where he was quick to be recognised for his skills of managing patients well and given the opportunity to be an Assistant in the surgical team. After qualifying he continued to work within the NHS and evolved into a Musculoskeletal (MSK) Specialist Podiatrist within a multidisciplinary team. As part of this, Dhruv has taught undergraduate students.

His clinical interests are in MSK otherwise known as Biomechanics and Diabetes. Dhruv often gives talks in the local community about foot health and diabetes. He has embarked on his journey into private practice and offers his services covering London and East Midlands areas. His services include routine foot care biomechanics nail surgery and treating diabetic patients. For a more detailed list of services please visit The-podiatrist.com and follow Podiagram on Instagram.

Outside of Podiatry, Dhruv is passionate about vegetarian cooking and a lover of the arts.

As an Indian classically trained musician he performs and teaches the Tabla. He is a disciple of Pandit Sanju (Vishnu) Sahai the torchbearer of the Banares school of Tabla. He was recently invited to perform for the closing day of the Zee Jaipur Literature Festival 2018 at the British Library, London.

1

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

Leicester and london. Home is where the heart is they say. If I had to choose one it would be the multicultural city of Leicester as I grew up there and my family live there too.

2

What are your proudest achievements?

Every happy patient is an achievement; every patient I reduce pain for is an achievement. Being a podiatrist is a great achievement in my life and a huge honour

as it is a medium whereby I can give back to the society.

3

What inspires you?

The fact that I have the responsibilty of keep society on its feet inspires me. I draw huge amounts of inspiration from my parents from their hardships and experiences of life which have got them so far.

4

What has been biggest obstacle in your career?

Time. Its not an obstacle as such but is a

huge factor. My father always says time is like gold dust. Sometimes you want more, other times you wonder why certain processes take so long. I make the most of what I have. I believe to be a great clinician you need two very important things; patients and patience. On a lighter note; not having X-Ray vision has been an obstacle!

5

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

There is never one influence in a successful career; its the people you choose to be around you and your mentors. My parents are a huge influence not only on my career but my life, I wouldn’t be at this level if it wasn’t for them. My mentors and inspirations are my uncle Mr Rajesh Jogia Consultant Podiatric Surgeon and in more recent times Dr Pradeep Manhoot Orthopaedic Surgeon, Mumbai.

6

What is the best aspect about your current role?

The best aspect of my role is that its challenging. Every patient and pathology is a challange. Its from this you learn more and can give more. I'll never be bored I suppose!

7

And the worst? The amount of chocolate digestives I run on... Next question please!

8

What are your long term goals?

To continue working and supporting the NHS and raise awareness about the ill effects of diabetes and its risks particularly at the feet. I love to cook vegetarian food its my passion and the kitchen is my sanctury after a hard day. I can zone out and be in different world. Maybe write a book on diabetic vegetarian cooking one day. Who knows, follow Podiagram on instagram!

9

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

I'd bring an end to knife and gun crime. At schools I'd bring changes to the curriculum which provide a better understanding of health including smoking, diabetes, obesity, and substance abuse. I'd also bring mindfulness, yoga, meditation and self defence practices into the curriculum.

10

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

Gautam Buddha. He said "It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles. Then the victory is yours. It cannot be taken from you, not by angels or by demons, heaven or hell." We spend our lives in the rat race but it’s important to introspect. Just living in the presence of such figure will most probably change anyone’s life for the better, if you are receptive.

EAST END BOY WINS £76K ETON SCHOLARSHIP A teenager born in Bangladesh who lives in an East End council flat has won a place at Eton.

Maheraj Ahmed, 15, will take his place in the hallowed halls of Britain’s most famous school on a £76,000

scholarship next September.

Maheraj will study for Alevels in history, chemistry, biology and physics next September, after coming through a three-day assessment at the Berkshire school which included three

Maheraj Ahmed

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22 - 28 December 2018

Jolt for BJP, spur for Congress India’s pollsters came of age with their predictions that the ruling BJP government at the Centre was in for an unpleasant surprise in the State Assembly elections in the Hindi-speaking heartland of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Congress were comfortable winners in the first two States, winning in a canter in Chhattisgarh.

There were omens aplenty for the BJP and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with a general election looming in June 2019, barely six months away, However, as Harold Wilson, Britain’s Labour prime minister of the 1960s said ‘a week is a long time in politics.’

So nothing is done and dusted. The electorate in India has been known to vote for one side in State elections and vote in contrary fashion in national elections. The caveat is that while this may broadly be the case – the distress of farmers was self evident - an election as critical as the one witnessed is also likely to carry a message that is national in content.

Witness, thus, the blistering attack on the BJP by the Shiv Sena, its coalition partner in Maharashtra, whose strength lies in Mumbai, the State capital and also India’s financial capital. The Shiv Sena excoriated the BJP’s relentless broadsides at India’s first, and in the view of the broad mass of Indians, its greatest prime minister; the Shiv Sena blasted the tasteless campaigns denigrating Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his close associates and the BJP twitterati. The Shiv Sena slammed the Prime Minister and his party for their gross attempt to mutilate India’s post Independence history with the preposterous insinuation that India became a serious country domestically and globally only with the advent of the present BJP dispensation in Delhi.

Congress was reviled, yet it was the party, born in Bombay in December 1885, that carried to India

independence in August 1947. Its leaders during this were outstanding by any standard, past or present.

India’s recovery from the trauma of Partition, the integration of the Princely States into the Indian Union, the Indian Constitution, India’s democratic institutions, the beginnings of the science and technological routes to national empowerment were Congress achievements.

The rising decibels of xenophobia, lynching, calls for censorship of films and books – thankfully ruled out by the Supreme Court – have damaged civil society. It is now time for sanity and reflection. The Congress Party must play its part in the healing of discords. In the economic sphere the BJP legacy that has many positive aspects, notably in ease of doing business in the country. Populist shibboleths must be jettisoned for serious economic thought and application. There is still the burden of poverty, inequality, unemployment and much else that have to be surmounted if India is to become a properly functioning developed entity. The space age, computer raj, nuclear power cannot coexist happily without affordable healthcare, education, unemployment, sufficient job creation and much else that is work in progress, but not always at the desired speed. A responsible opposition Is what India most needs and seldom gets. For instance, what inspired the BJP to align with the Communist party in opposing the seminal Indo-US nuclear power deal in 2007? Only the disgraceful cynical ploy of voting the Congress government of Dr Manmohan Singh out of office must surely be the answer. Aborting the treaty was in China’s national interest, and not in India’s. Patriotism is frequently the last refuge of a scoundrel, pronounced Dr Samuel Johnson, the great English man of letters in the Eighteenth century. A final thought: the Indian elections are likely to resonate in India’s neighbourhood and possibly beyond.

No lessons in tolerance, please A bipartisan hearing in Washington on religious tolerance in India, due to be held a fortnight ago has been postponed to May 2019, around the time of the country’s general election. Cynics might be forgiven for suspecting that the goal of this exercise could be regime change, for long one of the hallowed practices of American statecraft.

Assassinations, fake news, subversion, you name it, are all strings to the bow of Uncle Sam’s foreign policy from the early years of the Republic to the present day. Its westward expansion to the shores of the Pacific Ocean involved forcible territorial acquisition through conquest, subterfuge and voluntary choice. There were great achievements on the way: tilling the land, setting up vast industries through remarkable entrepreneurial innovation, these followed later by a galaxy of Nobel laureates across disciplines, great cinema, great jazz, and ,through the entire period, American welcome to millions of Europe’s poor and persecuted. However, there was a dark side too: the genocide of the native Indian populations of the North American plain and the commerce in African slaves shipped across the ocean to serve their white masters on their plantations, including those of the founding fathers of the United States of America.. Cast outside the pale, the ‘pursuit of happiness,’ enshrined in the nation’s sacristan Constitution remained a distant dream for the black population.

Senator Albert J. Beveridge addressing his peers in the Senate in January 1900, expounded his vision of America’s Manifest Destiny in this rhapsodic passage: ‘The Philippines are ours forever…And just beyond the Philippines are China’s illimitable markets. We will not retreat from either. We will not repudiate our duty in the archipelago. We will not abandon our opportunity in the Orient. We will not renounce our part in the mission of our race, trustee under God of the civilization of the world…with a task worthy of our strength, and thanksgiving to Almighty God that He has marked us as His chosen people , henceforth to lead in the regeneration

of the world. ’ Clinging to these sentiments, if not its words, but in deeds, the United States is entrapped in hallucinatory follies, from the atom bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the carpet bombing and chemical defoliation of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, and the disastrous military interventions in the Greater Middle East, resulting in a flood-tide of dispossessed humanity seeking salvation in Europe.

The manic search for an elusive security to which the American political class is addicted has led to insane, spiralling defence expenditures that transcend logic and common sense. A visibly broken society that needs urgent mending is wracked by perpetual violence. Franklin Delano Roosevelt - among America’s few truly great presidents – had warned presciently that the most telling obstacle to the freedom from fear was fear itself.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in a gaseous declaration of intent envisaged a US-led handpicked world order, surely a Kafkaesque mirage. Further to this, the US challenge to the Russian and Chinese presence in Africa on moral grounds is blatant hypocrisy, when the continent is aleady an American military encampment. The lands that once sourced America’s slaves, need most of all peace and development.

American hysteria over Russia bears some likeness to that of Nazi Germany. The English historian Hugh Trevor-Roper in his masterly study, ‘The Last Days of Hitler,’ says the Fuehrer was prepared to tolerate a France reduced to second-rate status, would ‘guarantee the British Empire’ in exchange Britain ceasing to interfere in Continental politics. ‘But the offence of Russia,’ he continued, ‘is the existence of Russia.’ with whom no compromise was possible, and hence it had to be destroyed root and branch. Where Napoleon and Hitler failed disastrously, the Trump administration is unlikely to succeed. Good sense should prevail in the larger interest of life on earth.

Surge in UK investments in India Britain is India’s largest European investor, ahead of France and Germany, thanks largely to the economic reforms initiated by the Modi government. Ease of doing business in India has made considerable progress.

According to the World Bank, from the once 130th position in the league of 192 sovereign nations, India has climbed to 77, up 53 places under the Modi dispensation since assuming office in June 2014.

The ‘Sterling Assets: Britain Meets India’ report by the

Confederation of Indian Industry and Grant Thornton India reveals that Britain strengthened its investments in India. Around 38 per cent British companies have made new investments in India, their fourth-largest overall in the country, whose expanding middle class and abundance of local talent plus the General Services Tax have made it an attractive destination for investors, warts and all, more so as India is already the world’s sixth-largest economy – and growing.

Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor -H. Jackson Brown Jr.

Alpesh Patel

Christians and Islam At Christmas let’s remember the peace and good religion does.

As the US elections heated up and focus on President Donald Trump to ban Muslims from entering America, we were reminded Islam has always been a flourishing part of America's story.

The first nation to recognize the United States was Morocco. In signing the Treaty of Tripoli in 1796, the second ever American President, John Adams wrote, "The United States has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion or tranquility of Muslims."

Since the founding of America, American Muslims have won Nobel Prizes, built the tallest building, and lit the Olympic Torch. And when the first Muslim American was recently elected to Congress, he took the oath to defend the Constitution using the same Holy Koran that one of the Founding Fathers of the United States -Thomas Jefferson -- kept in his personal library.

Indeed, the United States elected as President, as the most powerful man in the world, the son of Muslim, a man named ‘Hussein Obama’.

Indeed there is one American who has saved more Muslim lives than any other human in history.

One individual who without fear or favour has been singularly responsible for why there are more followers of the Faith today than any other man since the Prophet.

One man who could rightly be called Defender of the Faith. No, it is not Saladin nor Nasser, nor the physician in the Middle Ages Ibn Al-Baitar, nor is it the discoverer of pulmonary circulation – Ibn AlNafis or the botanist Al-idris.

The name of the man, a Christian, is Norman Borlaug and he died in 2009. Borlaug moved governments to use his invention of high-yield varieties of grains. Before him it was said India would never be able to feed itself. He is credited with having saved one billion souls.

Put aside your religious leaders, your gurus, popes, rabbis, imams, kings and presidents. This man saved one billion lives.

In America, the 7 million American Muslims enjoy income levels higher than the average American. Imagine that – flourishing in the home of what the Iranian leader called the Great Satan. As that man, President Obama said, ‘The enduring faith of over a billion people is so much bigger than the narrow hatred of a few. Islam is not part of the problem in combating violent extremism - it is an important part of promoting peace.

I heard of a year ago 24 Egyptian Christians beheaded by ISIS for being Christians. Thousands marched in London against the deaths of Muslims in Gaza. But why not against the killing in Syria, or of Christians, or of Hindus in Pakistan? There is not the same outrage. It was the West, not Turkey or Saudi Arabia that backed action in Syria. Or what about Muslim deaths in Bosnia – it was Nato jets protecting Muslims then.

Everywhere in recent times, Islam has both flourished under, and been protected by, the flag of the West.

Now at last, Egypt, Jordan realise there will be no peace until their own house is in order. This is a clash of civilisations – the clash of the civilised against the uncivilised.

An England cricket player wears a protest band on his wrist against what is happening in Gaza, but not in Syria. Truly the concept of Islamic Brotherhood can be so much more greater than this, to enforce the peace, that ‘Islam’ means around the world.

The Holy Koran tells us: "O mankind! We have created you male and a female; and we have made you into nations and tribes so that you may know one another."

The Talmud tells us: "The whole of the Torah is for the purpose of promoting peace."

The Holy Bible tells us: "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God.

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22 - 28 December 2018

Mistry jailed for faking cancer and fleecing £250,000 from family Priyanka Mehta Jasmin Mistry, 36, falsely claimed to her husband and family that she had terminal brain cancer for nearly four years to extract money worth £250,000.

She claimed she had needed money for her treatment in the US but spent all of it on luxury items including handbags.

Mr. Vijay Katechia met Jasmin in 2012 on a famous online Indian dating site and six months later the two of them got married. But the groundwork for her fraud had begun shortly after her honeymoon where she started complaining about getting bad headaches, heard a court. However, her initial brain scan came back with no issues.

Fake WhatsApp account and fake cancer symptoms Snaresbrook Crown Court was told how in 2013, she claimed she had a tumor.

She had then concocted a fictitious doctor by the name of Nita Lakar and had set up a fake WhatsApp account through which she used to send regular messages to Mr. Katechia confirming her supposed medical diagnoses and treatments.

The medical secretary from Leicester would then go for hospital appointments which she would attend on her own because she wanted to show her family how "strong" she was, the court heard. And it was from 2014 when she had said it was terminal brain cancer that she had started receiving funds for her Proton Beam therapy in the US. Prosecutor James Benson said- “She displayed to her husband the apparent symptoms – trips to the toilet to vomit, describing blood in her stools, requiring help walking up and down stairs. The defendant has plainly done some research.”

Conned about 30 victims off £253,122 But Mistry's lies extended beyond her claims of suffering from cancer where she falsely stated that she had received death threats from

Jasmin Mistry

members of the Dubai royal family which were related to her previous employment.

Mr. Benson added- “She claimed the family were at risk of kidnapping. She said she had been assigned a security team of ex MI5 officers.”

And in late 2014 when Mistry claimed that she had only a few months to live, her husband forwarded a message asking for donations from approximately

shop. Apart from her sisterin-law, Jamin's mother-inlaw Puspha Katechia gave Mistry £32,000 who said she had been “emotionally wrecked” and she has been regularly speaking to “victim support”.

Mrs. Katechia in her victim statement to the court said how she has avoided “socialising” and how after all their savings were given away for her treatment, her 71-year-old husband had to go back to work. But her husband and family were not the only relatives to be part of the “pathological liars”.

Online dating website: Single status In 2015, Jasmin had befriended Ashish Patel on a dating website where she told him that she was single and had cancer, the court

Jasmin Mistry’s Facebook picture: Stand up to Cancer

only other man she had lured, she had be-friended another such victim on another famous only dating website to whom she had claimed she was going to Germany for her cancer treatment.

Stock image of brain cancer from Google Mistry was only caught in 2017 when her husband Vijay showed a “scan” that his wife had given him to a doctor friend, who said it was a “stock image” that had been lifted from Google and they later discovered a series of spare sim cards as well.

Reading his victim impact statement in court, Mr. Katechia who used to work in the financial sector space said how “we couldn't live in peace in our house” He said how it has wrecked him psychologically, emotionally and mentally and something that he will “never recover from”.

He also said to the court how he is now in substantial debt wherein he had to sell off his car, his home in India and precious jewellery. He added how it has totally ruined his faith in humanity and has questioned a lot of people's trust who donate to such causes and how he “would not wish for any individual to suffer what we have.”

Four-year prison sentence

30-35 members of his family for her treatment.

Mistry conned family and friends out of the quarter of a million pounds and fleeced almost 30 people off £253,122 including her husband Vijay Katechia, 40. All these donations were made under references such as “good luck”, “healthcare” among others.

71-year-old father in law goes to work said mother in law Among these donations was Mistry's sister-in-law who donated her £4,700 which Jasmin sold it off to a pawn

heard. She went on to fake her cancer to the extent where on one instance Patel collected her from outside a hospital where she had worn a blue hospital band and even raised £66,000 for her treatment. After receiving the cash, she then sent him a message from a fake persona claiming she had died.

Summarising Patel's online victim statement, Mr. Benson said- “He [Ashish] says he was deeply in love with the defendant and being told she was alive after being told she had died came as a ‘total shock’.”

But, Ashish was not the

Detective Constables Dal Riyat and Jon Bounds of the Met Police led the probe against Jasmin and found that she had spent victims’ life savings on Prada and Chanel handbags.

Judge Judith Hughes told her: “This is a terrible crime. To tell everybody you have cancer and take money from them... It’s an awful situation.”

We tried approaching Sahota&Sahota Solicitors who are Ms. Mistry's legal advisers. However, they remained unavailable for any comment.

Jasmin Mistry was handed a four-year prison sentence at Snaresbrook Crown Court after admitting fraud by false representation.

Rogue landlord in Harrow faces jail if he doesn't pay £1.5m fine Vispasp Sarkari, 56, from Harrow is a rogue landlord who illegally carved up family homes to create cramped bedsits and charged tenants hundreds of pounds a month.

He has been ordered to pay back the money earned from dozens of tenants after he was found guilty of flouting planning rules by converting properties across north London into smaller bedsits without permission

This new year gift travel to receive travel

last year he was and ignoring fined for his part in enforcement cramming 27 people notices. into a four-bedroom He subdivided suburban homes semi-detached into what council house that had been officials described as converted into “substandard boxseven tiny flats in room bedsits” in Wembley. which whole famiHe is now facing lies would live, pay9 years of prison ing hundreds of One of the properties of Vispasp Sarkari. P.C: Brent Council unless he pays what pounds per month is believed to be a housing benefit. in rent, often coming from record £1.5m penalty for Sarkari has faced repeatthe public purse through breaking planning laws. ed enforcement action and

Vertika Kanaujia with kids from Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses

Picture this, an Indian woman with a backpack on her shoulders, a camera around her neck, and promises on her head as she traverses through the picturesque landscapes of European cities. Click, click, click, the camera shutter snaps capturing the perfect picture for the upcoming calendar this year.

Meet Vertika Kanaujia- a recent business graduate, a journalist by profession, a photographer by passion and an unapologetic independent woman who is currently working as a South Asian communications specialist for Hyderus.

Nirbhaya rape case where she wanted to convey the message of women empowerment.

Last year in Cardiff, the MBA graduate had come out with a travel calendar that had pictures of landscapes from across the UK and had successfully raised a small but significant sum of £500 with which she had taken close to 50 kids from SYPM on a day-trip across Delhi.

These little monsters harrumphed across India's capital city, posing in front of Qutub Minar, Lotus Temple, Indira Gandhi Memorial, India Gate, and Rail Bhawan.

“I wanted to gift travel to

A dreamer at John Lenon's wall in Prague

“I launched my calendar after I realised that people had stopped the tradition of gifting calendars to their friends and families on new year's and I thought why not gift a more personalised souvenir by sharing some moments from my photolibrary,” Vertika said.

Like they say there is a story behind every picture and the one behind her calendar is about the volumes of appreciation that the photographer received so much so that one of them suggested her to sell them. That is how she decided to give away the proceeds to a charity in Delhi, India called Society for Promotion of Youth and Masses (SYPM).

SPYM is a national organisation with a countrywide network that works in the area of community mobilization, health care, and socio-economic development and also provide both Inpatient and Outpatient treatment services for substance use disorders among adults in India.

Kanaujia likes to experiment with various themes for her calendar ranging from Yoga special after India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi had launched the International Yoga Day to signify the positivity and impact of yoga to featuring Frieda Kahlo another year following the

these children because they haven't been fortunate enough to grow up in nice neighbourhoods and I wanted them to know that the world is a beautiful place!

And there is no better education than travel,” believes Vertika.

This year the Chevening scholar decided to do a travel calendar focussing on the landscapes of European countries and perhaps give an insight into the journey behind every climb. From the serenity of Belfast, the charisma of Paris, the notoriety of Amsterdam to the romance of Venice, each month of this travel calendar will provide an insight into the countries you have been longing to visit.

“The calendar is supposed to serve a two-fold purpose by being “a dream magnate on the desk for all those who have stopped dreaming and a magic wand for all those who dream but don't have the means to fulfil that dream,” said the photographer.

“But at the same time these people would also know that their money has been used for a good social cause,” Vertika explains.

The calendar is available at nominal rates and to receive your own copy, you can directly get in touch with Vertika.

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AsianVoiceNewsweekly

22 - 28 December 2018

Protect your business from FX fluctuations Businesses that trade internationally or have operations overseas are likely to be exposed to foreign exchange risk arising from volatility in the currency markets.

The most common cause of foreign exchange exposure arises from having to make overseas payments for your imports priced in a foreign currency or receiving foreign currency receipts for your exports. However, exposure can also arise from: l Foreign currency borrowing/deposits l Overseas subsidiaries l Assets located overseas The impact that exchange rate fluctuations have on profitability will vary but in many cases it can be significant.

Effective management of FX risk is therefore crucial and does not need to be unnecessarily complicated.

2 – Understand the products There are two alternative methods available to manage foreign exchange risk. l Do nothing and buy or sell your currency in the spot market. You act on the day you want to buy or sell your foreign currency. We will quote you an exchange rate and the transaction will settle within two working days. While simple, this approach means you will not know how much Sterling you will need to pay or receive for your foreign currency until the day in question. This can be a high-risk strategy as the exchange rate may have moved significantly since you agreed the price with your customer/supplier. If rates have moved the wrong way, your profit will be reduced accordingly.

At The Currency Account, we advocate the use of a simple four-point plan to help you adopt a structured approach.

l Lock in to fixed rates. As soon as you become aware of a need to exchange foreign exchange at a future date, you can fix the exchange rate by booking a forward exchange contract. This approach provides certainty but you could suffer an opportunity loss if rates subsequently move in your favour and you are obliged to transact at the forward contract rate.

The Four Point Plan

3 – Develop a strategy

1 – Understand your exposures There are numerous factors to take into account when assessing your exposure to foreign exchange rate risk, for example: l What proportion of your business relates to imports or exports? l What currencies are involved? l What are the timings of payments? l What impact would an adverse rate movement have on your profitability? l Is the level of overseas business likely to change? l Do you pay and receive in the same foreign currency – it may be possible to mitigate the exchange risk by using The Currency Account’s Multi-Currency Banking solution.

It may not always be best to adopt any of the above two options in isolation to manage your foreign exchange risk.

Many businesses, depending on their attitude to risk, view of the currency markets, and a host of other factors, will adopt a portfolio approach and use a combination of spot and forward exchange contracts. The Currency Account will work with you to help you understand the products available, allowing you to develop a strategy that best meets the requirements of your business.

For example, in an uncertain exchange rate environment, you may decide to transact 50% of your currency in spot and fix 50% with a forward exchange contract. This way, if rates move in your favour, you will benefit on 50% of your exposure (spot) while if rates move against you, you are protected on 50% (forward exchange contracts). This is a balanced

approach that provides flexibility.

4 – Implement it It is often tempting to defer a decision to implement your foreign exchange risk management strategy, perhaps in the hope that rates may move in your favour in the short term. Historically, currency markets have been extremely volatile and unpredictable, therefore once you have formulated a strategy, you may choose to implement it in order to, where possible, protect your profits.

Rishi Patel

Summary For many businesses, the impact of exchange rate volatility can be significant. The Currency Account has a team of specialists available to help you develop an appropriate strategy for your business.

Rishi Patel, Managing Director, The Currency Account fxdesk@thecurrencyaccount.com +44(0) 20 7014 3377

The Currency Account is a fintech multi-currency banking and international payments platform delivering solutions specifically designed to empower businesses and organisations that are trading internationally. Payments can be made to over 160 countries. The company also provides hedging and risk-management services for those looking to manage their currency exposure. The business is a trusted partner for a fast-growing portfolio of brands worldwide.

Authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) under the Electronic Money Regulations 2011 & the Payment Services Regulations.

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6 UK

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22 - 28 December 2018

First Sikh and Muslim padres join the British military A Sikh and Muslim padre have become part of the Royal Air Force’s Chaplain’s branch, in a first for the British military.

Flight Lieutenant Mandeep Kaur who has become the first Sikh padre who grew up in Punjab, India and was chosen to be a Chaplain whilst studying in the UK for her doctorate in engineering. Whilst she was studying she was selected to be the first Sikh Chaplain and has been working on this role since 2005.

While Flight Lieutenant Ali Omar became the first Muslim Padre, he was born in Mombasa, Kenya and studied for his Masters degree in translation studies

Flight Lieutenant Mandeep Kaur

at Portsmouth University.

Following this he received a

Post Graduate Certificate in Education (PGCE) from Oxford Brooks in 2004.

After the graduation ceremony, Chaplain (Flight Lieutenant) Ali Omar said, “My role in the RAF as a flagbearer of the Muslim Chaplaincy will see me work with the RAF Chaplaincy branch to negotiate and establish the place of World

Faith Chaplaincy within the RAF. It is an overdue and an exciting venture that will see me work side by side as a commissioned Muslim chaplain along my colleagues from different faiths.”

The two padres graduated at RAF College Cranwell after completing their reservist officer training.

Padres provide spiritual and welfare support to all soldiers, sailors, airmen and women, and their families.

They deploy on operations and aboard ships when they go on long deployments.

Padres can also go out on patrols and live on the front line, on hand for when personnel need them.

The Ministry of Defence recently launched a new diversity strategy to increase diversity and inclusion across the armed forces. ‘A 'Force for Inclusion’ strategy will ensure that diversity and inclusion is a major part of all of the department’s

work, including workforce policies, culture and behaviour.

The RAF Chaplain-In-Chief, the Venerable (AirVice Marshal) John Ellis added, “It has been a wonderful joy to welcome five new Chaplains today, representing the diversity of British society into the Royal Air Force Chaplains’ Branch and to celebrate with them and their families. It has been an absolute privilege to welcome our first Sikh and Muslim c o m m i s s i o n e d Flight Lieutenant Ali Omar Chaplains into the a force for inclusion. The Royal Air Force and I look department is committed to forward immensely to workdelivering a more inclusive ing with them into the culture and a more diverse future." workforce at all levels and It sets out what kind of this renewed strategy looks organisation the MOD much further ahead and is wants to be in the future: underpinned by goals that inclusive, representative and are more clearly defined.

City investment Daga loses divorce court battle against Bangur Ankul Daga, has lost the divorce court money battle against Aparna Bangur, the daughter of one of India's richest men.

City investment strategist Daga, allegedly wanted a judge to order Aparna, to hand him a £1 million lump following the breakdown of their decade-long marriage.

Mr Daga, initially wanted £2.5 million, despite earning £130,000 a year. He argued that Ms Bangur, daughter of billionaire businessman Krishna Kumar Bangur, had assets of more than £2 million and would

benefit from trusts containing more than £17 million.

But Justice Holman has dismissed his claim after analysing evidence at a trial in the Family Division of the High Court in London and said he did not 'need' the money from his ex-wife. He also concluded that Ms Bangur, who works in public relations and earns about £40,000 a year, did not have access to assets of more than £2 million or access to millions held in trusts.

Justice Holman said Mr Daga had allegedly 'wiped out' £150,000 in savings and

run up debts of more than £70,000 to pay for lawyers.

He said the case should serve as a 'cautionary tale'.

Jane Keir, Family & Divorce partner at Kingsley Napley LLP, who represented Ms Bangur for this case said, “This case should be a salutary warning to all golddigger spouses with mercenary intentions. It confirms the principle that non-matrimonial assets remain protected including those held in trust structures. A prenup would, of course, be a further way for wealthy families to guard against

Ankul Daga

such claims."

Krishna Kumar Bangur's $507 million company was founded in 1962 and supplies steelmakers in India and overseas.

Prevention is key - says Health Minister The All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes organised an International Diabetes Summit on the 13th December 2018 at the House of Commons. The summit featured a number of speakers including Steve Brine MP, Minister for Public Health, Sisse Marie Welling, Health Mayor of Copenhagen, Denmark, Hon Roberto Pella MP, Vice President Vicar of Italian Municipalities Association (ANCI), Mayor of Valdengo, Dr Faith Foreman-Hays, Assistant Director of the Houston Health Department, and Manoj Bharucha, Gastrointestinal and Metabolic Surgeon, India along with many other distinguished speakers from the United Kingdom. The conference attracted around 200 attendees from around the country.

Steve Brine MP, Minister for Public Health said, “Wider public health initiatives such as the Change4Life programme are crucial in encouraging a healthy lifestyle, healthy eating and the physical activity that I see as so important. These programmes play a very important role in causing the awareness of how healthy lifestyles can reduce the risk of conditions such as diabetes.

Rt Hon Keith Vaz MP with speakers and attendees of the International Diabetes Summit

"I and the Government are committed to improving the outcomes not only for the millions of people living with diabetes but also the many more who are at risk of developing the disease. Have confidence that the government is still tackling the issues that matter. If we can continue to make an impact on diabetes, then the benefits to both the NHS and the people of this country will be enor-

mous. We want to make sure the healthiest choice becomes the easiest choice.”

Keith Vaz MP, Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group for Diabetes said, “Bringing together world health experts in the field of diabetes is crucial to our understanding of this terrible illness. We have a great deal to learn and sharing good practice is essential.”

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22 - 28 December 2018

Project Dignity

A Pioneer Pan India Project in the Field of Skill Development Empowering 30,000 Widows The Loomba Foundation working together with the Rotary India Literacy Mission is providing vocational skills training this year to:

5000 widows, un-married daughters of widows and single mothers

in the states of Delhi, Bihar, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. in the fields of Beauty & Wellness, Tailoring and IT.

If you wish to know more about the Dignity Project Please contact: Mr. Risto Harma at risto@theloombafoundation.org, Loomba House, 622 Western Avenue, London. W3 0TF www.theloombafoundation.org Charity No. 1064988

7

8 UK

AsianVoiceNews

22 - 28 December 2018

Email Scams on the Rise, are you protected?

How safe and secure is your inbox? I guarantee it is a hotbed for scams targeting Directors and Selfemployed workers a like.

These ‘phishing’ attacks are now prevalent as a way for criminals to make money pretending to be HMRC or act on their behalf.

The FT and other various news outlets have reported on this issue is a major new ways hackers are finding new ways to make money, however James Backhouse understandably in the current economic and political climate is has been swept under the carpet and so people are still not being educated on a rising issue.

Hackers will use purchased or phished lists from Banks and Mortgage lenders and other financial institutions to target financial decision makers. These attacks are known as “Whaling Attacks” this is were someone will pose as a senior authoritative figure with the sole aim of either securing sensitive data from you or money and access to funds.

It sounds like its easy to avoid and “I wont be caught” mentality but there is not enough protection from Financial Institutions and Accountants to protect their clients. Industry figures state that these “Whaling attack” have resulted in costing businesses £9bn since 2013. In some examples some companies have lost over 20 million and gone bust because of it.

This has resulted in jobs lost at high ranking companies in high ranking positions.

IS there a way to fight back or protect ourselves, there is more and more literature available one article of note is by AccountingWEB columnist and seasoned finance director Kate Coles.

How's OCR Technology changing the way Finance Departments work?

“In previous roles, I’ve had many emails purporting to be from my CEO or CFO asking for an urgent payment,” said Coles. Sometimes these were easy to dismiss, but other times the emails were harder to filter.

“The email addresses were really similar to the official work email address – an extra letter here or there which you wouldn’t notice on a quick glance.

Some of them were really well written – no stereotypical spelling mistakes that often give away a scammer.

“In fact, this ended up being a giveaway on one occasion: I received an email purporting to be from my boss, but the language was far more formal than his usual email style. However, if I were not familiar with his style, I might not have picked it up.”

Some Scammers as the industry has evolved have and become more creative in their pursuit of information or payment. Scammers will break into the emails of a CEO or CFO and implement software like a password cracker or more advanced technology. Once this software is embedded it can set up forwarding rules to external accounts and even mimic email language mannerisms to pass as the intender sender.

The best ways to protect yourself is to keep your mailboxes secure using more complex personal passwords and two factor authentications. Check your mailbox settings and see there are rules set up and no forwarding’s which would let someone look at your emails. The other way to deal with payment requests is to call the sender or ask your accountant to check letters from HMRC notifying of outstanding payments.

Offices in Harrow, Birmingham & Cambridge For more information please call 020 3763 8500.

262 High Road, Harrow Weald, HA3 7BB

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Betrayal?... Betrayal?... Betrayal?

These words resonate in the public domain more frequently nowadays.

Who is betraying whom is the question. Some lies, several lies.

Some former Cabinet Ministers, of Theresa May government, who resigned in rush forecasting the departure of the PM immediately, Keep on claiming without any sense of recollection or shame that People’s Vote is a betrayal of democracy.

People’s choice of 2016 Referendum: How preposterous!

Real hypocrisy. Many of those who campaigned for 'leave’ andeven some for ‘remain’, conveniently kept on piling heaps of lies, exaggerations, unjustifiable claims, in their proclamations, in the campaign.

Do you remember, that UK would have saved at least £350mn per week from the EU contributions? Do you know some irresponsible spokespersons talking about increased world status if UK is really Independent? Let’s not repeat the provocative statements about immigration and immigrants, it hurts even now.

After going through the ‘hassle’ of “agreed terms of divorce”, many have come down to the earth, but all of them, conveniently wants us to forget their irresponsible and

CB Patel

misleading statements. Some of them are, are so arrogant that they betray the British ministerial tradition that when them leave their office, they vacate the posh residence, provided as the perk of the job. Shame on them.

The CBI and other business groups, the Bank of England, even the British government have accepted in no uncertain terms that after Brexit and especially without agreed terms and conditions, there will be severe economic hardship.

There will be unemployment, pound's value will fall, raising fear of inflation, with a possibility of shortages and queues. Even for vital medicines, millions of patients are going through anxieties, let alone the NHS professionals. Please don’t remind us about the transport bottlenecks, at sea ports and airports- if the planes ever fly in the number they are now.

Some Brexit hard liners are speaking excitedly about “managed no-deal”. What a juxtaposition of words! They are not afraid of immediate chaos and distraction from and are day dreaming for the long term economic gain. Gain or damage?

No doubt even from some cabinet members and continuously undecided labour big wigs, now we

hear about increasingly vocal support for a second referendum. It reminds me of Jeremy Hunt, the Foreign Secretary whose hard work for improving NHS was so sadly counter productive, if one can say.

He a remainer turned Brexit hardliner is really great. He has claimed to have said even in a no deal situation, this is a great country, we will find a way to flourish and prosper. We have faced much bigger challenges in history.”

Surprisingly for a man of his intelligence, he concedes, “we should not pretend there will be no disruption.” But with British inner strengths, we will muddle through.

Some hope, some day dream.

Of late PM Theresa May gaining wide spread supported and new found respect for her resilience and doggedness. She does not have to continuously negotiate or fight with EU bigwigs alone. There are some of her own supporters who are attacking her without any sense of shame or responsibility.

Don’t underestimate another woman British Prime Minister. She may not be carrying the handbag, but she knows how the game is being played. Perhaps deep down her strategy can now see the light at the end of the tunnel through People’s Vote. So it should be.

Isolated older people being lonely Two-fifths of all older people, about 3.9 million say the television is their main company (Age UK, 2014).

Over 9 million people in the UK say they are always or often lonely (British Red Cross and Co-Op, 2016).

63% of adults aged 52 or over who have been widowed, and 51% of this group who are separated or divorced report, feeling lonely some of the time or often ( B e a u m o n t , 2013).Loneliness increases the likelihood of mortality by 26% (Campaign to End Loneliness).

In 2018, Enfield Asian Welfare Association (EAWA) celebrated its 20th Year of working with the Elderly community. For their latest Social Hub Project, they want to find isolated older people and offer them a chance to meet with others within a Town

Centre, to go shopping, have coffee, or a meal together and participate in activities. This will allow such people to connect and bring them back into community life, rather than being alone.

They will be approaching people from Sheltered Homes, Libraries, Coffee shops, Post Offices and similar places. Once groups are formed, they will find out from the groups what activities they prefer and offer

opportunities accordingly.

They are currently fundraising for this project so that it becomes a reality.

To find out more about Enfield Asian Welfare Association visit www.eawa.org.uk

New High Commissioner and team welcome Indian media The new High Commissioner of India to UK, HE Ruchi Ghanashyam has taken charge of her office. She organised an interactive session on Thursday with the media on Thursday 13 December 2018 at the India House. Mrs Ghanashyam was joined by the Deputy High Commissioner of India to UK, Charanjeet Singh. A career diplomat, Mr Singh joined the Indian Foreign Service in 1996.

Prior to his present assignment, he was the

Consul General of Missions in Bishkek India in Milan (Italy) and Moscow in varfrom January 2016 to ious capacities.

September 2018. He A holder of B.Sc has served as Joint (Hons.) in Secretary in the Mathematics and a Ministry of External Master's degree in Affairs, New Delhi Physics, Mr Singh looking after India's has taught Physics engagement with mulin University before tilateral groupings such joining the Indian as G-20, BRICS, Indian Foreign Service. He Ocean Rim Association speaks Hindi, etc. He also served as Punjabi, Rajasthani, the Consul General of English and India in Vladivostok Russian. He is mar(Russia) during 2004- High Commissioner Ruchi Ghanashyam with Deputy High ried and the couple 2007 and in the Indian Commissioner of India to UK, Charanjeet Singh has one son.

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10 READERS VOICE

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22 - 28 December 2018

Save their souls Diwali has come and gone. Hindus celebrated the victory of good over evil to commemorate the return of Lord Rama to Ayodhya after vanquishing the evil king Ravana, and Jains celebrated the attainment of moksha by Lord Mahavira, Jainism’s 24th and last Tiranthakara.

Now Christmas is upon us and many goodwill messages will start circulating highlighting Jesus Christ’s message of love and kindness to all. My message is similar but a little different. However, please don’t get me wrong. I am all for peace on earth and goodwill for all, and merry making at the time of the festive season. But does Christmas invariably mean the slaughter of all those turkeys?

I do not know how the tradition of roast turkey on the plate for Christmas dinner has started and what its significance is. I do know that the Jain religion is totally opposed to cruelty to animals of any kind. Be they turkeys, cows or the tiniest, microscopic insects.

Killing them to eat is completely out of the question.

We have all those roast potatoes, Brussels sprouts and the bread and brandy puddings, not to forget the booze and the plonk. Why couldn’t we do without turkeys? I do not wish to be branded a spoil sport at a time when people are looking forward to Christmas parties and are generally in jovial moods.

Nor do I wish to impinge on others’ beliefs. But if I can persuade a few people not to eat turkeys this Christmas, I would have made a small contribution in spreading Lord Mahavira’s message of kindness and “ahimsa” – non violence to the tiniest living beings.

Dinesh Sheth Newbury Park, Ilford

Conspicuous Wedding The year 2018 has witnessed a number of celebrity weddings in India that involved film stars, sports persons, business tycoons, industrialists etc. The wedding however that has attracted the media attention world over, is that of Isha Ambani with Anand Piramal in Mumbai recently. It has been rightly proclaimed as the most opulent marriage as also the unprecedented wedding of the century.

People have been tirelessly estimating the money that must have been spent therein by Ambanis during a week of extravagant festivities. This guess amount has very wide variations, ranging anywhere from $15 million to $150 million. It would still not be amazing if the actual spending, if revealed at all, encompasses all these calculations.

But as envisaged, this memorable occasion has also raised eyebrows in some circles. The critics have argued that the cash spent could have been used to eradicate poverty in India. These fault finders hardly realise that the money spent

by Ambanis, on the other side, has been income for many artisans, craftsmen and workers. This is so because the expenditure of one family is the source of livelihood for hundreds of other families. Moreover, Ambani family has not only done a lot of charity work on this auspicious occasion but they are also involved in several philanthropic work in the past too.

Bharat Shah Harrow

COP24 – Climate Change Conference For decades, the world struggled to come together to face the threat of climate change. The dialogue and awareness on climate change of our Mother Earth started with the Rio “Earth Summit” in 1992. In the year 1997 Kyoto Protocol was agreed to protect our climate but the USA (President Bush) in 2002 declared no interest in it and hence never ratified. Again efforts were made which culminated in 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to keep temperature rise to 2 degrees from preindustrial levels, but Trump announced on 1st June 2017 that the USA will cease all participation in the Paris Agreement.

After the USA left the Paris Agreement China has taken a leading role by hoisting many preparatory meetings for the COP24 (Conference Of Parties) on the climate change at Katowice, Poland. It ended one day late (on 14th Dec) but with modest agreement by 200 attending countries which is not a small feat. It was a win for the process not for the planet. The COP is an annual event which was started in 1995 with COP1 in Berlin.

The big achievement at COP24 is a rule-based transparent reporting on emission, etc. and failure to report will face inquiry. They have agreed some flexibility for developing countries. The other achievement is recognition of scientific base for the climate change. However, Saudi Arabia, US, Kuwait and Russia refused to recognize the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change but noted the content of their report. One can note here the greed based decent.

One of the scientific finding was that if everyone on earth became vegetarian then carbon emission will reduce by 25% and Earth will be saved from the impending disaster.

Can we do that?

Narsibhai Patel New Malden

Waterman of India

Our caring but clueless politicians

Recently, Big B, Amitabh Bachchan conducted a series of popular programs ‘Kaun Banega Krorepati’. Every week, on Friday he invited a philanthropist to win large sum to help the exceptional work they do for the community. Amongst the most popular like Dr. Prakash and Mandakini Amte was Dr. Rajendra Singh – the Waterman of India.

Dr. Rajendra Singh with his burning passion to help community, great initiative and innovation, rejuvenated totally dried up for decades, five rivers which have started flowing again. He was born in Daula, a village in Bagpat district of Uttar Pradesh. He is a BMSA Doctor – Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and surgery.

Following the completion of his education he started working for the government service in 1980, as a National Volunteer for education in Jaipur. During this time he joined Trun Bharat Sangh formed by Jaipur university officer and students and later became it’s secretary. Benevolent by nature he left work, because of his superiors indifference to development issues, sold his possession, took a bus to last stop to interior region of Rsjasthan, with four friends from the Tarun Bharat Sangh, to spread the importance of education. An elderly person there, convinced him that water is a bigger issue in Rajsthan than education and he should work with his hands on johad, earthen check dams, traditionally used to conserve water.

The human activities of deforestation and mining for long period in Alwar district resulted in very dry land with no moist even deep down earth. Even when it rained the water just flowed away on the surface. The technique of check dams and water conservation high up in the Arvalli range under his leadership, facilitated the rise of ground water level, increasing prospect of growing vegetation and trees.

The success attracted the Forest Department and through his walkathon, the importance of water conservation spread.

By 2001, with the help of villagers, TBS built 4500 earthen check dams in 850 villages of Rajasthan. Though, water level in the ground did not rise as expected due to mining eradicating water. He was awarded Stockholm water prize Award, Known as Noble prize of water, Jamanalal Bajaj Award for Application of science and technology and Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community leadership. It is heartening to know that such inspirational service is recognized and rewarded.

Ila Kapadia By email

As both of us, myself and Kumudini, a trained nurse by profession, have provided our services as volunteer social workers, especially to our community members who may not be proficient in English and lack knowledge of our ever-changing laws on benefits, housing and immigration, filling forms, telephoning and writing to their MPs, Councillors and London Assembly Members, so we are in an unique position to judge our politicians, their performance, helping their constituents who may have faced brick wall while dealing with various authorities. I am proud to say that our politicians, on most part, are kind, caring and willing to help their constituents beyond call of duty, often visiting them in their own home if these elderly and fragile people are unable to visit them at their regular surgeries. This is unique British tradition one may not find else-where in the world.

One reason is that most of these people have entered political arena not to advance their personal fortunes but their genuine desire to help people who are less fortunate than them, many of them are born in wealthy families and attended prestigious universities like Oxbridge, so often giving up their highly paid jobs to become MPs. No wonder many of our MPs are highly qualified doctors, consultants, barristers, journalists, insurance assessors and professors earning a small fortune in their chosen profession before entering HOC, choosing a profession with uncertain future, as they have to prove their worth every five years or so, depending on goodwill of their constituents. Such intellectualism, dedication does not exist in any other profession! One shining example is our PM Teresa May who has taken so many flakes, insults, not only from her own MPs but also from unelected EU autocratic pen-pushers like Michael Barnier and Jean Claude Juncker who take pervert pleasure in humiliating this nation who liberated them from worse fate than death if Hitler was allowed to triumph in WW2! During EU referendum, I was not sure how to vote, whether to support Remainders or Brexit. But now if referendum is held again, I would definitely vote for Brexit, rather than remain in EU as subordinate nation under the thumb of Germany and France who enjoys all the benefits while we pay billions in EU coffer, courtesy of Tony Blair who surrendered billions of hard earned rebate negotiated by Iron Lady Thatcher, in the lone hope that he would be crowned first President of EU! He put personal ambition before national interest, not only while dealing with EU but also on Iraq war with publication of dodgy dossier, betraying the nation even in the eyes of many of his staunch supporters.

Bhupendra M. Gandhi By email

Claimed and Shamed Our TV channels, especially BBC is indeed public spirited that most of its morning programmes are consumer oriented and that include, besides Claimed and Shamed, Caught on Camera, Sheriffs are Coming, Rip-off Britain, Homes under Hammer and many more. There are also some good medical programs like Doctors, although most story-lines are social oriented to provide family entertainment, occasionally concentrating on rare as well as common medical conditions that may enhance our knowledge.

Some of these programmes are worth watching, especially for those who are elderly and at home, as we can learn so much from them. My favourite programme is “Claimed and Shamed” mainly dealing with fraudulent insurance claims that has become plague, increasing our insurance premium by some £50, industry receiving 300 such false claims every hour, costing industry more than billion pounds.

Now insurance companies are fighting back with vengeance, investigating each and every claim that may raise slightest suspicion. It mainly affects house burglaries and car accidents involving whiplash injuries. But as our streets, busses, homes and shops are inundated with CCTV cameras, it is impossible to get away, especially now that every insurance company either have their own well-equipped fraud investigators or employs services of such experts who could not be fooled easily.

Moreover insurance companies exchange such details, have created common register where every claim is logged, going back decades. Most honest policy holders hardly make one or two claims in a life-time. So often whiplash involves up to four passengers besides driver when there are no passengers in the car and there may be hardly a dent in cars involved in fake accidents. All these incidents are caught on CCTV, perpetrators prosecuted with their names going on fraud registers, thus they will never be able to insure their cars and homes, making them pariah.

House and shop burglaries are also high on fraud list. As our personal debts spiral out of control, many erroneously believe that fraudulent claims will be the answer, claiming thousands for loss of valuables that include expensive jewellery, watches and cash withdrawn from bank account couple of days before. It is not unusual for people to claim £100k and in one case it was £1:2 million. Some people are so stubborn that they take insurance companies who refuse to pay out to court, inevitably losing the case and lumbered with huge legal bill that will ruin their lives for ever. We should understand that there is no easy way out of debt except hard work and believe in the saying “Honesty is the best policy” if you want to sleep peacefully at night!

Kumudini Valambia By email

UK City Sikh Deputy Chair honoured at the London Faith & Belief Community Awards

Param Singh with Kenneth Olisa OBE, Her Majesty’s LordLieutenant of Greater London

Param Singh has been named an Inspirational Individual at the London Faith & Belief Community Awards 2018. His award comes as a result of his extensive voluntary work with several Sikh community groups, including City Sikhs, and in his capacity as a member of the Advisory Board for the Multicultural Professional Networks Forum which is working closely with government and corporate bodies to improve access for and awareness of BAME employees.

The annual Awards are organised by The Faith & Belief Forum (formerly the Three Faiths Forum), and are supported by her Majesty’s LordLieutenant of Greater London and his Council on Faith. The purpose of the Awards is to celebrate the vital work of local communities in making London a welcoming place for people of all faiths and beliefs, as well

as showcasing how Londoners can work together for a fairer and more inclusive city.

On receiving the award, Param said “It was great to see so many leading figures and organisations getting recognised for their hard work, and I’m humbled to stand beside them. Faith plays an important part for many people in London, and it’s important for that to be acknowledged on nights such as this.”

Other recipients at the Awards on 27th November 2018 included the poet Jaspreet Kaur in the category of Inspirational Individual, and the community group British Sikh Nurses in the category of Health and Wellbeing.

There were also several Sikh organisations that were accorded the title of Recognised Projects, including the British Sikh Report, Basics of Sikhi, and the Sikh PA/Langar Week.

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Lord Lester quits over sexfor-peerage allegations

Lord Lester

Jasvinder Sanghera

Lord Lester of Herne Hill has quit days before the House of Lords was due to vote on the issue of his suspension until June 2022 over allegations of sexually harassing women's rights campaigner Jasvinder Sanghera.

Lord Lester said that he was resigning “with immediate effect”.

His suspension had been proposed after he was found to have invited Mr Sanghera at his place and had allegedly said- “If you sleep with me, I will make you a baroness within a year!”

“This investigation has taken a serious toll on my health. I am sorry that this issue has caused so much upset to everyone involved and very much hope that the House of Lords will now take the long called-for step of reforming its procedures.

I have always said that allegations of this kind should

be properly investigated.”

Lord Lester said.

The privileges and conduct committee's suspension recommendation came after a nine-month investigation by the commissioner found that Lord Lester had offered the complainant “corrupt inducements to become his mistress.”

Ms Sanghera had accused Lord Lester of questioning her credibility and challenging a procedure that he had strongly advocated in 2009 as lawful and fair.

“The decision to speak about sexual harassment and bullying against one of the most powerful and respected institutions has been one of the most difficult decisions I have ever had to make. This vindicates my complaint and the careful way it was handled by the commissioner,” said Ms. Sangheera

Santa Claus or Shiamak's Winterfunk Awards This year santa claus and christmas came dressed as Shiamak's winterfunk festival which was curated in the form of an Awards Night, at Watford Colosseum that echoed the enthusiasm of a spellbound audience, and students who indulged in their love for Bollywood.

Shiamak London's instructors, were led by Shruti Shah and Rohan Shah and they travelled all the way from India, along with Devashree Pande, Diya Lakhani, Manka Rangar, Yashni Shah and Natasha Patel. They continue to inspire the Indian community in the UK by teaching kids how to dream bigin technicolor, and giving the adults a platform to enjoy themselves. Woots, whistles and cheers became the beats to which the performers danced and embraced their “filmy” Indian roots Shiamak London, which has now evolved in its 16th Funk saw over 400 students from Harrow, Wembley, Southall, Ilford, Croydon, Dartford & Central London performing at this year’s event.

'Awards Night' was the theme of the show which kick-started with the dance team paying homage to the biggest Bollywood stars. Siva Kumar Grandhi was awarded the best male dancer while there was a tie between Khush Saikia and Meghna Nanda for the best dancer in the female category.

Navin Kundra

Neil Raichura bagged the best debut male dancer whereas, Sweety Patel & Khush Saikia and Meghna Nanda – best female dancers with Viva Mehta landed the L. George CEO, ABPL Brent Community as the organisation best female debut and the Spirit of heads towards the celebration of Dance during the show. Whereas, Aditi Brent2020- a cultural milestone of Dey was awarded the best performer.

Brent. Over £1m of funding has been With each Bollywood performance awarded to Brent borough to curate a the show transported the audience to program of cultural events. whimsical reels lush with imagery At this show, the purveying theme from mustard fields to a rainbowof 'Awards Night' led to gratitude coloured university campus. Mehndi awards for several local talents for their nights in a grand haveli, to rainoutstanding contribution to South drenched platforms at the train station, Asian Arts & Culture in the UK. the performances were a trip down the Celebrity singer and music composer memory lane for every Bollywood fan.

Mr. Navin Kundra was awarded a troBrent Leader Mr. Muhammmed phy for his contribution to music and Butt received an appreciation award for dance in the UK. The show was hosted his outstanding contribution for

by Anushka Arora. encouraging young talent within the

12 MEDIA WATCH

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22 - 28 December 2018

SCRUTATOR’S The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in Delhi and the whole of India awoke to the news that in the State Assembly elections the opposition Congress Party had triumphed in the Hindi belt, riding to power comfortably in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and registering a thumping victory in Chhattisgarh. The charismatic Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao’s Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) trounced Congress.

PM Modi

A similar fate awaited Congress and the BJP in Mizoram, where the Mizo National Front swept the board.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, gracious in defeat, congratulated Congress, the Mizo National Front and TRS in Telangana. The Prime Minister said the people had spoken, and he respected their verdict. He thanked BJP workers for their tireless effort in the election campaigns (Times of India, Hindu, Mint December 12) See page 3 for Comment.

Wooing Congress

Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav

Nothing succeeds like success.

Congress success in the Hindi heartland, a BJP redoubt barely a fortnight ago, with its credibility as a challenging contender in the forthcoming general election restored, two leaders in the Hindi belt, Mayawati, head of the Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesth Yadav, President of the Uttar Pradesh Samajwadi Dal Party, who had earlier spurned any deal with Congress in the Hindi belt Assembly elections pledged support to Congress in its three victorious States (Times of India December 13).

RBI Governor resigns

Rahul Gandhi

Minister Arun Jaitley and Prime Minister Narendra Modi paid warm tributes to his work in office, where he brought discipline in the banking sector from the previous chaos. However, media reports suggested that he felt RBI autonomy was being eroded by the government, making his continued presence as its head untenable (Business Line December 11).

Das new RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das, once Secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs tool over as RBI Governor with three-year tenure. He promised to uphold RBI autonomy, even as he sought a more troublefree relationship with the government. The new RBI Governor and the RBI Board held a two-hour meeting with Mumbaibased Public sector bank chiefs. Included in their talks were relaxing the framework of for resolution of stressed assets, tempering capital requirements, and reviewing guidelines on the use of lockable cassettes in ATMs (Business Line December 14).

Bandhan Bank expands Bandhan Bank, the latest private bank in West Bengal, got off to a flying start a few years ago. Its outreach in the rural sector has been the crux of its performance, hence its desire to open new branches to meet demand.

Permission has now been given by the Reserve Bank of India, following the conditions laid down earlier. Bandhan Bank is thus ready to open 40 new branches as per its expansion programme ( Business Line, Times of India December 13).

Economic ties upgraded India and South Korea also discussed way and means of upgrading economic ties from the agreement signed in 2010. The goal is tariff elimination / reduction in around 80 per cent of goods such as textiles, leather items and pharmaceuticals, not to speak of tourism, free movement of professionals and healthcare.

South Korea abolished tariffs on specified goods and India has done so with 11 per cent elimination of specified Korean goods (Business Line December 12).

Ashok Leyland Mou with Israel Hinduja flagship Ashok Leyland has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Elbit Systems, Israel for defence mobility Solutions. As per this understanding, Ashok Leyland will provide high mobility vehicles to mount Elbit Systems’ artillery guns and systems. The integrated systems are designed for global markets.

Capabilities ‘We are certain this partnership will expand our reach globally and underlines our capabilities of making and designing in India.

For the world,’ said Vinod Dasari, Managing Director, Ashok Leyland (Business Line December 13).

India, US for more air drills Following the successful 12-day air combat exercise – -Cope India 2018’- in the skies above Kalaikunda, in West Bengal, both sides were agreed that the frequency of such exercises should be increased to their mutual advantage. The United fielded its F-15 warplanes, with doing so with its Sukhoi-30MKIs, Mirage 200s and Jaguars. The goal of the exercise was to increase knowledge of each other’s operational capabilities and tactics, to adopt best practice from each side (Hindu December 11).

India, Russia in new defence deal Indian and Russian Defence Ministers Nirmala Sitharaman and Sergei Shoigu, meeting in New Delhi at the 18th meeting of the

ways and means to simplify export clearances.

Increased military cooperation ‘The two focus areas of the discussions were on further expanding military to military and defence industrial engagement between the two countries,’ said an Indian official. India is keen on moving from licensed manufacturing of defence equipment to joint production under “Make in India” principle.

This would include permission to Indian companies both in the Defence Public Sector Undertakings and the private sector, to manufacture spares for Russian systems in India. ‘We have worked out some formats for enduse clearances,’ said the official.

Exports India is keen to export equipment and spares to third countries in the developing world. The two sides also agreed to take forward intergovernmental arranmgements to facilitate joint manufacture of spares for Russian equipment in these markets. In this regard, four military conferences were held between Russian manufacturers and Indian companies to take the process forward (Hindu December 14).

Hasimara readied for Rafales Hasimara Air Force station in North Bengal has been readied for forward deployment of the second squadron of Rafale aircraft. The infrastructure at the base is being rapidly upgraded to maximize Indian force levels to counter China’s air power situated in Tibet at Lhasa, roughly 384km away and Shigatse, which is closer.

Shaktikanta Das

The Governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Dr Urja Patel resigned, citing personal reasons for his action, taken nine months before the expiry of his tenure. Finance

NSG to have Air wing A Parliamentary Committee chaired by senior Congress leader P. Chidambaram has recommended that the National Security Guard (NSG) – the country’s premier counter-terrorist and contingency body – sets up an air wing as a matter of the utmost priority. The sloth in the functioning of the NSG – established in 1986 following the assassination of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi – has attracted severe criticism. Hopefully it will be fit for purpose sooner rather than later (Hindu December 13).

HCL in $1.78 billion deal with IBM HCL Technologies is to spend $1.78 billion to buy eight software products from International Business Machines. This unveiled the single largest acquisition by an Indian IT services company.

Significantly, the deal by billionaire head of HCL, Shiv Nadar, is making his boldest bet in a starred business career. His Noida-based company has spent $3.02 billion in constructing an upwardly mobile company since the firm made its first intellectual property partnership in August 2016. Under the all-cash deal, HCL will use $1.475 billion of its own cash and borrow $300 million to finance the transaction. (Mint December 8).

Sukhois present Schwab warning to India The most lethal aircraft in India’s service are top-of-the line Sukhoi30 MKIs, which are also based at Hasimara. The runways are being relaid and significantly expanded to accommodate these war planes and enhance their effectiveness (Telegraph December 12).

Klaus Schwab, founder of the World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland, has warned India that it cannot progress unless it

Submarine rescue systems for Indian Navy The Indian Navy has acquired a sophisticated rescue system that is capable of functioning 650 metres

Klaus Schwab

India, South Korea for trade pact India and South Korea were in talks in Seoul to upgrade their bilateral relationship. Among the issues discussed was the participation of trained Indian English-language teachers working in Korea. The country has a programme for the import of such teachers, and is pressing that it be included in the list of countries involved in the project.

Describing this as a landmark, Chief of the Navy Staff, Admiral Satish Lanba, said: ‘The induction of of the DSRV marks the culmination of years of effort in acquiring this niche technology submarine rescue capability. It is the latest in terms of technology and capability.’ It cost Res 1000 crore to build, two others are in the pipeline (Hindu December 13).

Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman with her Russian counterpart Sergei Shoigu

India-Russia Inter-Governmental Cooperation on Military Technical Cooperation chaired in turn by each minister, agreed on

and 12-18 hours of endurance time below the surface of seas and oceans, thus joining a select group of countries with such capability.

removes the impediments of bureaucratic red tape and lack of world class infrastructure – two obstacles that faced foreign investors in India. He acknowledged that Ease of Doing Business in India had improved, but there was room for improvement. For instance, in certain countries it took half a day to set up a company. ‘It is very important for young entrepreneurs to create companies faster because the jobs of the future will not so much be created by large companies but by young and upcoming entrepreneurs, said Schwab. Innovation more than cost was key (Mint December 13).

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CIIr Ketan Sheth

Councillor for Tokyngton Wembley Brent Council’s Chair of Community and Wellbeing Scrutiny Committee

Brent Makes A Legal History Against Racketeering Landlords A Crown Court judge has ordered a family of landlords who crammed 31 tenants into a shanty towntype home to pay thousands of pounds in fines, costs and confiscation orders.

Mum and daughter, Harsha and Chandni Shah, along with Mrs Harsha Shah's brother, Sanjay Shah, were pocketing around £112,000 a year by stuffing 31 people into appalling conditions in a four-bedroom house in Wembley.

They were assisted by Jaydipkumar Valand, who was acting as their agent and collecting rent from the 31 tenants stuffed inside a four-bedroom house in Napier Road, Wembley.

Enforcement officers from Brent Council also found a woman living in a lean-to shed in the back garden of the property during a raid on the premises in July 2016. The shack had no lighting or heating and was made out of wood off cuts, pallets

and tarpaulin.

Her Honour Judge Wood, sitting at the Harrow Crown Court, made a confiscation order for the sum of £116,000 against Harsha Shah and Chandni Shah under the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002. Mr Valand was also subjected to a confiscation order for the sum of £5,000.

Harsha Shah, Chadni Shah and Sanjay Shah were sentenced to pay £41,000 in fines. All the defendants were ordered to pay £82,367 in costs.

The total payable amounted to £244,367.

A confiscation order was not awarded against Sanjay Shah because the court was not persuaded that he had benefitted from his criminal activity in running the illegal, overcrowded house in multiple occupation.

However, the judge held that that he had played a key role in facilitating the illegal operation and fined him along with the other defendants.

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During the raid in 2016, enforcement officers found some residents sharing a single bed with night workers swapping sleeping shifts with those who worked during the day. Four beds were discovered piled into the front room and three in each bedroom.

Previous case law had indicated that confiscation orders could not be obtained in cases such as this. But Brent proved that its case could be distinguished from previous cases. Councils from all over the country are using Brent's historic legal win as precedence.

If you are a Brent landlord who lets out shared accommodation, you can apply for a licence online at www.brent.gov.uk/prslicensing If you suspect that someone is renting out an unlicensed property in Brent, please report them a n o n y m o u s l y atwww.brent.gov.uk/repo rtaproperty

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22 - 28 December 2018

Vekaria becomes only Asian from the UK in this year's 'Health and Safety at Work' magazine Jay Vekaria from Arcus Solutions, a facilities management and engineering services provider has become the only Asian from the UK this year, to be featured in Health and Safety at Work magazine’s listing of “40 under 40” achievers.

In a campaign to celebrate all the positive advancements in health and safety since 1978 – the year Health and Safety at Work launched – the magazine began a search for 40 leading health and safety practitioners representing the best of the younger generation. Around 160 safety specialists put themselves forward, ranging from professionals making their mark at the beginning of their careers, to mid-career practitioners with significant achievements under their belt. While more than half the entrants were working in the UK, there were also entries from Europe, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, India, Singapore and countries across Africa.

The judges included Philip White, the HSE’s head of regulation, leading health and safety lawyer

Jay Vekaria

Steffan Groch, and Tania Barker and Liam Mihell of NEBOSH represented the campaign’s sponsor. The successful 40 have been profiled in a special article on Health and Safety at Work’s website, and in the January issue of the magazine.

As head of health and safety at Arcus Solutions, a facilities management and engineering services provider with many clients in the retail sector, Vekaria has collaborated with training providers to create a safety course in which site engineers were judged on their risk assessment capabilities. More than 250 people passed the course, gaining the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health’s

Foundation Certificate in Occupational Safety and Health.

He developed a behavioural safety programme that included showing employees a video of their reactions to a safety drama commissioned by Arcus. The programme was a contributor to staff registering a 96% engagement rate with safety in an Arcus opinion survey.

Vekaria, who holds an MSc in risk management, has now switched from health and safety to operations management “to truly appreciate how well controls are applied on the other side of the business” and is now responsible for 300 Sainsbury’s convenience stores.

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TLIGHT

Keeping Business Booming Additionally, at that time, Indian locals didn’t know much outside of India and this resulted in limited vision.

Indian exports were less than 10% of the GDP and they needed outside help learning the modern skills. This is why I could achieve a reasonable degree of success – I was bringing these ideas and avenues. We brought companies from countries such as the UK, Australia, and South Africa into India for the first time. We introduced toll road management, real estate management,professional car parking services, banking services and partnered with international companies to help them do business in India. It has been a pleasure to watch this generation of entrepreneurs and businesses grow since. Anyone who invested in the mid-nineties and stayed

Chartered accountant, and business magnate, Thakrar, is truly a guardian of British-Asian entrepreneurship. He has had a strong hand in strengthening economic ties within the two communities and across the respective continents. In recent years, he has been part of international trade missions under Prime Ministers Cameron and Blair and Mayor Johnson, having promoted the political move of “choosing targeted countries to appoint commercial ambassadors to actively promote business across the world.

Now, there has been appointment of various trade envoys to different parts of the world.” Together with the late Lord Noon, who widely commercialised curry in British supermarkets, the trailblazing community professional also founded the Asian Business Association as part of the London Chamber of Commerce. Described by Thakrar as a ‘real jewel in the crown of the Chamber’, this has helped boost many British Asian businesses over the last twenty years. Thakrar had been Chairman of the LCC prior.

However, what makes Thakrar’ s leadership special is the current of With Vince Cable social consciousness which carry his remarkable achievements. As Apparent in his collected yet warm demeanour, the desire to do well by his fellow man, or human, and forward ethical values has been the primary drive through his vast fiscal career: “I started out training as a chartered accountant, and an early highlight was being made partner just two years after I’d qualified. This was at a reputable English firm at a time when visibility of Asians in higher positions was uncommon. This meant a lot. I subsequently developed myself to become the managing partner where I led the landmark merger between With Prince Charles accountants Blackstone Franks and CBW.” Thakrar elaborated on his time at the former company: “I travelled abroad to India many times during this chapter, and also founded the oldest Indian equity fund outside India back in 1996. This was INVIL or India Value Investments Limited.

After its establishment, it became unprecedently oversubscribed, created at a time when Indian economy was just beginning to open up in the midnineties. It was great to be able to identify the potential and talent of India at an early stage and participate with its wave of growth and development not only by this fund but also by being there in India and setting up a number of With Narendra Modi business interests working face to face with the country’s talent.” Expecting on would have benefitted.” the responses to mimic the slower Today, on the philanthropic social economy, Thakrar had initially put out front, Thakrar sits on the boards of a cursory ad in Economic Times of three charities and has founded a India, giving flexible dates for fourth: The Atlee Centre. This availability and offering helps youths in the poorer simple consultation at parts of London, which 25 years his hotel. “The diary includes many children later, and it is just rapidly filled up, in the Bangladeshi with appointments wonderful to see the community to gain being made back to confidence and country now back every day. This achieve equality “as showed that there well as success in their producing worldwere many budding careers.” Other organiclass businesses sations include, the entrepreneurs who had ideas and energy but not Three R’s Trust, “which of their own necessarily the money. effectively runs over 2500 Later, when Manmohan Singh schools with each school of 35 was forced to open up the economy, students in Nepal for as little as £350 restrictions came down and keen a year” as well as a charity called Jaspar Indian business people did have more Centre which helps elderly Asian people access to capital. feel comfort and companionship and

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Baby with no kidneys needs organ donor

Subhash Thakrar Sunetra Senior

AsianVoiceNewsweekly

Speaking in European Parliament

away from loneliness in the North London area. “I am proud of our South Asian community and culture, and have always enjoyed adding value in different ways.”

Thakrar aptly finished by commenting on the contemporary Indian business landscape, which is soon set to become the world’s fifth largest economy: “it is wonderful to see the country now producing world-class businesses of their own, such as Flipkart. 25 years later, and Indians are well-travelled and informed with skill bases that are strong. These are ideas that Indian entrepreneurs have picked up from what’s happening in the world and contributed to themselves. Of course, huge credit goes to the present Indian government whose business policies have moved the economy forward.”

Thakrar then not only embodies a time when the generation of wealth is becoming more democratic across the globe, but where more of its citizens have been a meaningful part of this pivotal shift. Rather than just a veneer of progress, there are deep and measurable changes substantiating it. The personal reflected the political as Thakrar gave a final piece of advice: “if you are a budding businessman whose passionate about their business and still having a tough time, consider finding a mentor who can help you open up new avenues and doors – it is very possible to seek and grow from such help.” Because of exceptionally hardworking role models such as Thakrar, we are today living in a safer professional climate where individual grit is more likely to reach its desired outcome. We need only commit to our passions and continue aiming high.

Tell us a bit more on the state of Indian economy?

I recently presented at the World Economic Forum in Chicago, and spoke of the poverty line in India being reduced quite a lot. There are also more wealthy Indians today: more acquisitions are being made abroad. India is one of the biggest investors in the UK. Offshoring has progressed and export goods have increased. The quality in the standard of Indian companies is also very good. Many listed companies in India are on healthy growth trajectory.

You run an organisation called Charity Clarity. Please tell us more?

Charity Clarity is a unique idea and the only such entity existing in the UK. It gives an independent rating to charities, from 0-5, where 5 indicates the best governed charity. We go through about five years of data and consider about fourteen different variables into an algorithm to create a score. If you want your donations to be more effective then chose the charity with a higher score.

Finally, you have co-authored books such as How to Make Money and UK as a Tax Haven. Can you give a few general business observations?

Business houses and entrepreneurs should not lose confidence in what they do. Having passion for ideas and concept and working hard is the best way to achieve success.

W: https://www.subhashvthakrar.com/

A family with a one year old girl is desperately looking for an organ donor for the toddler. Anaya was born with a kidney disease and both the kidneys have been removed. She desperately needs a transplant but there is a shortage of donors from BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic) communities. Her family, from Newcastle, are campaigning to raise awareness.

Her mother Joety told the BBC: "She has fought odds so many times. The amount of battles that she has gone through which makes us want to fight for her."

In a tweet by

Anaya

Hope4Anaya mentioned, “Meet our beautiful Anaya.

Both her kidneys have been removed and she urgently needs a transplant before it's too late.

If you are aged 28-42, please consider saving Anaya's life. You can email hope4anaya@gmail.com for more info.”

Bengal Heritage Foundation and London Sharad Utsav to promote Bengal's tourism Rupanjana Dutta The Bengal Heritage Foundation and London Sharad Utsav from the UK are now making their way to Kolkata, the City of Joy, to promote Bengal's Tourism.

This initiative has been taken up by both the organisations to ensure a cultural exchange between UK and Bengal, as a follow up from West Bengal Toursim Secretary Atri Bhattacharyya's visit to London earlier this year.

The members will meet at the Victoria tramcar in Kolkata viz.

'Victoria on wheels,' on December 30th, which also promotes Bengal's culinary journey. A newly refurbished tramcar, designed as a finedining 28-seater restaurant, is an innovative way to keep the city's tram service alive. It runs from Shahid Minar to Kidderpore, in Kolkata, offering non-vegetarian and vegetarian meals and some sightseeing on the way. Kolkata's tram system is operated by the Calcutta Tramways Company (CTC), and is the only tram network operating in India. It is the oldest operating electric tram system in Asia, running since 1902 and was a part of the British initiative in the country, during their colonial rule.

Anirban Mukhopadhyay, President of the London Sharad Utsav, Sourav Niyogi, President of Bengal Heritage Foundation with wife Tanusree, Mahua and Jayanta Bej, Sambrita Das, Avi and Shreyoshee, Bhaskar and Gitanjali Bhattacharya are heading to Kolkata with respective families to be a part of this unique initiative.

They will be joined by Atri Bhattacharyya to discuss further plans of cross-cultural promotion. Dr Saptarshi Basu, of the Ballygunje

Cultural Association Pujo, Subir Das of the 75 Palli Pujo and Dulal Seal of the Ahiritola Pujo, will also join the team to identify how the Kolkata Pujos can collaborate with LSU and UK Pujos as part of LSU’s unique initiative called Global Durga Puja,

whereby the Kolkata Pujos and UK ones interact with each other through live video.

From the tram, BHF and LSU will announce their various yearly projects as well as their plan to launch the Fagun Fest of 17th February, at Bhavans, West London.

The organisations are working closely with the British Council, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan and Bangla Natok, in getting 3 Baul Shilpis (folk singers) over to the UK from West Bengal. Bauls constitute both a syncretic religious sect and a musical tradition.

Bauls are a very heterogeneous group, with many sects, but their membership mainly consists of Vaishnava Hindus and Sufi Muslims.

They can often be identified by their distinctive clothes and musical instruments.

Mukhopadhyay told Asian Voice, “Following the grand success of last year, we will organise a football tournament in June, a cricket tournament in August and of course Rabindra Jayanti in May. Like every year we will also organise the Biswa Sharad Samman- the initiative to promote Durga Puja of Bengal at a global level- a durga puja rating contest where the foreign visitors to Kolkata Pujas act as judges.”

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22 - 28 December 2018

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16 TIE AWARDS 2018

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TIE AWARDS 2018

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22 - 28 December 2018

LONDON AWARDS TIES, YOUNG ASIAN ENTREPRENEURS Priyanka Mehta resident, Nina Amin, MBE, kick-started the evening with an interview with Rajeev Misra, CEO of Softbank’s Vision Fund. In his interview, Misra gave an insight into the vision behind the largest technology fund ever raised of almost $100billion and talked about some of the disruptive technologies they are investing in.

Giving an example of OYO rooms, he explains how the market and business today centers around having the knowledge “of what kind of a house or a room will sell at

P

TiE London celebrated its first ever entrepreneur awards bringing together dynamic businessmen and young minds behind some famous start-ups at the Carlton Jumeirah from the Asian diaspora in the UK. what kind of price at the right time.”

Misra who has made an investment in about 70 odd companies in 18 months, talks about the digital advantage of internet penetration in our regular lives to the extent of buying food online. And as a message to the young entrepreneurs and start-up generation who is trying to break into the market, Mr. Misra reveals the simplest success mantra“You see a problem, find a solution!” he says matter-offact “The problem could sim-

ply be not finding a good doctor in time...there are lots of problems in our society and once you come up with a solution, devote a year to strategise your product. There is no shortage of capital in the market for a good idea!”

Hosted by actor Nitin Ganatra, the evening had six categories of award-winners ranging from entrepreneur of the year to the new concept, interpreneur of the year.

Members of the jury came from diverse fields of medicine to politics to ensure careful consideration and

Nina Amin, MBE, President of TiE London with Rajeev Misra, CEO of Softbank’s Vision Fund

included Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Baroness McGregor-Smith, CBE, Dr. Vijay Patel, Alison Cooper, and Jean De Fougerolles.

Priyanka bags the young entrepreneur of the year

(L-R) Nina Amin, President of TiE London, Rajeev Misra, Ceo of SoftBanks vision fund & Nitin Ganatra with Surinder Arora, entrepreneur of the year

(L-R) Jean De Fougerolles, CEO of Ascension Ventures, Nadeem Boghani of SB Hotels & Nitin Ganatra with Sujata Rastogi, winner of the Interpreneur of the year award

(L-R) Group Chairman of Westcombe Group, Mr Vraj Pankhania, The Right Honourable Helen Grant, MP and Vice Chair of the Conservative Party & Nitin Ganatra with Vin Murria, OBE, woman of the year

Priyanka Raswant, co-founder and CEO of Join Highbrow Ltd. won this award for her inspirational on-demand video platform for children’s educational content.

Raswant, originally from Mumbai, is a lawyer who started this business out of her own concerns the amount of screen-time the children of the day are exposed to.

Around the time that she and her husband decided to start a family she decided to “transform this screen-time into something more educational.”

“We are a curation as a service platform.

On Highbrow, we have built artificial intelligence algorithms through machine learning that studies the child's behaviour patterns and preferences.” Raswant explains.

Simply put, this means that if a child is a frequent visitor on the platform and if he likes dinosaurs, so then the website will dig out video content similar to dinosaurs out of its 5,000+ library. Parents log onto this subscriptionbased platform which provides educational engaging

content to kids of 1-11-yearold age group.

UK Global Healthcare Ltd is the fastest growing business The award for the “Fastest Growing business” went to the UK Global Healthcare Ltd. They started the Indo-UK Institute of Health (IUIH) programme who have recently partnered with the NHS and grown their company’s valuation from £60,000 to $600M and more. Recently, IUIH has signed up a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttarakhand for setting up an integrated IUIH Medicity in the state.

IUIH enables a global hub for medical tourism, medical equipment, and device manufacturing, pharmaceutical production; and cutting-edge medical research along with setting up of medical colleges and a training facility for allied health professionals.

Arora takes 'entrepreneur of the year' to his hotel Surinder Arora, famous in the hospitality industry for his £225 mn worth Arora Hotels, won the award for his astonishing growth and expansion.

The 60-year-old who came to the UK at the young age of 13 was “delighted” to receive the

award, attributing how his success was a “testament to the hugely skilled teams I have around me and the support of my family.”

Mr Arora founded his business in 1999 when he was running a bed and breakfast service for British Airway’s airline staff near Heathrow.

He saw an opportunity to develop this further, and he opened his first hotel with the backing of British Airways, “despite the banks thinking I couldn’t do it”, said Mr. Arora.

With practically no experience of building or running hotels, Mr. Arora now has a portfolio of ten hotels operating under a variety of international brands and another two hotels in development. And this award comes at a poignant time in the upward journey of Arora Group which is bidding to deliver the expansion of Heathrow's Terminal 3. The hotelier also believes that, “It is crucial that expansion happens in the most cost-efficient way both to protect the public purse and also to ensure airlines do not see a hike in charges which could be passed on to passengers.”

Mr. Arora has currently quoted £14.4bn as the total cost of the expansion of the airport terminal nearly half of the proposed amount put forward by the Heathrow Airport

Limited (HAL) scheme which is estimated to be around £31bn.

“Our plans deliver significant cost savings through more efficient design, layout, and implementation. For example, we propose new terminal capacity to form a single hub campus with Terminal 5, instead of redeveloping existing terminals in the Heathrow central area (Terminals 2 and 3) and a new terminal in the northern area, which would all be expensive and disruptive,” explained Mr. Arora.

Tourism and hospitality have always been a bright spot contributing to the UK's annual GDP. However, Brexit is the elephant in the room that has caused anxiety to perhaps most deep-pockets in the financial markets. And remained a whispered conversation underneath the glimmering chandeliers at Carlton Jumeirah. And echoing his worry about Brexit, Mr. Arora said“The hospitality industry is extremely dependent on migration. If we don’t have access to labour from overseas, staff shortages will become a real threat to the industry. It is crucial that the government acknowledges business’ need for flexibility as we work towards a deal with the European Union.”

Arora Group is always looking to strategically expand and diversify their property portfolio across the UK, and currently, they have various exciting live development projects, including a new hotel at Heathrow Terminal 2, the Luxury Windsor Park Hotel and Spa, and the Crawley Gateway Development in West Sussex.

So, what message does Mr. Arora have to 13-yearolds like him out there trying to make their mark in the industry?

“My advice is not to wait for the right opportunities to come around-you need to seek them out for yourself.”

Sujata Rastogi becomes the interpreneur of the year Interpreneur of the year was a new category introduced at the evening, celebrating those entrepreneurial spirits

in the corporate world who are bringing some lateral thinking sparkle to the table.

Sujata Rastogi of HSBC took this one home.

Sujata holds an MBA from the London Business School and a certificate in Innovative Technology Leadership from Stanford.

Her career in banking has chartered over a decade now wherein she has worked in varying sectors of private banking, asset management, and investment banking.

Her time at HSBC has led to a series of global transformation initiatives for the bank in new product development and digital services.

Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri receives the chairman's award Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri founder of i-GP received The Chairman's award presented

by Lord Jitesh Gadhia for his most innovative digital healthcare companies worldwide. The foundation for iGP was developed back in 2015 and ultimately launched the service in January 2016. iGP was started after watching patients wait weeks to see a doctor for low-risk conditions. After several years of development and refinement, i-GP has grown into a market leading digital care service with international industry recognition.

Dr Aleesha Dhillon, the Co-Founder and his wife has been fortunate to receive great support from their Chairman Tariq Syed and COO Mo Sabry, from very early days which gave them a particularly strong founding team.

“Currently we are a team of 15 working on the project and we are part of the NHS digital health accelerator programme where we are hoping to save the NHS over £1 billion per year by treating patients at a cost saving of 65%,” said Mr. Noorpuri.

They have also recently been selected to join the Mayor of London’s Business Accelerator Programme. And their service already operates nationally and they have treated patients online right up to the age of 84 years.

They have won and been

shortlisted for 22 awards such as the Zenith Global Healthcare Award and the CEO Today Healthcare Award. They are also fully compliant with the CQC healthcare regulator as they have developed numerous innovations such as behavioural monitoring across the platform to prevent patients from gaming the system and misusing the service.

“We believe I-GP is the future of healthcare and has the opportunity to standardise the quality of care across the world. We have just returned from the Future Tech mission to India with the Department of International Trade. Next year we are travelling to China for a similar event and we are in the process of converting the Platform into 100 different languages.”

(L-R) Rishi Patel, CEO of The Currency Account, Dr Rami Ranger CBE, CEO of Sunmark & Nitin Ganatra with Priyanka Raswant, winner of the young entrepreneur of the year award

Vin wins the “woman of the year” Serial tech entrepreneur, Vin Murria OBE took home the title of “Woman of the Year”.

Over the decade, Vin has dabbled in the playing fields of venture capital, private equity among others in the software sector. She has spent close to seven years as the CEO of ACS plus which she had herself founded in 2008.

Prior to this Vin had a successful 5 years as the CEO of Computer Software Group plc which she first took private, backed by HG Capital then subsequently alongside a merger exited to US PE Hellman Friedman in July 2007 for $800m. And prior to this, Vin was the COO at Kewill Systems which she left at $1.8bn in 2000.

In 2007 Vin formed and fully funded a charitable foundation targeted at educating and supporting women in India and the UK. The awards weren't the only highlight of the evening, there was also a fashion show from the hottest Indian label Monga’s. Wine and dinner enabled networking amongst the leading business minds and the evening closed with comedian Neil Mullarkey's inspirational parody, 'Don’t be Needy, Be Suceedy'.

(L-R) Deepesh Thakrar, Senior Director of OakNorth’s Debt Finance, Vijay Patel, Chief Executive of Waymade Healthcare plc & Nitin Ganatra with Dr. Ajay Gupta and his wife, receiveing the fastest growing business of the year

(L-R) Dinesh Dhamija, Ex-President of Tie London, Lord Jitesh Gadhia & Nitin Ganatra with Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri, winner of The Chairman’s award

Fashion show by hottest Indian label Monga’s

16 TIE AWARDS 2018

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TIE AWARDS 2018

17

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LONDON AWARDS TIES, YOUNG ASIAN ENTREPRENEURS Priyanka Mehta resident, Nina Amin, MBE, kick-started the evening with an interview with Rajeev Misra, CEO of Softbank’s Vision Fund. In his interview, Misra gave an insight into the vision behind the largest technology fund ever raised of almost $100billion and talked about some of the disruptive technologies they are investing in.

Giving an example of OYO rooms, he explains how the market and business today centers around having the knowledge “of what kind of a house or a room will sell at

P

TiE London celebrated its first ever entrepreneur awards bringing together dynamic businessmen and young minds behind some famous start-ups at the Carlton Jumeirah from the Asian diaspora in the UK. what kind of price at the right time.”

Misra who has made an investment in about 70 odd companies in 18 months, talks about the digital advantage of internet penetration in our regular lives to the extent of buying food online. And as a message to the young entrepreneurs and start-up generation who is trying to break into the market, Mr. Misra reveals the simplest success mantra“You see a problem, find a solution!” he says matter-offact “The problem could sim-

ply be not finding a good doctor in time...there are lots of problems in our society and once you come up with a solution, devote a year to strategise your product. There is no shortage of capital in the market for a good idea!”

Hosted by actor Nitin Ganatra, the evening had six categories of award-winners ranging from entrepreneur of the year to the new concept, interpreneur of the year.

Members of the jury came from diverse fields of medicine to politics to ensure careful consideration and

Nina Amin, MBE, President of TiE London with Rajeev Misra, CEO of Softbank’s Vision Fund

included Lord Jitesh Gadhia, Baroness McGregor-Smith, CBE, Dr. Vijay Patel, Alison Cooper, and Jean De Fougerolles.

Priyanka bags the young entrepreneur of the year

(L-R) Nina Amin, President of TiE London, Rajeev Misra, Ceo of SoftBanks vision fund & Nitin Ganatra with Surinder Arora, entrepreneur of the year

(L-R) Jean De Fougerolles, CEO of Ascension Ventures, Nadeem Boghani of SB Hotels & Nitin Ganatra with Sujata Rastogi, winner of the Interpreneur of the year award

(L-R) Group Chairman of Westcombe Group, Mr Vraj Pankhania, The Right Honourable Helen Grant, MP and Vice Chair of the Conservative Party & Nitin Ganatra with Vin Murria, OBE, woman of the year

Priyanka Raswant, co-founder and CEO of Join Highbrow Ltd. won this award for her inspirational on-demand video platform for children’s educational content.

Raswant, originally from Mumbai, is a lawyer who started this business out of her own concerns the amount of screen-time the children of the day are exposed to.

Around the time that she and her husband decided to start a family she decided to “transform this screen-time into something more educational.”

“We are a curation as a service platform.

On Highbrow, we have built artificial intelligence algorithms through machine learning that studies the child's behaviour patterns and preferences.” Raswant explains.

Simply put, this means that if a child is a frequent visitor on the platform and if he likes dinosaurs, so then the website will dig out video content similar to dinosaurs out of its 5,000+ library. Parents log onto this subscriptionbased platform which provides educational engaging

content to kids of 1-11-yearold age group.

UK Global Healthcare Ltd is the fastest growing business The award for the “Fastest Growing business” went to the UK Global Healthcare Ltd. They started the Indo-UK Institute of Health (IUIH) programme who have recently partnered with the NHS and grown their company’s valuation from £60,000 to $600M and more. Recently, IUIH has signed up a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Government of Uttarakhand for setting up an integrated IUIH Medicity in the state.

IUIH enables a global hub for medical tourism, medical equipment, and device manufacturing, pharmaceutical production; and cutting-edge medical research along with setting up of medical colleges and a training facility for allied health professionals.

Arora takes 'entrepreneur of the year' to his hotel Surinder Arora, famous in the hospitality industry for his £225 mn worth Arora Hotels, won the award for his astonishing growth and expansion.

The 60-year-old who came to the UK at the young age of 13 was “delighted” to receive the

award, attributing how his success was a “testament to the hugely skilled teams I have around me and the support of my family.”

Mr Arora founded his business in 1999 when he was running a bed and breakfast service for British Airway’s airline staff near Heathrow.

He saw an opportunity to develop this further, and he opened his first hotel with the backing of British Airways, “despite the banks thinking I couldn’t do it”, said Mr. Arora.

With practically no experience of building or running hotels, Mr. Arora now has a portfolio of ten hotels operating under a variety of international brands and another two hotels in development. And this award comes at a poignant time in the upward journey of Arora Group which is bidding to deliver the expansion of Heathrow's Terminal 3. The hotelier also believes that, “It is crucial that expansion happens in the most cost-efficient way both to protect the public purse and also to ensure airlines do not see a hike in charges which could be passed on to passengers.”

Mr. Arora has currently quoted £14.4bn as the total cost of the expansion of the airport terminal nearly half of the proposed amount put forward by the Heathrow Airport

Limited (HAL) scheme which is estimated to be around £31bn.

“Our plans deliver significant cost savings through more efficient design, layout, and implementation. For example, we propose new terminal capacity to form a single hub campus with Terminal 5, instead of redeveloping existing terminals in the Heathrow central area (Terminals 2 and 3) and a new terminal in the northern area, which would all be expensive and disruptive,” explained Mr. Arora.

Tourism and hospitality have always been a bright spot contributing to the UK's annual GDP. However, Brexit is the elephant in the room that has caused anxiety to perhaps most deep-pockets in the financial markets. And remained a whispered conversation underneath the glimmering chandeliers at Carlton Jumeirah. And echoing his worry about Brexit, Mr. Arora said“The hospitality industry is extremely dependent on migration. If we don’t have access to labour from overseas, staff shortages will become a real threat to the industry. It is crucial that the government acknowledges business’ need for flexibility as we work towards a deal with the European Union.”

Arora Group is always looking to strategically expand and diversify their property portfolio across the UK, and currently, they have various exciting live development projects, including a new hotel at Heathrow Terminal 2, the Luxury Windsor Park Hotel and Spa, and the Crawley Gateway Development in West Sussex.

So, what message does Mr. Arora have to 13-yearolds like him out there trying to make their mark in the industry?

“My advice is not to wait for the right opportunities to come around-you need to seek them out for yourself.”

Sujata Rastogi becomes the interpreneur of the year Interpreneur of the year was a new category introduced at the evening, celebrating those entrepreneurial spirits

in the corporate world who are bringing some lateral thinking sparkle to the table.

Sujata Rastogi of HSBC took this one home.

Sujata holds an MBA from the London Business School and a certificate in Innovative Technology Leadership from Stanford.

Her career in banking has chartered over a decade now wherein she has worked in varying sectors of private banking, asset management, and investment banking.

Her time at HSBC has led to a series of global transformation initiatives for the bank in new product development and digital services.

Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri receives the chairman's award Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri founder of i-GP received The Chairman's award presented

by Lord Jitesh Gadhia for his most innovative digital healthcare companies worldwide. The foundation for iGP was developed back in 2015 and ultimately launched the service in January 2016. iGP was started after watching patients wait weeks to see a doctor for low-risk conditions. After several years of development and refinement, i-GP has grown into a market leading digital care service with international industry recognition.

Dr Aleesha Dhillon, the Co-Founder and his wife has been fortunate to receive great support from their Chairman Tariq Syed and COO Mo Sabry, from very early days which gave them a particularly strong founding team.

“Currently we are a team of 15 working on the project and we are part of the NHS digital health accelerator programme where we are hoping to save the NHS over £1 billion per year by treating patients at a cost saving of 65%,” said Mr. Noorpuri.

They have also recently been selected to join the Mayor of London’s Business Accelerator Programme. And their service already operates nationally and they have treated patients online right up to the age of 84 years.

They have won and been

shortlisted for 22 awards such as the Zenith Global Healthcare Award and the CEO Today Healthcare Award. They are also fully compliant with the CQC healthcare regulator as they have developed numerous innovations such as behavioural monitoring across the platform to prevent patients from gaming the system and misusing the service.

“We believe I-GP is the future of healthcare and has the opportunity to standardise the quality of care across the world. We have just returned from the Future Tech mission to India with the Department of International Trade. Next year we are travelling to China for a similar event and we are in the process of converting the Platform into 100 different languages.”

(L-R) Rishi Patel, CEO of The Currency Account, Dr Rami Ranger CBE, CEO of Sunmark & Nitin Ganatra with Priyanka Raswant, winner of the young entrepreneur of the year award

Vin wins the “woman of the year” Serial tech entrepreneur, Vin Murria OBE took home the title of “Woman of the Year”.

Over the decade, Vin has dabbled in the playing fields of venture capital, private equity among others in the software sector. She has spent close to seven years as the CEO of ACS plus which she had herself founded in 2008.

Prior to this Vin had a successful 5 years as the CEO of Computer Software Group plc which she first took private, backed by HG Capital then subsequently alongside a merger exited to US PE Hellman Friedman in July 2007 for $800m. And prior to this, Vin was the COO at Kewill Systems which she left at $1.8bn in 2000.

In 2007 Vin formed and fully funded a charitable foundation targeted at educating and supporting women in India and the UK. The awards weren't the only highlight of the evening, there was also a fashion show from the hottest Indian label Monga’s. Wine and dinner enabled networking amongst the leading business minds and the evening closed with comedian Neil Mullarkey's inspirational parody, 'Don’t be Needy, Be Suceedy'.

(L-R) Deepesh Thakrar, Senior Director of OakNorth’s Debt Finance, Vijay Patel, Chief Executive of Waymade Healthcare plc & Nitin Ganatra with Dr. Ajay Gupta and his wife, receiveing the fastest growing business of the year

(L-R) Dinesh Dhamija, Ex-President of Tie London, Lord Jitesh Gadhia & Nitin Ganatra with Dr. Sukhbinder Noorpuri, winner of The Chairman’s award

Fashion show by hottest Indian label Monga’s

18 CHRISTMAS

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Christmas scams The gift that keeps on giving fraudsters Fraud and security may be the last thing on consumers’ minds as they get ready for the end of year festivities, however criminals have been planning the whole year to take advantage of the holiday season – their most profitable period. This time last year, fraudsters stole £11 million from Brits through online scams.

With everyone rushing to buy that perfect gift in time for Christmas Day, more and more people are buying goods online than ever before. The value of online shopping has more than doubled in the past five years and now accounts for nearly £1 in every £5 we spend.

However, TSB’s research reveals that while 86 per cent of consumers feel safe shopping online, only 26 per cent could identify a fake or “phishing” website.

With over half of Christmas shopping budgets (56%) expected to be spent online, everyone needs to be more fraud savvy.

Anita Subramaniam, told Asian Voice, she was looking for a Christmas market holiday deal, and a particular hotel her friends were booked in. When she looked up booking.com, they were all fully booked.

So Anita, went on to see more sites, where the hotel had availability and she was offered the same hotel at a relatively cheaper rate.

Excited, she was about to book, when she went to read some reviews about the website. She discovered, many people who booked through this website, ended up in various hotels without a room and the money had vanished too.

Komal Chaddha, was buying a present for her 5 year old niece. Failing to find what her niece wanted, she started randomly searching websites. She came across a website where she could buy what she wanted, but somehow the website did not seem real.

Akram Mustafa told the newsweekly, he faced a similar 'too good to be true' offer for iPhone, when he

was looking to buy one online as a gift.

Tracey Shahar, a mumof-three had more than £1,000 taken before a busy spending time in Midlands.

The 47-year-old's money was stolen out of her account by someone claiming to be from her bank.

Ashley Hart, Head of Fraud at TSB, shared three top tips to protect yourself from fraud this festive period. She said, “Desperate to get that ‘must-have’ toy, and you finally find one in stock? Ask yourself if that’s too good to be true. Do you recognise the website? Trust the retailer? Is the price just too tempting? Remember – if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

“Fraudsters will list products for sale that don’t exist. Are all the images

copied from a web search?

Poor seller reviews? Being asked to make a payment outside of the auction site’s normal process. Treat an electronic payment like you would cash – don’t send one to somebody you don’t know and trust. Always use a trusted website, and stick to their recommended payment process. Look for the padlock symbol in the address bar and check the domain name to ensure there’s an ‘s’ on the end of ‘http’ which indicates the site is secure. “Out of ideas for presents? Many of us turn to the trusty gift card as a back-up. But is it trustworthy?

Scammers offering discounted gift cards might well be selling you one they've already used. Only buy gift cards from a reputable retailer, or direct from the company they’re for.

Above everything, stop and think before you click. Fraudsters thrive on stressful or rushed situations, because we’re less likely to think things through before making a payment or surrendering our information. Always give yourself enough time to make a good decision – and don’t give a fraudster a gift this Christmas.”

Indian-origin man’s Christmas gift to UK homeless

Prakash Bhojani

Prakash Bhojani, a businessman based in the east Midlands city of Leicester, has brought Christmas cheer to many homeless people by donating to a local project and arranging to provide renovated accommodation to them.

The homeless people, to be selected by campaign group Action Homeless, will be able to move into their new homes before Christmas.

Bhojani, 70, who runs a factory and real estate company, has been involved in local charity organisations.

The renovated houses owned by Bhojani’s company are being leased to the campaign group for a nominal fee. Bhojani donated £100,000 to the

project that will benefit those who have recent experience of sleeping rough on the streets.

Speaking to a Leicester newspaper Mr Bhojani said: “We’ve worked hard to make sure the properties have all been renovated to a high standard. We want this to be the first step to people getting back on track, it’s important that the homes help them to do that”.

Leicester has a large number of people of Indian origin; many moved there after being expelled from Idi Amin’s Uganda in the early 1970s and went on to succeed in various professions and business. The city is held up as a symbol of Britain’s policies of multiculturalism.

‘Brex-mas effect’ sees Brit-Indians cutting Restaurants face Christmas 'Grinch' Christmas budget to combat austerity Rupanjana Dutta More than a third of Brits plan to spend less on Christmas compared to last year, according to the results of a new global survey of 23,000 families.

The research carried out by Ferratum, the international financial services company, analysed the Christmas plans of more than 23,000 families in 19 different countries.

It found that 37% of Brits are planning to spend less on Christmas this year compared to 2017, with 43% planning to spend the same and just 20% planning to increase their spend. With the UN report of UK austerity, the situation looks grimmer than before, as more and more people give into the pressure of gift giving at the cost of their years of savings.

The research further reveals, Brits are allocating 23% of their disposable income on Christmas this year, which is the fifth highest in the world and more than double that of Germany (10%) and the Netherlands (10%) who are

spending the least. Mexico however tops list of nations spending most of their disposable income on Christmas (48%), followed by Brazil (38%), Romania (29%) and Bulgaria (25%).

George Mathew, a taxi driver in the UK is originally from Kerala, South India. He moved to the UK 40 years back. Christmas is not only a religious affair for his family, it is also something that three generations have been celebrating as a family together in the UK. “I have 13 grand children, and 4 children. My wife is responsible for buying giftstoys, clothes, cosmeticswhatever my family likes. She does not work any more and she spent a lot of time selecting the right and apt presents for the family. But this year, with Brexit and all that, the economy is shaky, there are too many insecurities. We can feel the strain. So we have decided to cut down a bit on the grandeur and budget for gifts.” Ash Banerjee, was born in the UK, as well as her sister, who lives in France.

Her parents as well as the extended family moved here,

and they are as much as English as Indians. “We celebrate Christmas as well as Durga Puja. I have just taken up a job as a junior doctor and my sister is doing her PhD. But this year, inspite of all the extra income, we can feel the pinch hard. The living costs are high, the wages aren't greatthere is only so much savings after all our expenses. The pressure to give gifts is too much, and celebrating it like every year is too taxing for the family sanity. Much of the spending is depending on credit cards. I am therefore working on Christmas- and it is not by choice.”

According to the survey, 52% of the respondents will cover the costs of Christmas holidays with savings, while 23% said they would partially cover the expenses with loans and 13% planned to use credit cards. Kumar Sinha is going for a ski holiday with the family. Every year it has been a norm for the family of 8 to celebrate Christmas in the Alps. But this year they have given up on the luxury resorts and decided to go for a reasonable air b&b. “It is mentally challenging to cope

with the increase in cost. The amount of disposable income is definitely smaller compared to last year, with a steady increase in cost and taxes. But we haven't had an increase in our income. With my brother's new baby and our parents retiring, this year we had to take a rain check on the posh resort. However Christmas means quality family time together.

Wherever we are.”

Tony Gundersen, Ferratum UK Country Manager, said, “More than a third of Brits are proactively looking to cut their Christmas shopping budget this year. With a fall in real wages and uncertainty surrounding Brexit, families are being more cautious with their spending and we are certainly seeing a ‘Brexmas effect’.

“Whether it’s skipping secret Santa in the office or shopping around online for better deals, many people are intending to be more frugal this year. Only 20% of people say they are going to splash out more than they did last year and most of that will go on groceries and presents for children.”

The festive season is in jeopardy as the Brexit vote has become the Christmas 'Grinch', with the hospitality industry already feeling the pinch. New research from the UK’s largest hospitality job board caterers.com has revealed more than half (57%) of pub, bar, hotel and restaurant groups are already starting to feel the knockon effects of the Brexit vote.

Party-goers across the nation are being asked to be patient while waiting for a top up on their Christmas fizz, with more than a third (35%) of hospitality businesses admitting they will be short staffed over the holiday period as Brexit takes its toll on experienced EU hospitality staff.

With Sajid Javid asking EU migrants to at least earn £30,000 before they are allowed to come to Britain, makes it even harder for the industry to hire.

On the other hand, the Christmas austerity has also hit the spending capacity of Britons. The hospitality industry is facing that crunch more and

more, with D-day nearing.

Most Asian restaurants that are usually self sufficient with staff, have their festive menu ready.

Dishoom has included a Turkey Raan in their special festive menu, while newbie Litle Kolkata has organised a 'chat-day' on 31st December.

Posto by Kolkata Kitchen is the dream project of a few enterprising food enthusiasts. Based in the Harrow area, they have many clients (Asian and non Asian) who are regulars. Chef and co-owner of the restaurant, Pritha Mukherjee said she is ready with a festive menu which includes Bengali delicacies.

However the reducing footfall to celebrate the holiday season, especially by walk-ins, is something that she cannot ignore.

Speaking to Asian Voice, Pritha said, “There is no problem with the regulars.

They are very keen to celebrate this festive season with us, they know us from our catering days- Kolkata Kitchen. But walk-ins, which is popular, have reduced this season, perhsp same as any central London restaurant.”

REAL ESTATE VOICE

RISING FROM THE STORM

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AGONY AGENT IS HERE TO HELP!

Recently, I had an investor who did a U turn on an investment, citing Brexit as the reason.

This is a convenient reason, as it’s all over the press and is in our faces daily. People like simple easy headlines to hide behind.

The truth is, not many know what Brexit actually will entail, neither its impact; especially on the property market.

Suresh Vagjiani

Sow & Reap London Property Investment

Q: Is contents insurance my tenant’s responsibility?

A: This may come as a surprise to you, but, both you and the tenant need to take out contents insurance.

Does it have an affect over all? Of course it does, that’s easy to see.

The reality is, you cannot paint the whole property market with one brush. There are segments within, which are segregated both geographically and price wise.

Each has its own politics.

At this price point you are looking at the bottom end of the pyramid. One in which it becomes within the affordability range of an average couple earning £25K each. A combined salary of £50k would qualify for a mortgage of £250K. This puts this property well within the reach of first time buyers, who some say are responsible for fuelling the property market from bottom up.

The deal we were looking at is a two bedroom property, in the South East of London, which has a yield touching 5%. The price point is £245K. In the midst of the current turmoil, we forget there is a fundamental housing need in this country which is not being met, and will not be met in the foreseeable future.

Is there a chance this property will fall in value due to Brexit?

Very unlikely, as we are dealing with the bottom end of the market, and the yield of nearly 5% speaks for itself. This used to be a normal yield in the early 2000s, but you would be hard pressed to see this anywhere else in London.

As property prices have risen the rents have not kept pace, and

Property is not just an investment. It provides a fundamental human need; shelter.

THE SEED OF SUCCESS & FAILURE In 390BC, many years before Rome ascended to the pinnacle of world power, the Celts triumphed emphatically over the Romans militarily. Rome was devastated, sacked and its women humiliated.

In 1666, London was ravaged by fire. Rebuilding was expensive. From this adversity, the first insurance contracts were written to protect occupants from potential liabilities.

It was from this nadir that their resolve to enact reforms and overcome their enemies hardened. The power of Rome can be traced back to this painful collective Roman experience.

These events demonstrate, time and again, that success is often borne of failure.

The philosopher Boethius would have been forgotten to history had he not written one

BUY TO LET OPPORTUNITY

l l l l l

19

consequently the yields have dropped.

There are two major forces in play, which will ensure this investment will not only weather the Brexit storm, but rise from it.

One, is this is the last borough of 33 boroughs in London where the average property price is below £300,000. Historical analysis has shown this factor alone will ensure it will be in demand; purely from the view of satisfying a need. Two, is this is in a location where when Crossrail finally comes in, it will mean Canary Wharf will be 11 minutes away and Bond Street only 22 minutes away. We have compiled an 18 page in depth report on this location. This is an area we feel will be on the rise for at least the next five years.

As your property may be prone to a higher number of risks, and many of these risks may not be covered under a standard home insurance policy, you need to have landlord contents insurance, rather than the standard one. It is not a legal requirement, but it can keep you protected from instances that are out of your control.

Landlord insurance usually covers: l l l l l l l

Fixtures & fittings Accidental damage Public liability and property owner's liability Alternative accommodation costs Loss of rent Glass and lock replacement Landlord’s contents e.g. furniture

Be sure to compare landlord insurance policies in order to find one that covers your needs.

What about tenant insurance?

of the great books called “Consolations of Philosophy”.

He had an aristocratic upbringing and enjoyed an illustrious career advising the emperor. But this life produced no great works. It was only when he fell from grace and awaited execution that he wrote this book, which was followed by great kings like Alfred the Great, and is considered one of the great works of Western philosophy.

The seeds of failure are sown in our successes, and the seeds of success are sown in our failures.

Always be hopeful. Always avoid hubris.

Abraham Goldberg

Insurance for tenants is like regular contents insurance, which covers their personal belongings, however, theirs additionally includes “tenants liability insurance”. This means, they would be able to claim for accidental damages to your property in addition to their own; so you won’t need to tear your hair out if they spill a glass of red on your sofa.

If you have any questions, or if you need help managing your rental property, feel free to get in touch.

Richard Bond

Three bedroom, maisonette flat Long lease Low service charges Close to a Crossrail station Rental income expected is approx £1,150 per month, generating a yield of 5.6% per annum

Make the right move!

London, SE2 Purchase Price: £245,000 Specialists in Central London Property Sourcing

l Approx £88K cash required, subject to mortgage terms l Superb capital and rental growth expectations due to Crossrail Call us now for more information!

0207 993 0103

info@sowandreap.co.uk www.sowandreap.co.uk 27 Gloucester Place, London, W1U 8HU SowandReapProperties

Sowandreapuk

Turning land into cash Get in touch about our land opportunities

20 FINANCE - UK

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Consultant Editor Financial Voice Alpesh Patel Dear Financial Voice Reader, At Christmas people worry the most about debt.

Personal debt is soul-destroying and if you have it, please get advice from all the online sources and friends and talk it over with friends who can advise.

Too many people take their lives with worry at Christmas.

If you’re a country, you could go to the IMF, but even the UK and US who are going to spend like crazy next year will not need to go to the IMF. Despite all their debts the credit card companies ie Chinese and Japanese, will keep lending to them. And they are giving them near interest free credit cards.

It is true if we had no debt then debt repayment interest could be spent usefully.

However, the debt can be rolled over forever with a low rate of interest and the credit rating is not affecting the cost of borrowing.

Of course, it would be a lot better if we had huge growth and lots of exports. But then again it would be great if we all doubled our salaries too. It makes a lot more sense for the UK to borrow to spend on raising the skills of its people and building infrastructure and attracting the best global talent.

The problem is, with an aging population, healthcare costs go through the roof and spending on those is not economically productive -it is caring and we should and must be. So again, we need to upskill the country whilst we can borrow the money cheaply. It’s a little like borrowing to do an MBA before your parents get too old and need you even more.

America will probably stay out of wars, since the President is either too scared to take on Putin or too much in love with him. Spending from Governments should mean you will feel happier. Roads, rail should all improve.

So the price? Well, there may not be. Sorry not to be glum. Personally, first thing you should do is cut debt and save. Then only should you think about investing money in the markets in 2019.

Spend to invest in yourself or in something that will give a return, but do not buy consumer goods. Trust me, things are good, but you will be really happy debt-free, unlike your country.

Alpesh Patel Her Majesty’s Government’s Dealmaker For a free online trading course visit www.alpeshpatel.com

Amazon invests $400 million more in its Indian subsidiaries

If recent reports are to be believed, US-based world's largest e-tailer Amazon has invested an additional $400 million in two of its Indian subsidiaries. An online platform said. “Our tally of Amazon's total investment in its Indian subsidiaries, including this, is $3.6 billion.”

Documents submitted by Amazon filed with the regulators at a meeting on August 6 in Bengaluru suggest the board of directors of Amazon Seller Services Ltd approved allotment of 270 Crore equity shares of Rs 10 face value of Rs 2700 Crore to the Singapore-based Amazon Corporate Holdings Ltd and an additional 124,753 shares to Amazon.com Incs Ltd without premium. Amazon Services said in a filing, “The Amazon board has consented to allot 260 Crore shares of Rs 10 face value aggregating RS 2600 Crore to the shareholders on rights basis in the ratio of their shareholding.”

How to use social media to amplify a business Social media has transformed the way people and businesses communicate. It can be used to find like-minded people, promote certain products or events and create a community of customers providing support and feedback.

Starling Bank, the leading UK mobile-only bank for business accounts, often shares advice for business customers, including how to grow a business through social media.

It’s not always the case that the more social platforms you do, the more people you reach. According to the Digital Marketing Institute, 91% of retail brands use two or more social media platforms.

“Too many, and you’ll spread yourself too thinly and dilute the impact of your efforts as a

result. Too few, and your brand visibility and reach might suffer,” they suggest.

For a food business, Instagram will be perfect to share photos and videos; for businesses looking to reach out to new clients, LinkedIn could work well; for physical shops, Facebook might be best to highlight the location and share local promotions.

No matter which platform you choose, the most important thing to remember is to be consistent: the tone of voice, branding and content should match each other across your website and social media platforms. It’s also worth adjusting images and logos to the sizes specified by each platform to keep them looking sharp.

Using relevant or trending hashtags on Twitter or Instagram can be a great way to engage a new audience and encourage people to share your content. If you are creating a unique hashtag for a campaign keep it punchy, easy to read, and make sure there are no hidden words/meanings when it is all lowercase.

Looking into annual awareness days can also help to generate content. Starling Bank launched its campaign #MakeMoneyEqual on 8th March 2018 – International Women’s Day. The campaign looked at different ways that the media speaks to men and women about money, using words such as ‘frivolous’ for women and ‘savvy’ for men.

Managing social media

can take hours and it’s important to keep posting each week. One time saving tip is to write and plan all your upcoming posts and use a scheduling website to upload these throughout the week at optimum times (usually first thing, lunchtime or after 5pm).

Starling Bank’s free mobile-only business account is all about saving time and keeping up to date with the latest technology.

For more information on Starling Bank, visit www.starlingbank.com.

Sandip Somany takes over as President of FICCI The Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) has elected Vice Chairman and Managing Director of HSIL Limited, Sandip Somany as its President for the year 2018-19. The decision was made at the conclusion of its 91st Annual General Meeting on December 14-15. Somany will now work closely with the government and business leaders towards spearheading the country's economic growth and promote inclusiveness. A widely recognised pioneer of the Indian ceramic industry, Somany has played an instrumental role in making it an organised industry. With over three decades of experience in the industry, he has a certain penchant for anticipating market needs and seeks innovation.

Sandip Somany

Somany has held many industry leadership positions in the past, including president of Ph.D. Chamber of Commerce and Industry and president of International Chamber of Commerce India chapter. He also was the chairman of Indian Council of Sanitaryware Manufacturers (INCOSAMA) and a member of the executive committee of Governing Council of All India Glass Manufacturers Association.

“I am thankful for FICCI's vote of

confidence in appointing me as the President. This position is a great opportunity as it will allow me to continue to work within FICCI to meet its objectives aligned with industries at large, and our country. I look forward to engaging with industry stalwarts and leaders to foster an ecosystem of innovation and growth, together building consensus between industry and policy,” Somany said.

Also, Sangita Reddy, Joint Managing Director of the Apollo Hospitals Group has been made Senior Vice President of FICCI, and Uday Shankar, the current Chairman and CEO of Star india and President of 21st Century Fox AsiaPacific, has joined the FICCI leadership as Vice President of the apex industry chamber.

RBI board in soup over autonomy crisis Board of the Reserve Bank of India has asked for more time to review the government's demand for a greater say in the central bank's functioning. The issue has fostered hostilities between both sides, creating a rift and possibly causing the resignation of former RBI chief Urjit Patel. In a statement, the central bank said, “The board deliberated on the governance framework of the Reserve Bank and it was decided that the matter required further examination.”

The appointment of Governor Shaktikanta Das has raised several eyebrows as he is seen as someone more susceptible to the government's requests. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had named him to the post a day to the post after Patel abruptly submitted his resignation. Priyanka Kishore, head of India and South East Asia Economics at Oxford Economics, Singapore, said the “meeting failed to shed any new light on

Governor Das' stance on banking regulation and other issues. RBI is clearly trying to let matters cook before many any further decisions on these fronts.”

The 18-member board that includes monetary policy makers, finance ministry representatives and industrialists, also reviewed matters relating to liquidity and credit delivery to the economy, along with discussing the current economic situation, global

and domestic challenges. Many called this a “frightening” peek into what's in store for Das as he settles into the new role. Abhijit Banerjee, professor of economics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology said, “It's frightening because it's very important to show respect for the process. Das is going to worry he got chosen because he's not the best person for the job but because he is someone who the government favoured. He will feel he doesn't have independent authority.”

RBI has so far kept a tight leash on liquidity, restricting some weak banks from lending and refusing to bailout the shadow banking sector. The Centre, on the other hand, has been at the forefront of new lending in the past three year.

Modi is keen to keep growth ahead of a national election early next year and according to recent data showed the economy's expansion may be under threat.

India's first private UAV factory opens in Hyderabad India's first private sector unit for manufacturing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) opened at Adani Aerospace Park on Friday. Built by the Adani Group and Israel-based Elbit Systems, the 50,000 square feet facility will develop Hermes 900 medium altitude long-endurance UAVs for the Indian and global markets. The unit will begin with the manufacture of complete carbon composite aerostructures for Hermes 900, followed by Hermes 480,

set to serve global markets.

Built at Adani Aerospace Park, the first defence and aerospace complex of Adani Group, at Hardwar Park on the

outskirts of Hyderabad, the facility also houses advanced composites and high precision machining capabilities. The plant was inaugurated by Telangana Home Minister Mohammad Mahmood Ali in the presence of Pranav Adani, Adani Enterprise Ltd., Karan Adani, CEO, Adani Ports and Special Economic Zones, Bezhalel Machlis, President and Chief Executive Officer, Elbit Systems and Ashish Rajvanshi, Head Adani Defence and Aerospace.

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Nations adopt rules for Paris accord KATOWICE: Around 200 countries, including the world's top greenhouse gas producers, China and the United States, have adopted a set of rules to boost the 2015 Paris climate accord by setting out how countries should report their emissions and efforts to reduce them. Officials at the talks that ended over the weekend, in the Polish city of Katowice, agreed upon universal rules on nations can cut emissions. Poor countries secured assurances on financial support to help them reduce emissions, adapt to changes such as rising sea levels and pay for damage.

A senior Polish official who led the talks, Michal Kurtyka said, “Through this package, you have made a thousand little steps forward together.” he said that while each country would likely find some parts of the agreement it did not like, efforts were made to balance the interests of all parties. “We will all have to give in order to gain. We will all have to be courageous to look into the future and make yet another step for the sake of humanity.”

The talk was conducted at a time when scientists express growing concern over global warming proceeding faster then governments are responding to it.

Mohamed Adow, climate policy expert at Christian Aid said, “The majority of the rulebook for the Paris Agreement has been created, which is something to be thankful for. But the fact countries had to be dragged kicking and screaming to the finish line shows that some nations have not woken up” to the dire consequences of global warming. While the 28-country bloc, European Union has taken some decisive actions to curb emissions, challenges remain. With countries like Britain and the Netherlands seeking to phase out coal power, Poland, which hosted the COP24

Heads of the delegations react at the end of the final session of the COP24 summit on climate change in Katowice.

meet, is building new coal plants.

China pledged that emissions would peak around 2030 and it would get 20 per cent of its energy from non-fossil sources. China appears on track to hit that target as it is investing heavily in renewables and now sells more electric cars and buses than the rest of the world combined. India, which has low per capita emissions as compared with the developed world, insisted that the wealthier countries should effect curbs to match their emission levels. It now looks like it could surpass those goals given the falling cost of solar power and its focus on other renewable sources.

Scientist who leads the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Johan Rockstrom called the agreement a “relief”. He said the Paris deal is “alive and kicking, despite a rise in populism and nationalism.” His

biggest concern is that the summit “failed to align ambitions with science, in particular missing the necessity of making clear that global emissions from fossil fuels must be cut in half by 2030”. The United States is technically still in the Paris agreement until 2020, despite Donald Trump's rubbishing of the act. When it came to closing potential loopholes that could allow countries to dodge their commitments to cut emissions, “the US pushed harder than nearly anyone else for transparency rules that put all countries under the same system, and it's largely succeeded,” an official said.

In conclusion, a decision on the mechanics of an emissions-trading system was postponed to next year’s meeting.

Countries also agreed to consider the issue of raising ambitions at a U.N. summit in New York next September.

Nepal bans use of India’s Rs 2,000, Rs 500, Rs 200 notes KATHMANDU: The Nepal government has declared the use of Indian currency notes of Rs 2000, 500 and 200 denominations illegal in the country. The decision was taken at the last Cabinet meeting, as announced by the Minister of Information Gokul Baskota.

The move will definitely affect middle and low-income Indian tourists. When the Indian government introduced the new notes in 2016, following demonetisation, the Nepal government did not make any announcement on the status of the new notes.

“The government has decided not to use, carry and keep the Indian bills of 200, 500 and 2000 denominations. The government will soon issue a formal notice in this matter,” Baskota said. The decision will adversely affect Nepalese labourers working in India as well as Indian tourists visiting Nepal. The decision comes as the Nepal government is making preparations to celebrate 2020 as the ‘Visit Nepal Year’. Estimates indicate that at least 2 million people will visit Nepal in 2020, the bulk of them from India.

Nepal allows the use of the Indian rupee in its economy, and was impacted by the Narendra Modi-led government’s decision to scrap Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes in November 2016. Nepal Premier K P Sharma Oli said earlier this year that demonetisation hurt the Nepalese people and added that he would raise the matter with Indian leaders.

People have been using the new Indian currency in Nepal for nearly two years now.

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US - PAKISTAN

Harry Sidhu is First Indian American Mayor of Anaheim ANAHEIM: History was made in Southern California when Harry Sidhu was inaugurated as the mayor of Disneyland city, Anaheim. He is now the first Indian American to claim the seat in the tenth most populous city of California. The inaugural event took place at River Arena next to Anaheim City Hall, which was filled to capacity. Sidhu was joined on stage by Orange County Superior Court Judge Megan Wagner with his wife Gin, son Rohan and Sikh priest Jaswant Singh Jiera of the Riverside Gurdwara-Sikh Temple Riverside.

A statement issued by Sidhu's office said he took the oath on the Guru Granth Sahib scripture. Also present at the inaugural ceremony were Sidhu's family members and hundreds of longtime Indian American community supporters who upon completion of the oath administration shouted “Jo Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal!” The 61 year old dedicated his service as mayor to the memory of his beloved mother-in-law, Manjeet Kaur, who recently passed away and thanked his parents for the gift they gave to their children in bringing them to the United States almost 50 years ago. He opened his inaugural speech by announcing “Anaheim is open for business!”

“I immigrated to this great country 44 years ago from India, with little more to my name than the hopes and dreams I brought with me. To now be sworn into office as the 46th mayor of this large, vibrant city is proof the American Dream is alive and well in Anaheim. As your mayor, it will be my

Harry Sidhu takes oath on the holy Guru Granth Sahib as he was inaugurated as mayor of Anaheim, Calif.

mission to enact policies to ensure that Anaheim is the 'City of the American Dream',” he said. The first Sikh mayor also added, “ In Anaheim, the doors of opportunity will always be open for everyone to participate in the American Dream!

Funding the investments our neighborhoods need and deserve depends on a rising tide of economic growth and tax revenues. By using the revenues generated by these assets and applying them into putting our residents and neighborhoods first – we can make Anaheim the City of the American Dream.”

Sidhu also addressed homelessness, and said, “Homelessness is both a humanitarian

and civic crisis. Our streets and parks were never meant to be places for people to live, and we have seen the toll has taken on our residents, businesses and neighborhoods. At the same time, we have the urgent need to help those living in homelessness with the cold and wet weather of winter upon us.”

Sidhu called a Special Council Meeting within 48 hours of his inauguration, during which the City Council approved moving forward with an interim emergency homeless shelter to help people out of homelessness during the critical winter months. It is expected to come online by the end of December and operate for up to 90 days.

Pak SC asks PM's sister to pay Rs 29 bn in foreign assets case ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Supreme Court has ordered Prime Minister Imran Khan's sister Aleema Khanum to pay a hefty Rs 29.4 billion in taxes and fine within a week in a foreign assets case. A three-judge bench, while hearing a case against 44 politically exposed individuals who possess properties in the UAE, remarked that failure on Khanum's part to honour the court orders will result in confiscation of her properties.

The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) told the court that a fine and tax worth Rs 29.4 billion has been imposed on Khanum, who has been identified as ostensible owner of a property. Khanum, who was present with her lawyer in the court, said that she had bought the property in 2008 against $370,000 and that she had sold it in 2017. “I sold my properties and the FBR was notified about this development in advance,” Khanum said in her written testimony.

In previous hearings FBR Khanum's submitted properties and tax details. She told the court that she had raised 50 per cent of the amount required by taking a loan.

During the hearing, the FIA submitted a summary regarding foreign properties in court. According to the summary, 96 more Pakistanis have been identified for having properties abroad.

Meanwhile, FIA Director General Bashir Memon submitted a report, telling the bench that the agency has identified a total of 1,208 Pakistanis, holding 2,154 properties in the UAE. Previously 1,115 Pakistani property holders in UAE were identified. Of these 1,115 Pakistanis, 420 availed the Amnesty Scheme 2018 and 23 were accused by the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), 166 appeared for FIA inquiry, 78 declared assets in the tax returns, 93 disowned any UAE property and 768 submitted affidavits.

Pak releases Mumbai man after he served 3-year sentence ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has released Indian prisoner Hamid Nihal Ansari, who was detained by the country's intelligence agencies in 2012, and sentenced to three years' imprisonment by a military court in 2015 for possessing a fake Pakistani identity card. The 33 year old Mumbai resident was lodged in the Peshawar Central Jail after being sentenced by the military court on December 15m 2015. His three-year jail term ended this year on the same date, however he was not able to leave for his hometown as his legal documents were not ready.

Last week, the Peshawar High Court gave the federal government a month deadline to complete his repatriation process.

Pakistan Foreign Office spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said, “Ansari is being released upon completion of his sentence and is being repatriated to India.” He claimed Ansari was an “Indian spy who had illegally entered Pakistan and was involved in anti-state crimes and forging documents.” Ansari went missing in 2012, when he was taken into custody by Pakistani intelligence agencies and local police in Kohat. Following a habeas corpus petition filed by his mother, Fauzia Ansari, the high court was informed that he was in custody of the Pakistani Army and was being tried by a military court.

Ansari had reportedly entered Pakistan from Afghanistan, to meet a girl he had befriended online. A two-judge bench of the Peshawar HC, comprising Justice Roohul Amin and Justice Qalandar Ali Khan, heard an appeal filed by Ansari through his lawyer Qazi Muhammad Anwar. Anwar informed the bench that both, the Ministry of Interior and authorities of prison, where he was lodged, were completely silent about his release and deportation to India. Justice Khan then asked the Additional Attorney General to explain how they would keep the

Hamid Nihal Ansari

prisoner in jail after completion of his term.

Despite his three-year jail term having ended, he was kept in prison. On Monday, the External Affairs Ministry said that it has received a note from Pakistan that they would be releasing Ansari on Tuesday. “It is a matter of great relief, especially for the family members, that six years of incarceration of the Indian civilian in Pakistan jail is coming to an end,” Ministry spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said. “We would like Pakistan to take action to also end misery of other Indian nationals and fishermen whose nationality has been confirmed and who have completed their sentences, but continue to languish in Pakistan jails.”

Ansari’s return to India can be seen as a big diplomatic win for the central government. India issued a total of 96 note verbales to Pakistan seeking consular access to Ansari and the decision to release him was on account of relentless pressure from New Delhi, according to reports. “We would like Pakistan to take action to also end the misery of other Indian nationals and fishermen whose nationality has been confirmed and who have completed their sentences, but continue to languish in Pakistan jails,” Kumar said.

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Amna Al Qubaisi is first Arab woman to participate in Formula E AD DIRIYAH: Eighteen-year-old Emirati racing driver Amna Al Qubaisi has become the first Arab woman to participate in a Formula E test last weekend. The first-ever female Emirati racing driver joined the premier league of female racing talent on the street circuit of Ad Diriyah in the fully electric motor cars. One of the most exciting and competitive line-ups of female drivers ever seen in motorsport, the event held more importance by the fact that legislation allowing women to drive in the country was only announced this year.

Qubaisi took her place in the Kaspersky Lab sponsored Envision Virgin Racing Team Formula E car in the morning session, however, hit a barrier with the rear wheel of the cal, sidelining her afternoon testing efforts. She was joined by Tatiana Calderon, Carmen Jorda, Beitske Visser, Katherine Legge and Simona de Silvestro- holder of the fastest time of all female drivers. Daughter of Le Mans racing driver Khaled Al Qubaisi, Amna said the test was “a dream come true”.

She said, “I'm very proud to be representing women in general and especially Arabian women. This year, thanks to Kaspersky Lab, I became the first Arab female driver in Formula 4 and now, I am the first in Formula E. I hope that my experience will serve as an inspiration to other young Arab women wanting to drive. It was a momentous occasion that I am ever grateful to Kaspersky Lab for. The company's continued support allows me to chase my goal of racing professionally.”

The UAE-born driver had begun karting

Amna Al Qubaisi

at the age of 13, going on to win the UAE Rotax Max Challenge Championship. Aldo Fucelli Pessot del Bo, Head of Global Partnerships and Sponsorships at Kaspersky Lab said, “This could be a seminal moment for female motorsport. For too long, in order to Amna Al Qubaisi become first Arab woman to take part in Formula E be a successful racing driver, you have had to be skilled, determined, competitive, brave, and physically fit, but more importantly, you have had to be a man. Gender does not determine speed and Kaspersky Lab firmly believes that female and male racing drivers should compete against one another on equal terms and be given the same opportunities.”

He added, “We are proud to sponsor Amna Al Qubaisi, who at 18 is showing all the hallmarks of becoming a racing great and was the youngest female racer on the track in Saudi Arabia. We have to thank Sylvain Filippi and the whole Envision Virgin Racing team who did not hesitate to give her this opportunity.”

Ola invests $100mn in sharing scooter start-up 'Vogo' Indian ride-hailing app Ola, which is competing with Uber in the fast-growing Indian shared transport market and is trying to expand its market in the UK, has invested $100m in the scooter-sharing start-up Vogo.

Vogo, had launched its service eight months ago, and has 2,000 scooters in the cities of Bangalore and Hyderabad in India. It will use the funds from Ola to acquire 100,000 new scooters that will be rolled out in these two cities over the next year. It allows commuters to pick up and drop off its moped-style motor scooters from about 200 service points in the neighbourhoods where it operates. And Ola is planning for its customers to be able to book Vogo’s motor scooters directly from the Ola app.

This year, Ola also participated in an earlier funding round in August and is also backed by Japan's SoftBank. But Ola’s latest investment will make the company one of Vogo’s largest shareholders, it is understood.

Pawan Munjal, the chairman and chief executive of HeroMotor Corp, India’s largest two-wheeler manufacturer, and Matrix Partners India, an early stage venture capital fund have backed Vogo.

The investment is Ola’s latest effort to diversify its product offering as it battles with Uber for dominance in India’s transport market. The cab company also launched services in Australia earlier this year. Besides offering a traditional ride-hailing service in cars, the Ola platform currently gives Indian commuters the ability to hail auto-rickshaws

and motorcycle taxis in many cities.

Vogo is betting that in India’s congested cities, with their ever-worsening traffic jams, motor scooters will be one of the fastest, most affordable forms of transport.

However, Vogo nevertheless faces competition from rivals such as Bangalorebased scooter-sharing app Bounce, which offers its services in 13 locations, including popular tourist spots. Ola’s move into shared motor scooters reflects how fledgling bike and scooter sharing companies could affect ride-hailing apps, particularly for consumers seeking to make short-trips in urban centres.

In the past year, Uber and its US rival Lyft each bought bike-sharing rental services.

More recently, Uber has been eyeing Lime and its rival Bird — two companies that offer US commuters access to stand-up electric scooters in big cities.

“Our investment in Vogo will help build a smart multi-modal network for first-last mile connectivity in the country,” Ola cofounder and Chief Executive Officer Bhavish Aggarwal said in the statement.

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in brief

SOUTH INDIA

Opposition alliance vows to defeat Modi in 2019 CHENNAI: In one of the biggest meetings of the anti-BJP alliance, a group of senior political leaders got together in Chennai to commemorate the memory of late Tamil Nadu chief minister K Karunanidhi and vowed to defeat Prime Minister Narendra Modi. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who was accompanied by party president Rahul Gandhi, was in the city to unveil a statue of the DMK stalwart. The figure was unveiled at Anna Arivalayam, DMK headquarters in the city. The leaders then made their way to the Karunanidhi memorial on Marina Beach to pay their respects to the late leader.

Later, speeches were given at the YMCA grounds by DMK Treasurer Durai Murugan, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu, Sonia, Rahul, and MK Stalin. Sonia Gandhi called Karunanidhi a democrat and a secularist, saying it is her earnest desire that the “mutual support of the two parties remains strong and steadfast even as we wage battle with the political forces that are determined to destroy constitutional values, institutions and the idea of India as we know it.” She said, “As we

Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, M K Stalin, N Chandrababu Naidu, Pinarayi Vijayan and V Narayanasamy after unveiling bronze statue of M Karunanidhi.

stand here today, shoulder to shoulder, in memory of Dr Karunanidhi ji, let the message go to the people of Tamil Nadu, of the country that we are united and determined to protect and preserve our country's constitution and the constitutional values that have built and sustained India over the last 70 years.”

Rahul Gandhi recounted a meeting he had with the leader. He said he was humbled by his simplicity, honesty and humility. “While Karunanidhi defended the voice of the people of Tamil Nadu, the institutions of this country and this state, today we have a government

that is attacking the voice, culture and institutions of Tamil Nadu and the country. A government that believes that only one idea should run India.

A government that believes the billions of voices of this country should not count for anything. A government that does not respect the different languages and cultures of this country.”

He also said, “I want to tell the people of Tamil Nadu that in memory of Karunanidhi ji and out of respect for your language, culture and tradition, everybody in India is going to get together and defeat the BJP in the next elections. We are not going to allow the destruction of the idea of India, of our institutions, our Supreme Court, the Reserve Bank of India, the Election Commission. We are going to stand together and do this.”

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanasamy also reminisced about his personal relationship with Karunanidhi, stating that the late leader always spoke about the welfare of the oppressed, Dalits and Adivasis when they two met. “Under the leadership of our young leader Rahul Gandhi at the Centre and Stalin in Tamil Nadu, we will bring about change in 2019," he said.

PUNJAB

2 ARRESTED OVER SUSPECTED PRASAD POISONING A day after 11 died and 40 others fell ill after consuming “prasad” at a temple in Karnataka's Chamrajnagar district, officials have arrested two people. District incharge Puttaranga Shetty said, “Whoever may be the culprit, action will be taken against them. Police investigating the case and already arrested two persons.” The food was offered to devotees, who had gathered for the foundation stone laying ceremony for construction of the Maramma temple at Sulivadi village. Police said at least 11 people died in hospitals after developing symptoms of severe food poisoning. People began vomiting soon after consuming the prasad, writhing in pain. Nearly 200 people were gathered for the event. Some of them even reportedly said the food reeked of kerosene.

Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy visited patients at hospitals on Friday and announced an ex gratia of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of the deceased.

Describing the incident as unfortunate, he assured that the Chamrajanagar health administration is being provided with medical help at the earliest.

SIDHU MEETS THE CAPT AFTER CONTROVERSY

Kartarpur Corridor: Punj Assembly suggests land swap with Pak CHANDIGARH: Punjab Assembly has passed a resolution suggesting swapping of land with Pakistan to bring the Kartarpur Sahib Gurdwara across the border within Indian territory. Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh said the proposed corridor would be a “bridge of peace”, however, reiterated that he would go there only when Pakistan stops weaponising Kashmiri terrorist groups in Kashmir and “ISI stops designs to spread terror in Punjab.” He also congratulated Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on the initiative.

While members of Opposition parties, Aam Aadmi Party and Shiromani Akali Dal reacted sharply to Singh's remarks, urging him to not link the Corridor issue with terrorism, BJP MLA Som Parkash and

Congress MLA Raj Kumar Verka however, said Amarinder Singh's concerns cannot be ignored. The resolution was initially aimed at praising the efforts of the Punjab government and the Centre for opening a cross-border passage to facilitate Indian Sikh pilgrims in visiting the gurdwara on the banks of Ravi in Pakistan. However, Akali Dal Chief Sukhbir Singh Badal demanded that land swap with the neighbour be made a part of the resolution, during a discussion in the House. The House accepted the suggestion and passed the resolution unanimously.

Sukhjinder Singh Randhawa, MLA from Dera Baba Nanak, from where the corridor is proposed to start, suggested land from his constituency could be handed over to Pakistan in the swap. The resolution, read

out loud by the CM, said, “This House records its appreciation for the efforts made by the Government of Punjab and Government of India to open Kartarpur Corridor and urges upon the Government of India to hasten completion of works to operationalise the corridor well before the 550th Birth Anniversary Celebrations of Sri Guru Nanak Dev Ji in November 2019 in keeping with the long pending demand of Punjabis, while ensuring that hard earned peace of Punjab is not disturbed in any manner.” Amarinder Singh said he was a devout Sikh who held religion in reverence and was very happy as pilgrims would be able to visit the Sikh shrine where Guru Nanak Dev spent his last 18 years. “On the other side, there is my Punjab. I will not let more blood spill,” he said.

WEST BENGAL

WB Govt refuses permission for BJP's 'Rath Yatra' KOLKATA: The West Bengal government has refused permission for the Bharatiya Janata Party to conduct its proposed Rath Yatra, citing intelligence reports of possible communal violence. In a letter sent to state BJP chief Dilip Ghosh, the Mamata Banerjeeled government said it was unable to allow the yatra as proposed by the party. In the letter, the government said intelligence reports indicated that “in several districts, organisations with overtly communal agenda, such as the RSS, the Bajrang Dal and the VHP, would actively join the yatra. There is a grave apprehension of major breach of peace... during and after the yatra.”

BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya reacted to the move, criticising the Trinamool Congress government's decision. Calling the decision “totally undemocratic”, he said his party would move a higher court against it. The BJP had proposed to conduct three rath yatras in different parts of the state ahead of the Lok Sabha election. The BJP has now moved a division bench of the Calcutta High Court

Mamata Banerjee

after a single-judge bench of Justice Tapabrata Chakraborty refused permission to the party to hold the yatra.

The bench had then directed the West Bengal chief secretary, the home secretary and the director general of police to hold a meeting with three representatives of the BJP by December 12, and take a decision on the rath yatra. Following the meeting between both sides, state government

officials had told the BJP that the decision will be conveyed to them by Saturday. In the letter, the West Bengal government said, “The areas proposed to be covered by the yatra are, because of publicity and propaganda, gradually turning into communally sensitive pockets. Intelligence reports indicate that public perception is that the religious overtones of the yatra will be turned into communal propaganda.”

The government has mentioned that intelligence inputs were obtained from district magistrates, commissioners of police, superintendents of police and the assessment of the Intelligence Bureau on the routes proposed by the BJP for the yatra. It said a large number of convoys in the yatra would create a chaotic situation and cause traffic disruption on arterial roads and highways. “Furthermore, during the period cited, major festivals and events are scheduled, and it required a heavy deployment of the resources of the government, including the police force,” the letter read.

Punjab Local Government Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu called on Chief Minister Captain Amarinder Singh, the first meeting between both the leaders following a controversy surrounding Sidhu's acceptance over Pakistan’s invite for ceremony of Kartarpur corridor, while Singh declined. During his half-an-hour meeting with the CM, Sidhu reportedly cleared the air on the “my captain” remark.

The Captain too dismissed it saying it was “blown out of proportion by the media”.

Sidhu, who had been recuperating from injury to his vocal cords due to hectic poll campaigning, enquired about Singh's health and wished him a speedy recovery.

He also gifted the CM a stuffed partridge brought from Pakistan. Both leaders also discussed results of recently concluded state elections and party's prospects in the 2019 polls. The Kartarpur corridor, which Amarinder has called a “conspiracy of the Pak army” did not figure in the talks.

TRINAMOOL LEADER KILLED IN ATTACK Trinamool Congress leader Saifuddin Khan was killed after assailants fired and threw bombs at his car last week. At least three people were killed, including a driver and a passerby. The car belonged to party MLA Biswanath Das. The West Bengal Police's Criminal Investigation Department has taken over the investigation into the matter. The MLA has claimed that the attack was targeting him. “I was the target, but because I got off at the party office I had a lucky escape.” Das had been dropped off at the local party office just minutes before the attack. He said the attack was planned and carried out by members of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (Communist). However, both parties have denied any involvement and alleged that the attack is another incident of an internal feud within the party.

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HERITAGE HISTORY

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25

22 - 28 December 2018

The Dream Nehru saw in 1929 at Lahore Fulfilled • Farsighted Gandhi sacrificed Patel to make Nehru President in 1929 • RSS Founder Dr. Hedgewar supported Congress Chief Jawaharlal hat a coincidence that Lahore got registered as the city for the historic call by the Indian National Congress for Complete Independence (Purna Swaraj) in December 1929 and the same city hosted the Muslim League Convention giving a call for Pakistan in March 1940!

On the banks of Lahore’s River Ravi, Pandit Nehru, the President of Congress, gave a call to vow and resolved to dedicate the Congressmen “to attainment of Purna Swaraj for India.” Nehru insisted on testing the waters of popular support for Congress’s new goal of Purna Swaraj, so he called for a national day of celebration on Sunday, 26 January 1930, on which in every city, town, and rural market all over India a public pledge would be taken as the Congress flag was unfurled, “We believe that India must sever the British connection and attain Purna Swaraj …”

On the banks of Lahore’s River Ravi, on 23 March 1940, Sher-i-Bengal (“Lion of Bengal”) Fazlul Haq presented the Pakistan resolution in favour of Two Nation Theory (Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations) calling for a separate nation for Muslims. The Convention was presided over by the Lifetime President of Muslim League, Mohammad Ali Jinnah. On 15 August 1947, independent India and Pakistan became reality despite Congress not accepting the Two Nation theory propagated by Jinnah.

W

In 1929, Mahatma Gandhi was “preparing the ground for a political earthquake”, as Shashi Tharoor uses the phrase in his book, “Nehru: The Invention of India”, “he wanted Motilal (Nehru) to be succeeded as President of the Congress party by his son.

Jawaharlal was reluctant, pleading with the Mahatma that his ‘personal inclination always is not to be shackled down to any office. I prefer to be free and to have the time to act according to my own inclinations.’ He was also conscious that he would not be the genuinely democratic choice of the party; any support he got, he argued, would largely be aimed at keeping others out.”

“But Gandhi would not be deterred. He cajoled and cudgeled Jawaharlal into submission, overcoming the objections even of Motilal himself, who feared that imposing his son on the party would not be fair either to the party or to Jawaharlal.( Ironically, Motilal it was who had first suggested to the Mahatma that ‘the need of the hour is the head of Gandhi and the voice of Jawahar.’)

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel, fifteen years older than Jawaharlal and doughty organizer who was already being thought of as the ‘Iron Man’ of the Congress, had more support than Nehru for the top job. But the All-India Congress Committee (AICC) was not enthusiastic about Gandhi’s

Nehru elected the President of Congress in 1929 and gave a call for Purna Swaraj

vote for Nehru on this farsighted understanding. The country was at a crossroads. In April 1929, Bhagat Singh threw bombs into the Legislative Assembly, expressing the hope that the explosions would ‘make the deaf hear’.

On 29 December 1929, Nehru as the President of INC insisted on

announcement that Jawaharlal would lead it, the party could not repudiate the Mahatma. On 29 September 1929, two months before his fortieth birthday, Jawaharlal Nehru was elected to preside over the Congress at its December session in Lahore.”

Muslim League leaders after a dinner party,1940

The Mahatma had to sacrifice his strong loyalist who had rose to be known as the Sardar after successfully leading the Bardoli Satyagrah in 1928. Gandhi was shrewd enough. Tharoor mentions the reason also: “The shrewd Mahatma had no doubt calculated that if he did not publicly co-opt Jawaharlal into the party establishment at the expense of the conservative Patel, the younger Nehru would have drifted away into active radicalism.”

The Mahatma could convince even elders who were reluctant to

testing the waters of popular support for Congress’s new goal of Purna Swaraj. He called for a national day of celebration on 26 January 1930. Thousands of crowded meetings were held, with

Next Column: The bond between Sultans and Rajas millions of Indians solemnly taking the pledge, raising their fists after the proclamation of national freedom was read out to them in every language of the land. “This was the first public articulation of

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the ‘tryst with destiny’ that Nehru and India made, but it took seventeen more years to redeem that pledge, though ‘not wholly or in full measure.’

Each year thereafter, India’s Independence Day had been celebrated on 26 January. After 1950, when the Republic of India’s Constitution was adopted, this national holiday was renamed Republic Day,” as Stanley Wolpert records in “Nehru: A Tryst with Destiny”.

Nehru’s call for Purna Swaraj was unanimously passed at the Lahore convention. On the night of 29 December, the new President Nehru raised the flag of a free India. It was saffron, white and green, its three horizontal stripes capturing three colours that were sacred to, and touched the hearts of, India’s major communities and which stood, respectively, for courage, unity and fertility, among other virtues. In the middle was a spinning wheel, proclaiming the country’s attachment to selfreliance.

Jawaharlal made a stirring speech about the flag standing for all Indians, whether Hindus or Muslims; and as the stars twinkled in an ink-black sky, men and women, President Nehru himself among them, danced with childlike jubilation around the flagpole. It was midnight, but few doubted that a new dawn has broken over India.

Not many people may be aware

that the founder of the mother organization of the present-day ruling party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), in India i.e. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Dr. Keshav Baliram Hedgewar had issued a circular to all his Shakhas (branches) to celebrate 26 January 1930 as Independence Day welcoming the Congress President Nehru’s call for Purna Swaraj. This incident is described in the authoritative biography of Dr. Hedgewar, “Dr. Hedgewar Charitra” written by N. H. Palkar.

Dr. Hedgewar himself was a Congressman till 1937 but was focused on strengthening RSS which he established in 1925 along with 25 other friends at Nagpur.

These days RSS is not only the largest NGO in India but has branches world-over.

Dr. Hedgewar preferred to call himself Tilakite and was not in favour of Gandhi but followed the directives of the Mahatma even when he was imprisoned while participating in Satyagraha as an individual. Of course, the RSS was insisting on a Saffron flag as the National Flag but the Tri-colour with Ashok Chakra was accepted in 1947. But on 26 January 1930, as per Dr. Hedgewar’s directive the Saffron Flag of RSS, which is considered as Guru, was unfurled sharp at 6pm at every Shakha welcoming Nehru’s call. These days when various organizations and political parties are using abusive language for Pandit Nehru and his family, one should take a learning lesson from the history where despite some difference of opinions even Pandit Nehru and Dr. Hedgewar were on the same wavelength to serve the interests of the nation. Dr. Hari Desai (The writer is a Socio-political Historian.

E-mail: haridesai@gmail.com)

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22- 28 December 2018

World’s First Tele-robotic Coronary Intervention World’s First-in-Human Telerobotic Coronary Intervention was performed

by UK based Dr. Tejas Patel, Chairman and Chief Interventional Cardiologist of the Apex Heart Institute (API) at Ahmedabad. This is the world’s first Percutaneous Coronary Intervention (PCI) conducted from a remote location outside of the catherization lab which is an important breakthrough Dr. Tejas Patel in the history of medical science in India.

The operation was performed from Swaminarayan Akshardham temple, located at a distance of roughly 32 km from catherization lab of API where the patient was admitted and attended to by Dr. Sanjay Shah. The success of this study paves the way for large-scale, long-distance tele-robotic platforms across the globe.

“The first-in-human case of remote robotic PCI represents a landmark event for interventional medicine. Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, are the number one cause of death worldwide resulting in nearly 18 million deaths per year.

“The application of telerobotics in India has the potential to impact a significant number of lives by providing access to care that may not otherwise have been possible,” said Dr. Tejas Patel, Chairman and Chief Interventional Cardiologist of API. Tele-robotic coronary interventional platform has the potential to dramatically improve patient access for both elective and emergent percutaneous coronary interventions and stroke in rural and

underserved populations. It will reduce time to treatment for emergent procedures such as STEMI and stroke and will also reduce variability in operator skills and thus, improve clinical outcomes. Dr Tejas Patel used CorPath® technology of Corindus Vascular Robotics, Inc. to conduct this operation.

Mark Toland, President and Chief Executive Officer of Corindus, stated“Cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, are the world’s most significant and undertreated clinical problem due to limited access to specialized, timely medical care.”

As a result of existing barriers to care, including increased global poverty and a declining number of trained specialists, only a fraction of patients worldwide receive lifesaving treatment, resulting in substantial death or disability.

“We anticipate that our technology will revolutionize cardiovascular disease treatment by providing specialized and timely medical care to anyone, anywhere.” explained Mr. Toland.

Geographic barriers, socioeconomic status and a rapidly shrinking number of skilled specialists significantly hinders patient access to specialized cardiovascular care.

This is especially of concern during highly emergent medical events, such as heart attacks and stroke, where ideal treatment must be received in as little as 90 minutes or within 24 hours, respectively, to avoid death or permanent disability.

JUSTICE AT LAST Continued from page 1

Riots broke down against the Sikh community, after then prime minister Indira Gandhi was shot down by her Sikh bodyguards. The High Court in India said, “The first strategy was to liquidate all Sikh males and the other was to destroy houses, leaving the women and children utterly destitute.

The trial court completely omitted to address this charge of criminal conspiracy.

The acquittal of Sajjan Kumar is set aside. He is convicted for criminal conspiracy, for abetting the commission of armed rioting and murders and for the offence of delivering provocative speeches instigating violence against Sikhs.” “The criminals escaped prosecution and punishment for over two decades. It took as many as 10 committees and commissions for the investigation into the role of some of them to be entrusted in 2005 to the CBI, 21 years after the occurrence,” notes the historic 203-page ruling.

Riot equating to 'partition massacres' The verdict came as a massive relief to riot survivors Jagdish Kaur, her cousin Jagsher Singh, and another survivor Nirpreet Kaur, all three who broke down after the ruling.

Principle complainant, Jagdish Kaur lost her husband Kehar Singh, and teenaged son Gurpreet Singh, and three cousins on November 1 and 2, 1984, in the killings that the HC equated with “partition massacres”.

She said that on November 2, 1984, when she went to the police post to lodge a report, she heard Sajjan Kumar delivering a provocative speech, telling people to “murder Sikhs and kill Hindus who shelter them.” Back in 2010, Kaur had told a Delhi court, “When the chowki in-charge asked the mob, “kitne murge bhun diye”, I felt I had lost faith in humanity.” Jagdish said the police post incharge threatened her when she was filing a report. She claimed the cop tried to intimidate her by saying the people she was nam-

ing were too powerful and she wouldn’t be able to protect the rest of her family.

Witness number 1 in the Palam Colony case, Kaur's evidence was crucial in the conviction of Kumar and five others. The HC said the accused were brought to justice primarily because of “the courage and perseverance of three key eyewitnesses”. Nirpreet Kaur saw her father being burnt alive at 5.30 am on the fateful day. While he managed to jump into a nearby drain to save himself, he was dragged back out and fatally set on fire again.

The four behind Kumar's conviction As welcome commendable the ruling is, it needs to be pointed out that it took over 34 years for Kumar and others responsible to be brought to justice. Four people key to the battle; two lawyers and two victims jumped through multiple hurdles and fought in the face of politics and intimidation to put Kumar behind bars.

Jagdish Kaur 77 year old Kaur still remembers the carnage as clear as day. Despite being constantly let down by the system, she continued to fight for justice. “I tell them, take to the streets.

Fight Crime. We all have to die someday, but we will fight against crime,” Kaur said. She was never deterred by the fact that Kumar was a powerful politician. “They made him a

Morari Bapu invites sex workers to katha Spiritual leader Morari Bapu recently visited the red light area of Mumbai's Kamathipura neighbourhood, where he interacted with sex workers.

Known for his recitation of Tulsidas' Ramcharitmanas, he personally saw how sex workers live, met them, and saw their situation first hand. The guru interacted with around 60 sex workers and visited some of their homes. Bapu, who is organising a recitation of Tulsidas' Manas Ganika in Ayodhya from December Morari Bapu recently visited the red light area of Mumbai's Kamathipura 22-30 extended an invitation to the workers narrated their ordeal about alleged women to attend the event. It must be noted harassment from police authorities, and their that Manas Ganika is based on Tulsidas' poor living conditions. Morari Bapu is the interaction with a sex worker named Vasanti. first spiritual leader to travel to the area It is reported that Bapu will arrange for where sex workers reside and meet them. He the travel and accommodation of the women has reached out to the community in a bid to for the entire duration of the katha, for free. sensitise the society towards them.

During his interaction, some of the sex

OI Awareness: Help Anu walk!

Born with a rare condition called Osteogenesis Imperfecta (OI), Annaya is a soon-to-be-six year old, who has broken bones over 30 times in her life and has had over 10 surgeries. Based in Ranchi, she is currently unable to walk on her own and has to undertake a 35 hour one-way train journey every three months to Vellore, for treatment. A cheerful and inspirational young child, she is barely surviving with menial financial support from friends and family and her mother struggles to provide her with

minister. They gave him cars and promotions. Only after fighting for 34 years have I managed to bring him to justice. Kumar's crimes are too great for life imprisonment, he should have been sentenced to death.”

Nirpreet Kaur Another eyewitness, and victim of the riots, Kaur is chairperson of Justice for Victims Organisation that was set up to help the survivors of 1984. She was barely 16 when she saw her father set on fire. She claimed that after she named Kumar to the police, a TADA (Terrorist and Destructive Activities Prevention Act) case was slapped on her. The charge was however, dropped. “After 34 years, I have received justice. He will go to jail.”

H.S. Phoolka “This case has been very close to me,” Phoolka said after the judgment. “This judgment is a historic document. It takes note of how for 34 years, the wheels of justice were impeded at each and every stage. These powerful people didn't allow the law to move on, the judicial system to move on.” The 73 year was elected MLA on an Aam Aadmi Party ticket in Punjab last year. However, he was informed that he could not continue his battle for justice for the victims of 1984, if he held a political post. The next day, Phoolka resigned as leader of the opposition. He said the Special Investigation Team set up by the Supreme Court in January 2018 changed the course of the case. Phoolka believes this is a symbolic judgment that will help them get justice for other victims as well.

R.S. Cheema Special prosecutor for the Central Bureau of Investigation, Cheema is also the special government prosecutor in the coal allocation cases appointed by the Supreme Court. “Jagdish Kaur kept on giving affidavits. The whole effort was to demolish her statement. But she persisted. We must commend her courage,” Cheema said. “These cases were in Parliament. It was the (Congress-led) UPA government that said it would follow these cases up. The CBI filed a

proper medical care. Doctors have suggested multiple surgeries to support her bones. She needs four rods inserted in her legs, the right and left femur, the right and left tibia, for her to be able to walk. However, the cost of the surgeries are massive and her family needs all the help they can get. Every contribution, no matter how large or small, will make a big difference to Anu's life. Those who wish to make a difference in her life, reach out to us and help us gift the young one a normal life.

chargesheet in 2010. That’s when the case really began.” This was the first case, according to Cheema, where the CBI insisted upon the charge of conspiracy. It argued that Kumar and his cohorts had addresses, and were targeting Sikh males, looting and vandalising property. “After time passes, even genuine investigation becomes impossible.

Moreover, the fear was live and potent even after two decades,” Cheema said. “This case is a triumph of justice, its finest hour. It proves for the common man that the arms of the law are long enough and reach the culprit. It sends the message that our culture of harmony and brotherhood is safe as long as the rule of law prevails. Had Delhi riots been dealt with sternly and honestly, we wouldn’t have had similar riots in Gujarat and Orissa.”

Sikhs denouncing Indian identity British Sikhs, many of who may have lost family members to the riot, have also approached the Conservative government for a deeper probe behind the Operation blue star, which the Thatcher government had allegedly helped Indira Gandhi to put together.

Keeping that sentiment in the heart of their argument, they also wrote to the Office of National Statistics (ONS) that they wanted a separate ethnic identity as Sikhs in the 2021 Census by denouncing their 'Indian' roots. However, after much survey, the UK body responsible for holding the 2021 census has rejected demands that ‘Sikh’ should be a separate ethnic identifier on the ground that it would “not be acceptable to a proportion of the Sikh population”. In a statement ONS said that they will continue to include Sikhism as a relious option under that religion section but after a survey of gurdwaras on the acceptance of a Sikh ethnic group tick-box “showed a high acceptance for inclusion.”

Preet Kaur Gill, the Chair of APPG for Sikhs, are determined to include Sikh ethnic tick box in the census. They have also decided to run a year long national campaign to 'put this right'. Bhai Amrik Singh behind the campaign from Sikh Federation (UK), said “legal action against the ONS remains an option.”

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HEALTH & LIFESTYLE

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22 - 28 December 2018

Patients spend a record £1.1BILLION on private healthcare to avoid soaring NHS waiting times which leave them 'let down and suffering' Knee and hip ops, cataracts and cancer treatment were the most common People in the UK spent a record £1.1billion on private healthcare last year in an attempts to avoid NHS waiting times.

Excluding cosmetic surgery, the amount spent on private treatments rose 75 per cent to £793milllion between 2012 and 2017.

Knee and hip operations, cataract surgery and cancer treatment are the three most commonly paid-for therapies.

Experts warn longer waits for free healthcare are 'without doubt' driving people to fork out, with some parts of the NHS keeping people waiting until their conditions become constantly painful or crippling.

And patients' rights

campaigners say people who can't afford surgery's hefty price tags have 'no choice but to suffer when the NHS lets them down'.

An analysis by market intelligence company Laingbuisson revealed some NHS hospitals are even making a profit because of income from their private units.

Many people are paying one-off costs for treatment when they need it, with no big change in the number of people paying for private insurance, The Times reported.

There are more than four million people on waiting lists for NHS treatment in England and national waiting time targets haven't been met for

at le'Lengthening waiting lists without doubt are driving it,' said Laingbuisson chairman Keith Pollard.

'It’s the big routine stuff – hips, knees, cataract operations, hernia operations – that isn’t seen as urgent.'ast two years.

The £1.1billion figure is the first time the spending has passed into 10 figures, and the amount people are paying themselves has risen 50 per cent in five years.

Private revenue for NHS hospitals has risen to £620million, up around 20 per cent in the

same time period, the analysis said.

Surgery rationing done by the health service is partly to blame, experts said.

Patients paying for the most common procedures – cataract surgery or knee or hip replacements – can be denied an op by the NHS until they can't see or are living in constant pain.

The average hip replacement costs £11,468 at a private hospital, with the price as high as £15,050 in some places.

And cataract surgery costs £2,464 on average, rising to as high as £3,535.

The entire private healthcare sector is worth £5.8billion, 20 per cent more than it was in 2012.

Patients could Skype doctors as far away as India in a desperate bid to slash soaring GP waiting times Patients in the UK could Skype doctors from foreign countries as far as India under radical plans to cut down NHS waiting times.

Technology is making it easier to use doctors across the globe, the General Medical Council (GMC) said in a report.

The proposals come after figures last week revealed the true extent of the crisis, with millions of patients unable to see their GP for up to four weeks.

The GMC also warned that the NHS is 'at the brink of a breaking point' trying to deliver patient care.

The report painted a stark picture of the pressure on doctors, many of whom are considering career changes to step away from the heavy workload.

A survey of 2,600 UK doctors, included in the report, found that within the next three years, a

fifth are considering going part time.

A further fifth plan to leave the UK to work abroad, which experts have labelled as 'concerning' for the industries' future.

To combat the issue, the GMC said: 'With advances and develop-

ments in technology and telemedicine, we are exploring how to maximise the longer-term potential for internationally based doctors to treat UK patients, with the same assurance on standards as when the care is provided by UK based doctors.'

It does not specify which countries officials may use, however figures show the second highest nationality of doctors currently working in the NHS is Indian.

In February, 18,348 Indian staff were employed, compared to 976,288 British staff, according to The House

of Commons Library.

The NHS have staff from 202 nationalities, with 6,000 foreign doctors hired in 2016, despite the ongoing concerns of language barriers.

In light of the recent GMC proposals, critics are wary of outsourcing medical professionals furthermore.

They suggest it puts lives at risk as the level of training is not to the same standard.

But the GMC warn 'the NHS as a whole is at a critical juncture', and planning for a workforce in the right places, with the right skills, is urgently needed.

Overactive immune system 'may trigger ME-like symptoms' An overactive immune system may help explain the cause of chronic fatigue syndrome, scientists from King's College London have suggested.

Many sufferers of CFS, or ME, say their condition began with a challenge to their immune system like an infection.

The scientists studied 55 patients with Hepatitis C who were given a drug that causes a similar response to a virus.

Eighteen of those patients had an overactive immune system and went on to develop CFS-like symptoms.

Chronic fatigue syndrome is a long-term illness characterised by extreme

tiredness.

Scientists from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience at King's College recruited 55 patients who had hepatitis C. The standard treatment for hepatitis C is the drug interferon-alpha which challenges the immune system in the same way as a powerful infection.

The team measured fatigue and immune markers before, during and after treatment, tracking which people developed the persistent CFS-like illness.

In the 18 patients who developed CFS-like symptoms the team found a much stronger immune response to the medication.

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Significantly these patients also had an overactive immune system before the treatment started.

Lead researcher Dr Alice Russell from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) said: "For the first time, we have shown that people who are prone to develop a CFS-like illness have an overactive immune system, both before and during a challenge to the immune system.

"Our findings suggest that people who have an exaggerated immune response to a trigger may be more at risk of developing CFS." Senior researcher, Prof Carmine Pariante, added: "This is a light in the fog, a direction of travel.

Although

screening is a long way off, our results are the first step in identifying those at risk and catching the illness in its crucial early stages."

Dr Charles Shepherd, the ME Association's medical adviser, said: "This research adds to the growing weight of scientific evidence which indicates that the body's immune system is playing an important role in the causation of ME/CFS."

The study is one of five research projects funded by the Medical Research Council into the causes of ME. In June, Scottish National Party MP Carol Monaghan led an emotional Westminster Hall debate into a common treatment, graded exercise therapy (Get), which is available on the NHS. She argued it was often damaging and in need of revision.

Others defended the treatment.

in brief RISK OF HAVING A HEART ATTACK PEAKS AT 10PM ON CHRISTMAS EVE

Christmas Eve is the most common day of the year to suffer a heart attack, researchers have found. Academics compared the dates and times of 280,000 heart attacks to take place over 16 years in Sweden. They found heart attacks peaked at 10pm on December 24. They believe emotional stress and anxiety increases the risk - especially among over-75s or those already suffering from diabetes or heart disease. The scientists said strategies should be developed to protect these people from stress in the run-up to Christmas. The researchers, led by experts at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, found the risk of a heart attack rises by 37 per cent on Christmas Eve. Christmas Day is slightly safer, with a 29 per cent increased risk, and on Boxing Day the risk is up by 21 per cent. New Year's Eve is no more dangerous than any other day of the year, but on New Year's Day the risk rises again by 20 per cent.

STATIONS AND CARRIAGES ARE THE 'PERFECT BREEDING GROUND FOR THE FLU'

Crowded underground stations are more likely to be infested with flu-like illnesses, scientists have said. People who use stations with fewer transport links - which are busier - are the most vulnerable, a study found. Residents of Islington, who often change lines at King's Cross St Pancras, had rates of flu nearly three times higher than commuters from Kensington, who mostly take direct trains because there are lots of stations in the borough.

Up to five million people pass through the London underground a day, with 543 trains running at peak time. For the study, the researchers compared Oyster card route information and Public Health England data on flu-like illnesses over six months in 2013/14. The team, led by experts at the University of Bristol, found higher rates of infections in Londoners with more complicated journeys. Greenwich in southeast London had the highest flu-like influenza cases, with 17.32 infections per 100,000 people. At the other end of the table was Hounslow, on the outskirts of West London - close to Heathrow. Its rate of flu-like illnesses was just one per 100,000 people.

TEETHING GELS DON'T WORK WELL Baby teething gels such as Bonjela are to be taken off supermarket shelves after health officials said there was little evidence they worked. From January 1 all teething gels for babies containing lidocaine - a mild local anaesthetic - will only be available from behind pharmacy counters. Until now the products, which include Bonjela and Calgel teething gels, have been available from garages, supermarkets and corner shops.

28 BOLLYWOOD

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22 - 28 December 2018

KJo slams actors, calls them “delusional”

Seen the worst and the best of times: Katrina Kaif

Filmmaker Karan Johar hit out at young actors at journalist Anupama Chopra's annual 'adda' discussion on her website, calling them “delusional” about their status in the industry. Raising a point he had made at last year's panel, Johar said a few major stars in Bollywood had deluded themselves into believing they still had the power to draw audiences- they demand salaries in double digits but can't open a film.

“It is a disease,” Johar said, “Everyone has it.” Johar also stressed that just because an actor had delivered a couple of box office hits, they began believing they are invincible. When Chopra elaborated the problem, saying entourage, hair and make up costs alone go up to Rs 1 Lakh a day for some actors, Johar said she had touched a “raw nerve”. “They are all crazy! Crazy, with a capital 'C'. They're cuckoo, many of them. Just because their two films do well suddenly it's all me, myself and I.” He pointed out that this is a flawed approach because “every film has a different scale.” Johar blames celebrity management for the trend. He said that most celebrity managers are “clueless” about how the industry works, and once their clients secure lucrative deals, event and wedding appearances and “walk on to a stage with 3000 people crying out their name, it's easy to get swayed. “They just think, 'Oh, your film did well? Increase your price by Rs 5 Crore'.” The producer even named movies that cannot be made on the same budgets any more. Low budget movies like 'Bareilly Ki Barfi' and 'Shubh Mangal Saavdhaan' can't be made on the same budgets any more “perhaps because the same actors will demand bigger salaries.”

He also named a few actors, saying, “All these wonderful actors; Rajkummar Rao and Ayushmann Khurrana and Vicky Kaushal; I hope they are solid and sensible about their monetary choices.”

Katrina Kaif, who currently awaits the release of 'Zero', recently opened up about her Bollywood journey which began 15 years ago. Sharing her experience working in the industry, the 35 year old said, “I feel very fortunate that I have experienced so many beautiful things in all these years. I have seen ups, downs, the worst times, and the highest of times. I just feel fortunate for everything I have gone through.” She expressed gratitude for her upcoming movie, and said, “I feel fortunate today to be able to work on a film like this, to be a part of this with the kind of talent that we have – Anand sir, Shah Rukh, Anushka.”

The actress also opened up about the opportunities that have come her way. “As long as I am getting the opportunity to showcase, learn and take my art forward with the best people we have in the industry today, I am really grateful. As long as I learn every day and improve my craft, give my audience something new, I feel quite happy,” she said.

Saif is a proud father, calls Sara brilliant Saif Ali Khan is extremely proud of his daughter, Sara Ali Khan, who recently made her film debut opposite Sushant Singh Rajput with 'Kedarnath'. Saif said he wasn't surprised by her performance because he always knew she had it in her.

When asked about whether he was surprised by Sara's confidence on screen, he said, “Yes and no. the thought behind her shot is clear. It's amazing. Way better than what I was.”

He added, “I'm so happy for her. This was her choice all the way. She chose this and made it happen. And I thought she was brilliant. A thinking actress who is expressive and inventive in every shot. I see a fantastic future for her.” He said that

Deepika has “lot of money” Deepika Padukone is currently on a post-wedding high and boy, is it cute! Still basking in the glow of her recent wedding with Ranveer Singh, Deepika is also having her fun trolling some trolls. When called 'Bride of the Year' in a recent video interview with Filmfare, the actress responded by calling herself 'Deepika Padukone, wife of Ranveer Singh Padukone'. Swatting away at unnecessary questions like flies, the actress when asked whether she will put in effect a “no kissing policy”

after her marriage, she screams 'Chee!'

The best part of the interview is the last, when the interviewer tells her what trolls on the internet have to say about her wedding. Filmfare Editor-InChief Jitesh Pillai read out a social media user's comment asking whether she spent all her money on her ceremonies. Deepika responds tongue-incheek, “Don't worry. Mere paas bohot paisa hai (I have a lot of money.” The standard absurdity actresses are subjected to each day is pitiable. The actress also made some interesting revelations about her life after marriage.

She said, “You know, we're together. Of course, he's working, I'm working. But the fact that we just wake up to each other, I think that's the most beautiful thing.”

As if the couple could not get any more adorable, on the other hand, Ranveer said marriage feels like magic to him. “Marriage is like the best thing that has ever happened to me. I feel some kind of magic, some kind of power, it's like I'm invincible. You know in those superhero movies, you know that moment when the suit comes on. I feel like marriage has done that to me.”

Sara has expressed her wish to act on numerous occasions. “She is used to being good at what she loves, but I thank the people for welcoming her and giving her the acceptance that an actor needs.

'Kedarnath' is a story of star-crossed lovers, set amid the devastating 2013 floods in the temple town. Days after the release of its teaser, the film ran into trouble with priests of the shrine protesting what they called ‘love jihad’.

The film shows a Muslim potter falling in love with Hindu pilgrim girl. Meanwhile, Sara prepares for the release of 'Simmba' on December 28, where she will be seen as the love interest of the film’s hero Ranveer Singh.

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Priya Prakash Varrier is Mumbai Police calls out Dulquer for flouting traffic rules Google's most popular celeb Actor Dulquer Salmaan and Sonam Kapoor were called out by Mumbai Police last week for engaging in unsafe driving, after the actress shared a video of what appeared like Dulquer using his phone while driving. The Twitter page for the force tweeted to the actors calling out their carelessness in a now deleted tweet. Sonam however, corrected the police, stating the car was actually being towed by a truck. “We weren't driving we were rigged on a truck.. but I'm glad you guys are concerned.. I hope and I know you show the same interest in regular folk as well! Thanks for taking care! #Reelvsreal @dulQuer.”

Mumbai Police however, replied, “We agree with you @sonamakapoor ! Quite a 'weirdo' to try such stunts while driving and putting the lives of fellow drivers at risk too! We don't quite approve of these even in 'reel' life. #NotDone.” It was Salmaan's turn to justify the video. He tweeted, “Would appreciate it if you had checked some facts before tweeting this.

I n fact

@MumbaiPolice helped us with permissions and traffic management during the shoot and were present the whole time. In my next tweet attaching the video I was shooting. #notaweirdo” He added, “@MumbaiPolice The car was rigged to a low loader truck which was also the camera rig. I couldn’t steer or drive the car even if I wanted to.

Also this particular c a r cannot s t e e r itself.”

Malayalam actress Priya Prakash Varrier didn't know just how steam she would get for her 'wink song' 'Manikya Malaraya Poovi', this year. When the song released earlier this year, the actress shot to fame for her bold character, her “wink” in particular. 2018’s biggest internet sensation, Priya Prakash Varrier overthrew Sunny Leone as the most searched celebrity on Google and her journey has just started.

'Oru Adaar Love', the movie that features the infamous wink and flying kiss that made Priya and actor Roshan Abdul Rahoof famous, has already created a hype around the film. Priya was followed by actress Priyanka Chopra’s spouse Nick Jonas while singer Sapna Choudhary grabbed the third spot.

Besides, Priyanka Chopra and actress Sonam Kapoor’s husband Anand Ahuja occupied the fourth and fifth spots, respectively. On the movie front, Bollywood blockbusters overshadowed Hollywood in the search lists, with 'Robot 2.0' taking the top spot, followed by 'Baaghi 2' and 'Race 3'.

Songs to rule the roost included Neha Kakkar's 'Dilbar Dilbar', Arijit Singh's 'Tera Fitoor', and Atif Aslam's 'Dekhte Dekhte' .

Shankar wants Rajinikanth, Kamal Haasan or Vijay for 'Mudhalvan 2' Following the success of Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar-starrer '2.0', director Shankar has revealed he is open to the idea of doing a '3.0'. The current movie is already a follow up of 2010 blockbuster 'Enthiran'. Shankar is currently preparing to take 'Indian 2' to the floors. The forthcoming film is sequel to his 1996 blockbuster hit 'Indian'. Actor Kamal Haasan will reprise his role of the aged vigilante.

Shankar has seemingly warmed up to the idea of making sequels as buzz is he is also toying with the idea of a sequel for his 1999 political drama 'Mudhalvan'. The filmmaker recently took part in a talk show where he revealed his top choices for 'Mudhalvan 2'. “If the lead character is a bit elderly, then it will be Rajinikanth or Kamal Haasan. If the script demanded a younger actor, I will choose Vijay.”

* Schedule is subject to change

MONDAY 24th - FRIDAY 28th December

TIME

16:00: 17:00: 17:30: 18:00: 18:30: 19:00: 19:30: 20:00: 20:30: 21:00: 21:30: 22:30: 23:00:

TV PROGRAM NAMES

RASOI SHOW THE GREAT INDIAN GLOBAL KITCHEN 2 THE GREAT INDIAN GLOBAL KITCHEN RADHA PREM KI DEEWANI UTTARAN DIL KI PUKAR INTERNETWALA LOVE ISHQ MEIN MARJAWAN JAHAANARA BALIKA VADHU - LAMHE PYAAR KE RED ALERT TANTRA JAHAANARA

TIME

18:00: 18:30: 19:00: 19:30: 20:00: 21:30: 22:30:

TIME

17:30: 18:00: 18:30: 19:00: 19:30: 20:00: 21:30: 22:30:

SATURDAY 29th December TV PROGRAM NAMES

RADHA PREM KI DEEWANI UTTARAN DIL KI PUKAR THE GREAT INDIAN GLOBAL KITCHEN 2 DANCE DEEWANE ZINDAGI KI HAQEEQAT SE AAMNA SAAMNA TANTRA

SUNDAY 30th December TV PROGRAM NAMES

ISHQ MEIN MARJAWAN - WEEKEND KA MAHA EPISODE RADHA PREM KI DEEWANI UTTARAN DIL KI PUKAR THE GREAT INDIAN GLOBAL KITCHEN 2 DANCE DEEWANE ZINDAGI KI HAQEEQAT SE AAMNA SAAMNA TANTRA

* Schedule is subject to change

SATURDAY 22nd DECEMBER TIME TV PROGRAM NAMES

* Schedule is subject to change

17:00 17:30 18:30 20:00 22:00 23:00

TIME 16:30 17:30 18:30 20:00 23:00

Keys to Kismat Crime Patrol Indian Idol Indian Idol Crime Patrol Crime Patrol

SUNDAY 23rd DECEMBER

TV PROGRAM NAMES

Meet the Drapers Crime Patrol Indian Idol Indian Idol Crime Patrol

MONDAY 24th - FRIDAY 28th DECEMBER

TIME 18:30 19:00 19:30 20:00 20:30 21:00 21:30 22:00

TV PROGRAM NAMES

Vighnaharta Ganesh Mere Sai Yeh Un Dinon Ki Baat Hai Chandragupta Maurya Main Maayke Chali Jaaungi Patiala Babes Ladies Special Crime Patrol

SATURDAY 29th December TIME TV PROGRAM NAMES

18:00: 19:00: * Schedule is subject to change

MONDAY 24th - FRIDAY 28th December

19:30: 20:00: 20:30:

UDANN

SHAKTI ASTITVA KE EHSAAS KI

DASTAAN-E-MOHABBAT SALIM ANARKALI

21:00:

BIGG BOSS (SEASON 12)

22:30:

VISH YA AMRIT SITAARA

22:00: 23:00:

SILSILA ROOP

Saturday December 22, 2018 01:31 Film : Bombay 06:00 Film : Bezubaan Ishq 08:26 Film : Jaan Se Pyara 11:30 Film : Inteha 14:46 Film : Main Khiladi Tu Anari 18:20 Film : Bewafaa 21:30 Film : Don 2 Sunday December 23, 2018 00:30 Film : Dastak 03:00 Film : Jeet - Born To Win 06:00 Film : The Silent Heroes 08:15 Film : Bombay 11:00 Film : Chaalbaaz 14:15 Film : Santa Banta Pvt Ltd 16:40 Film : Agneepath 20:00 Film : Tanu weds Manu returns 22:42 Film : Awarapan Monday December 24, 2018 01:15 Film : Nazar 06:00 Film : Prithipal Singh... A Story 08:00 Film : Ek Aur Krodhi 10:30 Film : Yeh Hai Mumbai Meri Jaan 13:17 Film : Woh 7 Din 16:20 Film : Don 2 19:16 Film : Star Stop 20:00 Film : Besharam 23:00 Film : Tanu weds Manu returns

19:30: 20:00: 21:00: 22:00: 23:30:

INDIA'S GOT TALENT - SEASON 8 INSIDE ACCESS WITH MISSMALI NI (SEASON 2) DESI BEAT 3.0 NAAGIN - SEASON 3 BIGG BOSS (SEASON 12) - WEEKEND KA WAAR INDIA'S GOT TALENT - SEASON 8 FINALE UDANN

Tuesday December 25, 2018 01:36 Film : Jurm 06:00 Film : I Don't Love You 08:17 Film : Tumsa Nahin Dekha 10:55 Film : Andaaz 14:03 Film : Dil Chahta Hai 17:53 Film : Welcome 21:15 Film : English Vinglish 23:57 Film : Banjo Wednesday December 26, 2018 02:30 Film : Hey Bro 06:00 Film : The Perfect Girl 08:00 Film : Mohabbat Ke Dushman 10:22 Film : Woh 7 Din 13:22 Film : Ek Se Bure Do 16:14 Film : Besharam 18:58 Film : Star Stop 20:00 Film : Koyelaanchal 23:00 Film : Andaaz Thursday December 27, 2018 02:00 Film : Utthaan 06:00 Film : Bezubaan Ishq 08:26 Film : Banjo 11:15 Film : Dil Chahta Hai 15:00 Film : Welcome 18:21 Film : English Vinglish 21:02 Film : Veer Friday December 28, 2018 00:22 Film : Four Pillars Of Basement 02:25 Film : Mera Samrajya 06:00 Film : Prithipal Singh... A Story 08:00 Film : Johny I Love You 10:55 Film : Gunaah 13:23 Film : Andha Kanoon 16:46 Film : Raja Hindustani 20:22 Film : Badlapur 23:00 Film : Sanam Teri Kasam

SUNDAY 30th December

TIME

TV PROGRAM NAMES

17:30: INDIA'S GOT TALENT - SEASON 8 FINALE

19:30: INSIDE ACCESS WITH MISSMALINI (SEASON 2)

20:00: NAAGIN - SEASON 3

21:00: BIGG BOSS (SEASON 12) - FINALE

30 EVENT

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Global celebration of the 98th birth anniversary of HH Pramukh Swami Maharaj

Saints offer prayers to Pramukh Swami Maharaj on his 98th birth anniversary of the spiritual leader

The 98th birth anniversary of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj was also celebrated on December 15, at the BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, London.

The evening assembly began with a medley of devotional songs depicting Pramukh Swami's virtues.

Swamis presented a series of discourses that explored his pure and unconditional devotion to God, his exemplary observance of spiritual tenets, selfless love for

Mahant Swami gives diksha mantra to 34 newly initiated sadhus

humanity and complete detachment from ego. They also shared examples of recognition that the virtues earned from many prominent leaders.

Youths performed an uplifting dance performance and Mahant Swami Maharaj gave his blessings via video, from Rajkot. The celebrations were then marked with a joyous procession carrying Swami Maharaj's idol on a decorated chariot through the prayer hall.

Head of Bochasanwasi Shree Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha (BAPS), Pujya Mahant Swami is currently on his vicharan in Mumbai. Earlier, he had taken a single day halt in Sarangpur. A Smruti Mandir is to be built inside the Sarangpur temple premises, at the spot where Pujya Pramukh Swami's last rites were conducted. Pujya Mahant Swami carried out a shilanyas on December 17. Before Sarangpur, Mahant Swami was in Rajkot, where celebration of the completion of 200 years of when God Swaminarayan was offered the vachnamrut, was

Sneh Joshi

The 98th birth anniversary of His Holiness Pramukh Swami Maharaj, was celebrated with much joy and pomp in Rajkot, in the divine presence of His Holiness Mahant Swami Maharaj, on December 15, at the 'Swaminarayan Nagar' site. The event saw over 200,000 worshippers and well-wishers thronging in to participate, including prominent

guests like the Chief Minister of Gujarat, Vijay Rupani. At the programme that began at 5.00 pm, senior swamis shared their impressions of Pramukh Swami's virtues, including his exemplary devotion to God, his divine power, forgiveness and universal and indiscriminate love for all.

Mahant Swami also inaugurated the first part of Pramukh Swami's biography during the festivities. The celebrations also included a special pro-

organised on December 11. On the 12th, Kirtan Aaradhna was organised, during which the senior sadhus and the youths presented different kinds of kirtans. On the 13th, Pujya Mahant Swami gave diksha to 34 new sadhus. For his aashirvachan on this occasion, he said that if they placed utmost trust in God and other saints, nobody can touch them. On December 14, Rajkot BAPS Shree Swaminarayan temple's patotsav was celebrated.

Pujya Mahant Swami conducted a vedic ritual along with the patotsav ritual.

gramme commemorating the start of the 200th year, since the compilation of the first Vachanamrut- the most sacred and foundational scripture of the S w a m i n a r a y a n Sampradaya. Rupani, in his address, said that “whoever met Pramukh Swami Maharaj was overcome with love.” He also said that “Pramukh Swami Maharaj's universal love for humanity alleviated the misery of countless souls.”

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year, your focus is drawn to your career and standing in the society. This is the time when you are more interested in, and focused on, accomplishing something important. Contact with authority figures is more likely during this period.

Recognition will come your way whether you ask for it or not, and the responsibility that goes with it.

are feeling most adventurous TAURUS Apr 21 - May 21 You and willing to achieve higher

knowledge and spiritual growth. This is a good time to broaden your horizons through travel and higher learning. This may take you to far off lands in pursuit of your new-found goals. You must distance yourself from the mundane grind of life and take on something which is more meaningful for your inner growth.

GEMINI May 22 - June 22 The Sun energizes your sector of

change, transformation and regeneration. On a more practical level, you may be dealing with joint finances and shared resources now more than usual. You should also make sure that your tax affairs are in order. You are more willing than usual to explore and delve deeper into life's secrets and arrive at meaningful conclusions.

As the Sun transits your seventh house, you have a greater need than usual to be in a relationship. The emphasis is on "us" rather than "me". Social interactions of a personal nature are highlighted. This is likely to be an extremely busy time for most of you.

Use tact and diplomacy in your dealing, otherwise you are likely to come across as over confident and egotistical.

The Sun transits your solar sixth house and highlights your health and also makes you take pride in your day to day work. Hence, you should enhance your skills, get organized and take up a health regime for your well-being. This transit highlights the need for efficiency and as such you should bring in the new and get rid of the old ideas that do not work.

LEO Jul 23 - Aug 23

VIRGO Aug 24 - Sep 23

After a period of relative inactivity, you are coming out of your shell, ready to perform and to express yourself creatively. This is a very progressive period of the year, when you are inspired emotionally.

You take more pride in your your love affairs, your children, and your hobbies and are generally very sociable and make friends easily.

With the Sun transiting your solar fourth house of family and home, these areas are highlighted during this period. Buying or selling of property or even renovating it will be uppermost in your mind as you will be trying to put your roots down permanently. It is also a time when family life will be charged with emotions so be diplomatic and respect other people's views.

LIBRA Sep 24 - Oct 23

You are exploring and searching now, making connections, and paying attention to your immediate environment. Socially you are very popular and your communications strengthen your connections.

You will be busy with errands, paperwork, phone calls, and light socializing. Siblings, close relatives and friends may play an important role in your life during this period.

SCORPIO Oct 24- Nov 22

Prime Minister Narendra Modi too paid tribute to Pramukh Swami Maharaj. He described him as being “divine, grand, compassionate, and humble.” He added that Pramukh Swami was a “beacon of impeccable service and wisdom.” Modi said, “I enjoyed a special relationship with him. I always looked up to him as a mentor” and “felt like a disciple before a Guru, and a son before a father.”

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The UK’s leading Vedic writer and TV personality

ARIES Mar 21 - Apr 20 More than any other time of the

CANCER Jun 22 - Jul 22

Rajkot celebrations

A small procession carrying the idol of Swamiji Maharaj in a decorated chariot was taken through the prayer hall

020 8518 5500

SAGITTARIUS Nov 23 - Dec 21

The Sun highlights your second house of finance, and your focus is on material affairs and comfort issues. This is a good time to plan your future investments carefully to maximise your profits. If travelling make sure you keep your documents safe as there is a possibility of misplacing them. Some of you might change your travel itinerary.

CAPRICORN Dec 22 - Jan 20 The Sun transits your first house and this affects your personal identity, appearance, outward behaviour, and self-expression. This marks the peak of your physical solar cycle, and you are in the position to make an impression on others, and to assert your personal influence. Increased energy and a renewed feeling of confidence is with you now, so take advantage of your charisma to achieve your goals.

AQUARIUS Jan 21 - Feb 19 The Sun travels through your twelfth house now, marking a time of retreat and regeneration.

This also heralds a time for research and unfinished behind-thescene activities. Matters which have dragged on for a while should now be re-assessed and put to rest. Some of you will be looking to spiritual enlightenment and take up yoga and meditation.

The Sun illuminates your sector of friends, social gatherings and group activities. You will be in constant demand and will be in a position to network with new-found friends who will promote your cause. Personal relationships are also to the fore and some of you might even find true love. This is a time to follow your dreams and ideals.

PISCES Feb 20 - Mar 20

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22 - 28 December 2018

THE SPIRIT OF UNITY – REMEMBERING SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL ON THE 68TH NIRVANA DAY The visionary with the rightful Indian thinking and great leadership skills who worked with remarkable persuasive techniques to build a strong united India deserves more than just celebrations or should I say any amount of celebrations in his name is always less. It requires lots of likeminded individuals to come together to revoke the love for ONE strong India. This is even more required as the divisive forces are working on social media with false propaganda and fake news.

This is needed even more because the proxy war to break India is on, with numerous homes being destroyed with continuous shelling in the border states like Jammu and Kashmir.

In London, Sardar Patel Memorial Society, UK continued with its efforts to send a strong message to the masses to work even harder for a united India! Earlier they commemorated his 143rd Birth Anniversary ‘Rashtriya Ekta Diwas’ at the prestigious India House, Indian High Commission in London. It was well attended by all the who’s who of UK. This was followed by a grand meeting at Nehru Centre to commemorate the Sardar’s death anniversary on the 15th December.

The high profile event was attended by prominent persons including Mr A.S Rajan Minister of Co-ordination, who was also the keynote speaker, and his wife Ms Sashirekha Rajan, , Mr Brij Kumar Guhare, Deputy Director Nehru Centre, Dr NandKumar, Director Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan, Mr Ravi Sharma famous presenter from Lyca Radio All the dignitaries were invited on stage to pay their respects by showering flowers on the statue of the respectable leader, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.

The Chairman of SPMS Mr C.B Patel was involved personally leading the guests for dinner before the formal start. Ms Krishna Pujara the General Secretary welcomed the distinguished guests and members of the audience. The entire event was meticulously planned by Ms Sulochna Sethi and various other members of the committee. Mr Kanti Nagda compered the entire show beautifully.

He interestingly pointed out that Sardar was against statue building personally. He further said, while the crowd throngs the statue of Unity near Sardar Sarovar at Kevardiya, it is high time to pay true tribute to him. He was honoured with Bharat Ratna only in the year 1991. The hero of Kheda and Bardoli Satyagrah was the man without political ambitions.

Dr Nand kumar recalled his days when he first came to London and had the opportunity to meet Mr Ramkrishna, the former personal secretary to the Iron Man of India. He recited prayer from Vedas, dedicated to human kind.

Om Bhadram Karnnebhih Shrnnuyaama Devaah | Bhadram Pashyema-Akssabhir-Yajatraah | Sthirair-Anggais-TussttuvaamsasTanuubhih | Vyashema Devahitam Yad-Aayuh | Svasti Na Indro Vrddha-Shravaah |

Photo courtesy: Raj D Bakrania, PrMediapix

Rashmi Mishra

Sardar Patel Memorial Society, UK commemorates the Sardar's death anniversary on December 15, with a grand meeting at Nehru Centre. The high profile event was attended by prominent persons including MInister of Co-ordination, A.S. Rajan, and his wife Sashirekah Rajan.

Svasti Nah Puussaa Vishva-Vedaah | Svasti Nas-Taakssaryo Arisstta-Nemih | Svasti No Vrhaspatir-Dadhaatu || Om Shaantih Shaantih Shaantih || Meaning: Aum! O gods, may we hear auspicious words with the ears; While engaged in yagnas, May we see auspicious things with the eyes; While praising the gods with steady limbs, May we enjoy a life that is beneficial to the gods.

May Indra of ancient fame be auspicious to us; May the supremely rich (or all-knowing) Pusa (god of the earth) Be propitious to us; May Garuda, the destroyer of evil, Be well disposed towards us; May Brihaspati ensure our welfare.

Aum! Peace! Peace! Peace!

SPMS UK Chairman CB Patel pays respect to Sardar Patel

Dr Nandkumar spoke about little anecdotes which were shared by Mr Ramakrishna during those days. He also shared how Bhartiya Vidya Bhawan was thus connected to Sardar Patel.

Mr Guhare spoke about Sardar as a legacy to be followed by present generation. He said that he had grown up reading poems about him and how he was inspired by him and always wondered how intense his thoughts

must have been to free India to pull him back and return to India after studying law and get involved in the freedom struggle by showing the light to people to participate in the movement. He had the potential power to blissfully and soulfully break the shackles of slavery which bonded the Indians.

According to CB, Sardar Patel’s contribution to the nation with absolutely no craving for any position nor sulking for being ignored is immense. He spoke about how the statue of Unity has become a great tourist destination now. More than 25,000 people visit it every day. It is not about a statue of someone who died several years ago but it is about the values, respect, standards and sacrifice. It is to tell everyone that no one can break India. It is an investment and the President of India laid the foundation for the most modern railway station at Kevadiya today. The lives of people in nearby town are changing quick, development and infrastructure building is happening faster than ever.

He also mentioned that Sardar Patel, councillor of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation from 1917 to 1928. No wonder it is one of the best planned city in the India.

British called him the best administrator. He also thanked the committee members for their hardwork and cooperation.

Mr Ravi Sharma read a poem on Sardar Patel written by Sri Harivanshrai Bachchan, the poet, and the father of legendary actor Amitabh Bachchan, which has described the Sardar of Bardoli in the following lines: यही प्रसि​ि लोह का पुरुष प्रबल, यही प्रसि​ि शसति की शीला अटल, सहला इिेिका कभी न शत्रुदल, पटेल पर स्वदेश को गुमान है.िुबसुि उच्च श्रुं ग पर सकये जगह, ह्रदय गंभीर है िमुद्र की िरह, कदम छुए हुए जमीन की िरह, पटेल देश का सनगहबान है. हरेक पक्ष को पटेल िोलिा, हरेक भेद को पटेल खोलिा, दुराव या सछपाव िेउिेगरज? कठोर नग्न ित्य बोलिा , पटेल सहंद की नीडर जबान है.

(1) Here is a well-known strong man of steel.

Here is a well-known unshakable pillar of strength.

The enemies could never deter him, Patel is the pride of our country.

(2) His intellect is as high as the mountain, His heart solemn like the ocean, His legs firmly rooted on the ground.

Patel is the vision of our country.

(3) He examines all the sides of a problem.

He reveals all the mysteries around.

He doesn't care to hide or to keep back.

He speaks the bitter truth as it is.

Patel is the fearless tongue of our country.

Mr Rajan, spoke about how Sardar Patel dealt with 565 princely states and kingdoms and unified India. He had very good negotiation skills, no compromise or concession with any kingdom and principal states. That is why; he is called the Iron Man of India. When Sardar Patel left for the heavenly abode 68 years back there was an article in Manchester Guardian that without Vallabhbhai , Gandhi’s ideas would have less practical influence and Nehru’s ideologies less scope. He was a man of immediate action. Before independence he mobilised people to join the freedom struggle by organising satyagrah thus earned the name of Sardar and after independence, we saw a complete transformation as a seasoned statesman and was justifiably called the Iron Man. He was a rebel and also a statesman, what a transformation!

He gave strong foundation to the civil services in India, which became the steel frame of India. He gave a common thread to unite the civil servants from down south to up north. All the Indians in Britain, who have been in the country since long must have noticed the change in the approach of British towards India, from exclusive Island nation to cosmopolitan nation. Whichever transport you use in India, you will see the diversity of people that exists. India is the only country which welcomed people from all over the world whether Tibetans, Jews, Parsis, Nepalese, Afganis, Bhutanese or Bangladesis and Burmese and the theory of tolerance and acceptance evolved. In laying all these policies, Sardar Patel had a great hand. This laid an impact on UK too which in those days warmly welcomed people from all over the world. Sardar Patel dealt with demand for special status for minorities very tactfully and gave them special protection. The map of India couldn’t have existed without Sardar Patel. Sardar Patel saved India! As the real architect of modern India, Sardar’s vision is now so justified and evident. We need to implement his philosophy even more. We all need to work for a united progressive India more, just as his statue was made from contribution from all parts of India. We the ordinary masses of India shall forever remain grateful to him for his crucial role in accession of all the princely states and giving to the world a powerful strong nation.

At today’s times of turmoil many wish, we could get the Sardar back!

32

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22 - 28 December 2018

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Perth Test: Australia levels series, Kohli makes headlines for the wrong reasons India crumbled in the face of Australia’s relentless pressure, suffering a 146-run defeat in the second Test in Perth on Tuesday. The hosts leveled the four-match series 1-1 after India were bowled out for 140 runs in 56 overs in their second innings on the fifth and final day. India lost their last five wickets for 28 runs, starting from overnight 112 for five, and it was all over within 65 minutes of play. This was Australia’s first Test win since the balltampering scandal broke out in South Africa earlier this year.

It is also Tim Paine's first as captain.

Starc (3-46) and Lyon (3-39) finished with three wickets apiece, while Josh Hazlewood (2-24) and Pat Cummins (2-25) took a brace each. While Starc and his pace colleagues were expected to thrive on the lively track, it was off-spinner Lyon’s exceptional outing that gave Australia the edge. He finished the match with eight wickets, including a fivefor in the first innings and a deserving 'Man of the Match' award.

There were no runs for India's nine, 10 and 11, as Cummins came on and quickly had Ishant Sharma caught behind and Jasprit Bumrah caught and bowled. The wicket not only ended the Test, and squared this series at 1-1, but also ended a winless run of six Tests, dating back to the first Test of that fateful series in South Africa in March.

“KEEP YOUR COOL, VIRAT” The loss apparently worked up Indian captain Virat Kohli, who engaged in a sledging spat with Australian counterpart Tim Paine. Paine had pledged to tone down any words on the field following his appointment as skipper, in a bid to clean up the team's image and win back public support after the ball-tampering scandal.

Virat, on the other hand, had also indicated before the series that he would only take part in sledging if Australia started it. For whatever the decency was worth for the both of them before the series began, everything went down the drain the minute the pair clashed out in the middle, having exchanged words first the previous evening.

Umpire Chris Gaffaney was forced to intervene during the morning session,

The two captains clashed on the fourth day of the second Test

stepping in to come between the two players after Kohli questioned Paine's batting technique. Kohli, walking in close to the wicket, then complained to the umpire when the duo came inches away from chest bumping as Paine raced through for a quick single. Kohli said, “I'm not saying a word to you, why are you getting riled up?”, to which Paine replied, “I'm fine. You're the one that lost it yesterday, why are you trying to be cool today?” At this point, Gaffaney intervened saying, “Oi, that's enough, that's enough.” An unrelenting Paine said, “We're allowed to talk.” However, Gaffaney, who was in no mood to let the spat continue, said, “Nah, nah, come on, play the game. You guys are the captains.” After a couple more minutes of to and fro, Paine directed his energy towards the Indian captain and said, “Keep your cool, Virat!”

To those who wonder how the spat began; both captains were consistently involved in banter during the match, they insisted that no line was crossed. However,

reports in Australia claimed that Kohli, the world's No.1 Test and ODI batsman boasted about being the best in the business during the showdowns. After the match ended, Kohli was asked several questions about the argument. He said no one crossed the line.

“As long as there is no swearing on the field, and there's no personal attacks, the line doesn't get crossed. That's it!. But look, in competitive spirit it stays on the field. I am not going to go into details but to be honest it's not of importance for me to speak on and it's something that's done,” Kohli said after India lost the Test by 146 runs.

The BCCI came out in support of Kohli, saying the statement attributed to Kohli was just hearsay and he never bragged about himself. “It is 'assumed' that Kohli said, 'I am the best player in the world and you are just a stand-in captain'. These claims were based on hearsay and the BCCI would like to bring into notice that no such words were spoken on the field by the Indian captain,” BCCI said in a statement.

IPL Auction: Axar Patel, Jaydev Unadkat Sell For Staggering Amounts For the second time running, Jaydev Unadkat, a Lohana Gujarati, has earned big in the IPL auction. The bowler was picked up by Rajasthan Royals for a whopping price of Rs 8.4 Crore. The Royals had earlier released him after buying him for Rs 11.5 Crore in the previous auction. Another Gujarati to be roped in at first call is bowler Axar Patel, who was bought by Delhi Capitals for a price of Rs 5 Crore. Patel was at a base price of Rs 1 cr, but fetched five times the amount, whereas Unadkat was at a Axar Patel base price of Rs 1,5 Cr and he fetched Rs Jaydev Unadkat 8.4 Cr, which is five times the amount of Royals. However, in 2017, Unadkat took 24 his base price. wickets in 12 matches and recorded an Thee most expensive Indian in the last economy rate of 7.02. The fast bowler is auction, Jaydev failed to live up to the expected to replicate this performance in the expectation when he bowled at an economy upcoming seasons. Patel on the other hand, of 9.65 in the season for the Rajasthan went on to become one of the costliest

Indian players in the ongoing IPL Auction Live 2019. In an intense round of auction that saw Yuvraj Singh going unsold, Kings XI Punjab and Delhi were engaged in a bidding war for the left-arm spinner. Axar has played five seasons for Kings XI Punjab, featuring in 68 matches for them between 2014 and 2018. He also has scored 686 runs in the tournament at 19.05 with a highest score of 44. His best season with the ball came in 2014, when he picked up 17 wickets while in 2017. Others with high bids include mystery spinner Varun Chakravarthy, who got a shopping 42 times increase in his base price as Kings XI Punjab successfully added him to his roster for Rs 8.4 Crore. Sam Curran went to Kings for 7.2 Crore, and Colin Ingram was bought by Delhi Capitals for Rs 6.4 Crore.

in brief HARBHAJAN SINGH BROKE DOWN CRYING: ANDREW SYMONDS

Former Australian all-rounder, Andrew Symonds said India spinner Harbhajan Singh “broke down crying” while making peace after the infamous 'monkeygate' episode that had spent him into a downward spiral. A decade on from the ugly incident in the 2008 Sydney Test, where Bhajji was accused of calling Symonds a “monkey”, the Australian said they emotionally called truce three years later. The two buried the hatchet while turning up for Mumbai Indians in the Indian Premier League.

Harbhajan, who at the time had denied any wrongdoing, was suspended for three matches. The ban was however, overturned after the visiting team lodged a protest in what was an all-time low in India-Australia cricket relations.

Symonds relived the moment saying, “We go to a very wealthy man's place for a barbecue, drinks and dinner one night and the whole team's there and he had guests there, and Harbhajan said 'mate, can I speak to you for a minute out in the garden out the front'. He goes, 'look, I've got to say sorry to you for what I did to you in Sydney. I apologise, I hope I didn't cause you, your family, your friends too much harm and I really apologise for what I said, I shouldn't have said it'.”

Born in England with one of parents of West Indian background, Symonds has previously talked about how his life took a turn for the worst after the incident. After feeling let down by the system, the all-rounder started drinking heavily and was sent home from the World T20 following the latest in a series of alcohol-related indiscretions.

ZAHEER KHAN RETURNS TO MUMBAI INDIANS AS DIRECTOR OF CRICKET OPERATIONS Former Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan has joined Mumbai Indians as Director of Cricket Operations. The left-arm bowler, who previously was part of Mumbai Indians camp for three seasons, comes back to the scene after he announced his retirement from all forms of cricket. Zaheer was also captain of Delhi Capitals, formerly known as Delhi Daredevils. Mumbai Indians released a press release saying, “One of the pioneers of the knuckle-ball who was known for outsmarting batsmen, Zaheer will bring close to two decades of his cricketing experience in the new managerial role to Mumbai Indians.”

Ahead of the IPL auction, Mumbai Indians have retained 18 players, reiterating its philosophy of identifying and nurturing the young talents. While the likes of all-rounder Hardik Pandya, Krunal Pandya and Jasprit Bumrah today form the core of Mumbai Indians, the three-time champions outfit have also continued with Mayank Markande, Rahul Chahar, Anukul Roy, Ishan Kishan, Aditya Tare and Suryakumar Yadav.

From the experienced contingent, Mumbai Indians have Kieron Pollard, Ben Cutting, Evin Lewis, Jason Behrendorff and the Kiwi pair of Mitchell McClenaghan and Adam Milne.

Zaheer will be a part of the think-tank and will join owners Nita Ambani and Akash Ambani at the auction which is slated to be held in Jaipur today.